Matrix Games Forums

Aircraft pools

Things that worry me:
USAAF fighter pools are a constant worry.
B29 pools are a disaster. I can barely keep up with losses. I will not be able to keep both XX and XXI bomber command operational at the same time.
B24 pools are shrinking despite very low operational tempo right now.

Things that makes me happy:
RAF Fighter pools! Almost 170 Spit VII!
USN Pools! Soon to be boosted with 178 Corsairs! Boom!
P40 no longer producing.
P40 no longer producing.
2E pools have recover all over the board.
P40 no longer producing.

6th of August -44

After sunshine comes the rain... Not a good day for the Allied ground forces.

First the attack on Talaud-Eilanden goes so-so.

Ground combat at Talaud-eilanden (79,97)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 19864 troops, 328 guns, 649 vehicles, Assault Value = 818

Defending force 12237 troops, 130 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 431

Allied adjusted assault: 457

Japanese adjusted defense: 1089

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 5)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1783 casualties reported
Squads: 14 destroyed, 130 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 18 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 25 (3 destroyed, 22 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1013 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 105 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 70 disabled
Guns lost 26 (1 destroyed, 25 disabled)
Vehicles lost 14 (1 destroyed, 13 disabled)

While this is doable it will take time. It will also require the reserve division. That in turn will require assault shipping needed for the Mindanao landings. Crap! [:@]

This is followed by and absolutely disastrous attack on Manado.

Ground combat at Manado (75,99)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 18303 troops, 497 guns, 329 vehicles, Assault Value = 764

Defending force 24050 troops, 262 guns, 39 vehicles, Assault Value = 699

Allied adjusted assault: 140 WTH?! [X(]

Japanese adjusted defense: 695

Allied assault odds: 1 to 4 (fort level 4)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
481 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 52 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 8 disabled
Guns lost 9 (1 destroyed, 8 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
2067 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 296 disabled [X(]
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 19 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 31 disabled
Guns lost 84 (7 destroyed, 77 disabled)
Vehicles lost 28 (2 destroyed, 26 disabled)

I have never seen AV adjusted so low. No idea what happened. This is a no go. The 93rd ID is trashed and down to 170 AV. It will take a long, long time to recover. This attack has led to plan PANIC.

PANIC
In a last ditch effort to secure Manado everything available is thrown at Sidate. The Amphib tanks will shock attack tomorrow. They will be reinforced by Australian paras (33AV) and a air droppable ART unit. A CA TF and a CL TF will bombard the base at night. With only level 1 forts this can actually do some real damage. All available BB TFs are either out of ammo or have too few OPS point after rearming to reach Sidate. I´ve emptied out some rear bases and filled them up with 2Es and 4Es to strike at the troops tomorrow. I can´t do much more than this. Either it works or it doesn´t.

I also started loading 100 Shermans at Morotai to be ready to drop at Sidate if we succeed tomorrow. Critical day for the future of Mandao. Massive Sweeps are also ordered to clear the skies for the transports. Everything is thrown into this. Time to keep the fingers crossed again...I want Mandao damnit!

Burma
I also ordered another bombardment in Burma. This failed so badly... 432 own losses for 32 Jap ones. Bombers grounded.

Pearl
Whoops! Emptied out 600k fuel in a few days. More is on its way.

If you have the turn before these last attacks, double check to see how many Support troops you have. Besides the 10% from a prepped Corp HQ, they give the troops extra support troops which helps in the attacks. Just having two ID, an FA, and an engineer is going to end up with you short of support troops.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

If you have the turn before these last attacks, double check to see how many Support troops you have. Besides the 10% from a prepped Corp HQ, they give the troops extra support troops which helps in the attacks. Just having two ID, an FA, and an engineer is going to end up with you short of support troops.

They actually only had about half the needed support. So thats probably a huge contributing factor. Another mistake by me as I lacked support troops to make a proper assault. By the time I prepped them there were only a 1200 men unit at Manado. I hate the inflexibility of the prep system as it now makes it almost impossible for me to reinforce the troops without suffer massive losses on landing. [:(]

Manado

I spent a lot of time looking at the map this morning. I need Manado. Still havn´t gotten the turn back from Erik so I don´t know how the Sidate onslaught went. I decided this morning to go all in for it if I fail the coming assault. I´ll shift the CV fleet into "CAP mode" bringing in extra fighters and park it outside Sidate. This will prevent Erik from flying in extra troops. I will then use the 13 BBs to reduce Sidate to rubble. The Sidate hex is a Jungle/Rough but with only level 1 forts in place I should get very good result from naval and aerial bombardments. Enough to help 2nd USMC Amphib battalion to overcome the opposition, secure the base and allow reinforcements for Manado to land at Sidate.

I have diverted the 1st USMC division and the 25th Division together with 4 tank battalions to stand by for relieving Manado.

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

If you have the turn before these last attacks, double check to see how many Support troops you have. Besides the 10% from a prepped Corp HQ, they give the troops extra support troops which helps in the attacks. Just having two ID, an FA, and an engineer is going to end up with you short of support troops.

They actually only had about half the needed support. So thats probably a huge contributing factor. Another mistake by me as I lacked support troops to make a proper assault. By the time I prepped them there were only a 1200 men unit at Manado. I hate the inflexibility of the prep system as it now makes it almost impossible for me to reinforce the troops without suffer massive losses on landing. [:(]

I've never heard anything from the developers on this, but I have observed that subsequent landings - meaning while you already have a substantial force ashore - take much less damage than the first landings.

Hey witpqs! [:)]

Thanks for the info. Good to know. I will have to try it out myself shortly. Not too surprisingly operation PANIC went doodoo! [:(]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister



This is followed by and absolutely disastrous attack on Manado.


I have never seen AV adjusted so low. No idea what happened. This is a no go. The 93rd ID is trashed and down to 170 AV. It will take a long, long time to recover. This attack has led to plan PANIC.

Forts and Terrain. The defender's friend. Get ya every time. [:o]

7th August -44

Moluccas
As I said in the above post operation PANIC failed miserable. The naval bombardment did not hit the troops at all and the Paradrop rained in. The 2nd USMC Amphib battalion shock attacked, suffered a 1:4 and got half the tanks disabled. They will need to rest for a few days. I have come up with an alternative plan. This will have to take its time. Simple as that. The 1st USMC and 25 ID will start moving up to Morotai and after the Mindanao landings they will reinforce the troops at Sidate. In the meantime I will start putting pressure on the troops at Sidate by aerial bombardment by 4Es flying from Noemfoor and Biak. They will succumb eventually and Erik will lose 35k troops at Manado.

Mindanao
Troops are loading at various bases to the South. Hopefully all loading will be done in 3-4 days. Start off point is Morotai. I will move most of the DBs off the CVEs and replace them with fighters. I will also switch some of the squadrons on Escort to CAP. I hope sheer numbers will prevent my CAP to get worn down by LBA when we approach. TBs will stay put as the lion part of the IJN is now 10-12 BBs. The landings will probably take place around 15th-20th August. 120 Hellcats have been upgraded to the -5 version. [:)]

Noticed something interesting with the -5 version. It can carry 2x1000 LBS bombs! [X(] Perhaps I forego fighters and use them in LowNav instead? [:D]

Reinforcements
480.000 men, 800k fuel, 3,8 million supply has left PH. Its covered by 600 CV aircraft and 4 BBs. Intervention is unlikely.

Burma
Rangoon AF has started repairing again. FOW or has supply arrived?

8th-11th August -44

Lots and lots of sorting out airgroups still. The BETA REALLY slows down plane repairs and maintenance. I quite like it. A lot more realistic feel to it but its a hassle organization wise.

Moluccas
I chased Eriks CAP away from Manado. It was eating up a lot of my search planes. I decided to try out the "rookie" Hellcat squadrons and to my delight they really tore Eriks CAP up. I wonder what his pilots look like now. Could he be starting to dig REALLY deep into the reserve and sending them out to combat without having them properly trained? After that the Spit VII came in and really crashed the party over Manado. All in all I shot down some 160 planes for a few Hellcats over the course of two days.

The Talud-Eilanden reinforcements sailed today. I´m bringing in an extra division, the SOPAC HQ and all the support units left behind. I hope this will tip the balance in my favor. Judging by the bombardments Erik only has 330 AV left but despite having some 400 Combat engineers we failed to drop the forts down from 5.

I´ve started sending out small TFs with engineers and BFs to the different bases still without them. But I´m not spending too much effort here as I´m hoping this will be a backwater shortly.

Mindanao invasion
First wave will be 3 IDs, some tanks and arty. I hope they will be able to establish a beachhead quickly. Followup is a Marine division and ALOT of tanks. I´m really juggling the get enough assault shipping in place.

All else is quiet.

Tomorrow is Midsummers evening here in Sweden. That means we aet a lot of herring, drink a lot of spiced vodka and beer and generally get hammered. But I guess my hammering days are over as I now have this randomized alarm clock that can go off any time at night, any number of times and generally really go off at around 4:30-5:00 in the morning....

Late to the party. Nice job with the CV battle.

Thanks DOCUP! [:)]

Now I´m off to celebrate Midsummer! Skål everyone!

Hang in there Joc!

My second took about two years to start to sleep normally, but they do eventually

Try to keep the 'dazed' look off your face when the wife is talking to you. [:-] When she ask you if you have been listening, don't tell her you have been thinking about your Mindanao invasion plans for the last 5 minutes she has been talking. Just blame the vodka.

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Thanks DOCUP! [:)]

Now I´m off to celebrate Midsummer! Skål everyone!

We have just a few Scandis living here in the Great White North, and today the paper had an article about the various midsummer celebrations. Reported that in Sweden it's the second largest holiday of the year, just after Christmas, with wild revelry, drinking, and a spate of babies next spring.

Norway sniffs "It is a normal workday here."

Feel the love. [:)]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Thanks DOCUP! [:)]

Now I´m off to celebrate Midsummer! Skål everyone!

We have just a few Scandis living here in the Great White North, and today the paper had an article about the various midsummer celebrations. Reported that in Sweden it's the second largest holiday of the year, just after Christmas, with wild revelry, drinking, and a spate of babies next spring.

Norway sniffs "It is a normal workday here."

Feel the love. [:)]

If normal workday = drinking and wild revelry, I may come out of retirement and move to Norway! Would I have to eat lutefisk?

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Thanks DOCUP! [:)]

Now I´m off to celebrate Midsummer! Skål everyone!

We have just a few Scandis living here in the Great White North, and today the paper had an article about the various midsummer celebrations. Reported that in Sweden it's the second largest holiday of the year, just after Christmas, with wild revelry, drinking, and a spate of babies next spring.

Norway sniffs "It is a normal workday here."

Feel the love. [:)]

If normal workday = drinking and wild revelry, I may come out of retirement and move to Norway! Would I have to eat lutefisk?

I think "normal workday" here means "no fun on the beach" (old Navy saying.) IOW, WORKday. Boo.

One does not eat lutefisk. One survives it. [:'(]

Ouff, as is quite common the day didn´t turn out as expected. Ida of course got really sick and got a 40 degrees fever about 2 hours after we arrived. [:(] No beer, no schnapps, no fun. At least I got 2 or 3 hours of sleep...spread out in 10 minute intervals. Don´t expect the coming night to be much better since she still has fever. [:(]

Lutefisk is not problem. I actually like it! Its tradition to eat it at christmas. If you really want a challenge try to eat surströmming. I´ve eaten it a few times and if you eat it correctly its quite good. Not a fan though.

Youtube it for some very describing videos of it... [;)]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Ouff, as is quite common the day didn´t turn out as expected. Ida of course got really sick and got a 40 degrees fever about 2 hours after we arrived. [:(] No beer, no schnapps, no fun. At least I got 2 or 3 hours of sleep...spread out in 10 minute intervals. Don´t expect the coming night to be much better since she still has fever. [:(]

Lutefisk is not problem. I actually like it! Its tradition to eat it at christmas. If you really want a challenge try to eat surströmming. I´ve eaten it a few times and if you eat it correctly its quite good. Not a fan though.

Youtube it for some very describing videos of it... [;)]

I don't even like herring when it's alive and smilin' at me. This sounds disgusting. I have a friend who goes to Iceland on business a lot and he tells of a national disgusting dish involving shark fin buried in the ground to rot or something. Why? Why? I know it's dark and cold, but leave the rotted shark fin alone and go talk to some girls already.

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
I don't even like herring when it's alive and smilin' at me. This sounds disgusting. I have a friend who goes to Iceland on business a lot and he tells of a national disgusting dish involving shark fin buried in the ground to rot or something. Why? Why? I know it's dark and cold, but leave the rotted shark fin alone and go talk to some girls already.

Hehe, well to be honest it really smells awful. But its quite good. If eaten properly. Jamie Oliver tried it in one of his episodes and found it delicious.

I´ve heard about the shark fin dish. I think the Top Gear guys ate it in one of their episodes! They wern´t too happy with it! But if I´m given the opportunity I would try it. At least once! [:D]