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

[Lowpe]

Lots of things here:

Fighter training is good. Simple and easy but labor intensive. Air to 60, then low sweep to build defense. Fighters are generally 50 exp, 70 air, 60 def or so.

Planes for me are general flying very low, usually at their best maneuver bands or lower...I give up the dive every time. Just don't like flying planes at 35K. Maybe in 45.

Rufes are great at second line bomber killers. I also use them for night CAP.

I will be attempting to cut the lines by Bassein. I want to keep hitting Allies with hammer blows one after the other. Bombardment and grueling air war at Prome, attack west to cut road below Prome, and then attack west from Prome which is the big move. Any Allied planes I can degrade now, before that force moves west to the coast in the open, closer to his bombing bases, the better I will like it.

Thanks for all the advice!

[Lowpe]

Feb 23, 1943

Incredibly bloody air wars in Burma. Bad weather stops all night bombing, but during the day, Japanese sweeps hit Prome again and again, suffering at first, but then getting the upper hand as the day wore on. After all the AM sweeps were in, and the skies clear of Allied fighters 30 Sallies made a nice raid on the air field.

Only after all the offensive Japanese action was done, did the Allied bombers hit the troops in Prome. A dozen Tojo's put up a stiff resistance and damage was minimal thanks in part to the generous AA units there too.

In the afternoon, a dozen Helens flew in unescorted and got butchered. That's life.

We will do it all again tomorrow.

IJN naval bombardment of Rangoon nets zero planes damaged or destroyed. They are all gone.

[Lowpe]

Economic notes:

Topped 1 million Heavy Industry. 4.2 million supplies and growing.

I simply at this point can't grow the fuel and oil stockpiles in the home islands primarily thru Fusan and Ominato yet. Fusan is showing great promise, but the fuel and oil comes in spurts. At least there is no factory shutdowns anywhere.

I had 50K fuel transfer from Cam Ranh Bay to Saigon. Wrong way guys...I have too many ships at Saigon, will move even more to Fusan. I may have to ship from Singers to China and avoid Indochina all together.

[Lowpe]

Feb 24, 1943

Allies bomb Pegu at night with 4Es, and once again the KAI Dinah proves its worth. Set at 10 percent cap, 8K, they rose and challenged every wave without losing a plane. Despite the Allies flying low, and only moderate rain, the Allied bombers were ineffective.

Japanese bombers hit Prome, where the weather is thunderstorms and score only 1 runway hit a damaged hurricane. Will do it again tomorrow.

During the day, Japan sweeps Prome with predictably bloody results. Allies send some bombers into Pegu, this time at super high altitude of 34K. The first bomber wave gets a few hits, but for the subsequent waves Tony had climbed high enough to challenge the waves and no more hits were registered.

After the the aerial bloodbath, the Chindits were attacked again, and finally called it a war...at least until they are bought out again.

[Lowpe]

IJN bombardment of Rangoon, finds the airfield again.[:)]

Tomorrow, will be the first bombardment attack on Prome. I cannot believe my intelligent reports which seem very, very low, but they have stayed consistently steady.

720 guns, 1600 afvs, and 60,000 men of the IJA will start the attacks here...all three HQs have been studying Prome, but the artillery isn't dug in yet and I worry about counter battery fire.

Meanwhile, at Prome, the 2 division, 6 artillery, 3 AA, 2 tank regiments are resting for a final day before heading west.

Below Prome, we will launch river crossings.

No air sweeps for today, everyone on defensive escorts. This will give some time for the squadrons to repair and reinforce, and fresh squadrons to arrive and get sorted.

[Lowpe]

Prome:

A few night air attacks to no effect by both sides -- the Allies hit Toungoo.

During the day, the Japanese pilots on defensive CAP damage bombers at Toungoo and Prome, but a few tanks are disabled or destroyed at Prome by the Allied four engine beasties.

During the late afternoon, the bombardment begins. Bloody Burma.

[Lowpe]

Plane losses for the day.

This is the single best B17 day I ever have had! They were flying at 37K and some of my fighters actually closed on them.

[setloz]

138 squads disabled? Was that an attack or just a bombardment? I've never experienced such a bloody bombardment...

[Lowpe]

Bloody Burma!

Phase 2 the attack from Magwe. At first I hope he only sees reinforcements heading to Prome....

Hopefully, my troops don't get routed from Prome today![:)]

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: setloz

138 squads disabled? Was that an attack or just a bombardment? I've never experienced such a bloody bombardment...

Just bombardment.

[Lowpe]

Rangoon...planes still on the ground. Can't destroy them.[:(]

[mind_messing]

Can I ask for a list of LCU's on both sides at Prome?

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

Can I ask for a list of LCU's on both sides at Prome?

Certainly. My infantry had forts 1 and a couple of them took it on the chin.

[Lowpe]

Feb 26, 1943

Night bombing on Rangoon destroys a Mitchell on the ground, while AA downs a few planes over Prome.

Allies bomb Prome, and Japanese fighters contest the air and not much damage is done at all.

Then, the main event, what would the Allies do at Prome? They bombard, and a much more normal result occurs. Can't figure out this game at times.

[Lowpe]

Big picture at Burma...

[Lowpe]

Plane R&D

Finished off the r&d plane factory build for the Ki202. 14 size 30 roughly.[X(] Two of the factories have already repaired two points. Now, to keep them safe and build several size 10 AF on the HI both in contested areas and hopefully in safe areas. If Spidery's program is close to correct I can expect it early 1st qtr 1945.

A7M3-J Sam has 9 factories roughly size 30. It has 11 total repaired, with one factory size 4 and two at size 3.

These will be my endwar uber planes. I hope.

I should get the Tojo IIc sometime late March. I really feel the need for an armored fighter, as the IIa version just dies in droves while the A6M5c puts up a much stiffer fight.

I actually increased my production of the Tony, and will continue to use them in Burma until the Tojo IIc comes along, then it will be off to research the Ki100I with them.

KAI Dinah fighter is doing very well in a night fighting role. I am super pleased with this plane in that role. Other roles not so much.

Lilly IIb divebomber. In its one engagement it got overwhelmed by enemy CAP and suffered losses but penetrated the CAP but failed to score any hits. I have three Sentai now operating one each in Burma, Marshalls/Truk/Rabaul and Kuriles. It still is a very flexible bomber because of its range.

Carriers: Judy version one is on most of the Carriers, the A6M5c is on all of them, and I am planning to try and CAP Trap his planes in the Marshalls while I plant some mines at Jaluit.

Nicks: I am producing the A and B version, which have gotten chewed up by the Americans and British, but in turn have chewed up the Chinese really well with the added benefit of being able to strafe the Chinese too. No luck with them against Lightnings.

Lightning defense: Nothing seems to work real well, but the best I have come up with is to fly very low with different models and hope the A6M5c doesn't get the brunt of the dive attacks...if the Lightnings aren't sweeping they are much more manageable.

[Sangeli]

I've seen huge bombardments like that in the past as well. As a hardware engineer I'm inclined to believe that it is due to a bad register value being used for a calculation or some other bug in the running of the software. It's not like this game is bug free and I've encountered my share in the past (such as being able to control my opponents air units once) so this seems like the most probable cause.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

Can I ask for a list of LCU's on both sides at Prome?

Certainly. My infantry had forts 1 and a couple of them took it on the chin.

Well, that's quite the Allied stack, and more powerful than you'd think from the AV.

Plenty of Allied tanks (and probably good ones, if your oponent has managed his pools well), as well as USA infantry, and even a USMC unit!

You've got to give this stack a good kicking - heavy losses will put a dent in the Allied pools for quite some time. It's a powerful stack, but it's stuck in an open hex, and provided you can take Rangoon and the surrounding bases, you can isolate it from air support and pound them into dust.

[Lokasenna]

That's a huge investment of supply on the Ki-202.

[setloz]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

That's a huge investment of supply on the Ki-202.

14 factories of 30 equal 462.000 supplies to set-up and fully repair if my math doesn't fail me. If you add up the other factories that you are retooling, the supply for R&D is starting to get into the millions.
Did you make a full inventory of supplies spent/to be spent until 1945?