Headhunter - Lokasenna (A) vs. mind_messing (J) - No MM yet

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

2) Does anyone know, for sure, that Chinese respawns will occur at Chengtu if Chungking is in Japanese hands? I know the manual says this, but I really, really need to know.

Yep

[Lokasenna]

Iiiiiiinteresting... hopefully some maps and summaries up tonight. Got some bathroom work to do first. A handyman's job is never done!

[Lokasenna]

CENTPAC - July 7, 1944

We snagged Kusaie last month and we'll just keep bombing away now. Changing units to prep for Ponape. It would be nice to have, and I think he has a decent number of LCUs there. I may as well harvest them, I think. IMO Ponape is necessary if I want to advance on the Marianas (and I might not), but at the very least I should be able to bomb the place for pilot training with B-25s and the like. It takes a long time to actually destroy units in this way, but if that's how I end up taking Ponape then that's what I'll do.

Not really a CENTPAC item, but close enough - shifting some CVE/CLs to CONUS for repairs, as Pearl is about to be overly full in terms of hulls that need the shipyard. Repulse is coming, to cycle in/out for quicker repairs on the major damage.

I don't really have anything major going on here, so I'll probably skip this one again soon. Not even anything worthy of a picture, so here's a screen of what's in Pearl right now but not repairing. Repulse is here with 40/11/13 damage.

[Lokasenna]

Burma - July 8, 1944

Just doing what I said I'd do here. He appears content to sit in Moulmein, doesn't seem to have noticed the size of the forces I moved around. I'll have Chiang Mai soon, but I can't actually do much with it yet. Supplies will be an issue, plus I bombed it like crazy.

Enormous piles of IJNAF/IJAAF planes here.

[Lokasenna]

Update on the units marching to Rahaeng. A few hundred increase in AV in the last week.

[Lokasenna]

Banda Sea - July 8, 1944

I made these screenshots so long ago... we've had a few pauses in game turns. I'm glad I made comments on the maps themselves.

In general, his little air triangle at Sorong/Sansapor/Waigeo is trying to keep me off balance at Biak, etc. WITP-Gods bless PTs. Also, not having built up the AFs at Manokwari or Noemfoor yet I am able to base Catalinas out of Manokwari for search, allowing me to see any IJN all the way to Cotabato on Mindanao and just beyond Manado, as well as just beyond Babeldaob. Combined with search capabilities from Hollandia going to the NE, this is going to be one of my little playgrounds for a while. Once I have supplies and air support I will move on his bases. I've got several divisions prepped from further back along the New Guinea coast. The hard part will be balancing needs here with those around Timor.

I have an extreme glut of air support on the New Guinea coast. Literally a few thousand more than I need. I will fly some over the island to the Banda Sea area soon, but otherwise I'll mostly keep it around in anticipation of my expanded OOB in 1945 and potentially invading deeper CENTPAC targets (Marianas, Philippines).

If anything, I'm short of Patrol-type groups. I never have enough Catalinas or Mariners around.

[Lokasenna]

Search arcs in the Banda. A few nuggets in here for those keen of eye, but I won't explicitly mention them just yet.

[Lokasenna]

Is it really "near Exmouth"?

[Lokasenna]

Score screen - July 8, 1944

Normally wouldn't have posted a score update after just a week, but got a lot of planes and such.

Allied VPs: +1457 (about 384 from planes, 300-some from bases also, 600-some from LCUs)
Japanese VPs: +365 (133 from planes, 38 from ships, 48 from LCUs)

Ratio: 1.071:1 against, change of +.022.

After seeing the 30K LCU losses in Wargmr's game, I'm feeling OK about the 18.5K I have to make up for so far this game.

[obvert]

The Japanese have lost a lot of planes! That hurts in HI and in supply while replacing them all.

Are you bombing out industry/oil in the DEI and SE Asia?

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: obvert

The Japanese have lost a lot of planes! That hurts in HI and in supply while replacing them all.

Are you bombing out industry/oil in the DEI and SE Asia?

I can't really reach any centers yet, aside from Balikpapan from Broome with B-29s, and that's a long ways. I hit it for 10 points sometime in June, I think.

Medan I raided in 1942, and he actually repaired some of the damage! But it's still damaged about 20-22 points.

I've bombed out some Chinese industry, but there's still some to go. I've started to leave the central valley bases alone, as I'm hoping to eventually retake them. He expanded Hong Kong a fair amount and I've bombed it more than half of its total. For the moment, I'm working on pushing forward in a few areas and it's requiring my bombers. My USAAF pools are hurting, and I'm trying to begin conserving airframes for February '45 when the units expand a bit.

I'm not sure, but I think his strategy might be to run me out of planes, since my numbers are limited. I'm going to be trying to run him out of supply by making him lose tons of planes, which he'll have to replace - not to mention the supply to fly them. On one side of that, however, is that I think there might be a bug in supply usage for replacements. I haven't tested it, but I've noticed that in some cases supply doesn't appear to be used. Here are the cases when air units can take replacements, that I'm aware of:

1) AF 7+ and 20K+ supply
2) Within command range of an HQa

It's #2 that I'm not sure triggers any supply usage. But again, I haven't had time to test it. I just notice that sometimes, when I upgrade an air unit (as either Japan or Allies), the supplies for the base that I have selected do not go down. Other times, they do. Presumably in case #2, the supplies are supposed to be pulled from the base that has the HQa present, but I've never remembered to check. Maybe soon, I will remember.


So I'm also using Wildkittens, even though they're just kittens.

[obvert]

Interesting. Something I've not checked either. (Supply from HQa base)

I used to just disband unit remnants when a base got hit and nearly closed and I could fly out the few healthy planes. This used to really piss off Jocke because he thought he'd closed the base and could then smash the remaining airframes over the next turns. What it did do that neither of us probably realized at the time is cost me a lot of supply in filling out those same groups time and again. I also was happy to use a lot of non-optimum airframes and settings to test them out my first time through.

I would guess his approach is more deliberate and that yes, he's testing your pools.

It will hurst even to take out small HI/LI/oil centers as they come in range. Jocke basically removed 80-90% of the industry from the DEI up through China in our game. That contributed to my supply difficulties later.

[Lokasenna]

In general, I'm working on the assumption that he is worse off than I am in my Japan game that is around the same maturity (just over 3 months difference in 1944) because of the following:

-Scenario 1 for this game instead of Scenario 2. I don't know the exact difference in Fuel levels or if there are more resources, etc., but I know that Scenario 2 has "more".

-I hit Palembang for 100ish points of Oil in January 1942 right after he took the place. That cost him 100K supply that it didn't cost me.

-He may have been slow to repair Miri; I wasn't.

-I hit Medan for about 50 points, of which he's repaired 27-28 (which is actually a net supply loss for him)

-He got Magwe with Oil, while I didn't, but I bombed it down by 200. This may make up for Palembang.

-Hard to compare, but he seems to have been more lavish in his fleet movements than I have been, which means less fuel to burn for supplies. On the other hand, I think the number of aircraft sorties between games might actually be similar. This might be because of my 24-plane Jake units running 50-80% Search since April of 1942 and never moving, though - yeah that burns supply, but not as much as 27 Jills with torpedoes.

-I took Tarakan from him for a short time, but only damaged a few points of Oil/Refinery when he took it back. I denied Babo and Boela to him before they were denied to me.


Add it all up and I think I might have cost him maybe 200-300K Oil that I got in my game, plus he's probably burning more supplies and started with less... I'm really trying to get him running out of supplies by summer 1945. I'm simply not going to make the 8/31/1945 AV cutoff for a decisive victory, which I think may have been achievable for me if I hadn't made some mistakes in early 1943. Difficult, but at least still on the table. Now I'm just looking at the Russians and thinking "If I can get to 1.3:1 or 1.5:1 by the time they activate, I can at least eke out a minor victory."

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I'm simply not going to make the 8/31/1945 AV cutoff for a decisive victory, which I think may have been achievable for me if I hadn't made some mistakes in early 1943. Difficult, but at least still on the table. Now I'm just looking at the Russians and thinking "If I can get to 1.3:1 or 1.5:1 by the time they activate, I can at least eke out a minor victory."

Strat bombing. It is the goal.

In my one long game against Jocke, we were at even VPs just about the turn of 45. We lasted until July 45 with him threatening 2:1 through intensive strat bombing and methodical destruction of LCUs. You're well ahead of the game here. You'll win going away if you get in range of the HI by Nov 44.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I'm simply not going to make the 8/31/1945 AV cutoff for a decisive victory, which I think may have been achievable for me if I hadn't made some mistakes in early 1943. Difficult, but at least still on the table. Now I'm just looking at the Russians and thinking "If I can get to 1.3:1 or 1.5:1 by the time they activate, I can at least eke out a minor victory."

Strat bombing. It is the goal.

In my one long game against Jocke, we were at even VPs just about the turn of 45. We lasted until July 45 with him threatening 2:1 through intensive strat bombing and methodical destruction of LCUs. You're well ahead of the game here. You'll win going away if you get in range of the HI by Nov 44.

We'll see. In my other game, I did get in range of the HI in early 1945, but with the enormous IJNAF fighter groups (including as many IJNAF NFs at 81 as he wants to resize, really)... I'm not optimistic of the rate at which I'll be able to accumulate strat VPs. I have 13 months before the decisive deadline, and I can only look at the OOB to about 9 months out for planning purposes. Getting 2 A-bombs before 8/31 would help a lot.

I've got something big coming in the next month or so. I had ballparked it at September. I think I might pull the trigger in a couple of weeks. I'm waiting on some ships to transit that I should've moved weeks ago.

[Lokasenna]

I went all the way to page 7 to dig up your AAR, and found what I think is your most recent VP screen post:
Post #3358 on this page tm.asp?m=2953587&mpage=112&key=

He lost less LCU VPs at that point in the game than I did so far. My guess is this is China. I'm creeping up on 19K now. I also don't know that I'll really be able to get that high on base VPs, but... like I said, got something big coming.

[Lokasenna]

Still planning to update, but need to make screenshots yet. We're now at August 7, and I'll be doing the August updates later, but... pertinent info request, now that my opponent has revealed what appears to be his entire KB (two TFs, large numbers of planes remaining despite losing over 300 of them) off the tip of New Guinea with nary a USN CV anywhere nearby, it's time to pull the trigger on something else.

Does anyone know what the numbers on the AGC with 100% prepped HQm on board unloading bonus are, exactly? [8D] Like, does it add 250 points per ship per turn? 50? 300? All I've been able to find is that an AGC in the TF is a bonus to that TF, an AGC with amphib HQ loaded on it provides a bigger bonus to the whole hex, and having 100% prep for the hex is an even bigger bonus. Just no numbers on what those are. It likely doesn't matter that much, but I'd really like to know if somebody does know...

[Lowpe]

No idea Lok. Sorry.

I will eagerly await your pulling the trigger!

[Lokasenna]

Making screenshots now for the rest of July while my brain absorbs the latest GoT.

In the latest turn, I used 389 ships making (I think?) 33 new TFs [X(]. Might take 2 days for the port to handle it [:D]. I still have another 200ish ships that I think I may use for target #2, depending on how amazeballs the AGC with 100% prep HQm bonus is... Either way, I'll have time for those ships to unload if I need to wait for the first stringers to return to port to do another run.

[Lokasenna]

Housekeeping - July 15, 1944

In CENTPAC, we sink another SSX at Maloelap. Brings the total to 58. He only gets 86... yes, I'm keeping track.

Ship repairs
I'm using pier side for capital ships until I think they'll repair on just one turn in the shipyard. This greatly speeds up repairs, but it does require things that pier side can fix to begin with, or else the ships won't accrue points. Still, we're almost there on these BBs. With BB New Jersey on the way after a submarine torpedo off Darwin, I'm going to transition Prince of Wales to Colombo. I have no qualms about sending her into action with 8 float, if necessary...

Cape Town:
BB Prince of Wales - 2/8/0, will be moving soon for Colombo
BB Maryland - 1/11/21
BB California - 1/5/11 with a main turret destroyed
CVE Fanshaw Bay - 0/18/20

Colombo:
CV Lexington (Essex class) - 0/24/0
BB Washington - 3/8/0
BB South Dakota - 3/8/0

Sydney:
Almost ready to get back to action, much needed with the heavy diversion of my forces elsewhere.
CL Cleveland - 0/1/0.
CL Columbia - 0/16/20
CVL Monterey - 5/4/9

Perth:
CV Lexington (another Essex) - 1/50/15, refitting for 6 more days then heading for Sydney

Gove (ARD):
SST Nautilus - 0/41/2, going to head for Brisbane soon.
CV Wasp - 0/61/5, this will take forever. Will move to Sydney when deemed ready.

Can't wait to get my 2 SST's back. I could really use them in a couple months.

Pearl:
CVE White Plains - 0/47/11
BC Repulse - 36/10/13, would take 81 days with just the shipyard, but I'm "pier hopping"

San Francisco:
CVE Santee - 17/34/7
CVE Corregidor - 1/46/34


By and large, the Pacific repairs will go back to the Pacific when they're done, for timing purposes, but it does leave me a little weak on the front if he is paying attention to where I am, and where I'm not - more on that in the Banda update for this week.