Notes from a Small Island

[Canoerebel]

Yeah it's a weird game. He has more than a 1,000 fighters and many of them are in squadrons of 49 planes or some such. I have 600 fighters and will bring in more, but most of my squadrons are 16 or 25, with the exception of some of the carrier squadrons (which reminds me to look into re-sizing more carrier squadrons).

Over the past two weeks, he's lost something like 1,500 aircraft. I might've lost 500. But prior to that the air war was quiet for many months. So he'll have an inexhaustible supply of fighters and pilots. That's why I wanted to fight a defensive battle. But has he hit on a way to nerf Allied CAP?

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn
Try a Sweep? In same hex as your cap.

Hey, I hadn't thought of that. But can you sweep your own base?

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn
Try a Sweep? In same hex as your cap.

Hey, I hadn't thought of that. But can you sweep your own base?

I was Wondering that. Not able to access game at moment

[MakeeLearn]

Just the manual

Sweep – In this Mission the aircraft attempt to draw enemy CAP over the target hex into an air to air engagement. If the group attacks at 100’, the planes will also attempt to strafe the target if CAP does not drive them off. Squadrons are limited to one Fighter Sweep per day; if weather keeps the fighters from flying a Sweep Mission in the morning, they will be eligible to fly one in the afternoon

[MakeeLearn]

Search of forum

Yep, can´t sweep your own bases.

[Canoerebel]

I opened the game and gave it a try. A fighter squadron did accept the order to sweep Shikuka from Shikuka. I'll give it a try in modest numbers next turn.

I've also sent an PM to Lowpe for help. He has tremendous experience dealing with and trying out novel tactics.

Makee, thanks for the suggestion. It gives me at least some hope that there may be a counter.

[MakeeLearn]

Are you around one altitude?


Setup a large difference of CAP altitudes?

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
So he'll have an inexhaustible supply of fighters and pilots.

No such thing. You've just got to be on the dirty end of the stick for a while longer than usual until you begin to whittle down his pools.

Good progress thus far, Canoerebel. Your position is strong and your sacrifices quite worthwhile to attain that dominating position.

But has he hit on a way to nerf Allied CAP?

Two iterations are insufficient data with which to formulate meaningful conclusions. Change some of your settings (e.g., sweep your own bases-that's a great idea Makeelearn) to gum up the intel works of the Japanese so that *they* can't make heads or tails out of their efforts too.

In general, I'd happily trade hits on three xAKs for liquidating 50+ strike aircraft. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and all that.

The only thing that gives me trepidation about your lodgement on Sakhalin island is the absence of an ingress / egress point through the kuriles. Paramushiro or Ominato would be a most useful base, but I'd settle for a couple of the smaller ones too. They would bifurcate his potential defensive vectors and divert attack sorties.

[Canoerebel]

I have huge spread in altitudes - from 4k to 40k. The P-39s are low, the P-38s are high, in between are the Corsairs, Thunderbolts, Hellcats and Thunderbolts. I shift the latter around a bit so that Erik doesn't keep getting a set look.

[Canoerebel]

What I'm worried about is that he sent 60 unescorted Judys against my base. Some of them made it through to drop on my ships. What would happen if he sent 500 or 1000 bombers and kamikazes against my shipping? I have 100 APA/AKA and good combat TFs there. He'd take heavy losses but so would I.

I agree that this is an insufficient data set but I'm pretty sure that Erik can employ this on a mass scale and succeed. So I'm seeking advice. Makee's suggestion is a great one that will be tried.

Chickenboy, I agree with your thoughts. It has been a successful operation at modest cost. It would help a great deal to have the upper Kuriles. My troops are prepping accordingly. The original plan was for Death Star to stay at Sikhalin until the invasion was ready to go in about three weeks. But Erik's attack and the reaction by my carriers mixed up the deck of cards good.

[Canoerebel]

6/20/44

Paramushiro: Here's the troops at Shikuka prepping for Paramushiro. Most of them are in the 30s and 40s. Am amphibious force HQ is also prepping. I'll probably trigger the invasion to coincide with the return of Death Star in a month or so.

P.S. But don't let this detract from the main question. I am very anxious for insight into how to deal with Erik's LRCAP tactic.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
I have 100 APA/AKA and good combat TFs there.

Why aren't you getting the APA/AKAs out? Seems to me they'd be a premium for other invasions elsewhere. The presence of them at Sakhalin suggests that you don't have other invasion priorities, should the enemy discover their concentration. Getting them out will serve notice that they can be re-employed elsewhere and possibly divert his attention from the Northern theater.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

6/20/44

Paramushiro: Here's the troops at Shikuka prepping for Paramushiro. Most of them are in the 30s and 40s. Am amphibious force HQ is also prepping. I'll probably trigger the invasion to coincide with the return of Death Star in a month or so.

P.S. But don't let this detract from the main question. I am very anxious for insight into how to deal with Erik's LRCAP tactic.

Ah. So. Cross posts. Question answered re: the APAs/AKAs and the kuriles. [&o]

[Canoerebel]

The original plan was for Death Star to remain at Sikhalin Island to cover the invasion of Paramushiro and Onnekotan in about three weeks. In the meantime, DS escorted 500 empties to the "frontier" and was to return to Shikuka the following turn. But Death Star then reacted into the Pacific and took damage, forcing me to revise my plan. I decided it was more important to protect the herd of empties plus my crippled carriers. So the emergency overrode the original plan, which made sense at the time.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

What I'm worried about is that he sent 60 unescorted Judys against my base. Some of them made it through to drop on my ships. What would happen if he sent 500 or 1000 bombers and kamikazes against my shipping? I have 100 APA/AKA and good combat TFs there. He'd take heavy losses but so would I.

I agree that this is an insufficient data set but I'm pretty sure that Erik can employ this on a mass scale and succeed. So I'm seeking advice. Makee's suggestion is a great one that will be tried.

Chickenboy, I agree with your thoughts. It has been a successful operation at modest cost. It would help a great deal to have the upper Kuriles. My troops are prepping accordingly. The original plan was for Death Star to stay at Sikhalin until the invasion was ready to go in about three weeks. But Erik's attack and the reaction by my carriers mixed up the deck of cards good.

I went back a page and did not see any unescorted strikes - did you mean the Judys came in at a different altitude from their escorts and attacked by themselves while their escorts milled around without engaging?

He has a plethora of fighter aircraft because that is the current trend in IJ player strategy for the economy, but that means he has not devoted as much to strike aircraft. I doubt he can mass 500 strike aircraft for more than one turn, and he will lose a lot of them.

Also, if he is flying out of Hokkaido he may not have enough supply there to sustain a large bombing campaign. The IJ player is always short on supply and keeps a lot of it for the economy on Honshu.

[Canoerebel]

I got the impression that all his fighters were on LRCAP and none on escort. Fighters in escort roles get chewed alive, so if he'd used an appreciable amount as escorts, his fighter losses would have been dramatically higher. instead, the combat replay was weird - the fighter interaction was brief and bloodless compared to what you'd expect for 1,000 vs. 600. And then a fair percentage of the bombers, which should have been easily picked off, made it through and dropped with some success. IE, the picture painted by the combat replay seemed completely disassociated with what you'd expect to see when titanic air forces clashed.

[Chickenboy]

There's also the premise that uber-large air battles tend to overload the code. We've seen iterations of 'funny' behavior with massive furballs-at least in the past. I don't know if this was satisfactorily patched, but Devs have commented on the code not being able to handle some of the massive 1944-1945 airborne melees.

[Canoerebel]

I think that created problems back in the day - Greyjoy vs. Rader comes to mind. But I think that issue was resolved long ago. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I opened the game and gave it a try. A fighter squadron did accept the order to sweep Shikuka from Shikuka. I'll give it a try in modest numbers next turn.

I've also sent an PM to Lowpe for help. He has tremendous experience dealing with and trying out novel tactics.

Makee, thanks for the suggestion. It gives me at least some hope that there may be a counter.

You can always order them to, but they typically will not do so. Maybe if, when clicking, you click the any enemy LCUs themselves...


The other thing you could do - he's committing 1000+ fighters in one spot. Hit him elsewhere. Try to hold out until your CVs are back, and then throw everything at, say, Kushiro's Resources for potentially 1500+ Strat VPs. He's throwing left and right hooks. You should duck and hit him below the belt. It's war, ain't no rules.

I also think he's probably lucky to get that many planes to coordinate on a single day. That just doesn't happen for me, anytime.

Another thing you could do is move a few hexes E or NE of Shikuka, or even move towards the Kuriles (which IIRC are relatively undeveloped) - still within striking range of whatever bases he's using, but if he's setting LRCAP to aid in his naval strikes then he has to target that hex. Just move out of it and his LRCAP disappears. You're still free to set your own LRCAP over your TFs.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

What I'm worried about is that he sent 60 unescorted Judys against my base. Some of them made it through to drop on my ships. What would happen if he sent 500 or 1000 bombers and kamikazes against my shipping? I have 100 APA/AKA and good combat TFs there. He'd take heavy losses but so would I.

I agree that this is an insufficient data set but I'm pretty sure that Erik can employ this on a mass scale and succeed. So I'm seeking advice. Makee's suggestion is a great one that will be tried.

Chickenboy, I agree with your thoughts. It has been a successful operation at modest cost. It would help a great deal to have the upper Kuriles. My troops are prepping accordingly. The original plan was for Death Star to stay at Sikhalin until the invasion was ready to go in about three weeks. But Erik's attack and the reaction by my carriers mixed up the deck of cards good.

I went back a page and did not see any unescorted strikes - did you mean the Judys came in at a different altitude from their escorts and attacked by themselves while their escorts milled around without engaging?

He has a plethora of fighter aircraft because that is the current trend in IJ player strategy for the economy, but that means he has not devoted as much to strike aircraft. I doubt he can mass 500 strike aircraft for more than one turn, and he will lose a lot of them.

Also, if he is flying out of Hokkaido he may not have enough supply there to sustain a large bombing campaign. The IJ player is always short on supply and keeps a lot of it for the economy on Honshu.

Any limitation on number of strike craft able to be brought to bear is on the number of groups, not on the actual production of the IJ player per se.