Tale of the Sheep! - JocMeister (A) vs. Lowpe (J)

[JocMeister]

Looking at the turn things are a bit of a mess. Several TFs reset their orders, invented a new homeport (Brisbane in this case) and set sail for it. [8|]

Not to happy that bug hasn´t been fixed yet. This will set me back 2 days as the amphibs and one of the the CV TFs was among them....

More "fun" as CL Boise apparently decided to form a new TF (9 SYS damage) with 2 healthy Fletchers and set sail for Buin for no apparent reason whatsoever.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]26th October -43[/font]
_____________________________________________________________________________

A busy day in the air. No naval action to speak of as I have to recall all the TFs from their renegade run towards Brisbane. Our P38s based at PM strike out towards Manus which is the last Japanese air base in the area. P38s shreds the CAP of mostly Zeroes and Japanese losses are horrendous.

The big question goes unanswered: Will Jeff commit KB? I don´t think he will. Not under allied LBA. Tomorrow will be pretty quiet as the Fleets merge and gets ready for the big push.

--------------------------
Burma
--------------------------
P40Ks sweep a heavy Frank cap and actually does pretty good and come out about 1-1. Bombers hit Japanese troops in the open causing almost 1k casualties.

Amazingly Jeff still havn´t given up on trying to kill off the 2 allied divisions. They are now in full supply and have level 1 forts. Allied troops are 6 days from cutting those troops off and turning the table.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Looking at the turn things are a bit of a mess. Several TFs reset their orders, invented a new homeport (Brisbane in this case) and set sail for it. [8|]

Not to happy that bug hasn´t been fixed yet. This will set me back 2 days as the amphibs and one of the the CV TFs was among them....

More "fun" as CL Boise apparently decided to form a new TF (9 SYS damage) with 2 healthy Fletchers and set sail for Buin for no apparent reason whatsoever.

As far as I know that is not a bug. TFs with damaged ships (or maybe even low fuel??) will change home port and head there. They also sometimes keep their home port but change destination to a nearby port.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: witpqs
As far as I know that is not a bug. TFs with damaged ships (or maybe even low fuel??) will change home port and head there. They also sometimes keep their home port but change destination to a nearby port.

If its not a bug its not working as its supposed to be.

CV TFs Homeport was PM. They had just refueled from AOs (so fuel was 95% or so). No damage. Instead of moving to their destination they changed home port to Brisbane and started moving there.

Amphibs had Buin for homeport. Fully fueled. No damage. Also changed homeport to Brinbane and started moving there.

Boise just broke lose (9 SYS damage) from the rest of the CLs, created a new TF with 2 DDs and went home to Munda (homeport of the original TF) for no apparent reason.

Got a lot of this in my game with Erik. In that game my TFs just loved to reset their homeport to Eniwetok and move there for no reason whatsoever.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

[font="Verdana"]Rabaul[/font]
_____________________________________________________________________________

With Darwin secured and everything back in order its now to take on Rabaul in earnest. Fleet move in backed up by the airforce. Weather isn´t the best and this probably saves 2 BBs for Jeff.

First a naval battle of Rabaul itself as an allied screening force run into the main Japanese battle group. Results are very good.

That is crushing from you CLs. Nice. [:)]

Interesting he went big at this stage.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: witpqs
As far as I know that is not a bug. TFs with damaged ships (or maybe even low fuel??) will change home port and head there. They also sometimes keep their home port but change destination to a nearby port.

Got a lot of this in my game with Erik. In that game my TFs just loved to reset their homeport to Eniwetok and move there for no reason whatsoever.

It was the nightly movies. Lets see, should we go beat up the IJN ... or just go back to the officers club and watch Lana Turner and Rita Hayworth? [;)]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: witpqs
As far as I know that is not a bug. TFs with damaged ships (or maybe even low fuel??) will change home port and head there. They also sometimes keep their home port but change destination to a nearby port.

If its not a bug its not working as its supposed to be.

CV TFs Homeport was PM. They had just refueled from AOs (so fuel was 95% or so). No damage. Instead of moving to their destination they changed home port to Brisbane and started moving there.

Amphibs had Buin for homeport. Fully fueled. No damage. Also changed homeport to Brinbane and started moving there.

Boise just broke lose (9 SYS damage) from the rest of the CLs, created a new TF with 2 DDs and went home to Munda (homeport of the original TF) for no apparent reason.

Got a lot of this in my game with Erik. In that game my TFs just loved to reset their homeport to Eniwetok and move there for no reason whatsoever.

What were your routing orders - the standard "Safer/Normal" or "Direct/Absolute"?
I use the latter to minimize the AI hijacking my TFs.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

[font="Verdana"]Rabaul[/font]
_____________________________________________________________________________

With Darwin secured and everything back in order its now to take on Rabaul in earnest. Fleet move in backed up by the airforce. Weather isn´t the best and this probably saves 2 BBs for Jeff.

First a naval battle of Rabaul itself as an allied screening force run into the main Japanese battle group. Results are very good.

That is crushing from you CLs. Nice. [:)]

Interesting he went big at this stage.

Yeah, I´m very happy with their performance. 4 CLs chasing away 2 BBs and 3 CAs is a good performance. I think one of his CAs might actually be in danger too. A sub attack the following turn showed it as "heavy damage". No fires though.

I don´t think he was expecting trouble. He had been using that TF to bombard Rabaul so they probably was in a bombardment TF as well. Hindsight I should have sent in the fast BBs too but I was afraid of the mines. Alabama will arrive in the area in a few days though so I could possibly take a little more risk with the BB in the coming battles down here.

I feel pretty strong overall down here and with my LBA firmly in control my CVs are actually free to take on the IJN and possibly even the KB.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: witpqs
As far as I know that is not a bug. TFs with damaged ships (or maybe even low fuel??) will change home port and head there. They also sometimes keep their home port but change destination to a nearby port.

If its not a bug its not working as its supposed to be.

CV TFs Homeport was PM. They had just refueled from AOs (so fuel was 95% or so). No damage. Instead of moving to their destination they changed home port to Brisbane and started moving there.

Amphibs had Buin for homeport. Fully fueled. No damage. Also changed homeport to Brinbane and started moving there.

Boise just broke lose (9 SYS damage) from the rest of the CLs, created a new TF with 2 DDs and went home to Munda (homeport of the original TF) for no apparent reason.

Got a lot of this in my game with Erik. In that game my TFs just loved to reset their homeport to Eniwetok and move there for no reason whatsoever.

What were your routing orders - the standard "Safer/Normal" or "Direct/Absolute"?
I use the latter to minimize the AI hijacking my TFs.

Direct/Absolute. Its really annoying. Had Jeff surged the KB forward that turn I would only have been half strength...nasty and possibly game changing due to unwanted behavior by the AI.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Rabaul[/font]
_____________________________________________________________________________

I expected a quiet day but Jeff surged forward with another SCTF into Rabaul. Luckily allied TFs had withdrawn under the CV umbrella inc case of a possible KB strike.

Allied CV/CVEs strike at the SCTF but results are again very underwhelming.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Rabaul at 106,125

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 29 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 18
A6M5b Zero x 30
A6M5c Zero x 36
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 18
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 9
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 13

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 10
FM-1 Wildcat x 29
F6F-3 Hellcat x 163
SB2C-1C Helldiver x 85
SBD-5 Dauntless x 62
TBF-1 Avenger x 171

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5b Zero: 5 destroyed, 1 damaged
A6M5c Zero: 2 destroyed
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
FM-1 Wildcat: 1 destroyed
F6F-3 Hellcat: 1 destroyed
SB2C-1C Helldiver: 4 destroyed, 5 damaged
SBD-5 Dauntless: 3 destroyed, 11 damaged
TBF-1 Avenger: 19 destroyed, 13 damaged

Japanese Ships
DD Akigumo
CL Jintsu, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
DD Hamakaze, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Kirishima, Bomb hits 9, on fire
CA Suzuya, Bomb hits 2
CL Kiso, Bomb hits 1
CL Tama, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Sendai, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires
CL Kitakami
DD Kisaragi, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Mogami, Bomb hits 1
CA Kinugasa, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires

Not a single torpedo hit out of 150+ launched. Very, very disappointing. Probably only the Hamakaze sunk although some yard time will be required.

Round 2 clearly for the allies. Tomorrow will be the main show. Have the Japanese had enough or will they come for more? Still no sign of KB.

[ny59giants]

Allied TBs - I know you have their skills up, but how is there overall experience levels? I sometimes feel that CV based TB groups have so few opportunities to be utilized that they never get their experience levels up. I tend to train in NavT and Gnd. Then, find some place I can pull them off CVs and just bomb to get their experience levels up enough. Most LB groups need practical experience to get their bombing accuracy up. Does that hold true for TBs??

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: witpqs
As far as I know that is not a bug. TFs with damaged ships (or maybe even low fuel??) will change home port and head there. They also sometimes keep their home port but change destination to a nearby port.

If its not a bug its not working as its supposed to be.

CV TFs Homeport was PM. They had just refueled from AOs (so fuel was 95% or so). No damage. Instead of moving to their destination they changed home port to Brisbane and started moving there.

Amphibs had Buin for homeport. Fully fueled. No damage. Also changed homeport to Brinbane and started moving there.

Boise just broke lose (9 SYS damage) from the rest of the CLs, created a new TF with 2 DDs and went home to Munda (homeport of the original TF) for no apparent reason.

Got a lot of this in my game with Erik. In that game my TFs just loved to reset their homeport to Eniwetok and move there for no reason whatsoever.

What HQ unit was at Eniwetok in that game? [;)]

I never have TF behavior like you describe unless there are some funky orders going on - like following a TF that gets destroyed, or that I disband/merge into others, or something similar. And then all it requires to make sure it doesn't happen is checking on the TFs that were following afterwards.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Allied TBs - I know you have their skills up, but how is there overall experience levels? I sometimes feel that CV based TB groups have so few opportunities to be utilized that they never get their experience levels up. I tend to train in NavT and Gnd. Then, find some place I can pull them off CVs and just bomb to get their experience levels up enough. Most LB groups need practical experience to get their bombing accuracy up. Does that hold true for TBs??

On the fleet CVs EXP is really good actually. Around 70. On the CVEs its way worse obviously. Around 50-55.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

What HQ unit was at Eniwetok in that game? [;)]

I never have TF behavior like you describe unless there are some funky orders going on - like following a TF that gets destroyed, or that I disband/merge into others, or something similar. And then all it requires to make sure it doesn't happen is checking on the TFs that were following afterwards.

None that I remember?

CV TF had no follow orders. Just a patrol order. Amphibs was following a ASW TF which moved to its destination without problems. Boise I simply have no idea. It didn´t even create escort TF. Just another SCTF with 2 DDs and moved to Buin.

[Lokasenna]

Oh, well there's your problem - patrol order. Never patrol with CV TFs.

[JocMeister]

Hey guys. Sorry for the lack of updates!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ZLpGOOA1Q

Be back on Sunday (hopefully with an update)!

[BBfanboy]

[:D]
Midsummer looks wonderful, except for the frames that show people needing to wear insulated jackets.
I guess the rest of them had enough anti-freeze in their system.

[JocMeister]

Sorry guys. I really suck at this lately. [:(]

Vacation started now though. I promise to get an update up tomorrow!

The good: We are doing good everywhere...

The bad: ...except Burma. I effed up here and might lose 2 divisions and wreck another 2.

Coming tomorrow with the update... 5 weeks vacation. Good god I need it.

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Oh, well there's your problem - patrol order. Never patrol with CV TFs.

I'm curious as to why not? Does patrol act differently in someway? I ask because I have my CV's set to patrol all the time.

[Canoerebel]

I've never set a CV TF to "patrol" - not once in 12 years of playing WitP and AE.

Setting to "patrol" seems to encourage carrier TFs to react, often against your wishes (leaving behind an important merchant TF or critical LRCAP, for example)...often with disastrous consequences.

100% of the time, my carrier TFs are set to follow either an ASW TF or a combat TF.