Rise of the Sheep! JocMeister(A) vs. Obvert(J)

[JocMeister]

Got the next turn! Unexpected events...but all happy news. Invasion TF is safe and sound and Erik has at least 1 CA less. Possible 3 if Oden is willing! [:D]

But today AE will stand back for some quality time with the family! Its 15 degrees outside and the sun is shining. So we are heading out for a picnic in the nature reserve just a short walk away! Spring has arrived!!! [:D] [&o][&o][&o]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Got the next turn! Unexpected events...but all happy news. Invasion TF is safe and sound and Erik has at least 1 CA less. Possible 3 if Oden is willing! [:D]

But today AE will stand back for some quality time with the family! Its 15 degrees outside and the sun is shining. So we are heading out for a picnic in the nature reserve just a short walk away! Spring has arrived!!! [:D] [&o][&o][&o]

Spring arrival is an excellent reason to suspend operations! I am still waiting for the first really warm day here - the temp. finally got up to about +5ºC yesterday and for the first time this morning I can see a small patch of open water on the river ice below my apartment. It's a late spring for us![:(]

[JocMeister]

7th-8th May -44

Some interesting two days for sure! Again I get lucky. [&o]

New Guinea
The reported KB TF seen in the screen in post #939 turns out to be the Yamatos + friends. [X(] The Catalina squadron commander is sacked and sent to Alaska. Luckily Erik goes for Biak and misses my Assault TF. They are now safe and soundly away. The damaged AKA sinks on the 8th while the Fletcher DD is on its way to Sydney for repairs.

Biak
I´m now in the exact situation I feared I would be. I´m stopped dead in the water. I have another ID, 2 Arty units and a tank unit prepped for Biak. This will not be enough to move him out. Noemfoor is the same thing. So what to do now? He is airlifting in troops every day and even with a 120 Hellcat LRCAP over the base not a single one is shot down and troops increased with 400 troops. [8|]I would love to start grinding he troops down at Biak but I´m still recovering from the last attack and another one as disastrous might leave me open for counter attack. C-R-A-P. [:(] Anyone have any ideas?

Darwin

Apparently the battle for Darwin is not over! Eriks sends in a powerful CA force to interrupt unloading and sink ships. I´m glad to say it backfires badly for him! [:D] He first tangles with the Fletcher force exchanging a few hits. Then begins a running battle with the numerous PTs protecting the harbour. This is inconclusive until...

Night Time Surface Combat, near Darwin at 76,124, Range 8,000 Yards

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
E13A1 Jake: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CA Chikuma
CA Maya
CA Furutaka, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk <-- BOOM!
CL Noshiro
DD Ikazuchi
DD Amagiri
DD Oboro
DD Akebono

Allied Ships
PT-452, Shell hits 1
PT-453
PT-454, Shell hits 1, on fire
PT-455
PT-456, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PT-457, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
PT-458
PT-459, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PT-461
PT-496
PT-497, Shell hits 1, and is sunk

The many battles with the PTs leave his TF hanging inside bomber range in the morning!

Morning Air attack on TF, near Darwin at 75,124

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid detected at 73 NM, estimated altitude 9,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 27 minutes

Japanese aircraft
J2M3 Jack x 17
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 27



Allied aircraft
Spitfire Vc Trop x 11
SBD-5 Dauntless x 16


Japanese aircraft losses
J2M3 Jack: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Spitfire Vc Trop: 5 destroyed
SBD-5 Dauntless: 10 destroyed
SBD-5 Dauntless: 1 destroyed by flak

Japanese Ships
CA Chikuma, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Noshiro, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Morning Air attack on TF, near Darwin at 75,124

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 5,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes

Japanese aircraft
J2M3 Jack x 10
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 26



Allied aircraft
Spitfire Vc Trop x 11
B-25G Mitchell x 32
SBD-5 Dauntless x 2


No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Spitfire Vc Trop: 1 destroyed
B-25G Mitchell: 12 destroyed, 13 damaged
B-25G Mitchell: 1 destroyed by flak
SBD-5 Dauntless: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CA Maya, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CA Chikuma, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Noshiro, on fire
DD Ikazuchi

The following night the PTs again connect and plants a Torpedo in CA Maya.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Darwin at 75,124, Range 9,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Maya, Torpedo hits 1
DD Ikazuchi
DD Amagiri

Allied Ships
PT-464
PT-465
PT-466
PT-467
PT-468, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
PT-469
PT-470
PT-471
PT-472
PT-473, Shell hits 1

But, it doesn´t end there! [:)]

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Truscott at 71,121

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 17 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 9



Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 21
SB2C-1C Helldiver x 30


No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 5 destroyed
SB2C-1C Helldiver: 6 damaged

Japanese Ships
CA Chikuma, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Noshiro, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Akebono, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

So this little adventure cost Erik 2 CAs, 1 CL, 1DD and CA Maya will have to go to the yard. Not too bad! Thats 12 Sunk CAs in total! [&o]

Burma
Erik has indeed abandoned Bessain and Prome. Probably withdrawing and setting up a perimeter in the jungle. This will make it considerably harder for me to divide his forces. It also means I will have to divide my own forces to garrison both if I want them.

In the North things are looking much better! I unleash the 2Es and 4Es and they cause around 1000 over two day on the stack SW of Prome. Erik is trying to slow me down bombing my stack. They are still moving at 8 hexes per day. So I should arrive before he can reinforce.

Strategic bombing
My first and last daylight strategic bombing in this war is conducted. From now on my B29s will be just be a sideshow doing night bombings. While I suspected this its still sad to see how nerfed the allied 4E bombers have become. Looks like the B29s are even more fragile than the B24.

Morning Air attack on Medan , at 46,76

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid detected at 63 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 19 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 18



Allied aircraft
B-29-1 Superfort x 101


No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
B-29-1 Superfort: 2 destroyed, 30 damaged


Oil hits 139

Doesn´t look too bad eh? Wrong! This raid cost me 21! B29s after OPS losses are counted. So 18 Zeroes shoot down 21 B29s. Right... I wonder how it would have looked if it was Georges? 40-50 lost B29s? [8|]

Screens are coming up a little later!

[Speedysteve]

Hi JocMeister,
&nbsp;
That's really odd on your B29 losses. I've never had losses that bad.&nbsp;A recent example of my B29 attacks:
&nbsp;
Afternoon Air attack on Bangkok , at 56,62

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 62 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 19 minutes

Japanese aircraft
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A6M5b Zero x 15
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 32
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 11
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ki-84a Frank x 3



Allied aircraft
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; B-29-1 Superfort x 66


Japanese aircraft losses
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; B-29-1 Superfort: 14 damaged

I lost 2 x B29 on this one for example.

[Bullwinkle58]

Re the B-29s, look at their pilots. A lot of B-29 units come with rookies.

Also, 139 Oil hits! That's very likely 139,000 supply and 139 days to get back to where he was. That's what strat bombing is all about, Charlie Brown.

Look at the pilots. Also try to strat bomb with the B-29s at night and see what you get. Play with altitude too.

[JocMeister]

Speedy,
2 losses I could live with. But losing 21 B29s to 18 is just completely out of whack. I don´t know why my 4Es have suffered so badly throughout the game. My rule of thumb is:
-1 lost 4E for each airborne enemy fighter.

Don´t think I have missed the mark many times. It just kills strategic bombing. Whats the point of having long range bombers if they suffer unsustainable losses. If I had faced Georges with 4 Cannons instead of Zeroes I have no doubt I would have lost at least twice as many B29s. [:(] I wonder if your B29s were sheltered by the bad weather? Do you have any other examples in better weather? Have you ever suffered as heavy losses as I just did?

Bull,
They came with pretty decent pilots. All had 70 in LOW NAV! [:D] I of course changed them out for the very best pilots I had available. Some with over 80 in defensive skill and Ground bombing. Of course I lost 16 of them in this small raid... [:(]

I´ll have to try night bombings from now on. I only get 18 B29s per month so pool is completely empty now.

Whine/Rant

Some times this game infuriates me far beyond what is reasonable. Its just silly how much have been given to the Jap side. Three things brought the Japanese war machine to its knees (generalizing here ofc).

-Submarines
-Strategic bombings
-Pilot quality

All three things are just...removed in AE. If this was true for Scenario 2 I would have no complaints. But Scenario 1 is to be the "historical" scenario and its still just a fantasy.

I was really looking forward to trying to mount a strategic campaign in the game. My experience with night bombings are limited to trying to take out AFs but I doubt it will be possible to run a credible strategic campaign based on night bombings alone. At least until numbers really pick up in late 45/46. I know I shouldn´t draw to many conclusions based on one event alone. But this actually matches my experience with the game perfectly. Durabilty wise the B29 is just 9 higher then the B24J (61/70). Armament is just about the same with an added cannon in the rear of the B29. So why should it be much different then from my experience with the 4Es so far.

I´m just really disappointed right now. [:(]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Burma
Erik has indeed abandoned Bessain and Prome. Probably withdrawing and setting up a perimeter in the jungle. This will make it considerably harder for me to divide his forces. It also means I will have to divide my own forces to garrison both if I want them.

In the North things are looking much better! I unleash the 2Es and 4Es and they cause around 1000 over two day on the stack SW of Prome. Erik is trying to slow me down bombing my stack. They are still moving at 8 hexes per day. So I should arrive before he can reinforce.

Wow! Where did you get the Star Wars speeder bikes! [X(]

[Speedysteve]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Speedy,
2 losses I could live with. But losing 21 B29s to 18 is just completely out of whack. I don´t know why my 4Es have suffered so badly throughout the game. My rule of thumb is:
-1 lost 4E for each airborne enemy fighter.

Don´t think I have missed the mark many times. It just kills strategic bombing. Whats the point of having long range bombers if they suffer unsustainable losses. If I had faced Georges with 4 Cannons instead of Zeroes I have no doubt I would have lost at least twice as many B29s. [:(] I wonder if your B29s were sheltered by the bad weather? Do you have any other examples in better weather? Have you ever suffered as heavy losses as I just did?

Hi JocMeister,

I've never experienced losses like that TBH. Of course I'm unaware of Fabertong's pilot quality of his CAP. It's the only real differentiator here that I can think of. I've attacked over 30 times with these B29's in all types of weather at 8-15K feet and never lost more than 6-7 planes on 1 mission IIRC.

[JocMeister]

Speedy,

Perhaps you are doing a lot better than I am in the air and his pilot quality is as you say a lot lower. I ran a few quick test in a sandbox and while results arn´t as bad as I suffered in the game its still very severe. Normally in the sandbox I would average about 0.65-0.7 B29s per airborne Fighter (Georges). I´ll try to fiddle with it a bit more tomorrow.

I´ll have to settle for night missions for now. [:(]

[JocMeister]

9th May -44

Scratching my head here a little...

New Guinea
Now all of the sudden the KB is 100% positively revealed (see screen). Why did he decide to come down now all of the sudden? Its 5 days too late to do anything meaningful. I´m a bit wary he will try to push south and hit the various shipping I have around Dagua. I set all the TFs North of Hansa Bay to scurry in under CAP. If he goes for it its going to cost him badly.

Biak
I´ve pondered this to no end. I don´t have a solution to be honest. I will just have to bring in the remaining forces prepped for it and hope the last try was a catastrophic roll of the dice. Plan B is to try a dash with the Fast CVs between Truk and the Marianas after Eniwetok is captured to support a landing at Sorong. This is a bad plan and one I really don´t want to try.

Darwin
We manages to catch the stricken CL guarded by a wounded DD.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Truscott at 71,120, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Noshiro, Shell hits 20, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Akebono, Shell hits 20, and is sunk

Allied Ships
DD Black
DD Boyd
DD Clarence Bronson
DD Caperton
DD Dortch
DD Lewis Hancock
DD Hickox
DD Hunt

This should give me some peace and quiet. Darwin should reach level 9AF next turn. While I gather for the next Biak reinforcement I will focus here. DEI is almost empty! I have reconned most of the bases here and as usual there is 2000-8000 men on each base. A lot of them are empty! If I can continue to "pin" the KB around NG a jump here might be doable without CV support!

Burma
I´ll deal with that in a separate post!

Strategic bombing
Sandbox test confirms my worst fears. Using 50 B29s against 20 Georges losses are on average between 12-15 B29s. So daylight bombing will not be possible. I did some quick tests trying to night bomb the Magwe oil from 4 hexes away. In some 10 tries I never even once hit the oil so its not looking good. [:(] In the game I set them to night attack the oil at Lanchow. If they hit even a single point I will be pleasantly surprised.

KB
Here is the screen. To be honest I have no clue what he is doing here. Perhaps a show of force to let me know he won´t let me roam around here freely? I guess I will find out soon enough.
I´m pretty pleased he revealed their presence. I now know he has the vast bulk of the IJN in this area. If I was Erik I would be more concerned with the DEI?? But Erik is sneaky so I´m sure he has a purpose with this.

[BBfanboy]

I think he brought the whole gang along to stop you from reinforcing your landings, and perhaps to bring in the equipment for all those flown-in troops. Then he will try to wipe out your landed forces. [:(]
You need to take control of the air and sea around there to save your troops.

[JocMeister]

Burma

Lots of stuff happening here. Erik has indeed abandoned Prome and Bassein. A sound choice I think. I´ll of course take them both but Bassein will only get a very small garrison. Looking at the map I´m happy with the development in the North. I´ll have 2700 AV against this:

Defending force 17325 troops, 186 guns, 274 vehicles, Assault Value = 488

There is a possibility he has reinforced but I have bombed the stack heavily the last 3 days and no new units have been present. So I´m quietly optimistic! [:)]

In the south I´m pretty much at a loss on what to do. Eriks withdrawal kind of leaves me with only one option now and that is to cross into Prome with my main stack. He can then easily bottle me down again after that. I was contemplating going Bassein and then straight for Rangoon but ruled it out. It will be painfully obvious what I´m trying to do and the river crossing will take such a long time Erik can easily shift forces on the rail in time.

I´m toying with the option of going East out of Prome and then swing south and go for Pegu. This he won´t expect but will leave me very, very exposed. I´m certain there is opportunity here but I´m too inexperienced to see it! Anyone see anything obvious I´m missing?

Air war
Erik has withdrawn out of Rangoon and scattered his AF around the industrial centers. That won´t last long now that he knows he only needs 20 or so fighters at each base for protection. So he will soon be back in force. This time I will fight him when given the opportunity.

My bomber force is currently busy supporting the Northern operation.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

I think he brought the whole gang along to stop you from reinforcing your landings, and perhaps to bring in the equipment for all those flown-in troops. Then he will try to wipe out your landed forces. [:(]
You need to take control of the air and sea around there to save your troops.

I hope you are wrong because I can´t stop him if he tries. [:(] The one thing speaking against this is lack of troops. I´m not sure he has the troops to spare for a counter invasion. If he does he should use them for garrison the almost emtpy DEI instead of counter invading. I have 500 AV at Biak and 300 on Nomefoor. He would need a lot of troops to kill me off. I guess I will find out next turn!

But I do hope you are wrong!

[Speedysteve]

Hi JocMeister,
&nbsp;
Do you continuously keep Hollandia, Wewak and Atiape etc AF's closed so he can't interdict the area or is Erik not prone to sneak in planes to do this?
&nbsp;
Re: Burma. I'm stymied against Faber in my Burma campaign. I'm 2 months ahead of you but I've been stuck in the Jungles around where you are for 4 months and it's been a bloodbath! I hate Jungle.......

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Hi JocMeister,

Do you continuously keep Hollandia, Wewak and Atiape etc AF's closed so he can't interdict the area or is Erik not prone to sneak in planes to do this?

Re: Burma. I'm stymied against Faber in my Burma campaign. I'm 2 months ahead of you but I've been stuck in the Jungles around where you are for 4 months and it's been a bloodbath! I hate Jungle.......

I didn´t at first. But Erik jumped in some Naval bombers just as you say. I got away relatively cheap. I closed them pretty fast after that! [:D]

I´ve started hating Burma with a passion too! But a little less after I found out he has all but 2 divisions here. Now I feel a little better about it! [:D]

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Strategic bombing
Sandbox test confirms my worst fears. Using 50 B29s against 20 Georges losses are on average between 12-15 B29s. So daylight bombing will not be possible. I did some quick tests trying to night bomb the Magwe oil from 4 hexes away. In some 10 tries I never even once hit the oil so its not looking good. [:(] In the game I set them to night attack the oil at Lanchow. If they hit even a single point I will be pleasantly surprised.

It's early. B-29s in daylight against 3rd gen. fighters need their P-51 buddies. You don't have them yet, so adjust.

You won't get good pinpoint results on industry at night. If you want to do night do Manpower attacks at 9-10k feet and start fires. Read the manual on how large-scale fire attacks affect industry. Without looking I don't recall which Oil/Fuel centers in the west map are co-located with Manpower. Most are I think. Do some map work and find the best night targets you can. Hititng HI at this point is not bad either. Making his pilot taxes hurt is a viable strategy for 1944 B-29s.

[Speedysteve]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Hi JocMeister,

Do you continuously keep Hollandia, Wewak and Atiape etc AF's closed so he can't interdict the area or is Erik not prone to sneak in planes to do this?

Re: Burma. I'm stymied against Faber in my Burma campaign. I'm 2 months ahead of you but I've been stuck in the Jungles around where you are for 4 months and it's been a bloodbath! I hate Jungle.......

I didn´t at first. But Erik jumped in some Naval bombers just as you say. I got away relatively cheap. I closed them pretty fast after that! [:D]

I´ve started hating Burma with a passion too! But a little less after I found out he has all but 2 divisions here. Now I feel a little better about it! [:D]

Only thing I would say on MeatBall LCU's is they get oodles of them into 44......not to burst your bubble or anything as they can be stretched as, obviously, the Allies have more resources just not as a big a gap in AE as compared to RL.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
It's early. B-29s in daylight against 3rd gen. fighters need their P-51 buddies. You don't have them yet, so adjust.

You won't get good pinpoint results on industry at night. If you want to do night do Manpower attacks at 9-10k feet and start fires. Read the manual on how large-scale fire attacks affect industry. Without looking I don't recall which Oil/Fuel centers in the west map are co-located with Manpower. Most are I think. Do some map work and find the best night targets you can. Hititng HI at this point is not bad either. Making his pilot taxes hurt is a viable strategy for 1944 B-29s.

I just ran a lot of night bombing testing in my sandbox. You are as usual correct. Trying to hit oil during the night seems like a waste of time. I flew perhaps 50 times with 64 B29 causing a whooping 4! oil hits! [:D]

I´ll go through the map tonight and see if I can find any Manpower targets in range. I take it by your comment that starting fires can damage industry too? I´ll have to read up on this in general.

My other option is of course to use them for regular 4E duties. Bombing troops and closing Airfields. I guess I´m stuck with this unless there is a good amount of Manpower in range.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Speedy
Only thing I would say on MeatBall LCU's is they get oodles of them into 44......not to burst your bubble or anything as they can be stretched as, obviously, the Allies have more resources just not as a big a gap in AE as compared to RL.

Ouff, I just checked and you are right. Many are restricted though and almost all (in not all) are really low EXP!

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Speedy
Only thing I would say on MeatBall LCU's is they get oodles of them into 44......not to burst your bubble or anything as they can be stretched as, obviously, the Allies have more resources just not as a big a gap in AE as compared to RL.

Ouff, I just checked and you are right. Many are restricted though and almost all (in not all) are really low EXP!

I think most of them arrive at part-strength too. A lot of Armament and/or Vehicle points needed to flesh them out. Another good reason to hurt his HI production.