ENLIST TODAY (Docup (A) vs Koniu (J) No Koniu

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: DOCUP

AAAAAHHHHH I have AE block.  Someone help me.  I can't see or think of any moves.

I've heard that there is a little blue pill that can get you back up again ... in no time you'll be ready for action.

[Sakai007]

In my current game as the allies against the AI, I started out by sending all my heavy units south out of harms way on December 7th. My premise was the same as yours, code breakers knew of the attack. Instead of sending my untried battle fleets headlong into the fight, I ran away to fight another day. I learned many hard lessons through the war, and the way things changed from history is amazing. The Japanese took all the islands from the Solomons to Noumea. The pivotal battle of the entire war (until now, October 1944) was fought around Suva of all places. I had been counter punching invasion forces with CL/DD SAGs and doing quite well. All of a sudden a large CV force appears north of Suva and sinks an entire cruiser force returning from a strike. Fortunately the US CV's were already on their way to Suva, and after the Japanese bled their CV air groups dry in two days of heavy fighting over Suva, my CV's pounced on them sinking three CV's and a CVL.

As the war went on and I finally took back enough real estate to attack the Solomons, the slaughter of the Japanese cruiser fleet began. As it stands right now ten Jap CV's have been sunk, and well over 25 CA/CL. 1400 or so ships in all I have managed to do something that our admirals never managed to do, and that's lose an Essex class CV. In fact, I have lost 3, all of them to LBA. Rangoon is mine though, and B29 raids are hitting the HI from Saipan. This game has been AMAZING to watch over the last two years of play. Really nothing quite like it out there.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Sakai007

In my current game as the allies against the AI, I started out by sending all my heavy units south out of harms way on December 7th. My premise was the same as yours, code breakers knew of the attack. Instead of sending my untried battle fleets headlong into the fight, I ran away to fight another day. I learned many hard lessons through the war, and the way things changed from history is amazing. The Japanese took all the islands from the Solomons to Noumea. The pivotal battle of the entire war (until now, October 1944) was fought around Suva of all places. I had been counter punching invasion forces with CL/DD SAGs and doing quite well. All of a sudden a large CV force appears north of Suva and sinks an entire cruiser force returning from a strike. Fortunately the US CV's were already on their way to Suva, and after the Japanese bled their CV air groups dry in two days of heavy fighting over Suva, my CV's pounced on them sinking three CV's and a CVL.

As the war went on and I finally took back enough real estate to attack the Solomons, the slaughter of the Japanese cruiser fleet began. As it stands right now ten Jap CV's have been sunk, and well over 25 CA/CL. 1400 or so ships in all I have managed to do something that our admirals never managed to do, and that's lose an Essex class CV. In fact, I have lost 3, all of them to LBA. Rangoon is mine though, and B29 raids are hitting the HI from Saipan. This game has been AMAZING to watch over the last two years of play. Really nothing quite like it out there.

Yes, it is. I highly recommend that you take on a human opponent. That will take it to another level for you, and you will be amazed at all of the misconceptions you can pick up from playing the AI.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: DOCUP

AAAAAHHHHH I have AE block.  Someone help me.  I can't see or think of any moves.

That is a dangerous thing! I was suffering from the same after a severe case of SCLS. So now I´m a year behind schedule! Go all over the map. Look for easy targets even if they seem insignificant. A dot base here, and Island there. Anything under LBA is doable!

But first of all make a decision on where you want to be at the end of the year. Then work towards that goal with everything you have. I made a timeline on all things I want to do during 44. I will probably only be able to achieve half of them. But its so much easier playing the game when you have a clear idea on what you want to do.

Decide on a target and then work your way backwards. Want to take Rabaul by the end of 43? Where do you have to be in October to have a shot at it? Where do you have to be in July then? And so on! It will make it so much easier to play once you established those goals! [:)]

[DOCUP]

BB: I have never heard of those blue pills.  Sounds like your an expert on them, can you tell us more about them[:D].
 
Sakai:  Nice job in your AI game.  Better than I did.  I never made it to 43.  CR is right PBEM will increase your game enjoyment and show what bad habits you have.
 
Joc: I didn't have any moves to really make.  All my toys were in play doing something for my upcoming moves.  But I will remember what you said about an easy base to attack in the future.
 
19th Mar
 
China
Bombed
 
Rangoon
Koniu pulled most of his fighters out and I attacked.  We did mod damage to the AF and toated 9 Zeros.
 
Solomons
I see 2 TFs by Shortlands heading west.  Intel says one has BBs in it.   HMM wonder whats up another bombardment coming or what.
 
The rest of the world is quiet today.

[DOCUP]

20th Mar
 
Carriers unknown
 
China
Bombed.
 
Solomons
A small Jap SAG attacks our PT boats at MB.  2 PTs are sunk with one damaged, but 1 DD is sunk[:D].  I see an 8 ship TF at Rabual with BBs in it.  HMM wonder what hes up to now.  MB now has a Lv 3 AF and tomorrow it will have a Lv 2 port.  I think its time to set a trap for Koniu.  I'm going to bring in some more troops and supply.  But this time I will have some BBs and TT bombers.  I might put some DBs on TI for added support.
 
Truk
We sink an xAK and xAKL.
 
Perth
Jap sub TTs a tanker.  It should make it.
 
Gilberts
Lots of action seen in the past week.  Transports with SAGs seen at several of the islands.  I wonder whats up?

[DOCUP]

Koniu has a soccer match tomorrow so no turn.  So I have time to relax and look around.
 
Lets talk about China.  Map is below.
 
Supply is becoming an issue.  Almost all of my bases are low or out of supply.
 
Sian
Koniu is now moving again in this area. Both of us have alot of units tied up here. He is bombing the units around Sian.  Sian will be defended we will not give him this city for free.

[DOCUP]

Forgot the pic

[BBfanboy]

You may know this, but one of the strange things about China is how LCUs get no supply while in bases that are short of it, but they get supply if they step out of the base hex. They are all understrength so they eat supply by the millions filling out their ranks. You need to turn replacements off, or bring in a lot of supply to help out. Moving troops to Burma/india to fill out is good too, if you have the PP.

[DOCUP]

BB: thanks for the info.
 
20th Mar
 
China
Bombed
 
Perth
I 18 TTs and sinks the wounded tanker again.  Then DD Foxhound finds it and deals out 16 hits for some heavy damage. Thats 2 subs it has engaged and heavily damaged.
 
Home Islands
Thresher sink a small tanker and xAKL in one turn[:D].
 
Adak
My AM's find attack and sink I 3.
 
Rabual
2 days in a row I seen a 10 ship SAG with BBs in it.  Shortlands has 100 fighters.  I think hes going to make a move now.

[DOCUP]

21st Mar
 
Carriers unknown
 
Quiet turn.
 
Truk
We hit an AK with a TT.
 
Solomons
I see a CM moving south from Gastma.
 
Waiting for Hellcats and other things to arrive at stageing bases.

[DOCUP]

22 Mar
 
Carriers unknown
 
Sian
Cut off again.  This time by 3 IDs and one Tank Div.  These 4 units are 2 hex north of Sian with a group of our brave Chinese troops.  I don't know how long these guys can hold,  I am rushing new troops to help them out.
 
Burma
Helens bomb bases in Northern Burma and lose 9 to flak and another 30 or so damaged.
 
Solomons
The BB SAG is gone.  HMM.
 
Marshalls
We sink an AP.

[DOCUP]

23-24 Mar
 
Carriers unknown
 
China
Koniu attacks north of Sian.  His 3 IDs and 1 tank divs took a beating.  2,200 to my 1,000.  He also lost 20 AFV's and 500 inf disabled.  He will have to stand down for a day or so.  I should be able to get some fresh troops in and hold him off.
 
Burma
Japs bomb an AF with 26 planes and hits nothing.  Koniu was not happy about that.
 
Cocos Island
Jap sub sinks an xAK, then she hits a mine.
 
MB
We drop off several units and a bunch of supplies.  Jap subs are all over the place.  DE's hav been dispatched to try and deal with these pests.
 
Truk
We sink an xAK then our sub gets hammered.  It might not make it home.
 
Just got a Marine eng unit with 200 Nav support wish I had more of these guys.  What do the Marine amphib tank units do?

[BBfanboy]

Amphib tanks help unload your xAKs. They have a short-barreled 75mm gun to help suppress opposition, and they can drive up on shore before they drop the troops off. Think of them like an Amphib Force HQ - they speed up the unload and landing and reduce disablements from landing accidents. After the xAKs are unloaded, reload the Amphib tanks to take to the next invasion.

EDIT: PS - I looked at the specs for an LVT(A) unit and it showed an AV of 72, so you could conceivably use them in a post-landing battle, but I think it would waste a valuable vehicle in a situation it wasn't designed for.

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Amphib tanks help unload your xAKs. They have a short-barreled 75mm gun to help suppress opposition, and they can drive up on shore before they drop the troops off. Think of them like an Amphib Force HQ - they speed up the unload and landing and reduce disablements from landing accidents. After the xAKs are unloaded, reload the Amphib tanks to take to the next invasion.

Where did you get this info?

Alfred

[BBfanboy]

I looked up the info on what these unit vehicles were - LVT(A)1 or later LVT(A)4.
Then I looked up on Wikipedia what they were: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_Vehicle_Tracked

I don't have proof from game designers that they built in the offloading assistance etc., but what else would they treat them as? They would be pretty big targets with thin armour in a tank battle. They might be able to handle an MG nest.

[Alfred]

In game, LCUs which are classified as "armor" do not give any unloading bonus. Some "ship" classes do give an unloading bonus because of the built in abstraction but they are not "armor".

Alfred

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

In game, LCUs which are classified as "armor" do not give any unloading bonus. Some "ship" classes do give an unloading bonus because of the built in abstraction but they are not "armor".

Alfred

Well that is interesting. I played the Mariannas scenario and had some units listed as "Amphibious Trucks" which were apparantly for off-loading. I could not find this unit in the GC reinforcement queue as either engineer or armoured, but I'm pretty sure it had Amtracs, AKA LVT(A)s. I concluded that Amphibious Tank was the GC equivalent of the Amphib Truck.

From the Wikipedia info [gospel!] it is clear it was a hauling vehicle, not a battle tank.

[DOCUP]

BB and Alfred: Thanks for your replies.  Always appreciated.
 
25 Mar
 
Carriers unknown
 
China
Bombed.
 
Solomons
Koniu sets a CAP trap over 4 DDs and downs 69 planes.  Nothing that I can't replace but ouch.  We damage 2 subs off MB.
 
Perth
We damage another sub here.

[DOCUP]

Looking at the combat report, Koniu has 4 carrier fighter air groups in the Solomons and these are now based on the ground.  Wonder where his carriers are now?  Maybe I should go ahead with one of my amphib ops.  The 4 carriers are Kaga, Akagi, Hiyu, Zuhio.  I also see that most of his carriers are due upgrades next month.  I think they get their radar on this upgrade.  So I bet he won't miss this upgrade.  I don't know how long the upgrade is but once I get my Hellcats on board my CVs ops will start again.  Ineed to spread his CAP around.