Randy Stead
Posts: 454
Joined: 12/23/2000
From: Ontario, Canada
Status: offline
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Rhin Dad, great poem! My kids are all adults now, with families of their own. They loved Barney when they were quite young, but inevitably they grow older and out of their childish likes. Barney was all the rage back in the day, and still is with some kids. My grandkids now listen to the Barney CDs when they come for a visit. My son is the eldest of the three, so once he got to an age when Barney wasn't cool, he came home one day with something he learned at school:
I hate you
You hate me
Let's gang up and kill Bar-ney
With a great big knife
And a bullet to the head
Aren't you glad that Barney's dead?
Sick little punks.
Back to the game. I have not done much forum activity for a few days; been hard at it turn after turn. I am into turn 72 now.
I've been able to get reinforcements over to Port Moresby and Milne Bay. The Aussie infantry brigade that has held the line on the Kokoda Trail for so long has been marching back to PM. He's just a few miles away, so I expect next turn it will appear in the base hex. I am going to rest it for a while and let it upgrade to the 1942 infantry squads. I've been building them up ever so slowly, about two a turn since game start until I had hoarded about 110. Now each turn I am having one LCU per turn swap out their old militia gear for the new gear.
I have two of the three brigades that make up the [5th?] infantry division at Milne Bay. I also brought over one of the cavalry brigades. The Nipponese landed some forces in an attempt to take the base. I kept jackhammering their supply ship inbound and deprived them of supply for a while. When they were good and hungry I bombarded them for a bit then sent in a deliberate attack, which wiped them out. I have removed all aircraft from Milne Bay over to Port Moresby. I have enough supply at Milne Bay for a long time so there is no need to protect the base from air attack. Ranger Joe, I think it was, suggested I abandon the airfield if I was getting swept. After one big brawl in the air I took that advice. I forgot I had a damaged sub that was laying up there. It happens in this game; so many pieces to track. Anyhow, they reminded me I had a sub there where they sent over a swarm of Zeros with 9 of their torpedo planes, what are they called, Kates? They hit the sub and killed it. Now I know why there are wreaths floating in the harbour. They are still flying over and hitting the airfield, but I have enough engineers to stay on top of the damage and they are working to enlarge the airfield for my eventual return. The flak does a good job damaging bombers and kills off one or two now and then. I've got plans to send over another AA unit, as soon as my transports get back from Port Moresby, refuel and repair. Just before they get to Milne Bay, I will send in a pile of fighters to protect the ships as they unload.
My recon spotted a TF near Kavieng. I began to move a CVx2 fleet to intercept when one of my subs torpedoed CV Junyo and sank her. She is showing up in the sunken ships report in the intelligence screen. I don't know if that is confirmed sinkings. I did get an operations report that a SS I that was claimed as sunk was confirmed to still be in operation. So, fog of war is a factor. I am hoping the Junyo sinking report is gospel truth.
I got supply over at Lunga to over 33,000. My boys are now eating well.  While Wasp is hors de combat for a while, I have her air groups over at Lunga. Any supply ships that try to run in to Tossafaronga may be in for a surprise. I've got a pile of fighters there, too, support and engineers working to enlarge the airfield. The port is bigger now, same at Tulagi, so I can now run in smaller supply fleets to dock instead of running it over the beach via amphibious supply. While I was bringing supplies in that way I had my carriers up there providing floating air cover and interdiction of IJN supply runs. Now that Lunga is so well supplied and has air cover, I can redeploy my CVs elsewhere. Wasp is patching at Noumea until I get her system damage down as much as I can so that she will be better able to cope with flotation on the voyage to Sydney shipyard. She has major damage to systems and flotation that cannot be repaired at Noumea. I don't have any AR repair ships yet, but I know one or two are on the way. I will check their arrival date when I start the next turn. I am not sure if an AR can repair the damage Wasp currently has; will consult the manual as my bedtime reading tonight.
Enterprise is at Sydney for about 16 days to upgrade. BBs South Dakota and Washington have major damage from a surface combat near Lunga. They both got hit by DD-launched torpedoes and are patching up at Noumea before heading off to Sydney. The IJN paid for it, though, losing CAs Chokai and Takao and CL Jintsu. I've got a BB upgrading at Sydney, I think it might be North Carolina? A pile of stuff is getting the 10/42 upgrades done there as they need a size 5 shipyard to upgrade. I have the upgrades going on pierside. At Noumea I have other ships that do not need a shipyard doing upgrades as well. I am definitely becoming quite adept at using the repair manager to set priorities in order to maximize repair throughput at Sydney.
The ANZAC navy is a bad luck magnet this scenario; Canberra was repaired at Sydney after major battle damage. On her way back to Townsville she was torpedoed by a sub and is back in the shop with major damage. Australia also got clobbered hard and is being patched up. Me and the repair manager are becoming good friends.
I'm now preparing units for Buna. This will be a long term project, as such I have had a long running campaign to nail every supply ship I can on the way in, or out. Now that Lunga is well supplied and guarded, I intend to use my CVs to interdict supply ships. I am beefing up the presence of infantry on Kokoda Trail, as well as preparing land units. I will try to hit it from land if possible, and with 2 or 3 divisions from sea. I have to add up the shipping tonnage needed and see if this is attainable. If I do a good enough job at starving Buna, then the Hori Group on Kokoda Trail will wither to the point where I may take them from land alone. However, If I can take the base at Buna, I will put the Hori Group in a real bind: out of supply and surrounded. I can feel my confidence to play this game growing by leaps and bounds. The two scenarios I have played have been very educational and being able to play a grand campaign, though daunting a task, is now seeming more of a possibility. I thank everyone here for their helping out a new guy. Salute.
< Message edited by Randy Stead -- 2/4/2021 9:09:25 PM >
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RE: Guadalcanal scenario: took Lunga & Tulagi, what now? - 
] I moved VMF212 over from Efate and put them on CAP 100% for the first turn. I also left one base force in combat mode so the radar would be active. I am not sure, but I have heard that when a unit is in rest mode, the radar is not operated. Until I hear definitively from an authoritative source, I will assume the radar is not used in rest mode. To enhance the CAP over Luganville I had a carrier Wildcat unit on CAP at range of 4 as that would be the range of Wasp from Luganville when the air phase kicked in. The carrier CAP did not get called over to Luganville, which leads me wonder, will a nearby carrier CAP respond to a raid over a nearby friendly base? I tried to set LRCAP for Luganville at start of turn but it was too far away. 
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