Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, Docup(A)-Koniu(J)

[koniu]

If someone 2 years ago told me that game will last to 1944 i would not believe him.
Game maybe is not fast, it took us 27 months to play 25 month of game play but i have from it more fun that from any game i play in my live.

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

Thanks for sharing the econ info. Very interesting read ...

One of parts that is most fun for me. Almost as fun as sinking allied CVs.


1 January 1944[:D]

Only action in Marshals. I start retaking control on that area. Last turn we intercept allied bombers, today BBs bombard Wotje and Maloelap. During nigh as bonus they sunk bunch of PT and transport ships. They will retreat to Kusaie(I have there two AKE) and in 72h i should be able to bombard again. Not sure if enemy bases are closed but damage to runway and planes should be enough to to stop allies from flying in next few days.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Maloelap at 136,117, Range 9,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Haruna
BB Kirishima
DD Shimozuki
DD Nenohi
DD Hatsushima
DD Amagiri
DD Uzuki

Allied Ships
PT-317, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PT-319
PT-320, Shell hits 11, and is sunk
PT-321
PT-322, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
PT-323
PT-324, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PT-325
PT-326
PT-327
PT-328
PT-329
PT-330, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
---------------------------------------------

Night Time Surface Combat, near Maloelap at 136,117, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Haruna
BB Kirishima
DD Shimozuki
DD Nenohi
DD Hatsushima
DD Amagiri
DD Uzuki

Allied Ships
LCT-148, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
LCT-149, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
LCT-150, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
LCT-151, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
LCT-152, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
LCT-153, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
---------------------------------------------

Night Time Surface Combat, near Wotje at 135,115, Range 9,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato
CL Oyodo
DD Teruzuki
DD Susuzuki
DD Wakazuki
DD Umikaze
DD Hatsuharu

Allied Ships
PT-332, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PT-333
PT-334, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PT-335, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PT-336
PT-337, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
PT-338, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
PT-339, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PT-340, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PT-341, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
PT-342, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PT-343, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
--------------------------------------------

Night Time Surface Combat, near Wotje at 135,115, Range 10,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato
CL Oyodo
DD Teruzuki
DD Susuzuki
DD Wakazuki
DD Umikaze
DD Hatsuharu

Allied Ships
LST-126, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
LST-166, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
LST-167, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
LST-169, Shell hits 13, and is sunk
LST-170, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
LST-171, Shell hits 7, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
LST-172, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
LST-174, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
----------------------------------------------

Night Naval bombardment of Wotje at 135,115 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 30 damaged
F6F-3 Hellcat: 1 destroyed on ground
FM-1 Wildcat: 39 damaged
FM-1 Wildcat: 1 destroyed on ground
P-47D2 Thunderbolt: 69 damaged
P-47D2 Thunderbolt: 1 destroyed on ground
TBF-1 Avenger: 19 damaged
F4U-1 Corsair: 12 damaged
F4U-1 Corsair: 1 destroyed on ground
F-4 Lightning: 1 damaged
PBY-4 Catalina: 3 damaged

2 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato
CL Oyodo
DD Hatsuharu
DD Umikaze
DD Wakazuki
DD Susuzuki
DD Teruzuki

Allied Ships
xAK James Harlan, Shell hits 1, on fire

Allied ground losses:
14 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 2 (1 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Airbase hits 31
Airbase supply hits 19
Runway hits 109
Port supply hits 1
----------------------------------------------

Night Naval bombardment of Maloelap at 136,117

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
P-40K Warhawk: 17 damaged
P-40K Warhawk: 3 destroyed on ground
SBD-3 Dauntless: 5 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 1 destroyed on ground
P-39D Airacobra: 11 damaged
P-39D Airacobra: 1 destroyed on ground
P-47D2 Thunderbolt: 15 damaged
P-47D2 Thunderbolt: 1 destroyed on ground
B-26 Marauder: 2 damaged
PBY-5 Catalina: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Kirishima
BB Haruna
DD Uzuki
DD Amagiri
DD Hatsushima
DD Nenohi
DD Shimozuki

Allied ground losses:
14 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Airbase hits 16
Airbase supply hits 11
Runway hits 47

[koniu]

2-3 January 1944

Burma
Allies deliberate in Taung Gyi . Boys hold line but fort drop to 5. SAdly i see ~20k troop marching to Taung Gyi. We cant hold forever


Ground combat at Taung Gyi (59,48)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 54718 troops, 756 guns, 1278 vehicles, Assault Value = 2025

Defending force 39924 troops, 457 guns, 802 vehicles, Assault Value = 1221

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 5

Allied adjusted assault: 3106

Japanese adjusted defense: 18361

Allied assault odds: 1 to 5 (fort level 5)

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

Japanese ground losses:
569 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 85 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 13 disabled
Guns lost 54 (2 destroyed, 52 disabled)
Vehicles lost 13 (5 destroyed, 8 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1295 casualties reported
Squads: 11 destroyed, 148 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 30 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 51 disabled
Guns lost 27 (1 destroyed, 26 disabled)
Vehicles lost 59 (6 destroyed, 53 disabled)

DEI
Allies are bombing Ambon at night. Last turn bomb hit AKE in port. Tomorrow NF will protect sky.

Marshals
BBs reloaded, in 48h i will bombard enemy again.
RoiNamur runway repaired now time to repair AF infrastructure.

[koniu]

4 January 1944

Marshals
Battleships escorted by carriers return. Tomorrow they will bombard enemy position at nigh and at day bombers will throw second punch

I return just in time. It look that enemy AFs are again open. CV CAP have some job today. Enemy raid move against BB TF. ~35 enemy planes shot down. None of bombers get trough

Morning Air attack on TF, near Ailinglaplap at 133,117

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 73 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 29 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 10
A6M5 Zero x 69
A6M5b Zero x 12
A6M5c Zero x 6

Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 17
P-40K Warhawk x 15
SBD-3 Dauntless x 17

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 1 destroyed
A6M5b Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra: 5 destroyed
P-40K Warhawk: 2 destroyed
SBD-3 Dauntless: 13 destroyed

[koniu]

5,6,7 January 1944

Ups and downs


Burma
Allied sweeps over Taung-Gyi
First at night 9 (nine) B-25D1 strafe AF destroying 15 fighters and hard hitting AF.
At day runway end with 25damage
At day I counted 75 P47 and 18 F4U1-A plus 50 P-47 at LCAP. Not best day for IJAF. 65 planes lost in air (21 KIA, 19 WIA)30 on ground or ops plus 50 more stuck damaged at AF. I shot down 10 P-47 and 2 F4U[X(] I hope it will not always look like that for next 18 months or more

Tomorrow i going all in. Taung-Gyi will have 160 Plane CAP plus 250 fighters will LCAP.
If i fail tomorrow shot down decent numbers of enemy planes i will have to abandon Taung-Gyi leveeing troops there without air protection.

After that battle and battle i fight few days earlier i somehow disappointed from my CAP.
Not that i lost many planes bot how many plane i have in air when sweeps arrive.
AF not overstocked, AS in white, pilot fresh, good commanders, XP mix of 50-70, radar detection, CAP at 50% and when sweep arrive i have 5 planes in air incited of 20-30 and from 160 figters ready to fight i see 80-100 only fighting with rest dont even trying to take off.

Heavy industry
Now i know why Japan need to accumulate as much as passable of HI.
Only to replace all those lost\damaged(i will probably need to destroy them) planes over
Taung-Gyi i will need 2500 HI points.

When i read Obvert AAR and he is losing 1500 planes in day, that over 30k HI only to refill those units. Now i understand.

DEI
I lost 48 N1K1 over Babar when they meet CAP above base. In return 15 enemy shot down.
P-47 and F4U on CAP are deadly the same as on sweeeps

Hansa Bay.
I manage to shot down 25 enemy 2E bombing my troops in base.
Docup have now over 300AV in base. I hold two first attack but soon base will fall.

Marshals.
I again bomb Wotje and Maoeloap with BB. Roi-Namur is open and will have CAP from tomorrow


R&D
72h before Frank R will enter production. After watching my loses during last turn all factories will switch to production giving me 325 frames monthly.


Futsal
I weekend i playing in charity futsal tournament so keep fingers crossed for me and my team

[koniu]

I forgot
USS Massachusetts is reported to sunk near Townsvill last turn.
USS Massachusetts was hit with two TT during last month Saulaki battle. I was watching TF near Townsvill. Pilots report BB in it last turn. Today they report only DDs

[koniu]

@Obvert
What setting You have for Your CAP units.
I know You play 32k ft rule but maybe it will helm lite me to fight against those P-47 monsters.
I will be nice to compare setting i use with Yours. In last turns my attempts to hold P-47 even with 1:5 is total failure. Maybe some suggestion how to set my CAP when playing 2best mnv rule. Any help appropriated

Also other players with 1944 experience, i waiting for help

[obvert]

Added some more info in my AAR. Let me know if this helps. You might look into my AAR around late 43-early 44 as well.

[JocMeister]

As I said before. I strongly recommend you do away with that HR and set a max altitude. You will both have a better experience. [:)]

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

As I said before. I strongly recommend you do away with that HR and set a max altitude. You will both have a better experience. [:)]

This is true.

[koniu]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

As I said before. I strongly recommend you do away with that HR and set a max altitude. You will both have a better experience. [:)]

This is true.

I dont want to be that guy that is changing/proposing HR everytime.
Probably 90% HR we have are proposed by me. So next change can be seen as passive/aggressive extortion on Docup. He is nice guy i like him and have huge respect to him and i know he will say Yes. But deep inside i will feel wrong somehow to change rules in our game.

I know max altitude is better but i afraid to make Docup mad at me, even if he not tell that loud. Maybe if this was his idea to change it would be better from moral side.
But only way to make him propose that is inception made by You gays[:D]
So if any of You want do somehow place that thought in his mind feel free.

I hope You understand what i want to say.

[obvert]

Got it. Understand completely. Especially after the last CV battle.

But only way to make him propose that is inception made by You gays [:D]

Careful with the spelling there, friend! [:D]

[koniu]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Got it. Understand completely. Especially after the last CV battle.

But only way to make him propose that is inception made by You gays [:D]

Careful with the spelling there, friend! [:D]

oops.



Thanks for combat details You post in AAR.
Still is not enough data to find solution. Also dice roles have to much impact to be sure anything.

What we can be sure is that number in air play major role, especially how many fighters is in air from scratch. With rule i play having fighters on high CAP does not meeter against P-47, against Corsairs or Spitfires in have impact because CAP have chance to climb above incoming sweep. But that can happen only if radar detect enemy early enough.

As for HR we have maybe in some point i will propose that but until that i have to live wit it. I hate P-47

[JocMeister]

Well, DOCUP is going to hate the Frank "R". It will enable you to put your CAP up above his sweeps. The exception being the P47 which he will start to run low on by then. All other fighters will be basically useless and Sweeps will be impossible without tremendous losses.

The main problem being that you have unlimited number of Franks while he has nothing to counter with. So its going to be a really boring air war when its in your interest to play defensively (obviously) while DOCUP won´t be able to do anything offensively.

But as you say it might not be the best time to bring it up right now. I think he needs some good results!

[koniu]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Well, DOCUP is going to hate the Frank "R". It will enable you to put your CAP up above his sweeps. The exception being the P47 which he will start to run low on by then. All other fighters will be basically useless and Sweeps will be impossible without tremendous losses.

Been there. Few turns ago 90 Georges sweep against CAP with ~50 P-47 CAP at 40k. 50 Georges never return home for 1 P-47 shot down and 14 old fighters

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: koniu

Been there. Few turns ago 90 Georges sweep against CAP with ~50 P-47 CAP at 40k. 50 Georges never return home for 1 P-47 shot down and 14 old fighters

That sucks. [:(] It will be the same for DOCUP though once you get the "R". Results like that really highlight the problem with the "dive bonus". While it might be historically accurate the penalties for operating planes on extreme altitude is far, far to small. Almost non existant.

IMO, the dive bonus is so powerful the entire air war is dictated by it. It so huge that it makes even pilot experience and aircraft almost completely obsolete. If we were still playing with the 2nd Best MVR band I would rather have a 350MPH plane that can operate at 45K then a 450MPH one that can operate at 35k. Since we ditched that HR and set a max ALT at 32k we have had none of the silly 20:1 or even 50:1 results we saw earlier.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: koniu

Been there. Few turns ago 90 Georges sweep against CAP with ~50 P-47 CAP at 40k. 50 Georges never return home for 1 P-47 shot down and 14 old fighters

That sucks. [:(] It will be the same for DOCUP though once you get the "R". Results like that really highlight the problem with the "dive bonus". While it might be historically accurate the penalties for operating planes on extreme altitude is far, far to small. Almost non existant.

IMO, the dive bonus is so powerful the entire air war is dictated by it. It so huge that it makes even pilot experience and aircraft almost completely obsolete. If we were still playing with the 2nd Best MVR band I would rather have a 350MPH plane that can operate at 45K then a 450MPH one that can operate at 35k. Since we ditched that HR and set a max ALT at 32k we have had none of the silly 20:1 or even 50:1 results we saw earlier.

Well said. Nice to hear my opponent saying it as well. Jocke has gotten this for a good long while even while benefitting from those results, so I applaud his objectivity.

All results are just extreme in this game when a lot of fighters are thrown into the same area. It's probably not made for European numbers and density, but we are able to create that so it might get a bit out of whack.

The best thing you can do koniu is to dodge and weave. Keep changing it up, strike back a few times to make sure he keeps some good planes allocated to CAP. I probably did not do this enough in late 43-44.

If you can make the planes sweep at longer distances that will also help, but it's tough to do when there are spots closer that you need to defend.

[koniu]

Just quick replay

9-10 January
Taung-Gyi is bombarded by allied artillery every day. Almost no impact on my trrops. Supplies are also ok.

Docup still retreating troops from Prome area. They moving north.
I see two explanations. They will try to breakthrough in different place or hi will try to bypass Burma by sea invasion.


Ki-84r enter production today. I will build 355 planes monthly[:D]. I planing 325 but i forgot to switch factory to different plane before it start producing. First unit flying it is expected in 10 days. First Burma will upgrade. Ki-84a will be used for some weeks and them i will send it to pool to future use in defense of home island or as kami

[koniu]

Game is still moving steady forward. This short report only to bump me back on page 1


From last days only two important things

First 42 Ki-84r gain operational status in Burma

and

Sub attack near Ailinglaplap at 132,117

Japanese Ships
CV Unryu, Torpedo hits 2, on fire sys:15, float 41(31), engine:0, fire:0
DD Takanami
DD Makinami
DD Teruzuki
DD Nenohi
DD Yukikaze
DD Natsushio
DD Hatsukaze

Allied Ships
SS Lancetfish

Fuel storage explosion on CV Unryu

I think time to rejoin KB and start defending what is important(Sumatra, Java, DEI)
I think is time to say bye to Marshal and Gilberts. I have to chose, i just don`t have enough resources to cover everything with proper quality.

Also i think it is time to abandon Taung-Gyi in Burma and concentrate more troops in Rangoon area

[JocMeister]

And here I was thinking the IJ CVs were fragile! [X(]

[koniu]

Don`t remember date
I think it is 15 or 16 January

Burma
Mostly Quiet. First 42 Franks "r" is CAPing in Taung Gyi. They should be above any sweep that came at 31k[:D]

I see 10 ship TF 6 hexes from Ranggon. Bommbardment?. I have undetected BB SAG protecting entrance to river. I hope it will be enught to stop enemy ships.

DEI
Allied sweeps eat CAP above base 1 hex north of Ambon. 36 Tojos for 3 enemy fighters.
Tojo is not longer good plane

Marshals
I see two SAGs heeding toward Roi-Namur. Bombardment TFs i think. They where atacked by G3M3 from Roi-Namur but they miss. I have KB and two SAGs in area. I was planing to bombard enemy strongholds but maybe i will try to intercept enemy ships after they use all ammo to shell Roi-Namur. I still not sure what will be best solution.

R&D
D4Y4 enter production. I am building 240 monthly

Ki-44c - I stop producing Tojo. I have 1000 in pools plus i change Tojo/Frank Ratio in front line units from 2:1 to 1:1. Probably in 3-4 months it will be 1:2.
From right now Frank is main IJAF fighter. Tojo is to weak and i have no SR1 plane for replacement, so Frank. I will have to accept higher loses(i will be often force to disband planes) because of SR3 but but i should balance that with higher production.