Spanking Lowpe (NJP72 vs Lowpe (A))

[CaptBeefheart]

Back to the logistics discussion: I found a neat little fuel run is Karachi to Cape Town. Abadan has plenty and before too long India is awash in fuel. I could be wrong, but I believe sending some fuel to CT and thence to Oz (Port Augusta and Hobart are good depending on the threat level) is more efficient than East Coast to CT to Oz.

Cheers,
CB

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart

I found a neat little fuel run is Karachi to Cape Town. Abadan has plenty and before too long India is awash in fuel. I could be wrong, but I believe sending some fuel to CT and thence to Oz (Port Augusta and Hobart are good depending on the threat level) is more efficient than East Coast to CT to Oz.

Cheers,
CB

I was thinking along those lines.

I managed to get troops from India to below Perth fairly quickly. Something to keep in mind for later.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Those 250# bombs don't seem to work well against tanks - you would think they could knock off a truck or two but it is rare to get any vehicle with them. The 500# and 1000# bombs do much better. Use Hudsons and Blenheims for Nav Search and ASW for now, until you get lots of escorts for them.

I think the vast majority of Blennies in India are sending supplies to China & Night bombing. They almost always get caught and devastated...

I want to use other tools for Naval Search and ASW.

I did put some Hudsons on ASW and NavSearch though.

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Hudson and Blenheims…I view them as almost free VP for Japan. Very careful how I use them. I think 4 Squadrons are delivering supplies to China right now.

I have been using in a night bombing role with some success, and in Western Oz a squadron of Hudsons have been attacking along with the Banshees...sometimes Geraldton and sometimes tanks. Not great against the tanks...of course I could use more. Results are also light, so I don't often post about them. They have destroyed fighters at night on IJ runways though and most importantly haven't been destroyed. Pilot quality in them is universally poor at the moment.

The British (and whole CW in fact) don’t have many decent bombers initially. Wellingtons are the earliest good medium bomber (and they’re great, a HB’s payload!) but you don’t get many of them. Blenheims and Hudsons have a weak payload, and they’re too fragile to really use them offensively. Don’t ever send them on LowN attacks ! You lose too many aircrafts (and pilots) just to drop 2 250-lb...

In fact, the RAF (and other RAAF/RNZAF/RCAF/FAA) is essentially a defensive tool. They have neither the numbers (of planes or pilots) nor the airframe quality to wage a sustained air campaign. If you really must use them to bomb a target, rely on night bombing with 70 XP pilots, or you’ll face depleted squadrons before long.

They’re good for ASW though, as already pointed by people. The 250-lb bombs are a bit light to severely damage the fleet submarines, but the Hudsons III(LR) have a radar, so better odds at finding and increasing DL. If you combine several squadrons over the same area, with night search, day search, and ASW by both Hudson III and Wellington GR-equipped squadrons, you very quickly pinpoint the submarines in the area.
If, in addition to that, you have one or two Wellington squadrons with 500-lb on day ASW, you can get kills.

Regarding the P-39D : I love that plane ! IMHO, it really is one of the best Allied fighter in ‘42, as it’s among the best range for max speed and climb speed, a good durability and armor, and you get a good number of them throughout the first year, as well as SR2. Their armament is interesting, maybe their CL .50s more than the cannon (if I could, I’d swap the T9/M4 for a good 20mm Hispano, like the P-400 has), and I like to use them as defensive fighters : the CL guns ensure, with good pilots, a heavy rate of damaged enemies, and this leads to ops losses. I would rate the P-39D as equal to the P-40E in utility (in slightly different roles), but when P-47 start arriving, I’ll usually swap the P-39 last.
I feel I get more success with them at 1000ft on LowN/LowG (with trained pilots) than simply on 100ft strafing runs, but I only use them that way later, when I have better air superiority fighters. However, they’re not terribly effective against dug-in units, so LowG is a bit of a waste, unless you happen to catch a moving column. A single B-25 or B-26 squadron will drop more bombs than a full group of Airacobras, so use the more appropriate tools.

[RangerJoe]

Busting barges with P-39s! Down low, the P-39 could deal with the Me-109.

But think if they would have left in the engine with the turbocharger!

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart

I found a neat little fuel run is Karachi to Cape Town. Abadan has plenty and before too long India is awash in fuel. I could be wrong, but I believe sending some fuel to CT and thence to Oz (Port Augusta and Hobart are good depending on the threat level) is more efficient than East Coast to CT to Oz.

Cheers,
CB

I was thinking along those lines.

I managed to get troops from India to below Perth fairly quickly. Something to keep in mind for later.

CT-Aden and CT-Abadan are 126 and 133 respectively, which brings the Abadan-CT-Perth to 272. It’s actually more than Eastern USA-Balboa-Sydney, by a dozen, unless you have to set your route south of Tahiti. But if you have to go further south on CT-Perth, it also increases the length.

By the way, if you like to micro-manage, Aden-Mombasa is only 46, Abadan-Mombasa 53, and Mombasa-CT is 63. Karachi-Mombasa is 60, Karachi-CT is 140. Do the maths...[;)]

And before you wonder, Aden-Karachi is 39 while Abadan-Karachi is 27, so a 12-hex difference, while the difference to Mombasa or CT is 6 or 7 hexes, so, if you want to favor off-map routing to protect the ships longer, routing through Karachi is shorter than routing through Aden. With CT-Mombasa-Abadan-Karachi, you have a 143 hexes route, only 3 more than direct Karachi-CT, but less than half of the on-map exposed route compared to the latter. Although, regarding the latter point, you get the same benefit from going through CT-Mombasa-Karachi, but at the cost of 20 hexes.

ÉDIT: and Mombasa-Perth is 180. More than CT-Perth by 41, sure, but when you factor in the fact you don’t have to go from Mombasa to Perth (63) and you cut the first leg (Abadan-Mombasa) by 80, you get a full route Abadan-Mombasa-Perth at 223, at least 40 less than Eastern USA-Balboa-Sydney, way more than Easter USA-CT-Perth.[;)]

[Lowpe]

Ambassador, that is some great stuff. I am going to do it all![&o]

Hey, I even have a few cargo ships headed to England![X(]

[RangerJoe]

You should be able to get three to five million units of supplies in Cape Town by July.[:D]

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

You should be able to get three to five million units of supplies in Cape Town by July.[:D]

Surely, that is rookie numbers isn't it.[;)]

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

You should be able to get three to five million units of supplies in Cape Town by July.[:D]

Surely, that is rookie numbers isn't it.[;)]

Yes, but that also presumes that you haul out at least a couple of million in supplies to India and Australia . . .

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Hey, I even have a few cargo ships headed to England![X(]

Not sure it’s necessary. UK-Aden is 115-hex long, so with the final leg to Karachi it’s a 154, while UK-CT-Mombasa-Karachi is 152+123= 275, so nearly twice the length (and much more of it is in open waters). You’ll then need twice the shipping, at a time you have less of it, than waiting for mid-43. You also won’t need that much more supplies before ‘44, or end ‘43 at the earliest if you really bring a lot of US reinforcements to India. Up to that time, you should have enough supply by bringing the US supply through CT, and probably won’t have enough shipping to move all the US supply to wherever you need it.

US-Aden is 162 to US-CT 170, so the road through the Mediterranean is also considerably shorter, by 92 hexes, from 201 to 293. So, unless you really have supply issues with India at the end of ‘42 or early ‘43, you may shift CT to only supply Australia, and prepare the shuttling of supplies to Aden May 14th.

[Ambassador]

The case may even be made to bring Eastern USA’s supply to England, starting end of ‘42, if you really have too much shipping by then. If the 197-hex route to Aden is longer by 30 hexes than a direct US-Aden route, it still cuts the CT route by 60 hexes. And supply that has to travel less means more supply can be brought.

Early ‘42, it’s too early to tell, though.

[RangerJoe]

Yes, wait until Aden opens up before hauling supplies out of England - if you really need to.

[Lowpe]

More priceless Bettys downed over Calcutta, and their pilots too.[:)]

Only ship loss was a 5 vp Transmarine cargo ship near Pago Pago. She was almost empty.

[Ambassador]

He’s really taking heavy losses in the air. 750 planes lost in 50 turns ![X(]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

He’s really taking heavy losses in the air. 750 planes lost in 50 turns ![X(]

He had very heavy ops losses at the beginning but Lowpe observed that they are declining now. But I am sure he misses a lot of those highly trained pilots and long-ranged aircraft.

[Encircled]

Beaufighters very good at strafing btw

Against small airbases with no AA they have been superb in my current game

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

He’s really taking heavy losses in the air. 750 planes lost in 50 turns ![X(]

He had very heavy ops losses at the beginning but Lowpe observed that they are declining now. But I am sure he misses a lot of those highly trained pilots and long-ranged aircraft.

Yeah, but even today : I count 7 Ops losses, out of 18.

[Lowpe]

Southern China

Simply starved for good intel...I would like to move my Anti Tank units, but simply uncertain.

I think the push is coming for Changsha now, and that the Ankgang road push is beaten off.

The mountain passes east of Kunming are at population limit or a little above, and are digging in. Should easily have forts 4+ by the time the IJA shows up. Moving into similar positions in the x3 terrain around Kweiyang now.

[Lowpe]

I have been pursuing some strategies to increase Japanese op losses. Flying heavy bombers to Singers for example. The upcoming raid on Hokkaido will be another.

This causes Japan to fly Zeroes and other planes long distances...and the op losses inflicted in these long moves is not readily apparent.

You can also see the flak losses to recon on that page too.[:)]

Still haven't managed to upgrade any of the Chinese artillery to 105mm. I think I want them in the southern theatre, and in most likely in the mountains.

Up to 32 planes actually flying supplies to China although there are more planes resting too (using a 30% op tempo). Ledo needs to really expand their runways, as a flood of American planes will be arriving. I have moved more engineers and dozers here.