15th/16th Oct

Well, as if to prove me a bit wrong, one of my Vals from Rabaul which had been set to ASW patrol hit a US sub apparently.

Intel shows a lot of ships at Luganville still. A number of transports and capital ships are loitering. If I didn't know better I would say it looks awfully like an invasion fleet.

Tankers dropped off their load and are heading back to Truk. I've only 1000 tonnes of fuel from the 12000 delivered left already....KB is almost entirely topped up though. I'm contemplating a big raid on Luganville with all my carriers and some battlewagons but, to be honest, there are more important things to spend the fuel on.

All mine laying operations are now complete. let;s hope something sinks because I won't be getting anymore.

17th Oct

The C1 subs are now carrying their mini subs to various locations. I still don't put much stock in them, but at least it's another approach.

Betties have been flying on night missions against the airfield at Moresby for the last few evenings. Tonight they will bomb the port. If nothing else it should maybe finish off one of the wounded ships I think are at anchor there.

KB has left Rabaul to go back to the Slot. Several ships are approaching and I'd like some of my new pilots to get some practice. If things go very well I might send it on to Luganville. We'll see.

Would it be possible to have mined the surrounding areas of Luganville so heavily it would force the ships there to spend an extended amount of time at anchor and in a vulnerable position?

It would be very temporary. It's mostly deep water and iirc minefields decay at a rate of 33%/day in hostile deep water hexes.

It doesn't matter anyway: I don't have any mines left and, from the looks of it, I won't be getting any more..:(

I'll be running the next turn as soon as my daily virus scan concludes. The game doesn't like saving when the AV is running. when I get back into it I'll double check the mine production but I'm fairly sure I've had all I'm supposed to get.

I never played the original WiTP (I went from Uncommon Valor to the latest version,) but, from what I heard, mine production has been nerfed between then and now to deal with wholesale abuse of the system. Apparently, use of minefields was endemic. The result is very low monthly production in a bid to restrain their use.

18th Oct

USS Hornet just appeared in my Sunk Ships list, and I seem to have got the points for putting her under as well. I haven't had a confirmation in the ops report yet so it's still possible that she is still afloat.

And my ASW air crews continue to defy my contention that they don't work right by apparently bombing another US sub (an S-class this time.) this is the third time in the last week, I think. I'm contemplating putting Betties on ASW duty now as well.

Elsewhere, a situation appears to be developing:


http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/6474/uppy.jpg

Early this morning, Rufes flying from Shortlands attacked USS Long Island without doing any damage but gathering useful intel. it now look slike a fairly major resupply op with CCIP bringing a lot of toys for the expedition. It looks like several CVEs are involved as well as many cruisers. Of course, it's difficult to tell how far from reality the detection reports are but it's undeniable that there are plenty of ships on the move.

KB is due to head south (After routing past Kaveing to keep her out of the shallow waters around Buganville, and I estimate she'll be in striking range within three days, perhaps sooner. I have formed up Yamato with a number of other ships at Rabaul but will only send her out if I think the risk from carrier aircraft is minimal. Also, I am still worried about big operations when I really need to be conserving fuel and supply. I have invasions coming up and need as much as I can gather.

I have to say, thank the lord for Glens. They have provided so much useful information during the game. Without them, I wouldn't have a clue what was going on until it was too late.

19th Oct

News filters in that the USS Wasp has also been reported sunk. So that's three flat tops down. Good news.

A number of Rufes fly missions against the US ships currently loitering at Rennel Island south of Guadalcanal. They don't last too long against the flak put up by a number of cruisers and at least one battleship. I'm not sure about the CVE numbers here. Maybe just the Long Island. IS CCIP using it to ferry aircraft or for CAP and protection. KB should be in place tomorrow, I think, and her stand off position is within range of Rennel island for my fighters and torpedo bombers. I'll order her another couple of hexes further on to bring my dive bombers in on the act as well.

Strangely, I've lost track of the large supply convoy that was almost at Lunga. I've reset the Jakes and Rufes at Shortlands to Naval search. A Glen reports an 8 ships convoy heading northwest from Noumea. Composition unknown.

Like last time it feel like it's a trap. I must've watched Return of the Jedi too often when I was a youngster.

A more worrying trend is CCIP is now targeting Shortlands with his 4e bombers. This turn they bombed the port and put a hit right on top of poor I-16 which had arrived to pick up a mini sub. She's pretty beat up and will have to go back to Osaka if she doesn't sink first. I've stood her down at piers side so that damage can be stabilized.

Also, I-156 patrolling around Noumea, was hit by a Catalina. She's been ordered to return to Rabaul - if she makes it. Yes, the gods are mocking me, aren't they? That's the last time I'll criticise something in the game. After my rant about naval strikes I fully expect one of my carriers to be sunk by a wirraway set to strafing.

Here's an interesting comparison: I have apparently sunk 31 ships for 1414 points compared to CCIP sinking 18 ships for 134. I should have more to come when confirmations filter through the FOW.

Tune in next time, folks, for the sight of the entire Japanese carrier force being sunk by an irate seagull! :yeah:

20th Oct

News tonight: Ouch.

KB sent in her strikes without retaliation but did what I would describe as so so.

Here is the first strike:

Here is the second:

And for that my losses for today were, well see below...

http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/9348/ouchr.jpg

So...why so bad today? My losses haven't been anything as bad as this in the past? Was it just dice roll? Possibly, Inexperienced pilots? Again, possibly, but I still had a number of good pilots there and the rest weren't exactly terrible. I'm going to guess it had something to do with this:

and this...

Wow, 120 miles? 45 minutes? I hope they had time to have a nap before they took off! :D

I think it's a mix of all these different factors and probably more I haven't considered yet. I might go through some old Combat reports and try and figure out if there is something I'm over looking. It wasn't a complete failure, of course, but the cost in aircraft was far too high for my liking. I'm glad he didn't fly a retaliatory strike; the CAP may have become a little porous....I'm pulling the KB back to port. I need fresh aircraft so it might be a while before I use it again.

Elsewhere the Betties continue to bomb Moresby at night. From tomorrow, though, I'm going to stand them down. They're not achieving very much and I want to start to get the invasion stuff sorted out...

IIRC the max radar detection range is three hexes or 120 miles, so you rolled the worst case scenario with that raid :DL

Yep, I sure did. CCIP has learned to beef up his CAP over his ships but that doesn't fully account for the suckability (A technical term) of the raids. Notice that, during the first raid in particular, we scored far fewer hits than I would have expected: 9 bomb hits and no torpedo. Very poor. Not good enough by any margin.

Even the second was pretty lousy with only 2 torpedoes getting a hit.

Also note the discrepancy between the Combat Report and the Aircraft Losses page. According to the CR, I only lost ten zeroes, about a third of what it looks like I actually lost.

The more I think about it, the less happy I am with what happened.

21st Oct

A bit quieter but two of my C1 class subs got hit by something. I don't know what. Probably aircraft rather than mines but both are pretty beat up and are returning to base. Their minisub mission were total failures. I'm losing a number of subs each week just now. Mostly they haven't been sunk outright, but instead rendered too damaged to continue within the campaign.

Trying to figure out what to do with carrier aircraft. I think I might upgrade a couple of groups to B5N2 Kates but they're going to have to go back to Truk for that, apparently. It would help free up airframes for other units but the real damage was the loss of pilots. As for Zeroes, I may have to rotate a couple of units around to get some coverage back. Vals are OK, and I have two semi decent squadrons of them onshore I can use if I need to.

CCIP has pulled his ships back, either because he has concluded his resupply run or he thinks I'm still out there (I'm not, I'm going home and I'm taking my ball with me). Regardless, CCIP has dealt me a blow. I'd rather have lost a ship than all those aircraft. Especially in light of how poorly they performed.

There are a lot of variables in air attacks, of course, which makes it a lottery at times. I think flak might well be a culprit, though. Even if it doesn't shoot aircraft down I think it increases the chances of an attack run being put off.

As for altitudes. In this game I've been using altitudes that I was advised to try a while ago on another forum. Dive bombers at 13000ft - which is in the middle of their range (10,000 - 15,000ft for dive bombing.) Torpedo bombers at 13000 because they drop down to a couple of hundred feet before they start there run regardless of the height they fly there at. Fighters I've been setting to 15,000 because I was told they fly at 2000 feet higher than the strike aircraft when they are escorting them. I had some at 20,000 as well at times, and my land based fighters are set to their second best maneuver bands through habit.

I think my strike aircraft have performed well so far - this mission excepted. I still think it was a combination of poor dice rolls coupled with a couple of other factors. CCIP said he thought the best way to deal with Zeroes is with a mass of aircraft. He might be right in that but, to be fair to my pilots, they haven't really done that badly when encountering large CAPs so far. A couple of times, yes, but not too often.

22 Oct

B-17s hit Shortlands again and finally sank poor I-16, making her the 6th sub to sink in the campaign. The number of Subs that have been removed through sinking or damage is now at about 12 with perhaps three more - two of the C1 boats and I-168 - probably on there way out.

I-168 was attacked on the surface by a US sub this turn, by the way, but escaped due to duds. Heh...at least I don't have that problem.

The big force from Guadalcanal is nearing Noumea again. That's fine with me. My ships sunk list claims the destroyer I hit, and the South Dakota, have both sunk sunk. As ever, I await some form of confirmation before breaking out the party hats.

23/24 Oct

I-20 succumbed to flood damage when her pumps failed. She sank somewhere near Luganville.

I-9 got a measure of revenge the next day when she torpedoed and sank a destroyer.

A Pete claims to have scored a hit on a US sub. I take back what I said - properly set up ASW air does seem to work quite well.

Kido Butai (yeah, I thought 'why not'?) is slowly recovering aircraft. This is the least of my problems as some of the kate squadrons were almost wiped out and I lost a huge amount of good pilots. The ones I'm bringing on board aren't bad, just not as good. I'm going to try different settings from now on with regards to altitudes and so on.

CCIP is moving a few task forces around here, there and wherever. his CVEs are back at Rennel island again. At least I think that's what they are: they were reported as CVBs of which only one is in the game - the USS Midway which the Americans receive in 46.....the propensity for reporting ships which don't actually exist has me worried about what exactly the flight crews are eating for breakfast....

My next carrier is due in about ten days, and the second batch of APs should be completed in less than a week. I've pretty much moved all the troops I'll be using to Rabaul already barring a unit or two. Now it's really down to three things: fuel, supplies and how many aircraft I can still scrounge up for the carrier air groups.

25 Oct

I-172 sinks a destroyer. The skipper takes her out of the area and then heads back at daybreak for a second go. This time, though, she gets pounded on by escorts. Damage isn't too bad but I'll haul her in for repairs.

Glens show a concentration of ships, including capital ships, at Noumea. He's still operating his carriers at Rennel island but doesn't seem to have any screens in place. That sounds like an accident waiting to happen... but at the moment I have other things on the boil.

Betties have been ordered to nigh bomb the port at Tulagi where there appear to be several ships at anchor. I don't expect too much from them but they need the fresh air.

Fighters will conduct sweeps over the Kokoda trail. I'm interested in what sort of numbers CCIP is CAPping the area with. He doesn't appear to have anything other than fighters at Moresby. I wonder if there are dive bombers there waiting for their opportunity. Not too worried. any future invasion will be heavy with Flak. Battleships put up a huge amount.