Tophat vs ADavidB - Back at It

[ADavidB]

October 26 -

Well, I should have expected it. While nothing disastrous happened directly, most of my efforts didn't work at all. Let's see what didn't happen this turn:

1 - The bombers and escorts at Chandpur didn't fly, leaving Rangoon unscratched. Fortunately the heavy cloud cover appears to have masked my intentions. The only good side of this was that one more P-38 was repaired and could join the others in Chandpur. (What's frustrating about this is that I have Brit Air HQs with good leaders in each of Calcutta, Diamond Harbor, Dacca and Chandpur. However, they don't seem to help either the recovery rate or the take off frequency of my air units.) I've left all the planes on their original attack settings. (And yes, they all have their full complements of pilots.)

2 - The Supply Transports didn't fly out of Diamond Harbor. Once again, the only "bright side" was that the one leftover transport plane was repaired and I was able to move it to join the rest. I've left the transports set to transport supplies again. (Yes, all pilots were in place.)

3 - The troops in Hengchow all got stuck at "59" miles, thanks to the unbelievably moronic programming in the Game. This is despite the fact that there are TWO clear hexes behind Hengchow and a clear pathway to Chungking. But because this is the absolutely stupidest programming in the world, the idiotic Game engine insists that the troops must leave via the highways, and the highways are blocked by the Japanese. So in utter desperation I have reset the movement objective to Kweiyang. Kweiyang is closer, so maybe the brain dead programming will allow my troops to move there since the pathway is also clear. If my troops don't, then all I can say is that Mike Wood, in all honesty, ought to send me a check for $100 CDN to reimburse me for this game which never worked right from the beginning.

What "worked"?

1 - The Spits flew over Akyab and buzzed the Japanese recon plane, allowing Tophat to see that I've put a lot of planes into Akyab. But since Tophat didn't try to attack my planes simply picked up storm damage.

2 - The Brit fast BBs took off, got halfway, and were hidden by thick clouds, but Japanese search planes were still able to scout the TF and even see and identify each battleship. Not bad for flying in a rainstorm that stopped my planes from flying.

3 - The Brit Carrier TF got a third of the way to Rangoon and miraculously didn't get spotted! I have no idea how that "mistake" slipped through.

Okay, those things aside, what is the situation? Well, despite the fact that Tophat knows that I've got that BB TF on his doorstep, he has left all his planes (75 fighters, 40 bombers and 40 miscellaneous planes) in Rangoon. It appears that he doesn't expect my task force to be able to do anything. Is this bravado or does he have forces there that have been hidden from me?

Tophat also appears to be pulling back from Mandalay, although he also has what appears to be a combat unit at the crossroads to the north of Rangoon. I wonder if he is planning to use the indescribably bad programming of the "railroad slingshot" effect to whip a combat unit into Akyab before my troops can finish their unbelievable one-mile-a-day journey?

Nothing much is changing in China. Tophat seems a bit surprised that I am pulling out of Wuchow. I guess that he keeps on hoping that I'll let him trap my troops in indefensible locations.

And I am still moving forces in the South Pacific. There is no sign of any Japanese movement - I suspect that Tophat is waiting until the last possible moment so that I don't have time to respond to his action.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

October 27 -

This was a tough turn and important things still didn't work, but at least some of my planning and effort came to fruition. But things didn't start out in a promising manner as the idiot Truant attempted to attack a transport TF off of Borneo! The idiot sub still has floatation damage of 40! This sub definitely has a death wish.

Then things picked up as the RN hit Rangoon hard:

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Naval bombardment of Rangoon, at 29, 34

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 6 destroyed
Ki-30 Ann: 6 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony: 9 destroyed
Ki-46-II Dinah: 3 destroyed
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
CLAA Caledon
CL Glasgow
CL Mauritius
CA Cornwall
CA Dorsetshire
BC Repulse
BB Prince of Wales

Japanese ground losses:
1435 casualties reported
Guns lost 13

Airbase hits 19
Airbase supply hits 9
Runway hits 115
Port fuel hits 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The effect was even better than the combat report said, as you can see by the Air Loss totals for the day, below. The attack also left a lot of damage to the base and Tophat ended up pulling back his undamaged planes. I'm really surprised that Tophat left his planes in place for this attack; he didn't even have any CD guns in place.

But rain took its toll again and my bombers and fighters at Chandpur stayed put. Thus the opportunity to really hammer Rangoon was lost. However, my Wellingtons from Dacca did take off and hammered Mandalay again. It won't be hosting Japanese aircraft for some time.

Tophat did have LBA in Moulmein, but it was rained out. However, other Japanese bases further to the south weren't rained out and two raids came after my Brit carriers that were sitting a bit off of Rangoon, looking out for any IJN activity. Tophat was surprised at the effectiveness of the Seafires:

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Day Air attack on TF at 25, 33

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 6
G3M Nell x 3

Allied aircraft
Seafire x 24

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed
G3M Nell: 2 damaged

Allied Ships
CV Illustrious

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x G3M Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 25, 33

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 13
G4M1 Betty x 4

Allied aircraft
Seafire x 24

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 8 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 3 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Seafire: 6 damaged

Allied Ships
CL Newcastle
CV Illustrious
CV Indomitable

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x G3M Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
1 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
4 x G3M Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So the Seafire pilots were able to disrupt the Japanese attacks well enough that even the crack LBA pilots didn't score any hits. But I'm not going to take chances and the TF is heading back to port. The Bombardment TF is also heading back to port and ought to make it easily before daylight, so I stood down the 23rd FG and brought them back to Dacca to rest up. I had another Bombardment TF made up of the slow Brit BBs on its way to Rangoon but I changed its course and am sending it instead to meet up with the other two Brit TFs in Diamond Harbor. The RN makes for quite a nicely formidable force at this point.

Meanwhile in China the Japanese air attacked Hengchow, Sian and Kungchang again. But as I expected, Tophat also sent a mass of Sallys with some Zero escorts to hit Chungking. Well, I had a very fired up Chinese fighter squadron waiting for them:

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Day Air attack on Chungking, at 43, 32

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 14
Ki-21 Sally x 74
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

Allied aircraft
I-16c x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 5 destroyed, 7 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
I-16c: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
SB-2c: 2 destroyed

Allied ground losses:
49 casualties reported

Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 36
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What was additionally nice was that the Chinese bombers got off the ground and hit the Japanese 39th Division again quite hard. In any event, I'm not going to "tempt fate" any longer and I moved all my Chinese planes out of Chungking and into Chengtu. But I've got the IL-4cs going after the 39th Division again, just in case I can slow them down a bit.

The strangest news of the day was the expected deliberate attack by Tophat's troops on Wuchow. A couple of Chinese units didn't make it out in time and had to face the brunt of the Japanese attack, but with surprising results:

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Ground combat at Wuchow

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 126221 troops, 1389 guns, 52 vehicles

Defending force 15383 troops, 69 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 8

Japanese assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 8)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 8

Japanese ground losses:
795 casualties reported
Guns lost 13
Vehicles lost 2

Allied ground losses:
675 casualties reported
Guns lost 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have no idea how or why my troops held, but I'm glad that they will be out of there before the next attack which will undoubtedly come next turn.

The most frustrating news this turn was that I still couldn't get any troops to move out of Hengchow, even with Kweiyang as the objective. Tophat did another deliberate attack and took plenty of casualties, but time is running out fast as there are now 27 Japanese units attacking Hengchow. With frustration (and disgust at this ridiculous aspect of the Game) I reset the movement objective of one of my units in Hengchow to Kweilin, which is only two overland hexes away. Considering that the "W" key shows little roads between all of these bases, the @#$%^ Program ought to allow me to at least move there. But I'm betting that my troops won't move and I will be forced out by an attack, if my non-trapped troops aren't eliminated by some other unreal aspect of the Fantasy rules of movement in this Game.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

October 28 -

My planes at Chandpur finally flew:

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Day Air attack on Rangoon, at 29, 34

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 3

Allied aircraft
Catalina I x 3
P-38G Lightning x 34
B-24D Liberator x 57

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 11 destroyed
Ki-30 Ann: 11 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony: 15 destroyed
Ki-46-II Dinah: 2 destroyed
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Catalina I: 2 damaged
P-38G Lightning: 1 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 6 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
54 casualties reported

Airbase hits 22
Airbase supply hits 8
Runway hits 67
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once again, the actual damage on the ground was greater than reported in the combat report. (See the Air Totals for the day below.) The crack AVG pilots blasted through those three Tojos on CAP as if they weren't there. I'm trying something next turn that I almost never do - I'm letting the same planes try for another run at Rangoon. If they fly and find the target they ought to be able to close the place for a while. The only question will be if Tophat will try to put up some LR CAP over Rangoon from Moulmein or other bases.

Elsewhere in the Indian/Burmese front my Brit fast BB TF reached Diamond Harbor where I refueled them and disbanded the TF for a bit of R&O. The Brit Carrier TF and the Brit slow BB TF are almost at Diamond Harbor too. Once they get there I'll reorganize my TFs and send out another bombardment TF consisting of fast BBs and heavy cruisers while I'll send out the Brit carriers again with all the light and AA cruisers as an "LBA magnet". I'll keep the slow BBs in reserve just in case Tophat decides to send some IJN surface ships to contest the waters in the Bay of Bengal.

The situation in Akyab is stable but not improving very quickly. I only have 5 engineers there so they can't fix things up as fast as I want. The main Brit naval base force is still a week's "crawl" away or more. The troops got to sit and watch as 2000 units of supply whipped by at 60 miles per hour overnight while they were still stuck in the "mile-per-day" zone. Go figure…

In China Tophat bombed Hengchow, Sian and Kungchang as usual and, as expected, he also sent the Sallys back to Chungking, but this time with more escorts. It was too little, too late as I had already pulled all the Chinese planes out of Chungking.

Tophat also did a "Shock" attack on Wuchow, I presume in the hope of catching one or more of my units there and using the "follow" option to get a jump start on chasing my troops. But my troops had already fled so he simply captured an empty base.

Just don't talk to me about the situation in Hengchow. When Tophat finally captures the base he ought to send a nice-sized check directly to Mike Wood to thank him for being the key to success there. If it weren't for Mike's programming decisions my troops would have long ago escaped. But in Mike's "reality" they can't. I sometimes wonder what Mike does for a "day job"…

In other odd news, the Nassau, while sitting in LA Naval Shipyards, suddenly had its replacement aircraft numbers jump from 24 per unit to 54. This is the same thing that happened while the ship was sailing from San Fran to LA. I wonder if the extra planes will disappear again?

Dave Baranyi

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: ADavidB

October 23 -

The Pennsylvania sat at system damage 3 for the third day in a row in Seattle Harbor this turn. Currently Seattle has greater than 3 times more repair points than the durability rating of the Pennsylvania, so there is no good reason why the ship won't repair and or upgrade. Having this sort of function controlled by a random number generator is idiotic beyond belief. (That's assuming that the OOB isn't wrong as it was in earlier versions of the game.) Oh well, I'll give it a few more days then if nothing happens I'll sail the ship down to San Fran to see if a "change of scenery" helps.

Tophat's pilots in China aren't getting much of a change in scenery - they are still bombing Hengchow, Sian and Kungchang by the hundreds every day. I got one nuisance raid off on the troops at Hengchow, and then I moved my bombers again. Today I'll try a nuisance raid on the Japanese troops at Sian.

Tophat sent a couple of MSWs to Lautem to try to clear the rest of the mines that the Argo left there a few game days ago. The MSWs were less effective than the APDs that stumbled into the mine field first.

Otherwise, I'm just moving ships, planes and troops.

Dave Baranyi

I don't mind the randomness of the refit/repair issue as who really knows what damage is being repaired, what facilities are available, what equipment is ready etc? Considering refits are much to swift and occur immediately (I wanted longer repair/refit times and the actual weapon changes to occur after the "system damage penalty" was fully repaired) the randomness by no means is a hindrance, especially since one can just sail away the same turn the new refit is added. Don't get me going on permanent flood damage either.[;)] Anyway, I'm no programmer so perhaps it was too difficult for too little gain.

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: ADavidB

October 26 -

Well, I should have expected it. While nothing disastrous happened directly, most of my efforts didn't work at all. Let's see what didn't happen this turn:

1 - The bombers and escorts at Chandpur didn't fly, leaving Rangoon unscratched. Fortunately the heavy cloud cover appears to have masked my intentions. The only good side of this was that one more P-38 was repaired and could join the others in Chandpur. (What's frustrating about this is that I have Brit Air HQs with good leaders in each of Calcutta, Diamond Harbor, Dacca and Chandpur. However, they don't seem to help either the recovery rate or the take off frequency of my air units.) I've left all the planes on their original attack settings. (And yes, they all have their full complements of pilots.)

2 - The Supply Transports didn't fly out of Diamond Harbor. Once again, the only "bright side" was that the one leftover transport plane was repaired and I was able to move it to join the rest. I've left the transports set to transport supplies again. (Yes, all pilots were in place.)

3 - The troops in Hengchow all got stuck at "59" miles, thanks to the unbelievably moronic programming in the Game. This is despite the fact that there are TWO clear hexes behind Hengchow and a clear pathway to Chungking. But because this is the absolutely stupidest programming in the world, the idiotic Game engine insists that the troops must leave via the highways, and the highways are blocked by the Japanese. So in utter desperation I have reset the movement objective to Kweiyang. Kweiyang is closer, so maybe the brain dead programming will allow my troops to move there since the pathway is also clear. If my troops don't, then all I can say is that Mike Wood, in all honesty, ought to send me a check for $100 CDN to reimburse me for this game which never worked right from the beginning.
What "worked"?

1 - The Spits flew over Akyab and buzzed the Japanese recon plane, allowing Tophat to see that I've put a lot of planes into Akyab. But since Tophat didn't try to attack my planes simply picked up storm damage.

2 - The Brit fast BBs took off, got halfway, and were hidden by thick clouds, but Japanese search planes were still able to scout the TF and even see and identify each battleship. Not bad for flying in a rainstorm that stopped my planes from flying.

3 - The Brit Carrier TF got a third of the way to Rangoon and miraculously didn't get spotted! I have no idea how that "mistake" slipped through.

Okay, those things aside, what is the situation? Well, despite the fact that Tophat knows that I've got that BB TF on his doorstep, he has left all his planes (75 fighters, 40 bombers and 40 miscellaneous planes) in Rangoon. It appears that he doesn't expect my task force to be able to do anything. Is this bravado or does he have forces there that have been hidden from me?

Tophat also appears to be pulling back from Mandalay, although he also has what appears to be a combat unit at the crossroads to the north of Rangoon. I wonder if he is planning to use the indescribably bad programming of the "railroad slingshot" effect to whip a combat unit into Akyab before my troops can finish their unbelievable one-mile-a-day journey?

Nothing much is changing in China. Tophat seems a bit surprised that I am pulling out of Wuchow. I guess that he keeps on hoping that I'll let him trap my troops in indefensible locations.

And I am still moving forces in the South Pacific. There is no sign of any Japanese movement - I suspect that Tophat is waiting until the last possible moment so that I don't have time to respond to his action.

Dave Baranyi

Having a bad day Dave? [8D] Leafs take it in the arse again?[:D]

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: 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.

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

Is this not in itself an admission that supply is way out of whack? Sure people claim that they are running out of fuel and supply by mid 1943 and must curtail offensive operations as Japan, but is this so surprising given the year and a half of far flung full tilt max efforts all over the map and maximum production upgrades? Add to this Mogamis other self imposed restriction of keeping hundres of Japanese AKs permanently in port speaks volumes to me.

[DarkOmen]

You, sir, have just sold me this game[:D]! Fantastic AAR.

-Jon

[ADavidB]

I don't mind the randomness of the refit/repair issue as who really knows what damage is being repaired, what facilities are available, what equipment is ready etc? Considering refits are much to swift and occur immediately (I wanted longer repair/refit times and the actual weapon changes to occur after the "system damage penalty" was fully repaired) the randomness by no means is a hindrance, especially since one can just sail away the same turn the new refit is added. Don't get me going on permanent flood damage either. Anyway, I'm no programmer so perhaps it was too difficult for too little gain.

Ron, was it Frag or Mogami who said something along the line that we shouldn't worry about a level 5 system damage because it was "only the coffee pot broken"? My complaint is that I've got to wait weeks or months for an upgrade to a ship because the system damage level will take that long to go down from 7 or 8 to the 2 that is required for big ships. Then after all that wasting of time the damage only goes up by less than a handful.

I'd rather see the limit for upgrades raised to 10 or more and then the assoicated system damage increased. Then it becomes the Player's decision whether or not to sail into battle with a ship that has system damage in the 20s or 30s.

But that's just me, and things aren't going to be changed, so I'll just continue to pick on Mike...[:D]

Thanks -

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

Having a bad day Dave? Leafs take it in the arse again?

At times I suspect that this game was designed and put together by the Leafs... [;)]

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: DarkOmen

You, sir, have just sold me this game[:D]! Fantastic AAR.

-Jon

Thank you. I hope that you get lots of enjoyment out of the Game.

Remember, the Forum is a great place to get info on how to play the Game, which will increase your enjoyment.

Also, remember that it is the new Customers like you that keep the Game alive and give the Developers the incentive to keep on fixing and improving things. So when you feel able to share your game observations and experiences, please do - the Game is a better product because of everyone's contributions here.

Have fun -

Dave Baranyi

[KDonovan]

Hi Dave, you've mentioned before that Tophat intends to take Noumea inorder to achieve autovictory....i'm curious as to what forces you have there currently??

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: KDonovan

Hi Dave, you've mentioned before that Tophat intends to take Noumea inorder to achieve autovictory....i'm curious as to what forces you have there currently??

You're going to think that I'm totally out of my mind, but at the moment I have no ground forces in Noumea! That's right, zero, zip, none... Early on in the game I decided to not try to contest Noumea until I was strong enough to be able to hold it against a serious Japanese assault. Instead I focussed my efforts on building up the Hawaiian Islands and vacinity, including the Line Islands. I also sent some SWPAC forces to Auckland in order to protect against what I considered a more dangerous gambit by Tophat; an invasion of New Zealand. So I left an AVD and a Catalina squadron in Noumean along with that French high speed destroyer. The tracking by the Catalinas, along with the way that the French harassed any Japanese subs that came by convinced Tophat that I had serious forces there.

Okay, currently I do have a US battlegroup sitting in port, along with a US carrier TF. I've also got AVDs at nearby bases with naval search planes on watch. Tophat has committed so many land units to China that he doesn't have a lot left to send anywhere else, so it is unlikely that he can mount a multi-divisional invasion of Noumea. Also his closest base is Lunga, so there is a lot of territory between his forces and New Caledonia.

And I'm not totally crazy...( I think... ) I have a good SWPAC division on the way to Noumea from New Zealand along with several base forces and Seabee units. I never built up the port or airbase, but the fortifications were already at level six. So as soon as my troops arrive I'll immediately start to build up the fortifications all the way. I'm also bringing in lots of supplies and fuel to keep me going. And I've got more Seabees on the way to other bases in the area to start to build them up too. And I've got hundreds and hundreds of planes in the South Pacific, spread out among more than a dozen mutually-supporting bases.

And that has been my major strategy - to build up the South Pacific Islands betwen Nandi and Pago-Pago so that they can support a strong counter-offensive or a dedicated Allied offensive. They are all well built up at this time and have lots of troops, planes and support ships. I also have another two battlegroups and two more carrier groups in the region. So I can respond to a Japanese move within days. My intention is to stop any invasion with surface forces then ambush the enemy TFs from the rear from many directions with my carriers. Right now, in the absence of any sign of movement by Tophat it appears that I will be able to get my forces in place with time to spare.

BTW - I am also positioned so that if Tophat sends the entire KB towards New Caledonia I can grab the empty bases in the Gilberts before he can react and start to build them up into open sores in his forward defenses. The longer he waits, the more it will hurt when it happens.

Thanks for the comments -

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

October 29 -

Less Japanese bombers hit Hengchow and Sian this turn because Tophat sent even more bombers and fighters against Chungking. That's fine with me; I have lots of engineers and lots of supplies there. And I would rather have Tophat use his bombers on longer range runs where they pick up lots of fatigue and operational damage. Tophat did follow up with a deliberate attack on Sian that reduced the fortifications by one again, but his troops also took a lot of casualties, so I'll take that. I've got more reinforcements nearby anyway.

Tophat's troops also took Kweilin against no opposition this turn. I never built up the air bases in the Southern Chinese cities, so Tophat has his work cut out for him in order to make those bases useful. Fortunately for Tophat, it appears that I've exhausted all possible methods for extracting my troops out of Hengchow. So as long as Tophat doesn't drive my troops out himself they are sitting ducks. If Tophat can get around the movement problems with his forces and surround Hengchow he will even get the opportunity to capture a big bunch of Chinese troops for the first time.

My bombers hit both Mandalay and Rangoon again this turn. I was surprised that the attack on Rangoon still caught lots of planes on the ground. Tophat must have really jammed up the base just before the RN hit it. My recon flights noticed that there are lots of Japanese planes at Moulmein now. I sent out the RN fast BBs and CAs this turn to bombard Rangoon again. I may well divert them to hit Moulmein instead.

In today's "Strange News", I checked the Nassau again and sure enough, the number of planes on board dropped back down to 24 Wildcats and 24 Dauntlesses, from 54 each last turn. I have no idea what is going on, but it is sure strange to see a ship in port have this sort of thing going on when I'm not doing anything. There must be some really odd dynamics going on within the Database structure of the game.

I'm pasting the Air Combat results again because Tophat's aircraft losses are now 45% ahead of mine. If I can sneak the RN into Moulmein I may well hit the "magic" 50% mark. [;)]

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

October 30 -

For the first time in quite a while Tophat's forces had opportunities to go after Allied forces other than in China. But at least nowadays my forces are no longer simply "road kill" and they have something of a chance. For example, now that my US fleet submarines have AA upgrades and radar, they are getting away from the ubiquitous Japanese aerial ASW attacks and even shooting back sometimes. Of course, their torpedoes still don't work, so as with the case this turn where the Grunion and the Japanese ML Saishu "danced" on the route to Wake Island, my subs still haven't sunk anything, but it is reassuring that they may well be able to do something once the Game reaches January 1943.

Tophat has also sent out his subs again, such as with the I-123 that was run over by a mine laying TF off of Akyab:

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ASW attack at 29, 29

Japanese Ships
SS I-123, hits 2, on fire

Allied Ships
DD Encounter
DD Electra
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hopefully I-123 is limping home now instead of bothering my ships. Tophat was able to confirm the identity of that TF thanks to his naval LBA in the region and he even got a long range attack off:

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Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30, 29

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 13
G3M Nell x 14
G4M1 Betty x 3

Allied aircraft
Spitfire Vb x 21

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged
G3M Nell: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Spitfire Vb: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged

Allied Ships
ML Prins van Oranje, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
ML Gouden Leeuw
ML Pro Patria
ML Krakatau
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I had my CAP reduced a bit over Akyab because I wanted to rest them. I had expected that the ML TF would just drop its mines and leave, but I goofed up the instructions and had the TF set to stay at Akyab. So no mines were laid and the TF got hit. Never-the-less, the Spits did a good job, particularly considering that those are post v1.50 Bettys and Nells.

The ML TF may have also saved my RN fast BB TF from being hit this turn since it was spotted by Tophat's naval air search. Tophat is wondering if the TF is going is a bombardment TF or is the Invasion Force that he has been awaiting in Burma for quite some time. But since the airbase at Rangoon is still fairly well wrecked and there are very few damaged planes there, I've redirected the bombardment TF to hit Moulmein instead, which has at least a Daitai of Tonys or Tojos there, and probably other planes too.

Tophat has been busily moving troops to Rangoon in the expectation of an imminent British invasion. But I have no intention of "slugging it out" at Tophat's strongholds. My objective is to keep the air bases closed at Mandalay, Rangoon and Moulmein so that there aren't any nearby air fields from which Tophat can interfere with my build-up of Akyab. Akyab is already a level 3 airfield and has level 6 fortifications. All I need to do is to increase the port size to 1 and to increase the airfield size to 4 and I will be positioned to use Akyab as a forward base for twin engine bombers from which I can keep the Japanese bases in Burma suppressed.

At that point I will start to build up the Andaman Islands so I will be in a position to go after my main interests; the smaller, isolated bases on Sumatra that will allow me to gain control of the air and the seas in the region. I intend to close down Tophat's oil production in 1943 by means of LBA, and I will use the West Coast of Sumatra to provide me with the bases to do that. There are even three unoccupied "dot" bases off the Coast of Sumatra which will allow me to start "no-cost" toeholds. Remember, the Allies have more Engineering groups than they know what to do with - moving those Engineers to Sumatra will cause the Japanese no end of trouble, particularly when those Engineers are backed up by the RN, RAF and the British Army.

What is "neat" about this strategy is that Tophat has focussed the vast majority of his forces in the Timor region and is building up bases there like crazy. But he has pretty much ignored Sumatra. By the time that he realizes what I am doing it will be too late, and I will also have some US carriers in the region to interfere with any attempts to redeploy those forces that are now near Australia.

Long term strategy aside, I have also ordered my long range bombers to hit both Mandalay and Rangoon again next turn. The weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms everywhere in the region, but who knows; maybe one of the two attacks will go off. And if the T-storms are too intense maybe Tophat's long range bombers won't get into the air either. (Yeah sure; I only wish.) But the RN ought to be able to hit Moulmein regardless of the weather. (I hope!)

Anyway, enough talk about things that are going well. Let's look at the situation in China. Hengchow, Sian and Chungking were hammered again from the air. My Chinese planes got off a couple of small attacks on the Japanese besiegers of Kungchang. Now that I've given up hope of anything sensible happening in Hengchow, my latest surprise/frustration is that the two units that I've had in Lanchow are into "crawl" mode for no particularly understandable reason. The road between Lanchow and Kungchang doesn't usually take a long time to travel. And these two units are holding up my withdrawal from Kungchang. But hey, when did anything in the ground war in China make any sense.

Just to make certain that Tophat doesn't make things too bad in Sian before I get the chance to abandon Kungchang I've ordered my best Chinese infantry unit in Kungchang to march to Sian. I don't want to send any more troops from Chungking to Sian, so this will reinforce my position in Sian while not reducing my ability in Kungchang very much.

For whatever reason Tophat did another deliberate attack on Hengchow this turn, reducing the fortifications down to 2 and giving pretty much even losses on both sides. So Tophat ought to be able to defeat my troops with his next assault. But he hasn't "closed the door" door yet, so if he does attack again my troops ought to be pushed out into the countryside and the chance to escape. But one never knows what bizarre results will come out of ground combat.

In one other odd move, Tophat attempted to sweep Canton Island with his Zeros from Baker Island. They got lost in the clouds, which was probably pretty good for Tophat because I not only have a Marine Wildcat squadron there but also an Army P-40B Group. Canton is just about up to a level 5 airbase. Once it reaches that mark I'll start a serious air campaign to reduce the airfield at Baker Island to rubble.

Dave Baranyi

[Ron Saueracker]

What is this reference to post 1.5 Bettys, Nells, B-17s about? Did I miss something?

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: Ron Saueracker

What is this reference to post 1.5 Bettys, Nells, B-17s about? Did I miss something?

In version 1.50 Mike Wood upgraded the firepower on Tonys and Tojos, downgraded the firepower on B-17s, and upgraded the firepower of twin engine bombers. Since then Bettys and Nells behave like B-25s instead of flying cigarette lighters...

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

Yes, I hate this program. I don't mean the game, I mean the program that implements this game. It is garbage.

The most frustrating part is that the same things that didn't work a year ago still don't work. Weather is garbage. Land movement is garbage. Ship movement is garbage. You don't fight an opponent, you fight a mass of garbage programming.

Why should I bother?

[PzB74]

You want to win!? [;)]

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: PzB

You want to win!? [;)]

This is a shell game. I think that we all lost when we bought it...

Dave

[ADavidB]

I don't want to play a game where my key leaders disappear and can't be replaced, or entire continents get rained out for months on end, or troops won't march into a thousand square kilometers of empty land, or where troops move at 1 mile a day while supplies fly by them at 60 miles an hour, or where units just disappear, or where 90% of my aircraft won't fly for days on end, or where TFs won't complete missions and I never find out why, or where ships sit in port and take months to reduce a few points of damage to allow an upgrade, etc, etc, etc.

Those sorts of things have nothing to do with the "chances of war" - they have everything to do with garbage programming.

Dave Baranyi