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RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

 
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RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/6/2014 7:53:29 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		5 Dec 42

Sub War

I lost track of the AO/TK convoy. Too bad. But, I can see 4 other convoys south of Lord Howe Island and off the SE tip of Australia. At the second location, I sank an xAK. I have quite a few subs in those areas trying to catch some of the convoys. We'll see tomorrow how well I fare.

5 Fleet

My ambush of Ted's planes that have been bombing Adak was a smashing success! I had 99 A6M3as from KB2 LRCAP Adak with KB1's fighters protecting KB2, just in case. There were 36 Zeros over Adak when the first Allied strike of 3x B-24Ds, 14x A-29s and 13x SBDs arrived. Only one B-24 survived to tell the tale! There were no Japanese losses! Banzai!!!

The second raid of 4x B-24Ds, 8x B-26s and 6x B-26Bs fared better. Only 8 Zeros were initially in the air at the start of the battle (many left low on fuel and ammo from the previous battle), with another 20 trickling in over the course of the battle. Four B-26s and 3x B-26Bs were shot down for the loss of one Zuikaku plane and pilot.

Overall, 36 Allied planes (of a possible 48) were shot down for the loss of 4 Zeros and 2 pilots. A second Zuikaku pilot was lost when his plane crashed on the way home and a Shokaku and Soryu Zero were op losses, with a Soryu pilot WIA. Four pilots reached that important elite status. That was fun!

KB2 is heading to Truk. It'll arrive in 6-7 days where the A6M3as will upgrade to A6M5s and the fleet overall will repair and replenish. KB1 is still going to hang out and maybe ambush the remaining planes if Ted continues to bomb there.

4 Fleet



SE Fleet

Same old bombing of Milne Bay for no loss on either side.

He sent 17 B-17s to hit Shortland Island again. He lost 2x B-17s for a loss of 2 Tojos and their pilots. The airfield isn't looking very good.

SRA



Burma

None of my bombers hit Chittagong, but they did hit Cox's Bazaar. Ted still has ~40 fighters stationed at Chittagong and there isn't much airfield damage any more, but he's still not flying.

China



Other Stuff



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(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2101
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/6/2014 9:19:43 PM   
Lowpe


Posts: 22133
Joined: 2/25/2013
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

4
Well, I goofed here. The Oscar IIc has a normal range of 6 hexes, 8 hexes with drop tanks. My airfield is 7 hexes away. The question I have is: if the Oscar IIc has a strafe mission with drop tanks, will it carry 2x 250kg or 2x 30kg bombs (or no bombs)? If it is the smaller bombs, I will need to get an airfield closer to the target. At any rate, I didn’t execute my strafing attack of the Chinese air force. Too bad.


The answer is no bombs with drop tanks. You can check this by enabling drop tanks, and then clicking aircraft data link.

I have done this...

(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2102
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/6/2014 9:30:26 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		Ahh, thanks. Not what I wanted to hear, but that's what I figured. Since that was worst case & the most likely case, I had started a push to take a base within normal range of an Oscar Iic. I forgot to mention it above but I attacked a Chinese army in the clear hex just SW of Ichang. I had a hefty army sitting in the hex with a lot of artillery and had been bombing and shelling the Chinese for over a month. I easily pushed them out. Losses were 7807 (1782) Chinese to 2847 (5) Japanese. I'll chase them to the next base and then take it.

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Post #: 2103
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/6/2014 9:34:36 PM   
Lowpe


Posts: 22133
Joined: 2/25/2013
Status: offline 		I should qualify my answer in that it depends upon the airframe, where the bombs are and where the drop tanks are. So you might be able to use drop tanks and bombs with other planes.

I hope that is clear.

< Message edited by Lowpe -- 9/6/2014 10:35:05 PM >

(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2104
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/6/2014 9:47:38 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		Perfectly clear. Thanks, I appreciate it.

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(in reply to Lowpe)
Post #: 2105
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/6/2014 10:03:52 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		Hey, I just checked it with drop tanks and it says the default is 2x drop tanks and 2x 250kg bombs!

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Created by the amazing Dixie

(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2106
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/6/2014 10:12:39 PM   
Lowpe


Posts: 22133
Joined: 2/25/2013
Status: offline 		Are they both in the XT position?

(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2107
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/6/2014 10:40:42 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		Here's what I see when I set the sentai to use drop tanks:






Attachment (1)

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(in reply to Lowpe)
Post #: 2108
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/6/2014 11:02:03 PM   
Lowpe


Posts: 22133
Joined: 2/25/2013
Status: offline 		Here is mine, it is Beta version however.

I doubt two different devices can occupy the same xt slot.






Attachment (1)

(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2109
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/6/2014 11:17:01 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		Hmm, I wonder if it is a glitch.

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Post #: 2110
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/12/2014 12:37:02 AM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		6 Dec 42

Sub War

Fertile hunting grounds still exist to the west of Australia along the US SLOC running east-west to the south of Lord Howe Island. The I-169 and I-171 each found and sank an xAK. Sure, Ted has hundreds (or more) of them, but who knows what they’re carrying. I’ll take anything I can get.

5 Fleet

Well, Ted dumped a some replacement aircraft into those half dozen squadrons bombing Adak. I will probably hit them again with KB1 soon and then skedaddle with them. Ted has got to know who hit him the other day. If he has any subs in the area, I’m sure he’s sending them. It was really nice experience the pilots got from that attack. I wouldn’t mind doing it again with my other 3 carriers.

Anyway, here is what hit Adak today:

First Attack:
2x A-29
6x B-24D
3x SBD

Second Attack:
6x B-26
2x B-26B

There weren’t as many aircraft, but getting more KB fighter pilot experience is always a good thing.

4 Fleet

Nothing exciting. Actually, nothing at all except resupply and fort building.

SE Fleet

Ted hit Lae, Milne Bay and Shortland Island again today. Not much damage ensued and no Allied planes were lost in the first two raids.

The raid over Shortland Island was composed of an even dozen B-17s. Fourteen Tojos opposed them and successfully fended off the raid shooting down 4 of the evil bombers at a cost of 2 fighters and 1 pilot. No additional damage was done to the airfield. It’s still open (barely). It’s exciting to see that Tojos can shoot down enemy 4E bombers. The B-17E/F models are both out of production. Every plane I shoot down reduces forever the number of those models I have to experience. In the last 3 days I’ve shot down or destroyed on the ground 12 of the monsters. Yeah, I know, the B-24s are still arriving and the flood gates open with those guys in a couple months. Let me enjoy my little victories while I can.

I got lucky with a night raid over Pt. Moresby. Nineteen Helens hit the airfield causing a little damage as well as supply loss, and they also killed 2 bombers and damaged another 20 planes on the ground. Again, in the grand scheme of things, this is meaningless, but it will keep his focus on Gasmata and Rabaul instead of more important places. I’ll be happy if he decides to keep most of his 4E bombers in this theater for the next year or so. (Yeah, I know, wishful thinking.)

SRA

Nothing of note.

Burma

Well, Akyab’s airfield and port are both 100% damaged. I see movement up the road out of Akyab and I suspect it’s the whole garrison because there aren’t any engineers in combat mode since no repairs are taking place. (It may be because there isn’t any supply there either. Not sure which is the case.) They’re headed to reinforce the army up the road 1 hex that is stalemated with my main army. I suspect they’re pretty much out of supply and in pretty bad shape so I don’t expect them to help out much. At any rate, I expect to gain Akyab. If I do, I’ll fly in an infantry regiment and some support for starters. Then I’ll put some fighters there and use all the transports I have sitting around doing next to nothing to fly supply in. The 8 Division is enroute by sea and will arrive in ~10 days or so. They are prepping for Akyab and will become the garrison, for the time being. I’ll play it by ear.

My Helens hit Cox’s Bazaar (9 sorties) bringing the airfield damage to 74% and 34 sorties hit Chittagong damaging a handful of fighters on the ground. I see only 5% airfield damage there and ~40 enemy fighters at the airfield. None flew. I’ll keep pounding both Chittagong (main priority) and Cox’s Bazaar with my nightly Helen raids. When they fly, they do ok, at the very least, and occasionally do well.

I fly a chutai of Oscar Ic fighters daily over Akyab. Today, 8 of them flew and met 6 Hurricane IIcs. Each side lost 2 shot down with 1 Japanese OP loss and 2 Allied OP losses. I have 2 chutai in Burma flying the Ic. Today I upgraded one to the IIa and the other to the Tojo. I still have some in SE Fleet AO. They are next on the upgrade agenda. The only other place I have the Ic is in China (all but the strafe sentai) and a few in the SRA. Eventually, China will become the only active AO with the Ic and eventually (as production allows) the Ic will be relegated exclusively to training. I’m almost out of Nates, so it’ll be a necessity eventually, but not for a while.

Finally, Ted’s bombers didn’t hit my lone division today. Not sure why. Maybe he’s resting them to hit my main army in conjunction with a ground attack? Not sure. Anyway, I’m looking for more reinforcements to put into Burma for the future. It’ll be awhile though, because I need to make a reserve for 4 Fleet (division sized) and start building up my defenses in the SRA.

I have 6 Air Division headed to Burma as well. That’ll give me enough AS to have the ability to move sentai around and have excess at some air bases. Right now I don’t have any excess so all I can really do is to switch out units. No max effort ability but this will change that.

China

I hit the 2 remaining Chinese corps located 1 hex SW of Ichang with a full army. I pushed them out after trashing them. Losses were 462(0) Japanese to 7807(1782) Chinese. I’m now moving down the road toward the next base. It’ll be a river assault so I’m keeping fingers crossed that I don’t take too much damage then. The base is 2 hexes away so I hope Ted keeps the trashed army (2 HQ & 11 corps) on my side of the river so I can hit them again before the river crossing. I need to take the next base and the one after that in order to have an airfield within normal Oscar IIa range of his air force.

The 3 Tank Division is taking on more replacements. I’m going to send them north to take out the towns up there including the one with oil. (Can’t remember the name of it right now.) I’ve heard that the oil doesn’t flow, but I’ll take it on the chance that some of it flows. At the very worst, it keeps that oil out of his hands.

Other Stuff

I got confirmation of an xAK sinking off Pt. Moresby on 7/24/42.

Not much else of note to report. I will make another comment soon. Note that this is 6 Dec 42. The way I determine the date is the date showing when the replay is run. So, it actually ran on 6 Dec, but the numbers I retrieve are for 7 Dec, the 1 year anniversary. So, this really is the 1 year anniversary of the Empire of Imperial Japan being force into a war we didn’t want because of the Capitalist Allies. (Must be an International Date Line thing.)

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(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2111
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/12/2014 12:38:52 AM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		Ok, this is the 1 year anniversary of the war. So how do things look for me? Bleak? Nope, not yet, but there are definitely issues that I need to address or I’m going to be in a world of hurt. Some of the issues are beyond my ability to rectify. First I’ll discuss each AO then the important items. (This is probably going to be long.)

5 Fleet

In my high point I took Dutch Harbor. I never did take Unmak Island, which proved to be a thorn in my side. At this point I control Adak, the base to the east, and everything to the west. Adak is the only base with troops on it. I never had the air assets to protect anything. My total air assets right now are 2 Emily units. One is a 2 plane element providing naval search from Paramushiro-Jima to just beyond Adak and the other is a 9 plane chutai feebly attempting to keep Adak in supply. (Visions of Stalingrad keep coming to mind.) I currently have no troops in Attu. I’m sending an AS unit to build the airfield to level 2, then forts. I’ll move the 27 plane Tina daitai there to assist with supply movement. I’m going to try to send another xAKL with supply on a suicide mission, but so far they’ve all been suicide missions. Adak is barely holding its own, but the constant air attack is preventing any progress. I have 2x Naval Guard units there, plus a smattering of other stuff, but it’s not enough to defend against much. I have the I-124 sitting a few hexes out just waiting for an invasion so she can dump her mines just before the invasion arrives, hopefully. Still no sign of an invasion though.

Once KB1 leaves, the only naval assets I’ll have there are about a dozen subs. This AO isn’t very important, but I hope to have it distract Ted and keep his attention away from other more important areas.

4 Fleet

Absolutely no Allied interference is happening here. I am free to build up my defenses. Every base that is deemed to be remotely capable to the Allies has a Naval Guard on it. I also have a number of engineers building forts on those islands. Should Ted attempt to take any of them, they should beat up the ground troops a bit. I’m building level 6 forts everywhere and level 7 forts (for now) in the Marianas. The goal (supply permitting) is to get them to level 9. I’m also dumping troops there as I can. I know he’ll need at least 1 base there. He’s going to have to work to take it.

I currently have 12 Glen, 1 Fleet and 5 midget carryings subs here and the 24 Air Flotilla. I get ~5 more subs within a month and they will go mainly here. They are used for duty in the Central Pacific along the SLOCs I’ve found as well as picket duty for early warning against a raid from Hawaii. The 24 Air Flotilla is scouting and training. No combat at all.

SE Fleet

Like the 5 Fleet AO, I’m trying to keep his attention here as long as possible. This area is really meaningless to Ted, so I want him to expend forces here. I’ll keep my air force here as long as I can kill his fighters and bombers economically. So far, it’s working. I have the IJAAF 5 Air Division and IJNAF 23 Air Flotilla stationed here. The Zeros are almost all the A6M2, which I am not using. They are just CAP over Gasmata and Rabaul. I need better fighters for the IJNAF. I have 4 sentai of Helens and Sallys either training at Rabaul (1 sentai) or flying from Hollandia (1 sentai) or Rabaul (2 sentai). Why is one training, you ask? Lack of AS. I get the 25 Base Force in a week, and it’s coming down here. That should rectify that situation.

The 23 Air Flotilla has 2 daitai of Betties, 36 and 45 planes. They have scouting and naval attack duties. I can’t let them fly as far as Pt. Moresby or they will get decimated by Allied fighters stationed there. They are protecting my inner bases in the region.

One of the chinks in my armor is at Pt. Moresby. I can’t prevent Ted from supplying the base but Ted doesn’t have the fighter strength to oppose me over Gasmata. Stalemate right now.

Ted took Buna a while ago, but hasn’t moved any farther. I pulled out most of my support units from Lae and the surrounding bases I still control. He could easily take them, but apparently thinks he doesn’t have the strength to go after them. That’s fine with me.

He has been bombing Milne bay for months. The port there is trashed, but the troops aren’t in too bad shape. I have a portion of an AS bn and a SNLF co. That’s it. I think he’s reluctant to actually take it because it’s covered by my fighters and Betties. If he came by sea, it would probably be expensive in ships and troops lost.

SRA

I had hoped to control northern Australia until the end of this year. I control only Pt. Hedland (no troops there) and the dot hex to the south. He’s recaptured everything else, but not much seems to be happening there. I have substantial naval resources close to this area. Davao is home to the Combined Fleet and KB. The Combined Fleet has 8 BB, 8 CA, 3 CL and 16 DD. In addition, there are 6 fleet and 2 Glen subs assigned. The subs are currently attached to the 5 Fleet area, but they should return by the end of the month.

KB, when there, has:

Akagi
Kaga
Soryu
Ryujo
Shokaku
Zuikaku

Aircraft totals: 201 Zeros, 90 Vals, 135 Kates

MKB has:

Junyo
Hiyo
Zuiho
Shoho
Hosho
Taiyo
Unyo

Aircraft totals: 120 Zeros, 81 Vals, 60 Kates

Their escorts are 4 BB, 2 CA, 5 CL, 32 DD. The escorts are assigned by mission.

Second Fleet is located at Singapore and can support either the SRA or Burma. It is composed of 3 CA, 1 CL, 16 DD, 5 fleet subs, 2 Glen subs and 2 coastal subs. The subs are split between the IO and the SRA.

My second chink in my armor is here, at Merauke, on the southern coast of New Guinea. He has about a dozen (that’s a guess) S class and Dutch subs here. I have tried twice to invade without success. I’m not sure what to do here. I keep several subs in the area to keep an eye on things and have recon and naval search out of Hollandia and the islands in the southern SRA, but he has a couple dozen fighters stationed here, more than I can tackle without heavy losses. Something is going to explode out of here. I don’t know what or when, but it’ll happen.

Fortunately, Ted is keeping his 4E bombers in the SE Fleet area (and a few in Burma) but there have been no bombing attempts against any of my oil fields in the Southern SRA. I’m happily keeping those fields drained as best as possible. The more I can get to Japan the longer I’ll be able to sustain the war effort.

Burma

I’ve poured a lot of supply and units into this theater, and it’s paid off so far. I have Ted’s army bottled up along the coast between Akyab and Cox’s Bazaar. Unfortunately, most of my army is stuck too, but it is in supply. He still outnumbers me, but my troops are superior to his. I also have my Panzer Corps (1 & 2 Tank divisions – that’s a joke) here but they are bottled up with my main army. I have the equivalent of 2-3 divisions guarding the border with 8 Division enroute. I hate having such a large army there, but I know I’ll need it. I keep sending supply there. So far, it’s working. Last monsoon, my supply got all screwed up and I wasn’t able to do anything. I hope there’s enough supply in this AO when the monsoon hits that I’ll be able to sustain limited ops. I want to extract my army, even though that means it’ll free up Ted’s army. I need a defensive line with my Panzers in reserve to counterattack (actually cut off) any Allied invading army. If I can do this just before the monsoon hits, I’m confident I’ll be safe through the monsoon season.

The majority of the IJAAF 3 Air Division is located here. It’s been reinforced pretty significantly (for the Japanese at any rate). Off the top of my head, there are ~5-6 fighter sentai and ~5 bomber sentai. I can rotate the fighters and replenish them at will and keep the RAF off balance. Ted’s problem is that he has to station his fighters at Chittagong or closer to be able to contest me, and I can reach out to Chittagong in numbers to keep whittling him down. I also have significant IJAAF pilot reserves so I can sustain this for a long time. Most of my fighter sentai have very experienced pilots. I keep 2 elite pilots per fighter sentai and pull the rest out. I should have a very nice supply of elite fighter pilots when I need them in late war.

The IJNAF 22 Air Flotilla is located at Pt. Blair. Actually, 1 of 2 fighter daitai and 1 of 2 Betty daitai are there so I can swap them out as needed. So far it hasn’t been needed. The water to the north is extremely hazardous to Allied shipping, between these planes and a few subs. I have an infantry brigade defending Pt. Blair. At some point in the next few months, I’d like to add more defenses. As long as I can keep this base healthy and full of planes, I’ll be in good shape.

China

Ted hates this AO, even more than me. He’s lost a lot of units here. Granted, they come back at 1/3 strength, but they’re experience has got to really suck. I currently have ~30 units surrounded in the central part of the country. Twenty-four are in a base, and the remaining units are scattered around. I’ve got them ringed in and am slowly pushing them all to the base. I’ll then surround them and let them die on the vine. I won’t hurry it though. I don’t want them to return any time soon. As long as feasible, I’ll keep pounding here to kill infantry squads, which will slow down the inevitable build-up of Chinese forces. The longer I can hold off the Chinese counterattack, the better. I keep building up the forts everywhere. It really doesn’t take a lot of supply, about 50-100k from Japan a month.

Japan

Most of my port and airfield improvements are complete. I’m building forts everywhere now. My goal is level 6 forts everywhere. Yeah, that’s a lot of supply, but better safe than sorry and my supply situation is pretty good as discussed below.

Economics

Below is a chart of most of the stats I track. You can see how things have fluctuated over the past year. Note that I don’t have my fuel/supply/oil/resource stats for Japan handy. That’ll come later.

Supply: I finally exceeded my starting supply. I’m confident that, until Japan is blockaded, my supply situation will be good.

Fuel: My fuel dipped below 2.6kk briefly in Apr 42. Since then, it’s been rising albeit slowly. I’m looking for ways to cut use, but I don’t expect it to be significant. We’ll see how this goes.

Manpower: No issues.

Heavy Industry: As I take a few more Chinese bases, I may get a little bit more HI. My goal was 7500 so I’m good with whatever I capture undamaged. I probably won’t repair any more. The HI points have been a real success story of late. My goal was to increase the pool by 100k per month. When I set the goals up, the annual goals were 700k by the end of 42, 1.9kk in 43, 3.1kk in 44. I’m already at 885k with most of the month to go. I hope to hit 1kk by the end of Dec 42. I’m pleased with this.

LI: No issues.

Refineries: No issues.

Resources: I had no idea my resources would reach such highs. I’m still moving as much as possible to Japan. There will come a time when I’ll need it.

Oil: Frankly, I’m surprised the oil reserves are holding out as well as they are. I’m shipping it to Japan as quickly as possible. It’s immune to bombing, so it’s a nice way to store future fuel.

Naval Shipyards: I increased them to 1501 (can’t count – 1500 was the goal) first thing. That has worked well. Right now I have 5 CVs, 1 CVL and 3 DDs accelerated. I’d accelerate more DDs but none are within the window. I recently got the Musashi, so that freed up 233 points for the 5th CV. The Shinano is still halted. Not sure if I’ll ever restart her. I also shut off the transport subs

Merchant Shipyards: I accelerated 8 of the 11.6k fast TKs early on. Nothing is accelerated, nor will anything likely be accelerated in the future. I never increased merchant shipyards. I don’t see a reason to increase them. I shut off the xAKLs, tiny CVEs and small TKs. Life is good here.

Repair Shipyards: I increased a few repair yards to have a couple of large ones. Kobe, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong. I haven’t needed all of the capacity so far.

Armaments: I kept them at 620 and kept them all on until I reached 100k in the pool. Then I shut off 500. You can see where that happened. It’s been steady since then. I’ll turn some/all back on when the pool drops below 90k and leave them on until I break 100k again.

Vehicles: I increased them from 72 to 150 at the start of the war. My goal was 10k. You can see where it dropped. That was when the 1 & 2 Tank Divisions arrived. I let it build back up to 11k and the 3 Tank Division arrived dropping it to ~7k. I’m letting it build back up. When it reaches 10k again, I’ll upgrade the tank regiments, 1 at a time. Once all that can be upgraded are upgraded, I’ll build it back to 10k and then turn off ~100 factories.

Pilot Pools: I started my training program when the war started. IJN fighter pilot pools were nonexistent for the first several months. I finally got them built up and now they’re fine. I’ve actually upped the requirement for pulling pilots out of training because I started to run low on my general pilot pool. That seems to have stabilized now. My fighter pilots (both branches) are not pulled until they achieve 50+ experience and 73+ air rating. That’ll dip when my air losses increase, but right now they’re good.

TRACOM: I put pilots in here whenever possible and pull them out only when a new frontline fighter unit arrives that doesn’t have an elite pilot. My goal (achieved) is to have 2 elite pilots per fighter sentai/daitai and 1 elite pilot per fighter chutai. No other types of air units have elite pilots. Whenever they happen to get one, I pull it into TRACOM. KB/MKB’s fighter units have more than 2 elite pilots per unit. I usually keep it at ~4 per. Any higher than that, and I pull the extras out. Every now and then I get some pilots accelerated. I look at that as an HI savings. Each month a pilot is accelerated saves me 5 HI. It adds up.

MIA/WIA/KIA: To date, I’ve lost a total of 2255 pilots. Some or most of the WIA return but I have no idea how many so I’m assuming all are lost (conservative estimate). That comes out to just over 6 pilots lost a day or 180 per month on average. That’s just over half of the number of pilots that enter into training each month. That’s good. That means my pool is growing faster than it is dwindling.

Score: I don’t keep score, but for those of you who do, my ratio is 2.14:1.

Planes lost: We’re about dead even right now. I’ll break that down farther later.

Ships Sunk: You can see the totals below. Note that mine includes the Hiryu. More details later.


_____________________________


Created by the amazing Dixie

(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2112
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/12/2014 12:40:58 AM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		7 Dec 42

Sub War

Ted is setting up shop in the deep sea straits north and south of Formosa. I don’t have enough decent ASW ships there. I’m moving some from the Home Islands to Formosa. I really need more assets there. I’m also using several 24 plane daitai of float planes for ASW work there too, but their bombs are too small. I may reallocate 1 or 2 training Val units to ASW work. I have a couple of Val training units in Formosa. I’ll just need to swap out the pilots. I may use the Vals exclusively for ASW and the float planes exclusively for naval search.

Fortunately, Ted’s torpedoes still suck, so they were either duds or they missed altogether.

5 Fleet

Ted sent a total of 20 2/4E sorties against Adak. That’s down from the normal 50+ sorties a day. KB1 is sitting around to the west. I keep debating whether to send their fighters in or not. I may pull MKB up there to replace KB1 on invasion duty and have KB1 try to cut down the number of sorties some more before they hit the road.

What I’ll do is to wait for KB2’s A6M3as to upgrade to the A6M5, then upgrade MKB to the A6M3a if needed before they hit the road. Tomorrow, I’ll see if KB2’s Zeros are within range of Truk so some of them can fly there and I can start the process.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report today.

SE Fleet

There were the unopposed daily bombings of Milne Bay and Lae. I’m going to try and ambush the Lae bombers again tomorrow.

He hit Shortland Island with 14x B-17s and was opposed by 16 Tojos. For a loss of 2 Tojos shot down and another op loss (1 KIA & 1 WIA) I shot down 4x B-17s and another op loss. One of 2 remaining Betties was destroyed on the ground and a couple of points of airfield damage accumulated. The airfield is still open, barely.

My Helens hit Pt. Moresby causing a couple points of airfield damage.

SRA

Nothing to report today.

Burma

Quiet day today. I bombed Chittagong again. My Tojos flying that day caught a flight of 4 Hurricanes and shot 1 down for no loss.

I noticed there are 16 fighters at Katha (a level 1 airbase). I’m going to sweep it with a sentai of Tojos tomorrow.

Ted’s Akyab garrison is still attempting to crawl out of that hex up the road to the main army, which is opposed by my main army. His army has been bombarding my army daily for a month or more, but didn’t do it today. Hmm… I guess something’s up. We’ll see. Maybe the Akyab garrison is almost out of Akyab. Fortunately, my supply situation in Burma is excellent right now. My main army is in full supply. I hope he attacks me. He has only a slight numerical advantage and I am in the jungle. My troops are all experienced and have excellent leaders. He’ll trash his army.

I had an infantry regiment as garrison in Rangoon that is now free to leave. I’m sending it up the road toward Akyab. If the entire Allied garrison leaves, the regiment will enter Akyab. If something is left behind, I’ll probably wait until the 8 Division arrives (about a week or so) and send it in to take Akyab.

China

The 3 Tank Division (at Peiping) is almost completely built up to full strength. Once it’s at 100% strength, it’ll head north to clear out that part of the world. I have a few units up there, but they aren’t strong enough to clear it out. I did notice that I had sent a tank regiment to Hami. It arrived and I see there are aircraft up there and 1 ground unit. I suspect it’s a base force. I’m attacking with the tank regiment. Hopefully, Ted won’t notice it’s there and I’ll push the base force out of the hex and destroy the planes and pilots. Keeping fingers crossed.

Other Stuff

I took a look at my aircraft and engine production as well as pools and future requirements. I changed around some engine production and increased some to keep up with my future needs. It’ll eat into my HI pool and savings a bit, but it is necessary for the future.

Shipbuilding is looking good. The completion of the Musashi helped a lot and later this month I get 3 subs on the same day that total 76 naval shipbuilding points. I currently have 5 CVs and (off and on) a CVL accelerated. The completion of the subs will allow me to keep the remaining 6 CVs (except the Shinano) accelerated constantly.

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Post #: 2113
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/12/2014 1:13:05 PM   
PaxMondo


Posts: 9750
Joined: 6/6/2008
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Shipbuilding is looking good. The completion of the Musashi helped a lot and later this month I get 3 subs on the same day that total 76 naval shipbuilding points. I currently have 5 CVs and (off and on) a CVL accelerated. The completion of the subs will allow me to keep the remaining 6 CVs (except the Shinano) accelerated constantly.

This is Scen 1, so I'm pretty sure that means you are not going to complete the Shinano. Be nice having all of those CV's accelerating constantly now.

I always debate with myself at the start of every game: build or not build the Musashi. I usually do just because she is already so far completed (meaning I get another BB at a steep discount) and even though she is a total fuel hog, teamed with the Yamato, they become an awesome bombardment team .... but at 6300 tons of fuel per fillup and those only go 8000 miles, so maybe 2 missions, I really gotta pick and choose when I use them. Still .... they are awesome.

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(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2114
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/12/2014 1:41:35 PM   
obvert


Posts: 14050
Joined: 1/17/2011
From: PDX (and now) London, UK
Status: offline 		Mike!!!

Good to see you back! I was away for a few weeks and suddenly there are a few new pages to your AAR. Awesome!



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Post #: 2115
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/12/2014 6:36:35 PM   
Lokasenna


Posts: 9297
Joined: 3/3/2012
From: Iowan in MD/DC
Status: offline 		I think your KB needs more fighters . And how is your progress on the D4Y1?

I'm waiting for that chart you promised later on in your roundup post.

Agree with Pax RE: the Yamatos. It really sucks to have Musashi using up 233 NavSY points all the way until December, but you'll never get another BB and you may need her, even as a fleet in being. Lately I've been feeling the same way about Ryuho, and I felt the same about Junyo/Hiyo - I keep having to turn off subs and DDs when I need them most, but I can't justify delaying the CVs. I finally bit the bullet and increased my NavSY recently so that I can get subs out during 1943 when they may still make a difference, and really need to get on the ball with the ASW escorts. Never enough of those.

(in reply to obvert)
Post #: 2116
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/13/2014 9:56:04 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		Tony, yeah I agree with you and have the same dilemma with Musashi. I've always built her and I suspect I always will. I won't use her much, but when I do, it'll hurt Ted.

Obvert! Good to see you too. When I came back from my deployment, I really needed to learn to be a civilian again and I just stayed away from the game and the forum. Now that I'm back, I realize how much I miss this game, but in retrospect, I needed to focus on other things for a bit. It really is good to be back. I'm adjusting well to being a civilian. The Guard was a great gig (for the most part), but it was definitely time for me to move on.

Lokasenna, I've never considered not building The Junyo/Hiyo or Ryuho. The Junyo & Hiyo carry enough planes to actually pack a punch, but they are slow. I consider them the flagships of MKB. I don't consider using them with my fast CVs. At least, not unless the mission is close and I can get them there on time.

Ok, I've got 2 more turns to add here, but some other stuff first. I took a hard look at my aircraft/engine plans and finalized everything, down to my expected engine production needs. Here's the low down by engine:

Hitachi (early): 332 in pool. No production. I may use them to produce the Ki-55 Ida as a short range Kamikaze in mid-45, depending on the situation, of course. The only reason is because I have those engines sitting there. That would be 332 half price Kamikazes. I'll make that decision in about 2 years.

Hitachi Amakaze: 0 in pool. No production. No need for this.

Kawasaki (early): 0 in pool. No Production. No need for this.

Mitsubishi Ha-31: 0 in pool. 65 production. Using for Ki-46-II (will upgrade to the -III in Jan 43) and Ki-57-II, my IJA transport. At the end of the month, it'll just be the Topsy, so this engine will be turned off & on as needed. I'm only building 12 Topsys a month.

Mitsubishi Ha-32: 255 in pool. 240 production. Production goal is 330. Will use them for Jill (30), Norm (30), Betty (60-we're talking engines, not planes, you do the math), Emily (60), Francis (60), Sally (80).

Mitsubishi Ha-33: 710 in pool. 270 production (currently off). Production goal is 330. Used for Judy (40), Nell (60), Mavis Transport (16), Tabby/Tina (30), Dinah III Rcn (40), Dinah III NF (60), Tony (Ki-100) (90).

Nakajima Ha-34: 504 in pool. 420 production. 180 Tojo, 240 Helen.

Gotta run. More in a bit...

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Post #: 2117
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/13/2014 10:00:23 PM   
Lokasenna


Posts: 9297
Joined: 3/3/2012
From: Iowan in MD/DC
Status: offline 		Didn't mean to imply that I never build them, just that when I'm looking for shipyard points and trying to build all my ships for the least cost, I always run up against those and think "Just finish already! I need your points!"

(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2118
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/13/2014 10:56:29 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		That's pretty funny Lokasenna. I do the same thing. Often, I'm more excited about the freed up points than the ship that I just got.

Just got another turn. Be back later to continue my rambling.

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Post #: 2119
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/14/2014 12:58:15 AM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		Ok, where was I?

Nakajima Ha-35: 535 in pool. 450 production (56 of them still repairing). Ultimate goal is 30 Nick FB (maybe) and the rest split somehow between the Zero and Oscar.

Nakajima Ha-5: 1 in pool (for the museum after we win the war). No production. No need for this.

Nakajima Hikari: 0 in pool. No production. No need for this.

Nakajima Kotobuki: 254 in pool. No production. No need for this.

Aichi Ha-60: 627 in pool. 120 production (off). If you recall, I realized earlier that I overproduced this engine. I'll use up these engines on Judys. They'll be Kamikazes later in the war. Their range isn't all that great, but they do carry a nice bomb.

Kawasaki Ha-60: 0 in pool. 90 Production but currently off. I've decided to not build any Ki-61 models. About 2/3 of the engines were repaired before I decided this. What a waste of HI and supplies. I'll eventually convert these engine factories to something else when needed.

Nakajima Ha-44: 0 in pool. No production. No need for this.

Nakajima Ha-45: 0 in pool. 120 production (goal is 270 production). Will use them for Grace (60), Myrt NF (30), Frank (90), George (90).

Kayaba Argus: 0 in pool. 5 production (off and never used). Will convert this factory to something else eventually. No need for this.

Mitsubishi Ha-42: 0 in pool. 2 production (off and never used). Will convert this factory to something else eventually. No need for this.

Mitsubishi Ha-42: 0 in pool. 40 production (goal is 330 if we ever get there. Will use for George (180) & Sam (150).

Toko Rocket: 0 in pool. No production. No need for this.

NE Turbojet: 0 in pool. 30 production (goal is 150). Will use for Karyu.

So, there you have it. There's my grand scheme, at least until it changes.

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Post #: 2120
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/14/2014 1:15:15 AM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		8 Dec 42

Sub War



5 Fleet

Eleven Allied sorties against Adak for no damage.

KB1 still hangs around to the west.

4 Fleet



SE Fleet

Not much happened today. A couple dozen 2E sorties against Milne Bay caused minor troop damage.

SRA



Burma

Ted didn't fly. I hit Cox's Bazaar causing some airfield damage. I also hit Kalemyo, where a squadron of Allied fighters are stationed, but caused no damage.

Ted completed moving all but 1 unit of the Akyab garrison to combine with his main army. He bombarded a couple of days later, so I saw what was there. It's showing below. To the NE, Ted has 5 rather weak Indian Divisions against 1 Japanese division. I will bomb Akyabs troops tomorrow and will find that the garrison is down to the 46 Indian Brigade. I'm confident the 8 Division, when it arrives, will push them out. I also have troops to the E and SE of Akyab that you can't see in the screen shot.

China

My tank regiment attacked Ted's Chinese base force at Hami, in the northern part of China. They battered them, pushing them out and causing 562(37) Chinese casualties to no Japanese losses. I'll chase them and attack them again. Best of all, I caught 3 Chinese air units on the ground, destroying them. About 3 dozen planes were caught, SBIII, I-16III and I-15III. Wow, amazing planes. That's 3 dozen pilots that are gone, which is the best part.

Other Stuff

The A6M5b advanced to 12/43!




Attachment (1)

< Message edited by Mike Solli -- 9/14/2014 2:18:57 AM >

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Post #: 2121
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/14/2014 1:35:55 AM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		9 Dec 42

Sub War



5 Fleet

Eighteen Allied sorties against Adak for no damage. I was going to send MKB up here to replace KB1 but opted to send it to Truk to reinforce KB2 (still about 4 days north of Truk). Ted is showing signs of life down in SE Fleet area. There's a small TF with some small transports tooling around to the east of Dutch Harbor. If it sails west, I'll nail it with KB1. If not, I'll nail the Allied bombers and then send KB1 home.

4 Fleet



SE Fleet

A cruiser TF showed up at Milne Bay. Not sure what they were doing there, but they didn't bombard. Maybe Ted thought I was still sending resupply cargos there. I haven't done that in quite a while. Now, Milne Bay is being resupplied exclusively by air transports flying out of Rabaul. There are only a few remnants of units I pulled out of there a month or more ago. Anyway, a TF containing CA Portland, CA Vincennes, CA Indianapolis, CL Helena, DD Hull and DD MacDonough pulled into the hex. I've had a sub in the straight just to the south of there and she never saw them. Anyway, the 45 plane Betty daitai that I pulled out of Shortlands Island (due to B-17 bombing), was sitting in Rabaul and attacked! Sixteen Betties flew and lost 4 planes to AA for no hits. Damn IJNAF prima donnas! Anyway, another 16 flew in the afternoon and put 2 torpedoes into Vincennes! Banzai! There was no report of her sinking though. She had to be badly damaged, so I moved a few more subs between Milne Bay and Pt. Moresby to catch her. Overall, I lost 6 Betties and 6 pilots for a badly damaged CA. I'll take it!

Oh yeah, I had a major victory with a midget sub in Milne Bay as well. The Ha-34 had been sitting there for a while when the 2 DDs found her and attacked. She survived! She still has her torpedoes, so she's staying.

I had put a sentai of Oscars over Buna and took out a P-40K. I'll take every kill I can get.

SRA



Burma

No Allied planes flew, but my Helens hit Chittagong again destroying a Hurricane and damaging several others as well as the airfield.

China



Other Stuff

I found 2 MIA pilots!

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Post #: 2122
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/15/2014 10:45:14 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		10 Dec 42

Sub War

On occasion, Ted gets the upper hand under the sea. (It’s only going to become more frequent soon.) The RO-61, patrolling off Cairns, was caught by DE Peary and hit twice. These little RO boats are pretty tough. Her damage is 29-68(37)-18(11)-0. She’ll head back to Rabaul for repairs.

5 Fleet

31 sorties against Adak.

4 Fleet



SE Fleet

23 Helen sorties against Pt. Moresby for no effect.

SRA



Burma

My bombers hit Chittagong again causing a little bit of airfield damage and destroying a Hurricane while damaging a dozen or more on the ground. No Allied opposition in the skies.

SW of Pt. Blair is Little Andaman Island. I built the airfield up to level 2 and have decided to divert the 6 Air Division HQ there. I am going to post a Betty daitai there, along with some Zeros. The Betties will provide more defense against any fleets that happen to wander in range. All I need to do now is find some infantry to defend the place. Maybe one of those garrison units… I’ll have to see what’s available.

I bombed the 1 Allied ground unit in Akyab. It turns out to be the 46 Indian Brigade. I have no doubt that the 8 Division (when it arrives) can take it.

China

Nothing exciting. Just moving armies around to further constrict the Chinese.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: SC Ch-38 – ASW

The CA Vincennes was reported to have sunk. That was false. The way to tell is to track the ships sunk & the number of points. Even though the Vincennes was reported to have sunk, the total number of ships sunk did not increase. It only increases when the sinking actually happens.

The Ki-100 R&D accelerated to Aug 45.

Four more Kageros entered refit.

< Message edited by Mike Solli -- 9/15/2014 11:45:42 PM >

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Post #: 2123
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/15/2014 10:47:01 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		11 Dec 42

Sub War

The midget sub Ha-34 took a shot at the CA Indianapolis off Milne Bay. Unfortunately, she missed. She’ll head back to Gasmata to rearm and refuel. There are a couple more midget subs patrolling off Gasmata. One of them will head to Milne Bay to replace the Ha-34.

5 Fleet

32 Allied sorties hit Adak’s port again. Port damage is 73%. I’ve decided to ambush them with KB1’s fighters tomorrow.

4 Fleet



SE Fleet

My night attack on Pt. Moresby hit pay dirt today. The bombers didn’t do a lot of airfield damage but they did destroy a P-40K and a B-17F while damaging 8 more planes.

More excitement off Milne Bay today. That Allied cruiser TF (3 CA, 1 CL, 3 DD identified) was still hanging around doing nothing but being targets. There were a total of 73 Betty sorties from three different attacks. Seventy-three torpedoes and all they managed to put a torpedo into the Indianapolis and Portland. Sheesh. Fortunately, only 2 bombers (and 1 op loss) were lost. Portland was reported sunk (false). So far, they’ve managed to hit all 3 CAs and nothing else (Vincennes was hit by 2 torps a couple days ago). Ted made a comment about how lousy his escorts were doing. So far, I haven’t see any. I hope it stays that way.

Ted sent a pretty large bombing force against Rabaul. There were 21x B-17E and 15 B-17F escorted by 16 P-38G. Forty A6M2 were flying CAP. They managed to shoot down 8 P-38s for no loss but the bombers got through. They got 10 airfield, 2 supply and 41 runway hits and destroyed 11 planes on the ground. Remaining damage after the turn was over was 21% runway and 17% service. I have a lot of engineers there. I pulled a Tojo sentai from Gasmata to reinforce the CAP.

I’d noticed a PG sitting at Buna for a couple of days. I send 4x DDs from Truk to investigate and they found an xAKL, which they promptly sunk. Supply mission, no doubt. Apparently, the division at Buna isn’t getting enough supply overland. That’s probably the reason why it isn’t moving to attack Lae.

SRA



Burma

My nightly bombing of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazaar did little damage. My daily Tojo sweep of Chittagong found 2x Hurricanes and a P-40K and shot down 1 of each.

Damage:
Chittagong: None
Cox’s Bazaar: 61% Airbase
Akyab: 97% Airbase, 98% Port

China

Just south of Hami, the 12 tank regiment caught up with the Chinese base force it had ousted from Hami and hit it again. This time losses were 489(33) Chinese to, again, no Japanese losses. They will continue to chase and attack the base force until it is no more.

Just to the NE of Changteh, my army caught up with the remnants of the Chinese army it had mangled earlier and hit them again. Losses were 240(10) Japanese to 14462(1023) Chinese, destroying 1 Chinese Corps. The remaining 10 Corps and 2 HQ retreated across the river into Changteh. My army will make a river crossing to attack them again. It appears that there are about 32k fresh troops that were sitting in Changteh, so the next attack may have a little resistance.

Other Stuff

Nothing


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(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2124
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/15/2014 10:49:08 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		12 Dec 42

Sub War

It appears that Ted is keeping Merauke supplied by xAKL. I see them moving around quite often, usually in single or small convoys. Today, the I-157 caught one and sank her. Hopefully, she was full.

5 Fleet

KB1 is composed of Akagi (36 A6M3a), Kaga (36 A6M3a) and Ryujo (30 A6M3a). I moved KB1 to 4 hexes west of Adak and set all 3 fighter daitai to LRCAP of Adak. 59 were present when the daily Adak raids arrived.

The first was composed of 2x A-29, 9x B-24D and 12x SBD. Both A-29s, 4x B-24s and 9x SBDs (the other 3 fled) were shot down. The second had 7x B-25C and 2x B-26B, and all were shot down. Losses were a bit higher than the first time with Kaga losing 3 pilots and 4 planes, Akagi losing 2 pilots and 12 planes (lots of write-offs) and Ryujo losing just 1 plane. I think the difference Ryujo and Akagi/Kaga was that Akagi/Kaga’s pilots were rather fatigued. Lesson learned. I’m moving KB1 back to the west. We’ll see what happens over the next couple of days. One new elite pilot came out of this battle.

Adak’s port damage dropped a couple % to 71%. I’m still using 9x Emilies to keep Adak supplied. I’ve sent an Ansyu-C PB on a fast transport mission with 1000 supply to try and resupply Adak. She should arrive in a couple days. Keeping fingers crossed that she’ll make it. I’ve got high hopes that she will with the decimation of the Allied aircraft once again. Unfortunately, Ted seems to have unlimited aircraft replacements. Hopefully, his pilot experience situation is poor.

4 Fleet



SE Fleet



SRA



Burma

My night bombing raids did little. In the air over Chittagong, I lost 3 Tojos to 4 Allied fighters.

Ted hit Mandalay today with 120 2/4E bombers. I’d been enjoying my apparent air superiority in this region and neglected to keep CAP over Mandalay, which housed 2 Tojo sentai. I got real lucky here, because my total CAP was 3 Tojos. They managed to shoot down 4x Blenheims for no loss. The Allied bombers suffered from poor targeting, because they destroyed 1 Tojo on the ground and the airbase damage is only 6% service and 14% runway. I changed things around a bit. Now, 1 Tojo sentai will sweep Chittagong and the other will provide CAP to the airbase. In addition, I moved an Oscar sentai here and set them to CAP. I hope he comes again. This time he’ll meet some 60-70 fighters with experienced pilots. That should put a dent in those bombers.

Damage:
Chittagong: None
Cox’s Bazaar: 52% Airbase
Akyab: 84% Airbase, 98% Port

China



Other Stuff

I’m writing this at lunch so I can’t remember who made a comment that KB should have more fighters. Sorry about that. Anyway, here’s my current composition:

Ship - # Zeros - # Vals - # Kates

KB1
Akagi – 36 – 18 – 27
Kaga – 36 – 18 – 18
Ryujo – 30 – 0 – 18

KB2
Soryu – 27 – 18 – 18
Shokaku – 36 – 18 – 27
Zuikaku – 36 – 18 – 27

MKB1
Zuiho – 21 – 0 – 9
Shoho – 21 – 0 – 9
Ryuho – 12 – 0 – 18
Hosho – 15 – 0 – 6

MKB2
Junyo – 27 – 18 – 9
Hiyo – 27 – 18 – 9
Taiyo – 0 – 27 – 0
Unyo – 0 – 27 – 0

Roll Up

KB1 – 102 – 36 – 63
KB2 – 99 – 54 – 72
MKB1 – 69 – 0 – 42
MKB2 – 54 – 90 – 18

Total – 324 – 180 – 195

That’s 46% fighters. What do you recommend? I don’t intend on using any of these alone in serious combat. I broke them up this way based on ship speed and with an attempt to keep them ~200 aircraft per TF. As much as possible, I’ll keep them grouped when possible. Also, I’d really like to keep MKB away from Allied carriers if possible. If I have a chance to ambush Allied carriers, then I’ll use everything I can get my hands on. I’d gladly sacrifice a few CVEs for Allied CVs.

The only adjustment I can see is to reduce the Kates on Akagi, Shokaku and Zuikaku by 12 each and increase their fighters to 48 each. That would change the total to:

Total – 360 – 180 – 159

That would increase the fighters to 52%. The only issue I have with that is if you reduce the number of Kates too much, what’s the point? There’s not enough offensive power. I’m curious what you guys do.

Another option is to reduce the number of Vals.


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Post #: 2125
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/16/2014 8:59:03 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		13 Dec 42

Sub War

The Shark has been hanging around Davao, my SRA hub second only to Singapore, as well as my main base for KB (currently absent) and the Combined fleet. She caught a Kiso PB looking the other way and put a torpedo into her sinking her.

The I-19 was returning to Kwajalein from the US west coast for replenishment when she contacted a convoy ~20 hexes NE of Hawaii headed SW. I think I found another SLOC. She torpedoed and sank an xAK. I sent a Glen carrying sub to patrol along the grid there that travels NE-SW. Hopefully, I can start to make an impact on the convoys to Hawaii, which has been hit or miss so far.

If that is the case, I’ll have found the routes out of San Francisco and to eastern Australia, as well as Hawaii now. My next goal is to find the routes in the IO, which could possibly make an impact on Ted’s oil/fuel supplies. I need to allocate some subs for that purpose. I suspect I’ll need half a dozen or so, but I don’t currently have any available. All are allocated.

5 Fleet

There were no attacks on Adak today! The port damage there dropped from 71% to 52%! The Ansyu-C PB fast transport will reach Adak in a couple days. I’m going to see how long it takes to drop off the supply and then set up about 6-8 Ansyu-Cs in 1 ship fast transport convoys spread out by that number of days to get some supply built up there.

I want to get the forts built up to level 6 (at least). They are currently at ~5.50.

KB1 will hang around to the west for a few more days, just to see if Ted tries anything. If he resumes bombing, I’ll hit them one more time then depart. I suspect Ted knows the vicinity of KB1, so I don’t want to stay there very long. If I were him, I’d be sending a bunch of subs to flood the area. At any rate, KB1 will depart in a few days for Truk.

4 Fleet.



SE Fleet

I think Ted is up to something down here. He keeps focusing on Milne Bay, which is fine with me. But, he’s been using his 2/4E bombers to attack my air bases. I also keep getting intel of “heavy radio traffic” at many of the major ports in the area.

I have 5 major air bases in the region: Truk, Rabaul, Gasmata, Hollandia and Shortland Is. Truk has quite a few planes, but it’s primarily for rest, refit and training. Rabaul is the major forward air base. I usually have ~3 fighter units and 2 Helen sentai, as well as transport and recon elements. Gasmata has Fighters and recon. Shortland has 1 Tojo sentai and (sometimes) a Betty daitai (but not now due to recent bombing). Finally, Hollandia has some fighters, recon and a Helen sentai for bombing Merauke.

I still have a shortage of AS down here, but I just received the 25 Special Base Force (forgot to mention it yesterday), that is assigned to SE Fleet HQ. It’s coming down here, but I still haven’t figured out where to station it. I’ll get it on transports tomorrow and figure it out at that time.

The air war is definitely heating up here, so I’d like to find a fighter unit (IJAAF) to send here. The problem is that my air replacement pool probably can’t support another frontline fighter sentai. Gotta look at that more closely and crunch some numbers.

Anyway, there was action at Pt. Moresby, Lae, Shortland Island and Rabaul. The first action was by my Helens in their nightly raid of Pt. Moresby’s airfield. It was a poor showing with only 5 sorties leaving no lasting damage and damaging a plane.

During the day, Ted hit the other 3 airfields. Lae was hit by a squadron of P-40Ks, and I had some CAP leak there, only 5 Oscar Ic. Two of my planes were shot down for no Allied loss, but no pilots were lost.

Next, 11x B-25Cs went after Shortland Island and were met by my 13 Tojos. My Tojos did a great job shooting down 7 of the B-25s for no loss and no damage to the airfield. Banzai!

Finally, the big raid happened over Rabaul. A total of 52x 4E and 15x 2E bombers hit, opposed by 36x A6M2s and 23 Tojos. Plane losses were light, 1 of each of my fighters and 1x B-25 and 1x B-24D. I lost 7 planes on the ground and had some additional damage to my airfield (34% service, 9% runway). If I can hold him off for a day or 2, I can repair that damage, because I have quite a few engineers there. Ted did take 4-5 4E bomber op losses though. I’m not sure how many B-24 replacement aircraft he has, but he has to be running low on B-17s. If he continues to take 2-3 4E bomber losses a day, he won’t be able to sustain his bomber strength (I think).

I have KB2 and most of MKB arriving at Truk tomorrow. That’s the Soryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Junyo, Hiyo, Ryuho, Shoho, Zuiho and Hosho, a total of 222 Zeros, 90 Vals and 132 Kates. I’ve upgraded the Shokaku and Zuikaku’s fighters with the A6M5 and the rest will have the A6M3a, if they don’t already. I also have the fast replenishment fleet (77k capacity) there filling up. I’ve been sending all of the fuel from Balikpapan to Truk and have a reserve of ~150k tons. SE Fleet has 3 CA, 5 CL and 18 Fubukis. I’m toying with the idea of sending 4 BBs, to include Yamato and Musashi along with 4 CA, the Kitakami and Oi, and a dozen DDs. That’ll cost a lot of fuel, but I want them in place if they can catch an invasion fleet.

I have quite a bit of land based air too. On the IJNAF side, there’s 90 Zeros, 81 Betties and recon. On the IJAAF side, there’s ~160 Helens/Sallies, ~200 Oscars/Tojos and recon, plus ~80 light bombers trained for ASW.

I’m confident I can hurt any invasion force regardless of what escorts it. I guess worst case, all 6 US CVs come along for the party. That’s what, 216 Wildcats. If he pulls out some SBDs and replaces them with Marine Wildcats, the number may rise to 324. If it’s in my land based air umbrella, I can cause some harm. Ted’s been trying to shut down my air umbrella, but has been unsuccessful so far.

I can bring over 500 fighters to bear here vs his 324, plus land based air, and all of mine are very highly trained. Ted’s carrier fighters have been training for a year, but they haven’t seen any combat.

SRA

Nothing much going on here. I see no enemy activity, not even subs, other than the occasional sub off Davao. I’m surprised that Ted isn’t placing subs along the obvious oil transport routes. Not that I’m complaining…

Burma

More air war today. I tried something new and it was a smashing success! I had noticed that Kalemyo had a squadron of fighters stationed there (Hurricane IIc) and that the airfield was level 1. There are a couple of units there, so I suspect he’s building up the airfield so he can us it offensively as a forward fighter field. I assigned a Helen sentai to perform night bombing and also assigned an Oscar IIa sentai to strafe and a Tojo sentai to sweep. The Oscar pilots hadn’t trained in strafe, so the average was ~40 or so. The Helen raid was dismal, with only 8 Helen sorties and no damage. In the morning, the Oscars went in and made a mess of things there. They destroyed 3 Hurricanes on the ground and damaged another 7 for the loss of 1 plane and pilot. The airfield had 7% airfield damage, which means the engineers aren’t building the airfield, they’re repairing damage. The Tojos found no enemy planes flying. Intel showed only 2 fighters at the airfield. I’m doing it again tomorrow. My goal is to batter the airfield to the point where Ted doesn’t think he can get the airfield to level 2.

Chittagong: 33 Helen sorties (1 shot down) caused minor damage to the airfield and destroyed a couple fighters on the ground. Airfield currently has no damage. Air to air cost 1 Tojo and 1 P-40K shot down. Japanese pilot WIA.

Cox’s Bazaar: 15 Helen sorties caused minor airfield damage. Airfield at 63%.

Akyab: Airfield at 99%, Port at 100%.

Mandalay: Ted sent a nice bomber force of 29x 4E and 42x 2E bombers to take out the airfield. Twelve Oscars and 43 Tojos met them. They took out 15x Wellington Ics and 2x B-25Cs. The 4E bombers took a tremendous amount of damage but kept on flying. They’re going to be a problem. Fortunately, damage to the airfield was light. Unrepaired damage was 9 service and 14 runway. I’m expecting a return tomorrow. It was nice seeing all those Wellingtons go down. Their numbers should dwindle. He’ll get only ~20 more replacements. But, there are other newer models to take their place.

Four artillery regiments just arrived by ship and will begin unloading at Rangoon tomorrow. The 8 Division is 2 days out. They will move to take Akyab from the 46 Indian Bde when completely unloaded.

China

Up north, the 12 tank regiment hit the Chinese base force it’s been chasing once again. This time, Chinese casualties were 406(39). It’s still not dead, but it’s almost there.

I made a mistake at Changteh. My army was moving across the river and I left it in move mode because I didn’t expect it to complete the move this turn. It did. Oops. Losses were worse than I had hoped but they were mainly disablements. Japanese losses were 9145(255) vs. 3102(139) Chinese, but actual Japanese losses weren’t that bad. Only one division was trashed and one had ~50% disablements. The others aren’t that bad, but they need time to repair and for supply to catch up. Fortunately, none of the artillery was damaged. I’ll continue to bombard by artillery and air while the ground troops rest a bit. I did get 1:1 odds and reduced the fort to level 2.

3 Tank Division has combined and is at 86%. I have to force myself to let them gain more replacements before sending them north.

Other Stuff

Not much. I spent a lot of time babbling above. I am attempting to pre-position naval assets to be able to hit an invasion before it reaches its target. I know Ted is on the verge of going on the offensive somewhere and, based on the current attacks, expect it to be in the SE Fleet area. The other option is 5 Fleet Area, but I believe that is minimized due to his air assets being decimated twice. I’m confident he can replace the losses, but it will pull from his pilot reserves, and I suspect he doesn’t want to do that.

Air R&D Update

I currently have 6 different airframes undergoing R&D:

Oscar: My current model is the Ki-43-IIa. The IIb becomes operational on 1 Jan 43. I will upgrade my 4 factories producing 128 (64, 32, 32). I have 3x30 R&D factories working on the IIIa (10/44) increasing 6% per day. I have a 4th at 22(8) that is working on the IIb. Once it reaches 30 repaired, it’ll upgrade to the IIIa, increasing R&D to 8% per day.

Tojo: My current model is the Ki-44-IIa. I have 3x30 R&D factories working on the IIc gaining 6% per day. I have 4x30 operational factories.

Tony: I have no operational models and won’t until the Ki-100-II becomes operational. I have 5x30 R&D factories for the Ki-100-II (8/45), increasing 10% per day and one at 29(1) working on the Ki-61-Ib. When it repairs to 30, it’ll upgrade to the Ki-100-II.

Zero: My current model is the A6M5. I have 4x30 operational factories. I have 6x30 R&D factories increasing R&D 12% per day on the A6M5b (12/43).

George: I have no operational factories. I have 1x30 R&D factory increasing 1% per day the N1K1-J (9/43) and 5 additional factories (24, 16, 16, 14, 12) that are repairing to 30.

Judy: I have no operational factories. I have 2x30 R&D factories increasing 4% per day the D4Y1 and 1factory (12) repairing to 30.

All of my other R&D factories are not yet at 30.

Here are the other R&D airframes and the number of factories allocated:

Frank (6)
Ki-201 (6)
Randy (3)
Peggy (1)
Dinah NF (1)
A7M3-J (5)
Norm (2)
Betty (2)
Jill (3)
Frances (1)
Myrt NF (3)
Grace (4)


< Message edited by Mike Solli -- 9/16/2014 9:59:44 PM >

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Post #: 2126
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/17/2014 3:19:57 AM   
Jace11

 

Posts: 87
Joined: 8/23/2012
Status: offline 		Think you're probably right, those raids on around Rabaul look a bit bold. It could be simply an attrition war he's after, but he's lost a number of bombers (probably a lot of ops losses) and P-38s and continues despite knowing you have plenty of fighters in the area. Plus there is the sig intel, something must be afoot...

Where are his bombers flying from? PM? Merauke? Australian Coast? or a combination? Is it possible to tell where his recon planes are focusing?



(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2127
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/17/2014 9:29:41 AM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		Hi Jace. I haven't focused on recon. I'll try to pay attention to that. I know some of his B-17s are stationed at Pt. Moresby. I've destroyed a few from bombing. The rest have to be coming from the Australian coast, probably up north around Townsville. He's got a couple of airfields up to level 7 up there. I don't think it's Merauke. I've only seen fighters and the occasional SBDs. I don't think he can keep it supplied well enough.

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Post #: 2128
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/18/2014 9:02:02 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		14 Dec 42

Sub War

No contact at all by either side. I can see several convoys around the globe and am attempting to intercept.

5 Fleet

No Allied bombing of Adak today! Port damage decreased from 52% to 44%. My first Ansyu-C fast transport convoy arrives tomorrow. I’m setting up a hub from Etorofu (my northern sub base) to use to supply Adak. I have 3 more Ansyu-C PBs headed there, as well as a pile of supply. I really want to get some supply to Adak. The ground forces are: 2x Naval Guard Units, 2x engineer units, 1x Base Force. The engineers have full supply and 1 NG has some supply, but the other 2 units have no supply and are suffering. Assuming the 1000 supply gets through, they should all be full or pretty close. The goal is at least 10k supply, preferably 20k supply there.

Once I’m confident the PB fast transport tactic works, I’ll pull that Emily chutai out of Paramushiro Jima and use it for naval search, which I desperately need.

KB1 is still there. I’m going to LRCAP the PB (just a few planes), to help her survival, just in case. KB1 will probably head out to Truk in a few days. If Ted does invade in SE Fleet area, I want as many carriers there as possible. I want to overwhelm him. If I can do that from the (relative) safety of being under cover of my LBA, so much the better.

4 Fleet

Tinian’s forts reached level 6 today. That’s 2 of the 4 islands there at 6+. Saipan is working toward level 7. The other 2 are level 5+. I have a LOT of engineers there. That’s a really important place that can’t fall into enemy hands.

SE Fleet

Bad news. The 25 Special Base Force only has 12 AS. That sucks. I was hoping for more. Right now, both Rabaul and Truk have more planes than AS. I need to spend some time next turn to rearrange my air units. Ted is making an effort to close down Rabaul. He’s taking 4E losses, but it’s working.

Rabaul: 39x 4E bombers hit Rabaul again. I opposed them with 13x A6M2 and 33 Tojos. Six of the big bombers went down to 2 Zero op losses. They destroyed 12 planes on the ground (easily replaced), but, unfortunately, increased Rabaul’s airfield damage from 9% runway, 34% service to 30% runway, 52% service. I moved a sentai of Tonys (from Gasmata) there to reinforce the CAP. I should have just used LRCAP from Gasmata.

Shortland Island is repairing its damage. If Ted doesn’t bomb there for another day or 2, I’ll move the Betties back there. Also, Gasmata is my main fighter base. He hasn’t touched that base. He can hit Gasmata with 2E bombers and P-38s but he doesn’t have a lot of P-38s available (I usually see only 1 squadron every now and then), and unescorted 2E bombers will get slaughtered.

I also have a level 2 airfield at the (former) dot hex to the north of Gasmata on the north coast (can’t remember the name). Right now I have the “Special Attack Unit” composed of 12x Ki-44 KAIb FB and 6x Ki-46 KAI fighters. Neither plane is very good. Better than nothing, I guess.

KB2 and MKB both arrived at Truk today. I pulled out all the damaged ships to repair. The last of them will be completely repaired in 5 days. By then I’ll also be able to upgrade the Ryujo’s 30 A6M3a with the A6M5, giving KB2 A6M5s. Of MKB, only Shoho still has the A6M2. The rest have the A6M3b, which the Shoho will receive in a few days.

I’m still waiting to send a BB/CA force from Davao to Truk, just in case. I would have sent them yesterday, but a sub showed up just off Davao. I sent some ASW TFs to prosecute that sub. Once I drive her off or sink her, I’ll send the surface TF to Truk.

The fast replenishment TF is almost completely filled at Truk. The damaged ships are also repairing. One TK will take 8 days to completely repair. I don’t think I have that much time, but we’ll see.

Tomorrow, I’m going to adjust my naval search to try and cover as much area to the south and SE of Rabaul as I can. I am going to place some flying boats at Nauru to search south from there, just in case Ted decides to do an end around. I hope he does, then I can decimate his fleet in the middle of the open ocean with no friendly port nearby. I don’t expect that to happen though.

Finally, I’m going to see if I can get an Emily to recon Noumea. I get reports of heavy radio activity there almost every day. I have a Glen sub just a couple hexes NE of Noumea but the Glen rarely spots anything.

SRA

Nothing of interest to report.

Burma

Ted is getting frisky here too. He’s building up his ground forces. The one division I have cutting his road (just to the east of Cox’s Bazaar) is now opposed by 5x Indian and 1x British divisions. Most of the Indians are relatively weak. He can get ~3:1 in raw AV. My division (33 Division, I think) is very experienced and sitting at ~93/98 strength. My main army, a hex to the SW (just NE of Akyab) is opposed by the majority of his army and (I believe) can easily hold that army off.

The 4 artillery units completely unloaded at Rangoon today. I put them in move mode and started them down the long road to Akyab. The 8 Division will arrive in Rangoon tomorrow and begin unloading. They’ll follow the artillery. Ahead of the artillery is the 77 Infantry Regiment, the future Akyab garrison. They will not participate in the attack. I’ve found that small units tend to get trashed easily in combat against larger units.

I had a 30 plane fighter sentai (part of 3 Air Division) training in Singapore. I upgraded them back to Oscars and shipped them north to Burma. I also had a 45 plane Zero daitai that I flew north to Burma. I plan on using overwhelming air power to decimate his bomber force in Burma.

Now the daily air raids:

Kalemyo: 11 Helens hit that air base again, causing more damage to add to what already was there. My fighter sentai set to strafe didn’t fly.

Cox’s Bazaar: My bombers did no additional damage.

Chittagong: Twenty Helens caught the airfield again doing additional damage and damaging a few fighters on the ground.

Magwe!: This is my oil field in this region. Early in the war Ted bombed it from 300 to 133 then left it alone for many months. I’ve gotten much more oil from here than I had ever expected. Well, he went after it again today. He sent a total of 119x 2E and 35x 4E sorties. I opposed them with 10 Oscars and 36 Tojos. I did well here, losing only 1 Tojo op loss and 1 pilot WIA. Ted lost 28x 2E and a 4E bomber. He did hit my oil fields, causing 6 points of damage and bringing my oil fields down to 127. Now I think I know why he’s been hitting Mandalay. I have 2x fighter sentai stationed there at all times and he figured (I think) that if he could close down that airfield, he could hit my oil. What he didn’t realize is that Magwe’s airfield is just as big, has a couple fighter sentai and lots of AA (not that the AA does much).

China

The army sitting at Changteh will rest a few more days before attempting to oust the Chinese defenders. Most of the Chinese army there is the battered remnants that have been attacked over and over. There are 4x HQ, 12 Corps (only 2 fresh, the rest are AV 0-2) and 2 construction engineers.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:
SC CHa-48 – ASW
AMc Wa-7

It was confirmed that the xAKL Kanchow sank on 29 Dec 41. Well, that makes me sleep better at night.

I am 100% sure that when Ted invades, he’ll use his carriers and not rely only on his LBA. He’s painfully aware that his losses are usually pretty severe. He may do well on occasion, but overall, his losses are worse than mine. To date, he’s lost 4359 aircraft to 4253 Japanese, from all losses. His air to air losses are almost 50% higher than mine.

If I can sink or badly damage 3 of his US CVs, I’m confident I’ll postpone his offensive for 3-6 months. Every now and then, he’ll try something with a small fleet. Take the small surface TF (3 CA, 1 CL, 3 DD) that, for some unknown reason, sat for a few days at Milne Bay. I ended up putting 4 torpedoes into the 3 CAs. I don’t have reports of any of them sinking, but now they’re out of the war for a while. The one thing that bothers me about that is that I never saw them arrive and I never saw them leave. That actually really irritates me. I currently have a midget and RO sub in the hex. They’re just not there. Philadelphia Experiment comes to mind….

Here’s when I expect some of my fighters to become operational:

A6M5b: 1 Mar 43
Ki-44-IIc: 15 Apr 43
Ki-43-IIIa: 1 Jul 43
A6M5c: 12 Jul 43
A6M8: 1 Dec 43
Ki-43-IV: 2 Jan 44


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(in reply to Mike Solli)
Post #: 2129
RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 9/19/2014 8:40:21 PM   
Mike Solli


Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline 		15 Dec 42

Sub War

I practically always assign my TKs by type. For example, my Std-A TKs (I have only a few) are all used in the same TF and ship oil from Davao to the Home Islands. That TF was on its way back to Davao (just a few hexes away) and had a brand new Std-C TK with it when it ran over a US sub. Of course, that particular sub happened to have a torpedo that worked. One hit and down went the TK. Glad it was empty. I was lucky though. The Musashi, Ryuho, Agano and a DD were all just ahead of the TK TF and made it to Davao safely.

By the way, now I can see 2 US subs off Davao. I’ve got every available DD & E hunting them. No luck hitting either one so far.

5 Fleet

No action again today. Adak’s port damage reduced from 44% to 42%. I lied about the fast transport PB. It didn’t make it to Adak today. It’s still a few hexes out but it should make it tomorrow morning. Finally, I’ll start getting some supply there. I wish I had realized earlier that the Ansyu-C PBs could perform fast transport missions. Now I have to decide whether to use them as escorts or in FT missions. That’s going to be a tough choice.

KB1 still hovers to the west.

I have another decision to make. I have 8 subs (I-1 through I-8) allocated to KB/Combined Fleet for recon ahead of either when necessary. I vowed at the beginning of the war to save them for that mission, but when neither fleet did anything for months on end, I sent them up to the Aleutians to support the subs up there. Now, 2 are damaged and repairing minor damage at Etorofu before heading to Japan to repair the major damage. I-5 just finished repairs in Japan and is headed to Truk. The other 5 are around Adak. Do I send them to Truk or keep them in the Aleutians? The 5 Fleet is composed of 5 fleet and 3 Glen subs, with a couple currently damaged. I’m probably going to send them south because I do not want to have KB without sub recon in a battle. I do have 8 RO subs (2 are damaged) down around Milne Bay but they have other missions to perform.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Ted’s fighters flew over Lae, Buna, Goodenough Island and Milne Bay, but I did not contest them. His bombers did not fly. He made a comment about rain and that it was a good time to rest them. I took the opportunity to rebuild and repair. The only airbase with damage is Rabaul, with 8% runway and 52% service. Shortland Island is completely repaired. I’m also sending xAKLs out to many of my small outposts to replenish/increase my supply at those bases. One xAKL with a small PB escort can usually get in and out without issue. I have a constant convoy sending supply and fuel to Rabaul, which is the hub for the region.

Up at Truk, KB2 will be completely outfitted with the A6M5 in 3 days, when I get enough in the pool to upgrade Soryu’s 27 fighters. MKB still has Hosho, with 15 A6M2s. The A6M3as, formerly of KB2, are slowly moving to the pool. I’ll upgrade Hosho’s fighters in a day or 2. Then my carrier force will be ready for missions.

The Combined Fleet is still locked in Davao. Not sure when I can begin their movement to Truk.

The fuel situation at Truk is pretty good. After fueling KB and MKB and filling the AOs in the replenishment fleet, I still have 88k fuel there, with another 32k about a day’s sail out. Over 100k supply with another 50k coming from Japan. I’m ready.

SRA

I’m going to move my oil/resource hub from Davao to Babeldaob for a bit. Ted’s locked onto Davao with some subs. It’s easy to hem that port in. It only takes 2 subs.

Burma

No Allied bombing happened today. In the air, I did minor damage to the usual bases and shot down 6x P-40Ks for the loss of a Tojo over Mandalay. Mandalay has repaired all airfield damage. Damage to Allied bases:

Chittagong: None
Cox’s Bazaar: 50 airfield
Akyab: 100 airfield, 81 port
Kalemyo: 12 airfield

The strafe mission didn’t go again.

China

The 12 tank regiment hit the Chinese base force remnant once again. 26:1 odds, 170(16) Chinese to 0 Japanese and they are still alive. I’m continuing to chase them down the road.

Other Stuff

I found a(nother) mistake in my R&D several days ago. I had 3x30 factories working on the Myrt NF, or so I thought. I was researching the C6N1 Myrt recon plane. Dumb mistake. What I needed was the C6N1-S Myrt NF. So, I changed all 3 factories, increased them back to 30 each, and started over. They’re still all at 0(30), and probably will be for the time being. I’m not sure it’s worth it to R&D this aircraft. I’ll think about it for a bit more and make my final decision.


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