Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[John B.]

Sending 3 MTB TFs as we speak.

[RangerJoe]

How about barges to mess up his surface TF, maybe even get a carrier TF or two which then would react away - possibly towards LBA set to strike one hex short of the main carrier group?

[John B.]

Not a bad idea but, alas, I don't have a whole lot of supply to spend on those things at Okinawa. But, the MTBs did their job! They did not sink much (just a DE and a small AP (with a large AP reported as sinking in a collision)) but it did prevent the landing this turn as the landing force reacted away. I'm not sure how much good that will do me in the long run but I guess it removes the target hex one turn from his big shore bombardment that he put in. An MTB also put a torpedo into the Renown. No real reported damage but if Scott wants to fix it it will take a long long time.

I misjudged where his small invasion TF was going so my carriers did not do much. But, they also did not get hit by his carriers! I should be able to make it back to Tokyo without getting smashed by his CVs.

[John B.]

Okinawa invasion day two. This time Scott got ashore, but, oddly, in the afternoon with only a few units. He has been plastering the island with heavies and naval air which has increased my disruption but not done much damage to my units. I'm not sure how he managed to time the invasion for after the airstrikes but he did. We'll see if my CD fort can score some hits on the second wave (unless Scott and time the invasion again).

I'm gather forces to put some hurt on the Americans in China. My tank divisions should be good against his isolated armor.

[John B.]

Otherwise, more planes shot down over Manila. As far as I'm concerned, Manila is doing exactly what I hoped. It is tying down lots of his troops and he keeps using his entire medium bomber force and losing 2-3 planes per day. Much better than having those bombs rain down on me in China or Okinawa! I think he needs to ignore Manila or just go in and dig me out of there. This is the worst of both worlds for him (IMHO).

[RangerJoe]

See if you can repeat with MTBs at Okinawa. You might also want to try night torpedo bombing as well. Using torpedo bombers with bombs at 1000 feet, they suffer no low altitude bomb loss like level bombers. You could also set that up for any resupply/reinforcement convoys to China. Even float planes at 1000 feet do good damage to DDs and transports.

[John B.]

Oh, good idea. I'll give that a shot! Do betties do well at night at low altitude?

[RangerJoe]

That depends on the crews experience . The higher the better. Less than 50% experience won't fly. The bomb load for Bettys, Nells, and other twin engine torpedo bombers is two 250 kg bombs and four 60 kg bombs in normal range. The long range Nells can reach out 21 hexes with a torpedo! Kates have two 250 kg bombs, I presume the other single engine torpedo bombers do as well. If they can hit at night, that is better than wasting them on kamikazes. Jakes carry four 60 kg bombs as well, if I remember correctly. Those bombs work well enough on DDs and transports with no armor. It can cause the break up of his amphib task force. That should also work on CVEs if they also get targeted.

If you are going after the big carriers, I would use torpedoes but bombs can also cause some good damage. Maybe even enough for the CV to break off and reduce the striking and CAP forces enough.

edited to include this: Make sure that you have good night naval search. If the bombers have radar, I believe that increases the search percentage by 5%. Lower moonlight should hurt as well as storms. But those help MTBs and any other surface task forces. Think of the Kitakami and Oi on a night surprise with 40 Long Lance torpedoes each. [:D]

[Bif1961]

Is this the Yidish navy with the OI?

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Is this the Yidish navy with the OI?

Yes, but there is still no Vay!

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Is this the Yidish navy with the OI?

Yes, but there is still no Vay!

But there is Dreck, there is always dreck. [:(]

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Is this the Yidish navy with the OI?

I still think that Kitakami was named wrong, it could've been so much better

[John B.]

What I really object to is how the program seems to protect Allied invasion TFs. I had a large Kamikaze attack on Scott's invasion fleet. I had six groups of fighters in Shanghai and southern Kysushu set to sweep. Airfields fine, high aggression commanders, squadron experiece of at least three of the squadrons was 60+, none lower than 48. This is what happened:

1) None of my fighters swept. And, the three groups in southern Kyushu stayed on the ground the entire day so Scott bombed them and destroyed 60+ fighters on the ground.

2) Some of my kamikazes flew in the morning and Scott's morning CAP, unswept, shot down almost all of them.

3) Then, as soon his morning CAP was exhausted (really when then were down to about 4 fighters), my kamikazes stopped flying so;

4) in the afternoon, the rest of the Kamikazes flew and Scott's reset CAP got to shoot down all of them as well. Naturally the fighter sweeps that did not fly in the morning did not fly in the afternoon (even the unbombed ones in Shanghai).

This also happened (see earlier posts) when Scott invaded china. That time, my fighters flew in the morning and took big losses to get his CAP down to zero and then the kamis waited and flew in the afternoon so that his reset CAP get to shoot down all of the fighters in the morning and then all of the Kamis in the afternoon.

It is really no fun to play a game where it appears that it is designed to hand Scott an aerial victory each time he leaves an invasion TF vulnerable to a mass attack. About 350 planes lost with no ships hit when you total up both attacks No Kamis get through but they and the CAP fly in such a way to insure that he basically gets to shoot down each plane.

[Gridley380]

ORIGINAL: John B.
About 350 planes lost with no ships hit when you total up both attacks No Kamis get through but they and the CAP fly in such a way to insure that he basically gets to shoot down each plane.

I'd love to know what CAP settings and such he is using. Granted some of it may be luck, but I don't do nearly that well fending off kamikazi's even against the AI. *Some* get through (and should).

[John B.]

I'm not sure of the answer to that question but I can ask. In the interim, his computer is down so it may be awhile before we get the next turn.

[RangerJoe]

Try setting the kamikazes to a very low altitude and try to get under the CAP. If he sets it too low, then your sweepers will chew up his CAP.

[Bif1961]

Many Kamis flew very low and the popped up a few thousand feet right at the target area before the final plunge, this would help avoid radar and CAP detection until the final few minutes.

[John B.]

Ranger Joe, your answer would be good except (a) the first time I targeted the invasion fleet my sweeps flew in the morning and the kamis flew in the afternoon so the CAP was able to reset and (b) the second time my sweeps (coming from three different airfields) just did not sweep at all so half the kamis flew in the morning got chewed up and the other half obligingly waited until the afternoon so that the CAP would reset and then they all got shot down. I figure I lost close to 500+ planes and never even saw a ship.

[John B.]

But, that's all old news even though it's irritating that the planes fly in such a way to maximize their deaths and minimize any risk to allied shipping. [:@]

Here we are at the start of October! I'm still maintaining a 20,000 point lead but Scott is pressing in. I did have a nice turn in the air shooting down 20 SBDs that were doing the normal bombing run over Naha.

[John B.]

Supply still seems ok at more than 4.5 million and I do still have 1.59 million fuel so that should hold for awhile. I have more than enough heavy industry but I need to keep those factories fired up to make supply. the Light industry in Manila finally ran out of stockpiled resources so it waits for resources to build up and then it belches out 89 more supply points.