PzB vs Wobbly - Clash of Steel

[String]

After thinking over it for a while, I'd suggest fortifying the palaus and iwo jima and bonin too. Each of them can be taken and then used to pound marianas to dust or just ignored.

Through palau and ulithi he can strike at philippines directly.

[Honda]

True...
One thing about supplies is you shouldn't worry about massing them in the Marianas. Supplies are in real danger when exposed to continuous bombardment. That will not be possible in the Marianas campaign. Allies will probably strike hard initialy but those strikes won't be able to continue. He'll be on the lookout for KB and LBA. Even if you loose 40k supplies that will leave you with enough to try to run his troops back into the ocean. If it should fail it will consderably prolong the struggle. Time is the essence. Delay if you can't stop.

[PzB74]

I'm actually thinking about placing my reserves at Ulithi String! It is currently a size 4(5) port and will be expanded to
its maximum capacity. From here it will be possible to move reinforcements to the Marianas very quickly either by air or sea.
Each of the Palaus will also have a heavy defense of at least one division worth of LCU's, coastal defences and support for 200 ac.

Good point Honda - supplies evaporate way too fast in WitP. Impossible to store it in caves [:'(]

The first strategic air reserve has been moved to the Phillippines. 120 Zero's and 120 Betty's - all with an average exp of
more than 80. My plan is to use 60-70 exp units to protect my forward bases with. These units are fairly easy to reform and retrain.

I'm not in particular afraid of loosing carriers in a decisive action. If we can stop the enemy cold and win 6 months it will be be worth
it. Before such a decisive show down Ken will carry out several smaller offensives: push me out of the Solomons, isolate Rabaul, move
northwards in NG and bash his way into the Marshalls. He still need to prevent a 3-1 auto victory in 7 months and the pressure is on
him this time. It will be even more difficult to avoid a 2-1 odds a year later if he makes a mistake [8D]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/05/43

Ken found the losses heavy but acceptable. Guess he didn't want to follow them up though.
Only one group of 68 B-24's came back today. 16 were shot down and the rest turned away.
I'm not prepared to yield air supremacy over Rabaul just yet!

Air Combat

Day Air attack on Rabaul , at 61,88

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 30
A6M3 Zero x 15
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 7
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 19
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 3

Allied aircraft
B-24D Liberator x 68

Japanese aircraft losses - the bombers are bristling with guns...
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 4 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 1 damaged
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 4 destroyed, 4 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-24D Liberator: 16 destroyed, 36 damaged
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Rainerle]

Hi,
a couple of weeks I came up with some idea and now I want to know about how 'gamey' you think this is.
What if you split all your divisions and position every piece on a different island? So only part of the unit is lost and the rest can reform (if enough supply + armament + vehicle) for the next battle. Too 'gamey'?

[AmiralLaurent]

ORIGINAL: Rainerle

Hi,
a couple of weeks I came up with some idea and now I want to know about how 'gamey' you think this is.
What if you split all your divisions and position every piece on a different island? So only part of the unit is lost and the rest can reform (if enough supply + armament + vehicle) for the next battle. Too 'gamey'?

Won't work. If one third of a div is gone, you can't recombine the whole division and it won't regrow to original size.

But if you want to play "gamey", you can load the div into transports. And then unload the transport carrying only the "HQ" (bearing the division name). Then load this part into barges and unload the barge carrying the division name. Now keep that part (50-60 men) in Japan and send the rest away. Once the main body is destroyed the "HQ" will regrow. Just change the leader of the div, and the leader of the sub-part.

I don't know if it is gamey. If you have hundred of thousands of men and guns in store, why not create a new div, or recreate a lost div. The problem is to have these replacements available. It was gamey before as the new division arrived with the exp of the lost one but it is supposed to be no more the case.

[Mynok]

Hmm...doesn't the "primary/HQ" portion of the unit get swapped sometimes during turn runs? Pretty sure it does because that is the way to get around the Air Transport problem. You must keep the "HQ" portion on the barge, then?

[String]

ORIGINAL: Mynok


Hmm...doesn't the "primary/HQ" portion of the unit get swapped sometimes during turn runs? Pretty sure it does because that is the way to get around the Air Transport problem. You must keep the "HQ" portion on the barge, then?

Just get a small fragment out. It'll turn into main unit when the rest of it gets destroyed

[AmiralLaurent]

ORIGINAL: Mynok


Hmm...doesn't the "primary/HQ" portion of the unit get swapped sometimes during turn runs? Pretty sure it does because that is the way to get around the Air Transport problem. You must keep the "HQ" portion on the barge, then?

You're right. You just have to keep in Tokyo some squads of the division and then the unit may be rebuilt. When the main body will be destroyed, the fragement will take his name.

[PzB74]

It's an interesting point guys, here is my view:

If a unit become split by chance I sometimes keep the smaller fragment if the mother unit is in an exposed spot.
I do not practice this on a large scale though. If a base like Saipan is about to fall to the enemy I will order transport ac or
subs to pick up small elements of the trapped units. A reactive approach in other words. Personally I like to keep this a bit
realistic and not misuse the option.

There's always this thing about too little and too much, right [;)]

[Mynok]

Sure, grabbing fragments is pretty common. I was curious as to what the Admiral was trying to accomplish by grabbing the "HQ" fragment. I've never bothered, as "HQ" will switch to the biggest fragment anyway.

[wobbly]

I am of the opinion that fragment use is fine. As others have said you are reforming the units from reserve men anyway and the experience of the unit is now lost.

In order to bring a division up to size will take a long time.

[ragtopcars_slith]

i would agree, it isn't gamey...
it is realistic to believe that if a division is lost, it would be rebuilt, and as we know, it takes a LLLLOOONNNNGGGG time to rebuild in the game.

great AAR

derek

[PzB74]

Sounds a-ok to me, I let my opponents do as they wish regarding to this matter.
I do remember loosing 95% of the South Seas Detachment in a bugged fast transport mission.
The fragment I was left with has now been rebuilt, 95 exp and 90 morale....

Just had another fast transport pick up the remains of 2 small cd units. Of course they didn't get
all the stuff and returned to port with a '126' size load and no unit aboard.

I suspect my destroyers and cruisers are hiding a small army in their holds. Not figured out what
they're planning to do, perhaps a revolt? [8|]

Thx for the support guys! [8D]

[CapAndGown]

Just to comment on your Sho plans: I have developed a similar philosophy to you for my own defensive plans. Begin the initial air battle against the allied death star with army fighters based at mutually supporting bases (preferably Tojos and Tonys). The point of stage one would be to wear down the allied CAP over his carriers. Reenforcement groups would fly in to make up for loses. Then, after the allied CAP is worn down, bring in the KB to strike at his carriers/invasion forces. Also, I would like to stage strong surface forces near the site of the invasion and put them on react so that they would, hopefully, engage the enemy invasion/bombardment fleets in night battles while not being exposed during the day to air attacks from allied carriers.

I discuss these plans in my AAR Atlantic 10 Championship. I would appreciate any comments you might have. BTW, the AAR is on hold right now since Grotius and I are both very busy but it should start up again in October.

[pauk]

i don't like "fragment politics", but as i can see 99% players use it, so i have too[8|]

[ragtopcars_slith]

pauk, don't get me wrong, i don't intentionally leave a fragment behind for each unit... what i do is if a unit is getting it's butt kicked, i'll try to start pulling it out, which means i have fragments... normally i can only get a small piece out, so it takes a long while to rebuild any unit, and then it has crap experience...
overall i think it's realistic, because the high command would probably use the same unit numbers when attempting to rebuild a divison or unit... it's just that we can't in this game dictate building units per se.

derek[:)]

[pauk]

i totally understand your (and others) opinions. We have several things in WiTP that doesn't work like "historical simulation". IMO, main glitch is that devs didn't decide to approve destroyed unit to return (like for HQ and ac units in some situations). But, I believe that was decision made exactly to slown down operations - and we have lot's of people here who complain "the game is moving too fast" but at the same time they don't want to see that they, with their style of play (like saving fragments), accelerating game (if you, as allies save your BF then you will be in position to start strategic offensive earlier). Rag, don't get me wrong too, as i said i understand your attitude. For me, it doesn't matter, so if Allies use this strategy, i will use it too...no big deal here, i'm simply not a fan of it[;)]

now, back to PzB the Conqueror - i'm happy, because i don't play as evil allies, never!:)

[PzB74]

Always interesting to have a little discussion going on.
I'm afraid 'the Conqueror' has turned into the defender by May 43 Pauk [;)]

I'll take a look at your plans Cap & Gown! Sounds like we are in agreement.
As soon as the Allied player thinks he is all powerful he will become arrogant...and
then we smack him!! [:D]

Not a whole lot of interesting stuff to report from the last 3 days.
I've brought 2 engineer regiments, 2 base units and a full aviation regiment to Timor.
24 A6M3s and 20 A6M2s have also been moved to the island.

Ken has bombed some of the transports and hurt them, but no troops were lost.
I decided to go for the less auspicious approach and kept my cve's in port. The next
step is to bring in a fair amount of supplies and a last base force. Then I will rotate
a relatively large number of fighters between Kendari and Timor. The plan is to build forts
and shoot down unescorted bombers and thus force Ken to use high quality escorts if he
wants to disrupt my plans.

In the South Pacific I've brought the engineer regiment back from Finschafen. It got bombed
to smitters in less than a month. I actually had to bring another regiment back to Rabaul as
damage to my air fields and port facilities repaired way too slow after the massive air raids
a few days ago. The process of bringing damaged ac out is a slow one...

Another Glen equipped sub has been dispatched to the Kuriles. I should now get an early warning
if enemy ships tried to move towards Paramushiro Island, Wake or into the Indian Ocean.

2 battleships have also left Tokyo for Balikpapaan - wanted to add a little firepower to the fleet
there.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/06/43

Day Air attack on TF, near Dili at 31,77

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 6

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AP Anrugu Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
4 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/07/43


AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/08/43

Day Air attack on TF, near Dili at 31,77

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 8

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 12

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Hudson I: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
AP Chojun Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
MSW W.26, Bomb hits 1, on fire
PC Ch 32, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
3 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
4 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
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Attaching a little AAR quiz for you! What do we see on this picture?

[tsimmonds]

1 Construction Unit or Engineer Regiment

I'd swap a tank regiment for the construction engineers. You won't be building anything after you get your 9 forts up. Tanks are vicious in assault combat, as are combat engineers. Also, scare up some infantry batallions with low unit #s, they will go to the top of the stack and keep your divisions intact longer. Break those divisions/brigades down into regiments. Moves them to the bottom of the stack and makes more targets for enemy ground support air strikes.

Other than that, this is very similar to my defensive plan for the marianas. You have to put the same size force on each of the four islands, that is the key.

[String]

OR.. he can be really really sneaky, and put increased number of units and men, which is achievable cheaply with HQ units, as they sport a lot of men and are plentiful in supply, and by dividing divisions already there, on three islands. On the fourth he puts what is seemingly an inferior force. An armored division has smaller numbers of men, and he doesn't divide it. In return he concentrates his coastal defences on this island and does the same with mines. 20k mines can be really really nasty. Also with heavy CD he WILL have trouble sweeping them. This is a risky plan ofcourse and might fail completely.