Well, if CCIP has any sense, he'll keep his CVs clear of the Slot and those confined waters. I do have a plan to bait him but not in that area....

I plan to fill the slot with subs and hopefully build up enough air cover in the region that any attempt at resupply or reinforcement will be costly for him. By the time my CVs are in play I imagine he will have pulled back to Noumea or Sydney to refuel and rearm so I should have a window where i can hit his convoys with relative impunity. I think there are a couple of things I could do that would force his hand in terms of using his carriers but I'll need to wait until shipping is in place. My big worry at the start is that he'll try and hit Rabaul with a raid. I don't think he will but it's not something I would like considering how understrength I am just now.

I'm looking forward to it a lot, especially all the WW1 crates. Just looking over the website at everything they have blew me away.

He gets a lot of bigger ships. Carriers too. By the end of the scenario he'll have about 5 fleet carriers and at least the same again of escort carriers.

Where I have the advantage is that I'll take my Zeros, Vals and Kates over his CAGS any day. well, maybe not his Dauntless groups. They're damn good dive bombers and can ruin anyones day. His torpedo bombers are hamstrung by the same bad load outs that affect the bigger subs for the first couple of years and his wildcats are not bad but not as good as my Zeros. He should start receiving Hellcats at the very, very end of the scenario so I don't think I will be worrying about them unduly.

Problem is one of quantity. He can put up a good number on CAP or strike missions. The Shokaku and Zuikaku are pretty big in terms of aircraft carried but the carriers I get later aren't so hot. Still. I have the advantage in the fact that he has to come to me, and into my land based air umbrellas, if he wants to win. This will change as time goes on but not for a while. I'll have to be careful I don't get my carriers caught in the shallow water traps - that's as much a problem for me as it is for him - But I have a certain amount of freedom when it comes to operating under LBA that isn't an option for the allies.

Make sure you don't miss any of the hangars, like I did, I can't BELIEVE that I actually missed out on the Sopwith Tripe, how is it even possible :damn:

Lol, yeah, there's almost too much. Actually, that hanger is first on my list, followed by the BoB hanger, then the bombers and then the other stuff if I have time. Problem is, almost every hanger has something in it I want to see. I guess I'll just have to go back next year. :yeah:

Finally getting used to my pedals. Been trying to build a decent bunch of curve settings for my X-52 in RoF. Finally think I got a good one. Thing to remember: When you shoot down a two-seater, don't spend so much time concentrating on gloating that you fly into the wing you took off it.

Be sure to check the opening times on the hangar and BOB section because they have strange opening and closing times separate to the actual museum.

Yep, I noticed that. Probably be there for most of the day anyway so it shouldn't be a problem.

Right. CCIP is getting to grips with a couple issues within the game but I should get the turn back from him either tonight or tomorrow. It's easy to forget how daunting it actually is when you're new to it. I've been playing it for a couple of years now and I still find it hard to work out what's going on at times.

Hmm, look at that. Looks like we have a new neighbour up the page there.

Got the turn. I shall run it in a bit....

And we're off!


6th August

Combat over the night of the 6th and 7th is slow but manages to confirm one of my fears straight away: He has B-17s. Probably not in any great numbers by the look of it but enough to give me pause for thought.

My recon aircraft snoop at Moresby and there seems to be quite a concentration of fighters there, a couple of squadrons worth at least. There aren't many bombers, though. In the morning My Zeros sortie from Lae over the port where, in heavy rain, they tangle with several P-39Ds. There are no losses. He returns the favour with a Beaufort raid on Lae. He loses one to my tiny CAP.

It's a slow start to the campaign but I'm sure things will heat up.

Arrivals

A dozen or so subs arrive at Truk and are immediately tasked with patrols in the waters around the Solomon islands, Near Port Moresby and off the Australian coast. Below is a shot of the various patrol zones around guadalcanal itself. You might notice a small gap right in the middle. This will be resolved shortly once the landing force starts to arrive. I want the rest on station to deal with the larger capital ships that will be arriving.

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/1165/subopscut.jpg


Orders

Aside from the subs, I've ordered the cruisers I had at Rabaul and Kaveing to pull back to Truk until a decent number of escorts and the carriers arrive. I don't want them engaging on their own. Barges from Rabaul are lading with supplies for Kaveing, a fast transport convoy is loading at Rabaul for Tassaforonga. Fast transport convoys are supposed to hold off during the day and then zoom in and dump their cargo under the cover of night. We'll soon see how well it works.

A convoy is also forming for Shortlands. I need this base built up enough to handle aircraft, especially fighters but for that I need supplies and engineers. A unit at Truk is prepping as is the 143rd JAAF AF battalion currently at Wewak on PNG. I don't need them here currently so they will be moved as soon as I can get a convoy to them.

I had two infantry units form up on the north end of Guadalcanal. They muster about 190 AV between them, which is nothing to sniff at. I won't move them. They wouldn't arrive in time to make any difference anyway, and They're nice insurance in case CCIP gets cheeky and tries an alternate landing. Once supplies arrive I'll get them building fortifications.

On PNG, the Horii group of units will conduct recon by fire on the Allied unit in their vicinity. I'm not sure what this unit is - an Australian division perhaps? maybe only a brigade. I've stopped the unit moving until I know more about what they're facing.

I've reduced the range of the Betties slightly but not touched much else. Our boffins' picked up radio signals from a TF making it's way north so they are on their way. I haven't seen the carriers yet but they are out there somewhere.

I'm hoping we'll get another turn in tonight as I'm away in the morning. We'll see how it goes.

Good lord - a turn back already! That's either a very good sign or a very, very bad one! :D

we're having problems getting the combat animations to show. For some reason it they were set to 'Off' in my settings - despite me having never played with them off every before. I sent CCIP back the latest turn having saved it with them turned on so I'm hoping this time it will work. If it doesn't I've offered to scrub this game and start again. We're only a couple of turns in anyway so it shouldn't be too much of a hardship. I'm just hoping it's resolvable and not some sort of beta patch issue.

OK, still a problem so we're starting again. I'll be doing pretty much everything exactly the same except for shifting a couple of convoys around in the first turn so I probably won't update until We reach turn 3 again.

It's a pain. Not a big one but a pain anyway. No idea why it's done it and I'm hoping it doesn't do it again but that's the way things are.

Don't go changing the channel! We'll be right back!

Right, it seems to be behaving now. Only differences were I smacked his Kittyhawks around when they came to Lae. Report claims my Zeros got three of them but I think it might be more.

His B-17s did a number on Tulagi, 69 casualties reported. Not much I can do about that just now. I imagine his fleet will be arriving on the next turn.

Here is a screenie showing my preliminary sub patrol areas. I'll change them as and when needed.

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/5444/subopcut2.jpg


Other than this not much to report. My cruisers are almost back to Truk and I'm loading the first engineer unit for Shortlands. Forts on Guadalcanal and Tulagi went to 1. Don't think they'll get much higher before the invasion starts.

8/8/42

The landings start.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/2613/landingscut.jpg

He opens with a massive battleship barrage on my positions on Guadalcanal, doing about 90 odd casualties. B-17s hit several places on both Guadalcanal and Tulagi. My Betties sortie against the landing fleet but fail to register a hit on the juicy troop ships and I lose 7 Zeros to a stout CAP. No torpedoes were carried by the Betties. I don't know why. They have been ordered to go in lower and also told to try a night attack in the hope of missing the pulverising waves of Wildcats.

On PNG, several raids by A-20 Havoc hit the runway at Buna but I have no aircraft there so it doesn't matter for the time being.

These early exchanges are usually in the Allies favour (so different from the grand campaign,) and all I can do is withstand the initial batterings. It's about ten days until the first of my carriers arrive and less than a week until the first substantial arrival of bomber reinforcements. By then he'll be running low on carrier sorties and will have to think about returning to port. That will be my first real window of opportunity. For the time being, I'll concentate on getting the Betties to do something useful. I'm quite surprised they didn't all die in the raid like they are wont to do.

Subs are all at sea and transiting to their patrol zones. In a couple of days I'll be ready to sting him if he stands still.

Supply ships leave Truk for Rabaul and my fast transport TF should reach Tassaforonga tonight if everything goes according to plan, which it rarely does.

Your's and CCIP's AARs are like too mild drug for me. I've been drooling over this game for ages now. As a poor student, I haven't really had extra money for this game (it's quite expensive! Even when on sale...). These AARs ease the pain a bit but increases the drooling bit...

Anyway, really interesting to follow the both sides!