Andy Mac v PZB ....The Allies Fight Back

[Andy Mac]

Paluas and Marianas are held very strongly.
 
I need to think

[ny59giants]

From these combat reports, I think you saw mostly second line fighters and bombers to lower your numbers which it did. Since in your game there is no India, I think you will need to go through Borneo and such where you can use LBA to cover your invasions and use your large CV numbers to control the air over the actual invasion.

The Marianas was outside of LBA coverage (except Superforts) and it was impossible to close down all four bases with only a short prep time to do. If you decide to continue your push through the central and/or north you will have to choose a place that does not have multiple bases within mutual support like in the Marianas.

You have control of the ocean. However, you cannot go where overwhelming LBA can by flown in to win the war of attrition in the short run.

[Andy Mac]

I am confident I could have gotten ashore in one piece and even held air superiority for a week I just dont think a week would be enough.
 
The strength of the ground forces means I needed to stay and fight to support the ground forces with CAS and I just dont feel strong enough decision made rightly or wrongly time to move on..
 
OK I am transferring 8th Army towards SWPAC these 7 divisions will land on various bases on Northern and Western Borneo in range of LBA.
 
All efforts are to be made to get Tomini up to lvl 4 ASAP to support an offensive in that direction.
 
B29's will move to Wasile ASAP as will P38's

[Andy Mac]

1st stab at a new plan happy to take comments

[Nomad]

Do you have anything for Menando? Some fighters there to provide LRCAP help might be nice. I have no idea what is there or what you have.

Also, how about Jolo? It should be at least a size 4 airfield. (I'm not sure, there is an arrow pointing in that general direction )

[Andy Mac]

Jolo is on the list being considered all of the isolated bases look weakly held so able to be overwhelmed quickly
 
Menado is to strongly held.
 
I am sure I can hold air superioirty for 5 - 7 days so all the bases to be attacked must be weakly held.
 
There are so many in that area capable of being taken that he cannot protect them all.
 
I have changed the prep of all troops in the convoy 8th Army will assault in this general operational area.
 
(I am considering landing on Mindanao as well but that may be to much)
 
I need to be aware that I may be activating Kamis here so I need to be carefull
 
OK a tentative force allocation is emerging
 
1st Aus Army (ABDA and 1st Aus Corps) - Malaya
8th US Army (V Amphib Corps and 3rd US Corps) - West Borneo/East PI
6th US Army (1st Amphib, US 1st Corps, US 11th Corps) - Mindanao
 
US 14th Corps - Finishes off Noemfoor
 
10th US Army  (US 9th Corps, 3 Amphib Corps, US 24 Corps, US 10th Corps) will begin prepping for Formosa
 
ANdy

[asdicus]

Andy

First of all I am glad you decided to abandon the attack on Tinian - without land-based fighter cover it would have been hopeless. You would have run out of navy fighters in days and with total japanese a/c production probably numbering thousands of planes per month (trained up in china) you can never win a battle of air attrition with navy planes alone.

My suggestions such as they are :

Capture the outlying islands which are not supported by other japanese bases eg wake,marcus,salawal,woleai and so forth. This will allow you to base land planes nearer the marianas and also threaten iwo jima. At the moment all he needs to really worry about is the marianas and you have seen how strong the defense is there.

Attacking into the dutch east indies is a dead end in my view - you need to move on japan to win the game. He will have enough oil stockpiled to last for months so capturing the oilfields will not help you in the short term. In 1945 the japanese get loads of troop reinforcements - if he is able to deploy them to outlying islands you will never winkle him out of those bases.

Finally I think you should be very careful about introducing house rules eg on airfield stacking brought about by 'moans' from your opponent. pzb has played an unrestricted anything goes game against you and your prior opponents - now is not the time to start bringing in houserules to restrict your play.

[Andy Mac]

To The Fuckwit who organises US Production
From Andy Mac CinC Pacific

Re Hellcat Production.

Dear Sir

Please take yourself to the nearest naval base and be prepared to be keelhauled, subjected to electric shock treatment. and generally get your arse kicked before being sent the front in a Buffalo.

You are building 144 day variant Hellcats that is a good thing but not good enough. But WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY ARE YOU FUCKING DOING PRODUCING 144 NIGHT FIGTER VARIANTS WHEN THE FLEET NEEDS DAY FIGHTERS ARE YOU A GODDAMMED MORON.

Regards.

Editors Note

IRL the allies produced 11,000 Hellcats in 2 years providing 1200 to the RN. (11,000 - 1200 = 9800) i.e. 400+ per month NOT 144. No bloody wonder I cannot go toe to toe.

Someone fix this please or every single allied player will attack in SEAC or via SRA no one will follow history because they cannot win a battle of attrition against thousands of Japanese airframes no matter how crap the pilots.

In case you hadnt guessed I am not overly happy about this.

[Andy Mac]

F6F-3   
4,402  First production variant. 
 
Subvariants  included:

    - 18 conversions to F6F-3E evaluation night fighters.
    - 149 (some sources say 205) F6F-3N night fighters.
    - Unknown number of F6F-3P reconnaissance conv
    - 1 temporarily converted to XF6F-2 with turbocharged
      R-2800-21.  Some sources give 4,403 F6F-3s,
      apparently due to "double counting" this machine.

   252 fighters were provided to the British FAA as the
   Hellcat I.
   
F6F-5   
 
7,870  Second production variant (some sources give 7,868). 
                   Subvariants included:

    - 1,434 (some sources say 1,529) F6F-5N night fighters.
    - Several hundred F6F-5P reconnaissance conversions.
    - Several hundred F6F-5K drone conversions.
    - A number of F6F-5D drone controller conversions.
    - Two converted to XF6F-6 with R-2800-18W and  
      four-bladed propeller.

  930 of total F6F-5 production was supplied to the
    British FAA as the "Hellcat II".  Most were
    "Hellcat F.II" fighters but 70 (some sources give 80
    or 85 or 95) were F6F-5N night fighters and designated
    "Hellcat NF.II".  Some were converted to a
    reconnaissance configuration and designated "Hellcat
    PR.II" (unarmed) or "Hellcat FR.II" (armed).
 
Its not just off I am getting 3,500 nightfighter variants when only 1,500 were built
 
Sorry but this is massive. I have just called off an invasion of the Marianas because of it.

[Monter_Trismegistos]

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac
(11,000 - 1200 = 9800) i.e. 400+ per month NOT 144

To be correct... 11000 - 1200 - 1500 (night) = 8300

I still see your point though.

[duckenf]

Then bypass them. If he's stocked them with troops, then Marcus and Wake might be more reasonable targets -- or something like Ceylon. Then you oculd pound India, Burma and malaysia in =to submission and perhaps free up the Commonwealth and Chinese forces.

Keeping forces in the central and northern pacific would be enough to make him keep the troops in the Marianas and away from other avenues of attack. Plus you can subject them to daily bombings as you said and erode their support until you are in a better position to do something (like invade Formosa or Northern Japan).

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

Paluas and Marianas are held very strongly.

I need to think

[lyceum]

Just ensure you give no indication you have abandoned Thunderchild or that you lack Hellcat frames. Keep up carrier raids around the Marianas so that Pzb does not move land units to the PI/Borneo. Think you can catch him by surprise by quickly taking Borneo and Formosa.

[Andy Mac]

To late I was so pissed off I gave the game away.
 
Of course he may think I am bluffing.
 
Centpac is out my Hellcat pool just wont sustain these attritional battles without LBA to support.
 
Its annoying but I will just have to adjust.
 
 

[skrewball]

I have been a fan of both your's and PzB's AARs for a while now. And as much as I am rooting for JPN here [;)] I am curious how your sub fleet is? At this point in the war, the US sub fleet was sinking japanese shipping at an average rate of 150,000 tons a month or 40 ships. PzB can produce so much because you haven't made any dedicated efforts to curtail his industry. Just my opinion.

[frank1970]

Hi Andy,

now, after you did not invade the Marainnas, why not going back to plan a, liberating India?

Pzb for sure has pulled troops out of India to strengthen his defences on the islands. This means he is low on manpower in India. I´d estimate he has a brigade in every base plus a dicvision in Karachi, Bombay and Calcutta. Additionally he´ll have mobile reserves (2 -3 tankdivisions?).
A hard push towards Ceylon, using all your forces should do the job there. The mobile forces shouldn´t be able to reach you there fast. His planes will stay in the pacific cause he doesn´t know if this attack is real or a fake.
Try to disconnect his supply lines by dropping paras onto the railways. If I remember right, units in non city hexes are almost unpossible to destroy or drive out.

Additionally you could try to do the stuff I proposed before:
Mine his harbours, mine his sealines (especially those into the indic!) cause trouble on his convoy routes (mines, mines, mines), put your subs near his naval bases and kill his navy.
I had an idea how to secure your convoys into NG:
You do have fighter cover along the NG coast line, but your TFs are attacked a bit away from the coast. Make small minefields in the hexes along the coast. Your TFs should then use the coastal hexes to reach your bases! (strange, but without waypoints).
Try the same to force PzB´s TFs into range of your LBA. Force him to use his MSW let him burn his fuel!
Simulate high troop concentration on the pacific islands by splitted seabee units from USA.


Do you think it would be possible to raid his industry in Japan homeland with your carriers? Or to reduce his bomber fleet by putting your carriers 9 or so hexes near his bases? Fighters shouldn´t have the range to escort those bombers. He has lots of fighters, does he have lots of bombers, too? (maybe just put cap over a transport TF in range and keep your carriers save!)

[1275psi]

My 2 cents

Its a bit much to blame the game being stuffed here on this example of japan out producing the allies.

THIS IS NOT A TYPICAL GAME. This is a Extreme game
Hes got all of India, most of china, had uniterrupted oil and resources for all of 43, captured most stuff intact, and has not suffered heavy losses until this last month.
Of course he will have seemingly limitless planes.
hes building more oscars alone than I can for all of my planes in my game -and so he should -by winning so well he is now reaping the rewards.
Nothing wrong in that.

My second 2 cents -if hes got so many planes, what is supplying them, and if the corsairs are such killers, why are they not sailing all over the planet doing just that -killing jap planes
Consider this invasion as no more than a raid.
re supply , ditch the bombers from the CVs, load em up with corsairs, and sweep every field and the seas.
As a Japanese player this I would fear.

No way this is the games fault, PZB won a hugely strong position most japanese players wet dream about, you took up the challenge, now you have to take it on the chin, and iether be defeated, or come up with something more clever to overcome the challenge.

keep fighting, pzb is the ultimate challenge, we all recongnise this, why else so many hits on the AAR?

Just my 2 cents

[Kereguelen]

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

At present to be honest I dont.

I need at least a month to get some sys damage off the fleet and restock the Hellcat pool.

I have a corps prepared for Marcus and for Wake plus in SWPAC forces starting to prep for Malaya.

As a time filler I may consider launching 1st Armies assault on Malaya earlier than planned but the Marianas are impossible. (4 units have flown in since the start of the offensive and over 9,000 men)

In 50 days I get 4 more Gps of Superforts that would allow a 2 Groups every day sustained offensive and 2 more Essex's plus the 2 Essex class in drydock will be back.

But they are useless unless I can get the Hellcats to put on them.

What about taking Banjarmasin? You can build a level 6 AF there, allowing you to dominate the whole area. Do you have any intelligence about PzB's garrison there? Maybe he has concentrated his assets mostly at Tarakan and Balikpapan? Possesion of Banjarmasin should allow you to subdue those bases and provide a stepping stone to Singapore (without uncovering your plans for this location).

K

[Andy Mac]

OK a few points yesterday I was pissed off because I realised I could not fight an attritional battle with my fleet despite crushing KB and shooting down thousands of aircraft.
 
A few points I have been pretty much on continuous ops since mid 43. Kavieng, Rabaul, Lae, then back to Centpac for Kwaj and Entiwock, then Hydra up the NG Coast.
 
Each time I have used prepped forces and appropriate strength.
 
Re future ops.
 
Frank mines hurt me more than PZB until I am certain where I want to strike and my subs are more valuable using torps now.
 
PZB has been suffering stupendous losses for 6 months or more not just for the last month. My objective now is to force him to run his economy HOT and sink as many transports as possible.
 
My issue with this last op is all down to Hellcat production 144 is not enough especially when I get 144 night fighter varients as well. Ditch the radar I would like to use them as day fighter please. (I accept chinese training I accept the ability of the Japanese tro produce large numbers of planes I would just like the historic production of Hellcats please.)
 
I refuse to use Marine Corsairs on Carriers I could have completed this last operation with ease had I chosen to ignore that restriction.
 
Now when all is said and done I called off the operation before it got critical. I still have 60 Hellcats in pool. MY CVR's have another 150 surplus and my CV Sqns are all at full strength.
 
At the current burn rate thats 2 days fighting but for a different operation it should be sufficient to strike.
 
I am still considering targets and will be reconning all areas to try and identify my next target.
 
I will not be unlading the transports the whole of 8th Army is moving now towards Borneo where I will use this force to strike and sieze several bases.
 
After this is accomplished I will order a naval stand down for 2 months to recuperate the fleet and use LBA to inch forward with minimal transport ships.
 
This is far from over......

[Andy Mac]

Just to be crystal clear I have well stocked pools od hundreds of P40's, thousands of P38's, Corsairs by the bucketload etc etc.
 
It is only the fragility of the Hellcat pool that worries me because its the main allied carrier fighter

[Bliztk]

Go back to the F4F ? [:'(]

Serioulsy, you can start using F4Us because they solved the landing problems in the USN carriers by this date. Its not a gamey thing