Xargun
Posts: 3690
Joined: 2/14/2004 From: Near Columbus, Ohio Status: offline
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The turn starts off with some more night bombings by Rob. Yenen is attacked again and they manage to hit another runway (1 hit) and destroy a single Nate fighter... Rangoon is also hit by 3 B-17s and they maul the place. They came in at 1000 feet and tore the place up. 1 airbase and 2 runway hits claim 2 Sallies and an Oscar, along with 64 men and 2 guns. 2 B-17s were damaged in the raid... I really need those AA regiments here. I will start transporting them as soon as the AV regiment is finished being air lifted in. I just hope those AA guns aren't to big for the planes - I have a hunch they may be. Also at night, I struck at Singapore aiming for both the airfield and the port. 2 Lillies were shot down during the raid and 6 more damaged. the airbase was hit twice and the runways 7 times, but no port hits. My Bombardment TF from Kendari showed up at Koepang for a nice nighttime visit. I thought Rob would greet my ships with a nice campfire and some S'mores, but instead 3 damn PT boats come out and say hi.. They picked me up on radar (didn't know PTs had radar) and surprised me. Luckily no torps or MG fire hit my ships and only a single round of combat was fought - I never got a chance to fire back... As the PTs fled, my TF approached the coastline / port and let loose. 4 DDs, 1 CL, 3 CA and 2 BBs hammered the port and airfield. The airbase was hit 20 times, 4 supply hits and 41 runway hits. Along with 95 men and 1 gun were reported destroyed. But the good news is I found those damn US Naval aircraft 4 SBDs, 1 Buffalo and 1 Wildcat were destroyed as well as 15 SBDs and a Wildcat reported damaged. Looks like these aircraft will need some TLC to be operational again... My TF ran back north under cover of darkness to avoid any retaliation strikes - they moved 5 hexes away - just out of range Due to the high success and the plenty of ammo left, the TF has been ordered back to Koepang to pick off some survivors... I sent a sentai of zeros to Akyab to perform a fighter sweep and a huge flying circus resulted. 27 zeros engaged 3 Demons, 8 Buffalos, 35 Hurricanes and 4 P-40Bs... In the battle 11 zeros were shot down, as well as 10 hurricanes, 6 buffalos and 2 P-40s. A huge dogfight which I do not believe neither Rob nor me have the planes to spare for such.. But he has better pilots coming in then I will. Oh well... Looks like I just need to move another sentai of zeros into the theater... I do have another one in the area performing CAP over a base... Looks like they might be promoted to front line use. 29 Nells from Truk struck at Rabaul. The runways were hit 5 times and 10 Nells were damaged. Air strikes in china claim 151 men and 0 guns as destroyed. Arty strikes at Clark claim 312 allied troops along with 9 guns. My arty strike at Singapore is poor once again - only 25 men claimed. My Shock Attack at Manilla went off wonderfully, despite no air support once more. Over 30,000 IJA troops shock attacked the 17,000 enemy troops and defeated them. 275 IJA men and 5 guns were lost, but nearly 13,000 enemy soldiers, 19 guns and 1 vehicle were captured. I also captured roughly 10,000 supplies. With Manilla in my hands the score has changed drastically. I now have 9204 to Rob's 5931. As soon as Singapore falls, I should have him doubled in points. I have invasion TFs heading for Rabaul from Truk. They are heading to Admiralty Islands first incase Rob gets any SigInt on them.. Once there, they will redirect to Rabaul, giving him 2-3 days to catch wind before they land, instead of over a week. I also have troops heading to Medano (NE tip of Suluwesi) to capture the base there. The base is unimportant, except for the airfield there. I don't want Rob to be able to base his naval bombers along my supply routes to Kendari and Balikpapin. I also have 2 naval guards units from Balikpapin marching NE to Samarinda to capture the airfield there as well.. Although this will not stop Rob from basing bombers in Borneo, it will force him to use extended range to hit Balikpapin and reduce his bomb load to simple 500 pound bombs, which will bounce off my heavy armor... instead of those ship-killing 1000 pounders.
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