Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

[Chattez]

Be sure you garrison all the islands you capture--even with just a small unit; otherwise
later the Marines will land and take them back on one turn, at no cost. After that, they
may land aircraft on them, which will give their ships cover if they choose to advance their fleets.

Late in the war this may not make much difference, as their fleets by then might have enough
carrier planes to make their fleets safe. But in the first couple of years of the war,
denying their fleets any land-based cover will prevent their fleets from operating in forward areas.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Chattez
Be sure you garrison all the islands you capture--even with just a small unit; otherwise
later the Marines will land and take them back on one turn, at no cost. After that, they
may land aircraft on them, which will give their ships cover if they choose to advance their fleets.

Late in the war this may not make much difference, as their fleets by then might have enough
carrier planes to make their fleets safe. But in the first couple of years of the war,
denying their fleets any land-based cover will prevent their fleets from operating in forward areas.

I like the way you think Chattez dude. Good advice and thanks for posting it. I'm hoping all my
air coverage will provide the protection needed in the Tulagi area. There's still an empty port
near Guadacanal that I need to ship something to so your advice is relevant.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie.......I've received some moves from Marcin and I watched the replay and then this opening screen appeared and there's
a mystery target refered to but never identified. Tom may want to look into that.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm going to assault Espirto Santo ( spelling? ) and I've been thinking of bombarding Ellils island as well. Let's first see how the
attack at ES goes before branching off somewhere else.

[thomasharvey]

The * identifies a hex with supply in it. When a place name is taken it prints on the news info. Some of them have no name and only the * symbol and that is all that is printed in news. Nothing is wrong, that is normal.

All the battles look good so far. It is a long war so pace yourself!

[larryfulkerson]

I'll bet Marcin is finding the same situation I'm finding. Here's where we have a carrier aircraft unit riding on a CL ( the Nagara ) with
a DD squadron for escort. My theory is that the CL and the DD ran over the hex where the Zuiho was floating and since it had
room for a plane unit it snatched the bomb group right off the carrier decks and kidnapped them. At any rate this is the third
instance of this situation I've found so far this turn. The spotter planes show up on carriers too. I usually try to find an empty
base or nearby ship that carries planes to swap them. I'm learning to be more careful about what planes are aboard which ship.

[thomasharvey]

The float planes on the ships are an experiment to see if they assist in spotting enemy ships. If they do not, then they should be deleted which is easy. The cruisers would also have their "carrier" property deleted. In this match, if they do nothing for spotting, then store the search planes in some out the way place. The computer will mix and match the aircraft on the carriers, and now the cruisers, so watch for that. It is a trade off hoping some help in spotting for the hassle it causes.

You are like test pilots in the game finding what works and what does not.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of an air strike on Port Moresby's airfield by at least three of my squadrons. I think the Japs lost.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of the bombardment of Noumea. Now if I only had some shipping points left over from the movement phase.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of the assault on Espirto Santo. Losses are light.

[larryfulkerson]

And I attacked with a probe near Manila.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a look at the Hong Kong area now. I'm going to need a lot more people to hold back the horde.

[thomasharvey]

I have noticed in all scenarios, not just this Pacific scenario, that the defender in an air strike has an advantage. The attacker usually takes more losses. If the same air units in Port Moresby had attacked the larger defenders they would have been wiped out most likely. Also, the losses are really just about 50 percent of indicated with the balance into the replacement pool on average.

The Japanese ground troops in China will need to breakdown into three regiments for each division and then spread out. That way I think you can at least hold the Chinese. In the real war the Japanese never pushed very far beyond mainly the coastal areas. Then form up the divisions for offensives when ready.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: thomasharvey
I have noticed in all scenarios, not just this Pacific scenario, that the defender in an air strike has an advantage. The attacker usually takes more losses. If the same air units in Port Moresby had attacked the larger defenders they would have been wiped out most likely.

Yeah, in FITE I look for aircraft by type because of the threat of enemy fighters. If I can find a bomber group by itself on an airfield
then I usually attack it but if there is some fighter group parked there as well I usually pass on that hex.

ORIGINAL: thomasharvey
Also, the losses are really just about 50 percent of indicated with the balance into the replacement pool on average.

This is a fact that I knew at one time and then somehow it got pushed out of my memory by other items. Thanks.

ORIGINAL: thomasharvey
The Japanese ground troops in China will need to breakdown into three regiments for each division and then spread out. That way I think you can at least hold the Chinese. In the real war the Japanese never pushed very far beyond mainly the coastal areas. Then form up the divisions for offensives when ready.

Yeah, but I was planning on fighting them into India. So I'm going to need at least four more divisions on the front lines in south
China and more in the north just to contain all the partisans and Communist Chinese dudes.

Also, I'm wondering how the game engine treats the spotter aircraft since you can assign them to attacks. I assigned one spotter
group to attack the Allied land unit on New Guinea and I never saw the combat result for it so I guess the game engine skipped it
because it doesn't have an offensive ability evidently. So when they are on combat support or interdiction either one how does
the game engine treat them?

[thomasharvey]

The Japanese ground troops should be able to fight into India but that will take a long time. There is the Burma front and the allies to contend with along with the Chinese. It will be interesting to see how that all goes.


As for the float planes, they have nearly no combat value and the cruiser units are only two per air unit which is negligible compared to the other air and ground units. I made them weak so they would really only be used for recon, if that works at all.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie.......I've received some moves from Marcin and the game engine went to T4. Here's the front lines so far:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a close-up of the Manila area now:

[larryfulkerson]

I forced the Neumea defenders out of the base hex last turn so it was straightforward to drive a RGMT into the empty hex. I need to
capture the airfields and move the Allied unit and maybe move some arty in there to defend properly.

[larryfulkerson]

I flew a large group of Nates to Noumea for some top cover and I'm planning on moving a lot of ships to Noumea to threaten
Australia and maybe protect the base better. I saw some naval action on the replay and I'm wondering what was lost to each
side. Maybe we should turn on the log file. Nah. Well, now wait a minute.....that might be a good idea. I'll interrogate Marcin
as to his opinion and decide using his input too. I could probably base a Nell group at Noumea to bomb the coastal cities of
OZ because it may be close enough to do that. I'll have to look into that. At any rate we need some Nells at Noumea to reach
the Fiji islands. And some Zero's with their exceptional range.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved another air unit, a mix of Nells and Betty's and I found out that indeed OZ and the Fiji islands both are within range. And
I moved some Zero's there and found that it too was range worthy. This is good news. I need to move the Nates and bring in some
more Nells and Bettys.

EDIT: I was in error naming the A3M Zero below......it's actually an A6M