Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Mike Solli]

Another easy one. Port and airfield upgrades:

Ports
Cam Ranh Bay: 5(6) to 7
Haiphong: 4(6) to 7
Takao: 4(4) to 7
Ominato: 5(6) to 7
Hakodate: 6(4) to 7
Fusan: 4(5) to 7
Toyohara: 3(1) to 4
Wakkani: 3(4) to 4
Shikuka: 4(6) to 6
Sapporo: 5(6) to 6

Airfields
Paramushiro Jima: 0(4) to 4
Bangkok: 4(7) to 7

Let's see, I forgot Truk and an airfield in China to increase to 7. But then, I haven't even looked at China yet. [:D]

Edit: There are quite a few I forgot. I'll keep track and redo this later. [:D]

[obvert]

I made sure all of the good fighter groups had a few extra pilots, then pulled extra from all Nate groups, and pulled one whole 42 plane Nate group to fill out the remainder, turned it into training until it can be upgraded, which for the last Nate unit should be about two months from now. Just in time for newly trained pilots to arrive in force.

[ny59giants]

I broke off CV Kaga from KB since she is the slowest and put her into the DD TF that was headed towards Midway that had the (*) bonus move. They headed for Takao. They were joined by CVL Ryujo who also headed there from Babedoab with orders to re-size and have her Claudes upgrade to Zero (36 planes) and Kates (13). They can then head towards Malaya and gather up the other two fast BBs to form a nice little mini-KB to rule over the SRA. They can both be sent to Camrahn Bay instead on turn 1.

Just my 2 cents. [;)]

[Mike Solli]

obvert, clever idea. I'll have to take a look at that.

ny59giants, that is outstanding. Did the missing Kaga have much impact on the Pearl Harbor attack?

[ny59giants]

ny59giants, that is outstanding. Did the missing Kaga have much impact on the Pearl Harbor attack?

No, but then again I stayed around for two days. Wanted to sink as many of those 'slow' counter-invasion type BBs as possible.

I did a delayed "Mersing Gambit" by having the 5th Division placed in one or two TFs at Samah and end their bonus move due south of Saigon (a lot of support units at Samah went to Mersing while the 18th Division landed historically). They headed towards Mersing on the 8th and my CVs were able to get over and cover it. I send the Vals from Kaga to Singora to hit the fleeing ships from Georgetown and put on extra Zeros on Kaga. Two more divisions followed up at Mersing and Singapore fell on the 31st....of December![X(] I had Kaga make the jump to Camranh Bay and Ryujo play catch up from Takao.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

ny59giants, that is outstanding. Did the missing Kaga have much impact on the Pearl Harbor attack?

No, but then again I stayed around for two days. Wanted to sink as many of those 'slow' counter-invasion type BBs as possible.

I did a delayed "Mersing Gambit" by having the 5th Division placed in one or two TFs at Samah and end their bonus move due south of Saigon (a lot of support units at Samah went to Mersing while the 18th Division landed historically). They headed towards Mersing on the 8th and my CVs were able to get over and cover it. I send the Vals from Kaga to Singora to hit the fleeing ships from Georgetown and put on extra Zeros on Kaga. Two more divisions followed up at Mersing and Singapore fell on the 31st....of December![X(] I had Kaga make the jump to Camranh Bay and Ryujo play catch up from Takao.

Man, I gotta try that! [X(]

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I'm thinking of breaking down Ryujo's Kates into chutai. That would be 3x 6 plane chutai. Then I can assign 2 to bombs and 1 to torpedoes. The Ryujo is blessed with 27 torpedoes so they would last a while.

Exactly what I do. I also transfer the Claudes from Bab to Ryujo as well. That's the max 5 airgroup on her. Just gives her a bit more CAP and when I am ready to convert to Zero's I can transfer them off and resize her native group.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Another thought. There are basically few to no pilots in reserve, especially for the IJAAF. Some of the sentai are over strength, and some of those are very over strength. I'm thinking of pulling some of the excess planes and pilots into the reserve and allocating them to units that are under strength. Basically, there will be no change to the over all air strength, but instead of being in reserve, they will fly. It will allow more planes to fly each turn early on. The problem is that it's going to be awhile before the on map training starts producing a significant number of pilots. Thoughts?

I move a LOT of pilots around on Turn 1 for this reason, both IJA and IJN. Put the experienced ones in your designated training groups into group reserve and then pull them to your operational groups. As you say, there are a lot of groups that are at minimal strength. Sure it will take a few days to get those planes in service, but by 12/10 you have a lot more planes flying in your operational areas manned by good pilots.

As you note, the issue is that you have 60 days (more or less) before you will have any fighter pilots coming out of your training program. Bomber pilots a lot longer than that depending upon how many skills you are trying to train.

IN the end, I look at it this way:
1. the allies are severely constrained by planes until mid-42.
2. numbers matter a great deal in air combat.
3. I want to gain air supremacy as fast as I can.

The outcome for me is to move those pilots. If I can get 2:1 or 3:1 in combat numbers advantage, I know I'm going to have better than 1:3 in loss rates. With the higher numbers involved, it means the allies are out of planes that much faster. Also, the additional pilots allows me to work rest into air units better so they will have lower fatigue and cut my losses even more. IJ has to take risks, and has to take and keep the momentum as long as possible.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

ny59giants, that is outstanding. Did the missing Kaga have much impact on the Pearl Harbor attack?

No, but then again I stayed around for two days. Wanted to sink as many of those 'slow' counter-invasion type BBs as possible.

I did a delayed "Mersing Gambit" by having the 5th Division placed in one or two TFs at Samah and end their bonus move due south of Saigon (a lot of support units at Samah went to Mersing while the 18th Division landed historically). They headed towards Mersing on the 8th and my CVs were able to get over and cover it. I send the Vals from Kaga to Singora to hit the fleeing ships from Georgetown and put on extra Zeros on Kaga. Two more divisions followed up at Mersing and Singapore fell on the 31st....of December![X(] I had Kaga make the jump to Camranh Bay and Ryujo play catch up from Takao.

Man, I gotta try that! [X(]

Wow. Great manouver. I would never be able to pull that off ...

[ny59giants]

Wow. Great manouver. I would never be able to pull that off ...

Play a game as both sides for the first week or so and do it until you get it down. I was playing Scen 2, but you can do it with Scen 1. My OCD-ness did help. [:D]

[Grotius]

Hey Mike, just thought I'd poke my head in and say hi. Glad to see you're back at it! Still working on turn 1, I gather?

My own game with maikarant has been on indefinite hold, though we each occasionally swear we'll get back to it some day. In the meantime, I've been busy beta-testing Matrix WIF and real-life work.

Anyway, good luck!

[Cribtop]

Yep, I re-formed the "magic move" TFs at will. I refused to invade anywhere I considered gamey (i.e. Java), but was able to hit numerous useful bases on day 1 or 2 (e.g. Manado, Ternate, and Sinkawang).

[SuluSea]

I don't know if you consider it gamey Mike but you have two surface task forces with the bonus at Pescadores I turn them into amphibious and load all ships going to Luzon, after the first turn I form surface TF from those TFs.
I also create a new TF from the TF 5 BB group using all the ships except one CA (which will use the magic bonus) , I backfill using a CA from the Patani group . The CA using the magic move helps augment anti shipping TFs leaving Manila. The developers have given us the ability to be flexible and creative so I say why not as long as it's not attacking anything inside the outer perimeter of bases.

I also have experimented using Kaga going down east of Luzon and have done a number on PH shipping with the 5 carriers. It's a somewhat risky plan but I've run atleast 7 turns and use anywhere from 15 to 20% CAP over the KB , I don't attack the airfield at all using all bombers to attack ships, defenders will come out to take shots at the carriers and get handled easily resulting in decent numbers of A2A kills... Under this plan I wouldn't recommend a day 2 attack as I've run it for tests a few times and found too much defending and attacking resulting in air numbers lost that we can't tolerate. No hits on the carrier TF but dancing with the devil here especially if a surface group comes out and puts a carrier or two out of commision.

I'm not sold on where Kaga should be if released from KB but it does give punch to the units around the South China and Phillipine Seas.

As always interested in the discussion here. Best of luck!! [:)]

[Mike Solli]

You guys have me thinking about rearranging my TFs. I'll do that this afternoon. Right now I made some decisions about my pilot situation. I have decided to take the 77 sentai (including it's 2 dets) and make it a training organization temporarily. Combined, this sentai has slots for 66 planes and pilots but has only 36 of each. If I remove 33 pilots (leaving 1 good pilot per unit) I can fill up all of 3 Air Division remaining fighter organizations and all but 2 slots in the 5 Air Division fighter sentai. The 77th will then accept 85 rookie pilots and train somewhere safe until it has skills high enough to enter combat. Then the excess pilots will be drawn into the reserve (an into another training organization if needed) while the 77th enters combat. I suspect that will be around mid February. By then I suspect there should be enough Ki-43-Ics to outfit the unit.

I am going to remove all of the reserve A6M2s from the Air Flotilla (24 aircraft) and use those plus the 12 currently in the pool to outfit the Ryujo with 30 A6M2s. I'll also pull out the excess pilots (should be 24 as well) for the reserve. That will have to last for some time.

Doing the two things discussed above is somewhat of a risk, but one that I think is necessary to take.

[ny59giants]

Zeros - You start out with 26 in Pool. In your LBA Zeros you have another 24 in Reserve that you could pull out to give you 50 in the Pool. Then, you have another 9 in Reserve on KB. That brings your max up to 59. I would consider re-sizing and upgrading the Claudes on Ryujo from 12 to 36 Zeros and the 12 Claudes on Zuiho from 12 to 21 Zeros. That brings you up to 56 and you have 3 in Reserve.

[Mike Solli]

I already upgraded the Hosho, so I've done what you said and will upgrade Ryujo when it reaches Takao. That'll work.

I decided not to do what I had planned with the 77 Sentai. Most of the 3 Air Division fighter units are in locations where they can't receive planes. I'll see how things work and go on the fly.

[Mike Solli]

Ok, I'm getting there. I have the following still to do:

Warship movement - pretty quick
Finalize invasions - pretty quick
Air attacks - pretty quick
China - Ugh, this'll take forever

Now that I'm working, my free time is pretty scarce. And I have drill this weekend....

I'll try to get the first three done over the next couple of days. Then China....

[PaxMondo]

Ah yes, work.  Interfering with important things [:D] ... 

[obvert]

Also, China can be done slowly. I spend the first week giving it about a half hour or more per turn. Those divisions need some rest to begin anyway. As you shift garrisons it'll have the appearance of doing some big moves if the Allies can actually recon anything there anyway.

[Mike Solli]

Well, China is done. Lots of shuffling to free up some divisions for offensive ops. It'll take a while though. At any rate, the wife and I are out to a nice seafood restaurant. Celebration for the job.

Today my boss asked me if I'd like to go to Afghanistan. He said it may not be a request later. Ah well, such is life. I told him to throw in a promotion with the request. [:D] I need to tell my wife about the request. She ain't gonna be happy. [:(] Maybe I'll wait until after dinner. If I do go, I'm getting a laptop.

Actually, it was nice in a weird sort of way. I was asked for my name.

Invasions tomorrow.