The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Capt. Harlock]

John's waiting for the right and overwhelming chance. I thought parking Death Star near Nagasaki might be it.

The spirit of Joe Johnston -- he never did seem to find the right time to strike.

[RangerJoe]

The Naval air battle that never was and may never be . . .

[Lecivius]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I note that the P-51D isn't performing well against good IJ fighters...or perhaps its me not using them right.

They do not perform in game as they did historically. Just another cross to bear.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I note that the P-51D isn't performing well against good IJ fighters...or perhaps its me not using them right.

They do not perform in game as they did historically. Just another cross to bear.

I find them acceptable, but not great.

[Lecivius]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I note that the P-51D isn't performing well against good IJ fighters...or perhaps its me not using them right.

They do not perform in game as they did historically. Just another cross to bear.

I find them acceptable, but not great.

They do as well as the P-40K, at least as far as I can see. For an end-war air superiority fighter, that's just sad.

[Lowpe]

I think you need to find the Mustang's niche. I am a firm believer every plane has a role and a useful one at that.

Interesting to see the 2nd Tank rise from the ashes. Where is the 1st Tank?

Nice to see some PT boats doing something useful.

[Canoerebel]

Jeff, I haven't forgotten your words about 2nd Tank Division rebuilding after its most recent disaster. Thanks to you, it's reappearance in strength didn't come as a terrific surprise. The dadgum unit is gonna be a vampire. I'll have to keep re-killing it until I can drive a stake through it's hard. (Same with 3rd Tank Division, for that matter).

I haven't seen 1st Tank Division recently. I'm not sure I've ever seen it. Perhaps it's still in regiment format.

You also inspired the increased pace of PT boat use.

I'm searching for the P-51Ds role. At this point I'm going to re-try both the Mustang and the P-38L as long range sweepers. I know that's not ideal but they have the legs to hit Kyushu. So do the P-47D25s, which I'm also using in that role. I want to see if the Mustangs and Lightnings can efficiently contribute in an environment in which the enemy fighters may be fatigued. If they can't, I'll try something else. (I do know the Lightning's benefits in LRCAP over ships role.)

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Lecivius




They do not perform in game as they did historically. Just another cross to bear.

I find them acceptable, but not great.

They do as well as the P-40K, at least as far as I can see. For an end-war air superiority fighter, that's just sad.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I think you need to find the Mustang's niche. I am a firm believer every plane has a role and a useful one at that.

Interesting to see the 2nd Tank rise from the ashes. Where is the 1st Tank?

Nice to see some PT boats doing something useful.

I don't use them on CAP, ever, maybe that's why my opinion differs. I can see how on CAP they would perform similarly to the P-40K (which is honestly a decent plane, especially for CAP).

I use them on sweeps only. They don't perform as well as the P-47N, but they do OK. Better than the P-38, anyway.

[Canoerebel]

12/15/44

Raid on the Home Islands: The air raids sorta fizzled today, as Avengers didn't sortie, Liberators did nothing, B-29s scored modestly, and sweeps fought to a stand-off.

It's time for my carriers to replenish in port. My fighters haven't stood down since....probably in four or five months. So even though they are always set at 0 range (except when sweeping), frame wear and tear is pretty elevated. I'll rest things for a week or so and then return with a vengeance, unless KB arrives in the meantime to mix up the deck.

Overall, I think the Home Islands raid went pretty well. Tough fighting by both sides. I've learned some things and will do a few things differently. But overall I'm satisfied that carrier air can play a major role in the Strategic Bombing campaign.

John's gonna have to bring his carriers home. If he doesn't, he's going to suffer the ignominy of the Empire going down in flames in March 1945 while a stout KB is cruising the sunny waters of the DEI.

Fancy Pants: I think there's a weakness in the garrison at Hangchow. I'll test it in two or three days. This is a key base - the last step before Shanghai. I'd like to wrap up Hangchow before New Year's Day. Whether that's feasible I should know soon.

I have a better feel now for the Canton/Kukong fronts. John has a massive army at Kukong that is sorta out on a limb - no good route of egress. His army at Canton is not real strong - it's okay to hold the city due to 4x urban - but there's not enough there to make a difference for Kukong.

[Canoerebel]

12/16/44

Fancy Pants: First probing deliberate attack at Hangchow tomorrow. I believe I perceive a weakness there. That's unexpected. John has two divisions. Under daily ship bombardments and 2EB and 4EB raids, the AV of those two divisions has diminished to just under 200 each.

[Canoerebel]

12/17/44

Air Raid on Canton Shipping: It's pretty rare that Allied bombers get in a big lick against vulnerable enemy shipping, so this turn was memorable.

It's important for two reasons: I don't mind John feeding troops into the China vortex but didn't want him bringing in vast quantities of supply. NavSearch reported this as a massive TF, so there was concern.

Secondly, it probably won't be necessary to detail Death Star to the Canton area now. John is likely to draw away, a bit, and LBA and a little CVE TF may be able to put a stop to wholesale Japanese access to Canton and Hong Kong.

[Canoerebel]

12/17/44

Fancy Pants: Hangchow is the most significant item of the day. The probing Allied attack shows that the garrison is weak and about ready to fall. I had expected Hangchow to be a long, tough battle. If John doesn't reinforce seriously in a day or three, it will fall. Then it's on to Shanghai.

[JohnDillworth]

Horse may be out of the barn on supply. There have been red ships on the map near there on just about every map you posted in the last 3 months. John was either coming or going and it does not look like he was going.

[Canoerebel]

Each Japanese stack attacked in China seems to have a supply malus. So supply is probably an issue for John. For sure, Canton and Hong Kong will struggle if the Allied air force basically has free reign to attack. I'll turn fully to them once Hangchow and Shanghai are finished.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Jeff, I haven't forgotten your words about 2nd Tank Division rebuilding after its most recent disaster. Thanks to you, it's reappearance in strength didn't come as a terrific surprise. The dadgum unit is gonna be a vampire. I'll have to keep re-killing it until I can drive a stake through it's hard. (Same with 3rd Tank Division, for that matter).

I haven't seen 1st Tank Division recently. I'm not sure I've ever seen it. Perhaps it's still in regiment format.

You also inspired the increased pace of PT boat use.

I'm searching for the P-51Ds role. At this point I'm going to re-try both the Mustang and the P-38L as long range sweepers. I know that's not ideal but they have the legs to hit Kyushu. So do the P-47D25s, which I'm also using in that role. I want to see if the Mustangs and Lightnings can efficiently contribute in an environment in which the enemy fighters may be fatigued. If they can't, I'll try something else. (I do know the Lightning's benefits in LRCAP over ships role.)

Yes, I remember sweeping and also as long range cap over bomber targets worked best for them. Lightnings were good sweepers but that was about it due to the service rating.

[Canoerebel]

12/17/44

Long time readers with superb memories for arcane details will recall that I didn't begin focusing on "harvesting victory points" until summer or early autumn '44. Until then, every focus was on getting into a position to harvest, at whatever the cost.

Since then, efficient harvesting them has been critical. While I don't have a particular target for auto victory, there's a general desire to make it happens as quickly as possible without taking chances that might delay things greatly.

I have a general notion that victory is mostly likely to take place sometime between February 1 and May 31, 1945. March or April is most likely.

By autumn, I had a general idea that the Allies might be addressing Shanghai around New Year's. That's pretty close.

I had an loose objective of achieving 20k strategic points by the end of the year. That'll be exceeded by a bit.

And there was a loose objective of being halfway to auto victory by the end of the year. IE, the Japanese have about a 68.8k points, so I need to have a 34.4k lead to be halfway to victory. I'm at 34.0k, so getting close.

Strategic Bombing is definitely the most efficient way to earn points. The second most efficient is probably getting cracks at lots of shipping points at low risk to my air or naval assets. The third might be wiping out large armies, when that's possible.

Another objective - this one set a year or more back - was to close the Army Loss Points spread to perhaps 1.5:1 in favor of Japan. At the time, John led 21k to 3k, for a 7:1 lead. It's now at 24.5k to 15.5k. So I'm close. The Allies should exceed the original objective. 1:1 might be tough, but it isn't impossible.

[MakeeLearn]

Long time readers with superb memories for arcane details will recall that I didn't begin focusing on "harvesting victory points" until summer or early autumn '44. Until then, every focus was on getting into a position to harvest, at whatever the cost...

So are you saying you have a "harvesting malus " or that you are "malus harvesting" ?

[Canoerebel]

12/19/44

Strategic Map: Every game veers from history and into the surreal, more or less. So it is with this one. John is reinforcing the DEI and Coral Sea regions, even while China is a flaming mess, Death Star is sitting off the coast of Kyushu, and the Allies hold Formosa and Luzon.

We're upside down, yet on some levels it's sensible.

[witpqs]

We're upside down, yet on some levels it's sensible.

...if he can smash some hapless invasion force that isn't equipped for reinforced defenses that will bolster his anti-autovic efforts.

[Lokasenna]

I dare say Sinko Maru sank.