The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[JohnDillworth]

Oh indeed it is. Torpedoes finally got something. As mentioned, fast Fletchers vs a TF limited to 20 knots can make for a bad day

[Canoerebel]

3/2/45

DEI: And with all the important things happening all over, this is perhaps the most important. The host of merchantmen are now drawing close to the DEI. All of them should reach Boela in about six days.

Had John's carriers been in the DEI, things would be much more complicated. Thank goodness their in the South China Sea.

[JeffroK]

ORIGINAL: CharlieVane

Not even a rudimentary Night Fighter defense over a base where one of his damaged Carriers is docked? For shame.

And no Flak, next we'll hear complaints about 4E flying at 4-5000ft.
If so, send photos of Ploesti!

[JohnDillworth]

[/quote]

I expect a short lull now.

I believe you are correct about that. No knock on John but he sometimes goes dark for a while after something like this. It would certainly set my fighting spirit back a bit

[jwolf]

That was a tremendous victory in the naval battles. Kudos to you for great planning, and to your virtual sailors for great shooting!

[CaptBeefheart]

Well done on the naval battle. A great book I picked up was "Japanese Destroyer Captain." Although the guy definitely toots his own horn, he does go over the decline of the IJN surface forces over time from the Guadalcanal peak. On the converse, "South Pacific Destroyer" touches on the rise of USN surface capability stemming from hard lessons learned.

Cheers,
CC

[Bif1961]

Captain Hara of the famed Shigure.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Captain Hara of the famed Shigure.

Well, he had his successes in Amatsukaze. Shigure was his flagship when he had a squadron in 1943 and that period chronicled the decline of the IJN more than any successes.

[paullus99]

Well, obviously John is scraping the bottom of the barrel for escorts...and he just had some other significant teeth pulled.

He's not going to command the seas now, unless he brings every carrier he has left back to the area.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Captain Hara of the famed Shigure.

Well, he had his successes in Amatsukaze. Shigure was his flagship when he had a squadron in 1943 and that period chronicled the decline of the IJN more than any successes.

He had an affair with a Geisha = street cred.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Captain Hara of the famed Shigure.

Well, he had his successes in Amatsukaze. Shigure was his flagship when he had a squadron in 1943 and that period chronicled the decline of the IJN more than any successes.

He had an affair with a Geisha = street cred.

Hmmm - looks like evidence of Leadership (initiative), Inspiration (her consent), Navel Skill and perhaps some Aggression. Perhaps some Administration of TLC here and there.

[JohnDillworth]

John has not controlled the seas in a very long time. In the last week he has lost a CA, a few good DD’s a CVL and 2 BB’s. He has been running the same playbook for 2 years and sometimes he gets caught. I understand why he did this but he really didn’t have the right horses for this type of rodeoing

[Canoerebel]

John has had a notion - each time Death Star has departed, he has attacked the Allied TFs defending the main port. He tried it against Foochow, then Ningpo, then Gunzan.

He ended up losing each battle decisively. The idea was a good one - to achieve local superiority while Death Star away - but the execution was off. Instead of overwhelming, he sent forces that weren't nearly strong enough to overwhelm. They fought hard and exacted a toll - I lost BB West Virginia and CA Boston and probably other good ships - but he lost at least four BBs, another badly damaged, two CLs, at least one CA, and a bunch of DDs.

By dividing his forces, having so much in SWPac or the South China Sea, he never had enough to overwhelm.

By keeping KB far away from the action, he's minimized my points...but at the expense of the Allies advancing methodically and without any real opposition. Invasion of Luzon: No opposition. Invasion of China: No opposition. Invasion of Formosa: No opposition. Invasion of Ningpo: No opposition. Invasion of Gunzan: No opposition. To me, that seems crazy. From a historic standpoint, it's crazy. From a gaming standpoint, it's not quite as clear (since the game is all about points, and he's trying hard to keep from losing them). He's erred on the side of minimizing points for ships lost at the cost of allowing the Allies to close on Japan. Let's see how that turns out over the next two months, as supply comes in and Allied ops accelerate.

[JohnDillworth]

agreed, you have lots of ships so he needs to get past that wall. Like I said.....he doesn't have the horses. If he had, say....8 DD's to as a lead surface combat TF followed by another surface combat TF of something like 4 CA's and another 8 good DD's he might have been able to clear out some of your little guys and have a better shot at shooting the place up. Not sure of your composition but it looks like you have multiple , smaller surface combat TF's kind of layered so it's hard to penetrate with a single bunch of big guns. you got a bit lucky on those torpedoes.....or you were previously unlucky and this is the norm

[AcePylut]

Post 12392: 12/12/44 “The Allied lead is increasing now at between 500 and 1,000 points per day - two to four times what we had seen previously. The pace will fluctuate as the carriers pull back or come forward. But John's going to have to do something if he wants the game to last more than about three more months”

Just curious, but how close are you to victory? Please note, it’s coming up to that “about three months” date noted for victory “unless John does something”.

Why did you seemingly “stop” the strategic bombing of Japan? I haven’t heard of a big B29 raid in quite a while (or I just forgot about it)

[Canoerebel]

The Allies have a 50,000 point lead, 123k to 73k. I need about 23k more for auto victory, at this point.

February has been a relatively quiet month as I shut down most bombing operations while awaiting the next influx of supply. The biggest undertaking of the month was the invasion of Korea, which sets the table for the end-war.

Sometime after that post you quoted, I guesstimated that auto victory was most likely to come in late April or early May of '45. With the slow-down in February, that may be a bit too optimistic. Or it may not be - the Allied 4EB will crank up from Gunzan by around March 20 or so. By then, Gunzan will be a level 9 airfield. Allied fighters will be in range to assist with the 4EB. And I should have plenty of supply to handle things.

So I'm still guardedly optimistic that the late April to early May timeframe can be met.

[AcePylut]

Sounds good.

[MakeeLearn]

By then, Gunzan will be a level 9 airfield. Allied fighters will be in range to assist with the 4EB. And I should have plenty of supply to handle things.

[Canoerebel]

3/3/45

Judging by his body language, John really hard a hard time coming back to the game after the Battle of Gunzan.

South China Sea: Opposing carrier forces are 17 hexes apart, but fuel limits my options.

[Canoerebel]

3/3/45

Funnel Cakes: John has bogged down his largest stack. That, plus the recent naval battle, take some of the heat off of Korea. Death Star is already south of Manila and should be back in about two weeks. I don't think John can close the deal within that window.

Fancy Pants: Invasion of Hainan Island begins auspiciously. Defenses on the beach negligible.