Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000 From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku Status: offline
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Still waiting for a turn from Ted. The Quest for the Allied SLOC As I’ve mentioned numerous times, I haven’t found any of Ted’s SLOCs. Here’s my plan for finding some of them. First, I am trying to identify his potential SLOCs and then go from there. Some are obvious and others, not so much. 1. Northern: This will be a relatively small one between the US and, well, I’m not so sure. One of the bases at the base of the Aleutians or somewhere in Alaska. 2. Pearl Harbor: This one is easy. US to Pearl. 3. Eastern Australia: US to ??? Maybe Noumea, maybe Sydney, maybe Wellington. Going to check them all out to see. I know ships are stationed at Sydney. I’ve never seen more than a couple ships moving to or from there though. 4. Western Australia: Abadon/Cape Town to Perth? 5. India: Abadon to India So, now the question is how to divide up my scarce sub assets to find these SLOCs and then what to do about them. Northern: The 5 Fleet (based out of Ominato, with the subs based out of Etorofu) is composed of: 1. CruDiv 21 – Tama & Kiso 2. DesRon 9 – Isuzu and 13x Minekazes 3. Several AMCs. 4. SubRon 5 - 6x fleet subs with 3x Glen subs to be added when built. Two Glens will be completed within the next week. They’re divided into 3 divisions of 2 fleet subs (+1 Glen sub). One SubDiv is charged with checking out Anchorage. They should arrive within a day or two. The second is scouting the Dutch Harbor area right now (with a snap invasion of Dutch Harbor and Umnak Island to occur tomorrow). Things should be much easier once I get the Glens. Pearl Harbor/West Coast: This is the responsibility of 4 Fleet, composed of: 1. SubRon 1 – 9x Glen subs and 5x midget carrying subs. It’s divided into 5x SubDivs. One SubDiv is assigned to the US west coast and a second is assigned to east of Hawaii. I like to have subs to the W and SW of Hawaii to scout for fleets heading into the central Pacific but I’ve forgone that temporarily to hunt for SLOCs. The third Glen SubDiv is part of the Pacific sweep for SLOCs, which I’ll discuss in a minute. The 5x midget carrying subs is reserve for that mission alone. I don’t want to risk them for other missions yet. As soon as I find a port where Ted has ships (that isn’t mined), they’re heading there with a load of midget subs. Eastern Australia: This is the responsibility of the 3 Fleet, based out of Truk, which is composed of: 1. 6 CruDiv – 4x Aobas 2. 16 CruDiv – CA Ashigara, CLs Nagara and Kuma 3. DesRon 3 – Sendai and 19x Fubukis 4. SubRon 3 – 8x fleet subs and 2x Glen subs (+1 Glen within a month) 5. SubRon 7 – 8x Ro class subs based out of Rabaul The Ro class subs are attempting to cut off Pt. Moresby by sea. I’ve spread out SubRon 3 enough to make it pretty much ineffective except for the occasional lucky shot (sinking the xAK with the squadron of B-26s comes to mind). One Glen is on its way to scout out Noumea and the second is headed to Wellington. Two fleet subs are going to sweep the southern edge to see if Ted is trying to sneak along there to get convoys to southern Australia along that route. The remaining 6 fleet subs are part of the SLOC sweep. Western Australia/India: This is the responsibility of 2 Fleet, composed of: 1. CruDiv 5 – CAs Haguro, Myoko and Nachi 2. DesRon 4 – Naka, 8 Kageros, 4 Asashios and 4 Akatsukis 3. SubRon 4 – 6 fleet subs, 2 Ro subs and eventually, 2 Glen subs This is probably the weakest in subs for its mission. The 2x Ro class subs are based in Pt. Blair with a mission patrolling the Bay of Bengal/Ceylon and the 6x fleet subs are out of Saigon (Singapore eventually). One SubDiv is going to spread out west of Perth looking for that SLOC and the other will head to near Abadon to find that SLOC. There aren’t nearly enough subs for the mission unfortunately. The only other subs not mentioned above are 4x minelaying subs (2 based at Saigon (Singapore eventually) and 2 based at Truk). Their mission is obvious. The other remaining subs are SubRon 2, composed of 6x fleet subs and 2x Glen subs. This SubRon is assigned to assist the Battle Fleet (1 Fleet) and/or KB. I’m going to use them as part of the SLOC sweep. SLOC Sweep: I have a total of 12x fleet subs and 7x Glen subs assigned. Each fleet sub can observe 3 hexes (the hex it’s in and a hex to either side) and each Glen sub can observe 7 hexes (the hex it’s in and 3 hexes to either side). If stretched out, this sweep can be 85 hexes wide! Or, if I decide to, I can do half that and have a double row. Not sure what I’m going to do. I’m thinking of sweeping east from the Noumea area toward the SE corner of the map and then swing around to the north toward the US. What I’ll probably do is have 2 lines. The first will be all the fleet subs and a couple Glen subs. The second will be the remaining Glen subs. When the first line locates an enemy TF, 1-2 Glens from the second line will shadow the TF to determine its route. I’m thinking 12 fleet and 2 Glens in the first line and 5 Glens in the second line.
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