The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[witpqs]

If you are running your game in 'Windowed mode' instead of 'Full Screen mode' you might also want to change this to "Maximized"

[Canoerebel]

Thanks, Gents, for taking time to help me with the screen issues. I know where to look now, so when I get home, I'll give it a try. If I have problems, you'll know (you'll hear me squawking). If I'm successful, I'll owe you something.

I'm still tinkering around with the next turn. I wonder what a bombardment run by four DDs might accomplish? Probably not much, especially without recon, so I'm inclined to give patrols a few days in hopes of intercepting a juicy convoy. If I keep drilling dry wells, I can always make a trip up Brunei way. My hunch is that my TF can make it there without detection. Or, how about a raid on Hong Kong?

[jwolf]

IMHO it doesn't make sense to blow their cover for a mere bombardment. I'd like to see them make a bigger splash than that.

[Canoerebel]

The Monitor versus the Merrimac Thanks to your help, ye Forumites, the problem seems fixed. I installed the recommended Switches and now the hexes and all details look normal. And the bonus is the bigger screen means I see a heckuva lot more of the map. Cool! Thanks to you all and especially Zuluhour, witpqs, NYGiants and BBFanboy. Much appreciated. And I didn't crash the World Wide Web!

[morejeffs]

John has lost 7-9 CAs....How many does the IJN have? Obviously....They are awesome ships (especially when compared to IJN CLs)

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: morejeffs

John has lost 7-9 CAs....How many does the IJN have? Obviously....They are awesome ships (especially when compared to IJN CLs)

18 in stock if I remember correctly. Not sure if they get any extra in RA. Probably...

EDIT: Looks like the Japanese get 4 extra Tone CAs. (Iwaki, Hikari, Kurama and Ibiki). They also get 2 BCs (Kawachi and Kasuga). Add to that 4 extra Shokaku CVs, 9 CLs and 22 DDs...

I assume this is for the latest RA. Not sure if its the same in the version CR is playing.

[ny59giants]

I didn't think it was possible to find somebody on this forum more 'computer challenged' than John, but I think you may be Dan. [:D] As soon as I can get Tracker up and running, I'll have to have a long phone call with John to walk him through.

[Canoerebel]

Oh, I'm hugely challenged when it comes to the actual mechanics and electronics of computers. I am clueless.

But I do know how to use computers, mostly for word processing, desginging things (I don't design my magazine, but on occasion I do design ads, etc.), maintaining our website (it's very unimpressive, but it does the job for a two-man business) and even creating You Tube videos of Appalachian Trail trips (that are only of interest to those who were present).

[Canoerebel]

1/20/43

Battle of Balikpapan: The four USN destroyers rumble into port and savage two enemy TFs, sinking five xAKs, two xAKLs, and a PB. Judging by VPs, the xAKs were pretty good ones. I was hoping for tankers, but no doubt this raid got John's full attention and left him a bit rattled (judging by email comments). The destroyers performed well but shot up all their ammunition. They'll have to retire with a bunch of fully-aroused Apachees hot on their heels. (The blood lust for enemy tankers was partly satisfied when a USN sub put two torps into a big tanker near Brunei, sending it under.)

Battle of Sumatra: A fairly quiet day: no enemy sweeps or combat TFs at Sabang, the enemy stack (three divisions) south of Langsa only bombards (doing more harm to itself than to the Allied units), and about 25 SBDs hit the port facility at Sinabang, hopefully delaying enemy work on the airfield.

Battle of Burma: The RAF sweeps Rangoon (this is one of the rare time I've used sweeps due to the lack of fighters and the high need to maintain CAP) to modest results. On the ground, an enemy division (55th or 53rd or something) dislodges a solo UK brigade, creating a mounting risk that John will move this division to cut off my big stack south of Magwe. With respect to that big stack, 41st USA division attacks by itself without success. (Tomorrow, all Allied units in the hex will attack.) Further to the north, a modest Allied army boots two-thirds of a Royal Thai division (1/A and 1/C) from a hex north of Schwebo, interdicting the rail leading to Katha and Myityina. A Chinese division arrives at Taung Gyi and finds it defended by a non-fighting unit (so it should take that base tomorrow). Finally, both sides have stacks in a jungle hex just east of Ramree. I think John diverted the 55th (or 53rd) division from this stack, leaving it with one heavily reinforced divsision. The Alies will attack here tomorrow, hopefully preceeded by large SBD divebombing raids.

All of this is confusing in type, so I'll post a map later today.

Reinforcements: 9th Aussie Division just arrived at Aden. She'll probably be committed to Burma in the short term, but ultmately she's prepping for Medan in Sumatra. If the Allies manage to hold Sabang, then Sumatra will be the western campaign focus in the second half of '43.

Key Question: What are the prospects for the Allies holding Sumatra? There remains a chance, perhaps slightly higher than this time a week or two back. I'm guessings somewhere in the 25% to 30% range. That's good enough for the Allies to commit everything available to the fight. I'm using all of my carrier air now (well, mainly the F4Fs with occasinal use of SBDs) since Sabang (and Langsa to an extent) is an unsinkable carrier. I think the key date is April, when the Hellcats come online at the rate of 130 per month. That's a long, long way off, but we'll see. In the meantime, the secondary objective remains to attrit to Kaigun. This has been a good week for that with the sinking of Takao and Ashigara.

[Crackaces]

Battle of Balikpapan: The four USN destroyers rumble into port and savage two enemy TFs,
sinking five xAKs, two xAKLs, and a PB. Judging by VPs, the xAKs were pretty good ones.
I was hoping for tankers, but no doubt this raid got John's full attention and left him a bit rattled
(judging by email comments). The destroyers performed well but shot up all their ammunition.
They'll have to retire with a bunch of fully-aroused Apachees hot on their heels.
(The blood lust for enemy tankers was partly satisfied when a USN sub put two torps into a big tanker near Brunei,
sending it under.)

Any troops or just supplies? or do you think they were empty and returning?

[Canoerebel]

No troops, so either empty or carrying fuel or supplies.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

No troops, so either empty or carrying fuel or supplies.

And worth far more to your war effort in terms of his future expenditures than the simple VP points. He's been skating on air search, ASW (no doubt), probably deep CAP and thus getting freebies for the front lines.

[Canoerebel]

I hope so. I think so.

Did I mention that this isn't the only TF deep in enemy territory? Another with three USN DDs has Iwo Jima in its review mirrors. It's heading for a point SW of Tokyo. If it doesn't strike paydirt there (and if it eludes detection, which is unlikely with John aroused now, but not impossible since he may focus on the DEI and forget for a moment about the Home Islands) it might try Hong Kong.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I hope so. I think so.

Did I mention that this isn't the only TF deep in enemy territory? Another with three USN DDs has Iwo Jima in its review mirrors. It's heading for a point SW of Tokyo. If it doesn't strike paydirt there (and if it eludes detection, which is unlikely with John aroused now, but not impossible since he may focus on the DEI and forget for a moment about the Home Islands) it might try Hong Kong.

Pescadores is often good, but probably mined.

[witpqs]

Wow - fuel must be an issue for them. Where did they come in from? Did you provide oiler support?

[Canoerebel]

I've had three USN destroyer raiding forces deployed. Here's their stories:

1. The four DDs that just raided Balikpapan had been stationed SE of Soerbaja, in the Indian Ocean, at or prior to the invasion of Sumatra. In the two-year sabbatical from the game, I forgot about them. When we resumed the game on 1/1/43, I didn't even know they were there until they encountered an IJ supply convoy (mostly xAKLs) and sank most of them. I figured John would be alerted by that event. The DDs retired to Perth to refuel and reprovision. Then I sent them north again just to see what detection levels might be like. When they arrived on station in the IO without detection, I decided to try the Java Sea. They're out of ammo now, so they'll have to retire to Perth to rearm. But I did station two xAKs in the IO to refuel, just in case that became an issue. And it may - the DDs may need to use some flank speed to clear the area before John can pounce.

2. A three DD TF left Pearl perhaps ten days ago, refueled at Midway, and proceeded past Wake, Marcus and Iwo without detection. It's a day or two from a patrol station just SW of Tokyo, though I will monitor detection. I may divert to the narrows between the PI and Okinawa or on to Hong Kong, depending on what happens now.

3. A two DD TF left Prince Rupert, refueled at Kodiak, and was heading towards Hokkaido via a roundabout course when it was sighted a few days back by IJ nav search out of Umnak Island. I turned the TF around south. It was in such a position at the moment of detection that I thought it likely that John would be more focused on the Aleutians than elsewhere. I think that's accurate. (The Allies recently ramped up recon of Japanese-held Aleut islands to give the appearance of impending action there, what with the winter conditions soon to end).

I think my use of raiders will prompt John to a shock-and-awe type of response. He is likely to employ raiders of his own. He may also send carriers out. So I've been taking steps to protect my ports, especially exposed ones like Pago Pago and Christmas Island.

[Canoerebel]

Battle of Burma map. I apologize for the layout - not my best work.



Yikes! In posting this it "shrunk"! So now it's useless in addition to being ugly. I'll see if I can fix it later. [X(][:(][&:]

[BBfanboy]

The map is good. Several of us have taken to keeping a magnifying glass next to our computer screens! [8D]

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

The map is good. Several of us have taken to keeping a magnifying glass next to our computer screens! [8D]

Why would you do that when you can simply buy a bigger computer screen??

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

The map is good. Several of us have taken to keeping a magnifying glass next to our computer screens! [8D]

Why would you do that when you can simply buy a bigger computer screen??

Bigger monitors tend to make things smaller, not larger as they default to higher resolutions.

MY 24" monitor is rather old with a max and default res of 1680x1050. If I run the game at that resolution, I definitely need a magnifying glass.

I tend to run the game at 1024x768 so I can actually see the unit icons.

On my laptop I run it at 1366x768