The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Rusty1961]

At Nagasaki you went after manpower.Why not industry?

Also, when you send the B24s "low" in a night bombing mission, what is "low"?

And your Avenger strategic bombing altitude?

Thanks.

[&o]

[Canoerebel]

In three days of strategic bombing, the targets have been Manpower, Resources, Light Industry, Heavy Industry and Grace Factory. Manpower is an efficient target because it starts fires that can damage all the other categories (but especially seem effective against Resources and Light and Heavy Industries). Manpower also seems to be the easiest target to score hits again. If I understand the game correctly, and what I'm seeing happen each turn, Manpower is "spread out" and therefore easy for bombs to hit; but some targets are small and relatively hard to hit. You probably knew all this, but I wasn't sure based upon the wording of your question.

My B-24Js are set for daytime missions. I suspect you mean my B-29s. They are set at 2k for tonight's raid on Kobe. The low altitude increases hits but also losses to flak and balloons. So mostly I used this altitude for bases that don't seem well defended. (Right now, Nagasaki, Osaka, Tokyo and a few other bases seem to have the bulk of the AA.)

I accidentally left my Avengers at their normal altitude of 5k but changed it to 10k for tomorrow's raid.

[witpqs]

I suspect you mean my B-29s. They are set at 2k for tonight's raid on Kobe.

Crikey!!!

[wpurdom]

I was pleasantly shocked a few weeks ago when I discovered you back among the active AAR's. Doubly so when I saw it was a revival of the AAR I had been following in 2013. It has taken me a while to catch up and I have enjoyed reading the history of your war.

Along the way I noted your book recommendations, particularly This Terrible Sound, so I got it and am about 2/3's through - Longstreet has just blown through the hole created by the order for Wood to move his position. I've enjoyed it, but it is definitely a book for Grognards - it takes you field by field, hour by hour, regiment by regiment through the whole disjointed battle. It brings home how little oversight and control there was in the battle, with Bragg and the COnfederate Corps commanders other than Longstreet on the second day, exercising almost no control, and the Union commanders reacting, at best being able to feed in reinforcements haphazardly, a division or brigade at a time. It also collects as many brief snippets or individuals experiences - John Doe seeing his best friend or father killed.

My own nomination for best single battle history from the Civil War is Last Chance For Victory: Robert E. Lee And The Gettysburg Campaign by Scott Bowden and Bill Ward. This book revolutionized my views of the second day at Gettysburg (The treatment of the third day is more questionable). The authors combine going back to contemporary sources prior to the post-reconstruction revisionist bias of persons like Early and Gordon wanting to scapegoat Longstreet (due to his support for reconstruction) along with new research and their own interesting analysis. Meanwhile on the Union side the glorious charge of the 20th Maine at Little Round Top has warped deeper anaysis of the second day). [To sum up, Longstreet becomes the faithful executioner of Lee's concept which works well until Billy Mahone fails to follow orders and AP Hill and Anderson failed to exercise the same oversight as Longstreet and his divisional commanders.] The book has a good and reasonable, though disputable take of the first day and the Stuart raid, a superb treatment of the second day, and a questionable take on the third day, but net is the best battle book of the war in my opinion, and the only one to make me change my fundamental understanding of a civil war battle in 40 years.

Sorry if this seems off-topic and out of place to the current discussions, but I felt it was sufficiently in line with the general tenor of Canoerebel AARs.

[wpurdom]

Strategic bombing - Given your impressions of bombing results, I wonder whether when you bomb aircraft factories, the program models precision bombing, at which the USAAF had limited success, and when you go after manpower, it models firebombing, which the USAAF found much easier to execute effectively, and which incidentally destroyed a great deal of industry at the same time. In the real war, the firebombing started months later.

[Rusty1961]

Thank you for the reply.

I find targeting LI a waste. I found hitting manpower destroys LI more quickly than directly targeting LI.

YMMV.

Also, in your attack recently where you lost 30+ B24s, what was the average EXP/AIR numbers of the B24 groups? Still examining the effectiveness of both EXP and AIR being 60-70 for bomber losses.

I like to use the TBFs for night airfield attacks as the USN did historically. Said attacks reduce the morale of Jap fighters, thus increasing their losses later in the day against the USN sweeps.

Enjoying the AAR

[Canoerebel]

Anybody know what a "Yasunkini" factory is?

I found one at Hiroshima/Kure. I've never heard of that before. Is it a snazzy night fighter, rocket-propelled day fighter, or unmanned cattle prod?

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: Rusty1961

Thank you for the reply.

I find targeting LI a waste. I found hitting manpower destroys LI more quickly than directly targeting LI.

YMMV.

Also, in your attack recently where you lost 30+ B24s, what was the average EXP/AIR numbers of the B24 groups? Still examining the effectiveness of both EXP and AIR being 60-70 for bomber losses.

I like to use the TBFs for night airfield attacks as the USN did historically. Said attacks reduce the morale of Jap fighters, thus increasing their losses later in the day against the USN sweeps.

Enjoying the AAR

The average experience was low 60s - most from 61 to 65 with one or two high 50s or 60.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: wpurdom

I was pleasantly shocked a few weeks ago when I discovered you back among the active AAR's. Doubly so when I saw it was a revival of the AAR I had been following in 2013. It has taken me a while to catch up and I have enjoyed reading the history of your war.

Along the way I noted your book recommendations, particularly This Terrible Sound, so I got it and am about 2/3's through - Longstreet has just blown through the hole created by the order for Wood to move his position. I've enjoyed it, but it is definitely a book for Grognards - it takes you field by field, hour by hour, regiment by regiment through the whole disjointed battle. It brings home how little oversight and control there was in the battle, with Bragg and the COnfederate Corps commanders other than Longstreet on the second day, exercising almost no control, and the Union commanders reacting, at best being able to feed in reinforcements haphazardly, a division or brigade at a time. It also collects as many brief snippets or individuals experiences - John Doe seeing his best friend or father killed.

My own nomination for best single battle history from the Civil War is Last Chance For Victory: Robert E. Lee And The Gettysburg Campaign by Scott Bowden and Bill Ward. This book revolutionized my views of the second day at Gettysburg (The treatment of the third day is more questionable). The authors combine going back to contemporary sources prior to the post-reconstruction revisionist bias of persons like Early and Gordon wanting to scapegoat Longstreet (due to his support for reconstruction) along with new research and their own interesting analysis. Meanwhile on the Union side the glorious charge of the 20th Maine at Little Round Top has warped deeper anaysis of the second day). [To sum up, Longstreet becomes the faithful executioner of Lee's concept which works well until Billy Mahone fails to follow orders and AP Hill and Anderson failed to exercise the same oversight as Longstreet and his divisional commanders.] The book has a good and reasonable, though disputable take of the first day and the Stuart raid, a superb treatment of the second day, and a questionable take on the third day, but net is the best battle book of the war in my opinion, and the only one to make me change my fundamental understanding of a civil war battle in 40 years.

Sorry if this seems off-topic and out of place to the current discussions, but I felt it was sufficiently in line with the general tenor of Canoerebel AARs.

Thanks for the tip, wpurdom. I'm glad you found your way back.

This Terrible Sound is definitely a grognard (AE) level book. It no doubt helps to have a working knowledge of the terrain, else it's like an American trying to read Doctor Zhivago: Is it 13 kilometers or 2,000 kilometers from Grognivostok to St. Ravensburg? But above all I love all the insights into the thoughts of the fighting soldiers.

Compare Cozzens's works to that of a newcomer, named Powell. Powell does magnificent research and then packs all the information into his books. But that makes his writing clunky and rather dry. Cozzens, in comparison, is concise and powerful.

[Rusty1961]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

ORIGINAL: Rusty1961

Thank you for the reply.

I find targeting LI a waste. I found hitting manpower destroys LI more quickly than directly targeting LI.

YMMV.

Also, in your attack recently where you lost 30+ B24s, what was the average EXP/AIR numbers of the B24 groups? Still examining the effectiveness of both EXP and AIR being 60-70 for bomber losses.

I like to use the TBFs for night airfield attacks as the USN did historically. Said attacks reduce the morale of Jap fighters, thus increasing their losses later in the day against the USN sweeps.

Enjoying the AAR

The average experience was low 60s - most from 61 to 65 with one or two high 50s or 60.

And your AIR?

[wpurdom]

It no doubt helps to have a working knowledge of the terrain

I've been to Chickamauga 2 or 3 times, but only with the medium level understanding of the battle - generally how the fighting developed on the first day, what the creek looks like, where Rosecrans had his HQ, where the hole was that Longstreet blew through and where Thomas made his stand. Since I live in the Atlanta area, I'll have to go back again having read the book.

[Canoerebel]

wprduom: I live 40 minutes from Chickamauga and have been there scores of times. I feel like I've only done the high points and haven't really gotten to know the battlefield yet. With my kids leaving the nest, I hope to have more time to do that in coming years. And visiting the field while reading the book is a superb way to appreciate it. By the way, the current visitor's center movie is the finest I've ever seen anywhere. It's so beautifully done that I'm sure somebody's going to take offense and have it banished.

Rusty: I did a quick look at my B-24J pilots. Average "Air" skill is probably about 20 - lots in the upper teens and low 20s. A few as low as single digits and a few as high as upper 30s to 40. But I don't think Air skill contributes in any way to bomber raids. If I'm wrong, somebody will have to show me. From what was discussed a week or two back it seemed like most folks said it doesn't have an effect.

[Canoerebel]

12/12/44

Raid on Kobe: Effective, low altitude nighttime raid on Kobe.

[Canoerebel]

12/12/44

John's email begins similarly to yesterday's: "Damn.  A furball of EPIC proportions!"

To me, the action today seems considerably less vigorous than yesterday's. In particular, the enemy CAP tired out much more quickly, and the B-24Js didn't face any opposition to speak of.

Once again, the Avengers were "escorted" by sweeping Corsairs.

The Allied fighters got the better of the enemy fighters once again, but this time the Corsair losses are enough to consider.

It is hard for a non-IJ player to know how deep the Japanese fighter pools are this late in the game. I simply don't know. My experience has always been that Japan never runs out of any airplane ever.

But the number of fighters posted in the southern half of the Home Islands is considerably lower than before. Only Tokyo has a heavy concentration.

Of course, John could be resting fighters, holding them back, or basing them somewhere far forward. Again, I just don't know.

But I want to test Nagasaki one more time to see what's there tomorrow.

The carriers will pull back two hexes. Corsairs will sweep again. More Avengers will fly this time, and mainly against Armament Assembly and Heavy Industry.

A decent number of B-29s will daylight raid at 10k, focusing on Manpower. This is a bit risky, but let's see.

The B-24Js at Ningpo are going to switch off and target Light Industry at Keijo. That has just a level one airfield.

[Canoerebel]

12/12/44

Just a few days ago, there were about six active fronts: Southern Indochina, Northern Indochina, Changsha, Kukong, Canton/Hong Kong, and Hangchow/Shanghai. Resistance collapses at the first three much more quickly than expected. So now the focus is on Canton, Kukong, Hangchow. Of those, the Chinese are handling the first (so I'm playing with house money there), while the Western Allies are modestly committed to the second. It's the third - Hangchow - that really matters.

Hexsides on this time for Jeff, Michael and others who like to really know what's where and why and where they can go.

[Canoerebel]

12/12/44

Strategic Bombing: Here's a look at four major strategic bombing targets. Lots of potential points for future raids.

[JeffroK]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Anybody know what a "Yasunkini" factory is?

I found one at Hiroshima/Kure. I've never heard of that before. Is it a snazzy night fighter, rocket-propelled day fighter, or unmanned cattle prod?

Probably some 1000mph fighter with 10 x 30mm cannon, 50 hex normal range, 100 durability and 10 armour!

Google only came up with the Yakasuni Shrine.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Anybody know what a "Yasunkini" factory is?

I found one at Hiroshima/Kure. I've never heard of that before. Is it a snazzy night fighter, rocket-propelled day fighter, or unmanned cattle prod?

The Japanese wettable kimono version of the bikini?

[Bearcat2]

Yasukini is a Navy medium bomber

[JohnDillworth]

robably some 1000mph fighter with 10 x 30mm cannon, 50 hex normal range, 100 durability and 10 armour!

Actually, that is going to be in the next Reluctant Admiral mod! And the IJN gets 63 new late war DD's and all Japanese ground units will have intrinsic SAM batteries to keep the 4EB's away in clear territory.