Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Korbac]

No, we want to know what's going on in the whole fleet.

Personally I quite like the way you did it before Erkki (i.e. talking about maneuvers / large battle groups), but just tack where Zuiho is and what it's doing on the end.

[Zrk2]

Update everything, please. It's very interesting.

[Erkki]

Okay, I'll write down the last 2 days now... Zuiho saw some action today and there was a major naval battle against the combined units of Royal Navy and USN, so stay tuned on! 

[Erkki]

December 10 1942


Malaya:

IJN and RN destroyer skirmish along the Malayan coast, no only a couple of minor hits received for each side. Yesterday IJNAF hit many ships near Georgetown and today they repeat these strikes but get hit bad by Buffalos set on CAP: 9 G4Ms are lost and another 9 Ki-21s that bombed Georgetown. Zeros sweep Singapore and score 12-ish - 0 vs. Buffaloes!

Philippines:

IJN keeps killing off stragglers, DD Scout is finally finishes off. Zeros score 10-0 against P-40s over Clark Field. B5Ns from Zuiho fly to hit the shipping that is still sitting at Manila but they get mauled badly by P-40s and 7 are lost... Nevertheless the pursuing IJN catches AO Pecos and some lesser ships off near Borneo.

[Erkki]

December 11 1942

Zuiho-1:

Zuiho-1 was tasked with sweeping Manila to reduce the USAAF fighter strength on Luzon. All 12 planes made it to the target and engaged the 15-ish P-40s that were found patrolling. The P-40s, despite being about as good fighters as A6Ms, stood no chance with their lacking training and discipline!

All of the (claimed) pilots made it home. Fujita's(timferius) Zero was damaged but he managed to bring it back aboard the Zuiho, however the plane had to be written off and now serves to be cannibalized for spare parts. 4 confirmed aerial victories were scored: Matsuyama, H(Hanzoku), Kasai N.(Thobal), Kotani(Zrk2), and Kubota (Korbac) scored one each, so all kills went to claimed pilots. Nice! The second damaged Zero was not so lucky and did not make it home.

The unit's morale is now higher than ever before(97/99). The tomorrow's orders are to just fly CAP over the task force, but the day after, Zuiho will finally get to the real combat zone and participate in the invasions of Singkawang in Borneo and the most important hex of the WitPAE: Palembang, on Sumatra!

[Erkki]

December 11 1942

Malaya:

The yesterday is revenged for: escorted bombers hit Georgetown's port and sink about 15 ships. Zeros sweep Singapore and shoot down at least 17 Buffaloes for 2 lost Zeros.

Off Borneo, Japanese cruiser squadron with 4 CA and 8 destroyers meet a Royal Navy cruiser squadron. In the very long nocturnal battle, the DD Usugumo is hit for moderate damage, but RN cruisers CL Dragon and CL Durban are hit very, very badly and very likely they both sunk. CL Danae is also hit badly and is later finished off by a submarine. Also 2 of the escort destroyers are badly hit and HQ believes at least the other one to have sunk. Japanese cruisers Mikuma and Suzya need some new paint on their armored towers... Banzai!

Then the same cruiser squadron finds a Manila survivor, DD Pillsbury, and finishes it off.

And then they find CL Mauritius at Singkawang and put some holes on her in 2 engagements... No heavy damage is observed but I doubt that she'll be a threat for some time.

Unfortunately an Allied submarine then hits CL Isuzu with 2 torpedoes and the resulting magazine explosion sinks her. Leader of her escorting destroyer squadron commits seppuku 2 hours later. Escort DDs made no attempt to even find the submarine...

In the daylight, Japanese Heavy Cover Force clears Singkawang of the Dutch pests that apparently tried to mine it...


Philippines and nearby:

IJN sweeps Luzon and shoots down about 12 P-40s to just 2 lost Zeros.

IJN surface units destroy 2 BIG fleeing tankers near Tarakan, multiple merchantmen in the Philippinear archipelago, a big fat troop transport and some lone xAKs are destroyed by Saigon's G3M2s.


SOPAC:

Multiple bases invaded, including Rabaul. CLs Tenryu and Tatsuta sink a troop transport that tried to escape.


Kido Butai Some idiot  forgot to cut the range of attack aircraft and KB revealed its position by attacking the mine layer/sweeper that was fleeing from Guam... Darnit.

[timferius]

December 11 1942

Zuiho-1:

Zuiho-1 was tasked with sweeping Manila to reduce the USAAF fighter strength on Luzon. All 12 planes made it to the target and engaged the 15-ish P-40s that were found patrolling. The P-40s, despite being about as good fighters as A6Ms, stood no chance with their lacking training and discipline!

All of the (claimed) pilots made it home. Fujita's(timferius) Zero was damaged but he managed to bring it back aboard the Zuiho, however the plane had to be written off and now serves to be cannibalized for spare parts. 4 confirmed aerial victories were scored: Matsuyama, H(Hanzoku), Kasai N.(Thobal), Kotani(Zrk2), and Kubota (Korbac) scored one each, so all kills went to claimed pilots. Nice! The second damaged Zero was not so lucky and did not make it home.

The unit's morale is now higher than ever before(97/99). The tomorrow's orders are to just fly CAP over the task force, but the day after, Zuiho will finally get to the real combat zone and participate in the invasions of Singkawang in Borneo and the most important hex of the WitPAE: Palembang, on Sumatra!

So, out of curiosity, do carriers carry spare planes? Or does that ground me until it's replaced. Or do we cycle out? It occurs to me we probably have more pilots on board than planes already.

[Erkki]

December 11 1942

Zuiho-1:

Zuiho-1 was tasked with sweeping Manila to reduce the USAAF fighter strength on Luzon. All 12 planes made it to the target and engaged the 15-ish P-40s that were found patrolling. The P-40s, despite being about as good fighters as A6Ms, stood no chance with their lacking training and discipline!

All of the (claimed) pilots made it home. Fujita's(timferius) Zero was damaged but he managed to bring it back aboard the Zuiho, however the plane had to be written off and now serves to be cannibalized for spare parts. 4 confirmed aerial victories were scored: Matsuyama, H(Hanzoku), Kasai N.(Thobal), Kotani(Zrk2), and Kubota (Korbac) scored one each, so all kills went to claimed pilots. Nice! The second damaged Zero was not so lucky and did not make it home.

The unit's morale is now higher than ever before(97/99). The tomorrow's orders are to just fly CAP over the task force, but the day after, Zuiho will finally get to the real combat zone and participate in the invasions of Singkawang in Borneo and the most important hex of the WitPAE: Palembang, on Sumatra!

So, out of curiosity, do carriers carry spare planes? Or does that ground me until it's replaced. Or do we cycle out? It occurs to me we probably have more pilots on board than planes already.

Yeah, Zuiho-1 had 3 half assembled spare planes, and the carrier has actually lot of spare space... But I'm not expanding any air units for now, as the pools of Zeros and trained pilots are lowish and I want to keep reserves for the units that see action daily. That situation will hopefully start to improve from now, though.

EDIT: I actually read your question only now.  No, the pilots and planes are rotated. Pilot fatigue is tracked and the best pilots, depending on mission, are picked to fly, with the fatigue factored in. Mission lengths, types, flying altitude, combat and combat type, AAA, hits, attacks and being attacked all effect fatigue, and fatigue effects unit morale and acts as a modifier for pilots' skills, while morale effects the chance of disengaging from a batlle that is going badly(or, trying it). Fatigue is also tracked for each individual plane as is their combat damage. The higher damage and fatigue the higher the plane is in the mechanics to-do list, and at some point the plane becomes unflyable. Both effect the plane's performance and the chance of ops losses like crashing at landing etc.

[timferius]

That's.... rather detailed! Anyways, good to know I'm not grounded after the first sortie. Vengence will be mine!

[Erkki]

December 12 1942

Another good day for the Japanese


Malaya and Borneo:

Japanese destroyer squadrons led by light cruisers, IJNAF and submarines sink the largest mine layer I've ever seen, a tanker, a USN destroyer near Palembang, an AS submarine tender support ship near Georgetown and the dutch submarine, ID'd as O16, near Singkawang. Troops land at Singkawang with no interruption and the place will fall tomorrow. Dutch bombers sortie against the invasion fleet but fail to score hits - and the day after tomorrow there will be Zero and bomber squadrons operating from Singkawang already.

Looks like theres a mine field deployed off Palembang... The sunk USN DD had hit a friendly mine before it got torpedoed. Hmm....

Also, theres still a massive number of ships in Singapore, including a "battleship". That one is probably CL Mauritius...


Philippines:

IJN surface units and attack aircraft from CVL Ryujo take out a handful more ships.

Near Luzon, 21 USAAF P-40s and 3 SOC-1 Seagulls attack the Japanese invasion fleet! The CAP of 7 IJAAF Ki-27s shoot down 3 Seagulls, while the AAA from the fleet damaged multiple strafing and bombing P-40s and down at least one. Two ships suffer light damage from gunfire, but bombs all miss.

Japanese invasion fleet unloads at Cagayan, Mindanao, but it looks like there are too many defenders, and the infantry regiment still at Bedeldoab will be needed(as expected).


Pacific:

Wake invasion force detects an Allied aircraft 13 hex from target! The course is changed to South for a day so that KB will be able to protect the fleet from tomorrow. KB is fully combat ready.

[Erkki]

I decided against building the second super battleship, BB Musashi, this time. With the same resources, we can build over 6000 single engine aircraft or build 2,000 and well trained aircrew to man them all. Or, say, 750 bombers and 500 fighters... So unlike last game, this time I will rationalize the naval production instead of expanding it. The capacity and HI that would have been used to finish the Musashi will be used to accelerate and finish quicker 2 Unryu class CVs and to build 2 more of the larger E14Y equipped submarines. Looks like a good trade, to me.

[Erkki]

And the year is, of course, still 1941 and not 1942! Oops! 

[Erkki]

December 13 1941

Disappointing naval actions but other than that, we're still doing well...

CVL Zuiho:

Near Singkawang, the force was apparently not detected today. Zuiho's air groups mission for today is to provide air cover for the fleet at and near Singkawang and to fly escort to Singkawang's attack aircraft should they sortie.


Malaya:

Ki-43s shoot down the last 2 Buffaloes that meet the port raid over Singapore, while the 20-ish Ki-21 bombers score hits on 7 ships. 6 (probably very small) xAPs and some xAKs are hit, but so is the DD Peary that escaped from Manila and later received hits in the night battle against the Japanese CA squadron near Singkawang. Heavy fires and heavy damage is observed after the side penetration.

G4Ms sink 3 small civilian ships in the Malaccan straits...

CL-led DD squadrons sink CMc Pro Patria and engage the lone, smoking CL Mauritius twice(failing to hit with torpedoes and scoring just 2 superstructure hits in the addition of 7 that didnt penetrate armor). They also engage CL Java, CL Tromp and 2 escorting DDs and score a superstucture hit on each of them for no received damage. An RN destroyer is engaged north of Singkawang but it escaped after receiving a single hit.

IJNAF air units will now fly in. Singapore is now pretty much cut off, and reinforcing Sumatra should be difficult as IJNAF bombers can reach every port of it.

Singkawang is captured by the Japanese troops, and with it many B-339 fighters and 139WH bombers are lost! For whatever reason they apparently could not fly to Singapore, Batavia or Palembang.


Philippines and Celebes Sea:

A CL squadron sinks a small merchant near Tarakan while CVL Ryujo and her escorts + a surface combat CA squadron have retired a bit to refuel.

Manado invasion in 48 hours.

At Cagayan on Mindanao, Japanese troops manage to push back the defenders and refuce fortifications to 0, after all! P-26s strafe Japanese troops but achieve nothing.

Over Luzon, Zero sweep finds only 3 P-40s and shoots down 2 of them. Aerial recce finds fighters only at Iba, 19 of them, but they were either stood down or attempted and failed to fly naval attacks against the Japanese invasion fleet.


Pacific:

Wake invasion in 4 days.

Second amphibious task force lands at Rabaul, and the place should fall tomorrow.

[Mithras]

Could I jump in as PO1 Kurihara O. assuming he is unclaimed and still alive?

[Erkki]

Sure!

Tomorrow is a big day as Zuiho & CO will sail, in purpose, to the torpedo-carrying range for Swordfish, Albacore and Wildebeest bombers from Singapore. The idea is to set up a trap to kill off as many of them as possible before the operation to invade and capture Palembang(D-day in 6 days or so).