Dutch AVP Arend: Scenario 1 Exploits

[WEXF]

Thought it was worth mentioning that Pearl Harbor is NOT a port for withdrawals.

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Also worth mentioning is that a ship of any Nation can be withdrawn from any port that is able to execute withdrawals.

[MBF]

I'm pretty sure I have withdrawn ships from Pearl Harbor - but their withdrawl date was much closer (under 300 days and it may have been under 100 days)

[BBfanboy]

My last recollection on that is that PH is NOT a withdrawal base, but any size 7 or greater port on the West Coast USA will work. I think the issue was that the ships have to make the transit from PH to their new assignment, so the IJ player or AI should get a chance to zap it.

[WEXF]

I'm pretty sure I have withdrawn ships from Pearl Harbor - but their withdrawl date was much closer (under 300 days and it may have been under 100 days)

I have not seen PH being able to do a withdrawal. If anyone has a screenshot showing a ship at PH with an active withdrawal button, please post it.

[MBF]

I meant to double check last night but my cold through me on the couch and knocked me down for the evening

My old feeble brain may be thinking of something else though - lol

[MBF]

Apologies for the derail - got to the bottom of this (I think - at least for my games) - I'm currently playing BigB Mod - BUT according to the wiki a size 9 port is all it takes and I'm in July 1942 and have built up Pearl Harbor to size 9

I also checked an old DaBabes game vs IJN AI and same thing in June 42 when Pearl had been built up to a size 9 port

Anyways - enjoying your AAR and apologies for the derail !

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This from a post in 2015 (here: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 0#p3678470

48. Gameplay Change: Allow ship withdrawals at any on map level-9 port and some smaller ports with no enemy nearby. Ships can always be withdrawn from any off- map port or from any TF that is currently off map. Ships that are not badly damaged can be withdrawn from some on-map ports or from TFs in certain on-map regions. For on map, ship may not be on fire, total damage may not exceed 99 and no individual damage type (system, floatation, engine) may exceed 50. Ships may not be withdrawn from any on-map location where the enemy has air superiority. The
intent is to prevent withdrawal as a method of saving a ship that stands a good chance of being lost or further damaged. On map withdrawal ports are set based on the historical exit locations for ships leaving the Pacific:

1. Any level 9 port.

2. National home ports of the United States, Canada, India, Australia, and New
Zealand (with no port level requirement)

3. Any level 7 or larger port on the US or Canadian West Coast.

4. Any level 7 or larger Indian port East of Ceylon (including Ceylon itself)

5. Any level 7 or larger port in South Eastern Australia, plus Perth.

6. Any level 7 or larger port in New Zealand.

[WEXF]

Thanks for this. Always something to learn in our game. So does the size 7 and 9 ports apply in the basic scenarios as well as DaBabes?

[WEXF]

5Aug found the AF at Geraldton 32%>L5. On Arend no improvement was recorded on the skills of either pilot. Enemy activity in the region was confined to what had been seen recently on the north coast.

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At the daily intel meeting two topics were discussed. The first was that some new "mine fields" were expected to be placed in the region. No specifics were reported. The second topic was very interesting to the crew of Arend. TF20, a single xAK was reported about 700 miles west of Perth and was expected to arrive in about 3 days. It carried a squadron cadre of GVT-4.

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GVT-4 had 3 pilots but no aircraft although it was authorized 3 Do-24K-1 patrol planes. It was assigned to 224 Group RAF, a British command (unrestricted).

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Command was reviewing the possible approaches to how GVT-4 would be used. It was a complex issue as the pool of available Dutch airframes was quite limited.

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There were no Do-24K-1 in the pool and none were being produced. There were 10 TIVa airframes available but they were not anywhere near the equal of other patrol planes. It was also unclear whether British airframes could be assigned to GVT-4? Command had 3 days to come up with a plan.

[BBfanboy]

You have selected the pool for Dutch aircraft and it shows 2 Cats you can draw. That is all that is available for now, but I think that pool does get some replenishment of the Cats. Since GVT-4 can only take 3 aircraft, just allow the upgrade to Cats and then draw the two in the pools (after it arrives in Geraldton of course).

[WEXF]

You have selected the pool for Dutch aircraft and it shows 2 Cats you can draw. That is all that is available for now, but I think that pool does get some replenishment of the Cats. Since GVT-4 can only take 3 aircraft, just allow the upgrade to Cats and then draw the two in the pools (after it arrives in Geraldton of course).

Thanks for the comment. That is one of the options command is considering. There is another that will be discussed in a future posting. Not sure which option will be chosen.

[MBF]

So does the size 7 and 9 ports apply in the basic scenarios as well as DaBabes?

Given those notes were general patch notes - and not directed at any mods in particular I assume it applies to all scenarios (that's of course assuming later patches didn't undo it)

[WEXF]

So does the size 7 and 9 ports apply in the basic scenarios as well as DaBabes?

Given those notes were general patch notes - and not directed at any mods in particular I assume it applies to all scenarios (that's of course assuming later patches didn't undo it)

Thanks again for pointing this out. I will be checking my level 7 ports on the east coast of US and Canada as well as others.

[WEXF]

Command conducted an in depth review of Dutch patrol squadrons. There were 12 currently operating at various bases in Australia. All had a maximum size of 3 aircraft and all but 3 were at full strength although not all were ready to operate. 4 groups were flying Do-24K-1 planes and 8 were equipped with PBY-5 Catalina. The number of pilots in each squadron varied from 2-5 with experience ratings between 54-63.

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The reserve pilot pool for Dutch pilots was not that bad. There were a total of 59 pilots available, however only 4 were patrol pilots. 8 were recon pilots and the bulk of the group were trained to fly bombers.

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While no final decision was made on how to equip the new squadron arriving at Perth, Command did decide that it was best to somehow use the 10 TIVa airframes that were currently in the pool (see above a few frame back). There were no additional Do-24K-1 airframes available and none were in production. The situation on PBY-5 airframes was better but not great. Command decided to equip 2 squadrons with the TIVa airframes and use them for pilot training or short range ASW patrols. In that way some of the other airframes would be available for replacements and some use would be made of the planes sitting unused in the pool. Which squadrons would be converted would be decided shortly.

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The TIVa airframes were certainly not equal to the other patrol planes. The had a much shorter range but they could carry 3 250 kg bombs, more than enough to do significant damage to an enemy submarine. Most importantly, they existed and were ready to fly. Command's decision was to use every asset they had in the best way they could. Many of the pilots in the existing squadrons were constantly flying search missions and did not have the ability to improve their other skills. It was hoped that the squadrons that would be given the TIVa planes would be able to train some of the pilots faster in needed skills.

[WEXF]

6Aug found the AF at Geraldton 43%>L5. The decision on whether to improve the AF further will need to be made in just a few days. On Arend WO Hazard saw his low naval skill improve from 33>34 and PO Caruthers had his defn skill improve from 62>63. It appears that now that Caruthers has reached a low naval skill of 60 it will be Hazard that does most of the training flights for awhile.

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No changes were noticed in enemy activity on the north or west coast of Australia and TF 20 was now only 400 miles from Perth carrying the cadre of GVT-4. It should arrive in 2 days. There is another Dutch Squadron with only a cadre of pilots currently in transit. VKA.3/B, a recon squadron section, is stored as cargo on a ship. The second section of the squadron is about to arrive at Aden.

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In trying to understand the mechanics of our game, it is interesting to notice that this unit is arriving at Aden. Dutch ground units that arrived as reinforcements after being eliminated did not arrive at Aden. VKA.3 was withdrawn when the DEI was in the final state of being overtaken by the Japanese. All of the planes were lost as they had no ability to leave the DEI.

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[WEXF]

The most interesting aspect of the cadre of VKA.3 is that the 2 pilots assigned are continuing to train in "recon" despite there being no aircraft available. Going forward there are no new Dutch recon planes to fill out the squadron. However, the squadron can still be useful in training pilots.

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Some more info to help everyone understand the game process. When VK.A3 was withdrawn all 12 of the aircraft were considered "operational" losses and that number shows up in my Intel data screen. I believe all of the current "recon" pilots are those that were transferred out of the squadron as the unit was being withdrawn. It is possible to track the pilots of this squadron from the beginning of Scenario 1 as all 12 that will arrive are listed in the pilot pool. Unfortunately, I did not take a screen shot of the pilots at the beginning of this game but here is a shot of a typical group of these pilots from another game.

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If you look above at my 1Feb posting you will see that many of the pilots in the "recon" pool are included in both lists.

[WEXF]

7Aug showed the air field at Geraldton now at 53%>L5, up from 43%. At this rate only 5 more days will be needed to complete this phase of the air field improvement project. On Arend WO Hazard saw his low naval skill improve from 34>35 and his defense skill from 59>60.

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Enemy activity detected on the west and north coasts of Australia was no different than had been seen for many weeks.
Game Note: In some earlier posts in this AAR there was a discussion of which level 7 ports were capable of handling ship withdrawals. Here is a screen of Prince Rupert showing that withdrawals can be done there. Notice the active button at the bottom of the screen. Prince Rupert had been enlarged to a level 7 port. This supports the position that ports in Canada and the US on the west coast mainland can handle withdrawals. Not islands like Adak (see the 24Jan posting).

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[WEXF]

8Aug showed the air field at Geraldton now at 63%>L5. At this rate only 4 more days will be needed to complete this phase of the air field improvement project. On Arend WO Hazard saw his low naval skill improve from 35>36.

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Unfortunately, everyone at Geraldton was saddened to hear that the enemy sub that had been in the area, SS I-156, had torpedoed and sunk xAK Fultala at 35-147, 560 miles west (14 hexes) of Perth.

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[WEXF]

xAK Fultala, a Euro M Cargo transport, was one of the longer range Allied ships moving supplies from Cape Town to Perth. It had been part of TF217, containing 8 ships heading to Cape Town. The ship was empty. Her Captain was not very highly rated and the crew was not very experienced. Fultala was the first ship to have been attacked in the main shipping lane since the start of the war. Normally, TF were not escorted but that may have to change. In addition routes will need to be re-evaluated to avoid the enemy. The location of the attack was within the range of heavy bomber and patrol aircraft but just barely. The enemy would not have to move far to avoid all allied air cover.

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That night at the Officer's Club, no one said anything but everyone was thinking about how the enemy was able to survive all of the anti-submarine efforts made against I-156 in the past.

[WEXF]

9Aug found the AF at Geraldton 74%>L5. On Arend WO Hazard's "def" skill improved from 60>61 and PO Caruthers saw his low "naval skill" improve from 60>61. This was a little bit of a surprise to command (ME) as I thought Caruthers would not be doing much of the flying until Hazard's skill level got to 60.

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Word was received that GVT-4 Squadron had arrived safely in Perth and had been outfitted with 3 T.IVa Float Patrol airframes from the "pool".

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It had been decided that using the existing T.IVa airframes in a training/ASW role would be the plan for the near term. It was not yet clear where GVT-4 would be based. Command was evaluating what needed to be done for future use of the Dutch patrol squadrons. Most were in restricted HQ and there was no current AF6 where the Dutch squadrons could be upgraded. It looked like Geraldton would continue to see its AF expand. Geraldton has a HQa present allowing for only a L6 AF to be needed. Without the HQa a level 7AF is required. Supply needs will also have to be met but Command did not consider that a problem.

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[WEXF]

10Aug found the AF at Geraldton 84%>L5. Just 2 more days will be needed to reach L5. It will then be interesting to see how long it will take to reach L6. On Arend no improvement was recorded in the skills of either pilot.

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There were no reported contacts with enemy air or submarine assets. All of the talk at the Officer's Club was about the 3 new fighters that arrived recently. These Spitfire Vc Trop planes from No. 457 Squadron were top of the line and never seen before in Australia.

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The Spitfires were fast, well armed and could carry a sizable bomb load but they were not long distance fighters, so it seemed that they would be providing CAP support at some soon to be decided base. Comparisons were being made to the Japanese A6M2 Zero that had been the best the enemy had, although there were reports that a new Zero, the A6M3, had recently been seen.

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All of the data seemed to show that the Spitfire would be a decent match for any Zero likely to show up, especially when not at high altitude, where the A6M3 had a real advantage. But there were only 3 Spitfires. More were needed and everyone was hoping that production would be getting into full swing ASAP.