Banzais Don't Make Victories - Anachro (A) vs John 3rd (J) BTS 5.7

[jwolf]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

If your signal intelligence says something like "it is real busy at the store" or "month end inventory" and then radio silence....... That is a good thing

Heh, instead of SIGINT that sounds more like PSYINT.

[Canoerebel]

John will usually jump all over a bad turn and flip it pretty quickly with a gracious comment or a pissy one, depending on his mood. But if he should prevail in a carrier clash, we all know what the comment and mood shall be.

[Anachro]

John has a tendency to split off his forces to chase a juicy target if spotted. I think the only big danger to me this turn is an unexpected surface action.

[paullus99]

He does like to put his head in the lion's mouth, doesn't he?

[JohnDillworth]

Well, it is a game. And for the most part, John has seems to have a lot of fun with it

[Canoerebel]

John does have a lot of fun and, despite the holes in his game, he's a pretty doggone good player. I've played a lot of old timers now, and John compares favorably to most. And his style of play makes it especially fun for the Allied player. He's so aggressive and enthusiastic that the Allied player ends up feeling like he's riding a bronc at a rodeo.

John's said before that he finds it difficult to read the AARs kept by his opponents, due to the many comments that may come across as harsh. His braggadocio style is responsible for a lot of that, but it doesn't change the fact that he's a nice guy and a great opponent.

But that daggum braggadocio is a sight to behold. So I have to pull for Anachro, to avoid the dreaded "Banzai!" crap.

[Anachro]

January 2nd, 1943

Nothing! My carriers move short of their flank speed target and....are 9 hexes away from John's carriers. He knows my entire force is there now..shucks. My carriers were supposed to move a further 3 hexes up. They would have been 6 hexes distant... Oh well, my DBs and fighters at Luganville get slaughtered. Put away the popcorn, guys.

I think I know why...for some reason my carrier TF commander decided to "retreat from air threat." And of course, John says "I KNEW IT! Bet you waited in agony to watch this turn all day. Wish my shift hadn’t lasted so long so I could have gotten it back to you earlier." Yeah, I'm sure he knew it. His carriers are in a terrible position; if my carriers hadn't decided to flee an air threat (carriers fleeing an air threat?) he'd be in very bad shape. Shame.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

January 2nd, 1943

Nothing! My carriers move short of their flank speed target and....are 9 hexes away from John's carriers. He knows my entire force is there now..shucks. My carriers were supposed to move a further 3 hexes up. They would have been 6 hexes distant... Oh well, my DBs and fighters at Luganville get slaughtered. Put away the popcorn, guys.

I think I know why...for some reason my carrier TF commander decided to "retreat from air threat." And of course, John says "I KNEW IT! Bet you waited in agony to watch this turn all day. Wish my shift hadn’t lasted so long so I could have gotten it back to you earlier." Yeah, I'm sure he knew it. His carriers are in a terrible position; if my carriers hadn't decided to flee an air threat (carriers fleeing an air threat?) he'd be in very bad shape. Shame.

The fleeing air threat thing is why I set most of my TFs to Direct/Absolute routing ... it also helps to set a waypoint at the destination hex.

[Anachro]

Yeah, I set them to absolute for the coming turn, but I've never seen carriers react in such a cowardly way before...and I sent three carriers against the full KB in January '42 once!

[CaptBeefheart]

Ah, you must feel like Geraldo when he opened Al Capone's vault. Shucks.

Did you set the CV TFs to patrol a certain area or to move to a destination hex? After years of playing against the AI, I eventually discovered I usually have better luck at interception if I send them to patrol a certain area with "remain on station" not selected, of course. Also, I assume you don't have any low aggression TF commanders, but I have to ask.

Cheers,
CB

[Anachro]

All are good carrier TF commanders. Of course, I didn't go for Halsey because he is too aggressive, but Spruance, etc. The key factor here is I should have gone for "absolute" threat tolerance.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

All are good carrier TF commanders. Of course, I didn't go for Halsey because he is too aggressive, but Spruance, etc. The key factor here is I should have gone for "absolute" threat tolerance.

With CVs yes, ALWAYS if you want to engage. In fact I don't like to leave reactions to chance unless it's TFs I know I specifically want to be careful with, so I choose absolute most of the time for everything.

Very odd, still. If I flank in I always use a direct hex selection destination with "remain on station." Works for me.

[Anachro]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Very odd, still. If I flank in I always use a direct hex selection destination with "remain on station." Works for me.

This is what I do. I have never seen carrier TFs act as happened. Nonetheless, three of my four TFs had "avoiding air threat" messages. Lesson learned for future.

[Lecivius]

At least you didn't have 1 TF react into him & the rest away. That might not have gone well. I am surprised he juked away, shows what little I know.

[Anachro]

This happened again the next turn. John flankspeed fled to Lunga with his carriers (none of his TFs ran into my minefield it seems, still unspotted). My carriers are southeast of Luganville 13 hexes away...and they are still fleeing an air threat. Keep in mind all their threat tolerances are set to "absolute," including this TF. It seems I am going to have to use Halsey as my TF commander, probably for the TF I set as the leader for everyone to follow.

[jwolf]

Wild speculation: is the problem that your carrier force is split into several small TFs? Each one may be comparing its own air power against the perceived enemy CV threat ... and coming up with the "flee" answer even though your overall force would be sufficient.

[Anachro]

If so, stupid since the game is designed for the Allied player to split carriers into multiple TFs, but could be the reason.

[Canoerebel]

For goodness sakes, don't use Halsey. He has his uses, but not in 1943 in an environment where there's a possibility of parity or inferiority.

In my game with John III, Halsey commanded the CA Baltimore combat TF, set to patrol near Wake Island. The crazy goofball reacted all the way to Marcus - how many hexes is that, 15? - and nearly got chewed alive by enemy bombers. He's uncontrollable, like Patton on speed.

Whatever the problem is, you'll figure it out or it's a one-time thing. Check your commanders when your TFs return to port to make sure there's nobody there with a 20s aggression rating. Make sure that you didn't accidentally set any of your TFs to Low threat tolerance.

[Anachro]

There is nobody with a 20 aggression rating...

[apbarog]

I've seen messages like that carry-over to subsequent turns. When I reset the task forces destination, the message would go away. Do so for each task force and they should be reset.