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Here's one of the B-24J squadrons just moved to Ningpo for the strategic bombing campaign. I think these are good pilots.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Here's one of the B-24J squadrons just moved to Ningpo for the strategic bombing campaign. I think these are good pilots.

Those are very good pilots, but I would give them a couple of weeks of training at 100 feet to get their defensive skills higher. The strafe training you get out of it will also bump their overall Experience number slightly.

Now that's a good idea!

Except that it isn't!

No way I can take the foot off the accelerator now. Gotta begin the 4EB campaign from Ningpo with the best pilots available, and these are them. But I will follow your suggestion and re-set training in the rear areas and for those otherwise not presently engaged.

Or, to put it another way, darn it! I shoulda been doing that for a long time.

It's like carrier upgrades. Most of my fleet carriers are due for 4/1/44 upgrades and a few are due for 3/10/43 upgrades. But those upgrades almost surely will never happen. Death Star left Pearl Harbor in 9/43 and never spent time in port again.

Staying power, I'm telling ya. Staying power.

[:D]
I was gonna add that it was probably too late to do that training round for that last squadron which you have planned for Ningpo based Strat bombing.
But it could apply to the one in Australia which you have on training - that is the one I really had in mind.
And as in 1942, I understand that sometimes there is just not enough time to fully train squadrons when you need them to carry out a plan. Go get-em Reb!

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Here's one of the B-24J squadrons just moved to Ningpo for the strategic bombing campaign. I think these are good pilots.

Those are very good pilots, but I would give them a couple of weeks of training at 100 feet to get their defensive skills higher. The strafe training you get out of it will also bump their overall Experience number slightly.

With the intensity of action in my campaign, I am perfectly satisfied to fill my bombers with 45 exp 60 skill pilots. Just can't produce them fast enough to get them much better. I just try to send the less experience units to areas where they will have a chance. Just running missions-even easy ones will get their skills up. Bomber pilots seem to train a lot slower than fighter pilots.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Now that's a good idea!

Except that it isn't!

No way I can take the foot off the accelerator now. Gotta begin the 4EB campaign from Ningpo with the best pilots available, and these are them. But I will follow your suggestion and re-set training in the rear areas and for those otherwise not presently engaged.

Or, to put it another way, darn it! I shoulda been doing that for a long time.

It's like carrier upgrades. Most of my fleet carriers are due for 4/1/44 upgrades and a few are due for 3/10/43 upgrades. But those upgrades almost surely will never happen. Death Star left Pearl Harbor in 9/43 and never spent time in port again.

Staying power, I'm telling ya. Staying power.

Funny, with the changes in the power of AA, I have done the reverse. I upgrade every thing I can. The AA upgrades on Allied carriers are massive and can really mean the difference. It is my experience that once a bomber is damaged in the attack, it never hits. My first game with the old AA effects, I hardly bothered.

Watching folks handle upgrades has been interesting. Some obsess over them and wouldn't consider moving until everything was perfectly suited to go. Some ignore them and come to regret it.

Here, I wanted to upgrade. But the opportunity cost was far to high. When there are gaping holes deep in the enemy's defenses, stopping for upgrades may be the mostly costly strategy possible.

When Death Star departed Pearl for the DEI in September 1943, the closest port that could handle upgrades was Townsville. That was a long, long way away. When I took Luzon it was apparent that Foochow and Formosa (and Ningpo, though I postponed that) were there for the taking. And so my carriers have never been at Manila more than two or three days at a time.

Some of my CVEs have upgraded, though.

The measuring of need versus opportunity is a really tough one. In this particular case - in this one thing - perhaps Nemo would approve.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Here you go.

I've noticed ol' COL I. Magata before since he's a heckuva a good leader and his name is a bit fishy. So after seeing your post I finally decided to Google him and sure enough it turns out he led the "Magata Unit" (mostly IJA 45th Infantry Rgt) in the counterattack at Bougainville. Wiki here.

Cheers,
CC

P.S.: This is not a squawk about the game whatsoever. There are bound to be a few leaders on the wrong side with a database as huge as the one in this game.

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Here you go.

I've noticed ol' COL I. Magata before since he's a heckuva a good leader and his name is a bit fishy. So after seeing your post I finally decided to Google him and sure enough it turns out he led the "Magata Unit" (mostly IJA 45th Infantry Rgt) in the counterattack at Bougainville. Wiki here.

Cheers,
CC

P.S.: This is not a squawk about the game whatsoever. There are bound to be a few leaders on the wrong side with a database as huge as the one in this game.

Turned Nisei!

If your backwater pilots have reached the neede skill levels on ground bombing and defensive skills put them on naval search at low range (eg zero) so they start to gain experience above 50.

Going back to the upgrades, if a player always did the upgrades on all of his ships as soon as is possible or as soon as the current operation is finished and not following up with the new opportunities, then all the opponent has to do is wait for those down times and take advantage of it. Besides having lots of submarines in the path of the ships returning to base.

P.S. I am up to page 247 of the AAR during the Big Tent era and I a learning a lot. I have also started a folder of bookmarks for books to read because of this forum and especially this AAR.

Note: edited to correct a spelling error.

Speaking of interesting commander names...........

Last night I was checking combat ship commanders and discovered Rcokwell W. Torrey in command of the Oklahoma.

The game is unbelievable.

Not only does it have all of the great historical figures it has the great fictional ones as well!

I always find a colonel in charge of a fighter unit on the west coast named "Sanders, H L."

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

I always find a colonel in charge of a fighter unit on the west coast named "Sanders, H L."

H. L. Sanders? I'm not getting the reference.

Has anyone ever looked for a "Wild Bill" Kelso on the west coast?

ORIGINAL: DW

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

I always find a colonel in charge of a fighter unit on the west coast named "Sanders, H L."

H. L. Sanders? I'm not getting the reference.

Has anyone ever looked for a "Wild Bill" Kelso on the west coast?

Quinton McHale is in the game as well.

ORIGINAL: DW

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

I always find a colonel in charge of a fighter unit on the west coast named "Sanders, H L."

H. L. Sanders? I'm not getting the reference.

Has anyone ever looked for a "Wild Bill" Kelso on the west coast?

Colonel Sanders......

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: DW

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

I always find a colonel in charge of a fighter unit on the west coast named "Sanders, H L."

H. L. Sanders? I'm not getting the reference.

Has anyone ever looked for a "Wild Bill" Kelso on the west coast?

Quinton McHale is in the game as well.

I seem to recall Gene Roddenberry flew in the Pacific during WWII. I wonder if he's in the game...

11/12/44

Fancy Pants: The Chinese take Hengyang, cutting the big road/railroad west of Changsha. The Japanese army now has to make its way via secondary roads or try for extraction via airfield or port. I'm not really going to work on the cut off units. I'm going to focus my efforts on moving the Chinese army east to link up with the western Allies west of Shanghai. This is a tougher call than you'd think - the more sure points would be to isolated and destroy enemy ground units. The more sure way to defeat Japan militarily is to move overland as quickly as possible to forge the union of the two armies and threaten Shanghai and points north and east.

Allied 4EB hit Nagasaki at night and conduct the first daytime strat bombing raids, vs. Shimoneski and Kanazoya. Bombing accuracy is much elevated in the daytime, I quickly discover, but as of yet the points scored were modest, at best. We'll see. Right now, the Allies have about 15,500 strat bombing points. I'd like to nudge that up to about 22,500 to 25,000 by the end of November. I don't think that's impossible but it might be tough.

And enemy carriers (without aircraft, seemingly) arrive at Okinawa. Even while I'm focused on China and 4EB, John is working some angle here. I don't know what, so I'll just concentrate on defense right now.

Some Peggys and Franceses tried a night bombing raid against Manila - the first I think for John. I had three or four night fighter squadrons up. A few enemy bombers were downed and no hits were scored.

And enemy carriers (without aircraft, seemingly) arrive at Okinawa. Even while I'm focused on China and 4EB, John is working some angle here. I don't know what, so I'll just concentrate on defense right now.

As the old saying goes.....you can't cheat an honest man. Looks like he is flashing some bait. This Turkey will not trot to water. Stick to your knitting Spruance.