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

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: aztez

cfulbright: He is referring to the fact that allied armoured units have some problems getting armoured replacements.

Have a look at this thread: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2367975&mpage=1&key=?

This is supposedly fixed in the newest BETA patch. Since Dave doens't upgrade into anything BETA we are continuing this one without this patch.

I hope they make this patch official soon though.

Frankly, if you have the bug, you should insist on upgrading to the beta now as it is really a big deal. You have six armor regiments in OZ. Three are fairly weak but three will fill out to 15 Stuart I tanks and about 40 matildas- and then to grant\lees. Not to mention your two motorized brigades and three cavalry brigades which have a nifty 30-40 tanks each. The bug affects tank units in India as well. Your Indian tank brigades should be filling with grants or lees and will have about 100 in each brigade when full. The patch "does" fix this bug and for that reason alone you should go beta. I have not heard of any serious problems with the beta.

"I never like to go into battle with one boot off." (Longstreet)

The Allied medium tanks dominate any Japanese tank or recce force, and the tanks themselves seem impervious to any sort of air attack. Very useful units in open terrain.

[kevini1000]

I'm curious about Midway. Does controlling Midway do him any good? It doesn't seem defensible. I'm certain he will be expecting action in Burma. I wondering how he sets up his defense in the central Pacific and where he defends. I'm assuming Northern Austrailia is a delaying action. Wonder if its really worth it to Japan.

[Rob Brennan UK]

ORIGINAL: lolz

ROB yes their american from the aircraft carrier USS lexington,and i meant that many of his aces are RAF,which usully i never see in my games.
will do aztez, fantastic aar.

oops , my bad for not realising your piccie was yout sig thing.

Sath , your right . Midway is pretty undefensible but its another speed bump unless aztez wants japanese naval search spotting his every move near PH. Unlike Wake it has to be neutralised/retaken imo.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: sath

I'm curious about Midway. Does controlling Midway do him any good? It doesn't seem defensible. I'm certain he will be expecting action in Burma. I wondering how he sets up his defense in the central Pacific and where he defends. I'm assuming Northern Austrailia is a delaying action. Wonder if its really worth it to Japan.

I would not be too concerned about Midway as the Allied player. It would be easily retaken. Just too far for the Japanese player to cover and support.

[kevini1000]

At this point as Japan I wouldn't even send CV forces to contest an allied attack on the Island. I like fighting my defensive CV battles closer to home ground where I have all the advantages. Close to potential repair ports and plenty of LBA support as well. As Japan I'd put like 1 regiment and typal support units(Base force, eng, costal guns) and dig in for Midway alone. But no more than that. Midway is too close the US backyard. Thay have the repair ports close by and LBA as well.

Sath

[aztez]

The game is progressing. This week is the kids winter vacation week so they are keeping me very busy until friday. Than unfortunately that time is up and have to wait two weeks to get an chance enjoy time with them.

On an side note I have started my 2nd PBEM as allies vs Katsuragi (aka Warspite in the old witp forums). He is experienced and has clashed with kaleun previously and what I gather also in AE. The first turn was done and hopefully I have learned quite a lot. This game is using latest patch from the get go.

...and also I have seen so much snow back here that this winter will last for an lifetime. I mean this is getting absurd here this year!!!

lolz: Thanks. I can promise that this game will be updated until 1946's. The more detailed reports when the massive action resumes.

crsutton: You are absolutely correct. I browsed through the allied armoured units and it wasn't an pretty sight. I raised this issue with Dave and this is definately seriously damaging our offensive capabilities.

Another issue I want to see resolved is the artillery bombardment problems. They are still very effective with this patch and Dave has enjoyed a lot of success in china with this feature. What I read this was further tweaked in Beta patch.

These two things together are causing me major additional problems. Personally I feel I have plenty of them without these two issues. Now waiting for an Dave's comments. Personally I insist on upgrading to the latest patch though now.

sath: Yeah, Midway can be retaken but not without an planned operation now that KB is still in the play.

Well. I somewhat disagree with you regarding using the KB. It is major force and I expect him to use it once we get ongoing soon. Why? Simply because I think it is way too easy for him to gain experienced pilots. Ie. the whole china front is ridicilious at the moment. There are fighters and bombers everywhere.

Also the new "training pilots" system seem to working maybe a bit too nicely. Another thing is that japanese have more than plenty of aircraft on which to fly these guys while allies have shortages pretty much in every aircraft model.This is just my opinion on the AE regarding this aspect of the game engine.

The biggest gain not mentioned yet is that Midway is an very valuable submarine base. Granted that is not major issue but the journeys from Pearl Harbour to japan is a bit longer which helps him in the longrun.

Rob: It is an useful frontline patrol plane too but as said the most value is definately serving as submarine base. It has capabalities to refuel and refit our subs.

[aztez]

China (february 13th - 28th 1943)


Dave is trying another push towards Chungking.

He has so many bombers and fighters here that I'am feeling very frustrated at times. The chinese airforce is non-existant. I can intervene few times and after that I need wait weeks and weeks to get any sort of an airpower ready. This really helps his pilot training and nothing wrong on him doing this since the AE allows this to be done in the 1st place.

There has not been any ground assaults in previously contested hex south of Kweiyang but there are daily artillery bombardments. This is killing anywhere between 300-600 chinese daily. I can live with the losses BUT with the chinese squad replacements set at 200 per month and inability for the to regain combat readiness once disabled is still major pain the "..." ...nothing wrong done by Dave here either.

What the above means that I abandoned the base at Chihkiang and also the nearby hex. The pinzer movement Dava made was thereating our flanks so this needed to be done. I'am now moving my troops in new defensive lines and this is not an major disaster at least not yet. The road system near Chunkgking will work in our favour.

A lot of action all around but mostly strategic maneuvering in both player parts.

[aztez]

Burma (february 13th - 28th 1943)


The major news here is the japanese airsupremacy. He has deployed a lot of experienced fighters squadrons into Burma along with big numbers of bombers.

These must be stopped soon! He is getting too "cocky" here but the problem is that he has out witted / skilled our pilots here. So, any ideas regarding this situation are most welcomed!

We have big airbases at Chittagong and Imphal. Also, Cox's Bazaar is very much operation.

He also launched an raid againts Calcutta. This came as total suprise and he did sunk couple of minor AKL's and AK's. Nothing major but was an wake up call here for sure...

I haven't issued the marching orders yet but troops are prepping for their set targets here.

As said the dilemma here is on how to lift off the japanese airsupremacy!

[LoBaron]

Hm hard to tell, if you want to do this you have to play his game. So divert every 4 eng
heavy available to the area, set the forward bases for escort fighters and hit as hard and long
as possible. Support by bombing other targets with medium bombers to split his defense.
 
Also its only early ´43, so you have time. A war of attrition in Burma could have negative
effects on the later war for erstad. The most important question is though if you can bring the numbers.
If not then stay defensive for a while and shoot down a couple of elite pilot a day...
 
On the other hand...doesn´t this open other fronts? If he wants to stuff Burma with his
Samurai pilots let him do it and attack somewhere else.
 

[LoBaron]

As for tactics hard to say.
I´d opt for smaller strikes that put constant pressure on him and enable you to
rotate squadrons while keeping a reserve for the once-in-a-week clear sky attack.
I don´t think you can wear him down in a couple of days. That was much easier in stock.
Now you really have to fight an attrition air war in those situations.
 
Also with smaller strikes you increase coordination. With those numbers of planes HQ´s
would also make a big difference. If you can bring smaller ones forward id do it.
Id maybe set mediums and escorts to one alt and the heavies to another to make sure the mediums get escorted.
You could assign some P38´s to escort the heavies if you think its needed.

[aztez]

LoBaron: Nice to see you. Is the "snow situation" equally bad in Austria?
 
Hmmm, yeah I know the smaller raids would be better. Unfortunately they will hit his CAP which are up in numbers. Thus losing unnecessary fighters etc.
 
I don't have many P38's in India. They are involved in Aleutians mostly and will be in action soon too. I could however use some drop tanks with fighters and provide cover that way. As for 4E bombers well there are some in India.
 
Anyway, you look at it I have set my offensive(s) time around +- 40-60 days. CV Wasp is 26 days off being fully operarational and will be the last thing we wait.
 
It hasn't been as much of lack of the effort here either. Just that his losses have been way too "low" for my taste.
 
Cheers.. and we will be pushing forward soon. Either way things are going to heat up within 2 months time pretty much everywhere.
 
Very good tip regarding the alltitudes diffrence between medium and heavy bombers.
 
 

[LoBaron]

No Austria is looking like Spring atm. But if the weather frogs are right then the Winter
will return this weekend. I´m not very fond of snow anymore, at least for this year... [:(]
Is it this bad in Finland?
 
Did you think about running sweeps for a couple of days/weeks to soften him up while bombing just
the surrounding bases? Then you wont get hurt too bad by lack of coordination and wait until
his resistance weakens a bit.
Or running high alt sweeps and attack with heavy bombers concerted? They don´t have to coordinate and still could
hurt the AB. Looking forward to the Aleutian OP...

[aztez]

LoBaron: Yes, it feels that bad. There hasn't been such amount of snow since 1950's. This is getting ridicilious and no sign of Spring here. I have no problems with snow but enough is enough! [:D]
 
I'am considering my options and most likely will do sweep missions. Just need to figure out how to set it up. I think +30 000 feet are in order and maybe we can hurt him a bit.
 
Actually read about radar last night. It stated that flying below "radar detection" will result into minor CAP in the "1st wave". So, that could be another option to go... a big bang and be done with it. The only question is that what is "below radar"...
 
I have quite a few plans brewing and Aleutians are one of them. Just need to wait few more weeks in game time and than...

[aztez]

Here is the monthly summary screens. The current date of the game is march 2nd 1943.

We are making steady progress. The allied offensives are scheduled to go in April 1943. The CV Wasp is still 27 days off from full battle readiness. I definately want to have her in the frontlines before we start going forward.

Last turn was very quiet so no need to bother you all with details.

Also very to happy to notice that the official patch is out so we will start using it immediately. This will help with our armoured units which are badly outdated due to the previous bug in the game.

Here are the monthly pics though...

[aztez]

Aircraft losses...

[aztez]

Fighter replacement pools...

[aztez]

Bomber replacement pools...

[aztez]

Top aces...

[LoBaron]

ORIGINAL: aztez

LoBaron: Yes, it feels that bad. There hasn't been such amount of snow since 1950's. This is getting ridicilious and no sign of Spring here. I have no problems with snow but enough is enough! [:D]

I'am considering my options and most likely will do sweep missions. Just need to figure out how to set it up. I think +30 000 feet are in order and maybe we can hurt him a bit.

Actually read about radar last night. It stated that flying below "radar detection" will result into minor CAP in the "1st wave". So, that could be another option to go... a big bang and be done with it. The only question is that what is "below radar"...

I have quite a few plans brewing and Aleutians are one of them. Just need to wait few more weeks in game time and than...

In the current A2A model if you use planes that don´t have a too brutal high alt loss I´d go for the max possible coordinated alt on sweeps.
If you want to go for numbers then the alt where the loss is bearable for the lowest performance AC.

Made a post in the war room about how to lessen the influence, but I´m not sure if this is doable.

re: radar...I have not the slightest idea. Could have an influence but I don´t know if this is not countered by the "down low -> high flak losses" and "stratosphere CAP joins the fight 80% of the time" combo,

[aztez]

LoBaron: Those air warfare threads you have posted are very informative and I think I'am not the only one to say thanks for "effort".
 
I haven't decieded whether to go in numbers or in many smaller targets/strikes. There are still time to deciede on this since we are few weeks off from the go signal. Even if we get slaughtered we will duke it out and the idea is maximize the damage to his fighter/pilot pools. Whether or not we gain air supremacy is secondary in bigger picture. However an maximized damage is an must since the these battles cannot be lopsided affairs.
 
Yeah, not sure about the radar. The manual makes an referance to it and if it means that flying low to avoid substanstial CAP than It is very tempting to do this. Even with AA guns and such since if we knock out the airfield than it doesn't matter what comes next.
 
As said good thing about this is that we are still couple of weeks off from our offensives so time think these through.
 
Really appreciate your efforts and posts too.