Castles in the Sand - Spidery(J) vs MrKane(A) no MrKane please

[MrBlizzard]

Sherman e Type 1 look very similar in penetration and armor.
The major range of Sherman means that it fires before the Type 1 and can knock out it from the distance.
But the real difference i believe it's in antiarmor infantry stats; Allied are plenty of AT weapons reflected in their stats; instead japan infantry lacks them badly.
It's difficult to see "tanks alone" battles in pacific theatre, almost always there is infantry together with tanks,
Add this with short range and that's why japan tanks are in disdvantage.

[Spidery]

March 21st 1943

Air Losses: 8 Japanese, 9 Allied, 4 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Marshalls

Liberators continue to hit bases.

The Allied forces have pulled back slightly and in the afternoon the carrier planes strike at Maloelap. Base supply is nearly exhausted but the LCUs still hold supply.

104 TBF-1 and 164 SBD-3 escorted by 145 F4F-4. Reports as 8 TB groups and 15 DB groups so I assume that represents all his CV & CVE?

Solomons, etc.

Quiet

Burma area

A night strike at Ledo meets CAP and I lose 5 Helens. First time I have suffered significant losses from night CAP.

Burma is running low on supplies, Katha is in the red. I hoped more supply would flow from China, as it stands I am getting only about 3000 a week[:(]. A resupply convoy is en route with 50000 supply but over a week away. I will scratch one together to send 20000 supply from Singapore.

66000 suppply sits idle at Hankow and nearly 400000 at Port Arthur.

China

Destroyed two more Corps including the one that I had fought for a long time on the Paoshan/Lashio road.

Australia & DEI

Quiet

Engineering

Kochi airfield to 4, another ASW base.

R&D

Quiet

Reinforcements

DD Tamanami

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: MrBlizzard

Sherman e Type 1 look very similar in penetration and armor.
The major range of Sherman means that it fires before the Type 1 and can knock out it from the distance.
But the real difference i believe it's in antiarmor infantry stats; Allied are plenty of AT weapons reflected in their stats; instead japan infantry lacks them badly.
It's difficult to see "tanks alone" battles in pacific theatre, almost always there is infantry together with tanks,
Add this with short range and that's why japan tanks are in disdvantage.

That is my believe as well.

The Sherman has a definite advantage but the main problem is the poor infantry and guns (the Allied heavy AA have good AT values but the Japanese don't).

The Japanese light tanks are hopeless.

[Spidery]

Pilot Training Update

The IJN replacement pool is looking pretty empty with only 132 pilots available. The IJA one has barely been touched and still has 1595 pilots in it.

The IJN has 215 trained fighter pilots in reserve (Air 70+, Defense 65+, experience 60+)

It has 130 bomber pilots with a mix of skills, most have 70+ in NavB or NavT and NavS.

There are 45 patrol pilots in reserve but most are not fully skilled. Recon and transport pools are nearly empty.

The IJA has 70 trained fighter pilots in reserve. It has about 350 trained bomber pilots (ground 70+) some with extra skills. Transport pool is about 50 and recon pool 10.

IJA ground bomber training is now restricted to the 1E bombers. It is concentrating on giving pilots a second skill. Some in ASW but most in NavB or LowN. With the IJA bombers now mostly used for ASW work there are few pilot losses.

IJA fighter training needs to be increased. IJN fighter training can be cut back and more fighters released to the front lines. IJN patrol training is concentrating on making sure all active pilots have NavS of 70+ and then on giving pilots additional skills, ASW, NavB, LowN etc.

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I guess Jaluit or Kusaie? Mili has coastal guns, I would think he would bomb it to oblivion before heading in there.

First pick is Kusaie since he is currently bombing it.

Maloelap may be a possibility. Or, he could be trying to lure KB into an action?

[setloz]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

Pilot Training Update


The IJN has 215 trained fighter pilots in reserve (Air 70+, Defense 65+, experience 60+)

The IJA has 70 trained fighter pilots in reserve.

Only 215/70 fighter pilots in Reserve? Once the tide turns you could get into trouble. I always thought based on latewar AARs that I need at least 1000 trained fighter pilots for the endgame.
For example, Obvert's AAR showed that until July 1945 he had burned 17.000 pilots (of both branches and all types)

[Lowpe]

Is Tracom pretty heavily staffed? Otherwise, I agree and think you may be in trouble here.

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Is Tracom pretty heavily staffed? Otherwise, I agree and think you may be in trouble here.

Disagree that I am in trouble but agree that I need to get more IJA fighters training.

There are no IJA fighter reinforcements until September and those will be consigned to training. I currently have 360 training places so that gets me about 120 trained pilots a month. If I lose 2 a day that gives me 600 trained IJA fighter pilots by the end of 1943. If I increase that to 450 training places that would give me 1000 trained IJA fighter pilots at the end of the year.

IJN is more brittle due to the risk of a CV engagement that loses 100 or more fighter pilots at once. However, here I am limited by the replacement pool.

Obvert may have used 17000 pilots but how many of those were Kamikaze pilots with just LowN training?

I would like to get the 1500 IJA reserve pool more or less emptied by the end of the year. Starting in 1944 there is a big increase in the rate pilots enter the reserve pool.

[GreyJoy]

To be honest, who cares about the replacement pools?
I look forward to drain those pools to zero so to may be able to draw into training units pilots with 10/20 exp points instead of the damned 50 exp points pilots.
A pilot who has 10 exp trains MUCH faster in a particular skill than a pilot who has finished its school program.
Also, when you use the expanded float planes group to train fighters, those 50 exp replacements arrive with 30/50 skill in Nav Search, which makes much much slower the process of training the A2A skill up to 70

[setloz]

ORIGINAL: Spidery
Disagree that I am in trouble but agree that I need to get more IJA fighters training.

There are no IJA fighter reinforcements until September and those will be consigned to training. I currently have 360 training places so that gets me about 120 trained pilots a month. If I lose 2 a day that gives me 600 trained IJA fighter pilots by the end of 1943. If I increase that to 450 training places that would give me 1000 trained IJA fighter pilots at the end of the year.

IJN is more brittle due to the risk of a CV engagement that loses 100 or more fighter pilots at once. However, here I am limited by the replacement pool.

Iirc, Obvert lost 800 pilots in 1945 in a single KB strike on allied CVs. He was able to replenish the pilots of KB and do another run on american CVEs and shipping a few months later. He had ample pools in order to afford such attrition rates.

ORIGINAL: Spidery
Obvert may have used 17000 pilots but how many of those were Kamikaze pilots with just LowN training?

I just checked his AAR - he lost about 2500 Jakes just by running nav search/asw. Iirc, these were trained pilots in 3 skills: Search, ASW, LowNav.

Also, here are the losses from Air to air (excluding flak, ops, ground)
1571 Frank (version A) + 880 (version R)
1316 Tojo (c) + 787 (a)
1311 Jack
1230 George
1200 A6M5
1151 A7M2
877 Oscar (IV) + 683 (III)

That is a total of 11.000 fighters that were never used as kamikazi.
Now, I'm not saying you will lose 11.000 pilots, but you will burn through 1000 pilots long before you can burn 11.000 fighters...

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

To be honest, who cares about the replacement pools?
I look forward to drain those pools to zero so to may be able to draw into training units pilots with 10/20 exp points instead of the damned 50 exp points pilots.
A pilot who has 10 exp trains MUCH faster in a particular skill than a pilot who has finished its school program.
Also, when you use the expanded float planes group to train fighters, those 50 exp replacements arrive with 30/50 skill in Nav Search, which makes much much slower the process of training the A2A skill up to 70

Scenario 1 base so replacement pool pilots have about 35 experience. I still see your point about having even less experienced pilots.

For the float planes, draw first into a fighter unit then send them straight to reserve and then draw them from there into the float plane group instead of drawing them direct from the replacement pool. That way they come in with air and defense skills rather than patrol type skills.

[Spidery]

That is a total of 11.000 fighters that were never used as kamikazi.
Now, I'm not saying you will lose 11.000 pilots, but you will burn through 1000 pilots long before you can burn 11.000 fighters

11,000 aircraft lost in air-air. That is probably about 7000 pilots lost over 42 months. So that is about 170 a month. Half and half IJN and IJA amounts to maybe 100 IJA fighter pilots lost per month (including those lost from ops losses). So if I am getting 120 trained a month I am fine, except that the losses are weighted to later in the war so I need more of a reserve. Hence need more fighter training for the IJA.

I also have all groups over-staffed which gives me a sizable pool of pilots for emergencies. For example, groups on ASW, generally the limit for ops percentage is not pilot fatigue but airframe fatigue. Less so with fighters were pilot fatigue can build quicker than airframe fatigue.

[setloz]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

For the float planes, draw first into a fighter unit then send them straight to reserve and then draw them from there into the float plane group instead of drawing them direct from the replacement pool. That way they come in with air and defense skills rather than patrol type skills.

Great tip! Thanks! I didn't think about that option.

[FeurerKrieg]

For the float planes, draw first into a fighter unit then send them straight to reserve and then draw them from there into the float plane group instead of drawing them direct from the replacement pool. That way they come in with air and defense skills rather than patrol type skills.

Excellent. Why didn't I think of that? Thanks, Spidery!

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Is Tracom pretty heavily staffed? Otherwise, I agree and think you may be in trouble here.

Obvert may have used 17000 pilots but how many of those were Kamikaze pilots with just LowN training?

Not very many. Most of the kami pilots were ones I'd trained in either IJA 1E/2E bombers with multiple skills, usually ASW/lownaval, or they were from FP training, sometimes sweep/lownaval to be used in fighters, or ASW/search/low naval in FP.

By the last years I was training a lot of low naval only pilots, but I tended to use the better exp pilots first, so probably 60-70% of kami pilots had 50+ exp., some very high for the IJA 2E as I had so many good trained land bombing pilots that dual trained later for low naval.

IJAAF fighter training after 43 was also escort/low naval to get the Oscars some good attack pilots. Not that they ever did anything in Oscars, mind you, but at least it was an option. [:)]

After mid-43 I rarely used the IJAAF 2E for anything except training and ASW. A few had offensive field/ground bombing missions during certain periods, but I didn't really have much luck sweeping after a certain point, so offensive missions were scarce.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: obvert
Not very many. Most of the kami pilots were ones I'd trained in either IJA 1E/2E bombers with multiple skills, usually ASW/lownaval, or they were from FP training, sometimes sweep/lownaval to be used in fighters, or ASW/search/low naval in FP.

Thanks Obvert, a helpful post.[&o]

Can I get you to talk a little about Kamikazes? How did you train, what experience level did you use? It seems like you used almost whatever was at hand?

Attack settings? Favorite Planes? Planes you wish you had? How many did you have?

Many thanks.

EDIT: Ooops, I am hijacking the AAR -- apologies.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: obvert
Not very many. Most of the kami pilots were ones I'd trained in either IJA 1E/2E bombers with multiple skills, usually ASW/lownaval, or they were from FP training, sometimes sweep/lownaval to be used in fighters, or ASW/search/low naval in FP.

Thanks Obvert, a helpful post.[&o]

Can I get you to talk a little about Kamikazes? How did you train, what experience level did you use? It seems like you used almost whatever was at hand?

Attack settings? Favorite Planes? Planes you wish you had? How many did you have?

Many thanks.

EDIT: Ooops, I am hijacking the AAR -- apologies.

Talking about kamis is never hijacking a Japanese AAR! [:D]

For me kamis worked best as part of a larger strike mission. Usually there would also be DB and TB flying. That's not to say they can't work on their own. I also had many successful smaller strikes with kamis.

Training for them is just low naval, so anything that uses it already is good. I trained low naval exclusively with the gazillions of training groups that arrive in 45, and that pushed numbers way up near the end. Some of them are 100+ sized groups and can train low naval pilots to 70 skill in just over a month! [&o]

Ideally a kami pilot would be 50+exp/70 low naval. That's it. A lot of mine had good defensive ratings due to their other training though, so that may help get them through. Kami groups will not convert if the pilots are 50+ exp so you have to do a lot of shifting pilots around. A LOT. Imagine 500 planes lost in a strike, and then you have to fill all of those groups with planes and pilots again. Then do it again in a few weeks.

Several airframe attributes help kamis get through. First is speed. Second is durability. Third is armor. Fourth is maneuver.

Many players focus on biggest load, and this is important (see D4Y4 [:)]) or swarms of low value planes, but it has to get there first. With the lack of coordination introduced in the betas the kami mission became more realistic and less easily handled. Harder to just through out 300 Oscars with 200 escorts as players did years back very successfully.

(Also important is range, not to get them through but to get them into the right spots to make a strike, which often means a distant transfer or a LR strike away from known CAP).

The best kami planes for me we as follows.

1. Grace - best for DB and TB also. Fast, maneuverable, sadly no armor. Not as big a load, but it hits often.
2. Peggy - fast, more durable, armored and with decent load.
3. Judy D4Y4/D4Y3 - fast, big load!
4. Frances - fast, durable, the only downside is load.
5. Jill - not as fast, but decent, good range.
6. Tsurugi - BIG LOAD, fast, short range, unmaneuverable, extremely low durability and no armor.
7. Any IJA 2E, preferably with armor
8. Any fighter with 2 x 250kg bombs

I had great hopes of using swarms of Oscars ala Captain Cruft, but that didn't really happen. Had a few work, but they ust don't fly as often as dedicated strike planes and they're really fragile.

If I'd had hundreds of Tsurugi that would have been great, but mostly as last chance invasion stoppers close to shore.

There is a lot more in my AAR including the airframe numbers in July 45 when the game ended if you want to have a look.

This post might be interesting for you.
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=3567070

[Spidery]

EDIT: Ooops, I am hijacking the AAR -- apologies.

No need to apologise, it is all good stuff.

[Spidery]

IJAAF fighter training after 43 was also escort/low naval to get the Oscars some good attack pilots. Not that they ever did anything in Oscars, mind you, but at least it was an option.

After mid-43 I rarely used the IJAAF 2E for anything except training and ASW. A few had offensive field/ground bombing missions during certain periods, but I didn't really have much luck sweeping after a certain point, so offensive missions were scarce.

obvert, thank-you for the information.

My fighter training is now escort/low naval but I may do some escort/ground bomb because high altitude bombing runs are interesting. I have had some limited success with the Ki-45 KAIa on low nav attack.

I have more or less abandoned use of IJA 2E bombers in the offensive role. They just can't cope with Allied flak and don't have enough bomb load to do much damage. I have a big pool of ground bombing trained pilots available so if they do get an opportunity I may take it. I also want to get some low Nav trained bomber pilots because I may try the Helen in that role on occasions.

[Spidery]

1. Grace - best for DB and TB also. Fast, maneuverable, sadly no armor. Not as big a load, but it hits often.
2. Peggy - fast, more durable, armored and with decent load.
3. Judy D4Y4/D4Y3 - fast, big load!
4. Frances - fast, durable, the only downside is load.
5. Jill - not as fast, but decent, good range.
6. Tsurugi - BIG LOAD, fast, short range, unmaneuverable, extremely low durability and no armor.
7. Any IJA 2E, preferably with armor
8. Any fighter with 2 x 250kg bombs

Was that the first or the second Tsurugi? I hope to have the second one deployed in numbers early 1945 (about 400 available in January) and was looking for its 385 mph speed to get it through in deadly force.