Focus Pacific: 1EyedJacks(J) vs Paradigmblue(A). No Jacks.

[paradigmblue]

December 7th, 1942

Pearl

Oh shit, that's a big Pearl strike. Lets see how many of my trusty CAP aircraft rise to the occasion.



...Six? Six planes? That's the best we can do? Well, at least you'll shoot a few down, right?


...Or you could not down a single aircraft. This is going to be painful.


Really painful.

Really, really, painful.

Welp, that's one way to start this PBEM! Ouch.

Philippines

Meanwhile, over Manilla...

Oh hell that's a lot of bombers... and not a lot of CAP. A for effort for the P-26 pilots though.

Saying hello and goodbye to the USN submarine fleet in one turn.

Soviet Union

It's a bad day to be in a major port that isn't controlled by the axis.


Sweeps go in first, but unlike Pearl and Manilla, some of my planes manage to get in the air here.



I"m feeling pretty good about these results, but things take a turn for the worse.


And then, after three waves of max altitude sweeps, the strike comes.


I got off easy here, all things considered. Most of my subs will be able to put to sea next turn. It looks like Jacks didn't commit any of his bomber forces on the HI for these strikes, which would have made things uglier for Vladivostok.

Shots of vodka all around to my bi-plane pilots for weathering the first two sweeps like they weren't flying museum pieces.

Up north, my inability to assign CAP on the first turn due to house rules once again takes its toll.



Southern China

Surprise! Hong Kong has Hurricanes in Focus Pacific!


Eat shit Sonias.

Oh, he's also attacking Kwangchowan. Well, I'm sure my French CAP will hold.

Yeah, like that.

And that.
(Repeat 2-3 times)
Wait, why is it getting darker? Oh, it's just Japanese bombers blotting out the everloving sun.


This puts a hurting on my operations at Kwangchowan. Unless I can get more in the skies next turn, I'm going to have to withdraw the bulk of the French airforce from the hex.

Burma

Bombers? Oh, the AVG will handle it.


Or maybe not.

DEI

Marblehead and escorts get caught out by the not-so-mini KB in two successive strikes.


It's a little early to be losing cruisers.

The Butcher's Bill

In Ships...


In Aircraft...


But Wait, There's More

The carnage is just beginning. Jacks has moved the not-so-mini KB, with it looks like at least 6 CVLs, in a blocking position South of the Philippines.

I contemplated waiting to evacuate the Philippines until 1EJ's carrier force has moved on, but by that time he could have the escape route even more close off. I'd rather have my ships die making a break for it rather than being destroyed at port, so everything that can sail is headed for the relative safety of Darwin or Soerejaba. Hopefully 1EJ's runs out of bombs before I run out of ships.

[AcePylut]

Wait a sec, did I read this right - he activated the Ruskies on Turn 1?

You'll be sipping Sake in Tokyo in '43.

[Andav]

My guess is this is the version which includes the Soviets active from day one. Seems like it should be named "Focus on the Pacific ... Mostly ..." [:D]


Wa

[Peever]

Good luck Para. I want to see what you can do with that French port on China. Will it be able to strike at Japanese transports or just be a live fire training ground for Japanese pilots? [:D]

[paradigmblue]

Sorry for the lack of details in the first post - it was very late when I wrote it. I'll fill in more details about the game and Focus Pacific as the game goes along.

Edit: And sorry for the commentary on that post - I think I must have been a little slap-happy.

[paradigmblue]

Welp, looks like we're starting over due to some incorrect settings.

Not looking forward to clicking my way through another 6 hour allied second turn, but it is what it is.

[larryfulkerson]

Welp, looks like we're starting over due to some incorrect settings.

May I ask which settings were in error? I'm trying to model the correct settings myself.

[paradigmblue]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Welp, looks like we're starting over due to some incorrect settings.

May I ask which settings were in error? I'm trying to model the correct settings myself.

Jacks forgot set No Unit Withdrawals to ON.

This is important because without it you can lose a good portion of your Soviet OOB to unit withdrawals. Changes air units that withdraw in stock have been made as well to allow them to remain in game.

The Focus Pacific release post has a list of all the relevant recommended settings for starting a game.

[paradigmblue]

So Jacks and I restarted.

The first turn was almost completely the same as the previous attempt.

It's now December 8th

Pearl Harbor


ohcrap ohcrap ohcrap ohcrap
Not what I wanted to see on December 8th.

Jacks sends in a second day of Pearl strikes. While I manage to down a handful of Jacks Vals and Kates, his 190 strong Zero escort doesn't let many of my fighters near his bombers, and for a second day, Pearl Harbor is in flames. The cumulative effect of the strikes is devastating, and it's possible that my entire battleship force here will sink due to raging fires on every single one of my BBs.



Philippines

Jacks opts not to bomb Manilla this turn, giving my defenders there a reprieve. Jacks has all of the southern escape routes blocked, so evacuating ships to Soerejaba or Darwin isn't a possibility. Instead, I've sent most of my high-value fleeing ships East, where they will skirt Iwo-Jima and then dog-leg it up north of Marcus Island in the hopes of escaping Jack's surface forces.

Jacks lands at Aparri without contest. However, I have moderate success with a few of my Catalinas, putting torpedoes into two xAKs and a CL. Jacks will probably assign LRCAP here next turn, so I order my Skyrockets to sweep this hex in the hopes of gaining some Zero kills.

China

No major moves here yet. I'm in the process of moving every Chinese unit I have south of the rail line north. If everything goes as plan, I should have the beginnings of a defensive line that protects the core of China by digging in to non-base hex wooded rough terrain.

Kwangchowan gets hit with an incredible number of aircraft this turn. My defenders gamely take to the sky, doing well for themselves, but the weight of numbers show, and Jacks strikes get through on a number of occasions, damaging my airfield and destroying many planes on the ground.

Jacks enters Hong Kong. I have my merchant ships there pick up everything they can to try and run it to Kwangchowan.

Burma

Rangoon gets hit with successive sweeps and well-escorted bombing runs. The AVG is a little outmatched here, and the results are not great for me.

In good news, I was able to run in a transport at full speed to Victoria Point without being detected. This transport will pick up the base force there and transport it to safety.

DEI

Jacks makes the normal landings in the north of Borneo, but I manage to damage a few of his smaller ships with wave-top bombing by Dutch patrol planes. I'm gathering my naval assets at Soerejaba, where Force Z will meet up with the Dutch battle cruisers. Jacks has three separate small carrier groups hovering south of the Philippines right now, so I'm not in a position to be too aggressive in this theater. Chances are that I will wind up stripping Soerejaba of naval assets rather than seek combat here.

Soviet Union

I'm evacuating what surface assets I can from Vladivostok, while my subs move to cover Sahkalin. So far my evacuating transports have been unmolested, but I don't know how long that will last.

My Soviet bi-plane pilots have been pulling their weight and more, absolutely wrecking Jack's Zero sweeps. I'm surprised by this development, but I'm certainly not going to complain about it.

I'm primarily just waiting in this theater for Jacks to make a move - I don't feel comfortable enough to go on the offensive myself until I know that my rail-line isn't threatened. If I don't see any developments here by the end of December, I'll strike south from Chita with an armored spearhead pointing toward the key Japanese base of Harbin.

[ny59giants]

Replace your BB leaders with those with high Naval Skill along with good Inspiration. They should help with putting out the fires. You don't them back until late '43 anyways.

[paradigmblue]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Replace your BB leaders with those with high Naval Skill along with good Inspiration. They should help with putting out the fires. You don't them back until late '43 anyways.

Yeah, I went through and changed them out. Crossing my fingers that I manage to save one. I already lost the Tennessee on Dec. 7th.

[Bif1961]

The Nevada looks good fires are lower, didn't see all your BBs.

[paradigmblue]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

The Nevada looks good fires are lower, didn't see all your BBs.

It's now December 9th. 3 of my BBs have sunk, and two are still have raging fires. The Nevada should survive.

[paradigmblue]

December 10th, 1941

So far, so good. Jacks seems to be playing a fairly standard early game, which I've been able to take advantage of in a few areas.

Philippines

I've been harassing his landing at Aparri with naval attacks, forcing Jacks to spare LRCAP over the hex. I expected the move, and had P-50 Skyrockets ready with high-altitude sweeps.


Fantastic results here.


I'll take these, too.


These sweeps clears the way for the best torpedo bomber in the game - the Catalina.



Wildebeests that I evacuated from Hong Kong to the Philippines try to help, but they're in extended range, so they're reduced to bombs instead of torpedoes. I shorten their range next turn so that they hopefully use their torpedoes against the second invasion force at Vigan instead.


My 4E bombers on the Philippine islands go after one of Jack's ports, inflicting light damage on the ships there, sinking a small xAKL.

My 4E crews and planes are pretty beat up, so it will be a few turns before I put them in the air again.

One big change in Focus Pacific is the addition of a major naval airbase at Cebu. Jacks wanders a bit too close with a carrier group, but Buffaloes and Vindicators are no match for Zeroes.



My Devastators head for a surface group in this area, but incur heavy losses while scoring no hits. I'm contemplating changing their loadout to bombs instead of torpedoes.



Jack's Carriers in turn go for some of my shipping that has lagged behind, but I have CAP in the area.



Malaya

My forces begin their evacuation to Singapore, where they'll hole up till the bitter end. Two of my infantry units will block the rail lines south in some of the more defensible terrain to act as speedbumps for Jack's forces.

I sweep Kota Bharu with a Hurricane group that starts the game in Malay in Focus Pacific, achieving good results vs the Oscars there.



China

I continue to evacuate into defensible terrain here.

I mis-manage two of my LCUs, not noticing that Jacks caught up to them while they were still in move mode. Predictably, it doesn't go well for me. Whoops.



Jacks pounds my ground forces again and again at Hong Kong - which is okay by me. It means that he completely ignores my xAKs loading up there with everything that isn't nailed down in Hong Kong. Jacks dedicates a huge number of aircraft to this ground bombing throughout the day.


At the end of the day, Jacks attacks. Farewell Hong Kong...



Wait, I still own the hex? Did not expect that, especially after loading most of the AV in the hex onto an amphib TF heading for Kwangchowan.

Soviet Union

Jacks bombs Borzya, but my LaGG-3 squadron I moved in last turn keeps the airfield open.



Near Rybolov on the Soviet/Manchuko border, I notice a hex with 14(!) Japanese units. Is Jacks building up an invasion here? It's a clear hex, so I decide to conduct recon via dropping explosives.



Hmm, that's not what I was looking for.


Ok, that's a bit better.

Burma

I successfully evacuate the Victoria Point base force from under Jack's nose. In the rest of this theater I haven't really done much yet, but next turn I'll begin prepping troop movement for fallback position along the Akyab-Imphal line.

Jacks sweeps Rangoon with Zeroes, but he's squandering the Zeroe's altitude advantage. If he was sweeping at 30,000 things would have been much worse for me here.



The Japanese suffer from poor coordination this entire day, with bombers going in before sweeps and other groups arriving completely un-escorted.


The Pacific

Wake Island is invaded. I don't know if Jack brought enough here.





Air Losses



My Buffaloes and Vindicators really took it on the chin this turn, but Jacks is going to have to watch his Zero pools if this kind of loss rate continues.

Ship Losses

I neglected to screenshot the ship loss screen. I manage to take out an xAK and an xAKL, while another one of my BBs slips beneath the waves at Pearl. I'll lose a 5th BB there tomorrow, as fires continue to rage out of control and Sys damage is at 99.

The Pearl strikes were some of the most devastating I've seen - every single one of my cruisers there is out of commission. Every one. Once I start clearing up system damage I may need to begin sending some of my larger ships to the West Coast for their repairs so that my yards here are not overloaded.

While it hurts me in game, I'm glad to see that the Pearl Strike is still viable as an opening tactic in Focus Pacific. In my testing, the Pearl strike had always yielded sup-optimal results, but as the points rack up, it's clear that the expanded KB that Jacks fields in Focus Pacific is still capable of inflicting staggering damage at Pearl.

[paradigmblue]

December 12th, 1941

Sup Ops

One of my Dutch boats puts a fish into a Japanese light cruiser.


The Pacific

Landings continue at Wake Island. Normally I'd consider sortieing some surface forces to intercept from Pearl with the KB nowhere in sight, but I literally have nothing at Pearl larger than a destroyer right now - every single cruiser I have is in drydock.

Philippines

My Skyrockets do good work above Aparri and Vigan.




My 4Es bomb the airfield at Aparri, but don't accomplish much.

I'm pulling back to Clark, Bataan and Manilla here. I've also left two blocking divisions in rough terrain to slow down Jack's advance.

Soviet Union

Our air forces tussle near Rybolov. Both sides incur losses, with no real winner.





The air above Borzya is thick with enemy aircraft.


North of Hailar, it looks like Jacks has moved a large force out from the city. I'm not sure where he's going with it, but the only thing north of Hailar is my territory. I begin moving my soviet armor en mass to Borzya in case I need to defend against an invasion of the northern Soviet Union.

China

Holy crap that's a lot of Mabels. They trash the Chuhsien airfield. Luckily I wasn't planning on using it. It will still slow down my fort building here.


It's sloppy, but I'm beginning to form up my defensive line in China. My troops will dig in to wooded rough terrain, while engineers work to build up rear airbases to cover them.

DEI

Carriers continue to patrol the Celebes Sea. My LRCAP of B-339s is powerless to stop Zeroes, and I lose more xAKLs.


I've actually been feeding Jacks these xAKL kills on purpose (really!). It's not that I want to lose ships, but I'm trying to mask the fact that most of the ships in the Philippines are actually escaping via a completely different route. In the next two turns, most will be home free, and I will have pulled out more ships from the Philippines than I've ever managed before vs a human opponent. Crossing my fingers here. Once they round Marcus Island however, I think there's enough open ocean that he'll have a hard time finding and intercepting my ships.

Air Losses



Jacks has not been sweeping to his full capability, which means that air losses are decidedly in my favor.

Ship Losses



Sadly, only my losses are real - the points screen indicates that none of the Japanese losses are real.

[paradigmblue]

Because of anomalous results we've been getting in air combat above the Soviet Union, I'm making a couple of changes to the mod - reducing the accuracy rating of one of the aircraft cannons used by the Soviet bi-planes, as well as fixing an erroneous global experience setting that gave Soviet pilots 40 experience in 1941 instead of 35.

To address the imbalance in our current game, which of course can't be fixed via patch, I'm implementing a new house rule just for this match vs Jacks:

Soviet Bi-Planes may not engage in offensive actions, including sweeps or LRCAP above enemy held territory.

[blueskywhitesun]

Hi Paradigm,

When I edit a scenario in the editor and load an ongoing save game from it, it asks something along the lines if I want to use the new scenario data (yes/no). Is that an option for you if you fix the russian planes' guns?

[paradigmblue]

ORIGINAL: blueskywhitesun

Hi Paradigm,

When I edit a scenario in the editor and load an ongoing save game from it, it asks something along the lines if I want to use the new scenario data (yes/no). Is that an option for you if you fix the russian planes' guns?

This is available when playing vs. AI, but as I understand, this is not an option in PBEM games.

Cardas has pointed out that the accuracy values on the Soviet guns are actually accurate. I need to get more responses from other players to see if they are seeing the issues that we are re: biplanes trashing Oscars and Zeroes.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: paradigmblue

ORIGINAL: blueskywhitesun

Hi Paradigm,

When I edit a scenario in the editor and load an ongoing save game from it, it asks something along the lines if I want to use the new scenario data (yes/no). Is that an option for you if you fix the russian planes' guns?

This is available when playing vs. AI, but as I understand, this is not an option in PBEM games.

Cardas has pointed out that the accuracy values on the Soviet guns are actually accurate. I need to get more responses from other players to see if they are seeing the issues that we are re: biplanes trashing Oscars and Zeroes.

Can't relate any experience with Bi-plane fighters from the game point of view, but IRL over Malta the Gloucester Gladiators did sterling service against Italian and a few German fighters (although bombers were their main target). A Bi-plane is more maneuverable than a monoplane so in a true dogfight they can be dangerous.

[ny59giants]

B4 you blame the planes for the A2A results in Russia, what is the difference is pilot skill and experience? If its not significant, then the plane with the best maneuverability will win.