Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Mike Solli]

19 Jan 42

Sub War

An Allied ASW TF is harassing one of my subs along the San Francisco route. Time to move my subs. I’m going to try and set their patrol along the route so the subs don’t sit in one place. We’ll see how that works.

5 Fleet

The engineers and construction troops are still a few days out from Adak.

4 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

SE Fleet

Ted finally put some subs north of Rabaul. I’m glad I located them. Soryu will have all her sys damage repaired tomorrow. I won’t pull her out of port until its safe though. I see 2 subs north of Rabaul and 1 sub south of Rabaul. I have several ASW TFs prosecuting them. Unfortunately, their skipper’s skills are horrendous. Better than nothing I suppose. I also have 2x Betty daitai flying ASW. One is covering the 2 hexes to the north and the other is covering the hex to the south. That’ll be 54 Bettys flying ASW over that small area. Hopefully, I can at least drive them off or damage or destroy some. We’ll see what happens over the next turn or two.

Philippines

South of the Philippines, I took San Jose, destroying a small base force. I took no losses to his 304(37). The reason I even mention this is because the island (whichever one it is) has 3 bases in a row. San Jose is the western base and the eastern base has already been liberated. The 16 Division is landing there and will move to the center base, which is occupied by a PA Division. The 16 Division will take that hex and then move to Cebu(?) where there is another PA Division. After destroying that unit, it’ll move to Luzon to join the Bataan force.

China

I hit two hexes effectively sealing Chinese 35 units in the clear. A couple Chinese units were hit a hex SW of Nanyang. Losses were 404(3) for me to his 2820(192). The other hex was 3 hexes east of Ichang where a Chinese Corps was smashed. My losses were 29(0) to his 3151(196). The only open hex is the woods hex just NW of Loyang. I have a unit heading there, but it’ll take a couple weeks to reach it (only 2 miles a day). Some of my forces are pushing the 15 units in the clear into one hex to destroy (if they’re not destroyed in the process) while another force is headed to Chengchow to defeat the 10 units there (5 already badly hurt) and push the remnants into Loyang for their final elimination (along with the 10 units currently at Loyang).

Malaya

For some reason, the second wave only moved 1 mile today. Hmm… Let’s see how far they move today.

Burma

The armor (3x tank regiments) is arriving at Pegu and is getting missions. Finally getting things going here.

Java

There are about half a dozen TFs in Soerabaja, including 2x 1 CL TFs. Also of note, there aren’t any fighters in Soerabaja. I have 9 Zeros and 36 Nells stationed at Makassar. The Nells are on a naval attack mission (with escort from the Zeros) with Soerabaja in range. I’d love to smash those TFs. CAP is provided by some 5 Air Division Oscars.

I have a brigade of the 21 Division loading for the invasion of Bandjermasin. Once taken, it’ll be the primary fighter airfield (along with Tobali) for the elimination of the Dutch Air Force until an air base on Java is established.

The forces for the invasion of Java are gathering in Balikpapan, Tobali and other nearby bases in the area. They include:

21 Division
21 Independent Mixed Brigade
79 Regiment/20 Div
80 Regiment/20 Div
20 Engineer Regiment/20 Div
2x Tank Regiments
2x Independent Engineer Regiments
1x Artillery Regiment
Support forces

Note that this is force has 3 missions:

1. Lodgment in Java
2. Secure an airfield in Java (preferably level 4)
3. Split Java in two

Then they will do what they can with their limited resources and await reinforcements from Malaya after Singapore is liberated.

Palembang

The Nells hit Palembang’s port today and sure enough, there was an HDML there. It’s now matchsticks. There are no other ships there. I’m not hitting the port any more. There’s no reason to damage any of the infrastructure or destroy supply or fuel.

Other Stuff

I finally did an analysis of my oil/fuel/resources. Some interesting things came to light. Overall, I have 5.1 months of resources, 8.6 months of oil (using full refinery capacity) and 4.8 months of fuel for HI in the Home Islands. Not bad. I’d like to get resources and fuel to >12 months by the end of the year. Also note that I use only 50% of the available fuel, assuming the rest is used on ships. I don’t expect to use that much on ships, but I’d rather be conservative.

Here’s the odd part. Kyushu has 461k resources, 492k oil and 498k fuel on the island. It’s primarily at two locations: Fukuoka and Nagasaki broken out as follows:

Nagasaki
258k R
48k F

Fukuoka
152k R
492k O
436k F

I’m ok with the stuff at Nagasaki. There is quite a bit of HI/LI there. It’s Fukuoka that concerns me. There is 140 HI, 12 oil, 10 refinery and 280 LI. This requires a lot of stuff to keep it running, but I think there is an excess of stuff there. I’m beginning to wonder if it isn’t moving to Honshu on its own. I’m going to keep track of these numbers for the rest of the month to see what happens and then decide if I need to move it manually. I’m wondering if I accidentally set Fukuoka to accumulate. I have unloaded a lot of resources/fuel/oil on Kyushu so I’m curious as to what’s going on.

[Cribtop]

Mike, re Singapore. If you set everything to follow a non combat unit like an HQ, things can get weird IIRC.

[Mike Solli]

I have everything following an infantry division. The second wave has 2 infantry divisions, engineers, artillery and the 25 Army HQ. Weird.

[Cribtop]

Maybe they re-fueled the DDs and were low on Ops points? [:'(]

That is weird.

[ny59giants]

I have almost all my convoys end up in a port in Honshu vs Kyushu. Fukuoka is a large port so these items will stay there more than Nagasaki. You may need to alter your convoys slightly.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I can't wait. Oh joy.

Ergo, the hoardes of Tojo's! BANZAI!!!!

[:D][:D][:D]

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I’m ok with the stuff at Nagasaki. There is quite a bit of HI/LI there. It’s Fukuoka that concerns me. There is 140 HI, 12 oil, 10 refinery and 280 LI. This requires a lot of stuff to keep it running, but I think there is an excess of stuff there. I’m beginning to wonder if it isn’t moving to Honshu on its own. I’m going to keep track of these numbers for the rest of the month to see what happens and then decide if I need to move it manually. I’m wondering if I accidentally set Fukuoka to accumulate. I have unloaded a lot of resources/fuel/oil on Kyushu so I’m curious as to what’s going on.

This is SOP now with the new resource/oil movement in the beta. Nothing to worry about. Basically, resources/oil move more slowly now. You are dropping a lot at Fukuoka from Korea/PA, correct? it will migrate through Honshu as it needs. Watch it, but there won't be any issues. You will also see high levels at Ominato coming in from Hokkaido.

When I get the Singers -> Fusan land migration open and running, I will see +1M of everything at Fusan as it becomes the major inbound port. But all the other bases have plenty of what they need.

[Icedawg]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Icedawg

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

PS: since this is your first PDU On game, I strongly suggest that you take a break (really, ask Ted for a 7 day hiatus) and sit down and work out your R&D carefully. Since the allies can now shift around their a/c without limitation, you will see hordes more 4E's with MUCH better escorts earlierthan you are used to. To counter that, you need to have your fighter builds spun up a lot earlier.

Pax,

What does this (the underlined, boldfaced stuff) mean? Is there some change in a recent patch that I am missing? Was the allied replacement rate increased? Do they get more options for upgrading bombers?

This is Mike's first game with PDU ON, he has always played PDU OFF. When PDU On is played, there are consequences for BOTH sides. Mike gets to build all the stuff he wants and get Tojo's everywhere. Ted, however, can get his B-17's and P-38's out of the stateside training air groups as well now. With PDU OFF, a lot of the better allied hardware has to sit on the beach in CA until upgrades come around. Mike has never seen this aspect ...

Okay (followed by deep sigh of relief)! My imagination took off a bit and I had horrible thoughts of missing something in one of the recent patches: something like B-17 replacement rates upped to 2000 per month, or Corsairs arriving in early 42. Really SCARY thoughts to say the least. [X(]

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Icedawg

Okay (followed by deep sigh of relief)! My imagination took off a bit and I had horrible thoughts of missing something in one of the recent patches: something like B-17 replacement rates upped to 2000 per month, or Corsairs arriving in early 42. Really SCARY thoughts to say the least. [X(]

No worries. The beta's are exclusively EXE patches, not data. Any change to planes rates or ships or anything like that takes a data patch and you will know about it because of the screaming that occurs. EXE patches "only" can adjust how the data is handled.

[PaxMondo]

Mike,

If you haven't been following the GJ/Rader game, they have provided a lot of confirming, public data on 4E issues. In rader's AAR, JWE offered up his current HR's to address this. As they would start to apply early in any PDU ON game, I would suggest that you go review them and discuss with Ted. Not a fix to the issues mind you, but I can see how his HR's would mitigate most of the issues through mid '44. Hopefully by the time you and Ted get there better solutions will have come about.

[Mike Solli]

20 Jan 42

Sub War

The Allied sub two hexes north of Rabaul put a torp into a PB in an ASW TF heavily damaging her. I figured she was done for but was pleased to find that she made it to Rabaul. She’ll be fully repaired in about 6 weeks. Not sure how that can happen but all of the major damage can be repaired pierside. Odd but nice.

In return, the Ro-60 caught a troop laden xAP just south of Pt. Moresby and put a torpedo into her. I doubt she sinks but I did get good intel. Ted’s still packing troops into that base.

5 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

4 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

SE Fleet

Not much else other than the two sub attacks mentioned above. I’m not sure what to do with Pt. Moresby though. He has around 20k troops there as well as fighters. I don’t have the ability to go after the subs and bomb Pt. Moresby. Not taking it would be devastating for Rabaul. Eventually, 2 & 4E bombers would destroy Rabaul. That’s what happened in our first game. I’m going to put more subs south of PM hoping to have more intercepts. Once I get Soryu out of there, I’ll put effort into bombing PM. I also need more engineers at Lae to build that airfield faster. It’s still only level 1 so I can’t fly any sweeps out of there yet.

My Betty pilots claimed hits on two subs, but I doubt that to be the case. I still see 3 subs around Rabaul as I did yesterday.

Some of my ASW pilots in training are close to being ready to cull. I have a couple of FP units in Truk. I’m going to pull out the best ASW trainees and place them in the FP units. Then I’ll fly them to Rabaul to take over the ASW duties, freeing up the Bettys for airfield bombing/naval attack around PM. I’m also sending down from Truk 8 DDs in two ASW TFs for duty around Rabaul. I hope to make it too expensive for Ted to keep his subs there.

I have 1x independent engineer regiment and 3x construction companies from Manchuoko allocated to the SE Fleet. I am going to buy them out now and send them south. I can use them. I get a naval construction battalion for SE Fleet in a week or so as a reinforcement. The engineers are definitely needed.

The IJA base force I’m sending to SE Fleet area is going to land on the Burma coast 2 hexes north of Lae. Then they will march overland to Lae. I may sail them into Lae, but I fear there are more subs in the area. I’ll make the final decision when they are a day out. They’re still several days out.

Philippines

I’m going to lay off ground bombardment for a day or two. My artillery units are getting pretty beat up, especially the battalions.

China

Nothing new to report.

SRA

Makassar’s airfield made level 4. It’s definitely the premier airfield in the region right now. More air units are flowing in each day.

The hoped for attack on the TFs in Soerabaja didn’t materialize today. I will put 10% of the Nells on naval search as well as a recon unit set to recon the base tomorrow in hopes of sparking a naval attack. I don’t want to send the brigade of the 21 Division to Bandjermasin until the Dutch TFs are neutralized. (It’s currently loaded at Makassar.) I can see Ted sending out some forces to go after them. That’s his favorite MO. I still have the 4 BB TF sitting at Makassar. I could use it to escort the amphibs but I can also see Ted sending a CL to bombard Makassar to try and kill some planes on the ground. It wouldn’t really matter, but I’d love to ambush him. Gotta think about it some….

Burma

Armor is flowing north and west.

I took Prome in a 29:1 DA with the 112 infantry regiment/55 Div. I killed the Railway BAF Battalion (whatever that is) and beat up the 3 Burma Rifles Bn. Losses were 10(0) to 841(72) Allies.

Malaya

I ran the turn this morning and left for work. I didn’t check to see how far the second wave travelled today. Now I have to wait until tonight. Figures….

Other Stuff

I took a quick glance at Fukuoka this morning. The resources and fuel were similar to yesterday but the oil was down to 100k+. I suspect stuff is flowing to Honshu but I just happened to catch it on one of the off days. If things are the same as they were in WitP, it flows every third day. I’ll still keep an eye on it but I do feel relieved.

[Mike Solli]

The Singapore second wave moved only one mile again today but I figured out why. I mistakenly added the 3 Air Division HQ to the group and their fatigue was 99. Oops. I didn't want them to go anyway. The second wave should move properly now.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

The Singapore second wave moved only one mile again today but I figured out why. I mistakenly added the 3 Air Division HQ to the group and their fatigue was 99. Oops. I didn't want them to go anyway. The second wave should move properly now.

OOOOOPS!!!

[ny59giants]

The hoped for attack on the TFs in Soerabaja didn’t materialize today. I will put 10% of the Nells on naval search as well as a recon unit set to recon the base tomorrow in hopes of sparking a naval attack. I don’t want to send the brigade of the 21 Division to Bandjermasin until the Dutch TFs are neutralized. (It’s currently loaded at Makassar.) I can see Ted sending out some forces to go after them. That’s his favorite MO. I still have the 4 BB TF sitting at Makassar. I could use it to escort the amphibs but I can also see Ted sending a CL to bombard Makassar to try and kill some planes on the ground. It wouldn’t really matter, but I’d love to ambush him. Gotta think about it some….

Increase search to 20% and actually set arcs to cover Soerabaja and some to the south. Double check the qualities of your Nell's leaders. You want some level of aggression, but not as high as fighters.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli
I took a quick glance at Fukuoka this morning. The resources and fuel were similar to yesterday but the oil was down to 100k+. I suspect stuff is flowing to Honshu but I just happened to catch it on one of the off days. If things are the same as they were in WitP, it flows every third day. I’ll still keep an eye on it but I do feel relieved.

Not exactly like WitP ... the routines were re-written. Resource movment is now variable, but I forget the basis. You'd have to read through the beta thread to find it.

PS: I think it is based upon distance/demand, but I don't recall fully. Anyway, it will move, but in general slower than you recall. This was done to mitigate the surging that was being seen, back and forth between Singers and PA.

[Mike Solli]

21 Jan 42

Sub War

Finally a little payback. My Bandjermasin invasion force, escorted by 3x APDs, ran into the S-39. She missed her target and got hit by 1 penetrating DC and 3 near misses. Banzai!

5 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

4 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

SE Fleet

I swept Pt. Moresby with a daitai of Zeros. They met 16 P-40Es and each side lost 4. I also lost 4 pilots. I can't tolerate that kind of return. I need a level 2 field within normal non-drop tank range of Pt. Moresby. Lae isn't quite there yet. I'm sending an invasion of Gasmata to have 2 such fields. Gasmata is currently at level 1 as well.

I took Hollandia with an SNLF Company. That unit will move down the coast and take all the hexes by amph assault.

Philippines

No ground bombardment again today. The artillery is recovering nicely.

SRA

The Bandjermasin invasion force (1 brigade of 21 Division) will land tomorrow. Still no attack on Soerabaja. [8|]

China

Nothing new to report.

Burma

Nothing new to report.

Malaya

The Singapore second wave moved 22 miles in move mode. They're now 24 miles out. I'm changing them to combat mode, just in case they decide to move 22 miles again. It'll take a few days but they won't be trashed quite as bad when they hit in combat mode vs. move mode.

Other Stuff

Hong Kong's port reached level 9 today. I like that port for upgrades and emergency repairs.

Not much else to talk about. Quiet turn.

[Mike Solli]

22 Jan 42

Sub War

Nothing happened today but my subs patrolling along the route out of San Francisco have located another convoy. I hope to get a shot or two at it tomorrow.

5 Fleet

The engineers will arrive at Adak tomorrow.

4 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

SE Fleet

The invasion of Gasmata will occur tomorrow.

Philippines

Nothing new to report.

China

Nothing new to report.

Malaya

The Singapore second wave is about 2 days out. Finally getting there....

Burma

Nothing new to report.

Other Stuff

The 9x Fubuki Is completed their upgrades at Kobe today. They're heading to Truk where they will be stationed.

The Aichi Ha-60 engines moved up one month.

[ny59giants]

Port Moresby - You can afford the 1:1 losses in airframes and pilots while he cannot afford to lose his airframes. The Allies have to choice where and why they put at risk their few fighter airframes. Cut off the base before you directly attack it. Take Lae and eventually Milne Bay area to cut off his re-supply efforts.

[Mike Solli]

Interesting Michael. I never thought we could lose equal pilots with the Allies. I also didn't realize that there was such a shortage of Allied airframes.

I already have Lae and Milne Bay is on the agenda.

I just started a new job yesterday. I should get to the turn this afternoon after work. Been chomping at the bit. [:D]

[ny59giants]

The Allies get (if memory serves me right) 40 P-40E/mo, 16 Hurricane/mo, and soon about 40 to 45 F4F-4 Wildcats. The 'c' model Hurricane get 32/mo. I may be off in my numbers, but I'm close. By mid-42 the American Army fighter pilot pool is large (over 500) from all that go in from mandatory withdrawal and training. However, they cannot afford to get into too many lopsided A2A battles and lose 1/2 a month worth of planes. In my limited time playing Japan, I've learned that you need to aggressively seek out the Allied air force in combat. At least in '42 (I'm in May '43).