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sorry Neosho, you just can't catch a break in either timeline
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Jan 23, 2023 16:53
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  Yup, here they come at Palembang. At least we can say Kamo is probably going to go down.  And then the landings.  Pollack attempts, and fails, to finish off Kunitu Maru, but it looks like Kunitu Maru is going to finish herself off anyway.  Go away!  And if you don’t we’ll make you!  gently caress. There was two of them!!  Natori is moving south into the Celebes.  Tactical bombing at Batavia already? Or is this just some kind of distraction?  He bombs the outlying bases on Luzon, perhaps to try and slow our consolidation to Clarkfield?  The Liz go for the defenders at Batangas.  The 6th Indian gets off lightly today.  Bombing Palembang airfield, but we’ve dodged that one at least.  Despite the good weather only light damage to Rangoon. We’re maybe starting to accumulate enough heavy guns here to at least disrupt bombing attempts.  Louisville is caught undisbanded   Well, oh dear   The Dutch shoot their shot, and get a hit!  The Swordfish also got a hit, but it bonked   Nells are no threat at this range, with only bombs.  Betties are another matter.  They come back in the afternoon to finish off the destroyers.  Even Fanning isn’t being allowed to escape.  Kedah is sunk in Batavia harbour, but she should have unloaded by now.  They walk into Kuching.   Well gently caress me what a poo poo show. How many carriers does he have???   There goes Lexington, of course, although at least he seems to have lost another cruiser!!!  God only knows how they decided it was Tone though, it was clearly a Furutaka or Aoba. SigInt posted:8 men are based at Kochi (106,60).  And we’re not done losing ships yet! Chicago we will scuttle to save those sweet, sweet 4 VPs.  Two more for the scuttle bucket.  These guys will (probably) survive.  Louisville is not looking great. I don’t understand why TFs are sometimes not disbanding into port, and sometimes are. It’s very annoying, because if it isn’t reliable then it’s basically not useful.  The sole survivor of Lexington’s group. It’s of slight consolation to me that even if we had kept on for Midway, we’d have still been in strike range of their position today.  New Zealand is doing OK so far, but gently caress, we’re at the absolute end of our tether now.  Saratoga is 25 hexes from Rabaul. This is problematic because the Warhawks have a maximum ferry range of 14, meaning at cruise speed Saratoga will need two more days to close the distance, then a day to clear her decks of the Warhawks before she can launch her own planes.  The Dutch basically get one shot to achieve something. This was about as good as their odds were ever going to get, but they’ve blown their load now and Java is open. Unless he’s burning every PP he has buying stuff out of China, I’m a bit confused how he is going to find the men to invade Java right now, but it can’t be more than a couple weeks away at the most.  Some good news! Two more B-17s have been repaired at Clarkfield, and can escape. Now if only we had any airfields suitable for them to operate from  And a target that isn’t just smothered in Zeros.  The one bright spot continues to be Burma. We have recalled the outlying garrisons, and the 1st Burma division is assembled at Rangoon, bringing us to 780AV. With replacements now turned on, we should hit 1000AV in a few weeks.   We need to get Saratoga into range to fly the Warhawks off tomorrow, and we can afford a sprint since we have two tankers in the Solomon Sea.  I’m extremely conflicted what to do at Rabaul. The reality is we got attacked by a large quantity of Betties though, I think we have to abandon unloading for a day and get out of Betty torpedo range. I’m assuming the battleships are no longer present, on the logic that if they were they would have attacked our not disbanded properly cruiser forces.  The 6th Indian Brigade has suffered enough, we’ll evacuate them tomorrow.  If there’s any chance at all, we’re going to have to start fighting dirty. The first thing we need is something, anything to let us contest air in a favourable ratio, and that means “upgrading” various permanently restricted units back in the USA with P26s and other dross to free up Lightnings.
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Jan 25, 2023 18:26
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So, speaking of losing high value units, did you succeed in extracting that Dutch floating dock from the DEI and parking it in an Australian port?
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Jan 25, 2023 18:57
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Oof, Lexington went down. That's gonna hurt. Losing two CV's early is bad. How many you have operational in theatre and how long till you get new ones? Very messy early game for the Allies. You think Ryoujo went down or that she's going to make it to port okay? Still nice hit by the sub. He's got at least 2 CVL's out of action for awhile. And did you manage to evacuate the pilots from Lexington and Enterprise? I'm not sure how that works if the carriers go down. Do they get picked up and put back into reserve pool or they all considered KIA/MIA? wedgekree fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Jan 25, 2023 |
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Jan 25, 2023 19:02
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So, you've got a CVL in the Hermes and the Saratoga left currently in theater?
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Jan 25, 2023 19:09
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Ooof, that's a hard blow. Looking forward to all the ways you can think up to "fight dirty" and even the score.
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Jan 25, 2023 22:09
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I think Yorktown comes in theatre soon as well, right? There any other USN or RN carriers that will be deployed in next few months other than those?
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Jan 26, 2023 00:18
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It's still going to be some time before it can do anything, a solo carrier is basically lunch.
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Jan 26, 2023 00:56
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Man, this game really hates Allied players.
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Jan 26, 2023 02:33
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Losing Lexington sucks, but I'm confident you can turn it around (in a year or two!)
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Jan 26, 2023 02:55
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I'm only going to post about this once, but Clark Field is two words, not one. Clarkfield is an old Intel processor family
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Jan 26, 2023 04:50
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BigglesSWE posted:Man, this game really hates Allied players. That's only because the game lasts so long, and the let's plays you see usually taper off before the balance shifts. As historical, the Empire of Japan is stronger in the start than the Allies, largely because of self-inflicted wounds on the Allied side. And they could justifiably make it worse: The game doesn't even properly model all the idiocy forced by politics that made ABDACOM into practice targets instead of a fighting force. But also as historical, in the long run the American production advantage will just drown Japan in ships and planes, and eventually those ships and planes will be even better than the Japanese ones. Unless the Japanese player manages to pull off some really gamey bullshit, the question isn't which side is going to win, but how long it will take.
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Jan 26, 2023 10:11
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Tuna-Fish posted:That's only because the game lasts so long, and the let's plays you see usually taper off before the balance shifts. Yeah later on it will get to the point where there's really barely a game for the Japanese player, the quantitative and qualitative advantages for the Allies will be too great. In Empire of the Sun, the last 4 turns or so tend to be more about annoying what the Americans are trying to do and making them waste operations than actually doing damage. In that game the victory condition usually requres the US to control all of Japan by the end of the game, so they have a lot to get done in the late game and there's still an interesting game to be had.
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Jan 26, 2023 13:19
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I don't think this game actually has a late-game. If you play versus the CPU then the scripting gets hopelessly out of date and the computer invades enemy-held islands with armies of cooks and file clerks. If you play versus a human the players see the writing on the wall and quit out in the mid-war.
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Jan 26, 2023 13:25
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habeasdorkus posted:So, you've got a CVL in the Hermes and the Saratoga left currently in theater? That's it. wedgekree posted:I think Yorktown comes in theatre soon as well, right? There any other USN or RN carriers that will be deployed in next few months other than those? In addition to Yorktown, by July we will have Jefferson & Hamilton (useless CVBBs), Hornet and Wasp for the USN. The RN will receive Indomitable, Illustrious and Formidable, none worth much more than a CVL, but with a decently armoured deck and good AA. We will also have one decent CVE, Long Island. I have some idea of fighting a major engagement around August - September time, sacrificing the RN carriers and the US standards to allow the US carriers to punch hard. One might as well use the armoured box carriers up while they are still immune to 250kg bombs, once the Judy enters play with the 500kg bombs they are no better protected than any other carrier. gradenko_2000 posted:I'm only going to post about this once, but Clark Field is two words, not one. Clarkfield is an old Intel processor family We've just lost Enterprise and Lexington, and that's what you need to get off your chest?!?! Panzeh posted:Yeah later on it will get to the point where there's really barely a game for the Japanese player, the quantitative and qualitative advantages for the Allies will be too great. In vanilla, sure. In this mod, ehhhh, well balance is impossible to test so really who the gently caress knows. Let's hope we get a chance to find out! Gort posted:I don't think this game actually has a late-game. If you play versus the CPU then the scripting gets hopelessly out of date and the computer invades enemy-held islands with armies of cooks and file clerks. If you play versus a human the players see the writing on the wall and quit out in the mid-war. Oh, it very much has a late game. I've never seen it (Alikchi! ) but there's a handful of stories up on the matrix forums of games that have managed to navigate bugs, burnouts, marriages and snowballs to make it to 1945 in a more or less sane state.SIGSEGV posted:So, speaking of losing high value units, did you succeed in extracting that Dutch floating dock from the DEI and parking it in an Australian port? They're about 1/3rd of the way, so hopefully out of danger. But at one hex a day still got a long way to go. wedgekree posted:Oof, Lexington went down. That's gonna hurt. Losing two CV's early is bad. How many you have operational in theatre and how long till you get new ones? Very messy early game for the Allies. You think Ryoujo went down or that she's going to make it to port okay? Still nice hit by the sub. He's got at least 2 CVL's out of action for awhile. Pilots have a very high chance to survive the loss of carriers, and will turn up in the reserve pools over the next few weeks. The airgroups themselves I will rebuy once I've got the PP to spare, and will be used as marine groups on various atolls. Surely Midway is unsinkable, right?
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Jan 26, 2023 15:09
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BigglesSWE posted:Man, this game really hates Allied players. In addition to what has been said already, in this case the allied carriers got caught in what was probably a 2v6 carrier battle at their period of worst AA fittings and where they couldn't move or conduct flight operations on the critical turn because they were used aggressively and making big sprints without available refueling set up ahead of time. There's a reason most allied players are very conservative with their carrier fleets until they get at least 5 US CVs together - or even until Hellcats. This way is much more interesting for the observer, though.
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Jan 26, 2023 17:56
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  Skirmishing continues over the Palembang minefields. Maybe we’ll get a DMS sunk out of it at least.  They’re coming ashore at Davao.  RO-67 finishes off W. A. Holbrook.  Could have been a torpedo into Ryujo, but of course it wasn’t.  Natori is back into the Sulu Sea, maybe heading for fuel.  Same again from the Liz.  He can’t be planning on just landing at Batavia? That’s ridiculous.  The Sallies are coming in super low, the better to bomb us.  Almost 50% damaged, maybe we’ll get one OPs loss from that?   Balls, the Marys are back to bomb our evac attempts, and with that kind of escort there’s nothing we can possibly do about it.  It would have been really cool if you’d bombed Chitose instead, but whatever we can get!  Batangas falls. We railed the last of the B-17s to Clarkfield before Manila fell, so hopefully they can all be repaired and flown out before the end.  There’s just so many of them, everywhere!  There goes Palembang. A nice roll on the oil damage please?  And the 27th Australian surrenders. They were always just one day short of the breathing room to escape by rail, oh well.   Ok, well no outright disasters for a change  An infinite kill ratio????  Not so great here. SigInt posted:9th Manchukuo Inf Brigade is located at Jehol(97,39).  Repair times for Australia are really not that bad, and at least we can take the chance to smother her in Pom Poms while she’s here.  OMG Hurricanes!!!!! At Capetown, but still.   Finally, Saratoga is in range to fly the Warhawks off to Rabaul.  Where I fill them with every spare plane with have, and set them to establish a CAP. Of course, even a visit by one IJN carrier will practically wipe them out, but they can fend off Betties and Nells, and he has no base near enough to establish sweeps from.  We’ll try again to unload at Rabaul.  I really need those submarines camping Rabaul harbour to gently caress right the hell off.  Saratoga is going to cautiously inch out into the Solomon Sea. Since Rabaul is apparently already the target of another invasion fleet, there’s potential to cause some damage.  Marblehead and friends will try again, this time with a view to maybe catching Chitose, and even perhaps baiting a retaliatory surface force into range of Hermes.  There’s one last unit I really want to get out from Georgetown, a battery of 3.7” guns. It’s worth the risk, they’re only going to surrender uselessly if left there anyway.  I think we’ve got room for one more CAP trap over Alor Star.  The 63rd Indian Brigade is being loaded amphibiously at Chittagong, to unload at Ramree Island. This will save them the better part of half the march to reach Rangoon.  Needless to say those Hurricanes are being stuffed straight onto the fastest transport we have at Capetown. What we really want of course is Spitfires, but those greedy fucks back in Europe won’t let us have any for at least another year.
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Jan 26, 2023 20:02
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The buffalo image always looks like it's being displayed in the wrong aspect ratio. It's so stubby!
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Jan 26, 2023 23:07
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How was the damage at Palembang in the end? Seems only fair to offer the Japanese extra resources if it was bad 
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Jan 27, 2023 08:29
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  They clear the mines at Batu Pahat. There’s now nothing between their main fleet and our Dunkirk efforts at Sabang.  gently caress you W-2. If she hasn’t even caught fire though, she’ll probably survive.  Two motor launches have an exciting night, but somehow survive.  Tambor gets a hit!  But mostly it’s bonks and misses.  MIsses and bonks.  Some misses for him too at least.  Louisville is caught as she limps back into Rabaul.  How did we not see these guys coming  I don’t know if that was a deliberate shift or just a coincidence, but welp.  DIE DIE DIE DIE Die Die die die  This level of damage at Rangoon is very easily sustainable by us.  The Seagulls do not disappoint.  Betties are active again in the Andaman Sea, going for the convoy unloading at Port Blair.  There goes Alor Star. They’ll be in Georgetown tomorrow, and capture all the doubtless damaged Buffaloes. Welp.  The opening bombardment at Clarkfield. They're going to need to bring a lot more than that.  Davao falls.   Well, as per usual, gently caress.  We appear to have lost many cruisers.  We only actually lost Pensacola so far then. I didn’t know any US cruisers could carry four planes. SigInt posted:55th Engineer Regiment is planning for an attack on Tavoy.  We have good search up, but it is consistently failing to spot the battleships, which is intensely problematic. Saratoga will be refuelled and ready by tomorrow, but I anticipate him withdrawing the CVEs now we have a CAP up. His next step is surely going to be to swing the fleet carriers around, and our only defence is just to simply not be here by then.  Thankfully we have localised the KB today, at 50 hexes from Rabaul. Allowing a strike range of 5, that requires them to make 45 hexes at 9 a day, or 5 days to get here. He may or may not need to fuel them, I suspect he will, but if he doesn’t then they can’t possibly make a sprint. We have 5 days to play with.  After switching on replacements Rangoon is now up to 800 AV, and, just as importantly, 250 engineer points. They hit level three forts today and we aren’t stopping anytime soon, this place is going to be a loving fortress. I shall dub it fort ‘Goon.  Hold the loving press, has he put Ryujo in Singapore???  Speaking of Singapore, I’ve missed one of the reinforcement convoys carrying an entire loving division, just merrily steaming on for Singapore without a care in the world   These guys have fought like heroes, but there isn’t really much hope for them.   It would have been nice to finish unloading the supplies, but I can’t assume that the Betties won’t get torpedoes anyday. Instead they’ll head down for Sabang, to start the second stage of the evacuation of the Malayan Army.  With the convoy leaving there’s nothing currently worth defending at Port Blair, so Albatros will leave too. Sabang will shortly need all the CAP it can get I suspect, and I’ve just thrown away the last of our Buffaloes to kill a single Nate.  Danae has received such repairs as Batavia is capable of, and must go to Colombo for some drydock time.  The 18th British division is going too. Against a player this aggressive I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we are fighting over Ceylon.  Marblehead is charging in. Will they achieve anything? Probably not, but nailing Chitose would really be quite nice.  I don’t want to jump the gun at Singapore, this is the kind of thing you only get one shot at. For now we will just keep an eye on things.  New Zealand’s damage is actually mostly superficial, if she could just get to Gasmata and quietly pump for a week or two, she could well yet be salvageable. Of course, it’s far more likely she’ll just get submarined before then.  We really need some decent ASW up around Rabaul.  And we’re going to push Saratoga’s rendezvous with the tankers a little to the north.  Constellation, Northampton and Salt Lake City return to Pearl Harbour. If only I’d sent Lexington north west to meet them
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Jan 27, 2023 21:17
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This is a really fun read! Really aggressive play on both ends (you and the OpFor) makes for a very fun, chaotic read! So far how long you think you can hold Rabaul?
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Jan 28, 2023 03:57
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Pfft you mean how long do you think the Japanese player can hold Truk? This is Pharnakes, he lead an entire invasion of India and Australia at the same time, in a game where he said they weren't going to bother with major land campaigns. If he says he is desperately moving things around to hold onto an outpost, I expect him to be capturing one or two enemy strongpoints "as a feint".
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Jan 28, 2023 11:56
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  Bonk.  The motor launches get a rather inglorious sendoff in the end.  Escorts doing their job at Rabaul, although it’d be nice if they’d sink another sub.  The happy time of escaping Malaya is at an end  A kill is a kill, although it’d be nice if she’d gone for the cargo ship instead.  Bonk.  Wow, turns out Anns are actually pretty good if you let them be divebombers  We got a Liz! gently caress you Liz!  Only one runway hit at Rangoon today.  The Seagulls continue to deliver.  We have, of course, missed Chitose. And it looks like he’s got an AirHQ sorted out for Manado.  They come with so many Betties our poor Warhawks are overwhelmed, but they pay a heavy price for one torpedo hit.  Grinding away at Clarkfield. Without any chance to build forts here we aren’t going to last that long.  And they continue their push south. Organised resistance has now stopped.   There has been (1) day since a catastrophe in this war.  That should crimp him at Rabaul a little anyway.  Nothing too bad. SigInt posted:32963 men are based at Yenki (110,44).  New Zealand is no worse, and being unspotted he’s hopefully come to the (reasonable) conclusion that she’s sunk. Two more days to Gasmata.  Goddamnit, if this is another invasion coming in there must be some cover around but we can’t see it. Argh.  The small port at Rabaul just can’t get the stuff ashore fast enough. Most of the direct combat troops are on the ground now, but President Coolidge in paticular is still carrying 11 25 pounders that we really need.   Saratoga is of course still very deadly, as long as she isn’t spotted. We can at least use New Britain to shield her from battleships.  We’ve drained all the fuel here from the merchants, and because we have tanker here not oilers we’ll need to send them over to Buin to transfer the fuel back.  Hermes has been spotted, and now that he has torpedoes at Manado, cannot go with in 17 hexes.  MIssed, not greatly to my surprise. Well, maybe we can beat up Ngara on the way back, or maybe we get whacked by heavy cruisers. Let’s see!  This is pretty unlikely to work, but I’m willing to gamble a couple of destroyers to try and get Chitose.  Two more B-17s airworthy to leave Clarkfield. Only one left now!  These HDMLs can actually be quite dangerous to submarines if they get lucky.  The only other thing I can do is combine all the small TFs so our lone corvette can cover as much as possible.  We’ve got a lot of troops out of Malaya now, but by itself that isn’t much use. He's onto us now I think, we need to get them out of Sumatra and clear, and they need cover to do so. God, how I wish Sabang was more than a level one port. Well, in ten days it will be, but ten days is a long time.  With 24 3.7” guns, this is just what Rangoon needs to be secure. I’m almost tempted to try and get them in directly, but no, patience is a virtue! And at the moment there’s no pressing need for them anyway, AA defences are doing a good job as it is.
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Jan 28, 2023 21:03
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Are you building up defenses at Pegu? It's pretty easy to hold overland because of the medium river crossing penalty, though it doesn't stop an amphibious attack on Rangoon.
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Jan 29, 2023 16:47
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  Wow, it actually worked! Fantastic job Jasmine!  So much for loving Nagara up then.     What did I say about no barrier anymore??  Well gently caress. It’s not the loss of a few stragglers from Georgetown that worries me so much, as that now he’s running around here, how are we to get anything we have evacuated to Sabang out to anywhere useful?  Submarines are tough, I-154 probably won’t go down from a single mine, but still, gently caress you I-154. I hope you eat poo poo and die.  Excellent work from our Rabaul escorts tonight.  Bonk.  Bonk  Either you get bombed or you end up in a Japanese PoW camp. Not an ideal set of choices.  Not that I had much hope, but we’re definitely not going to be able to fortify Clarkfield at all now.  The best result they’ve had at Rangoon for a few days.  Betties finish off what’s left.  Anns are now active in the Straits of Malacca as well.  Ohh, and the carriers are here too apparently.  He’s forgotten to put his fighters back on escort though!  Looks like they’re getting ready to push out of Palembang.  He’s bought a lot of artillery here, but still this is by far the worst I’ve seen the allies perform, even with no forts. There’s still a lot of US arty here.   There has been (0) days since a disaster.  At least it looks like he forgot to put his carrier groups onto escort.  The qualitative edge Japan has is just insane. I’m sure when I play Japan it’s not that good SigInt posted:3rd RTA/C Division is located at Ubon(62,63).  Rabaul has hit level two forts at least. I’ve no idea what the gently caress is going on with apparently multiple Japanese TFs in Rabaul itself, although I suppose they could just be subs.  Here they come, not a care in the world apparently. Saratoga still unspotted, and in perfect position to cause severe havoc. I suppose it’s not unreasonable for him to think he’s sunk or driven off everything I could bring to this theatre  Flooding has gained one point on New Zealand, but only one more day to Gasmata.  A desperately needed squadron of C-47s arrives at Brisbane. And they’ll be at almost half strength once assembled!!   I’m becoming increasingly paranoid about the possibility of him seizing Gasmata, especially since it has a level one airfield. Ordinarily we couldn’t send restricted troops, but because Gasmata is part of Australian Command, we can send them by air.  Most of what is left to unload now is heavy guns, which I am starting to suspect can’t be unloaded at Rabaul as is. We will need to have them head for a large port at Australia, unload, then reload as an amphibious TF and try again. Welp.  I’m detaching the heavy cruisers from Saratoga to start creeping around New Britain, hopefully where he won’t look. If the situation develops as I hope it might, we’ll quite possibly want some surface ships available to deliver a coup de grace, and well, if he charges Saratoga with battleships they’re dead anyway and I might have to do my first ever WitP ragequit.  Tuna, the first of the US fleet boats to arrive at Townsville is ready to depart on her first patrol. Townsville is too small a port to service submarines, but with the support ships already in place that doesn’t matter very much.  Here they come. What can we do to stop them? Absolutely loving nothing. We’ll run like hell, but it's highly probable we can’t get far enough to avoid being slaughtered. At least they’ve lost most of their Kates, if only the Vals had gone for Sabang too. It’s going to be crushingly disappointing, if, having successfully rescued two thirds or more of the Malaya army from the Mersing gambit, I can’t then get them out of Sumatra. Still, too early to despair just yet.  Most unhappily he has increased the amount of fighters at Singapore. However, the moon is waxing fast, and we must start doing whatever we can to persuade him to send the fighter from Singapore to anywhere else, so let’s try night bombing Palembang.  More Warhawks from Pearl Harbour for the front, loaded on board our fastest cargo ship.  And a slower convoy, carrying one each of an infantry, GPF, AA and construction regiment, all for Rabaul eventually I hope.
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Jan 29, 2023 19:54
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Goddamn that task force got ripped apart. Godspeed Saratoga, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
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Jan 29, 2023 20:05
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Oof, poor Dutch Navy.
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Jan 29, 2023 20:22
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At least there's going to be plenty of low-radiation steel in this universe
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Jan 30, 2023 09:32
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hell yeah FLOATFIRES!!! what a cool plane
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Jan 30, 2023 10:09
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 RIP, we hardly knew ya
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Jan 30, 2023 11:31
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Man, it's been a rough start for the Allies. 186 ships lost in the first 20 days of war.
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Jan 30, 2023 21:03
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I mean, early Allied hyperaggression is the riskier strategy for a reason
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Jan 30, 2023 21:54
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Sure makes for exciting gameplay, though.
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Jan 30, 2023 23:08
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Pharnakes will never not escalate as response to a setback. If it keeps going wrong, this will end with Franklin Roosevelt sailing to Tokyo on the last allied ship, screaming at Hirohito to come out and fistfight him.
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Jan 30, 2023 23:11
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I don't think so - He's killing a ton of irreplaceable KB pilots and airframes that are not going to be built back as fast as they're being lost. Is this one also using the simplified production scheme I think I recall from your game with Alikchi, where you didn't do the whole airframe research/production aspect? In theory I believe the Japanese player can prioritize airframes and keep up a good rate, but only at a cost of reduced production of others later.
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Jan 31, 2023 16:08
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  A couple of Dutch subs flub their attacks.  KXVI flirts with a pair of subchasers.  That would really have been a nice target to hit   Guns and vehicles on Ume Maru though. Let’s hope that’s tanks and 150mm pieces.  The last of the fleet from Georgetown is sunk.  Not bonk???  Heavy cruisers now. Welp, we’re totally hosed.  But they bombard, rather than chasing our transports.  The destroyers are still around, but are chased off easily enough. However, the fleet then chooses to turn around and head back towards Sabang   It’s relentless for these little piggies.  Bombing as well as artillery bombardments at Clarkfield.  Haha, smoked a Liz! I’m not sure quite what he’s after here, I can only assume he’s taken offence to the Catalians here reporting all the shipping in the South China Sea.  We’re out of range for the Anns, I assume, so they bomb Georgetown harbour instead.  Bombing Catalinas is basically a waste of time, but I can see why he’d try. I can’t see why he’d be tactical bombing here, but who knows.  Welp, gently caress.    Landing at Tabiteuea.  Have we completely forgotten how to do counterbattery?  As expected, they take Praboemoelih. Slightly less expected, we kill a squad!  Only a naval guard unit so far at Tabiteuea then.   Bitterly disappointing: this game summed up so far  At least we got some Liz. And the Floatfires apparently managed to take a lone Zero with them.  Much more to follow here tomorrow. SigInt posted:2421 men are based at Amami Oshima (98,64).  New Zealand is “safe” at Gasmata. Of course, we aren’t going to be able to (or want to) leave her here for 200 days, but that quote includes all possible work, i.e reducing her systems damage to 0. Getting rid of all her minor flooding shouldn’t take more than a week or two, hopefully. Where that troop convoy spotted yesterday has gone is anyone’s guess. Nothing of ours is spotted, and it must just be submarines he has at Rabaul.  With upgrades turned on we’re at least getting the best out of what we have managed to get ashore. We’re not too bad, 190 AV isn’t great, but we do have a relatively large amount of now modern artillery support. My main concern is alot of our AV is fragile militia units with low morale and experience, liable to just dissolve on contact. Still, we can probably hold of the better part of a Japanese division, at least for a while. Especially if we could just bleed them somewhat on the approach.  A squadron of Banshees - the army name for the Dauntless, arrives at Brisbane. These are exactly what we would want at Rabaul, the only slight fly in the ointment being the fact the pilots are utterly abysmal, even by our current not great standards. They aren’t even any good at ground bombing, the one thing they are nominally trained to do.  The 19th infantry regiment with all their heavy equipment is fully unloaded and ready at Midway.  Santhia is for scuttling.   The survivors we are splitting by speed, to ensure these precious large transports have the best chance to escape.  I’m going to route these guys further west, just in case. Much further west.  They’ve come so far, I decide I can’t just give up on these guys. I decide their only hope is to march across Sumatra to Sibolga and maybe even Padang, there to be evacuated slowly and hopefully discreetly by various small xAPs.  The heavy equipment we couldn’t unload at Rabaul is heading for Brisban, to be loaded amphibiously. Of course, before we can try again we have to wait for the KB to come to town, get bored and leave again, which, welp.  While things are quiet we’re going to start getting these cruisers out of Rabaul.  Perth and Canberra are in fit condition to proceed by themselves, however Louisville and Leander are not. Submarines are what I’m worried about here, hopefully by bundling Niagara in too they’ll shoot her instead of our cruisers  I’m a bit unsure what to do with these guys. Tomorrow is the last day Saratoga can remain on station, after that the KB could pop up at any moment. Still, they can hide here indefinitely if necessary, he isn’t taking this irrelevant dot anytime soon.  Until something better turns up, WIrraways are the only strike planes we can have at Rabaul.
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Jan 31, 2023 22:39
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Good luck. Oof. At least this turn wasn't adisaster!
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Feb 1, 2023 02:12
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The Banshees of
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Feb 1, 2023 03:00
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  The invasion starts at Tarakan.  Nothing very exciting.  All misses  Bunbury keeps the Japanese subs down at Rabaul while our cruisers escape.  The Anns are really showing how much better dive bombers are here. Almost exactly the same tonnage of bombs dropped, but much more results.  Not that level bombers can’t be deadly too.  No Liz shot down today.  Not much, but enough to prevent us doing any repairs I expect.  We could probably CAP trap these guys, if only we had any: aeroplanes, airfields or mechanics to man the airfields.  I really don’t understand the goal here.  Sweeping Sabang still. Well, Sabang is a write off anyway.  RIP Jarak.  If this is all his carriers do, we’re getting off pretty lightly I’d think.  Surprised they didn’t surrender.  Down and down we go.  Rip Tarakan tomorrow.   Well, I thought it would be much worse than that around Sabang.  Pro tip to achieve a sick K:D ratio: refuse to fight your enemy.  Only Australia Star and Talma to add to the list. SigInt posted:5899 men are based at Nakhon Ratchasima (58,61).   For a miracle the only thing he can see is this fast convoy that he probably can’t catch anyway.  Damnit, stop putting more fighters in Singapore!!!!  Darwin hits level three forts, and the !st Australian is half way from Alice Springs to Tennant Creek.  This, in my humble opinion, is bait. Tomorrow is the first day the KB could theoretically be in the area, so it seems highly suspect that today is the day the CVEs leave Truk. Well, nevermind, we have no current need to contest Rabaul, all the cruisers have got away safely.   Saratoga is leaving the area.  The last B-17 leaves Clarkfield.  I’m hoping that he doesn’t expect to be attacked at Manado, and that the fighters here are on escort duties. Also, if we give the bombers no targets tomorrow they’ll all be sitting on this really rather overstacked airfield.
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Feb 3, 2023 19:10
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| # ? May 3, 2024 18:55 |
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Waiting for Saratoga to run into a cruiser task force and decide to turn back to the safety of Rabaul. What's your estimate of how much more needs to get into Rabaul to give you a decent shot at keeping it, or has that ship already sailed with the failure to offload the heavy guns?
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Feb 3, 2023 20:10
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