Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the situation as the Japs see it in T83. I'm going to send the fleet from near Japan down here to investigate and develop
the situation further.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the results of an airstrike on an Allied airfield in China somewhere. It took a lot of planes and a lot of strikes but I finally got rid
of that pesky Gladiator squadron. It's going to respawn I know but for a while it's gone.

[larryfulkerson]

The results of an airstrike on a stack of Allied ships.

[larryfulkerson]

I received some new moves from Thomas and I watched the replay and everything and now I'm going through the OOB moving units
and I got curious about when the third part of a three-part ensomble and noticed that in T90 there's going to be a unit of Night
Fighters I think. I think that's what NF means in the name of the unit. If so cool. I'm wondering where to deploy them.

[larryfulkerson]

Okay........an update:

China:
Thomas and I are attacking each other's airfields each turn and the losses in aircraft on both sides is horrendous.
The ground war is still going but it's more or less on the back burner because of the very low supply level.

Guadacanal:
Since Thomas's attack a couple of turns ago the area is quiet. Most of the fighting in this area is happening
back and forth across the mountain chain near Port Moresby. Airfield strikes are the order of the day every
day and losses are high for both sides.

And that's about the size of the war at this point in time. I'm fighting to withdraw in order into the Hanoi
metroplex and hold up there for as long as needed. It's a good position and has a supply point and
I'm hopeful I can make a good stand there for at least as long as it takes for the replacement divisions
to regain their health. Then I'll sail them to their final destination.

[larryfulkerson]

The first of the early model Mustang's are showing up at Port Moresby. They are A-36's and are pretty good for ground support as
well as air to air. At least that's what they used a lot of them on early in the war.

[thomasharvey]

The allied air power is inferior to the air power of Japan. While there are plenty of P-40, P-39 and F4F Wildcat fighters they do not protect the fleet or invasion forces. As indicated on the inventory list the important turn is 93. That is when the Corsair, F6F Hellcat, early Mustang and P-47 start production. The Marines are the main user of the Corsair. On turn 109 the P-38 starts production and on turn 129 the P-51 D starts to arrive.

All these aircraft are superior to the Zero fighter and nearly all other aircraft that arrive for Japan in the war. When they are present in numbers the losses for Japan will increase greatly. At that time invasions will pick up. It is still defense until then.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's those night fighters I was going to get soon. I got 'em. 20 Irvings and I'm trying to decide where to put them. Someplace in
China I'm guessing so that the squadron doesn't get shot down in one go. I'm not sure how TOAW will handle them. Do I assign
them to airfield attacks? I suppose so.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the north China situation now. See anything wrong? There's no defenders along the river. And it would take about 10 of them
split into pieces to line the whole thing. Rather than that I'm thinking I'll just pull back to the coast and form an enclave like the one
at Hanoi.

[larryfulkerson]

I went to look at the missions of the airplanes and I found some already assigned and investigated and found out it's because the
Air Staff Assistant is turned on. I don't remember turning it on in this game. I turned it on in my TGW
game and I guess there's a flag somewhere that gets turned on for all the TOAW scenarios or something.

[thomasharvey]

The night fighters for the Japanese should be placed in Japan and saved for special use. They should only be put on air superiority when the weather is bad an no other mission. That would be overcast or at least hazy. The night fighters do not get their abilities reduced in bad weather like day fighters do. There are monsoon seasons in this scenario and there still will be other marginal weather as well.

The night fighters will come in handy when the B29 starts bombing in bad weather. The B-29 is also an all weather aircraft so the Japanese day fighters will be at a disadvantage against it. There is also a small reduction in ability of all day aircraft for 1 week turns to simulate night which the all weather plane keeps its normal value.


As for the air assistant, I have noticed the computer sometimes assigns air missions to the bombers even when the assistant is off. To stop that, sometimes it stops for each aircraft if you click off the attack to rest when viewing all air units. That seems to work but you need to do that for each unit that the computer assigned a mission. I am guessing on that but I have yet to figure that one out.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Thomas. He captured Lae on New Guinea and now has a fully operational airbase even closer to my stuff. We're
reaching parity instead of the Japs having superior numbers. D'oh.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a close up of Lae now. My supply is coming from Holiandia I guess so I suppose the next best thing for me to do is pull back
in that direction if possible. My dudes are tired and low on supply and in no condition to fight.

[larryfulkerson]

I saw that one of my airplane units was already set the an airfield attack and I didn't do it so I checked the air
Assistant and of course it was ON and I didn't turn it on either. So I thought I'd check out the Opart3.ini file
and yep, I saw an entry that turns it on. So before I quit one scenario that uses the air Assistant and go to
a scenario where I don't want to use the air Assistant I have to edit the ini file. Now I know.

[larryfulkerson]

My 3rd Armoured Division has found itself surrounded by Chinese dudes this turn. They obviously leapt across the river and sneaked
up on us. So I'm going to have to fight my way out of this or die. I shall attack the northernmost units.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's another chapter in the continuing saga of the 3rd Armoured Division's fight out of north China. Thomas says it reminds him of
the fight of those valiant Marines known as the Frozen Chosen. In Korea in, I think either '52 or '53. I'm not sure the 3rd Armoured
Division is going to make it out of there. There's too many Chinese between him and safety.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd rail the 8th division over there to do some recon and maybe help out the 3rd Armoured Division and I found the rail
blocked by Chinese and did a 180 real quick. I don't know if I'm far enough away or if the Chinese are going to stay where they
are or maybe they are on their way to Peiking and the supply point there. I'm going to have to adjust the lines on the east side
of the river so that we give up on north China for now.

[larryfulkerson]

The Allies are starting to get the early models of the Hellcat. I managed to shoot some of them down. Maybe they have rookie pilots.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Thomas. The Allies have captured Madang. This makes a pattern of behavior that is predictable. I'm going to
predict that Thomas will continue westward along the island.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Thomas, new turn. Here's what the Madang area looks like now. Thomas is moving west taking my bases. There's
not much to stop him either. There's a division at Hollandia that might put up a fight but until then it's looking like curtains.