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[Erkki]

On Sumatra and Java... Once Rabaul is secured, and if the Americans dont show up there the Kido Butai will then move to refuel near Bedelaob(oilers will set sail from Kobe tomorrow), and then sail to Sumatra where troops should be securing Oosthaven(in the most southern tip of the island) already. Then Kido Butai will sail through the strait and move to the Indian Ocean... And raid Perth in Australia. It is very possible that there is nothing waiting, but with some luck, there can be hundreds of transports and warships, maybe even their carriers. KB will be unavailable to react to a possible counterattack somewhere else, but Perth should be a relatively low-risk high-prize target. If Peth is found to be empty of high priority targets, there should be enough fuel left to go check Darwin and then Timor, before KB having to refit and refuel again, probably at Hong Kong.

Another post-Rabaul raid target would be Brisbane/Sydney area and Fiji. Also their carriers, at least American ones, are more likely somewhere around there. Either Perth, Hawaii, Fiji or Coral Sea/East/Northeast Aussieland, or in transit. Suggestions?

[Erkki]

Okay. Today's update shall come a bit later... And it'll have the whole map.

The American carriers. What happened in real life was that Admiral Nagumo, commander of the KB, had no idea where they were. That was the reason he never launched a 3rd strike on Pearl Harbour. The Japanese carriers would return home and sail around relatively safe waters until Coral Sea, where the Japanese failed to use their numerical superiority and and lost 2 fleet carriers to drydock. This meant that they had 2 carriers missing in Midway, where 4 were sank by Americans in a battle that everything went perfectly until Nagumo screw up. A series of unfortunate incidents, poor leadership, bad planning and horrible luck. Nagumo had grown too bold after KB annihilated Hermes and the British fleet in the Indian Ocean a month earlier.

My situation now is that KB is intact, and one American CV is down. As I said earlier, I'm going to try a forced carrier vs. carrier battle as early as possible, because my odds are the best now. One possibility, I kid you not, is striking Pearl again, or the boldest plan of them all, raid Los Angeles and San Francisco. Risks are high(lots of bombers, lots of their navy, behind Pearl Harbour), but here are the pros and cons, at least the ones I can think of:

Los Angeles/San Francisco:
+guaranteed to have important, and vulnerable stuff, heaps of it, probably at least one CV and those battleships damaged in Pearl
+air protection is most likely sleeping/training/low guard, or their planes have been stolen to more important places
+the little air protection flies mostly outdated planes, and is not placed properly to protect LA/SF.
-range, its hit & run, max 1 day of camping around killing stuff
-because of previous point, weather might ruin everything
-has potential of a disaster: what if KB is, after all, sighted early, say, the day before its in range?
-Hawaii is left behind, it might surprise us pants down on the way home, if I dont do something as fancy as, say, egress South and use battleships to escort the oilers there

Hawaii:
+more likely to have the CVs
+the largest Allied port, airbase and drydock before West Coast USA
+much closer, much safer approach
-likely to have loads of air units of all kind, including long range naval search and fighters
-also guaranteed to have loads of land units, including 5-6 battalions of anti aircraft artillery

The way I see it, East coast Aussieland is the easiest and has least risk, while West Coast US has highest risk but also 100% chance of getting within strike range of something very important, but not too well protected. The greatest problem is getting in and out unscatched, when with Hawaii the problem is mainly the AAA and fighters.

Before I forget to mention, Kido Butai at the moment has

6 carriers, with 396 aircraft, 35% A6M2 Zero, 35% N1K2, 30% D3A1
10 destroyers

Its escorts being
2 battleships(Kirishima and Hiei)
3 cruisers
6 destroyers
13 float search planes

and as a replenishment/support force,
8 heavy oilers
2 destroyers

In my/our command. All aircraft are flown by the very elite of the Navy. With this many fancy toys you tend to use them more aggressively than you should...

[Erkki]

Jan 4th; (first post's claims updated)

Night shift has some action this time, an Allied transport escorted by a mine layer run into my destroyers near the southern tip of Sumatra, and get both sank. At the dawn, one of the submarines I had tasked over a week ago to patrol off Java island for the British battleships met 2 transports more, and destroyed them both.

Over Sumatra, the Dutch air force tried attacking the port again, this time meeting 40 Hayabusas. The raid was turned back with moderate-ish losses.

CVE Hosho sets sail, first step is Shanghai!


Rabaul invasion force is now almost ready, the last bits of supply will be loaded within a few hours and the force will set sail. Kido Butai is less than a hundred miles from Truk, and will move southwest to Truk until the invasion force gets closer to its target.

The bets are now placed, and the die cast...

The different colour lines in the screenshot below are my planned phases of the offensive part of the war, hopefully up to July 42. Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan.

[Zrk2]

I'm thinking you (we?) should try and clean up the islands north of Australia, and then push down south-east, hitting Sydney and any other ports in Australia. Then you can use the Caroline islands to push into the islands out to the west. If supplies allow a strong force should strike Hawaii, hopefully pushing America back to the drawing board again. I like your plan to cut his supply lines in Burma, that is brilliant. With them cut off you can crush them from Indochina. Manchuria should continue to invade China. Take whatever is most useful. Most likely for ground units, as anything that would go to the navy is too far away to be useful. Do you have a fleet keeping India covered? I bet eventually you will see an assault from there coming up hoping to split your forces, leaving some for Australia to hit, and the others for the British army once they don't have naval support.

Just keep an eye out for the inevitable American counterattack. It sounds like you are nearing the end of your surge, now the odds will start to even out and tip against you. Be careful.

And I hope my battle cruiser/ship doesn't go the route of the Hood. That would suck.

[Mithras]

If you plan to hit the west coast of America I would advise making a feint agaisnt Pearl Harbour as or before you hit. Maybe even attempt to provide bait for the Pearl harbour fleet in order to draw it out in the wrong direction and reduce their fuel supplies, hopefully forcing them to refuel while you pull off the hit and run attack or at the very least reduce their operational range so they would have a harder time persuing you.

Then again, what do I know?

[Zrk2]

Yeah, all my ideas come from an understanding of military tactics that has come from years of watching History Channel, and reading a whole lot fantasy novels with battle scenes in them. So take anything I suggest with a grain of salt, or several.

[Erkki]

I'm thinking you (we?) should try and clean up the islands north of Australia, and then push down south-east, hitting Sydney and any other ports in Australia. Then you can use the Caroline islands to push into the islands out to the west. If supplies allow a strong force should strike Hawaii, hopefully pushing America back to the drawing board again. I like your plan to cut his supply lines in Burma, that is brilliant. With them cut off you can crush them from Indochina. Manchuria should continue to invade China. Take whatever is most useful. Most likely for ground units, as anything that would go to the navy is too far away to be useful. Do you have a fleet keeping India covered? I bet eventually you will see an assault from there coming up hoping to split your forces, leaving some for Australia to hit, and the others for the British army once they don't have naval support.

Just keep an eye out for the inevitable American counterattack. It sounds like you are nearing the end of your surge, now the odds will start to even out and tip against you. Be careful.

And I hope my battle cruiser/ship doesn't go the route of the Hood. That would suck.

Yep, that would be the easiest plan. I'll see how the case with Rabaul progresses before I decide where to use the KB. The New Guinea is mostly useless, only bigger towns there are Port Moresby and Rabaul. Other than that, there are just few small oil fields in the Western end. They will get all secured, but if I dont have to have a fight, I dont, I'll let the Aussies rot in the jungle protecting the crocodiles and whatever else there might be. Good part of the places will be just bypassed and "mopped up" later. Standard blitzkrieg. 

Whether Allies counterattack soon or only later in the spring depends on my opponent... Its very possibly that he is now careful, losing Enterprise, 75%+ of its aircraft(and pilots) as well as every single escort cruiser and destroyer must have hurt. Militarily at least, if not psychologically as well. If his carriers dont show up to the slaughter voluntarily in the next 5-6 days we'll go get 'em.

On  India... ...no, at the moment I have nothing in the Indian ocean. The British I know to have evacuated some stuff from Singapore there, and theres also CVE Hermes and its fearsome biplanes. Possibly Prince of Wales as well, and the surviving cruiser force. But once Singapore is secured, the 25th Army is half railed to Bangkok where it moves to Burma, half will prepare an amphibious assault. The 16th Army units will move to Sumatra and prepare to invade Java.

If you plan to hit the west coast of America I would advise making a feint agaisnt Pearl Harbour as or before you hit. Maybe even attempt to provide bait for the Pearl harbour fleet in order to draw it out in the wrong direction and reduce their fuel supplies, hopefully forcing them to refuel while you pull off the hit and run attack or at the very least reduce their operational range so they would have a harder time persuing you.

Then again, what do I know?

Not a bad idea. Problem is I'm presuming him to have at least one carrier in Hawaii, and as I want as great as superiority as possible to the forced carrier task force duel, the diversionary raid would have to go without fleet carriers. CVL Ryujo is out for a few weeks at least, CVL Zuiho has an important task atm(keeping eye on Philippine evacuees), CVE Taiyo is slow and doesnt have air units at all(its used for moving land-based aircraft and their support organisations between islands), and CVE Hosho has just 20 aircraft, and can only do 25 knots. With 2/9 battleships with KB, 2 drydocked and 3 making sure PoW doesnt show up again, I have just Kongo and Haruna left for reaction or new operations, until Singapore is secured or PoW is located. Its not in Singapore, thats for sure, Yamashiro and Fuso, with  4 torpedo cruisers, check Batavia's port early hours tomorrow... 

[Erkki]

Jan 5th.

Yamashiro and Fuso sail to Batavia... And catch some Brits their pants down! 4 transports and a semi-large tanker are sank, some more ships hit. The battleships also bombard the airfield before they sail out.

Tomorrow morning, a small force will land Sangkaugawan(or something) in the North West corner or Borneo. Once they succeed, Singapore is effectively cut off.

In China, my forces advance in 3 areas... Wuchow was captured the day before yesterday, btw. This turn more fighting in the north, 8000 dead Chinese soldiers. Poor beggars dont have even molotov cocktails against my tanks...

Kido Butai is in position. Its escorts have been refueled at Truk, and will now position between KB and the invasion fleet. Rabaul D-day is the Jan 8th.

[Zrk2]

I would say you should send those ships looking for PoW to screw India's shipping up. Fuck their shit. It should also cut off any supplies to the islands that don't come from Australia. You should be able to get some juicy kills if you launch an invasion down there, because he should think it is fairly secure, based on the last full world screenshot you posted. Also, it should make him think you are pushing south, and then you can strike Hawaii.

[thobal]

No, he should hit the california coast. Hawaii is the obvious target, take the indirect route and soon.

If he waits too long the areas east of Hawaii will be filthy with the enemy.

[Zrk2]

But if he hits the Pacific coast he can be cut off by ships sailing out from Hawaii to cut him off. I think it could only end in defeat. Hawaii is likely well fortified, but at least he won't be cut off when he withdraws after attacking.

[Erkki]

I would say you should send those ships looking for PoW to screw India's shipping up. Fuck their shit. It should also cut off any supplies to the islands that don't come from Australia. You should be able to get some juicy kills if you launch an invasion down there, because he should think it is fairly secure, based on the last full world screenshot you posted. Also, it should make him think you are pushing south, and then you can strike Hawaii.

The Allies get supplied with supplies, fuel, oil and most ships and ground units from 3 places: US, middle east/india and Britain. Most US stuff can be just moved/railed to West Coast, but East Coast ships have to either sail across half the world, which takes some time, or down to Panama Channel, which isnt the shortest route either. The 2 other places are Abadan(vast oil and other resources in the Arabian peninsula and the Middle East) and Africa, Cape Town and Mombasa.

Each ship I move to raid their transport routes is away from action, potentially hits nothing, and probably wont make home should they meet heavy resistance(a lone battleship + anti-submarine escorts is enough). Problem with battleships is that they need to get close to use their guns, when a carrier can search the 1000 nautical miles around it and project its massive firepower further than a battleship can sail, at flank speed, in 12 hours. In a plain BB vs. CV the BB loses every time. Might not sink, but its the one in the receiving end of the 30-50 bombers twice or more a day.... ...unless you can bait & switch or ambush to get close.

I dont think theres so much hurry yet, after all each turn is just a day. I _will_ be on offensive for the next 3 months for the very least, and there will be much to take and a lot to fight for. And for a carrier, just sailing from Japan to New Guinea and back takes 10 days. Refitting at home takes 4-5 days, and it can stay 2-3 weeks at target. More, if refueled and refit by oilers and other support ships. This game is excellent in that it truly models the true pace of war, where 99% of time you just plan, move, prepare and prepare to to wait, for nothing to happen. The action, when it comes, is over quick, sometimes one afternoon, sometimes a couple of days.

At the moment number 1 target is securing the vital oil fields and refineries in Dutch East Indies, securing and building up future bases in New Guinea and Bismarcks, stabilizing the front and if possible, moving to a true offensive in China and pushing as far as possible in Burma to cut the Chinese off the British and American supplies. Anything else, sinking stuff and killing loads of yanks, is just extra. If I dont achieve those 3, the navy and industry dont have fuel after late 42, Chinese can fight much more effectively and I have to use troops and resources I could use somewhere else and the Allied navies and air forces get to use air and naval bases close to my supply lines\naval routes, oil fields and just generally within strike range of anything I need. I need all 3 to fight effectively later on, protect what I have and the logistics as well as denying enemy the capability to get those bases. They will always have submarines, and they can always do that carrier raid, but the first wont do any damage overnight, in 2 years maybe, and the later can, and most likely will, result in a disaster.

edit:

Blue are important allied transport routes, purple Japanese(now and in the future)

Circled blues are important bases and areas for the Allies, military and industry wise.

Black = oil. The 2 in Japan are Kyushu's synthetic oil factories and some real oil, an Sakhalin's fields.

[Erkki]

January 6th.

Kido Butai moves a bit to the East... If the Yanks are awake, they should see the invasion force tomorrow.

Ki-21s bomb Batavia's port, scoring hits on 4 ships. Now they all burn, especially that tanker.

2 A6M2 pilots from Kota Bharu score their 5th kills, nice! Buffaloes again.

I lost 2 transports that were bombed a few days ago, otherwise a pretty silent day. Over 2000 more dead Chinese in Wuchow.

CVE Hosho sets sail... To Bedeloab!

[Erkki]

Air losses so far. Japanese losses are accurate, Allied losses under FOW:



I think around 40% of my losses are actually operational... 

[Deadmeat1471]

Those people need to learn to land properly