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

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Any thoughts on using the 27 artillery units there to bombard more frequently than just during the assaults?

Absolutely, there's little reason to not have them bombard every turn. The only one I could think of is if you're low on supply.

These units will have no disruption and little fatigue, and will gain little of either as I'm sure his response will be virtually non-existent. At the very least you'll be adding to his disruption/fatigue levels and he'll be expending what little supply he may have or get in 'counter-battery' fire.

So, I say blast away.

That's what I've been thinking. I have plenty of supply in China. There's really not a lot going on there most of the time.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: ny59giants_MatrixForum

Hit the "D" button to bring up the Database.
Sort by Infantry.
Look at anti-armor and anti-soft values for Allied squads.
Stay away from the Marines. [:-]

I never knew that! It's brilliant!

Just another reason to use Tracker.

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: ny59giants_MatrixForum

Hit the "D" button to bring up the Database.
Sort by Infantry.
Look at anti-armor and anti-soft values for Allied squads.
Stay away from the Marines. [:-]

I never knew that! It's brilliant!

Just another reason to use Tracker.

But if the 'D' key does the job....[:)]

Personally I was unaware of it myself, will try it tonight.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli




I never knew that! It's brilliant!

Just another reason to use Tracker.

But if the 'D' key does the job....[:)]

Personally I was unaware of it myself, will try it tonight.

It doesn't really, though. Tracker allows you to see them all in one place that's much easier to read, and to more quickly/easily sort.

[rustysi]

will try it tonight.

'D' key is quicker than my normal way, I usually use the button on the menu bar.

Tracker may be better, don't know, don't use it.

[mind_messing]

Tracker also provides build rates and upgrade paths for devices in a centralised screen, which is info spread over a couple of screens in-game.

[Mike Solli]

3 Dec 43

Sub War

I-18, the last of the subs chasing Bunker Hill (unsuccessfully) was caught by an ASW TF and hit once by a depth charge causing moderate damage: 12-39(22)-4(1)-0. She was already heading back to port. Now it'll be a bit slower.

5 Fleet

The BB Bombardment TF arrived in the vicinity of Umnak. The Nagato and Mutsu will bombard tomorrow, Yamato and Musashi, the day after. Lets see how they do.

I split the 19 Division into 3 regiments and learned that each regiment repaired disrupted squads as efficiently as the full division. In other words, the AC increased by 14 vs. the 4-6 a day for the division. Should have done that long ago. [8|] Yeah, I knew that but just never got around to doing it.

4 Fleet

Bunker Hill successfully made Pearl Harbor. Remember spotting 2 carrier groups and thinking there were 2 damaged carriers? I asked Ted about it and he told me the other one was the CV TF that Bunker Hill originally belonged to. They just happened to reach Pearl at the same time.

The only thing going on here now are Corsair and Hellcat sweeps from Mili to Roi-Namur. There are about a dozen damaged fighters at Roi and the airfield is still down, but repairing.

I swept Mili from Wotje with 4 Georges and found a CAP of 2 Hellcats and 2 Corsairs. For the loss of a George, both Hellcats were shot down. Little CAP. Wish I had something to hit Mili with, but nothing is in range.

SE Fleet

Pretty quiet here. Some 100 bombers hit Rabaul for no real damage to either side.

SRA

Sixteen SBDs flying out of Darwin hit a barge TF sinking 3 barges and a Kiso PB (for fuel) for no loss at Saumlaki. Now I'll just use air transports to keep supply flowing there. Supply is good and forts are up to 5.90.

Burma

I shot down 2 Warhawks over Ledo and then my bombers went in (55, less than half). Glad got a couple and they did exactly 1 airbase damage. [8|] This ain't working.

China

Half my bombers flew, killing 12 squads and disabling another 75.

I set my 27 artillery units to bombard. They'll continue to bombard as long as there's supply. Right now, there is a LOT of supply available.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

RO-115, headed to the SRA.
4 South Seas Det, a tiny one with only 27 infantry squads, Attu garrison.
MTB G-160

The S-47 was confirmed sunk at Dutch Harbor on 9/4/43 by a 16" shell, either Nagato or Mutsu during a bombardment there.

[rustysi]

I split the 19 Division into 3 regiments and learned that each regiment repaired disrupted squads as efficiently as the full division. In other words, the AC increased by 14 vs. the 4-6 a day for the division. Should have done that long ago.

Oh, that's good to know. I was not sure myself and don't know why I never tried it. Thanks Mike.

4 South Seas Det, a tiny one with only 27 infantry squads, Attu garrison.

That's not the 'South Seas'.[:D]

[Mike Solli]

4 Dec 43

Sub War

Good day for a change. I hit a Dutch sub twice off Balikpapan and the Escolar was hit again off Truk. She’s got heavy damage now.

5 Fleet

I bombarded with a couple of BBs causing a lot of damage to the base force but not much to the infantry regiment:

Naval bombardment of Umnak Island at 169,51 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
C-47 Skytrain: 1 damaged
C-47 Skytrain: 1 destroyed on ground
Bolingbroke IV: 1 damaged
P-400 Airacobra: 1 damaged

6 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
BB Mutsu
BB Nagato
CL Agano
DD Tokitsukaze
DD Amatsukaze
DD Maikaze

Allied ground losses:
240 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 20 destroyed, 50 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 4 disabled
Vehicles lost 19 (5 destroyed, 14 disabled)

Airbase hits 9
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 59
Port hits 6

I’ll bombard again with Yamato and Musashi tomorrow. No ground attack yet. I didn’t do enough damage to the infantry to make me comfortable. My offensive AV is 211 to the Allied 125. I’ll take my time and do it right. There's a blizzard going on anyway. Who wants to fight in a blizzard?

4 Fleet

More Hellcats and Corsairs swept Roi-Namur. No bombing there so my airfield repaired a little more.

A few Georges swept Mili shooting down a Corsair and Hellcat for no loss.

SE Fleet

Ted was happy to bomb Rabaul’s few troops marooned there killing off the remnants an AAA battalion.

Everywhere else in the area was quiet.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

My Helens hit Ledo killing a transport on the ground and damaging a few more, while doing a little airfield damage. No enemy fighters rose to meet me anywhere in Burma.

China

The artillery bombardment was a success. I’m going to continue it every day:

Ground combat at Chungking (76,45)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 7855 troops, 434 guns, 595 vehicles, Assault Value = 6803

Defending force 337569 troops, 585 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 9583

Allied ground losses:
729 casualties reported
Squads: 44 destroyed, 27 disabled
Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 9 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

The Chinese AV is showing as 9583, down from 10,322 on 11/28/43, the last deliberate assault. Interesting. With no forts, the air bombing must be doing nice work. By the way, the air bombing killed off 7 squads while disabling another 170. We’re getting there.

Other Stuff

The Ha-43 engine R&D advanced to 11/44 (will become operational 5/44).

I got confirmation of the sinking of a good sized TK on 3/1/43 near Noumea by sub.

[rustysi]

There's a blizzard going on anyway. Who wants to fight in a blizzard?

Its the Aleutians in Dec, there's always a blizzard.[:D]

[mind_messing]

From my experience it's the artillery that really makes a difference at Chungking once the defenders are out of supply. It massively increases the rate at which Chinese units get disabled/destroyed and (more importantly IMO) increases levels of fatigue/disruption. Seeing as the defenders can't use supply to take replacements or reserve mode in case of attacks, it's a real win-win for Japan. Even if the supply consumption increases as a result, it's the best value for money in terms of VP Japan is ever going to get in game.

[Mike Solli]

I'm going to stick with daily artillery bombardment of Chungking. I have to agree with you that it's going to be significant to the fall of that city, especially now that the forts are gone.

[Mike Solli]

If any of you are wondering, Ted has been out of town this week and didn't expect to get any turns done. I've been toying with the idea of starting another game to try and right all the mistakes I made with this one. About a week or so ago, I approached another long time AE player and, to my surprise, he accepted! So, we're playing the campaign. Since I'm off work until next Wednesday and Ted is out living it up, I've been working on the first turn. At first, it was daunting (as usual), but I'm working through it step by step and it's going much better. I'm taking my start for this game and modifying it from my experiences.

Currently, I'm looking at the small tankers, but from a different perspective. It's a ratio, Capacity/tonnage. Turns out, the best of the little guys is the Type-1 TM with at C/T of 1.273 and 14 kt speed as a bonus! Here are the numbers:

Type-1 TM: 1.273, 6400t, 8150c, 14kt
Type-1 TS: 1.116, 1120t, 1250c, 12kt, 31 in game on 12/7
Manzyu TM: 1.112, 7150t, 7950c, 12kt, 13 in game on 12/7
Std-E: 1.000, 860t, 860c, 9kt
Std-C: 0.983, 2900t, 2850c, 12kt, 17 available to convert (June 42) on 12/7
Std-D: 0.938, 2100t, 1970c, 12kt
Std-B: 0.915, 4670t, 4275c, 14kt
Std-A: 0.877, 6600t, 5785c, 13kt

I have a lot of the Type-1 TM. I've also built a fair number of the Std-C and a handful each of the -A and -B. Next game I'll focus on the Type-1 TM and the Std-B, which is a little smaller, along with what I get at the start. I'll still build a number of the big hulls to move fuel/oil out of Singapore.

Just some random thoughts. What do you guys think?

[Mike Solli]

5 Dec 43

Sub War

Lots of Allied subs shooting unsuccessfully at my ASW TFs and my ASW TFs not dropping any depth charges.

5 Fleet

The Yamato and Musashi bombarded Umnak, hitting the support forces and missing the infantry again. [8|] Glad I didn't do a deliberate assault. The raw Japanese AV is now up to 215 with the Allied raw AV down to 120. I'm moving some more naval support to Adak along with a couple of AKEs hoping I can get the BBs to reload their main tubes and speed up this little operation.

Night Naval bombardment of Umnak Island at 169,51

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
C-47 Skytrain: 4 damaged
C-47 Skytrain: 2 destroyed on ground
Bolingbroke IV: 1 damaged
Bolingbroke IV: 1 destroyed on ground

Japanese Ships
BB Musashi
BB Yamato

Allied ground losses:
130 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 31 destroyed, 40 disabled
Engineers: 5 destroyed, 1 disabled
Vehicles lost 27 (13 destroyed, 14 disabled)

Airbase hits 10
Runway hits 30
Port hits 5

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

The day started with 5 of my DDs moving to Aitape, sinking the two YMS there, and bombarding the Aussies before skedaddling successfully.

Ted bombed my rabble at Rabaul again.

SRA

My naval search found a small Allied TF west of Australia in the middle of nowhere. I'm sending 3 subs that have been hanging out near Perth and a fourth heading down there to investigate. (See below.)

Burma

Over Ledo, my Franks shot down 3 of 5 P-40N5s, then some of my Helens went in. At a cost of a couple of Helens to flak, I destroyed a transport on the ground. [8|] Yeah, that's working well.

China

Another artillery bombardment:

Ground combat at Chungking (76,45)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 7855 troops, 434 guns, 595 vehicles, Assault Value = 6848

Defending force 337799 troops, 583 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 9618

Allied ground losses:
725 casualties reported
Squads: 24 destroyed, 19 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Other Stuff

The Ki-84r R&D advanced to 7/44 (will become operational 2/44).

[mind_messing]

Getting the Frank R that early in 1944 bodes well for you in the air war.

Regarding the poor results at Ledo and Umnak, are the detection levels maxed out? I've seen massively improved results from bombing missions when DL is kept consistently at 10/10. This normally requires dedicated recon squadrons at work, but Japan has plenty of those (and more once they split into A/B/C components) and I think it might help get better results.

That said, by late '43 airbase bombing is a wash-out for Japan in most tactical circumstances, especially in Burma where the British get some massive AA units with truly formidable guns. That said, I'm convinced you can generate good results if you get a good target with maxed detection levels and flying at 10k or 11k feet. You'll take a beating to flak but it keeps you out of the envelope of the omnipresent 40mm Bofors that is the woe of so many Japanese planes.

With the two Yamato's reluctance to shoot at troops, try throwing them into a fast transport TF loaded with supply. The defending units will shoot at the unloading ships, and bear the full brunt of 18.1 inch return shells.

However, a general comment about the North Pacific theatre is that you're fast approaching the point where the Allies don't need the Aleutians to assault the Kuriles - they can do it from Pearl. Every unit deployed eastwards of Paramushrio-Jima is a unit that can potentially get cut off if the Allies throw themselves ashore on the Kuriles. I'd consider examining how to get everything out and back to the Kuriles within the next three or four months. I'd also look at it as a fuel saving exercise as well - once you're back ensconced in the Kuriles, you'll be able to keep the fuel hogging battleships in port within easy sortie distance rather than roaming around NorPac

[Mike Solli]

John, I'm pretty excited about getting the Frank r too. Also, it'll free up 6 R&D factories. I also finish the Oscar line in 2/44 giving me another 4 R&D factories. I'm thinking of starting them all on the J7W1. That's on my list for late war fighters, and I haven't started working on them yet.

My thought on bombing Ledo is to accelerate the downfall of Chungking. I may give up on that altogether. Artillery bombardment seems to be doing ok. That by itself will destroy more infantry than his replacements create. Coupled with 2-3 deliberate attacks a month should do him in. He's up to almost 100 transports at Ledo though. That's a decent amount of extra supply a day. I have flak at Chungking and am flying LRCAP there and I am shooting down no transports. What am I missing? I can't figure it out.

I'm almost done playing around in the Aleutians. Even with the fleet moving quite a bit, my fuel is increasing ~7-8k a day, much better than I expected by this point in the war. I currently have 3.3 million on map with another 250k on ships heading to Japan. The only place I currently had a surplus was at Singapore (the major hub) and it's being loaded now for the trek to Japan. I'm doing a nice job of keeping oil and fuel drained from the other locations.

I just offloaded a Naval HQ at Adak. I'm going to try and load the BBs there tomorrow. Keeping fingers crossed. It probably won't work because the AKEs haven't arrived yet.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I've been toying with the idea of starting another game to try and right all the mistakes I made with this one.

A never ending quest! [:)]

[mind_messing]

John, I'm pretty excited about getting the Frank r too. Also, it'll free up 6 R&D factories. I also finish the Oscar line in 2/44 giving me another 4 R&D factories. I'm thinking of starting them all on the J7W1. That's on my list for late war fighters, and I haven't started working on them yet.

It's a good one, but it's pretty inflexible. Pretty much defensive CAP only. And IJN.

I'd put some effort in to it by all means, but I'd have a look at the Shinden versus the Ki-83. Extra cost for having two engines, but that extra range with much the same stats give the '83 that much more utility. Plus, it's IJA, so more squadrons to use it.

My thought on bombing Ledo is to accelerate the downfall of Chungking. I may give up on that altogether. Artillery bombardment seems to be doing ok. That by itself will destroy more infantry than his replacements create. Coupled with 2-3 deliberate attacks a month should do him in. He's up to almost 100 transports at Ledo though. That's a decent amount of extra supply a day. I have flak at Chungking and am flying LRCAP there and I am shooting down no transports. What am I missing? I can't figure it out.

If he's flying transport missions from Ledo, try LRCAP of Ledo itself. Sweep first to clear off the CAP then have some squadrons LRCAP the hex. If the transports are flying, they should be intercepted by LRCAP.

Either way, I'd just send the bombers to help Chungking by bombing Chungking directly. If he is flying supply in, the extra bombs landing on the airbase supply dumps will make it a pointless venture.

I'm almost done playing around in the Aleutians. Even with the fleet moving quite a bit, my fuel is increasing ~7-8k a day, much better than I expected by this point in the war. I currently have 3.3 million on map with another 250k on ships heading to Japan. The only place I currently had a surplus was at Singapore (the major hub) and it's being loaded now for the trek to Japan. I'm doing a nice job of keeping oil and fuel drained from the other locations.

I just offloaded a Naval HQ at Adak. I'm going to try and load the BBs there tomorrow. Keeping fingers crossed. It probably won't work because the AKEs haven't arrived yet.

Yeah, the time is fast approaching where the Allied machine is going to be able to grind down the Aleutians regardless of what you do, and the geography works very much against Japan in that theatre. So make sure to snatch as much as you can out of the way of the grinder beforehand! From my own past experiences I get cagey come '44 - that big Allied suckerpunch can appear just about anywhere on the map...

Those numbers look veeery good. That's roughtly, what, just less than a year surplus fuel? Solid numbers, but supply tends to be the killer.

[PaxMondo]

J7W v Ki-83

Personally, I don't think there is a bad decision here. They are different though. As MM points out, J7W is purely defensive, but it is really good at that. Competitive against anything the allies have late war. Ki-83 is really good as escort; it won't just be ablative armor in that role and will let you take advantage of the range that your bombers have. It can also be used in CAP, but it won't be as good as the J7W. And of course it costs twice as much to build.

IJN/IJA difference, I'm not worried about it. Particularly here. You are starting late on the RnD, so you won't get these much more than 2 months early no matter what you do. Given that, you can't possibly build enough to field more than 3 or 4 groups (of size 36-49). Now, if you were talking about getting these in May 44 where you might be able to build 1000's before game end, I might have a different opinion. [;)]

[Mike Solli]

Lots of opinions. I love it! [:D] Keeps me thinking.

What I've decided (long ago) to work on for late war are 4 fighters, 2 for each service.

Shinden: purely defensive. Reason being it's IJN. My thoughts all along were to use the IJAAF as much as possible to preserve the IJNAF pilots for the carriers. I don't expect to have any effective carriers late war, so those surviving really good pilots will land based. Right now no R&D factories. [:(]

Sam: I screwed up as we all know. I have 11x30 factories repaired as follows: 9, 8, 7, 6, 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 1. I'll probably add 1 or 2 more in a few months. We'll see how that turns out. Right now I have no estimate as to when I'll get them.

Frank r: I get these in February 44. This is one of the few things I did right. Hopefully, they'll prove their worth. the "a" model is putting some serious hurting on the Allies. I'm hoping for some good things here.

Ki-201 Karyu: I started these early (possibly at the start of the war, can't remember). I currently have 6x30 factories repaired as follows: 20, 15, 15, 11, 8, 3. The problem is the NE Turbojet. I won't get them until February 45 so I can't accelerate using engines until then.

The main reason I didn't go with the Ki-83 was the cost. In retrospect, that may have been a bad decision. Unfortunately, it's too late to make any more changes.

So, I'll have the Frank r soon (yay!), the Shinden maybe a few months early (shrug), hopefully the Sam in early 45 and the Ki-201 in late 45.

I have the George 2 now, which is pretty good and will get the George 5 in May 44. That'll have to do for the IJN. [8|]