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

[Lowpe]

Another good day VP wise for Japan.

There is only about 10 weeks left in this game, give or take, and I need to figure out what the next thrusts for the Allies will be to avoid auto victory in that time.

Trying to upgrade to the latest patch, awaiting to hear back from the Allies.

[Lowpe]

Hehe, looking a little worse for wear. No chance on fixing anything either.[:D]

But as a floating target she is earning her points.[;)]

[Lowpe]

The Matsu class. They are really floating flak platforms, and there are two of them guarding the Kongo.

Those big 12.7 cm AA guns are about the 2nd best AA gun the Japanese field. You could make an argument they are the best.

[Lowpe]

The ever popular Akitsuki. Gosh, I wish Japan had made a hundred more.

The AA suite increases by another 100 points with the next upgrade. No chance of that either.

[Lowpe]

Here is the Dinah fighter...one of the interceptions they made even though they were training.

The squadron had 2 planes in at, set to training sweep at 100'.

Notice how insanely good the Dinah does at disrupting the City attack. There is some AA here, but not tons -- 16 8 cm guns. Weather is nice, and DL was pretty solid the previous day.

Another attack of 11 B24 got 6 hits 11x10 500# bombs at 7K.

That is a pretty good result for some training pilots.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

The ever popular Akitsuki. Gosh, I wish Japan had made a hundred more.

The AA suite increases by another 100 points with the next upgrade. No chance of that either.

What in (game) world does Japan have that would raise their AA level another 100? Surely they are out of deck space already!

[BBfanboy]

Maybe those Dinahs were just so glad to have an excuse to leave the white knuckle (very unsightly on Japanese) 100' altitude!

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

The ever popular Akitsuki. Gosh, I wish Japan had made a hundred more.

The AA suite increases by another 100 points with the next upgrade. No chance of that either.

What in (game) world does Japan have that would raise their AA level another 100? Surely they are out of deck space already!

Here you go. I get one tomorrow.

[BBfanboy]

Six more 25mm AA guns per side and the AA goes up 132 points! The AA rating doesn't count in radars, does it? They should affect accuracy, not volume.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Six more 25mm AA guns per side and the AA goes up 132 points! The AA rating doesn't count in radars, does it? They should affect accuracy, not volume.

There is no relationship that I know of between the AA rating and effectiveness. Some Japanese ships get in the 2000, but it is because of adding those horrible AA rockets that can fire once and never hit.

No relationship either to radar as far as I know.

[mind_messing]

The ratings lie!

Japanese shipboard AA is anemic. It's just the 25mm for the overwhelming majority of IJN ships, with the occasional 12.7cm, 10cm or 8cm gun on the bigger ships that can fire higher than 4000ft.

The 25mm's generally never get a chance to fire. Torpedo and dive bombers on release and low level attacks. That's it.

The Allies, on the other hand, get an abundance of 5 inch guns and the wondrous 40mm Bofors. If Japan had just copied the design of that weapon and plastered it all over the sides of IJN ships...

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

The ratings lie!

Japanese shipboard AA is anemic. It's just the 25mm for the overwhelming majority of IJN ships, with the occasional 12.7cm, 10cm or 8cm gun on the bigger ships that can fire higher than 4000ft.

The 25mm's generally never get a chance to fire. Torpedo and dive bombers on release and low level attacks. That's it.

The Allies, on the other hand, get an abundance of 5 inch guns and the wondrous 40mm Bofors. If Japan had just copied the design of that weapon and plastered it all over the sides of IJN ships...

You are quite correct that the 25mm won't fire on approach except for the most low flying planes, that just means they conserve their ammo for the attack runs.[:'(]

[Lowpe]

I lost about 5 divisions (none wiped out) in Vietnam -- none of them were in great shape....the rest were able to be pulled back one way or another, if not in the best of shape. Not to mention losing a fair number of AA and ART units.

Anyhow, some of the divisions are on their way to back to bolster the western half of Honshu defense.

I am betting I can afford to rebuild them and increase the defense of Honshu to hold for the rest of the game.

Device wise I have set to stockpile all aviation and naval support, 7.7 AA mg, all vehicles except type 3 tanks, and probably more that I cannot recall right now.

I did the math, and rebuilding tank divisions is darn expensive![X(]

[Lowpe]

Long time readers will know that I have put my CAP very low. The Allies responded by doing extensive testing, since I was crushing the high altitude sweeps.

A result of that testing resulted in mass sweeps of one base at the best maneuver band of the Allied fighters...usually around 20K or so.

This change in tactics also happened at the same time that my Frank A production ran out of engines, and basically fighter production failed and there wasn't any pool to fall back on. My back was broken, so to speak.

The Allies change of tactics, combined with my reduced fighter strength, the Allies did much better on sweeps especially the Spitfire.

Today however, I have scraped up enough Franks and Jacks and Oscar to mount a reasonably high CAP looking to jump on his sweepers in two different bases.

I am quite curious to see how well I can do. I wish I had more planes, but am making do with what I have.

Should be interesting. I am very curious to see how the Oscar and Jack do with the dive bonus.

[Lowpe]

Here is the matchup. Is it possible to trick/coax these planes to sweep low, such that with the dive bonus the Oscar can do some good?

This was my original plan, but with Frank As, but that was not to be.





It is interesting to note, that the Allies started sweeping with Spitfires, and without the Frank A to counter it, they did really well -- better than the Jugs. Bear in mind the most advanced fighter they faced was the J2M3.

[Lowpe]

August 27th, 1944

Both sides are resorting to night naval attacks without too much success.

[Lowpe]

Allies are very aggressive with subs, all over the SRA and PI.

I am trying my best to sink them, especially when they wander into coastal waters.

[Lowpe]

Heavy fighting here. He caught me with a 106 plane Corsair Sweep first.

[Lowpe]

A6M5c's diving on Jugs. Gotta love it.

[Lowpe]

All my Franks, and a fair number of Jacks are over Nagasaki.

This is the gift that keeps on giving.[:)][:)]