Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[ITAKLinus]

Yeah, I see.

The issue is that once you leave that zone to the Allies, he can escort his bombers on Rabaul and that's a sad story for that base, which is quite important for the whole region I'd say.


It's why I'm trying to figure out how to defend the bases between Milne Bay and Finshafen.

I'm still in the end of March 1942 and so I am plenty of time to think, however I have no troops at all to take P.M. and that's a problem. Yes, my enemy has no spare troops neither (I'm sieging Calcutta with 14 divisions since the beginning of February), but it seems to me that the area can be a pain in the ass for Japan if not defended.



I asked you because I see that American flags are going north like a cancer and I wanted to know whether you are satisfied with the results you finally got or whether you advice for a strong defensive line in the zone.



In the mid run he should even be able to bypass Rabaul as Allied did historically. That shortens quite a lot the leg leading to Marianas. Or am I missing something you have planned and that I cannot see?

[Mike Solli]

30 Aug 43

Sub War
5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Allied bombing all over:

Manas: 66-75-10, down 19
Kavieng: 100-100-94, down 1
Rabaul: 49-24-0, down 9
Talasea: 0-88-6, down 6
Hollandia: 0-99-99, up 13

I've changed my focus on repairing damaged shipping for the short term. I was focusing on the carriers but changed that around yesterday. I changed their priority to low and bumped up the priority on those warships that are very close to completing repairs so they come off the docket. That is working better. Today I completed repairs on the following:

CA Tone
CA Suzuya
DD Shimikaze
DD Ariake
DD Kikuzuki
SS RO-104

I'll continue doing this until the additional ARs arrive (2 on 1 Sep and 2 on 2 Sep). Then I'll reassess and start focusing on the most important ships. My goal is to get the non-major damage on the carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Hiyo) repaired as quickly as possible and get them to the Home Islands for complete repairs.

Right now, the Allied carriers (and most other shipping) has disappeared from this region. I'm trying to assess to see if I can get some supply down here. I described what I want to do at Namatanai. Otherwise, Kavieng will be taken and Rabaul cut off. I think I might be able to do it with xAKLs. Unfortunately, Kavieng's port is destroyed and Rabaul's port is at 49% damage. I'll probably try with single ship TFs hoping the Allied Air Force ignores them. We'll see.

Today, The SNLF just north of Namatanai was blown out of the hex by a US division. The SNLF is basically gone, but will hold the next hex north until it's pushed out of there.

SRA
Burma
China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

The N1K2-J R&D completed. That model will begin production in September 1943. The 9x30 R&D factories have changed to the N1K5-J George, which used the Ha-43 engine. That engine is still being researched and won't enter production until 5/44 so the K5 will research until it is at 5/44. Without the engine acceleration, it'll advance 9% a day, accelerating a month every 11 days. It's nice to see the K2 SR is 2 (vs SR3 for the K1) and the maneuverability increases by 3 to 30 for the K2.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: ITAKLinus

Yeah, I see.

The issue is that once you leave that zone to the Allies, he can escort his bombers on Rabaul and that's a sad story for that base, which is quite important for the whole region I'd say.


It's why I'm trying to figure out how to defend the bases between Milne Bay and Finshafen.

I'm still in the end of March 1942 and so I am plenty of time to think, however I have no troops at all to take P.M. and that's a problem. Yes, my enemy has no spare troops neither (I'm sieging Calcutta with 14 divisions since the beginning of February), but it seems to me that the area can be a pain in the ass for Japan if not defended.



I asked you because I see that American flags are going north like a cancer and I wanted to know whether you are satisfied with the results you finally got or whether you advice for a strong defensive line in the zone.



In the mid run he should even be able to bypass Rabaul as Allied did historically. That shortens quite a lot the leg leading to Marianas. Or am I missing something you have planned and that I cannot see?

He can escort his bombers everywhere except Hollandia right now. Hollandia is the only base with significant supply (~15k) but if he continues to bomb there, that will evaporate.

It's inevitable that he'll take this area. I don't know of any way to compete with the number of bombers he has. Regardless of how many bombers I shoot down, there are always more available. Eventually, he'll get a raid through and then it's difficult at best to recover.

I think it's impossible to defend the area between Milne Bay and Finschafen. Eventually, his bombers will prevail. I have destroyed a LOT of Allied bombers over that area through 1942 through early 1943 but like I said earlier, it doesn't matter. I think the goal is not to keep that area, but to delay the Allied player here. He's focused here and here alone right now. That means I'm easily looting the SRA of its oil/fuel/resources/supply and moving it to where I can use it, primarily the Home Islands. Had Ted been focusing on the SRA (through Java or Merauke), he'd probably have a foothold somewhere by now and his bombers would be taking out my oil. I'd have far fewer fighters in Burma and SE Fleet so both of those places would be susceptible to his offensives.

If Ted moves farther up the coast toward Hollandia, he'll have to supply any offensive by ship. That SLOC will be vulnerable to my subs, carriers and surface raiders. Even if he does take it, there's still quite a SLOC to the Marianas. I don't think he has the carrier strength to protect it. He will in six months maybe...

I'm pretty happy right now because he's hurting from having his carriers beat up. I'm getting 3 CVs and 2 CVLs in about a month. And he doesn't even know....

[Mike Solli]

31 Aug 43

Sub War

The I-15 torpedoed and sank the SC PC-580, then was hit by a DC from her sister ship. With damage at 18-29(29)-9(2)-0, she's head to Truk for temporary repairs.

The I-23 found another unescorted convoy returning to San Francisco (about 16 hexes out) and torpedoed the xAP Ormiston. Later in the day, she put her under with another torpedo.

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Not much going on here other than Allied bombing. Rabaul's airfield is actually totally repaired and the port is down to 34% damage. Wish I had some supply there. I need to figure out a way to get some there. Then I could actually counter his air power a bit. Here's the base report:

Manas: 66-66-0, down 19
Kavieng: 100-100-98, up 4 (like it matters [8|])
Rabaul: 34-0-0, down 39
Talasea: 0-77-0, down 17
Hollandia: 0-99-98, down 1 (Woo Hoo!!! [:D])

Need to ponder this. I think the first step is to stop the advance on Kavieng. That means taking Namatanai.

SRA
Burma
China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

SC Cha-65, ASW
253 Ku S-2, 36 Zero, 11 Air Flotilla, arrived at Saipan! I upgraded to the A6M5c and gave them a very nice commander and trained pilots. I'm working on increasing their defense to 70. I learned about this tactic probably too late for this game. The IJAAF has plenty of training units so they've been pretty successful in training up the defense, but the IJNAF just can't train enough fighter pilots in Air as well as Defense. In my next game, I'll station some IJNAF fighter units in China for some on the job training. China no longer has an Air Force, so it's too late for this game.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: ITAKLinus

Yeah, I see.

The issue is that once you leave that zone to the Allies, he can escort his bombers on Rabaul and that's a sad story for that base, which is quite important for the whole region I'd say.


It's why I'm trying to figure out how to defend the bases between Milne Bay and Finshafen.

I'm still in the end of March 1942 and so I am plenty of time to think, however I have no troops at all to take P.M. and that's a problem. Yes, my enemy has no spare troops neither (I'm sieging Calcutta with 14 divisions since the beginning of February), but it seems to me that the area can be a pain in the ass for Japan if not defended.



I asked you because I see that American flags are going north like a cancer and I wanted to know whether you are satisfied with the results you finally got or whether you advice for a strong defensive line in the zone.



In the mid run he should even be able to bypass Rabaul as Allied did historically. That shortens quite a lot the leg leading to Marianas. Or am I missing something you have planned and that I cannot see?

He can escort his bombers everywhere except Hollandia right now. Hollandia is the only base with significant supply (~15k) but if he continues to bomb there, that will evaporate.

It's inevitable that he'll take this area. I don't know of any way to compete with the number of bombers he has. Regardless of how many bombers I shoot down, there are always more available. Eventually, he'll get a raid through and then it's difficult at best to recover.

I think it's impossible to defend the area between Milne Bay and Finschafen. Eventually, his bombers will prevail. I have destroyed a LOT of Allied bombers over that area through 1942 through early 1943 but like I said earlier, it doesn't matter. I think the goal is not to keep that area, but to delay the Allied player here. He's focused here and here alone right now. That means I'm easily looting the SRA of its oil/fuel/resources/supply and moving it to where I can use it, primarily the Home Islands. Had Ted been focusing on the SRA (through Java or Merauke), he'd probably have a foothold somewhere by now and his bombers would be taking out my oil. I'd have far fewer fighters in Burma and SE Fleet so both of those places would be susceptible to his offensives.

If Ted moves farther up the coast toward Hollandia, he'll have to supply any offensive by ship. That SLOC will be vulnerable to my subs, carriers and surface raiders. Even if he does take it, there's still quite a SLOC to the Marianas. I don't think he has the carrier strength to protect it. He will in six months maybe...

I'm pretty happy right now because he's hurting from having his carriers beat up. I'm getting 3 CVs and 2 CVLs in about a month. And he doesn't even know....

I tend to agree with you Mike, I think the goal would be to attrit the allies as much as possible without losing anything substantial ...

[ElvisDaKing]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

253 Ku S-2, 36 Zero, 11 Air Flotilla, arrived at Saipan! I upgraded to the A6M5c and gave them a very nice commander and trained pilots. I'm working on increasing their defense to 70. I learned about this tactic probably too late for this game. The IJAAF has plenty of training units so they've been pretty successful in training up the defense, but the IJNAF just can't train enough fighter pilots in Air as well as Defense. In my next game, I'll station some IJNAF fighter units in China for some on the job training. China no longer has an Air Force, so it's too late for this game.

Just to share a quite succesful training plan i put in place to get Exp 70 / air 70 / Def 70 pilots , with few dedicated training units :


I have units set training sweep 100m to increase DEF, training escort 6000m to increase AIR and DEF and training CAP 100% to incraese EXP

Every 1st of the month, i reverse all these pilots, except a few cadres with high exp, into the reserve pool, then i filter as below :
1/ If DEF<55, then i put the pilots into the Sweep 100m training units
2/ When all DEF<55 pilots are allocated, then i filter according AIR skill and i assign the lowest AIR skill pilots into Training Escort 6000m, I keep them in until they reach AIR >=70, at the same time it will keep on increasing the DEF, so when your pilot reach AIR = 70, usually they have their DEF around 70 as well
3/ When step 1 and 2 completed, you should have in the pool, good pilots with AIR = 70 and DEF = 70, but some with very low EXP, so I assign them to units set to CAP 100% to increase EXP to 70...


After 3+ months, you should then start to build a nice pool reserve of experienced and talented pilots (70/70/70), provided that you are not suffering huge losses to be replaced into operational units...


Also remember that you can use Floatplane squadrons to be used as training units :

I am producing lot of E13A1 Jake for my units dedicated for Naval Search, so i have a nice pool of Pete and Alf which are useless
I increase the size of these units to 24, using the CS, and then they become nice IJNAF training squadrons....

[mind_messing]

I'd actually propose training LowNav for your fighter pilots rather than strafe.

They'll still build up Def skills, but the LowNav might come in handy to build pools of kami pilots, or hybrid fighter/anti-shipping pilots...

It's probably more suited to the IJA FB pilots, but Zero's can carry bombs too, and it makes more sense to use them against shipping than LCUs...

[ITAKLinus]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

I'd actually propose training LowNav for your fighter pilots rather than strafe.

They'll still build up Def skills, but the LowNav might come in handy to build pools of kami pilots, or hybrid fighter/anti-shipping pilots...

It's probably more suited to the IJA FB pilots, but Zero's can carry bombs too, and it makes more sense to use them against shipping than LCUs...

I noticed they get less def exp in this way but they are far more useful if you do not have an immediate need of pilots.

I have done the first part of the war using a lot of pilots directly from replacements to conserve the good ones for armoured and better planes. Just a couple of 45xZero and KB have the good ones.

Since I didn't have the need of good pilots in line immediately I have gone deep into the training stuff. And as far as I know the more 80+ exp pilots you have the better the training unit performs. You can even rotate the very same pool of 80+ exp pilots between units in order to give just the final push toward the desired level since for the first training month they go up fairly quick even without the elite ones in the unit

[Mike Solli]

1 Sep 43

Pretty quiet day today. The usual bombing, Kavieng being the sole target with about a dozen 2E bombers hitting the remnants of the SNLF deployed to the south of Kavieng and waiting to be steam rolled when the US division arrives.

Two ARs arrived at Truk.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: TK Kikusui Maru, Type-1 TM (8150 capacity)

The following planes became operational today:

N1K2-J George – Upgraded the K1 factories, producing 180 a month
Ki-49-IIb Helen – Upgraded the IIa factories, producing 90 a month
P1Y1 Francis – Converting the Sally factory, will produce 30 a month
J2M2 Jack – Will not produce
Ki-61-Ib Tony – Will not produce
Ki-61-Ic Tony – Will not produce

I had a fair number of pilots accelerate:

IJA – 148, month 9
IJN – 128, month 10
IJN – 377, month 5

That saves 3265 HI in pilot costs. Nice. [:)]

Overall, it was a decent month economically.

Supply: 3.85 million, up 168k. There is an additional 60k on cargo ships, headed to Rangoon.
Fuel: 3.36 million, up 31k, surprising, given the fact that KB was in combat most of the month. There is an additional 175k on TKs plus another 151k on AOs.
HI: 1.86 million, up 19k, much lower gain from previous months because I expanded some air/engine facilities and turned on all 620 armament factories (was only 120 in the past, but you’ll see the result below).
Resources: 20 mil, up 370k. There is an additional 670k on ships.
Oil: 2.28 million, down 28k, still doing fine here, I would have broken even had I not lost a couple TKs loaded with oil. There is an additional 60k on TKs.
Armaments: 132k, up 15k
Vehicle points: 22k, up 3700
MIA/KIA: 3586, up 303
Japanese score: 41,744, up 2484
Allied score: 20,155, up 1044, doing well here, 2.38:1 ratio in my favor this month, 2.07:1 overall.
Japanese planes lost: 8593 – 571 lost this month
Allied planes lost: 9491 – 775 lost this month – 1.35:1 ratio in my favor this month, 1.1:1 overall, I’m happy with this.
Allied troops lost: 16,273, up 264, mainly from China.
Japanese troops lost: 1794, up 77, mainly from China.
Allied ships sunk: 39 (1206 points)
Japanese ships sunk: 20 (304 points)

Japanese Sunk ships this month:
CV Hiyo
CVL Zuiho
DD Murakumo
5x subs
2x TK
1x AO
W-33
1x PB
7x xAK(L)

Confirmed Allied Sunk Ships this month:
CV Saratoga
CVE Anzio
CVE Santee
CVE Corregidor
BB New Mexico
CA Wichita
CA New Orleans
DD Laffey
2x DE
1x SS
1x TK
1x APA
1x AKA
1x xAP
12x xAK(L)
2x ACM
1x AM
1x YMS
Some other miscellaneous minor ships were confirmed sunk from previous months.

[Mike Solli]

2 Sep 43

Sub War

The I-162, patrolling to the east of Dutch Harbor, caught a small convoy of 2x xAKLs and sank one of them. The other is running the sub gauntlet and should be taken out tomorrow.

I have a couple of Aden xAKs hauling resources from Oosthaven to Java. I think it may be the only convoy I have that is unescorted. Well, it finally got caught today by a Dutch sub. Two attacks and 6 torpedoes later, one of the xAKs was sunk. I’m moving some ASW to that area. All those nice shallow hexes are really tough on subs.

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Ted did the right thing today and spread around his bomber sorties:

Manas: 103 sorties
Rabaul: 81 sorties
Talasea: 35 sorties

There were a total of 96x 4E, 113x 2E and 10x SBD sorties.

Kavieng and Hollandia didn’t need any more. They’re already trashed. Here’s current damage:

Manas: 66-55-63
Kavieng: 100-100-96
Rabaul: 0-28-26, they were fully repaired at the beginning of the turn.
Talasea: 0-81-62
Hollandia: 0-99-88

It is interesting to note that the US division stopped moving toward the remnants of the SNLF which is just south of Kavieng. I wonder why? The SNLF has only half a dozen squads (maybe) and there’s about 2 dozen combat squads in Kavieng. That US division can take Kavieng with no problem, but Ted doesn’t know that.

The 3x Fubuki class DDs that were sent on a bombardment mission to Namatanai pulled it off without a hitch. I didn’t get any intel on the 2 Allied units that are there, but they did cause 4 points each of port and port fuel damage and sank a PT boat. It’s always nice torching a little fuel.

Finally, two more ARs arrived at Truk, bringing the total to 5 ARs. Hopefully, that’ll help with the ship repairs.

I’m going to try and get some intel on the two Allied units in Namatanai one more time before sending some paratroopers to try and take it. I have 54 Tinas as well as about a dozen or so Emily and Mavis flying boats to drop as much of the para regiment as possible. If there aren’t any combat troops, they should be successful. That should be a bit of a surprise to Ted. We’ll see how it all goes. I may fly in some SNLF troops after that to beef up the defense. Yeah, it’ll just be temporary, but it’ll slow him down a bit more. Definitely worth the troops sacrificed for the greater good.

SRA
Burma

Nothing to report.

China

I almost set up a deliberate attack on Chungking for today, but decided to hold off until tomorrow. The 3 Tank Division arrived today. It had been running around cleaning up errant Chinese units scattered around the countryside. That adds another 370 AV to the attack force. The current attack force is 4641 right now and should go up another 100 or so for tomorrow’s attack. On 28 Aug, the Chinese AV was 13,776.

Other Stuff

Nothing to report.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

1 Sep 43


The following planes became operational today:

N1K2-J George – Upgraded the K1 factories, producing 180 a month
Ki-49-IIb Helen – Upgraded the IIa factories, producing 90 a month
P1Y1 Francis – Converting the Sally factory, will produce 30 a month
J2M2 Jack – Will not produce
Ki-61-Ib Tony – Will not produce
Ki-61-Ic Tony – Will not produce

I had a fair number of pilots accelerate:

IJA – 148, month 9
IJN – 128, month 10
IJN – 377, month 5

That saves 3265 HI in pilot costs. Nice. [:)]

Overall, it was a decent month economically.

Supply: 3.85 million, up 168k. There is an additional 60k on cargo ships, headed to Rangoon.
Fuel: 3.36 million, up 31k, surprising, given the fact that KB was in combat most of the month. There is an additional 175k on TKs plus another 151k on AOs.
HI: 1.86 million, up 19k, much lower gain from previous months because I expanded some air/engine facilities and turned on all 620 armament factories (was only 120 in the past, but you’ll see the result below).
Resources: 20 mil, up 370k. There is an additional 670k on ships.
Oil: 2.28 million, down 28k, still doing fine here, I would have broken even had I not lost a couple TKs loaded with oil. There is an additional 60k on TKs.
Armaments: 132k, up 15k
Vehicle points: 22k, up 3700
MIA/KIA: 3586, up 303
Japanese score: 41,744, up 2484
Allied score: 20,155, up 1044, doing well here, 2.38:1 ratio in my favor this month, 2.07:1 overall.
Japanese planes lost: 8593 – 571 lost this month
Allied planes lost: 9491 – 775 lost this month – 1.35:1 ratio in my favor this month, 1.1:1 overall, I’m happy with this.
Allied troops lost: 16,273, up 264, mainly from China.
Japanese troops lost: 1794, up 77, mainly from China.
Allied ships sunk: 39 (1206 points)
Japanese ships sunk: 20 (304 points)

Japanese Sunk ships this month:
CV Hiyo
CVL Zuiho
DD Murakumo
5x subs
2x TK
1x AO
W-33
1x PB
7x xAK(L)

Confirmed Allied Sunk Ships this month:
CV Saratoga
CVE Anzio
CVE Santee
CVE Corregidor
BB New Mexico
CA Wichita
CA New Orleans
DD Laffey
2x DE
1x SS
1x TK
1x APA
1x AKA
1x xAP
12x xAK(L)
2x ACM
1x AM
1x YMS
Some other miscellaneous minor ships were confirmed sunk from previous months.

Still in the "Happy Times" for IJ. [:D]

Do you track missions flown? I do as air missions are one of the largest supply sinks. Also operational losses. I monitor those as well as they are mostly under my control.

CV losses: While I think most AFB's would gladly make the trade above, they truth is those Junyo's are so fragile that even seeing a bomb will often cause them to seek a safe disguise as a fish reef. [:D]
So, losing a Junyo is almost a given if you use the KB. [:@] [:(]

Otherwise, as expected, your game is really on track.

[ITAKLinus]

Planes losses increasing though.

22 months from 7th Dec and this month you had 1/17th of total losses.

It's something due to aeronaval battles for sure, but also a marker of an increasing pressure on Air Groups.

Probably, in the very next months, losses will increase further.


Is production level accounting for that?

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

Still in the "Happy Times" for IJ. [:D]

Do you track missions flown? I do as air missions are one of the largest supply sinks. Also operational losses. I monitor those as well as they are mostly under my control.

CV losses: While I think most AFB's would gladly make the trade above, they truth is those Junyo's are so fragile that even seeing a bomb will often cause them to seek a safe disguise as a fish reef. [:D]
So, losing a Junyo is almost a given if you use the KB. [:@] [:(]

Otherwise, as expected, your game is really on track.

Hi Tony. Yes, I've been tracking missions flown since you mentioned it a while back. My average/day for the war is currently 4691, but as you can see, it's creeping up. I train everywhere I can whenever I can, so I suspect that accounts for a good chunk.

The Allied op losses are catching up with mine, but I suspect that's mainly due to his Air Force size increasing. But, whenever I do oppose his planes, a lot are damaged. That helps a lot.

When Hiyo is repaired, she's becoming the flagship of MKB. They're being based in the SRA. They're just too fragile to fight the US carriers.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: ITAKLinus

Planes losses increasing though.

22 months from 7th Dec and this month you had 1/17th of total losses.

It's something due to aeronaval battles for sure, but also a marker of an increasing pressure on Air Groups.

Probably, in the very next months, losses will increase further.


Is production level accounting for that?

Hi Francesco. Keep in mind that there were 3 carrier battles involving just about all of the US and Japanese operational carriers in August 43. To this point, these were the only carrier vs. carrier battles of the war other than a couple of minor scuffles where little damage was done on either side. Yes, pilot losses spiked, but that's inevitable. You have to spend pilots to kill carriers by air.

Overall, my average pilot losses per day (KIA & MIA) are 5.70. That's 171 a month. With the large increase in pilots entering training beginning January 1943, I'm good with the losses. And yes, the pilot losses are only going to increase. Here are the pilot losses since the war started:

12/41: 126
1/42: 131
2/42: 125
3/42: 129
4/42: 170
5/42: 134
6/42: 120
7/42: 212
8/42: 142
9/42: 246
10/42: 164
11/42: 158
12/42: 193
1/43: 216
2/43: 171
3/43: 144
4/43: 204
5/43: 256
6/43: 135
7/43: 107
8/43: 303

They are creeping up. It's inevitable though. It's only going to get much worse. It is interesting to note that of 21 months of war, the average was exceeded only 7 times: 7, 9, 12/42, 1, 4, 5, 8/43.

[ITAKLinus]

Well my point is another: do you have a solid reserve of F pilots in order to keep a negative rate of losses over newly trained pilots until you get mid-'44 huge reform?

I suppose everything is a matter of number of reserves + their quality + number of planes built and/or pool.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: ITAKLinus

Well my point is another: do you have a solid reserve of F pilots in order to keep a negative rate of losses over newly trained pilots until you get mid-'44 huge reform?

I suppose everything is a matter of number of reserves + their quality + number of planes built and/or pool.

I think I'll be ok. I will get the pool counts, pilot info, etc. later today. Errands to run then a turn to run. My minimum training is 50 exp, 70 air and now it's 70 def too. My pools don't look very large, but I have a LOT of experienced pilots training up their defense. I only started working on defense a couple of months ago (real time) from what I read. Never thought about it before. Also, the IJAAF is looking really good from all the experience they gain in Burma. I kept the IJNAF out of there because of how fragile the Zeros were, but now I have planes with armor, so they'll work on experience there as soon as the monsoon ends.

[ITAKLinus]

A plane without armor is a dead pilot.

That's why I an trying to keep my best initial pilots safe in the reserve.


Watch out for Oscars since apparently guys with high def stats perform very well put on the lowest bracket of the CAP.

[Lowpe]

[quoteI only started working on defense a couple of months ago (real time) from what I read. Never thought about it before.
[/quote]

The classic shift, and quite frankly I think defense is incredibly hard as the tactics the Allies can pursue are so numerous and require such different prep by Japan to counter.

Just remember that the Allies will have almost perfect knowledge of your defenses and will be able to pick areas that you have neglected over and over again if they wish to.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I only started working on defense a couple of months ago (real time) from what I read. Never thought about it before.

The classic shift, and quite frankly I think defense is incredibly hard as the tactics the Allies can pursue are so numerous and require such different prep by Japan to counter.

Just remember that the Allies will have almost perfect knowledge of your defenses and will be able to pick areas that you have neglected over and over again if they wish to.

I wasn't clear Lowpe. I was talking about the pilot defense stat. I've been working on ground defenses from day 1. But you are correct. We can't defend everywhere. Knowing where my defenses are basically nonexistent scare the hell out of me every time I look at the map.

[Mike Solli]

Here are some numbers for you experts to mull over...

These numbers are only what I have in the Home Islands.

Fuel: 2,322,572 - 18.1 month supply for the economy. I figure half gets used on ship and wastage so figure 9 months.
Oil: 1,986,277 - 8.6 month supply
Resources: 17,547,613 - 13.1 month supply

Supply: 2,090,394 - No clue if this is good or bad. Pax, what do you think?

Ok, percentage of my Empire's stuff that is in the Home Islands:

Fuel: 68.2%
Oil: 87.0%
Resources: 86.9%
Supply: 54.0%

Higher than I thought. Interesting...