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06-17-22, 01:51 AM | #571 |
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So, a major blow for your opponent in China. Seems your opponent put too many resources into fighting you along the pacific.
Does this make it likely that the Chinese will completely defeat the Japanese on their soil? How bad is this going to hurt your opponent's overall ambitions (aka: is this as bad as losing the KB)? |
06-18-22, 09:45 PM | #572 | |
Silent Hunter
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Quote:
That's a really good question. The complete lack of serious forces protecting Canton/Hong Kong was shocking. It means my victorious armies get to move northeast and start throwing them out of the Shanghai area. Plus my supply shortages aren't going to be nearly as bad. How far can we go? Not sure. But it feels like I already have a bit more than them there, so once those armies from Hong Kong get there, I should have some momentum. I'm fairly sure I can take Wenchow in a couple weeks, however long it takes to reorganize and redeploy. Actually taking Shanghai itself would be amazing. It seems possible. As bad as losing the KB? No. That could shift momentum anywhere/everywhere.
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06-18-22, 10:00 PM | #573 |
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26 January 1943
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06-21-22, 09:55 PM | #574 |
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28 January 1943
30 January 1943
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06-22-22, 08:23 AM | #575 |
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31 January 1943
Burma More night raids on Lashio, these cost him a Helen and two Sallies. During the day, they had Zeroes try to stop our bombing raids, escorting Hurricanes shot down 5 with no losses. They rested their ground fores, and we rested ours (on the mountain trail south of Lashio). The majority of their bomber forces are now focusing on my partially-supplied armies trying to clear out the blocking force. I don't think I'll be able to clear the blockers out like this. Japan USS Haddo torpedoed and sank an unescorted cargo ship near Kanoya. Solomons and New Guinea An enemy sub tried to intercept a supply convoy headed for Rossel Island, it was slighly damaged by an escorting destroyer. At Guadalcanal, we lost a P-38 sweeping but shot down 3 Tojos, 2 Zeroes, and an Oscar. Strategic Outlook I'm probably just a few days away from sending amphibious raids against Marcus, Canton Island, and Shortlands. And while I would like all of these, they're really a diversion. The big one is ready to go except for one late-arriving fighter squadron. I'd like to run a test-loading of the main raid just to see how many days it takes to load everyone into the ships, but if I get a KB sighting far away, I might just run with it. It's been a long time since I've seen any sign of carriers, right now my best guess is they're hanging out at Truk, because at least there my subs on patrol are getting spotted by aircraft. I wouldn't rule out that they might support the operation against Sri Lanka, although it would be overkill IMO.
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Last edited by Molon Labe; 06-22-22 at 12:42 PM. |
06-22-22, 12:41 PM | #576 |
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1 February 1943
Japan USS Tautog was transiting to its patrol area near the Luzon Strait; southeast of Tokyo it encountered a convoy of 2 large tankers escorted by at least one PB. It engaged and hit one of the tankers. The tanker looks like it will survive and did not catch fire, so it's probably empty. This is further east than I would expect to see tankers. So either this is a return trip from resupplying the Marshalls, or, he's kicking his tanker routes to the southern resource area really far east to try to avoid my submarine cordons. If the later is the case, I'll still have a chance to catch these guys when they turn back west, maybe south of the Philippines? I'm going to try to grab some real estate east of Babar to try to get PBY patrols as close to the Philippines as I can get. China In a move surprising enough that I emailed my opponent about it, a single cargo ship started dropping off troops from the 8th division in Hong Kong. It's not a true amphibious ship and there's only one of them, so it's unloading slowly into a hail of gunfire from my troops. Over 800 enemy casualties so far with nothing for them to show for it. They have 3000 left against my 5000, I have reinforcements and air support on the way, so this is only going to get worse for them unless there's another convoy backing them up. EDIT: He told me this was a complete accident, the ship had been headed there for a long time and he'd forgotten about it. At his request, I'm letting him retreat. Solomons P-38 sweep got 2 Zeroes, a Nick, and 2 Tojos. No losses.
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06-23-22, 01:10 PM | #577 |
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2 February 1943
Burma The night fighters at Lashio had their hands full as bad weather fragmented waves of Nicks and medium bombers. Fortunately the weather also hampered the accuracy of the bombers, the base was essentially undamaged. One Nick was shot down by flak, the Beaufighters shot down one Sally. During the day there was an ongoing fight for air superiority over our base. It look place mostly at high altitude, to my advantage, and it appears to me that his pilots here still aren't up to the task. We lost 1 P-40 that was baited into engaging away from the base--it got into a 2-on-1 but still shot down one of those Oscars. But overall, we got 9 Oscars and 6 Zeroes for just that single loss. My opponent contacted me after the turn to discuss an altitude restriction house rule to try to stop these lopsided losses. I'd really rather not do this--at the Matrix forums, altitude restrictions are popular with many players, but the really experienced ones all say they're unnecessary because players that just put their planes as high as they'll go are likely to just send their planes against an enemy with superior performance at altitude, and likewise if your planes are better lower, you can keep them low and bait the enemy down. So I responded with a graphic of the altitude matchup between the Oscar and Hurricane, which clearly shows the Oscar at a greater advantage the lower the altitude--then asked him why he was sweeping at 38,000ft per the combat reports. We'll see where that goes. Indian Ocean A destroyer escorting reinforcements to Columbo spotted an enemy sub; the sub fired 6 torpedoes at the destroyer and missed; the destroyer inflicted moderate depth charge damage on the sub before it lost contact. Solomons There's a convoy of at least 4 ships, unclassified, approaching the Solomons from the north. I'm moving some somewhat-well-trained Beaufort squadrons to Milne and Rossel Island--if they approach Shortlands or Guadalcanal either them, or Avengers and Beaufighters, might get a shot at them, especially with the enemy fighters in the area under severe pressure from my P-38 sweeps. After taking a few days off to reduce the enemy fighter presence at Guadalcanal, I've ordered bombing to resume starting tomorrow. No enemy fighters came up to greet my P-38s today.
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06-24-22, 05:51 PM | #578 |
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3 February 1943
Burma and India A whole bunch of units from the back end of the procession made it across the river to the main mountain trail; I have sufficient control of the hex that this did not trigger a shock attack. Cool. The enemy now has about 20,000 troops in Lashio and they've reduced my forts to Level 2. It's not going to hold more than a few more days, and once that happens my supply routes down the mountain trail are going to be severed more or less permanently. So the supplies I'm getting to those beleaguered troops now are probably going to be the last, and at that point our retreating procession will be blocked on both ends. But at least we're killing their planes and pilots. One more Nick went down to flak. I've engaged the enemy at Cox's Bazaar, India, but they're at more than brigade strength and I didn't bring enough troops to budge them. The good news is maybe these enemies never leave. I'm sending some armor to help out here. I could do more but I'm being conservative in case they try another landing somewhere I don't expect. Solomons Lost track of the convoy. Shot down 3 Tojos over Guadalcanal, allowing our bombers to attack without interference. From fighters anyway; we lost a B-26 to flak even though we're way up at 20,000 ft. The base looks like it's in pretty bad shape. Oh, and the bomber crews claim they got an Oscar, a Mavis, and a Jake on the ground. Shortlands op is greenlit. We go tomorrow. We'll be in and out before they can respond. They're going to love it when there are Corsairs escorting torpedo bombers out of there in a week or two, especially with Rabaul and Guadalcanal bombed into submission. Bay of Bengal USS Scamp penetrated the harbor at Port Blair and torpedoed a tanker unloading there, sinking it. This is a major airbase right now, but not a major port (hence why a sub was able to get in) so I'm confused that he's moving fuel here while there is a major troop movement about to take place in the region. This base is too small to support that operation.
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06-25-22, 05:53 PM | #579 |
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4 February 1943
Amphibious blitz begins: Shortlands, Ndeni, Canton Island, Marcus all targeted Japan USS Halibut gunned down a light cargo ship off the coast of Tokyo. Banda Sea and Darwin We spotted a tanker unloading at Ambon. I would expect there are far more important thirsty bases, especially since I don't see a lot of other ships operating out of Ambon lately. I'm having subs nearby swarm to try to get this high value target. The severely damaged USS Albacore has been stabilized at Darwin and is now headed to Brisbane for more permanent repairs. Solomons Increasing our bombing altitude vs Guadalcanal still got a B-17 shot down today, but our accuracy was crap. The weather was bad too, probably more of a factor. Resting them for a bit. That convoy popped up again at Guadalcanal, and the Beaufighters pounced. We sank a cargo ship (lots of equipment loss reported, they're probably trying to move equipment out) and a PB; one Beau was shot down by AA. The Shortlands assault force has departed. We also have a force assembling to hit Ndeni. CENTPAC We have operations against Canton Island and Marcus nearly ready to launch. I'm hoping between the flurry of activity from the Solomons to Marcus, and the large troop movement about to happen in the Bay of Bengal, the enemy carriers come out of hiding for a bit and I can decide whether now is the time to unleash The Rumbling.
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06-26-22, 06:20 PM | #580 |
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5 February 1943
Banda Sea USS S-28 entered Ambon's hex and torpedoed and sank a cargo ship there. So much for that being a tanker. Troop losses reported. Solomons Sweeps got 1 Tojo and 3 Zeroes, no losses to the P-38s. Indian Ocean I guess I got careless...the British surface fleet that I've been keeping on standby to defend Columbo has been detected. 6 February 1943 Banda Sea S-28 found another cargo ship at Ambon but ran itself out of torpedoes trying to attack it. The ship proved to be too heavily armed to take in a gunfight, both ships disengaged with minor damage. We swept the east end of Timor to try to open up future Beaufighter raids on ASW groups. 6 Zeroes splashed there with no losses. Solomons P-38 sweeps found no fighters over Guadalcanal, but they were around... We had a Beaufighter strike on some enemy ships just slightly past Guadalcanal that got bounced by Zeroes. We lost 4 Beaufighters for that, but did damage one cargo ship rather badly with a pair of bomb hits. I shelled Guadalcanal with 2 CAs and 2 CLs, hoping to disrupt their base and catch some of that transport traffic. The raid was ineffective, and I ended up taking 7 shell hits between the 4 ships. No serious damage. China A large enemy force has massed near Wenchow. Looks like theyre ready to go on an offensive here.
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06-29-22, 07:35 AM | #581 |
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7 February 1943
8 February 1943
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06-30-22, 08:21 PM | #582 |
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9 February 1943
Shortlands Captured
10 February 1943 Canton Island captured
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07-01-22, 12:12 PM | #583 |
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11 February 1943
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07-03-22, 09:45 AM | #584 |
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12 February 1943
Lashio Captured, major losses to local airpower Solomons Three IJN destroyers shelled the small port facility at Shortlands. Fortunately they didn't run into any of the small supply convoys I'm running there to keep the CBs stocked with building materials. An enemy sub had better timing and found the destroyer-minelayer Pruit, shooting 4 torpedoes and missing. The Pruit retaliated but ran out of depth charges before inflicting major damage. It was able to complete its mission and lay a small minefield there. During the day, 20 Betties, probably from Rabaul, bombed the USMC positions at Shortlands, causing a few casualties. I'm switching my fighter priority from offensive counter air to flying CAP around Shortlands and my supply runs. B-17/25/26 raids took out an Emily and a Betty on the ground at Rabaul and caused light base damage, while P-38 sweeps got 3 Zeroes and a Tojo over Guadalcanal. I somehow messed up my raid on Ndeni. The landing craft all arrived empty, and the troop ship backing them up only had supplies and support units. So now those support units are coming ashore with no shooters backing them up. I've sent the landing craft back to pick up the troops they were supposed to still have and I'm trying to get the support units back on the troop ship. Burma and India 2 light cruisers, the Kiso and the Juntsu, shelled our airbase at Chittagong, India. Damage was minimal. I'm moving a Vengeance dive bomber squadron further south from Calcutta to try to protect these coastal bases a bit better. Nicks raided Lashio overnight, 4 Nicks were shot down by night fighters and a fifth was lost to AA. One of a night fighters was also shot down. Base damage was minimal. During the day, 4 Tojos tried to sweep Lashio and met 16 fighters on defense, 3 Tojos were shot down with no enemy victories. I hadn't noticed that an enemy armor division reinforced their attacking armies at Lashio, giving them overwhelming strength. Despite still having level 2 forts, our positions were overrun. We took 3800 casualties to their 1000, while losing the fighter squadrons based there (and many of their pilots, who were quite elite): Allied aircraft losses Kittyhawk III: 1 destroyed Hurricane IIc Trop: 19 destroyed Beaufighter VIf: 5 destroyed P-40K Warhawk: 11 destroyed (I think those loses are understated, actual losses were closer to 60 aircraft total) Losing the planes was a major error on my part. I should have seen the writing on the wall and not waited until the last possible moment to pull them out. South China Sea USS Peto took a shot at an escorted tanker convoy and missed. Looks like a Palembang to Japan run; we should get another chance at them in the Luzon Strait. China The enemy has advanced on Chusien. Looks like about 40,000 troops, could be a major battle coming up. I have similar numbers and Level 6 forts here, I expect to hold.
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07-03-22, 09:56 AM | #585 |
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13 February 1943
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