NOMAD VS BIGBABA..or "who gets the best place at the beach of rabaul?"

[HansBolter]

I fly them at the historical altitude of 15,000 feet and my hit rate is about as historically accurate as you can get.........a hit once in a blue moon.

[Nomad]

1. I stand corrected, it was 2 APs hit at goodenough, not AKs.

2. I carefully nurture my B-17 pilot experience. They are mostly 80 - 90 experience pilots now. It makes a difference.

[bigbaba]

i still lead with nearly 3000 VP but i doubt that it is enough until the end of the game.

[Miller]

I doubt double that lead would be enough[:(]

[Nomad]

Damn forum timed out on me.

I got this message from Mehrdad this last turn:

"this 4E on naval search hit everything and no CAP or AA fire can hit them. can you do something about them, ken?

maybe set them much much higher, so their hit rate is at least reduced? or use catalinas for naval search?"

I have been using my B-17s and B-24s at 6000 feet on Naval Search with some good results. I am wondering how
people here feel. Is Mehrdads complaint valid? Should I set the altitude higher? Or is this just something that is a
part of the game? For now I have set them at 12000 feet, but I am not sure if it will make much difference. My B-17s
and B-24s have expereince in the range of 80 - 95 now. They are quite effective. Do others use 4-engine bombers
at 6000 feet for Naval Search? I have been using 12000 as minimum altitude for attack missions.

Probably the problem is that at times I use most of my 4-engine bombers on Naval Search. When their fatigue goes up
and moral goes down I put them on 30% Naval Search. That gives them some rest and few if any losses so their fatigue
goes down and morale goes up. But I have lots of them on Naval Search. Maybe I will have to think about just grounding
some of them.

[bigbaba]

hi ken,

its mostly not the problem, that their hit rate is so damnd good. the main problem is, that they are simply immun to flak or CAP. they arrive over rabaul, sink a AP and have no contact with the CAP over rabaul.

if they would have to deal with 200 fighters before hitting their targets, i would not have a problem with it. but as it is now (thats a game engine problem, so nothing against you), they hit at least 4-5 Ag and 3-4 AP in naval search missions per turn without beeing attackable.

in the last turn they even sunk 2 submarines operateing near bouganville and buna.

[fuelli]

I use my 4e at 15000 for nav search. Hit rate at capped bases is much lower then on targets on open sea. Losses are minimal. At 6000 there should be a few losses due to flak in my opinion.

[Nomad]

Both sub sunk were in Allied base hexes. That is a dangerous place to put an IJN sub.

[Ike99]

hi ken,

its mostly not the problem, that their hit rate is so damnd good. the main problem is, that they are simply immun to flak or CAP. they arrive over rabaul, sink a AP and have no contact with the CAP over rabaul.

Flak will hit them, not a lot but some. Try using the weather. Hold the transports out away from the target base and wait for thunderstorms, overcast days, then send them in to unload. Using smaller transports helps also.

[Miller]

Do you have a HR for minimum alt of 4E bombers on naval attack? Perhaps adjusting the search alt to this level would be reasonable for both sides?

[Nomad]

No real HR for altitude. I have been trying to keep all Attacks with 4 engine bombers at 12000 or higher. I was putting them at 6000 for Naval Search, but I raised them to 12000 and still sank a couple of subs and hit some AGs and APs. I took them off Naval Search and put them on Naval Attack at 12000 feet so they would fly through AA and CAP. They did with no losses.

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Air attack on TF, near Kavieng at 18,24

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 22
Ki-45 KAIb Nick x 22

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 1 destroyed
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 3 damaged
Ki-45 KAIb Nick x 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress x 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
PC Takunan Maru #2, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kaiko Maru, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage

Attacking Level Bombers:
3 x B-17E Fortress at 12000 feet
3 x B-17E Fortress at 12000 feet
3 x B-17E Fortress at 12000 feet
3 x B-17E Fortress at 12000 feet
3 x B-17E Fortress at 12000 feet

[bigbaba]

i wish this 2E nicks were the good ones with the automatic 37mm gun instead of the manual reloaded one. then you would have some bomber loses in this raid.

its 07/29/43 now and its confirmed, that there are hellcats on american carrier decks now. what means, that the good old "120 wildcats shoot down in one day" days are over.

in the last turns, my mini Kb attacked allied shipping near buna hitting 2-3 AK. in response, 1 CV and 1 CVL were hit hard but are not lost and will hopefully make it to the port.

ken has now several air bases in the solomon island chain and around new guinea. the enemy carriers were spotted between NG and guadalcanal.

the allied tried to attack japanese shipping at rabaul what lead to a big air battle over rabaul with this results:

Air attack on TF, near Rabaul at 21,28
 
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 39
A6M3 Zero x 46
A6M5-B Zeke x 6
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 11
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 26
 
Allied aircraft
Boomerang x 12
Beaufort x 6
P-38G Lightning x 26
 
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero x 4 destroyed
A6M2 Zero x 1 damaged
A6M3 Zero x 5 destroyed
A6M3 Zero x 1 damaged
A6M5-B Zeke x 3 destroyed
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 1 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 2 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 1 damaged
 
Allied aircraft losses
Boomerang x 7 destroyed
Beaufort x 2 destroyed
Beaufort x 3 damaged
P-38G Lightning x 10 destroyed
P-38G Lightning x 6 damaged
 
PO2 N.Nomura of DIII-1 Daitai is credited with kill number 5
 
CPT R.Jones of 67th FS bails out and is CAPTURED

our pilot loses were minimal because of the defensive character of the mission over a friendly base.

beside this air battle, the last turns saw huge and multiple allied air attacks at GG and MSW activities at GG and lunga.

[Nomad]

Yep, all but Essex have F6Fs now. And she will have them in two turns. And, Saratoga has completed repairs at PH and is returning to the fight. I'm sure that makes you happy Mehrdad! [8D]

Here is a picture of how things look now. I was surprised to find that Mehrdad had not occupied Dobadura. It is a level 6 SPS airbase, so it will be a level 9 airbase in a couple of weeks or so. I have two marine divisions and some friends on the way to take Lunga away from Mehrdad, they will be there in about 4 or 5 days.

As you can see in the picture, it is 7/30/43, so I have 5 months or 25% of the game left to annilate the Japanese. I will make a couple more preliminary invasions and then most likely retake PM and GG.

[Nomad]

Here is the status page. I am less than 2300 points behind now and many more to go get. The biggest changes will be in the points for bases controlled. But I expect to widen the gap in aircraft points also.

[bigbaba]

look at the OP loses. i was very careful with my air operations during bad weather periods and have 170k sorties compared to kens 320k and 2x higher OP loses.

i realy think the japanese suffer much much more OP loses then the allied in UV.

[Nomad]

They do. Op losses are highly affected by an aircrafts durability. The Japanese aircraft have low durability and
the Allied aircraft high durability. As Allies I do not worry about the weather, I just fly missions, if they are grounded
so be it.

[Nomad]

This was a huge surprise. I had my Beaufighters on Naval attack to try and
thin out the barge population - never expected them to sink a CV.
And no CAP?? [X(] It was only one hex from Kavieng with lots of fighters.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF, near Meteiai at 17,24


Allied aircraft
Beaufighter VIC x 20


no losses

Japanese Ships
CV Junyo, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF, near Meteiai at 17,24


Allied aircraft
Beaufighter VIC x 20


no losses

Japanese Ships
CV Junyo, Bomb hits 7, on fire, heavy damage
DD Asagumo


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[bigbaba]

the CV was damaged and i simply didnt expect to see your beaufighters so far in the north.

[bigbaba]

08/07/43

over 30.000 allied combat troops landed at lunga and after 3 attacks with equal loses, the fort level is down to 4. lunga is lost for the empire in a week or so.

[bigbaba]

update:

lunga is lost. the allied captured a level 9 AF base and all they need to do at lunga is some clean up work. the VP advantage is down to around 1400.