Sqz stands down. The AAR is now concluded. Sqz (A) vs. obvert (J)

[SqzMyLemon]

March 4, 44:

The Allied amphibious landings occur at Merauke. My supporting CVE's and LRCAP from Horn Island provide excellent protection against a Japanese naval air strike, but a few bombers still got through to cause concern. AAR follows:

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Morning Air attack on TF, near Merauke at 89,124

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid detected at 100 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 26 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5b Zero x 32
D4Y1 Judy x 18

Allied aircraft
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 7
FM-1 Wildcat x 27
F4U-1A Corsair x 7
F6F-3 Hellcat x 62

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5b Zero: 13 destroyed
D4Y1 Judy: 7 destroyed, 1 damaged
D4Y1 Judy: 2 destroyed by flak

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
CVE Liscome Bay

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x D4Y1 Judy releasing from 1000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 500 kg SAP Bomb

I counted 23 Zero's and 17 Judy's destroyed during this attack. A P-47 and Corsair were lost to Ops. Of the four Judy's that dropped bombs, three were shot down by AA.

It's overkill once again, but I am using these smaller invasions to try and hone my amphibious landing skills. I was 75% prepped for the target and took a fair number of disablements, but they are spread out among the units quite nicely. AAR follows:

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Ground combat at Merauke (89,124)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 594 troops, 3 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 31

Defending force 13669 troops, 234 guns, 90 vehicles, Assault Value = 369

Assaulting units:
1st Sasebo SNLF Coy
40th JNAF AF Unit

Defending units:
5th Australian Division
7th RAA Coastal Artillery Regiment
2nd RAA Jungle Regiment
11th Marine Defense Battalion
G/H Battery Heavy Cst Art Rgt /1

Disruption is 18% and fatigue 38%, but I've ordered the 5th Australian Division to attack regardless. If the assault doesn't go well, I have the time to recover before another try.

Thoughts:

There was no Japanese response to the Tabiteuea landings and all my combat and amphibious ships withdrew in an orderly fashion. A few dedicated supply taskforces are all that remain in the area. Expansion of the base is already underway and the island will be reinforced heavily over the coming weeks.

[SqzMyLemon]

New Guinea and New Britain.

[SqzMyLemon]

The Allied debacle in Burma. I'm about to pull the plug here and withdraw eight divisions to upgrade and redeploy to the Pacific. I should have done this immediately 5 months ago.

[SqzMyLemon]

March 5, 44:

The 11th Bomber Group with 30 B-24D1's bombs the airbase at Sarmi to keep the field suppressed. There is no enemy air opposition for the P-38J's assigned to sweep and escort missions.

Finschhafen is captured by 8th Australian Division which had marched overland from Lae.

Merauke is captured by 5th Australian Division.

In both cases, Japanese ground losses are light, but I'm happy to destroy anything Japanese at this point. Surprisingly, Erik did not withdraw a small E13A1 Jake unit, so six were destroyed. Perhaps they were previously damaged and couldn't fly.

There is an increase in Japanese air ASW missions around Babeldoab, so I've begun withdrawing my submarines to safer waters. There are a number of Japanese naval taskforces spotted near Sarmi and Hollandia, one of which included two heavy cruisers. I have an idea for a naval air strike to target the cruisers, but everything depends on whether I can position my carriers within range of a full speed run undetected. I am starting to get a measure of Erik's aggressiveness and will look to use that to my advantage in upcoming operations. I've ordered a small SCTF of six destroyers to take up station three hexes northeast of Manus, for a possible run in at Hollandia and some small inbound Japanese taskforces.

I'll consolidate Merauke as quickly as possible and look at the feasibility of moving on Darwin next.

In the meantime, Allied forces continue to prep for Hollandia, Sarmi and Biak. Two divisions are fully prepped for Babeldoab. Logistic preparations continue apace with large amounts of fuel and supply moving forward to Milne Bay, Port Moresby and Rabaul.

[SqzMyLemon]

It appears I've put some people off the AAR, so I'm recording events for posterity. [:D]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

It appears I've put some people off the AAR, so I'm recording events for posterity. [:D]

You seem to have things in hand now and nothing surprising is happening, so not many comments. But 10,623 hit means you do have followers! Thanks for your efforts to bring us the story of your game.

[Anachro]

I do read, but I really should make more effort to comment. It can be disheartening when you get no responses. Looking forward to you battering down the Central Pacific.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

The P-47 for me in this game is an absolute joke. I knew I should have stood my fighters down this turn after my orders got messed up the previous day. I have ZERO faith in the P-47, it sucks.

This has not been my experience and I doubt many other Allied players would feel this way. I firmly am convinced that this is the best fighter in the game. Nothing else comes close until 1945. Not sure what went wrong here, but I put my best pilots in the thunderbolts and find that they kill tojos at about a 10-1 ratio.

[BBfanboy]

Are you using the P-47s for escort duty? That would be wasting their speed and altitude advantages. They are not great dogfighters at low level either. They need to get the higher altitude bounce and then use their speed to get out of there.
Numbers also count in combat resolution - if he has many more fighters than you it can go badly once your ammo is gone.

All you can do is set the highest altitude you can on a LRCAP or Sweep mission.

[SqzMyLemon]

No, the P-47's are purely used in a sweeping role.

We have a loose house rule on altitude. Between Erik and Historiker the second best maneuver band was used as the maximum altitude. We've adopted the same, but you are allowed to fly at whatever altitude you wish, but neither of us has chosen to do so regularly.

I don't think people are grasping what is happening here. I fly sweeps at 31k and usually only face Japanese CAP set to 7k and 9k altitude. I am not getting the bounce, or if I do it is completely ineffective. Radar often puts the Japanese CAP above my sweeps nullifying the bounce. My P-47's are being shredded by the Tojo. I refuse to stratosphere sweep, but even with 22k height advantage the P-47 can not achieve better than 1:1. The combination of low CAP and radar is taking away the boom and zoom of the P-47.

[BBfanboy]

I think 22K height differential is too high to make a decent intercept - heck, maybe the pilots can't even spot an enemy airplane against the ground clutter from four miles away! I think this sort of thing is abstracted into the combat routines because I recall one of the developers saying that about 5000' altitude differential is best for the bounce.

[SqzMyLemon]

I'm leaning towards lowering my altitude for sweeps dramatically. I'm actually testing it out this turn, but not against a heavy Japanese CAP. I'm thinking of a number of things to try and counter. See, everybody used to fly high, so high CAP was the norm. Now that Erik CAP's below 10k, the high sweep isn't working. So I'm going to go low, but that hasn't always worked either. I've tried Spitfire sweeps at 15k in Burma, and they've been handled roughly as well. The combination of low CAP and large number of defenders is proving difficult for the Allies to overcome. I'm always working at it, but right now I stand by my statement that the P-47's have been ineffective and I don't think it's just because they are higher. I think radar and detection times are putting the Japanese CAP above my sweeps before I arrive. I plan on lowering my altitude to decrease the detection time the CAP gets.

[Anachro]

How about staggered sweeps at different altitudes? Just an idea, but I remember reading in the past that staggered altitudes for CAP was more effective than setting everything to high. What do others think?

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

How about staggered sweeps at different altitudes? Just an idea, but I remember reading in the past that staggered altitudes for CAP was more effective than setting everything to high. What do others think?

I've tried that too. The problem I've encountered is the low sweep gets chewed up, the next higher sweep performs average and the highest sweep comes last, but by then the CAP is degraded somewhat and there isn't much left to shoot.

In everything I've tried so far, the kill ratio is 1:1 or 1:1.5 at best. I'm not getting anything near 2:1, 5:1 or 10:1 unless the Zero is the only fighter on CAP.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

How about staggered sweeps at different altitudes? Just an idea, but I remember reading in the past that staggered altitudes for CAP was more effective than setting everything to high. What do others think?

The staggered CAP is aimed at intercepting bombers, especially torpedo bombers. Trying to take on enemy fighters defending their own base is a different proposition. You can take advantage of the various fighters characteristics - e.g. the Hurricane does not lose much of its maneuverability at high altitude while the Spitfire has excellent maneuver performance at mid and low levels. IMO they should be used accordingly.

[SqzMyLemon]

We've reached March 11/44.

I'm still organizing for the next big push, but I don't want to delay longer than is necessary. SigInt reports are flowing in of Japanese troops moving to Babeldoab, which means reinforcement of bases directly in the path of my advance. Alarmingly, I'm also picking up reports of troops en route to Darwin. I am definitely getting faulty recon of Darwin which shows only one LCU present. Why, because 60+ fighter, 60+ bomber and 70+ auxiliary aircraft are present by mouseover, and there's no way a single Japanese aviation unit can support them all.

I've decided to use the navy to support an immediate amphibious operation against Darwin. The troops are not fully prepped and it will be a hodgepodge of supporting units, but I can't allow time for Darwin to be strengthened.

In New Guinea, the air force is ordered to fully suppress the airbases at Hollandia and Sarmi. Sarmi has recovered enough for Erik to rebase aircraft, which I won't allow. Japanese naval forces are now basing at Sarmi, but the threat of large land based CAP rules out going after them with my carriers. Both enemy airbases need to be inoperative, or at least suppressed, to prevent interdiction of Allied naval air strikes.

I'm going to risk less than ideal conditions for an amphibious operation against Darwin, in order to apply more pressure to the Japanese perimeter and open up some gaps to exploit. Moving against Darwin immediately will allow the time needed for my LCU's to complete preparations for Hollandia, Sarmi, and Biak. I think I can handle a messy Darwin operation, but the same can't be said for Hollandia. The New Guinea operations must be well prepared hammer blows.

[SqzMyLemon]

March 11/44:

Well, the Allied fighters just can't get it done against the low CAP.

I tried a series of sweeps against Hollandia today and results are horrible, as usual. In an effort to combat the low CAP settings Erik has been using, I tried a number of different altitude settings. Corsairs were set to 5k, 10k, 15k and 31k. I'm up against around 225 enemy fighters. Since I can't get co-ordination amongst early sweeps, I tried to pad Allied strength with a LRCAP of P-38's. In all cases, my low sweeps and LRCAP was massacred. Despite higher altitude settings of almost all Japanese CAP, the Allied fighters do not perform well at low altitude. The problem is, even when they are set high, the radar and warning times still put the Japanese CAP above the sweeps, or drive the sweep so low as to nullify the bounce. I really am at a loss as to what to do. I plan on going back to setting everything at 31k and leave it. Setting any Allied fighters low is turning out to be a disaster.

Despite the fact my fighter force is being decimated, a large bomber force hit Sarmi and did moderate damage to the base. On the day only 6 B-24's were lost. Escort P-38's were blown out of the sky, despite being set to 18k and facing Japanese CAP set to 7k and 9k.

I've ordered an all out bombing attack against Hollandia tomorrow. I'll also be trying my last test of low sweeps to see if I can influence detection times and catch the CAP climbing. I'm not optimistic. If fighter losses among the low sweeps are high once again, I will not sweep at low altitude for the remainder of the game and stick to 31k or the maximum allowable altitude to see if stratosphere sweeps have any chance of turning the tide here. Unfortunately, setting high sweeps will have to wait one more day. I expect my low sweeps to get crushed tomorrow.


Thoughts:

If I send sweeps in low they get chewed up. If I send in sweeps high, they get chewed up. If I LRCAP or escort they get chewed up. The most successful high altitude sweeps face degraded CAP and shoot down very few aircraft. In all, the low sweeps, LRCAP and escorts offset any gains the last high sweep gets, and the loss ratio with Corsairs, Lightnings, P-47's and Spitfires is 1:1. The Allied fighters are getting creamed and I'm facing CAP settings of 7k and 9k.

Low Japanese CAP settings are nullifying any advantages the Allied fighters have. I'm all ears, but regardless of what many think of my game play, the low Japanese CAP settings are wreaking havoc on the Allied fighter force.

I'm going to have to drastically change the way I'm doing things, because nothing I have tried to date has been successful against Erik's air defence settings.

[SqzMyLemon]

I just went through Erik's low CAP testing thread. I will be changing my air tactics moving forward. There will definitely be no more low sweeps by the Allies. Unfortunately, I'll most likely take it on the chin tomorrow with my low Corsair sweeps.

It's clear to me Erik has tested, tested and tested to get the most from his CAP. Kudos. It appears all I can do is make sure I send in my most experienced pilots at the highest possible altitudes to reduce my losses. I can't change the fact that Erik has discovered how to swamp Allied sweeps with low CAP. I can't prevent my sweeps dropping down to engage the low CAP, but I certainly won't be purposely setting any of my sweeps low anymore. Flying low ensures Allied losses are unsustainable. All I can do is go high and hope for the best.

At least I think that is what I need to do, to try and counter the low CAP.

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: Encircled

Can I be the first to mention that in about a couple of months after this someone is going to take a beating with their P-47s and then blame you, the test and the game for the inherent randomness of some results.

Thanks in advance! [;)]

This quote was in Erik's low CAP thread. So, I guess I'm the poor bastard that gets to take a drubbing against what I currently consider an unbeatable tactic. Whatever I may have thought about the superiority of Allied aircraft in this game has been thrown out the window.

I'll play along. I blame Erik. [:D]

[SqzMyLemon]

The P-47D25 went into production at the beginning of March, with 175 produced monthly. I'll be reorganizing the Allied fighter force over the coming weeks. I plan to:

Reduce the number of frontline squadrons flying the best aircraft.

Reassign every 80+ experienced pilot into a few squadrons using the P-47D25.

Employ new tactics to counter the low CAP.

I'll essentially start from scratch, because I can't get it done trading 1:1 in losses.