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

[cwDeici]

Oh, I meant high-speed fighters. Good was too vague... unless they're fast too?

[kfsgo]

As regards all the key aircraft:

Ki-84 will do 392
Ki-44 will do 376
J2M3 will do 365
N1K1-J will do 363
Ki-100 will do 360
Ki-102b will do 360 (and use two engines to get there)
A6M5 will do 351
Ki-45 will do 340 (also on two engines)
A6M5c will do 336 (!)

So, if it's raw speed the Japanese are after to the exclusion of all else, the answer now is much as it was two years ago - more Tojos.

e: for comparison, P-47D25 will do 435, F4U1-A 417, F4U1-D 425, F6F-5 380, P-51 440 or so and Spitfire VIII 404 (but with about twice the maneuverability of any of these)

[GreyJoy]

Yes, but in fact i don't fear them too much...my greatest fear is the lack of coordination (which, btw, is getting better with my fighters lately) between fighters and bombers.
 
However...tomorrow we'll start bombing his factories back again and we'll conquer Paramushiro
 
HU-HA

[GreyJoy]

Ok...an AVD of mine has detected at least 2 japanese fighters near the french Polinesian islands... that could be the KB retourning back to the Marshalls taking a long southern route...
 
I'll dispatch some subs in those waters tryin to keep track of the enemy CVs...

[ny59giants]

What have you discovered is the key to getting your P-47s to go in as a coordinated sweep??
AF is size 9...
Air units all assigned to same Air HQ ...
Air HQ in the same hex...

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

What have you discovered is the key to getting your P-47s to go in as a coordinated sweep??
AF is size 9...
Air units all assigned to same Air HQ ...
Air HQ in the same hex...

At the moment i do get usually one big formation and just a couple of squadrons that come alone...
The point now is to get those sweeps coordinated with the bomber runs...which is what killed me last week

[paullus99]

You may be forced to include some fighters on escort, just to be on the safe side, on top of the sweeps. Of course, if those P47s can ever come in before the bombers, you'll have a grand-old time.

[JohnDillworth]

You may be forced to include some fighters on escort, just to be on the safe side, on top of the sweeps

+1

[GreyJoy]

Yes, i'm willing to sacrifice some P-38s and some Corsairs.
I've also moved back my bombers starting base to Sapporo, leaving Hakkodate as a only fighter base.
So the P-38s will escort from Sapporo (having longer legs) while Corsairs will escort from Hakkodate.
P-47s will sweep from Hakkodate too.
 
Finger crossed[:)]

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: paullus99

You may be forced to include some fighters on escort, just to be on the safe side, on top of the sweeps. Of course, if those P47s can ever come in before the bombers, you'll have a grand-old time.

No never, escort. LRCAP instead. (if you can). My humble opinion.

[JohnDillworth]

No never, escort. LRCAP instead. (if you can). My humble opinion.

Perhaps you are correct but I believe escorts are more likely to offer some guaranteed protection. At least a few of them will go in with the bombers. Had he had some escorts a week ago he would have lost some bombers, perhaps many bombers, but not 200 bombers. Escorts don't shoot down a lot of fighters but they definitely prevent a free for all on the bombers. They are disruptive by keeping the interceptors busy. I have no empirical evidence of this, just my experience.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: paullus99

You may be forced to include some fighters on escort, just to be on the safe side, on top of the sweeps. Of course, if those P47s can ever come in before the bombers, you'll have a grand-old time.

No never, escort. LRCAP instead. (if you can). My humble opinion.

Crsutton,

I've done it several times in the first days of the offensive against central Japan cities but i found that LRCAP, in a 2 days turn environement, works defenetly worse than the escort duty, both in terms of victims and in terms of efficiency.
Consider that we're attacking bases from 10 to 13 hexes far away...LRCAP works very bad at those distances....plus the "operational points" of the LRCAP squadrons are spent during the sweep missions and when the bomber mission arrives usually there are so few fighters in the air LRCApping that they really don't pay any role in defending the bombers.
The second day gets even worse with a fatigue accumulated that is close to 50 points....
On the contrary, a solid escort is usually able to keep the bombers safe most of the times...

The first day of offensive against Maebashi (5 weeks ago) i sent 100 P-38s on LRCAP, 200 Corsairs on Escort and 200 P-47s on Sweep.
After two days i had lost 72 P-38s, 15 P-47s and 20 Corsairs....

[GreyJoy]

Now he's starting to produce SAMs....those buggers are fast and well armed and can take off from CVs....i need to concentrate on them ASAP.
 
However now, with the P-47 production stopping down, my capabilities of attacking japanese industry will surely be slowed down. I'll need to rely on P-38s, British T-bolts (very few) and corsairs....not much really...
 
The sooner i'll invade Japan, the better.
 
Think we can be ready to land in Northern Honshu by the end of summer...
 
He'll probably have more than 10k AVs waiting for me on the beaches...i have more firepower but can 5000 allied AVs dislodge 10000 japanese AVs in an open terrain Hex?....the world wonders...

[Canoerebel]

Good theater. [:)]

[ny59giants]

At this point in the war, comparing AV vs AV is not as important as what you bring to the party. You will need lots and lots of armor and you have those huge combat engineer units. I would give up some level of surprise to keep attacking the AFs at the bases you intend to invade to stop fort building.

[GreyJoy]

Yes NY59, i'm doing my best to bring every single tank unit i can spare...
My units are well experienced by now and all of them have upgraded to the 1944 TOEs....however landings will be tricky...we'll have to land in front of several GD guns and with the combined fleet ready to storm among my amphib TFs...i'll bring everything i have in terms of surface assets...but still....we know how these things can go wrong...a bad dice and roll and your BBs are sunk by a couple of destroyers and his BBs get a free shot to my 800 landing ships...creepy!!!!

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: paullus99

You may be forced to include some fighters on escort, just to be on the safe side, on top of the sweeps. Of course, if those P47s can ever come in before the bombers, you'll have a grand-old time.

No never, escort. LRCAP instead. (if you can). My humble opinion.

Crsutton,

I've done it several times in the first days of the offensive against central Japan cities but i found that LRCAP, in a 2 days turn environement, works defenetly worse than the escort duty, both in terms of victims and in terms of efficiency.
Consider that we're attacking bases from 10 to 13 hexes far away...LRCAP works very bad at those distances....plus the "operational points" of the LRCAP squadrons are spent during the sweep missions and when the bomber mission arrives usually there are so few fighters in the air LRCApping that they really don't pay any role in defending the bombers.
The second day gets even worse with a fatigue accumulated that is close to 50 points....
On the contrary, a solid escort is usually able to keep the bombers safe most of the times...

The first day of offensive against Maebashi (5 weeks ago) i sent 100 P-38s on LRCAP, 200 Corsairs on Escort and 200 P-47s on Sweep.
After two days i had lost 72 P-38s, 15 P-47s and 20 Corsairs....

Yes, you are right. I completely forgot about the effect of two day turns. Unfortunately for the Allies, they just do not have the air frames to piss away with escort. But they are better lost than a heavy bomber.

[jeffk3510]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Now he's starting to produce SAMs....those buggers are fast and well armed and can take off from CVs....i need to concentrate on them ASAP.

However now, with the P-47 production stopping down, my capabilities of attacking japanese industry will surely be slowed down. I'll need to rely on P-38s, British T-bolts (very few) and corsairs....not much really...

The sooner i'll invade Japan, the better.

Think we can be ready to land in Northern Honshu by the end of summer...

He'll probably have more than 10k AVs waiting for me on the beaches...i have more firepower but can 5000 allied AVs dislodge 10000 japanese AVs in an open terrain Hex?....the world wonders...

If you have all of the correct stuff (leader, prep, moral, zero fatigue yada yada, which I know you will), tanks, and superior equipment, I don't see why not...

[Vetamur]

Ha! I did it...read all 150 pages. Excellent AAR. I was a player of WITP..and have this edition but havent played because I just dont have a lifestyle that can commit to it.. but I have enjoyed this a lot. I logged in for the first time in years just to tell you that.

Looking forward to the continuing war effort. Very entertaining GJ, all the more so because of your mistakes and your learning curve.

[GreyJoy]

Thx Vetamur!

I'm glad you took the time to drop a line. This effort (i mean the AAR) is made for you readers and contributors!

Jun 26, 27 1944

The first seatback during Suddenly Hairy...at Paramushiro, despite the heavy bombings of last weeks and despite the air2ground support provided by not less than 400 bombers, the japanese garrison at Paramushiro held our first attack behind 6 forts...losses are light btw so tomorrow we'll start our attack back again!

Bad weather over japan denied us the taste of our new strategic offensive.
We have 350 4Es based at Sapporo and bound to attack Yokohama tomorrow. 200 P-47s will sweep. 80 Corsairs , 50 P-38s and 50 P-51Bs will escort, while 50 P-38s will LRCAP (i know...i know...but i wanna try it again).
Target: 101 SAM factories and 61 George ones...An important mission if you ask me.

Also we have more news about the KB...

Using the triangolations provided by our subs, our AVP (US CASCO) - that spotted several Graces - and by radio messages we can now locate the KB position, with an approx of 10 hexes of diameter...

Our CVs are close to Christmas Is.... getting closer...undetected... but he knows i've detected him



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Ground combat at Paramushiro-jima (137,47)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 18753 troops, 423 guns, 502 vehicles, Assault Value = 859

Defending force 9437 troops, 67 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 291

Allied adjusted assault: 304

Japanese adjusted defense: 345

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 6)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), disruption(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1340 casualties reported
Squads: 38 destroyed, 40 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 65 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled


Allied ground losses:
483 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 74 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 10 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Vehicles lost 8 (1 destroyed, 7 disabled)


Assaulting units:
13th Canadian Brigade
762nd Tank Battalion
Merrills Marauders Regiment
671th Tank Destroyer Battalion
31st Infantry Division
18th Canadian Brigade
11th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
251st Field Artillery Battalion

Defending units:
83rd Naval Guard Unit
North China Gsn Brigade
Kitachishima Fortress
5th JNAF AF Unit
13th JNAF AF Unit /1