Lambs to the slaughter (Lowpe (J) vs Jocke; BillBrown (A)) Finished

[Lowpe]

I am sure we are butchering the official terms.

A location could be Tokyo.

Tokyo might have 4 distinct r&d facilities or factories and each one is expandable. Each could research a different plane.

Conventional wisdom held that the optimum size for a r&d facility is size 30.

You could build four size 30 research facilities and get 1 point of research each day assuming no engine bonus for each of the four factories/facilities. They are size 30 each.

You could build four size 60 research facilities and get 1 point of research each day assuming no engine bonus for each of the four factories/facilities. They are size 60 each. Olorin thought you could get 2 points of research per day without the engine bonus at a size 60 factory/facility. Not the case in this particular game.

Or they could produce planes in which case the first example produces 4 planes a day; and the second example produces 8 planes a day.

[GetAssista]

el lobo, manual is long outdated wrt R&D.
Size greater than 30 seems to not give you R&D benefits, and generates same 1 point per turn (2 points with engine bonus) as size 30 factory. Size less than 30 will give you points not every day.
Still it makes sense to have R&D factories higher than 30 if you intend to switch them to production on airframe arrival because all factories repair with the same proportional speed and you would have bigger factory ready for production w/o any loss in research

[Lowpe]

Had the luxury of having the turn a little long this time, and it feels good to actually get a fair amount of stuff done.

Last of the ship conversions/upgrades underway for the West Coast operation.

A little extra care taken during the turn, but I am sure I missed things. I always do.

[el lobo]

Thanks for the enlightment Lowpe, GA.

Shame about the sixty, and the Manual.

Now back to an exciting game.

[Lowpe]

Latter 1/3rd of October...where is the time fleeing too?

With Dawn, comes a Betty strike. I jiggered my naval search last two turns, not happy with it here, but what in the world are 16 Betties flying at on a ground hex?[&:]

But why only 16 when over 40 are tasked with the naval strike.

In a fit of interwar jealousy the Oscar's don't coordinate with the Navy.

Perhaps there are more strikes on the way.

Last turn, I was tempted to sweep the Allies here, but obviously didn't. My bad.

My Escorts really chew up the allied LRCAP....1 Zero lost for 6 Warhawks according to the combat summary.

[Lowpe]

But thousands of miles away, with the dawn brings enemy fighters. Can bombers be far behind?

I know there are at least two and maybe 4 squadrons of 4E bombers at Noumea so I am not too scared here.

In fact, I am curious how my CAP does. Several days ago, I added Tojo IIa here with crackerjack pilots.

We have a altitude restriction, which I don't really like but I am having fun working with, figuring it out.

Today, the Tojo are at max altitude, which is 20K and are joined by two very small A6M5 Squadrons of 6 and 15. The Oscars are at 14K and more Zeroes at 9K. Zeroes have 10 percent rest. There are several sweeps, two pictured here.

The Oscars are at 20 % rest and are LRCAP Portland to boot at 20% as the Betties and Nells are firebombing - always good for a few points.

Anyhow, my fighters get the bounce on the sweepers and have at them.

Jocke is using a pretty heavy LRCAP too.



The sweep pictured here is one squadron plus LRCAP. None survive. This is so critically important to accomplish.

[Lowpe]

It is turning into a real dogfight here in the NorthPacific....

Portland is burning thanks to a 2 sentai coordinated bombing run at 12K. Burn, baby, burn!

But will they have a runway to land on?

Enemy bombers over the runways....the CAP is in excellent shape (if high), but the warning is good, and our pilots have a go at them.

Normally, I am very happy trading 2 IJ fighters for each Allied fighter, although I think I have figured out how to be better.

[Lowpe]

Death and destruction rain down...as more enemy bombers are sighted.



The LRCAP seems to be gone...and we pounce.

[Lowpe]

Eventually the bombers are exhausted, but a few fighter squadrons show up and the CAP is worn down to nothing.

It was a beautiful day for a fight -- Clear Skies, although there is a rain front on the horizon.

The tallies are made. The kills accredited. Poor Allies, another very poor day for them...just another day for superiority of Japanese pilots and planes (although the A6M2 is obsolete--except for as an anti-bomber fighter).

I have got an excellent large Sentai of A6M5s on their way to replace the A6M2s...that will be another thorn in the Allies to contend with.

I am expecting Jocke to send in the CL and destroyers here soon...





I didn't spot enemy subs in the port...so those pilots are gone.

[Lowpe]

A severe disappointment along the coast of India. I did something wrong here.

I blame my re-jiggered search. Only 1/3rd of the Betties fly, and the fly again in the afternoon, along with the Army Oscars, but once again only 1/3rd fly.

Attacks made on Prince of Wales, Repulse, 2 Cruisers, 1 Destroyer. All miss.

I will re-examine these guys.

Moderate rain in the morning, followed by heavy rain in the afternoon.

[Lowpe]

I attack at Lanchow again, I neglected to take the troops off auto attack. My bad, but results are ok. They will stand down for 2-3 days and that should be that for Lanchow.





160K stacking limit at Chungking.

[ny59giants]

Can you counter bomb the base(s) the B-17/24s came from? For the Allied player, its not quality pilot shortage, its always airframes. Many of the 'beast' will need days to repair. Kill them on the ground, if possible.

[Lowpe]

Jocke obviously was planning a big attack here, on the road to Chittagong, but my troops move out of the hex in the early afternoon.

No bombardment by all those ships, you need really good DL on troops to pull that off, and he failed. I suspect there will be some comments in his AAR about that.[;)]

Well, he gets another shot at them now they are in Chittagong.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Can you counter bomb the base(s) the B-17/24s came from? For the Allied player, its not quality pilot shortage, its always airframes. Many of the 'beast' will need days to repair. Kill them on the ground, if possible.

They are outside of normal Tojo/A6M5 range, and I fear losing lots of bombers. Plus there is a lot of AA at these runways...so the short answer is no.[:)]

I guess I could hit them at night, but I don't want to be the first to resort to night bombing.

[Lowpe]

A present for Jocke.

Luckily she was empty, after having just delivered a fuel load.

Bad luck, what? I will check the Captain's stats in tracker and crew experience.

[Lowpe]

Game was on hiatus for a few days as Jocke had visitors and I suffered from a nasty multiday power outage.

Back to the war.

Bay of Bengal:

Here I have 8 good combat destroyers and the Allies have two nasty battleship groups, the first Task Force Z, and the second the Queen Elizabeth, Valiant etc.

Dollars to donuts he will bombard Chittagong, packed with 100,000 troops and 300 mines. Although the Allies did suffer a scare by remaining in the coastal hex and being subject to two very small Betty strikes that absolutely ate up the P40 LRCAP.

I am throwing an 8 Iboat/RO boat screen up this turn.

If it were you how would you organize your 8 destroyers task force wise? Comments much appreciated. One big task force, multiple small task forces, 2 medium size task forces.

I plan to max night naval search, day naval search.

There is moderate rain coming down at Chittagong presently, with a forecast of thunderstorms. Moonlight is 71% and waxing.

Oh, one more question, would you send all the destroyers in Chittagong, or one hex to the west hoping to catch them after the bombardment?

I have 6 to 12 hours to decide.

Many thanks, and welcome back to the war!





PS: I just realized everyone else is reading Jocke's AAR. If so, then talk about the merits of night time naval action of destroyers in bad weather. Big task forces or small? I am leaning small...but can be convince either way.

[Canoerebel]

"....moonlight is waxing..."

[&o]

Gracious! A literate and eloquent correspondent.

I remember exactly one question from the SAT (college entrance) examination I took at Palmetto High School in Miami, Florida, in December 1978. It was a vocabulary question for "wax."

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

"....moonlight is waxing..."

[&o]

Gracious! A literate and eloquent correspondent.

I remember exactly one question from the SAT (college entrance) examination I took at Palmetto High School in Miami, Florida, in December 1978. It was a vocabulary question for "wax."

Thanks, but what about the question at hand?

I think that given the nasty weather forecast, 4 squadrons of 2 destroyers sent en echelon makes the most sense. Straight into Chittagong, where any severely mauled destroyer could find sanctuary but also maximizing the number of potential torpedo launches.

[Drakanel]

To be fair, I read both AAR, so I don't comment too much on either But since you asked big vs small TFs....

I don't have much experience of the game, but it seems likely you will have low visibility. Keep in mind I'm rather inexperieced, but I'd do small squadrons to maximize intercept chances (more squadrons) and minimize the chances of collisions. Lack of visibility should also favor the most experienced crews (should be yours, right?)

Managing to put some nice torpedoes into those battleships would be very good for you.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Drakanel

To be fair, I read both AAR, so I don't comment too much on either But since you asked big vs small TFs....

I don't have much experience of the game, but it seems likely you will have low visibility. Keep in mind I'm rather inexperieced, but I'd do small squadrons to maximize intercept chances (more squadrons) and minimize the chances of collisions. Lack of visibility should also favor the most experienced crews (should be yours, right?)

Managing to put some nice torpedoes into those battleships would be very good for you.

I have only ever seen collisions with larger task forces, say over a dozen or more, and usually not combat task forces.

You aren't just whistling Dixie there, I need to damage his battleship fleet. I am hoping between some Long Lances, Iboats, RO Boats and Betties I can do some good. Debating about night naval attack, but the weather is really atrocious.