Wrangling Loki - Mind_Messing (J) vs Lokasenna (A)

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

The ignominy of page 2. A small update to tide me over: a '44 carrier clash where the Japanese don't lose a single carrier.

[&:]

More coming? [:)]

[mind_messing]

October 23rd to December 2nd (!!!) 1944]

So, we've covered a fair bit of ground without an update.

Sumatra/Western DEI

Palembang is still intact and producing oil, but the majority of the Japanese air power has abandoned the fight up here. I've left a trio of squadrons behind to mount a rear-guard action against overwhelming Allied air power flying from Malaya. So far, they're doing good.

I've also deployed the first squadron of the Okha equipped Betty bombers here. I'm using them at night, in the hope that they might get some hits on Allied shipping transiting the Singapore straits. So far, they've been a bit disappointing, they've fired off at some Allied cruisers but have yet to score a hit. I'm convinced night attacks are the best use for them, as the Betty is a slow deathtrap at this point, at Okha attacks avoid ship-based flak, so provided the bombers can dodge any potential night CAP, they can fire at ships without fear of retaliation. Rare for Japan in 1944.

On the ground, the Allies are stalemated in the north by a handful of Japanese divisions in good terrain. The Allies have recently taken a base behind the lines with a paratrooper assault along with heavy air bombardment, but I should be able to stabilize the frontline given the chance.

Singkawang still holds on, abet its days are numbered. I'll start evacuating troops from here to Sumatra in a few turns, and chalk it up as a massive success - it's forced the Allies to massively overcommit at least two divisions and a Chinese corps to beat a handful of naval guard units and a reinforced IJA brigade. Excellent.

Philippines

The Allies have moved into the southern reaches of the PI, leapfrogging westward from Miri to Jesselton at the eastern edge of Borneo and then south to Jolo. While their advance is somewhat tentative, they are firmly established. Japanese troops have managed to stalemate two US Army regiments on Puerto Principe, so the Allies will need to land more here to break the stalemate.

Luzon is an armed camp, with upwards of seven divisons and a half-dozen brigades ready to fight for every hex north of Manila. Several hundred planes are also stationed here, with reserve squadrons awaiting on Formosa and in the Home Islands.

The IJN had a tentative carrier clash with the USN in late-October north-east of Jesselton, but bad positioning ruined what could have been a massive victory. Of the four IJN CV task forces, only one (the fastest) ended up 8 hexes from the USN deathstar, and while it gets off a good strike package, it gets slaughtered by buzzsaw CAP. On the bright side, the Allies don't get to launch a counterstrike and the IJN carriers withdraw to the Home Islands without issue.

Pilot and plane losses were bad, but replaceable. A shame, as a 8 hex strike that killed or wounded a few fleet carriers would have stretched Allied assets that little bit thinner.

The good news is that while the USN fleet carriers were drawn northwards for a potential carrier clash, Japanese land-based air managed to strike Allied shipping unloading off Jolo. While it did not materialize into a massive victory, a neat collection of CVE's and some amphibs were sunk by torpedo and kamikaze aircraft.

However, the KB wasn't up for sticking around for a fight, so the IJN commitment to the defence of Luzon consists of the Kongo battleships (sans one repairing in Japan) and a light cruiser with a gaggle of destroyers in support.

Vietnam

The IJA and the horde of Chinese, Indian, British, American and Commonwealth units continue to stare at each other outside Vinh. I'm backfilling all the bases between Haiphong and Hong Kong in the hope of detterint the inevitable Inchon style landing when it comes, but I'm currently considering evacuating South China and refocusing a defence around Changsha.

FWIW, Vinh is now in B-29 range of the western cities of the Home Islands.

Central Pacific

The Allies have methodically reduced Manadao, Babeldoab and Pelilu, and now a big Allied C
V and surface force is moving to the Marianas. We're as ready as we can be here, and I'm moving fighters in to hopefully contest Allied air power in the region for at least a few turns.

I made the decision to pull three divisions from the Marianas to backfill Okinawa and the Bonins, just for the sake of peace of mind. This was probably uncessisary, but what's done is done.

Formosa

Formosa is now looking like a less extensive version of Luzon - troops are now in position on all the bases, and we're digging beachfront bunkers for the inevitable landing. The only thing I'm really short of is expendable troops to deploy on the smaller islands off-shore, but some naval guard units will be getting bought back from elsewhere to fill the gaps here.

Aviation support is also in place here, and I've turned Formosa into the backstop for my air bases on Luzon. The island is basically a big rest and training camp for my air groups in China and the PI

Home Islands

More or less all the exposed coastal hexes now have defences in place, even if the units are fairly weak. As more divisions from Burma and Thailand are being reconstructed, I'm rotating partially recuperated units out for deployment elsewhere and filling them in with shell units. This seems to be working great so far, although the time taken to get divisions up to 100% TOE is quite long, even in their A/B/C breakdowns. I'd be hard pressed for combat units if I hadn't taken out China.

I'm focusing my defences on the exposed open terrain hexes of the Home Islands proper and the bases that are somewhat isolated from the Japanese road/rail network.

I've been doing my best to take full advantage of the static coastal defence units to create strong positions with big airbases and held by good troops that hopefully will prove problematic to the Allies come 1945.

In terms of naval commitment, I've got the KB chilling in Tokyo Bay training up their airgroups while the 12cm AA rockets get installed on the newer carriers, while the handful (4, I think) of slow battleships I have left are sitting on the Inland Sea. I'm still building ships, in the hope that the slow E-class escort ships might have at least some nominal military value, as well as subs and destroyers. My plans for these small ships is to sit them under coastal guns as bait and hope for the best...

[mind_messing]

Two questions.

1. How exactly does ship-based AA work in relation to air attacks in a hex?

For example, if I have 200 xAK's in Tokyo (either in port or in a TF) and B-29's bomb Tokyo, would they fire on attacking aircraft?

2. Anyone got any suggestions for a good line of defence in China against a push from Vietnam? I'm pretty clueless here as to how to delay the Allied push.

At present, I'm considering simply dumping 2k AV into each of the Heavy Urban hexes in China and hoping for the best.

[mind_messing]

So, now we are up to mid-January, 1945. The war is going as well as it can at this point I think, despite no serious reverses to the Allied advance. At the very least, the disintegration of the Japanese empire is moving along at a fairly slow pace.

The screenshots are a few days old, but the situation remains much the same.

The situation in Vietnam has remained static for some time now, as I think Loka has seen the obvious value of a flanking invasion somewhere in China. Both naval and air raids on Hanian have been a common feature here recently, and since this screenshot I've started withdrawing troops out of Vietnam - I will likely pull all the way back to Nanning in preparation for the great evacuation of China.



Elsewhere, the Allies are on Minadano, and will have it secure by the end of January. Not much that could be done here - better troop deployment might have bought me an extra week or so, but 2k of good Allied units will beat half that of middling Allied units any day of the week, not considering naval and air intervention. Any moves north from Minadano will be the really interesting ones for this game, as Festung Luzon is pretty intimidating.

I lost about 600 aircraft attempting to interdict the Minadano landings, no real results to speak of.



Here's Manchuria, Korea and the Home Islands. I'm expecting a '45 push against the HI, because there's a lot of Allied B-29s on the go and only a couple of bases in range. To that end, I've nearly all the coastal hexes in Japan garrisoned by at least a division, though some are still under-strength.

In Manchuria and Korea, the last-ditch Japanese formations are starting to arrive, and I'm deploying them along likely Russian routes of advance to start digging forts in non-base hexes. Likely won't do much, but a few days will likely matter once August rolls around.

Also note the units around the 38th parallel, that's the Great Wall of Korea, where I hope to stall the Russian advance until the game-over screen. The plan is to get as many Japanese units from China, Manchuria and Vietnam to defend that line as I can manage. I'll still leave sizable holdout garrisons in the major cities and VP sinks, but I'd like to preserve as many units as possible to deny the VP haul.



Still no B-29 raids on the Home Islands, but I'm getting the air defence network set up slowly. Hokkaido has the required umbrella of day and night CAP, as does Kyushu, but much of Honshu is still uncovered. With the late-war Japanese training squadrons starting to arrive, it's freeing up air groups from combat duty to provide this CAP, so as this progresses we'll hopefully have a strong counter to any long range bombing raids. I'll also need to check that every hex has radar.

Much to do, not much time left to do it!

[obvert]

Have you converted everything possible into NF and are you making the range of fighters that work in those groups?

I had trouble not planning to use the Nick Id which is used exclusively by I think at least three large NF groups that can be split into components.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Have you converted everything possible into NF and are you making the range of fighters that work in those groups?

I had trouble not planning to use the Nick Id which is used exclusively by I think at least three large NF groups that can be split into components.

Yes. I've even supersized the IJN air groups that you can resize on the carriers.

I'm using the Irving, Judy and the Myrt variants as well. I plan to start converting the squadrons over to the Myrt starting with the Judies.

For the IJA, it's the Dinah NF and the Nick Id. I'll need to check the FB squadrons again to see if any Nick FB upgrade to the Id model.

NF pools are excellent - I learned from your game, but there's been no raids on the Home Islands so far, although there was a recon plane over Osaka/Kyoto this turn, so I move planes to respond just in case...

[mind_messing]

Skynet - February, 1945

The first major B-29 raids over the Home Islands have been conducted, with the long-range bombers flying out from the Aleutians. Thankfully, they went after resources on Hokkaido. While it's still VP's, I'm pretty flush in resources. Interference from IJA Tojo's was disapointed, although a few did decide to ram B-29's for the Emperor, which is great.


This is my plan to keep the B-29s off the major industry for a few months longer.

I've been dilligent in ensuring that there's at least one radar equipped unit in every mainland hex, and I'll start to put units out to the off-shore islands in a few weeks.


Japanese Strategy

I don't really have one, in fairness. I've done a little thinking.

Essentially, I want a series of defensive zones set up that can offer moderate resistance to day and night raids. These zones are based on the industrial assets present within them. Anything outside of these zones won't have dedicated defences outwith those planes that leak over from adjacent hexes.

For day raids, I hope to have a heavy CAP up to oppose any incoming B-29 raids. As the Allies aren't in fighter range yet, I plan to try and get away with second-rate pilots in second-generation airframes. Basically, you don't need to be a 80 EXP double ace in a Frank to ram a B-29. You can be a 40 EXP rookie in a Tojo or Oscar.

Once the perimeter contracts a little more, and I've a few more free squadrons, I think I'll set up a "Big Wing" style group with crack pilots in the best I've got to move around in response to Allied raids.

For night raids, I've not a clue. I've not got enough night fighters to offer strong resistance everywhere. Currently, I think I'll use the IJA (IOW, non-radar) night fighters as stationary CAP over the big bases, and have the radar-equipped IJN stuff move around in response to Allied raids/recon.



Red Zone - Hokkaido

At present, this zone is the most threatened, as it's in normal range from Allied bases in the Aleutians.

However, there's not much of real industrial value here, so there's a mixed bag of IJA and IJN fighter squadrons with second rate pilots performing token CAP to prevent Loka from getting VP's on the free.

I've pulled all the dedicated night fighter squadrons from this zone, and instead I'm depending on a token night CAP of Nick fighter-bombers. Not ideal, granted, but that's how it is.

Lilac Zone - Tokyo Region

This area is a major industrial zone, so there's a great deal of emphasis here. About 300 day and 150 night fighters spread between Tokyo, Maebashi and Yokohama. Pilots are mediocre, but there's a great deal of on-the-top training going on here.

Yellow Zone - Osaka/Kyoto Region

The other major industrial hub. This has been the hind-teat for some time, as the Allies only recently captured bases in range of this area. However, we're setting the protective umberllla of CAP needed to protect this region from squadrons pulled from Southern China. What dedicated night fighters that aren't assigned to the Tokyo region are deployed here.

Black Zone - Hiroshima Region

The CAP here is anaemic at best, and consists of some newly arrived IJN air units doing a mixture of CAP and training. I've some of those training units deployed at Hiroshima to hopefully confuse the Allies in to overestimating fighter strength here. I'm debating shifting stuff from Luzon to bulk up this sector, as Zero's don't cut it against B-29s.

Violet Zone - Kyushu

This area has been most exposed for the longest to potential B-29 bases in Vietnam, so much of the focus has been here, as well as with likely invasion potential. This region is fairly representative of what I want all of the zones above to be. Around 250 day fighters and 75 night fighters provide cover here.

Advice?

I'm clueless, help?

[Bullwinkle58]

Couple of thoughts.

1) He's not in range "from the Aleutians." Look at the B-29 stats. Look at his AFs that can handle it. Count hexes.

2) Sapporo has, in our game at least, some pretty major aircraft industry factories. Might be engines; don't recall now. But they're not Resources. Don't just think VPs. Think what you can live without if he goes to Sapporo.

3) The B-29 is wicked fast. You probably won't get away with 2nd gen. overall. You can't count on ramming. That might get you one airframe a mission at most. At best two, highly randomized. Right now he's not in range of Tokyo or Osaka, so don't defend there. Defend Sapporo. You can move fighters in a day. Radar is pretty key.

4) Replacement rates on B-29s are not good, especially at your date. In my date, July 1944, they're 18/month. It gets better, but not huge. And the SR is back-breaking. He's not going to plink with them. He's going to try to get ROI out of every mission.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

This is my plan to keep the B-29s off the major industry for a few months longer.

I've been dilligent in ensuring that there's at least one radar equipped unit in every mainland hex, and I'll start to put units out to the off-shore islands in a few weeks.

It's more important to have many radar equipped units in Tokyo and Osaka + a few of the other major plane/airframe manufacturing centres like Maebashi and Gifu. You may be able to read his tendencies and then allocate, because if he goes for manpower there are only a few big spots but there are a lot of other industrial targets if he's using pinpoint factory bombing.

For day raids, I hope to have a heavy CAP up to oppose any incoming B-29 raids. As the Allies aren't in fighter range yet, I plan to try and get away with second-rate pilots in second-generation airframes. Basically, you don't need to be a 80 EXP double ace in a Frank to ram a B-29. You can be a 40 EXP rookie in a Tojo or Oscar.

Numbers are key, but you want airframes with armor and 20mm cannons. Oscar IV work in a pinch but you need a lot since you will lose a lot. Plan for unit rotations. He will most likely only get 2-3 strikes/week in with B-29s, and that is if he's being impatient. Much better for him to wait and use the most available for massive raids then let them rest.

Tojos just aren't good enough to face B-29s, but FB like Randy or Nick are good, and anything with high durability. Don't worry about speed of airframes. The game is not reality. Numbers matter.

For night raids, I've not a clue. I've not got enough night fighters to offer strong resistance everywhere. Currently, I think I'll use the IJA (IOW, non-radar) night fighters as stationary CAP over the big bases, and have the radar-equipped IJN stuff move around in response to Allied raids/recon.

Keep some radar groups (Irvings) at Tokyo and Osaka no matter what. Since he's in range of Hokkaido now keep some at each base there and add the other non-radar groups. Not sure what settings you like but in a pinch I had some groups on 2-3 hex CAP for mutual support in a tight area, which could work for Sapporo area.

Red Zone - Hokkaido

At present, this zone is the most threatened, as it's in normal range from Allied bases in the Aleutians.

However, there's not much of real industrial value here, so there's a mixed bag of IJA and IJN fighter squadrons with second rate pilots performing token CAP to prevent Loka from getting VP's on the free.

I've pulled all the dedicated night fighter squadrons from this zone, and instead I'm depending on a token night CAP of Nick fighter-bombers. Not ideal, granted, but that's how it is.

If this is the only zone in range, why only partial defence?

I've always used EXP 70+ pilots in my NF. This is the most important battle to fight from now onward. You're fighting over your own bases so most likely keep a lot of WIA pilots too.

It's not only about what is most valuable, but what he's likely to go for in terms of normal range. What bases are being reconned? (he has to recon before a strike or it will not go well). So if you fight for even mediocre targets he's likely to hit, yo might put a dent in his pools/pilots for later and slow down the process. Start strong!

Lilac Zone - Tokyo Region

This area is a major industrial zone, so there's a great deal of emphasis here. About 300 day and 150 night fighters spread between Tokyo, Maebashi and Yokohama. Pilots are mediocre, but there's a great deal of on-the-top training going on here.

Until he's in range fly NF in day at about 80% CAP to train EXP. They improve faster flying day missions.

Yellow Zone - Osaka/Kyoto Region

The other major industrial hub. This has been the hind-teat for some time, as the Allies only recently captured bases in range of this area. However, we're setting the protective umberllla of CAP needed to protect this region from squadrons pulled from Southern China. What dedicated night fighters that aren't assigned to the Tokyo region are deployed here.

Black Zone - Hiroshima Region

The CAP here is anaemic at best, and consists of some newly arrived IJN air units doing a mixture of CAP and training. I've some of those training units deployed at Hiroshima to hopefully confuse the Allies in to overestimating fighter strength here. I'm debating shifting stuff from Luzon to bulk up this sector, as Zero's don't cut it against B-29s.

Violet Zone - Kyushu

This area has been most exposed for the longest to potential B-29 bases in Vietnam, so much of the focus has been here, as well as with likely invasion potential. This region is fairly representative of what I want all of the zones above to be. Around 250 day fighters and 75 night fighters provide cover here.

What is the range to get here? Where does he have the bases? You can most likely find the B-29 bases (level 9, lots of CAP, lots of bombers, lots of AA, not the origin of other bombing strikes) and judge distances. These bases aren't incredibly mobile as the infrastructure needed for B-29 use is massive. They suffer a lot of ops losses from transfers too.

Look at where you absolutely have to fight in the air now. Pick your spots, and if it's not leading to either potential VP gains (or your own VP losses) conserve the pilots, airframes, supply and use some of the better pilots back home.

Your defensive CAP will shoot down B-29s, probably at a much higher rate than historical. Especially at night. You'll lose a lot of NF though. Keep pools strong and have backup options available (which is why I made the A6M5-S NF).

Don't discount AA either. Stack it high in Tokyo and Osaka. Hiroshima and Yokohama have some pretty good defences if the forts have upgraded their TOE. The good 10cm and 12cm AA and DP + the 12.7cm DP are great guns. The 75mm and 88mm are okay, but in numbers do the job. Again, radar helps immensely.

Good Luck!!

[PaxMondo]

Agree with Eric ... you have to defend Hokkaido. Lose Hokkaido, you put all your other bases in B17 range and you are then facing extinction in a few months. Ditto Korean penninsula.

Suggest you create several layers of defense for Korean penninsula starting farther north. Any MLR can be breached with just a lucky role, with 2 - 3 fall back positions (and the terrain allows for this), you can hold a very long time until he can land behind you. Moppo is always that target.

Hokkaido: kuriles don't matter much, fight for them, but don't sacrifice too much. Hokkaido deserves max defense. You need to be ready to repel +7 ID's hitting the beach. You prolly won't be able to stop that (if you can, you likely win), but once the deathstar leaves for re-arm, you have a week or so to push them off. You need armor to stop the SOV, but you can commit at least one of your ARM DIV's until about 10 days before the SOV activate.

After SOV activate, all you can have on Hokkaido is ARM Bde's. That means you need more ID's when you are short ARM ...

[Bullwinkle58]

If I can inject a note of "slow down" here . . .

Re the Aleutians, there are three AFs that can operate B-29s, with a LOT of building, and reach Hokkaido. However, only one--Shemya--can reach Sapporo, at extended range. The B-29's extended range is 35. Tokyo and Osaka are many months, if ever, out of range at 47 and 50 I believe. There's little worth B-29 losses on Hokkaido except Sapporo.

B-29s can operate from Level 7 AFs. You don't need 9. You do need a big supply dump to get them to launch. In my recent experience 20,000 seems to be the minimum. More is better.

I recently hit Miri from the island near Timor I can't spell. Wanapoe or similar. Level 7. Supply 23,000. No air HQ present. One B-29 unit. Daylight. Did almost 300 points of damage to Oil and Refineries in one raid at 9000 feet. It was a risk because I had no, zero, recon or DL. So a llot of what's being posted here is not necessarily true. Is Lokasenna crazy enough to risk a daylight, unescorted raid on Sapporo? I'd say yes. Doesn't mean he will, but Sapporo is an order of magnitude juicier than Miri. Miri has no VPs for one. Sapporo has engine factories for two.

B-29s have a top speed of 357. Over 70 faster than a B-24. Also a higher gun value. Also more Durability. Speed does matter. In a B-29 raid you almost never get a post-drop tail chase and engagement as you do with B-17s and B-24s. So it's even more critical to have radar and fast fighters to get a kick in on the ingress.

Planning to defend Osaka and Tokyo is fine, but it's not that important right now. Preparing for a land battle on Hokkaido is important, but not this month. Taking Para Jima is a logical first step due to range. Lokasenna is not pressed for time here. I don't know your intel situation on his infantry, but the comment above about what it takes to land on Hokkaido is pretty true. It's hard to make any HI landing a secondary op.

But beware the B-29. I don't know what is left of your navy, or your fuel state, but you might consider a CL/DD bombardment of those three Aleutian AFs. You won't close them, but every couple of B-29s you wax on the ground is worth a DD. Given they're going to be welded to the pier pretty soon anyway.

Edit: I just re-looked at Miri. Let me revise my damage numbers downward. Since I didn't have DL, I don't know how much of the initial scenario damage he had repaired. Current Refinery damage is 151, and I bombed Oil directly, so he didn't fix Refineries. Oil damage is 175 with my not 100% recon. If he didn't fix anything I did 25 more. If he had repaired to 300 I did quite a lot. Regardless, 12 B-29s, unopposed by fighters, can hurt you. Seventy can hurt Sapporo a lot. JFBs often don't appreciate the value of disrupting aim. They only look at VPs and shot-down bombers. If Lokasenna had had CAP at Miri the results would have been far different.

[mind_messing]

Quite a few comments, so I'll address each in turn. Evidently the way to get a discussion going is to try and beat the B-29. Probably as comparatively few players get the chacnce to try.

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Couple of thoughts.

1) He's not in range "from the Aleutians." Look at the B-29 stats. Look at his AFs that can handle it. Count hexes.

2) Sapporo has, in our game at least, some pretty major aircraft industry factories. Might be engines; don't recall now. But they're not Resources. Don't just think VPs. Think what you can live without if he goes to Sapporo.

3) The B-29 is wicked fast. You probably won't get away with 2nd gen. overall. You can't count on ramming. That might get you one airframe a mission at most. At best two, highly randomized. Right now he's not in range of Tokyo or Osaka, so don't defend there. Defend Sapporo. You can move fighters in a day. Radar is pretty key.

4) Replacement rates on B-29s are not good, especially at your date. In my date, July 1944, they're 18/month. It gets better, but not huge. And the SR is back-breaking. He's not going to plink with them. He's going to try to get ROI out of every mission.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

1) Yeah, I've done a lot of hex counting the past few turns.

The B-29B (which arrives for the Allies next month) has a 40 hex extended range. That's everything east of Ominato from Shemya. Recent conquests on Minadano and elsewhere put everything west of Tokyo in range as well.

2) It's scenario 1, so no real industry on Hokkaido to speak of.

3) The fastest model of the B-29 is the B version, which goes 364mph. That means that the Zero, Oscar and Tony can't keep up with it, whereas the Tojo can. The IJN is stuck between the Jack and George until the wonder-planes come online, both of which are needed for frontline service. The Sam goes on the carriers first. It's a shame that the copious reserves of Zero's I have aren't competitive against B-29s, but c'est la guerre.

The Tojo is pretty much a lame duck against Allied fighters at this point, but I've not expended the supply to shift production, I've plenty of them. They seem decent on paper (fast, armoured) and there's nothing much better for them to be doing other than flying into the side of Allied ships at this point.

4) Heh, current game date is Feb 25th (update to come). I don't even want to think what the replacement rates are like, let alone on-map production...

[mind_messing]

@ Obvert

It's more important to have many radar equipped units in Tokyo and Osaka + a few of the other major plane/airframe manufacturing centres like Maebashi and Gifu. You may be able to read his tendencies and then allocate, because if he goes for manpower there are only a few big spots but there are a lot of other industrial targets if he's using pinpoint factory bombing.

Getting radar in every mainland hex was one of the first thing's I've done. I lack real faith in the Japanese radars, but it's better than nothing. When the multitude of destroyed AF Bn destroyed elsewhere are resurrected, I might try to see if I can double up in all hexes to double the chance of radars working.

Numbers are key, but you want airframes with armor and 20mm cannons. Oscar IV work in a pinch but you need a lot since you will lose a lot. Plan for unit rotations. He will most likely only get 2-3 strikes/week in with B-29s, and that is if he's being impatient. Much better for him to wait and use the most available for massive raids then let them rest.

Tojos just aren't good enough to face B-29s, but FB like Randy or Nick are good, and anything with high durability. Don't worry about speed of airframes. The game is not reality. Numbers matter.

I've plenty of Oscar IV's on the go, so might add them to the mix if you say that they work. Randy production is online but limited, and Nicks have a factory somewhere still I'm sure. I will see if I can mix it up, but I'd rather have 300 Tojo's than 150 Randy's.

Keep some radar groups (Irvings) at Tokyo and Osaka no matter what. Since he's in range of Hokkaido now keep some at each base there and add the other non-radar groups. Not sure what settings you like but in a pinch I had some groups on 2-3 hex CAP for mutual support in a tight area, which could work for Sapporo area.

I've phased the Irvings out for the Myrts, but there's plenty of Irvings still in the pool. Also got Judy NF to act as a reserve pool just in case. I've planned for some serious attrition of the IJN NF groups.

If this is the only zone in range, why only partial defence?

I've always used EXP 70+ pilots in my NF. This is the most important battle to fight from now onward. You're fighting over your own bases so most likely keep a lot of WIA pilots too.

It's not only about what is most valuable, but what he's likely to go for in terms of normal range. What bases are being reconned? (he has to recon before a strike or it will not go well). So if you fight for even mediocre targets he's likely to hit, yo might put a dent in his pools/pilots for later and slow down the process. Start strong!

Hokkaido isn't getting a serious defence as there's not much really worth defending. Resources are plentiful in China, and what industry there is on Hokkaido is moderate and fairly dispersed. A serious defence would, I think, be overkill when the Allies have the potential to hit bigger targets elsewhere.

My NF pilots run right across the spectrum, really. About half are 60 EXP and upwards, and the remainder are in the 40-50 range doing some CAP and on the job training as well.

What is the range to get here? Where does he have the bases? You can most likely find the B-29 bases (level 9, lots of CAP, lots of bombers, lots of AA, not the origin of other bombing strikes) and judge distances. These bases aren't incredibly mobile as the infrastructure needed for B-29 use is massive. They suffer a lot of ops losses from transfers too.

Current B-29 bases in range of Japan are:

Shemya (Aleitans)
Babeldoab
A few bases on Minadano
Vietnam

Of these, Shemya is a well-established B-29 base. Babeldoab is newly captured. Minadano I suspect is just set up, but I know B-29s are in theatre.

Allied bases in northern Vietnam are in normal strike range of Kyushu

Look at where you absolutely have to fight in the air now. Pick your spots, and if it's not leading to either potential VP gains (or your own VP losses) conserve the pilots, airframes, supply and use some of the better pilots back home.

Your defensive CAP will shoot down B-29s, probably at a much higher rate than historical. Especially at night. You'll lose a lot of NF though. Keep pools strong and have backup options available (which is why I made the A6M5-S NF).

Yeah, my air assets basically don't operate anywhere alone, or outside of level 8 or 9 airbases with 300 odd engineers.

As for NF pools, they're great. 300 IJN NF of various types, and 80 odd IJA NF's in reserve. That's will all squadrons at full strength.

Don't discount AA either. Stack it high in Tokyo and Osaka. Hiroshima and Yokohama have some pretty good defences if the forts have upgraded their TOE. The good 10cm and 12cm AA and DP + the 12.7cm DP are great guns. The 75mm and 88mm are okay, but in numbers do the job. Again, radar helps immensely.

Eh, I'm sceptical of the value of IJ AA, simply due to the mediocrity of that omnipresent 75mm gun. The 88mm seems little improvement except in regards of max ceiling. I've a lot of those little AA units that have been destroyed on postings all over the Empire, so I may buy a few back to bulk up the flak in some of the smaller cities.

In fairness, the only Japanese flak gun that looks remotely useful is the 40mm Type 5 Bofors copy that arrives in September '45, too late to be effective. A shame, as it seems to have good stats, and would force B-29s up another thousand feet.

The 10cm guns have all upgraded to the much more formidable 12cm AA guns, so I've high hopes for them, as they're clustered in the major industrial cities. The IJN BF units with the big 12.7cm TOE upgrades are all filled out as well.

[Bullwinkle58]

Ok, given that revised fact set, especially the PI, I would revise my remarks to say you're in a heap a' trouble.

The main question is day or night? He has P-51s in quantity, with more coming. They can't go all the way though. Night is Manpower bombing, and that hits a lot of HI production he doesn't care about. If it was me I'd for sure start at night and see how it went.

Move any ships you aren't using up to northern China, Don't give him cheap VPs. B-29s are fearsome on Port strikes due to bomb load.

Amazing what a difference five hexes makes. [:)]

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

Agree with Eric ... you have to defend Hokkaido. Lose Hokkaido, you put all your other bases in B17 range and you are then facing extinction in a few months. Ditto Korean penninsula.

Suggest you create several layers of defense for Korean penninsula starting farther north. Any MLR can be breached with just a lucky role, with 2 - 3 fall back positions (and the terrain allows for this), you can hold a very long time until he can land behind you. Moppo is always that target.

Hokkaido: kuriles don't matter much, fight for them, but don't sacrifice too much. Hokkaido deserves max defense. You need to be ready to repel +7 ID's hitting the beach. You prolly won't be able to stop that (if you can, you likely win), but once the deathstar leaves for re-arm, you have a week or so to push them off. You need armor to stop the SOV, but you can commit at least one of your ARM DIV's until about 10 days before the SOV activate.

After SOV activate, all you can have on Hokkaido is ARM Bde's. That means you need more ID's when you are short ARM ...

Heh, you're jumping the gun with Korea. The Battle of Kursk won't have anything on it.

In terms of boots on the ground on Hokkaido, I've four divisions currently deployed, along with some smaller units. Two additional divisions are in Tokyo at present filling out replacements and are destined for Hokkaido eventually.

On top of that, there are about a half-dozen IJA divisions with good TOE's currently on beach garrison duty across the Home islands. As the IJA milita units with crappy TOE's start to arrive, I'll swap some of them out and send them to Hokkaido.

I guess 7 divisions will be enough to force a big effort for Hokkaido - that's a division each for the three exposed eastern bases, one division for Hakodate and a QRF of two divisions to sit in Sapporo. Muroran can get a brigade or two and some tanks - two divisions a hex over in Sapporo should cover it.

My tank situation isn't pretty. The 4 tank divisions are currently getting chased out of Vietnam, they've had lots of combat losses and I'm out of vehicle points.

I plan to use all four tank divisions against the Soviets, but I think it's feasible for me to create a Panzer kampfgruppe from a tank brigade and a few tank regiments scattered across China, Manchuria and Honshu. They'll be one-shot weapons, but so is everything in 1945...

[Bullwinkle58]

I just glanced at a clean Scen 1 map. I had not realized the differences in Sapporo were that stark. Another reason to not play 2. [:'(]

But Mindanao still, even at 40 hexes, shouldn't give you much pause. You have to go pretty far north, to Legaspi, etc., to get in range with Level 7s of the real meat. Your last screenie of the PI is several weeks old. Where is he now?

[mind_messing]

Picture of the strat map for context

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

I just glanced at a clean Scen 1 map. I had not realized the differences in Sapporo were that stark. Another reason to not play 2. [:'(]

But Mindanao still, even at 40 hexes, shouldn't give you much pause. You have to go pretty far north, to Legaspi, etc., to get in range with Level 7s of the real meat. Your last screenie of the PI is several weeks old. Where is he now?

No foothold on Luzon, and only token paratroops north of Minadano, but he's on Minadano, and in greater numbers.

The short and the long of it is that he's on the very fringes of strat bombing range. He can do it this turn, but he'd be putting B-29s into frontline bases and flying at extended range.

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Ok, given that revised fact set, especially the PI, I would revise my remarks to say you're in a heap a' trouble.

The main question is day or night? He has P-51s in quantity, with more coming. They can't go all the way though. Night is Manpower bombing, and that hits a lot of HI production he doesn't care about. If it was me I'd for sure start at night and see how it went.

Move any ships you aren't using up to northern China, Don't give him cheap VPs. B-29s are fearsome on Port strikes due to bomb load.

Amazing what a difference five hexes makes. [:)]

The one silver lining is that there's not going to be any fighter sweeps of the Home Islands yet...

Good call on the ships. I'd forgotten about that.

[Bullwinkle58]

He's really gotten busy in the PI. His AAR is way behind.

Still, what Level 7s does he have in the north there? Did you give him any?

But at the rate he's surging you do only have a few weeks at most before you'll have nightly attacks.

[mind_messing]

January 16th to February 25th, 1945

Still going.

North Pacific

The first B-29 raids go after resource bases up here. A mixed bag of IJA and IJN fighters intercept, do decent work, but the bombs get through. The damage to the resources isn't really severe, but it is VP's.

Lots of ships reported again and again at Adak. I'm not sure if this heralds a '45 invasion, or just Loka dumping unneeded ships. Either way, I'm worried. '45 preparations for Hokkaido are underway.

Central Pacific

After months of being a backwater, the Allies land at Babeldoab. I regret pulling off one of the two divisions here a few months back, as the Allies take the base promptly following the landing but the Allies landed in such force I doubt that another 400 AV would have made any difference.

On the bright side, the CD guns did make a nice mess of the landings. I doubt we got many ships sunk bigger than an LST, but there were a fair few amphibious ships and even a destroyer or two that ate some 12cm shells. Enough at any rate for yard time, and that's clicks the Allies will be spending on non-essential actions, which is good for me!

On the downside, that's now a potential B-29 base, and a natural springboard to operations up the Marianas. The Marianas are still strongly held, but most of the good assets have been sent back to the Bonin/Ryukyu islands, supplies are low and resupply not worthwhile in my view.

Philippines

The Allies come back to land more troops at Puerto Princesa in an effort to break the stalemate concurrent with their landings at Babeldoab. The massed air power of the Japanese Army and Navy makes a move to oppose this incursion in the Sulu Sea.

The engagement opens on Febuary 21st with the biggest (and only serious) success of IJN efforts of night naval attacks on Allied shipping, when we get not one, but two torpedo hits into CVE's in the night air phase. Moonlight was high, and the RNG gods were in our favour.

Night Air attack on TF, near Puerto Princesa at 73,83

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 79 NM, estimated altitude 21,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 23 minutes

Japanese aircraft
P1Y2 Frances x 21

Japanese aircraft losses
P1Y2 Frances: 6 damaged
P1Y2 Frances: 1 destroyed by flak

Allied Ships
CVE Salamaua
CVE Gambier Bay, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CVE Bougainville
CLAA Juneau
CVE Kasaan Bay
CVE Shah

Aircraft Attacking:
20 x P1Y2 Frances launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo

Ammo storage explosion on CVE Gambier Bay


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on TF, near Puerto Princesa at 73,83

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 99 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 29 minutes

Japanese aircraft
P1Y2 Frances x 9

Japanese aircraft losses
P1Y2 Frances: 2 damaged

Allied Ships
CVE Hollandia
CVE Admiralty Island
CVE Bougainville, Torpedo hits 1, on fire

Aircraft Attacking:
9 x P1Y2 Frances launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo

Ammo storage explosion on CVE Bougainville

The day phase goes less well for the Japanese, and the usual bug-bear of land-based strikes against naval targets, co-ordination, means that nearly all the Japanese attacks go in piecemeal and get slaughtered by a heavy CVE CAP.

The only success comes from a flight of Lily dive bombers that punch through the CAP and pick out a pair of CVE's.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Puerto Princesa at 73,83

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 105 NM, estimated altitude 20,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 30 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 14
Ki-48-IIc Lily x 18

Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 8
FM-2 Wildcat x 105
F4U-1D Corsair x 8
F6F-3 Hellcat x 72
F6F-5 Hellcat x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 6 destroyed
Ki-48-IIc Lily: 10 destroyed, 2 damaged

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
CVE Salamaua, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CVE Natoma Bay, Kamikaze hits 4, on fire, heavy damage

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x Ki-48-IIc Lily releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 2 x 100 kg SAP Bomb
4 x Ki-48-IIc Lily releasing from 10000'
Naval Attack: 2 x 100 kg SAP Bomb

The action resumes the following day. According to Loka, the CVE's decided not to follow the amphib task force to withdraw, and stayed around for another day. Fortunate for me, as fresh squadrons had rotated into the airbases on Luzon in case of such an eventuality.

Again, the same story repeats itself - poor co-ordination fragments the strikes and most get chewed up.

The US CVE Makassar Straits takes a torpedo hit early in the day phase.

The main damage is caused by a handful of Jill's make it through:

Morning Air attack on TF, near Puerto Princesa at 73,83

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 78 NM, estimated altitude 6,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 25 minutes

Japanese aircraft
B6N2a Jill x 57
N1K5-J George x 10

Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 6
FM-2 Wildcat x 133
F4U-1D Corsair x 12
F6F-3 Hellcat x 76
F6F-5 Hellcat x 7

Japanese aircraft losses
B6N2a Jill: 16 destroyed, 9 damaged
B6N2a Jill: 2 destroyed by flak
N1K5-J George: 5 destroyed

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
CVE Ommaney Bay
CVE Salamaua, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
CVE Anzio
CVE White Plains
CVE Lunga Point, Torpedo hits 1, Kamikaze hits 1
CVE Kasaan Bay, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CVE Hollandia, Kamikaze hits 2, on fire

Aircraft Attacking:
26 x B6N2a Jill launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo

In the attack immediately following, the British CVE Shah eats two torpedoes from IJA Peggy (T)s. A follow-on strike of Peggy's puts another torpedo into the Hollandia, already hurting from two Kami hits. Another Peggy in a later raid also rams the Salamua, which is already damage from a Kami earlier in the day.

The afternoon air phase is a disappointment. Despite Allied CAP being significantly weaker than it had been at the outset (100 planes in the PM phase against over 200 in the AM phase), the Japanese planes weren't able to capitalise - the CVE Kwajalein is hit by a Jill, and the rest of the strikes lack the numbers to punch through the CAP.

While a costly day in terms of aircraft, it's about an even trade assuming a few CVE's go under from the mixture of Kami and torpedo hits. Tracker shows 9 CVE's sunk over the two day engagement. That is perhaps optimistic, but possible. At any rate, the Japanese victory is overwhelmingly of the moral nature, and it gives me some hope for continuing to punish Loka's mistakes.

The entire engagement is quite a morale boost to me as well - nearly all the squadrons committed on my end were flying conventional attacks, yet a fair few pilots felt the burning desire to die for the Emperor.

Bonin's

This theatre opens up with a carrier raid on Daito Shoto on Feb 24th. Recon suggests that it's just the fast carriers with a SCTF and oilers. I don't see any amphib ships in the region, nor any moving up from the DEI.

Daito has 575 AV behind level 6 forts, and enough engineers to quickly make the damage good. If it is an invasion and I've not spotted the amphibs (near impossible, IMO), then the landing should be tricky for the Allies.

Afternoon Air attack on Daito Shoto , at 98,69

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 39 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 16 minutes

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
F4U-1D Corsair x 60
F6F-3 Hellcat x 72
F6F-5 Hellcat x 122
SB2C-3 Helldiver x 200
SB2C-4 Helldiver x 14
TBM-3 Avenger x 69

Japanese aircraft losses
B7A2 Grace: 1 destroyed on ground
E13A1b Jake: 1 destroyed on ground

Allied aircraft losses
SB2C-3 Helldiver: 7 damaged
TBM-3 Avenger: 2 damaged
TBM-3 Avenger: 1 destroyed by flak

Japanese ground losses:
29 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Airbase hits 11
Airbase supply hits 9
Runway hits 31
Port hits 9
Port fuel hits 7
Port supply hits 4

This move screams KB bait to me. The KB has moved to just outside of Tokyo Bay to avoid recon. The distance between the two forces is 22 hexes. The KB will not pursue an engagement yet - I've a few squadrons out of strength due to upgrading to the Sam, and nor do I have enough Sam's to be comfortable going up against a carrier force that can throw out a strike escorted by 200 Hellcats and 60 Corsairs.

I've CAP up over Okinawa and Ishigaki, and some shipping sitting in those bases to bait strikes. Hopefully he'll leave me alone...

China

The Japanese Indochina army crosses from Vietnam in to China and heads for Nanning, and thence to the Liuchow railhead. Chinese forces are in pursuit.

The Allies attempt airdrops at Keweilin and Kweiyang. The latter is destroyed outright by the division defending the base, while the former is held thanks to the tenacious resistance of Chinese collaborator troops and Japanese aviation and support units. Real combat units are moving in on clean-up duty.