General Patton vs. larryfulkerson Focus Pacific #75

[Bif1961]

If you lose the CVE that will leave you with 9 carriers which means you could split them 3CVs, smalls AC number and 2 CVLs and the other 3CVs and 1CVL that way your escorts are only split between 2 roughly equal carrier TFs with the same speed setting, same reaction and the faster following the slower. I don't have the rule book in front of me that lists what the maximum number of carrier AC per carrier TF before risking an increase in an uncoordinated strike.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961
If you lose the CVE that will leave you with 9 carriers which means you could split them 3CVs, smalls AC number and 2 CVLs and the other 3CVs and 1CVL that way your escorts are only split between 2 roughly equal carrier TFs with the same speed setting, same reaction and the faster following the slower.

Sounds good. They don't have to be nearly equal, approximately equal is good enough.

I don't have the rule book in front of me that lists what the maximum number of carrier AC per carrier TF before risking an increase in an uncoordinated strike.

I took a look through the manual for that number and I couldn't find a page that has that info. Maybe I need to use the PDF copy.

[larryfulkerson]

new moves from Brian and I'm fixing all the things Tracker is pointing out and I've discovered that I've placed all my replacements in a
training squadron somewhere and there aren't any left. That's good and bad. It means I've gotten all the recent graduates into a
program where they are advancing, usually with TRACOM instructors, but on the other hand I have to wait until another class
graduates before I'll have anymore replacements and I have no idea how to find out when that happens. Around the first of the
month is my guess. It might be a blast to be able to manage the replacement pilots too. You could dump a class onto the gridiron
early when you run out of people in the field. There would be losses associated with doing that. It's better to train them if you can.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a small window into the Jap economy. Supplies and RES are somwhat stable but fuel and oil are dropping still. I've boosted
several of the refineries in the home islands but not enough evidently. I'm making about 15K of HI per day and can surely afford
some to make more fuel. Wait, I'm not sure there's a cost in HI to make fuel, I think it's just OIL. Okay then I need to ship more oil.
I COULD ship fuel but that seems unelegant.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the resource history for Tokyo itself. There was a jump in RES so now Tokyo is out of danger of running out of RES. We were
down to a small several days of RES left. Most of the supplies and fuel leaving the home islands are passing through Tokyo and
that's a hassle. I've recently boosted the number of ships in the auto-convoy system and bumped up the supplies needed level and
turned on the stockpiling of supplies at Osaka to give enough of a cushion that I can start shipping supplies out of Osaka. To the
places that need it. It's pretty cool actually. I'll have to turn another home island into a hub the same way. How come I didn't think of
this before? This is why I lose games.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the victory points ratio. I don't think anybody is in danger of winning an automatic victory anytime soon. I think the
points that can be gained by a side includes the number of points gained by the capture of a base and the number of bases
trading hands has dropped off here lately. But I'm not using victory points as a criterian for the places I invade or anything
like that.

[larryfulkerson]

new moves from Brian: Here's the Johore Bhauru troops. I'm waiting for more full-fledged divisions before I venture across the river
into the hex of Singapore. Upon crossing the river there's an obligatory shock attack and my troops usually get savaged by that. The
forts of Singapore are at their highest .level and his troops are fresh and rested and are as ready as they will ever be. I would bring in
some ships and bombard except for the CD guns at Singapore. I've been bombing by air for over a month now and the flak level is
still high. It's not unusual to have a 40-plane raid get 75% of it's planes damaqed and several destroyed. But his CAP is gone so I'm
optimistic.

[larryfulkerson]

I boosted production of fuel at several of the Jap home island refineries. The fuel levels are dropping and Japan needs more fuel. That's
going to use up the oil faster so I'm moving oil to the home islands as well as RES now. There's lots at Port Arthur and Toyohara and
so on. Also, I'm drawing fuel out of Balikpapan and moving it to Babledoab and Truk. And the fuel coming out of Miri is going to CRB
and Hong Kong. Cam Ranh Bay also has lots of RES that needs to be moved to the home islands. Everything seems to be working
okie dokie so far. I'm probably missing something important that's going to cost me the game eventually.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the aircraft and engine pool levels. Plenty of Ha-35's still. I'm going to have to look into who else flys the Ha-35 and see
if I can't leverage the engine into more airframes flying by looking for things to build using it. That's another post.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what fly's the Ha-35. I've already turned up production of the Zero so I'm thinking it's appropriate to turn up the production
of the Kate and Oscar's and the Lilly's. And maybe the Bab's as well. I've got plenty of engines and those type of planes are
needed in the field so it's a win-win.

[larryfulkerson]

This is me boosting several different aircraft models. I noticed that there's no way to "back out" your change so once it's changed
that's it's value.....no going lower anymore. Maybe I should do a save game when I'm changing those in case I do some kind of
fat finger error. Just a thought. I boosted everything I could find that fly's the Ha-35 and several others too. More Helen's. I can
always use more Helen's.

I'm watching for Brian to do another one of his carrier raids around the Baker island area. Maybe I should send a small carrier TF out
there to mitigate the damage or something.

[larryfulkerson]

I got to looking around the above picture and noticed that I had some RES centers disabled. Intrigued, I looked up where they are and
it looks like the places I captured had some facilities that were damaged and need repair. I'm not sure I can afford the supplies it would
take to repair those in China but I'm going to give it a try and see what happens. I'll probably end up having to ship some supplies to
China somewhere. Shanghi or Hong Kong maybe. There's been little combat in the way of ships lately, having most of the battles
taking place subs against my ships, or my subs against his ships, or land battles in Mandano and at Bataan. I've direct assaulted
Bataan about four times now and the forts are down to 2 so there's light at the end of the tunnel. I usually lose twice as many men
as he does when I do a DA but the number of forts is coming down and most of his troops are of the PA variety and are little more than
armed cops or giving firearms training to some security guards. I'm anticipating Bataan falling within a couple of weeks. That's the
theory.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the condition of some of my hubs. I need to track their levels and anticipate when they need a refill of something before they
really NEED it if you know what I mean. I let Babeldaob run out of fuel once already. It was the better part of a week before a fuel
shipment could arrive from Truk. Really embarassing to say the least. Also, Kwajaleine ran out of fuel once already. About two weeks
ago. And Rabaul was slow in getting a generous helping of the fuel available.

[larryfulkerson]

CRB is one of my main hubs and it's running low on supplies. I expected a shipment of supplies from Pescadores or Hong Kong
or both but nobody has arrived yet. There's two TF's at CRB that were loading supplies desstined for the ports of Mersing and
Kota B. on the east coast of Malaya. Those two TF's are now unloading their supplies and their trip will be delayed several days.
I'm shipping supplies from Tokyo to Hong Kong and thence to CRB and or the east coast of Malaya somewhere. It takes a while
to make that trip with several changes of ships. It seems inefficient. I'm toying with the idea of moving goodies directly from Tokyo
to it's destination without reguard to the hub scheme. It seems to me that it makes more sense to use the long-range deep hull
transports to move the bulk of the goodies from Tokyo to the hubs and then let the small-range AK's distribute the goodies to their
several destinations. Like the airlines do it today. It seems to be working okie dokie the way it is. One change I need to make is
to ship more oil to the home islands. It's just a small trickle so far. The home island oil level is dropping slowly so more oil is needed
to match demand.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the ships under repair. Several carriers are repairing and there's one at Truk that the repair shipyard there can't handle and
it's going to need some escorts to make it to Naha or Nagasaki. And I have so few escorts left available. None are available to chase
the subs around the home islands, PB's are doing that. And some SC's are busy as well. But they are short range and not terribly good
at sub chasing.

[larryfulkerson]

And before you say: Hey wait a minute, there's no repair shipyard at Truk......this mod has a shipyard there. It's VERY handy
having a shipyard so close to the fighting. In my stock version games I have to move the damaged ships all the way to either
Naha or Yokohama to get repaired. It was a major hassle at the time I'm sure. Seems the Japs didn't want to build one that
far south because the Allied side would eventually capture it and then THEY would have an ultra handy repair shipyard. So
none was built. That's my understanding. Anybody know for sure?

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what China looks like now. I'm aiming for the center of the country where all the good RES places are and the facilities that
are there. Lots of LI is happening there and it's probably a good goal to grab it if possible. I've stripped China of a lot of it's troops
so there's not a lot to make things happen with and it's slow going. My guys are outnumbered and it's the airpower that allows them
to stand in the same hex with the hordes of Chinese. That's my understanding. Constant bombing ( depending on the weather ) has
given the Allies something to think about. Every once in a while I'll have to stand down a squadron to allow it to repair enough planes
to make up a good size flight. I'd like to see at least 6 planes on every raid. Squadrons with less than that are flown to the home
islands ( if possible ) and turned into a training squadron. Complete with instructors and everything. It gives the squadrons something
to do while they fill back up with planes. It's happening but slowly.

EDIT: Ignore the second from the left......they are in separate hexes and there's not yet a conflict.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's all the CS convoys and you can see from all the RES and OIL shipments that there's a furious movement of goodies going on.
This list would probably be more illuminating if it were sorted on location to group the TF's together that are going to the same port.
I'll do it that way from now on. I use this list too you see. I refer back to it from time to time to get a feel for what's working and what's
not. I've detected a bottleneck at Ominato from the gaggle of TF's stacked up waiting to unload at the dock.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the same list sorted on location. I was getting so little info from the first picture that I thought it prudent to fix it. I use this thing
too you see. It looks like maybe the bottleneck at Ominato may have abated but now there's a potential problem at Nagasaki. Lots
of stuff moving to Truk. RES from Truk is moving to Tokyo. I need to see more oil being shipped. It can only be shipped in TK's
unfortunately, so I've got the TK's moving close to the home islands to grab all that oil first. Toyohama and Shikuka. My fall back is
Port Arthur. I have heard that later in the game Port Arthur needs that oil so moving a lot of it from PA to the home islands isn't really
advisable if it can be avoided. I don't know if that's true or not. I suspect not. And anyway, the home islands need it more than PA.

[larryfulkerson]

I've started loading the 47th Naval Guard unit on AP's to take them to Finshaften and when it arrives we can get a feel for how long it
was in transit. I predict a week port to port. At least. I'll keep you in the loop for what it was.