The Power of Inexperience / GreyJoy(A)-Rader(J)

[GreyJoy]

My USMC top pilots

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Anyway the sinking of 3 more CLs the last turn was really a good news. His surface assets are really suffering during this campaign of The Solomons and what has been till now his main asset (the air force) is losing battle after battle...during the last turn, for ex, he must have lost nearly 80/100 pilots against 0 of my own...this "trend" must hurt his pilots reserve...at least that's what i hope!

Yes, some Allied players pooh pooh the Solomons and say to ignore it and go around. But as I said, it is the best place to grab hold of the tiger and force attrition without having to risk your carriers. Unless Rader has some magic plan, (and he may) he has really backed himself into a tactical corner. You are doing a great job grinding him now.

BTW on the issue of the units at Japanese units at Tulagi rebuilding at a later date. I see no reason why you could not just leave them there. Once the supply is cut off, they have no offensive power and you can hold the base with a marine defense unit and a brigade of infantry and just leave his units there to rot. Tulagi is not a very good or important base for the Allies to hold so just use it as a large prison camp. No need to give him back his divisions to rebuild at all. Later in the campaign you can then eliminate them for the VPs.

[GreyJoy]

The Australian aces. Really proud of them considering they fought the war always with inferior machines...

[GreyJoy]

and finally the canadians....

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Anyway the sinking of 3 more CLs the last turn was really a good news. His surface assets are really suffering during this campaign of The Solomons and what has been till now his main asset (the air force) is losing battle after battle...during the last turn, for ex, he must have lost nearly 80/100 pilots against 0 of my own...this "trend" must hurt his pilots reserve...at least that's what i hope!

Yes, some Allied players pooh pooh the Solomons and say to ignore it and go around. But as I said, it is the best place to grab hold of the tiger and force attrition without having to risk your carriers. Unless Rader has some magic plan, (and he may) he has really backed himself into a tactical corner. You are doing a great job grinding him now.

BTW on the issue of the units at Japanese units at Tulagi rebuilding at a later date. I see no reason why you could not just leave them there. Once the supply is cut off, they have no offensive power and you can hold the base with a marine defense unit and a brigade of infantry and just leave his units there to rot. Tulagi is not a very good or important base for the Allies to hold so just use it as a large prison camp. No need to give him back his divisions to rebuild at all. Later in the campaign you can then eliminate them for the VPs.

I don't care for the VPs. As long as those divisions are there and as long as they cannot offend, i'm fine.

He may have a plan...i know...and i do really think for a long time his plan has been to force me to committ my CVs against his LBAs...now i don't have a clue of what he's planning....even in India...now it seems that some of the units at Multan are moving out[&:]...i'm puzzled...

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

My brits TOP pilots

When Cooper-Sliper got WIA last month i was really scared....i'm following this guy since the beginning of the war and i think i've fallen in love with him....however now, after less than 20 days, he got back to his squadron and my heart is beating back again[:D]

All these top guys are the veterans of the "battle of India". They have been flying Buffaloes and Hurricanes mkIIb before moving on the Spits VIII. Then, when the new SWPAC front has been open, they have been transfered along with their machines, at Ndeni, where they are continuing to shoot down enemy planes in droves![&o]

[GreyJoy]

The list of the japanese cruisers reported sunk. The one underlined in red are those i'm not 100% positive about

[Smeulders]

11 or 12 CL sunk makes about 50% of his CL sunk (unless there are extra CL in scen 2). He's obviously taking better care of the CA, even if all 4 of them are sunk that's still only a fifth. Still, that's good attrition. If his CL keep getting hammered like this he'll either have to cede the seas to you or up the stakes, giving you a shot at his more valuable ships.

[Cribtop]

Wow, those are some ELITE British pilots!

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

BTW on the issue of the units at Japanese units at Tulagi rebuilding at a later date. I see no reason why you could not just leave them there. Once the supply is cut off, they have no offensive power and you can hold the base with a marine defense unit and a brigade of infantry and just leave his units there to rot. Tulagi is not a very good or important base for the Allies to hold so just use it as a large prison camp. No need to give him back his divisions to rebuild at all. Later in the campaign you can then eliminate them for the VPs.

I wouldn't say they have no offensive might. I just attacked with a unit in my PBeM with 0 supply and they still managed some offensive punch - not enough for what I needed, but more than you would think. Plus all he needs to do is drop some supply on them and *poof* they are back in the fight -- it takes a loooong time for units to wither on the vine and if you turn your back on them you might get bit. I would suggest bombarding them from sea and air and then simply finishing them off - it will give your units some experience too. Of if you don't finish them off at least cripple them with attacks so you are sure they are out of the fight - don't let no supplies do it as it will take months (like 6 months) for it to affect such a large group of men.


Xargun

[bigred]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Wow, those are some ELITE British pilots!

Bump+1, wish I had some.

[bigred]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

My brits TOP pilots

When Cooper-Sliper got WIA last month i was really scared....i'm following this guy since the beginning of the war and i think i've fallen in love with him....however now, after less than 20 days, he got back to his squadron and my heart is beating back again[:D]

All these top guys are the veterans of the "battle of India". They have been flying Buffaloes and Hurricanes mkIIb before moving on the Spits VIII. Then, when the new SWPAC front has been open, they have been transfered along with their machines, at Ndeni, where they are continuing to shoot down enemy planes in droves![&o]

I am playing RA70 and I dont get spitVIII until 9/43.

[CaptBeefheart]

I am playing RA70 and I dont get spitVIII until 9/43.

He got them as reinforcements when Rader crossed the line of death in India.

GreyJoy: Good to see Cooper-Slipper doing well. He has to survive so he can be a test pilot in Canada after the war.

Cheers,
CC

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: crsutton

BTW on the issue of the units at Japanese units at Tulagi rebuilding at a later date. I see no reason why you could not just leave them there. Once the supply is cut off, they have no offensive power and you can hold the base with a marine defense unit and a brigade of infantry and just leave his units there to rot. Tulagi is not a very good or important base for the Allies to hold so just use it as a large prison camp. No need to give him back his divisions to rebuild at all. Later in the campaign you can then eliminate them for the VPs.

I wouldn't say they have no offensive might. I just attacked with a unit in my PBeM with 0 supply and they still managed some offensive punch - not enough for what I needed, but more than you would think. Plus all he needs to do is drop some supply on them and *poof* they are back in the fight -- it takes a loooong time for units to wither on the vine and if you turn your back on them you might get bit. I would suggest bombarding them from sea and air and then simply finishing them off - it will give your units some experience too. Of if you don't finish them off at least cripple them with attacks so you are sure they are out of the fight - don't let no supplies do it as it will take months (like 6 months) for it to affect such a large group of men.


Xargun

Well for sure even if low on supplies those bastards have given my units a bad slap in the face last week! I will bomb them back to hell when the front will "move on"...but for the moment my main concern isn't "those" troops, but those which i ignore their destination (Tulagi, Calcutta or...?)

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Wow, those are some ELITE British pilots!

and those are just a "fragment"....there are many more, well beyond the "ace" status (with more than 5 kills) and with exp well above 80 in the pool.... the battle of India created many "aces-monsters" among my lines[8D]

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

I am playing RA70 and I dont get spitVIII until 9/43.

He got them as reinforcements when Rader crossed the line of death in India.

GreyJoy: Good to see Cooper-Slipper doing well. He has to survive so he can be a test pilot in Canada after the war.

Cheers,
CC

72 SpitsVIII to be precise....and 13 of those 72 are still litterarly "kicking arses"[:D]

I'll do my best to keep this "ELITE" alive. As soon as those 13 spitsVIII will be over, i'll move those guys back to the pool ....maybe i can even think about giving 180 days back in Britain to them...i'll wait to call them back untill it will be available the spitsVIII in regular production for the brits (the AUS version comes earlier - 10/43)
In their "kicking arses" role the SpitsVIII will be substituted by the thunderbolt starting from July 43

[jmalter]

kudos to your 'few' in India, they saved some of your bacon!

never did like that '180 days' option, it's been eliminated in the beta. far better to TRACOM them, anyway. i've read it's best to TRACOM in groups of 10 from the same nation/branch. they give a tiny, random EXP boost to trainees ending their 12-month pipeline, more important is they accelerate some of those pilots into early graduation.

& i like Thunderbolts a whole lot. w/ the 1 service rating, they're preferable to P-51s 'til you have a goodly amount.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: jmalter

kudos to your 'few' in India, they saved some of your bacon!

never did like that '180 days' option, it's been eliminated in the beta. far better to TRACOM them, anyway. i've read it's best to TRACOM in groups of 10 from the same nation/branch. they give a tiny, random EXP boost to trainees ending their 12-month pipeline, more important is they accelerate some of those pilots into early graduation.

& i like Thunderbolts a whole lot. w/ the 1 service rating, they're preferable to P-51s 'til you have a goodly amount.

Yes, i'm really looking forward to see how the P-47s performs.
Till now my personal graduatory of fighters is the following (consider that it is based on this particular match where Japan has been using only overwhelming numbers, so in other games it may differ)

P-38(various versions): 8 (out of 10) in CAP role, 7 in sweep role
Corsair: 7 in CAP role, 5 in sweep role
Hellcats: still to be deeply tested
P-40K: 7 in CAP role, 4 in sweep
SpitVIII: 10 in CAP role, 7 in sweep
SpitVc: 7,5 in CAP role, 4 in sweep
HurriMkII: 6 in CAP, 5 in Sweep


So in the end i find that, a part from the spitVIII which is an "out of time" gem, the most usefull and flexible fighter is the P-38. It can both defend and offend and the high service rating can be overtaken with enough aviation support.
The biggest delusion is the Corsair. I haven't found yet the best way to use it. On sweeps it seems to suffer much much more than the slower P-38 and on CAP it isn't as effective (probably due to the weapon configuration).

All these considerations are taken using TOP-PILOTS (meaning with exp above 65, AirSkill above 70 and def above 60)

[GreyJoy]

Do you think this growing average skill of my fighting pilots will pay some dividends in the future? I ask this cause till now Rader - that we all know as a player who really takes care of the details - has been caring so few for his pilots that i'm starting to think my calculations aren't so correct. Will Japan be able to substitute the pilots lost till now (my guess is that he lost at least 5000 fighter pilots) with decent ones trained at home islands?

[Saros]

Assuming he has expanded his land based navy units for training then its possible to train huge numbers of pilots with a turnover of about 3 months. However they will come out at about 45exp 70 skill in one area. Going up against your ridiculous super pilots in inferior IJN/INAF planes they will be slaughtered (like is happening now).

I dont know exactly how many extra pilots you get in scen two its entirely possible in scen 1 to run out of pilots if you arent careful. I think the per month graduation rate (the guys you draw which you then train onmap) in scen1 is 140 navy 180 army pilots a month. After those pools are dry you start drawing trainees straight from the academy which take a lot longer to train up to a decent standard and will also reach the 70 skill mark with less experience.