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

[Lowpe]

Jan 22, 1944

I wanted to lure something bigger into the coastal guns, but I will take getting rid of these guys.

[Lowpe]

Sweeps go in first and clear the way, and then follow up bombing on Kunashiri (undamaged) hits several AKAs, APAs in port. There are 91 ships there in a size 1 port. Flak is pretty rough, even a 15K, but that is war. The enemy fighters Corsair II, F4U and F4U-1 are cleared away, and the kamikazes make the first attack.

A big target, but the weather really stinks, and only one hits, and bounces of the belt armor. I will try and keep track of hits and altitude to see if there is any correlation. I knew I wanted heavier bombs for this mission.

At 10% rest, with 1 plane in reserve, there are now three planes left with a morale of 88 and fatigue of 17 after flying back to the HI for replenishment. Important to get the unit back in action in 4-5 days for more strikes.

I also ran 40 Betties into this hex with torpedoes, but the thunderstorms stopped any hits, and none of the pilots decided to make the sacrifice for the empire. Pity.

[Lowpe]

The Lilly dive bombers continue to harass Allied ships heading in and out to the Aluetians. I am curious if there is an experience threshold for sacrificing to the Emperor, so I will check his experience in tracker.





These attacks has caused the Allies to move CVEs east to try and cover them, and also B24 bomb Paramushiro (weather expected blizzard - actual Clear sky). Zekes raise up and challenge the beasties, and are great bomber killers. Rufes catch some B24s of Babeldoab and between the two groups 4 are shot down.

[Lowpe]

More fighter goodness. Jugs sweeps are going to be tough, I think we need to have very low CAP, and hope for some advantage, however they are so fast compared to my planes.

[Lowpe]

Overall not a bad day, since 25 Helens went kamikaze. Any day close to 1-1 I will take.

Over Indochina the Allies bomb heavily before a series of deliberate attacks. Japanese AA does great service damaging almost 100% of bombers (how many were damaged more than once, who knows).

[Lowpe]

All 1-2 attacks where we inflict two to three times the destroyed and disabled. Good day here.

[Lowpe]

Here is one of the attacks. I will take it.

[Lowpe]

Big picture.

The CVE's look hittable out in the Kuriles.

Should have a big attack on Kushiro this turn.

All Allied PT boats are nailed.

600 ships brought a lot of supplies I bet.



Our bombers set several ships on fire at Kunashiro, with fuel burning. APAs and AKAs. Somebody once told be supplies can actually burn?

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: topeverest

While prospects are poor, I would not throw in the towel yet. How many men can you get on the island how fast?

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

Once the allies get their teeth in it is very hard to dislodge them. He will have to risk quite a lot for an amphibious assault on the west side of the island.

Right now your best defense is the rough/jungle hexes between the eastern beaches of Hokkaido and Sapporo but at this point the game is over.

He can have a level 9 base within fighter distance of Japan within a month.

Well, the prospects are very poor, but that is one of the attractions of playing Japan. Getting crushed.[;)]

I am moving troops furiously into Hokkaido. Transports, Barges, etc, etc. However, I have very few artillery to get here, it is stuck mostly on islands so it will be a defensive war fraught with peril. I hopefully will be able to save the two fort bases.

I will try and make a fight of it...and see what happens.

I was totally unprepared for this move. Needless to say.[:(]

[topeverest]

Did I read that the Kami's activated after the Hokkaido invasion?

[Lowpe]

Yes, one day after. The Kamikaze check for activation seems to occur early in the turn. I got the depot divisions two full days earlier.

It is 20 hexes by sea. The rulebook states 15.

[Rio Bravo]

Hang in there, Lowpe!

It must be shocking to be the Japanese in 1944!

Regards,

-Terry

[topeverest]

These speed games make me wish we could advance the arrival of the kami through rules, because it is an awesome weapon - perhaps the primary late war weapon - if it is given a chance to blossom. IMHO, speed games take the inferior power, and make her even weaker. It already is so very difficult to play empire...

We've seen enough of these speed games to set a house rule to it in our games. In our current mod, we decided that the allies had to activate the Kami 90 days before an invasion of the home islands could occur. Something you might want to consider the next time around.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: topeverest

These speed games make me wish we could advance the arrival of the kami through rules, because it is an awesome weapon - perhaps the primary late war weapon - if it is given a chance to blossom. IMHO, speed games take the inferior power, and make her even weaker. It already is so very difficult to play empire...

We've seen enough of these speed games to set a house rule to it in our games. In our current mod, we decided that the allies had to activate the Kami 90 days before an invasion of the home islands could occur. Something you might want to consider the next time around.

I see what you are saying, but it really is my bad play that ended me up here.[;)]

It would have taken 4+ divisions to hold Hokkaido alone, troops I don't really have, not to mention the islands. This is not taking into account his naval superiority and deathstar.

Allies have well over 100K troops in Kushiro alone (101 units). With close to 1000 ships present there is no way I will be able to kick him off Hokkaido, or come anywhere close. Thinking of just evacuating. Sigh. Maybe I can hold the forts but I simply don't have enough anti-tank tools so I doubt it really. I would like to bomb Kushiro, but to tell the truth I am scared to death of the flak present. Well over 1600 guns and 2200 vehicles there.

I won't be able to come anywhere close to preventing his building of airfields, he will have a level 9 base in less than a week.

I do have 3 divisions on their way back from Truk and the Lower Solomons, and one Division at Saipan. Heck it will be a full month till they make it back by then won't be much left. China, I guess. There is no assault value in the SRA, that was stripped in Dec of 43. Some will come from China, but it is still a long way away.

Maybe it wouldn't have happened if I didn't throw away the KB in the Marianas, but even with a full KB trading carriers with the Deahtstar he brought so much there is no way to stop it. He was fully concentrated, I wasn't. Not even close.

I can take grim satisfaction I am still in northern Oz.[:D]

Just disappointed in myself for not reading the intentions of the Allies better. And no rockets or SamJ. No nightfighting to test bombers. Everything I wanted to accomplish gone.

Sad.

But we will fight, I have supply which is being burned converting all my R&D over to fighters and kamikazes. I have two basic night fighters the Irving Sa and Nick d.

He won't go for the Korea, he will invade the HI proper. I don't think I could stop him. He will do it in 2 months time.

[obvert]

Have a look at GJ vs rader. In a very similar circumstance rader held pretty well and counterpunched extensively. This was before the beta change back to a more realistic coordination of strikes, but it still should give you hope you can do something this early. He still have only four bases, and while he can backfill throughout he Kuriles, if you keep on the front while backfilling Hokkaido, you can still give him problems. Do you have no free troops you can ship over to Sapporo?

[Miller]

Alas I think Hokkaido is gone from you. If you could limit him to just two bases until you could get a large body of troops ashore you would have a chance of kicking him off, but that seems unlikely now. I didn't realise that you had a weakened KB to start with and of course your losses due to the escorts not flying means it has lost its edge. As others have said you may as well operate the airgroups from land now as you have plenty of spare capacity and get your CVs to safety for the time being. I would still be aggressive with your surface units though if you can get them in and out in the same turn under friendly CAP.

As you have no doubt learned having any land forces larger then a Naval Guard unit anywhere south of Truk at this stage of the game is pretty pointless, the Allies simply don't need to bother with the Solomons in the first place. Keep fighting, I'm sure you'll get some big licks in eventually.

[Lowpe]

Oh, I am going to fight and fight hard.

Big raid going into Kushiro, sweeping with every George, Tojo and Tony I have, followed up by huge bombing runs. Setting up for big kamikaze/naval strike but wanted to have more than one unit available.

Almost all R&D gone now.

[castor troy]

That's the difference with the game and reality. In real life the Allied thought three times about invading the home islands as they were fearing the losses, this with an already starved Japan in a hopeless situation. In the game you can just pack everything you have into 15 hundred ship task forces, move to a place, land and stay there forever pretty much ending the game. Works for both ways of course but even more so for the Allied as they pack ten times more stuff in 44/45 than the IJ does in 41/42.

Valid way to play of course as it's a game, I still preferre games that stay somewhere near a plausible way of advancing.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Have a look at GJ vs rader. In a very similar circumstance rader held pretty well and counterpunched extensively. This was before the beta change back to a more realistic coordination of strikes, but it still should give you hope you can do something this early. He still have only four bases, and while he can backfill throughout he Kuriles, if you keep on the front while backfilling Hokkaido, you can still give him problems. Do you have no free troops you can ship over to Sapporo?

In general I have better fighters than Radar, and I have inflicted far more air losses on the Allies than he did. In June of 44, he had suffered 28K Japanese losses, and the Allies only 13K or so. But he still had a pretty decent KB.

However, he was in Scenario 2 and I am 1.

[topeverest]

+1

ORIGINAL: castor troy

That's the difference with the game and reality. In real life the Allied thought three times about invading the home islands as they were fearing the losses, this with an already starved Japan in a hopeless situation. In the game you can just pack everything you have into 15 hundred ship task forces, move to a place, land and stay there forever pretty much ending the game. Works for both ways of course but even more so for the Allied as they pack ten times more stuff in 44/45 than the IJ does in 41/42.

Valid way to play of course as it's a game, I still preferre games that stay somewhere near a plausible way of advancing.