Puhis is one of the original devs. So his info is about as accurate as it can get.
[:D]
No I'm not any kind of dev.
But I know that Oscars sucks when they fly really high.
Comparing maneuver ratings of Oscar Ic and Hurricane IIb shows us that below 15k, Oscar have 22 point advantage. Above 15k it's 15 points, above 20k it's 9 points and above 30k it's only 5 points. Oscar Ic is not a good plane, but if you use it right you can beat Hurricanes until you get something better. I've had best results sweeping at 12-15k, and terrible losses flying really high.
ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
And make sure your planes are well repaired as well as your pilots rested. I would prolly do this with the mini-KB instead, but that is personal preference.
I have a question: how do you make sure your planes are repaired? I know how to rest the pilots, but I have no idea of what to do with the planes. Frame fatigue seems to accumulate over time, until the plane either crashes or get damaged, and is then repaired, is there any way to improve this/force maintenance of a specific squadron?
I am a bit wary of using the mini-KB there. I don't know where the US carriers are, the real KB is at a low four ship level while some of its components refit in Japan, I'd prefer to use the carriers for raiding operations.
ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
And make sure your planes are well repaired as well as your pilots rested. I would prolly do this with the mini-KB instead, but that is personal preference.
I have a question: how do you make sure your planes are repaired? I know how to rest the pilots, but I have no idea of what to do with the planes. Frame fatigue seems to accumulate over time, until the plane either crashes or get damaged, and is then repaired, is there any way to improve this/force maintenance of a specific squadron?
I am a bit wary of using the mini-KB there. I don't know where the US carriers are, the real KB is at a low four ship level while some of its components refit in Japan, I'd prefer to use the carriers for raiding operations.
AC repair:
2 ways on this:
1. Stand down for a few turns with good AV and big base and you will see the planes repair up.
2. replace all the planes (change to a different model and then change back). They will come back as brand new. This will take many days depending upon SR.
Which way to go depends upon how beat up the group is. Of course to use 2, you have to have good pools of two models (like Nate/Oscar)
Thanks a lot. I suspected standing down would help, but it is difficult to track, since it doesn't get reported in tracker. Normally, Bangkok qualifies as a big base with lots of aviation support, I will try to investigate.
As for the second method, it wouldn't work with PDU off, would it?
Thanks a lot. I suspected standing down would help, but it is difficult to track, since it doesn't get reported in tracker. Normally, Bangkok qualifies as a big base with lots of aviation support, I will try to investigate.
As for the second method, it wouldn't work with PDU off, would it?
Francois, you will have to try (in a test bed). I've never played PDU OFF as it does not interest me so I really do not know.
In the Andamans, Trinkat was captured today by the base force that landed yesterday. During the night, an enemy task force (CA Exeter, CL Marblehead and DD Isaac Sweers) closed in and seek battle. Two cargoes (Mikasa maru, and Hakubasan maru) were unloading the troops, covered by three destroyers (Asagiri, Sagiri, and Yugiri, henceforth known as the “three giris”).
There was little moonlight, and it was raining, so detection occurred at close range (2000 feet). The unloading cargoes were easily sunk by the Exeter, but the Asagiri bombarded the Marblehead, and the Sagiri finished her with a Long lance attack. Then, the three Japanese destroyers escaped.
I have lost two cargoes and a hefty fraction of a base force, for CL Marblehead, the fifteenth allied CL sunk since the beginning of the war. I believe this was a good trade: my base force will repair damage, the Marblehead won’t.
Later that day, carrier aircraft were spotted over Car Nicobar and Trinkat. Those cannot be the British Carriers that were around Timor two days ago, so it is either a second British Carrier squadron (Indomitable and Hermes), or the Americans. Against the British, I have my chances if they close in (I have several surface forces that might jump at them, and lots of land base planes), against the US, it all depends on whether they are massed, but I have difficulty imagining all the US Carriers here.
I am retiring my ships to the nearest ports, put some Nells, Betties and Kates in Georgetown on long range low altitude attacks, just in case.
Getting ready
In Bangkok, my Oscars are rested and near full strength. I am giving a few days in the hope that the weather improves (we had storm forecasts, and now rain, and clear weather over Sumatra), and to let the frames repair. Then I will try a sweep at 14 000 feet, hoping it coordinates, and we can pay the Hurries back.
Pax, I did experiment with the upgrade buttons to try and change all the planes in a squadron, upgrading to the same plane, back one model, don’t seem to work, so I guess you just can’t do it with PDU off. This is one curious facet of this game: the player has almost perfect control over some aspects (pilots, ship repairs, upgrades and conversion, replacements in recent patches), but none on others (naval attack target selection, air frame maintenance).
In Chungking, Japanese AV are now over 4400. Fresh troops have arrived, together with several HQ and lots of support. The divisions that attacked recently are around 10 disruption, and 20 fatigue. The Chinese are still respawning (117 units in town now, against 70 when the battle began, and 108 a week ago), but their AV is now below 5 500. My last attack was 1:3, I have good hopes of achieving 1:1 odds soon.
In New Guinea, nothing is happening. The Australian brigade from Buna seems to have stopped in the jungle south of Salamaua, and the other brigade in Terapo seems to take a while to repair her disablements. Bombardment of my troops in Terapo is not very effective, and air reinforcements have brought their AV to 110 (against 30 when the Australians landed). They might reinforce overland from Port Moresby, which would suit me fine, as it would slow the campaign even more.
In Luganville, our submarines have not being successful, and the area is teeming with DE, so we might interrupt the submarine campaign. On the other hand, less and less task forces are being seen in the port, which suggests we succeeded in delaying enemy operations.
Thoughts
I took a day off from the game yesterday, and came back this morning with what I believe is a better understanding of the situation. Over the recent weeks, the slow going of the campaign in China made me put too much emphasis on the Pacific. My strategic goal is the capture of China, and then a land campaign in India. In the Indies, South Pacific, and everywhere else I am fighting a defensive war, trying to delay the Allies, and make every one of their moves cost.
Right now, the campaign in China is going fine, the siege of Chungking is longer than I hoped, but we’re only in July, and there are good chances that everything could be over in autumn, a very early date to be done with Chiang.
The Andamans and Burma are my second most important theater. The goal of the air battle over Port Blair is to prevent an Allied move into Burma by keeping enemy fighters busy, and forcing the bombers to fly largely ineffective night missions. Meanwhile, lots of anti-air units are on their way, with radar and better AA guns, I believe I can make even those night raids bloody affairs.
In the South Pacific, the situation seems to be back in control. I have a defensive line north of Buna and Terapo, two crack infantry divisions (18th and 38th) on their way through the jungle, and I believe a reckless attack on Guadalcanal will be costly for the Allies.
My main problem, I believe, is that I spend too little time improving my defenses elsewhere. I need to garrison Flores, and the Marshalls, and those islands around Ambon, and my bases in Burma. I need to take the time to work on all this, looks at Tracker, get the units, set the transports, move everyone, prep, and click, click and click again.
Thinking of it, this might be one of the reasons why discussions about this game, between people who like it (our AAR are the proof: you don’t spend months playing a game you don’t like), sometimes get a bit overboard. We all know this game means a long term commitment (you don’t play 1500 turns in a short while), that the system is very complex, and takes months, probably years, to master, and that the level of detail means lots of decisions, and calculations, and thoughts. But another important factor is the time needed to “just play one turn”. Thanks to the inimitable GG approach to computer interface (want this? I’ll add a button), you need a while to play each turn, and most of the time is not spent thinking about the game, but about the details of the “inner systems” and user interface.
Right now, I need about two hours to play a turn, including watching the replay (and I am not going into the details of each action, on fast speed, the bombardment of Chungking takes over 10 minutes), saving and sending the game to my opponent, loading the turn into tracker, having a look at the situation, checking all the CS resource convoys, to dock them when they don’t (they usually don’t), working on the three or four important places that need to be addressed this day, and then doing some of the rest. And note that after those two hours, I have done very little of the background work, ie reinforcing bases, building things, looking at the economy, improving patrols, moving troops, caring about pilots and squadrons, looking at leaders…
This might be one aspect of the frustration we often feel. You can’t play such a long game without commiting fully to it, but committing a long campaign also means committing to two hours a day just sending the turns around, and probably four or five every other or third turn, most of this additional time being spent clicking, and fighting the system.
Maybe, that’s the reason why we resent the system when it becomes unfriendly, and why terse comments like “you did that wrong”, and slightly patronizing explanations about the historical relevance of this or that click process, are not always taken in good jest.
I’m still dreaming of a new interface for this game. I explained my views on this a couple of months ago, on a thread Bullwinkle had started against the “next version of AE”. I believe it would be technically feasible, because the engine, and the interface are quite separated (Tracker is the proof), and the system can be ‘taken as granted’ by the interface designers. Good programs are usually the result of different people thinking about the calculations (the model, the OOB, the game engine), and the interface (the map, the display, and the click process). I have my doubts on whether this might happen, though…
Non AE related
I used not to be very interested in naval warfare and sea stories, but began to read some under the influence of AE. Yesterday, I finished my first Horatio Hornblower novel, and had one of those ‘how could I live and not know about that’ moment. I’m subscribed, as they say on this forum, and interested in other age of sails novels (military or not). I also need to read a bit about ships, because I’m really suffering with the technical terms…
I first heard of Forrester when reading David Weber Honor Harrington novels, which try to transpose age of sails situation in the space age. Harrington are pretty good reads, in my opinion, the influence from Forrester is very clear, the science behind it is decent (not great, mind you, but decent), the politics and social ideas are pretty tame, but this is, unfortunately, very typical in SF. But his “naval” combats are good.
Oh, and for the wine drinkers here, had a Cornas yesterday. It is a northern Rhone Valley red wine, the vineyard is not very far from Cote Rotie, but on the other bank of the Rhone, and the Cornas only use Syrah as their grapes. The result is a very dark and strong wine, which might cost slightly less than the more famous Cote Rotie. 2009 is a very good year, and can be drunk now (Rhone valley wines don’t really keep, in my opinion). I’m finishing it for lunch today, but have three more bottles of it in the cellar. Life is good!
Oh, and for the wine drinkers here, had a Cornas yesterday. It is a northern Rhone Valley red wine, the vineyard is not very far from Cote Rotie, but on the other bank of the Rhone, and the Cornas only use Syrah as their grapes. The result is a very dark and strong wine, which might cost slightly less than the more famous Cote Rotie. 2009 is a very good year, and can be drunk now (Rhone valley wines don’t really keep, in my opinion). I’m finishing it for lunch today, but have three more bottles of it in the cellar. Life is good!
Ach, to be in europe where you might find these ... my only saving grace are friends who bring me back some Dalmatian vintages every summer. [;)]
Both my opponent and my bombers made it through the CAP screen today. In the morning, two groups of B17-E bombed Rabaul. The first one, flying over 10 000 feet, was intercepted by the CAP, a bomber was shot down and another one damaged. The second one flew lowed, and managed to hit cargoes in the port.
Morning Air attack on Rabaul , at 106,125
Weather in hex: Partial cloud
Raid spotted at 12 NM, estimated altitude 5,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 20
A6M3 Zero x 1
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 5
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 4 damaged
Japanese Ships
AKE Tatuno Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
xAK Toyohasi Maru, Bomb hits 1
xAK Asakaze Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
Both ships are in better shape than the report suggests, but I need to fly some fighters are lower altitudes.
In the afternoon, we had a similar affair over Port Blair. Much to my surprise, Betties from Georgetown flew at very long range, and attacked the ships with bombs before the CAP could intervene.
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Port Blair at 46,58
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Raid detected at 35 NM, estimated altitude 6,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 16
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb Trop x 18
Hurricane IIc Trop x 5
P-38E Lightning x 7
P-40E Warhawk x 5
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Allied Ships
xAKL Nanchang
CL Ceres, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CLAA Van Heemskerck, Bomb hits 1
xAKL Katong, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
I am not trying my luck again tomorrow, as it seems clear low CAP will be there, but I have ordered all the surface forces in Singapore to merge with the battleship force now in Georgetown and attack Port Blair in a few days. If my opponent takes his time unloading, the Allies might be short of a few more cruisers by the end of the week…
More wait
The troops in Chungking should be ready in a few days. I have more than 4500 AV in town now, against 5400 unsupplied enemies. Our last attack achieved 1:3 odds, but failed to reduce the forts (level three now). I have good hopes for the next one.
In the South, two divisions and a brigade have arrived in Liuchow. I am bombarding tomorrow, to assess enemy strength.
In Bangkok, my fighters are ready. I am waiting a few more days: my opponent seems to be reinforcing his CAP to protect his ships, which means more fatigue. I will be ready to attack tomorrow, just waiting for a decent weather forecast.
I am not playing very seriously, these days. Turns get done, and sent, but I am not spending a lot of time on them. My goal is to keep the war going, until interest comes back (it certainly will).
I am not playing very seriously, these days. Turns get done, and sent, but I am not spending a lot of time on them. My goal is to keep the war going, until interest comes back (it certainly will).
I think the fall of Chungking will help in that regard. Sometimes these long sieges just suck the life out of you, but once you are victorious you'll get a new lease on life and get ready to plan the next move. [8D]
In my other PBEM as the Allies, I've sure noticed the change in air combat when it comes to the height difference between CAP and attacking bombers and how it influences the chance of interception. My opponent was flying CAP at 30k (we've unfortunately both resorted to using that altitude to try and gain the dive bonus) and I sent in a large raid of B-24's at only 8k to target an airbase. The CAP got a couple of passes and that was it before the bombers completely smashed the airfield and were gone. There were other factors contributing to poor interception of course, but it definitely shows there's a price to pay for being caught out of position from flying too high.
After the fall of Chungking you can get cracking on shoring up your defensive positions. Get those troops deployed, grab a shovel and get digging. [8D]
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
Enemy cargoes are unloading. My bombers didn’t go in today, as I expected the CAP to fly low. Three submarines were sent in, but failed to attack. One of them hit a mine.
A large surface task force is on its way, and should come bombarding tomorrow or the day after. I am not too afraid about the minefield, which should not be too large (it just began being laid, apparently).
In Bangkok, my fighters are ready and rested. Weather forecast is on “thunderstorms”, which is synonymous for “abominable” in these parts. I am waiting for “overcast”, which is the best I can hope to get at this time of the year, to send them in.
The bad news is that my opponent still manages to resupply the base, the good one is that he is using a lot of resources for this. I’d rather have his fighters defending the Andamans than escorting bombers over Burma (where flak from China is arriving… we shot four Blenheims over Magwe today).
Solomons
In Luganville, my submarines found no ship in port. Everyone seems to have left. On the other hand, a large task force was spotted sailing north. Nine ships, CA and APD, were detected between Luganville and Ndeni.
Despite the APD, I very much doubt this is an invasion force for Lunga (or there would be more ships, more planes, more everything). It could be an invasion force for Ndeni, where I have an SNLF company, or it could be a bombardment force for Lunga.
I am betting on Lunga. A battleship squadron is waiting in Tulagi, ready to jump at the enemy if they linger here (or attack unloading ships in Ndeni). KB has been ordered south, just in case, and I have a screen of submarines south of the Solomons, which might catch the enemy on his way in or out.
Liuchow
We bombarded Liuchow today, and found 1150 enemy AV (I have about 800). The enemy tried to shock attack at once. This worked a couple of weeks ago in Kweilin, when a brigade had advanced alone. This time, I was more careful.
Ground combat at Liuchow (74,55)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 5453 troops, 51 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1141
Defending force 23601 troops, 154 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 797
Allied adjusted assault: 73
Japanese adjusted defense: 479
Allied assault odds: 1 to 6
Enemy losses are low, but disruption must be ugly after a shock attack at 1:6 odds. I am trying a counterattack tomorrow, hoping that disruption, fatigue, and supplies will compensate for my lower AV.
In Chungking, the bombardment today reported about 5350 AV. I have 4550, and will attack tomorrow.
Centres of interest
Hi Joseph,
A victory in Chungking would certainly be a great boost to imperial morale. I am sort of dreading it, though, because it will mean I need to address the next phase, and the unit movements, and the mop up operations in China, and the offensive in Burma, and… I’m not sure my current lack of interest is related to the game situation. Things are happening, in Port Blair, in the Solomons, in New Guinea, and the game moves fast enough to maintain some form of narrative (even in this AAR, I hope).
In my opinion, the issue lies more with the “time budget” I am able to devote to the game. As we all know, a turn can use anything between 30 minutes and a day, depending on how seriously you process it. I want to keep the 5-6 turns/week pace we have been maintaining so far, because I believe lower turn around would probably reduce our motivation. Taking into account those days when I can’t play, this means the time to replay, play the turn, and update the AAR is my “time budget” for the game.
This means a balance has to be found between playing too fast (there is no point botching turns in a game that lasts several years), and letting AE become my only hobby, because this wouldn’t be sustainable, and I’d end up hating the game.
At the beginning of this game, I was probably spending about four hours a day, on average, on the game. This includes replays, turns and AAR. I don’t think you can avoid this during the early months of the war, but I cannot commit so much time for too long, or work, family, and other hobbies will suffer.
Right now, I am trying to go down to two hours a day, and one four hour turn a week. I am not there yet, but I think that would be my ideal long term “AE time budget”.
I totally understand where you are coming from now. The biggest hit to me since playing WitPAE has been the complete lack of time to work on models. I used to stay up quite late so time wasn't really an issue, but things have changed. Losing those extra few hours means there isn't time for both hobbies and something has to give. I'm devoting more time to the models of late, but the trick is finding the balance to make sure WitPAE is not all that I'm doing with my free time. Of course, playing two games doesn't help either. [8|][:D]
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
In my opinion, the issue lies more with the “time budget” I am able to devote to the game. As we all know, a turn can use anything between 30 minutes and a day, depending on how seriously you process it. I want to keep the 5-6 turns/week pace we have been maintaining so far, because I believe lower turn around would probably reduce our motivation. Taking into account those days when I can’t play, this means the time to replay, play the turn, and update the AAR is my “time budget” for the game.
Francois,
Exactly why I am unable to start a PBEM game. RL doesn't allow me a consistent commitment of time. Currently, I am lucky to get 30 min /day available for this game, including reading the AAR's. My AI game really suffers. Right now I am at 12/29/41 in a game that I started 11/11/12, so roughly a turn every other day. When my next class starts, that will dwindle to one turn/week if I am lucky. [:(]
Hornblower??? I LOVED those books Francois!!! They are amazing! Read them all 2 times and i'm willing to start back again!
Also the BBC TV series, produced some 10 years ago, is very very good! But you gotta to love the sea to really appreciate them imho[:)]
I’m still playing fast. Right now, I am trying to focus on one theater every turn, and limit the rest to “regular maintenance”. This means the economy doesn’t get much interest. I will certainly regret this in a couple of months, when some units are still in the Home Islands and when my industrial output gets all wrong, but it does make for a nice game, hic et nunc.
July 12th 1942
China was the focus, today…
Liuchow
After the failed Allied shock attack, yesterday, our counterattack worked. We are outnumbered, but managed to achieve lucky 1:1 odds, reduce the forts, and destroy a handful of enemy squads.
Ground combat at Liuchow (74,55)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 23395 troops, 154 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 777
Defending force 37234 troops, 244 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1083
Japanese adjusted assault: 463
Allied adjusted defense: 459
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 3)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 2
Japanese ground losses:
801 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 67 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 4 (1 destroyed, 3 disabled)
My troops need some rest, but the prospects are good. I can probably take the base in a week or so.
Chungking
Today was our fifth deliberate attack against Chungking. Odds were not as nice as I hoped (1:4 only), but we did reduce the forts by one level, and damaged a good number of enemy squads.
Ground combat at Chungking (76,45)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 183598 troops, 2706 guns, 1462 vehicles, Assault Value = 4839
Defending force 195568 troops, 954 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 5305
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2
Japanese adjusted assault: 1409
Allied adjusted defense: 5955
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 4 (fort level 2)
Next day bombardments put enemy AV at 4700 and mine at 3500. The AV gap is closing. I have lots of support in the city (five HQ, including Kwantung). I want to see whether this can speed AV recovery, and allow me to attack again in a week or two.
Yesterday, swordfishes from Port Blair had attacked cargoes unloading in Trinkat. Today, I sent Zeroes and Oscars from Victoria point and Sabang protect them.
In the morning, we had a swordfish raid over Trinkat
Morning Air attack on TF, near Trinkat at 44,64
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 6
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 5
Allied aircraft
Swordfish I x 3
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
Swordfish I: 2 destroyed
And then Dauntlesses
Morning Air attack on TF, near Trinkat at 44,64
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 6
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 5
Allied aircraft
SBD-3 Dauntless x 7
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
SBD-3 Dauntless: 4 destroyed
And then again Beaufort, with Hurricanes as escorts
Morning Air attack on TF, near Trinkat at 44,64
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 4
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 5
Allied aircraft
Beaufort I x 6
Hurricane IIc Trop x 9
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort I: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
At the end of the day, nine Dauntlesses, four Swordfishes and two Beauforts are reported shot down, a pretty good result in my opinion.
Near Timor, a similar situation occurred over Saumlaki, where an amphibious task force is unloading an SNLF unit. Sixteen Banshees from Darwin were reportedly shot down by the CAP, flying from Dili and Ambon.
Finally, Zeroes from Lae and Madang had a good day over Terapo, and shot twice their losses of Warhawks and Airacobras. Overall, the enemy lost 35 planes for 9 ours. This will not compensate the heavy losses of last month, but it is nice anyway.
This seems to confirm that CAP, even at long range, seems to work very well against unescorted, or lightly escorted, bomber strikes. I fell victim to this CAP effectiveness a few days ago (in Darwin and then against the British CV), and it turned again my opponent today. I still believe CAP is way too efficient. Over Saumlaki, four Nicks and two Zeroes, flying CAP at long range, managed to destroy 16 Banshees, more than were reported flying… Over Trinkat, seven Dauntlesses were seen arriving, yet nine were shot.
But such results are encouraging: as the war unfolds, Japan will often be CAPping bases, which the Allies try to bomb, and efficient CAPs will go my way.
Bastille day falls on Christmas eve… Merry Bastille day to you, dear reader. Many happy returns, food beverage and all that.
July 14th 1942
Port Blair
After Java fell, I sent a lot of ships to Singapore for repairs, and they happen to be back online at the same time. Since Singapore is close to the Andamans, Port Blair was chosen as the target of their shakedown cruise. We found planes, there…
Night Naval bombardment of Port Blair at 46,58 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
Allied aircraft
no flights
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIc Trop: 5 damaged
Hurricane IIb Trop: 13 damaged
Hurricane IIb Trop: 1 destroyed on ground
P-40E Warhawk: 4 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 1 destroyed on ground
Catalina I: 3 damaged
P-38E Lightning: 1 damaged
Beaufort I: 1 destroyed on ground
Allied ground losses:
33 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 35
Port hits 11
I will sweep tomorrow, see if we can take advantage of the damage done today.
China
I have brought several headquarters to Chungking, and this seems to be paying dividends. The odds, today, were 3800:4700. I repaired 300 AV, while the KMT lost 50.
In Liuchow, a second attack failed to reduce the forts (still level two), or achieve 1:1 odds, but did destroy 50 enemy squads (for only one on our side).
We’re getting there.
TRACOM
Since the beginning of the war, I have sent almost all my 80+ pilots to TRACOM, and now have 100 IJN and 50 IJA pilots there. It must be a good thing, but I realize I am not sure how TRACOM works. Here is what I’ve figured so far.
Without TRACOM, IJA and IJN pilots need a year to be trained to their “start level”. Every month a number of pilots equal to the replacement level (about 300 right now) enter training at zero experience. Every month, they gain experience, and graduate once they reach some fixed level (between 30 and 40, I think), or after 12 months, or sometimes less, if squadrons require more pilots than there are graduates (but then, pilot experience will be lower).
My hunch is that without TRACOM, pilots get 3XP/month on average, which would bring them around 36 when they graduate. TRACOM increases experience gain, which means pilots graduate earlier, or are pulled into depleted squadrons with better experience. This means TRACOM should reduce the number of pilots in training (from 12 x replacement rate to lower values), and therefore the HI cost for pilots.
In practice, this should mean that average experience for month 1-3, or 4-6 should go up, and the number of pilots for 10-12 should go down (as most of them would have reached graduation levels already).
But I don’t see this in Tracker. Over the course of the game, the number of pilots in training went down, but lost about 12% in all classes. 1-3 and 4-6 experience went up, but later classes went down. Meanwhile, replacement rates went down. I believe some form of feedback is at work here, and Tracker doesn’t quite reflect reality (ie the “training months” there aren’t quite months.
My impression is that TRACOM causes trainees to learn faster, and this materializes in some pilots “skipping” a month. Every month end, most pilots jump to the next month, but some skip a class, and a month. This might explain why average experience for 7-9 month recruits went down: those are people who should be in the 4-6 group.
Also, shorter training periods cause pilot replacement rate to go down. My IJN rate went down from 320 to 290, a solid 10%. IJA, with less TRACOM pilots went from 320 to 310. This would probably be the most important factor. Many JFB have noticed that the cost of pilot training became huge in scenario 2. Maybe this makes TRACOM mandatory, as a way to curb the expense.
I might, of course, be totally wrong on this…
Christmas, food and wine
Since little is happening in the game, I might as well write about food… Christmas eve was definitely “naval” here. We had salmon (marinated in house), scallops, and snails (not quite seafood, but slimy enough, with butter and garlic, and my youngest daughter, five year old Madeleine, just loves snails, so we will have snails).
The wine was a sweet Loire Valley white, a Pouilly Fumé. It is a Sauvignon white, not very different from some “sugary dry” wines you get in California or New Zealand). It wasn’t that good with the salmon: marinated salmon is a bit sweet already, and you’d need a drier white on it, but it matched the snails, and the garlic, very well. Now, Sauvignon and garlic are by no means obvious, but they do work very well together. Scallops were fine with the Pouilly, but scallops are easy matches.
The other highlight of the dinner was the cheese. We tend to eat local, and since we live in the Brie area (south east of Paris), we eat Brie. There are several varieties of Brie. The Meaux is the one everybody knows, the largest “wheels” (about 70 cm diameter), the mildest taste too. The other extreme is the Melun Brie, smaller, and much stronger. If you like strong cheese (and if you don’t live in a “pasteurized only” part of the world), Melun brie is a must try. In between, you have Nangis, Montereau and Provins, produced in very small quantities (I don’t think I ever saw them in shops in Paris, just 75 km away). Brie works pretty well with white wines.
Tomorrow is Christmas lunch, with the extended family. Foie gras with a mellow white, and roasted beef with a Bordeaux (not sure which…) I love Christmas!
Since the beginning of the war, I have sent almost all my 80+ pilots to TRACOM, and now have 100 IJN and 50 IJA pilots there. It must be a good thing, but I realize I am not sure how TRACOM works. Here is what I’ve figured so far.
Without TRACOM, IJA and IJN pilots need a year to be trained to their “start level”. Every month a number of pilots equal to the replacement level (about 300 right now) enter training at zero experience. Every month, they gain experience, and graduate once they reach some fixed level (between 30 and 40, I think), or after 12 months, or sometimes less, if squadrons require more pilots than there are graduates (but then, pilot experience will be lower).
My hunch is that without TRACOM, pilots get 3XP/month on average, which would bring them around 36 when they graduate. TRACOM increases experience gain, which means pilots graduate earlier, or are pulled into depleted squadrons with better experience. This means TRACOM should reduce the number of pilots in training (from 12 x replacement rate to lower values), and therefore the HI cost for pilots.
In practice, this should mean that average experience for month 1-3, or 4-6 should go up, and the number of pilots for 10-12 should go down (as most of them would have reached graduation levels already).
But I don’t see this in Tracker. Over the course of the game, the number of pilots in training went down, but lost about 12% in all classes. 1-3 and 4-6 experience went up, but later classes went down. Meanwhile, replacement rates went down. I believe some form of feedback is at work here, and Tracker doesn’t quite reflect reality (ie the “training months” there aren’t quite months.
My impression is that TRACOM causes trainees to learn faster, and this materializes in some pilots “skipping” a month. Every month end, most pilots jump to the next month, but some skip a class, and a month. This might explain why average experience for 7-9 month recruits went down: those are people who should be in the 4-6 group.
Also, shorter training periods cause pilot replacement rate to go down. My IJN rate went down from 320 to 290, a solid 10%. IJA, with less TRACOM pilots went from 320 to 310. This would probably be the most important factor. Many JFB have noticed that the cost of pilot training became huge in scenario 2. Maybe this makes TRACOM mandatory, as a way to curb the expense.
I might, of course, be totally wrong on this…
Not totally wrong at all. I think you have it mostly correct. I have only a couple of caveats:
1. You can't take pilots from your training school until you get you training air groups. The first one arrives for IJ in late '44 I beleive.
2. Your rate stays steady. I beleive what happens is that the rate displayed in the number that will start the next month. However, if some of your pilot trainees graduate a month early due to TRACOM, additional pilots will be started to maintain the total number in school.
3. Because of (2) above, you can't actually save HI*, but you do get more pilots in your pool ready for service.
I'm not positive on all of this. Michael, or one of the other dev's would have to comment for us to be sure.
*Until you get your training air groups. Then you can pull pilots out of the school early and definitely save a LOT of HI. Of course, these pilots are 15-20 EXP and do require training before they can even be trusted to taxi an aircraft on the ground. [;)]
Since little is happening in the game, I might as well write about food… Christmas eve was definitely “naval” here. We had salmon (marinated in house), scallops, and snails (not quite seafood, but slimy enough, with butter and garlic, and my youngest daughter, five year old Madeleine, just loves snails, so we will have snails).
The wine was a sweet Loire Valley white, a Pouilly Fumé. It is a Sauvignon white, not very different from some “sugary dry” wines you get in California or New Zealand). It wasn’t that good with the salmon: marinated salmon is a bit sweet already, and you’d need a drier white on it, but it matched the snails, and the garlic, very well. Now, Sauvignon and garlic are by no means obvious, but they do work very well together. Scallops were fine with the Pouilly, but scallops are easy matches.
The other highlight of the dinner was the cheese. We tend to eat local, and since we live in the Brie area (south east of Paris), we eat Brie. There are several varieties of Brie. The Meaux is the one everybody knows, the largest “wheels” (about 70 cm diameter), the mildest taste too. The other extreme is the Melun Brie, smaller, and much stronger. If you like strong cheese (and if you don’t live in a “pasteurized only” part of the world), Melun brie is a must try. In between, you have Nangis, Montereau and Provins, produced in very small quantities (I don’t think I ever saw them in shops in Paris, just 75 km away). Brie works pretty well with white wines.
Tomorrow is Christmas lunch, with the extended family. Foie gras with a mellow white, and roasted beef with a Bordeaux (not sure which…) I love Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you all.
Ach, I miss France. Still we try here.
Our original menu was Christmas goose with traditional bread pudding, but I didn't plan for it well enough in advance (goose is hard to find in USA now as so few people really cook), and so we had to change the menu to standing rib roast (beef). But then, I had car trouble yesterday, required a tow, and so delayed me 3 hours ... so no time for roast. MENU CHANGE. Instead we went for a whole salmon, slow roasted @ 105C. This was served with 2 sauces to choose complement it. The first, a slow roasted tomato sauce (one of my favorites, tomatoes are seasoned, then slow roasted for about 3 hours, combined with olives and lemon zest)* and then the second; a brown butter sauce with capers. The 2nd sauce was a new one to try and was a big hit, quite nice. This was had with fresh baked bread, stir fried green beans with garlic, and a very nice butternut squash soup garnished with creme-fraiche and toasted pumpkin seeds. Wine was a sparkling white from CA which as only so-so.** Dessert was Crepe Suzette and Humbolt Fog with warm honey drizzled on top.
*The slow roasted tomatoes were already being done as today we will be making a slow roasted tomato tart for our Christmas brunch.
** Pouilly Fumé would have gone so much better (especially the soup), but alas, because of my delays many stores were already closing and so my wine choices were very limited. I had a great Pinot for the goose, and several good reds for the beef ... but the change to salmon caught me short of a good wine to pair with it.
