Adventures with the AI ( stock scenario 2 )

[larryfulkerson]

I sent my finest fighter squadron to Bangkok and set them to sweeping Rangoon and it looks like their morning sweep has destroyed some Allied planes. I'm expecting the AVG to show up there before too long.

[larryfulkerson]

The thing I feared the most happened. Lots and lots of unescorted bombers hit Kota Bharu and destroyed a couple of planes on the ground but I lost only a single bomber. It's a miracle. I'm going to get it notorized and start a church. And the hits they got were the cat's meow. Almost makes it worth the bomber they shot down.

[larryfulkerson]

A squadron of unescorted Bettys hit Iba and got some pretty good hits on some Allied aircraft and the facilities. I have no idea why the Allied aircraft weren't aloft. Maybe it had something to do with the "surprise" factor.

[larryfulkerson]

I must have done something wrong with my carriers because I gave them a destination hex near Manila and they never arrived there. They are still in the home islands waters for some reason. They didn't teleport on the first turn like I thought they might and my first turn strikes on Manila's facilities never happened. This is what happened in my last game too. I still don't know what I did wrong.

[larryfulkerson]

I was going over the data on the cities and I came upon Hakodate and I'm astounded in the rise in the levels of some of it's goodies. Besides the large drop in supplies there was a magnificant rise in fuel, RES, and oil. I'm not complaining, I'm just wondering what caused it and can I cause it again. I've got AK's headed to Hakodate to start the xfer of it's goodies to Ominato's port. I also plan a route from Sapporo to Hirosaki for the 81K of RES there. According to my list of TF's there's a TF with 6K of RES leaving Sapporo bound for Hirosaki as we speak. There's a TF in Haiphong with 23K of RES headed to Samah. Unfortunately there's no TF's moving any oil at all. It's still early, the TK TF's must still be enroute to the sources of oil, Hakodate and Shikuka. Some of my hubs are already running low on supplies.

[larryfulkerson]

I went through the shipbuilding list and turned off the building of anything past about May of '44 and I turned off all the RO-xx subs. There's over 1000+ ships turned off and only 720 ships still building. I've accellerated only 9 ships so far.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm scanning the numbers of engines and aircraft and I'm not seeing a lot of problems. We seem to be in fairly good shape so far. I don't see any major changes needed.

[larryfulkerson]

I explained to my opponent what happened during T1 with the KB not teleporting and he graciously suggested I fix the problem with the KB and do the first turn over. So that's what we're going to do. I've given the KB a destination hex and a waypoint near Manila and I've sent the new file to him and we'll see some different results hopefully.

[BillBrown]

I see a couple of problems, and I expect there are more someone else will bring up.
You are producing no Kates at all.
You are building 55 2 engine bombers that require 2 Mitsubishi Ha-32 engines each and
you are only building 66 engines. You have enlarged the two bombers by a total of 65
airframes. You will need to be producing at least 240 engines per month in two months.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: BillBrown
I see a couple of problems, and I expect there are more someone else will bring up.
You are producing no Kates at all.
You are building 55 2 engine bombers that require 2 Mitsubishi Ha-32 engines each and
you are only building 66 engines. You have enlarged the two bombers by a total of 65
airframes. You will need to be producing at least 240 engines per month in two months.

Thanks Bill. Good eyes. I'll get after it and fix sll that stuff. When I did all that I was working quick and dirty because I was in a hurry to get my moves to what's-his-face and I didn't go over what I had done one more time like I should. I need to develope a checklist for all my procedures to avoid missing things like that. What's-his-face is allowing us to do the turn one combat over again so that means I'll have another T2 to be able to try to fix all the above items. I'd like to concentrate on just several aircraft models to cut down on inefficiencies in the rules and game engine performance. I've plans to emphasise aerial R&D to get the better models quicker.

[larryfulkerson]

It seems like the Manila sirstrikes might take place after all. The TF's are still quite a ways from Manila's airfield and port. I'll have to remember to adjust that in T2's adjustments.

[BillBrown]

Did KB end up at its waypoint? I do not think you can give a bonus TF a waypoint on turn 1 and have it work. There is only one naval movement
phase on turn 1. so a Tf with a waypoint set should end up at the waypoint.

[larryfulkerson]

It looks like it didn't even make it to the waypoint yet. But on the other hand it's an enormous distance from where it started so I'm guessing that it did teleport, sort of, but not like any of us expected. I had no idea what would happen myself. But it seemed worth trying.

[BillBrown]

Don't give it a waypoint. That TF can end up a bit East of Singapore if you want. Just give it a destination hex, no patrol area, no waypoint.

[larryfulkerson]

Just give it a destination hex...

Got it. Thanks a lot.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Elmer and I've landed at Kota Bhura and Aparri and Vigen and Legispi, and Miri, and Manus, and Kaiveng, and I've captured Alor Star and I've got a division headed for Rabaul and another division just arrived at Tokyo that I'm going to send to Palembang. Babledaop is low on supplies so invasions in the Celebes area have been put on hold.

My troop transports had no sooner unloaded their cargo at Tarawa than an American carrier group showed up and sank everything floating. I had neglected to provide them with any surface warships nor did I provide them with any air cover. Brian has done this to me at least twice before and I feel increadibly stupid.

I've bumped up the production in various categories as you can see in the image. I've got more than enough ARMament points for awhile so I've turned off production in that area. I've converted two ARM factories to VEHicles and I'm hoping that will help the VEH levels grow a bit.

My troops in Malaya are on the move and the third wave will be landing soon. Alor Star flipped by itself while I wasn't looking at it and now I own that too. There's a lot of damage there of the airfield so I've dispatched an ENG regiment in Patani to go fix it.

I've replaced the Oscar squadron at Bangkok with a squadron of Zeros and the air battles are more on a level field now. I'm up against the AVG over Rangoon and I need the best pilots I have for that squadron. I've got about 1K pilots in training and another 1.6K in combat squadrons and perhaps 200+ coming out of pilot training sometime soon. I'll post some pictures of the operating areas to give you an idea about what's going on.

[larryfulkerson]

I received some moves from Elmer and I noticed something and thought I'd send him an email to bring it to his attention just because I a nice guy.

Hey [Elmer]:
I'm in the middle of doing my moves and I was checking out the air losses so far and I discovered that the AVG is losing in Ops events almost as many as are being shot down. If I were you I think I might change something with the squadron. What cures Ops losses except for a shorter range? Newer planes? More AF dudes?

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

ORIGINAL: BillBrown

Did KB end up at its waypoint? I do not think you can give a bonus TF a waypoint on turn 1 and have it work. There is only one naval movement
phase on turn 1. so a Tf with a waypoint set should end up at the waypoint.

Hi Bill,
I know i'm no expert but i've tried everything. I have used waypoints on bonus tfs on turn one to have them meet up with other task forces and merge. It takes a little bit of trial and error but it works.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: RADM.Yamaguchi

ORIGINAL: BillBrown
Did KB end up at its waypoint? I do not think you can give a bonus TF a waypoint on turn 1 and have it work. There is only one naval movement
phase on turn 1. so a Tf with a waypoint set should end up at the waypoint.

Hi Bill,
I know i'm no expert but i've tried everything. I have used waypoints on bonus tfs on turn one to have them meet up with other task forces and merge. It takes a little bit of trial and error but it works.

[Elmer] let me re-do the turn and I finally did it correctly and we've been gaming ever since. Maybe I should post something to update you guys what's happening now.