Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[John B.]

I wonder if one of the Oscars bounced from one ship to another. Given that and the Takao results I suspect Tokyo Rose is taking over the combat reporting.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: John B.

I wonder if one of the Oscars bounced from one ship to another. Given that and the Takao results I suspect Tokyo Rose is taking over the combat reporting.

Of the 13 kamikaze hits that DD Laffey took, a fair number were glancing blows that clipped a mast or dinged a rail with a wingtip. It is conceivable that if another ship were nearby the aircraft could have blundered into it as well.

[John B.]

I figure if there is no damage or fires reported it was more of a wing clip than an actual hit.

[John B.]

Assault on Manila!!! On the downside I took more losses than Scott, but not by much, but very much on the upside he failed to reduce the level 9 forts! And he took a whole lot of disruptions so it will be a few turns before he tries that again. I do have a lot of fire power in the hex (artillery value more than 550) so I'm surprised that his actual losses were not higher but still this is a pretty good result.

[John B.]

And Scott also struck me at Clark Field. Here he took heavier losses. I don't have much artillery here at all but I do have a lot of AT guns and a large part of Scott's attack force is tanks so that's what helped push the totals higher. All is all, our losses in the two battles were almost exactly equal (according to fog of war) which is a 2-1 advantage VP wise for me. The overall supply levels between clark and Manila are at about 155,000. And, the airlift from Taiwan has resumed bringing in 230 or so per turn to help limit the drain.

[John B.]

The troops in Manila came off very well from the attack. Here is one of the divisions. It's going to take Scott a long time to dig these boys out.

[John B.]

I've turn off all replacements and upgrades for the Manila/Clark units. I don't want to waste the supply on those sorts of things. I'm not sure how much supply it actually burns but I do need Manila to hold out for a long time!

[John B.]

Meanwhile, the KB has made it past Taiwan. I may send it to Yokahama as there is a bunch of refitting that needs to be done and Nagasaki is already in B-29 range. I don't have a lot of fuel anyway so I think that makes the most sense. Right now they just have to avoid the swarms of subs that are trying to get in a lucky shot.

[John B.]

It's the last turn of July 1944 and the KB is one step closer to Kyushu. No real naval action last night except that 4 US DD ignored 195 mines at Takao to sink a DD, a PB and an E.

[John B.]

Over the skies of Takao there was a lot of dog fighting. It looks like I suffered a bit less than 2-1 losses with lots of Corsairs knocked out. No bombs on my transports this time, but I'm sure that's next on the agenda. I'll keep flying supplies out of here as long as I can.

[John B.]

My Manila bombardment. I'm going to do this for one more turn then shut down my bombardment. That will save me lots of supply I hope. And, since I've been shooting down 1-4 planes per turn my supply garners more VP if I save it and can shoot AA for longer. I'm not actually sure how to figure how much supply I'll save but it must be something.

BTW, Scott and I have been discussing the victory conditions. He is of the opinion that if he wins by December 31, 1945 he wins the game. But, I remember seeing a long post from Albert with the position that the Japanese win if they hold out to the end of August 1945. Anyone know the answer to that?

[John B.]

So we bounce into August 1944 with Scott staging massive air raids on Takao. The sweeps worked a little bit in my favor in that the heavy bombers went in before all the sweeps were done so Scott lost about 10 heavies (including 9 B-29s). But, he shut down the airfield and the main resupply line to Manila. It was bound to happen, my only regred are all the damaged planes on the runway that he can now blow up at his leisure.

[John B.]

Here is the Taiwan/Philippines map. As you can see, the CV Cloud is just off the coast of Taiwan. Not much I can do about it, so I grin and bear it.

[John B.]

The Burma front is at an absolute standstill. I'm sure Scott expects that I'll retreat from Moulmein one of these days or that he'll cut me off by landing in Indochina so he does not want to commit to taking losses by crossing the river. He might be right but there is no sense in freeing him up early.

[John B.]

And finally, the monthly resources screen.

[John B.]

So, comparing where things stand, Scott picked up 6,200 VP in July and I picked up 129. Not great, but he also captured Singapore and Rangoon this time giving him 3,630 and costing me 780 VP. So, taking out the facts I don't like (my lost cities ) he's causing losses at about 2.5-1. Enough to win but I'm not sure if that's going to be enough for him to bridge the 20,000 VP gap to pull even and then go ahead by another 61,000 or so. We shall see. He will pick up a lot from Manila/Clark Field but he's going to have to take cities in China and/or the HI to win this puppy.

Resource-wise the sharp supply drop and minor fuel drop were due in large part to my experiment with shutting down some HI. I really don't see me needing a lot more HI points so basically I'm burning fuel to make supply.

Really, if any JFB has any insight as to how things look I'd really like to hear it!

[John B.]

August 3rd and the KB is snug at Yokohama (which reminds me of the song "I'm a cranky old yank in a clankety old tank on the streets of Yokohama") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrI-y77Pz5E

The KB is undergoing a long delayed upgrade cycle currently out of range of allied B-29s.

[John B.]

In the meantime, Scott launched another direct assault on Clark Field. It's clearly about to go under so I'm trying to pull out the AA guns, AT guns and support personnel as fast as possible. There is too much excess supply sitting in clark and even with stockpile on as well as maximum supply directed to Manila there is still 19K supply at Clark. Let's hope returning units bring some of that along.

[John B.]

But, here is something that is so odd that it makes me wonder. I did not bombard at Manila to conserve supply. The allies bombarded and this wacky result came up. It seems almost impossible to believe that he lost 190 or so squads and devices to a countrbombardment. [X(] If it's true (or even close to true) the dice gods must have been in my favor for that roll!!

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: John B.
But, here is something that is so odd that it makes me wonder. I did not bombard at Manila to conserve supply. The allies bombarded and this wacky result came up. It seems almost impossible to believe that he lost 190 or so squads and devices to a countrbombardment. [X(] If it's true (or even close to true) the dice gods must have been in my favor for that roll!!

That's more in line with what I usually see smashing myself against 9 forts.