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SIGSEGV posted:I don't know how to properly describe how I feel about the plane the scythe is based on being designed as a twin engine fighter with guns entirely in the wingtips instead of the centerline. It is kind of insane and I have to assume that they'd move them to the centerline eventually (like they planned to do with the 20mm versions). We created a special .303 MG Device with lowered accuracy just for the Scythe after Pharnakes pointed this out! April 19, 1943 .png) Well, he can’t miss that I’m trying to reoccupy New Guinea by air now. A few hundred infantrymen so far. More flying in every day, by C-47 and DH.84. .png) The feast in the East China Sea continues. .png) And continues! .png) Another one of his deep raids, enabled by the G3M3’s incredible range. This one fails mostly for lack of targets. .png) I finally wise up and bring the Boomerangs to a low night altitude. Good. .png) Plus a decent night performance against Tulagi by the Ndeni B-25s! Today is great so far. I’m bracing for the first screwup or bomber massacre. .png) Next Nell wave at Cloncurry does more damage. The Kittyhawks being wrecked right now were on their way to the east coast, I believe. Providing daytime CAP while they rested at Cloncurry. .png) Another wave, this time at Cooktown on the east coast - where those Kittyhawks were bound, incidentally. They’re not very effective. I’m bemused and concerned. If he goes over to port attack, I have a lot of valuable shipping stacked up in the northeastern ports for the Milne Bay operation. And not a lot of night fighters or night fighter squadrons. How will I respond to this? .png) This is incredibly insignificant compared to those Nell strikes. And I’m not sure why I’ve put the Beauforts over to night bombing anyhow.. .png) Ah well. They trickle in, and I honor their service by cropping screenshots. .png) Remind me to send some recon planes to Gasmata. It kind of looked like the Nells that hit Cooktown flew from there. This attack fails, incidentally. Should I give up night bombing Rabaul at this range? I bet the strikes would hold together better if flown from, say, Port Moresby. .png) This gang flies from Terapo and don’t do any better. Hm. Maybe I should give up on poking Rabaul for now.. .png) Well, I hope we gave Shiratsuyu’s crew a scare. .png) *still* no hits over Rabaul and now we’re losing Liberators .png) At least he hits things!! .png) Like, yeah, these are pinprick strikes that’ll get reverted in a day by my endless Allied pile of supplies, replacements and engineers. But they make concentrating any large number of aircraft at any airfield anywhere NEAR the frontlines a bit nerve-wracking. .png) Not all his night attacks are impressively coordinated relative to ours. This Cooktown one broke into many, many waves. .png) Good eyes on USS Sims spot I-170 and force her under before she can do any damage. Some near misses keep her down and the convoy proceeds. .png) Nothing. Does this mean Pharnakes has ceded the air over the Guards Tank Division to me? Or is he about to cross over and make the shock attack? :nervous: .png) Still nothing. Oh geez I really hope I don’t lose aircraft on the ground in a base overrun again. .png) Look at all these Spitfires! A bit of a waste. I really was so enjoying mulching his fighters here. .png) Here are some decent night fighters. Unfortunately they’re in India, not SWPAC, but they’re still useful. They get a daylight use here hoping to catch some Nicks that have unfortunately not made themselves available. .png) Yeah, I really have Lucknow full of fighters. Again, feeling nervous about this. .png) ANOTHER wave! I’m punching so much air today. .png) Oh that hurts. That’s gonna gently caress up the shock attack I ordered. Hurricanes did nothing, booo  .png) Yeah Indore airfield is a major threat now. This is bad. .png) Lucknow finally launches a bomber strike on the exposed Guards Tank Div.. and it’s these dinky little obsolescent Dutch guys who miss everything. I actually love this. .png) This looks like an overkill escort, but I want to give him zero opportunities well within LRCAP range of Rabaul. .png) Back in India, Lucknow gets off another strike, this time our PTSD-riddled Vengeance pilots. .png) Wellingtons flying from further north even cause observable casualties! Yay! .png) Cooking with gas now. .png) Jack Nicholson The Departed nodding GIF. .png) Good job little guys! .png) Even Blenheims. .png) We finally get a big strike on the Guards Tanks like I want but they do no apparent damage.  .png) How about fifteen Blenheims? Nope. Must be the severe storms. .png) The Australia-based heavy bomber force is so much better in daylight. Coordinated strike. A few hits. Can’t fly in daylight over Rabaul, though.. Not yet. .png) Finally starting to chip away at the Guards vehicles. .png) Another wasted sweep. How many of these guys will I send to cover the 47,22 area? .png) Recon reported a bunch of fighters here yesterday. Are they all just.. Stood down? Should I be bombing Gove? .png) Nobody’s home. .png) Hake is spotted and dives to safety. .png) Onto the ground combat phase and we have a narrow escape. This third of the Waziristan division holds off the IJA tanks. .png) Same old at Jubbulpore. I think I’m losing AV faster now. .png) Bangalore. .png) The shell of the 50th Tank Brigade runs into an entire IJA division and is forced to surrender. That ain’t good. .png) At Gorakhpur, base troops and AA gunners manage to hold off an IJA infantry regiment for another day. Not bad! .png) More Central India cleanup. .png) My turn. This doesn’t make up for the surrenders lately, but it’s a start. .png) Good damage at 47,22 today as well. .png) We counter-shock attack here and force them back! Summary & Orders .png) Mild day in the air, wild day on the ground. .png) What a goddamn mess. Am I getting a grip on it? code:Alikchi fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Dec 1, 2023 |
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Dec 1, 2023 04:32
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Yeah, India is chaos. How easy would it be to invade from the north and go through the Kuriles? It doesn't seem like you have any easy path through the central or southern Pacific.
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Dec 1, 2023 06:17
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Tiger Crazy posted:Yeah, India is chaos. How easy would it be to invade from the north and go through the Kuriles? It doesn't seem like you have any easy path through the central or southern Pacific. It's something I'm seriously considering, especially if the latter half of 1943 doesn't see some advances. But it's a dangerous shortcut. And Enterprise's raid on Tokyo probably permanently ended his neglect of the Kuriles area. We'll see how it goes! April 20, 1943 .png) Begin 4/20 with a little anti-submarine warfare. The New Caledonia area is full of Japanese subs and ANZAC-American ASW teams. .png) Not a great start to our night bombing. .png) I was too slow to screenshot it, but we apparently damage some Nicks on the ground with this strike. .png) Gasmata! Decided to send in the heavy bombers before I even reconnoited the place. Nothing there, probably. .png) Another solitary hit on Indore. .png) I thought the night phase was over but oh! .png) The aircraft are very replaceable. The supplies.. Not so much. It was hard enough to supply Groote as-is, with its big Australian garrison and regular air sorties. Now the 3-4k supplies that were there will be sucked into repairing the airfield and facilities. Pharnakes is always thorough with these things, getting all the floatplanes on his battleships out assisting the bombardments. .png) Daybreak brings us a Tojo sweep in India that absolutely swats aside the RAF. A bit of revenge for the past few days. .png) We’ve forward-deployed some Spits to besieged Bhopal, and they do their own sweep. No enemy fighters protecting the IJA 21st Division. The 21st is one of the elite, incidentally. .png) Hate to see wasted sorties like this. .png) Maybe I’ll have these Airacobras start strafing and bombing. Gotta look busy, right? .png) Somehow, lately, Warhawk trumps Tojo. These are some of my best pilots, yes, but still. .png) No CAP over the IJA 13th Division just “east” of Indore, either. Lots of options for bombing targets tomorrow, as usual… .png) Looking busy. .png) Fitzgibbon brings a Tojo down before he’s overwhelmed. RIP and o7m8. .png) He can now bomb and strafe the hex to his heart’s content. The KAIa Nick’s 20mm is decent against trucks and stuff. .png) 71 Helens and no destroyed vehicles? I’ll count myself lucky. .png) Speaking of the 20mm centerline Scythes! This pair shoots down two Tojos and escapes. .png) An astoundingly impressive performance by the escort is not enough to save the poor old CW-22s. Only one survives to drop its payload of.. two 50kg bombs.  Let’s say they died an honorable death as Tojo bait. .png) Well, the Groote runway must be serviceable. Still no signs of life at Gove. .png) Cmon man, that’s a British torpedo! They’re not supposed to be duds! Those Nicks really mastered the Kittyhawks with their dive advantage. Need more & better long range escorts at P.M. And more Beauforts. .png) We somehow get away with this. .png) This is really stupid. I don’t even remember ordering this  .png) whyyy .png) Ah yes, this is the “series of painful mistakes” part of the turn. .png) No dead Vengeances this time, good. No escort, bad. .png) Oh yes. With eight 500lb bombs apiece, these guys always do well on ground attack missions. .png) Respectable. .png) ‘Twould be unfair to expect anything of Blenheims. .png) The B-25 is a reliable damage dealer. Starting to worry about a big strike on Delhi now. It’s so important as an airbase - and getting closer and closer to the frontline. .png) Sure, the Blenheims don’t hit anything, but still! That Tojo CAP over Lucknow is looking ragged. .png) My thinking with these sweeps was that if he didn’t have fighters here in particular, we’d at least engage some bleed-over CAP from Indore. That’s clearly not the case. .png) Good! .png) A followup hits the division, too. Again, I am dreading a decapitation strike on Delhi. He can see how many strikes I’m launching from there! .png) We do a sweep over Benares and find the skies clear. Hmm.. I need to reshuffle my recon. He’s obviously rebased a bunch of aircraft to Indore but there’s a lot I don’t know. .png) Lots of this today. .png) Gotta keep Milne knocked out, keep them repairing, keep sucking up their supplies.. Also helps to appear unfazed by those Nell strikes. .png) This is one of several kind of inexplicable attacks I’ve made today. A hit is a hit, I guess. .png) Oh, I still have some Warhawks here? Need to send them east with the Beauforts. Leave Port Hedland and Corunna Downs to the Airacobras and Boomerangs. .png) So many juicy bombing targets for tomorrow. Choosing which IJA division to hit will come down to a balance between range, terrain, and expected enemy CAP. .png) This is decently impressive for an airbase that was under bombardment not too long ago. .png) Is this the first time we’ve engaged an A6M5 in India? So far I think I’ve only seen them flown off carriers. Am I having a stroke? He’s really serious about air control over Lucknow. Maybe tomorrow.. Spits to Cawnpore, LRCAP over Lucknow? .png) Impressive. .png) Some of the aforementioned Spits that are about to go A6M5 hunting. .png) Looks like he’s pulling some troops out of the siege of Jubbulpore. I wonder which units? If my feigned withdrawal delayed whatever move he’s making now, I’ll consider it a success. .png) Bangalore. .png) This will confirm to him what I’ve done here: divide the Waziristan Division into three and send the third part looping around. Unfortunately, this also shows me that he has enough troops available to stymie me here. Hmm.. .png) RIP, stragglers. Well, not RIP, more “good luck in the labor battalions” .png) I wonder if I can pull another division out of this battle, keep contesting the crossroads.. Send the freed up div to Cawnpore/Lucknow? Summary & Orders .png) Gnarly. .png) Lots of base upgrades today, but Port Moresby’s the most important. And decent ship arrivals too! .png) Groote is okay. Only ~2K supplies, but enough for now. I shuffle airgroups around in northern Australia into something a bit more rational. I hope. .png) Enterprise is a few days from Seattle. code:quote:65th Brigade is loaded on AMC Asaka Maru moving to Darwin. And from today’s… quote:7/33rd Division is loaded on xAP Taizan Maru moving to Darwin. What’s he building in there? edit 12 hours later: I just saw the "33rd Division is planning for an attack on Groote Eylandt" bit. I think I know now 
Alikchi fucked around with this message at 09:57 on Dec 2, 2023 |
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Dec 1, 2023 20:56
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April 21, 1943.png) Starting the day with a rare Dutch dud. .png) Here comes the night bombing! I keep getting coastwatcher reports that there’s a floatplane carrier (AV) docked at Tulagi. Shiratsuyu was there, too. Hoping to get a hit on something, but just one bomb hits the facilities here. .png) Shiratsuyu is still there!! .png) Alright, I guess he’s not using Gasmata. It’s a level five airfield, but seems empty. I have recon missions lined up for daylight that should clear things up a bit. .png)  .png) KXVIII goes for another bite at the apple, whiffs the shot, and is gently depth-charged by Ayanami for her trouble. .png) Two Admiralty S-class destroyers and the more modern HMAS Napier hit Tulagi in conjunction with the aerial bombardment. I’m enjoying using my fastest destroyers for these little bombardments. So long as he doesn’t use MTBs or mines, it’s very low risk. Also: hopefully diverts attention to the Solomons, if not resources. .png) Oh my god. Imagine dying in a daylight submarine attack like 60 miles from Seattle. With four torpedo hits, I doubt anyone survived. Where’s the escort? .png) Daytime air combat begins with a sweep over 45,22. I have no CAP here. Fighters elsewhere. I hope I don’t punch nothing again. .png) Another wave. Glad these Tojos aren’t being useful elsewhere, but nervous that this means the 254th Armoured is about to get bombed into oblivion. .png) That is a terrible performance from the Hurris. .png) Our turn to sweep 45,22 and find nothing. .png) And 46,22. .png) Swinging wildly at nothing up here.. .png) But so is he. A bit. .png) It begins.. .png) That’s a brutal hit, but I’m glad it’s here and not in the 47,22 area - and targeting this Punjab battalion, not elements of the Waziristan division. Still. I gotta get CAP to those guys. The airfield at Jodhpur is stuffed full and only level 2 or 3. Working on it.. .png) Nagpur remains a major base for him, clearly, despite Indore’s capture. This poor battalion got targeted by nearly a hundred Helens! .png) Bhopal is able to send up one fighter which promptly gets shot up and lands. .png) Not bad. Can’t do this again tomorrow, though. I’m sure he’ll LRCAP with those Derby Zeroes we saw. .png) Distressing battle. We almost shoulder our way through the CAP, but enough Tojos survive to shoot down every bomber but one Vengeance, which is immediately popped by flak. RIP to all involved. Still, lots of destroyed or damaged Tojos, and that’s not our last hit here today. .png) Good! Slow em down. .png) And keeping the division at 47,22 pinned down. Excellent work from Vengeances today. .png) Those Spitfires are absolutely mulching the Tojos, even when escorting (as opposed to sweeping). It’d be nice if the Wellingtons had hit anything, but there was enough damage to disrupt their runs, I think. .png) Storms, too. .png) Still nothing here. Maybe I ought to pull some of these fighters out of Bhopal. That giant stack of Helens that can annihilate any of my airfields in a day makes me very nervous. .png) No CAP over Benares. .png) Yeah, Bhopal is definitely overfilled and too obvious a target. Also I’m running down their supplies with these sorties. But it’s so nice having a proper airfield behind his frontline… .png) Hello Nicks! We breeze by them. Where are they flying from? This can’t be Rabaul LRCAP, surely. .png) This is a lot messier than the combat report shows. We lose two Spits to A6M5 fire, their worst performance in days. In return, we take down at least half a dozen Zeroes. If the A6M5 really is only marginally better against 1943 allied fighters, he’s in trouble. I wonder if he regrets some of his research/tech choices? He has the N1K1-J George coming in July. That very well could even things out for the IJNAS. But the Army will be stuck with the Tojo and maybe a few Tonys until the end of 1943. Then I’ll start getting Franked, I expect. It’s been ages since I’ve seen an Oscar. He’s really gone all-in. .png) Anyways. Check out all the squadrons participating in this beatdown - some based in Lucknow itself, others next door in Cawnpore, and still others flying long LRCAP from fields south of Delhi. Murderer’s row of elite squadrons, here, and their morale and kill tallies have blossomed over the past week or so. .png) Ouch. That’s what I feared. I can only really effectively provide CAP over Ahmedabad with Beaufighters and maybe P-40Ks flying from Jodhpur, nothing else in theater has the range. He’s forcing me to do something to provide air cover But Ahmedabad is also only four hexes away from Indore. That’s within Tojo sweep range. He could stand down the bombers tomorrow and send the Tojos in to slaughter the Warhawks and Brits flying LRCAP. This is the mind game. .png) You know if our RAAF pals in their Boomerangs had actually encountered Zeroes over Broome they would all be dead because you Airacobra jockeys showed up way late. .png) Good! .png) Oh no. We’re in the PM phase now and his Tojos are fully replenished. And this escort isn’t nearly strong enough to deal with two dozen of them. The bombers suffer accordingly. With, as usual, the Vengeances getting the worst of it. .png) Some more mild peppering of the enemy. .png) And again. This is mundane, but if I’d ordered them to hit the Guards Tank div at Lucknow, they’d all be getting massacred right now. .png) Could have been a lot worse, but it won’t be safe to bomb here tomorrow. I gotta sweep the skies clear for a few days. Focus the bombers.. Maybe on their airfield at Benares? (I think these Tojos are based at Benares, anyways..) .png) A surprising success here! Maybe it’s the storms that allow this flight of Liberators to get in and out without a casualty, but they certainly don’t affect their aim. .png) Good good. .png) Well, that settles that. They need the air cover, but to cover their retreat. And the retreat of their third regiment moving to flank. .png) Jubbulpore. We hover near the 2:1 AV ratio. .png) There goes the 254th. We didn’t lose as many tanks as I thought we would! Hell, I thought they might surrender. .png) Continued stagnation here. .png) 47,22 proceeds. Summary & Orders .png) Messy, messy. I know I’ve said stuff like “an even K:D is a win for the Allies” but losses in particular, finite categories (like British bombers) hurt a lot. I do a lot of logistical work behind the lines this turn, and order a few new attacks. Recon has revealed an enemy airbase building at Umboi Island very near Lae - I think it's where those Nicks over Milne Bay earlier flew from. I'm gonna bomb it. I also have some P-38s and P-50s ordered to sweep directly over Rabaul, see what kind of CAP he's got these days... I push two squadrons of Corsairs forward to Abemama, right next door to Tarawa and Milne, as well as TBFs and Airacobras. I've let things go quiet in the Gilberts and it's time to reassert the Allied presence. Maybe grab Nauru and Milne soon.. In India, I pull most aircraft out of Bhopal and redirect the bombers away from Lucknow. We will keep sweeping and hopefully burning through his Tojo stockpile. I also make good use of my shattered Liberator squadrons in Delhi, sending them on recon missions. I reconfigure and retarget lots of recon squads across the Pacific this turn, actually. I've been blinding myself through laziness. Also: .jpg) HMS Hermes (one of the true survivors of the Pacific War so far) and friends move to join the horde of ships assembling at Townsville and Cairns for the imminent Milne Bay operation. code:Alikchi fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Dec 10, 2023 |
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Dec 7, 2023 05:49
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What's your timeline on hitting Tulagi? You have it fully 'planned'?
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Dec 7, 2023 23:25
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chaos and blood, just what I like to see in a turn 
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Dec 8, 2023 04:17
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ThatBasqueGuy posted:chaos and blood, just what I like to see in a turn It's really heating up, and we are now actually wrestling over the initiative instead of me being prostrate and rolling over. Feels good! wedgekree posted:What's your timeline on hitting Tulagi? You have it fully 'planned'? Yes, and Lunga. But I'm going to be purely opportunistic about Guadalancal and the Solomons generally; I'm deeply ambivalent about getting sucked into island hopping there. All that said, so long as much of the KB is out of action, I need to take advantage. If Milne Bay goes exactly as planned (deeply unlikely) Guadalcanal is next on the list. There's no shame in taking the historical route of New Guinea and the Solomons at the same time, even if we're 9 months behind schedule. We'll see how the next few weeks shake out. April 22, 1943 .png) Poking Guadalcanal. .png) Poke. .png) Hellcats have the range (with drop tanks) to sweep Guadalcanal from Ndeni. There’s a VMF squadron of Marines uncrating their new F6Fs at Noumea right now. Once we clear the skies, we can transition to daylight bombing and do real damage. .png) Daylight, and protagonist-of-our-story Lapon is still active. .png) Sailfish is one of several American subs based in Perth prowling the DEI. The cream of his ASW ships seem to be here (sensibly). Sailfish is pretty badly damaged, but she hits one. .png) … After what happened to Ryuho, I had this coming. .png) I guess we each lose a useful, modern escort and Enterprise gets an extra couple of weeks in drydock. I wonder if I-23 is returning from a West Coast patrol, or has been here for a while? .png) A red-letter day for I-23. .png) They’re targeting Cawnpore today. Will bombers follow? The RAF does very well - even the Hurricanes. .png) I’ve pulled nearly all the Allied aircraft out of Bhopal, but nearly all isn’t all. Poor guy. .png) No CAP over Umboi Island. Maybe I was wrong about the Nicks flying from there. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a level four airfield last I looked, though.. .png) A less surprising lack of resistance. .png) Another win! .png) Not a win. That’s a lot of Tojos. I hope I didn’t send too many bombers to 46,22 this turn - I think I retargeted them all, but there’s probably a few still going in.. .png) Our troops can’t stand bombing this intense for much longer. I need to fly in CAP - forgot to do that yesterday - and start bombing Bombay. I think Liberators can hit it from Karachi. .png) More. This giant stack of Helens is incredibly destructive and dangerous. .png) A squad of Indore Tojos supports the Helens. If I can scrape together enough decent, single-seat, long-range fighters I could take them. In India, that’s basically just the P-40K and the Hurricane with drop tanks, and nearly all of them are fighting up north right now. But I can’t just let the Waziristan div melt under infinite bombs, so I will do something. .png) No Nicks lying in ambush over Milne today. .png) Hopefully I can get him to contest here and fight my very short-ranged Spitfire Vs. Also: I think it’s time to march over the mountains. From Terapo to Lae, perhaps? .png) Yes! We switched targets and didn’t fly into a wall of Tojos. .png) Can’t be wasting precious Spit VIIIs like this. Don’t stray ahead of your squadron, guys! Maybe I should convert this particular squad to Kittyhawks and free up the airframes for replacements. .png) Thumbs up. .png) Spreading the damage around! .png) And no RAF bomber massacres yet! .png) This is good. .png) And there it is. I knew I hadn’t retargeted them all. Oof. .png) He puts up a CAP to fight our impotent little sweeps over Benares and somehow we get away with it. .png) The rest of the Bhopal Hurricanes are on escort duty today. It’s probably time for them and the Boomerangs to skedaddle… .png) Amazing work for just six bombers. And there are casualties! He’s got at least a base force here. Yesterday’s recon was done by bombers, today’s photos will be taken by specialized recon aircraft. Hopefully we can see how many ground units are at Umboi. .png) This squadron will fly north to Horn Island tonight and help bomb Umboi tomorrow. Milne is cooked nicely enough for the moment. Maybe they have enough supplies left to repair the airfield for me before I seize it! .png) These Libs are already helping with Umboi! .png) Still sucks to be these guys. .png) This could have been a lot worse (see the Beauforts). .png) The rest of the squadron shows up and that’s more like it. .png) Jubbulpore. .png) Another day bought here! .png) Bangalore. .png) Another surprising hold! .png) This wild goose chase is over, and a Japanese mobile infantry regiment is freed up. .png) We are now at rough parity at 47,22, as one of the two divisions here heads up through Agra to help with Cawnpore/Lucknow. .png) Speaking of, that’s handy! Summary & Orders .png) Not bad. Except for that entire Beaufort squadron getting slaughtered. As satisfying as knocking down all those A6M3s was, I’ll be pulling the Spits out of Corunna Downs once they’re fully repaired. .jpg) I’m transferring more fighters and bombers up to Horn Island. New Guinea is heating up now. Groote Eyelandt is being resupplied by landing craft. Recon (as you can see) reports 3 enemy units at Umboi. Figure a base force, a garrison and some engineers or AAA? I’ll step up the bombing, including from Horn. In India, I switch up the targets yet again and send Beaufighters to LRCAP the Waziristan Div. Oh, and Enterprise is fine, don't worry. Six destroyers will take her in to Seattle and her aircraft will bomb anything that looks vaguely periscopic. Also, why didn’t any of my strikes in the Gilberts on Tarawa and Milne launch? Stupid weather. code:Alikchi fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Dec 10, 2023 |
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Dec 10, 2023 04:28
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Uncropped JPEGs instead of cropped PNGs for this update, sorry. I’m short on time and I want to keep the turns flowing! April 23, 1943 .jpg) Not bad for Blenheims at night. I got some “aircraft damaged” messages too. .jpg) Night thunderstorms, no effect. .jpg) I-23’s frenzy continues. A miss, thankfully. .jpg) All the Kittyhawks, P-40s and Spitfires are gone or going from Western Australia. P-39s remain to listlessly buzz Broome. .jpg) These Warhawks, and a lot of other aircraft, are flying from Gwalior, just up the road from 47,22. The Indian division that disengaged from 47,22 will use the rail network from Gwalior to reinforce Cawnpore/Lucknow. .jpg) That went well, but this CAP won’t stand against a serious push. I’m focused more on Cawnpore than Lucknow. .jpg) The Beaufighters are convering the hext next to Ahmedabad, I believe. Or maybe they just didn’t fly. I hope they flew! .jpg) Brutal. .jpg) Good. I have a bunch of bombers targeting this hex on the presumption that it wouldn’t have air cover - it doesn’t. .jpg) Port Moresby Kittyhawks. .jpg) No CAP over Gove and our bombers are finally flying  (they’ve had orders for like three days now).jpg) Continue! .jpg) No Tojo LRCAP over Lucknow proper either. That is good. Time to bomb the poo poo out of the Guards Tank Div. Assuming we can hit anything… wait, they’re still set to 20,000 feet from when I was using them for recon duty. Oops. .jpg) … Continue! .jpg) Gwalior Vengeances getting some uh revenge for their colleagues. .jpg) Thumbs up. The damage is kind of superficial, but this slows his movement. .jpg) Triple coordination! .jpg) I had to cobble together three shattered squadrons in Karachi for this attack, and it isn’t even that impactful. But it is something. I’ll keep bombing until he puts up CAP. Maybe those Nicks that were strafing our troops a couple days ago? .jpg) Again, not very effective. Bombing the IJA at Bhopal never seems worth it. .jpg) Nice chunk of damage. .jpg) Given the weather? Also nice. .jpg) Fantastic work. The American Mitchells follow the Aussie Mitchells to Gove. Fourteen B-25s at 6-7k feet with no opposition can be very dangerous. .jpg) And we’re not done with Umboi yet today, either. If I can keep Milne and Gove knocked out, and prevent Umboi and Gasmata and Lae from being used, then the future looks bright here. .jpg) I have a feeling a gazillion Rabaul Zeroes will be flying CAP over Umboi tomorrow. Maybe I should bomb Rabaul? .jpg) Busy day for B-24s in the Pacific. These guys are based in Delhi. I remembered that we have to keep the Ahmedabad airfield from being repaired. .jpg) Yup, he has that gazillion of fighters in Rabaul. Surprising number of Tojos, too. Where are all the navy squadrons? CENTPAC? India, I guess? The Skyrockets and Lightnings are lucky to be merely driven off and not swarmed to death. .jpg) Ow! .jpg) Our Hurricane IIAs get messed up pretty bad in this engagement, but the other fighters make up for it. .jpg) I still have a Hurricane IIC half-squadron available to keep prodding at Benares. If he drops the Zero cover, I’ll know I can bomb out the airfield. .jpg) This is good attrition for us. I have a lot of Hurricanes, and they’re overperforming today. .jpg) A little late, guys. .jpg) I was really hoping all the Lightnings and Skyrockets would fly together. Even if they had, this probably wouldn’t have gone well. We bring down a few enemy fighters, at the cost of some of our valuable and rare long-range fighters. A bad trade on balance, imo. Tomorrow we’ll sweep Umboi instead. .jpg) Ugh. P-38s aren’t superfighters. .jpg) Tomorrow the B-25s and Wellingtons around here should hit Benares. I have him on the backfoot here. .jpg) It’s been a bit since I lost a freighter to Betties or Nells. Still stings. Maybe I can scrounge up more bombers to hit Bombay airfield. .jpg) The Terapo-based P-38s are being used properly, escorting this strike. .jpg) Jubbulpore. .jpg) Bangalore. .jpg) The Japanese can’t quite muster the Assault Value ratio needed to force the /B section of the Waristan Div into a rout like the others. We lose 102 men to their 24, though, and it won’t be long. .jpg) Gorakhpur does finally fall, and the enemy takes a thousand prisoners. This frees up one IJA Tank and one Infantry regiment, but more significantly is a decent airfield very near Cawnpore/Lucknow, to complement Benares. .jpg) Still coming out on top here. Summary & Orders .jpg) Seven enemy aircraft on the ground! Good day. I have learned, once again, that I don’t have the strength to go at Rabaul directly. .jpg) Enterprise is safely in Seattle. Two months of repairs ahead.  Essex becomes available in 28 days. 
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Dec 11, 2023 07:20
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So what's your offensive plans in the Solomons and do you have a tentative timetable on it?
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Dec 12, 2023 03:39
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wedgekree posted:So what's your offensive plans in the Solomons and do you have a tentative timetable on it? No firm timetable. I have units planned and available, just not the shipping - everything handy is devoted to Milne Bay and Nauru right now. I'd like Pharnakes to believe an invasion is imminent, though, hence the bombing and bombardments. (More of that stuff coming soon.) April 24, 1943 .jpg) A single solitary hit is pretty good for Blenheim night bombing. .jpg) These Fortresses all miss for the second night in a row. .jpg) Sunfish is being very ballsy. But being ballsy has paid off for both the IJN and USN sub fleets lately, so why not? I’ve lost the screenshot of this next fight - Zeroes flying from Katherine sweeping over Mornington Island - so here’s the combat report: code:.jpg) Almost sixty of his best fighters on LRCAP.. He’s all-in for Lucknow today. .jpg) Our Warhawks are too high at 25K, the Helens slip beneath at 6k. Elements of the 8th Indian Div marching to Gwalior are bombed and slowed. .jpg) This raid inflicts another 37 casualties on the 8th Indian, but a couple of P-40s are low enough to shoot down a Helen. .jpg) We have lots of supplies in Jubbulpore. I spotted that unit marching away from the siege and spied an opportunity for one of our shattered Vengeance squadrons to be useful in a “no enemy fighters anywhere near you” environment. Thus, this weird little attack. They all miss, what’re you gonna do. .jpg) The four Beauforts are shot down immediately by A6M5s, with their Beaufighter escorts failing to intervene. .jpg) Nothing at Milne. .jpg) Nothing over Umboi Island either, but we are able to identify 2 of the ground units there (the DB-7 pilots swooped down and grabbed prisoners to interrogate with big hooks). If there really is no garrison at all, I’m tempted to grab this place with paratroopers. No, no, I wouldn’t be able to supply it and he’d be able to counterinvade immediately. But it’s a fun idea. .jpg) Yep, still nothing. .jpg) If you’ve got it [obsolete bombers], flaunt it [tempt enemy fighters to come out & play] .jpg) That is absolutely fantastic work from a mere FOUR twin-engined bombers. .jpg) See? Three times as many just did half as well. .jpg) Nearly all the Lucknow engagements have been minor debacles today. This one is nearly major. Those Hurricane IIDs are the version with 40mm cannon - ground attack aircraft, flying at very low altitude. Not good! .jpg) Please stop accumulating debacles. .jpg) Thank you. .jpg) I think we might be done with Benares for a few days. .jpg) Gove target practice! .jpg) At this rate, I should be able to keep Umboi AND Milne inoperable. .jpg) I even have spare B-24s to buzz Katherine a bit. Those Dinahs are serious and rare anti-bomber machines, and we already know dozens of Zeroes are based here. Katherine’s pretty important! .jpg) He will have to put up CAP over Gove or evacuate it.  .jpg) Stragglers, but every hit helps. .jpg) Very pleased with our bomber force today! .jpg) And we’re cutting nicely into his Helen supply. .jpg) The weather finally allows for these attacks to begin. On the center left edge of this screenshot is Nauru Island: an invasion force is loading at Pago Pago and I expect Nauru to fall within two weeks. .jpg) I think I’d prefer to skip Tarawa and hop on straight to Makin. Troops are already planning for this. .jpg) The poor Punjabis lose 133 men in this attack, but hopefully the Beaufighters will force him to either divert Tojos or stop. .jpg) I get nervous about stuffing too many aircraft into any one base reachable by naval bombardment. Being able to divide our forces between Arorae, Tabiteuea, and Abemama really helps. .jpg) This is shaping up to be the most aircraft we’ve destroyed on the ground in quite a while. .jpg) Some Spitfires are here but don’t show up in the combat report, I think because they were on LRCAP from a different base? Regardless, we somehow get away with this. .jpg) The Beaufighters shield the Vengeances from Tojo and Nick attack, mostly. .jpg) More Umboi stragglers. .jpg) And Gove. .jpg) It doesn’t stop! .jpg) That hurts. We’ll fly out the survivors from the little coastal enclave they’re retreating to. And I have to move quickly. There’s a speedbump at Jodhpur, but if he rushes with sufficient force he could take Karachi. And I’m incredibly vulnerable to paratroopers. Nearly everyone is at the front, there are lots of empty bases. .jpg) Jubbulpore. What is there even left to say about this? With the forts, supplies and terrain all in our favor, this feels like it could go on forever. Remember how Bandoeng in central Java lasted until August 1942? .jpg) Deliberate attack at Lucknow! Over a thousand assault value. He could probably shock and take it tomorrow, but I think he’ll wait a day. Our reinforcements won’t make it in time, I think.. .jpg) Bangalore. .jpg) We bombard at Bhopal to have a look at the IJA here. The 35th Div is nasty, but if I can bomb its AV down I should be able to force the enemy out of the hex, with all the troops I have converging on Bhopal.. Maybe. .jpg) 47,22. .jpg) This was a very stupid waste. I toggled them both units over to shock, remembered there’s an enemy division here, but only toggled one of them back  Summary & Orders .jpg) .jpg) Did we really shoot down that many Helens?? Surely not. The days are getting so bloody that I have to splice screenshots together to fit all the aircraft losses.. .jpg) Four of our Adak Island-based subs, all damaged enough to warrant time on the West Coast. .jpg) The Nauru Island invasion is already on its way. I’m anticipating little resistance. Hopefully the winding route the convoy’s taking will make it look like a resupply run to Tabiteuea until the day the troops land. code:
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Dec 13, 2023 02:26
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That was a hell of a day in the air war! How’s your air production looking? Any new models coming up that you expect to make a difference?
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Dec 13, 2023 02:57
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Pirate Radar posted:That was a hell of a day in the air war! How’s your air production looking? Any new models coming up that you expect to make a difference? I'm scraping the bottom! Seriously, the pools of frontline aircraft are very empty. The only bright spot there is the quick accumulation of Corsairs, and that's mostly because there's nothing in range of their bases to fight (yet). Here is a screenshot from witptracker. This is allied aircraft, sorted by availability date, with the P-47D2 (arriving in 43/7) selected:  The P-47 is the thing to look forward this year, both for the obvious quality and the build rate (56/month). I'm very excited about the two Warhawk models arriving in the same month for similar reasons, they're solid fighters and will help refill shattered squadrons and replenish the front line. More immediately, the SBD-5 Dauntless (May) and B-25G (June) will be useful. We'll start cranking out carrier-capable Corsairs in October, and the Seafire and Barracuda will help FAA squadrons become relevant again.  The next alternate history aircraft available to me will be the P-75 Eagle, in June 44. It'll be interesting to see how they perform.
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Dec 13, 2023 04:23
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Life can be a little rough on the US player until that good old US industry starts turning out infinity planes.
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Dec 13, 2023 04:33
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wiegieman posted:Life can be a little rough on the US player until that good old US industry starts turning out infinity planes. I got my first taste of that this month with the Hellcat and its obscene build rate of 167. Already filled out multiple squadrons! April 25, 1943 .png) Lovely way to start the turn. Some damaged aircraft messages too. .png) Good Blenheims, useful Blenheims, not-getting-massacred Blenheims, yes-s-s. .png) These three particular B-17s have had bad luck for several nights running. You can hit the airfield guys! Keep trying!! .png) Daylight. I have enough fighters at Port Moresby to spare for this. .png) The sweep goes in before any bombers!!  Nicks are great bomber slayers. Not a match for the Spitfire..png) These Vb Spitfires were providing CAP at Port Moresby yesterday. I flew them over to Groote for the day to make sure the skies over Gove were safe for our bombers. Looks like they are.. .png) Airacobras too. Overkill, but I wanted to be sure. .png) Can’t forget Broome! .png) Our Spitfires eliminated the Nick threat, but the weather is nasty enough to throw off the Vengeance pilots’ aim. .png) Can’t forget Milne, either! .png) We’re getting a lot out of these ex-Dutch DB-7s. .png) These giant escorts are deterrence as much as anything else. And with the range of the P-38 and the B-25, I can send escorted bombers very far. .png) The two Zeroes are too high and our Wellingtons get away clean. .png) Well now they’re here! .png) Ah, here’s today’s fuckup. Didn’t I order a sweep here? No? .png) Good. .png) This is a backhanded demonstration of the value of the Beaufighter as an escort. Two of them go down, but the enemy Zeroes run out of ammo before they can think about engaging the Wellingtons. .png) The second RAAF Spitfire squadron sweeps an empty Gove. Where are the bombers? .png) Right on time! There must be a lot of damaged aircraft grounded here. .png) Minor hit on 47,22. .png) More ground kills! .png) Sent these Mitchells along with the Spitfires. .png) Jack Nicholson Nodding. .png) My expectations have been raised. Do better! .png) Slightly better. .png) The B-25 .50 cal gunners do incredibly well, shooting down a Zero and driving off the rest. .png) A good start. There should be more sweeps over Lucknow coming. I think the weather canceled a few.. .png) Aussies don’t want to miss out on Gove. Probably some complex feelings about bombing their own country? vOv .png) Five more American Mitchells follow them. .png) Not great. I need more recon aircraft here. I don’t have enough to keep tabs on Gove, Katherine, Rabaul, Umboi, and Milne at the same time. .png) These little hits do add up. .png) Sometimes we even get another plane! .png) He’s got so many subs around New Caledonia. I have several ASW task forces and a decent number of aircraft on the case. We find and immediately lose this one. I’m looking forward to the coming flood of Allied minesweepers, corvettes, patrol craft and escorts. It’s annoying to use first-class destroyers like this, but for now it’s situationally necessary. .png) Jubbulpore. .png) Lucknow has maybe one turn left. Bad news. It’s a level 8 airbase. I was really hoping that overwhelming Allied fighter sweeps would mean I could feel secure sending all the RAF and USAAF bombers in India after the IJA outside Lucknow next turn. Not sure how comfortable I am with that idea right now. .png) Bangalore. .png) The reinforcements are beginning to arrive at Bhopal. I’m desperate for a big ground victory and I’ve maneuvered away from the 47,22 fight to relieve the siege here. Time to start finding out if that was a good idea. .png) 47,22 itself is stable. I may even pull out the Corps HQ and engineer battalion to help at Bhopal, come to think of it. Summary & Orders .png) Another positive day for us! God, it sucks to be a Vengeance pilot who has to take orders from me. Oh well. Positive! .png) The key piece of data in this image is “airfield damage 97.” Gove is knocked out and I need to refocus my B-24 and B-25 efforts. Where next? Rabaul is too heavily defended, Umboi and Gasmata seem empty, Milne is bombed out too.. Actually, Milne could probably use a freshening up, but let’s try not to draw too much attention in that direction… code:
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Dec 13, 2023 09:15
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Yay for the slow gain of air superiority! Go you.
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Dec 13, 2023 23:27
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wedgekree posted:Yay for the slow gain of air superiority! Go you. It's nice, but very tenuous! That giant sledgehammer of Helens and Tojos he can wield in India is so much more coherent and effective than my little dribs and drabs of shattered squadrons. I will admit this knife's edge feeling is much more engaging than the fatalism of late 42-early 43. Maybe an artifact of taking a year's break from the game... April 26, 1943 .png) Another night of hounding RO-66. Get away from my Noumea! .png) The IJN gets some back against O27. That was an accurate depth charging; I hope they can limp home safely. .png) I ordered a bunch of night bombings for today, so.. Prepare to be underwhelmed, probably. .png) Not bad! .png) Bad. I wonder if there even is any daytime CAP? .png) Night bombing is a lot safer, but it’s so ineffectual under most circumstances. .png) I can do nasty bombardments too! This was intended to draw attention away from New Guinea, but if the combat report is anywhere near accurate it was worth it on its own merits. Seven modern American cruisers can do a lot. .png) Two light cruisers can’t do that much, but it’s better than sitting in port. Tarawa is underdeveloped and overgarrisoned. That Assault SNLF is very tough. More and more convinced that I can skip it and go straight to Makin without much fear. .png) Pretty brazen, operating this close to San Francisco. Time to put all the training squadrons on ASW duty for a few turns and vaporize this I-boat. If we can. .png) I’m not even sure how I left a Warhawk here. Is that even what happened? .png) This is very bad. The 31st Armoured is the most valuable unit I have in India right now. I absolutely can’t allow him to keep doing this, so LRCAP will be required. .png) Less concerning, still bad. .png) Better than we could have hoped for. .png) The solution may be to fly in a few squadrons to Bhopal for a turn or three. I hate to pull the A-team away from Cawnpore and Lucknow, though… .png) Over to New Guinea and New Britain. Gasmata is still empty, but so long as it has a base force it’s a threat. I want to bomb it out or at least force them to burn supplies repairing the field. .png) More of this. These B-24s fly from Horn Island, I believe. .png) Why only one escort? Why would anyone voluntarily get into a Vengeance under my command? .png) If he’s moved his giant pile of Helens forward, I need to be hitting somewhere other than Bombay. Can’t really tell yet. .png) I forgot about the Nells! They’re worth blowing up. I have some reinforcements that will need to travel by sea into Karachi soon and I can’t have them getting drowned. .png) Very worth it. .png) Making the point that I can hit the Shortlands too. .png) Point reinforced. .png) What I really want is for him to divert fighters and try to contest all these bombing runs. Preferably to somewhere close, like Salamaua or Gasmata, where I can take them down with my own fighters - but Shortlands would be fine too. Whatever it takes to thin out the herd over Rabaul. .png) These B-24s were sitting idle on Hawaii yesterday. With Abemama fully supplied and building into a fine base, we can start projecting power. Mili is one of his more important bases in the Marshalls, I gather. .png) Misses. .png) The weather is definitely screwing our bombardiers. .png) Lightly bomb drizzle. .png) Impressive CAP for a place that just got bombarded. The three B-17s, transitioning from night to day bombing, still miss everything but do lose one of the trio. .png) This is all good, we like blowing up Nells, but we need to focus everything on winning the ground war. That means blowing up Helen bases, not Nell bases. Gotta retarget. .png) Sweeping the Broome. .png) The Helen Menace. At least he’s not bombing the Waziristan Div and those Punjabis anymore. .png) The difference between the 10 Tojos sweeping and the 75 fighter total is LRCAP. .png) Spitfire Mk Vs only have a four-hex range. They can’t even reach Milne Bay from Port Moresby! They can reach Salamaua. I like to occasionally switch up my orders like this on the off chance he moves fighters into New Guinea. Starting to think that may never happen… Also visible in this image: some of the many resupply and reinforcement convoys traveling between Terapo and northeastern Australia. It’s one of our most important airbases and it has ZERO port facilities. Everything has to be transported via amphibious task force and dragged up the beaches. .png) Nasty weather scuppers most strikes in this theater, but these guys make it through to terrorize the Makin garrison. .png) This should present him with two choices: contest the air over Makin and get chewed up by Corsairs, or give up the air and let us grind that SNLF into oblivion. .png) Thumbs up. .png) Protagonist-of-reality USS Lapon somehow still has torps left, goes after an IJN destroyer. Time to go home for more ammo, I expect. Also: he’s building up Saishu To (visible) and Ominato (northern Japan) airfields. They’re great ASW chokepoints, obviously. .png) Jubbulpore. Still typing down the IJA 22nd Infantry Div and the Imperial Guards Div, along with a huge artillery train. .png) These little fragments don’t quite get out of the hex in time, but they don’t surrender, either. .png) Lucknow falls tomorrow, surely. .png) Bangalore isn’t falling anytime soon. .png) Uh oh. .png) Uh oh uh oh! .png) We close out with 47,22. Summary & Orders .png) Good ratio today, but inconsequential, I think, compared to what’s going on in Madhya Pradesh. I have got to do more to protect my troops from those Helens. And now it’s starting to look more like I need to rescue myself from Bhopal and pull out. Ejecting the Japanese may no longer be an option. In fact, the more I think about it, pulling back under my own air cover and into good terrain seems like the right call. I’m just now getting the upper hand in the air. Why blow it by risking everything on the ground, when I have decent reinforcements a few months away? So. The Bhopal relief operation becomes a Bhopal breakout operation. Tomorrow we start marching back towards Gwalior and Agra. Some other reactions in India. The Karachi B-24s (and British Liberators) move on from Bombay to hitting Indore airfield. They will be savaged by the CAP, but it needs to be done. Five fighter squadrons based in Lucknow strap on drop tanks and switch to providing air cover for the 31st Armoured and other units in the Bhopal-Indore area. If he spreads out his bombers a bit like he did today, I ought to bag a few tomorrow. .jpg) The bombardment task force partially rearms at Ndeni and starts on a crooked path to perform a similar attack on Nauru. Hopefully tomorrow the Hellcat is blooded over Guadalcanal by VMF-122. .png) It’s nice to give the Canadians something to do. They love working in this weather. .png) He has a squadron of.. Probably Emilys or Mavises at Mili. Doesn’t appear to have flown in any fighters. So the B-24s keep bombing. Of course, it only took a day of full-bore aircraft operations for Abemama to dip into the Red Exclamation Point level of supplies. More is coming! code:
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Dec 16, 2023 08:54
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What are you hoping to get at Nauru? How big of an island is it, can you put a decent airfield in there to support longer range bombers to interrupt his lines of communication to the Solomons/Rabaul?
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Dec 18, 2023 04:11
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WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TOKYO BAY FORTRESS RR THE WORLD WONDERS
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Dec 18, 2023 05:11
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Cimber posted:What are you hoping to get at Nauru? How big of an island is it, can you put a decent airfield in there to support longer range bombers to interrupt his lines of communication to the Solomons/Rabaul? Not big enough for any decent bombers. We'll have to build the meager Level 2-3 airfield possible from scratch, though there are finished Level 2 port facilities. Nauru will mostly be useful as a fighter and floatplane base, covering the gap between the Solomons and Gilberts. Still, it's worth taking. Tarawa is too well garrisoned, and I'm not willing to go straight at Makin until I have at least a few proper CVs available. Neophyte posted:WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TOKYO BAY FORTRESS RR THE WORLD WONDERS I can't believe he moved it. Sacrilege. April 27, 1943 .png) Oh dear. Those P-70s need to wake the hell up. .png) Wait, was that it? No more night bombing of Cawnpore? .png) I guess so. My night bombing is, as usual, ineffectual. .png) Frustrated by the P-70’s inability to deter the Helens at all, I pull up WitPTracker’s Aircraft Comparison tool.  I think the problem is the narrow margin of speed. Or the altitude is too high? A bit of both? .png) Back to business. Rabaul’s flak is very, very nasty, even at night. .png) Pretty good! .png) At least this wave didn’t blow up any more Warhawks on the ground. .png) Alright, I guess the Groote invasion is happening now? Predicted and acceptable losses (Airacobras). Those supply hits are the worst effect. .png) The most important thing to win today is the fighter duel over the Agra-Bhopal-Indore triangle. This is a solid start. .png) These guys all damage each other and fly off. .png) The Hellcat scores its first kills. A blessed day. Please, send more fighters down here! .png) Why. I know this is my fault, but I swear to God Vengeances are just drawn to enemy fighters like mosquitoes to a bug zapper. .png) I need to put some of these Kittyhawks on LRCAP over Milne. Even with the airfield totally busted, he could be using flying boats to bring supplies and/or troops in. .png) Umboi needs further seasoning. .png) As does Gasmata. .png) Flying all the way from Horn Island into bad weather, these Libs do poorly. .png) Another ill-advised strike on Lucknow - a bunch of sweeps from Cawnpore failed to launch, so there’s a huge Zero CAP. The RAF overperforms against terrible odds, as usual (when they’re not flying Vengeances). .png) They (and some B-25s) don’t get away so cleanly this time. Argh. These are the most useful bombers I have, getting chewed up. This is a hard day for us. .png) I’m feeding. Make it stop. .png) It’s not stopping but it’s getting less terrible. .png) If only I had sent all the Wellingtons on this mission.. .png) The Portland Roads Liberators will keep working on Shortlands until it’s fully knocked out. .png) More for Umboi, too. I think that as the Allied bomber force becomes more deadly, this game will feel more and more like Airbase Whack-A-Mole. .png) Stragglers. .png) You get the idea. .png) Working on the port at Gove, now. No easily shipping supplies in from Darwin. .png) I have a few of these little 2 and 3-ship B-17 squadrons. Might as well put them to use. .png) Yes. Of course you sweep now, after everything. .png) Pfft. .png) Good, we still have the supplies to keep this up. .png) Is that a task force I see up there? I bet he’s tempted to bombard Abemama like he just did Groote. .png) Very bad day to be on Tarawa. Can’t be that many good days, really. .png) We keep the heat on Mili, too. .png) Etc. .png) And a third wave. Good progress! .png) That settles it, the Ahmedabad part of our Indian Reinforcements operation has been a bit of a debacle. In the center, things are confused, and at Cawnpore/Lucknow.. Well, let’s see. .png) Jubbulpore. .png) Ooh, he’s bombarding back at 47,22 now! Doesn’t go well for him. .png) He’s finally starting to work on the isolated US Infantry Division here in central India, and their friends.. I don’t think he brought enough guys to finish this quickly. I’m airdropping supplies in… .png) Bhopal. He can see I’ve concentrated over a thousand AV here. Tomorrow I will send in the remaining Wellingtons and B-25s and try a deliberate attack to push the IJA out of the hex. After that succeeds or fails, we retreat northwest. .png) I am actually shocked they held on here. .png) Bloodless day at Bangalore. .png) Not as deadly as our counter-battery fire earlier. Summary & Orders .png) Lot of B-25s that managed to limp home only to be declared unsalvageable wrecks upon landing. And, of course, another Vengeance massacre. Rough day! .png) The operational report is just pages and pages of this. .png) Also this. I’m missing several British & Commonwealth units because I’ve lost their arrival bases in India. .png) The timing has worked out well, and the Nauru and Milne invasions are going off almost simultaneously. The 1st Marine Regiment is loaded up and will depart Tabiteuea in the morning. The second wave is not long behind, and the third and fourth waves of engineers and aviation troops are also at sea. Everything looks good! Except for that mysterious spotting report, 4 enemy ships in the rain, moving southeast, taking the path that Pharnakes’ carriers and battleships always take when they’re about to gently caress me up in SOPAC. Not ideal. I’m sure it’s nothing. The amphibious forces will stay in range of the Corsairs and Hellcats based in the Gilberts as long as possible. If it is the enemy carriers I can duck into port. Hopefully. I hope he’s heading towards Ndeni, I hope he thinks I’m going to invade Guadalcanal - that would buy me a crucial day or two. I’m typing “hope” a lot, which doesn’t bode well. .jpg) The Milne operation is running slightly ahead of Nauru. The route taken by the amphibious force (the 43rd US Infantry Div and elements of II Australian Corps) will keep it under a dense layer of Lightnings, Skyrockets and Warhawks (based in Cooktown and Port Moresby) all the way in to Milne tomorrow. There’s a misfit “covering force” of HMS Hermes, USS Sangamon (an escort carrier) and the French seaplane tender Commandant Teste, as well as more muscular surface combat and bombardment TFs. Hopefully ( ) I don’t get too many of them sunk.code:
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Dec 18, 2023 06:36
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Are you going to try for any naval bombing in the Gulf of Carpentaria? You've certainly got a lot of level bombers in the area although I'm not sure which if any are decent at naval missions (outside of skip bombing).
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Dec 18, 2023 14:37
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Is Groote worth taking in any way?
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Dec 18, 2023 14:42
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Dance Officer posted:Is Groote worth taking in any way? I would imagine that as an airfield it would be rather annoying and could be a bombing site to hit eastern australia sites.
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Dec 18, 2023 14:44
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Terrifying Effigies posted:Are you going to try for any naval bombing in the Gulf of Carpentaria? You've certainly got a lot of level bombers in the area although I'm not sure which if any are decent at naval missions (outside of skip bombing). This screenshot is a few turns old, but: .png) You've hit on the main problem, level bombing is no real deterrent. I have ~30 Beaufort VIIIs with torpedoes set to naval attack based at Mornington Island, with Warhawk/Kittyhawk escorts. They're vulnerable to bombardment, obviously, but the most dangerous thing I have against shipping in SWPAC. Although now that you mention it, I do have a TBF squadron fragment leftover from the carrier battles sitting idle in SOPAC, along with a couple of Marine SBD units. They should go to Normanton. Dance Officer posted:Is Groote worth taking in any way? Cimber posted:I would imagine that as an airfield it would be rather annoying and could be a bombing site to hit eastern australia sites. It's not worth that much in and of itself, though the airbase could be very annoying. It does make sense as a target for a 1943 counterstrike. It's exposed at the end of a tenuous supply line, a hard-to-reinforce island. Losing it would set us back and destroy a full Australian division and supporting troops to boot. Just received the next turn, let's see how all this goes..
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Dec 18, 2023 23:46
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April 28, 1943.png) We begin with a miss. Shame, sinking a ship called Tokyo Maru would have been a morale-booster. .png) This wouldn’t seem silly if they’d managed to blow up a Zero on the ground, or hit anything. But they didn’t, so. .png) Keeping up the facade that we are going for Tarawa, right until the very end. All this bombing and bombarding has revealed a very nasty garrison that I have no desire or reason to fight. .png) Tullibee might have to pull back. .png) No kills, but the Hellcats damaged a lot of aircraft. Hopefully that’s enough for the B-25s to get through later. .png) Horrifying potentialities here in that many bombers escorted by that many fighters. Today that force is applied to units that were about to get demolished anyways. He’s made sure of it, I suppose! .png) It would have been nice to shoot down some of these bombers, but I think I’m glad I didn’t put an LRCAP through the grinder of those escorts. Let’s see how our sweeps go. .png) Where is the CAP?? I hope he doesn’t exploit this. Thank God he already shot his Helen wad. .png) Not entirely shot, I guess. Good lord. .png) At this rate there will be like two dozen guys left for the IJA to overrun at the end of the turn. .png) Another bloodless duel. The Hellcats have to fly their full, extended drop-tank range to initiate these dogfights, so I get why they bug out quickly. .png) This isn’t very effective, but it does slow the enemy down. And the Beaufighters do their job: all the bombers make it home. .png) I also need to degrade the forces besieging Bhopal and slow them as I pull out. .png) The Karachi B-24s force their way through bad weather to find Indore very well defended. We get away nearly unscathed and with the knowledge that now isn’t the time to bomb here. .png) Always nice to wrangle good work out of the Blenheims. .png) I haven’t left off Shortlands entirely. .png) Three B-17s fly a tentative raid on Katherine from Normanton and run into a very impressive fighter force. One Fortress gets popped by a Nick almost immediately; the other two limp home as probable write-offs. .png) Yes, the Hellcats did well enough over Guadalcanal - the B-25s get through, lose only one, and shoot down a Zero on their way in. Bad effect, though, and won’t be repeated tomorrow. .png) This is NOT the fireworks factory. .png) Alright, I think that’s all the Portland Roads B-24s. .png) After several days of weather-related cancellations, the Normanton B-24s try for Darwin, hoping for a weaker target than Katherine. Unfortunately, the CAP is determined and the flak is extremely powerful, with two B-24s brought down. It was worth a shot. .png) It’s just the B-24’s time, I guess. .png) Yes. .png) More! .png) I was really hoping the other sweeps from Cawnpore would, yknow, launch.. Poor Airacobra jockeys. They’re genuinely skilled pilots in that squadron, but the Tojo is just better. .png) Keeping busy. .png) The whole Gilberts area is full of Allied transports and warships. .png) Not very effective, but it’s mostly for show and practice. .png) All I can really say is that it’ll suck to be a resident of Tarawa for the foreseeable future. .png) Recon yesterday reported runway damage of only ~46 at Umboi, so I’ll need to keep up with his engineers and supplies. Also, check out all those Japanese task forces. Looks like he’s responding in force. .png) Of course, there are always more B-24s. .png) And B-25s! .png) Horn Island is SUCH a useful little base. .png) .png) .png) .png) Shad is perfectly placed to catch one of the task forces rushing towards us in SOPAC. She fires a spread of six at Hiei and hits with two. One detonates. The counter-attack from angry first-class destroyers is VERY severe, and I doubt Shad will make it home. .png) Jubbulpore. .png) Didn’t make it across the river in time, poor guys. .png) 47,22. .png) Bhopal (of which the evacuation has begun). .png) That’s Lucknow fallen, with the survivors retreating into Cawnpore. Expected, but still hurts. 900 AV that I can’t stop, that close to Delhi. You see why I am pulling back from Bhopal instead of charging desperately at Jubbulpore. .png) (filing nails, whistling, etc) .png) Maybe I should just stop bombarding at 47,22. Summary & Orders Unclench. .png) A mid day. Tomorrow, more fireworks. .png) Shad is probably doomed, but I’ll give her a day to see if the flooding can get under control before I scuttle. Maybe she can limp into Ndeni? .jpg) The Milne invasion hits the beaches in the morning. Looks like a big Japanese response coming down from Truk through the Bismarcks to me. Plus a major task force assembled at Darwin. Fingers crossed. code:
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Dec 20, 2023 01:43
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Gonna be a tight next few days! How badly you think you hurt Hiei with that torp?
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Dec 20, 2023 02:37
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I gotta admire the level of detail they put into this game. I idly looked up the USS Shad on wikipedia, and the name of the captain they have in the game is the actual guy who captained it at this stage of the war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shad_(SS-235) quote:The second Shad was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard (in Kittery, Maine) on 24 October 1941. She was launched on 15 April 1942 (sponsored by Miss Priscilla Alden Dudley), and commissioned on 12 June 1942, with Lieutenant Commander Edgar J. MacGregor III (United States Naval Academy class of 1930) in command. Did some more digging, that dude actually won the navy cross later in the war: https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/19365 Alikchi, you can't scuttle the Shad! This guy has a destiny to fulfill! Cimber fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Dec 20, 2023 |
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Dec 20, 2023 15:00
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That level of damage is totally survivable if it doesn't roll really badly on DC checks or get depth charged again.
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Dec 20, 2023 21:55
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wedgekree posted:Gonna be a tight next few days! How badly you think you hurt Hiei with that torp? I really doubt one torpedo did more than drop her speed 4-6 knots, but judging by my scouting reports today, that was enough to turn that task force around. Or maybe I'm having a Fletcher moment. I'd send her back to Truk in Japan's shoes, anyways. Cimber posted:I gotta admire the level of detail they put into this game. I idly looked up the USS Shad on wikipedia, and the name of the captain they have in the game is the actual guy who captained it at this stage of the war. Rogue0071 posted:That level of damage is totally survivable if it doesn't roll really badly on DC checks or get depth charged again. She has a high chance of making it, I think! Rolled well today & just has to make it the 3-4 days to Ndeni. April 29, 1943 .png) I had a few submarines transiting to and from the DEI in this area, and they’ve all been redirected towards Darwin and Groote, to do a little scouting and hopefully disrupt his invasion (if it happens). O20 fulfills the former role here. .png) If these Boomerangs could hit something it’d be easier to pretend this isn’t pointless. .png) The weather and minimal moonlight make most night bombing futile right now, but I still want to try in a few cases. I saw he’s flown aircraft into Ahmedabad and decided to start work on the airbase there again. .png) To no avail. .png) For the second day in a row, we see one obvious downside of parking a submarine in the likely path of decent, upgraded IJN destroyers. I love the Dutch subs dearly, especially the O-boats, and I hope O20 gets away. .png) Here we go. This reconfirms that he only has a Naval Guard unit here. Should be a walkover for the Marines. Also yes, Nauru has resources, but they are of zero interest or strategic value. .png) I’ve been using expendable little xAKLs to resupply Groote, and one gets expended here. She was on her way back to Normanton having unloaded the full 1000 supplies in her hold. A worthy trade. A full size xAK is unloading at Mornington Island right now, as well, so we should be supply-secure in the Gulf of Carpentaria for a minute. .png) NO!! Central figure of the universe USS Lapon is in trouble! .png) Don’t like seeing that many A6M5s - they’re a genuine improvement over the A6M3a. This could have gone a lot worse, to be fair. The Hurricane IIC is giving sterling service. More sweeps should be en route.  If Japan goes all in on the A6M5c in January 44 (it adds “armor”), they might even be able to save some elite Navy pilots’ lives. But I believe, based on his research choices at game start, that he’ll be leaning heavily into the George. The N1K1-J debuts in July. I’m not looking forward to that. Anyways, back to the game: .png) We are messily attritting them. And ourselves, but Warhawks and Hurricanes are two airframes I do actually have plenty of. .png) “A Hundred And Two Helens” by The Decemberists. I flew out all our planes yesterday night, so he’ll catch nothing on the ground at Cawnpore, but I was hoping the Warhawk LRCAP would kill a few bombers. No such luck. Maybe in a subsequent wave? .png) I don’t have the fighters to provide acceptable air cover to both the Cawnpore and Bhopal areas, so I’m constantly shifting between them, trying to anticipate where he’ll bomb and sweep. He’s taken advantage of this a few times already. .png) I see those armored/motorized units trying to cut me off! Gotta slow em down. .png) Let’s hope the lovely weather impedes them more than us today. .png) Nice coordination at least! .png) Also good. It is a weird, intuitive process, trying to pick decent targets for these Wellingtons that won’t get them all killed. .png) He has lots of fighters based at Gorakhpur, but at this moment they’re all either flying over Lucknow or on the ground, I suspect. Spitfire blueballs. .png) Another good attack here. Slow down the 6th Guards, slow down Cawnpore’s fall. Maybe. .png) B-24 down! But look, he’s come out to play at Gasmata finally! Within good fighter range of Port Moresby! .png) I don’t think we’ve killed a single Milne defender yet today. Hopefully we’ve driven their disruption up? .png) He’s done letting me bomb for free over the Shortlands, too. .png) Nothing over Mili yet! Suits me. .png) I want to definitively knock it out and then work through the other islands in range. Keep the pressure on. .png) The Spits make it to Lucknow and do outstanding work against formidable odds, as usual. .png) These Avenger pilots will be pretty good at CAS after a couple weeks of this. .png) These guys, too. Nice to have a target for the SBDs that they can sling 1000 pounders to. .png) This Nauru Island attack is much more vulnerable to an enemy air and carrier attack than the Milne operation. It’d be nice if those Hellcats and Corsairs were providing LRCAP for the invasion as it went in. Unfortunately, Ocean Island doesn’t have an airstrip yet (imagine trying to build one here) and Abemama isn’t quite capable of supplying drop tanks for the Hellcats. So the invasion goes in a bit naked. .png) Speaking of the Milne operation, here we go! Did I mess up my naval bombardment? There should have been a naval bombardment… .png) Uncontested unloading, good. Nary a Nell. .png) Jubbulpore. .png) 47,22. I like this! .png) Already a decent amount of AV unloaded. A couple of battleship bombardments tomorrow and we have this in the bag, I think. .png) Cornered at 38,31. .png) Bhopal. I’m leaving, bye! .png) Bangalore. .png) I’ll keep trying! .png) I had been wondering when he’d get around to this. I’ve been flying out everything I can from Bellary for a while - the units remaining are hollow shells, except for the artillery (difficult to fit on a C-47). Should fall tomorrow. .png) Other than supplying Groote Eyelandt (when it’s not getting bombed), C-47s have mostly been busy airlifting in small Australian units and supplies to Wau and Lae. It’s been a sneaky little success over the past couple weeks that I am reinforcing as quickly as possible. Look, forts level 2, he might not be able to take it back with paratroopers immediately! We also finally have a brigade marching over the Kokoda Track to secure Buna. New Guinea is looking very, very interesting right now. Summary & Orders .png) Five Liberators and two Spitfire VIIIs shot down! Nasty. .png) Groote is back up to over 7000 supplies, the facilities are half-repaired, and I’m sending two big groups of PT boats over to bolster the defense. .png) I feel like Shad is gonna make it! .png) And of course, USS Lapon is invulnerable. Time for a little R&R at sunny-&-fun Adak Island. code:
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Dec 20, 2023 22:34
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Good job so far and fingers crossed! Does Milne Bay have an airfield already? I know in the real world the USN built it up into a significant naval base for the Solomons Campaign but not sure how much Pharnakes has poured into it.
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Dec 21, 2023 00:36
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How effective is mine warfare in this game? Can you order planes to drop mines instead of bombs, or have subs do minelaying missions? Would having a buncha subs do minelaying missions outside Osaka and Tokyo Bay be worthwhile? I remember reading that the USAAF did more damage to the Japanese economy with its b29s on mine laying missions later in the war than they did strategic bombing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Starvation Cimber fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Dec 21, 2023 |
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Dec 21, 2023 23:27
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For all its extremely grog nature would suggest, I remember they did downgrade mine warfare very seriously because it made the game nothing but an ocean of tears.
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Dec 21, 2023 23:32
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SIGSEGV posted:For all its extremely grog nature would suggest, I remember they did downgrade mine warfare very seriously because it made the game nothing but an ocean of tears. The game itself or the mod that Alikchi and Pharnakes are playing.
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Dec 21, 2023 23:36
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At least the admiral's edition update.
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Dec 21, 2023 23:39
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Only ships have mines and the mines are not replenishable. I may be mistaken that they are not replenishable. Tiger Crazy fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Dec 22, 2023 |
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Dec 22, 2023 00:03
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Tiger Crazy posted:Only ships have mines and the mines are not replenishable. Wow, that seems like a hunk of bullshit. Mine warfare was a key part in the pacific war. edit: Hooooly poo poo, the game is 16 bucks right now! https://www.matrixgames.com/game/war-in-the-pacific-admirals-edition Cimber fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Dec 22, 2023 |
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Dec 22, 2023 00:04
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It's one of the many issues where at the level of command WitP goes for, knowledge of 'what works' and what doesn't is extremely powerful. That's why the MP community has a long list of standard houserules, there are a bunch of custom scenarios that turbocharge Japan, and you can't just use your 4e bombers to fill every major port in Japan with mines.
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Dec 22, 2023 00:12
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I believe the game does have air dropped mines but they are not able to just shut down Japan's ports nearly as effectively as they did OTL and are more effective in wearing down ASW forces and such. The naval and sub laid mines can be pretty effective but the pools are relatively small and don't have great replacement rates (but they do have replacement rates). Also, if you don't have a mine tender disbanded in port with mines they will decline over time (very quickly if in a non base hex).
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Dec 22, 2023 02:46
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Terrifying Effigies posted:Good job so far and fingers crossed! Does Milne Bay have an airfield already? I know in the real world the USN built it up into a significant naval base for the Solomons Campaign but not sure how much Pharnakes has poured into it. It does, and he's built it up to a level 4 airfield! As well as a level four port, which makes for interesting possibilities, using barges and landing craft for short hops up the coastline, maybe even over to New Britain. Alchenar posted:It's one of the many issues where at the level of command WitP goes for, knowledge of 'what works' and what doesn't is extremely powerful. That's why the MP community has a long list of standard houserules, there are a bunch of custom scenarios that turbocharge Japan, and you can't just use your 4e bombers to fill every major port in Japan with mines. Rogue0071 posted:I believe the game does have air dropped mines but they are not able to just shut down Japan's ports nearly as effectively as they did OTL and are more effective in wearing down ASW forces and such. Yes, we have minelayers, destroyer-minelayers, and submarines that can lay mines. I was really focused on them in the early stages of the war, especially in the DEI when it seemed like he was landing at a new port every turn. One of the classic gamey tactics back in the day was to flood Palembang harbor with thousands of mines, and it's still a good idea to build up as many decent fields as you can. They've most recently been effective for me at Luganville and Ndeni, I believe, but I also have some small fields at Groote (178 mines) and Abemama (108), as well as a massive 927 at Tabiteua and 783 at Ndeni. The destroyer-minelayers USS Breese and USS Ramsay, both converted Clemsons, are about to lay down a field of 80 Mark 6 mines at Milne Bay to hopefully catch any Savo Island-style counterattack off guard. That's all defensive - I haven't been doing much offensive mine warfare lately. Something to think about. April 30, 1943 .png) The unloading continues. I think I’ve worked this all out. Fingers crossed no gently caress-ups today. .png) I believe Hake is also heading home to Adak. .png) And now we also begin unloading at Nauru! .png) Three digits isn’t great. .png) More Milne. .png) Daybreak and we’re still getting away with it at Nauru Island. Starting to feel a bit more confident. .png) Most of the American infantry should be onshore by now, maybe a couple thousand personnel left? .png) Hake is spotted again, dives again. The IJN has definitely reacted since Ryuho got torpedoed. .png) I hate using Hurri IIDs to flesh out the CAP, but we don’t pay for it here. .png) We saw this little CAP of Tojos yesterday and flew the Scythe squadron down from Delhi to Gwalior for swatting duty. It is effective! .png) The combat report lies, this Warhawk squadron is chewed up. Was the weird, magical week when these guys couldn’t stop shredding Tojos just a weird, magical week? .png) Two more Zeroes show up over Bareilly - we scare one off and shoot down another. Pretty impressive stuff from the D team here but I am nervous about that giant stack of Helens, as usual. Where are they today? .png) Meanwhile, Bareilly and Delhi launch a coordinated strike on the IJA in 47,21. The Scythes shooed most of the Tojos here away earlier, and the bombers have clear runs in decent weather. .png) Look at that LRCAP. Almost fifty fighters? I feel pretty secure. I hope the shock attack isn’t premature. .png) 47,22 in thunderstorms. .png) Again, the combat report is deceptive. Our fighter squadrons are being ground down to nubs. .png) Blenheims… .png) No Tojos left to shoot down here, alas. .png) Another three Wellingtons trickle in. .png) Still trying to smash Mili. .png) We’ve sent one wing to prod Maloelap, though. .png) Continuing the theme of Warhawks returning to the mean today. .png) The Rabaul Nells have been unleashed. We slaughter this entire wave, but a torpedo slips through. Not perfect. A large escorted strike could go very poorly for us. .png) Or a large unescorted strike, apparently. poo poo. I needed those engineers. Poor Fillmore will not survive to be a hospital ship. .png) This wave goes for the small destroyer escort task force, thankfully. .png) The RAF is really giving their all today. Terrible odds face them over Lucknow. .png) More practice. .png) This is attriting them at a pretty decent clip. .png) Thumbs up! .png) Oops. All the long range fighters at Port Moresby are busy over Milne, there’s nothing to escort these Beauforts… .png) We are in the PM air phase now. If anything, the CAP over Milne looks stronger than in the morning. .png) American Mitchells miss too. .png) Maybe this is related to high fort levels? Wow, I really hope I don’t get hosed in this shock attack. .png) That big beefy CAP lets a wave of Nells through and apologetically shoots them down after they make their runs. Those APAs are more valuable to me than Standard type battleships. Losing even one of them really hurts! .png) Five Nells of this wave turn away after seeing two get shot down ahead. The rest make doomed attacks on USS Mustin. .png) Ten of these thirteen turn around. Morale collapse! .png) Unloading continues. .png) And continues. What the hell. I had two naval task forces ordered to bombard. What happened? .png) I think this is the last teensy little fragment that refuses to surrender. .png) Jubbulpore. .png) I’m very annoyed that I’ve somehow screwed up my naval bombardments two days in a row. What’s going on here? .png) 38,31. No idea how long these guys can hold out with a trickle of airdropped supplies. It can’t be terribly long. It has taken longer than I expected for the IJA to corral them and get to this point, though. .png) Bhopal. I think I am two days away from pulling out? .png) That’s the full 21st IJA division versus one third of the 31st Armoured Div. Not ideal, he can probably rout us tomorrow. .png) We haven’t unloaded much at all yet at Nauru. Is there going to be an automatic shock attack? I honestly forgot about that rule until this instant. Good at WitP, here. .png) Yes!!! Despite the high forts, defensive terrain, and failed bombardments, full preparation bonus and overwhelming force do the trick. That’s a serious morale booster. .png) Hahaha holy poo poo how did this happen? Leadership bonus? Oh, I know how. Orde Wingate is still in charge of the 3rd Special Force HQ. I need to reassign him so he doesn’t get captured. Still, glory to the heroes for not just surrendering on day one. .png) Yeah, there’s that auto shock attack. And ouch. I really should have used more LSTs and LCIs to land more AV more rapidly. Lesson learned. This is still a salvageable situation, though, the rest of the 1st Marines should be able to clean up, and if not, the follow on troops. The new crisis is that the invasion shipping will be vulnerable for a bit longer than I’d thought.. Summary & Orders .png) That… is pretty good. We have Milne, we didn’t lose any warships. Still hate to lose those transports, still annoyed to have slightly fumbled Nauru, but overall? Solid. Still, too many Nells got through. The Lightnings, in particular, were exhausted by long-range, bad weather flying over the previous two days. Thank god the Port Moresby Kittyhawks were here to thin the herd, and even the Beaufighters acquitted themselves well. There’s more unloading to be done and more Nells to be fended off, I’m sure. Also, I still have no idea why my bombardment task forces just sat there. On the plus side, Milne’s facilities are relatively untouched (37 port damage, 49 airfield service damage, 0 runway damage). vOv, I guess. B-25s and DB-7s will harry them as they retreat. Task forces are loading to take the islands near Milne next. Over in India, the day’s wave of fighter sweeps was exhausting. We need to go a little defensive and give our squadrons time to recover again, but the RAF is running out of places to hide. If he starts seriously attacking Delhi and Gwalior and Karachi.. well. Let’s hope he doesn’t do that! .png) Very useful and important! Though at this point I think by the time I built it up to level 4 the IJA will have almost taken the place. Let’s do some fortification work instead. And look at that, that’s our first month posted in this thread! I think a month-in-review post makes sense. Make some maps, show some plans. I will start working on this. code:
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Dec 22, 2023 08:27
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Finally some solid positive news for your side. It has been remarkably frustrating to see the ground combat/naval invasion go so one-sidedly in his favor for this long. I can imagine how big of a difference this makes for your morale.
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Dec 22, 2023 09:00
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SerthVarnee posted:Finally some solid positive news for your side. It does make a big difference! Can't let it go to my head and get sloppier, but it helps. Thank you all for your festive holly jolly Christmas patience. Straight back into the thick of things! Going for (mostly) uncropped JPEGs today to keep this from taking a week to write.. May 1, 1943 .png) Continuing at Nauru! More troops should begin landing today. It’ll force another failed shock attack, unfortunately, but we’ll finish the island off in a few days. .jpg) .jpg) When I watch these replays I’m constantly wondering why I even bother night bombing but I always manage to justify it in the orders phase. .jpg) This time, at 3% moonlight, I don’t think I’ll be able to justify it. Let’s wait for the moon a bit.. .jpg) Thankfully, no more wasteful night bombing. The second wave is landing at Nauru! .jpg) You fools, you dumped my tractor into the dang ocean! .jpg) Daybreak and the 1st Marine Regiment is still unloading. .jpg) Every day I get away with all this unloading without any real air cover is a blessing, but it’s nerve-wracking. .jpg) LCI down This is what I get for being impatient. She arrived in Panama, I had no escorts available, she would have slowed down the big convoy with USS Massachusetts in it.. Excuses, excuses. .jpg) We’re into the scouting phase, there’s a big enemy task force off Milne, and here come three dozen Zeroes to test the paltry CAP over Port Moresby. He probably suspected that it was very weak in favor of defending the Milne invasion, and he is correct. .jpg) A perfect start to the day for the Rabaul Zeroes. Not ideal for us! .jpg) A good fight over Cawnpore. Some of the best American pilots in the hemisphere are flying P-40s in India right now. .jpg) A6M5s from Benares to my airbase at Bareilly. Mongrel CAP, not much of a deterrent. But there’s still enough of them to kill any unescorted bombers. Isn’t there also a Bellary? These stupid Anglicizations of Indian place names all sound the same to me. I need to read a modern Indian history book to undo what years of playing this game has done to my Asian toponymy. SEAC = Save England’s Asian Colonies :usa: .jpg) Ndeni->Lunga, droptanks in thunderstorms. Ouch! The Tojo masters the Hellcat today. I think I’ll stop prodding here until I have a big numbers advantage. I keep forgetting the F6F is not a superplane. .jpg) Another wave of Zeroes over Cawnpore encounters a slightly beefier Spitfire CAP and pays the price. .jpg) .jpg) I’ve been watching the detection level on these MGBs for a bit, and kept the Hurris on LRCAP to catch Nells. Very annoyed that they just.. flew on past. Sometime in the next month I will need to transfer reinforcements by sea into Karachi from the Cape or Aden, and I’d like to force him to at least temper his Nells a bit. This practically incentivizes it! Thumbs down. .jpg) Gilchrist shoots down yet another Zero today. What a guy. .jpg) Good stuff! Mixed bag of a day so far - those engagements over Lunga and Port Moresby hurt. But in India/SEAC, the dice roll our way today. .jpg) This, plus the Nells in Karachi getting away? I need to do better with my altitudes, I think. This should have been a bomber massacre. .jpg) The second wave doesn’t take a single loss. These attacks have dragged the Allied fighters down to ~10,000 feet, though, a good bouncing altitude for the enemy fighters that are sure to come. .jpg) Speak of the devil. I’ve got nothing over Bhopal to kill, though. .jpg) Two! Only two. He can’t keep getting away with this, etc. If only I had set those Hurricanes to, say, 11,000 feet.. .jpg) Heyy that’s more like it. Given plenty of chances to shoot down unescorted bombers, we wake up on the fourth or fifth opportunity. .jpg) This Hellcat pair shoots down a Zero and escapes. Well done. .jpg) Bareilly isn’t just a base for misfit shattered fighter squadrons. It’s also a home to hodgepodge gutted bomber squadrons! .jpg) Getting pretty good mileage out of those DB-7s. Slows down his retreat from Milne - hopefully I can march over the Kokoda Trail quickly enough to cut him off. .jpg) The Vengeance makes a reappearance in New Guinea. First blood for these Aussies. I really want to train them on naval bombing so I have a good deterrent to cruiser bombardments, but it’s nice to put them to use right now. I have the Marine dive-bomber squadrons arriving in Cairns shortly, anyways. Just gotta fly them to PM (and Milne when it’s ready) and I should have a solid deterrent. The Beaufort torpedo bombers have better range but they’re fragile and not so expendable. They’re far too juicy of a target to do this again tomorrow, though. .jpg) Terapo B-25s get in on the action, too. Maybe they’ll hit Umboi tomorrow. .jpg) Aussie Mitchells from Horn Island as well, why not? .jpg) Attack on the IJA 21st Division at 46,22. Nine Wellingtons can do a hell of a lot of damage. .jpg) Here come another dozen! The name of the game now is slowing down his army here, keeping it dissipated and as strung out as possible while we slip out Bhopal’s back door. The next good place to stand.. Maybe behind the Ganges? Yamuna? Both, probably. .jpg) Hello Blenheims. All those red arrows - escorts and LRCAP from all over the place. My bomber force is fragile enough now, I’m trying not to take any chances. .jpg) Another baker’s dozen RAF bombers. We’ve messed up the 21st Div a lot today! .jpg) Eight MORE Wellingtons. You see why I did not meticulously crop screenshots this turn (this would have taken another week). .jpg) Beauforts, too. Once again, I’m sure he’s thinking about bombing the hell out of Bareilly and Delhi, the source of these RAF attacks. The sweeps lately confirm that. I might be wise to spread my force out a bit more, pull back what should be rebuilding in the rear. It is hard to resist the song of this kind of concentrated firepower, though. If all I have are dribs and drabs, I should point all the dribs and drabs in the same direction, right? .jpg) Same deal in New Guinea, even if the USAAF and RAAF/RNZAF aren’t as beleaguered as the defenders of India. Concentrated bombardment of the least-defended viable target. It’s 1943, but I’m still running my bomber pools dry, he’s still fully capable of shredding a mislaid or poorly-planned or unlucky attack. This is good, and it’s part of what I wanted when we were designing the scenario, but it’s hard not to look back on 2005 WitP’s “Corsairs and Hellcats mean game over” balance with envy. .jpg) Found these three LB-30s lying around being used for training. Put em to use. .jpg) Too big of a fight to avoid screenshot-cropping. The CAP is thinner and more tired than yesterday’s. The Skyrockets somehow pick off a couple of elite Zeroes for no loss, but the enemy succeeds in keeping us entirely away from the bombers. They clean clean runs on the invasion TF and do horrendous damage. Not irreplaceable damage - thank goodness most of the troops were disembarked, we mostly lost heavy equipment on board. But bad and serious! This is frontline attack shipping; at least a couple of those APs were due to convert to APAs or similarly useful ships. I don’t have an unlimited supply of that. I’m torn about what I did here. I have a feeling if I’d tried to defend the task force with HMS Hermes, an escort carrier and Commandant Teste, I would have just gotten them sunk too. But I should have kept the LRCAP at full-blast until every troop had landed, and drat the fatigue and ops losses. C’est la guerre or whatever? .gif) The combat report lies! We shoot them all down (okay, maybe a couple fled). It would be more convenient if the turn played out theater-by-theater, at least within the same phase. The yanking back and forth from India to Australia to India helps convey that all this is happening at the same time, but it’s disorienting to write and read. .gif) It’s not even the afternoon yet and PM’s air cover is down to nothing. :nervous: .jpg) Yep, and I’m still burning supplies doing this. We have these planes, and enemies in range with no air cover.. It’s hard to justify NOT using them. .jpg) Ah poo poo. The Jills of his Air Combat TF have a lot of targets within their range right now, but find the one loaded with troops. I really would have preferred they try to finish off the Milne invasion TF! This is the second wave, mostly base and support troops for Milne Bay. Many of them, along with two more very useful transports, go under. Most of the guns are from an AA regiment. Worst blow of the day by far. .jpg) This turn is about to end, thank God. .jpg) And we completed another day of uncontested unloading here. Nauru isn’t that important, but it’s a nice warmup for Makin and will extend my scouting vision a bit. One of the first things to do when it’s secure is to dock a seaplane tender and fly the Catalinas in. I need quicker and more reliable detection of IJN task forces leaving Truk, and I always need more eyes on the Solomons and New Britain. .jpg) Jubbulpore. .jpg) 38,31. I wonder how long this will last? .jpg) Bhopal. I’ve considered leaving behind a small garrison here, continuing the siege. The forts and terrain would lock down at least some enemy units for SOME time. Sacrificing even 100 AV in a doomed defense like that is not viable anymore, sadly. I have enough doomed defenses going on right now! .jpg) Yeah. I could have kept it going forever at Bhopal like Bangalore here, but that would have been counterproductive. Speaking of, maybe I ought to start flying the troops out of Bangalore. .jpg) I am just now noticing that enemy task force at Mili. .jpg) There’s that Nauru shock attack. Nasty casualties. Still, we knock down a fort level. The Marines can rest a day or two now and finish the enemy off when disruption and fatigue are minimized. .jpg) Surely Bellary (not to be confused with Bareilly) will fall tomorrow. The remaining defenders are cooks and staff officers and aircraft mechanics. Summary & Orders .jpg) What a day. For all my griping about letting Helens fly in unbothered, we bag three dozen of them. A bunch of modern Zeroes, too! Shame about all the sunken ships. .jpg) Okay, sure, that looks pretty bad, but hey! Intel thinks we sunk Hiei! (We did not sink Hiei.) We scuttle the APA Wharton. The damaged-but-salvageable ships (President Tyler, President Taylor and Katoomba) flee for Port Moresby. Recon reports his carriers continuing southwest, towards Australia. Beaufort squadrons fly in to Cairns and Cooktown, Spitfires move to Port Moresby to reinforce its CAP, and about a dozen task forces alter their courses to avoid the potential radius of his Jills in the morning. Busy busy busy. .jpg) I soothe my wounded ego by looking at the reinforcement list.
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Dec 29, 2023 20:30
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