CapAndGown
Posts: 3206
Joined: 3/6/2001 From: Virginia, USA Status: offline
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Dec. 16, 1943 Been a while since I updated this. Things have been rather quite. Rangoon fell a few turns back, yielding the allies a bundle of VPs. Now supply will start flowing to the Chinese. I am planning an offensive to try to deal with this fresh infusion. On the production front, both the Tony Id and Frank were advanced to January, while the Jack J2M3 was advanced to February. The Tony Id factories were upgraded to the Ki-100 I model. The Frank factories were expanded and will go directly from R&D to production in January. (For the Tony, the existing production factories will be upgraded to the Id version.) In looking at my options, I decided that the Jack J2M3 will be the plane of choice for the IJN, at least for those groups that can upgrade to the Jack or the George (I have found if you can upgrade to one, you can upgrade to the other). It has 4 20mm cannons with 2 of them mounted on the cowling, giving better accuracy. This is compared to the George which has its 4 20mm cannons all mounted in the wings. Plus, the Jack J2M3 has a service rating of 2 and a speed that is just about the same as any of the George models. What this choice meant was that now that the J2M3 has advanced as far as R&D will take it (I can't get it up to January) and with my decision not to bother with the George N1K2 model, it was time to reallocate those R&D factories. In this case, I chose to convert some of the factories to the A7M2 Sam and others to the Ki-84b Frank. I like the "b" model because it has 4 20mm cannons, unlike the "a" and "r" models. Unfortunately, the "b" model has nothing that directly upgrades to it, so you need to research it de novo. (That will also mean that when it becomes available, the existing "a" model factories will need to be converted to something else without the benefit of a "no-damage conversion.") Lexington showed up on the sunk ships list and in the operation report. I was positive that she was sunk based on the fact that my planes did not attack her in the afternoon phase of the 26th. So that seems to indicate that the tally from the battle of Ponape is, at least: 5xCV (Enterprise, Yorktown, Saratoga, Lexington, Wasp) 2xCVL (Independence, Cowpens) 8xCVE (2 by subs) 1xBB (Indiana, plus maybe one of the Pearl Harbor BBs) I am currently working on a new doctrine for defeating an allied invasion. My prior planning did not involve trying to stop the allies from landing since I was not that in love with the Marshalls or Gilberts. I am, however, more strongly attached to Truk and the Marianas. Therefore, I am not just looking for a decisive carrier battle, but a surface action that disrupts and perhaps demolishes a landing attempt. I will outline my ideas later, but I certainly would like to hear your thoughts. Also, I am stumped as to what to do right now. I tried sending out the CVs to interdict allied supply lines. What that led to was fending off a mass a subs without the allied CVs ever coming out to challenge me. My expedition into the Indian Ocean also attracted a bunch of subs without turning up any game. I am not terribly interested in losing my CVs to his subs without some clear goal they can be achieving. (I almost lost the Kasagi in that last foray!) I am also not to terribly interested in risking my CVs against allied LBA. So I am not sure there are too many attractive targets for an invasion. While I still have carrier superiority, I would like to do something with them to hurt the allies rather than just sit and wait for the next invasion. But I am having a difficult time figuring out what I could do that will not get some of my CVs sunk for just a minor gain.
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< Message edited by cap_and_gown -- 11/22/2010 11:17:14 PM >
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