v AI

[Andy Mac]

Anyone got to end of December yet - any progress reports ?

[AttuWatcher]

I think Japan AI has killed everyone off before they could get there [:D]

[Speedysteve]

I'm on December 8th[;)]

[John Lansford]

I'm on December 11.  Pearl Harbor is a mess; three BB's and a CA have been sunk and all the other BB's are heavily damaged.  Many months will be needed in a shipyard to put them back in working order.  Lexington and Enterprise have teamed up to pound the Wake Island invasion fleet, and I've detached a CA/DD force to mop them up.  However, patrol planes from Midway have spotted Japanese ships SE of that island, headed west.  They didn't see any CV's but I have to believe that's the KB maneuvering to block my CV's return to Pearl Harbor.
 
Elsewhere, Repulse made it to Singapore and is in the shipyard, but the estimated repair time is over 300 days so I'm concerned as to what to do with her.  PoW is headed to Trincomalee with only slight bomb damage.
 
In the Philippines, an attempt by the three Hong Kong DD's to disrupt one of the amphibious landings started off well, but a CL/DD TF intercepted them and two British DD's were sunk.  They sank three transports and an escort before the SCTF showed up though.  The enemy minefield at Bataan has been cleared up and submarines are attempting to stop the landings on Luzon, but way too many torpedoes are not exploding.  B-17 strikes have been ineffective in hitting anything.
 
In Malaysia, ships are loading fuel and supplies and heading towards Darwin.  Supplies are being shipped to the Australian eastern ports and the SE Pacific to build up bases, but Makin and Tarawa have both been invaded (although USS Louisville has been detached from her convoy to attack the ships at Tarawa).

[Andy Mac]

Good good keep em coming I cannot make the AI harder without feedback

[John Lansford]

Andy,
 
I've not seen very much from the AI subs other than the midget sub attack at Pearl Harbor and the minefield at Bataan, and a sub attack on a Dutch sub.  Granted I've kept my damaged ships at Pearl in the harbor and beefed up the ASW patrol, but I'm not getting any ASW contacts and no ship attacks at all, anywhere.
 
The AI uses its air assets very aggressively; if a TF is spotted within range of Bettys or Nells there's almost always an airstrike sent after them.  One of my minesweepers at Bataan was sunk by them, and the 3 Hong Kong DD's had a large airstrike that fortunately missed them.  The strait between Singapore and Sumatra is a deathtrap for any ship trying to make it through; it's now well within range of LBA strikes and I've lost several merchant ships fleeing Singapore and Borneo using that route. 
 
OTOH, my Dutch subs are very successful in sinking ships between Camranh Bay and Malaysia.  I've set three of them on linear patrol lines west of Camranh and have already sunk half a dozen ships, many with troops bound for the front line.  The AI doesn't appear to be rerouting the convoys around them though.  The S-boats north of the Philippines have been successful as well.  I do like the patrol boundary function for the subs!

[Peter Fisla]

ORIGINAL: FAsea

I think Japan AI has killed everyone off before they could get there [:D]

LOL!!!

[Andy Mac]

[:D][:D] Remember all I promised was no worse than stock
 
p.s. anyone running AI v AI games please dont post the suprises I wouldnt want to spoil them.
 
John I will take another look at ASW patrols for patch 1

[JocMeister]

Well, Im far from an experienced player but I played some 10-15 witp games vs the AI as far as into 44.

I play mainly as allied, historical first turn, historic difficulty.

So far I have been hammered severly. PH was a disaster for me as I lost 4 BBs and the rest are out for atleast a year. Both PoW and Repulse got sent to the bottom. The KB lingered on for three turns before returning home. I lost two subs in the minefield at Baatan. I also lost 6 DDs and 4 cruisers so far.

I´m now into mid jan 42 and still doing very very poorly. I have lost an staggering amount of shipping in the DEI. This is mainly my own fault for trying to get most of the fuel out and not getting out in time, but also because of a very clever raid by the AI using a mini KB I thought had sailed on. To my defense I must add that I never ever reload a turn unless its the AI doing something really really stupid. I also never spend more then an hour on each turn to make sure I get somewhere!

Singapore and PH will without a doubt fall. Burma is touch and go but since Bettys now have closed Rangoon I doubt I will be able to hold on. Rabaul fell pretty early on and Lunga just got invaded. Some smaller island in the pacific have been lost aswell as wake.

At the moment I´m just trying to get the hell out of the DEI without losing more shipping. I have lost so many AKs I think it will serverly hamper my ability to move troops, fuel and cargo around for a looong time!

Big kudos on the AI Its doing great so far! Will be instresting to see what it will do once it reaches all its objectives!

[Graymane]

I must be slow or something. Not sure how anyone could be to the end of December yet. I'm still working on my first turn! It has taken me two days of limited play time just to put aircraft on the missions I want and put naval forces on the missions I want. I'm hoping to turn in my first turn today [:D]

[Mozo]

December 17th - I'm the Allies.

Japan doing well taking major targets (and two landings on the main PH island and heading toward Manila now). One thing I was able to do was to create PT boats at Manila, and with the group that was already there, I was able to attack the landings on the NW part of the island virtually unopposed. Today I made my 4th attack on the transports and they lost some 7 transports (and lots of troops and supplies) to my 1 PT boat sunk, 1 damaged. I would have expected some surface cover for them.

I also sent my 2 carriers directly (from turn 1) to Rabaul to attempt an intercept of the landings there. I got there too late but was able to hit the transports (2 sunk) with my SBDs. Sara is on the way for backup. I'm only staying long enough to hit the New Guinea invasion force once and then I'm outa there (with the assumption I might draw KB down there as I last saw them hitting wake).

I did notice over near Burma that a flock (there were a lot - like 40+) of some British fighters at 80% CAP (who's name escapes me because I had never heard of them before - I usually ignore this theater for the most part) took out 5 zeroes and 12 bombers (I think Nells) with only losing 4 planes themselves in one single attack! [X(]

I did notice that Japan is doing quite well in China where I pretty much ignored everything other than retreating some units back to major cities/choke points.

I'm on the extra challenging scenario where the Japanese have a 6 month advantage (can't remember the name off hand).

Having fun.

[dazoline II]

I liked your battleship SCTF ambushes. Marblehead and destroyer are on the bottom and Adaleiade (sp) is a reef.
Nice, now if there was a little more cover for the Appari & surroundings landings as the Japanese have lost 25+ transports to subs and two of my SCTF's.

If there is cruiser power left over on the first few turns you may want to add a few more suprises near main invasion areas in and about the PI.

Dec 16th here with landings at Miri, Rabaul, Kupang and all over the PI. Hong Kong and Alor Star have fallen.

One thing that seems a little off is the Japanese aircraft getting it worse than the allies. 288 Jap aircraft downed to 280 Allied ATM. Mostly from cap at Manila and Singapore.

[John Lansford]

Andy,
 
I don't think it's the inability of ASW to find the subs, it's that the AI subs aren't doing anything.  I expected a flock of them waiting outside Manila and Singapore, and so far the ones supposedly around the Hawaiian Islands haven't done a thing.  Of course I also remembered the warnings pre-AE about sending unescorted convoys anywhere, so I'm being careful to have at least two ASW ships in any TF's I form up.  Will naval search missions find subs?
 
I've sent the lone minesweeper at Guam back east to try and get it to safety.  I laughed at the route the computer chose to get it to Pearl; it runs due north over the Marianas, then east past Wake and then SE down to Hawaii.  Someone must have figured the direct route wasn't a good idea...

[oldman45]

I am almost ready to do Dec 19th turn. The AI has done well, I have managed to hold them at Wake but the carriers have to return for resupply. I finally got 2 ships with supplies and reinforcements to Wake just about the time a BB came out of the evening mist with some DD's. You get the picture. If I didn't know any better I would say the AI does very well at using storm fronts.

My normal "hold them at Rabaul" has failed, they got their first. I have had some success at nailing their support ships with a SAG built around the US CA's. I guess I will build a base at Shortlands.

DEI has not had much pressure yet but my planes are reporting a CVL with BB's moving toward the Celebes's.

The subs off the US coast as causing me fits and I said some nasty things about the design team. [;)] Hopefully nobody's ears are burning too badly.

So far the game has exceeded my expectations, hats off to all of you.

[dazoline II]

Lost an unescorted AS to a Jap sub off the US West coast on Dec 14th.
Other than that I haven't seen a whole lot from their sub fleet.

[Capt Henry_MatrixForum]

I've actually seen quite a lot of sub activity. I'm playing Allies in scenario 2 on Hard setting. I'm about two weeks in. Subs have been active outside Manila as well as at choke points exiting the SRA. I've been losing about a ship a day to sub activity as I haven't been as careful as John with escorts. Losses are slowing a bit now that I'm adjusting to it. I had the three tankers in Palembang run towards Java and the same sub sank all three.

[awadley]

December 12th - I'm the Allies.
 
Pearl Harbor is a mess, 2 BB's sunk day one, all others damaged 56% sys and major flood, fire, and engine damage.  Created 3 PT TF's (5 boats each) and sent 2 to Lihue and the other directly at the KB.  Suprise night action 3 hexes north of Pearl.  Got one torp hit on at 1000 yds on CV Akagi (on fire) at location 180,104.  The KB has attacked Pearl every day since Dec 7th.  with 6 CV, 2 BB, 2 CA, 1 CL, and 9 DD's.  They are still headed southeast in the direction of PH.

Japan doing well taking major targets (with two landings on the main PH island and heading toward Manila now). I was able to use PT boats from Manila, I was able to attack the landings at Vigan virtually unopposed. I made three attacks on the transports and they hit 5 transports (and lots of troops and supplies) to my untouched PT's. I would have expected some surface cover for them. 6 Subs have had good luck with transports north of PI, hit 6 and sunk 4.

I also sent my 2 carriers directly (from turn 1) to Wake Island to attempt an intercept of the landings there. I got there but was able to hit the transports (4 sunk, as well as 1 CL, 2 DD's and 6 PB's) with my SBDs and F4F's. Sara is on the way for backup. I'm only staying long enough to stop the invasion force once and then I'm outa there (with the assumption I might draw KB down to Wake).

I did notice that Japan is doing quite well in China where I pretty much ignored everything other than retreating some units back to major cities/choke points.

Having fun.
Love this detail!

[Andy Mac]

Anyone got to end Jan yet come on guys I need feedback if I am going to make it sneakier <moosh moosh>

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: John Lansford

I'm on December 11.  Pearl Harbor is a mess; three BB's and a CA have been sunk and all the other BB's are heavily damaged.  Many months will be needed in a shipyard to put them back in working order.  Lexington and Enterprise have teamed up to pound the Wake Island invasion fleet, and I've detached a CA/DD force to mop them up.  However, patrol planes from Midway have spotted Japanese ships SE of that island, headed west.  They didn't see any CV's but I have to believe that's the KB maneuvering to block my CV's return to Pearl Harbor.

Elsewhere, Repulse made it to Singapore and is in the shipyard, but the estimated repair time is over 300 days so I'm concerned as to what to do with her.  PoW is headed to Trincomalee with only slight bomb damage.

In the Philippines, an attempt by the three Hong Kong DD's to disrupt one of the amphibious landings started off well, but a CL/DD TF intercepted them and two British DD's were sunk.  They sank three transports and an escort before the SCTF showed up though.  The enemy minefield at Bataan has been cleared up and submarines are attempting to stop the landings on Luzon, but way too many torpedoes are not exploding.  B-17 strikes have been ineffective in hitting anything.

In Malaysia, ships are loading fuel and supplies and heading towards Darwin.  Supplies are being shipped to the Australian eastern ports and the SE Pacific to build up bases, but Makin and Tarawa have both been invaded (although USS Louisville has been detached from her convoy to attack the ships at Tarawa).

That is interesting, and a good thing IMO. Early war B-17s were a bit too effective on anti-shipping strikes in Vanilla WiTP.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

[:D][:D] Remember all I promised was no worse than stock

p.s. anyone running AI v AI games please dont post the suprises I wouldnt want to spoil them.

John I will take another look at ASW patrols for patch 1

The AI v AI is turning out to be quite...interesting. [;)]