Notes from a Small Island

[jwolf]

Congrats on the Wakkanai op. Once that base is secure, you have the potential for naval ops in the Sea of Japan, if you want to go there. At the very least, you will be able to trash the airfields at Sapporo and the base (don't know the name) on the north side of the island near the word Hokkaido on the map.

[Canoerebel]

Thanks, jwolf. Wakkanai was a fun op that managed to go according to plan. That's a rarity.

It does open the Sea of Japan if, as you say, I want to go there. I will eventually. Meanwhile, there are a number of big things coming.

The other base you're referring to is Bihoro, on Hokkaido's NE coast. It's vulnerable to bombardment and bombing, and Erik hasn't used it for major air ops in awhile. I don't think it's mined, and a few small Allied craft have visited the port recently. It's 1x terrain, and makes a logical next target.

[jwolf]

He'll be worried about me landing a huge army for an overland campaign, taking advantage of the fact that I don't need prep. But I'm not going to do that. I don't want to get involved in a stalemate campaign in the woods, preferring instead to maintain the mobility of amphibious ops.

Dan, I'm curious about this, too. Will there come a time when you will be open to a massive ground campaign, more like the European theater?

[Canoerebel]

Sure. That's going to happen sooner or later. Before engaging in a massive land campaign (and, for that matter, serious strategic bombing), I need to get a better handle on the air war and batter Erik's army a bit, both to whittle down his reserves and to increase the experience of my units. So cleaning up some of the Kuriles is the short-term plan, but evaluating opportunities and preparing for the long-term plan is already underway.

[Canoerebel]

1/3/45

Intel Screen Comparisons: The Allied position on the map is very encouraging, especially considering where they started and what needed to be done to close on the Home Islands. But the points screen is still very lopsided in favor of Japan. Lots of work to be done in this game, but the Allies have the position from which to work effectively, I believe.

[Canoerebel]

1/3/45

Shikuka: The Allied base of operations.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

1/2/45

NoPac: Erik spent an inordinate amount of time with this turn (or so it seems to me).

Hrm, I hope it's OK to share, but... I sent him the turn for our game a few days ago. He seems to be conducting a big op in that one right now, and he just sent the turn back to me this morning. So he was perhaps working on that one.

[Canoerebel]

Too, he's back in school and just recently moved. Those things kept him busy. So I'm not positive in reading between the lines here, but putting all the puzzle pieces together, I do think he's working the turns carefully at present.

[BBfanboy]

Nice work!
The Total Victory Points part of the Intel screens tells a story. When you started the Japanese lead was ~ 23,000 points; now it is ~ 13,000 points, and you have made the most difficult and costly moves to get yourself established here. Now it's time to sink his crippled ships and bomb every port you can reach so he cannot effectively repair them.

I don't know of an easy way to grind down his massive aircraft production, except for DS covering bombardment TFs to smash his airfields when they have lots of aircraft on them.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Nice work!
The Total Victory Points part of the Intel screens tells a story. When you started the Japanese lead was ~ 23,000 points; now it is ~ 13,000 points, and you have made the most difficult and costly moves to get yourself established here. Now it's time to sink his crippled ships and bomb every port you can reach so he cannot effectively repair them.

I don't know of an easy way to grind down his massive aircraft production, except for DS covering bombardment TFs to smash his airfields when they have lots of aircraft on them.

Engines. Factories.

[HansBolter]

Dan,

My game is in March '45 and I have been strat bombing two targets sporadically only at night for about the last three months and have racked up 10k victory points with the effort.

I thought I saw further back where you referred to the B29-25 as the night bombing version.

That version has full armament in my game with the only difference between it and the B29-1 being the pair of .50 caliber tail guns where the B29-1 has a 20mm cannon in the tail.

In my gane its the B29-B that is stripped down with only tail guns, which would make it the 'night bomber' version.


The Ironman AI has massive fighter cover of all improtant bases with minor bases getting 250+ and major bases getting 400-600+ fighters.

As a result I have limited all strategic bombing to night missions flying against Nagasaki from Chansha and against Hiroshima from Tinian.

I've been pleasently sdurprised at the results from a pure night bombing effort.

Have you tested his night figher coverage for strategic missions?

[anarchyintheuk]

Re your damaged ships. Don't know where your ARDs are but you could probably put a couple in Kodiak or even closer to help the queue.

[anarchyintheuk]

Now I have the song 'Badge' stuck in my head. Good times.

[Canoerebel]

I'd forgotten that there's a B-29-B, so perhaps I'm all confused about the -25 model. Thanks for the tip. I'll check out the stats next turn.

See Erik's post in Miller's game, referencing Erik's fighter/AA tactics. Erik is really good and prepared. He has all the main bases covered with nighttime fighters and heavy AA. Every now and then, I try a mission and regret it. The most recent was about 100 B-29-25s that targetd Maebashi's Jack Factory. They scored one hit, and 16 of the Superforts were lost.

There is no profitable way to engage in strategic bombing until I am in position to take control of air space over a base. Proximity is key. Right now, there's a possibility that I can do that at Kushiro and Sapporo, but there's no chance further south (except at small bases that have little to offer, and even those get bleedover LRCAP or CAP at night).

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk
Re your damaged ships. Don't know where your ARDs are but you could probably put a couple in Kodiak or even closer to help the queue.

ARDs are at Adak Island, further forward than Kodiak. They are helping, but they only handle FLT damage. Most of my ships damaged in combat also need ENG repairs, so that means the West Coast yards.

[HansBolter]

Can't ARs repair engine damage? I always combine both ARs and ARDs at whatever port I allocate for forward repairs.

I have almost all of mine at Agrihan where my fleet is prepping for a leap to the PI and Okinawa.

[HansBolter]

The few times I experimented with targeting factories the results were disappointing.

I have only been hitting Manpower for the fires it starts and the damage spreads to everything.

[Canoerebel]

Nightime strikes on Manpower hasn't worked well either - the losses are too heavy.

Weather permitting, this next turn will offer a glimpse of my strategic bombing plan. I'll go into it in more detail (if weather permits the raids).

[jwolf]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Can't ARs repair engine damage? I always combine both ARs and ARDs at whatever port I allocate for forward repairs.

I have almost all of mine at Agrihan where my fleet is prepping for a leap to the PI and Okinawa.

I believe an AR will only repair up to 5 points of engine and/or float damage. Nothing but a shipyard will repair engine damage greater than that.

[anarchyintheuk]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk
Re your damaged ships. Don't know where your ARDs are but you could probably put a couple in Kodiak or even closer to help the queue.

ARDs are at Adak Island, further forward than Kodiak. They are helping, but they only handle FLT damage. Most of my ships damaged in combat also need ENG repairs, so that means the West Coast yards.

Thanks for the update. As always