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[Zrk2]

That's 4 airfields to many!

Glory to the East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere!

[kickingbottom]

whats the latest info on our little guys on the front lines?

[thobal]

That's 4 airfields to many!

You are mistaken. There are five airfields.

[Erkki]

I assume there's enough AA at LA to take out a lot of your attack force? Would there be any significant gains in attacking it? Are all those ships superfluous, or necessary to ferry troops/supplies?

I'm not worried about the AA, really. Its just that, even if I could teleport the KB within strike range of LA instead of sailing for 2 weeks, it most probably wouldnt be worth of it. Even with complete surprise. To lose even a handful of KB's good pilots is not worth almost any number of xAKs, unless they're carrying troops or killing those xAKs achieves something tactically/operationally(which it would not as long as they're sitting at LA). While it would make Bart even more careful, all he'd really need to do is to set up some kind of an early warning system. Even 2 or 3 dozen cargo ships at station 1 day's sail away from strike range from West Coast would work against Japanese CVs(I'm doing this myself near Honshu, BTW  ).

whats the latest info on our little guys on the front lines?

Unfortunately there isnt much to report. Besides some skill gains and flying more sorties, none of our heroes has done much lately. There has been little happening during the last month, and like in real life, to an individual, war is 99,9% waiting with short moments of terror...

[Erkki]

May 15th


Kido Butai: Finds more prey! A 7-ship tanker convoy is sighted at extreme range for B5Ns. Due to the bad weather and long range, 2/3 of the attackers dont reach the target, and only 13 B5Ns from CVs Akagi and Hiryu attack. They miss the 2 escorting minelayer/destroyer DMs but also put 5 bombs on a medium-size tanker. Empty one but it still sinks nicely. Tomorrow, the KB will keep heading SW towards Tahiti, as I suppose Bart will now half expect a move to directly East or SE to finish off that convoy(which due to range, weather and fuel situation I'm not going to try).

Everywhere else:

Tawi Tawi island occupied(between Borneo and Philippines).

The airfield, port and fortification constructions in the Solomons, New Guinea and Horn Island are progressing very nicely - the 3 most important bases of the Guadalcanal area will have forts level 3 within a week, and there are now a dozen airfields within range, of 4 can fully support offensive sorties by 2 engine bombers(or are size 4).

The crack 12th Infantry Division starts boarding ships at Shanghai. It should arrive at Rangoon, Burma, in 2 weeks.

[Erkki]

May 16th


Kido Butai: Yesterday's tanker convoy is apparently split up into 1-ship task forces heading every direction. KB picks up a single destroyer far away but the Admirals dont consider it enough to launch a strike. KB near Tahiti tomorrow, still unsighted but the replenishment force 4 days behind is tracked by Catalinas.

Pearl Harbor: What looks like a mass-exodus from Pearl towards West Coast sails over the Japanese submarine screen, but no hits are scored. Largest warships left at Pearl are destroyers or light cruisers, while at least one task force with heavy surface units left Pearl to NE overnight.

Burma: The only Burma front Zero unit swaps its A6M2s to 27 factory fresh A6M3s! There are now almost 300 A6M2s in the pool.

Kido Butai looking for its prey:

[Erkki]

May 17th

Kido Butai: nothing.

DEI: Japanese cruiser squadron finishes off the last Dutch PT boats - kills go to a destroyer and CA Haguro.

Home Islands: R&D advances Ki-49-IIa to 7/1942!


May 18th

Kido Butai: Continues to West and is now near Aitutaki(the northernmost island of Cook Islands). At extreme range to SW, 2 Allied task forces are sighted and the B5Ns attack twice: both AM and PM phase about 1/3 of the bombers fail to find target due to range and bad weather, and AM attacks only find a single destroyer to attack(its missed), but PM phase attacks hit a 5-ship convoy with a DD and a DM escorting 2 xAP and an xAK, sinking a 8000-ton xAP Santa Maria with 5 bomb hits and hitting a large xAK (identified as the 6000-ton C3-E type Exhibitor) twice, putting it on fire. Half the raiding force continues to West while the other half turns WNW to link up with the scout cruiser CS Chitose and the replenishment force. Once we have the raiders refueled in 4 days the force turns NW to raid Pago Pago and Fiji from directly South.

Burma: The second IJAAF squadron converts to the Ki-44-IIa. This unit is Takenaka V's(kickingbottom) 54th Sentai Det A. The window of opportunity for the Allies to hit Magwe's oil fields and refineries is closing...

EDIT: also CA Atago, Captain Ijuin(Fishbreath) begins refitting at Singapore. The 4 x 12cm secondary guns are swapped to 8 x 12,7cm dual purpose guns and the Type 95 depth charges are upgraded to Type 95-2s.

[Hanzoku]

Nice to see an update to this. Out of curiosity, what's my squadron up to these days?

[Anvilfolk]

Nice! Any clue as to whether the convoy was carrying something?

[Erkki]

Nice to see an update to this. Out of curiosity, what's my squadron up to these days?

PO2 Yamazaki, I still at Truk. Now that the KB is away theres a small chance of Allies trying to counter raid in Central Pacific so the Genzan Ku S-1's orders are still the same: to protect Truk and be ready to get transfered to Tarawa, Kwajalein, Meloelap etc. Within a month or as soon as the 1st Ku S-1 has trained enough and takes Genzan Group's place at Truk, Yamazaki's group will get transferred to Solomons or New Guinea or somewhere else.

Nice! Any clue as to whether the convoy was carrying something?

They werent carrying troops or fuel, thats for sure. They were probably returning from Australia or New Zealand to West Coast, Panama or somewhere else.

[Erkki]

May 18th - May 22nd


Silent turns with not much to report happening. Java will be completely Japanese in 4 days while we are bombing Mataram and Denpasar to burn supplies from the remaining Allied float planes' support units.

KB has seen nothing but shoots a Catalina or 2 down today. The CVs are nearing Fiji tomorrow, where submarine-based E14Ys report 2 task forces with assorted small auxiliary vessels and destroyers.

[Korbac]

So Erkki, would you say you are gaining the upper hand / prolonging the time for the enemy to upper his hand rather well? 

Really fun to read this btw!

[Erkki]

So Erkki, would you say you are gaining the upper hand / prolonging the time for the enemy to upper his hand rather well? 

Really fun to read this btw!

I have to admit that I'm not sure. The Allies have lost some important warships to 0 Japanese, but the losses are still nowhere near decisive. And in the end should my opponent as the Allies choose a different than historical approach to defeating Japan, they would not even need those ships we have sunk. They might attack through Burma.

Luckily, in Burma the Monsoon Season is on and will stall enemy attacks should the Allies try anything, so we have some time to move in reinforcements. In game terms Monsoon limits supply flow through bases and caps base supply hold/spread to 1/2 or so, making it impossible to supply large number of troops even nearby the railroad.

I know Bart to be a very careful player so I expect a conservative approach that does not include any high risk/high reward operations other than as feints.

[Delta Foxtrot]

Only started following this late November/early December. Good job so far. What year are we in and when does the scenario end?

[Erkki]

Only started following this late November/early December. Good job so far. What year are we in and when does the scenario end?

Depends on how quick Japan will win... But in theory its possible for Japan to survive until the last day of the scenario which is (I think) December 31st 1945.  It might be able to drag even further. But its very difficult as even if Japan's industry stays intact, theres only so much resources and oil produced in China, Manchuko, Japan, Burma, East Indies etc. that Japan WILL be overwhelmed. How soon that happens depends on how soon Japan starts making mistakes and Allies stop making them. There are several AAR'd games where Japan gets stopped in Spring 1942 and never secures Burma or even the East Indies, then loses its fleet and game over before the war is older than half a year.

I dont think the game is systematically biased, but on the other hand, there are NO AARs where Japan survives longer than historical surrender date - even in those scenarios where Japan has boosted economy and more toys(and better, and earlier) to play with. I suppose that is because the operational tempo in game tends to be somewhat higher than in real life and that the hindsight favors the Allies more than the Japanese, as the Allied players know they dont have to take early risks if they dont need to.


May 23rd


Kido Butai: Near Fiji! KB attacks a small convoy at Suva, sinking 2 x 5000 ton xAKs and hitting an escorting DMS with a 250kg bomb. 2 D3A1s assigned to naval search get shot down by the 8 P-40 Warhawks flying CAP, but miraculously they both survive to ditch near the fleet and the crews are saved. A B5N damaged by an xAK's anti-aircraft fire is also a writeoff. Suva's port has 4 APs - the KB continues to a position SW of Suva to attack the port while half of the strike aircraft are left to attack any fleeing shipping - there are 2 more task forces of small warships sighted.

KB's A6Ms meet 8 P-40s over Suva and the Elite Japanese pilots shoot down 4 of them as confirmed kills. The other 4 are also at least damaged with 2 reported as diving away trailing smoke and the 2 last as spinning away on fire, but their fates were not confirmed.

2 kills go to Hiryu's pilots, 2 to Shokaku's, 1 to Zuikaku's, 1 to Zuiho's(so its likely, although not sure, that at least 6 were destroyed + possible writeoffs, ops losses as landing accidents etc.).