WITP AE AAR Feb 09 Cathartes-JRCAR (Jap)

[Cathartes]

Wake falls, I lose all my Wildcats at the base, but they manage to down a couple of raiding Nells before the tragic loss of the island.

[Zeta16]

ORIGINAL: vettim89

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

No doubt, but as far as I recall there were actually some bugs we found in original WITP that made them even more durable than they should be. I haven't seen an AK or AP go down to a single small shell hit - the larger the ship, the more it takes, but an equivalent size military ship will be more durable. Combination of construction as well as crew experience with damage control.

Regards,

- Erik

One of my big gripes about WITP was that merchant shipping was too durable. I have hit AK's with three or four 500 lb bombs and not have them sink. A DD would have a hard time absorbing that kind of punishment with trained DC teams and warship watertight intergrity. We have also seen a medium to large size AK take multiple torpedo hits. Not only should two or more TT sink most MS but it should do it on the spot. I acknowledge the concerns about making them too fragile but it needed improving. Keep in mind that a single 225 lb warhead took out the Atlantic Conveyor in the Falklands conflict. She displaced 14,500 tons which is bigger than any AK in the Japanese inventory. Making MS historically vulnerable will add a level of sanity to both sides offensive operations - Japan in 1941-42 and the Aliies in 1943-45.

I am reading a book about US subs during the war and it was rare if a merchant went down with one torp it was usually more than two that took it down. So it wasn't like they they took a little damage and went down. Also it seemed deck guns on subs were useless when merchants shot back as most of the time the sub would go back under, but deck guns were good aganist real small ships and sampains.

[Crimguy]

Zeta - which book , if I may ask?  I was looking into Clay Blair's book. . .

[TMFoss]

Clay Blair actually wrote three books on submarine warfare during WWII.  Silent Victory was about the Pacific War and written a few decades ago.  It was out of print last time I checked, but things do change again.  He also wrote a two volume set called Hitler's U-Boat War covering the German U-boat campaign.  Knowing Blair's penchant for data, you probably could mine some very good information from these books.

[jrcar]

11-12 Dec 41

The invasion of Ambon continues, the CD guns extract revenge and I loose 2 ships (PB and an xAK), but the base falls on the first attack. Naval strike aircraft immediately fly in.

B-17 hammer the invasion TF in the northern Phillipines, hitting 5-6 ships over the 2 days. Thankfully the bad weather helps to protect my shipping as someone forgot to LRCAP them...

Aparri and Loang fall and the sweep down Luzon begins.

A BB tf gets some target practice (see image below).

the US sub S-38 has a good time sinking ships near Pescadores, getting two carrying resources. A ASW tf is formed to go after here.

The Dutch sub KXV also hits a shi, but is hit in return, near Miri. More forces arrive at Miri and it should fall next turn. Loosing two ships to the Brit DD has really thrown things out here.

Hong Kong is subejected to attack from the air and ground, the main attack should go in tomorrow.
Guam is invaded as well.

In China forces are moving to secure the rear areas, with a series of attacks to occur. A strategey in China is begining to form.

Finally in Malaya forces are advacing with some small air battle ocuring between Nates and Buffaloe (about even outcome). Kota Bharu is almost repaired, with an AirHQ on the way offensive operations should begin soon.

A BB TF is sent into Kuantan to soften it up.

With Ambon mine the rate of advance will pick up soon, things are almost in position.

Cheers

Rob

[Monter_Trismegistos]

Hi, you are transferring resources so early? From where to where?

[IndyShark]

ORIGINAL: jrcar

Yes, the damage model is much changed, one or two bomb hits usually sink a merchant, and a couple of shell hits. The two AK with heavy damage sank the next day.

There are a lot more ships now though, so loosing a few is sort of Ok.

How does the bomb model handle strafers like the B-25J and skip bombing? I assume they would be deadly against anything smaller than a cruiser.

[Cathartes]

Overall, Dec. 11-12 was one Allied Happy Day(s) in the endless march of Japanese Happy Days. Not all was perfectly rosy, so we'll start with the one particularly unhappy moment:

[Cathartes]

Actually, you don't even mind getting plastered by such magnificent looking battleships--was worth the loss just for the show...

[Cathartes]

One thing I really appreciate in AE is the new patrol zones that you can set up with your subs. You simply delineate the patrol zones with up to 3 waypoints, and your sub will cruise between the points on patrol. It's having the best of both worlds--manual control and autopilot. In this situation I set up S-38 to cruise back and forth along this hex row and she found two different unescorted targets to abuse from the surface.

Sub attack near Pescadores at 83,63

Japanese Ships
xAK Konzan Maru, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS S-38

SS S-38 attacking xAK Konzan Maru on the surface

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Pescadores at 83,63

Japanese Ships
xAK Koyu Maru, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS S-38, hits 1

SS S-38 attacking xAK Koyu Maru on the surface

[BB57]

When the time is right could we please see more screenies from decoder and the changes to ship repair?

[Cathartes]

This is my first PBEM GC in AE, and the first time I've done any playtesting on this scale. The routine is familiar to WITP, but the details are more resolved and all-important. In this particular case I completely overlooked a couple of squadrons of B-17s I had at Clark Field. I was so focused on capping the field with fighters I missed my offensive opportunity.

Fortunately the Clark Field B-17s had not flow since the war began, they were rested and had decent morale. Unmolested over the invasion fleet, with good weather, they pulled off several successful bombing runs. "Remember the Tennessee!", said a bombardier as he let lose a stick of 500 pounders.

A few transports will be in the repair yard for months to come. Hopefully they were laden with supplies.

[Andy Mac]

When ships are parked off loading they are now VERY vulnerable
 
They take time to start manouvering and are easy to hit - unprotected invasions will suffer a lot.... 

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: BB57

When the time is right could we please see more screenies from decoder and the changes to ship repair?

I think you mean Tracker. Decoder is a different one.

[BB57]

Woos' decoder is the one that will come with AE.

[witpqs]

Ah, so I got it backwards!

[cantona2]

Cathartes, at what height were the B-17's set?

[Zeta16]

ORIGINAL: Crimguy

Zeta - which book , if I may ask?  I was looking into Clay Blair's book. . .

It's at work, but I think it is Blair, I know it is 800 some pages. He goes over patrols real well. Shows how Ultra was used and at times it lead to wild chases. He agrues that if subs were used in say the Luzon strait ealier and more often they would have had even better results. Good read as I am in summer of 44 in the book.

[Cathartes]

ORIGINAL: cantona2

Cathartes, at what height were the B-17's set?

6,000'.

[eloso]

The cloud overlays on the map look really good!