July 4 -
Tophat sent the following comment along with this turn; "Ahh, that's why I didn't want to sail in there!" I wondered what he meant until the combat replay started and revealed the following right off the bat:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naval bombardment of Soerabaja, at 22, 65 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
72 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
CL Oi
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 1
BB Ise
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 6
BB Fuso
BB Nagato, Shell hits 7
Allied Ships
SS KXIII, hits 1, heavy damage
Allied ground losses:
406 casualties reported
Guns lost 3
Port hits 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So those 150mm CD guns finally got a chance to fire. It's a good thing for Tophat that he decided to keep his DDs out of the action. Poor KXIII isn't a lucky sub - it may never get out of Soerabaja Harbor.
Realistically, those CD gun hits only served to make Tophat a bit more wary but didn't do any serious damage. And when you add the air strike this turn and the artillery bombardment Tophat succeeded in cutting my supplies in half again to just over 10K. I'm still in the "black", but not for long at this pace. With Tophat's new, "improved" strategy at Soerabaja the Dutch won't last that much longer. Now I'm back to being glad of my original strategy to not to try to reinforce Java.
Both sides traded air strikes at Dili. My B-17s blew past the Zeros on LR CAP to hit Tophat's invasion troops; then Tophat's Bettys flew in unopposed to hit my Dutch regiment. It appears that Tophat is preparing to bring more troops to Dili soon.
In China the weather grounded all of my bombers but Tophat was able to get off another strong air strike against Hengchow. Surprisingly the air strike wasn't very effective this time. But the rain was a blessing in disguise for me because I took the time to look over my air units and found out that a couple of my Brit Wellington units were down badly in morale. So I flew them back to India and set the rest to a low level of naval search to rest them up.
My fighters in India are now all pretty much rested up too, but I am faced with a problem of "numbers" at this time. Tophat can readily bring around a hundred good fighters to an attack of his choosing against any of a number of important targets. While I can mass nearly as many planes in one place, I don't know where that place may be and that also means that my other priorities aren't protected. And the fact of the matter is that most of my air units just don't have as good experience as Tophat's crack units.
So I am pulling back a bit and letting Tophat control the air over Southern China for now. I will maintain my control over Northern China and use that to allow me to send my air units on attacks against Tophat's troops in the North. This way I can start to close the experience gap.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat vs ADavidB - Back at It
Moderators: wdolson, Don Bowen, mogami
Avangers on board...
July 5 -
This was a fairly quiet turn. I didn't have a lot of bombers set to missions and Tophat seems to have been affected by the ever present hemispheric rain. It's actually been several game days since any of the nine map areas were clear. But never-the-less there was some action.
The Japanese cruisers hit Dili again. They are doing small amounts of damage, but I am flying supplies into Lautem daily, so the supplies keep on trickling to Dili. So this means that when Tophat tried another deliberate attack with his invasion force he once again got to see this result:
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Ground combat at Dili
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 537 troops, 2 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 1920 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese ground losses:
36 casualties reported
Allied ground losses:
7 casualties reported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've set my B-17s to hit those troops in Dili again next turn. Dili is turning into a lesson in why you should always send in an "overkill" force against any defenders in this game.
In China my Chinese bombers hit Tophat's troops in Northeastern China, causing his troops at Kungchang to be unable to score any hits with their artillery attack again. Tophat's bombers and fighters hit Hengchow again, but his bombers are getting fewer strikes against my troops and I am refusing to bother to put any CAP over Hengchow, so this is simply wasting supplies for the Japanese.
Speaking of supplies, as I have been pulling back to India the worn-out Chinese fighters and the British bombers with poor morale the supply situation in Allied China has started to improve significantly. I would love to start a regular air supply campaign to China, but all my bases in Eastern India are under thunderstorms every day, day in, day out, week in, week out, etc. , so that isn't possible. But I've got hundreds of thousands of units of supplies in the coastal bases so those supplies slowly work their way inland.
Tophat's bombers hit Soerabaja again but caused little damage. The supply level stayed constant again and my troops are back up to their usual assault levels. I wonder if Tophat will send in the BBs again?
In the Eastern Pacific Tophat has started to send his subs back into Hawaiian waters. I presume that he wants some idea of what I am up to in that region. I've got DDs scattered all over the place so I just send them out to see if I can make the Japanese subs use up fuel.
And in other news that "warms my heart", I was finally able to do my first conversion of Devastators to Avengers. It will be so "sweet" to finally have a full set of "teeth" in my carriers. [:D]
Dave Baranyi
This was a fairly quiet turn. I didn't have a lot of bombers set to missions and Tophat seems to have been affected by the ever present hemispheric rain. It's actually been several game days since any of the nine map areas were clear. But never-the-less there was some action.
The Japanese cruisers hit Dili again. They are doing small amounts of damage, but I am flying supplies into Lautem daily, so the supplies keep on trickling to Dili. So this means that when Tophat tried another deliberate attack with his invasion force he once again got to see this result:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Dili
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 537 troops, 2 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 1920 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese ground losses:
36 casualties reported
Allied ground losses:
7 casualties reported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've set my B-17s to hit those troops in Dili again next turn. Dili is turning into a lesson in why you should always send in an "overkill" force against any defenders in this game.
In China my Chinese bombers hit Tophat's troops in Northeastern China, causing his troops at Kungchang to be unable to score any hits with their artillery attack again. Tophat's bombers and fighters hit Hengchow again, but his bombers are getting fewer strikes against my troops and I am refusing to bother to put any CAP over Hengchow, so this is simply wasting supplies for the Japanese.
Speaking of supplies, as I have been pulling back to India the worn-out Chinese fighters and the British bombers with poor morale the supply situation in Allied China has started to improve significantly. I would love to start a regular air supply campaign to China, but all my bases in Eastern India are under thunderstorms every day, day in, day out, week in, week out, etc. , so that isn't possible. But I've got hundreds of thousands of units of supplies in the coastal bases so those supplies slowly work their way inland.
Tophat's bombers hit Soerabaja again but caused little damage. The supply level stayed constant again and my troops are back up to their usual assault levels. I wonder if Tophat will send in the BBs again?
In the Eastern Pacific Tophat has started to send his subs back into Hawaiian waters. I presume that he wants some idea of what I am up to in that region. I've got DDs scattered all over the place so I just send them out to see if I can make the Japanese subs use up fuel.
And in other news that "warms my heart", I was finally able to do my first conversion of Devastators to Avengers. It will be so "sweet" to finally have a full set of "teeth" in my carriers. [:D]
Dave Baranyi
Burning issue...
July 6 -
I just sent the July 7th turn to Tophat and told him that I am going to take a break from the Game for the evening. I almost let a fire happen because I forgot a pan on the stove upstairs. So, obviously now my Wife and I are going out to dinner. (We are equally to blame - she forgot about the pan too because she is in her study on the second floor, working on her computer. We both need a break!)
Anyway, as far as this turn goes. Tophat started to land some troops at Raba, so he continues to pick up all the little "bits and pieces" that don't have troops in them in the DEI. My B-17s flew against the troops in Dili, but Tophat put a lot of Zeros on LR CAP and caused some losses. But my B-17s still blew past, causing some losses amongst the Zeros too, and did manage to hit the troops on the ground. But it is obvious that Tophat is starting to get the upper hand as far as fighter air power is concerned.
Tophat also sent a ton of planes against Hengchow. I thought about trying to bomb one of his air bases in China, but without being able to provide any escorts I will now just lose a lot of bombers. Instead I am continuing to bomb the Japanese troops up North where Tophat isn't trying to interfere with me.
The biggest concern this turn was the appearance of Judys and Jakes off of the Marshalls, about half way along the "diagonal" between Kwajalein and Baker Island. My sub picket line did its job of giving me advanced warning. What I don’t know is if Tophat is just waiting around in case I try another naval attack on Baker, or if he is going "hunting". Just in case, I've started to re-route my TFs in the region and put all of my planes in the Central Pacific on full alert. That combat TF with the North Carolina is already in port in Pago-Pago. I'll leave them disbanded for now.
In any event, I'll find out tomorrow what Tophat is up too. Now to get changed and go get something to eat.
Dave Baranyi
I just sent the July 7th turn to Tophat and told him that I am going to take a break from the Game for the evening. I almost let a fire happen because I forgot a pan on the stove upstairs. So, obviously now my Wife and I are going out to dinner. (We are equally to blame - she forgot about the pan too because she is in her study on the second floor, working on her computer. We both need a break!)
Anyway, as far as this turn goes. Tophat started to land some troops at Raba, so he continues to pick up all the little "bits and pieces" that don't have troops in them in the DEI. My B-17s flew against the troops in Dili, but Tophat put a lot of Zeros on LR CAP and caused some losses. But my B-17s still blew past, causing some losses amongst the Zeros too, and did manage to hit the troops on the ground. But it is obvious that Tophat is starting to get the upper hand as far as fighter air power is concerned.
Tophat also sent a ton of planes against Hengchow. I thought about trying to bomb one of his air bases in China, but without being able to provide any escorts I will now just lose a lot of bombers. Instead I am continuing to bomb the Japanese troops up North where Tophat isn't trying to interfere with me.
The biggest concern this turn was the appearance of Judys and Jakes off of the Marshalls, about half way along the "diagonal" between Kwajalein and Baker Island. My sub picket line did its job of giving me advanced warning. What I don’t know is if Tophat is just waiting around in case I try another naval attack on Baker, or if he is going "hunting". Just in case, I've started to re-route my TFs in the region and put all of my planes in the Central Pacific on full alert. That combat TF with the North Carolina is already in port in Pago-Pago. I'll leave them disbanded for now.
In any event, I'll find out tomorrow what Tophat is up too. Now to get changed and go get something to eat.
Dave Baranyi
Massive attacks...
July 7 -
This is the sort of turn that leaves me in a bad mood. Tophat is doing everything right, and there isn't a thing I can do about it. Tophat has now organized his forces so that he is bringing overwhelming strength to specific targets and is attacking from multiple locations. This means that I cannot stop his attacks at the target bases nor bring sufficient force to his bases to shut down the attacks. And Tophat is focusing his efforts where I am most vulnerable to these tactics, China and Java. Essentially, both Tophat and I have withdrawn our weakest units and replaced them with our best, but Tophat's best are more numerous, flying better planes and are better trained than my best.
In China Tophat is now sending in crack units in his best aircraft in sufficient numbers so that the British air units which were able to fight him to a standstill earlier are now being decimated without being able to stop the attacks. I am trying one last effort to disrupt one of his major air bases and have brought new planes into the key base at Homan, but unless the weather is totally on my side I expect that this will not be successful and I will have to pull back and leave Southern China totally to Japanese control.
In Java I haven't been trying to combat Tophat in the air, but up until now the AA in my ground forces and Tophat's former strategy of focusing his attacks on ground troops has allowed me to fight him to a stand still. But Tophat's current strategy of attacking the Airfields in Soerabaja, combined with a massive air attack this turn on the Port in Soerabaja has effectively wiped out my reserves of supplies. This means for the first time that I have un-repaired damage to the base, and the supply level in Soerabaja is now in the "pink". A few more attacks like the one this turn and I won't have anything left to shoot with and Tophat can then focus on wearing down my troops.
In other areas, Tophat continued to bomb the defenders at Dili and as well sent his cruisers in again. I am trying a sneak attack on the Port in Kendari in the hopes that Tophat has his CAP off providing LR CAP to his ships and troops at Dili. This has a low probability of success, but it is better than sending my B-17s unescorted against the couple of crack Daitais that are flying over Dili. Tophat's troops also captured Raba this turn.
I've also been spotting more Japanese subs in the waters around Hawaii and as well, for the first time a Japanese sub was spotted to the west of Ceylon. I've sent three ASW TFs after that sub off of Ceylon; I don't have any TFs traveling in that area at the moment, but I don't want my movements tracked nor any general spying or nuisance raids.
Finally, my subs that are on picket duty between Baker Island and the Gilberts were buzzed by Kates and Vals this turn, so Tophat's CVs are obviously moving southwards. Unfortunately, my air patrols haven't spotted the TFs yet so I can't tell where they are going and how fast. I am still moving TFs well out of the way and keeping an eye on the situation.
So while all I can do at the Fronts is seethe and grind my teeth, I am continuing with my build-up plans in the Rear areas. I have exchanged all of the Dutch patrol planes for Catalinas and all of the Dutch bombers for Mitchells. Unfortunately, the Dutch fighters only upgrade to each other until P-40Ns come out in 1943, so I am stuck with what I already have. But given the abysmal experience levels of the Dutch pilots, I wouldn't really want to put them into battle right now anyway, regardless of the planes that they are flying.
I have also upgraded the AVG to P-40Es since I had close to a hundred P-40Es in reserve and continue to receive them at forty per month. I only had seven P-40Bs in reserve before this, so this will allow me to fill-up the new air group of P-40Bs that is arriving in India in a week.
In other news, one of my surviving battleships from the Pearl Harbor attack has finally gotten down to a system damage of 10. Considering that I've had this ship in various West Coast ports, with and without ARs, and usually without any other damaged ships in port with it, all this time, that isn't too great a repair record. I wonder how many months it will take for it to get down to level 3 system damage so that it can receive its April upgrade? BTW - the other remaining Pearl Harbor survivors are still sitting with system damage in the teens or twenties.
Dave Baranyi
This is the sort of turn that leaves me in a bad mood. Tophat is doing everything right, and there isn't a thing I can do about it. Tophat has now organized his forces so that he is bringing overwhelming strength to specific targets and is attacking from multiple locations. This means that I cannot stop his attacks at the target bases nor bring sufficient force to his bases to shut down the attacks. And Tophat is focusing his efforts where I am most vulnerable to these tactics, China and Java. Essentially, both Tophat and I have withdrawn our weakest units and replaced them with our best, but Tophat's best are more numerous, flying better planes and are better trained than my best.
In China Tophat is now sending in crack units in his best aircraft in sufficient numbers so that the British air units which were able to fight him to a standstill earlier are now being decimated without being able to stop the attacks. I am trying one last effort to disrupt one of his major air bases and have brought new planes into the key base at Homan, but unless the weather is totally on my side I expect that this will not be successful and I will have to pull back and leave Southern China totally to Japanese control.
In Java I haven't been trying to combat Tophat in the air, but up until now the AA in my ground forces and Tophat's former strategy of focusing his attacks on ground troops has allowed me to fight him to a stand still. But Tophat's current strategy of attacking the Airfields in Soerabaja, combined with a massive air attack this turn on the Port in Soerabaja has effectively wiped out my reserves of supplies. This means for the first time that I have un-repaired damage to the base, and the supply level in Soerabaja is now in the "pink". A few more attacks like the one this turn and I won't have anything left to shoot with and Tophat can then focus on wearing down my troops.
In other areas, Tophat continued to bomb the defenders at Dili and as well sent his cruisers in again. I am trying a sneak attack on the Port in Kendari in the hopes that Tophat has his CAP off providing LR CAP to his ships and troops at Dili. This has a low probability of success, but it is better than sending my B-17s unescorted against the couple of crack Daitais that are flying over Dili. Tophat's troops also captured Raba this turn.
I've also been spotting more Japanese subs in the waters around Hawaii and as well, for the first time a Japanese sub was spotted to the west of Ceylon. I've sent three ASW TFs after that sub off of Ceylon; I don't have any TFs traveling in that area at the moment, but I don't want my movements tracked nor any general spying or nuisance raids.
Finally, my subs that are on picket duty between Baker Island and the Gilberts were buzzed by Kates and Vals this turn, so Tophat's CVs are obviously moving southwards. Unfortunately, my air patrols haven't spotted the TFs yet so I can't tell where they are going and how fast. I am still moving TFs well out of the way and keeping an eye on the situation.
So while all I can do at the Fronts is seethe and grind my teeth, I am continuing with my build-up plans in the Rear areas. I have exchanged all of the Dutch patrol planes for Catalinas and all of the Dutch bombers for Mitchells. Unfortunately, the Dutch fighters only upgrade to each other until P-40Ns come out in 1943, so I am stuck with what I already have. But given the abysmal experience levels of the Dutch pilots, I wouldn't really want to put them into battle right now anyway, regardless of the planes that they are flying.
I have also upgraded the AVG to P-40Es since I had close to a hundred P-40Es in reserve and continue to receive them at forty per month. I only had seven P-40Bs in reserve before this, so this will allow me to fill-up the new air group of P-40Bs that is arriving in India in a week.
In other news, one of my surviving battleships from the Pearl Harbor attack has finally gotten down to a system damage of 10. Considering that I've had this ship in various West Coast ports, with and without ARs, and usually without any other damaged ships in port with it, all this time, that isn't too great a repair record. I wonder how many months it will take for it to get down to level 3 system damage so that it can receive its April upgrade? BTW - the other remaining Pearl Harbor survivors are still sitting with system damage in the teens or twenties.
Dave Baranyi
-
Ron Saueracker
- Posts: 10967
- Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2002 10:00 am
- Location: Ottawa, Canada OR Zakynthos Island, Greece
RE: Massive attacks...
David. Heyho![&o]
Can you post screenies and any reports which involve the new ASW routines? I'm curious as hell.
Thanks, Ron.
Can you post screenies and any reports which involve the new ASW routines? I'm curious as hell.
Thanks, Ron.
Yammas from The Apo-Tiki Lounge. Future site of WITP AE benders! And then the s--t hit the fan
RE: Massive attacks...
ORIGINAL: Ron Saueracker
David. Heyho![&o]
Can you post screenies and any reports which involve the new ASW routines? I'm curious as hell.
Thanks, Ron.
Ron - We are playing at v1.602. The new ASW routines came into being in one of the V-1.7x upgrades. Tophat and I have agreed not to upgrade to any 1.7x version until a final version comes out and has been used for several weeks by other folks. We don't want to risk all the time and effort that we have put into this game.
Because we agreed at the beginning that we would limit dedicated ASW TFs to a maximum of four ships, not including CVEs, our ASW has been fairly realistic as far as I can tell. I generally only send out one or two ships in an ASW TF anyway - I like to cover an area in order to improve my odds. (Tophat tends to move his subs around like jackrabbits in an open field so it is pretty hard to find them from turn-to-turn.)
If there are any ASW/sub encounters next turn I'll post them so you can see how things are going for us at the moment.
Thanks for the interest -
Dave Baranyi
Super Zeros...
July 8 -
As I suspected, my Wellingtons had a tough time over Wuhan. There were fair losses on both sides, but I really can't stand those sorts of results repeatedly:
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Day Air attack on Wuhan, at 48, 35
Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 16
Ki-27 Nate x 7
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 15
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 68
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 2 destroyed, 7 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-15 Babs: 3 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 9 destroyed, 20 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
22 casualties reported
Airbase hits 10
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 27
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am going to rest up my Wellingtons again, and then use them against the Japanese troops that are besieging my bases. Speaking of which, Tophat used a different tactic this time - he set one of his ace Zero Daitais on LR CAP over Homan, causing my bombers and escorts to have to fight their way in to attack his troops. So while each attack did cause some casualties to the Japanese troops, there were also plenty of Allied air casualties. But I am trying again this turn because air units on LR CAP do get more tired than otherwise, so maybe I will be able to wear down that ace unit a bit.
The other main action continued to be in the Timor area. My Hudsons did a successful naval attack for a change, hitting a Japanese destroyer at Dili, causing a fire and heavy damage. Tophat didn't have any LR CAP around this time. Tophat also started to land troops at Kai Island. I have a small Dutch base force there, but I don't expect them to last long.
My B-17s at Darwin were rained out, but the recon flights flew over Kendari anyway, alerting Tophat that I have some interest in that base. This will probably mean that Tophat will up the CAP over Kendari, so instead I re-targeted the B-17s after those troops at Kai. This way the B-17s ought to get some CAP-free practice. I also brought another Brit Hudson group to Northern Australia in the hopes that it might go after the ships at Kai.
In the East-Central Pacific my picket subs continued to be pestered by carrier planes between the Gilberts and Baker Island. So Tophat seems content to sail around in the hopes of catching me doing something dumb. That's fine by me. I'll just do the occasional long-range bombing attack on Baker and let it be for now.
Dave Baranyi
As I suspected, my Wellingtons had a tough time over Wuhan. There were fair losses on both sides, but I really can't stand those sorts of results repeatedly:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Wuhan, at 48, 35
Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 16
Ki-27 Nate x 7
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 15
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 68
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 2 destroyed, 7 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-15 Babs: 3 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 9 destroyed, 20 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
22 casualties reported
Airbase hits 10
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 27
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am going to rest up my Wellingtons again, and then use them against the Japanese troops that are besieging my bases. Speaking of which, Tophat used a different tactic this time - he set one of his ace Zero Daitais on LR CAP over Homan, causing my bombers and escorts to have to fight their way in to attack his troops. So while each attack did cause some casualties to the Japanese troops, there were also plenty of Allied air casualties. But I am trying again this turn because air units on LR CAP do get more tired than otherwise, so maybe I will be able to wear down that ace unit a bit.
The other main action continued to be in the Timor area. My Hudsons did a successful naval attack for a change, hitting a Japanese destroyer at Dili, causing a fire and heavy damage. Tophat didn't have any LR CAP around this time. Tophat also started to land troops at Kai Island. I have a small Dutch base force there, but I don't expect them to last long.
My B-17s at Darwin were rained out, but the recon flights flew over Kendari anyway, alerting Tophat that I have some interest in that base. This will probably mean that Tophat will up the CAP over Kendari, so instead I re-targeted the B-17s after those troops at Kai. This way the B-17s ought to get some CAP-free practice. I also brought another Brit Hudson group to Northern Australia in the hopes that it might go after the ships at Kai.
In the East-Central Pacific my picket subs continued to be pestered by carrier planes between the Gilberts and Baker Island. So Tophat seems content to sail around in the hopes of catching me doing something dumb. That's fine by me. I'll just do the occasional long-range bombing attack on Baker and let it be for now.
Dave Baranyi
ASW...
ORIGINAL: Ron Saueracker
David. Heyho![&o]
Can you post screenies and any reports which involve the new ASW routines? I'm curious as hell.
Thanks, Ron.
Ron - as usual, my ASW didn't find any of Tophat's subs, but his ASW did find one of my subs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASW attack at 61,90
Japanese Ships
PG Takunan Maru #10
DD Urakaze
DD Shiranuhi
DD Akigumo
Allied Ships
SS Sailfish, hits 2, on fire
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Baranyi
The Sky Dark with Bombers...
July 9 -
Tophat thinks that he is "being cute" now that things are going well for him. For example when he sent me this turn he commented that things were "quiet in China". Yeah, sure. Tophat whacked Hengchow with over 100 heavily escorted bombers this turn and still had plenty of planes left to try to sweep Kweilin. Fortunately my CAP at Kweilin was reasonably up to the task and held up acceptably against the Japanese fighters. I've moved more fighters into Kweilin to see what I can do next turn. At the same some a few of my bombers flew to hit the Japanese besiegers of Homan, but my Chinese bombers were rained out again.
Tophat has gotten really busy in the DEI. He is moving more troops in for the siege of Soerabaja and has finally gotten around to invade Malang. I was wondering if he would leave that as an escape path for my troops in Soerabaja, but since there was no supply in Malang I didn't pay much attention to it. Tophat also landed troops at Waingapu. Surprisingly enough Tophat's troops at Kai Island didn't capture the base on the first attack:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Kai Island
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 832 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 590 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 1)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I expect that the base ought to fall at the next attack. BTW - Tophat surprised me at Kai because he actually had some LR CAP in place. Never-the-less my bombers got through with light damage and were able to hit some of the invading troops.
In the Central Pacific, one of my picket subs was spotted by a Jake this time, but there were no spottings by carrier planes. I'm guessing that the Japanese carriers went back to base, but in theory they could have gone beyond my picket line, although I would be really surprised if a carrier TF could get into the main patrol area of my planes and not show up somewhere.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat thinks that he is "being cute" now that things are going well for him. For example when he sent me this turn he commented that things were "quiet in China". Yeah, sure. Tophat whacked Hengchow with over 100 heavily escorted bombers this turn and still had plenty of planes left to try to sweep Kweilin. Fortunately my CAP at Kweilin was reasonably up to the task and held up acceptably against the Japanese fighters. I've moved more fighters into Kweilin to see what I can do next turn. At the same some a few of my bombers flew to hit the Japanese besiegers of Homan, but my Chinese bombers were rained out again.
Tophat has gotten really busy in the DEI. He is moving more troops in for the siege of Soerabaja and has finally gotten around to invade Malang. I was wondering if he would leave that as an escape path for my troops in Soerabaja, but since there was no supply in Malang I didn't pay much attention to it. Tophat also landed troops at Waingapu. Surprisingly enough Tophat's troops at Kai Island didn't capture the base on the first attack:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Kai Island
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 832 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 590 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 1)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I expect that the base ought to fall at the next attack. BTW - Tophat surprised me at Kai because he actually had some LR CAP in place. Never-the-less my bombers got through with light damage and were able to hit some of the invading troops.
In the Central Pacific, one of my picket subs was spotted by a Jake this time, but there were no spottings by carrier planes. I'm guessing that the Japanese carriers went back to base, but in theory they could have gone beyond my picket line, although I would be really surprised if a carrier TF could get into the main patrol area of my planes and not show up somewhere.
Dave Baranyi
-
anarchyintheuk
- Posts: 3958
- Joined: Wed May 05, 2004 7:08 pm
- Location: Dallas
RE: The Sky Dark with Bombers...
I tend to be protective of my aircraft, all of them except transports. If you have loads of them in the pools and china needs supply, who cares if you fly them in poor weather. They won't suffer too many op losses.
RE: The Sky Dark with Bombers...
ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk
I tend to be protective of my aircraft, all of them except transports. If you have loads of them in the pools and china needs supply, who cares if you fly them in poor weather. They won't suffer too many op losses.
The problem isn't the loss or lack of transports in India/China, it is the daily thunderstorms that close my airbases for months on end. The transports just won't fly, so they don't get damaged. (Nothing else will fly either.)
Now, I "rationalize" the rainy weather as being some sort of "monsoon" sort of thing when it keeps the air bases closed in India for half a year. But when it does the same thing in San Diego and LA, I have some real doubts about the programming...
Thanks for the comments -
Dave Baranyi
China under attack...
July 10 -
Tophat was very active again on the land and in the air. New Japanese troops started to land at Dili and Tophat's troops captured Malang, Waingapu and Kai Island. Tophat also attempted a deliberate attack on Homan that succeeded in lowering the fortification by one but was still quite costly for the Japanese forces:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Homan
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 204201 troops, 2155 guns, 196 vehicles
Defending force 105124 troops, 314 guns, 0 vehicles
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 7
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 7)
Japanese ground losses:
6819 casualties reported
Guns lost 196
Vehicles lost 13
Allied ground losses:
1448 casualties reported
Guns lost 53
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There were some equally costly air battles over Homan in which my fighters were able to stand up to Tophat's fighters and cause some significant losses to Tophat's bombers.
My Chinese bombers flew this turn but had problems with Japanese CAP and didn't do that well, other than the IL-4cs which hit a PG in Hong Kong Harbour, setting it on fire.
My attempt to fly in supplies to Dili also ran into difficulties with Japanese LR CAP intercepting some of the transports. In the end however, the overall Japanese air losses for the turn were higher than the total Allied air losses, so I'll consider that a small victory.
On and under the waves my subs in the Baker Island area were buzzed by carrier planes again. As long as the Japanese carriers stay up there in that region I'm happy to let them be for now. Anyway, my second carrier air group of Devastators upgraded to Avengers today.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat was very active again on the land and in the air. New Japanese troops started to land at Dili and Tophat's troops captured Malang, Waingapu and Kai Island. Tophat also attempted a deliberate attack on Homan that succeeded in lowering the fortification by one but was still quite costly for the Japanese forces:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Homan
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 204201 troops, 2155 guns, 196 vehicles
Defending force 105124 troops, 314 guns, 0 vehicles
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 7
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 7)
Japanese ground losses:
6819 casualties reported
Guns lost 196
Vehicles lost 13
Allied ground losses:
1448 casualties reported
Guns lost 53
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There were some equally costly air battles over Homan in which my fighters were able to stand up to Tophat's fighters and cause some significant losses to Tophat's bombers.
My Chinese bombers flew this turn but had problems with Japanese CAP and didn't do that well, other than the IL-4cs which hit a PG in Hong Kong Harbour, setting it on fire.
My attempt to fly in supplies to Dili also ran into difficulties with Japanese LR CAP intercepting some of the transports. In the end however, the overall Japanese air losses for the turn were higher than the total Allied air losses, so I'll consider that a small victory.
On and under the waves my subs in the Baker Island area were buzzed by carrier planes again. As long as the Japanese carriers stay up there in that region I'm happy to let them be for now. Anyway, my second carrier air group of Devastators upgraded to Avengers today.
Dave Baranyi
RE: China under attack...
July 11 -
As far as this turn went, I came out in third place, Tophat came out in second, and the rain was the hands down winner. I should change my bombers into submarines, because it doesn't appear that they will ever fly again, and all this rain must have raised the sea level around the Pacific Rim by at least 100 feet so far…
The only big action this turn was Tophat sweeping Homan with three successive Zero sweeps. My Brit fighters were able to shoot down 9 Zeros, but at a cost of 24 Mohawks and Hurricanes. I stood down those fighters and pulled the undamaged ones out for R&O. I'm hoping that Tophat sends those sweeps in again rather than his bombers, which is likely because he sent 70 or so bombers against Hengchow again this turn. At the same time, 2 Hudsons took off to try to attack a transport at Kai Island, out of a dozen or more bomber units that I set to attack at various locations on the map this turn.
In other "watery" actions, a surface combat TF attacked one of my subs that was north of Baker Island, followed by attacks from two different carrier TFs. The carrier planes then attacked and hit another of my subs that was sitting a ways to the north.
So at this time there isn't a lot that I can do, other than to stick with my plan, wait for decent fighters, and pray for the occasional sunny break.
Dave Baranyi
As far as this turn went, I came out in third place, Tophat came out in second, and the rain was the hands down winner. I should change my bombers into submarines, because it doesn't appear that they will ever fly again, and all this rain must have raised the sea level around the Pacific Rim by at least 100 feet so far…
The only big action this turn was Tophat sweeping Homan with three successive Zero sweeps. My Brit fighters were able to shoot down 9 Zeros, but at a cost of 24 Mohawks and Hurricanes. I stood down those fighters and pulled the undamaged ones out for R&O. I'm hoping that Tophat sends those sweeps in again rather than his bombers, which is likely because he sent 70 or so bombers against Hengchow again this turn. At the same time, 2 Hudsons took off to try to attack a transport at Kai Island, out of a dozen or more bomber units that I set to attack at various locations on the map this turn.
In other "watery" actions, a surface combat TF attacked one of my subs that was north of Baker Island, followed by attacks from two different carrier TFs. The carrier planes then attacked and hit another of my subs that was sitting a ways to the north.
So at this time there isn't a lot that I can do, other than to stick with my plan, wait for decent fighters, and pray for the occasional sunny break.
Dave Baranyi
Give and take...
July 12 -
This was a day of give and take. I would have liked to have given more "grief" to Tophat, but I'll "take" what I got…
For the first time since early in the Game I sent a sub into the waters off of Japan proper and sure enough this turn Tophat sent a dedicated ASW TF after my sub. But the ASW ships need practice and couldn't find my sub. Now I'll move the sub so that I avoid giving those ships "too much" practice.
Tophat is continuing his big bombing campaigns. Over a hundred bombers hit both Hengchow in China and Soerabaja in Java. But the damage was acceptable in both cases; mainly supply destruction. I've got more supply in China, and I can't do anything about Java, so there isn't much point in worrying. However, I did target the main Japanese bomber base in China for next turn - we'll see if my Brit bombers get lucky.
Some of my Chinese bombers finally flew this turn and hit the Japanese troops at Homan. I also pulled more of my fighters out of Homan; I want to rebuild them back where I have more supplies and where they can get replacements directly. If Tophat bombs Homan, so be it - I don't intend to try to stop multi-Daitai sweeps with a few weakened squadrons. I'll let the Japanese planes suffer operational damage again.
My B-17s in Darwin had a good run at Kai Island, blowing past the Zeros on CAP and causing solid damage. In contrast, my B-17s in Canton got hammered by the Zeros on CAP over Baker Island and accomplished nothing. I expect that Tophat will bring better Zeros to Kai Island too, so I'll just keep an eye out for other opportunities to strike at my advantage. BTW - my Hudsons also fought through the CAP over Kai Island and hit an AP sitting at the port. However, another Hudson attack on the ships at Dili ran into too much CAP and couldn't get through.
What was particularly interesting was that the last unit to escape the fall of Koepang finally made it to Dili in time to stop another land attack:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Dili
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 1925 troops, 36 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 1999 troops, 1 guns, 0 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese ground losses:
40 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Allied ground losses:
29 casualties reported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tophat now has two combat units in Dili but no engineers. I've got two weakened Dutch combat units and two weakened Dutch base force units. Since Tophat is keeping LR CAP over Dili all the time now, I am flying supplies into Lautem and allowing them to work their way over to Dili.
In other news about the Gilberts/Baker Island region - my subs didn't report any more attacks by carrier planes, so it appears that Tophat has sent his combat and carrier TFs back to Kwajalein for refuelling. Also in the Marshalls, another Japanese AP sank at sea. I'm guessing that it was one more casualty of the Baker Island invasion.
The big upcoming news for me is the imminent arrival of the Wasp, along with a number of other combat ships, planes and ground troops. And during the upcoming Game-month I will be receiving a ton of support ships which will eventually allow me to project offensive force beyond my current major bases. So I will be getting more active starting in August 1942, although I've essentially scrapped the idea of an assault on the Gilberts in the Fall of 1942 because of the loss of Baker Island. But I've got other plans in the works.
Dave Baranyi
This was a day of give and take. I would have liked to have given more "grief" to Tophat, but I'll "take" what I got…
For the first time since early in the Game I sent a sub into the waters off of Japan proper and sure enough this turn Tophat sent a dedicated ASW TF after my sub. But the ASW ships need practice and couldn't find my sub. Now I'll move the sub so that I avoid giving those ships "too much" practice.
Tophat is continuing his big bombing campaigns. Over a hundred bombers hit both Hengchow in China and Soerabaja in Java. But the damage was acceptable in both cases; mainly supply destruction. I've got more supply in China, and I can't do anything about Java, so there isn't much point in worrying. However, I did target the main Japanese bomber base in China for next turn - we'll see if my Brit bombers get lucky.
Some of my Chinese bombers finally flew this turn and hit the Japanese troops at Homan. I also pulled more of my fighters out of Homan; I want to rebuild them back where I have more supplies and where they can get replacements directly. If Tophat bombs Homan, so be it - I don't intend to try to stop multi-Daitai sweeps with a few weakened squadrons. I'll let the Japanese planes suffer operational damage again.
My B-17s in Darwin had a good run at Kai Island, blowing past the Zeros on CAP and causing solid damage. In contrast, my B-17s in Canton got hammered by the Zeros on CAP over Baker Island and accomplished nothing. I expect that Tophat will bring better Zeros to Kai Island too, so I'll just keep an eye out for other opportunities to strike at my advantage. BTW - my Hudsons also fought through the CAP over Kai Island and hit an AP sitting at the port. However, another Hudson attack on the ships at Dili ran into too much CAP and couldn't get through.
What was particularly interesting was that the last unit to escape the fall of Koepang finally made it to Dili in time to stop another land attack:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Dili
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 1925 troops, 36 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 1999 troops, 1 guns, 0 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese ground losses:
40 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Allied ground losses:
29 casualties reported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tophat now has two combat units in Dili but no engineers. I've got two weakened Dutch combat units and two weakened Dutch base force units. Since Tophat is keeping LR CAP over Dili all the time now, I am flying supplies into Lautem and allowing them to work their way over to Dili.
In other news about the Gilberts/Baker Island region - my subs didn't report any more attacks by carrier planes, so it appears that Tophat has sent his combat and carrier TFs back to Kwajalein for refuelling. Also in the Marshalls, another Japanese AP sank at sea. I'm guessing that it was one more casualty of the Baker Island invasion.
The big upcoming news for me is the imminent arrival of the Wasp, along with a number of other combat ships, planes and ground troops. And during the upcoming Game-month I will be receiving a ton of support ships which will eventually allow me to project offensive force beyond my current major bases. So I will be getting more active starting in August 1942, although I've essentially scrapped the idea of an assault on the Gilberts in the Fall of 1942 because of the loss of Baker Island. But I've got other plans in the works.
Dave Baranyi
Battleships at Soerabaja...
July 13 -
It looks like Tophat has finally decided to capture Soerabaja once and for all and attacked it with everything he had. First there came another bombardment TF:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naval bombardment of Soerabaja, at 22, 65 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
60 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
CL Oi, Shell hits 5
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 4
BB Ise, Shell hits 6
BB Yamashiro
BB Fuso
BB Nagato
Allied ground losses:
335 casualties reported
Guns lost 5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I wonder why he left the Oi in that TF? Next came some air attacks:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Soerabaja, at 22, 65
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 15
Ki-21 Sally x 66
Ki-49 Helen x 24
Ki-46-II Dinah x 6
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 1 destroyed, 6 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 5 damaged
Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported
Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 10
Plus
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 19
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 2 damaged
(With no damage to the base from this attack)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then came the ground attack:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Soerabaja
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 159453 troops, 1571 guns, 77 vehicles
Defending force 48672 troops, 318 guns, 43 vehicles
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 8
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 8)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 8
Japanese ground losses:
1741 casualties reported
Guns lost 21
Vehicles lost 2
Allied ground losses:
1653 casualties reported
Guns lost 76
Vehicles lost 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Supply is now in the "red" in Soerabaja and assault value is down about 15% from the previous turn. I've turned off reinforcements for the troops - the end is near and there isn't much that I can do to drag it out much longer.
In China Tophat sent several big fighters sweeps of Homan, followed by a big bomber air raid. I had my remaining fighters in Homan grounded so I only lost one plane on the ground. But even without friendly CAP the damage wasn't too bad; however supplies are falling off quickly in Homan too.
A few things worked for me this turn, although my main bomber attack didn't fly against Tophat's bomber base. For one, my Chinese bombers attacked Tophat's troops at Homan. Then, one of my remaining Dutch subs put a torpedo into a Japanese AK that was unloading at Dili, despite the presence of 6 MSWs and a PG in that TF. Otherwise there wasn't a lot to cheer about for the Allies.
Dave Baranyi
It looks like Tophat has finally decided to capture Soerabaja once and for all and attacked it with everything he had. First there came another bombardment TF:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naval bombardment of Soerabaja, at 22, 65 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
60 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
CL Oi, Shell hits 5
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 4
BB Ise, Shell hits 6
BB Yamashiro
BB Fuso
BB Nagato
Allied ground losses:
335 casualties reported
Guns lost 5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I wonder why he left the Oi in that TF? Next came some air attacks:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Soerabaja, at 22, 65
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 15
Ki-21 Sally x 66
Ki-49 Helen x 24
Ki-46-II Dinah x 6
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 1 destroyed, 6 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 5 damaged
Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported
Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 10
Plus
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 19
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 2 damaged
(With no damage to the base from this attack)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then came the ground attack:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Soerabaja
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 159453 troops, 1571 guns, 77 vehicles
Defending force 48672 troops, 318 guns, 43 vehicles
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 8
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 8)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 8
Japanese ground losses:
1741 casualties reported
Guns lost 21
Vehicles lost 2
Allied ground losses:
1653 casualties reported
Guns lost 76
Vehicles lost 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Supply is now in the "red" in Soerabaja and assault value is down about 15% from the previous turn. I've turned off reinforcements for the troops - the end is near and there isn't much that I can do to drag it out much longer.
In China Tophat sent several big fighters sweeps of Homan, followed by a big bomber air raid. I had my remaining fighters in Homan grounded so I only lost one plane on the ground. But even without friendly CAP the damage wasn't too bad; however supplies are falling off quickly in Homan too.
A few things worked for me this turn, although my main bomber attack didn't fly against Tophat's bomber base. For one, my Chinese bombers attacked Tophat's troops at Homan. Then, one of my remaining Dutch subs put a torpedo into a Japanese AK that was unloading at Dili, despite the presence of 6 MSWs and a PG in that TF. Otherwise there wasn't a lot to cheer about for the Allies.
Dave Baranyi
More Battleships at Soerabaja...
July 14 -
This turn predominantly favored Tophat, but my forces did get a few successes. The night period of the turn saw yet more Japanese troops get landed at Dili and the cruiser bombardment TF come back to hit the Dutch again. But what surprised me was that the battleship TF came back into Soerabaja to bombard again:
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Naval bombardment of Soerabaja, at 22, 65 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
39 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 1
BB Ise, Shell hits 4
BB Yamashiro
BB Fuso
BB Nagato, Shell hits 2
Allied ground losses:
187 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Vehicles lost 1
Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 1
Port supply hits 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Dutch are doing the best that they can in their "one last futile act of defiance". They even weathered a couple more aerial bombardments, although the amount of flak is going down.
In China Tophat once again sent a couple of strong sweeps over Homan followed by a big aerial bombardment. However, there wasn't a lot of damage and I got the rest of my planes out afterwards. My Wellingtons had a good strike and found the CAP down at Nanchang:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Nanchang, at 49, 37
Japanese aircraft
no flights
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 62
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 5 destroyed
Japanese ground losses:
45 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 25
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, Tophat wasn't basing his bombers at Nanchang, so that nice attack didn't really accomplish much in the end.
My B-17s had a nice, easy attack on Kai Island since Tophat had pulled his LR CAP back:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Kai Island, at 39, 78
Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 3
B-17E Fortress x 35
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
44 casualties reported
Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 18
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That B-17 group is building up experience nicely.
At the end of the turn Tophat only tried artillery attacks on my besieged troops in China and Java. So while things weren't great in the turn, they could have been much worse.
Dave Baranyi
This turn predominantly favored Tophat, but my forces did get a few successes. The night period of the turn saw yet more Japanese troops get landed at Dili and the cruiser bombardment TF come back to hit the Dutch again. But what surprised me was that the battleship TF came back into Soerabaja to bombard again:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naval bombardment of Soerabaja, at 22, 65 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
39 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 1
BB Ise, Shell hits 4
BB Yamashiro
BB Fuso
BB Nagato, Shell hits 2
Allied ground losses:
187 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Vehicles lost 1
Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 1
Port supply hits 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Dutch are doing the best that they can in their "one last futile act of defiance". They even weathered a couple more aerial bombardments, although the amount of flak is going down.
In China Tophat once again sent a couple of strong sweeps over Homan followed by a big aerial bombardment. However, there wasn't a lot of damage and I got the rest of my planes out afterwards. My Wellingtons had a good strike and found the CAP down at Nanchang:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Nanchang, at 49, 37
Japanese aircraft
no flights
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 62
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 5 destroyed
Japanese ground losses:
45 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 25
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, Tophat wasn't basing his bombers at Nanchang, so that nice attack didn't really accomplish much in the end.
My B-17s had a nice, easy attack on Kai Island since Tophat had pulled his LR CAP back:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Kai Island, at 39, 78
Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 3
B-17E Fortress x 35
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
44 casualties reported
Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 18
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That B-17 group is building up experience nicely.
At the end of the turn Tophat only tried artillery attacks on my besieged troops in China and Java. So while things weren't great in the turn, they could have been much worse.
Dave Baranyi
Dili Dallies no more...
July 15 -
Rain interfered with air operations on both sides again today but allowed naval and land operations to continue. Tophat started to land troops at Lautem on Timor, which cut off my troops in Dili. Thus, when Tophat's new combat troops in Dili attacked and overwhelmed the defenders, the Dutch troops surrendered. Lautem is much more lightly defended so it should take Tophat so long to capture it.
The rain didn't hinder some of my Hudsons from trying to hit the transports that were unloading troops at Lautem, but the pilots missed their targets, including a nice, "juicy" CS. I have set my B-17s to hit the Japanese ground troops at Lautem this coming turn, both for more practice as well as the chance of shooting at some more LR CAP zeros.
In China my Chinese bombers raided the Japanese troops at Homan again but didn't cause much damage. Most of Tophat's Chinese air bases were socked-in, so the only planes that flew hit Hengchow. I'm sending my Wellingtons out again next turn, weather permitting, in an attempt to find some bombers on the ground in Wuhan. I've slowly pulled back my Brit fighters in China so there are no fighters left in the front line Chinese cities. There is no point in letting Tophat get "cheap" air victories by overwhelming my planes with crack Daitais.
Tophat also sent bombers in against Soerabaja again and did the usual artillery bombardment, although the battleships stayed away this turn. The supply situation has stabilized in the "pink" at Soerabaja and I still have the bulk of my larger CD guns, so another naval bombardment TF will still likely be "greeted" with return fire. The AA units in Soerabaja are hurting a bit, but were still able to damage a number of Japanese bombers.
Below, I've attached a summary of the air losses to-date. A comparison of the total losses gives one of the most encouraging signs to me that my strategy has been reasonably successful; Tophat is now almost 400 air losses in front of me. If you examine the Allied air losses in this table you will see a "history" of where I have contested regions against Tophat. The Mohawk losses being the most recent series of air battles in China, the P-40Bs being the losses of the first couple of days of battle in the Game, the Brewsters and Demons coming from the defense of the DEI, and the I-16c/I-153c losses coming from the first phase of the air war in China. In each case, other than in the initial attacks of the game, my air units were able to stand up to the original Japanese air units until Tophat brought crack Zero units in and out-classed my aircraft and pilots.
Dave Baranyi
Rain interfered with air operations on both sides again today but allowed naval and land operations to continue. Tophat started to land troops at Lautem on Timor, which cut off my troops in Dili. Thus, when Tophat's new combat troops in Dili attacked and overwhelmed the defenders, the Dutch troops surrendered. Lautem is much more lightly defended so it should take Tophat so long to capture it.
The rain didn't hinder some of my Hudsons from trying to hit the transports that were unloading troops at Lautem, but the pilots missed their targets, including a nice, "juicy" CS. I have set my B-17s to hit the Japanese ground troops at Lautem this coming turn, both for more practice as well as the chance of shooting at some more LR CAP zeros.
In China my Chinese bombers raided the Japanese troops at Homan again but didn't cause much damage. Most of Tophat's Chinese air bases were socked-in, so the only planes that flew hit Hengchow. I'm sending my Wellingtons out again next turn, weather permitting, in an attempt to find some bombers on the ground in Wuhan. I've slowly pulled back my Brit fighters in China so there are no fighters left in the front line Chinese cities. There is no point in letting Tophat get "cheap" air victories by overwhelming my planes with crack Daitais.
Tophat also sent bombers in against Soerabaja again and did the usual artillery bombardment, although the battleships stayed away this turn. The supply situation has stabilized in the "pink" at Soerabaja and I still have the bulk of my larger CD guns, so another naval bombardment TF will still likely be "greeted" with return fire. The AA units in Soerabaja are hurting a bit, but were still able to damage a number of Japanese bombers.
Below, I've attached a summary of the air losses to-date. A comparison of the total losses gives one of the most encouraging signs to me that my strategy has been reasonably successful; Tophat is now almost 400 air losses in front of me. If you examine the Allied air losses in this table you will see a "history" of where I have contested regions against Tophat. The Mohawk losses being the most recent series of air battles in China, the P-40Bs being the losses of the first couple of days of battle in the Game, the Brewsters and Demons coming from the defense of the DEI, and the I-16c/I-153c losses coming from the first phase of the air war in China. In each case, other than in the initial attacks of the game, my air units were able to stand up to the original Japanese air units until Tophat brought crack Zero units in and out-classed my aircraft and pilots.
Dave Baranyi
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RE: Dili Dallies no more...
Really enjoy reading your posts each and every day.
As someone relatively new, why are the Japanese operational loses so much greater than yours, in some cases 30 - 70 % of total loses while yours seem reasonable and what you would expect.
As someone relatively new, why are the Japanese operational loses so much greater than yours, in some cases 30 - 70 % of total loses while yours seem reasonable and what you would expect.
RE: Dili Dallies no more...
ORIGINAL: SJD
Really enjoy reading your posts each and every day.
As someone relatively new, why are the Japanese operational loses so much greater than yours, in some cases 30 - 70 % of total loses while yours seem reasonable and what you would expect.
Tophat is flying his bombers almost every day and getting them tired. The more fatigue that your pilots have, the more often they will become victims of operational losses. He is also flying his planes farther, particularly the Zeros on Long Range CAP. LR CAP puts even more wear-and-tear on his fighters than normal combat. In addition, Tophat is also flying against a fair amount of AA - AA may not shoot down a plane directly, but if a plane is damaged by AA it may still crash on the flight home.
I try to rest my bombers for several days in-between each mission. I pull them back from the front if they build up much fatigue or if their morale goes down a lot. I also chose my air squadron and group leaders carefully, matching bomber pilots to bombers and fighter pilots to fighters, and try to get a good balance of general leadership characteristics. The Program always assigns leaders based upon whoever has the greatest "aggressiveness", and I find that it is better to have a good balance in a air unit leader.
So it's always a trade-off that you have to make with your planes. Because my planes aren't as good as the Japanese planes, and my pilots are generally also not as good as the Japanese pilots I try very hard to maximize positive factors such as Leadership and Morale, and minimize negative factors such as Damage and Fatigue in my air units. This helps me get better results and keep all losses, including Operational losses, to a minimum.
Thanks for the comments - I'm glad that you enjoy my reports.
Dave Baranyi
Zeros vs the RAF...
July 16 -
Tophat and I keep on trading small blows in various locations with me trying to hold my own and not give up too much, too fast. But there is little I can do about the overall momentum that Tophat has at this time, in both the small and bigger things. For example, another "no name" base, Memboro, was automatically occupied by the Japanese today. I've lost track of all the bases that Tophat has captured, but if I wanted to I could go to the spreadsheet that I use to track SIGINT and other strategic information and search on "occupied" and "captured" and see how many turn up. But I'd rather do a search on "recaptured" sometime in the future. <g>
In action this turn, my Wellingtons all flew and hit Kaifeng. There wasn't a much CAP there, but the Brits still didn't do a lot of damage. It appears that Tophat moved his bombers again. My IL-4cs also hit Canton, but ran into a lot of mixed CAP and didn't do well either. However, both raids force Tophat to stay a bit "honest" with his air units, although he now has so many fighter units in China that he can attack and defend simultaneously in multiple places.
A few of Tophat's bombers did fly and hit Hengchow, doing a little damage, but in contrast Tophat sent out three full Daitais of Zeros on Sweeps after my fighters at Sian. Tophat was quite pleased with the final results; 22 Mohawks and Hurricanes were shot down for a loss of 10 Zeros. But when you think about it - considering that those were full-sized, crack Daitais and my three squadrons were understrength and not aces by any means, that wasn't such a bad result for my guys at all. Never-the-less, I am still gradually pulling the weaker Brit fighter squadrons out of China and pulling all planes back from the Chinese front line bases. I want Tophat to have to fly further to attack my planes.
In what remains of the "Unoccupied DEI" Tophat sent hordes of bombers against Soerabaja again, achieving some results but also sustaining damage to his bombers. Tophat also landed more troops at Lautem. My B-17s didn't fly after Tophat's troops in Lautem, but my Hudsons did fly after the Japanese invasion TF, hitting one MSW hard, although the Hudsons had to fight through some tough LR CAP.
In the Central Pacific Tophat has placed a couple of picket subs of his own between Canton and Baker Islands. I'm sending B-17s after Baker again just to keep Tophat on his toes. In the meanwhile I have my next major operation underway.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat and I keep on trading small blows in various locations with me trying to hold my own and not give up too much, too fast. But there is little I can do about the overall momentum that Tophat has at this time, in both the small and bigger things. For example, another "no name" base, Memboro, was automatically occupied by the Japanese today. I've lost track of all the bases that Tophat has captured, but if I wanted to I could go to the spreadsheet that I use to track SIGINT and other strategic information and search on "occupied" and "captured" and see how many turn up. But I'd rather do a search on "recaptured" sometime in the future. <g>
In action this turn, my Wellingtons all flew and hit Kaifeng. There wasn't a much CAP there, but the Brits still didn't do a lot of damage. It appears that Tophat moved his bombers again. My IL-4cs also hit Canton, but ran into a lot of mixed CAP and didn't do well either. However, both raids force Tophat to stay a bit "honest" with his air units, although he now has so many fighter units in China that he can attack and defend simultaneously in multiple places.
A few of Tophat's bombers did fly and hit Hengchow, doing a little damage, but in contrast Tophat sent out three full Daitais of Zeros on Sweeps after my fighters at Sian. Tophat was quite pleased with the final results; 22 Mohawks and Hurricanes were shot down for a loss of 10 Zeros. But when you think about it - considering that those were full-sized, crack Daitais and my three squadrons were understrength and not aces by any means, that wasn't such a bad result for my guys at all. Never-the-less, I am still gradually pulling the weaker Brit fighter squadrons out of China and pulling all planes back from the Chinese front line bases. I want Tophat to have to fly further to attack my planes.
In what remains of the "Unoccupied DEI" Tophat sent hordes of bombers against Soerabaja again, achieving some results but also sustaining damage to his bombers. Tophat also landed more troops at Lautem. My B-17s didn't fly after Tophat's troops in Lautem, but my Hudsons did fly after the Japanese invasion TF, hitting one MSW hard, although the Hudsons had to fight through some tough LR CAP.
In the Central Pacific Tophat has placed a couple of picket subs of his own between Canton and Baker Islands. I'm sending B-17s after Baker again just to keep Tophat on his toes. In the meanwhile I have my next major operation underway.
Dave Baranyi