RADM Yamaguchi's Diary (Pls no affins or cheesesteak)

[RangerJoe]

I thought that I had already posted something but it seems to have disappeared. Oh well.

Well, you can replace your Nells quicker than he can replace those cruisers. If you can, pull out a little of each unit at Port Blair and send them to an inner defensive position to rebuild and train.

It also looks like you can pull units out of Manchukuo if needed.

From Bethel, Alaska, USA, you can bomb Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Big Canada Land and possibly hit the Repair Shipyard there.

Depending upon what he has at those Islands off the Alaskan Peninsula, you could paradrop a unit on one to capture it on one turn, the next turn you can fly in some Air Support Squads and supplies while subs can deliver more supplies, then bomb Big Canada Land using your large float planes. Prince George could be hit from Sitkinak three hexes south of Kodiak and Kamloops is 30 hexes away which is the limit of the Emily 1's range.

You might also be able to do some bombing in Australia where there may be undefended Resource production centers.

Points wise you are doing good, these attacks may be minor but could force your opponents to defend those rear areas.

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

Thank you RJ for your thoughts.

i'm glad i was correct in thinking it's good to exchange Nells for cruisers

I've been pulling some units out of china because they were closer than Manchukuo. I'll try the later.

Interesting thoughts about bombing in Canada/N. US.

Do you think i'm ok with:

Supplies - 4.9mm
fuel - 3.3mm
HI - 1.9mm
Res - 24mm
Oil - 3mm

[RangerJoe]

I will be honest with you, I never got that far because the computer always gives up on the 1st day of January in 1943! So you will need to ask a more experienced Japanese player. But as long as the only thing decreasing is your oil and your "to the end of the game" aircraft and engines numbers are increasing, you should be good.

Also, keep training pilots including on Low Naval. Get every extra float plane unit expanded and into training that you can. You will also need them to flood the zones for ASW as well.

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

Well, it's been about 6 months of real life but only 2 months of game time since my last update.

assets:........... as of 10/43................................as of 12/43
supplies............4.9mm....................................5.0mm
fuel.................3.3mm....................................2.7mm
HI...................1.9mm....................................2.2mm
Res..................24mm.....................................26mm
oil...................3.0mm....................................2.9mm

Japan VP............48k..........................................54k
Allied VP............22k..........................................28k

I have no idea if any of these number are good or bad.

Still hold a lot territory but the allies are really pressing in Burma.

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

Naval Battles around Burma have been brutal

in two months

IJN losses :
1CVL, 2CVE,1BB,7CA,5CL,32DD

Allied losses:
3CV,1CVL,1BB,5CA,12CL,24DD

Totals for the game:

IJN losses:
1CV,2CVL,2CVE,2BB,10CA,13CL,93DD

Allied losses:
9CV,2CVL,3CVE,15BB,17CA,32CL,127DD

again i don't quite know the significance of these.

It does seem important that i have not lost many CVs.

I don't know the OOB for allies so i don't really know how may they get.

any thoughts would be welcome.

[RangerJoe]

Naval Battles around Burma have been brutal

in two months

IJN losses :
1CVL, 2CVE,1BB,7CA,5CL,32DD

Allied losses:
3CV,1CVL,1BB,5CA,12CL,24DD

Totals for the game:

IJN losses:
1CV,2CVL,2CVE,2BB,10CA,13CL,93DD

Allied losses:
9CV,2CVL,3CVE,15BB,17CA,32CL,127DD

again i don't quite know the significance of these.

It does seem important that i have not lost many CVs.

I don't know the OOB for allies so i don't really know how may they get.

any thoughts would be welcome.

You are losing lots of destroyers but the Allies do get a lot more ships but they must be hurting somewhat. If the enemy has lost British battleships that are withdrawn and do not return, that won't affect them as much but as far as I remember, those are the four "R" class and the Warspite. The same for losing carriers since the British carriers are not as capable. If those cruisers, light and heavy, that are lost are a lot of the early ones especially the "C" and "D" class, most of those get withdrawn. So if you can post a list, maybe someone with more expertise as Japan and the Allies in the late war can give you some advice.

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

You are losing lots of destroyers but the Allies do get a lot more ships but they must be hurting somewhat. If the enemy has lost British battleships that are withdrawn and do not return, that won't affect them as much but as far as I remember, those are the four "R" class and the Warspite. The same for losing carriers since the British carriers are not as capable. If those cruisers, light and heavy, that are lost are a lot of the early ones especially the "C" and "D" class, most of those get withdrawn. So if you can post a list, maybe someone with more expertise as Japan and the Allies in the late war can give you some advice.

Thanks RJ,

here is the ship list

some R BBs
some C and D Cruisers
but i think lots of others

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[RADM.Yamaguchi]

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[RangerJoe]

Those are mostly good carriers along with two faster US battleships but are you playing with something that gives the US replacements for sunken carriers and cruisers if they sank before 1944? If not, there is no reason to have the "Enterprise II" nor the "Saratoga II" unless your enemies changed the names of other carriers when they were building.

Most of those cruisers were older ones except the CLAA Atlanta, the Mobile, and the CL Montpelier. Those CLAAs should stick with carrier TFs while the Mobile and the Montpelier should run with three other good CLs and 4 to 8 Flether class destroyers. The Brooklyn class and the St. Louis subclass are also excellent cruisers with heavy cruiser armour and speed.

A lot of those Royal Naval cruisers would otherwise be withdrawn. All of those cruisers would be good escorts for one purpose or another and some are good for raiding.

Those older US battleships are good for bombardments so it is good to sink the as well.

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

Those are mostly good carriers along with two faster US battleships but are you playing with something that gives the US replacements for sunken carriers and cruisers if they sank before 1944? If not, there is no reason to have the "Enterprise II" nor the "Saratoga II" unless your enemies changed the names of other carriers when they were building.

Most of those cruisers were older ones except the CLAA Atlanta, the Mobile, and the CL Montpelier. Those CLAAs should stick with carrier TFs while the Mobile and the Montpelier should run with three other good CLs and 4 to 8 Flether class destroyers. The Brooklyn class and the St. Louis subclass are also excellent cruisers with heavy cruiser armour and speed.

A lot of those Royal Naval cruisers would otherwise be withdrawn. All of those cruisers would be good escorts for one purpose or another and some are good for raiding.

Those older US battleships are good for bombardments so it is good to sink the as well.

This is just a plain old scenario 2 game

i thought all the games gave the allies replacements

[RangerJoe]

Those are mostly good carriers along with two faster US battleships but are you playing with something that gives the US replacements for sunken carriers and cruisers if they sank before 1944? If not, there is no reason to have the "Enterprise II" nor the "Saratoga II" unless your enemies changed the names of other carriers when they were building.

Most of those cruisers were older ones except the CLAA Atlanta, the Mobile, and the CL Montpelier. Those CLAAs should stick with carrier TFs while the Mobile and the Montpelier should run with three other good CLs and 4 to 8 Flether class destroyers. The Brooklyn class and the St. Louis subclass are also excellent cruisers with heavy cruiser armour and speed.

A lot of those Royal Naval cruisers would otherwise be withdrawn. All of those cruisers would be good escorts for one purpose or another and some are good for raiding.

Those older US battleships are good for bombardments so it is good to sink the as well.

This is just a plain old scenario 2 game

i thought all the games gave the allies replacements

Not for the sunk ships unless they were actually sunk in the war and both the Enterprise and the Saratoga survived. The Saratoga was at Bikini during the atomic bomb tests.

[Bullshark]

Thanks for the AAR, really like how you hi-lite key attacks, and your thoughts. You are in a great position
with a really large perimeter. So far your raiding style has enabled this. I always learn something new from
every AAR and your use of the B6N1 Jill was great: dump the DB's and go after ports and AF.

Did you really prioritize the Jill research to get it in great numbers by 1/43?
Most people are slow to use because the HA-44 engine is only used in this plane (depending on scenario).

You have a huge supply stockpile so you can expand production as much as you like. You can research all the
late war a/c and bring some of them forward. What are your R & D plans for the rest of the war?

I noticed he was using his LBA at 5k ft. against AF. That's just above small arms fire, so those AA Machine Cannon
units in Manchuria are the best defense. They are really cheap to buy out, but have a small number of barrels per unit.
Those 20mm eat up alot of ammo (I don't know how much), but they put a few holes in those planes and make milk
runs a little more costly.
Just like a layered CAP, a layered AA defense works well, and the PP cost is low.

As the war progresses and your turns get shorter It will be great to get your take on how you approach a layered CAP,
with those '43 a/c, and also the pilot quality in each layer. I think alot of IJN players go through their experienced pilot pools with too many air battles in '43; sometimes its better to give up the air and AF in Burma and use engineers for a jungle defense, and those air units for training.

Your pools are great but you can never save enough so you are in a great position to expand pilot training with all your
elites.

It seems defending key atolls requires about 5 units; Reg't, SNLF, BF, ART, AT, CD. The AF support will overstack,
until the AF is destroyed. I am using fragments alot to spread the defense a little and watch overstacking. Can't wait
to see your results.

I always pull a fragment out when I first land the unit so I don't have to do it under fire. Naura, Saipan, Rabaul, Truk
have all these fragments set to train on these bases so when the atoll falls these units are usually ready to defend the
next line in 60 - 100 days, just ahead of the next invasion.

When the Allies are slow to move in the Pacific, and they still don't have carrier parity, they go for the DEI, You have the supplies so build up some key bases with LRCAP bases (2 hexes is ideal, to reduce ops losses) behind them to force a protracted air campaign and only put your land forces on a few well dug in port bases, and the nearby LRCAP base(s). Think interlocking LRCAP,

Thanks again for the AAR.

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

Hi Bullshark,

It's really nice to see some new interest in this thread. I'll be sure to update it soon.

[M Peaston]

I've been catching up on your AAR over the last few weeks or so; I've enjoyed reading it and learned a lot. I'm glad to hear you'll be updating it soon.

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

I'll try to give a sense of what's going on here.

Most of the action is near Burma. I've got the 14, 15, 16, 21 and 25th armies up here and almost all of my IJA Air units.

The allies took Port Blair fairly easily which has really hurt my efforts to hold.

They landed a sizeable force at Pegu and reinforced that over several days.

I was just able to throw them out last turn

you can see my Air Combat unit with 8 odd CV,CVL,CVEs to the upper left.

i took a chance and ran them up through the straight between rangoon and port blair.

I thought i might deflect some air attacks from my ground units and land based air.

I snuck through with just one bomb hit and lost a few fighters but nailed quite few allied planes.

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[RADM.Yamaguchi]

There is some developing pressure towards the philippines from N Australia

Lots of aircraft and ship gathering Port Hedland Broome and Derby with TFs moving east.

I managed to interfere quite a bit so far. Koepang and Dili are size 9 AFs and i've got a lot of IJN air units here behind forts and lots of AA.

N. Australia.jpg (190.71 KiB) Viewed 537 times

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

In the new guinea area Rabaul, Buna and Hansa Bay are all level 9 AFs with all my backup IJN air in training

This area is fairly quiet but forts are well built up and strike aircraft are fairly easy to fly in quickly

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[RADM.Yamaguchi]

The South Pacifc is well covered by Nells w/torps and escorts, plenty of air search

The allies still hold Pago Pago (I was never able to take it) but i've tried to react to any probing aggressively

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[RADM.Yamaguchi]

The allies have taken both Wake and Marcus (surprising but hard to defend) but i have enough carrier air power and long range naval air to keep marcus fairly empty and wake under control. I doubt i want to try to retake them but am wide open to ideas on anything and everything. I am just making all of this up as i go.

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[RADM.Yamaguchi]

The north pacific has been quiet but i've got some very good IJN air based here and substantial IJA ground units with a squadron of my best destroyers plus others. I could rotate some out but its a long way to get back here.

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