Lambs to the slaughter (Lowpe (J) vs Jocke; BillBrown (A)) Finished

[Lowpe]

Another op in Burma puts a few 250kg bombs on worthless cargo ships...but no loss in planes for Japan.

[Lowpe]

New Britain

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

The Last of the Hollywood divisions to reform...

40 experience; 40 morale; horrible leaders; PP to buy out; huge supply cost to fill out. What could be worse?[:D]

The 1st Tank Div gets a new leader, upgrades their TOE, and will now work on filling the ranks and training.

With some units you can buy their HQ to a non-restricted before they arrive. Might be worth it both to pan ahead and since they very quickly start repairing disablements once on map, and get more expensive.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Another op in Burma puts a few 250kg bombs on worthless cargo ships...but no loss in planes for Japan.

Stop thinking like the Allied industrialists!! These are VPs! That's a solid 30-40 points in the bag. [:D][:-]

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

The Last of the Hollywood divisions to reform...

40 experience; 40 morale; horrible leaders; PP to buy out; huge supply cost to fill out. What could be worse?[:D]

The 1st Tank Div gets a new leader, upgrades their TOE, and will now work on filling the ranks and training.

With some units you can buy their HQ to a non-restricted before they arrive. Might be worth it both to pan ahead and since they very quickly start repairing disablements once on map, and get more expensive.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Another op in Burma puts a few 250kg bombs on worthless cargo ships...but no loss in planes for Japan.

Stop thinking like the Allied industrialists!! These are VPs! That's a solid 30-40 points in the bag. [:D][:-]

Or as few as 8 points in the bag.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

The Last of the Hollywood divisions to reform...

40 experience; 40 morale; horrible leaders; PP to buy out; huge supply cost to fill out. What could be worse?[:D]

The 1st Tank Div gets a new leader, upgrades their TOE, and will now work on filling the ranks and training.

With some units you can buy their HQ to a non-restricted before they arrive. Might be worth it both to pan ahead and since they very quickly start repairing disablements once on map, and get more expensive.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Another op in Burma puts a few 250kg bombs on worthless cargo ships...but no loss in planes for Japan.

Stop thinking like the Allied industrialists!! These are VPs! That's a solid 30-40 points in the bag. [:D][:-]

Or as few as 8 points in the bag.

That was my thinking...2 vp ships. Probably only sank the one with three hits. 100 Fighters over the base today!

[Lowpe]

July 7, 1943

Somewhere I screwed up in the mass tanker reassignment and I had a big 11K tanker guarded by only one destroyer and down she went with three torpedo hits.

On the plus side we put solid depth charge hits on three different subs and two in deep water. The better depth charges are making a difference.

The first few Jacks rolled off the assembly line and then promptly shut down production. In a few months we will upgrade to the next model and start making them for my eventual four squadrons for the rest of the game. I know the Allies have a healthy fear of the Jack from a previous game with Obvert.

Allies bomb the troops, no escorts, southwest of Katha and see the 2nd Guards division there moving to attack the isolated Allied divisions. Some heavy artillery arrived, and dug in with forts one, and shall start bombarding the Allied divisions. I am moving so slowly here, he probably has forts 3 and enough supply with his transports (but he lost 5 transports today...more I think when the AA arrives).

I have a big CAP trap running that will eventually bag a lot of those bombers...but it is taking patience on my part to maintain it.

3rd Frank Squadron for Burma will be upgrading in a few days.

[Lowpe]

July 8, 1943

Allies seem somewhat desirous of breaking out their isolated two divisions as they send another full Division.

Interesting situation developing as the hex of clear ground between Shwebo and Katha is potentially very troubling.

I am more interested in stalling the Allies than destroying the two divisions...since they are in good terrain, and can keep supply by air transport. I occasionally pick off a couple to LRCAP, and I am hoping when the 75mm AA shows up it will increase the air transport attrition. They are half way there.

But don't get me wrong, I am moving to destroy the units...just I know that it will be a tough fight as long as they have supply.



Allies have another 6 units marching thru the jungle to the north to arrive on the road...IJA has about 350 AV digging in there.

[Lowpe]

Yank subs continue their rampage...I have allocated several Lilly squadrons but, of course, they can't be everywhere. I haven't resized float plane squadrons, other than what Olorin did.

This feels real correct. I am perusing the turn each day checking, listing Army bombing targets (the raid on Cox's port the other day, bombing the isolated divisions today) rather than sending the vast majority of Army bombers to ASW work.

I have huge concentrations of unescorted merchant men: Fusan to Shimoneski; Hokkaido to Japan; Sakhalin to Hokkaido; PI to Manila.

One consequence is higher losses among the merchant ships, but the other is that the Allies disperse their subs and don't use them in conjunction with major warships in such huge numbers. Japan sinks a sub every now and then, and the Allies get to enjoy watching the turn and spending time on redirecting sub patrols.

To me, it adds to the suspense of the game watching that first minute of replay to see where the Allied subs surface and attack. I like it, but Japan isn't really having fun.

[Lowpe]

Turn is away; still maintaining my big CAP trap in Burma. One of these days.

Franks and Tojo IIc to sweep...in Burma of course. No Franks on island bases -- that is IJAAF sop.

Changsha attack today..maybe the base will fall, but probably not. Still working on Urumchi...very close and I am destroying Chinese squads just can't get 2-1. Some Nicks are headed up that way for a little close air support.

[Lowpe]

The Frank and Tojo Sweeps fly into a veritable buzz saw: Jugs, Lightnings and Hurricanes. 3 Hurricane Squadrons, 3 Jugs Squadrons and 1 Lightning. One squadron of Hurricanes low at 10K, the others high at 30K.

In the ensuing melee Japan loses 3-1 in fighters, well a little less. Still, that is better than a 10-1 Allied sweep.

Great fight! Great settings! So not the normal...I love it even though the IJAAF takes it on the chin.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

The Frank and Tojo Sweeps fly into a veritable buzz saw: Jugs, Lightnings and Hurricanes. 3 Hurricane Squadrons, 3 Jugs Squadrons and 1 Lightning. One squadron of Hurricanes low at 10K, the others high at 30K.

In the ensuing melee Japan loses 3-1 in fighters, well a little less. Still, that is better than a 10-1 Allied sweep.

Great fight! Great settings! So not the normal...I love it even though the IJAAF takes it on the chin.

10:1 is not my experience.

You should stop sweeping with Tojos. They are absolutely godawful at it. Stick to Franks and Georges only. The rest just aren't fast enough and get murdered by CAP. You're hemorrhaging VPs doing this. Stop it.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

The Frank and Tojo Sweeps fly into a veritable buzz saw: Jugs, Lightnings and Hurricanes. 3 Hurricane Squadrons, 3 Jugs Squadrons and 1 Lightning. One squadron of Hurricanes low at 10K, the others high at 30K.

In the ensuing melee Japan loses 3-1 in fighters, well a little less. Still, that is better than a 10-1 Allied sweep.

Great fight! Great settings! So not the normal...I love it even though the IJAAF takes it on the chin.

10:1 is not my experience.

You should stop sweeping with Tojos. They are absolutely godawful at it. Stick to Franks and Georges only. The rest just aren't fast enough and get murdered by CAP. You're hemorrhaging VPs doing this. Stop it.

Seconded. You'd be amazed at the performance you can get out of second-rate air-frames if you have plenty of them arranged at a sensible altitude. You really should only sweep when you can really stack the advantages in your favour, in terms of pilots, airframes and numbers. I'm at the point now where if I can't amass at least 150 3rd gen fighters with crack pilots, I don't sweep at all.

You may lose badly defending against sweeps, but you'll lose worse sweeping with sub par airframes and you're less likely to get pilots back as well.

[Lowpe]

June 10, 1944

Task Force Haruna goes into Munda...where she is promptly surprised by a light cruiser force....but survives that fight in good shape...getting a solid big gun hits on the Columbia and Denver but Allied aim is substantially better with many more destroyer hits.

[Lowpe]

However, the next fight with Cruisers sees the Kako picked on and eaten alive by 8 inch shells and she goes down...as Andav predicted Allied radar spots and engages. Allied fires substantially more accurate. The Cruiser San Francisco takes 3 good hits and is left on fire, but a heavy price paid with the loss of the Kako and the San Francisco not in danger of sinking.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

The Frank and Tojo Sweeps fly into a veritable buzz saw: Jugs, Lightnings and Hurricanes. 3 Hurricane Squadrons, 3 Jugs Squadrons and 1 Lightning. One squadron of Hurricanes low at 10K, the others high at 30K.

In the ensuing melee Japan loses 3-1 in fighters, well a little less. Still, that is better than a 10-1 Allied sweep.

Great fight! Great settings! So not the normal...I love it even though the IJAAF takes it on the chin.

10:1 is not my experience.

You should stop sweeping with Tojos. They are absolutely godawful at it. Stick to Franks and Georges only. The rest just aren't fast enough and get murdered by CAP. You're hemorrhaging VPs doing this. Stop it.

Seconded. You'd be amazed at the performance you can get out of second-rate air-frames if you have plenty of them arranged at a sensible altitude. You really should only sweep when you can really stack the advantages in your favour, in terms of pilots, airframes and numbers. I'm at the point now where if I can't amass at least 150 3rd gen fighters with crack pilots, I don't sweep at all.

You may lose badly defending against sweeps, but you'll lose worse sweeping with sub par airframes and you're less likely to get pilots back as well.

Allies suckered me, he put a tempting fighter presence of 30 planes the day prior, then reinforced it. I see the same thing now at Chitt only 27 fighters, but 110 at Akyab plus I know he has over 700 in the area. So he is bouncing around his squadrons.

Out of my last four sweeps I have had two work very well and two work poorly. I was hoping for a better performance from the Frank since we have an altitude restriction of 30K. In my prior game the Frank A couldn't sweep at all -- only George.

Unfortunately, I don't get any Georges till November and then only one squadron can upgrade to it.

[Lowpe]

Changsha and Chihkiang both fall to Japan. Changsha industry is 3 HI and 8 LI. It was pretty heavily destroyed before the fall.

Changsha saw over a 1000 destroyed units in the retreat across the river.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna




10:1 is not my experience.

You should stop sweeping with Tojos. They are absolutely godawful at it. Stick to Franks and Georges only. The rest just aren't fast enough and get murdered by CAP. You're hemorrhaging VPs doing this. Stop it.

Seconded. You'd be amazed at the performance you can get out of second-rate air-frames if you have plenty of them arranged at a sensible altitude. You really should only sweep when you can really stack the advantages in your favour, in terms of pilots, airframes and numbers. I'm at the point now where if I can't amass at least 150 3rd gen fighters with crack pilots, I don't sweep at all.

You may lose badly defending against sweeps, but you'll lose worse sweeping with sub par airframes and you're less likely to get pilots back as well.

Allies suckered me, he put a tempting fighter presence of 30 planes the day prior, then reinforced it. I see the same thing now at Chitt only 27 fighters, but 110 at Akyab plus I know he has over 700 in the area. So he is bouncing around his squadrons.

Out of my last four sweeps I have had two work very well and two work poorly. I was hoping for a better performance from the Frank since we have an altitude restriction of 30K. In my prior game the Frank A couldn't sweep at all -- only George.

Unfortunately, I don't get any Georges till November and then only one squadron can upgrade to it.

I still wouldn't sweep with Tojos.

Frank-a can still sweep, just not as well. Depends on what it's facing.

[Lowpe]

As far as sweepers go, I have the Frank A (2 sqdrns); Tojo IIa, IIb and IIc; Oscar IIIA, Nick A or C, A6M5 or 5b as the 5C is being prioritized onto the carriers. Oh, the Ki61a too (only two squadrons).

No Jack or George till fourth quarter (but only 1 squadron of each I remember correctly) but by then I will most likely have the Frank R and the A6M8.

[Lowpe]

July 10th, 1943

The Allies surge their cruisers in an attempt to catch my fleeing surface ships from the Munda area, but thanks to setting the task force to low threat they avoided and resumed course to Rabaul.

My ships, other than the Haruna, got chewed up fairly well and will be heading back to Truk (predictable) and all the repair ships there.

A yank sub surfaces and puts down another tanker...boy it is really challenging protecting them without Army air force squadrons. This time it was one hex out of range of the Lilly dive bombers.

I think I will change my tactics and devote all SC and E to the tanker convoys themselves and perhaps not move them from port until the ASW is up above 48. I did get a 9 plane AV to a dot base to fly some night time naval search, now I need to scrape together another float plane to fly day time search.

I forgot to take a picture of it, but the Allies move 55,000 men to the JR terrain east of Akyab and slightly northwest of Magwe. I am holding with 1.3 divisions dug in at forts level 2, some AA and one artillery but only around 20,000 troops. Come on x3 terrain.

Allies are pushing hard in Burma, so I don't think there are any plans for an Amphibious invasion in this area anytime soon.

[Lowpe]

July 11th, 1943

Allied overwhelming air power, thanks to the California invasion, is really going to tell as I count his fighter strength and just am in awe! What a challenge.

Allies reinforce Buin...the IJNAF flew out the hard fighting 1st SNLF (Maizuru) that was 100% combat ineffective back to Rabaul where they are getting some r&r (such that it is).

Sending the 144th Rgt to reinforce...but looks like it will be tough now. I might get a window to fast transport them in. Sub mines are on the way to help, but the Allies cover there bases with sweeping task forces. Maybe I can fast transport in some 8cm dp guns.