Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

[PaxMondo]

Frank: 19, 18x3, 17x3, 16x2, 15x3, 14, 13x3, 11x2 - operational currently at 1/44

Sam: 15, 11x2, 10x3, 9x4, 8x2, 7x2, 6x2, 5x2 - operational currently at 6/45

RnD advancement has a HUGE amount of Gary's randomness. Your N1K is advancing with about average luck. Your Sam is too early to tell yet. Sadly your Frank is not getting the best rolls. This can change rapidly, but right now, bleh!

Let's hope Oct turns out to be a better month for you. (Yes, the advancement probability for each RnD factory is set each month. It rolls each day, but the probability is set for the month. We don't know the range of that probability, but we do know that it exists.)

[PaxMondo]

Question for the group: How do you train defense for fighter pilots? I know there's a way but, for the life of me, can't remember how. I also know it's pretty slow. Thanks.

You train another ATTACK skill and that will add to defense. I use strafing, but I believe LowNav/LowGround would also work just as well. Recon/NavSearch don't seem to add much to defense as they are not attack skills ...

[PaxMondo]

9 Oct 42 - More quiet.

Burma

At the front, I've begun pulling out the units that are "isolated with no supply". Pretty irritating.

I realized something else pretty irritating. I actually realized it about 8 game days from now. Akyab can only draw 200 supply a day and Cox's Bazaar can only draw 150 supply a day. No wonder my troops at the front line aren't getting supply! The only way for those bases to get significant supply is by ship. Fortunately, I realized that (before realizing the supply draw issue) and am sending about 90k supply there. Both ports are level 1 so only 6k of ships can dock there. I had already decided to increase Akyab's port (and now I will follow suit with Cox's Bazaar). I haven't started it yet this turn. I'm waiting for the first pulse of supply to arrive, which should happen in 3 days at both bases.

I wonder if supply will move directly from Akyab to the front line? It's just 2 hexes away but one hex is not on a road. Basically, the only supply that can easily move to the front is from Cox's Bazaar. On 18 October, where I am now, Akyab has 8600 supply at the base and 60k on ships offloading and Cox's Bazaar has 20 supply at the base and 8500 on ships offloading. I'm going to shift some of the convoys at Akyab to Cox's Bazaar next turn.

So, if you open up with pwhex file and inspect the hexes, you find that the devs put in a block between Prome and Akyab. That mountain chain that runs from the coast up to Ledo, its a total block. So supply movement from one to the other is totally strangled, you get your ~200 supply/day and that's it no matter what you do to the bases.

This is why, historically here in the forum, Chittagong has always been such a target. And going overland to take it is difficult/almost impossible because you simply can't move the supplies.

Putting supply ships into Akyab and Cox's will work fine as long as your CAP holds up. Its just hard to keep your CAP without a rail connection, which forces a lot of LR CAP from Prome which is $$$$ in terms of planes, but since you are fighting over your bases (Akyab/Cox's) your pilot losses should be contained, although not as good as if the groups were based there.

Anyway, the key is speed. You can't dawdle. If you decide the overland from Prome to Chittagong, you just gotta go full tilt all the way. Once you have Chittagong, everything changes. Big Port/AF. As soon as you take Comilla, you now have a RR to be able to move your groups between 2 bases which helps a lot with keeping them "fresh". At that point, Calcutta is your target with all those riches there.

This is when the N1K will really shine. It will outmatch anything the allies have and you can really deplete their air groups. I've never seen an allied player not put everything into taking Calcutta back ... and those Brit LCU's have negligible replacements. Once you knock them down, they are out for most of the war. And the India units just have low morale/exp. So you force the allied player to deploy his US LCU's here as opposed to using them in the Pacific ... I always consider that a win.

[PaxMondo]

10 Oct 42 - Really quiet day.
5 Fleet

I'm finally gathering my forces at the Home Islands to invade all the must see sights in the Aleutians: Attu, Amchitka, Adak, Dutch Harbor. I have a lot of naval forces escorting them too. All the BBs, 10 CAs, KB1, KB2, countless CLs and DDs. My fuel situation is very good. I can afford the bite in fuel.

Super important. rader taught how important it is to block the Northern route..

[PaxMondo]

11 Oct 42 - Another quiet turn.

5 Fleet

All the TFs are congregating around Yokohama. They'll leave in a few days. I'm going to try something different. I'm going to skirt along the Russian coast and try and come in from the north. Maybe he doesn't have any naval search looking north. Fingers crossed.

Nice idea ... watching with interest!

[PaxMondo]

14 Oct 42 - A little action for a change...
SE Fleet
...
Actually, none of my fighters are any good any longer. But, they acquitted themselves pretty well.

Sad, but true. Until the N1K arrives .... A6M/Ki44/Ki45 are your best, but they all have individual faults: slow/poor armament/2E. N1K addresses all 3 of these deficiencies to some extent.

[Tanaka]

Question for the group: How do you train defense for fighter pilots? I know there's a way but, for the life of me, can't remember how. I also know it's pretty slow. Thanks.

You train another ATTACK skill and that will add to defense. I use strafing, but I believe LowNav/LowGround would also work just as well. Recon/NavSearch don't seem to add much to defense as they are not attack skills ...

Summarized discussion with Chris21wen the air war guy that helped me clarify the differences:

Sweep and escort train exactly the same except when it's done at 100'. 'Setting F/FB to 100' sweep is pointless, it will not train in the skill required for sweep missions. At 100' all you train is strafe and def. Putting them at any other height or flying escort training will train air instead of strafe.'

On Sweep I was only getting strafe and defense improvements. Changed to escort at higher altitudes and I was getting air, defense, and experience improvements. Much better. Escort training at 100 ft only trains strafe and defense.

Exp is gained no matter what type of training you use. Can't say I've noticed it increasing faster under certain training and I'd argue that experience in not a skill anyway as it is applicable to all missions.

The "sweet" spot for training is from EXP 30 - 50. Pilots in that range can gain a skill point every other turn, or faster. You can gain a LOT of skill very quickly. Above EXP 50, skill gain is MUCH slower. My rationalization for this in game is that it is tougher to teach old dogs new tricks.

Under 30, I also see skill training to be slower. Not as bad as over 50, but still quite noticeable.

[Tanaka]

Question for the group: How do you train defense for fighter pilots? I know there's a way but, for the life of me, can't remember how. I also know it's pretty slow. Thanks.

You train another ATTACK skill and that will add to defense. I use strafing, but I believe LowNav/LowGround would also work just as well. Recon/NavSearch don't seem to add much to defense as they are not attack skills ...

Summarized discussion with Chris21wen the air war guy that helped me clarify the differences:

"Sweep and escort train exactly the same except when it's done at 100'. 'Setting F/FB to 100' sweep is pointless, it will not train in the skill required for sweep missions. At 100' all you train is strafe and def. Putting them at any other height or flying escort training will train air instead of strafe.'

On Sweep I was only getting strafe and defense improvements. Changed to escort at higher altitudes and I was getting air, defense, and experience improvements. Much better. Escort training at 100 ft only trains strafe and defense.

Exp is gained no matter what type of training you use. Can't say I've noticed it increasing faster under certain training and I'd argue that experience in not a skill anyway as it is applicable to all missions.

The "sweet" spot for training is from EXP 30 - 50. Pilots in that range can gain a skill point every other turn, or faster. You can gain a LOT of skill very quickly. Above EXP 50, skill gain is MUCH slower. My rationalization for this in game is that it is tougher to teach old dogs new tricks.

Under 30, I also see skill training to be slower. Not as bad as over 50, but still quite noticeable."

[Mike Solli]

George: 30x2, 28, 27, 26, 24, 23, 21x3, 20x2, 19x2, 18x2, 16, 8
-The Ha-45 pool is at 795 and the last 4 (of 6) factories will finish repairing tomorrow. The total engine production will be 570, or 19 a day. Operational status is still at 7/43. Research is currently at 57% and increasing at 4% per day. This is the first thing I check every turn.

So, N1K is now moving fast. you gain a month every 25 days now, so in Oct, it will be 6/43. By the end of Oct you'll be gaining 8%/day, or gaining a month every 13 days. I'm guessing that N1K will arrive in Feb, +/- 1 month. The key here is that it arrives before Ted gets the P47, so you will have a counter to it and you will have a fighter with legs. N1K allows you to walk all the way into India from Burma. Your only issue will be finding enough IJN fighter groups. I steal from the KB all the time 1 - 4 groups and swap to N1K for immediate pressure for a week or so and then send them back. A6M3-a has GREAT range, so the KB can be a LONG way away from where I'm using them.

I still cringe when I hear you say you steal from KB temporarily. Scary.

You're right about the M3a. Nice range. I'll produce that for a LONG time. Only 60/month but that'll suffice.

[Mike Solli]

Let's hope Oct turns out to be a better month for you. (Yes, the advancement probability for each RnD factory is set each month. It rolls each day, but the probability is set for the month. We don't know the range of that probability, but we do know that it exists.)

I never knew that. Not surprising, but still is interesting.

[Mike Solli]

Question for the group: How do you train defense for fighter pilots? I know there's a way but, for the life of me, can't remember how. I also know it's pretty slow. Thanks.

You train another ATTACK skill and that will add to defense. I use strafing, but I believe LowNav/LowGround would also work just as well. Recon/NavSearch don't seem to add much to defense as they are not attack skills ...

I've changed a few training units to train strafe (both IJAAF and IJNAF) and it's working pretty well. I want to find a small unit to train the Nick but haven't yet. I get one as a reinforcement soon with a newer model of the Nick, the b model, which isn't is good as the a model. Maybe I'll use that one. Right now, I have 2 sentai at the front and a third training.

[Mike Solli]

9 Oct 42 - More quiet.

Burma

At the front, I've begun pulling out the units that are "isolated with no supply". Pretty irritating.

I realized something else pretty irritating. I actually realized it about 8 game days from now. Akyab can only draw 200 supply a day and Cox's Bazaar can only draw 150 supply a day. No wonder my troops at the front line aren't getting supply! The only way for those bases to get significant supply is by ship. Fortunately, I realized that (before realizing the supply draw issue) and am sending about 90k supply there. Both ports are level 1 so only 6k of ships can dock there. I had already decided to increase Akyab's port (and now I will follow suit with Cox's Bazaar). I haven't started it yet this turn. I'm waiting for the first pulse of supply to arrive, which should happen in 3 days at both bases.

I wonder if supply will move directly from Akyab to the front line? It's just 2 hexes away but one hex is not on a road. Basically, the only supply that can easily move to the front is from Cox's Bazaar. On 18 October, where I am now, Akyab has 8600 supply at the base and 60k on ships offloading and Cox's Bazaar has 20 supply at the base and 8500 on ships offloading. I'm going to shift some of the convoys at Akyab to Cox's Bazaar next turn.

So, if you open up with pwhex file and inspect the hexes, you find that the devs put in a block between Prome and Akyab. That mountain chain that runs from the coast up to Ledo, its a total block. So supply movement from one to the other is totally strangled, you get your ~200 supply/day and that's it no matter what you do to the bases.

This is why, historically here in the forum, Chittagong has always been such a target. And going overland to take it is difficult/almost impossible because you simply can't move the supplies.

Putting supply ships into Akyab and Cox's will work fine as long as your CAP holds up. Its just hard to keep your CAP without a rail connection, which forces a lot of LR CAP from Prome which is $$$$ in terms of planes, but since you are fighting over your bases (Akyab/Cox's) your pilot losses should be contained, although not as good as if the groups were based there.

Anyway, the key is speed. You can't dawdle. If you decide the overland from Prome to Chittagong, you just gotta go full tilt all the way. Once you have Chittagong, everything changes. Big Port/AF. As soon as you take Comilla, you now have a RR to be able to move your groups between 2 bases which helps a lot with keeping them "fresh". At that point, Calcutta is your target with all those riches there.

This is when the N1K will really shine. It will outmatch anything the allies have and you can really deplete their air groups. I've never seen an allied player not put everything into taking Calcutta back ... and those Brit LCU's have negligible replacements. Once you knock them down, they are out for most of the war. And the India units just have low morale/exp. So you force the allied player to deploy his US LCU's here as opposed to using them in the Pacific ... I always consider that a win.

Interesting stuff. I've solved the supply problem (for now) by dumping massive amounts of supply at Akyab and especially, Cox's Bazaar. As of the 20 Oct turn, Akyab has 22k supply in the base with another 28k offloading from ships and Cox's Bazaar has 1600 supply at the base with another 19k offloading from ships. The nice thing is that the frontline troops have 50% over the supply they need. I pulled some back to Cox's Bazaar and they all have plenty of supply too. Things have finally turned around here. I also have a LOT of artillery here. Interestingly, Ted has 6 arty units and he bombards every turn. His losses are massive compared to mine. I'm sure I counter battery with my guns so I use supply too. Once I'm happy with the supply situation at Cox's Bazaar (>10k at the base) I'll begin barraging to see what that does to him.

Something I noticed is that units in Cox's Bazaar were drawing replacements from Akyab. But, that was when Cox's Bazaar had only 20 supply in the base. I suspect they'll draw their replacements directly from Cox's Bazaar now.

[Mike Solli]

11 Oct 42 - Another quiet turn.

5 Fleet

All the TFs are congregating around Yokohama. They'll leave in a few days. I'm going to try something different. I'm going to skirt along the Russian coast and try and come in from the north. Maybe he doesn't have any naval search looking north. Fingers crossed.

Nice idea ... watching with interest!

I think it worked. The invasion TFs will invade Attu and Adak tomorrow and of about 10 invasion fleets, only 2 were detected, one at 1/1 and the other at 3/3. Surprise! I have 3 divisions slated to land at Adak, along with a HQ, 2 tank regiments (if needed) and a heavy mortar unit. My goal is to take everything up to Dutch Harbor.

[Mike Solli]

14 Oct 42 - A little action for a change...
SE Fleet
...
Actually, none of my fighters are any good any longer. But, they acquitted themselves pretty well.

Sad, but true. Until the N1K arrives .... A6M/Ki44/Ki45 are your best, but they all have individual faults: slow/poor armament/2E. N1K addresses all 3 of these deficiencies to some extent.

I track all of my R&D each day. The past few days have been abysmal. Really looking forward to the George. The Nick is working out really well, especially with good leaders.

[Mike Solli]

11 Oct 42 - Another quiet turn.

5 Fleet

All the TFs are congregating around Yokohama. They'll leave in a few days. I'm going to try something different. I'm going to skirt along the Russian coast and try and come in from the north. Maybe he doesn't have any naval search looking north. Fingers crossed.

Nice idea ... watching with interest!

By the way, when I get to that turn in the AAR, I'll post a few pics so you can see what I did.

[Mike Solli]

Question for the group: How do you train defense for fighter pilots? I know there's a way but, for the life of me, can't remember how. I also know it's pretty slow. Thanks.

You train another ATTACK skill and that will add to defense. I use strafing, but I believe LowNav/LowGround would also work just as well. Recon/NavSearch don't seem to add much to defense as they are not attack skills ...

Summarized discussion with Chris21wen the air war guy that helped me clarify the differences:

Sweep and escort train exactly the same except when it's done at 100'. 'Setting F/FB to 100' sweep is pointless, it will not train in the skill required for sweep missions. At 100' all you train is strafe and def. Putting them at any other height or flying escort training will train air instead of strafe.'

On Sweep I was only getting strafe and defense improvements. Changed to escort at higher altitudes and I was getting air, defense, and experience improvements. Much better. Escort training at 100 ft only trains strafe and defense.

Exp is gained no matter what type of training you use. Can't say I've noticed it increasing faster under certain training and I'd argue that experience in not a skill anyway as it is applicable to all missions.

The "sweet" spot for training is from EXP 30 - 50. Pilots in that range can gain a skill point every other turn, or faster. You can gain a LOT of skill very quickly. Above EXP 50, skill gain is MUCH slower. My rationalization for this in game is that it is tougher to teach old dogs new tricks.

Under 30, I also see skill training to be slower. Not as bad as over 50, but still quite noticeable.

Yep, I'm aware of all of that. My training regimen is as follows (for fighters, but very similar for other types):

The "cadre" is 1/3 of the max for the unit. One to three of the cadre are elite pilots. The rest (equal to the max size of the unit) is composed of the rookies, all with similar stats. I also graduate everyone at once (minus the cadre, of course). What I don't want are guys nearing completion mixed in with rookies. The more highly trained pilots don't advance nearly as quickly that way.

Example: Size 42 fighter sentai: Cadre of 3 elite pilots and 11 pilots with 70+ experience and 70+ air to air. Then, 42 rookies are assigned.

They train 100% escort at 10-15k until their air to air is 70+ for almost all of them. There will be a few at 66-69. That's ok. Then I change to 100% CAP until the experience is 70+. Those slackers that were under 70 air to air will have gotten to where they need to be. At that point I graduate them into the pool.

They are available for frontline units at this point. But, I've finally added the defense training in. There are specific training units that just train defense. Their cadre is the same, only the requirements for defense cadre is 70+ in experience, air to air and defense. I draw the "rookies" from the graduates in the pool, so they come into the unit with 70+ in experience and air to air. Once they hit 70 defense, they are graduated into the pool and replaced with another graduate with <70 defense. Oh yeah, the defense training units train strafe at 100'.

Eventually, I'll be able to replace front line pilots with 70/70/70 pilots from the pool and those pilots will train for defense.

[PaxMondo]

I still cringe when I hear you say you steal from KB temporarily. Scary.

I know, it is tough to do, but this is what decided me: the KB sits in hiding for most of its life, literally. I haven't the fuel to allow it to "cruise" around looking for targets, it has to sit in one place mostly. The first 12 months of the war, my KB sees less than 60 days of "combat" most of which is moving into position. Actual combat days are less than 20 .... so 345 days essentially those air groups are sitting around twiddling their fingers ... AND I can get the groups back on the ships almost no matter where in 5 days (2 days to convert back to A6M, 3 days of flying is +100 hexes, so literally almost anywhere.) Oh, and I generally swap out pilots to conserve my really high EXP KB pilots and actually GROW my pool of high EXP pilots .... they rack up a LOT of kills in the N1K's ...

[PaxMondo]

Let's hope Oct turns out to be a better month for you. (Yes, the advancement probability for each RnD factory is set each month. It rolls each day, but the probability is set for the month. We don't know the range of that probability, but we do know that it exists.)

I never knew that. Not surprising, but still is interesting.

This is the reasoning behind the large number of RnD factories ... you need enough to take advantage of having a factory get a "good" roll 2 or 3 months in a row. That allows that factory to fully repair and once you have one, you are on your way. It also still means that you don't get serial good rolls, and your advancement isn't much. This is the difference NOW between your N1K and your Frank, but it can change pretty quick. The magic number appears to be 12 RnD factories minimum. 18 almost guarantees a fast RnD, but you can only do that on ONE model; then you have to choose between the Ki84 and the A7M. Either way will give you spectacular results in the mid-war.

[Mike Solli]

I still cringe when I hear you say you steal from KB temporarily. Scary.

I know, it is tough to do, but this is what decided me: the KB sits in hiding for most of its life, literally. I haven't the fuel to allow it to "cruise" around looking for targets, it has to sit in one place mostly. The first 12 months of the war, my KB sees less than 60 days of "combat" most of which is moving into position. Actual combat days are less than 20 .... so 345 days essentially those air groups are sitting around twiddling their fingers ... AND I can get the groups back on the ships almost no matter where in 5 days (2 days to convert back to A6M, 3 days of flying is +100 hexes, so literally almost anywhere.) Oh, and I generally swap out pilots to conserve my really high EXP KB pilots and actually GROW my pool of high EXP pilots .... they rack up a LOT of kills in the N1K's ...

I'll definitely consider that when the time comes. When KB is sitting playing pinochle (most of the time), I fill them out with rookies and let them train. I'll pull them out when they actually have to earn their rice balls.

[Mike Solli]

Let's hope Oct turns out to be a better month for you. (Yes, the advancement probability for each RnD factory is set each month. It rolls each day, but the probability is set for the month. We don't know the range of that probability, but we do know that it exists.)

I never knew that. Not surprising, but still is interesting.

This is the reasoning behind the large number of RnD factories ... you need enough to take advantage of having a factory get a "good" roll 2 or 3 months in a row. That allows that factory to fully repair and once you have one, you are on your way. It also still means that you don't get serial good rolls, and your advancement isn't much. This is the difference NOW between your N1K and your Frank, but it can change pretty quick. The magic number appears to be 12 RnD factories minimum. 18 almost guarantees a fast RnD, but you can only do that on ONE model; then you have to choose between the Ki84 and the A7M. Either way will give you spectacular results in the mid-war.

I check my R&D every day. I have a spreadsheet for it, of course. I actually have 18 R&D factories each for the Frank, Sam and George. We'll see what happens...

The George had 2 fully repaired factories (+4% per day) with one at 29 and another at 28. Keeping fingers crossed.

I figured the major difference between the George and Frank was the current operational date, 7/43 vs. 1/44. I thought R&D repairs speeded up the closer you got to the operational date. No empirical evidence, just what it "looks like" and what I've heard.

The invasion of the Aleutians is in full swing now. The turns take a long time to finish now with what's going on. More on that when (if) I catch up. Just sent the 22 October turn to Ted.