War in the Pacific AAR Thread: ML (Japan) vs. Leo (Allies)

[Molon Labe]

10 April 1942
Pago Pago sweep encounters strong enemy fighter presence

Bay of Bengal
I shelled Rangoon with a pair of heavy cruisers. Not much result, moderate casualties, some facility damage, some fires. No aircraft or ships reported damaged. There doesn't seem to be much there besides troops.

My CVBG launched a small raid on Diego Garcia that found nothing of value there.


CENTPAC
The KB's sweep of Pago caused an 18 vs 53 engagement in the enemy's favor. We ended up losing 6 Zeroes while shooting down 1 P-40 and 2 P-39s, considering how badly we were outnumbered I don't think that was that bad. I'd been hoping to make a raid here, but clearly the enemy's evacuated most of their ships, so even if I went back in with force I don't see much to gain. And it's risky... If I allocate enough fighters to get past theirs, I'd leave my own ships vulnerable to his CVBGs if they're lurking nearby.

Pago launched a counterattack of 7 B-17s -- I'm glad it wasn't dive bombers-- which shot down 2 Zeroes while they lost 1 to our CAP and a 2nd to flak. They tried to attack Akagi and missed.

Speaking of which, 1 CV was reported sighted by a sub-based floatplane near Pearl. That's probably the Hornet reporting into theatre. Pretty good odds the Saratoga is back in service by now too, so right now the lineup is probably Lex-Sara-Enterprise-Hornet, with Yorktown being repaired in Alameda.


China
I probed the blockading force outside Sian, and it looks like its enough to hold out against my reserves thanks to the mountainous terrain. I'm sending my tanks in Sian back down the road to help out.


Sumatra
We defeated the enemy base garrisons outside Medan.

[Molon Labe]

11 April 1942
Nothing worth reporting... quiet as it gets.


12 April 1942
Sian roadblock holds


China
A single Hawk fighter appeared over Kanshein, which I've been bombing pretty much daily in preparation for my troops to arrive. Our raid was unescorted; 2 Maries were shot down. I've cancelled these raids for the time being while I transition some more Nate squadrons to Oscars.

The reverse force south of Sian, combined with the armor detached from my main force, attempted to dislodge the blocking force but failed. As we've seen many times before, the number of units destroyed sharply favored us. I'm still not thrilled about taking the casualties though, so I'm just going to have my main force back up and finish these guys.


SOPAC
A Betty on ASW patrol out of Noumea claimed a hit on an enemy sub.


Industry
The Ki-45 Nick is now in production, a few weeks early--they normally arrive in May. Probably not worth the R&D cost, I'll do something else with these R&D plants next time.

[Molon Labe]

13 April 1942
Lackluster bombardment results at Cochin

Indian Ocean and Ceylon
Thinking I had a chance to neutralize an enemy fighter concentration due to the absence of ASUW threats, I used my carriers' heavy covering force to shell Cochin, with 2 BB and 2 CA firing at somewhat standoffish range with their primary batteries. The bombardment caused moderate airbase damage and destroyed 3 Hurricanes on the ground...out of at least 30. We sank a minesweeper and a corvette on the way in, at least one other minesweeper was present but managed to stay out of our way.

In hindsight... the weather was poor and I didn't assign a floatplane to be a spotter so maybe I could have done better.

Our tanks have eliminated the enemy garrisons to the north of our line of advance on Colombo--the only enemies left are in front of me now.


China
The former garrison forces from coastal bases that I'd recently relieved are now closing in on Kanhsien. I allowed some of the garrison forces at Kukong to move out one hex to try to dislodge a small enemy force between Kukong and Kanhsien to try to stop them from reinforcing Kahnsien, but we weren't able to overcome the terrain bonus to overrun them. I had 71 combat squads disabled, him just 39.

I also have a pair of fresh divisions entering the Sian front area, one that I pulled from garrison duty in the central areas and another recently purchased with political points and pulled from Manchukuo. This should allow me to rotate some beat up divisions back to Sinyang to recuperate, hopefully, after Sian falls, allowing us to continue our advance into the oil-producing northwest region.

[Molon Labe]

14 April 1942

CENTPAC
An AKL the was presumably evacuated from Pago when the KB drew close was sunk by one of my subs when it tried to return to port. Night surface gun/torpedo attack.
Recon aircraft are now surveilling Fiji, standing by for force estimates.



China

He's trying to be sneaky around Kokong, thinking he can take it back from me while I'm trying to grab Kanshien. I will have to pull back a bit but I think this ends with me taking Kanshien anyways while he sends troops into the meat grinder for me. I've adjusted bomber assignments to try to slow down the troops approaching from the northwest just in case.

Part of his adjustment here was calling five bombers in to hit by troops between the two bases, so I'm pulling some fighters into LRCAP duties over the troops.

Bay of Bengal

My carriers attempted a limited strike on a minesweeper displaced during the shelling of Cochin, but missed. 2 Hurricanes were on patrol but no aircraft were lost in the skirmish.

16 Blenheims hit our troops in Colombo, which somehow weren't covered by an LRCAP. I'll fix that tomorrow obviously. Fortunately this raid was ineffective.

Industry

A little snag with Nick deployments--very few fighter units are eligible to receive them, just bomber squadrons for the most part. So I might be transitioning some of the light bomber units--currently assigned to ASW duty--to fulfill the ASUW/interceptor role. Which then means I'd have to pull medium bombers from ground support missions to fulfill the ASW role, or I'd just have to pay political points to pull training units to frontline service. Nothing insurmountable, just tedious.

[Molon Labe]

15 April 1942
Recon reveals significant fighter presence on Fiji; American subs beginning patrols in Luzon Strait?

Luzon Strait
USS Drum hit a troop-carrying cargo ship with a torpedo at night in the Luzon Strait--fortunately, a dud. I believe this is the first time I've seen an enemy sub here since my conquest of Luzon concluded, so this may indicate a strategy shift away from trying to use subs as naval combattants and more towards the traditional anti-merchant role.

I've been gradually moving ASW assets towards places where his subs have actually been appearing, so due to the lack of subs in the Luzon Strait, ASW coverage here is relatively light for the moment--pretty decent air patrols but no surface assets. I'm about to have four subchasers complete their deep-water depth charge refits in Singapore, so they'll be headed here. I have already-upgraded SCs operating off Cam Rahn Bay and in the Makassar Strait that I could pull if I need to, but so far both of those areas have had more frequent enemy sub patrols.


China
I successfully CAP-trapped the enemy bombers that tried to interdict my troops near Kahnsien yesterday (and again today), splashing 2 SB-IIIs and 1 Husdon. 2 bombers made it through to the target but missed.

The Chinese got a single I-16 fighter up over Sian, which was felled by Oscars escorting my bomber packages.


Bay of Bengal
Speaking of CAP traps, we kind of got away with one in the channel between India and Sri Lanka as we attacked a wayward minesweeper with Betties. They had 14 Hurricanes flying cover over it, while our escort was just 9 Zeroes. We ended up killing the AM while shooting down 2 Hurricanes, with the loss of just 1 Zero.

The main motivation for having these Betties on naval attack orders right now is that recon is reporting a heavy cruiser present in Colombo, and we've had little to no success with port strikes due to heavy flak. We're probably going to take Colombo in a matter of days, though, which means that cruiser is about to make a run for it, and when it does, I want my Betties to pounce.

I've added to the number of Oscars flying out of Trincomalee so that I can resume sweeps of Cochin to try to reduce those Hurricane numbers, but weather scrubbed the sweep ordered for today.

A probing attack on Colombo shows we have about 3x their strength, not enough to make this easy but enough to get started. We attack tomorrow.


CENTPAC
Recon of Fiji shows 45 fighters, 17 bombers (probably dive bombers, standard dive bomber squadron size is 18) and a CA in port. So, another force concentration like Pago.


Upgrades and reinforcements
All 4 Chidori-class torpedo boats have completed their conversion to Kaibokans at Saigon. Two will be delivering militarized merchant ships to SOPAC as we'll need these ships more with the amphibious bonus having expired. The other two are reporting to Palembang where they will relieve destroyers and DMSs from tanker escort duty.

5th Ku S-1 arrives at Takao (2/9 Rufes, unrestricted - we're producing these very slowly so it will be awhile before this gets to strength. They're eligible to upgrade to A6M5s so this is potentially a useful small Betty escort unit in the future)
38th Sentai arrives at Sapporo - (2/27 Dinah recon aircraft ,restricted - a very useful pickup because I need more recon training, although I'm a little short on aircraft to give them because I reduced Dinah production to stockpile engines.)
94th Sentai arrives at Tokyo (2/27 Sally - restricted unit, more bomber training doesn't hurt, especially if I'm going to need to purchase some of my bomber training units to use as Nick squadrons on the frontline)

[Ostfriese]

Originally Posted by Molon Labe

Industry

A little snag with Nick deployments--very few fighter units are eligible to receive them, just bomber squadrons for the most part. So I might be transitioning some of the light bomber units--currently assigned to ASW duty--to fulfill the ASUW/interceptor role. Which then means I'd have to pull medium bombers from ground support missions to fulfill the ASW role, or I'd just have to pay political points to pull training units to frontline service. Nothing insurmountable, just tedious.

This actually doesn't surprise me, as the Nick (Ki-45) was a twin engined heavy fighter, like the P-38 Lightning or the BF 110. I was already wondering about this when you mentioned the Nick first, a few days ago. If it's modelled correctly in the game it should be inferior to contemporary single-engined fighters.

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

This actually doesn't surprise me, as the Nick (Ki-45) was a twin engined heavy fighter, like the P-38 Lightning or the BF 110. I was already wondering about this when you mentioned the Nick first, a few days ago. If it's modelled correctly in the game it should be inferior to contemporary single-engined fighters.

I've been warned on Discord that the Nick will get its ass handed to it by most fighters, and that was my experience in the last campaign. But, the Nick's performance against bombers was impressive enough that I took notice--well worth a higher attrition rate against ordinary fighters, given just how much of a problem American heavy bombers are for Japan. Heavy bombers were essential to my campaign for their ability to disable airbases and bomb troop concentrations into submission. I could usually maintain acceptable losses against Zeroes or Oscars, but against Nicks those losses were unsustainable. Frequently, the only aircraft I had with enough range to clear the Nicks out were P-38s, and the Allies just don't get enough of them to be able to sustain a lot of losses there. So I think the key to beating the heavy bombers is, first, to build and deploy enough Nicks to sustain inevitable attrition, and also to bait those P-38s into losing fights against Oscars and Tojos.

[Molon Labe]

Where are the Carriers? (through December 1942 arrivals)


United States Navy
Lexington - In service. Participated in raid on Luganville 27-28 January 42 and Marshalls 23 February 1942, both with Enterprise. Upgrades due 3/42 (27 days), 6/42 (30 days), 10/42 (21 days), 1/44 (21 days), 1/45 (17 days).

Saratoga - Probably in service. Torpedoed by I-9, scoring two hits on 6 January 42. Estimated repair time 2-3 months.

Yorktown - Likely under repair after being hit by airdropped torpedo on 26 February 42 during attempted raid on Wake/Marshalls. Believed to be the carrier chased by subs from Pearl to Alameda from 19-27 March 42. Potentially back in service by now (15 April 1942). Upgrades due 4/42 (7 days--Assume completed), 7/42 (10 days), 10/42 (21 days), 10/43 (21 days).

Enterprise - Participated in raid on Luganville 27-28 January 1942 and raid on Marshalls 23 February 1942, both with Lexington.

Hornet - entered PACFLEET around 11 March. May have been sighted at Pearl Harbor 10 April 42.


---
Long Island - 21 May 42
Wasp - due 10 Jun 42
Copahee 15 Aug 42
Nassau 15 Oct 42
Prince William 23 Oct 42
Altamaha 27 Oct 42
Chenango 15 Dec 42
Sangamon 15 Dec 42
Suwanee 15 Dec 42


Royal Navy
Hermes - in service

Indomitable - in service

Formidable - believed sunk in Battle of Bengal Bay, 1 April 1942, 3 torpedo hits and a bomb hit delivered by Kates.

Illustrious - entering service 28 April 42 ish.