Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[John B.]

Does the pilot in the Recon TRACOM pool eat by himself, shunned by the fighter and bomber jockies?

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: John B.
Does the pilot in the Recon TRACOM pool eat by himself, shunned by the fighter and bomber jockies?

We salute the rank, not the man(c) It is experience that matters for the old boys club

[John B.]

Of all the pilots in the Japanese air force he is most likely to be alive at the end of the game. It's not like I have a crying need for one fabulous Recon pilot.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: John B.
Of all the pilots in the Japanese air force he is most likely to be alive at the end of the game. It's not like I have a crying need for one fabulous Recon pilot.

He can surely sit as a fabulous figurehead in some fighter training group, increasing the average xp and hence helping the guys to level up faster

Always wondered if TRACOM size is important only at the break of the month (for the elusive probability of faster school training), and one can put the experienced pilots somewhere else in the meantime. Did not have time to test

[John B.]

I have no idea. The fact that Japanese navy fighter pilots are coming into the training pool at 39 starting XP (compared to the army starting XP at 19) leads me to believe that it has some sort of effect. I've also been hiding guys in here to keep them from getting shot down until I got better planes flying over home territory. The main question is do I leave my CVs skulking in port and strip the planes off to go fight elsewhere or not.

[John B.]

Another day and not too much in the ground war. Scott continued to unload troops at Wenchow and satisfied himself with a bombardment as well as lots and lots of BBs. More BBs at Manila and he lost dive bombers over my tank corp heading to Kenshein. But, there are high Japanese Ops losses because . . . .

[John B.]

A Japanese Kamikaze strike actually worked!!! [X(][&o][X(][&o] A group of Betties flying out of Saigon caught a transport TF near Manila and had a good time selecting and hitting targets. looks like at least one base force took a hard knock. I have one confirmed mid-sized AP down and I suspect 2-3 others will go down as I heard sinking sounds during the next naval repair phase.

[John B.]

We move into November 4, 1944. Hard turn of fighting in the air.

[John B.]

The losses would have been about even but a number of Helens were lost over Kenshien. I was surprised at how much CAP Scott had over that hex and he paid a small price to my fighter sweeps. But, the bombers did put some damage on the US airborne division there.

[John B.]

But, I did retake Kenshien. The town itself is basically irrelevant I just want the US casualties. I shock attacked it last turn and destroyed a number of vehicles. Adding in this turns losses and the numerous allied aircraft shot down by the flak and thus far Kenshien is a nice little victory for me. My AA turtle is not in good shape and I'm trying to get out of there now as Scott has been saturating it with dive bombers and his heavies but that distracted his airforce for a few turns which is a good thing.

FYI, on the previous slide the fighter losses were mainly over Nagasaki where we have had two days worth of airbattles with roughly the same amount of losses. I'm rotating squadrons in and out. I'm not getting any rest and have been unable to build up any real stockpile of planes but what can you do?

Scott has started to retake other Phillipine islands and thus has been slacking off on bombing Manila. This is letting my troops recover somewhat and my supply drain has been down somewhat.

[John B.]

Scott did get some of his back by pushing a regiment out of Chang Mai. I'm sure that regiment is doomed but it took a lot of Indians with him a few turns ago and helped to save the Burma front from collapse.

I have a top secret mission that just got underway this turn. Not a war winner but it will be a lot of fun if it works. More as it develops.

[John B.]

Another day and more dead planes. But a very good day in the air for the Empire of Japan. We had a decent exchange of fighter losses in the a.m. over Nagasaki (which still works out for me) but his bombers waited until the P.M. to bomber and took some heavy losses. They did wipe out Nagasaki's heavy industry but I figure it's always a plus to shoot down heavies.

[John B.]

The high betty losses were from a Kamikaze strike near Saigon. This is the second time in a week that I've caught a resupply convoy in the open sea with Betties. I think almost every plane got a hit. [&o] I saw two ships go down and there were a lot of sinking sounds during the naval repair phase. No troops were reported as lost so this must have been supply.

[John B.]

In China, Wenchow is creaking. It lost a fort level and took heavy losses. It would not surprise me is Scott shock attacked next turn and took the city. I do have blocking reinforcements on the way and nearly in position but every turn is precious in this regard. Scott continued his bombing of my armored fist at Kenshien but did not do significantly more damage than he had already done. He moved a unit in there so I may give it the same treatment the airborne got.

Merry Christmas everyone!

[John B.]

While we wait for me to get to the next turn, here's an instructional video for the 16 inch gun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OmOQs0ziSU

[John B.]

November 7th is now in the books. The flak at Manila appears to have gotten it's mojo back and Scott had some carriers that sent unescorted torpedo bombers over Nagasaki. The airfield at Manila is now under 50% damaged so the Tabby's seem to be able to fly supplies in again. But, now the supplies on the Asian mainland are runnig low. I have more resupply convoys heading to China let's just hope they make a difference.

Scott did fly sweeps over Nagasaki and I did not rotate out my squadrons there as they were still in ok shape.

[John B.]

There was a battle north of Wenchow where he shock attacked the retreating units. They took more losses but did not retreat again so I'll have at least one fresh division there next turn. Oddly, there was on bombing of that hex before he attacked. Also, you'll note that Scott has landed just off the mainland. I have landbased bombers ready to strike that hex and I'll run DD TFs through there in the next turn. Let's see if I can pick up some VP.

[John B.]

Another day, more planes shot down in flak alley. More dead troops to the big guns in Manila (honestly, you would think that the barrels in the 32 cm cannon would be worn out by now). Pretty ho hum. [>:][>:][>:] except. . . .

[John B.]

It's on baby. Carrier battle, kamikaze strike, surface actions, fighter sweeps galore are on tap.

I had planned to ground strike Scott's invasion troops south of Kyushu so I set up fighter sweeps. Once I did that I figured I might as well send in Kamikazes (but limited to the invasion fleet hex so that the CAP would be swept away, I know, hope springs eternal). Then, I figured I might as well use regular antiship squadrons, and, well the CVS have sat in Tokyo for a year not really doing anything and I might catch his carriers with limited CAP due to sweeps. And if the carriers are going out then the battleships might as well go too. Training squadrons are providing long range cap over the 7 fleet carriers and 5 escort carriers. The Hiei and the Mushashi have their own TFs, E's are attempting to keep subs at bay, my own subs are sprinting full speed to the battle zone and motor torpedo boats are speeding towards the invasion fleet as I type this.

Stay tuned.

[John B.]

So either I made a major mistake or there was problem with the game. But, my ground based planes went in and got slaughtered as expected. But, my two main carrier TFs were no where in site. Here is where they wound up, just three hexes outside of Tokyo, and the other circle is where they were supposed to go to.

I've seen ships go 1-2 hexes more or less than expected but I've never seen them miss it by so much. And, it really matters in this instance that it was such a big miss as it took them completely out of the battle.

More info. to follow.