The Gorn Supremacy; stock AW1Steve v. geofflambert

[MakeeLearn]

Those are mishomers.

This Homer....

[Zorch]

Doh!

[geofflambert]

I better get a move on, I just heard that another race has begun an invasion of Vulcan.

I guess we could subtitle this AAR as:

Keeping up with the

[BBfanboy]

[:D]

Those guys look more likeable that the TV ones!

[geofflambert]

Taking a little break before supper. I'm starting out by working on my submarines patrol zones. I'm not going to talk about anything necessarily applicable on 12/7 as the situation is unique and I don't want to give Steve any warnings. I'm starting with subs since I haven't actually played in two years and I need to shake the rust off. Just in general, and just from an IJN perspective:
a) I have kept a log of all enemy ship sightings from previous games, from the air, from the sea and radio intercepts. If you're new to this you won't have such a log but I suggest you start one. In the log I report the date, the position, any info on the classes of ships and quantities of each (if known), their heading (if known), and any believed results if an attack occurred (torpedo hits, sinkings etc.).
b) Whenever your subs make a port of call, make sure the captain isn't a piece of crap and replace him if he is. If the sub is capable of operating float planes, fill out the complement of air crew. They will likely only have one pilot attached and he'll be doing search at 25%. You can have crews of three, so do it. Add recruits and increase the search percentage to 35 to 50% and they'll receive on-the-job training for Naval Search which is a very important skill and they will be able to transfer later to other training programs.

I'm out of time. Lots more on sub operations, I'll begin with c) next time I take a break from actually doing my turn.

edit: an addendum to my last point. Set training for the squadron at 20%. If you put search/train at 50/20% check back once in a while and look at fatigue. If there's too much, cut back a little on search. I think 20% train is a sustainable amount and very beneficial.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Taking a little break before supper. I'm starting out by working on my submarines patrol zones. I'm not going to talk about anything necessarily applicable on 12/7 as the situation is unique and I don't want to give Steve any warnings. I'm starting with subs since I haven't actually played in two years and I need to shake the rust off. Just in general, and just from an IJN perspective:
a) I have kept a log of all enemy ship sightings from previous games, from the air, from the sea and radio intercepts. If you're new to this you won't have such a log but I suggest you start one. In the log I report the date, the position, any info on the classes of ships and quantities of each (if known), their heading (if known), and any believed results if an attack occurred (torpedo hits, sinkings etc.).
b) Whenever your subs make a port of call, make sure the captain isn't a piece of crap and replace him if he is. If the sub is capable of operating float planes, fill out the complement of air crew. They will likely only have one pilot attached and he'll be doing search at 25%. You can have crews of three, so do it. Add recruits and increase the search percentage to 35 to 50% and they'll receive on-the-job training for Naval Search which is a very important skill and they will be able to transfer later to other training programs.

I'm out of time. Lots more on sub operations, I'll begin with c) next time I take a break from actually doing my turn.

edit: an addendum to my last point. Set training for the squadron at 20%. If you put search/train at 50/20% check back once in a while and look at fatigue. If there's too much, cut back a little on search. I think 20% train is a sustainable amount and very beneficial.

2nd edit: When I say add recruits, I mean only recruits. Trained crew in the IJN is a very scarce commodity and you can't afford to have them taking a sea cruise on a submarine.

[geofflambert]

c) Patrol zones. In the case of subs with float planes I like to define their patrol zones as triangles as depicted in the illustration below. These can point up, point down, NE NW SE SW. I usually crosshatch them up and down. The triangle in the illustration is pointing up. Also, if I have two such subs in the same area, I shun having their zones overlap, but perhaps parallel. In that case one triangle will be pointed up and the other down. Also if one is following a clockwise pattern the other should be following a counterclockwise pattern (in my opinion). I usually have the sub tarry in a hex for one day. If you don't do that the sub will use up its fuel too quickly. I would understand if some would make the tarry two days. This sort of brings up the subject of wolf packs and faux wolf packs. I never merge two or more subs in the same TF. I've never seen any evidence that that is efficient. Also I don't like having sub's patrol zones overlap, for pretty much the same reason. For me, patrol zones for subs not having float planes are triangular but usually smaller ones than illustrated below. Zones for subs with float planes need to be well clear of enemy airbases or you will lose your float plane in short order to CAP. It's really frustrating when you have one of these super long range subs and it is sans floatplane. You will be tempted to send it home to get a replacement. Don't do that to yourself (I'm channeling TRIVAGO ads), stay away from those enemy airbases. To a lesser extent this is true for subs not carrying floatplanes (stay clear of enemy airbases). Near an enemy airbase means the odds of losing your boat go up a lot. In the case of areas near important ports etc. in the home islands, I can and do make it prohibitively expensive for Allied subs to operate, using a combination of heavy air ASW with a moderate amount of surface ASW. Your opponent will do the same to you. The patrol zone illustration:





The Glen's search radii will cover a very large area in this example.

[geofflambert]

Babe.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

c) Patrol zones. In the case of subs with float planes I like to define their patrol zones as triangles as depicted in the illustration below. These can point up, point down, NE NW SE SW. I usually crosshatch them up and down. The triangle in the illustration is pointing up.

I just realized, if your triangle points "up" from your point of view, it also points SE and SW if you pick a different corner as the "point", and the reverse if your triangle points "down". Don't make this more difficult than it needs to be.

[geofflambert]

d) Having a replenishment port near your sub patrol zones is helpful, but only so much. Subs typically need extensive repairs once they run low on fuel or out of torpedoes. A port that can handle that efficiently which is also beyond easy reach of the enemy is most desirable. In the end most of my subs return to the home islands between deployments. You could try intermediate zones, namely, initially send the sub into a deep zone and once some combination of low fuel, damage and/or low torpedoes is present, have a secondary zone nearer to home to operate for a time.

[bradfordkay]

Is that just an example of how to set up a triangular patrol pattern, or do you actually create ones with legs so short?

I find that I like to have my subs run fairly lengthy legs on their patrol zones as this helps reduce their detection level and gives them a better chance to press home their attacks. By doing this I have had pretty good luck in the sub war - even as the allies in 1942!

[geofflambert]

I'm not suggesting zones for the allied player, I'm not in that mindset for some time. Finding the Japanese shipping lanes is not very difficult, there are so many choke points. I was talking about set ups for the Allied routes to and from Hawaii and from the West Coast to Australia and New Zealand, where there are practically no chokepoints. I already stated it is a bad idea to operate for long within your enemies air ASW radius. Length of the legs under those circumstances will thwart surface ASW a bit, but not enough. Find the enemy where his air and surface patrols are not, so you only face the escorts. Given that, if your legs are too long, the data resulting will not be consistent enough to discover the lanes he's using. You need repetition for that and ranging far and wide will give you little data of value. Anecdotes. "I once saw a ship (I think), at such and such a place, I think it was a freighter, or maybe a tanker. Could have been a flattop. I have a pretty good idea where the lanes will be without the log. The log helps me narrow the target zone. The Pacific is vast, your patrol zones should not be.

edit: Also talking about the legs being "so short", I was keying on the IJN subs with float planes. If you have one such triangle your search radius will be 11 hexes. If you have two parallel zones the radius will be at a minimum 14 hexes. How "so short" is that?

2nd edit: substitute "diameter" for "radius".

[geofflambert]

The proper use of the subs w/search planes is to establish where the shipping lanes are. If those subs get an opportunity to fire torpedoes at an enemy ship, great. The thing is, for the IJN, most of your subs are blind as moles and need to be placed in such a way they will have good odds of blundering into an enemy target. For the Allied player, there just isn't any regular enemy shipping anywhere in the Pacific. The Indian Ocean and the environs of the DEI and the Philippines is a different matter, and a much simpler one. Again, all the time your subs spend moving around to evade enemy surface ASW is time they are not hunting for targets. Stay out of the overlapping enemy zones of surface and air ASW and you will lose fewer boats and preserve more opportunities for your boats to attack vulnerable targets. Furthermore, the advice I give in that regard to minimize your losses of sub-based float planes applies equally to Naval Search arcs and Recon activities. If you operate in those zones you will lose a lot of aircraft and crews you spent a lot of effort training. This is particularly important when operating CV TFs near enemy bases as well as their escorts with search planes and their BB/CA/CL screening TFs and their searchplanes. If you operate without concern for these issues, your TFs may very well return to port largely or entirely denuded of float planes.

[geofflambert]

Words of wisdom, albeit coming from a gorn. Do not parade around in the enemy's kitchen. You will pay a higher price than him.

[rustysi]

Show clouds is on but I don't see any anywhere.

Does't matter you have advanced weather effects turned off. Always partly cloudy in your game. I know some don't like the weather effects, but the alternative is too predictable. Wouldn't play that way.

As I recall, someone suggested doubling device production, armaments and vehicles, then forget about it. Worked fine for me before. I also tend to ratchet up LI a little bit in high resource areas like Manchukuo and Sakhalin.

I don't touch armaments production. Seems to me to be fine as you won't need a lot at the start. I can easily get the pool to ~150k by late spring '42. I then turn much of it off for a while (~6 months) to help build HI. Then its back on for the onslaught of units which arrive in mid/late '43. As for vehicle production x2 sounds good. It starts at 135 and I usually go to 200, but I've heard others say that might be too low. Just remember to turn all armor upgrades off and you may want to turn off replacements to HQ's as they tend not to have all their motorized support squad TO&E, especially when received as reinforcements. Replacing trucks can get very expensive for Japan. Add to that when you want to move an HQ you need cargo space and time to load all those vehicles.

As far as LI, I agree with what you've said. I would add at least Formosa, and maybe a little in Korea as well. In my game Formosa now exports supply, and its only mid-March '42. Keep in mind there are those here who are diametrically opposed to to any such increases.

Just so you know I'm only playing against the AI, so could be different in your PBEM.

[rustysi]

Something else I'll add here is a suggestion to set your mines to 'stockpile'. Otherwise you'll end up loading them on those big minelayers, some of which start empty. Unless of course this is what you wish to do. Personally I like to put my mines where I want them and its not in the pools. Unfortunately its too easy to inadvertently load them onto an empty minelayer which is not in position to place mines where I would like. With the limited supply now offered to the player I think that the 'stockpile' option helps. I can then create my minelaying TF's when and where I wish and place said mines.

Hope this helps shake off some of your 'rust' (Japan in scen1), or just gives you something to think about.[:)]

[Zorch]

You should read Mike Solli's AAR. Highly recommended! tm.asp?m=2959613

[geofflambert]

Who told you gorns could read? Don't trust them from here on out.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Show clouds is on but I don't see any anywhere.

Does't matter you have advanced weather effects turned off. Always partly cloudy in your game. I know some don't like the weather effects, but the alternative is too predictable. Wouldn't play that way.

Advanced weather is off per agreement with my opponent. Every carrier battle I've won was due in part to weather. So I guess I'm effed. If not for that I would always win playing the Japanese. Because I'm brilliant.

[geofflambert]

I know when I have an AAR I'm supposed to entertain, even if I'm still futzing around with my turn. How's this?