Meanwhile, in another corner of the multiverse (No Dmitry Z zone)

[John B.]

So, why not have two games going at the same time. I only have a full time job and teach at two universities! Dmitry Z is my opponent and he has 10-12 campaign games under his belt so this is going to be tough. And, my first game against an unknown foe. Scott, aka panzercat, is a tough and aggressive foe so this should be interesting.

We're playing Scenario One with house rules about PPs, 4 engine bombers, sweeps and escorts limited to 5,000 above their best performance level and nothing that just could not happen obeying the laws of physics (no Japan sending all resources/oil across the dirt roads of china to Pusan and no fortress Palembang). We'll also try to be fair about it. E.G. Dmitry wanted to use Thai troops as garrisons in Malaya that can't have their HQ switched and that was fine with me.

Any way, on with the show. For the first time I've ever seen one of the midget subs put a torpedo into a BB. In fact, it did it during the night phase. You would think that a BB being torpedoed in the middle of the night would have alerted folks but, of course, you would be wrong.

For the second game running, Pearl was not a disaster! Many BBs sustained heavy damage but none were sunk and that saves a lot of VP. They all went into dry dock but there was no second day strike. Rather, he did a night raid that cost him two Kates and did not do much damage. He did port strike Manila and sank 4 or so SS but these are ones that get withdrawn so I'm not too sad about it.

He has made it to Hong Kong and did not do the Mersing gambit so everyone is heading to Singapore! A dutch sub did sink an AK but that was the only fun part about the day. I'm trying to suck whatever I can out of Palembang and the DEI while I can. Any oil/fuel goes to Austrailia and helps keep the pressure off of US convoys. I've set up a refueling depot near the map edge, the US carriers will rendezvous there and go to the Australian bight. Their best use right now is to lay low and keep him guessing. As long as he does not know where I am, he'll have to take that into account so I don't want a sub sighting or to be in an obvious port where he can find me with sub based recon.

[Bif1961]

Good luck with your new game against a worthy, experience opponent.

[Lawless1]

For the first time I've ever seen one of the midget subs put a torpedo into a BB

John, I find this happens fairly frequently when I play against the AI. Looking forward to following your game

[John B.]

Maybe one of these days the captain of the BB will telephone Kimmel and let him know what happened before the Vals and Kates show up.

We're on to December 10th and so far things are going as poorly as one might expect. the KB appears to be heading to Wake and there is a swarm of subs following my CVs south. Just my ASW planes seeing them gives Dmitry an idea of where my CVs are so I may switch them away from ASW. He has landed at Kaeving but I don't think he has any escorts there so a CL will attempt to intercept the landing. Dmitry also appears to be working his way down the coast to Singapore with a new landing further south. I have a big airraid scheduled to hit that force this turn.

The Ruijyo (sp?) TF is off the coast of Tarakan. I think it may have used up its torpedoes on AKLs so I have a CA TF coming out of Balikpapan to see if we can force a surface action. If I'm wrong there may be many electronic widows and orphans.

In the meantime, As Xu You told Cao Cao in Romance of the Three Kingdoms "To oppose a great army with a small one is to walk in the path of destruction, unless you inflict quick defeat." My goal is to avoid the quick defeat and wait for 1943 and the tsunami of US reinforcements. Basically, I hope to delay him at Singapore, the DEI and the Philippines long enough to hold back any advance to Australia and India.

[BBfanboy]

It's Ryujo.

I would welcome his incursion into either India or Australia. Those two places are large enough to trade space for time and then trap many of his troops.
From most AARs in the last couple of years an experienced IJ player will not waste his efforts on small SOPAC islands, but will try to free up his troops to try and take a big prize. As long as the Allied player reinforces the attacked continent with aircraft and well-equipped troops the Japanese effort will stall out and the shoe (or boot) will be on the other foot.

[Revthought]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

It's Ryujo.

I would welcome his incursion into either India or Australia. Those two places are large enough to trade space for time and then trap many of his troops.
From most AARs in the last couple of years an experienced IJ player will not waste his efforts on small SOPAC islands, but will try to free up his troops to try and take a big prize. As long as the Allied player reinforces the attacked continent with aircraft and well-equipped troops the Japanese effort will stall out and the shoe (or boot) will be on the other foot.

ars an experienced IJ player will not waste his efforts on small SOPAC islands, but will try to free up his troops to try and take a big prize. As long as the Allied player reinforces the attacked continent with aircraft and well-equipped troops the Japanese effort will stall out and the shoe (or boot) will be on the other foot.

I feel like, without much evidence, a good Japanese player can do both. At least take Northern Australia and the Pacific islands. I mean, it's happened to me recently! Though to be fair, it was my first PBEM and I really underdefended those islands in the Pacific. [:D]

[John B.]

@ BBfanboy. I know I know, you had to correct me in my last game as well. Misspelling Ryujo is the only fun I get until 1943.

Regardless, my attempted surface incursion was not as successful as I would have hoped. He lost a CL and a DD and I lost 4 DDs (it's a little sad when they succumb to 60 kg bombs from float planes). Still, I hope it helps keep Dmitry cautious. He was pretty wily with his night attack on Pearl so I have to keep on my toes.

Otherwise, Hong Kong fell and his subs are ravaging my early convoys. It's so odd how allied ASW changes starting with the early 42 upgrades but I'll just have to grin and bear it until then.

The KB was last seen heading towards Wake but did not raid that island as I thought he might. Now it's presence is a mystery.

[John B.]

The KB revealed itself near wake when it and the AO fleet ran in the the dearly departed AM Penguin. RIP Penguin. [:(] He used them to ground strike Wake which actually held (and put some serious shells into an AMC). I'm not sure if the Marines will hold again for another turn but if it ties up the KB another day and makes it spend more ammo more power to them. In other news from the front, the CL Adelaide redeemed her previous two days of inactivity by sinking 3-4 IJN AKLs near Kaeving and Manus. No troops were reported lost but it means Kaving will hold out for a few more days.

More landings in the Philippines and more dud US torpedoes. In fact, they've all been duds so far but the Ducth hit another AK. Dmitry seems to be making an early push on Davao. It probably does not matter much in the grand scheme of things but on the whole I'd rather it happened now than him leapfrogging deep into the DEI.

He has move the Ryujo back near Tarakan so I'm going to try to get it one more time this time with the PoW. I have it set to scurry back to air cover in the daytime but it's a bit of a risk. Worth it if I can hold him up and even damage the Ryujo. Not worth it if I lose those ships.

Singapore is digging in and he has landed at Mersing. I'm going to try, again, to hit him with torpedoes. The last time only the swordfish flew and none came back since none of the fighters flew sweeps. It's a bit odd that losses from one group at an airbase have no effect on anyone elese morale ("By Jove, what happened to Jeeves and his gang? Totally shot to pieces with no fighter cover. Right! Well, off for a proper bash at the Japs lads!!"

So far it's forts and not facilities for me. Everyone is digging and digging fast and I'm trying to get supplies whereever I can so convoys are heading to Suva, Rangoon (on to China we hope). and Port Morseby. THis time I'm not going to make any effort at all to reinforce Rabual or Moresby and see what happens.

[Bif1961]

In my game Allied 1 Jul, 42 I have had 97 American sub torpedo attacks with 67 duds. That includes both Mk-10 and Mk-14s. So about 70% dud rate total with MK-14s being nearly 90%.

[John B.]

Bif, I feel your pain. There is nothing worse than dud results when there is a CV in your sights!

[John B.]

It's December 14th and we're in the midst of a major series of surface actions near Borneo. The last evening my Pow/Repulse TF found and sank the Zuiho near Tarakan and, alas, let the Hosho get away. I was content to head back to Balikpappan and then to Java but it turns out that Dmitry on the same evening invaded the port right next to Balikpappan (I can't remember its name). So, my BB TF refueled and used so many ops points that it can't really get very far. So, it looks like they're going to take on the jap covering CAs and hope that my Ducth CL TF, DD TF, and American CA TF can make it up the river to attack the invasion transports. Should be a swirling series of battles. He has float planes on CS's and the Hosho air group but I do have some fighters at Balikpappen. THis could go really well, or really badly. It's the long lances I fear most of all. There is no real plan, it's just throwing everything at Dmitry and hoping for the best.

I had expected him to wait in his advance down the DEI so this leapfrog has caught me out a bit.

I got into his bomber stream over the Philippines yesterday and actually knocked a few out of the sky and even the Chinese got 2-3 Jap planes. The marines still hold out on Wake and the KB is still near there so that's a small piece of good news.

One of these days my torpedo bombers will actually attack his large fleet at Mersing. One of these days.

[BBfanboy]

Congrats on getting Zuiho! That is a great blow this early in the war.

Your previous posts mentioned hunting Ryujo. Is it possible she is still out there with Hosho or do you think Zuiho/Ryujo are the same ship, misidentified one way or the other?

As for Hosho, it has the smallest air group on any Japanese carrier and IIRC the pilots are not nearly as good as KB's superb veterans. POW could probably survive a strike from Hosho alone without much damage, but if he has bases on north Borneo and has brought in an Air HQ, the Netties are another story.

Samarinda is the port next to Balikpapan, and POW will not be able to go up the river to "take on the covering force". So I hope the covering force is not up the river and that PoW has enough ammo to take them on. But make it a hit and run raid with orders to retire to Soerabaja or beyond. The longer you remain in one area the more aircraft he can assemble to strike at you. PoW is your only fast BB for a while and valuable as a CV escort because of her speed and AA - worth saving IMO.

[John B.]

I think that the Ryujo/Zuiho may be the same ship in this case. My recon, admittedly poor right now, shows other small airgroups that I believe the CSs. He did have some Kates come at me but they used bombs so I suspect they may have wasted their topedo shots on AKLs. I am not doing the AKL spread on purpose, since I think that's gamey, but the great splat of ships coming down from the Phillipines kind of works out that way.

Yes, Samarinda is what I'm thinking of. He had a covering force of CAs one hex out of Samarinda. If the PoW can take care of that then the CL, DD, and CA TFs can go up river.

He struck with Bettys and Nells last turn from north borneo but it was bombs. I would not be sticking around but my ships are stuck there this turn anyway because of the ops points problem so I might as well use them while I have them. But next turn Repulse and PoW are out of there!

[John B.]

Alas the poor PoW, we knew her well. [:(] And, we need to talk to the Naval Search boys because 4 BBs is NOT 2 CAs. [:-] PoW went down as well as three DDs (he has a torpedeo base in range near the Phillipines. ONe of his BBs was hurt badly and broke off into it's own TF where it ran into Dutch CLs that put 20 hits into it. Not high calibre but it was reported to have heavy damage and to be on fire. the bad news is that it could still make speed so it may not go down. Oh well, it is 1941 after all and the PoW is ok to change for a CVL.

My Buffaloes did fly out of singapore but not the torpedo planes. [:@] That's the next talk to have after the Naval Search boys.

[Bif1961]

Since historically you lose both the PoW and Repulse, you did well to sink a good CVL of his and probably scare him.

[John B.]

so the only thing that is currently making me tear my hair out is that I can't get my vildebeests to fly naval actions out of singapore. I put in very high agression commanders (70), I'm not flying any other planes so there is 170 air squads, I have 77,000 supply, the weather is clear over both the target and Singapore and the range is set correctly. Yet, not a single mission. the Japanese spent six turns at Mersing and they did not fly. Now they're at Palambang and still not flying. It's been six separate days and not a flight. Anything I'm overlooking? I"m not going to get a good chance like this again.

[BBfanboy]

If the enemy has strong CAP over their Mersing position the wise air commander does not fly there. Maybe you need an aggressive idiot!

[BillBrown]

Make sure you did not have them using drop tanks, they can not fly torpedoes with drop tanks.
Also, you will probably need some fighter escorts to get them to fly.

[John B.]

Thanks for the tips, I will give it all a shot.

[panzer cat]

do you have torpedoes?