Moderators: wdolson, MOD_War-in-the-Pacific-Admirals-Edition
ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
Something funny happened on September 26.
What gives with this sort of thing? He swept into enormous CAP for me, and it was detected 35 minutes out. I had CAP at all altitudes (high, medium, low, and in between). He was vastly outnumbered. And yet the combat lasted about 3 attacks and then showed the message for the sweeping - with all 3 of his coordinated units. Intercept time for my units was not that long (the USN planes here are actually on CVs in the hex, set to range 0 - like all of the rest of the CAP).
This was disappointing.
ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
I'm so far behind... we just hit December 1, 1944. I have the turn and will do it tonight, however I have a question for any readers...
On January 1, USN CVs get a 4th group (Corsairs) and lose a fair number of strike craft. I want to say that the resulting configuration (without changing any upgrades) is 36 Hellcats, 36 Corsairs, and then 15 each of DBs/TBs. Given that the only large carrier I've sunk is Shokaku, I feel this leaves me extremely light on strike craft. Has anyone else been in this position? What did you do?
My initial thoughts are to disallow the DB and TB resizes, and then get creative with some unit splitting (running 36 Hellcat, 12 Corsair, 32 DB, 18 TB for example). This puts me really close to the flight ops limit, however (98 out of 103 maximum). I don't know that I'll ever be operating out of flight range of a friendly airfield from here on out, so that might not be a huge deal. Mostly I'm concerned with having enough counterpunch to actually sink some CVs the next time there's a possibility of a clash (should be relatively soon - early 1945 I'm thinking).
I suppose the other thing I could do is allow all of the units to arrive and do their resizes, which I think might be the final resizes, and then do some manual resizing for a more customized layout (36 Hellcat, 20 Corsair, 24 DB, 18 TB for example).
Whatever I do, I'd prefer to have only 1 or 2 setups for all CVs (save Wasp). So either 1 setup that's the same across all CVs, or 2 setups where I run roughly half and half.
ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
Speeding right along...
October 19, 1944
Corral
In my previous post mentioning Jolo, I forgot that I'd taken it via SST as it was undefended. Japan recaptured it, but that won't last. We'll get it back soon. Otherwise, this short operation is almost concluded. The objective is accomplished - the entire north coast of Borneo is denied to Japan as a base of operations. Just waiting on troop movements and attacks to kill off some IJA.
Gibbet
The march is stalled, somewhat as expected. We'll send the 5th Indian, one of the bigger divisions, down to Djambi. It'll take a while to get there, but I suspect we won't encounter much resistance along the way. We'll also start flipping some hex sides and try to force him to move that way.
Hangman
Pockets of IJA remain around Cam Ranh Bay, and he retook the coastline of Indochina as units marched north towards Vinh. Not much I could do about it, but not all that much made it out - except for a large stack of artillery, which could vex me later. Otherwise, we are prepping to evict him from Vinh when the forces are right. Still 2 IJA divisions outside Tavoy, but they'll be wiped out soon enough.
Timor
We're shuttling more troops to Lautem, and eventually we'll capture it. The IJA is out of supplies, so far as I can tell. Using proper amphibs cuts down on losses on the beach. Once I get enough support in the hex, I will attack.
Ambon is captured, and we begin work on dot bases between Ambon and Manado.
Other stuff
In general, Singapore is a hotbed of activity - both logistics and hostile. Occasionally, Frank-r's try a sweep. I assume this is to attrit my pools, but we'll be alright. Our pilots are getting better. Praboem and PBang are major IJ airbases, and I haven't wanted to lose a bunch of planes shutting them down yet. We will do so eventually, though. I do send DDs and sometimes cruisers to bombard Palembang, but mines are an issue. There are sometimes new minefields there or in the hex just outside of it. DMS will need to be added.
I'm also getting lots of SIGINT hits on units moving around. I will try to post about that later. There are implications for future targets.
Oh yeah, we also took Ponape on October 10 and the Marshalls will be entirely in Allied hands soon - opening up easier SLOC to Sorong/Hollandia.
CV Wasp completes repairs at Gove on October 13 [:)].
We'll also start flipping some hex sides and try to force him to move that way.
ORIGINAL: obvert
ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
Something funny happened on September 26.
What gives with this sort of thing? He swept into enormous CAP for me, and it was detected 35 minutes out. I had CAP at all altitudes (high, medium, low, and in between). He was vastly outnumbered. And yet the combat lasted about 3 attacks and then showed the message for the sweeping - with all 3 of his coordinated units. Intercept time for my units was not that long (the USN planes here are actually on CVs in the hex, set to range 0 - like all of the rest of the CAP).
This was disappointing.
Coordinated sweeps are not reliable in terms of generating lasting combat with CAP. No idea why. This has happened repeatedly throughout my games. I've noticed the very same units going at the same targets another turn do much better if not coordinated and get many more kills. However, the coordinated sweeps generally do have a positive result, just very small numbers of kills achieved, but they do seem to add to the preservation of the sweepers too.
ORIGINAL: obvert
ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
I'm so far behind... we just hit December 1, 1944. I have the turn and will do it tonight, however I have a question for any readers...
On January 1, USN CVs get a 4th group (Corsairs) and lose a fair number of strike craft. I want to say that the resulting configuration (without changing any upgrades) is 36 Hellcats, 36 Corsairs, and then 15 each of DBs/TBs. Given that the only large carrier I've sunk is Shokaku, I feel this leaves me extremely light on strike craft. Has anyone else been in this position? What did you do?
My initial thoughts are to disallow the DB and TB resizes, and then get creative with some unit splitting (running 36 Hellcat, 12 Corsair, 32 DB, 18 TB for example). This puts me really close to the flight ops limit, however (98 out of 103 maximum). I don't know that I'll ever be operating out of flight range of a friendly airfield from here on out, so that might not be a huge deal. Mostly I'm concerned with having enough counterpunch to actually sink some CVs the next time there's a possibility of a clash (should be relatively soon - early 1945 I'm thinking).
I suppose the other thing I could do is allow all of the units to arrive and do their resizes, which I think might be the final resizes, and then do some manual resizing for a more customized layout (36 Hellcat, 20 Corsair, 24 DB, 18 TB for example).
Whatever I do, I'd prefer to have only 1 or 2 setups for all CVs (save Wasp). So either 1 setup that's the same across all CVs, or 2 setups where I run roughly half and half.
I like option 2 to make sure you get more Corsairs on board. They are the most effective against late war IJN planes.
ORIGINAL: dave sindel
ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
Speeding right along...
October 19, 1944
Corral
In my previous post mentioning Jolo, I forgot that I'd taken it via SST as it was undefended. Japan recaptured it, but that won't last. We'll get it back soon. Otherwise, this short operation is almost concluded. The objective is accomplished - the entire north coast of Borneo is denied to Japan as a base of operations. Just waiting on troop movements and attacks to kill off some IJA.
Gibbet
The march is stalled, somewhat as expected. We'll send the 5th Indian, one of the bigger divisions, down to Djambi. It'll take a while to get there, but I suspect we won't encounter much resistance along the way. We'll also start flipping some hex sides and try to force him to move that way.
Hangman
Pockets of IJA remain around Cam Ranh Bay, and he retook the coastline of Indochina as units marched north towards Vinh. Not much I could do about it, but not all that much made it out - except for a large stack of artillery, which could vex me later. Otherwise, we are prepping to evict him from Vinh when the forces are right. Still 2 IJA divisions outside Tavoy, but they'll be wiped out soon enough.
Timor
We're shuttling more troops to Lautem, and eventually we'll capture it. The IJA is out of supplies, so far as I can tell. Using proper amphibs cuts down on losses on the beach. Once I get enough support in the hex, I will attack.
Ambon is captured, and we begin work on dot bases between Ambon and Manado.
Other stuff
In general, Singapore is a hotbed of activity - both logistics and hostile. Occasionally, Frank-r's try a sweep. I assume this is to attrit my pools, but we'll be alright. Our pilots are getting better. Praboem and PBang are major IJ airbases, and I haven't wanted to lose a bunch of planes shutting them down yet. We will do so eventually, though. I do send DDs and sometimes cruisers to bombard Palembang, but mines are an issue. There are sometimes new minefields there or in the hex just outside of it. DMS will need to be added.
I'm also getting lots of SIGINT hits on units moving around. I will try to post about that later. There are implications for future targets.
Oh yeah, we also took Ponape on October 10 and the Marshalls will be entirely in Allied hands soon - opening up easier SLOC to Sorong/Hollandia.
CV Wasp completes repairs at Gove on October 13 [:)].
We'll also start flipping some hex sides and try to force him to move that way.
Loka - you mentioned hex sides a couple of times in your recent updates. Can you explain to a newbie how / why you focus on doing so ? I'm really struggling with land combat in this game.
ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
ORIGINAL: dave sindel
ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
Speeding right along...
October 19, 1944
Corral
In my previous post mentioning Jolo, I forgot that I'd taken it via SST as it was undefended. Japan recaptured it, but that won't last. We'll get it back soon. Otherwise, this short operation is almost concluded. The objective is accomplished - the entire north coast of Borneo is denied to Japan as a base of operations. Just waiting on troop movements and attacks to kill off some IJA.
Gibbet
The march is stalled, somewhat as expected. We'll send the 5th Indian, one of the bigger divisions, down to Djambi. It'll take a while to get there, but I suspect we won't encounter much resistance along the way. We'll also start flipping some hex sides and try to force him to move that way.
Hangman
Pockets of IJA remain around Cam Ranh Bay, and he retook the coastline of Indochina as units marched north towards Vinh. Not much I could do about it, but not all that much made it out - except for a large stack of artillery, which could vex me later. Otherwise, we are prepping to evict him from Vinh when the forces are right. Still 2 IJA divisions outside Tavoy, but they'll be wiped out soon enough.
Timor
We're shuttling more troops to Lautem, and eventually we'll capture it. The IJA is out of supplies, so far as I can tell. Using proper amphibs cuts down on losses on the beach. Once I get enough support in the hex, I will attack.
Ambon is captured, and we begin work on dot bases between Ambon and Manado.
Other stuff
In general, Singapore is a hotbed of activity - both logistics and hostile. Occasionally, Frank-r's try a sweep. I assume this is to attrit my pools, but we'll be alright. Our pilots are getting better. Praboem and PBang are major IJ airbases, and I haven't wanted to lose a bunch of planes shutting them down yet. We will do so eventually, though. I do send DDs and sometimes cruisers to bombard Palembang, but mines are an issue. There are sometimes new minefields there or in the hex just outside of it. DMS will need to be added.
I'm also getting lots of SIGINT hits on units moving around. I will try to post about that later. There are implications for future targets.
Oh yeah, we also took Ponape on October 10 and the Marshalls will be entirely in Allied hands soon - opening up easier SLOC to Sorong/Hollandia.
CV Wasp completes repairs at Gove on October 13 [:)].
We'll also start flipping some hex sides and try to force him to move that way.
Loka - you mentioned hex sides a couple of times in your recent updates. Can you explain to a newbie how / why you focus on doing so ? I'm really struggling with land combat in this game.
Hex sides are important for LCU movement, which is of course integral to any offensive as the whole point is to move forward. It's basically about flanking. In-game, you should press 'W' to bring them up, which is what I've done for the screenshot here. It can also clue you in on nearby enemy units that you don't actually see by giving away that your opponent controls a "wilderness" hex right next to your units.
The hexes I'm talking about in this case are the two that are just north of Padang. You can see that I marched into them from the NW and the NE respectively. When I get to reporting on the point in the game where I'm marching by, I will try to highlight what happened. I need to remember when that occurred in the game, though... sometime in December. In the screenshot above, though, you can see my initial moves.
Since I got stalled by 2 roughly equally sized stacks, against which neither of my two stacks of units could win on their own, my first order of business was opening the road between the two hexes. That's why I have units marching due east from that next just north of the contested NW hex, as well as SW from the hex west of Bengkalis. The Australian (dark green/teal) unit is combat engineers heading for that dot base.
After I have that road open, with the NE and NW hexsides flipped from red (Japan) to green (Allies) so that I can more easily move units between if I want to. The reasoning behind this is that even if I'm unable to dislodge him in an attack, it may "force" him into moving units around, which is good for me. He could make a mistake, and at the very least the units that begin movement will lose any and all of their field fortifications.
Hex sides also control supply flow. In the screenshot above, no supplies can flow directly from Sawahloento (that dot base I control) to my NW contested hex through the intervening road hex, because my opponent currently controls the hex side in question.
Does that make sense? I can draw up a more detailed screenshot if necessary.
ORIGINAL: dave sindel
Yes, what you've written makes sense - but leads to a couple of follow-up questions.
a) you can't move to open the road hexsides between the "original" two hexes because of the presence of IJA forces in those hexes, and in effect your forces are pinned? Is my understanding of that correct?
b) Couldnt supply flow from the dot base 1 hex NW, then 1 hex W, then 1 hex SW ? Or does the road not being present on that complete route eliminate that routing?
Thank you for taking the time to write the above explanation.
+1ORIGINAL: obvert
I like option 2 to make sure you get more Corsairs on board. They are the most effective against late war IJN planes.
ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
Wasp is running something different, but I can't remember what. The Brit CVs with my fleet are also running mostly or entirely fighters, so I'm really tilted towards CAP even among my fighter strength.
