FJ (A) vs Captain Cruft (J) - The Curtain Falls

[Fallschirmjager]

If you are Captain Cruft please see yourself out of this thread. It is not for you

The rest of you, make yourselves comfortable in the war room.



I love writing these, and hopefully someone out there likes reading them. My game with DivePac has stalled due to some technical issues. I am still very much in that game for the long haul, but it may be some time before we are able to resume play.
In the mean time I have picked up a few other games and this is one of them. I will be playing Captain Cruft whom regulars will know well. He is playing Japan and I am commanding the Allies.
It was his suggestion we we play AndyMac's fantastic Downfall and I quickly agreed. I have played it twice vs the AI.
It is a violent blood soaked affair with action each and every turn. It should make for thrilling reading.

For those who do not know a short introduction. The scenario begins September 1st 1945 and lasts exactly 1 year.
This gives me ~365 turns
We did not set victory conditions but my objectives will be laid out here in a bit. The scenario is actually tough since you have to take bases and limit losses which is hard to do when the Japanese are very much equipped to dig in hard and inflict losses.
I don't know what Captain Crufts goals will be. He may and try to win. He may try and take as many Allied soldiers and sailors with him as possible.

We have three house rules which I was fine with.

1. Nothing flies above 30,000 feet
2. No bombing anything other than manpower (I am supposed to use default city attacks)
3. No landing at non base hexes (I never do this anyways and it does not fit into any plans that I have)

I am going to split my overall goals up into three parts.

1. I will invade and take Formosa
2. The softening up and invasion of southern Japan
3. Moving up the Island chain until I reach Tokyo

In my two previous games I have chosen a side theater to get started. In one game I choose Formosa which worked well. In my second game I choose Korea which did not go so well.
I am going to go with Formosa again, for a few reasons.
1. I do not think he will expect it
2. It is 'easy' points in that I can ravage his air forces on the island and the ones stationed in southern China.
3. The bases are worth a bit of points and the LCU's once destroyed are worth a lot.

I am going to use a classic two pronged hammer and anvil approach.
The anvil will be a 'weak' force composed of the Australian 7th and 9th division along with artillery and an armored brigade. I will collect these units from Borneo where they are rotting away and put them at a marshaling point in the northern PI.
This force will land at Hengchu. This landing site is weak and has no coastal guns. It has three weak LCUs. I don't expect Captain Cruft to expect a landing here so I don't expect any troop movement here. This landing is merely a holding force so that the units in Takao can't march south and get on the eastern side of Formosa. If those units get in the mountains I will never get them out.
The other force will be American and consist of an unknown amount of units (I have not decided yet. This force will land at Karenkow. This base is also weak and has only 3 forts. However it is in the Mountains and I expect a tough fight here. But I plan to land enough units here to take it by overwhelming force.
I could land at Taihoku but the defensive mines and 4 big 28cm coastal guns scare me. It is in a plains hex but has 1.5 divsions of defending troops with 5 forts. If I landed here I fear a blood bath.
This landing force will then march around the entire circumference of the island. The idea is to push the islands defenders back to Takao where I will hopefully keep attacking until I force a massive surrender.

It looks like a good idea on paper. If it is really really dumb, hopefully someone will talk me out of it!

I give this operation 120 days.
Meanwhile I will have my carriers loitering in the area with high% cap and sweeps. I intend to draw his air forces onto me and shoot down as much as I can.
I can make runs between Formosa and Manila for quick fuel/ammo runs for my bombardment fleets which I am sure I will need many of.
My land based air will do sweeps/escorts as well as bomb airfields/ports/troops on the island.

My LBA and strategic air in Okinawa/Guam/Tianian will bomb southern Japan and do strategic bombing.


After Operation Whirlwind (the invasion of Formosa) I will shift my naval forces and all of my LBA to the southern half of Japan where I will try and soften it up for invasion.

If you have any suggestions or question feel free to share. I am always open to guidance.

[xnavytc56]

Fixing to start this scenario against the AI, was thinking of taking formosa and some of the smaller island around okinawa and formosa to use as staging areas?? any thoughts would be appreciated also, what about staging from Seattle to adak/dutch harbor then to northern islands, especially in Hokkaido?? any thoughts to that or are u just planning to invade in the south and work up the island?

[Fallschirmjager]

It took a while (due to me) but the first turn is done. It was a pain issuing all those orders and I think I have a carpal tunnel claim against Matrix.

I think Captain Cruft took the first clash of arms. The air war was bloody with him losing 79 and me losing 59.
17 of mine though were due to Avengers going in unescorted and being slaughtered. In fact, due to really bad weather I had 34 strikes fail to link up and turn back. It was a mess.
However my B-24s over Shanghai and Hong Kong did good work bombing their ports. They devastated about a dozen transports and demolished a few SCs. Out of Naha I had B-25H's attack Japanese shipping and they were the all stars of the day. They really had a good day hunting. I had them set to 100 feet and they supressed flak easily and were accurate with their 500 lb bombs. I hit TK's, APDs, AK's and SC's. I hit probably 20 of them.
I don't have sinking results yet but I bet I doomed about 15 various transports and tankers.

No night turn so the B-29s did not fly.
I am moving huge quantities of bombers from the west coast and PH to the mid Pacific. B-17's and B-24's. Hundreds of them. Problem is that I simply don't have the space to fly them yet. Naha can't support them and they don't have the range to fly from Guam/Tianian.
This is part of my reason for wanting to take Formosa. Large bases to base more bombers from so I can pound southern Japan.
Plus I won't have to worry about air attack moving stuff from the PI to Okinawa.

Overall a first turn. I made a few corrections but I am going to let stuff go for a few more turns. More sweeps to draw out fighters and more bombing on ports and airfields.
My carriers are racing north to the Yellow Sea. I have them all on 70% CAP hoping they will draw in fighters and bombers and Kamis. My hope is that they will draw in hundreds from southern Japan and shoot them down without too many ships hit. I hope Captain Cruft falls for it. This will make my future invasions go easier.
All the bombers and torpedo planes are on stand down. I don't want them attacking yet until I have suppressed a lot of the air cover. They will have enough to worry about with all the flak.
My escort carriers are going to surround Formosa and do the same. Drawing up fighters with hopes of paring on some of his air forces.
They should be set up in the next two turns.

Little sub action this turn. I have repositioned everything around the home Islands and the Yellow Sea in hopes of creating a lot of havoc. I don't need him taking anything out of China back to the HI's. Cutting him off from Korea is going to be harder since it requires getting into the Sea of Japan. I am going to lose some subs to mines, but I am going to have to sacrifice if I am to end the Empire of Japan.

On the invasion front I am in the process of pulling the Australian units out of Borneo and I am marching units to Manila. I am going to invade without 6 divisions and then land airborne units. Hopefully this is enough to sweep up the island.

Should get interesting soon!

[Fallschirmjager]

Captain Cruft has 15 posts in his AAR. I need some Allied fan boys to show me some love.

Today was a very good turn. It was marred again by a lot of my strikes failing to link up with escorts. Bad weather played a role. However, I think with the sheer number of craft I have, that I am going to face this a lot. Bombers and medium bombers can go in unescorted since I fly them high. However, those stupid Avengers got me again by going in unescorted.
From here on out I am not flying them for anything except naval strikes and naval search. They will be stood down besides for those missions. Their losses are simply too high.

During the night phase my B-29s did not do a lot of damage. I flew them at 25,000 to avoid flak and fighters and coupled with the bad weather I think that is simply too high. I lost only three and CC was simply unable to put up any defense against them.
I am going to move them down to 20,000 and see what happens. I may have to put them even lower.
I have also thought about day time attacks but that might mean high losses.
If I could get my B-17s and B-24s into action I would put those on day time port attacks and the 29s on city night attack and I could wreck Japan in 60 turns...
But...alas. I simply don't have the bases for the smaller 4E bombers yet.

My fighter sweeps have been incredibly successful. The only fighter I am unable with is the Corsair. I don't see why JFB think this fighter ruins the game. So far it has not even gotten 1:1 for me yet.
The all-stars have been the P-38. Those things can fly for what seems like forever with drop tanks and despite their low MVB seem to shoot down large numbers of enemy fighters.
The P-51 has also been good for me.
The land based Hellcat has been average. The Thunderbolt has not been in much action but has been average.
The FM-2 Wildcat from my escort carriers has been as useless as ever.

My escort carriers are in place and their sweeps have been somewhat successful. I was expecting them to be attacked where my CAP could get them. But CC has not bitten yet. They will linger around a week or so before back to Manila for replenishment and repair. Hopefully he will attack.

My fleet carriers are about two turns away from being in position in the southern Yellow Sea. I hope they are attacked for the same reasons. The idea is to drain southern China, Formosa, Korea and Southern Japan of aircraft. I want to severely diminish his numbers before I do any kind of invasion.

My escort carriers did carry out strikes against some naval targets around the Pescadores. I hit several tankers and more patrol boats. My sinking list only shows 1 tanker and about 20 patrol boats. I have hit a lot more ships though and I have to have sank 40 or so ships so far.

The last thing of note is that the scenario starts with some small Japanese units in Northern PI as remnants from the Japanese occupation. I chased some regiment sized units after them to gobble them up. Well one of my units caught up to a unit and decided to shock attack???
It took about 1,100 casualties and 5 army loss points. This caused some grief.

This turn I am going to make some small modifications. Dropping my B-29s down 5,000 feet to see if their bombing improves.
I am checking out some alternate invasion sights to see if I can find somewhere to base my smaller 4E bombers. So far I have been striking out. What is the min size of airfield to run offensive missions with B-17s and B-24s? Size 7?

One thing I forgot earlier!
CC used jets this turn! I encountered them over southern Korea. Not sure how much damage they caused. But I did notice them. They look like ME-262 knock offs. Their maintenance cost must be huge. If they can't be defeated in the air hopefully I can pin down what base they are at and bomb it. Or failing that, just hope they grind themselves down due to maintenance.

[Fallschirmjager]

ORIGINAL: xnavytc

Fixing to start this scenario against the AI, was thinking of taking formosa and some of the smaller island around okinawa and formosa to use as staging areas?? any thoughts would be appreciated also, what about staging from Seattle to adak/dutch harbor then to northern islands, especially in Hokkaido?? any thoughts to that or are u just planning to invade in the south and work up the island?

I never did directly address this. I would like the idea of a northern route but it is simply not feasible. Your fighters don't have the range to sweep the northern skies and I don't believe in invasions of places that are swarming with Japanese planes. You could use your carriers but even with the 20 or so you get I don't think it is enough. You could use your 40 or so CVE's to get enough support but this would leave southern Japan unswept.
So quite simply you don't have the LBA for a northern invasion. The islands off Alaska are useless.
They don't have AV support, nor are they large islands, they don't start the game off with good supply either. You would have to find and ship in AV support and supply which would consume a lot of turns and shipping. It would he hard to stage any serious air offensive out of these islands.

I like taking Formosa since you can move your B-17s and B-24s from the west coast and PH to here. These along with the B-29s can really wreck Japan once you have everything set up.
Plus taking Formosa means you can more easily move things from the PI to Okinawa. Formosa the way the map is set up is an obstacle and can attack your shipping between these two places.

[DOCUP]

How's this for some love.

doc

[Fallschirmjager]

ORIGINAL: DOCUP

How's this for some love.

doc

I could use a few Jedi divisions for my invasion. Or maybe some of the Imperial walkers.

[vettim89]

I have played this scenario quite a bit so here is everything I have learned jumbled together into one post. Call it Downfall Jumbalaya

1. Formosa is definitely the route to go. In my two iterations I took it on the first go round and didn't on the second. I found myself regretting not taking it on my second game.

2. The Ryukus are empty or only lightly garrisoned. Take them all ASAP. Most of the bases can be built to level 6. Each one can hold two USAAF Fighter groups and three Heavy Bomber groups with slight overstacking. This is the best way to get the 8th AF into the war.

3. I have found the P-47N to be my best fighter. Those 8x 0.50 MG rip even late war Japanese planes to shreds.

4. Aparri and Vigan can both be built to level 9 AB. I would do that and move some of the B-29 BG here. With reinforcements, there will not be enough room on the Marianas.

5. Singapore will be a nightmare as reinforcements will appear there but Andy failed to task enough Av Support there. The small Japanese contingent at Palembang will be a nuisance. Some AFB just go ahead and take out Palembang to get it out of there hair.

6. There is an understrengthed Corps on Luzon that is restricted. These are the units you should use to chase down Yamishita and his rag tag outfit. I found that using the entire Corps is the way to go as you blow throw them pretty quickly with minimal loss that way.

7. I evacuate the Carolines (Yap, Ulithi, Wolei, etc) You can use the engineers and they are just a drain on your resources.

8. Don't forget you have an Airborne Corps available to you.

9. You could expand a little into the Bonins. Most are unoccupied, but can only built to level 3 AB. Still with enough AV support you could put two FG on each one to use to sweep central Honshu.

10. There are several islands on the west coast of Kyushu that can be built to level 7 AB. Taking a couple or three of these can be helpful.

11. The limiting factor for the Japanese economy is HI in the Downfall scenario. Target cities where there is large amounts. I have found that moonlight makes a huge difference on night bombing accuracy. My best system was to recon every base I could and wait for decent weather and at least 50% moonlight. Then I would bomb on two consecutive nights and then stand down until fatigue fell below 5% again. This seemed to do a good job of limiting ops losses and getting enough fires burning to last for at least three days. In my experience the HI seemed to suffer the most damage on the second and third day from the fires. Once you get the B-17/24 involved you should really be able to make a dent.

Hope this helps.

[stuman]

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager

ORIGINAL: DOCUP

How's this for some love.

doc

I could use a few Jedi divisions for my invasion. Or maybe some of the Imperial walkers.

Or She would do in a pinch [;)]

[Fallschirmjager]

Thanks for the tips! I have already begun to implement some. I searched the Ryukus and decided upon Tanegashima.
It can be built up to a size 7 airfield. It is defended by a SNLF unit with good experience. To take it I am going to use the two SEP infantry regiments that begin the game on the west coast. I am also going to use the Parachut regiment that starts at Naga. This is a thin force but I am trying to find units that are just sitting around. I am also transporting about 230 AV support and 300 engineers and 100 engineer vehicles.
Two air defense regiments will also be making the trip. I am going to have to get the second infantry regiment out of Seattle and transport it to SF and then collect everything up and get it going.
The unit is just going to be transports and DE's. I don't have any spare Amphibious ships nor any more powerful escorts. I am kind of doing this invasion on the cheap hoping it won't sap any strength from my other plans.
Hopefully this won't blow up in my face. The island sits one hex off the mainland. Hopefully I can destroy enough of his air power. But I fear low flying bombers and kamikazes. I am terrible at predicting when things will happen. But I have a lot of moving to do and the invasion will be loading up at SF and sailing to Iwo Jima and then due north. It may happen around 15(?) turns from now?
If I can pull this off, this is going to be a good staging base for my fighters and bombers.

Otherwise this turn was slower but still action packed. I shot down about 3:1 and hit 18 planes on the ground. I completely devastated Formosa with bombs. I am going to keep smashing it each and every turn until invasion and then I will switch over to ground bombing. I am also getting a lot of supply hits which is good.

I also hit a few more tankers along southern China. I think CC is trying to slip fuel into the HI. He may get some in but I have sank a lot. I care more about sinking ships laden with supply and troops than I do about fuel. The HI has enough infantry in it and I don't need him adding more or giving them more supply.

My night bombing at 17,000 was more successful and met with very little loss. I am going to slide them down to 15,000 and see if I can get better results and maintain my losses.

My carriers should start arriving in position this next turn. These are going to be between the HI and Formosa and it will be interesting to see if I can draw out his bombers.

I received my first Kamikaze attack off Formosa this turn. Fighters came in mixed with 18 of the special Kamikaze planes. I fear Kamikaze attacks in every game I play but this one was to no avail. My FM-2 Wildcats actually performed well and shot down some fighters and 15 of the 18 Kamikazes. Flak dispatched the other few and no ship was touched.

[Fallschirmjager]

Zero's in this scenario are utterly worthless. Even the A6M8. If I was CC or if I ever play against the Japanese in this scenario, I am going to use Zeros primarily in the Kamikaze function. Most of the points so far have been from shooting down scores of Zeros.

[vettim89]

I forgot one thing: in my experience the shiny stats for the F8F do not make up for losing 2x 0.50 MG. However, the shiny stats for the F8F are vastly superior to the FM-1/2 which also only have 4x 0.50 MG. I am sure you can see where I am going with this: do not upgrade F6F or F4U models to F8F but do upgrade the Wildcats.

Where it really shows is with the Kamikazes and defeating 2-E bombers.

[Fallschirmjager]

This turn was shitty and I don't really want to talk about it. I lost more planes than the Japanese. I lost about 100 Hellcats and Avengers/Dauntless. My naval strikes were over the southern island itself and ran into heavy CAP. I overwhelmed CC numbers wise but his planes are still breaking through my escorts and shooting down my bombers and torpedo planes. Also my Hellcats and Corsairs performed very very poorly. The Navy has been really disappointing up to this point. I just don't get the performance out my naval fighters that I do out of the USAAF.
I am going to put my carrier fighters on pure CAP. I don't think CC is going to go for all out naval strikes but I am going to keep my carriers around for a bit to see if he makes some attempts.

Meanwhile I think I can say the air campaign over Formosa has been won. My bombers go in almost unopposed and keep hitting. I am going to keep it going a few more turns since I am still getting a few kills and a few planes destroyed on the ground. I am also still getting supply hits which are key for when I invade.
Then I am going to rest my forces. Looking over the PI I think I am going to have to bring in more shipping if I hope for a invasion of Formosa. I don't think I have enough AP's

Very disappointing turn overall.

[sprior]

I'm playing this pbem as the allies against Andy and we've reached mid Jan 46. I'm going to watch and see if you do different to me. Formosa, I think, is a good start as it secures the flank of your naval units in their way to the home islands.

The B-29's are an amazingly brittle weapon so use carefully but they can wreck a city in a few days.

Recon, lots and lots of recon. Find out where he's hiding his planes and bomb the snot out those airfields. Don't forget to check Korea, those airbases are in range too.

Isloate the home islands by sub, he will try and move stuff from Korea, troops, supplies and fuel. Sink those merchies.

watch for his carries, you have loads of stuff to move from PH and SF, he will try to interdict that route with CVs or long range LBA from the island holdouts. That means you should interdict supplies going to those islands too.

helpful?

[Fallschirmjager]

I have been a little bit lax with updates. The game was going a little slow (not turn wise, just action wise)
It was going well with for me with some good kill ratios. I have also been putting the finishing touches on moving my troops around. My invasion from San Francisco is going to get off the next turn. The 1st Australian Corps from Borneo has been gathered and should be in Manila in the next two turns. I am going to give them a day to regain organization and refill with supply and then load them back up. Then I will launch my invasion of Formosa.

I did run into problems this turn from CC launching his first serious air strikes. He took aim at my CVEs around Formosa and he did well. He had five torpedo hits on five ships. Three are lightly damaged and two are seriously damaged. Planes were diverted to Batan Island (which is going to have to make me move a base force to it for AV support)
His planes encountered my 70% CAP and rammed right through it. Peggy's did most of the damage. I shot down about 2 dozen of them and about 40 Oscars. I put my remaining CVE's on 90% CAP.
These planes are flying from bases out of southern China. This is pretty much what I wanted. I wanted him to attack my carriers and I am expecting casualties but this was more than I can handle!
If I can get my damaged ships out of the area I should be able to save them all. The Fanshaw Bay is going to be touch and go after an ammo explosion. The ship only has 16 system damage but 78 flotation damage [&:]
If I can get them all to Manila I should be able to repair them all.
I also have about 25 more escort carriers on their way to Manila. I can easily replace my damaged craft.
This is going to be a bloody scenario and I am expecting naval losses. However I hope I can save these for the hard battles around Japan.
I am going to keep my undamaged TFs around Formosa and that should draw out more attacks. I am risking disaster but the more planes I can shot down the less he can move to Japan. I would rather shoot them down around Formosa than face thick waves of them over the Home Islands.

Otherwise things are going ok. This next week should be interesting. I should have my invasion forces off Formosa ready to clean out the island. The invasion from SF is going to take a while since I have to float it half way across the world.

My B-29's had a good turn. I have for four turns been hitting Tokyo and flak has made bombing disappointing. However, this past turn I really hit the city hard. Fires are about 9500 the day after the attacks. Hopefully this burns out a few factories. I feel like I have shot down almost a thousands aircraft with no end in sight.
I am going to hit Tokyo for three more nights before I switch targets again. I have settled on 15,000 as my altitude of choice. It seems to somewhat limit damage from flak and still allows for decent results.
His night fighters seem completely unable to do any damage. In fact the kill ratio is about 1:1

Formosa is going to be a really hard struggle. He has about 130,000 troops on the island in good defensive terrain and forts. I have hit the island hard and demolished his airfields. Once I land I will change over to ground attacks and hit his troops.

To replace my damaged CVEs around Formosa I am moving the RN fleet carriers from Manila. I have them fueled, armed and fully repaired. I also have the air groups completely filled out. We will try these to keep the blockade in effect. I don't want CC even having the fainest notion that he can move anything in or out of Formosa.

I don't know if he knows or think I am going to invade. I don't think it matters much since he can't move anything in our out. But it would still be nice to have an element of surprise right up until a turn or two before I land my forces.

[Fallschirmjager]

I am going to make this short. My B-29s had another good turn hitting Tokyo hard. 8000 fires the day after. I am not losing many either and my AV support seems to be able to keep up with damage and maintenance. I do not see me having to stand these down anywhere in the near future.

I also slammed Shanghai this turn with B-25's and B-24s. 107 planes were destroyed on the ground. Mostly medium bombers and useless transports. But that means points And those bombers might have been able to do damage in the Kamikaze role.

My invasion force is formed and loading at San Francisco. It is going to sail one hex east of Iwo Jima then due north to invade Tanegashima. I have a seperate cargo TF loading supply and a little fuel as well as 100 Marine fighters to immediately land at the island. I will hang this TF back until the island is taken and then land it. I have about 270 AV support in the invasion force so I should be able to get up and going quickly.

The invasion of Formosa is going to be formed over the next few turns and will probably land first due to proximity. It is going to be launched from Manila.
This will mean I will have three invasions being launched at the same time. This is going to stretch the Navy to it's limits. I have cleared a lot of his air forces from Formosa and I will probably rely on escort carriers to provide air cover. This means my fleet carriers will support the Tanegashima invasion.

Any thoughts on my plans?

[Fallschirmjager]

Ok so Operation Whirlwind is nearly completion. I stupidly forgot the I Aus Corps HQ back on Borneo (DOH!) so I have to send a TF to pick them up and bring them to Manila.

I am going to land the I Australian Corps in it's entirety at Hengchu. This force is to clear the base and take it and then sit there. This is to prevent CC from marching troops out of Takeo and me chasing them in a endless circle.
The US 24th Corps is tasked with taking Karenkow. I am also attaching the Ranger BN and 1st Cav. This operation worries me. The force here is weak (unless CC has reinforced it) but the terrain is in the mountains. I could be making a really dumb mistake by trying to land here.
The two advantages of landing at these bases are they do not contain large CD guns. Hengchu has a few 8cm DP guns. Karenkow may have the same but nothing larger. So I expect the landings themselves to go off fairly easily. These guns should cause some damage but nothing like the 28 cm guns that are at the other bases around Formosa. Those guns are 11" and could devastate my landings.

Everywhere else the war continues on. I hit Shanghai two turns in a row at 7,000 feet with B-24's on port atack. CC had a lots of odd tankers, transports and mine clearer's here. I hit dozens of them with 500 lb bombs.

CC's night air attacks on low level torpedo runs hit another CVE [:@]
I can't run night fighters over these ships and CVE's don't have enough 5" guns to bring down 2 engine bombers. As such these planes are having success. Six ships have been hit so far.

I finally had a clear weather attack run over Japan and my B-29's raked Tokyo. 135,000 fires!
I also received 5 more groups of B-29's as reinforcements.

Two divisions of 65 exp troops became avaliable at SF and I am in the process of moving a fleet of ships from PH to SF to move these ships to PH. Along with the 3 Marine divisions that start at PH this should be the beginnings of my eventual invasion of the HI.

[CaptBeefheart]

Didn't catch up your entire AAR yet (leaving work now), but just want to say you will love those P-80 sweeps. I was getting something like 30:1 kills (admittedly vs. AI and in the stratosphere). P-51Hs aren't too shabby either.

Cheers,
CC

[Fallschirmjager]

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

Didn't catch up your entire AAR yet (leaving work now), but just want to say you will love those P-80 sweeps. I was getting something like 30:1 kills (admittedly vs. AI and in the stratosphere). P-51Hs aren't too shabby either.

Cheers,
CC

So far my expert analysis is thus.

Army planes = Good
Naval planes = Bad

My Hellcats and Corsairs have embarrassing kill ratios and account for most of my aircraft losses.
Some of my P-51 and P-47 groups are approaching 100 group kills.

The P-80 unit you get is only 25 aircraft. This kind of sucks since the Japanese jet unit is 48 strong.
However, I will be able to run 30,000 foot sweeps with this unit and I hope for good results. I will just have to watch out for ops losses. The P-80 also lacks range. Can you give it drop tanks?

I am also excited about the P-51 Twin Mustang unit that is upcoming. It's stats look pretty amazing. It is worth a damn?