Islands of Destiny: RA 5.0 Japanese Side

[AcePylut]

I’ve been thinking of the “Iwo Jima” strategy here – where in the Japanese let all the equipment land, then opened fire. Any HR’s on night bombing? Maybe let everything get “in” the base, then send everything you have – and I mean everything – on a massive night bombing attack at low level? If that is enough to shut down the airfield, you’d effectively ground every bomber he has at that base with no ability to “rail them to another base”. At the least – you force him to detail some fighter squadrons to night-cap (before his dedicated night fighter planes show up). Then you can switch to daylight to work over the base with bombers and massive amounts of fighters that would face a moderately reduced cap reduced enough that your fighters “win” the battles, which might lead to enough attrition of the CV fighter squadrons enough to cause him to pull back lest he lose his carriers when the combined might of the KB shows up. A massive night attack needs to be a surprise – if you have to wait a turn or two before to get 3-4-5 more bomber squadrons in place, then wait.

Of course, not sure of any changes in night bombing that might have occurred - maybe it's a waste of time.

[John 3rd]

April 13, 1944

I am going to try the night bombing trick at Legaspi. There are like 200+ ships disbanded in a NOTHING port.

There are 18 units in Naga. Look at this screenshot for the Legaspi hex:

[Lecivius]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Lec: Isn't college simply a leap of faith at that point?

College kids are out of your zone of control. They still spend your money, consume resources (mine eats $200 a weekend in groceries [X(]), but are now 'independent' even though they don't know how to balance a checkbook, or call you all proud because they just paid the tuition bill (with money you gave them) so you "don't have to worry about that". All looking for 'new friends'. Booze is easy to get, even if they don't drink (with even more choices in Colorado to 'relax'). And ALL dorms are co-ed, with freshmen/sophomore girls are literally staked out by the Junior class.

It's a leap of faith, yeah...



Off a cliff [:D]

[Jellicoe]

An atheist nunnery seems to be the safest option

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

April 13, 1944
There are 18 units in Naga. Look at this screenshot for the Legaspi hex:

18 units at Naga and 53 (129,500 men) at Legaspi? Ugh. Just ugh. [X(]

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Lecivius
mine eats $200 a weekend in groceries [X(]

Ummm...dad? Did you have some sort of understanding about what, exactly, "groceries" consists of? You were pretty clear that the term didn't apply to any and all available 'herbacious' products, right? [;)] Seriously, how else is a college student going to go through $200 a weekend?

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Lecivius
don't know how to balance a checkbook

I didn't know how to balance a checkbook until I was in the first year of my residency after graduate school. My (then fiance) got tired of me bouncing checks-to HER-and showed me how. At gunpoint. [:D]

[Lecivius]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: Lecivius
mine eats $200 a weekend in groceries [X(]

Ummm...dad? Did you have some sort of understanding about what, exactly, "groceries" consists of? You were pretty clear that the term didn't apply to any and all available 'herbacious' products, right? [;)] Seriously, how else is a college student going to go through $200 a weekend?

My son's neck is so red you would swear it's sun burnt [:D] He doesn't touch anything other than Coors (don't look at me, that's on him). And don't ever get between a teenager and a stocked fridge [:-] [X(][:D] You'd swear it was a bass boil [;)]

[AcePylut]

If you hit the airfield first – you destroy lots of enemy planes and keep his planes from bombing your troops (all the US 4E bombers in the world are absolutely worthless, if they can’t take off of the airfield) – and open up the possibility of more accurate daytime strikes against shipping through reduced cap capabilities (both from fighters that will be detailed for night fighting, and fighters that don’t take off due to a/f damage). Take out the airfield and it might have the effect of “poking a flaming stick into an anthill” by getting his ships to flee the port for safer waters where they can (possibly) be sunk for certain by your subs (and other means). I think his planes are a bigger threat than his ships in port. Any ship that isn’t outright sunk, in port, will be repaired – if you don’t sink them outright on a night bombing attack, you probably won’t sink them in the future. The planes, and the loss of US offensive air power short term, and the possibility of keeping that af shutdown for a while, imho, is a better choice. Plus – and I don’t know – but I think it would be more accurate to strike a non-moving target like an airfield, than a relatively “small” target like a boat, by air at night.

But that depends on how many planes he has at the airfield. If he doesn’t have any planes of note, it might be good to “wait” – use the time to get more bombers into the region, and strike at *just* the right time. It’ll be tricky to do that, but that’s the beauty of this game.

[John 3rd]

I am thinking about a coordinated, massed night strike against several targets: Legaspi, Sorong, and Boela. He has at least 100 ships disbanded in each Port and LOS of planes...

The thinking is to strike with 4-5 IJA/IJN bomber units at each target to spread the carnage as well as make it so he cannot concentrate against any ONE area.

[pws1225]

If it were me, I won't disperse my forces. I would hit whatever port I thought was his main base with everything I could throw at it. You won't get a second chance to achieve surprise so make the first attempt a doozy!

I would also recommend hitting him from low altitude (< 5,000 feet). I have had good luck with my 2Es on port strikes at 3,000 feet. I take plenty of flack losses, but if the targets are juicy enough, it is worth it. And you can really trash the place if you have as many 2E groups as your prior post implies. Hopefully you can catch tons of APAs, AKAs, LSTs, etc like fish in a barrel.

Good hunting! [8D]

[Itdepends]

What's the current moonlight level? Less tham 70% and I wouldn't bother with night bombing. Is it on the way up our down?

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: Itdepends

What's the current moonlight level? Less tham 70% and I wouldn't bother with night bombing. Is it on the way up our down?

I shall look and see where our moonlight is.

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: pws1225

If it were me, I won't disperse my forces. I would hit whatever port I thought was his main base with everything I could throw at it. You won't get a second chance to achieve surprise so make the first attempt a doozy!

I would also recommend hitting him from low altitude (< 5,000 feet). I have had good luck with my 2Es on port strikes at 3,000 feet. I take plenty of flack losses, but if the targets are juicy enough, it is worth it. And you can really trash the place if you have as many 2E groups as your prior post implies. Hopefully you can catch tons of APAs, AKAs, LSTs, etc like fish in a barrel.

Good hunting! [8D]

This makes sense. Additionally, I can always move the groups around and strike periodically just to drive him NUTS!

Bet he has about a 1,000,000,000+ flak guns there but I really like the idea of the hit. I usually set for 3,000 Ft as well. RARELY night bomb but perhaps it is time.

Sorong could be a better AF target to strike. He has over 400 aircraft there.

Gonna go around the map and see what I can see...

[cwemyss]

Didn't you guys have an HR about night port bombing, or am I thinking if another AAAR?

[AcePylut]

Verse 14-15: We can form a single united body, while the enemy must split up into fractions. Hence there will be a whole pitted against separate parts of a whole, which means that we shall be many to the enemy's few. And if we are able thus to attack an inferior force with a superior one, our opponents will be in dire straits.

Verse 16: The spot where we intend to fight must not be made known; for then the enemy will have to prepare against a possible attack at several different points; and his forces being thus distributed in many directions, the numbers we shall have to face at any given point will be proportionately few

Verse 19: “Knowing the place and the time of the coming battle, we may concentrate from the greatest distances in order to fight

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: cwemyss

Didn't you guys have an HR about night port bombing, or am I thinking if another AAAR?

Uggggg...I do not recall. You somehow trigger a thought from the past. Crap. Need to do some remembering. Not easy since we go back five years of time. I cannot just ask him...

[AcePylut]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Just sent these proposed HR to CR:


RA 5.0
House Rules

1. 1st turn can have multiple port attacks, but ONLY from carriers. Manila and Singapore may have Fighters up and on CAP. Allies cannot transfer new Squadrons reflecting prior knowledge.

2. PPs to move out of national borders (Japan - Manchuria, Thai) and (Allies - India, China)

3. No strategic bombing (Oil, Resources, HI, LI, etc.) on EITHER side until January 1, 1944.

4. Non-historic 1st turn, normal reinforcements, PDUs ON, orders for TF formed already OK, no transfers

5. Aircraft Limitations (reflecting the Mod):
-No A6M3 on CVEs
-No A6M4 on any form of Carrier
-A7M Sam and B7A-D Grace cannot be operated from CVEs

6. Four-Engine Bombers:
a. 4E bombers restricted to 10k or higher for naval and ground attacks (does not include PBY/Mavis type patrol craft)
b. 4E bombers CANNOT bomb troops



We'll see what he says. Dan wanted them lean, mean, and simple.

YES: I will hit both PH and Manila on Turn One. Manila gets CarDiv1 while PH is slammed by CarDiv 2 and 5. As quickly as possible Mini-KB (Ryuho, Shoho, and Zuiho) will split to add a 3rd CV to each of the Heavy CV Carrier Divisions (2 CV and 1 CVL).

[:)]

[Bif1961]

Night bomb with everything you have at the port most likely to have BBs or Carriers in it. These are the vessels that will cause you the most damaged in the future and therefore worthy targets for that type of effort.

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Night bomb with everything you have at the port most likely to have BBs or Carriers in it. These are the vessels that will cause you the most damaged in the future and therefore worthy targets for that type of effort.

Legaspi it is then...