Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline
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I think I'm going to back off the amphibs for a turn or two and soften the place up. It's not worth trashing a couple of divisions. I have over 100k troops on those amphibs.
Here's the rest of the turn comment:
7 Dec 41 (cont)
Subs
No action on my part. I did lay a minefield at Bataan and 1 hex to the west of Singapore. Two Dutch subs west of Manila found one of my amphib TFs moving into position and attacked (and was DCed) unsuccessfully.
Most of my subs are headed toward their patrol zones. Here’s a quick breakout of where they will patrol:
2 Glen: Off US West coast
2 Glen: Along US-Hawaii SLOC
3 Fleet, 1 Glen: East of Hawaii
3 Fleet, 1 Glen: SW of Hawaii
4 Fleet: Aleutians
3 Ro: South of Rabaul
3 Ro: South of Pt. Moresby
3 Fleet, 1 Glen: NE of Fiji
3 Fleet, 1 Glen: N of New Zealand
6 Fleet, 2 Ro: SRA
The rest are headed to various ports and will replace those on patrol as necessary.
Pearl Harbor
Not much more to add. The combat report is above. I still haven’t decided whether or not to attack again. I’m leaning toward moving on. The goal has been accomplished. The US Surface fleet is out of commission for a time. The bonus is that 1 CA and 4 CLs are also damaged. That’s less AA escort for the CVs for awhile. Just a note – all of the bomb hits on ships were 800 kg bombs.
The next destination for KB (whether or not they stick around PH another day) is to support the Wake landing. I combined the Tarawa NG and Wake SNLF into one TF and will slowly wander toward Wake. The 4 Aobas are headed there as a bombardment force. Once KB arrives, I’ll move in. The eventual garrison will include some engineers (temporarily, until the fort level is maxed), a small base force, and 1 or both of the infantry units. An eventual reinforcement is a CD unit, which will arrive there. The only air unit I’ll send there is the 2 plane Betty unit starting at Kwajalein, to be used as a recon unit. I may send a small floatplane unit to augment the recon or perform ASW.
After Wake is successfully liberated, KB will head to Truk to rearm and then will move south to support the Rabaul-Pt. Moresby campaign.
4 Fleet
Most of what is going on has been discussed above. The Makin Invasion Force is moving out and a NG based at Jaluit is loading to take Tarawa.
SE Fleet
The 144 Regiment is headed to Truk. In 3 days, I’ll have enough PPs to buy out the Gds Bde for SE Fleet. These two infantry units will take Rabaul and then Pt. Moresby, with the support of the 4 Aobas and KB. Once those two bases are liberated, KB will most likely move on, but the Aobas will stay. KB may raid the SE coast of Australia if it appears that there are some good targets of opportunity there. I plan on snooping around with some subs. KB may move into the SRA if needed or it may just disappear for a bit. We’ll see if the US carriers show up anywhere. By the way, Ted is ecstatic that the Enterprise hasn’t been spotted. If you recall, on 8 Dec in our last game, the I-169 ran across her (accidentally) and put 3 torpedoes into her. The next day the I-7 put 2 more torpedoes into her, sealing her fate. We’ll see what happens this time. I suspect Ted didn’t aim her at Pearl, but we’ll see.
About 8-9 days after I buy the Gds Bde, I’ll have enough points to buy the 90 Inf Reg, also for SE Fleet. For those of you who aren’t aware, the 90 Reg is a very nice 90 exp/90 morale unit from Manchuoko. It’s a part of a division (can’t remember which one off hand) but the rest of the division doesn’t arrive for a year or two. It just screams for redeployment elsewhere. It’ll support the Pt. Moresby invasion if needed. After Pt. Moresby is secured, the 144 Regiment will move to the SRA to marry up with the rest of its division (55?).
5 Fleet
I’ve decided to invade Adak early. I spent quite a bit of time trying to find a small infantry unit that I could use from the SRA. Instead, I decided on the 7 Base Force, a 5 Fleet unit that starts in Ominato. It has infantry to take the place as well as all the supporting stuff that will be needed later. I’ll reinforce it with some NG units later, or maybe a regiment or brigade from Manchuoko if I can spare the PPs (which is doubtful).
I think this is a risky operation, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Burma
Nothing to tell here. The historical 15 Army is strat moving north then will begin the slow crawl toward Burma. The 15 Army will eventually receive a lot of air support units and all of the armor from 25 Army, as well as more infantry from 25 Army (or possibly Southern Area Army infantry). Most of the 3 Air Division is destined to end up in Burma. The 22 Air Flotilla will end up in Pt. Blair.
Malaya
Ahh, the best for last. Well, the most exciting anyway. I already told you most of what is going on, but a few more details are in order.
Now that I look at the ships that I’ve lost, only 2 are critical ships. Here are the details:
1x Yusen S – This is an AK. There are only 10, excuse me, 9 of this class. They are nice, 18 kt AKs. Oh well, I can live with this.
2x Kyushu – There are 30 of these left. Nice, 18 kt ships with 300 liquid capacity. They are tasked with hauling resources and oil from Singapore to Japan. Oh well…
2x Yusen N – There are 54 of these left. They are the 15 kt version of the Kyushu. They will be used in a variety of locations, hauling resources and oil. No biggy.
1x Aden – This is the workhorse of the IJN merchant fleet. There are 188 of these 12 kt ships left. I expect to lose a lot more of them (mainly because there are a lot of them to lose).
1x Ehime – I converted some of these to AGs. 11 to be exact. That leaves 46 for other missions. No big deal here either.
Finally, the LSD. This ship hasn’t sunk –yet– but her fate is inevitable with 91 fires. I think there is a second in the reinforcement queue, but this 18 kt ship could haul 2200 troops and 1100 cargo. She’ll be missed.
I ended up losing ~3700 troops. Ouch. If I can take Singapore in Dec or even early Jan, it’ll be worth it. I lost parts of the following:
25 Army HQ
5 Rcn Reg (5 Div)
15 Ind Eng Reg
34 AA Bn
84 JAAF AF Bn
5 FA Reg (5 Div)
41 Inf Reg (? Div)
In addition, I lost a complete AA unit. It’ll cost all of 1 PP to buy back. I’ll buy it eventually.
Most of the hits were caused by the Vildebeests and Swordfish. Damn stringbags. If that Zero LRCAP had been where it was supposed to be, those planes would be matchsticks right now and most of my lost xAKs (and troops) would be fine.
I lied to you earlier. The remnants of Force Z are all in 1 hex to the SW of the amphib TFs. I can probably use waypoints to get them to Mersing tomorrow but it’s still iffy. The 4 CAs are charging straight down but are several hexes north of the amphibs right now. I need to ponder this more. What I don’t want to happen is to have the amphibs run into these guys. Those DDs could run amok. I don’t need that.
I converted my first Nate chutai to the Oscar Ic. It’s the 77 Sentai det that begins just north of Malaya with the two Nate Sentai. The Oscar pool is back to 0.
I’m going to swap out those two Nate Sentai for the Oscar Ia and Ib Sentai. Hopefully, they will do a bit better (even though the Ia doesn’t have a decent MG).
Philippines
I dropped off an IJAAF AF Bn at Vigan and will take it tomorrow. I’ll station some Zeros and Nates there the day after. The rest of the invasion force is wandering south and will reach San Fernando in a few days. I did use one of my paratroopers to take Cabanatuan unopposed, in the center of the island. I’ll fly some supply then air support to station more fighters there. It’s really there to give Ted another problem to think about. Two beachheads are more headaches than one. Oh yeah, I got a B-10 in the process.
China
Not a lot happening here either. I have a unique goal here. Yeah, I’ll take important cities. Sian comes to mind because of its oil, which is always attractive to the Japanese player. My major goal here is to kill at least 400 squads per month. The Chinese can rebuild 350 per month. If I can keep up 400 squad kills per month, they will get continually weaker. The only attack (other than a few air attacks, was against Pengpu, killing 40 squads, along with another squad killed in an air attack. 10% of this month’s goal!
Manchuoko
The 20 Div will prepare for movement to the SRA from Keijo. It will be bought out by regiment (infantry first, then engineer, then the rest) as PPs become available, but after the 90 Reg. The xAPs needed to move it are already on their way to Keijo.
I am moving all independent engineer regiments to Pt. Arthur for eventual movement to the 4 Fleet area (primarily). This is to happen after the 20 Division is bought.
I am also moving all units (tanks and 1 artillery unit) belonging to the 1 and 2 Tank Divisions to Pt. Arthur. They will be bought out, probably in June 42, when the rest of the units for those divisions arrive. Their fate is to die in Burma. I will use them to form the 1st Imperial Japanese Guards Panzer Army. (How’s that for an interesting name?! Too bad it’s nothing like a real Panzer Army.) My thought (at this early point) is to team them up with the IG Division. That should be fun.
Odds & Ends
My Nates have performs rather poorly today. Over Kota Bahru, 34 of them tangled with 6 Buffalos, for a loss of one each. I should have enough Oscars in the pool to upgrade another Chutai in a week. *Sigh* If I hold off for a Sentai, I’ll have to wait until 27 Dec. I think I’ll go with the chutai for awhile to get the Oscars in action sooner.
The 3 Brit DDs that start in Hong Kong (Thanet, Thracian and Scout) made a mad dash due west. I think Ted wanted to sacrifice them hoping to catch an amphib TF. Fortunately, I had sent some surface TFs east, west and south of Hong Kong, just in case. Of course they found the smallest TF, DDs Ikazuchi and Inazuma. I think both sides emptied out their torpedo tubes to no avail, but Thanet caught 5x 5” shells and the Thracian caught 1 shell. In return, Ikazuchi took one hit. Her damage is slight at 8-0-5-0. I’ll still send her into port for repairs. Thanet doesn’t look too good. Later in the day, a LOT of sorties flew out of Formosa trying to hit them. A total of 91 sorties flew (Vals, Bettys, Anns and Lilys) doing nothing but killing fish. Fortunately, I didn’t take any losses either. The 3 DDs are still alive, but unless they go back to Hong Kong, I should catch them with a surface force and finish them off.
I did a very cursory look at the production increases. Looks like they are building like they should. I’ll take a closer look at it tonight.
Now to get back to pondering about what to do with KB and the Mersing invasion force...
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RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 
I need to tell my wife about the request. She ain't gonna be happy. 
Maybe I'll wait until after dinner. If I do go, I'm getting a laptop. 
The bad part was that I used the Yamada det Zeros as LRCAP and had them follow the cruisers. 
or 
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