Making Gorn great again. Nobody named Steve allowed

[geofflambert]

In my slow plodding way I have given orders to KB1 and KB2. Since it allows it (maybe it's part of the special rules for these TFs) I added aircraft in reserve where I could and where I did I added and equal number of recruits so there was at least 1 pilot for each plane. I wrote down some numbers for the recruits (3 each) to Soryu-2 and Soryu-3 so we can see what happens to them over the next week or two. The Ryujo TF has been ordered to rendezvous with the Kaga and Akagi off Japan, to take on additional aircraft, especially Zeros before sallying forth to meet the enemy. If I can work it out Ryujo will send its Claudes to land. The resulting TF will be the foil against Enterprise and Lexington. Hopefully by the time Saratoga shows up part or all of KB1 will have returned to the Pacific. I'm going to try and take the DD TF* at Shimonoseki to merge with Zuiho, Hosho, Hyuga and Ise and head for the area South of Mindinao to interdict shipping from Manila trying to escape. If they can catch Houston and Boise, great.

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

In my slow plodding way I have given orders to KB1 and KB2. Since it allows it (maybe it's part of the special rules for these TFs) I added aircraft in reserve where I could and where I did I added and equal number of recruits so there was at least 1 pilot for each plane. I wrote down some numbers for the recruits (3 each) to Soryu-2 and Soryu-3 so we can see what happens to them over the next week or two. The Ryujo TF has been ordered to rendezvous with the Kaga and Akagi off Japan, to take on additional aircraft, especially Zeros before sallying forth to meet the enemy. If I can work it out Ryujo will send its Claudes to land. The resulting TF will be the foil against Enterprise and Lexington. Hopefully by the time Saratoga shows up part or all of KB1 will have returned to the Pacific. I'm going to try and take the DD TF* at Shimonoseki to merge with Zuiho, Hosho, Hyuga and Ise and head for the area South of Mindinao to interdict shipping from Manila trying to escape. If they can catch Houston and Boise, great.

Good luck catching H&B.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

In my slow plodding way I have given orders to KB1 and KB2. Since it allows it (maybe it's part of the special rules for these TFs) I added aircraft in reserve where I could and where I did I added and equal number of recruits so there was at least 1 pilot for each plane. I wrote down some numbers for the recruits (3 each) to Soryu-2 and Soryu-3 so we can see what happens to them over the next week or two. The Ryujo TF has been ordered to rendezvous with the Kaga and Akagi off Japan, to take on additional aircraft, especially Zeros before sallying forth to meet the enemy. If I can work it out Ryujo will send its Claudes to land. The resulting TF will be the foil against Enterprise and Lexington. Hopefully by the time Saratoga shows up part or all of KB1 will have returned to the Pacific. I'm going to try and take the DD TF* at Shimonoseki to merge with Zuiho, Hosho, Hyuga and Ise and head for the area South of Mindinao to interdict shipping from Manila trying to escape. If they can catch Houston and Boise, great.

Set both TFs to "coastal" routing if you want to merge these two. The BBs will probably miss the rendezvous point if you do not. I have experimented with the first turn about 25 times and have 3 different opening move variants, so I have tried a lot of different combinations. Yes... I have too much time on my hands.

[geofflambert]

How did you get through security? Nobody with too much time on their hands has joined our club before. I will take your advice on the coastal routing.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: Aurorus

Four other notes on the magic moves. Having task forces meet and merge with the DD TFs on the Home islands can be a little tricky, as they will often miss their rendezvous point. Usually both TFs have to be plotted for coastal movement, which further limits their range and utility. Second, if you plot a magic move TF with waypoints, the magic move will stop at the waypoint, and the TF will make a normal 1-phase move after the waypoint. So you can use waypoints on magic moves, but near the end of the move only. Third, the Ryujo's magic move is more limited than the others, as you have oberved. Fourth, all of the TFs at Etorofu are magic move. The one is not labeled with an asterik.

I'm getting back to work on this. I'm going to have to redo some of it because I forgot what you said about waypoints. It's going to put some at greater risk but I'll just have to accept that to do what I want.

[geofflambert]

Ran some fails but got one to work. I had TF17 move to a spot off of Leyte and changed the mission to escort. The first time I tried it I had switched out the Daves on Ise and Hyuga with Jakes. That test didn't work and I figured that the transfer had given those ships a few ops points and that was the reason the merge failed. That appears to be correct because I did it over and it was successful. I had hoped to catch Houston and Boise but failed to detect them in time. Now that I know what I'm doing I'll proceed. I think I'll have Ryujo head to a point west of Mindinao in the hopes of spotting them quickly and perhaps the Kates from both TFs will attack. That means that she will have to rendezvous with Kaga and Akagi later on.

[geofflambert]

So, I've discovered I've made some fatal errors I can't back out of because I didn't make backups along the way. I'll have to start over from scratch and begin with fleet movements as that is where the errors occurred. I'll make intermittent unique backups so I will always have a pre-goof backup to return to. Please forgive.

[Zorch]

To error is Gorn, to forgive is human. [8D]

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

So, I've discovered I've made some fatal errors I can't back out of because I didn't make backups along the way. I'll have to start over from scratch and begin with fleet movements as that is where the errors occurred. I'll make intermittent unique backups so I will always have a pre-goof backup to return to. Please forgive.

I forgot to mention about making saves along the way... lol. That is probable the most important tip. As I said, I had to work on the whole thing for quite a while, running numerous sandbox turns. The sandbox did let me test see the Pearl strike about 25 times though and try to optimize it.

[geofflambert]

Update: I have completed the fleet orders for the first turn. I did a lot of playtests to make sure what I was doing will work, but kept making mistakes. I'm reasonably confident I've worked all that out. Now I will proceed to orders for land based air, then LCUs, then undersea orders. I'll save the industry stuff and expenditure of PPs for turn two along with beginning ship conversions.

[Chickenboy]

It may not be a bad idea to inform your erstwhile opponent about your progress thus far. Updates here, while welcome, cannot be assumed to reach the ears of the person that matters most.

[geofflambert]

Progress report: Land - based air units have their orders. Something that may be unusual; I'm not a big fan of bombing airfields unless the fighter threat has been largely eliminated, especially I'm against using IJN bombers in that way. Expect lots of sweeping. Against ground targets that don't have significant flak or fighter cover, I'm ok with that but it's mostly a waste of time. I noticed some Betty units that were proficient in everything except Naval Search. Back to school for them.

Next, LCU orders.

[BillBrown]

Remember though that turn 1 will have less effective AA and lower CAP.

[geofflambert]

My playtests were too bloody. Lost lots of Nells and Bettys, I can't abide that. Once the fighters are cleared away I may go in at high altitude (15k) or just use Sally and Lily.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

My playtests were too bloody. Lost lots of Nells and Bettys, I can't abide that. Once the fighters are cleared away I may go in at high altitude (15k) or just use Sally and Lily.

I actually have found (at least in my current game) that Nells and Bettys do better at same altitude then Sallies and Lilies. I normally bomb for effect at 10k - afraid to go lower due to flak. Your losses may be do to range and not actual damage. I believe the farther a damaged plane flies the greater the chance of it being lost.

[geofflambert]

I have no disagreement in principle, my point is that IJN crews are almost infinitely less expendable than IJA crews. Their replacement pool is smaller but not miniscule. They can sink ships!!! unlike IJA crews unless you spend a whale of a time training them. Betty and Nell crews, properly trained are eligible to be Kate and Val crews flying off of carriers. Sally crews are eligible to be kamikazes. Betty, Nell, Mavis and Emily squadrons can train crews in delivering torpedoes into the sides of ships. Air superiority is another issue. I feel you must apply your Zero squadrons towards gaining it early on but that is a great expense. Oscars are similar planes but underarmed, nonetheless until Tojo arrives that has to be your main air superiority weapon, and to some extent even after the arrival of Tojos in force because of the range. You can only afford to use Zeros in that role for a short initial period. Whether it is fighters or bombers it is a really bad day when you have to stock carriers with air crews below a 70 proficiency level. In my doctrine that means using Sallys and Helens to do Naval Search where convenient (when their range is sufficient); Ann and Mary to do ASW in tight spaces. I will even use Sally and Helen to kill subs. Definitely Lily. For the Japanese, if you lose most of your carriers anything goes with the IJN bombers and fighters, you might as well use them like IJA. Planning for that ahead of time is conceding. Now to be honest, the Allied player should always win this game, but your job as the Axis player is to preserve your force-in-being and make things as difficult as possible for your opponent.

[geofflambert]

I want to say something about strategy, but more so about the way to look at the task before you. In regards to Malaya and Singapore, My intent is to invade at Malacca and cut Singapore off from the scattered units to the north. Taking Singapore ASAP is what is important to me. That will not be easy by any means, but keeping it from being reinforced by troops that are mis-deployed is essential. I don't give a flip how those troops to the north die, or how long it takes them. They will starve to death and I see no reason to sustain casualties executing them. The Thai army is capable of bottling them up on the north and the IJA will do so on the south. There is nothing other than Khota Baru in Malaya that I want or need. No oil, no nothin'. Sumatra is one hundred times more important than Malaya.

[BillBrown]

Mke sure you do not pass through the Singapore hex, you will be sorry if you do.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: BillBrown

Mke sure you do not pass through the Singapore hex, you will be sorry if you do.

What happened to your girlfriend?

[BillBrown]

She has had a wardrobe change. [8D]