Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Mike Solli]

Thanks, you're full of good news. [:D]

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Thanks, you're full of good news. [:D]

Yeah, but he's right. When I played the allies, I kept all the TK's working from off-map to near off-map bases. I then used xAK's to haul fuel around. yes, only 50% efficiency, but as he says: the allies get a lot of them and they don't have much else to do in '42. They have enough xAP's to move all the troops around that they need to.

[Mike Solli]

Still waiting for a turn from Ted. [:(]


The Quest for the Allied SLOC

As I’ve mentioned numerous times, I haven’t found any of Ted’s SLOCs. Here’s my plan for finding some of them.

First, I am trying to identify his potential SLOCs and then go from there. Some are obvious and others, not so much.

1. Northern: This will be a relatively small one between the US and, well, I’m not so sure. One of the bases at the base of the Aleutians or somewhere in Alaska.
2. Pearl Harbor: This one is easy. US to Pearl.
3. Eastern Australia: US to ??? Maybe Noumea, maybe Sydney, maybe Wellington. Going to check them all out to see. I know ships are stationed at Sydney. I’ve never seen more than a couple ships moving to or from there though.
4. Western Australia: Abadon/Cape Town to Perth?
5. India: Abadon to India

So, now the question is how to divide up my scarce sub assets to find these SLOCs and then what to do about them.

Northern: The 5 Fleet (based out of Ominato, with the subs based out of Etorofu) is composed of:
1. CruDiv 21 – Tama & Kiso
2. DesRon 9 – Isuzu and 13x Minekazes
3. Several AMCs.
4. SubRon 5 - 6x fleet subs with 3x Glen subs to be added when built. Two Glens will be completed within the next week. They’re divided into 3 divisions of 2 fleet subs (+1 Glen sub).
One SubDiv is charged with checking out Anchorage. They should arrive within a day or two. The second is scouting the Dutch Harbor area right now (with a snap invasion of Dutch Harbor and Umnak Island to occur tomorrow). Things should be much easier once I get the Glens.

Pearl Harbor/West Coast: This is the responsibility of 4 Fleet, composed of:
1. SubRon 1 – 9x Glen subs and 5x midget carrying subs. It’s divided into 5x SubDivs.
One SubDiv is assigned to the US west coast and a second is assigned to east of Hawaii. I like to have subs to the W and SW of Hawaii to scout for fleets heading into the central Pacific but I’ve forgone that temporarily to hunt for SLOCs. The third Glen SubDiv is part of the Pacific sweep for SLOCs, which I’ll discuss in a minute. The 5x midget carrying subs is reserve for that mission alone. I don’t want to risk them for other missions yet. As soon as I find a port where Ted has ships (that isn’t mined), they’re heading there with a load of midget subs.

Eastern Australia: This is the responsibility of the 3 Fleet, based out of Truk, which is composed of:
1. 6 CruDiv – 4x Aobas
2. 16 CruDiv – CA Ashigara, CLs Nagara and Kuma
3. DesRon 3 – Sendai and 19x Fubukis
4. SubRon 3 – 8x fleet subs and 2x Glen subs (+1 Glen within a month)
5. SubRon 7 – 8x Ro class subs based out of Rabaul
The Ro class subs are attempting to cut off Pt. Moresby by sea. I’ve spread out SubRon 3 enough to make it pretty much ineffective except for the occasional lucky shot (sinking the xAK with the squadron of B-26s comes to mind). One Glen is on its way to scout out Noumea and the second is headed to Wellington. Two fleet subs are going to sweep the southern edge to see if Ted is trying to sneak along there to get convoys to southern Australia along that route. The remaining 6 fleet subs are part of the SLOC sweep.
Western Australia/India: This is the responsibility of 2 Fleet, composed of:
1. CruDiv 5 – CAs Haguro, Myoko and Nachi
2. DesRon 4 – Naka, 8 Kageros, 4 Asashios and 4 Akatsukis
3. SubRon 4 – 6 fleet subs, 2 Ro subs and eventually, 2 Glen subs
This is probably the weakest in subs for its mission. The 2x Ro class subs are based in Pt. Blair with a mission patrolling the Bay of Bengal/Ceylon and the 6x fleet subs are out of Saigon (Singapore eventually). One SubDiv is going to spread out west of Perth looking for that SLOC and the other will head to near Abadon to find that SLOC. There aren’t nearly enough subs for the mission unfortunately.

The only other subs not mentioned above are 4x minelaying subs (2 based at Saigon (Singapore eventually) and 2 based at Truk). Their mission is obvious. The other remaining subs are SubRon 2, composed of 6x fleet subs and 2x Glen subs. This SubRon is assigned to assist the Battle Fleet (1 Fleet) and/or KB. I’m going to use them as part of the SLOC sweep.

SLOC Sweep: I have a total of 12x fleet subs and 7x Glen subs assigned. Each fleet sub can observe 3 hexes (the hex it’s in and a hex to either side) and each Glen sub can observe 7 hexes (the hex it’s in and 3 hexes to either side). If stretched out, this sweep can be 85 hexes wide! Or, if I decide to, I can do half that and have a double row. Not sure what I’m going to do. I’m thinking of sweeping east from the Noumea area toward the SE corner of the map and then swing around to the north toward the US.

What I’ll probably do is have 2 lines. The first will be all the fleet subs and a couple Glen subs. The second will be the remaining Glen subs. When the first line locates an enemy TF, 1-2 Glens from the second line will shadow the TF to determine its route. I’m thinking 12 fleet and 2 Glens in the first line and 5 Glens in the second line.

[Chickenboy]

I trust you're checking SigInt regularly? No joshing: I was able to piece together the scant SigInt data (radio transmission at xx,xx) and figure out at least two SLOCs, putting a submarine or two astride them for a successful intercept.

[Mike Solli]

Hmm, I check it daily but usually focus on the heavy radio chatter stuff. I keep all my turns. I'll check out the last month.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

I trust you're checking SigInt regularly? No joshing: I was able to piece together the scant SigInt data (radio transmission at xx,xx) and figure out at least two SLOCs, putting a submarine or two astride them for a successful intercept.

I agree. If you know where the signals are most prevalent, camp near those bases. I had high hopes of scouring the edges of the map, but it's too easy to use off map and duck in at different spots, zig-zag with waypoints, and in my opponent's case use big well protected convoys, thus also making them more rare.

[Crackaces]

I have found for the Americans at least that using submarines as a part of my overall strategic plan to be of good use. That is I interdict not so much to sink things although this is gravy ... but to influence and project power that moves toward a goal. Sinking a few merchants is not going to do much, but sinking stuff headed to where you want to project power goes toward that objective.

For example, for the Allies I focused on the Gilberts and Marshalls and now I have crimped the style of the IJ who is trying to move stuff here. Every tanker, AP or AK sunk is less stuff I am dealing with in this theater. More so as the theater escalates so has my submarine contacts as part of an overall plan. Every movement into the Marshalls is escorted by a plithroa of DD's buring fuel where as before a scant PB might escort something ..

It just also seems to me a more natural flow to combine forces to project power rather than to simply look for things to sink ...

Just a thought ...

[Mike Solli]

Crackaces, I agree with you, especially concerning Japanese subs. I have 2 objectives in mind.

1. I want to find Ted's SLOCs so I can attempt to manipulate them in my favor.
2. I want to damage his TK/AO fleet. I want to locate them (by objective #1) so I can use several potential means (carrier air, surface forces, ground based air or subs - or ideally, a combination of them) to damage it. Damage to his ability to move fuel will slow things down. He'll still be able to move fuel, but he'll have to use xAKs, which are much less efficient. It simply slows things down.

[Empire101]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

About wolfpacks, I don't get it. You put three subs in the same TF?

All four subs in separate TFs. They get set to four Patrol Zones that are right next (parallel tracks) to each other. The "legs" are 10 to 15 hexes long. In eastern Pacific, they tend to go from SW to NE direction. Make sure you add a second pilot for your Glen and train up in NavS to be able to tell the difference between a ship and a whale. [:D]

That looks like a far more logical approach to sub ops that I had'nt considered before. I think its a great idea, I hope you don't mind me pinching that idea to use in my games.[;)]

[zuluhour]

There is something diabolical about IJ AARs.[:D]

[Mike Solli]

We try Zulu, we really try. [:D]

[Cribtop]

Bwahahahahahahahahahahhaha!!!!!

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

Edit: Crap, Mike beat me to it AND we skip a page. Now I just look like a looney. Sigh. [:(]

[Mike Solli]

I think Cribtop just proved zuluhour's point.

[Mike Solli]

Still no turn from Ted. [:(] Can't figure out what's going on. He pops in here every now and then but doesn't answer emails or PMs. Hope everything's ok.

Anyway, today's thoughts are on carrier air breakdown. KBs air groups are still at their original composition. I'll discuss it in a bit. Off to church.

[BigBadWolf]

SCLS?

[Mike Solli]

Well, Ted resurfaced. [:)] He's been out of town and is coming back tonight. Hopefully, he's run the turn tonight but we'll have to see. Anyway, it's back on!

Edit: What's SCLS? [&:]

[Mike Solli]

A little something to read while waiting for the next turn....


Today I’m looking at my carrier air composition. As I said earlier, most of my carriers are still at their starting composition. Actually, only my CVLs and CVE have reconfigured. Here’s the plan for KB:

Ship – Max Torpedoes – Max aircraft – Fighters – Dive Bombers – Torpedo Bombers
Akagi – 45 – 81 – 36 – 24 – 21
Kaga – 45 – 72 – 30 – 21 – 21
Soryu – 36 – 63 – 27 – 18 – 18
Ryujo – 27 – 48 – 30 – 0 – 18
Shokaku – 45 – 72 – 30 – 21 – 21
Zuikaku – 45 – 72 – 30 – 21 – 21

And MKB:

Shoho – 18 – 30 – 21 – 0 – 9
Zuiho – 18 – 30 – 21 – 0 – 9
Hosho – 6 – 20 – 14 – 0 – 6
Taiyo – 0 – 27 – 9 – 18 – 0

And the following for MKB as they arrive:

Junyo – 18 – 53 – 21 – 15 – 18
Hiyo – 18 – 53 – 21 – 15 – 18

Some notes:
The Taiyo has not yet received it air complement. The fighter chutai will come from 24 Air Flotilla and the DBs will be the rebuilt Hiryu DB daitai so it’ll be awhile.

I decided to base the TB complement primarily based on the torpedo complement. In the case of KB, I gave the TBs two shots with torpedoes (with the exception of Ryujo). For MKB, most will have 1 shot with TBs. I don’t expect MKB to hang around in any one spot too long because it is so fragile. I’ve found that if I hang around in any spot with my carriers too long, bad things happen.

I typically keep my fighters on 60% CAP and my TBs on 10% naval search. That gives the following:

CAP: 110
Escort: 73
DB: 105
TB: 108
NavS: 12

And for MBK (right now):

CAP: 34
Escort: 22
TB: 22
NavS: 2

As you can see, MKB isn’t much right now. About all they can do is hit a TF that isn’t protected by air.

Now a few comments about allocation of pilots…..

This discussion is of the experience level of pilots. The stats for frontline units will (hopefully) be at or near 70.

I break down my pilots into 4 different experience levels:

81+
70-80
50-69
<50

IJN

81+: These are the elite pilots. The majority of them will end up in TRACOM. My goal is to have one per training unit. In addition, I will have 1-2 per frontline fighter unit. I am eventually going to pull out all of them from the bomber units though. I’m not sure it’s worth having them in the bomber units. If anyone disagrees, I’d love to hear your reasoning.

70-80: These guys are currently in both the carrier and land based units. As 50+ experience pilots graduate from training, I’m going to pull out these guys from the land based units and reserve them only for carrier units. I’ll keep roughly 1/3 of the land based units filled with these guys and the rest with 50-69 experience guys. The 70-80 experience guys will erode over time as losses occur so I’ll be curious to see if I can keep this goal. At any rate, I want to avoid putting 50 experience guys in the carrier units as long as possible. We’ll see how this works out.

50-69: These will fill the land based units as described above.

<50: These will be in the on board training units.

IJA

81+: I will keep 1 per training fighter daitai (not chutai) and 1 per front line fighter unit. The rest go to TRACOM.

70-80: I’d like to keep 1/3 of each frontline unit with these guys and try to keep a reserve to replace losses. We’ll see how long it’s possible.

50-69: These guys will fill the remainder of the front line units.

<50: These will be in the on board training units.

[Cribtop]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I think Cribtop just proved zuluhour's point.

PS -SCLS is "Sudden Carrier Loss Syndrome" - a dread mental condition that results in many conceded games.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I think Cribtop just proved zuluhour's point.

PS -SCLS is "Sudden Carrier Loss Syndrome" - a dread mental condition that results in many conceded games.

Aha! I had a bit of a taste of that recently. I ain't quittin' though.

[Empire101]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Well, Ted resurfaced. [:)] He's been out of town and is coming back tonight. Hopefully, he's run the turn tonight but we'll have to see. Anyway, it's back on!

At last!![:)]