Wrangling Loki - Mind_Messing (J) vs Lokasenna (A)

[mind_messing]

May 8th to May 9th, 1942

North Pacific

The Prince of Wales, along with a host of American crusiers, appear off Amchitka Island. Their bombardment is a prelude to the first opposed Allied amphibious landing of the war.

Two US Army Infantry regiments storm ashore, and will take the Island tomorrow from the nearly shattered garrison of one Naval Guard unit and a AF unit. In a odd historical coincidence, more US soldiers may have been lost in the landing than by enemy fire.

The Japanese response will be minor: we've long since gave up on the Aleutians as defendable. We'll watch what the Allies are doing, and every sub that can float is being vectored in on the amphibious shipping, but bar that, we're not contesting Amchitka in the slightest. Trading ships and planes for Amchitka is not a worthy trade, IMO.

The 80th Regiment is still on Adak Island, with most of it's artillery on Attu. We'll keep up with the air withdrawal from the Aleutians to try to get everything out.

As far as I'm concerned, the Aleutians were a waste of time, fuel and supplies. My biggest mistake was even bothering to build Amchitka: Lokasenna can now enjoy a size two airbase (though Allied engineers would probably have done that within the week anyways). The only worthy thing of note we've done up here has been to keep Adak for so long, thereby preventing the use of that island to refuel American submarines on the doorstep of Japan.

The Kuriles has been a hive of activity following the landing on Amchitka. As soon as the Allies are firmly established on Amchitka (within three to four days), the Kuriles bases will be the frontline. Thankfully, preparations are very nearly complete. Only one base is in need of further development, though two bases do need air support units. The AA and regiment for Paramushiro-jima is unloading, having arrived just in time.

The Aleutians are lost, but I'd never figured on keeping them anyways. On the whole, I lost more than I gained fighting in the Aleutains, in terms of ships (Yamashiro, Kitakami) and supplies/fuel. I'm fairly confident I can get what troops are left out before they're destroyed, or worse, cut off.

The KB is still sitting at Yokohama while their destroyers upgrade. They've 13 days left to go, but there's even if they were ready for instant action, they'd stay where they are: the whole thing smacks of an invitation to fight Lokasenna on his own terms. He has Dutch Harbour and environs well built up, whereas I'll have no major base any closer than Hokkaido.

Lokasenna's taken a little nibble from the Empire. We'll lie still, for now, and wait.

Is this the right course of action? Should I be sending the KB forward at full speed to force an engagement at all costs? Should I wire Washington asking for surrender terms? [:D]

Central Pacific

Mili has been developed to a satisfactory level, and we'll move the engineers back to the Marianas. The 6th Fleet HQ will be withdrawing from Kawajalein to Guam, to provide room for garrison troops in the Marshalls.

On the whole, defences here are nearly complete. The only shortage is the troops to garrison them, which is an empire-wide problem.

South-West Pacific

A big Allied convoy is unloading in Noumea, and what sub that are nearby have been vectored in the hope of some sinkings. Otherwise, things have been quiet. Lugna is almost a size four airbase, after which Tassarafonga will be built to size two to complete the southern citadel of the Solomons defensive network.

Milne Bay is building up nicely, and air support units are loading at Rabaul to occupy the size 4 airbase at Lae.

As with the Central Pacific area, boots on the ground is our weakness here.

Austrailia

The first tentative bombardment of the Battle of Katherine goes in:

Ground combat at Katherine (76,128)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 360 troops, 29 guns, 24 vehicles, Assault Value = 1492

Defending force 59735 troops, 809 guns, 865 vehicles, Assault Value = 1590

Assaulting units:
18th Division
38th Division
8th Tank Regiment
2nd Division
16th Army
17th Medium Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
17th MG Battalion
19th Australian Battalion
2/4 MG Battalion
18th British Division
19th MG Battalion
4th Australian Division
Sparrow Battalion
45th Indian Brigade
16th Australian Brigade
2/8th Armoured Regiment
Gull Battalion
6th Aus Cav Brigade
3rd Motor Brigade
7th Hussars Regiment
3rd RAAF Base Force
Batavia Base Force
1st Fgtr RAAF Wing
48th Light AA Regiment
I Australian Corps
6th Heavy AA Regiment
35th Light AA Regiment
11th RAAF Base Force
Wyndham RAAF Base Force
1 ML-KNIL Aviation
Tennant Creek RAAF Base Force
2nd RAN Base Force
225 Group RAF
10th Patl RAAF Wing
Darwin RAAF Base Force
Northern Territory
NW Australia Base Force
16th RAAF Base Force
85th British AT Gun Regiment
RAF 225 Group Wing

Two further Japanese divisions, the 5th and 56th (the latter a crack formation) have yet to enter the hex. The Japanese 8th Tank Regiment will be moving out of the hex shortly to close hexsides to ensure that the ABDA troops are forced northwards, away from any possible line of escape.

North of Katherine, the 1st Tank Regiment may yet outmanuver the Austrailians. The JAAF flew every bomber in the theater at the forces opposing the 1st Tank, and to great effect; should the Austrailian brigade chance an attack, it won't go well.

Bad news came in the form of the re-appearence of the Hermes. Despite 3 torpedo hits in the carrier clash off Exmouth, this ship somehow made it to a friendly port. This was a suprise to me, as the three torpedo hits, plus the ships disapperence from the combat reports afterwards suggested to me that the ship was a diving attraction.

Good news came in the form that the Hermes is confirmed sunk! The RO-34 fired four torpedos at the damaged carrier, three of which struck home causing a fuel and ammo explosion. I doubt we'll see her again.

Burma

Two British units have fled Akyab, and more are following. Three Moagmi and three Myoko class crusiers are on station at Rangoon to bombard anything on the coast between Akyab and Chittagong while the JAAF bombs everything that moves without any opposition.

I've ordered some long-range recon missions of bases around Calcutta. Lokasenna has been fairly dilligent about keeping his airframes away from my bombers. I'll have a rough idea of what he has around Calcutta for the next turn, as it strikes me as a bad move to have so many troops deployed forward without air cover.

More supplies arrive in theater, which is welcomed, as we were starting to run low. More are due along with the Philippines reinforcement convoys.

China

Nothing apart from the usual massive artillery bombardment at Chungking.

[center]
US troops unloading supplies and equipment on Amchitka Island. The Japanese defenders, supressed by the heavy bombardment and massively outnumbered, were not expected to last long.[/center]

[ny59giants]

Incoming!!!!

Duck. [;)]

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Incoming!!!!

Duck. [;)]

Many thanks! I'll put them to good use!

[mind_messing]

May 10th, 1942

North Pacific

The Americans land on Adak Island as well! Unsuprising, considering that it's the only real estate worth fighting for up here.

The infantry of the 80th Regiment on Adak won't last long, but their artillery is on Attu and a cadre is safe on Paramushiro-jima, so they've acomplished their mission of denying Adak to the Americans for nearly half-a-year.

On Amchitka, the Americans take the base, but there's just under two thousand men clinging on to the island.

The most interesting development is that Lokasenna hasn't bothered to take Attu, presumably over fears of mounting an operation at the limit of his search coverage. With IJN subs pouring into the Aleutians, this lets me vector subs onto spotted convoys, and I'm hoping for a few sunk ships to make up for the VP's lost in the LCU's destroyed.

The Kuriles are ready now, with Paramushiro-jima a strong redoubt, and several other islands being built up to the same standard. Hopefully we can get cadres out of the Aleutians to rebuild in the Kuriles.

The entire Aleutians campaign leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I've handled it poorly, the Yamashiro should have remained a deterrent for longer than it did, and I feel that I could have bled the Americans to a far greater extent. The only consolation I can take from things is that the past six months Lokasenna has been working towards capturing Adak rather than Paramushiro-jima, and that US subs are stuck operating from Dutch Harbour and not Adak or Attu.


[center]
The situation in the Aleutians. Interestingly, no American carriers have appeared close to the invasion forces, which suggests to me that they're waiting in the wings for the appearence of the Kido Butai, or that Lokasenna knows I won't fight for the Aleutians.[/center]

Central Pacific

For a change, not quiet!

A Marine Raider battalion storms ashore on Roi-Namur, and shock attacks itself out of existance against the Naval Guard unit garrisoned there. The Naval Guard behind level 4 forts and no supply stop the Marine raiders cold. We're just glad it wasn't Kwajalein, which only has a 10 AV CD unit. With the Taibutiea garrison heading out from China, we'll send one of the two Naval Guard units on that island to Kwajalein.

We kick the readiness levels up on everything here, just in case, and send some ASW forces after the Allied transport submarines.

South-West Pacific

Not much up here. We're sending some small units out to be token garrisons on some of the smaller islands, hopefully to keep the American raiders honest.

We'll also shift some air units around so that we've a good bulk of aircraft ready to respond to any Allied incursions. The plan is for some JAAF bombers and some IJAAF planes to be ready to respond to any Allied incursion within a turn or two.

Austrailia

I make a costly mistake that costs me 25 JAAF bombers and nearly as many pilot when they cruise over Katherine at 8000 ft and are blasted apart by hoards of Allied Bofors guns. It's a mistake that I'll be carefull not to make again. JAAF bomber pools are thin at best, but the Helen has started to arrive en-masse, which will get some more of the older Sally and Lily frames back into the pool for operational use. My bombers will take a few days to rest before being sent back in at a suitable altitude.

On the bright side, the bomber units in China are supplying training bombing crews in abundance.

The 1st Tank Regiment breaks past the Austrailians and loops north for the rush to Darwin! The IJN paratroopers are about three days out from the jump-off base, which should co-incide perfectly with the IJA tankers arriving at the outskirts of Darwin. After the paradrop, it should take another two or three days to secure Darwin, at which point a regiment, air support and engineers will be on hand to fly into the base.

Burma

The "Tokyo Express" is well underway, with two crusier task forces heading to bombard the British around Akyab, with another crusier force amassing in Singapore.

Elsewhere, the Japanese air units in the region take a break, building their strength for the maximum effor that will be needed to beat back the British troops trying to escape from Akyab.

It appears the Chinese in Northern Burma intend to make a stand, and there's a slim chance yet of forcing a surrender before they escape to Burma.

China

The troops in Chungking are recovering nicely, with fatigue and disruption levels dropping fairly quickly, and AV rising nicely as well. The usual massive bombardment nets another handfull of destroyed and disabled squads that the Chinese won't be able to recover.

China is running a nice supply and oil surplus since the capture of the Chinese oil centers. I've considered starting to ship it out, but with the capture of Chungking a possibility before 1943, I'll hold off on it. Hopefully the surplus will start to move to Manchuria, once I clear away the Chinese units clogging the road network behind my lines.

Supply dipped below 100k in China for the first time last turn, which will quickly be made up by the 18k supply being unloaded in Hankow.

[center]
The situation in China and Northern Burma. Chinese troops managed to break into Chungking, opening a hexside, but it should be closed promptly.[/center]

Industry & The Economy

So far, so good, as far as I can tell.

The Home Islands stockpiles are looking alright. Supply is holding steady at about 1.2 million. Fuel is sitting just under the 2.1 million mark, but will rise soon. Resources are on the rise at 5.3 million. Oil is in freefall, down to under 1.7 million, but I'll work on getting this up once the Std-class tanker conversions are possible.

Total HI points are a whisker under 300k.
Armaments are at 68k
Vehicle points are at 5600

[center]
Tracker Chart. Anybody see anything that I've missed? Industry is far from my strong point.[/center]
There's plenty of oil points to repair in the DEI, as well as some industry expansion on Java and in Malaya to repair. Provided I can start getting the oil flowing back to Japan, things should be good.

I'm completely overhauling my resource convoys, as it turned into a massive pile-up in Singapore. Hopefully many small convoys can do better than a few big convoys.

Question to the Gallery

Is there anything that seems out of place with my industry? I've never really reached beyond early 42 in Japanese PBEM's, for various reasons (one because I was beat, the other due to my opponent dropping out), so it's new territory for me.

Any glaring mistakes that I've made?

[Lowpe]

To what levels of fatigue and disruption do you let your troops in China drop to before attacking with them again?

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

To what levels of fatigue and disruption do you let your troops in China drop to before attacking with them again?

Low teens for both. It's more a guideline, seeing as you'll rarely, if ever see units in frontline combat having zero for both fatigue and disruption.

Having nearly every HQ from both China and Manchuria in the Chungking hex is a massive help in getting disruption and fatigue down, as well as recovering disablements.

From my own experiences with city sieges, my own checklist to get units to recover is as follows:

- Have as many HQ's as possible in the hex to provide support, and hope for the AV multipliers (I've yet to see any "+leaders" at Chungking, despite a bunch of Alexander's sitting in the HQ's.)
- Leaders: hand-pick leaders for your HQ's and Divisions (Good Land, Inspriation and Admin skills)
- After an attack, divide up all the units you can into their A/B/C components, but only if you're sure you won't be attacked. They'll recover disablements and take replacements three times as fast.

[ny59giants]

I try to aim for a surplus of about 2k in Heavy Industry (HI) daily and your at 2200, so that looks good. [:)]

You have over 12k in Merchant points. So either accelerate some AO/TKs or turn off some factories to get this down.

You should have ALL those "std-x" class xAKs in a large enough ports so on June 1st you can convert over to small TKs. You never have enough TKs.

Hit the "B" button to pull up Bases and sort by Resources and then Oil to see if there are stockpiles someplace that you are ignoring. You should have captured all by-passed bases that are producing these two items by now.

EDIT - What warships are you accelerating??

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

I try to aim for a surplus of about 2k in Heavy Industry (HI) daily and your at 2200, so that looks good. [:)]

You have over 12k in Merchant points. So either accelerate some AO/TKs or turn off some factories to get this down.

You should have ALL those "std-x" class xAKs in a large enough ports so on June 1st you can convert over to small TKs. You never have enough TKs.

Hit the "B" button to pull up Bases and sort by Resources and then Oil to see if there are stockpiles someplace that you are ignoring. You should have captured all by-passed bases that are producing these two items by now.

EDIT - What warships are you accelerating??

At present, I'm not accelerating any warships. I had the Shinano halted until the Yamato arrived, but I didn't realize I could afford a small deficit in points. Once the Yamato is up and running I'll be accelerating a bunch of destroyers.

[ny59giants]

What about your Unryu CVs?? I try to accelerate them so they come in as pairs. The farther they are out, the less it costs to accelerate. You can play around with this on Tracker to see that it costs just their Durability number to accelerate.

You need them in '43 before the Allies gets too strong. In my game in March '44 the Allied warship fleet is getting just plain nasty. [:D] Lots of 8 ship Fletcher DD TFs running around with and without 4 Cleveland Class CLs. IMO, you need to challenge the Allies in '43 or by '44 the "fleet in being" doesn't help as much.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

- Have as many HQ's as possible in the hex to provide support

For whatever reason, I always left the HQ one hex away and move troops out of combat to recover. I wonder if your way would have significantly accelerated my taking of Soerabaja?

I do everything else and even put the troops on reserve or rest too.

I also hardly ever see the leader bonus despite picking my combat leaders. Seems to be quite common complaint.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

What about your Unryu CVs?? I try to accelerate them so they come in as pairs. The farther they are out, the less it costs to accelerate. You can play around with this on Tracker to see that it costs just their Durability number to accelerate.

You need them in '43 before the Allies gets too strong. In my game in March '44 the Allied warship fleet is getting just plain nasty. [:D] Lots of 8 ship Fletcher DD TFs running around with and without 4 Cleveland Class CLs. IMO, you need to challenge the Allies in '43 or by '44 the "fleet in being" doesn't help as much.

I'll look into it. I've not thought much about the CV's still under construction, but more carriers in the mid-game can't be a bad thing.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

- Have as many HQ's as possible in the hex to provide support

For whatever reason, I always left the HQ one hex away and move troops out of combat to recover. I wonder if your way would have significantly accelerated my taking of Soerabaja?

I do everything else and even put the troops on reserve or rest too.

I also hardly ever see the leader bonus despite picking my combat leaders. Seems to be quite common complaint.

I think that troops need to be in the same hex as HQ's to take advantage of the support squads that HQ's have in their TOE.

Seeing as Japanese units always have less support squads than they need, I keep them in the same hex as the troops so that.

As usual, the manual isn't exactly clear what support squads do, so who knows?

[mind_messing]

The Plan

The time of unrivaled Japanese dominance is fast coming to an end. While I will still enjoy the balance of power until 1943, soon the weight of Allied material and manpower will start to press the empire back.

My overall plan is as follows:


[center][/center]

The blue boundary marks buffer areas: the regions where I'll offer resistance with local forces, with the goal to delay the Allied advance.

The red boundary indicates the areas that I want to keep the Allies out of at all costs. These will be the areas that the KB and the IJN will be commited to defend if the Allies attack, and the places where I'll do my best to counter-invade should the Allies get a foothold.

Ideally, I hope for a solid line of well-developed and strongly garrisoned bases ranging from the Bonins, through the Marianas, to the West Papua to hold of the Allies in the Pacific. Timor and the Flores chain will be the line of defence for the Lower DEI, and work is already underway to turn Java and Sumatra into strong redoubts against amphibious invasion.

I hope to have the Tokyo-Bonins-Marianas-Papua line ready for 1943. After that, engineers will be working towards building up the Philippines, Formosa and Okinawa.

I'll fight an extended delaying action in Burma following the end of 1942, with the goal to hold Rangoon into 1944. If it appears that Lokasenna is close to taking Burma, I have few qualms about withdrawing to Thailand and forcing the Allies to slog through terrible terrain, provided I can keep Rangoon unusable as a operational port for the Allies.

Review of Active Operations by Theater

North Pacific

I've been soundly beaten here. One battleship and one crusier, as well as a handfull of smaller ships lost for no real gain other than delaying the Allied buildup of the Kuriles for six months. Holding the Kuriles didn't prevent a carrier raid on Hokkaido either, and the time, units and supply spent in the Aleutians would have been far better used developing the Kuriles, Hokkadio and northern Honshu.

The good news is that any future Allied operations will be running into a wall of pillboxes, big airbases and strike planes that grows more formidable by the day.

Central Pacific

I'm fairly satisfied with this theater. About 70% of the defences I'd like to have built are constructed, though there are still several frontline islands sorely needing garrisons and aviation support. The Gilberts are rather exposed at present, with only a handfull of bases with decent defensive, and there are several valuable islands that are still ungarrioned.

The Marianas and Marshalls, however, are looking excellent. The Marianas are building up very nicely, though at present they're almost devoid of both combat and support troops, but this isn't a huge problem seeing as we don't see it becoming a problem any time soon.

The Marshalls still need a few garrisons here and there, as well as some support troops, and I'm looking at getting some small AA units to defend the larger airbases.

The Bonin's are still in need of token garrisons, as well as engineers to develop them, but they're on the hind teat at present until areas closer to the frontline are secured.

South-West Pacific

I'm starting to feel that I've over-commited in this theater, as despite a big American presence on Luganville, there's been little Allied activity. Defences here are about 80% complete, with Papau New Guinea strongly held, though there are a few more bases on the Rabual-Ndeni axis that I'd like to develop to add some depth to our defences.

As work is completed here, I'll be withdrawing engineering assets to help build up Northern Papua, to complete the Tokyo-Bonins-Marianas-Papua defensive barrier.

Austrailia

Operations are progressing well here, and I hope to have destroyed the British and Austrailian troops by June, and have withdrawn most of the troops by July. While I'm overjoyed to be destroying British and Austrailian units so far forward, I'm disapointed that the Allies haven't made any serious commitment in terms of airpower.

Nevertheless, the large buffer zone that Northern Austrailia offers is very welcome, and it's exceptionally handy that the bases I've developed to support the invasion are the same bases that I'll be using to defend the Lower DEI.

Burma

It's perhaps too early to tell how operations against Akyab are progressing, but on the whole, the situation is stable, but fragile.

With the bulk of the IJA divisions moving against Akyab, there's nothing else to hold Burma together bar the Imperial Guards Division and the Thai divisions. Should the Chinese make a bid to break through into Burma, there's little and less that could stop them at present, though that will swiftly change once the troops from the Philippines arrive in a week or two and a division from Manchuria some time after that.

As with my operations in Northern Austrailia, I'm disapointed by the refusal of the Allies to commit airframes to combat, and though the AVG took a bashing in the early months of 1942, Lokasenna has been content to hoard his British aircraft where I can't hit them.

China

The outlook is good. Chungking is bottled up and the forts falling every month or so, with the defenders out of supply. Kuming has been heavily bombed, but otherwise left alone, and as a result the Chinese are probably fairly well entrenched and with some supply.

The tentative plan is that once Chungking is secured, we'll surround Kunming, but not bother taking the base, and try to move the bulk of troops to Burma.

Elsewhere, nearly all of China is occupied, with the only fighting other than Chungking being the occasional anti-guerilla operation against Chinese remanants or a siege against a holdout mountain garrison.

[mind_messing]

May 11th to May 12th, 1942

North Pacific

We close down our naval search station at Attu as the defenders are wiped out on Adak and Amchitka. Withdrawal of troops from Attu to Paramushiro-jima by transport plane continues at a good pace. We've most of the big transport squadrons, as well as the Manchurian transport planes ferrying troops back and forth along the Kuriles.

The KB will be nominally ready for operations within ten days, but I don't plan on moving them till mid-June, seeing as the Zuikaku and Shokaku have June upgrades that gives them Type 21 radar sets. While it is Japanese radar, every little helps.

Central Pacific

We've returned to the usual calmness following the botched landing of the Marine raiders. I'm glad Lokasenna didn't stick around with his submarines to hunt ships, as I've a fair few convoys shifting garrisons between the islands.

Part of this shifting of garrisons is to provide nominal garrisons and set up small seaplane bases on the outlying bases on the northern fringes of the Marshalls, the bases that I think the Allies might try to grab on the cheap to set up a naval search base from. I'll get there first and have a early-warning station or two to warn of any incursions.

I'm mounting a big map-wide mine-warfare campaign, but the bulk of it is going to be focused on the Central Pacific area. I've some 300 Type 4 mines and 550 Type 88 mines to get rid off, and there's plenty of islands between Tokyo and Babeldoab to set up minefields at. I'll need to pull the dedicated minelaying subs off active operations and set them to creating defensive minefields of their own.

South-West Pacific

Not much stirring here, either.

It appears the Allies have moved Catalina's into Luganville. Once I get my 81 sized Zero groups back in-theater, we'll have a go at sweeping Luganville.

Other than that, we've just been shunting around engineers and deploying garrison units.

Austrailia

The main IJA army inside Katherine is still waiting for the trailing divisions to reach the base. To the south, skirmishes are developing between Austrailian and IJA armour outside of Katherine. Lokasenna might have upgraded these tanks to something decent, so there's a fire-eater in command of the Japanese and what bombers can reach will fly in support.

To the north, everything is set for the assault on Darwin. The 1st Tank Regiment is on the march, the IJN paratroopers are waiting for the word to jump and the IJA infantrymen are getting ready to embark to hopefully made landfall in Austrailia!

Burma

B-17s and British Hudson's go after Lashio, where some Ann's are sitting on the tarmac. Oscars from Mandalay respond, and over a series of battles ten Oscars are traded for ten Hudsons and a few damaged B-17s.

I suspect that Lokasenna is trying to encourage me to spread my air defence network in Burma thin. I'll not comply, the only real value in Burma is in Rangoon and Magwe; that's where my defences are focused, and that's where they'll remain focused.

Nick production has reached 40 planes a month, and a small 12 plane unit has already been upgraded at detailed to provide CAP for Palambang along with some other planes. The next unit to be upgraded with Nicks is going to Burma, and after that, we'll get the Home Island groups upgraded to them as well.

China

The Chinese have mounted a feeble offensive against exposed and isolated garrisons, and I've sent local forces to respond to it, but there's no real harm. The most I stand to lose are a few resource centers, but we've an 11k resource surplus in China, so it's hardly critical.

The AV of the two forces in Chungking is now roughly equal again, thanks to recovering units and reinforcements from Northern China. We'll wait till some battered units are replaced with units fresh from some R&R at Chengtu before we try to hit the Chinese again.

[center]
Small minelayers like the Itsukushima are being used to make amphibious landings that bit more difficult for the Allies. Some bases have had minefields for quite some time, but a big effort is being made to improve coverage. The hope is that where-ever the Allies go, they'll need to bring minesweepers.[/center]

[ny59giants]

It appears the Allies have moved Catalina's into Luganville. Once I get my 81 sized Zero groups back in-theater, we'll have a go at sweeping Luganville.

This is something that is very gamey in my book. It would be a game ender for me as Allies cannot do anything to counter it. [:(]

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

It appears the Allies have moved Catalina's into Luganville. Once I get my 81 sized Zero groups back in-theater, we'll have a go at sweeping Luganville.

This is something that is very gamey in my book. It would be a game ender for me as Allies cannot do anything to counter it. [:(]

They're divded up prior to combat, so they're like any other Sentai.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

It appears the Allies have moved Catalina's into Luganville. Once I get my 81 sized Zero groups back in-theater, we'll have a go at sweeping Luganville.

This is something that is very gamey in my book. It would be a game ender for me as Allies cannot do anything to counter it. [:(]

I thought the Allies could resize too.

I have to admit, I am not a fan of this either, and in my AAR'd pick upped game I disbanded two such units and got grief for doing so. Somehow, I managed to inherit a size 91 IJN air group! Don't know how that is even possible.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

It appears the Allies have moved Catalina's into Luganville. Once I get my 81 sized Zero groups back in-theater, we'll have a go at sweeping Luganville.

This is something that is very gamey in my book. It would be a game ender for me as Allies cannot do anything to counter it. [:(]

I thought the Allies could resize too.

I have to admit, I am not a fan of this either, and in my AAR'd pick upped game I disbanded two such units and got grief for doing so. Somehow, I managed to inherit a size 91 IJN air group! Don't know how that is even possible.

I don't see the problem, to be honest. Provided you divided the group into the A/B/C components prior to combat so not to push the engine, there's not an issue.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing
I don't see the problem, to be honest. Provided you divided the group into the A/B/C components prior to combat so not to push the engine, there's not an issue.

You are not doing it, but imagine a size 81 sweep...come on that is cheese. [:D]

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing
I don't see the problem, to be honest. Provided you divided the group into the A/B/C components prior to combat so not to push the engine, there's not an issue.

You are not doing it, but imagine a size 81 sweep...come on that is cheese. [:D]

We've an agreement that size 81 groups will be divided when in combat so that they function as three seperate groups. I suppose a house rule would solve that little quirk of the code quite nicely.

[ny59giants]

Its your game, but I would not re-size any air group to be larger than what already exist. If there is no size 81 in game, then this cannot be done. I think at this point maybe a group that is 42 planes is the largest IJN fighter group. Even if you divide the 81 into 3 x 27, this still adds lots of airframes to the game, IMO. Adding this many more airframes in mid-42 would tilt the game even more towards Japan.