Question
Do CV will refuel on sea from BB if low on fuel, or CVs can only refuel on sea from AO?
This is a bit of a mystery to me, as mine always seem to refuel just fine when there are decent amounts of fuel in the TF. When the CVs are very low they sometimes will not refuel from another ship.
It should work, but the best test is to try it.
Nice work in China. That is a huge number of Chinese squads killed off. About 8 months of infantry squad replacements worth alone! Wow!
[&o]
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
Question
Do CV will refuel on sea from BB if low on fuel, or CVs can only refuel on sea from AO?
This is a bit of a mystery to me, as mine always seem to refuel just fine when there are decent amounts of fuel in the TF. When the CVs are very low they sometimes will not refuel from another ship.
It should work, but the best test is to try it.
Nice work in China. That is a huge number of Chinese squads killed off. About 8 months of infantry squad replacements worth alone! Wow!
[&o]
I will test it in next turn and give feedback. I hope they refuel
As to China. I take 1 month of units maneuvers to close siege and later 3-4 months to burn supplies by AF bombardment and destroy enemy morale and will to fight. But it is paying back as entire attack cost me only 8000 man ~25 destroyed and ~800 disabled squads.
All divisions will now prepare for new targets. It is time to plan summer offensive. Before offensive will start they should be 100% ready. Right now worst division have 320AV and with some rest and good supplies flow they will be ready fast.
One of ID have non restricted command and will sail to Burma asap
I must look do this battle change XP of my units.
I also have similar situation in north where i will try to close pocket of 4 enemy ID in wood hex. But i will be sure in few wakes. Right now units trying to flank enemy and close all hex sides.
Docup don`t write to me nothing about Kukong battle. I think he was hoping for harder resistance or at lest more destroyed squads on my side
After days of watching UEFA Euro Cup finally i have find time to post rapports from last 4 days of war.
18-21 Aug 42
Burma
On ground quiet but in air very interesting.
After Tojo show up in air enemy air raid stops[:D] I have two more times sweep Akyab with Tojos and Oscars. In two big battles Japan lost 8 Tojos and 13 Oscars but allies lost at lest 30 planes.
Right now fighters replacing loses in rears but i will back in two days.
Second Sentai upgraded to Tojo that will give me 70+ Tojos in Burma
DEI
I have try to resupply Saumlaki but both xAK where sunk by SS.
Two CV end refit in singer and now sealing to support landing of reinforcements and supplies in Ambon. Two ID are boarding ships right now. I am planing to land in 4-5 days.
Tabiteuea
3 days my two amphibious TF where playing cat and mouse with enemy CL TF but they manage to get to save waters. They are right now under KB protection and will resume sail to Tabiteuea. They have two regiments on board to reinforce Tabiteuea and Tarawa
In series of battles my two DD engage enemy CL TF. They exchange only some non critical hits.
Marshall's
I have wait three days before weather allow my fighters to fly.
On 21 Aug they finally fly.
30 A6M3 sweep Maloelap. We lost 5 planes enemy lost 16 planes
42 Ki-43 sweep Wotje. We lost 11 planes enemy lost 18 planes
Japanise SS sunk near Maloelap when hit mine.
KB
South of Kusaie Island.
China
Quiet on ground but lots of movement on chines side.
In air battle near Sian we shot down around 15 enemy planes with decent(mostly 50 xp pilots on my side) 1:1 kill ratio.
Summary.
On land quiet also in sea war. I have spotted enemy TF near Kurile trying to snek to HI but after last raid my search arcs all good.
On series of air battles in 4 days Japan lost 61 planes . Allies loses are 78 planes.
What is worry me is that lots of pilots is dying as most combats is over enemy territory
R&D
A6M5 advance to 1/43
OK that is all. I am going to watch Poland-Czech Republic game. If Poland win we will play in Quarterfinals first time in history.
It will be also good for tournament atmosphere as we are hosting this tournament.
Also i will be good birthday gift as i will end 30[:(] tomorrow
How much Wake AF can be expanded? Do allies can use it by 4E?
Funny you should ask as I am invading this place this turn in my game [:'(] Wake Is is (0) (0) so the highest the airfield can be built is level 3. Enough to hold fighters .. but that is not why at least I would risk invading this base. It is the ability to station patrol aircraft that in mid '43 can reach Marcus Island. It is key IMHO for keeping watch of the North of the Marshalls as well as an early warning of IJ mischief ..
The three key bases IMHO as far as 4E's is Pompono, Eniwetok,and Kusaie Is... once these are taken the rain of hell will come from above..on Truk ..[;)]
"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so"
How much Wake AF can be expanded? Do allies can use it by 4E?
Funny you should ask as I am invading this place this turn in my game [:'(] Wake Is is (0) (0) so the highest the airfield can be built is level 3. Enough to hold fighters .. but that is not why at least I would risk invading this base. It is the ability to station patrol aircraft that in mid '43 can reach Marcus Island. It is key IMHO for keeping watch of the North of the Marshalls as well as an early warning of IJ mischief ..
The three key bases IMHO as far as 4E's is Pompono, Eniwetok,and Kusaie Is... once these are taken the rain of hell will come from above..on Truk ..[;)]
Taking Wake in my game is now impossible. Even if i manage to do that it will cost me to much. After 9 months of fortification i do not think that 4 ID would be enough.
Eniwetok is fortified(lvl 6) and garrisoned(200AV). Lots of mines lie down(280). CD guns are also in island(i have use Wake CD guns unit as wake was newer taken)
I also preparing troops for Ponape and Kusaie and Eng`s arledy building forts there. So they will be hard to take.
Marshals are currently hot as you see. From tomorrow i will start closing enemy AF in Wotje and Maloelap. I have now advatage in air so bombers will fly tommarow. 4 ID are preparing to reteke those two islands.
I have shot down another 8 enemy planes today. And more seweeps will fly. But more detail later when i post combat rapports from last turn.
C Pacific
Japan fighters sweep Maloelap. 8 enemy fighters shot down for one A6M. Only 14 enemy fighters left on island. Wotje sweep not fly today. Enemy fighters in Wotje 32 planes.
My air LBA in Marshals 110 fighters and 50 bombers. And if needed I have KB in range.
Tommarow i will start closing enemy AF
China
First bad news.
Enemy fighters sweep Hankow. We lost 14 Oscars for only one enemy fighter[:@].
Now some good news. We won another battle near Sian. 177 enemy squads destroyed and 130 disabled.
I make some calculations. From beginning of war i have destroyed in china, only in ground battles, 8100 combat squads. It is almost 2 year production
I think it is nice score.
Anyone know how big is entire chines AV
Burma
B-17 raid over Rangonn. 24 2E bombers lost on ground
Rangoon AF closed.
Supplies in Burma low. 100k will arrive in 5 days.
DEI
troops loading on ships. Fighters and navy bombers taking positions. One more day and we will sail to Ambon.
Tabiteuea
Amphiobous TF unloading in island. Sea support given by BB TF and CA TF.
KB qiuetly suporting from air trying to be undetected.
I lost 12 Ki-49 over Maloelap when they wheer intercepted by enemy fighters during training mission
China
Enemy planes sweep Hankow.
I am trtying new CAP strategy. 1/4 of Oscars is on max attitude(20K) 1/4 on low (10k) and half on best maneuverability attitude (15k)
It looks like this is working. Many enemy planes (sweeping on 31k) attack low CAP Oscars. That give higher flaying Oscars chance to dive on enemy.
Today we lost 11 Oscars for 15 enemy planes. It is good as most of my pilots is between 50-60 xp.
25 Aug 42
Burma
Another B-17 raid over Rangoon AF is now 100% destroyed.
I have set multi attitude cap over Chiang Mai.
Tojo's where flying on 31 and 20k and Oscars on 15k. Again most of P-38 go after low flying Oscars and later suffer loses from diving Tojo's
With good maneuverability and most pilots with def skill 70 Oscars avoid around 20 attacks from diving P-38.
Against 45 P-38 Lightning i have 40 Tojo's and 30 Oscars in air
I am pleased with result especially that we fighting against P-38 Lightning sweep
14 Lightnings for 11 Japanese planes. Give me more fights like this.
Tabiteuea
Troops unloaded. We returning home. We lost two xAK from enemy subs during operation.
I was disappointment with Oscars Ic performance but i must say if used properly as escort or in low CAP together with high flying K-44 they are very good planes.
Burma
Allied 4E attack at night Chiang Mai but most of them where scare of by fighters. Only few drop bombs but they not hit targets.
DEI
Invasion fleet sailing toward Ambon. Landing in two days.
Tabiteuea
Another xAK lost from sub.
China
First Ki-44 in china fly today in CAP. Also Ki-45 start flaying today. Later I will use Ki-45 as bomber destroyer in Burma. Together with Tojo they should perform well in that role.
KB
South of Marshals. Right now refueling. I need one more day for that and will sail deeper in Pacific.
Burma
First supply TF start to unload in Rangoon. Allies send CL TF to intercept but my screen force work well. In series of battles Allies lost two DDs, Japanese loses are two DD[:(], DMS and two SC. I hate losing DDs.
BB TF bombard my troops south of Akyab. Minimal damage.
I will send CV TF to Rangoon area to scare allies little.
DEI
Invasion 5 hex from Ambon. Tomorrow they will take position and in two days i will land.
Pacific
All ships leave Tabiteuea . Base have now garrison behind fort 5.
G3M3 from Tabiteuea reporting enemy CAs south of island. One of pilots report that he score 250 kg bomb hit to CA Chicago during his patrol.
KB
KB need one more day to refuel last ships. They ware detected today. So i mus hurry.
Pilot training.
My training program work well.
Army bomber pilots after reaching GrB 70 are moved to train naval bombing.
Fighter pilots as secondary are training LowN. I am not sure if LowN is training Def as good as Straf skill do?
Plan is to have all army pilots trained with naval attack skill to use them later in naval attack or as kamikaze pilots.
I agree, I don't see anything train DEF as well as STRAFE for fighter pilots.
Thanks. I will stay with strafe training. Right now i need more good fighter pilots than kami pilots.
I convert two Sentais from training to CAP duty. There job will be to give 50xp pilots some extra experience before they go to combat. Making 60xp during cap taking something like 2-3 weeks. Also pilots with air and def skill 70 but with xp below 50 will go for that air groups to gain exp.
Burma
Quiet. Still unloading supplies. Fighter units resting (flying 30% CAP only) to build morale.
Rangoon is repairing fast. If allies not bomb it again in next 3 days i will return with fighters there.
DEI
Invasion in Ambon tomorrow. BB TF will go first. after them will go invasion TF. Troops on ships aouind 2,5 ID power. 3 SC TF will give sea cover. Almost 70 fighters and 50 bombers will give air cover. I not suspecting allies reaction tomorrow because my ships are undetected.
Marshals
I lost 16 Ki-49 and 10 Oscars during Wotje bombardment. 60 fighters ordered to sweep decide to stay on ground today and 28 Oscars in escort have no chance against 40 enemy fighters. Offensive actions stooped. Pilots need few days to rest and replace losses.
Allies lost only 1 plane. Lucky only 9 pilots KIA and 4 MIA. I think SS in base hex help little.
Only way to close those AF is send bombardment TF. 6 BBs should perform better than month of air bombing. Only risk is mine field. Both enemy islands are mined. I arledy lost SS there. I will try this in few days.
China.
Standard bombards and movements.
I have decided that next target for ground offensive will be Nanyang
Around 60k enemy troops there and it is open ground and my bombers will do blood bath there. I am preparing 3000AV for that operation and 1000 AV will be in reserve.
R&D
Ki-44IIb advance to 4/43(i will not build them). I have researching it only to keep upgrade path in chronological order. (No later model before earlier one)
All factories converted to IIc version. If my math is correct IIc will enter production in 4/43. In 2 weeks i will have 500 engines that should help with r&d process.
Ambon
Troop landed. Only 1000 troops from almost 30k stay on ships. So tomorrow i will be unloaded.
Disruption below 10. Fatigue of one of ID high but few days an they going to be ready.
Now i need to unload supplies. And i will attack
During invasion i have lost two xAP, two more ships likely sunk tomorrow.
One of big xAP hit underwater rocks. He is damages are heavy but will not sunk.
After landing allies bombard my lines.
Ground combat at Ambon (76,109)
]Allied Bombardment attack
Attacking force 6014 troops, 69 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 552
Defending force 55057 troops, 508 guns, 172 vehicles, Assault Value = 1889
Japanese ground losses:
254 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 19 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)
KB
East of Tarawa. Not detected. Now i will sail east for 4 days.
Bombers on rest for two maybe three days to avoid detection. I do not want revile my position for patrol boat.
I want to achieve three things.
1.Force allies to use safer but longer sail route between PH and south pacific.
2.Force him to use more ships to protect his convoys
3.If lucky maybe we will intercept one of is big convoys.
China
Another ground combat near Sian. Another victory
Ground combat at 85,41 (near Sian)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 23972 troops, 204 guns, 74 vehicles, Assault Value = 866
Defending force 17077 troops, 102 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 526
Defending units:
76th Chinese Corps
93rd Chinese Corps
98th Chinese Corps
Burma
I have send my fighters to Rangoon but i was mistake. Service infrastructure of AF was 70% destroyed and morale of 2/3 of my Sentais drop from ~85 to ~50. It will take some time to rebuild. I think i will reatere to rears to rest.
Noumea
One of subs patroling area atack enemy CL
Sub attack near Mare' at 117,161
Japanese Ships
SS RO-34, hits 1
Allied Ships
CL Nashville, Torpedo hits 1
DD Lamson
APD Little
On morning they attack again but all torpedoes miss
31 Aug 42
Burma
40 P-38 sweep Rangoon, with so demoralized fighter units i should suffer big loses in air and in ground from 60 enemy bomber flaying just behind Lightnings. Lucky me I have evacuate fighters from Rangoon they will rest for few days.
Rangoon AF and port destroyed again.
DEI
Second day of landing in Ambon. I have enough supplies to attack 2 maybe 3 times. If base not fall i will need transport more supplies.
Total loses on sea. 6 xAK and two xAP.
TK sunk after being hit by torpedo near Saigon.
Marshals
Quiet. Air units building morale
KB
Sailing east. Still undetected. One more turn bombers on stand down, later full attack.
China
Standard bombardment of Nanyang. 500 Chinaman killed. 70 squads disabled.
First sweep of Tojos over Nanyang. Only 12 there but i want Docup think that there could be more.
R&D
A6M5 advance to 12/42(will enter production 10/42) - it will be last heavy researched zero model. I will use it for entire `43 in CV units. Ground units will stick to 3a version for few more months because of range
Next version will arrive on 1/44 because most of factories will covert to research A7M
a question regarding your fighter research settings. I didn't read all pages of your AAR but I assume you are playing Scenario 1 and PDU on.
The A7M is not in the research-path of A6M, so your factories will start with 0 and will need a long time to repair because the plane is available at 45/9 (A7M2) or 46/1 (A7M3). I compared the planes in the tracker tool and it seems the A7M2 is not much better than the later A6M models. The A7M3 is not carrier capable and the preferred land based IJN fighter for late war is the George. Did I miss something?
I'm planning for my game against Terje to shift to A6M5c after the A6M3a goes into production. The A6M5c is the first A6M with armor and is 10 months earlier available than the A6M8. The A6M5c has also a better range and gun value in comparison to the A6M8. But it's bomb load is worse and the maneuver attribute not so good like the A6M8.
a question regarding your fighter research settings. I didn't read all pages of your AAR but I assume you are playing Scenario 1 and PDU on.
The A7M is not in the research-path of A6M, so your factories will start with 0 and will need a long time to repair because the plane is available at 45/9 (A7M2) or 46/1 (A7M3). I compared the planes in the tracker tool and it seems the A7M2 is not much better than the later A6M models. The A7M3 is not carrier capable and the preferred land based IJN fighter for late war is the George. Did I miss something?
I'm planning for my game against Terje to shift to A6M5c after the A6M3a goes into production. The A6M5c is the first A6M with armor and is 10 months earlier available than the A6M8. The A6M5c has also a better range and gun value in comparison to the A6M8. But it's bomb load is worse and the maneuver attribute not so good like the A6M8.
What are your other research settings?
Sebastian
I know that A7M is different research path.
And A7M is much better than A6M. Probably most important thing A7M is faster from Zero and have better firepower (more guns). See what allied planea are you going to face in `44/45. Most of them will fly 400mph when you will stuck with 330-350 miles best for CV capable planes.
Biggest weakness of 5c version is speed, around 70mph slower that enemy planes. Give to that give to that better allied pilots, monster firepower of allied planes and you have no hope[:)]
Maneuverability is not such important as speed and firepower i think.
Right now i have 11 30 size A6M5 factories so they accelerating ~310 points in month.
That way i will have A6M5 in 10/42[:D]
I still not decided but probably 2 of them will start producing planes because my demand is grooving. That will give me 180 Zeros mont in production.
3 factories will go to A6M5b and 3 for A6M5c and later i will decide what to do.Last three will convert to A7M.
My future decisions will depend if i will need A7M. If i lose KB i will not research them i will chose George as main navy fighter and go for jet fighters.
I will probably covert few more factories to late war planes when they end current R&D jobs with middle war planes.(when research path will end)
.