Up and at 'em. Mundy vs hjones6464@yahoo.co.uk

[CaptBeefheart]

Well played off Pago Pago, and good luck keeping Melbourne. How is supply holding out there? What is the loss (or gain) rate?

I'd say it's time to start thinking about landing somewhere in Oz. When you have him distracted in the Marshalls it might be a good time to pull that off. Of course, it depends on how much LBA he has on hand, so you'll have to figure out the right place to do it.

Cheers,
CC

[Mundy]

Hi Cody,

Supply is in the 40-50k range now. I do have the one monster armored unit there, which has been carrying it's weight.

If I go in, I'm sure the remnants of KB will jump all over it. Coastwatchers have indicated carriers based in the area. Not sure if I want to enter that tar pit when i could just cut everyone's supply from the north. A giant Australian prison camp sounds good right now.

[Macclan5]

ORIGINAL: Mundy

Hi Mac,

1) After the beating I got last time, I'm not willing to run to the Philippines again. I'm down to just Bataan at this point. I bought plenty of time last time, but I don't think it was worth losing my carriers over.

2) At this point, "Australia" is basically Melbourne -- that's it. He has that covered well with air, as I've taken hits getting my last ships out, not to mention the neighboring hex is well mined by this point. I could feed more troops and ammo in, but he's pretty strong down there. Coastwatchers indicate that the rest of KB is probably based in some of the hexes around here. Tulagi comes up frequently.

3) I could probably pull the trigger early, but I want plenty of battleships to go with the invaders and I should have a bunch more in a month or so. My last RN carrier arriving will need some repair work also (20 sys plus some flt damage), which will eat up some time. With them I can have four carriers covering the affair. USMC aircraft will be on the RN ships.

I have to keep in mind that I've only trashed about 1/3 of the original KB. He's still formidable. After the Marshalls, I don't intend to move forwards until I get a bunch of Essexes in hand. Not sure what would be next, but I'm favoring the Marianas. I tried taking Truk once and it wasn't a pleasant experience.

Yes following your reasoning closely.


1 & 2)

I think you are right - Melbourne / Bataan will just have to stand as best they can.

Its interesting that his opening gambits under emphasized the Philippines in favor of Australia; not something I have seen a lot of in reading many many AARs. I have read of the invasions of Darwin / Perth - but rarely such a deep penetration - south of Brisbane that 'activates' those emergency replacements. Seemingly it works. Bring enough to the party and play the supply stranglehold game using the KB to fend off resupply efforts.

--

3) I think I recall you are well advanced in the Marshalls Giblert's now. Land Based F4Fs and Dauntless 3's should be plentiful enough to mop up fron Allinglaplaplaplap (spelling?) ??

Even if you wait another 9 mos for Essex, her kin, and the CVLs - the Mariana's are likely the best target. 'A lot of good' those troops hanging out in Mildura and Canberra will be when you land in Saipan with 6 divisions...

Follow up question:

I cannot envision what his supply to home islands look like though - supporting all the usage in Australia. There is not sufficient HI LI unless I am mistaken ?

Is Japan shipping fuel to Oz ? What a turn of events.

Oil may be flowing to the Home Islands but supply has to be flowing to Australia / New Guinea / everywhere. His xAKs must be 100% flat out... his shipping stretched thin.

How is your silent service faring ?

August 42 and most the initial updates are done. Wahoo and kin come online. Torps are better but still not great.

With Pearl and advanced bases in the Marshalls are you getting lots of sub coverage as far as "Perth" where I imagine he is shipping into ?

[BBfanboy]

Japan has some stockpiles of HI points and supply that will see her through the first year of the war. It is too soon to expect to see shortages all the way back to Japan, if he has enough ships to move supply around.

[Mundy]

I have subs covering the Home Islands and the Philippine-China gap pretty well. Torpedoes being what they are has kept results low. I did nail one transport off of Fusan with a surface attack a couple turns ago.

Midway is a fairly major sub base right now. I'm looking forward to moving this to the Marshalls to keep my forward presence up better.

No clue how stuff's getting to Australia. No coverage that ways. Most of my named subs are farther north, but I'm running some S-boats out of Pago Pago -- mostly covering Suva.

Probably one blind spot in this game is not having to ship imports to Japan to cover the civilian sector. I think in real life at least a quarter of total Japanese shipping needed to deal with that. That would put a big crunch on Military operations.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Mundy

I have subs covering the Home Islands and the Philippine-China gap pretty well. Torpedoes being what they are has kept results low. I did nail one transport off of Fusan with a surface attack a couple turns ago.

Midway is a fairly major sub base right now. I'm looking forward to moving this to the Marshalls to keep my forward presence up better.

No clue how stuff's getting to Australia. No coverage that ways. Most of my named subs are farther north, but I'm running some S-boats out of Pago Pago -- mostly covering Suva.

Probably one blind spot in this game is not having to ship imports to Japan to cover the civilian sector. I think in real life at least a quarter of total Japanese shipping needed to deal with that. That would put a big crunch on Military operations.

I think the Japanese invented sushi and dried seaweed around this time ...

[tarkalak]

ORIGINAL: Mundy
...

Probably one blind spot in this game is not having to ship imports to Japan to cover the civilian sector. I think in real life at least a quarter of total Japanese shipping needed to deal with that. That would put a big crunch on Military operations.

May be it is assumed (under the hood) that some of the Light Industry output goes to the civilian population.

[Mundy]

04 August 1942

No sign of his carrier group anywhere. I can only assumed all his carriers died and the rest booked it out of there. Intel's only showing the same three dead.

I've another UK division enroute to Rangoon, about 7 hexes away hugging the coast. I've LRCAPped two squadrons over them as Kates have been scouting them. I'm debating whether I should attack south again from Moulmein or not. I've about 3,000 AV there, I think, plus more in Rangoon and Pegu.

[Mundy]

15 August 1942

Bataan finally falls. I'm surprised it took this long, since once Clark fell, I had almost nothing left. One less part of the map to look at.

This turn, CVE Copahee arrives at Tacoma. She'll make up for Formidable in my invasion. She's due to withdraw in 20 days, and I was tempted to keep her around, but I need to keep the PPs coming. Illustrious is some 42 days from repair work being done, so I'm provisionally planning to kick off my invasion then. More battleships will arrive by then to beef up the assaulters.

Bunches of USN subchasers arrive this turn. 6 in Eastern US and another 5 in Panama. The ones in Panama have an AD to escort them to Pearl.

Savaii and Pago Pago are in the 150,000 and 200,000 range for supply now. I have a squadron of P-38Fs there now, so I can escort bombers to their full range. More bad news, if the Japanese decide to visit again.

Bombardment at Melbourne.

Ground combat at Melbourne (82,170)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 52355 troops, 758 guns, 525 vehicles, Assault Value = 2534

Defending force 69821 troops, 1305 guns, 1698 vehicles, Assault Value = 2178

Japanese ground losses:
98 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 5 (2 destroyed, 3 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
141 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 2 disabled
Vehicles lost 6 (1 destroyed, 5 disabled)

Assaulting units:
90th Infantry Regiment
19th Ind. Engineer Regiment
4th Division
2nd Engineer Regiment
20th Recon Regiment
9th Tank Regiment
26th Recon Regiment
23rd Tank Regiment
171st Cavalry Regiment
144th Infantry Regiment
24th Infantry Regiment
47th Infantry Regiment
38th Division
146th Infantry Regiment
7th Tank Regiment
3rd Tank Regiment
2nd Raiding Regiment
8th Recon Regiment
8th Tank Regiment
56th Recon Regiment
1st Formosa Inf. Regiment
2nd Tank Regiment
1st Ind. Engineer Regiment
48th Recon Regiment
2nd Recon Regiment
16th Recon Regiment
4th Tank Regiment
II/81st Naval Guard Unit
16th AA Regiment
3rd RF Gun Battalion
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
1st Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
4th RF Gun Battalion
4th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
5th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
6th RF Gun Battalion
7th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
17th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion
3rd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
10th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
6th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
7th RF Gun Battalion
2nd Mortar Battalion
16th Army
15th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Field Artillery Regiment
12th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion

Defending units:
2nd British Para Brigade
7th SA Armoured Brigade
6th Australian Division
27th Rhodesian Brigade
44th British Division
7th Armoured Brigade
2nd NZ Brigade
9th Australian Division
Natal Mtd Rifles Regiment
RAAF OTU Melbourne
C/D Battery Heavy Coastal Artillery Regiment
2/1st Heavy AA Regiment
3rd RAAF M/W Sqn
A/B Battery Heavy Coastal Artillery Regiment
2/2nd Heavy AA Regiment
7th RAAF Base Force
7th RAN Base Force
NW Australia Base Force
NW Aus Aviation Rgt
2/1 NAOU Det.
10th Patl RAAF Wing
2nd RNZAF Base Force
13th Australian Hvy AA Regiment
1st Fgtr RAAF Wing
2nd RAAF M/W Sqn
2nd Australian Army
20th RAAF Base Force
71st RAAF Wing
33rd Medium Regiment
N Force Detachment

Supply there is now empty. He'll still need to pack more troops in to finish the job. I've the feeling he's getting stretched, as far as land forces go.

In one turn, Akagi's been sighted in Perth, Tulagi and Palm Island. I'm suspecting Tulagi, as that one comes up a lot. Once I pounce on the Marshalls, he may be hesitant to jump on them after his recent beating. Two AKVs are due to arrive in Panama from Aden. They'll help give me my instant air force, once I take those islands.

I can't wait for mid-1943 to arrive.