Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[John B.]

Carrier TF at the start of the day. Yamaguchi aggression is 61, no ops points have been used and the ships are set to absolute in going to their target hex.

[John B.]

TF at the end of the day having only moved three hexes! They burned a little fuel but I can't see any indication as to why they would only go 1/3 of their speed and miss the battle entirely. Any input?

[BBfanboy]

The TF is set with "Retirement allowed", so it went to your target hex and then headed home before daylight.

[Trugrit]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

The TF is set with "Retirement allowed", so it went to your target hex and then headed home before daylight.

I'm not sure about that. We need to see the routing screen.

If I remember correctly three asterisks *** mean you are being followed.

Does he have a refuel Task Force following with a 1 hex standoff?
If so the Task force probably slowed down to allow it to maintain the standoff.

(!!) means threat tolerance absolute, I think.

[John B.]

Truegrit,

Here is the original routing screen. If BBfanboy's theory was true (and I do appreciate the input!) then the ships traveled 19 hexes while only set at mission speed and burned almost no fuel. You'll note, for example, that the CLAA Abukuma burned only 123 fuel which would not have been enough for a high speed run faster than it can go. Furthermore, there is no system damage to any ship which would be very odd for an ultra high burst of speed.

There was a second CV TF that I set to follow the first one in the same hex (I've done this many times without any seeming ill effect) and it had the same orders so there was no refueling that took place (note the fact that no ops points are indicated as being used). I did set it at absolute threat tolerance.

I also noticed that when I hover over the TF and click on it, it briefly shows a green routing path (indicating patrol zone) and then reverts to the yellow routing screen indicating a final destination hex. It does not stay on the green routing path so I've been unable to take a picture of it.

[John B.]

Then here is the routing screen for the second day. As you can see, the TF is still on the way to its destination hex which it would not be doing if it had gone there and come back.

[John B.]

Just to be complete, here is the TF screen for the following TF. You'll see no damage indicating a high speed run and take my word that there was very low fuel usage.

This sure looks like a bug to me (especially given the fact that for about half a second it highlights as a patrol zone and then reverts to the normal destination path).

The main reason I ask is that if it's operator error, then I take my lumps and go forward. If there is some bug then Scott and I have to figure out a fair resolution given that the glitch showed up at a critical time.

[BBfanboy]

What is the threat tolerance setting? If the enemy has SCTFs in the area your carriers are being routed to, them might balk at going forward.

EDIT: NM - I just saw your posting in the tech section showing Absolute tolerance. I'm beginning to see why you are mystified.

[GetAssista]

Are both TFs on Absolute? Is there only one following TF for 217? Refuelling DDs?

Apart from that, "Retirement allowed" might've screwed things up in unknown ways just like it sometimes does with bombardment run-ins, were a TF tries to time its approach and thus loiters for one turn on the edge of the range. Why would you want retirement allowed anyway if you needed the carriers close to the enemy the next turn?

[John B.]

Hi GetAssista,

Sorry for the delay in responding. I've detailed the various screens in the bug report section and so far the jury is out on whether it's a bug or a mistake on my part. But to specificaly answer your questoin the following TF was also a CV TF. Scott, who is a consummate gentleman, has agreed that I can change the ASW and TF follow and resend him the turn and he'll try to redo it from his point as best as he can recall and we'll just take it from there.

[Bif1961]

Good luck with your redo. In the real war commanders who were given clear orders have not acted in the way their higher command expected them too.

[John B.]

Hi Bif, You're right. In this situation it looked so much like a glitch that we tried a couple of do overs. When the same result kept popping up it did not look like a wimpy commander problem because there was no random variation. We did one more redo where both of us were free to change everything (now Scott knows I'm there but oh well) and this time the CV TFs and the Hiei TFs all moved much more as one would expect.

So, back on with the game. As I said, we were free to redo the turn and Scott was able to take advantage of the fact that he knew I was coming. He pulled his own CVs out and left a lot of landbased air as CAP over his transports. So, air losses were a lot less on my side and on his.

[John B.]

I had very high ops losses because of the Kamikaze strikes that I still had going in. I did sweep over Tanegeshima which, although it resulted in high fighter losses, turned out to be a good thing overall as it whittled down Scott's long range CAP.

[John B.]

In the evening MTBs went in and got in a few punches but the real devastation came with the airstrikes that followed in the day time. The worst were in the morning when the CAP had been used up. The KB got in a very large strike and land based Betties were able to score torpedo hits as well as numerous Kamikaze hits (Kamikaze Jills also got in a few blows). Here are the ships that are reported sunk. I think that this is a pretty accurate list as most of these ships were seen sinking during the battle reports. There were a number of vehicle losses reported but only a few engineers and combat troops.

[John B.]

More sunk ships.

[John B.]

Last one.

Scott did put two torpedoes into the Musashi which is now at 48% flotation damage.

As for this turn, my CVs are returning to port where they will refuel. The Musashi and Hiei BB TFs will bombard Tanegeshima as well as two of the older BBs that were escorting the CVE TF and the various DD TFs. Basically, to the extent that I can prevent it I want to shut down Tanegeshima. I made a mistake in not garrisoning it given that Scott can build a very large airfield there. So, the surface TFs will bombard and head to Nagasaki to refuel and rearm and prepare for another run at bombarding the island.

[John B.]

I sense a bitter campaign to keep Tanegeshima shut down!

[Bif1961]

Since his DS moved away and then things played out as they should have it appears it was a digital wimpy commander passed on the absolute threat level presented by the presence of the DS.

[John B.]

Bif, that could be. Sadly we may never know but in terms of alternate history I like your explanation.

And, back to the action. We've done two more turns. Here is the score card from November 11th (happy Armistice day). More shooting down planes over Manila. And, Scott has stopped bombarding which has cut my supply usage by 2/3rds.

One of the many things I like about this game is how it puts what I take to be historical stresses on each side. For me, it's demoralizing to face the overwhelming allied superiority (and we're not even into 1945). For Scott, its demoralizing to have to grind through siege combat after siege combat and basically heave to wear me down!

[John B.]

The fight rages at Tanegeshima! I"ve bombarded it twice without a whole lot of damage and I'm laying mines as fast as I can. Thus far I've also sunk a couple of DMs and APDs. It looks like Scott is moving his own BBs to be a covering force. I'll have to throw in my BBs and probably lose them, but if I can take some of him with me that will be all to the better. He does have a whole LOT of BBs (remember I did not bomb Pearl so those are all still present).

I did put a torpedo into the Tennessee this turn but it was a dud. In fact, and lot of the Japanese torpedoes have been duds lately.