Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Taxcutter

With the airedale grind on the India-Burma border, I cannot seem to build up a stash of P-40Es to replace the P-40Bs. Starting to get P-40Ks.

September 28, 1942.

My CVs have sailed out of Pearl in three TFs. Subs are moving out of Midway, Pearl (a few), Noumea and Bribane. Whether I hiot anything or not remains to be seen but at least I'll make Ironman use his 'cans as anti-sub escorts.

quote:

ORIGINAL: mussey

quote:

ORIGINAL: Taxcutter

With the airedale grind on the India-Burma border, I cannot seem to build up a stash of P-40Es to replace the P-40Bs. Starting to get P-40Ks.

September 28, 1942.

My CVs have sailed out of Pearl in three TFs. Subs are moving out of Midway, Pearl (a few), Noumea and Bribane. Whether I hiot anything or not remains to be seen but at least I'll make Ironman use his 'cans as anti-sub escorts.

It's difficult for the Allies to maintain engaged air forces in Europe, Pacific, and SE Asia in the early going. You may need to minimize at one of these to reinforce the other(s).

quote:

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: mussey

quote:

ORIGINAL: Taxcutter

With the airedale grind on the India-Burma border, I cannot seem to build up a stash of P-40Es to replace the P-40Bs. Starting to get P-40Ks.

September 28, 1942.

My CVs have sailed out of Pearl in three TFs. Subs are moving out of Midway, Pearl (a few), Noumea and Bribane. Whether I hiot anything or not remains to be seen but at least I'll make Ironman use his 'cans as anti-sub escorts.

It's difficult for the Allies to maintain engaged air forces in Europe, Pacific, and SE Asia in the early going. You may need to minimize at one of these to reinforce the other(s).

Yes - definitely cut off Europe - they won't complain.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Taxcutter

Back in action early October 1942.

Some big events brewing.

Most of my Guadalcanal/Tulagi forces are in place at Noumea. Marines a re completely prepped. Engineers and base forces are ready. Transports have been accumulated. A surface support force of old BBs and Brooklyns is ready. I have plenty of supply and fuel in place. I'm just waiting on the carriers to arrive. (They're just east of Pago Pago.)

My air attack on Port Moresby fizzled out as Ironman had a boatload of Zeroes at PM and they chewed up my P-38Fs, and I didn't wan to send unescorted B-17s (even as tough as they are) into that hornet's nest. I've shifted targets to Rossel Island (SWA's first objective) and Milne Bay. Both are being reduced down but Milne Bay needs some re-thinking. While it has no air garrison, my airedales are consistently reporting 28,000+ ground forces there. Probably too tough a nut to crack at this point.

My Keilin pocket is being slowly reduced. I can accumulate enough supply to attack about twice a game week. The IJA is apparently out of supply as the attacks are becoming favorably lopsided. Hopefully I can get this pocket eliminated in a game month. From there, I'll take my capable corps south to eliminate two smaller pockets. Beat-up corps will go to Chunking to be fleshed back up.

If I can get those two smaller pockets destroyed I should be in the catbird seat in southern China. Ironman is hardly a land warfare Napoleon.

The fighter grind along the Burma-India border continues. Since I am completely defensive, my aircrew losses aren't a problem (I'm starting to generate some impressive aces) but airframe replacements is an ongoing problem. Ironman presses me at Cox's Bazaar, Chittagong, Calcutta, Imphal, Silchar, and Ledo. Mostly Lilies, Sallies, and clouds of Oscars. No LCU action in this area. The terrain has us effectively separated. because of the fighter grind, my air garrisons elsewhere are thin to nonexistant.

And that led me to getting stung at Diego Garcia. I had put 3 old "R" class British BBs there as guardships (I can't think of a better use for them). Damned if ol' Ironman didn't send a CV force out and he nailed the old clunkers. One sunk, two others in danger. No eyes on the the TF yet, but from the size of the strike it looks like 2CV or 3-4 CVL. Worse yet, half of the strike planes were Jills and Judys. I'm still stuck with SBD-3s and TBF-1s along with my Mildcats.

I've lost track of KB since he gave up on Midway.

If you don't play PBEM because of time restraints, I'd recommend having a go at Ironman. Very challenging AI.

quote:

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Move some subs to the expected KB battle area to rescue your pilots (unless you are going to CAP at range 0) and hopefully get a shot at some juicy carriers or BBs.

quote:

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

AFAIK the subs should be in the hex where the aircraft is lost. Since some of the losses are op losses after battle damage it is possible to save some pilots on their way home, but the best results for rescue are in the target hex. It is 40 miles wide so the sub is technically not in the enemy port per se. You should have intel on enemy mines in the hex first to avoid having the sub find them.
Early in the game Japanese ASW sucks - both air and naval - so you can get away with parking a sub in one of their base hexes for a turn or so. Of course it gets harder as the game goes on.