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This will be an AAR of my recently started game vs. Yubari. I’m playing the allies and will get into the games details in this AAR, so it’s an allied eyes only thread. My esteemed opponent may or may not start a Japanese AAR of the game, but his time is limited.

For our house rules we are using the following:

Turn 1 rules:

Only Pearl Harbor may be port attacked on turn 1.

Allies may not move/rebase any air units on turn 1 (exception Chinese air force units), but may set missions/altitudes for all non-Pearl Harbor air units. Pearl Harbor air units are to be stood down to simulate the total surprise of the Dec 7 attack. One P-40 squadron may be put on CAP to simulate the few planes that managed to get airborne.

Only Chinese land units may have orders plotted on turn 1. No other allied land units may plot orders.

Only existing allied task forces may be moved on turn 1. No new task forces may be formed.

Japan may conduct non-historic landings on turn 1 anywhere in the SRA, Philippines area and the two northeastern most Malaya bases. All historical landings that took place in the first week or so (Guam, Wake, etc.) may also be conducted. Anywhere outside of these areas Japan may move no closer than 12 hexes of a destination base in preparation for landings on following turns.

In all cases Japan will attempt to load and land complete formations (turn 1 limitation only). If unable to do so, the largest fragment possible will be landed and no additional landings will be assigned to that formation (i.e. only 1 part of a unit may be loaded and given a destination). This is to prevent a mass landing shotgun effect strategy by many small fragments due to the unstoppable warp move on turn 1 that allows deep penetration into allied territory with no ability to respond. In all cases the sole intent of this rule is to prevent gamey play which takes advantage of turn 1’s warp move.

Japan may not conduct paradrops on turn 1.


House rules:

The Allies must form Task force Z on turn 2 and send it against the landings on Northeastern Malaya. If no landings are taking place, the task force need not be formed. Task Force Z need not be formed on turn 2 if either of the capital ships suffers heavy damage on turn 1.

Japan may never occupy Aden, Panama City or Krasnoyarsk with land combat troops. They can bomb them to the stone age but no LCU’s in those city hexes which represent the off map production of those countries.

The Chungking city hex should not be entered by Japanese land units until Changsha, Hengchow, Kweilin, Liuchow, Tuyun, Kweiyang, Kunming, Nanyang and Sian have all been occupied and are free of Chinese units and the Burma Road has been cut. This is to prevent the gamey tactic of entering the Chungking hex early and leaving behind a small garrison force thus preventing any destroyed Chinese units from reappearing at Chungking as they are intended to do.

No sub commando invasions. Cadre withdrawals or reinforcement/supply deliveries at friendly bases are fine, but no invasions by subs.

Units may not amphibiously invade from non-traditional invasion transport type ships (i.e. AP, APA, APD, LCI, LCM, LCT, LCVP, LSD, LST, etc.). Units may be transported to a friendly base via any available cargo type vessels, but invasions must be conducted via the previously mentioned vessel types, and other similar vessel types specifically designed for assaulting beaches themselves or with their accompanying landing craft intrinsic to the vessel.

Japan may ignore the rule governing ship types used for invasions until April 1st 1942, after which he must begin to comply by the rule.

For definition purposes any landings at a non-friendly base/dot hex is considered an invasion, even if other friendly troops are already ashore. Additionally troops may only invade base and dot hexes, no landings at non-base/dot hexes are allowed.

No more than 4 allied ships may be placed in an ASW type task force. There is no such limit to escorts placed inside task forces of non-ASW type.

Japanese Manchurian garrison units may not leave Manchuria without first paying PP to switch to another HQ first (any HQ will do, no sense switching to another restricted HQ, the intent is simply to lower the garrison value in Manchuria if units decide to leave).

Conversely Chinese units may not leave China (exception Indo-China) without first paying PP to switch to the appropriate allied HQ first. The appropriate HQ would be whichever HQ controls the area being entered. Chinese units may launch an attack into Indo-China (Vietnam) without having to switch HQ’s, but they may not leave Indo-china except to re-enter China unless they switch HQ’s first.

Units forced to leave Manchuria/China through combat results do not have to switch HQ’s, but they must re-enter their commands territory at the earliest opportunity. Chinese units that historically went to Burma/India (9 divisions and 2 HQ's) need not pay PP to do so.

Russian naval units must remain at port until Japan attacks Russia or Russia enters the war in 1945.

4 engine bombers may not fly missions below 15,000 feet. In addition B-29's are not to be used in an anti-shipping role.

No ASW air missions below 6,000 feet. (this is an attempt to reduce the over-effectiveness of air search ASW). In addition only 1 air squadron in a carrier task force may be assigned to an ASW role. Doesn't matter if the task force has one CV, CVL or CVE, or twenty, only 1 squadron max for the task force can fly ASW. (this prevents ASW death stars from sweeping the seas clean of subs in one pass through the area by having 300+ planes flying ASW at once). Given the intent of this rule, creating 20 single CV task forces in one hex to try and get around the rule is considered gamey and shall not be done.

PT boats may not form task forces with any other ship type. Exception, they can form with cargo type vessels in order to facilitate long distance transfer moves.

Blocking a units retreat routes or isolating them to cause surrender should be done only within reason. A good rule is to use at least 25% of the defenders size. So if 20,000 troops are defending a hex, the attacker should not move less than 5,000 men into an adjacent hex to try and prevent the defenders units from retreating there. This rule is intended to prevent the gamey tactic of blocking units retreat paths and forcing them to surrender or move off the rail/road network with *ant* sized units.

Paradrops may only be conducted against a base or dot hex.

No upgrading of allied carrier group planes to corsairs until 1944.

No switching default carrier groups for other plane groups (i.e. no putting 100 fighters on a single carrier).

Max aircraft allowed at a base is 50 per point of airfield at that base. CV's are considered a level 10 base, so no more than 500 planes in an ocean hex with CV's. Land based air and CV air have seperate stacking limits, so CV's can exist in base hexes and not be considered in an overstack situation. Overstacking is only allowed due to adverse combat effects if no other bases are within rebase range due to enemy advances. For example let’s assume in the DEI Japan is closing the noose and the Dutch only have 1 airbase left to rebase to as its second to last base is about to fall. It's ok to rebase into an overstack situation rather than lose a ton of your planes on the ground at the base that is about to fall. However no more than 50 planes per airbase point should be given missions from the over stacked base.

No manual dividing of land combat units in the same hex for purposes of gaining a fatigue or morale recovery bonus. Divided land combat units that move into the same hex for any reason must recombine.

If Japan intends to attack Russia, he must activate it one week before any hostile moves or attacks may be conducted. Russia may then move and rebase units as it sees fit. Only Russian fighters and naval patrol aircraft may be given mission orders though. Russian bombers can rebase but must remain stood down until the first Japanese attack of any kind is made to simulate the local surprise Russian forces would undergo. Also Russian fighters may have no more than a 20% CAP setting.

Aircraft crew training is allowed through use of training missions and legitimate combat missions only. No rear area supply transfers or bombarding of bypassed bases to train up your crews. Legitimate missions like flying supplies over the hump into China are fine. If there is a doubt, the player need simply ask himself, am I doing this mission simply to train my crews? If the answer is yes, then it is considered a gamey tactic and should not be used.

This is a gentleman's game; players shall strive to not resorting to gamey tactics.

The Game Settings:

Realism options:
Both sub doctrines off
FOW on
Advanced Weather on
Allied Damage control on
Historical 1st turn off
Player upgrades off
December 7th surprise on
Variable set up off
Fixed reinforcements

The allied opening moves and strategies thus far:

India

India command starts out with 4 under strength divisions and 7 brigades in India. I’ve ordered the brigades to take up border positions in all the bases along the India-Burma border (with one sent to Akyab) and I’ve sent the divisions to the port Bases of Diamond Harbor, Calcutta and Chittagong. Calcutta gets 2 of the 4 divisions (stacking with HQ helps reconstruction), but one of them has Dacca set as its future objective.

The India command HQ will go to Calcutta with Imphal set as an objective and can help the 2 divisions there rebuild. I’ve landed the South East Asia HQ onto the mainland from Colombo and ordered it to Dacca with Mandalay set as its future objective.

The Ceylon Infantry brigade at Colombo is attached to the India command HQ and is thus a fixed unit, so it shall remain as Colombo harbor defense on the island.

The UK 18th division will march to Bangalore in the south of India to form the core of a southern reaction force when it arrives. Future reinforcements will join it there until a strong reaction Corp is assembled.

The armor units that start in India will join their appropriate HQ’s in Dacca or Calcutta to help them draw replacements. These formations will form the core of the northern reaction force to respond to invasions in northern India.

With these basic dispositions I’ll simply sit and build up strength for now and await developments in the game before doing much else in this region of the world.

Burma

I’ll treat Burma as simply a road block designed to slow the Japanese advance. I don’t intend to try and hold any base except Mandalay. With the South East Asia HQ prepping for that base and within command range of it, the land units there will receive a combat bonus, so I’ll stay and fight there until the forts begin to rapidly decline. Then I’ll bug out to India.

Because of this decision I’ve already begun my redeployments. I’ve ordered the coastal defense unit at Rangoon to begin its long march through the jungle to Akyab. Hopefully this head start will allow it to arrive there unmolested and in decent enough shape to add to Akyab's defense.

Combined with the brigade I’m sending from India, Akyab should be able to hold off a full division if my opponent decides to march through the jungle to take it. I’m counting on heavy disablements and disruption of the division from allied air power of course, its long march through the jungle will give me time to hopefully make that happen. If he sends more than 1 division I can air lift in more troops or pull the troops there out if needed.

The two brigades at Rangoon are both prepping for Imphal and will take up positions at Mandalay (one is already there the other will leave Rangoon as soon as heavy Japanese forces reach Moulmein) Should the Japanese attempt to outflank Mandalay along the trail to the west, these two brigades will move to block any such moves and will eventually fall back on Imphal.

The remaining 5 brigades are all prepping for Mandalay and will act as the main defensive force that tries to hold the base. They will fall back towards Myitkyina and eventually Ledo as Japanese strength surges forward. Initially though three of the five brigades will hold Moulmein against any weak Japanese moves into Burma and the other two will garrison Meiktila and Magwe against paradrops.

Intel spots about 3400 Japanese troops moving along the trail towards Moulmein now. 2 of my brigades are in place already and a third is one hex away. I’m confident these three brigades can hold off the small force seen, unless my Intel is bad.

I’m only going to bring 6 of the historical 9 Chinese divisions that entered Burma into Burma along with 2 corps HQ’s. 1 HQ and 3 divisions will go to Lashio and 1 HQ and 3 divisions will go to Myitkyina.

Malaya

With Japan doing the historical landings in the north, I’ve decided to go with a diamond defense in the south. I’ve pulled everything back south of Malacca. The Indian III Corp HQ and 6 brigades are my first line of defense and are digging in one hex northeast of Johore Bahru (all are at level 3 forts already with one at 4).

The 2 Australian AIF brigades will hold their original bases of Johore Bahru and Mersing for now. I’m going to air lift the 22nd AIF to Palembang and leave only about 20 squads behind in Mersing for anti-para duties. About 25% of the brigade has already been lifted.

The two brigades that were forced to retreat from Kota Bahru when Japan invaded are heading into Singapore and its non-malaria umbrella to recover some of their disablements.

The two Malay brigades will remain in Singapore, but I took a sizable chunk from each (about 30 squads plus other equipment) and sent them to Madras right away. India is short on units and I wanted to pull out at least some forces to help hold Madras with.

I’ll also be pulling out small cadres of as many units as possible for possible reconstruction later, but that process of rebuilding units is very slow. 60 squads added to Madras right away should prevent any quick raids by a Japanese SNLF/NLF from grabbing that base by storm. I would have taken more, but I want to hold onto Singapore as long as possible, so I only took about 30 from each.

With this diamond shaped defensive setup, Japan has to contend with 3 air bases in Malaya, so he won’t be able to shut down all my planes at once. Also any big naval bombardment runs on Johore Bahru won’t disrupt my defenders on the front line, so he’ll have to choose between my ground forces on the front lines and the airfields in the rear. The same goes for air strikes against my front line units, he’ll have to choose between them and the bases.

Japan now has 3 divisions and one brigade in the hex northeast of Johore Bahru and their last attack failed to take the hex. If my units there can all get to level 4-5 forts, he may need to bring a forth division in to crack the line. One unit just made it to level 4, so I’m hoping the rest will in a turn or two.

DEI

I took a real gamble in the DEI and spent all my starting political points on activating large combat units in the Philippines. I’ve never done this before and haven’t read an AAR that used this strategy either, so I’m a bit apprehensive about how it’ll play out.

The units activated were the 61st reserve division at Iloilo, the 81st reserve division at Cebu Island, the 31st US Regimental Combat Team at Manila, the 57th PS Regimental Combat Team at Manila and the 26th PS Cavalry Regiment at Clark Field.

My intent was to do a rapid redeployment of force to the key DEI bases that allow Japan to control the sea lanes between Java/Australia and the Philippines. If I could get enough force into position before any landings then perhaps I could throw off the Japanese timetables and also get some extra supplies into the Philippines.

I used the PBYs from Luzon to air lift troops from the 61st division to Tarakan and troops from the 81st division to Manado. Cargo vessels also joined in helping lift these two sizable formations into position as they became available. Eventually I got about half or more of each division into place before the Japanese landings commenced, so the rest of these two units still on board ships were diverted to Soerabaja and Kendari.

The 31st US RCT (all except perhaps 8-10 squads and 20+ other elements were loaded), the 57th PS RCT and the 1st Marine AAA battalion all loaded onto two large task forces at Manila on Dec 8th and headed for Balikpapan. The allies got very lucky and thunderstorms obscured the fleets from the Japanese planes that were hunting for them. In fact I don’t think these two key fleets were ever even spotted, though many other vessels fleeing Manila were spotted and got hammered.

I never imagined all three units would arrive intact in Balikpapan, so I sent the 57th PS RCT to Samarinda to defend that base as an unexpected bonus. Initially I was just going to have whatever remnants that survived the gauntlet and arrived at the base hold Balikpapan, but now both bases are in good shape and can probably hold their own against anything smaller than a division sized invasion.

The 26th PS Cav. Rgt. starts at Clark, so missed the boat in the initial rush to flee Manila. It will gradually be pulled out to Darwin or Soerabaja via subs as fast as can be done. With the US RCT and the two small PS Regiments gone from Luzon, I don’t think I’ve reduced the allied fighting power enough on Luzon for Japan to be able to take it by storm. But the decrease in routine supply draw should be enough to perhaps add a week or two to the time my units will remain in a supplied state.

From Darwin I sent the 23rd AIF brigade to Kendari, the majority of the Sparrow Force and Gull Force battalions were air lifted into Amboina (I used the Asiatic fleet PBYs from the Philippines after the rest of the two reserve divisions were sea lifted off their islands by cargo ships). The 2/2 and 2/4 companies went to Timor, one to Koepang and one to Lautem.

Thus my risky move to defend the DEI with sizable forces was pulled off, and just in the nick of time. My opponent made 4 landings all within a few days of each other, one at Kuching, one at Brunei, one at Manado and one at Sorong. He quickly then moved to take Amboina before my air lift there was finished, but I did manage to get the majority of the two Australian battalions to the base and have so far managed to stop the invasion there on the beaches.

Manado’s invasion was initially stopped at the beaches as well, but eventually fell after about a week or two of attacks. Sorong and Brunei were undefended and fell quickly, but luckily I saw him moving towards Kuching and was able to air lift some of the 1st Malay Brigade from Singapore into the base before he landed (I should have been doing this from Dec. 8th, but it hadn’t occurred to me until the threat emerged). Only about 8 squads and 20 or so other elements arrived, but it was enough to make a difference and the base held for a little over a week.

Stymied at Kuching for the moment, Japan moved further west and captured Singkawang and its level 3 airfield. I immediately sent bombers and hammered the base several times preventing him from using it. With Kuching falling recently, Japan will now dominate the air around Northern Java and Sumatra.

Tarakan was recently invaded and fell rapidly. Hindsight being 20/20, I think I should have taken both the 61st and 81st Res. Divisions to Java. At least there they could have fought for more than one base and combined they may have been able to stand up to the Japanese longer. Now they're stuck out in the middle of nowhere slowly dying of attrition. I tried to air lift them out with PBYs, but it doesn't seem to work. I'll send the subs to save what I can after they pull some of the Cav Rgt out of Luzon.

In the past few turns Japan has started moving towards Sumatra with sizable fleet assets including both KB and mini KB, and has just landed troops at Muntok and Toboali. Allied planners expect landings at Palembang soon.

The large air forces I had at Palembang failed to do any real damage to the fleets as they approached and were rebased out just before 4 Japanese battleships bombarded the base putting it out of commission.

Last turn my planes failed to fly any strikes from Singapore, so I took a gamble and left them there again this turn to see if they would fly. I’ll probably regret leaving them in one place for two turns in a row as I expect hundreds of Japanese bombers to darken the skies above Singapore this turn. If my planes fly this turn and actually do some damage it’ll have been worth the cost. A group of A-24’s is at Singapore so if his carriers venture too close I’m hoping for a lucky bomb hit or two.

Philippines

My opponent has made slow progress in the Philippines and does not appear to be in a hurry to capture the place. Baguio is the current hot spot with over 47000 Japanese present. If memory serves he only has one division and one brigade there along with other units. So far all his attacks have failed at Baguio, but I’ve had to add units to the defense as his strength has grown. I’ll need to pull out soon if any more large formations show up there.

Signet reported another division aboard AK’s headed to San Fernando a few turns back and it appears those transports have arrived and are unloading the division now.

I expect it will head to Lingayen and try and force the issue there. I’ve only got 2 reserve divisions in Lingayen, so I’ve ordered another reserve division to join them. If Japans first attack there reduces the level 3 forts I’ll pull out of Baguio right away as I don’t want to get my units there isolated.

The one byproduct of my forward defense strategy in the DEIs is it has allowed me to get several AK’s into Manila with supplies (the last AK is unloading now). In total I have about 56000 supplies on Luzon now, 29000 of which are at Manila. I doubt my HQ in Manila will draw any more supply to it before my forces need to pull back into the city, so that’s what my redoubt will have to use until surrender.

If I manage not to screw up my withdraw into the redoubt and pull back my forces in good shape, Manila should hold out till May no problem with 25000+ supplies on hand. My total supply draw for land units on Luzon is about 6000 a month (this will decrease significantly due to combat losses). Add extra supply needed for fighting battles and I figure I’ll be running low about 3-4 months after I pull back into Manila, so the longer I can stay on my current perimeter and use the extra 25k+ of supplies spread out on the other bases across Luzon the better.

Australia

Australia’s defense is pretty straight forward. Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane each get 1 division. Sydney also gets all other non-inf type units attached to ANZAC command except one AT unit which goes to Whyalla to join the relatively weak motorized brigade sent to defend there.

Along the east coast, Cooktown, Cairns, Townsville and Rockhampton each get an inf brigade. On the west coast Geraldton also gets an inf brigade. Albany gets a cavalry brigade and Perth gets the 2nd Cavalry division. Darwin gets the 1st Cavalry division and ANZAC Command HQ goes to Alice Springs to help pull supplies across Australia for use in Darwin.

At the northeast tip of Australia the bases of Coen and Portland Roads will be assigned to Southwest Pacific as soon as units and supplies can be brought there. These bases (each a potential size 7 airfield) will be built up ASAP to help support Port Moresby. Once Portland Roads is built up, it’ll be within air transport range of Port Moresby which will allow supplies and troops to be shuttled in and out at will, so it is the priority base.

Port Moresby has been reinforced so far with the 131st and 148th US field artillery battalions and the 147th US field artillery regiment. 18000+ supplies are on hand now as well and the 30th Australian brigade has begun to slowly flesh out its strength.



Pacific

I do not intend to try and fight for the Pacific islands just yet. I do have brigades preparing for Midway, Johnston, Palmyra, Canton and Pago Pago, but due to the strategy I used in the DEI, I cannot yet afford to activate these brigades. So if my opponent wants it he can have it in the Pacific right now.

I’ve already sent some small supply convoys to the isolated bases and New Zealand, but Australia won’t get a large convoy sent for a few weeks yet. Several dozen AK’s and TK’s arrive all at once and those ships will form the first large supply convoy sent to Australia.

I’m also sending large groups of ships to the US from both Australia and India to form further large convoys with, but those ships are months away.

China

In past games I’ve simply defended in China and gave Japan time to get organized. Japan then proceeded to crush me, so this game I’ve decided to go on the offensive from the start.

Many Chinese units start 100% prepared for bases, so I decided to launch some attacks to take advantage of the preparedness.

The first thing I did was launch a couple of spoiling attacks into Hangchow and Ningpo. With 3 corps going to Hangchow and 1 to Ningpo, there was no way these attacks would be able to stay around, but their purpose was to draw Japanese attention and it worked.

Ningpo was unexpectedly captured as it only had a brigade defending and that startled my opponent I think. He quickly rushed several more divisions into Hangchow (at least 2 of them were divisions normally sent overseas) and launched several attacks before forcing me out of the city. Ningpo was just recently retaken as some of these divisions moved to assist the beleaguered Japanese brigade still in the city hex there.

The net effect of all this was I was able to move some sizable forces south to Canton and enter that city before the Japanese could stop me along the road northwest of Canton. I now have 6 corps and 2 HQs in Canton with another 2 corps and 1 HQ still on the way. I’ll probably hold both corps back in blocking positions northeast of Canton to prevent any Japanese moves to encircle my attacking forces.

Hong Kong fell before I could get a sizable enough force into Canton to attack, so I doubt I can take the city, but my presence does stop the 32 resources in the hex from producing and the urban hex makes any attacks by Japan to drive me out very problematical for him.

I currently have 5 corps and 1 HQ at Ichang with another 2 corps and 2 guerilla units almost there. Once all these forces arrive I’ll launch an attack as all units are 100% prepared for the city. I’m not sure if I can do any real harm though, but I’ll give it a try. If not I’ll simply dig in and force Japan to try and drive me out.

I thought about attacking Nanchang but felt I would have had to weaken the forces along the road between Changsha and Hankow too much to succeed. So instead I created two blocking forces of 5 corps and 2 HQ’s in each of the forest hexes along the roads east from Changsha.

This turned out to be a wise choice as Japan now has 7 units one hex southwest of Hankow that are probably going to move towards Changsha.

The units south of Nanchang shall remain in place until the units from around Hangchow withdraw to the west towards Changsha. It’s simply too hard to keep sizable Chinese forces east of Nanchang in a supplied state once combat erupts. So as soon as Japan appears to be making a serious effort to clear the road between Nanchang and Hangchow, I’ll pull most of my forces east of Nanchang back towards Changsha.

I’ll leave 2 corps in Wenchow (it produces 120 supply a turn so can support 2 corps) and 1 guerilla corps in Pucheng.

In the far north I sent the force of 3 corps and 1 HQ that was 100% prepared for Kalgan to Kalgan, but the force arrived in the city piecemeal and I waited too long before launching an attack. Japan was able to get reinforcements into the city and prevented a quick capture.

I’ve ordered the force to march back northwest to prevent a retreat result from destroying the 2k plus of supply each unit is carrying. The force will eventually make its way back to Yenan if all goes well.

I’ve also been running amuck with guerrilla forces to create havoc with Japans supply. As you can see from the screenshot, a lot of Japanese cities are either isolated from or on the verge of being isolated from supply.

My guerrilla forces are currently trying to run back off-road before Japanese troops arrive to smack them around. Not a decisive issue in China but a huge pain in the butt for Japan to have to contend with. My guess is my opponent will have to launch a serious extermination campaign to rid his rear area of these units before he can launch any major attacks into China, so the longer I keep my guerrilla units alive and moving the longer China can stay alive.

Our current game turn date is Jan 2nd, here are some highlights from the first few weeks of the war:


Dec. 7th 2 BB’s sunk at Pearl.

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Day Air attack on Pearl Harbor , at 114,72

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 81
D3A2 Val x 137
B5N2 Kate x 157

Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 4

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A2 Val: 14 destroyed, 67 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 17 destroyed, 53 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Tomahawk: 16 destroyed
SBD-3 Dauntless: 4 destroyed
PBY Catalina: 15 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 4 destroyed
OS2U-3 Kingfisher: 4 destroyed
C-47 Dakota: 6 destroyed
F4F-3 Wildcat: 3 destroyed
P-26A: 3 destroyed
A-20B Boston: 2 destroyed
B-17D Fortress: 2 destroyed
B-18A Bolo: 6 destroyed
P-36A Mohawk: 6 destroyed
B-17E Fortress: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
CL Raleigh, Bomb hits 1, on fire
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 10, on fire
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 13, on fire
BB Nevada, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 10, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 13, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
BB California, Bomb hits 12, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SS Dolphin, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SS Narwhal, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 5, on fire
DD Dale, Bomb hits 1
CA San Francisco, Bomb hits 1
DD Patterson, Bomb hits 1
AVD Hulbert, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CA New Orleans, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Mercury, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage


Allied ground losses:
97 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Airbase hits 50
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 259

Aircraft Attacking:
14 x D3A2 Val bombing at 2000 feet
28 x B5N2 Kate bombing at 9000 feet
25 x D3A2 Val bombing at 2000 feet
26 x B5N2 Kate bombing at 6000 feet
16 x D3A2 Val bombing at 2000 feet
15 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet
17 x D3A2 Val bombing at 2000 feet
18 x B5N2 Kate bombing at 9000 feet
27 x D3A2 Val bombing at 2000 feet
28 x B5N2 Kate bombing at 9000 feet
24 x D3A2 Val bombing at 2000 feet
25 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet
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Dec. 10th Force Z engages Japanese invasion forces at Kota Bharu and gets wiped out. Prince of Whales stays afloat for 2 more days before sinking.

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Kota Bharu at 24,45

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo
BB Haruna
CA Takao
CA Atago, Shell hits 1
CL Jintsu
DD Asashio, Shell hits 1
DD Michishio
DD Fubuki
DD Shinonome
DD Usugumo
DD Shirakumo, Shell hits 1, on fire

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Shell hits 1
BC Repulse, Shell hits 1
DD Tenedos, Shell hits 14, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Vampire
DD Electra, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Express

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Kota Bharu at 24,45

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo
BB Haruna, Shell hits 1
CA Takao, Shell hits 1
CA Atago, Shell hits 1
CL Jintsu
DD Asashio
DD Michishio
DD Fubuki
DD Shinonome
DD Usugumo, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Shirakumo, on fire

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Shell hits 9
BC Repulse
DD Vampire, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
DD Electra, Shell hits 8, on fire, heavy damage
DD Express, Shell hits 3, on fire

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Kota Bharu at 24,45

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo
BB Haruna, Shell hits 1
CA Takao
CA Atago
CL Jintsu, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Asashio
DD Michishio
DD Fubuki
DD Shinonome
DD Usugumo, on fire
DD Shirakumo, on fire

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales
BC Repulse, Shell hits 12, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD Electra, on fire, heavy damage
DD Express, Shell hits 27, and is sunk

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Kota Bharu at 24,45


Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
Walrus: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CA Mogami, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 2
CA Suzuya
CA Kumano
DD Maikaze
DD Nowaki
DD Arashi
DD Hagikaze

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Shell hits 19, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
BC Repulse, Shell hits 31, Torpedo hits 5, and is sunk
DD Electra, Shell hits 2, and is sunk

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec. 12th Japanese CA Mogami (damaged two days earlier by Force Z) torpedoed and sunk near Saigon by Dutch sub.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Saigon at 31,45

Japanese Ships
CA Mogami, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS KXII

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec 13th US Asiatic Fleet stumbles upon undetected Japanese surface forces at Manado and gets hammered. 2 DD’s sunk and the rest of the fleet in need of major yard time effectively eliminates allied surface forces from the SRA. Only Dutch CL’s and DD’s remain.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Manado at 39,67

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso, Shell hits 4
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 3
CL Yura, Shell hits 2, on fire
CL Kinu
DD Mikazuki
DD Sawakaze
DD Yukaze

Allied Ships
CA Houston
CL Marblehead, Shell hits 2
CL Boise, Shell hits 4
DD Barker, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Bulmer
DD Paul Jones
DD Parrott
DD Stewart

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Manado at 39,67

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 3
CL Yura, Shell hits 1, on fire
CL Kinu
DD Mikazuki, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Sawakaze
DD Yukaze

Allied Ships
CA Houston, Shell hits 1, on fire
CL Marblehead, Shell hits 2, on fire
CL Boise, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD Barker, Shell hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
DD Bulmer, Shell hits 1
DD Paul Jones, Shell hits 1
DD Parrott, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Stewart, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec. 25th heavily damaged US battleship California torpedoed and sunk on route to west coast from Pearl.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack at 120,66

Japanese Ships
SS I-17

Allied Ships
BB California, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
DD Hull

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The damaged battleship Arizona was also torpedoed but is so far still afloat.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack at 121,63

Japanese Ships
SS I-25

Allied Ships
BB Arizona, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Farragut
DD MacDonough

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec. 30th a mid ocean night time surface engagement gave my opponent fits when several torpedoes were launched. Unfortunately no hits scored…

My PT’s were simply rebasing towards Balikpapan and happened to end up in the same hex as his CVL southwest of the Philippines by pure chance.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat at 37,62

Japanese Ships
CVL Ryujo
CS Mizuho
CS Chitose
DD Shiokaze
DD Wakatake
DD Kuretake

Allied Ships
PT MTB 11
PT MTB 12
PT MTB 26
PT MTB 27

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec. 30th last deliberate attack made by Japan in Malaya.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at 22,49

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 61925 troops, 295 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1528

Defending force 21947 troops, 143 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 493

Japanese max assault: 1504 - adjusted assault: 1041

Allied max defense: 483 - adjusted defense: 587

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1


Japanese ground losses:
855 casualties reported
Guns lost 18

Allied ground losses:
236 casualties reported
Guns lost 4


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec. 31st last deliberate attack made by Japan at Baguio.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Baguio

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 45821 troops, 220 guns, 84 vehicles, Assault Value = 890

Defending force 13001 troops, 80 guns, 55 vehicles, Assault Value = 282

Japanese max assault: 815 - adjusted assault: 267

Allied max defense: 275 - adjusted defense: 421

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 0)


Japanese ground losses:
883 casualties reported
Guns lost 12
Vehicles lost 3

Allied ground losses:
539 casualties reported
Guns lost 9
Vehicles lost 3


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last bombardment attack made by Japan at Amboina.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Amboina

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 3314 troops, 11 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 136

Defending force 3430 troops, 33 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 89



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 Jan. 42

As I suspected Singapore got pounded today by several large Japanese raids.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Singapore , at 22,51

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 23
Ki-27 Nate x 5
Ki-51 Sonia x 19
Ki-21-II Sally x 52

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 25

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-51 Sonia: 5 destroyed, 9 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 1 destroyed, 32 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 8 destroyed, 7 damaged
Vildebeest IV: 3 destroyed


Allied ground losses:
151 casualties reported
Guns lost 3

Airbase hits 14
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 18

Aircraft Attacking:
12 x Ki-51 Sonia bombing at 2000 feet
22 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 14000 feet
9 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 14000 feet
3 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 14000 feet
2 x Ki-51 Sonia bombing at 2000 feet
6 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 14000 feet
3 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 14000 feet
3 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 14000 feet
2 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 14000 feet
3 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 14000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Singapore , at 22,51

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 40
Ki-21-II Sally x 40
Ki-48-I Lily x 34
Ki-15 Babs x 2

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 12

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 1 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 3 destroyed, 17 damaged
Ki-48-I Lily: 2 destroyed, 16 damaged
Ki-15 Babs: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 8 destroyed
Hudson I: 1 destroyed
Vildebeest IV: 2 destroyed


Allied ground losses:
50 casualties reported

Airbase hits 9
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 43

Aircraft Attacking:
12 x Ki-48-I Lily bombing at 15000 feet
5 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 12000 feet
5 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 12000 feet
10 x Ki-48-I Lily bombing at 15000 feet
14 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 12000 feet
7 x Ki-48-I Lily bombing at 15000 feet
1 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Ki-48-I Lily bombing at 15000 feet
3 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 12000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Singapore , at 22,51

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 68

Allied aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed, 20 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Vildebeest IV: 2 destroyed


Allied ground losses:
22 casualties reported

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 15

Aircraft Attacking:
19 x G3M Nell bombing at 15000 feet
22 x G3M Nell bombing at 15000 feet
11 x G3M Nell bombing at 15000 feet
9 x G3M Nell bombing at 15000 feet
3 x G3M Nell bombing at 15000 feet
3 x G3M Nell bombing at 15000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not a lot to show for my troubles as all my missions targeted his battleship task forces and the few 500lb or 250lb bombs that hit simply bounced. I had to try though.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Palembang at 20,55


Allied aircraft
Swordfish x 5
Wirraway x 4
Buffalo I x 25
Blenheim I x 18
Hudson I x 12
A-24 Dauntless x 18


Allied aircraft losses
Swordfish: 2 damaged
Blenheim I: 5 damaged
Hudson I: 4 damaged
A-24 Dauntless: 7 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso
BB Yamashiro, Bomb hits 2
BB Ise, Bomb hits 1
BB Hyuga

Aircraft Attacking:
7 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
4 x Blenheim I bombing at 6000 feet
4 x Blenheim I bombing at 6000 feet
4 x Wirraway bombing at 2000 feet
1 x Swordfish launching torpedoes at 200 feet
3 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
3 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
3 x Blenheim I bombing at 6000 feet
4 x Blenheim I bombing at 6000 feet
2 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
2 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
3 x Blenheim I bombing at 6000 feet
4 x Swordfish launching torpedoes at 200 feet
9 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
4 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Palembang at 20,55


Allied aircraft
Brewster 339D x 13
T.IVa x 4
Martin 139 x 20


Allied aircraft losses
T.IVa: 1 damaged
Martin 139: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
CA Myoko
BB Hyuga
BB Fuso, Bomb hits 1
CA Haguro
CA Furutaka

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Martin 139 bombing at 6000 feet
4 x Martin 139 bombing at 6000 feet
4 x T.IVa bombing at 5000 feet
3 x Martin 139 bombing at 6000 feet
3 x Martin 139 bombing at 6000 feet
3 x Martin 139 bombing at 6000 feet
2 x Martin 139 bombing at 6000 feet
2 x Martin 139 bombing at 6000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At Canton I’m taking advantage of my AV superiority and training my troops up with daily bombardments. Soon these guys will be a respectable fighting force. I’ve decided to start bombarding Ichang as well while I await the arrival of the rest of my forces there.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Canton

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 49638 troops, 274 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1508

Defending force 71657 troops, 317 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1052


Here’s a screenshot of the current Intel screen and the highest value ships sunk. About 50-60 or so of my ships that were sunk are the short legged AK’s (5000 endurance or less) that were shuttling supplies and oil into Singapore.

A huge pack of Japanese subs descended on the area over the past week or so and sent just about every ship to the bottom that was around northern Java or Sumatra. It was a brutal thing to have to sit through and watch.




The one bright spot is I now have well over 60k of supplies in Malaya and about 4500k oil and resources that will be turned into 300 supply a day at the HI in Singapore for the next 15 days or so, so Singapore should hold out for quite a while.

Oh yeah and all 6 brigades dug in to level 4 forts today, Huzzah!

Jim

3 Jan. 42

A little over a week ago game time, KB appeared and bombed Rabaul just before Japan invaded it. Up to this point I had kept my damaged ships in Pearl Harbor for fear of another air attack.

I had been sending ASW sweeps to and from San Francisco to try and locate any Japanese subs along the route and had only spotted one or two in the preceding weeks. I wasn’t able to prosecute these sightings as my wily opponent kept his subs moving, but since there only appeared to be a few I decided the time was right for a dash to the coast.

About 1/3rd of the way out, the first pack of subs descended on my 6 remaining BB’s as they made their way east. As reported earlier the California was sunk after taking 5 torpedoes in 2 consecutive days. The Arizona took 2 torpedoes but managed to escape it pursuers and is now just one day out of Seattle.

The Maryland and the Tennessee were moderately damaged so their task force managed to evade the subs completely. The Maryland docked at Los Angeles this turn and the Tennessee will dock at San Diego tomorrow.

But the two remaining heavily damaged Battleships of California’s task force have been hounded by multiple subs every day for over a week now as they slowly crawl towards San Francisco at 2 hexes a day.

After the California was sunk, I dispatched every ASW group I had in the area to patrol/do not retire and set them guarding the three BB groups. Once the Arizona and Maryland/Tennessee groups were close to their destinations, I sent every single ASW group to guard the West Virginia and Pennsylvania group.

For the past week it has been working and my ASW groups have prevented any further attacks, but today the Japanese struck again and put two in the side of the West Virginia. Damage is currently 84/48/7 and the BB has slowed to a crawl of only 3 knots.

I had four ASW groups around the BBs and had another 7 groups out ahead trying to locate any Japanese subs lying in wait along the route to SF. I’ve ordered all groups to now patrol the task force itself until it arrives in SF. Each ASW group has 3-4 DDs, MSWs, DMSs or AVDs, so I’ll have 30+ ships trying to keep the Japanese subs from finishing off another BB.

With all this ASW out and about the worst I’ve managed to do is get 1-3 hits or near misses on a sub, and none have been sunk yet.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack at 136,57

Japanese Ships
SS I-4

Allied Ships
BB West Virginia, Torpedo hits 2, heavy damage
DD Morris
DD Clark
DD Cassin
DD Conyngham

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Japan landed masses of troops at Palembang today (I’ll do a screenshot of the ground battle screen next turn, but my guess is he landed over 12 units), I expect the base to fall tomorrow. I still have quite a few level 4 airfields within range of Palembang, so I think this is a serious mistake on the part of my opponent. I’ve got 80+ B-17’s in Java at Madioen (inland base cannot be bombarded by BB’s) resting up for their expected raids in the coming days.

Here’s the allied bombardment of his forces landing at Palembang, why so much armor, what’s he ultimately up to? My guess is he’ll be headed to Java with these guys real soon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Palembang

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 2992 troops, 44 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 65

Defending force 17898 troops, 145 guns, 112 vehicles, Assault Value = 428

A task force was sighted today west of Dutch Harbor and is reported as an AK. Hopefully this is just a sub that is being miss-reported and not an invasion force. I have a brigade, AAA and base force just finishing getting loaded onto ships at Seattle. I was planning on sending them to Cold Bay, but I’ll keep them sailing north along the coast and probably divert them to Anchorage if Japan starts invading the Aleutian Islands.

Jim

Why you don't simply let your BB sit in PH? If I am not wrong you have only 6 BB remaining while some of them not damaged too heavily. PH with her 3 or 4 AR could handle that.  His KB wouldn't come back so soon.

Will be watching this with interest since, like my game with Cantona, it's CHS/Nik Mod. I shall be particularly interested to see how air losses pan out. Since this is much less bloody than stock, the impression I get is that the Japanese pilot pool gets burned away much more slowly.

I like your set of house rules, especially this:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

Units may not amphibiously invade from non-traditional invasion transport type ships (i.e. AP, APA, APD, LCI, LCM, LCT, LCVP, LSD, LST, etc.). Units may be transported to a friendly base via any available cargo type vessels, but invasions must be conducted via the previously mentioned vessel types, and other similar vessel types specifically designed for assaulting beaches themselves or with their accompanying landing craft intrinsic to the vessel.

Japan may ignore the rule governing ship types used for invasions until April 1st 1942, after which he must begin to comply by the rule.

In our game Japan isn't allowed to ignore this rule, and I have had to embark all invading troops in AP's, save for invasions of dot/minor bases using sea trucks or destroyer transports. Makes for an interesting exercise in managing and pre-positioning Japanese 'amphibious' shipping. My only resulting gripe is that I have to use Shinshu Maru as a supply transport.

ORIGINAL: trollelite

Why you don't simply let your BB sit in PH? If I am not wrong you have only 6 BB remaining while some of them not damaged too heavily. PH with her 3 or 4 AR could handle that.  His KB wouldn't come back so soon.

Hindsight being 20/20 of course you are right, but many players like to do a second Pearl strike just for this reason, so I wanted to take an apparent opening to get to the west coast while I could. As you can see I had lots of ASW out and it simply did not appear that many Japanese subs were in the area.

My opponent divulged to me later that he had about 20 subs spread out lying in wait with only a few along the actual route to spot targets. With that in mind I guess I've been lucky to only have lost one BB and one DD to them so far. Very well played by my opponent, he is an expert subtician (new word? LOL), 90% of my ship sunk losses are due to his subs.

Jim

ORIGINAL: Local Yokel

Will be watching this with interest since, like my game with Cantona, it's CHS/Nik Mod. I shall be particularly interested to see how air losses pan out. Since this is much less bloody than stock, the impression I get is that the Japanese pilot pool gets burned away much more slowly.

In our game Japan isn't allowed to ignore this rule, and I have had to embark all invading troops in AP's, save for invasions of dot/minor bases using sea trucks or destroyer transports. Makes for an interesting exercise in managing and pre-positioning Japanese 'amphibious' shipping. My only resulting gripe is that I have to use Shinshu Maru as a supply transport.

So far no Japanese fighters have been shot down in air to air while well over 60 allied fighters have been, it's starting to look like the extremely high maneuver ratings for Japan are too high. The zero bonus is 5, but nik mod gives most Japanese fighters an 8-10 point advantage for the entire game. Hopefully things will change and I'll be able to shoot something down soon.

The reason I added that Japan can ignore the rule is exactly because they start the game with a lot of their AP lift out of place. I guess it could have been 1 Feb. instead of 1 Apr, but I didn't want to hamper Japans ability to take what they need to by April.

Jim

Well I must say if he makes second pearl strike then you have already won half game. Without KB support DEI cannot be subdued quickly enough, and this delay would be fatal. And you could deploy PBY on Johnston and Midway and use picket ships too. It's too risky to sortie heavily damaged BB, especially you don't confirm this second strike would come. Simply doesn't worth the risk.
 
some Japs SS have planes, he would know your moving, and you, because of lack of ship-based recon ac (all your BBs heavily damaged and you don't send cruisers with them), you don't know whereabout of these SS. He deployed his SS in a zone just beyond the range of your land-based PBY, very cleverly.

4 Jan. 42

Japanese APDs launch an ASW attack northeast of Singkawang and score 1 hit damaging the Dutch sub KXVII. Damage is minor (about 10 sys I think) and I determined to keep the sub at sea as many of Palembang’s invasion fleets are returning to Kuching right now.

Dutch Martins from Batavia launch several tiny 3-10 plane naval attacks at fleets at Palembang resulting in the typical bomb the battleships or cruisers instead of the transports fiasco. No hits are scored, 1 bomber is lost and several are damaged.

Dutch bombers from Balikpapan launch a port attack on Tarakan as recon had spotted some AP’s in port last turn. A short air to air duel was fought in the skies above Tarakan with 6 escorting 339D’s engaging 9 Nate’s. I watched the battle replay closely and notice that my 339D’s only tried to engage the Nate’s about 3-5 times, while the Nate’s engaged my 339D’s 30-50 times or more.

Results, no hits at all scored on the Nate’s with one 339D shot down and 4 damaged. Granted these are obsolete planes and inexperienced pilots, but to get less than 6 attempts to engage while the opponent gets dozens and dozens?

Even though I set the bombers altitude to 2000 feet, only 1 hit was scored on one of the previously damaged APs. I doubt enough new damage was caused to sink it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Tarakan , at 34,60

Japanese aircraft
Ki-27 Nate x 9

Allied aircraft
Brewster 339D x 6
CW-22 Falcon x 1
Martin 139 x 32

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Brewster 339D: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged
Martin 139: 4 damaged

Japanese Ships
AP Netsuda Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage

Japanese ground losses:
13 casualties reported

Port hits 2
Port supply hits 2

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Martin 139 bombing at 2000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KB unexpectedly raced south from the area around Kuching deep into the Java Sea and caught two small task forces unawares, lots of damage to go around in the 4 strikes launched by KB. If memory serves all ships are lost. It could have been far worse as the Dutch surface fleets are in Soerabaja (1 battle fleet with CLs and DDs, 1 AAA decoy fleet with all the PGs and PCs that lack any ASW ability or big guns), luckily they were not spotted.

Allied Ships
TK Hermes, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
AD Anking, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AS Wuchang, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Finch, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AGP Poolster, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
MSW Finch, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AGP Poolster, on fire, heavy damage
AS Wuchang, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
AGP Poolster, on fire, heavy damage
AD Anking, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Finch, on fire, heavy damage

I really struggled over disbanding the Dutch surface fleet into Soerabaja. In the end I decided to keep it as a fleet in being at that base. Fighters over the base should help keep it from being spotted and AAA functions better at sea than when docked.

I’ve rebased one squadron of A-24’s, 2 Dutch T. IVa torpedo squadrons and one Vildebeest IV torpedo squadron to Bandjarmasin (size 3 AF) along with a 339D fighter squadron. It’s not too dangerous a force, but if KB decides to stay within 2 hexes of Bandjarmasin as it is now for another turn, at least there’s a chance some torpedoes might get launched at a carrier or two.

KB as been pretty active the past few turns and I’m hoping its squadrons are tired with lots of fatigue and low morale. If so my little force at Bandjarmasin might actually get a few planes through.

The ASW groups protecting my BB’s did their job and scored 4 hits/near misses on a Japanese sub. Search planes spotted a sub 1 hex outside San Francisco, so I’ve sent 3 of the ASW groups ahead to try and suppress it.

Float damage went up a bit this turn, but fires are down to 2, so I suspect allied damage control might have a good chance of saving the ship.

As expected Palembang falls this turn to a deliberate Japanese attack. I’ve set my B-17s to 15k altitude with orders to attack the oil and resources. All the B-17E’s will hit the oil and the D’s will hit the resources.

Recon reports the resources at 588 (13) and the oil at 1149 (52) (allied recon is notoriously bad right now though), so my heavies have a lot of work to do if I hope to reduce things enough to seriously hurt his economy and make him pay for this aggressive opening move. I’m willing to lose every single one of the 80+ heavies I currently have in Java pounding these two targets.

My next big worry is where he will go next. As I see it he has two options and enough force to actually pull off both if he wants to. First my diamond shaped defense in Malaya is giving him fits, and he can easily turn the tables on me by landing at Johore Bahru and cutting off my forces to the north.

Given how aggressive my opponent is I think I can expect just such a move very soon, so I’ll order my units to pull back to Johore as soon as the forts there reach level 3 (85% done with 71 engineers and 5 engineer vehicles at base now). My guess is it’ll only be a few more days.

The other possibility is a landing at Merak to start his conquest of Java. But the fact he doesn’t have a division at Palembang leads me to believe this is a less likely option. But once I start hitting his oil and resources at Palembang he’ll quickly realize he needs to close all my level 4 bases in range, and the only way to do that efficiently is to take Java.


Jim

5 Jan 42

KB remains within 2 hexes of Banjarmasin, but is socked in by weather, neither side launches a strike.

Japanese DD Maikaze hits a mine at Kuching and is reported as sunk. Not a huge kill but very annoying to my opponent I bet, I’ll take it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TF 46 encounters mine field at Kuching (27,56)

Japanese Ships
DD Maikaze, heavy damage

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At Palmyra Japanese sub I-9 turns the tables on its pursuers and puts a torpedo into MSW Bobolink. This sub has been a pain in the arse, having sunk 1 of the two AK’s sent to the base for resupply and damaging both DD escorts already in past days. Now it causes heavy damage to an ASW task force sent to keep its head down.

Singapore gets hit with two large air raids today keeping that base untenable for my aircraft. The only bright spot is the increased effectiveness of nik mod AAA means 4 Japanese bombers were killed and 40 damaged between the two raids.

The allied heavies hit Palembang and cause 16 oil hits. Damage to the base is reported at 545 (56) resources and 1115 (86) oil. Not a lot of damage caused yet, but it’s a start. With 81 heavy bombers reported at Madioen now, it looks like I lost 3 or 4 of the bombers upon return landing at the size 4 airfield at Madioen. This is going to be a costly endeavor, I hope they last long enough to cause decent damage to Palembang.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Palembang , at 20,55


Allied aircraft
B-17D Fortress x 17
B-17E Fortress x 41


Allied aircraft losses
B-17D Fortress: 1 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 2 damaged

Oil hits 16

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 15000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Swordfish from Johore Bahru launched 5 torpedoes at the Japanese battleships Kongo and Mutsu two hexes southeast of Singapore, but no hits were scored. It looks like the BB’s are either preparing a bombardment run along the west coast of Malaya, or returning to Saigon.

I’ve decided to go ahead and pull back my exposed land units northeast of Johore as this may be the beginnings of the landings I feared and I don’t want them to be trapped. I’m also going to evacuate Mersing as well.

Singapore as 3030 oil in stock and 2856 resources in stock. Johore has another 360 resources, so whenever Singapore pulls those resources there will then be enough on hand to finish producing all the oil in stock at the HI at the base, so I no longer need to hold Mersing anymore with its 80 resource center.

Right now Singapore has 54374 supplies on hand and Johore has 2764 (I’m writing off the 888 at Mersing). Add to this another 3000 for the oil once it gets produced and there will be 60128 supplies for use by the defenders. Singapore could actually hold out longer than the Philippines if I manage not to get my units hammered in a retreat result.

My ASW groups finally sunk one of the subs hounding my damaged BB’s, I-25 goes down after getting hit 7 times. But I also lose the Dutch sub O16 near Singkawang to a Japanese ASW attack as well. As an added bonus this turn I learned another Japanese sub was sunk that I hadn’t noticed before when I checked the ships sunk list. The I-157 was reported sunk near Singkawang, so it must have gone down after being damaged in the battles around Palembang when Japanese subs virtually wiped out all the AK’s and TK’s hauling supplies into Singapore.

As expected the Japanese launch an attack at Lingayen this turn with the newly arrived division and other forces. The attack fails to do much harm, but I doubt I’ll be able (look how much my AV dropped even with level 3 forts) to hold once his disruption settles down. I’ve decided I better start pulling back into Manila if I hope to be able to prevent any of my forces from getting trapped and destroyed piecemeal outside the city.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Lingayen

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 28832 troops, 171 guns, 7 vehicles, Assault Value = 589

Defending force 12095 troops, 85 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 368

Japanese max assault: 590 - adjusted assault: 133

Allied max defense: 380 - adjusted defense: 173

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 3)


Japanese ground losses:
831 casualties reported
Guns lost 9
Vehicles lost 1

Allied ground losses:
236 casualties reported
Guns lost 5


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Japan also launched an attack in Malaya this turn which failed. Given the damage caused to the Japanese, my withdrawal into Johore Bahru should go well.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at 22,49

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 61080 troops, 290 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1484

Defending force 22565 troops, 136 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 514

Japanese max assault: 1481 - adjusted assault: 510

Allied max defense: 512 - adjusted defense: 559

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1


Japanese ground losses:
3384 casualties reported
Guns lost 19

Allied ground losses:
134 casualties reported
Guns lost 5


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also this turn several attacks in China slam my guerrilla units and begin to clear the roads behind Japanese lines.

The first of two evacuation task forces arrived at the southern tip of Sumatra to evacuate fragments from the units defending in Malaya. I doubt I will ever be able to rebuild all or even most of these units, but hopefully they’ll all arrive in India intact and then at least I’ll then have the option of rebuilding some of them if my replacement pools grow.

I’ll only toggle replacements on for units whose equipment has a surplus building up in my replacement pools, and since I’ve never played CHS long enough before (had two failed attempts to play in a much older version stopped due to bugs), I had no idea which units might be the best to pull out, so I pulled a piece from all the units. Here’s the full list of the units awaiting evacuation.

Jim

6 Jan 42

Well one month has gone by and here is where the air to air tally stands at the end of the 6 Jan turn. The allies have lost 74 fighters and the Japanese only 1 zero. The zero was probably shot down by a bomber it was attacking, because I would have definitely noticed had one of my fighters shot something down…



The AK reported by recon near Dutch Harbor the other day showed up this turn and bombarded the place. No ship type was noted on the battle report, so I assume it’s was a Japanese PG (the other has been bombarding bases and intercepting shipping in the South Pacific). Here’s the combat report, as you can see nothing:

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Naval bombardment of Dutch Harbor, at 102,37

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A Japanese AP runs into a mine at Singkep and 24 men are reported killed. Hopefully it’ll sink and the unit it’s carrying will go down with it. Probably not gonna happen, but It’d be a small bright spot during a dark time if it did.

A Japanese sub at Toloekbetoeng sinks one of the AKs from my second evacuation convoy as it sails into port. The first convoy got away unscathed with half the fragments aboard. With Japanese air now reported at Palembang I fear the worst for this second convoy tomorrow.

Japan bombs both Johore Bahru and Singapore this turn causing minor damage to both airfields. Looks like he’s trying to suppress both level 4 air fields, I hope he continues to split his assets this way, as it’s easier/faster to repair the damage.

40 B-17’s hit Palembang again this turn causing 7 oil hits. With 50+ fighters reported at Palembang now, I’ll be sending the bombers up to 35000 feet from now on to get above his CAP, so hits will be a lot harder to score from now on.

With KB off on a wild goose chase in the Java Sea (socked in by weather again today), the Dutch air force finally gets airborne and extracts the first price Japan will be paying for such an early move at Palembang.

Flying 3 anti-shipping raids out of Batavia at 2000 feet, Dutch Martins score a few 250lb bomb hits on several AKs and APs. The single hit on the CA bounced off the deck armor. Given the very low experience of the Dutch pilots, I’m pleased with this minor victory.

All planes from Batavia have rebased to Soerabaja in anticipation of Japanese bombers visiting Batavia in a retaliation strike.

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Day Air attack on TF, near Palembang at 20,55


Allied aircraft
Martin 139 x 32


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AP Mogamigawa Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Tsutsukami Maru
AP Brisbane Maru
AP Ayatosan Maru
AP Hanakawa Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
DD Murasame
DD Hatakaze
DD Asagumo, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Chowa Maru
AP Daifuku Maru

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x Martin 139 bombing at 2000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on TF, near Palembang at 20,55


Allied aircraft
Martin 139 x 9


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
PC Ch 2
AK Uzan Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire
AK Jinmu Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x Martin 139 bombing at 2000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on TF, near Muntok at 21,55


Allied aircraft
Brewster 339D x 9
Martin 139 x 28


Allied aircraft losses
Martin 139: 13 damaged

Japanese Ships
CA Suzuya
CA Mikuma, Bomb hits 1
CA Chokai
CL Sendai

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x Martin 139 bombing at 2000 feet
<snip>
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At Palmyra Japanese sub I-9 strikes again and sinks MSW Grebe. This sub must have one heck of a crew and skipper, it’s racking up more kills than my entire air force. Yes I’m exaggerating, but this sub is driving me nuts! I’ve merged the 2 remaining MSWs from the ASW group to the 1 remaining AK that is still in port unloading.

Jim

7 Jan. 42

Japanese troops begin to land over the beach at Singkep. Looks like his para drop from several turns back simply wasn’t enough to capture the place, so he’s bringing in more troops. One of the unloading APs hits a mine.

Also an AK at Hong Kong hits a mine even though MSWs are clearing the mines out of the harbor there now. Could this be a possible bug where the last mine always hits a ship? Not sure if that one was ever fixed or not.

Japanese sub I-15 puts a torpedo into DD Clark outside San Francisco. The battleships remain unscathed and will enter the San Francisco hex next turn, so they’ve made it. Hopefully Clark will make it too, but it’s damaged pretty badly and may sink. I-15 was depth charged and received 2 hits/near misses. A second ASW attack later in the turn caused another 2 hits/near misses so hopefully it’s hurting too.

2 big Japanese air raids hit Johore Bahru this turn causing moderate damage to the airfield there. All my troops successfully pulled back into Johore this turn as well. Once the damaged airfield is repaired hopefully they’ll have time to complete the level 3 forts (88% done) before the next Japanese attack. Without them there’s a good chance Japan will force me out of the hex.

24 Zeroes and 23 Nells arrived over Port Moresby this turn and bombed the airfield. 4 Wirraways rose to oppose them and 2 were lost. Only 1 hit was scored on the airfield, so no real damage caused.

2 allied AK’s whose float damage had finally been patched up at Manila Harbor, tried to make a run for it today and were sunk by land based and carrier based air. Apparently there is a small carrier force west of Luzon right now that was undetected. It’s probably mini KB or the CVL group sighted a few days ago by my PT boats.

Apparently this move was misinterpreted by my opponent who expressed his concern that he is still unable to stop supplies from reaching Luzon. I’m not about to tell him he is wrong though, let’s hope he commits even more air assets to naval attack missions for a while around Luzon. I’d rather have them searching empty seas then bombing my troops.

KB moved up the slot between Borneo and the Celebs and bombed the airfield at Balikpapan today. Moderate damage was caused at the airfield and I lost 1 339D, 1 CW-22, 3 A-24s and 2 OS2U-3 Kingfishers. 2 Kates were destroyed by flak and 11 were damaged. Glad I brought that Marine AAA unit from Luzon, it adds a lot of punch to my flak at Balikpapan.

A Japanese ASW group damaged my Dutch sub at Muntok. Damage was light but the sub is headed to port for repairs anyway as it appears most of the Palembang invasion convoys are gone now.

Japan bombards Lucena this turn south of Manila and I see his forces there for the first time. As at Lingayen and Baguio he has a division and other units present. I think my troops can hold him there unless/until he brings in more forces, so I’ve determined not to pull all the way back into Manila just yet.

Instead I’ll have the troops from Lingayen, Baguio and Bataan hold Clark field for as long as possible to draw on the 14k of supplies stockpiled there for a while. As soon as either Clark or Lucena appears on the verge of a possible retreat, I’ll then order the final withdraw to Manila.

Here are the bombardment results for the three contested hexes to give you an idea of Japanese strength in Luzon. I think he only has 3 divisions a brigade and other units there right now. I’m not sure he’ll be able to drive me all the way into Manila without a 4th division being brought in. Some of my troops from Baguio and Lingayen have already pulled back to Clark, so this isn't my entire AV north of Manila.


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Ground combat at Lucena

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 24357 troops, 124 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 677

Defending force 15316 troops, 65 guns, 173 vehicles, Assault Value = 459



Allied ground losses:
195 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Vehicles lost 4


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Ground combat at Baguio

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 41549 troops, 220 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 893

Defending force 7123 troops, 58 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 123


Japanese ground losses:
30 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Allied ground losses:
150 casualties reported
Guns lost 2


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Ground combat at Lingayen

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 3550 troops, 82 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 548

Defending force 7884 troops, 46 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 235



Allied ground losses:
33 casualties reported
Guns lost 2


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These are my daily bombardments of Ichang and Canton. My troops at both locations are mostly at low-mid 50s experience now. Hopefully they’ll keep growing experience, but its slowed way down now that they’ve gotten into the 50s.

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Ground combat at Ichang

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 48531 troops, 233 guns, 1 vehicles, Assault Value = 1563

Defending force 41708 troops, 237 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 960



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Ground combat at Canton

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 50199 troops, 283 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1531

Defending force 72823 troops, 320 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1077

Here’s a screenshot of a task force my recon sighted this turn which is apparently headed to Amboina. I’ve pretty much defeated his invasion there, so I assume this is either a reinforcement convoy or an evacuation convoy. This attack is a shoestring operation for Japan and lacks air support, so I’ve rebased a group of A-24s to Amboina this turn to see if I can bag a few ships.

Jim

8 Jan. 42

Allied ASW groups drop depth charges on Japanese sub I-19 outside San Francisco and score 3 hit/near misses.

With the last of the damaged battleships from Pearl Harbor arriving at San Francisco this turn, the two week long battle to bring them home is over. Net results so far are 2-3 ASW ships and 1 BB sunk vs. 1 Japanese sub sunk and perhaps 6-10 subs damaged (several ASW ships were damaged as well, maybe 4-6 total). Definitely a win for my opponent, but I’m glad I only lost 1 BB, it could have been far worse.

Japanese planes bomb Johore Bahru again this turn causing more damage to the airfield. If they keep the damage up each turn like this, I’ll never get to level 3 forts there.

Japan sinks another damaged AK fleeing Manila with Kates from mini KB west of Luzon.

My A-24s at Amboina launch against the spotted task forces from last turn. Unfortunately only 2 planes went after the APs and failed to score any hits. The rest went after an apparent surface fleet escorting the convoy and managed to drop 2 1000 lb GP bombs on the CA Aoba. Based on the graphic from the combat replay, damage was probably light.

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Day Air attack on TF at 41,72


Allied aircraft
A-24 Dauntless x 2


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AP Nissho Maru

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
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Day Air attack on TF at 41,72


Allied aircraft
A-24 Dauntless x 13


Allied aircraft losses
A-24 Dauntless: 3 destroyed, 6 damaged

Japanese Ships
CL Nagara
CA Aoba, Bomb hits 2, on fire

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
7 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet

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From where the task forces ended their moves this turn, I cannot tell if they are headed to Kendari or Amboina. I’ve got over 100 AV at Kendari now, so I’m not too concerned if he heads there. Unless he’s got a division afloat of course, then I could lose the place quick.

I also observed 2 APs reported heading west towards Tomini. They could be headed there or possibly to Balikpapan. Next turn they’ll either land or keep heading towards Balikpapan. I’ve got about 100 AV at Balikpapan and another 75 at Samarinda, so I should again be able to handle anything less than division strength there.



We’ve had a nasty bug crop up in northern China at the Kalgan base. I had moved troops there in the beginning of the game to try and take the place, but when the attack failed I tried to move out. When that failed I gave a base as a destination and my units built up 60 miles and then they all reset to 0 -10 miles the next turn.

So we then tried to get Japan to move out hoping it would then allow my units to leave. His initial attempt just failed and he has now given his units a friendly base as a destination to see if that’ll work for him. If not we are basically both stuck in the friggin hex.

I’ll probably just order all my units to attack over and over till they are massively disrupted and disabled so Japan can then attack and expel them. Unless of course anyone knows of a way to deal with this bug that doesn’t end up with 3 of my corps and 1 HQ ending up being destroyed.

Jim