The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Encircled]

I wouldn't risk Singapore, but I have risked Hong Kong.

Otherwise its back to the big yards in the HI

[Lecivius]

True, but you risk getting your 4E's smacked hard by a bombardment force, which I guarantee will make the Banzai be heard all the way down in Denver from La Salle [:D]

[ny59giants]

In most games, John tends to expand the repair shipyard at Soerabaja significantly. Do a mouse over to see what size it is. I would bet its over 30.

Not knowing where all your 18 plane Marine fighter groups are at, but I would take off a few Avenger groups and/or a few 36 plane SBD groups and place extra fighters groups on before you try to reinforce Sabang.

I will be using those long legged F4F-7 recon fighters on a few CVEs to draw John's attention to a particular area of the map. You could do the same to get him to lean in a particualr direction before you hit him from another.

[Canoerebel]

Good tip on Soerabaja. I'll check that.

Most of the Allied air force is in India with the exception of the US West Coast I have lots of Marine fighter and bomber squadrons in India.

The US CV squadrons have been non-standard most of the game. They usually carry more fighters than standard.

The oddest thing in the game is that I somehow got a training squadron loaded aboard one of the CVs and there's no way to get it off. I can't fly it off. I can't transfer it while the ship is in port, disbanded or not. The squadron is stuck there. Fortunately, it's a big fighter squadron (48 planes) with very good pilots, so I can make good use of it. (I think it's a bug of some sort, but since it's pefectly utilitarian, I haven't messed with trying to get it resolved).

[witpqs]

When the TF is in port, dock the TF (create a one-ship TF for this is space forces it), then rty transferring to that base.

[Nomad]

You should also check the HQ the unit is assigned to, it might be restricted.

[Canoerebel]

It's permanent restricted (white letters) West Coast. So I might be able to offload it when and if my carriers return to a West Coast base. And I'm not sure how I managed to load it, but I did (possibly because the ship was attached to a West Coast HQ?).

[Canoerebel]

3/28/43

Battle of Sumatra: Japan does not pummel Sumatra today; no sign of immennt enemy invasion (except at the island south of Phuket, which will fall tomorrow); more SigInt that 12th Div. is inbound to Medan, which means John is committing even more and obviously envisions his conquest taking more time; and I'm simply trying to hold on until something good happens some day somewhere. It will. Oh, I just feel certain it has to.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

It's permanent restricted (white letters) West Coast. So I might be able to offload it when and if my carriers return to a West Coast base. And I'm not sure how I managed to load it, but I did (possibly because the ship was attached to a West Coast HQ?).

Sounds like a bug. You might check the patch notes to see if something like that got fixed.

[obvert]

Hi Dan. Good to see this game resumed and you back to writing scintillating AARs!

I'll be aiming to be around a bit more myself and hope to catch up on a few AARs, and definitely this one.

[Canoerebel]

Obvert! So good to see you back! I'm glad you're reading, and I hope you'll be resuming a game shortly.

To see folks like you and John Dillworth return is a very encouraging development for the Forums.

Now if we can only track down Greyjoy....

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Obvert! So good to see you back! I'm glad you're reading, and I hope you'll be resuming a game shortly.

To see folks like you and John Dillworth return is a very encouraging development for the Forums.

Now if we can only track down Greyjoy....

As I just noted elsewhere GJ was mourning his father's passing when I last heard form him. He had a lot going on then too at work and to settle his mother after their loss. I hope he's doing well, and it would be great to see him around again.

I've been toying with some small scenarios lately. We'll see. might take one of those on if things stay as they are now, relatively normal. New responsibilities at work combined with my two games stopping really led me to do some other things for a while, but I do love the community and great knowledge here. Hope to be a bit more regular whether playing or not.

[Canoerebel]

3/29/43

Battle of Sumatra: Four Sisters bombard Langsa and the Kongos bombard Sabang. One unit of John's west coast army has advanced to the next hex and, tomorrow, will attack and dislodge the picket RCT. But that's the last freebie. 1st Marines and a tank unit are digging further up the road. On the east side, further indications of an imminent land campaign: There are now 12 units in Medan (up from 6 or 7) including, per SigInt, 21st Div. (not 12th Div. as I inaccurately reported earlier).

This is optimally configured from my weird point of view, being: Hey, I'm getting clobbered each turn, but as long as the enemy takes the most methodical way to do it, everything's peachy keen. Seriously, though, I still much prefer a protracted ground campaign, and I prefer that while I still have supply for my units to fight effectively.

On the east side, the Allies have 1000 AV in jungle terrain with three forts (should be going to four forts soon, I think - it's been a long time). I think John might need six divisions or more to stand a chance here.

The west side is more tenuous. The Allies will have roughly 330 AV to begin with in jungle-rough terrain. That's roughly 1000 adjusted AV. I think John is bringing four divisions. If so, that should be a fair fight. If he brings more the odds become problematic.

Japan takes the last island outpost, south of Phuket, wiping out a decent part of 18th UK Division. The rest of the division is near Sabang, rebuilding.

A KB division is way west of Sabang near map's edge. I got good reports on her at 13/77, probably from Nav Search at Diego, which is 15 hexes to the north. Reports of 158 F, 163 B, 14 Aux, 3 BB, 1 CA, 2 CVE and 1 CV. There's nothing out there at all (except one loan picket xAK). I hope John doesn't raid strong to the north. Diego, with it's level six airfield, should keep him honest, but I have some big transports TFs inbound to Ceylon from Colombo and the Allied fleet carriers are way out of position and lacking in fighters anyhow.

Life is peachy.

[Canoerebel]

A couple of weeks back, I tried transferring a Corsair squadron (I think it was Marine rather than Navy, but I'm not positive) to a fleet carrier since the F4Fs are so battered. There were 19 Corsairs, but when I added it to the carrier, the number of aircraft shown on the carrier jumped from like 53 to like 136! When I withdrew those 19 Corsairs a day or two later, the number of reported aircraft dropped back down to 53.

So there was something about trying to house a Marine (I think) Corsair squadron on a fleet CV that the game really didn't like. I think I've seen this discussed before - in fact, I think I've encountered this before - but had forgotten all about it.

Anybody seen this before?

[BillBrown]

The first Corsairs you get are not CV capable. You get the first CV capable ones in October, 1943

[Canoerebel]

I remember that from WitP days - that the first Corsair squadrons weren't carrier capable - but since this squadron was able to land on a carrier and take off from a carrier, I thought it must be carrier capable.

[BillBrown]

It should not be able to land, I thought you had to load it when the CV was docked at a port. You can fly them off. It is a way to deliver repaired aircraft
to a forward base. I think all single engine aircraft can be moved this way, but they will not perform any flight ops.

[Canoerebel]

They can fly to carriers and land and they can fly from carriers to land. I've just done it recently. But I think you're correct that they don't act normally when on a carrier. That they count as something like 5x their actual size puts the carrier way over its maximum plane load.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

They can fly to carriers and land and they can fly from carriers to land. I've just done it recently. But I think you're correct that they don't act normally when on a carrier. That they count as something like 5x their actual size puts the carrier way over its maximum plane load.

Basically correct. Maybe 100 percent correct. I don't recall how much bigger the size multiplier is.

[Canoerebel]

3/30/43

Battle of Sumatra: On the west side, the advance IJ division boots the picket RCT. The other IJ units are lagging a few days back, so it might be five or six or seven days before they are forward enough to attack the 1st Marines hex. 1st Marines are recovering at about 268 AV after a major loss at Medan back in early January.

No bombardments today, massive LBA strikes at Langsa, and no move out of Medan. I think John will be moving a stack the next hex to the north, but it's possible he'll instead move across the island to augment the west side force. That would take a long time.

Supply at Sabang is still 202k. The Allies can fight at least another month to six weeks.

KB moved boldy north, eight hexes closer to Diego. Patrols now report 263 F, 206 B, 16 Aux on 3 CV, 3 CVL, 1 CVE, 3 BB. I've put some fighters and divebombers at Diego, but it's no more than token opposition against a force this size. Meanwhile, that big transport/supply TF is just two days from moving on map on it's Capetown to Colombo journey. Zoiks.

Battle of Burma: John is moving strongly on Lashio from three directions. The force includes 33rd Division. The Chinese have a big division here with another on the way. The rest of the defenders are pretty weak. But nothing is going to happen here that will amuont to significance even if John runs the table. There are no strategically important positions out this way.

SWPac: The two Aussie divisions left the map three or four days ago en route to Capetown and thence Oz. Two USA RCT just left the map on the way from West Coast to Canal Zone to CT to Oz. Those two should reach CT in about 30 days. They may be the last two pieces I want in place before commencing activities. 2nd Marines are most at Oz now. This was a long journey that included retrieving two regiments from Kodiak. That's an advance position and John likes to raid advance position with combat TFs and Mini-KBs, so I did sweat that particular behind-the-scenes operation.

Recon shows Lunga strongly held with 37k troops (6th Div. is there per SigInt). I'm not interested in Lunga, except that one of the two Allied plans would, if successful, isolated it and render it a prison camp. Maybe.