Turnaround? Lowpe (J) vs Tiemanj (A) Stock

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
Those are the ones.

They did help, primarily in giving Japan missing 8cm and 75mm AA guns that were missing. But it still is a rare day I actually destroy a bomber with AA fire.

I need to go hunting for the 12 cm babies,but I though most of them were in static units at the HI.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
Those are the ones.

They did help, primarily in giving Japan missing 8cm and 75mm AA guns that were missing. But it still is a rare day I actually destroy a bomber with AA fire.

I need to go hunting for the 12 cm babies,but I though most of them were in static units at the HI.

There are the "Independent AA Gun Companies" scattered between Manchuria and the Home Islands using 10cm Type 14 guns. They make a excellent supporting gun for the 75mm Type 88 as they're far heavier hitting and a good deal more accurate. What's even better is that come 9/43 they'll upgrade to the 12cm Type 3.

There's only 4 guns per unit, so it's not an AA regiment, but they cost only 5 PP to buy ouy. Stack enough of them in a base and make things very nasty for anything wanting to bomb it. 25 PP buys you a AA regiment's worth of those things, and they'll get better with age.

Just be sure it's the right units you're buying out, and not the semi-useless AA Machine-cannon companies.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

There are the "Independent AA Gun Companies" scattered between Manchuria and the Home Islands using 10cm Type 14 guns. They make a excellent supporting gun for the 75mm Type 88 as they're far heavier hitting and a good deal more accurate. What's even better is that come 9/43 they'll upgrade to the 12cm Type 3.

There's only 4 guns per unit, so it's not an AA regiment, but they cost only 5 PP to buy ouy. Stack enough of them in a base and make things very nasty for anything wanting to bomb it. 25 PP buys you a AA regiment's worth of those things, and they'll get better with age.

Just be sure it's the right units you're buying out, and not the semi-useless AA Machine-cannon companies.

[&o]. I have quite a few of them out and about, but not concentrated.

I have spent most of the PP on getting the AA rgts out and about. I only bought out one machine cannon unit, that I sent to Iwo, bought it out again to General Reserve, and then still couldn't convert Iwo to General Reserve. Darn 4th Fleet won't give Iwo up.

I have quite a few of the Independents to buy out...coming right out this turn.

[Encircled]

though useless against any large bomber)

Manage to trade 3 Oscars for 3 B-17 last turn. I was frankly amazed (and no, it wasn't three rammings!)

Oscar the 4E killer [:)]

[Lowpe]

Jan 29, 1943

No Allied night bombing.

Two American submarines hit IJN ships, damaging an xak in the PI, and sinking an xak that was carrying a splinter of an ENG unit to Rabaul. I lostt 55 men (1 engineer and 1 non support squad) plus supplies. Both submarines take several hits.

Australian operations are rapidly coming to a close, just wrap up now. The 1st Raiding Regiment sweeps the defenders of Darwin away, after a very nice bombardment by a BB group and the Ichiki Detachment and support troops land tomorrow to secure the town. Darwin is trashed with 100% Port, 99% Runway and 69% Service damage and all resource factories damaged. I took the base without letting those lousy coastal guns damage anything.[:)]

Now, I have to figure out how heavily I want to defend Darwin, and also whether I pursue and take Daly Waters and Katherine. I have plenty of troops in the area to accomplish this, just not sure I should.

Port Hedland is invaded by a Naval Guard unit, and they will take the port this next day.

[Lowpe]

Burma:

Allies air force rest. Chinese units stop marching towards Mandalay, but he is flying a unit into Shwebo, most likely aviation support. We will see if I can't shoot some done tomorrow (1 hex range).

Naval search spots his BB that has been floating around the area, very close to my undetected CA force. I have been waiting for these guys to show up, perhaps for either a raid on my shipping near Moulmein or for an invasion on Ramree (they are 9 hexes away, but there is no detection level on Ramree).

[Lowpe]

Marshalls:

Allied PT boat swarms sighted....

Allied 4Es attack, at 36,000 feet the small resupply convoy at Nauru. I think they were tasked with attacking the KB looking to degrade the CAP over the KB or doing recon by fire. The local fighters couldn't climb fast enough to attack the bombers and they all miss.

I keep losing Judy-C recon over his fighter bases, I will send some Irving recon over to see if they can survive a little better.

I worry about losing another base, when I move on Moresby, but what will be will be. I am debating sending a full division to beef up Nauru. I really need time to build up rear defenses in the Pacific. I think I could hold the Marshalls longer, if it weren't for night bombing, but at least the bombers are flying out of smaller bases here.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Marshalls:

Allied PT boat swarms sighted....

Allied 4Es attack, at 36,000 feet the small resupply convoy at Nauru. I think they were tasked with attacking the KB looking to degrade the CAP over the KB or doing recon by fire. The local fighters couldn't climb fast enough to attack the bombers and they all miss.

I keep losing Judy-C recon over his fighter bases, I will send some Irving recon over to see if they can survive a little better.

I worry about losing another base, when I move on Moresby, but what will be will be. I am debating sending a full division to beef up Nauru. I really need time to build up rear defenses in the Pacific. I think I could hold the Marshalls longer, if it weren't for night bombing, but at least the bombers are flying out of smaller bases here.

Naura is a close hop from his Makin, Tarawa, et al, meaning he can come in with task forces covered by land-based air and in great force, without tasking carriers to cover both themselves and surface or amphibious groups, which reduces the likelihood that he will leave a large surface fleet exposed. Ponape, in my humble opinion, is a better location for division-sized defenses, but that depends, I suppose, on how many divisions you feel that you can spare and what type of fighter cover you feel comfortable providing at both Ponape and Nauru.

All that being said, I think it is a great idea for a Japanese player to try to make the Marshalls and the more southern islands as big a thorn in the side of the allies as the Japanese can, to force the allies to spend the time and resources taking most of the chain, rather than simply bypassing it to the south or west. The more islands and atolls the allies have to take and the more they have to bring to bear at each, the more likely they are to make a mistake, exposing large amphibious groups or surface ships to counterattack. I think this theory especially holds true against your opponent. Of course the Japanese player can make mistakes too, getting caught in an evac operation or something similar.

I see now more clearly what is going on in Burma. He appears to be trying to maneuver: moreso, for example, than in China, and is clearly trying to isolate your units. I think the build-up at Rangoon and then quick move north is brilliant and will catch him completely off-guard. I grow more certain, however, that he has an amphibious group prepping for Ramree, now that he has isolated it.

[Lowpe]

Why is he so focused on cutting my supply in Burma, but seems ignorant of it in china?

I am putting some mines at Ramree here in the short term....

I should really trash another Chinese corp near Ichang, it seems to me he is simply throwing them at me now for destruction and rebirth at Chungking.

Speaking of Chungking, I can be in the city within 2 weeks if I want to. Of course he has 59 units there.

Makin is 11 hexes from Nauru while Tarawa is 9. I want to hold here for a while yet, but it will take carriers to do so...but it may make a better counterpunch target...I can prep a division and have it waiting to re-invade.

[Erkki]

Hes probably avoiding moving units in China as it burns supplies... The Allied units in Burma are probably well fed.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Why is he so focused on cutting my supply in Burma, but seems ignorant of it in china?

I am putting some mines at Ramree here in the short term....

I should really trash another Chinese corp near Ichang, it seems to me he is simply throwing them at me now for destruction and rebirth at Chungking.

Speaking of Chungking, I can be in the city within 2 weeks if I want to. Of course he has 59 units there.

Makin is 11 hexes from Nauru while Tarawa is 9. I want to hold here for a while yet, but it will take carriers to do so...but it may make a better counterpunch target...I can prep a division and have it waiting to re-invade.

He is learning as he goes, I suspect. I don´t think he really understood the basic concepts of the land-war when he was working out his defense of China, only the big-stacks-at-objectives strategy of the AI.

It can be a big mistake to assume one´s opponent will keep making the same mistakes. I have seen this in poker many times... a not-so-good player taking a monster pot off a much better player because the novice mimicked one of his earlier mistakes and the good player assumed his opponent was making the same mistake again.

I think that may explain some of the differences in his approach in China and Burma. Also the change in opponents really threw him off. He was having his way and trying to counterattack against a careless Japanese player who was not using his assets very well at all. Thus when you took over, he was slow to realize the danger that he had placed himself in and even slower to change his play, overestimating the allied position.

[Lowpe]

He is definitely short of supplies in China, big time.[:D] When I took over, he mentioned that he burned way too much in supplies building forts early...

I definitely see lots of improvement in his play since the beginning. He is going to be tough late game, he will keep bringing bigger hammers to pummel me down. But he is still very aggressive, and I will use that against him I hope.

Turns away...dangling a nice attractive target at Nauru hoping to entice a surface battle there. My CA task force will swing by Ramree and then head back to Moulmein for reconfiguring...should take Port Hedland and will make a decision about katherine and Daley Waters in a day or two after some better recon.

I have more fighters in China now, protecting the bombers reducing the Chansha pocket.

My airforce is pretty spread out and forward, so I have quite a few units on night CAP set at 10%...hopefully that will be enough -- but I doubt it. 39% Moonlight, and the Allies have rested their bombers 2 days in a row.

4th ID, Aussie, is down to 600 or so troops. Bad weather is keeping my bombers off him.

Trying to catch some his transports in two spots (1 hex range) plus I am bombing the airports there too.

Bought out a lot of the Independent AA units with the 10cm guns. Thanks![:)]

[Lowpe]

It didn't take Mr. Kane taking Roi in Spidery's excellent aar to have me worried about a thrust on Roi and Kwaj from the east.

As most of you know, I am not using search arcs -- just random. But, several months ago I put a full squadron of Emilies on defined search due east from Kwaj. They should give me plenty of warning of an attempted sneak on the best bases in the Marshalls.

[Lowpe]

Ambush at Nauru: Heavy surface group moving in, after dangling a merchant ship there. Beefed up the fighters at Nauru too.

Another supply convoy moving off, and staging for the next day.

[Lowpe]

China

Attack near Ichang tomorrow after a very heavy, weather willing, bombing attack. Will be sweeping from multiple bases in addition to a small escort group.

Yellow circles upcoming attacks.

Moving quite quickly here after wading thru the nasty terrain...

[Lowpe]

The Port Moresby plan:

All three squadrons of Lilly IIb will be at Buna or Rossel providing a little extra, deeper anti ship capability. Mini KB will cover from this side.

Fast transports will take the majority of the dot bases not taken yet.

Invasion force two divisions plus corp hq. Group HQ at Buna. Buildup at Buna has not be detected yet...unless by sigint.

KB will sortie and be within strike distance of likely target bases of the Allies in the Marshalls.

As far as I can tell the original 3 units are still in Port Moresby.

[Lowpe]

Jan 30, 1943

No Allied night bombing.

Instead we have massive Allied fighter sweeps in Mandalay, and Roi followed by an afternoon 4E strike at Tulagi and Roi -- Roi takes 50% runway damage. Planes losses are 47 for Japan and only 11 for the Allies (6 Lightnings).

His sweeps came in perfectly, led by Lightnings which did all the heavy lifting, followed by other fighters.

In the Marshalls, there is no way to stuff enough AA onto an Atoll to do any good, and the air field lacks balloons so low altitude bombing is SOP.

Once we are past Allies flexing their air power muscles, Japan bombs Port Moresby and a hefty sized Chinese Corp near Ichang....it was a really strong division but gets manhandled today!

[obvert]

A very odd move. Get out of the clear in China as fast as possible and hope never to fight an actually battle there after the first weeks. Yuck.

[Lowpe]

Feb 1943 coming up. Sometime early this month I will start producing the Judy. SR3 is kind of poor, but ok for CV use especially with the 500kg gp bomb. Vals on land will still be the order of the day.

I have slightly more than 500 Aichi Ha-60 engines that will get eaten up for CV use -- then maybe kamikaze use?

[Spidery]

Feb 1943 coming up. Sometime early this month I will start producing the Judy. SR3 is kind of poor, but ok for CV use especially with the 500kg gp bomb. Vals on land will still be the order of the day.

Does the SR matter that much for a dive bomber? The advantages of twice the bomb load and a plane that is faster than a Wildcat seems to make it such a big boost. Or are you just meaning that you will prioritise upgrading the KB so it will be months before you can get round to the LBA?