The Sun in My Eyes Mk IV, EOS from the Allied Perspective

[witpqs]

I'm pretty sure that CAP is not counted as a mission. Maybe that's why they look that way?

[ny59giants]

Carl,
I'm in the middle of turn 2 - "sortie and scatter," with RHS EEO. Since we did not do a historical 1st turn, I have turned off in the USA/Canada/Alaska all repairs of Resource Centers except Tacoma (needs to repair 400), Spokane (1485 - this one will be repairing to near games end [X(]), San Diego (1232), Salt Lake City (1200). These bases have long term repair needs for Resources. I left on repair of the 33 Resources at both LA and San Fran.

I turned off repair of all Manpower across the board. I'll turn it on later as right now it just eats up Resources. All aircraft production is off that has a "-rd" after the model type per Cid HR in the RHS handbook. HI and Oil is being reapired in North America.

Since our mods are similar and after my brief experience with RAO mod, I've started moving some LCU that need to fill out their TO&E to San Fran. First the WC HQ is there and with many of the bases in the Pacific NW fluctuating between above twice the require supply level, I needed somewhere that meets the over twice supply needed to allow they to repair disabled squads and to fill out more quickly.

In Australia, Melbourne starts with over 240,000 Resource, so they will be headed to New Orleans soon. [;)] I turned off everthing here as Supply can dry up too quickly until you get some Oil there from the SRA before it falls. or regular shipments from India or USA.

Unless Cid did major changes in the various Oil, Resource, & Manpower, there are some basic needs/surplus for each area.
India needs 61,000 Oil per month - Diamond (40k), Madras (5k), Vizagap (1k), Colombo (1k), and Bombay (14k). Australia needs 60k in Oil and can export 50k Resources. New Zealand needs 16k in Oil and needs 20k in Resources. Russia can export 20k in Resource, but needs 40k in Oil. These figures may not be exact, but should be pretty close.

I went through all the initial Allied bases and turn off repairs to all those small Oil and Resource centers. I felt I needed to do this as the Allies don't have the standard endless supply and fuel from day 1 that main of us Allied player got use to in stock and some other mods. Look at as you will be a step ahead when AE comes out. [:D]

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

I'm pretty sure that CAP is not counted as a mission. Maybe that's why they look that way?

Now that makes sense. Thank you very much, my friend. I have one less worry to crease my craggy brow. [:)]

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Carl,
I'm in the middle of turn 2 - "sortie and scatter," with RHS EEO. Since we did not do a historical 1st turn, I have turned off in the USA/Canada/Alaska all repairs of Resource Centers except Tacoma (needs to repair 400), Spokane (1485 - this one will be repairing to near games end [X(]), San Diego (1232), Salt Lake City (1200). These bases have long term repair needs for Resources. I left on repair of the 33 Resources at both LA and San Fran.

I turned off repair of all Manpower across the board. I'll turn it on later as right now it just eats up Resources. All aircraft production is off that has a "-rd" after the model type per Cid HR in the RHS handbook. HI and Oil is being reapired in North America.

Since our mods are similar and after my brief experience with RAO mod, I've started moving some LCU that need to fill out their TO&E to San Fran. First the WC HQ is there and with many of the bases in the Pacific NW fluctuating between above twice the require supply level, I needed somewhere that meets the over twice supply needed to allow they to repair disabled squads and to fill out more quickly.

In Australia, Melbourne starts with over 240,000 Resource, so they will be headed to New Orleans soon. [;)] I turned off everthing here as Supply can dry up too quickly until you get some Oil there from the SRA before it falls. or regular shipments from India or USA.

Unless Cid did major changes in the various Oil, Resource, & Manpower, there are some basic needs/surplus for each area.
India needs 61,000 Oil per month - Diamond (40k), Madras (5k), Vizagap (1k), Colombo (1k), and Bombay (14k). Australia needs 60k in Oil and can export 50k Resources. New Zealand needs 16k in Oil and needs 20k in Resources. Russia can export 20k in Resource, but needs 40k in Oil. These figures may not be exact, but should be pretty close.

I went through all the initial Allied bases and turn off repairs to all those small Oil and Resource centers. I felt I needed to do this as the Allies don't have the standard endless supply and fuel from day 1 that main of us Allied player got use to in stock and some other mods. Look at as you will be a step ahead when AE comes out. [:D]

Hi Michael

I learned a lot from reading your first AAR and missed the fact that Russia needs oil, so thanks once again. Once I get my big shipping injection I shall be sending some oil that way. Because I started switching off late I have had to hit the HI quite hard temporarily to get some supplies ready for PH. The next few rounds of reinforcement convoys will have to be troops only. I am hopeful that things will slowly improve over the next few months...

Edit On the subject of hope, Mike should have got back yesterday, so I may have a turn waiting for me when I get home from work tomorrow afternoon.

[goodboyladdie]

01/01/42

I-3 sank just off CONUS attempting to get to a safe harbour for repair. It's nice to see another of Mike's subs sink at last! AK Tarushima Maru hit a sub-laid mine at Kwajalein. I really need to choke Mike's supply lines because if he is in as much trouble as me with supplies, then it's a big vulnerability, especially as he is spread so thin.

PH was hit by 46 Zekes, 14 Nells and 13 Bettys. My CAP of 5 F4F-3s and 10 P-40Bs was badly mauled. Total losses were 2 Nells (7 damaged), 3 Bettys (3 damaged), 2 F4F-3s, 6 P-40Bs, 3 B-18s, 1 B-17E, 2 SBDs and 1 Kingfisher. The airbase took 7 hits and the runways 14, but next day PH was 29/10/0. I have decided to risk a counter attack on Lahaina. It will run in at the airfield at 15000 ft and will consist of all my available level bombers.

I received the P-40Es I was meant to, so that's good news for a change. They have changed from Western Command to SWPAC and have moved to San Francisco.

DM Pruitt is repaired at Victoria, She will lay a defensive minefield before heading for SF. Supply is running short in Australia as well as CONUS.

My Wickes and Clemson class DDs have started their upgrades at SF, Sydney and Melbourne. I have 1 straggler on the way to Melbourne and another already there that is unable to start the upgrade until previous damage is partially repaired.

[goodboyladdie]

AK Makassar, on a supply run to Port Blair, was shelled by I-9. She has damage 78/58/31 and will not make port.

KL was hit by a small Sally raid. Then 34 more attacked Brunei, but were driven off by 15 P-40Es, losing two of their number in the process. Vincents bombed 3rd Tanks at Ye from 12000 ft causing about 50 casualties. This was much more than the later, bigger raid consisting of SB-2s and Blenheim IVs, from 14000 ft. The SB-2s have quite small bombs.

27 squadron was withdrawn from night bombing to train at Calcutta. There is no point in wasting pilots/supply.

[goodboyladdie]

Manila was hit twice. 11th Div took more casualties at a cost of 3 bombers to Mike, with about 10 more damaged. Then the AF took a raid, with 2 bombers downed and 4 more damaged. The airbase took 2 hits, supplies 1 and runways 7, although all damage is already repaired.

DD Scout and CL Danae are sailing from Batavia to Bombay to be withdrawn (if that's where they need to go?). I had a nice surprise when the Insect class PGs upgraded (3 at Singapore and 2 at Batavia). They are now PCs with limited ASW capability and increased range.

The ship side is one of Dixie's. I will get round to swapping more out at some point this week.

[goodboyladdie]

1 Nate was destroyed by escorting P-43s over Hanyang as an SB-2 and SB-2M raid went in. An Ida was shot down attacking Wuhan. A Kate fell to a P-43 ambush too.

I have had to abandon air defence of Wuchow for now. I just cannot afford the losses in fighter and pilots at the moment. Today I lost 4 P-35s, 2 I-153cs and 4 I-16cs agaisnt 1 Nate and 3 Sonias. I lost 2 IL-4cs to Nates over the Pescadores and another to CAP on a Naval Search mission so will have to look after these squadrons for a while. My Martin 139s will withdraw to await re-equipment with B-25 Mitchell IIIs. 1 group remains on recon for now. I will try to keep enough spares around to swap some SB-2 units back to Martins so I can get more Mitchells when the time comes. I need those larger bombs.

Mike carried out another deliberate attack against my forces behind his lines. My troops retreated again and I just realised I did not check on them this turn...

An artillery unit on it's way to Ichang decided to shock attack across the river between Wuhan and Hanyang on it's own. I shall have to keep an eye out for similarly misguided units.

Mikes's CVs are still at Takao.

[goodboyladdie]

02/01/42

My raid on Lahaina consisted of 15 A-20Bs, 2 B-17Ds, 3 B-17Es, 17 B-18s and 5 B-25Cs. It surprised Mike and his CAP was only 5 Zekes. I lost 1 A-20, with 1 B-25 damaged. Mike lost 6 Zekes, 2 Nells and 1 Betty. The airbase took 3 hits and the runway 18. I have ordered more raids. Everything but the A-20s will hit Lahaina again. Mike will be expecting it, but if my bombers do not get destroyed here, they will only get destroyed on the ground at PH. I have so few fighters left that I need to force Mike to think defensively as well as cause him to use up supply on AF repairs. A-20s from PH will hit Kona, and A-20s from Palmyra will attack Johnston Island.

PH was hit by 37 Zekes, 12 Nells and 12 Bettys. CAP consisted of 4 F4F-3s and 6 P-40Bs. Losses were 3 Nells (6 damaged), 1 Betty (3 damaged), 2 F4F-3s, 4 P-40Bs, 2 A-20s, 1 B-18, 1 B-25, 1 B-17E and 1 Kingfisher. The airbase took 2 hits and the runways 18. For the second turn running I noticed some Nells were attacking the airfield with torpedoes! Damage stands at 25/0/0. Size 10 airfields are obviously very hard to knock out...

205th AA moved from Los Angeles to provide AA cover over the repair yards at Long Beach. 216th AA was transferred to SOPAC and is proceeding to SF from San Diego to await transport to Noumea.

[goodboyladdie]

HMS Truant was hit by the Destroyers Asagamo and Azashio at Kota Bharu. She is 20/84 and will probably not make Kuantan.

In Burma we saw Mike's first air raid. Rangoon was hit by 12 Kates and 15 Oscars. My CAP was 6 Buffs. The Kates came in at only 5000ft. 2 were shot down, with 2 more damaged. 1 Buff was damaged, but was lost on landing. The pilot survived. The normal Vildebeest raid on Ye went after the newly arrived 55th "Division" Brigade, as did the follow on Blenheim/SB-2 raid. 6 Sallys wasted their time over KL.

Clark was hit for the first time in a while. 4 Claudes, 6 Nells and 3 Bettys scored 1 airbase hit and 6 runway hits.

Samar, which had turned Japanese was retaken by the battallion that was heading for Legaspi. It tips him off that I am coming, but this small unit would have achieved little and now it might split his focus further, buying me more time and opportunities.

I have arranged a (hopefully) nasty surprise in the PI. I have flown B-17s into Cagayan, B-17s, B-25s and P-40Bs into Clark and Hudsons and Martin 139s into Manila. I made a big cock-up and transferred one of my AP B-17 units into Baguio in error. The base force had been extracted from here so I am having to send it back to allow the damaged planes to leave after I evacuate what can fly next turn.

[goodboyladdie]

Hanyang was hit by IL-4cs, SB-2s and SB-2Ms. They scored 2 airbase hits and 1 runway hit. 1 Sonia was lost to flak in one of the many raids suffered by the Chinese LCUs. I am leaning towards making the B-25 my main bomber in this theatre, but most upgrade to the Mitchell III which is available in relatively low numbers. I may have to have a look at what the Russians eventually offer.

On that note I wish these were available to the Chinese!

[goodboyladdie]

03/01/42

Jap patrol planes were busy today. PTs 90/91/92 were hit by a Betty at PH. Damage is 55/10/6. SS Bonita was hit by a Nell at Kona and is very heavily damaged (47/91). She is making for Hilo, but will not make it. SS Plunger was hit at PH in the afternoon and is 29/46.

At Lahaina the CAP consisted of 12 Zekes today. When Mike gets Mikes (the Japanese Bf109E) I will be in serious trouble. My raid totalled 2 B-17Ds, 3 B-17Es, 18 B-18s, 6 B-25s, with 3 SBDs providing recon. Losses were 8 Zekes, 1 Betty, 1 Nell, 1 B-18 (1 damaged) and 1 B-25 (1 damaged). We scored 4 airbase, 2 supply and 24 runway hits. The air losses posted below show 20 Zekes destroyed on the ground as opposed to those listed here. I think this is due to overstacking?

At Kona 12 A-20Bs, with 3 Kingfishers on recon, met 10 Zekes on CAP. 1 A-20 was destroyed and 1 runway hit was scored. The A-20s were pretty low on morale and no longer have full units so I put them on Naval Attack and kept the rest on Airfield Attack. The 12 B-17Ds of 60th BS flew in to assist.

At Johnston Island 31 A-20Bs met 10 Claudes. When I saw the Claudes I smiled, but it was soon wiped off my face when they downed 5 of my bombers for the loss of 1 Claude. There was 1 supply hit and 8 runway hits. I cannot remember if I cancelled this raid for tomorrow or not...

[goodboyladdie]

The normal daily raid on PH consisted of 25 Zekes, 10 Nells and 10 Bettys. My CAP WAS 3 F4F-3s and 4 P-40Bs, leading scorer Lt Jackson bailing out uninjured. My mechanics are working hard to salvage components from destroyed planes to build "new" aircraft, so hopefuly I'll be able to get fighter numbers up. The 15kt AK Asphalion is racing to San Diego to load crated aircraft and supplies before attempting a high speed run to PH from the North. Losses were 1 Zeke, 3 Nells (2 damaged), 2 Bettys (3 damaged), 2 P-40Bs, 2 A-20Bs and 1 B-18, with 2 airbase and 14 runway hits. PH damage is now 8/0/0.

The Task Force South West of Kona (see below) is reported as APs, but CL Nagara has also been identified.

Lady Lex finally arrived back at SF, where she swapped out her Vindicators for more SBDs. DMs Tracy and Sicard completed repairs at Vancouver and are heading for SF after laying a minefield at Coal Harbor.

In SOPAC, 1st RNZAF squadron arrived at Aucland with 16 P-400s. They are loading for Port Moresby.

[goodboyladdie]

Jap patrol planes were also effective elsewhere, with SS Shark being attacked by a Betty off Manila (53/20) and the Dutch KXIV being hit by a Kate at Takao (15/15).

11th Div and 60th AA were targets again at Manila. Mike lost 9 bombers with 12 more damaged. 8 P-40Es have been flown into Manila to provide CAP, as well as a flight of Vildebeest. My ambush air units did absolutely nothing, but I'll risk them for another day. The only offensive air mission being flown by B-24Ds out of Soerabaya, missing CA Nachi at San Fernando.

AK Governor Taft was attacked by Bettys and Nells out of Legaspi off Puerto Princesa, taking 5 bombs. Damage is 99/70/49.

[goodboyladdie]

11 Kates, escorted by 19 Oscars hit Rangoon. 1 Kate was lost for 1 P-43 destroyed with 1 damaged. 20 Sallys attacked KL from 25000 ft, but yet again did little or no damage to the Supply Sink units.

A Task Force seems to be heading for Kuantan. Perhaps my Singapore Strike Wing will actually attack this turn...

[goodboyladdie]

My raid on Hanyang hit nothing, but I took no losses either. Mike lost 1 Sonia during his air raids. I had been disappointed by the LRCAP I had over Nanchang never achieving anything. I had seen growing losses of Thalia transports on the air losses screen, but could not remember seeing any engagements so I paid attention at the end of watching the movie, instead of scribbling notes as I normally do. My Nanchang ambush had been attacking Mike's transport flights and my unit had been quietly racking up a score, as can be seen from the screenie below.

A Jap deliberate attack at Yangku caused one of my units to retreat with heavy losses. Yet again a unit of mine had decided to take an odd route to it's destination...

I forgot to mention that CL Ceres was withdrawn at Aden. I decided to send her as she has very low endurance and does not upgrade until 1944.

Edit: Many thanks to Terminus btw, for introducing me to the Gadwin PrintScreen utility (and prior to that Paint.NET). Once I got used to it, it's definitely better than what I was doing before! [&o]

[mlees]

When I saw the Claudes I smiled, but it was soon wiped off my face when they downed 5 of my bombers for the loss of 1 Claude.

 
If I recall correctly, in one of Cid's mods, the Claude has a 20mm cannon, and is placed in a slot that gives it the zero bonus. [X(]

[witpqs]

GBL, If you're trying to transfer planes to PH you can load single engine non-carrier capable planes on board your carriers provided they are in a docked TF in the same port. Then, fly them to PH when within their transfer range. All very legal and on the up and up. Of course you have to be sure your carriers don't get ambushed. [:(]

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

GBL, If you're trying to transfer planes to PH you can load single engine non-carrier capable planes on board your carriers provided they are in a docked TF in the same port. Then, fly them to PH when within their transfer range. All very legal and on the up and up. Of course you have to be sure your carriers don't get ambushed. [:(]

I am thinking of sending the three P-40E squadrons that recently arrived by the method you suggest, but will most likely simulate it by sending an empty CV escorted by the rest. The pilots I have there are relatively experienced, but they have no planes and I am trying to come up with mechanisms to allow me to insert some. The ferry range of most bombers in this mod will allow me to keep them sorted. At some point shortly, some bright spark is going to recognise that the crates on the way to the RNZAF from RAF stocks, stored in an obscure dockside warehouse, actually contain fighters. At the moment nobody on PH has a clue what a P-400 is! I already simulate a daily communication flight that takes out ferry pilots and brings in vital spare parts by having a Pan Am Coronado flight on supply with no destination, just to play as fair as I can. Mike is losing patience with the way the supply sinks are bollocksing up his economy and cramping his offensive style, so this game may not progress much further. It is no fun for me if my friend is not enjoying it too.

By the end of January (maybe a little longer depending on supplies/situation prevailing) I will attempt to fight a supply convoy through. 2nd Marine Div is highly likely to come in at the same time, as I believe three Divisions, level 9 forts, 100,000 plus tons of supplies and air reinforcements will make PH too tough a nut for Mike to crack while he also has to tackle Malaya and the PI/DEI...

[goodboyladdie]

This game is dead I am afraid. I completely support my esteemed opponent and look forward to meeting him on the AE battlefield (if I can't tempt him with something else sooner...)

Thanks very much for the few that were following this 4th EOS attempt. I am sorry to have wasted your valuable reading time (again!).

Very best regards

Carl