The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: adarbrauner

And what, if the escort Lightnings elect to escort the lower flying bomber formations?

Have them fly from the same airbase, same altitude, same range. No other bombing missions from that field. If you must fly strikes from the base then simply scrub the mission or make sure they are flying further than the escorts.

Coordinate carefully with other missions close by...try not to create a possible conflict.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Now that night bombing is up and running, put a squadron at Foochow on night naval attack and make sure you have some night naval search....combined with all your subs you might bag something. If you really want to get nasty use assault bombers on night naval strike (you need good DL to get them to fly...but it is quite effective at 1000 feet). The AB pilots need low naval, strafe and defense skills.

Another tactic to try is to break a torpedo bomber squadron into 1/3rds. Assign one splinter to torpedo attack at say 30k if you can reach that high. Then assign three squadrons of good fighters to escort them. This acts like a sweep over the task force that is attacked. Very good against LRCAP over a task force.

And finally, you might want to put a cluster of subs in the Yellow Sea...and when the E's show up send in a task force of Fletchers with LRCAP of Lightnings....you want to kill those E's like you just did.[:)]

All I have to say is thanks for putting these devious tactics in the public domain. Regarding night attacks against ships, have you actually had this happen? Does it happen often? I haven't seen it in the AI world.

Cheers,
CC

Late in our last game with the Allied navies off the coast of Japan, Andav got night air attacks on TFs to work every turn for long stretches.

I lost a battleship to a night strike by Avengers flying from the Marianas...[:(]

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

All I have to say is thanks for putting these devious tactics in the public domain. Regarding night attacks against ships, have you actually had this happen? Does it happen often? I haven't seen it in the AI world.

Cheers,
CC
[/quote]

CC, since you are such a good guy here is another. Fearing a naval bombardment...put up some night LRCAP in the hopes of shooting down the spotting float planes.

[Canoerebel]

We have a waxing moon at about 66% tomorrow. So the moon will be nearly full during the upcoming Formosa campaign.

Many but not all of John's airfields will be suppressed. He'll find ways to get strike aircraft up at fields that aren't quite 100% damaged or at other fields, such as Wenchow.

Question: Would you guys recommend me setting a few carrier fighter squadrons to night ops?

Another possibility will be to move some night fighter squadrons to Foochow and have them fly LRCAP.

[paullus99]

If he's still moving those surface forces up the coast, how prepared are you if he decides to smack your airfields? Do you have the ships in place to protect your beachhead?

[Canoerebel]

The eight Fletchers and a host of subs are all I have at coastal China at the moment.

Two more DD TFs will arrive at Appari tomorrow and can be in coastal China the day after.

I don't really have a beachhead. My units are dispersed all over the place, so enemy bombardments won't be as effective against LCU's as John might think. He might succeed in closing Foochow's airport temporarily.

But Death Star will be up here in a week or less, so whatever John accomplishes now will be short term.

[MakeeLearn]

Those radar equipped night bombers would help against any Japanese night bombardments.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn



Those radar equipped night bombers would help against any Japanese night bombardments.

+1

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

We have a waxing moon at about 66% tomorrow. So the moon will be nearly full during the upcoming Formosa campaign.

Many but not all of John's airfields will be suppressed. He'll find ways to get strike aircraft up at fields that aren't quite 100% damaged or at other fields, such as Wenchow.

Question: Would you guys recommend me setting a few carrier fighter squadrons to night ops?

Another possibility will be to move some night fighter squadrons to Foochow and have them fly LRCAP.

Use the night-fighter squadrons.

[Canoerebel]

8/27/44

Peep Show: Big IJN bombardment TF trashes Foochow after dispatching most of a good Fletcher TF. Over two days of fighting, I lost five of eight Fletchers (Arleigh Burke survived.)

The Fletchers tried to slow down the enemy BBs to give the subs a chance, but the subs only shot at enemy DDs.

Foochow's airfield is badly damaged and won't be a factor in the early days of the invasion.

Death Star arrived at Manila and began replenishing. Formosa invasion troops begin loading tomorrow. Things look good for departure in about three days.

John's going to put up a fight for Formosa. I'd like a crack at those good ships of his. And the overall environment is much improved over what it would've been a month ago. I've eliminated nearly all of the proximate Chinese airfields; the Formosa airfields are badly damaged; Allied subs ring the island; and KB is far away.

There are lots of dangers out there, but the environment is probably more hostile to Japan now overall.

[jwolf]

Did the Japanese BB force come from the north or the south?

[paullus99]

They came up from the South - CR has had eyeballs on them for a few days.

[Canoerebel]

8/27/44

Naval Bombardment of Foochow: Here's the makeup of the TF that bombarded Foochow, along with the combat reports for the clashes with the USN DDs.

For newcomers, the report of aircraft damage is misleading: if one aircraft suffers 25 hits of damage, the report scores that as 25 aircraft damaged.

I moved out most of my high-value aircraft (B-24Js and B-29s) prior to the raid.

[Canoerebel]

8/27/44

China: The situation on the coast (with hexside control turned on, per Lowpe's request).

[BBfanboy]

I'd try to keep Amoy for its good road leading into the interior. That will be useful when you want to do some more mayhem further north in China.

[Canoerebel]

I seriously doubt John could hold any of those bases, should I elect to withdraw from them. They're in clear terrain. His troops would get eaten alive. So if I do withdraw and if he does advance, his "victory" will be short-lived and expensive.

For the next few weeks, I'm turning my full attention to Formosa. I don't want to get distracted by (comparatively) unimportant affairs on the peripheries. But once Formosa is addressed, the Allies can deal with anything that needs dealing with.

[Lowpe]

Thanks for the W.[8D]

[Lokasenna]

That's nuts that he isn't pulling back from Kweilin and Liuchow at least.

[Dirtnap86]

silly double post.

[Dirtnap86]

Jeebus what a bombardment. Mine never get close to that good, that stuff is black magic, seriously.