Tophat vs ADavidB - Back at It

[ADavidB]

October 4 -

Tophat lucked out again this turn as he sent another small sweep of Tojos to Yunan and they missed the target in the rain. I suspect that he was still looking for the Brit Hurricanes that I had there a while back. But this time one of his recon flights did fly over the base and got chased by the 23rd FG. Afterwards Tophat commented in his email to me:

"My, you are moving fighters around aren't you?"

So what will he do next turn, let "sleeping dogs" alone or try to come back and hunt my planes? Just in case he does decide to come back I moved the AVG into Yunan too, and put both FGs at 80% CAP. That ought to be an interesting surprise for him if he does come back. Tophat is operating under the misconception that I have the usual shortage of P-40Bs and P-40Es that afflicts most Allied players. But because of my "miserly ways" I actually have well over 100 of both models in reserve, so I can fight for quite a while without running out.

Meanwhile, I finally brought back to India from China those three Brit Hurricane squadrons that I mentioned above. They all now have decent experience so I upgraded them to Spitfires. I also took the time to upgrade my remaining Brit Mohawks to Hurricanes since I have so many Hurricanes in reserve. Spitfires remain my only real worry as far as fighter reserves go, since they arrive so slowly.

In China Tophat sent out another smallish bomber attack at Hengchow and another big bomber attack on Sian. As well, he sent some bombers out to hit one of my Chinese combat units that is blocking the road to Chungking. Tophat's land attacks in China were limited to artillery bombardments. A fresh Chinese LCU arrived in Sian today so I gave orders for my weakest unit in Sian to start the long hike back to Chungking and R&R. Then I ordered my best unit in Chungking to start on the trek to Sian. When it gets to Sian I'll send another weakened unit back to Chungking. Thus goes my strategy in China. [;)]

Elsewhere, Tophat's training air units hit my trapped Philippine units again, and then my training air units from Darwin hit Kai Island again. I've also had a recon unit snooping around Baker Island for the past few turns, just to get Tophat used to it. This turn I'm finally sending a B-17 group along with it. For the day, Tophat hat lost 6 aircraft to operational losses and 1 to flak. I lost no planes. Tophat now has nearly 40% more air losses than I have. My next goal is to push him to the "magic" 50% more mark. [:D]

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

October 5 -

Tophat decided that "digression is the better part of valor" and didn't go after Yunan this turn. Instead he spread his attacks out on a number of other targets in China, which once again is the smart thing to do. But he still kept up his heavy air attacks on Hengchow and Sian in addition to the other raids. Tophat also sent his recon flight to Kunming this turn instead of Yunan. Some of the P-40s from Yunan showed up over Kunming to chase the recon planes, so that might give rise to some confusion for Tophat.

In response all of my Brit Wellingtons hit Mandalay hard. I'm sitting them down again and letting the Mitchells fly next turn. My B-17s from Canton Island also flew and fought their way past the Zeros at Baker Island. They shot two zeros and destroyed one on the ground for the loss of one B-17. Once the airfield at Canton Island finally reaches level 5 it will be easier to send out strikes that will do serious damage.

Otherwise, things continue to stay fairly quiet.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

October 6 -

Well, I started to get a bit lackadaisical about things in China and Burma and at the same time Tophat started to change what he was doing, and the end result was a good turn all around in the air for Tophat. Not only was he able to bomb Sian and Hengchow heavily but he also sent in a very big strike at Chungking having guessed that I still had my P-40s out in Yunan. Fortunately I had few planes left on the ground in Chungking, so the cost was relatively light in terms of destroyed and damaged aircraft, but Tophat did some serious damage to the runways and if he continues I won't be able to use Chungking for a while.

At the same time Tophat surprised me my putting some good Zeros on LR CAP over Mandalay for the first time in ages. I've been sending unescorted bombers in to hit Mandalay for game-weeks now so this hurt as my Mitchells came in with only moderately trained pilots and got hit hard. I didn't end up losing that many planes, but the morale is now in the 20s for this group. That means "backwaters" for them for a while.

So I'm going to have to regroup a bit and go back to my earlier more conservative approach to China and the Far East. I don't want to give Tophat more "freebies" in the region. And I'll have to be careful elsewhere too. Now that Tophat has his confidence back he'll probably do more raiding in Oz and in the Central Pacific.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

October 7 -

Widespread rains caused most air attacks to be split into pieces this turn. But since neither side was attacking defended targets it didn't matter in the end. Tophat once again sent large numbers of planes against Hengchow and Sian, scouted Wuchow and Lashio, trained in the Philippines and left Chungking along. This allowed my engineers to repair the damage to the runways but not to the support nor to the damaged planes that were still on the ground. If Tophat and/or the rain "cooperate" Chungking ought to be pretty much repaired by next turn.

The only action on the part of the Allies was the Chinese air units hitting the Japanese besiegers at Kungchang and Lanchow again. It's just such a shame that those units can't get decent planes until the middle of 1943.

With the repair of the damage from the October naval upgrades well in hand I've started to reposition more of my forces for the next stage of my plans. Canton Island is getting fortified nicely and I am now landing an RCT unit on it in order to protect it from "nuisance" invasions. My scrutiny of the SIGINT spreadsheet as well as Tophat's focus on India and Timor leads me to believe that Tophat doesn't have any large ground forces in the Central Pacific. So I shouldn't have to worry about a multi-divisional invasion in the near future. I'm also continuing to build up my network of mutually supporting bases in the South Pacific. And I get even more engineering groups in the next few weeks.

I also feel quite secure from any potential invasion of India, so I've started to move some of my combat units forward, all the while still leaving a strong reserve in my key bases. I want to be in a good position to "step forward" a bit during the next two months along the Front in that region. While I'm not currently planning any land offensives in the region, I do want to move back into some abandoned positions that the Japanese haven't occupied. Therefore I want to be able to move good units in quickly that can defend the bases from Japanese intervention. The War will slowly be moved back to the Japanese.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

October 8 -

This turn Tophat wrote of modifying his strategy again. I didn't see much evidence of that other than a Nell that came and reconnoitered over Canton Island. Otherwise, it was much the same usual; big bomber raids hit Hengchow and Sian and the Japanese land forces engaged in China did their usual artillery attacks. There was a bigger than usual attack by Zeros and Bettys on Derby, but I don't have anything there other than Catalinas, so it wasn't a big bother.

The continued respite at Chungking allowed my engineers to finish repairing the base and start to repair some of the damaged planes on the ground. One more day of "peace" and I ought to have all remaining planes back with their units. I've decided that I will "test the waters" over Mandalay again next turn by sending out my experienced Wellingtons accompanied by the P-40Bs of the 23rd FG. They ought to take care of any reasonable level of CAP. Otherwise things continue to tick along quietly.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

With all the continuous action in China I haven't been saying a lot about what is going on in the other Theatres of the War. For the most part the Fronts elsewhere have been quiet as we've been both building up our defences in the background. But I have been tracking via SIGINT the location of enemy forces, particularly those at the Fronts and I have a pretty good idea of where Tophat has committed major forces and where he hasn't. So I want to take a while a bit of space to show some of the current situations at the quieter regions of the battle.

First off, let's look at the Central Pacific. Tophat has (justifiably) been depending upon the KB and his naval LBA to protect his bases in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. Tophat's move to take Baker Island is a two-edged sword; while it pushed the Allied forces further back from the Gilberts it also allows the Allied forces to practice attacks on a relatively isolated Japanese base.

The visible locations of air and land units on the map below are accurate according to SIGINT; there are a number of smaller bases which are empty and which present interesting potential targets for the future. As long as Tophat does not move any major Japanese Army divisions into this region the opportunities for an Allied blitzkrieg improve with time.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

The corresponding South Central Pacific Allied front continues to be built up. Thanks to the plethora of Allied Engineering units I have been able to build up "dot" bases into "stepping stone" bases for moving air units forwards as well as for increasing the number of locations from which I can send out naval search and reconnaissance. In addition, these bases provide safe havens for naval aircraft in the case of naval air battles that cause carriers to be heavily damaged or sunk. The larger bases have also been equipped with naval support ships to provide local rearming and short term repair. Marine Air Units have been poured into this area, along with some longer range Army Air units.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

However, the key to the control of the South Central/South Eastern Fronts is the development of a strong set of mutually-supporting bases in the South Pacific. Note below that there are currently eleven bases being developed and there are opportunities to develop several more. Again, I've developed strategically important "dot" bases in order to provide local support to key bases. Sydney Island, for example, is positioned to provide Marine Air Support to Canton Island and also to provide a stepping stone to Pago-Pago and islands further to the South West. I've been slowly developing bases in a northwards motion in order to be able to provide LR CAP to new bases since the northernmost bases are within the range of Japanese Naval Air from the Gilberts.

The key thing about this regional development is that it allows me to station strong Naval Combat forces in the southernmost bases that can be quickly sent to either protect the northernmost bases or to raid Japanese possessions further to the north. And by having air bases everywhere I can also provide continuous LR CAP for Surface Combat TFs, negating the impact of Japanese Naval LBA.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

Further to the Southwest, the PNG/Solomons area is still pretty much a buffer zone. Tophat has been satisfied with grabbing some of the more historically important bases that are readily covered by his Naval LBA in Rabaul but he has not extended to the bases where I can easily commit forces from Northeastern Australia. The Santa Cruz Islands, the New Hebrides and New Caledonia remain undisputed and under Allied control. I have only simulated the presence of Allied forces in New Caledonia, and have instead maintained all of my forces for the region in New Zealand. As I receive more reinforcements over the next couple of game-months I will start to put forces into the region for real, including finally returning to PNG. But I will do that only after I start movements in other regions so that Tophat has to commit parts of the KB elsewhere.

BTW - I do have US naval surface combat and air combat forces in this region just in case Tophat does decide to expand a bit further from his current air control. Tophat hasn't moved a lot of forces directly into this region either. He is holding back the great majority of his uncommitted forces in non-malarial Truk and in the Mandates.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

One of the major reasons why Tophat hasn't moved more forces into the South Pacific is because he is building up the Timor region. He has poured combat troops, CD units and engineers into the various bases and built up a mutually-supporting network. Although the Japanese engineers work more slowly than their American counterparts, given time they are still able to build up substantial defences. The one big disadvantage for Tophat is that the bases in this region are malarial, which means that his forces are constantly fighting attrition just by being there.

Because of the multitude of Japanese bases in this region mounting an effective Allied Air campaign is fairly difficult. Of the four Allied bases in Northern Australia only Darwin is non-malarial, and it is very difficult to suppress a number of opposing bases from only a single base. I would need to commit at least two crack P-38 groups along with two crack Long Range bomber groups to have a reasonable chance of starting to close down some of the nearby Japanese bases. The risk then remains that Tophat would simply send a naval bombardment group in to close the airfields at Darwin.

The Timor-Northern Australia front is actually very difficult for the Allies to support, which then makes it even more difficult to use for sustained offensive operations. The Japanese player has a much easier time supplying his forces in the region. But, at the same time, the threat of an Allied Air Campaign against resource sites in the region makes it imperative that the Japanese player maintain a strong presence. Thus, in the long run it is more important for the Allied player to maintain a credible threat in the region than to actually commit to action simply because the forces that the Japanese player commits to the region aren't available elsewhere.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

A different set of circumstances exist in the Bay of Bengal. Here, because I moved back Malayan forces very early on to establish a credible defense in India, and because I equally quickly moved to establish a "jungle line" defense in Burma, Tophat is faced with the situation that the Japanese are on the defensive from a position of relative weakness. My bombers have closed Mandalay and are keeping it closed. Rangoon is the only significant Japanese air base in the region now, and there are multiple Allied air bases ringing it. BTW, Pagan and Tanug Gyi are both empty of troops, while there are 4 units and 30,000 Japanese troops in Mandalay.

One key decision that Tophat made was to not attempt to occupy Akyab. I pulled my base force out within a day of the start of the game and moved it to Trimcomalee. Akyab, of course, is well within bombing range of multiple Allied bases, which makes it a potential death trap and training ground for Allied air units.

But now that my forces are well established in the region and Mandalay is suppressed, I decided to reinvest Akyab and have a British naval base force on the march towards the base. I am deliberately marching the base force because Tophat still has substantial naval LBA in Rangoon and further south and I don't want to allow him to harass my forces until I can put CAP in place. Also, the port at Akyab is still at level "0" and I don’t want to expose transport ships to attack if they are trying to unload at an undeveloped port.

So once my base force reaches Akyab (which ought to be within the next few game-weeks) I'll first set the base force to build up the port and simultaneously fly in the three experienced Spitfire units that recently upgraded after a successful stint in China. With local CAP in place I will next use transports to fly the three Chindit units in for a serious defense. I am also going to convert my B-25s to B-24s in order to start a long range threat against Rangoon which will prevent Tophat from committing too many fighters to a war of attrition over Akyab. Finally, once the port reaches level "1" I'll send in some well defended transport TFs to build up supply levels.

BTW, I still have the RN intact and at full capability, so if Tophat tries to interfere with naval forces I will be able to protect the Akyab at sea too. My longer term plans are to suppress the air fields at Rangoon and then move troops into the Andaman Islands in order to threaten more of the Malaya coastline.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

Finally, I have also been building up the Far North quite steadily. I moved all units that were assigned to Northern Pacific to Alaska and have been steadily building up the bases in the region. Anchorage is fully built up and Kodiak and Dutch Harbor are well on their way to completion. Even Nome is built to near completion.

In contrast, the Kuriles have been essentially ignored by Tophat with the exception of Paramushiro Jima and Etofuro Jima. I have not quite decided yet whether I will just do raiding in the Kuriles once Spring 1943 arrives, or start some invasions of the empty islands, but Sakhalin Island still stands tempting with its lightly guarded bases.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

October 9 -

Tophat's new strategy has turned out to be quite painful and irritating for me; he has essentially taken the "hit and run" strategy that I was using and has turned it against me. But with his generally better and more experienced forces and his longer ranged aircraft he is able to now keep me pretty much off balance while simultaneously keeping continuous major air on his main targets. To give you example of the Japanese air power, today Tophat launched the following successful air attacks:

Hengchow: 12 fighters + 55 bombers
Sian: 40 fighters + 121 bombers
Chungking: 78 fighters + 79 bombers

At the same time he was able to ambush my Brewsters and Demons on bombing training runs over Kai with a crack Zero squadron that shot down 14 planes with no losses to the Zeros.

My response was an attack of 40 Warhawks and 118 Wellingtons on Mandalay. So while Tophat can put up three major long range escorted air attacks in a day, I can only put one in the air. And Tophat can still simultaneously rotate other crack fighter squadrons to shut down any bombing runs where I become less cautious.

So I'm pulling back some more and regrouping again. In about two weeks I ought to have enough P-38s to equip the AVG, after which I'll have a couple of weeks wait until the planes get repaired. Then I will have two good FGs that have longer range fighters. But Tophat can still put up more planes in the Far East than I can.

BTW - Tophat did another deliberate attack at Hengchow this turn:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Hengchow

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 187940 troops, 1796 guns, 144 vehicles

Defending force 108992 troops, 421 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 7)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 6

Japanese ground losses:
4947 casualties reported
Guns lost 108
Vehicles lost 6

Allied ground losses:
1685 casualties reported
Guns lost 37
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tophat took some large losses again, but he is slowly wearing down my forces.

Dave Baranyi

[Tom Hunter]

I have run into much the same hit and run problem Vs. Mogami, on pretty much the same dates as well!

Mog is using KB to support his hit and runs which gives him a bit more hit.

Our situation in Burma is also similar but I am somewhat ahead of you, the British have retaken the country as far as the river line 2 hexes from Rangoon. As to be expected casualties (on both sides) are heavier in the Lunacy game.

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

I have run into much the same hit and run problem Vs. Mogami, on pretty much the same dates as well!

Mog is using KB to support his hit and runs which gives him a bit more hit.

Our situation in Burma is also similar but I am somewhat ahead of you, the British have retaken the country as far as the river line 2 hexes from Rangoon. As to be expected casualties (on both sides) are heavier in the Lunacy game.

I expect that Tophat will eventually succumb to "temptation" and send the KB out for some strikes too...just what I need, yet another 300 Japanese aces hitting my bases...

I'm impressed by how you've kept your land casualties down so well. Tophat just keeps hammering away at my Chinese forces every turn - his air units never seem to need to rest and his land units get to bombard continuously. He is obviously having no supply problems at all in China.

Oh well, he had better not moan when I finally get Corsairs and Hellcats...he will "owe" me about 18 game-months of "misery" on his part...[;)]

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

October 10 -

When it gets down to it, it's all a matter of numbers. Right now, Tophat can put up huge numbers of bombers escorted by huge numbers of top rate fighters and I just can't match the quantity. Too few of my fighter groups have good experience and fewer have long enough range to escort my bombers. And too many of my fighter squadrons have uncompetitive planes or have reasonable planes with miniscule ranges. And in the end, the problem is to be able to bring enough good fighters together at the right base to have a chance to stop the Japanese assaults.

Once again this turn Tophat sent out unbeatable numbers of good planes with good pilots, and this time did it at an additional location:

Hengchow: 15 fighters, 53 bombers
Sian: 43 fighters, 123 bombers
Chungking: 76 fighters, 76 bombers
Darwin: 8 fighters, 40 bombers

The biggest losses were at Darwin where Tophat caught my Dutch and British fighters on the ground where they were recovering from the ambush at Kai Island the previous turn.

Right now I have no front line bases where I can rest my planes in between attacks, and Tophat has too many bases from which to attack the few decent bases that I have. I've now gone back to putting all of my fighters on CAP, despite the fact that there are thunderstorms in all of my defensive areas so that I will take high operational losses next turn just from the weather.

I wrote to Tophat that I better not hear any whining when I finally get some Corsairs, but that is still six game-months away.

Having non-competitive forces is not fun gaming. I really don't care how much the Japanese fanboys complain about Allied 4-engine bombers - a good Japanese player like Tophat can plan his way to negate the Allied long range bombers in late 1942 and because of the Game design, the Allied fighters that are available aren't competitive. And Tophat isn't even bothering to use the KB!

So I'm pulling my better units even further to the Rear and I'll upgrade them to the best of whatever is available. That will allow Tophat to take even more bases and blast those that he doesn't bother to take, but there is nothing that I can do about that. The window of opportunity that I had during the late summer of 1942 in this game has closed and I have to sit around and wait for another number of months before I can do anything resembling an attack.

I committed to Tophat that I would keep on playing, so I will, but I won't start any more games, nor will I recommend WitP to anyone any longer.

Dave Baranyi

[KDonovan]

thats quite a lot of mines there in the North Pacific.....i'm curious as to what you use as mining assets. I find it hard to keep the N. Pacific mined with so many base's needing mines in CENPAC, SOPAC, and Australia.

Also..why did you pick Attu over Kiska....i thought Kiska as better port and airfield values

[Tom Hunter]

Mogami is not upgrading Oscars at this time (or he is just starting too, the huge numbers of Tony's and Tojo's are not there yet) because of a self imposed limitation. So my situation is a bit better than yours but the fundamental issue is the same.

When he does upgarde I am going to have big problems too. Though I think the pilot quality gap in the lunacy game is narrower than the pilot quality gap in your game. That is one of the benefits of the high loss rate, the Japanese suffer some problems as well.

Part of my counter strategy is the two P40B groups in CBI the 23rd and the AVG. I use them very sparingly but from time to time I concentrate them either in big offensive raids with lots of bombers or put them both up as CAP over an important base.

The offensive raids have been very successful but to keep it that way I don't launch more than 1 a month or so. I also have a lot of Dutch groups in CBI, I sent the Dutch airforce there at the start of the war, so I can push the numbers of range 7 planes up into the 150 range with perhaps 110 bring P40Bs and the rest Dutch. This means I don't suffer the numbers effect in the combat system.

On the defensive I am concentrating my CAP more and more but I have not caught Mogami and Massacred him in Burma. I did manage to inflict some serious defeats in the air in China and his bombing campaign there is much reduced. Also he is now bombing an isolated Chinese unit regularly which tells me I must have hurt his pilots enough to force him into training.

I completely agree that PDU breaks the air game. And with the leader bug, disappearing units and all the rest I cannot reccomend the game either.

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: KDonovan

thats quite a lot of mines there in the North Pacific.....i'm curious as to what you use as mining assets. I find it hard to keep the N. Pacific mined with so many base's needing mines in CENPAC, SOPAC, and Australia.

Also..why did you pick Attu over Kiska....i thought Kiska as better port and airfield values

I've got that old slow US minelayer that starts out in the HI. I moved it to the West Coast then slowly went up north. Since Anchorage is a level 9 port I just keep on sending the ship, along with one old DD, on minelaying missions to all of the islands in the chain. I'm just trying to avoid allowing Tophat to sneak in any nuisance raids.

I use my DMs to mine my bases in the Central Pacific, South Pacific and Eastern Oz. Right at the beginning of the game I converted a bunch of AKs to MLEs (along with other support vessels such as ARs, ADs, AS and AGPs) so I don't have any problems reloading my minelayers in the island ports. I've also built up to Port level 9 every base that can be built that high.

As far as Attu goes, it's a bit of a "wash" between it and Kiska as far as base capacity goes, and I want every extra hex of distance that I can get for my naval search planes.

Thanks -

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

I completely agree that PDU breaks the air game. And with the leader bug, disappearing units and all the rest I cannot reccomend the game either.

The air balance was buggered up before PDU, when in v1.50 Mike W upgraded the capabilities of the Tonys and Tojos and downgraded the capabilities of the Allied bombers.

Without PDU I'd still be stuck with P-36s in Pearl. (Been there, done that.) The issue for me isn't the Tonys and Tojos, its the absolute numbers of good fighters that Tophat can bring into play. He is laying waste to Northern Australia with Zeros and Bettys. (That's thanks a large part to Mike W's change to the Bettys in v1.50 that gave them armaments and armor equivalent to B-25s.)

It's October 1942 and I still can't stand up to Zeros unless I use B-17s! The fighter model is totally buggered up as compared to the historical reality. (If this fighter model existed in the real 1942, we would all be writing here in Japanese, not English.)

And yes, I more than understand that this is a "game", and not a "historical simulation" - that's why I say that the Game is no fun to play as the Allies because the fighter model is buggered up.

Dave Baranyi