I have a couple of simple questions for which the manual is less than clear.
1. How many 10K MCS does it take to transport a single plane? I tried moving 30 F4Fs to Pearl Harbor from San Fran using 20 10K MCS and as near as I can see only 20 made the trip intact. But requiring 1 10K MCS per plane seems a bit excessive. Oh for those empty CVEs...
2. Currently the SW Pacific HQ is in San Fran can I load it onto a transport fleet (along with some reinforcment ground and air stuff) and ship it to Espirto Santo and make Espirto Santo the new SW Pacific HQ location even though it is currently a ANZAC base? This using the transfer HQ to taskforce command correct?
I just finished re-taking Johnston Island from 2 Japanese divisions! The computer has been seriously agressive in the pearl area. It even sent in a surface action group to hit the base the 2nd turn. The situation is very different from the last game anyway (harldy a surprise there as it was my first ROFL).
Just a couple questions...
-
Blackhorse
- Posts: 1415
- Joined: Sun Aug 20, 2000 8:00 am
- Location: Eastern US
When you ship planes via Merchants, they are all supposed to arrive in damaged condition, then repair themselves at a rate of about 20 per turn (I think base size is also supposed to affect this). So the number of merchants you use really doesn't matter. As you said, if you want the squadron to unload in fully-flyable condition, you have to use CVEs.
IIRC, army HQs can't be loaded on TFs -- Naval HQs can. But why try? Convert E.S. to a SW Pacific base, then use the transfer HQ function --and S.W. Pacific HQs will magically teleport from San Francisco to Espirtu Santo.
IIRC, army HQs can't be loaded on TFs -- Naval HQs can. But why try? Convert E.S. to a SW Pacific base, then use the transfer HQ function --and S.W. Pacific HQs will magically teleport from San Francisco to Espirtu Santo.
WitP-AE -- US LCU & AI Stuff
Oddball: Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?
Moriarty: Crap!
Oddball: Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?
Moriarty: Crap!
Each type of freighter has a diffrent capacity. 10k MCS is 100 I believe. Each type of plane has a different load cost.
Fighters, fighter-bombers, dive-bombers, torp-bombers cost 20
tac-bombers -30
heav. bombers and tranports -40
patrol planes -20
So each 100 capacity freighter can haul 5 fighters so you need at least a 6 ship group to move all of them. But they are crated on ships and have to be reassembled so the all arrive damaged.
If you use CS ships they arrive whole.
Fighters, fighter-bombers, dive-bombers, torp-bombers cost 20
tac-bombers -30
heav. bombers and tranports -40
patrol planes -20
So each 100 capacity freighter can haul 5 fighters so you need at least a 6 ship group to move all of them. But they are crated on ships and have to be reassembled so the all arrive damaged.
If you use CS ships they arrive whole.
Live like a King and Die like a man.
-
madflava13
- Posts: 1501
- Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2001 10:00 am
- Location: Alexandria, VA
McNeely,
Welcome to the new Pacwar AI. Every once in awhile, the Japanese go hellbent for either Pearl and the Cen Pac area, or strike towards New Caledonia in a similar fashion. Those newly added divisions you had trouble with make it very hard to defend against this as the Allies, especially with a historic start...
Welcome to the new Pacwar AI. Every once in awhile, the Japanese go hellbent for either Pearl and the Cen Pac area, or strike towards New Caledonia in a similar fashion. Those newly added divisions you had trouble with make it very hard to defend against this as the Allies, especially with a historic start...
"The Paraguayan Air Force's request for spraying subsidies was not as Paraguayan as it were..."
I once found the Japanese in a full scale attack on the Christmas-Island (???). Of course my aircraft slaughtered him, sinking over 100 ships.
It is really funny to see the AI attack so ferociously an almost empty island far behind enemy lines.
It is really funny to see the AI attack so ferociously an almost empty island far behind enemy lines.
If you like what I said love me,if you dislike what I say ignore me!
"Extra Bavaria non est vita! Et sic est vita non est ita!"
"Extra Bavaria non est vita! Et sic est vita non est ita!"
I have seen that, and the funny part is that many times there will only be AP's and no support SC or CV task forces so they get wiped out quick.
I have also seen them bypass Timor, Flores, and head straight for Austrailia. It is at those times I wish I could load all those Aussie NG units so I dont have to march them all the way from Melbourne to Broom.
Ringbolt
I have also seen them bypass Timor, Flores, and head straight for Austrailia. It is at those times I wish I could load all those Aussie NG units so I dont have to march them all the way from Melbourne to Broom.
Ringbolt
LtCom: "Sgt. Lee, is that a Navy
Cross I see you wearing?"
Sgt. Lee: "No Sir, it's three."
Cross I see you wearing?"
Sgt. Lee: "No Sir, it's three."
Sorry for the delay...blame it on the game.
Thanks for the replies. I figured out the HQ change...Espirto Santo is now the proud SW Pacific HQ. Very big thanks for the info on shipping planes. I normally Island Hop the bombers over as they fit. It is the fighter groups that don't...although I just tranfered a fighter group via Island Hoping from Pearl to Fiji and it just ended up costing me 13 aircraft (but it is much faster).
The game is very intereting! After recovering Johnston Island I planed a reinforcement of Wake. So to cover the transport fleet bringing in 1/25 Bde, and some Engineer plus a few thousand points of supplies I sent along my CBG with 4 CV covered by a fairly good assortment of CA plus a surface combat group. On the way there the CBG reactes to a japanese CBG and launches a full 240 plane strike (of which only a handfull get thru and do little or nothing...maybe they hit a CV or CVL with 1 bomb or something). Unfortuantely the return strike didn't face much air opposition and 80 bombers broke thru...the AA did a good job but I still lost 3 CV. So I then had 2 CV 1 damaged, 1 in Pearl. I removed the task force for repairs and then a few wakes later my intellegence boys started talking about Kaui as a target...but I couldn't find the damn place (I never thought to check the Islands near Pearl) so suddenly there is a japanese carrier group launching a second attack on the fleet in Pearl Harbor...while a BB surface action group sits on its thumbs and I had nearly no bomber air power in Pearl itself. The fighters on the other hand did a fine job of mutiltating the japanese air...but still the bombers got thru damaging the repairing BBs, sinking the damaged CV and a CA plus badly damaging a CA and CL. Then a force lands troops on Kaui.
But the net result of the attacks against the Pearl Fighter groups was a depleted strike force and during the withdrawl the passed right next to Johnston Island and its 2 Marine SBD groups and a Bolo bomber group. Mass carnage ensued and 2 CV and a CVL went down.
I am still in desperate straights though. I have lost 4 CV and 1 CVL (the british one) while the Japanese have lost 3 CV and 2 CVL with maybe a few others damaged. Power projection without a CBG is nearly impossible...
Other odd thing. I was again resupplying Wake and this time sent the BB surface action group along (6 BB, 3 CA, 8 DD). I decied to divert it to Kawikang (that annoying air base south of Wake) and what does it run into but a 3 CVL group. Surprised (and if I was in the BB group I would be too) by a daring night attack the action oppened up at 13,000 yards. Now what confused me is that 1 CVL took something like 5 hits from 16 inch guns! I ended up trading a BB for a badly damaged CVL (which later must have sunk) plus a CL and heavy damage to the screening force plus some 30 aircraft on the base.
Currently there is a race. Will the engineers on shortland build the airfields up to 5 before the japanese invasion force shows up. And will the Inf Bge there be able to hold them off!! Will the 7 divisions and 3 bde in Rangoon finally oust the japanese remenents and advance on Bankok and can the royal engineers expand those airways faster so I can bring in the RAF to show the Japanese that they aren't the only ones with elite pilots (I have had for months total air dominance over Rangoon)...Spitfires I want them for these guys.
Again thanks for the help. Hope the above works as repayment.
Thanks for the replies. I figured out the HQ change...Espirto Santo is now the proud SW Pacific HQ. Very big thanks for the info on shipping planes. I normally Island Hop the bombers over as they fit. It is the fighter groups that don't...although I just tranfered a fighter group via Island Hoping from Pearl to Fiji and it just ended up costing me 13 aircraft (but it is much faster).
The game is very intereting! After recovering Johnston Island I planed a reinforcement of Wake. So to cover the transport fleet bringing in 1/25 Bde, and some Engineer plus a few thousand points of supplies I sent along my CBG with 4 CV covered by a fairly good assortment of CA plus a surface combat group. On the way there the CBG reactes to a japanese CBG and launches a full 240 plane strike (of which only a handfull get thru and do little or nothing...maybe they hit a CV or CVL with 1 bomb or something). Unfortuantely the return strike didn't face much air opposition and 80 bombers broke thru...the AA did a good job but I still lost 3 CV. So I then had 2 CV 1 damaged, 1 in Pearl. I removed the task force for repairs and then a few wakes later my intellegence boys started talking about Kaui as a target...but I couldn't find the damn place (I never thought to check the Islands near Pearl) so suddenly there is a japanese carrier group launching a second attack on the fleet in Pearl Harbor...while a BB surface action group sits on its thumbs and I had nearly no bomber air power in Pearl itself. The fighters on the other hand did a fine job of mutiltating the japanese air...but still the bombers got thru damaging the repairing BBs, sinking the damaged CV and a CA plus badly damaging a CA and CL. Then a force lands troops on Kaui.
But the net result of the attacks against the Pearl Fighter groups was a depleted strike force and during the withdrawl the passed right next to Johnston Island and its 2 Marine SBD groups and a Bolo bomber group. Mass carnage ensued and 2 CV and a CVL went down.
I am still in desperate straights though. I have lost 4 CV and 1 CVL (the british one) while the Japanese have lost 3 CV and 2 CVL with maybe a few others damaged. Power projection without a CBG is nearly impossible...
Other odd thing. I was again resupplying Wake and this time sent the BB surface action group along (6 BB, 3 CA, 8 DD). I decied to divert it to Kawikang (that annoying air base south of Wake) and what does it run into but a 3 CVL group. Surprised (and if I was in the BB group I would be too) by a daring night attack the action oppened up at 13,000 yards. Now what confused me is that 1 CVL took something like 5 hits from 16 inch guns! I ended up trading a BB for a badly damaged CVL (which later must have sunk) plus a CL and heavy damage to the screening force plus some 30 aircraft on the base.
Currently there is a race. Will the engineers on shortland build the airfields up to 5 before the japanese invasion force shows up. And will the Inf Bge there be able to hold them off!! Will the 7 divisions and 3 bde in Rangoon finally oust the japanese remenents and advance on Bankok and can the royal engineers expand those airways faster so I can bring in the RAF to show the Japanese that they aren't the only ones with elite pilots (I have had for months total air dominance over Rangoon)...Spitfires I want them for these guys.
Again thanks for the help. Hope the above works as repayment.
Yeah, it's usually fun when the Japanese try for Hawaii early on. In my current game, I effectively eliminated the entire Japanese carrier force when they tried to invade Oahu in late January/early February 1942. 5 CV and 2 CVL sunk, Akagi and Zuiho(?) heavily damaged. Four or five transport TFs were annihilated when they tried to land their LCUs after the CVs got pounded. Stopped 'em cold - it's six months later in game time, and all they've done since then is mop up in the PI. Nothing in New Guinea or the NEI, and they didn't even grab the Gilberts (where I couldn't have stopped them).
Some days you're the windshield.
Some days you're the bug.
Some days you're the bug.
A couple of items Paul,
1. When you air transfer an air group, any damaged planes are lost. They are actually returned to the "pool" Also, 10 % of the planes that fly will arrive damaged at the destaniation. So a group with 40 operational and 10 damaged that transfers will end up with 36 operational and 4 damaged at the new location. the 10 that started damaged will go to the replacement pool for that aircraft type. Transfer it again and you'll end up with 33 operational and 3 damaged, etc., etc., etc. A group with less than 10 operational planes can effectively transfer without losses because the 10% figure is apparently rounded down. Transferring does of course cost PPs and if you run out (like on turn 1 or 2 as the Allies) ALL the planes get damaged at the new destination.
2. Range 3 planes in the US cannot transfer to Hawaii or anywhere west (their max transfer range of 4 times normal range is too short). These planes need either a CS or MCS ship to transfer them. You have 5 CS ships as the US, some of them are initially stuck in the Phillipines, get them back to Pearl by way of Australia, and you'll have a good transfer force for the fighters & SBDs.
3. Planes with range 4 can transfer up the coast to Dutch Harbour and then down to Midway. It takes 3 or 4 transfers but if the group has less than 10 planes at start, you can make thr trip with no damaged planes. From Midway, all your CENPAC and SOUTHPAC bases are reachable.
4. Range 5 planes can transfer directly to Hawaii.
5. Note that until you build up Tongatabu (Tonga in the game) you will not be able to shuttle transfer range 3 planes all the way over to Australia & New Caledonia. That's because Canton is 13 hexes from Fiji.
Considering the drubbing that you got initially you may want to punt and start a new campaign. Be wary of the IJNs intentions, use SIGINT to find the Combined fleet HQ and if they are going against Hawaii, keep your CVs at Pearl with range 15 reaction orders. Keep them in no more than 2 task forces 2 or 3 CV per task forcc.
Look at your cruisers and DDs; some make much better carrier TF escorts than others. The Northampton class cruisers have the best AA. You should stuff your 2 CV TFs with the max possible ships 6-8 cruisers and 4-5 DD groups. Benson, Farragut, Sims, Gleaves and Mahans are the best DDs that you start with. The Fletcher class DDs are by far the best, but you don't have any at start.
Keep the Omaha class CLs out of the carrier TFs. Their AA is weaker than the Brooklyn class and the Omahas have better torpedoes so use them in a surface combat TF. Later on, the Baltimore, Cleveland and (Atlanta?) cruisers show up and they should take the place of the older cruisers in the carrier TFs. When you get your fast BBs, put them in your carrier TFs and look at the flak strength. You can get a TF up to 5,000 FLAK in late 1942 after the 1.1in guns are "exchanged" for 20mm and 40mm FLAK. This is done automatically by the game.
Keep all your old pre-war BBs and older cruisers (with the lower number of AA guns) plus any Gridley, Benhan & Mahan DDs for escort. Mahans can be used in either carrier or surface TFs.
The Porter and Clemson DDs are best used as convoy escorts (both routine and your own deliberate convoys).
There, I've gone on long enough, good luck.
1. When you air transfer an air group, any damaged planes are lost. They are actually returned to the "pool" Also, 10 % of the planes that fly will arrive damaged at the destaniation. So a group with 40 operational and 10 damaged that transfers will end up with 36 operational and 4 damaged at the new location. the 10 that started damaged will go to the replacement pool for that aircraft type. Transfer it again and you'll end up with 33 operational and 3 damaged, etc., etc., etc. A group with less than 10 operational planes can effectively transfer without losses because the 10% figure is apparently rounded down. Transferring does of course cost PPs and if you run out (like on turn 1 or 2 as the Allies) ALL the planes get damaged at the new destination.
2. Range 3 planes in the US cannot transfer to Hawaii or anywhere west (their max transfer range of 4 times normal range is too short). These planes need either a CS or MCS ship to transfer them. You have 5 CS ships as the US, some of them are initially stuck in the Phillipines, get them back to Pearl by way of Australia, and you'll have a good transfer force for the fighters & SBDs.
3. Planes with range 4 can transfer up the coast to Dutch Harbour and then down to Midway. It takes 3 or 4 transfers but if the group has less than 10 planes at start, you can make thr trip with no damaged planes. From Midway, all your CENPAC and SOUTHPAC bases are reachable.
4. Range 5 planes can transfer directly to Hawaii.
5. Note that until you build up Tongatabu (Tonga in the game) you will not be able to shuttle transfer range 3 planes all the way over to Australia & New Caledonia. That's because Canton is 13 hexes from Fiji.
Considering the drubbing that you got initially you may want to punt and start a new campaign. Be wary of the IJNs intentions, use SIGINT to find the Combined fleet HQ and if they are going against Hawaii, keep your CVs at Pearl with range 15 reaction orders. Keep them in no more than 2 task forces 2 or 3 CV per task forcc.
Look at your cruisers and DDs; some make much better carrier TF escorts than others. The Northampton class cruisers have the best AA. You should stuff your 2 CV TFs with the max possible ships 6-8 cruisers and 4-5 DD groups. Benson, Farragut, Sims, Gleaves and Mahans are the best DDs that you start with. The Fletcher class DDs are by far the best, but you don't have any at start.
Keep the Omaha class CLs out of the carrier TFs. Their AA is weaker than the Brooklyn class and the Omahas have better torpedoes so use them in a surface combat TF. Later on, the Baltimore, Cleveland and (Atlanta?) cruisers show up and they should take the place of the older cruisers in the carrier TFs. When you get your fast BBs, put them in your carrier TFs and look at the flak strength. You can get a TF up to 5,000 FLAK in late 1942 after the 1.1in guns are "exchanged" for 20mm and 40mm FLAK. This is done automatically by the game.
Keep all your old pre-war BBs and older cruisers (with the lower number of AA guns) plus any Gridley, Benhan & Mahan DDs for escort. Mahans can be used in either carrier or surface TFs.
The Porter and Clemson DDs are best used as convoy escorts (both routine and your own deliberate convoys).
There, I've gone on long enough, good luck.
Still playing PacWar (but no so much anymore)...
Thank you Mike for the comments.
The way via Dutch Harbor I had never thought of. I learned in the first game which bases I need to build up to Island hop so all the southern chain bases are at air:4.
I was thinking about stopping the game but decieded I should be able to tough it out. The key turned out to be shortland. Even though I sent a powerful surface group to it (2 BB, 3 CA, 1 CL, 8 DD) I lost it. But the Japanese SAG was bounced with the loss of a BB and damage (as in burning ships) to all others, I bounced also one transport group. But the other two landed. This I don't understand, how could they have landed with the force I had there, the DDs alone would have cut appart a tranport group attempting to land. Anyway, it was dissapointing but what was not was the air combat.
The Japanese sent in 2 CV and 2 CVL to cover the attack. I got an attack in from the defending marine air power which was met only by a small force of zeros. 9 SDB broke into the japanese CBG and paired up against the carriers. And this time the magic shield of protection which had been in past attacks protecting the carriers (where the shrugged off 1000lb bombs and 14" shells) was missing. Each ship was hit by 2 1000 lb bombs, 1 CV and 1 CVL were sunk outright and 1 CV was aflame stem to stern. By the end of this action the Japanese had lost a total of 4 CV and 4 CVL.
Nimitz newly in command of the CENPAC launched an assult on the two air bases near Wake and the 1st Marine Division supported by 1 SAG, 1 CBG (the Wasp with every escort ship I could find), and 1 Bombardment group hit those bases and inside of 6 weeks I controled that entire area (I had to wait while I brought up a new division to hold the first base).
An austrailian and N.Z. division are currently (early 43) staging in Darwin for an assult on Flores. Marine air holds Timor, the SPAC fleet is waiting for the LST and then will retake shortland.
I have just recieved the rebuilt carriers that I lost and have been engaging in massed areal carnage over Port Morbsy and Bangkok. The british have landed in the Singapore penisula and control all the bases except Singapore itself with a (well it used to be at least) powerful army group sieging Bangkok.
It was looking very tough for a while but I think the momentum has switched. The last few weeks have seen the Japanese loose over 200 aircraft and I can't believe they can sustain those sorts of losses. I have been watching their bomber forces and they are definitly getting smaller and smaller.
As far as the ships go I have been slowly learning which ones work best for what. The DDs I tend to pick depending on relative numbers of Torpedos and AA guns. Those with lots of torpedos I reserve mainly for surface action groups. The gun CLs I use to escort my APDs and as flagships for tranport and cargo groups. Although my main assult group has a BB for a flagship <img src="smile.gif" border="0">
I will print out the comments though and go thru checking to make sure I am not making an serious goofs. Thanks again.
The way via Dutch Harbor I had never thought of. I learned in the first game which bases I need to build up to Island hop so all the southern chain bases are at air:4.
I was thinking about stopping the game but decieded I should be able to tough it out. The key turned out to be shortland. Even though I sent a powerful surface group to it (2 BB, 3 CA, 1 CL, 8 DD) I lost it. But the Japanese SAG was bounced with the loss of a BB and damage (as in burning ships) to all others, I bounced also one transport group. But the other two landed. This I don't understand, how could they have landed with the force I had there, the DDs alone would have cut appart a tranport group attempting to land. Anyway, it was dissapointing but what was not was the air combat.
The Japanese sent in 2 CV and 2 CVL to cover the attack. I got an attack in from the defending marine air power which was met only by a small force of zeros. 9 SDB broke into the japanese CBG and paired up against the carriers. And this time the magic shield of protection which had been in past attacks protecting the carriers (where the shrugged off 1000lb bombs and 14" shells) was missing. Each ship was hit by 2 1000 lb bombs, 1 CV and 1 CVL were sunk outright and 1 CV was aflame stem to stern. By the end of this action the Japanese had lost a total of 4 CV and 4 CVL.
Nimitz newly in command of the CENPAC launched an assult on the two air bases near Wake and the 1st Marine Division supported by 1 SAG, 1 CBG (the Wasp with every escort ship I could find), and 1 Bombardment group hit those bases and inside of 6 weeks I controled that entire area (I had to wait while I brought up a new division to hold the first base).
An austrailian and N.Z. division are currently (early 43) staging in Darwin for an assult on Flores. Marine air holds Timor, the SPAC fleet is waiting for the LST and then will retake shortland.
I have just recieved the rebuilt carriers that I lost and have been engaging in massed areal carnage over Port Morbsy and Bangkok. The british have landed in the Singapore penisula and control all the bases except Singapore itself with a (well it used to be at least) powerful army group sieging Bangkok.
It was looking very tough for a while but I think the momentum has switched. The last few weeks have seen the Japanese loose over 200 aircraft and I can't believe they can sustain those sorts of losses. I have been watching their bomber forces and they are definitly getting smaller and smaller.
As far as the ships go I have been slowly learning which ones work best for what. The DDs I tend to pick depending on relative numbers of Torpedos and AA guns. Those with lots of torpedos I reserve mainly for surface action groups. The gun CLs I use to escort my APDs and as flagships for tranport and cargo groups. Although my main assult group has a BB for a flagship <img src="smile.gif" border="0">
I will print out the comments though and go thru checking to make sure I am not making an serious goofs. Thanks again.
OK Paul, it looks like your doing much better. I had forgotten that any sunk US carriers get "replaced" after about 1 year. Let me guess, the Wasp was not one of those that was sunk, right? That was the weakest US CV (and it was better than most IJN CVs)...
Your game is progressing differently than mine, where there have been almost NO carrier losses on either side until very recently where through some good luck and heavy pounding by B25s I bagged 3 IJN CVL and their 2 smallest CV. this was while my carriers were off bombing merchant TF in the same hex as a IJN 4CV TF. My only "loss" was 75 points damage to Enterprise which has been repaired. I trashed the Japanese battle fleets though, when I put 2 6BB TFs on a crazy rush at Ulithi. I had 2 3CV TFs in support but they weren't close enough and a Jap CV TF hit them, but the high Flak strength on the BB TFs (3,300 on each TF) accounted for 55 planes on one strike alone while I lost only a CA and a DD (and some damaged ships). Then when my BB TFs actually got to the base, they found a IJN 3BB TF where my 2 TFs took turns trashing them totally. There are now 5 IJN BBs on the bottom with NO US BBs sunk (the pearl ones were repaired). But now I have 5 BBs in the drydocks getting repaired.
I'm still worried about the 8 IJN CVs still running around undamaged.
The enemy TFs getting through your BB TF is not completely illogical. If a Cargo TF sees your BB TF it will turn and run, also some Transport TFs will do the same, but if an enemy surface TF is present, some of these might get through. also the IJN has "Tokyo Express" TFs where cruisers CA, CL and DD can be used to transport units and supplies. These will get through, especially if there are other IJN TFs in the hex to "distract" your single surface combat TF. I saw it happen to me time after time in the NI.
You are correct, the japanese air forces won't be able to take that level of losses, the thing is to keep it up. You should not have to worry about dwindling air strength, as long as your production is "set" (see below). Your main "problem" will be to get and keep as many land based air units in contact with the enemy at all times.
Don't forget that your US Army AF air units, particularly the A20, B26 and B25s can wreak havoc on Japanese fleets, even carrier TFs, if you put them on NI missions and have a 1:1 fighter:tac-bomber ratio in each base. British Wellingtons are also very useful with this (again you need them to be on NI missions. You'll have to keep some on day combat missions, to keep pounding the airfields, depots and ground units, but I demolished many a TF with Wellington and B25 units alone.
Fighter and Fighter-Bomber units never need to be on NI missions. Don't do it, day combat is fine, they will attack TFs.
If you already control Bangkok, put either that base or Rangoon full of Hurricane IIC and Wellington, with the Wellingtons on NI target Saigon ships in port. You'll eventually "clean up" There are a lot of merchant ships in Saigon just waiting for you to attack them. The same goes for Truk, if you can get the fighters beat down.
Heavy bombers B17, B24 are useless against ships. Keep these, 2-4 groups per base in bases that can reach the major Japanese air bases and put the base air target on those jap airfields. Watch the fighters come up and die as they attack your heavy bombers and watch your heavy bombers blast their planes on the ground. You have to switch the target every couple of turns because the Japanese AI will move its air units out of a base after it gets plastered for a few turns. You need at least 2 P38 fighter units on the bomber bases to ward off any japanese air attacks. Keep a 1:1 ratio and you should be ok.
Here's how to capture bases easily.
Use your SIGINT and check certain jap island bases, like Rabual, Buka, Kwajelin, Eniwetok, etc, you know the AF:4 or higher air bases, and check the GROUND UNITS in those bases. If you see only a weak regiment or two (make 2 SIGINT checks in one turn on a base if the same unit is disclosed twice, then that's the only unit there), go after it with 2 US divisions and a raid bn or 2. You'll take the base. Fly in a full complement of fighters & bombers (either marines on day combat or B25s on NI) and the enemy won't get it back. Then station a PC TF with react orders to keep out and sneaky attempts to take it back with just a transport TF.
For your counteroffensive in the Neth Indies, check Timor, Ambon Is or Bali for Ground units with SIGINT before going after Flores (unless you still hold Timor). These bases have a higher AF rating (I think 2 or 3) and you'll be able to instantly use the airfields upon capture. That's what I do, Go after the AF:2 or higher bases where SIGINT shows 1 division equlivilant or less.
BB in Transport TF: It is a waste of a BB. Put your old BBs in 1 or 2 surface TFs put your fast BBs in the carrier TFs (for AA). Pack these 4 TFs (2 surf 2 air) as full of ships at allowed (15 units) and use them in support of each other. That way, if you meet an enemy you will defeat them.
For the Indies, I scrounged all all the Dutch, Australian and New Zeland ships and tossed in 1 US CA and 3 US CL (the old Ohmaha CLs) and made 2 "harassment" TFs based out of Darwin (later Timor) to harass the IJN in the indies. Thay work ok, especially now that the IJN is locked in battle in the central pacific.
The British Fleet is guarding Ceylon against rancid porporn and roving chickens.
Air construction:
Don't continue to build any A20, or B26. Convert all US and Australian production to B25, that's the best US tac bomber until 1944.
For the British, build only the Wellington tac bmbr.
For fighters, US start with P40E until the P38F is available, then build strictly P38F. By that time you should have hundreds of P40E in the pools to take up losses until all groups can eventually switch. For RAF, Hurricane IIb then IIc.
For the allied air units, I eventually made all the Dutch, Aus, and NZ units like US, that is P40 and B25. For the Chinese, I initially gave them the hand-me downs (P36, F2A, B18, Martin139, etc, until the main pools of first line aircraft were well established. Then I gave then P40 and A20. Later I switched them to Hurricane IIb because I had over 600 of these sitting in the pools and the entire RAF was flying hurricane IIc.
For the oddball Chinese dive bomber, British torpedo bomber, etc, give these units US SBD or TBF planes.
Convert your British carriers to Wildcats and Avengers. Later replace the Wildcats with Corsairs. Don't build any british carrier plane, they all suck.
Don't build the P40N, it is no better than the P38 and has less range. Likewise don't build Kittyhawks.
The planes to build are:
P40E to P38F to P47D to P51D
A20 to B25 to A26
Hurri IIb to IIc to Spit VIII
Wellington (til the end of the war)
F4F to F4U & F6F, later to F8F (if needed)
SDB to SB2C (even though I hate the helldiver)
TBD to TBF
Don't build: P40N, P38J, A20, B26, P61, TBM, FM2, Blenheims, Beaufort, Beaufighter, Kittyhawk, Mosquito, Vengance (Maybe you can build the Mosquito along with the Spitfire, they might complement each other nicely).
Don't build ANY british carrier plane, These were the worst planes around. Stick to the US planes for the British CVs. Convert any factories that you see pop up with these planes to the primary types listed above. You'll end up with hundreds of the best first line aircraft in your pools.
My current pools (Apr 1943):
F4F 1823 (no longer building)
F4U 62 (just getting started)
SBD 752
TBF 1491
P40E 598 (no longer building)
P38F 366
A20 181 (no longer building)
B25 1236
B17E 1 (no longer building, 2 gps active)
B24 26 (can't keep up with losses on these)
Hur IIb 476 (no longer building)
Hur IIc 117
Welling 868
My only problem is with heavy bombers which you have no real control over. I guess IF I stop attacking with them, they'll eventually grow, but I don't want to stop attacking right now.
There, was that long enough?? good luck. My goal now is to not get any US CV sunk during the entire war. (CVL and CVE don't count in this goal).
Your game is progressing differently than mine, where there have been almost NO carrier losses on either side until very recently where through some good luck and heavy pounding by B25s I bagged 3 IJN CVL and their 2 smallest CV. this was while my carriers were off bombing merchant TF in the same hex as a IJN 4CV TF. My only "loss" was 75 points damage to Enterprise which has been repaired. I trashed the Japanese battle fleets though, when I put 2 6BB TFs on a crazy rush at Ulithi. I had 2 3CV TFs in support but they weren't close enough and a Jap CV TF hit them, but the high Flak strength on the BB TFs (3,300 on each TF) accounted for 55 planes on one strike alone while I lost only a CA and a DD (and some damaged ships). Then when my BB TFs actually got to the base, they found a IJN 3BB TF where my 2 TFs took turns trashing them totally. There are now 5 IJN BBs on the bottom with NO US BBs sunk (the pearl ones were repaired). But now I have 5 BBs in the drydocks getting repaired.
I'm still worried about the 8 IJN CVs still running around undamaged.
The enemy TFs getting through your BB TF is not completely illogical. If a Cargo TF sees your BB TF it will turn and run, also some Transport TFs will do the same, but if an enemy surface TF is present, some of these might get through. also the IJN has "Tokyo Express" TFs where cruisers CA, CL and DD can be used to transport units and supplies. These will get through, especially if there are other IJN TFs in the hex to "distract" your single surface combat TF. I saw it happen to me time after time in the NI.
You are correct, the japanese air forces won't be able to take that level of losses, the thing is to keep it up. You should not have to worry about dwindling air strength, as long as your production is "set" (see below). Your main "problem" will be to get and keep as many land based air units in contact with the enemy at all times.
Don't forget that your US Army AF air units, particularly the A20, B26 and B25s can wreak havoc on Japanese fleets, even carrier TFs, if you put them on NI missions and have a 1:1 fighter:tac-bomber ratio in each base. British Wellingtons are also very useful with this (again you need them to be on NI missions. You'll have to keep some on day combat missions, to keep pounding the airfields, depots and ground units, but I demolished many a TF with Wellington and B25 units alone.
Fighter and Fighter-Bomber units never need to be on NI missions. Don't do it, day combat is fine, they will attack TFs.
If you already control Bangkok, put either that base or Rangoon full of Hurricane IIC and Wellington, with the Wellingtons on NI target Saigon ships in port. You'll eventually "clean up" There are a lot of merchant ships in Saigon just waiting for you to attack them. The same goes for Truk, if you can get the fighters beat down.
Heavy bombers B17, B24 are useless against ships. Keep these, 2-4 groups per base in bases that can reach the major Japanese air bases and put the base air target on those jap airfields. Watch the fighters come up and die as they attack your heavy bombers and watch your heavy bombers blast their planes on the ground. You have to switch the target every couple of turns because the Japanese AI will move its air units out of a base after it gets plastered for a few turns. You need at least 2 P38 fighter units on the bomber bases to ward off any japanese air attacks. Keep a 1:1 ratio and you should be ok.
Here's how to capture bases easily.
Use your SIGINT and check certain jap island bases, like Rabual, Buka, Kwajelin, Eniwetok, etc, you know the AF:4 or higher air bases, and check the GROUND UNITS in those bases. If you see only a weak regiment or two (make 2 SIGINT checks in one turn on a base if the same unit is disclosed twice, then that's the only unit there), go after it with 2 US divisions and a raid bn or 2. You'll take the base. Fly in a full complement of fighters & bombers (either marines on day combat or B25s on NI) and the enemy won't get it back. Then station a PC TF with react orders to keep out and sneaky attempts to take it back with just a transport TF.
For your counteroffensive in the Neth Indies, check Timor, Ambon Is or Bali for Ground units with SIGINT before going after Flores (unless you still hold Timor). These bases have a higher AF rating (I think 2 or 3) and you'll be able to instantly use the airfields upon capture. That's what I do, Go after the AF:2 or higher bases where SIGINT shows 1 division equlivilant or less.
BB in Transport TF: It is a waste of a BB. Put your old BBs in 1 or 2 surface TFs put your fast BBs in the carrier TFs (for AA). Pack these 4 TFs (2 surf 2 air) as full of ships at allowed (15 units) and use them in support of each other. That way, if you meet an enemy you will defeat them.
For the Indies, I scrounged all all the Dutch, Australian and New Zeland ships and tossed in 1 US CA and 3 US CL (the old Ohmaha CLs) and made 2 "harassment" TFs based out of Darwin (later Timor) to harass the IJN in the indies. Thay work ok, especially now that the IJN is locked in battle in the central pacific.
The British Fleet is guarding Ceylon against rancid porporn and roving chickens.
Air construction:
Don't continue to build any A20, or B26. Convert all US and Australian production to B25, that's the best US tac bomber until 1944.
For the British, build only the Wellington tac bmbr.
For fighters, US start with P40E until the P38F is available, then build strictly P38F. By that time you should have hundreds of P40E in the pools to take up losses until all groups can eventually switch. For RAF, Hurricane IIb then IIc.
For the allied air units, I eventually made all the Dutch, Aus, and NZ units like US, that is P40 and B25. For the Chinese, I initially gave them the hand-me downs (P36, F2A, B18, Martin139, etc, until the main pools of first line aircraft were well established. Then I gave then P40 and A20. Later I switched them to Hurricane IIb because I had over 600 of these sitting in the pools and the entire RAF was flying hurricane IIc.
For the oddball Chinese dive bomber, British torpedo bomber, etc, give these units US SBD or TBF planes.
Convert your British carriers to Wildcats and Avengers. Later replace the Wildcats with Corsairs. Don't build any british carrier plane, they all suck.
Don't build the P40N, it is no better than the P38 and has less range. Likewise don't build Kittyhawks.
The planes to build are:
P40E to P38F to P47D to P51D
A20 to B25 to A26
Hurri IIb to IIc to Spit VIII
Wellington (til the end of the war)
F4F to F4U & F6F, later to F8F (if needed)
SDB to SB2C (even though I hate the helldiver)
TBD to TBF
Don't build: P40N, P38J, A20, B26, P61, TBM, FM2, Blenheims, Beaufort, Beaufighter, Kittyhawk, Mosquito, Vengance (Maybe you can build the Mosquito along with the Spitfire, they might complement each other nicely).
Don't build ANY british carrier plane, These were the worst planes around. Stick to the US planes for the British CVs. Convert any factories that you see pop up with these planes to the primary types listed above. You'll end up with hundreds of the best first line aircraft in your pools.
My current pools (Apr 1943):
F4F 1823 (no longer building)
F4U 62 (just getting started)
SBD 752
TBF 1491
P40E 598 (no longer building)
P38F 366
A20 181 (no longer building)
B25 1236
B17E 1 (no longer building, 2 gps active)
B24 26 (can't keep up with losses on these)
Hur IIb 476 (no longer building)
Hur IIc 117
Welling 868
My only problem is with heavy bombers which you have no real control over. I guess IF I stop attacking with them, they'll eventually grow, but I don't want to stop attacking right now.
There, was that long enough?? good luck. My goal now is to not get any US CV sunk during the entire war. (CVL and CVE don't count in this goal).
Still playing PacWar (but no so much anymore)...
Thanks again Mike, most informative.
I am afraid that I will not be following your aircraft guidelines. As a rule I don't change factories and seldom change type of aircraft in a plane group. The sole exception being the chinese groups which I switch over to whichever second line junk I have the most of. I have the chinese groups listed and when a auto upgrade comes along then I check to make sure I am not upgrading them to modern planes.
I also have the wonderful "out of mememory" error whenever I attempt to access a carrier air group so I can't change their default settings so I can't change either the type of aircraft of switch them to training. I would like to do so with the new replacement carriers since their groups start out with 0 planes. Unfortunately I can't see how to change things in WinME so I am stuck.
I agree with a your analysis of the relative values of most of the planes but to me I just let the game deal with that aspect of the war (production and aircraft upgrades). But so far as I was aware the RAF used only british aircraft so I will keep building them. I don't know what the australians did, at the moment they are flying Kittyhawk IIs with an eccletic mix of tac bombers (A20, Wellington, Hudson, the one I can never remember). What is left of the dutch airforce is flying SBD and A20 I believe.
One thing that I find humerous is the icon for the liberator is a monoplane fighter and not a 4 engined heavy bomber...I chuckle when I see it.
Yes indeeed the Wasp was the only carrier to survive the mass sinkings of early 42. I am going to pair it up with a couple of CVL (when available) and send it to support the attacks in the Java area. For the moment I am awaiting the newly rebuilt carriers flight groups plus the new Essex class carriers coming off the ways. Then I will make 2 CBG for the CENPAC, and 1 for SOUTHPAC (but this and the Wasp CBG will be mostly CVL). I will switch out the BB in the transport group when I have some Casablanca CVE to put in. For the moment I want its AA firepower there.
I was not happy with loosing Shortland. But as near as I can see the defenders made their first set of combat checks against the initial landing but then when the second force hit they must have failed all the checks miserably since only 2 squads showed up to fight of the 150 or so available (1 Inf Rgt and 1 ENG unit). That realy annoyed me but I tried 6 times to find out something different I could do to stop this and could not so I just let it stand...besides I suspect trading 1 CV and 2 CVL plus another CV crippled was worth it. From what I can see the random number generator is not that random since the overall combat results were identical in 6 different run thrus.
One thing I find puzzeling is how the defending air will concentrate on attacking a carrier group several hundred km offshore and ignore the transport fleet coming around the point. I would have thought those would have been the first targets NOT the well defended carriers.
I still hold Timor (and have just moved in 2 USMC fighter groups and SBD group) and I have repeately checked Flores it is held by a weak unit the xxth SBDF (or something like that anyway). I have 2 SAG (1 Dutch and the other Austrailian) to provide shore bombardment plus a wellington group in Broome and the planes in Timor so I think it should go ok. Flores at the moment has an air rating of 5 so I am looking forward to using the Japanese airfields. I have sufficient merchant lift so that a continous stream of cargo TF will arrive (in my first game I learned this was essential to sucess).
I am facing a naval lift problem which is holding back amphibous operations since I don't want to use my liners for combat ops. This limits me to essentially 2 single division combat lift forces plus my raider APD unit which I use to probe minor Islands. I am reserving my liners for high speed transfer from rear bases or else from the US to the front lines. In the Indian oscean I have no choise as the British only have liners (I have a total of 12 there).
I am hopefull this will change when the LST become available since that will give me SOUTHPAC lift and allow me to concentrate the AP and Victory class MCS for the long hauls accross the pacific. I now hold Kwajelin, and Eniwetok Islands, the 1st Marine Divison took both of them (or else the 2nd I am not so sure...which ever is assigned to CENPAC). I am considering raids against Truk when I have the new CBGs formed, these worked well in my last game when I caught hundreds of ships in Truk harbor and sunk them. I will use attacks against Kaiving and Rabul to draw Japanese forces into the area and destroy them. The Eastern fleet essentially got withdrawn on me a week or so ago (I have a handful of DDs left) and I suspect it will show up again piecemeal over the next few weeks. I had the odd situation where british ships showed up damaged in Ceylon. Has this ever happened to you?
I will reply to your other post after I have accessed my game and writen down the information I need to answer properly.
Again thanks a lot for the helpful comments and information.
I am afraid that I will not be following your aircraft guidelines. As a rule I don't change factories and seldom change type of aircraft in a plane group. The sole exception being the chinese groups which I switch over to whichever second line junk I have the most of. I have the chinese groups listed and when a auto upgrade comes along then I check to make sure I am not upgrading them to modern planes.
I also have the wonderful "out of mememory" error whenever I attempt to access a carrier air group so I can't change their default settings so I can't change either the type of aircraft of switch them to training. I would like to do so with the new replacement carriers since their groups start out with 0 planes. Unfortunately I can't see how to change things in WinME so I am stuck.
I agree with a your analysis of the relative values of most of the planes but to me I just let the game deal with that aspect of the war (production and aircraft upgrades). But so far as I was aware the RAF used only british aircraft so I will keep building them. I don't know what the australians did, at the moment they are flying Kittyhawk IIs with an eccletic mix of tac bombers (A20, Wellington, Hudson, the one I can never remember). What is left of the dutch airforce is flying SBD and A20 I believe.
One thing that I find humerous is the icon for the liberator is a monoplane fighter and not a 4 engined heavy bomber...I chuckle when I see it.
Yes indeeed the Wasp was the only carrier to survive the mass sinkings of early 42. I am going to pair it up with a couple of CVL (when available) and send it to support the attacks in the Java area. For the moment I am awaiting the newly rebuilt carriers flight groups plus the new Essex class carriers coming off the ways. Then I will make 2 CBG for the CENPAC, and 1 for SOUTHPAC (but this and the Wasp CBG will be mostly CVL). I will switch out the BB in the transport group when I have some Casablanca CVE to put in. For the moment I want its AA firepower there.
I was not happy with loosing Shortland. But as near as I can see the defenders made their first set of combat checks against the initial landing but then when the second force hit they must have failed all the checks miserably since only 2 squads showed up to fight of the 150 or so available (1 Inf Rgt and 1 ENG unit). That realy annoyed me but I tried 6 times to find out something different I could do to stop this and could not so I just let it stand...besides I suspect trading 1 CV and 2 CVL plus another CV crippled was worth it. From what I can see the random number generator is not that random since the overall combat results were identical in 6 different run thrus.
One thing I find puzzeling is how the defending air will concentrate on attacking a carrier group several hundred km offshore and ignore the transport fleet coming around the point. I would have thought those would have been the first targets NOT the well defended carriers.
I still hold Timor (and have just moved in 2 USMC fighter groups and SBD group) and I have repeately checked Flores it is held by a weak unit the xxth SBDF (or something like that anyway). I have 2 SAG (1 Dutch and the other Austrailian) to provide shore bombardment plus a wellington group in Broome and the planes in Timor so I think it should go ok. Flores at the moment has an air rating of 5 so I am looking forward to using the Japanese airfields. I have sufficient merchant lift so that a continous stream of cargo TF will arrive (in my first game I learned this was essential to sucess).
I am facing a naval lift problem which is holding back amphibous operations since I don't want to use my liners for combat ops. This limits me to essentially 2 single division combat lift forces plus my raider APD unit which I use to probe minor Islands. I am reserving my liners for high speed transfer from rear bases or else from the US to the front lines. In the Indian oscean I have no choise as the British only have liners (I have a total of 12 there).
I am hopefull this will change when the LST become available since that will give me SOUTHPAC lift and allow me to concentrate the AP and Victory class MCS for the long hauls accross the pacific. I now hold Kwajelin, and Eniwetok Islands, the 1st Marine Divison took both of them (or else the 2nd I am not so sure...which ever is assigned to CENPAC). I am considering raids against Truk when I have the new CBGs formed, these worked well in my last game when I caught hundreds of ships in Truk harbor and sunk them. I will use attacks against Kaiving and Rabul to draw Japanese forces into the area and destroy them. The Eastern fleet essentially got withdrawn on me a week or so ago (I have a handful of DDs left) and I suspect it will show up again piecemeal over the next few weeks. I had the odd situation where british ships showed up damaged in Ceylon. Has this ever happened to you?
I will reply to your other post after I have accessed my game and writen down the information I need to answer properly.
Again thanks a lot for the helpful comments and information.
Paul, I'm also running the game under WinME, and get the same "Out Of Memory" error. There is a way around it. When you click on the squadron, you get the error message, and the group's experience rating at the bottom of the screen, right? At that point, hit "C" twice to change the aircraft type, or "M" twice to change missions. Those menus will pop up normally, and you can fiddle as you like.
BTW, the British historically flew lots of US types from their CVs, so there's absolutely no need to feel bad about doing that. The TBF/TBM Avenger was the RN's predominant strike aircraft late in the war, and the British were the first to operate F4U Corsairs from CVs.
And yes, repeated tries will yield identical results - unless you change something. Move an air squadron around, change the reaction range of your TFs... play with it. This was something I noticed in my first run through the game, and it was confirmed the first time I visited these boards and saw that others had seen the same thing.
BTW, the British historically flew lots of US types from their CVs, so there's absolutely no need to feel bad about doing that. The TBF/TBM Avenger was the RN's predominant strike aircraft late in the war, and the British were the first to operate F4U Corsairs from CVs.
And yes, repeated tries will yield identical results - unless you change something. Move an air squadron around, change the reaction range of your TFs... play with it. This was something I noticed in my first run through the game, and it was confirmed the first time I visited these boards and saw that others had seen the same thing.
Some days you're the windshield.
Some days you're the bug.
Some days you're the bug.
paul
i like your solution to moving plans to Alaska.
here is another one for you. leave one fighter air group at clark air field. first move all usa forces from batann the next move to manila. use to ap and cs to move the philline division and sub divide the marine and load the hq part on the cs. send this force to the south base on borneo the move them north and you can hold. send us divisions 1 or 2 and reinforce borneo. now put a mt force at the other two 4 air bases in the southern philipines. get a least one engn. to borneo.
on your first turn also load your two best divisions a move them out of malaysia and send them to palembang. move other british divisions for india etc to palembang. if you play your air game correctly you can just about wipe out the japanese air attacking signapore. then move your ap's back and save as many ground troops as possible. you should be able to hold palembang easy.
now build up your air group experience and the japanes will send ship after ship to borneo and you can sink them by the dozen.
my last game was both sides even and japan surrendered in sept of 42.
i like your solution to moving plans to Alaska.
here is another one for you. leave one fighter air group at clark air field. first move all usa forces from batann the next move to manila. use to ap and cs to move the philline division and sub divide the marine and load the hq part on the cs. send this force to the south base on borneo the move them north and you can hold. send us divisions 1 or 2 and reinforce borneo. now put a mt force at the other two 4 air bases in the southern philipines. get a least one engn. to borneo.
on your first turn also load your two best divisions a move them out of malaysia and send them to palembang. move other british divisions for india etc to palembang. if you play your air game correctly you can just about wipe out the japanese air attacking signapore. then move your ap's back and save as many ground troops as possible. you should be able to hold palembang easy.
now build up your air group experience and the japanes will send ship after ship to borneo and you can sink them by the dozen.
my last game was both sides even and japan surrendered in sept of 42.
Hi Paul,
Al is right, just hit the "C" key once more or the "M" key and the appropriate menu will come up.
The B-24 icon corruption might be a program error. In my current game, it came up as a black square. If you have Rich Dione's pacwar editor (runs under excel 97 or 2000) you can go into the aircraft page and fix the icon number. The correct icon number is 34
I see the same thing happening with air units, they make what I consider the most ludicrous attacks sometimes. Air TFs too, 8 strikes against a merchant fleet with a spotted enemy air combat TF in the same hex as my attacking air combat TF!!
As Al also states (and you can read in in PWHINTS.doc) the RN soon adopted US carrier aircraft on its CVs and CVLs so feel free to do so. Australians tended to us US equipment mainly because the british could not get anything to them.
For troop transports, you should have 8 APA units and 8 Liner units on the "american" side and 3 liner units on the "british" side give or take 1 liner unit per side. This should give you enough to lift at least 4 divisions.
Remenber that you can "to pool" the individual liner ships from the british side and "get pool" them to the american side and vice versa. This is the only ship type that can cross national boundaries, i.e. you can't swap an AO or TK etc from a US unit to a british unit.
The LSTs are essentially like APAs but with a larger group maximum (the first unit I got was a 50xLST unit) with a slightly smaller capacity (60 vs 80 in an APA). Their main benefit is that units invading from an LST will do so at 50% readiness not 25% as from an APA or Liner.
I use the Liners on combat amphib landings all the time, they are faster, have twice the capacity and have slightly better defense (not that any auxiliary ever has a "good" defence). There are just far fewer liner ships than APA ships.
Eastern Fleet: see the separate thread on this. It annoys me to no end.
Dan, that was my mention not Paul's of transferring aircraft to Midway via Dutch Harbor.
Al is right, just hit the "C" key once more or the "M" key and the appropriate menu will come up.
The B-24 icon corruption might be a program error. In my current game, it came up as a black square. If you have Rich Dione's pacwar editor (runs under excel 97 or 2000) you can go into the aircraft page and fix the icon number. The correct icon number is 34
I see the same thing happening with air units, they make what I consider the most ludicrous attacks sometimes. Air TFs too, 8 strikes against a merchant fleet with a spotted enemy air combat TF in the same hex as my attacking air combat TF!!
As Al also states (and you can read in in PWHINTS.doc) the RN soon adopted US carrier aircraft on its CVs and CVLs so feel free to do so. Australians tended to us US equipment mainly because the british could not get anything to them.
For troop transports, you should have 8 APA units and 8 Liner units on the "american" side and 3 liner units on the "british" side give or take 1 liner unit per side. This should give you enough to lift at least 4 divisions.
Remenber that you can "to pool" the individual liner ships from the british side and "get pool" them to the american side and vice versa. This is the only ship type that can cross national boundaries, i.e. you can't swap an AO or TK etc from a US unit to a british unit.
The LSTs are essentially like APAs but with a larger group maximum (the first unit I got was a 50xLST unit) with a slightly smaller capacity (60 vs 80 in an APA). Their main benefit is that units invading from an LST will do so at 50% readiness not 25% as from an APA or Liner.
I use the Liners on combat amphib landings all the time, they are faster, have twice the capacity and have slightly better defense (not that any auxiliary ever has a "good" defence). There are just far fewer liner ships than APA ships.
Eastern Fleet: see the separate thread on this. It annoys me to no end.
Dan, that was my mention not Paul's of transferring aircraft to Midway via Dutch Harbor.
Still playing PacWar (but no so much anymore)...
Hello Mike and others...
Sorry for the delay I have had a hard time logging in to the board and have been busy with PACWAR anyway.
Thanks for all the help and information, especially with the "out of memory" workaround. I have some CVL pilots that are grateful. I wasn't sure about the RN practice and althougth the Baracuda is ok, it has a woefully short range. I am happy enought with the Seafire II (more later). The austrailians I thought used a lot of american planes but wasn't sure.
A bit of a SITREP, it is currently Jan 44.
I am still waiting for some LST to show up. The rules say that I should get a group in 4/43 and another in 11/43 so far nothing. This is crippling amphibious ops to a great degree as 3 Marine Divs enjoy vacations on Palmyra Island.
NORPAC HQ
Operations are ongoing on Atchinka (2nd islands west of Dutch Harbor) and with the air fields completed and harbor expansion underway. 4 USMC air units were rudely informed that they would be flying Warhawks not Corsairs and they were not headed for the hot weather! Along with some Divebomber support these units have formed the core of the Northern Air group. 2 Marine Def Batt and a Parachute Battalion were moved north as well. 8 Fletchter DDs form the core of the USN force.
West Coast
Training on the P47 Thurnderbolt groups to escort the Superfortress's is going well. We are still awaiting the LSTs though DE and DD construction proceeds apace.
CENPAC
The first raid on Truk was a failure. Even though each of the CBG had 3 CV and a total flak rating of 4401 I lost 1 CV in the attack (it sunk on the way back to pearl) and had others damaged. But Adm Nimitz didn't let this dissuade him. In the mean time the central Island chain had been turned into a Marine Air Depot. Bikini Island is the home to 3 Liberator groups and Tarawa holds the marine rapid reaction raiding force. Wotji Island is the HQ of the 5th Fleet and currently holds the CENPAC combat force reserve.
After repairing the damaged CV and taking in new builds a second raid was launched. Each CBG now had in excesse of 5000 flak (one had 5200, the other 5600) plus 3 CV, and 1 CVL. The flight leaders had the target emphised to them by the Adm himself no more deflections to the airfields hit the port itself. The Liberators had 2 weeks to prepare the way blasting the depots and fields. When the raid struck the suprise was total and the harbor was full. 1 CA, 2 CL, a score of DDs and light escorts and dozens of merchant ships soon litter the harbor bottom.
The Japanese air response never approached the line of circling DDs. The CAP destroyed each strike well away from the carriers. On receipt of this Nimitz activated a contigency plan and the 2nd Marine Divison plus supporting infantry was launched at Truk. The SAG retiring after shelling the port was turned around as was the bombardment taskforce. The 2nd Marine Division took Truk by storm, surprising its unprepared garision in a lightning landing and securing the island. Marine air began flying in within hours.
5th Fleets CBGs turned their attention on Kaiveng, and the Amphibous assult group proceeded to Spirto Santo to pickup 2 infantry divisions for the assult. To confuse the Japanese the Liberators at Bikini began to bombard Saipan.
SOUTHPAC
Things have been quiet due to the lack of LST. But the 1st and 3rd USMC raider Bn were instrumental in securing the Islands around bikini and they are currently waiting while marine air pounds on a Japanese garrision before attempting to secure the island. The Wasp CBG (Wasp and 2 CVL) have been on station at Emairu Island (hope that is right...the next to Guadal Canal) but fuel problems limited combat actions. In support of an attack by the 8th Army against shortland (just begun) it has moved to just offshore and its airgroups have begun ground strikes. The 2 SAGs have also begun shelling the area. The 3 Marine divison at Palmayra will be moved to Emairu.
SW PAC
Has been operating in support of a variaty of different operations. The main efforts have been an airwar against shortland from the bases on Guadal canal.
ANZAC/8h ARMY (NEW GUINAE)
The Japanese air has been engaged and destroyed in a battle over the airspace of this small island. Originally flying from Port Morsby Kittyhawks and Lightnings fought for control over its airspace. Once this was secured the Lightings and 2 squadrons of Liberators moved to Lae which was designed the 8th Army HQ. The 5th Aus division began advancing up the coast followed by the 91st Engineers. Soon several key bases had been secured and a Japanese HQ at Weewak overun. Soon a massive air war was ongoing. Lightnings and Liberators from Lae struck at Kaiveng, Kittyhawks and A20s attacked Gasmata from Milne Bay, and Liberators and B17s from Port Morsby hit Rabul. The losses were often extreme on both sides though as time went on the allies seemed to be gaining the upper hand.
The Japanese sortied with their carriers but Mandangs base had just reached full capacity and an eclictic combination of planes (Kittyhawks, Lightnings, F6Fs, Dauntless, Beaufighter X, Beuford IIs) had just been moved in. Although no carriers were sunk (the majik shield was back) all were damaged as wave after wave of strike planes wore away the zero defending the carriers. An ambious assult force recoiled from the attack. Not that the troops had much chance against the 2 Divisions in Lae itself but it was nice to see the enemy running in defeat. His damaged BBs were subject to submarine attack as he withdrew them towards Japan.
Currently the 5th Aus Division is fighting a weak japanese force in Hollandia (or whatever that is called).
Norther Australian Command
Flore conquored all eyes turned towards Albon I. The RAN started the ball moving when their SAG bombared the facilities. A week later the NZ division landed and 2 weeks later the Austrailians joined them. Nightly, for several weeks the RAN SAG sorties from Darwin and a steady stream of MCS task forces offload replacements for the troops. The amphibious group went to Espirito Santo picked up the NZ Bde there and returned. The addition of the heavily reinforced Bde tipped the scales and within two weeks USMC aircraft were landing at the base. Now the remements of the Japanese defenders need to be rooted out.
(I must admit I am mystified from where all these EXP:99 units are coming from...all 5 Bn/Rgt that were on Albon I had an experience of 99).
CBI Theatre
The assult on Bangkok dragged on week after weary weak. Beaufighter X from Jitra and Wellingtons from Port Blair began to strike at the defending troops while the British Army began a series of 2 weeks on 1 week off combat ops. Slowly the defenders were worn down. The RAF group was experiencing some trouble maintaining air supperiority until it was re-equiped with Seafire IIs and then the resumed their normal place as lords of the air.
The secondary operation against the bases on the singapore penisula was an astounding success. The Chinese BG flying torpedo bombers was flown in to secure the one flank. The RN smarting after the fact the RA and RAF were doing so well raided Palenberg but in doing so attracked the notice of the 1st SeaLord and the net ressult was the Eastern fleet stripped of nearly everything larger than a DD. Over the weeks a potent force was assembled and split into a CBG, a SAG(BB) and a SAG(CA). In the meantime intellegence efforts scored a coup. Apparently Singapore was held only by a weak combat force. Gen Slim in command of SEAC was unable to pass the chance by and the 81 (WA) division in Kalu Lampur was ordered to probe toward Singapore. It turned out that intellegence was correct and Singapore fell with little struggle. The last Hurr IIB and a new Spitfire VII group were moved in, along with the Baracudas from Ceylon. The airspace of Singapore is free of offending knats, total control resides with the RAF whose elite pilots have now flown several missions without a loss on their side.
A few weeks after the fall of Singapore Gen Alexander's weary but vetran troops broke thru the Japanese lines and Bangkok was again under British control. (Thanks for the advice Mike I believe it helped a great deal)
The RN took up station at Jitra. The IJN moved their remaining Carrier strength into Saigon apparently intended to counter the situation at Bangkok by landing along the Singapore coast. Adm Palisier in command of the RN CBG (4 CV, 2 BC and support ships) sortied from Jitra. The first strike was not promising as only a few Baracuda's broke thru and a single Torpedo hit a CVL but apparently doing minimal damage. The Japanese counter attack was broken by the Seafire IIs and a few planes broke in but were cut appart by the wall of flak. The Japanese fighter cover blunted the next RN strike but more bomb armed Baracudas still got thru and strikes went in against 2 CVLs with one going down. The Japanese return strike was stopped by the RN cap and only 2 bombers got thru and they did no damage. A thrid strike went in and 2 move CVLs were damaged. Land based planes then hit and a CVL was sunk and then it was the turn of the Japanese SAG and amphibious forces. The Chinese and British land based bombers damaged several IJN ships and sunk a number of transports. The IJN plans were foiled again. In response to this remarkable act, in the fine tradition of the RN, the 1st Sealord again denuded the Eastern fleet of its carriers and their support ships.
And so it stands...
Hope you enjoy!
Sorry for the delay I have had a hard time logging in to the board and have been busy with PACWAR anyway.
Thanks for all the help and information, especially with the "out of memory" workaround. I have some CVL pilots that are grateful. I wasn't sure about the RN practice and althougth the Baracuda is ok, it has a woefully short range. I am happy enought with the Seafire II (more later). The austrailians I thought used a lot of american planes but wasn't sure.
A bit of a SITREP, it is currently Jan 44.
I am still waiting for some LST to show up. The rules say that I should get a group in 4/43 and another in 11/43 so far nothing. This is crippling amphibious ops to a great degree as 3 Marine Divs enjoy vacations on Palmyra Island.
NORPAC HQ
Operations are ongoing on Atchinka (2nd islands west of Dutch Harbor) and with the air fields completed and harbor expansion underway. 4 USMC air units were rudely informed that they would be flying Warhawks not Corsairs and they were not headed for the hot weather! Along with some Divebomber support these units have formed the core of the Northern Air group. 2 Marine Def Batt and a Parachute Battalion were moved north as well. 8 Fletchter DDs form the core of the USN force.
West Coast
Training on the P47 Thurnderbolt groups to escort the Superfortress's is going well. We are still awaiting the LSTs though DE and DD construction proceeds apace.
CENPAC
The first raid on Truk was a failure. Even though each of the CBG had 3 CV and a total flak rating of 4401 I lost 1 CV in the attack (it sunk on the way back to pearl) and had others damaged. But Adm Nimitz didn't let this dissuade him. In the mean time the central Island chain had been turned into a Marine Air Depot. Bikini Island is the home to 3 Liberator groups and Tarawa holds the marine rapid reaction raiding force. Wotji Island is the HQ of the 5th Fleet and currently holds the CENPAC combat force reserve.
After repairing the damaged CV and taking in new builds a second raid was launched. Each CBG now had in excesse of 5000 flak (one had 5200, the other 5600) plus 3 CV, and 1 CVL. The flight leaders had the target emphised to them by the Adm himself no more deflections to the airfields hit the port itself. The Liberators had 2 weeks to prepare the way blasting the depots and fields. When the raid struck the suprise was total and the harbor was full. 1 CA, 2 CL, a score of DDs and light escorts and dozens of merchant ships soon litter the harbor bottom.
The Japanese air response never approached the line of circling DDs. The CAP destroyed each strike well away from the carriers. On receipt of this Nimitz activated a contigency plan and the 2nd Marine Divison plus supporting infantry was launched at Truk. The SAG retiring after shelling the port was turned around as was the bombardment taskforce. The 2nd Marine Division took Truk by storm, surprising its unprepared garision in a lightning landing and securing the island. Marine air began flying in within hours.
5th Fleets CBGs turned their attention on Kaiveng, and the Amphibous assult group proceeded to Spirto Santo to pickup 2 infantry divisions for the assult. To confuse the Japanese the Liberators at Bikini began to bombard Saipan.
SOUTHPAC
Things have been quiet due to the lack of LST. But the 1st and 3rd USMC raider Bn were instrumental in securing the Islands around bikini and they are currently waiting while marine air pounds on a Japanese garrision before attempting to secure the island. The Wasp CBG (Wasp and 2 CVL) have been on station at Emairu Island (hope that is right...the next to Guadal Canal) but fuel problems limited combat actions. In support of an attack by the 8th Army against shortland (just begun) it has moved to just offshore and its airgroups have begun ground strikes. The 2 SAGs have also begun shelling the area. The 3 Marine divison at Palmayra will be moved to Emairu.
SW PAC
Has been operating in support of a variaty of different operations. The main efforts have been an airwar against shortland from the bases on Guadal canal.
ANZAC/8h ARMY (NEW GUINAE)
The Japanese air has been engaged and destroyed in a battle over the airspace of this small island. Originally flying from Port Morsby Kittyhawks and Lightnings fought for control over its airspace. Once this was secured the Lightings and 2 squadrons of Liberators moved to Lae which was designed the 8th Army HQ. The 5th Aus division began advancing up the coast followed by the 91st Engineers. Soon several key bases had been secured and a Japanese HQ at Weewak overun. Soon a massive air war was ongoing. Lightnings and Liberators from Lae struck at Kaiveng, Kittyhawks and A20s attacked Gasmata from Milne Bay, and Liberators and B17s from Port Morsby hit Rabul. The losses were often extreme on both sides though as time went on the allies seemed to be gaining the upper hand.
The Japanese sortied with their carriers but Mandangs base had just reached full capacity and an eclictic combination of planes (Kittyhawks, Lightnings, F6Fs, Dauntless, Beaufighter X, Beuford IIs) had just been moved in. Although no carriers were sunk (the majik shield was back) all were damaged as wave after wave of strike planes wore away the zero defending the carriers. An ambious assult force recoiled from the attack. Not that the troops had much chance against the 2 Divisions in Lae itself but it was nice to see the enemy running in defeat. His damaged BBs were subject to submarine attack as he withdrew them towards Japan.
Currently the 5th Aus Division is fighting a weak japanese force in Hollandia (or whatever that is called).
Norther Australian Command
Flore conquored all eyes turned towards Albon I. The RAN started the ball moving when their SAG bombared the facilities. A week later the NZ division landed and 2 weeks later the Austrailians joined them. Nightly, for several weeks the RAN SAG sorties from Darwin and a steady stream of MCS task forces offload replacements for the troops. The amphibious group went to Espirito Santo picked up the NZ Bde there and returned. The addition of the heavily reinforced Bde tipped the scales and within two weeks USMC aircraft were landing at the base. Now the remements of the Japanese defenders need to be rooted out.
(I must admit I am mystified from where all these EXP:99 units are coming from...all 5 Bn/Rgt that were on Albon I had an experience of 99).
CBI Theatre
The assult on Bangkok dragged on week after weary weak. Beaufighter X from Jitra and Wellingtons from Port Blair began to strike at the defending troops while the British Army began a series of 2 weeks on 1 week off combat ops. Slowly the defenders were worn down. The RAF group was experiencing some trouble maintaining air supperiority until it was re-equiped with Seafire IIs and then the resumed their normal place as lords of the air.
The secondary operation against the bases on the singapore penisula was an astounding success. The Chinese BG flying torpedo bombers was flown in to secure the one flank. The RN smarting after the fact the RA and RAF were doing so well raided Palenberg but in doing so attracked the notice of the 1st SeaLord and the net ressult was the Eastern fleet stripped of nearly everything larger than a DD. Over the weeks a potent force was assembled and split into a CBG, a SAG(BB) and a SAG(CA). In the meantime intellegence efforts scored a coup. Apparently Singapore was held only by a weak combat force. Gen Slim in command of SEAC was unable to pass the chance by and the 81 (WA) division in Kalu Lampur was ordered to probe toward Singapore. It turned out that intellegence was correct and Singapore fell with little struggle. The last Hurr IIB and a new Spitfire VII group were moved in, along with the Baracudas from Ceylon. The airspace of Singapore is free of offending knats, total control resides with the RAF whose elite pilots have now flown several missions without a loss on their side.
A few weeks after the fall of Singapore Gen Alexander's weary but vetran troops broke thru the Japanese lines and Bangkok was again under British control. (Thanks for the advice Mike I believe it helped a great deal)
The RN took up station at Jitra. The IJN moved their remaining Carrier strength into Saigon apparently intended to counter the situation at Bangkok by landing along the Singapore coast. Adm Palisier in command of the RN CBG (4 CV, 2 BC and support ships) sortied from Jitra. The first strike was not promising as only a few Baracuda's broke thru and a single Torpedo hit a CVL but apparently doing minimal damage. The Japanese counter attack was broken by the Seafire IIs and a few planes broke in but were cut appart by the wall of flak. The Japanese fighter cover blunted the next RN strike but more bomb armed Baracudas still got thru and strikes went in against 2 CVLs with one going down. The Japanese return strike was stopped by the RN cap and only 2 bombers got thru and they did no damage. A thrid strike went in and 2 move CVLs were damaged. Land based planes then hit and a CVL was sunk and then it was the turn of the Japanese SAG and amphibious forces. The Chinese and British land based bombers damaged several IJN ships and sunk a number of transports. The IJN plans were foiled again. In response to this remarkable act, in the fine tradition of the RN, the 1st Sealord again denuded the Eastern fleet of its carriers and their support ships.
And so it stands...
Hope you enjoy!
Hi Paul,
You really should have those 2 LST units (unless ship losses / repairs have "delayed" their arrival). This might very well be the case especially if you had a lot of repairing going on. I suspect that LSTs are on the bottom of the priority list for new arrivals.
Do a "find ships" and look for LSTs if you haven't already done so, they might be hiding in LA or SD.
I had the same experience with air raids against Truk, the first SEVERAL attempts resulted in only air attacks, finally I got a shot at the ships in port, a lot of merchantmen went down that day.
Read the separate thread on the eastern fleet. It has hints on keeping the eastern fleet under your command.
Keep up the pressure in Bangkok / Penomh penh. once you get past the former into the latter you will effectively cut off the Japanese from ever getting back into malaya.
If your troops aren't gaining their readiness back (80% or more) then rest them every other turn. You'll have better attacks that way.
Keep it up. I'm only on May 1943, so I have a while to get to even get to your time frame. (I don't even have any hellcat factories building yet).
You really should have those 2 LST units (unless ship losses / repairs have "delayed" their arrival). This might very well be the case especially if you had a lot of repairing going on. I suspect that LSTs are on the bottom of the priority list for new arrivals.
Do a "find ships" and look for LSTs if you haven't already done so, they might be hiding in LA or SD.
I had the same experience with air raids against Truk, the first SEVERAL attempts resulted in only air attacks, finally I got a shot at the ships in port, a lot of merchantmen went down that day.
Read the separate thread on the eastern fleet. It has hints on keeping the eastern fleet under your command.
Keep up the pressure in Bangkok / Penomh penh. once you get past the former into the latter you will effectively cut off the Japanese from ever getting back into malaya.
If your troops aren't gaining their readiness back (80% or more) then rest them every other turn. You'll have better attacks that way.
Keep it up. I'm only on May 1943, so I have a while to get to even get to your time frame. (I don't even have any hellcat factories building yet).
Still playing PacWar (but no so much anymore)...
Paul, do you have any LST in your Ships Pool? I had a similar problem in my first run through (in version 2.1), with no LST units becoming available by mid-1944(!!!) even though I had (IIRC) 200+ in the Pool. Out of frustration, I finally put all my AP and MCS into a couple-few Cargo TFs (so that none would be available to move), and tried the "Get Transport" function.
Worked like a charm, and a few clicks later I had half a dozen LST units with 30-35 ships each. This also got the APA(L)'s out of the Pool and into the Fleet; they'd been in the Pool since 1941, but none had ever been active. Suddenly I had all the amphibious lift I could use - enough to transport every unengaged LCU simultaneously; and instead of being limited to one theater in which I struggled to launch and support one invasion every two or three months, I was able to mount a general offensive all across the Central, South, and SW Pacific.
Worked like a charm, and a few clicks later I had half a dozen LST units with 30-35 ships each. This also got the APA(L)'s out of the Pool and into the Fleet; they'd been in the Pool since 1941, but none had ever been active. Suddenly I had all the amphibious lift I could use - enough to transport every unengaged LCU simultaneously; and instead of being limited to one theater in which I struggled to launch and support one invasion every two or three months, I was able to mount a general offensive all across the Central, South, and SW Pacific.
Some days you're the windshield.
Some days you're the bug.
Some days you're the bug.
Thanks for the advice Al and Mike.
I have been manually scanning LA and San Fran looking for those accursed LST! I think the 6 CV I lost plus that the second Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor which damaged anew my half repaired BBs plus the result of the 1st Truk raid (1 CV sunk and presumably rebuilding, 1 CV nearly crippled...the Hornet limped into Johnston I. harbor with over 60 pts of damage and stayed there till it was fixed up to the point it could make 14 knots and then I ran it over to Pearl, plus 2 more CVs damaged) must be absorbing a lot of yard capacity. Plus I have had a BB damaged and a number of lighter warships under repair.
The only spare lift I have in the pool at the moment is the APA(L) that Al mentioned and 2 Rudderow APDs. So far no Rudderow groups have shown up so I suspect that all the repairs and rebuilds have seriously messed up my new builds. But I am still getting CVEs, CLs, and Fletcher DDs showing up.
Things have advanced somewhat anyway. A correction the SOUTHPAC main base near Australia is located in Santa Anna I. not emirau like I wrote. In the past few weeks serveral amphibous ops have gone on. I retook Shortland although the operation took longer than I had hoped mainly because the troops were not that good. The 2nd Marine and supporting infantry has landed on Kaiveng with assist from the 1st, 3rd Raider and 1st USMC para Bns. The amphib group is on its way back to Truk to pick up 2 more divisions. This is the second attempted landing on Kaiveng and this time the defenders are in horrid shape...but they have been being hammered on by 2 CBGs and several BBs plus ground based air for the last month or so. I have also know begun to understand the reason for bombardment task forces. They seem to be far more effective than simply rolling up a SAG and having it shell. 1st, 3rd and 4th USMC divisions have landed at Rabul and I anticipate capturing the base next week. The defending troops there are also experiencing sevre bombardment from both air (the Wasp CBG and land based Liberators) and sea assets.
The British have taken Medan (for a long time now) and moved in some reinforcements so the probe towards Palenbang will begin again. The main elements of the 14th Army are attacking Phong Phen and are faced off with basicly the survivors of Bangkok. The battles have been bloody but I am getting greater than 1 for my odds. The Japanese experience for these troops is only in the mid 50s.
I have left the chinese under full computer control but due to sudden Japanese advances have moved up units that were assigned to Norther CAC in an attempt to cut the Japanese supply lines. When the Chinese BGs (they are no longer equiped with Superfortresses but instead B17s and Liberators) come on line they will start hitting the costal bases to reduce the supplies, the B17 group is currently bombing the airbases of Saigon. I think I may switch the computer control off so I can convert one base to North CAC and then switch it back. The bombers in that base (the flying tigers plus 2 A20 groups) have not been flying recently and I don't like that.
One thing that realy confuses me is experience. The particular group of troops which have particpated in the recovery of Mandalay, Rangoon, and Bangkok have for the most part experiences only in the high 50s to low seventies. True some of them started at 25% but this makes little sense to me. Compare this to units which are now highly experienced (the Aussie and NZ divisions are the leaders both of which have 90+ experience) and yet have been in much less combat.
I am somewhat mystified by the eastern fleet thread. I am not quite sure what I am supposed to do to prevent the withdrawls. At the moment the fleet is based out of Jitra [SAG(BB)] and Port Blair [SAG(CA) plus Amphib Ops] and things seem stable.
I have had the most bizzare combat results in Singapore. I have a single division there (exp 60s) trying to root out a Bde of Japanese troops (something like 20 squads and 10 guns). I keep getting only something like 30 squads of 240 showing up to fight. Slim is in command of SEAC and the local commander has a command rating of 7. It seems astounding that I can be getting these sorts of failures. Could the problem be I recently rebased SEAC HQ from India to Port Blair? Maybe I should move it to Jitra (I am reluctent to move it to singapore since only a single Division is there)?
The subwar has been going well. I am averaging a tanker a week sunk and generally several MCS. I have been sinking a lot of APs with airstrikes. I had not understood what was going on but I think the computer is either reinforcing or evacuating bases. That can only be the explaination for several attempts by CS, CL and DD taskforces to enter the waters near bangkok and singapore. I believe the Japanese are down to less than 20 tankers and it may be much less than that.
Several times I have seen attacks on patrol craft with rockets and was amazed at how ineffective these have been. The japanese seem to have little trouble sinking my patrol craft but the reverse is apparently not true.
I have also just upgraded to 2.2...I had been playing 2.0. I wonder if that will make much of a difference.
I have been manually scanning LA and San Fran looking for those accursed LST! I think the 6 CV I lost plus that the second Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor which damaged anew my half repaired BBs plus the result of the 1st Truk raid (1 CV sunk and presumably rebuilding, 1 CV nearly crippled...the Hornet limped into Johnston I. harbor with over 60 pts of damage and stayed there till it was fixed up to the point it could make 14 knots and then I ran it over to Pearl, plus 2 more CVs damaged) must be absorbing a lot of yard capacity. Plus I have had a BB damaged and a number of lighter warships under repair.
The only spare lift I have in the pool at the moment is the APA(L) that Al mentioned and 2 Rudderow APDs. So far no Rudderow groups have shown up so I suspect that all the repairs and rebuilds have seriously messed up my new builds. But I am still getting CVEs, CLs, and Fletcher DDs showing up.
Things have advanced somewhat anyway. A correction the SOUTHPAC main base near Australia is located in Santa Anna I. not emirau like I wrote. In the past few weeks serveral amphibous ops have gone on. I retook Shortland although the operation took longer than I had hoped mainly because the troops were not that good. The 2nd Marine and supporting infantry has landed on Kaiveng with assist from the 1st, 3rd Raider and 1st USMC para Bns. The amphib group is on its way back to Truk to pick up 2 more divisions. This is the second attempted landing on Kaiveng and this time the defenders are in horrid shape...but they have been being hammered on by 2 CBGs and several BBs plus ground based air for the last month or so. I have also know begun to understand the reason for bombardment task forces. They seem to be far more effective than simply rolling up a SAG and having it shell. 1st, 3rd and 4th USMC divisions have landed at Rabul and I anticipate capturing the base next week. The defending troops there are also experiencing sevre bombardment from both air (the Wasp CBG and land based Liberators) and sea assets.
The British have taken Medan (for a long time now) and moved in some reinforcements so the probe towards Palenbang will begin again. The main elements of the 14th Army are attacking Phong Phen and are faced off with basicly the survivors of Bangkok. The battles have been bloody but I am getting greater than 1 for my odds. The Japanese experience for these troops is only in the mid 50s.
I have left the chinese under full computer control but due to sudden Japanese advances have moved up units that were assigned to Norther CAC in an attempt to cut the Japanese supply lines. When the Chinese BGs (they are no longer equiped with Superfortresses but instead B17s and Liberators) come on line they will start hitting the costal bases to reduce the supplies, the B17 group is currently bombing the airbases of Saigon. I think I may switch the computer control off so I can convert one base to North CAC and then switch it back. The bombers in that base (the flying tigers plus 2 A20 groups) have not been flying recently and I don't like that.
One thing that realy confuses me is experience. The particular group of troops which have particpated in the recovery of Mandalay, Rangoon, and Bangkok have for the most part experiences only in the high 50s to low seventies. True some of them started at 25% but this makes little sense to me. Compare this to units which are now highly experienced (the Aussie and NZ divisions are the leaders both of which have 90+ experience) and yet have been in much less combat.
I am somewhat mystified by the eastern fleet thread. I am not quite sure what I am supposed to do to prevent the withdrawls. At the moment the fleet is based out of Jitra [SAG(BB)] and Port Blair [SAG(CA) plus Amphib Ops] and things seem stable.
I have had the most bizzare combat results in Singapore. I have a single division there (exp 60s) trying to root out a Bde of Japanese troops (something like 20 squads and 10 guns). I keep getting only something like 30 squads of 240 showing up to fight. Slim is in command of SEAC and the local commander has a command rating of 7. It seems astounding that I can be getting these sorts of failures. Could the problem be I recently rebased SEAC HQ from India to Port Blair? Maybe I should move it to Jitra (I am reluctent to move it to singapore since only a single Division is there)?
The subwar has been going well. I am averaging a tanker a week sunk and generally several MCS. I have been sinking a lot of APs with airstrikes. I had not understood what was going on but I think the computer is either reinforcing or evacuating bases. That can only be the explaination for several attempts by CS, CL and DD taskforces to enter the waters near bangkok and singapore. I believe the Japanese are down to less than 20 tankers and it may be much less than that.
Several times I have seen attacks on patrol craft with rockets and was amazed at how ineffective these have been. The japanese seem to have little trouble sinking my patrol craft but the reverse is apparently not true.
I have also just upgraded to 2.2...I had been playing 2.0. I wonder if that will make much of a difference.