ALLIED ONLY: aztez (A) vs erstad (J) ...2nd ROUND

[aztez]

The intel screen....

[aztez]

Aircraft losses....

[aztez]

Allied fighter pools...

[aztez]

Allied bomber pools...

[aztez]

Top aces... (Notice that RAF has been heavily involved)

[aztez]

We managed to few quick turn last night. This is the period where both sides are preparing for the upcoming years ahead.

The progress with this PBEM is steady.

China (june 30th - july 5th 1942)


The ceasefire here is over. No major ground assauls as of yet but the enemy air recon/bombing campaign is intensive,

I did mark the bases bombed and reconed in past few days.

As for where is he moving, Well, I have no idea nor intel. Changhsa seems somewhat obvious choise though.

[aztez]

Fiji (june 30th - july 5th 1942)


The resistance at Suva is still ongoing. Last turn Dave launched an shock assault and his losses were +3000 men while we lost +1000 men.

The fortifications are still up at level 3 so this is good news indeed.

IJN battleships are making daily bombardment runs supporting this advance.

Last turn DD Yunagi hit an mine at Nadi. There was heavy damage reported! This minefield was laid out by an US submarine.

The allied airforce is completely wiped out at Suva.

[aztez]

Northern Oz (june 30th - july 5th 1942)


Our airforce have continued to bombard the enemy ground forces advancing towards Katherine.

Last turn we managed to knockout 10 tanks if reports are to be believed.

As you can see from the map Dave has now separated his forces so he is bypassing the river crossing near Katherine. Nice move and shows that he has no accurate intel regarding our troop strenghts. There is just an decoy base force across the river.

CV Junyo and the battleship fleet have gone or at least we have lost contact with them.

[aztez]

Burma (june 30th - july 5th 1942)


The ongoing air to air warfare has been bloody as ever. Last turn we shot down 50 enemy ac's above Magwe and we lost some +20 ac's. Good ratio!

The total losses have been around 80 ac for japan and 50 ac lost for allies since the last update. This is from the intel screen though so FOW can play an part here.

The pilot experience ratings are going up and Hurricane squadrons are performing very well.

There are some minor ground combats here and there around this region.

Next turn we shall see an large scale airstrike againts oilfields and refiniries at Magwe. There are also some 80 fighters on sweeping missions here.

[cfulbright]

Aztez - Looking at the air losses screen, did you really kill something like 37 Nates and 25 Oscars in air-to-air combat the previous day? I know there's an FOW factor, but that normally would be at least close to actual results. It doesn't show your to-date Hurricane losses, so it sounds like that was a good day for the Allies.

Also, I see you have a lot of F4F Wildcats in pool, also now have TBF Avengers. Have your carriers re-loaded yet?

[aztez]

ORIGINAL: cfulbright

Aztez - Looking at the air losses screen, did you really kill something like 37 Nates and 25 Oscars in air-to-air combat the previous day? I know there's an FOW factor, but that normally would be at least close to actual results. It doesn't show your to-date Hurricane losses, so it sounds like that was a good day for the Allies.

Also, I see you have a lot of F4F Wildcats in pool, also now have TBF Avengers. Have your carriers re-loaded yet?

Yes. That is correct. We shot down +50 fighters at Magwe. This battle has been ongoing for weeks now.

He wants to keep the oilfield/refinery intact at Magwe and I don't. We usually end up shooting down 25-40 aircraft here per turn. There has been only one turn when the weather cancelled any airstrikes at Burma.

Really hard to tell what the actual losses are due FOW but I'am not retreating in this air campaign here. I will rotate new squadrons into action when next turn arrives.

I did run the combat replay file and both sides lost +-30 ac's there.

Hurricane pools aren't in good shape but nothing to worry about since I do not depleted squadrons yet. I also have few US squadrons in India so we shall keep banging the doors there.

I did withdraw/disband quite a few carrier Wildcats in Suva so these guys are coming back shortly and will be upgraded immediately. At the moment though my carriers are going through repairs/upgrades.

In temporary measure I will move in some land based F4F Wildcats. The battles at Suva were fought with previous model so that is why I have plenty of them in pool. This decision was intentional since didn't want to lose them there.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Hi again

From looking at that screenshot about china i know what i'd do if i was Dave and that isnt taking changsha head-on. watch out for a japanese drive SW form ichang. If he does this with enough force he can either drive East and cut your supplies or drive south for a closer encirclement of Changsha.

His other (and possible best ) option is to completely conqurer north china and just hold his lines in the center and south. From what i recall you dont have much up there and the supply situation isnt good either.

either way there isnt much you can do in china apart from reacting to his moves. You really need some recon in this theater and I know there isnt any spare. Can you move some of your most battered units forward so they are next to his possible jump off cities as realistically its your only option for reconassaince.

where is the chinese AF ? hopefully on 100% training in India. might be worth putting one bomber unit (SB2) on recon training for future use in china. Just a thought.

As you say suva has done its job and hopefully his last assault hurt him badly. the differance in combat with decent combat troops (i.e US + CW) and the chinese rabble is very noticeable indeed. Daves getting used to fighting the chinese and may well underestimate the resilience of the australians and NZ home troops.

As ever , great read and good luck

[cfulbright]

Aztez - I remember you upgraded your AVG from the H81 to P40E's. When I look at the plane data for the two planes, the P40E's look worse in all respects - slower cruise and max speed, slower climb, less MVR at every altitude. But I'm still not used to the change in the MVR ratings from other Gary Grigsby games. Can you tell me why you switched over to P40E's?

[Monter_Trismegistos]

Hi, could you post example of combat report showing air battles over Magwe to give a scale of fights? Thanks. Ceasefire in China was temporary?

[Yamato_Blitzer]

Let's say he doesn't go for NZ....Are you going to send your carriers to the Southern Flank of OZ and land reinforcements for a counter-invasion of OZ? It would be very possible. Realizing that possibility, I think it's a good bet that he will go for NZ, but on the other hand if he does that I think it's almost certain that he has no hope of taking OZ completely and even if he does it is certain that he won't be able to hold it for any significant amount of time.

Either way, do you think he has clearly over-extended himself? I think he's done it to the point that he's not gonna gain anything out of this operation except some extra time. But that seems blunderous to me, because it's not long off where you'll be able to render that gained time minimal.

[Rob Brennan UK]

ORIGINAL: cfulbright

Aztez - I remember you upgraded your AVG from the H81 to P40E's. When I look at the plane data for the two planes, the P40E's look worse in all respects - slower cruise and max speed, slower climb, less MVR at every altitude. But I'm still not used to the change in the MVR ratings from other Gary Grigsby games. Can you tell me why you switched over to P40E's?

I would assume its replacement issues. Lots more P40's than H81's , even though as you said the H81 is a much superior plane from the stats. Isnt it supposed to be some model of the P40B ?. Only other reason is to upgrrade the chinese AF as they can use the H81 pools but not the P40 (yet).

[LoBaron]

ORIGINAL: Rob Brennan UK
Daves getting used to fighting the chinese and may well underestimate the resilience of the australians and NZ home troops.

As ever , great read and good luck

Really good point! I ready somewhere here that the exp/morale values are weaker than in stock but they have
better leaders and equipment than the Chinese.

[jrlans]

ORIGINAL: LoBaron

ORIGINAL: Rob Brennan UK
Daves getting used to fighting the chinese and may well underestimate the resilience of the australians and NZ home troops.

As ever , great read and good luck

Really good point! I ready somewhere here that the exp/morale values are weaker than in stock but they have
better leaders and equipment than the Chinese.

Chinese infantry is prety terrible interms of stats untill 43, I think that some of the better ANZAC squads might have double the firepower of a chinese squad.

Edit: Not to mention better leaders, higher xp and morale, 100 prep points and forts.

[wpurdom]

What you are proposing is very risky business. You do not want your forces retreat with reserve mode on.

Dear Aztec:
I was most definitely not making a "proposal" - I was asking two questions about what happened when the defense is on reserve. I couldn't recommend or propose such a risky course in PBEM unless I had tested in AI extensively - which I'm not likely to find time to do. I was just wondering if there was any experience in your audience experimenting with how best to lose a battle that is already hopeless.

[LoBaron]

ORIGINAL: Rob Brennan UK

I would assume its replacement issues. Lots more P40's than H81's , even though as you said the H81 is a much superior plane from the stats. Isnt it supposed to be some model of the P40B ?. Only other reason is to upgrrade the chinese AF as they can use the H81 pools but not the P40 (yet).

Hm. Thats an introduction for the "Pilot´s Manual for the Curtiss Tomahawk" published on the warbirdforum homepage:

"This manual probably accompanied the AVG Tomahawks to Rangoon. It was published by the British Air Ministry, and the title page says Tomahawk I. However, internal evidence (the engine designation and references to the RAF blocks from which the China-bound Tomahawks were taken) tie it to the Tomahawk IIBs sent to Burma for the AVG. There is also some internal evidence (including references to French instrumentation) that the text was not brought entirely up to date."

Seems the H81 was a mixture of versions, i also found some reference to the P-40C(?).

Hard to tell if the info is correct, maybe the stats are also better due to the reduction in armour in order to save weight?