And now the waiting begins - Xargun (Japs) vs RRoberson (Allies) - No RRobs

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

That's a clever idea. [:D] I don't know if anyone has ever done that. Can you do that from Anchorage or do you need to be closer? I suspect you'd really only get 1 shot at it before he loads the area up with restricted fighter units.

Not my idea, someone else either talked about it or did it in a AAR and I liked that idea. 1 good turn (2days for me) and my Netties can do some decent industry damage. Nothing that the allies can't repair, but it will force him to move his west coast fighters around some. And if he has them all in Seattle, then they are not somewhere else.

The trouble with invading Canada (to get close enough) is that without heavy commitment of units on my part, he could march the restricted west coast units up the coast to canada and take it back quite easily. I'll have to look and see what I can reach from Anchorage - plus I can always bring in KB 2 from the HI to raid the Canadian coast if I control the aleutians.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

That's a clever idea. [:D] I don't know if anyone has ever done that. Can you do that from Anchorage or do you need to be closer? I suspect you'd really only get 1 shot at it before he loads the area up with restricted fighter units.

Not my idea, someone else either talked about it or did it in a AAR and I liked that idea. 1 good turn (2days for me) and my Netties can do some decent industry damage. Nothing that the allies can't repair, but it will force him to move his west coast fighters around some. And if he has them all in Seattle, then they are not somewhere else.

The trouble with invading Canada (to get close enough) is that without heavy commitment of units on my part, he could march the restricted west coast units up the coast to canada and take it back quite easily. I'll have to look and see what I can reach from Anchorage - plus I can always bring in KB 2 from the HI to raid the Canadian coast if I control the aleutians.

There was a lot of talk of this in the canoerebel vs Panzerjaeger Hortland match. check it out for some ideas.

[Xargun]

I see everyone is talking about supply for Japan in late war and I thought I'd take a quick look at my own situation (Currently at work so I don't have Tracker access). Currently its May 16, 42. According to the Intelligence screen I have 3,780,857 supply in my empire - plus if I'm reading this correctly I have roughly 200k on ships. I did a quick check on the supply hog - Tokyo - and there is 1,878,024 supply sitting there. I know Kagoshima and Nagasaki have roughly 40k each - I load supply from there to send out. So I am guessing I have 2m+ supply sitting in the Home Islands. Not sure if that is good or bad ?

I am also concerned with the upcoming supply costs to convert the next wave of aircraft. below is a list of my current Aircraft and Engine factories. Please comment on my setups...

A6M2 Zero: 2 factories each of size 60
A6M2-N Rufe: 1 factory of size 30
B5N2 Kate: 1 factory size 60
C5M2 Babs: 1 factory size 30
D3A1 Val: 1 factory size 60
E13A1 Jake: 1 factory size 30
E14Y1 Glen: 1 factory size 20
G3M2 Nell: 1 factory size 60
G4M1 Betty: 1 factory size 60
H6K4 Mavis: 1 factory size 30
Ki-15-II Babs: 1 factory size 30
Ki-21-IIa Sally: 2 factories size 30 & 60
Ki-30 Ann: 1 factory size 30
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 factories size 90 & 30
L3Y2 Tina: 1 factory size 30
MC-21 Sally: 1 factory size 30

(several other 'leftover' factories of various sizes and various aircraft not currently used)

Engines:

Mitsubishi Ha-31: 1 factory size 30
Mitsubishi Ha-32: 4 factories size 60, 60, 90, 90
Mitsubishi Ha-33: 4 factories size 90 each
Nakajima Ha-34: 2 factories size 60, 90
Nakajima Ha-35: 2 factories size 150, 210
Nakajima Ha05: 2 factories size 30, 60

[Crackaces]

PJH was looking at an autovictory. One thing that Alaska and West Coast of Canada have are bases with high VP multipliers as compared to small atolls in the Pacific. Thus the opportunity to build high port and airfield levels multiplied by high constant factors from 5 - 25. That combined with the obvious big VP shifts at Manila and Singapore PJH thought it might make a autovictory possible.

The game ended before this bore out ...

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Would love to get within range of Seattle and bomb the industry there - would generate some nice VPs and hopefully light a fire under Rob's rear to do something I believe there are all kinds of industry around Vancouver and Seattle that I could bomb for VPs. Just not sure if I can get close enough without triggering early arrival of west coast units to bomb them.

That's a clever idea. [:D] I don't know if anyone has ever done that. Can you do that from Anchorage or do you need to be closer? I suspect you'd really only get 1 shot at it before he loads the area up with restricted fighter units.

Bullwinkle and I discussed it a bit, once the window on doing so had closed for me. I would also look at bombing the industry at LA, but you'd be using KB only for that, which is risky.

In a nutshell, to get to Seattle you have to advance at least to Prince Rupert Island (which starts with a big enough AF to fly out Netties), but you've got to get there hard and fast. Bomb the manpower at Seattle and pray that it destroys some a/c factories. Down with Boeing!!

That would be some serious VPs, not to mention the Allied player can't expand the factories back to their former size - which is the bigger prize, IMO. Destroying 20 factories is worth 400 VPs, but 20 fewer planes (many of which are late war models) per month for the entire time the plane is in production is worth more. LA has even more factories, but you can't get there with LBA, so KB only.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

I see everyone is talking about supply for Japan in late war and I thought I'd take a quick look at my own situation (Currently at work so I don't have Tracker access). Currently its May 16, 42. According to the Intelligence screen I have 3,780,857 supply in my empire - plus if I'm reading this correctly I have roughly 200k on ships. I did a quick check on the supply hog - Tokyo - and there is 1,878,024 supply sitting there. I know Kagoshima and Nagasaki have roughly 40k each - I load supply from there to send out. So I am guessing I have 2m+ supply sitting in the Home Islands. Not sure if that is good or bad ?

I am also concerned with the upcoming supply costs to convert the next wave of aircraft. below is a list of my current Aircraft and Engine factories. Please comment on my setups...

A6M2 Zero: 2 factories each of size 60
A6M2-N Rufe: 1 factory of size 30
B5N2 Kate: 1 factory size 60
C5M2 Babs: 1 factory size 30
D3A1 Val: 1 factory size 60
E13A1 Jake: 1 factory size 30
E14Y1 Glen: 1 factory size 20
G3M2 Nell: 1 factory size 60
G4M1 Betty: 1 factory size 60
H6K4 Mavis: 1 factory size 30
Ki-15-II Babs: 1 factory size 30
Ki-21-IIa Sally: 2 factories size 30 & 60
Ki-30 Ann: 1 factory size 30
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 factories size 90 & 30
L3Y2 Tina: 1 factory size 30
MC-21 Sally: 1 factory size 30

(several other 'leftover' factories of various sizes and various aircraft not currently used)

Engines:

Mitsubishi Ha-31: 1 factory size 30
Mitsubishi Ha-32: 4 factories size 60, 60, 90, 90
Mitsubishi Ha-33: 4 factories size 90 each
Nakajima Ha-34: 2 factories size 60, 90
Nakajima Ha-35: 2 factories size 150, 210
Nakajima Ha05: 2 factories size 30, 60

Do you really need 20 Glens each month? Or do you turn it off when you have plenty in the pool?

If PDU is on in your game, you can focus your FP production on Jakes. Also, if PDU is on - do you need to produce the Ann? I guess if you don't plan to have the PPs to upgrade Mary/Sonia units to 2E models, then sure.

I would map out your engine needs and make sure you are at least breaking even, if not running a surplus for the R&D engine bonus.

Your Val factory size is a bit high (from my experience), but you can always turn it off and the engine is used for other airframes that are useful later. And you can turn it into a D4Y factory once it comes online, to keep any R&D factories you currently have on D4Y doing R&D rather than switching to production (this is important if you have Realistic R&D On). I would also make sure that you turn Upgrade Off on the D3A1 factory, as the D3A2 is actually worse.

RE: Oscar factories - do you plan to do with these like I mentioned with the Val above, except in regards to the Tojo? I would keep one (and maybe both) of your Oscar factories, as unless you have a very large Tojo production as soon as it comes online, you just won't be able to fill out your units with Tojos. And you'll still want Oscars for 2E escorts. However, once the Tojo comes online 120 Oscars per month is probably way too many. If you are researching the Ki-43 line to get to the Ki-43-IV, this should weigh into your considerations here. If you aren't researching it, I would change the size 90 Ki-43 factory to a Ki-44 when it comes online. You'll lose the repaired status and some of its size, but it's worth more as a Tojo factory.

This is all IMHO.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Do you really need 20 Glens each month? Or do you turn it off when you have plenty in the pool?
If PDU is on in your game, you can focus your FP production on Jakes.

I was going to use Jakes on my subs as the game lets you, but I feel gamey doing it, so I decided to make a small Glen factory. I figured 20 was enough to make a month and I expect it will be turned off most of the game.

As with all aircraft I have a target number for the replacement pools and once I hit it I turn off production. Rather save the HI then have too many worthless aircraft.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
Also, if PDU is on - do you need to produce the Ann? I guess if you don't plan to have the PPs to upgrade Mary/Sonia units to 2E models, then sure.

I like the Ann for its range. its a single engine bomber so I can operate from size 2 AFs and it does a decent job. I like using it in China, where all I want is a couple bomb hits to add disruption to the enemy and not too worried about actual damage.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
I would map out your engine needs and make sure you are at least breaking even, if not running a surplus for the R&D engine bonus.

I planned out the aircraft and then multipled by engines per aircraft for my engine factory sizes. I am currently running all engine factories except the Ha-5 and Ha-31 to get numbers above 500 for the R&D bonus.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
Your Val factory size is a bit high (from my experience), but you can always turn it off and the engine is used for other airframes that are useful later. And you can turn it into a D4Y factory once it comes online, to keep any R&D factories you currently have on D4Y doing R&D rather than switching to production (this is important if you have Realistic R&D On). I would also make sure that you turn Upgrade Off on the D3A1 factory, as the D3A2 is actually worse.

I always worry that I won't be able to have enough Vals in the pool to completely replace all KB's Vals in one turn. Would rather have it a bit high than a bit low. My number was actually 50 per month, but 60 is a much better number for the way the game works than 50.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
RE: Oscar factories - do you plan to do with these like I mentioned with the Val above, except in regards to the Tojo? I would keep one (and maybe both) of your Oscar factories, as unless you have a very large Tojo production as soon as it comes online, you just won't be able to fill out your units with Tojos. And you'll still want Oscars for 2E escorts. However, once the Tojo comes online 120 Oscars per month is probably way too many. If you are researching the Ki-43 line to get to the Ki-43-IV, this should weigh into your considerations here. If you aren't researching it, I would change the size 90 Ki-43 factory to a Ki-44 when it comes online. You'll lose the repaired status and some of its size, but it's worth more as a Tojo factory.

This is all IMHO.

Once the Tojos come online I will be changing at least 1 Oscar factory to the Tojo. I am not sure about the Oscar IV as I have questions about its firepower in comparrison to other fighters. I am also a bit hesitate to change aircraft on a whim as I don't want to waste a free upgrade into a good aircraft or waste the supplies to repair / expand all over again.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Bullwinkle and I discussed it a bit, once the window on doing so had closed for me. I would also look at bombing the industry at LA, but you'd be using KB only for that, which is risky.

In a nutshell, to get to Seattle you have to advance at least to Prince Rupert Island (which starts with a big enough AF to fly out Netties), but you've got to get there hard and fast. Bomb the manpower at Seattle and pray that it destroys some a/c factories. Down with Boeing!!

That would be some serious VPs, not to mention the Allied player can't expand the factories back to their former size - which is the bigger prize, IMO. Destroying 20 factories is worth 400 VPs, but 20 fewer planes (many of which are late war models) per month for the entire time the plane is in production is worth more. LA has even more factories, but you can't get there with LBA, so KB only.

If Rob overreacted and moved a lot of fighters to Seattle area to protect industry and such, I have no problem with moving the real KB down from the north and hitting LA or San Diego with her. Especially as the war drones on KB becomes more and more worthless. Might as well go out in a big bang !! If I hit LA I can hit both factories and the port - bet there is always nice fat targets there. Send all the Vals after manpower / industry and let the Kates sink ships. That could be a huge VP feast for me.... Would all depend on his fighter allocation. Would probably be worth sacrificing a Netty unit against CAP at Seattle to make sure he is committed there.

Perhaps even a move against Palmyra Island a couple weeks previous would draw more fighters away from the west coast to PH...

[Lokasenna]

In a potential LA strike, without sandboxing it, my gut says going after the manpower is better than sinking any ships that may be in the harbor. When I play the Allied side, LA is actually a little inconvenient. SF is better, and for a reinforcement arrival point San Diego is more prevalent than LA.

I was wondering if you planned to use Jakes on subs. I've heard that IRL they couldn't fit, but the Glen is "good enough" and there are higher priority places to put your Jakes (resized FP units using the CSes, or simply upgraded Pete units).


It's true that 60 is a better number than 50 where the engine is concerned... I guess. Keep in mind that you can't actually replace all of KB's Vals in one turn (and why would you need to? Will you lose all of them in an action or two? Use more escorts!!). You can only replace 12 per squadron per week - so it would take 2-3 weeks to fully rebuild each squadron's airframes. I prefer to keep a stock of 70 or so, as once you get the Judy all of those Vals are going to go to waste. They aren't even worth it as kamikazes, and their range sucks so you can't really use them as a good search unit, and they'll just sit in the pools forever and ever. Wasted HI, in that case.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
I was wondering if you planned to use Jakes on subs. I've heard that IRL they couldn't fit, but the Glen is "good enough" and there are higher priority places to put your Jakes (resized FP units using the CSes, or simply upgraded Pete units).

yeah plus I tend to replace all the Petes with Jakes as well. Although now that I have some Rufe's I may use them too

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
It's true that 60 is a better number than 50 where the engine is concerned... I guess. Keep in mind that you can't actually replace all of KB's Vals in one turn (and why would you need to? Will you lose all of them in an action or two? Use more escorts!!). You can only replace 12 per squadron per week - so it would take 2-3 weeks to fully rebuild each squadron's airframes. I prefer to keep a stock of 70 or so, as once you get the Judy all of those Vals are going to go to waste. They aren't even worth it as kamikazes, and their range sucks so you can't really use them as a good search unit, and they'll just sit in the pools forever and ever. Wasted HI, in that case.

Yeah but I tend to lose a lot more Vals in combat than Kates. And if you take a mauling with all 6 CVs, thats 72 Vals to replace in one turn at 12 per squadron per CV. I currently have 100 Vals in my pools and am hoping for a CV battle as soon as I can locate the enemy CVs.... Plus if I go with the invasion of Darwin I will thin out the herd a little there. I must be honest, I treat Vals as a piece of crap attack plane and am careless with them. They carry a next to worthless bombload and die by the droves. I have plans of removing the Vals from some CVs and doubling up on Fighters down the road to increase my survivability once the war really starts --- ie... Rob comes out of hiding.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
I was wondering if you planned to use Jakes on subs. I've heard that IRL they couldn't fit, but the Glen is "good enough" and there are higher priority places to put your Jakes (resized FP units using the CSes, or simply upgraded Pete units).

yeah plus I tend to replace all the Petes with Jakes as well. Although now that I have some Rufe's I may use them too

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
It's true that 60 is a better number than 50 where the engine is concerned... I guess. Keep in mind that you can't actually replace all of KB's Vals in one turn (and why would you need to? Will you lose all of them in an action or two? Use more escorts!!). You can only replace 12 per squadron per week - so it would take 2-3 weeks to fully rebuild each squadron's airframes. I prefer to keep a stock of 70 or so, as once you get the Judy all of those Vals are going to go to waste. They aren't even worth it as kamikazes, and their range sucks so you can't really use them as a good search unit, and they'll just sit in the pools forever and ever. Wasted HI, in that case.

Yeah but I tend to lose a lot more Vals in combat than Kates. And if you take a mauling with all 6 CVs, thats 72 Vals to replace in one turn at 12 per squadron per CV. I currently have 100 Vals in my pools and am hoping for a CV battle as soon as I can locate the enemy CVs.... Plus if I go with the invasion of Darwin I will thin out the herd a little there. I must be honest, I treat Vals as a piece of crap attack plane and am careless with them. They carry a next to worthless bombload and die by the droves. I have plans of removing the Vals from some CVs and doubling up on Fighters down the road to increase my survivability once the war really starts --- ie... Rob comes out of hiding.

The Val serves you well until the Allied fighters start showing up in real strength, which is about the game time you're at now. I'm still not sure you'll need all those Vals, but a pool of 100 is OK if you anticipate very heavy losses. Even if they go in sans escort and get chewed up, you're still only likely to lose half in any one strike.

Have you any idea of his strength at Darwin? What's the word on the recon? Several days of 9/10 DL should get you a highly reliable estimate. Anything less than 10k troops present without many guns can be taken by just a Division and a couple supporting units, likely.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

A6M2 Zero: 2 factories each of size 60
A6M2-N Rufe: 1 factory of size 30
B5N2 Kate: 1 factory size 60
C5M2 Babs: 1 factory size 30
D3A1 Val: 1 factory size 60
E13A1 Jake: 1 factory size 30
E14Y1 Glen: 1 factory size 20
G3M2 Nell: 1 factory size 60
G4M1 Betty: 1 factory size 60
H6K4 Mavis: 1 factory size 30
Ki-15-II Babs: 1 factory size 30
Ki-21-IIa Sally: 2 factories size 30 & 60
Ki-30 Ann: 1 factory size 30
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 factories size 90 & 30
L3Y2 Tina: 1 factory size 30
MC-21 Sally: 1 factory size 30

You've got about 800 ac; I would build about 550 or so. so about 250 delta and about the same engines, or 500K supply ....

[obvert]

Good thoughts on the aircraft from Lokasenna.

Interestingly, the D3Y2 is faster than the D3Y1, and that might make it get just a few more through CAP in a brawl. I've never thought I'd want to make it but I did decide to do so in my game against Torsten (Historiker) as I'd lost a few of the KB and couldn't really stand up to a fight at sea. For LBA the 2 model is fine. Building 60 might be a bit much, but in the beginning you just never know what will happen. You can turn them off a few months before switching it over to the Judy, keeping the pools to a minimum as you transfer over.

Flying Jakes on a sub is a definitely questionable practice. The Glen is your guy. I've used my excess for training groups.

I wouldn't worry about building factories to multiples of 30. It's a waste for planes like the C5M2 and Ki-15 especially. In fact i would not be making more than ten of the IJN version, even if that doesn't fill out groups. It sucks and the Judy recon will come soon enough to fill in when you'll really start to need these. But factories for production don't produce any better in multiples of 30. That is only for R n D. If you set them to 15 it makes 15 a month +/- 1.

You're probably making too many G3M3 as the M3 version is tons better and will be out soon. Same for the Oscar Ic. Bare minimum on that one. All other later Oscars with the 2 x 250kg you should overproduce to your heart's content, as they are kamis too. That's quite a lot of Mavis too. I would overproduce the Jake with one engine, since 80 of those equal 20 Mavis. My patrol plane factories have never gone over 20 and it's been fine even into 45, even losing a bunch to bombardments, 4E and other at various points. My pools sometimes build to 40, then are decimated by a massive cull, but I can always fill groups.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

I see everyone is talking about supply for Japan in late war and I thought I'd take a quick look at my own situation (Currently at work so I don't have Tracker access). Currently its May 16, 42. According to the Intelligence screen I have 3,780,857 supply in my empire - plus if I'm reading this correctly I have roughly 200k on ships. I did a quick check on the supply hog - Tokyo - and there is 1,878,024 supply sitting there. I know Kagoshima and Nagasaki have roughly 40k each - I load supply from there to send out. So I am guessing I have 2m+ supply sitting in the Home Islands. Not sure if that is good or bad ?

I am also concerned with the upcoming supply costs to convert the next wave of aircraft. below is a list of my current Aircraft and Engine factories. Please comment on my setups...

A6M2 Zero: 2 factories each of size 60
A6M2-N Rufe: 1 factory of size 30
B5N2 Kate: 1 factory size 60
C5M2 Babs: 1 factory size 30
D3A1 Val: 1 factory size 60
E13A1 Jake: 1 factory size 30
E14Y1 Glen: 1 factory size 20
G3M2 Nell: 1 factory size 60
G4M1 Betty: 1 factory size 60
H6K4 Mavis: 1 factory size 30
Ki-15-II Babs: 1 factory size 30
Ki-21-IIa Sally: 2 factories size 30 & 60
Ki-30 Ann: 1 factory size 30
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 factories size 90 & 30
L3Y2 Tina: 1 factory size 30
MC-21 Sally: 1 factory size 30

(several other 'leftover' factories of various sizes and various aircraft not currently used)

Engines:

Mitsubishi Ha-31: 1 factory size 30
Mitsubishi Ha-32: 4 factories size 60, 60, 90, 90
Mitsubishi Ha-33: 4 factories size 90 each
Nakajima Ha-34: 2 factories size 60, 90
Nakajima Ha-35: 2 factories size 150, 210
Nakajima Ha05: 2 factories size 30, 60

To me, a lot of the aircraft requirements depends on how aggressive you and your opponent are in the air. For the Val and Kate, I use them on KB (obviously) but all of the land based DB & TB units are for training exclusively. I find that 30-40 are sufficient and still are shut off most of the time.

Zero and Rufe are good. My A6M2 was at 100 as opposed to your 120, but should be fine.

C5M2 seems high at 30. You really don't get many chutai and your losses should be minor. Keeping 6-8 in the pool is fine.

Jake is fine for me at 30. But, I use Petes in training and the Daves and Alfs along with the Jakes operationally (Daves for ASW due to their short range). If you want to use the Jake exclusively for operations, you will probably need more, especially if you increase the size of your smaller FP units.

Glen is fine. I had mine set to somewhere around 15-20 and built out the engine pool. I had 126 Glens in the pool and then changed the factory to something else. I should have plenty for the war. To date (Nov 42) I've only used 2.

I set my Nell and Betty factories to 30 each. I'm very cautious using those units. Their mission is anti-ship 95% (or more) of the time. I keep ~100 of each in the pools and have have very few losses to date. They will start taking significant losses when my opponent goes on the offensive but until then, life is good for these pilots.

Mavis/Emily production seems high at 30. They are expensive to build at 144 HI apiece. Mine is set at 15 and I have plenty. I've since upgraded to the Emily because it's superior to the Mavis but still use the Mavis where the extra range of the Emily isn't needed.

Ki-15-II - Why are you building this? I would put my resources into the Ki-46-II (and later the III). Granted the Dinah costs twice as much, but the extra range is nice and losses are relatively minor.

Sally - 90 seems kind of high unless you don't plan on building the Helen. If you aren't building the Helen, then 90 is too low. I build 40 Sallies and 90 (recently increased to 120) Helens. I can just barely keep up with losses with the 160 total production. It'll drop off as I shift from GrdB to ASW with these guys.

Ann - I wouldn't build any more of these. Eventually you'll want to upgrade the 1E units to 2E (and will have the PPs available to do it easily). In my game, I built a bunch of Marys (engines already available) for ASW duties but haven't really needed them. I won't bother building any IJA 1E bombers next game.

Oscar - that number works well with me.

Tina and Sally transports - I've been fine with 15 of each, especially with the Tina. I used all of the old IJA transports operationally with the exception of the really short ranged one (Theresa?). There were 36 of them and I used them in the 4 transport chutai (9 plane max each) starting the game in Manchuoko for transport pilot training.

Engines - I build engines to meet my airframe requirements. I didn't check but as long as you have engines for the airframes you want to build when it's time to build them, you're good. You have to look to the future though. I usually plan about 6 months in the future for my engine factories to meet my airframe needs.

[PaxMondo]

+1 to all of Mike's builds.

I also build the Mary out.

One of my first goals is to replace all of the Ida/Sonia groups in operational service. When I get all of my training groups set up, I still have 8 - 10 groups having to use Ida/Sonia, which I only want to use for training. The issue is range. Ida/Sonia range is just too short and bomb loads are only useful in clear terrain. Early on in China (first 4 - 6 months) I use the 1E bombers out of recently taken bases that are typically AF2 until they are built up to AF4. Sallys are being used from further back bases that have been built up.

Eventually, all of my operational groups are flying 2E bombers, but that takes me until late '42 to achieve.

Just me, YMMV.

[Xargun]

I am about to get the A6M5 Zero on my next turn - it will be moved up to 6/42 and the game date will be 6/2 so I will have the ability to build the A6M5s. Do I want to continue researching the A6M5b or change the factories to another aircraft line and let them slowly rebuild ? I looked at the A6M5b and its basically the exact same plane / engine with a slightly different gun configuration which removes a CL 7.7mm MG and replaces it with a CL 13.2mm MG which has a bit more accuracy and more penetration / effect than the 7.7mm so I think the b model is worth getting, but its base date is 6/44 - 2 years away. Would I be better off throwing these R&D factories into something like the A7M jack line or getting the b model ?

[Lokasenna]

How many factories are we talking about?

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

How many factories are we talking about?

I currently have 9 fully repaired A6M5 R&D Factories (size 30) and 1 R&D Factory repairing to size 30. So I can pump out 18% R&D per game day due to having a large pool of Ha-35 engines. Basically I can promote the due date a month every 5.5555 game days (3 game turns as I am doing 2 day turns). So the A6M5b is 24 months away, it would take me roughly 3 months of R&D to get the A6M5b. Looking at it like this, I might just pound out the A6M5b as in 3 months my R&D factories on the A7M2 probably would not be repaired much. Would having the A6M5b in late 42 (Sept or Oct) be advantageous ?

The A6M5b is probably the last plane in that line I would use as it seems superior to the A6M5c in both range, endurance and accurate shooting.

[Spidery]

The A6M5b is probably the last plane in that line I would use as it seems superior to the A6M5c in both range, endurance and accurate shooting.

But the A6M5c is armoured which can be very useful. The A6M8 is also armoured and gets back the speed loss from the armour but at a cost in range.

The A6M5b is just a touch slower than the A6M5 which may offset the weapon improvement.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Spidery
But the A6M5c is armoured which can be very useful. The A6M8 is also armoured and gets back the speed loss from the armour but at a cost in range.

The A6M5b is just a touch slower than the A6M5 which may offset the weapon improvement.

For some reason I was thinking that all the A6M5s were armored.. Looks like I'm going for the A6M5c then...