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This is my thinking as well but other people know the game mechanics far better then me.  It is the reason why I listed strengths and weaknesses for both aircraft.

Am waiting on a turn from Dan so I might do another update.

Probably should do one for our 2x2 as well!

June 25, 1944
Gumma, Japan

The Americans have stayed away from this production center for almost three weeks before the alarm sounds for the impending triple strike.  It is the 'normal' attack of P-38 and 4EB from Iwo Jima, a 4EB attack from Sakhalin, and then the high-altitude strike of B-29 from Sakhalin.  The interesting news is that there aren't very many 4EB from iwo Jima.  Have the Americans sacrificed their bomber strength in return for more fighters?  Perhaps this is the case--only time will tell as to that.

Regardless, the pilots climb into their Fighters and take to the sky.  This is a very balanced force now.  There are equal numbers of Tony, George, Jack, and Tojo fighters.  In short order nearly 120 Fighters are at their assigned altitudes.

Attack One
From Iwo Jima comes 39 P-38 and 39 Liberators.  They are furiously set upon by the Japanese Fighters.  While the P-38s are from the AVG--they have taken so many losses that their skill appears to be falling off.  By falling off this simply means for every one P-38 that falls so does a Japanese fighter.  Still--it is heartening to see nearly 20 P-38 fall in exchange for 22 Japanese planes.  Fully 92 Fighters remain to attack the Liberator crews.  Despite the attacks, only 5 B-24 fall bt nearly ALL the rest are damaged in one way or another.  The bombardiers aim for the Fighter Industry again but only score 4 hits on a Tojo factory.

Attack Two
To the surprise of nearly every pilot, the second strike of 55 Liberators comes into the area with NO ESCORT!  Just over 100 Fighters rise to attack.  Two Fighters fall in exchange for 7 bombers and 33 more damaged.  These planes target an inactive Helen Factory and place 11 bombs on the target.

Attack Three
The final attack comes with 94 B-29 cruising at 33,000 Ft.  Nearly 70 Fighters rise to that altitude while 20 Tony pilots wait below.  The big bombers placidily accept their damage as they drop their bombs on a Frank factory causing some damage (11 hits).  For that return the Jpaanese exact a blood price of 5 B-29 and 39 more are damaged.  Two Fighters fall during the attack.


Totals
The Japanese lose 30 Fighters (21 pilots) in exchange for 19 P-38, 12 Liberators, and 5 B-29.  There are 26 Factory hits from the combined strikes.  The Judges have to conclude that Round Four is a draw between sides.  The Japanese are now 2-1-1 in the Battle of the Skies of Gumma.

Hi John,

re. Shinden vs. Reppu: If I recall correctly from PzBs AAR, once Shinden arrived he gave his opponent a real bad time - thus I'll second Q-Ball - go for Shinden.

Good to see that even though AI stole part of your success your attack on Iwo has positive effects. Let's hope they last a while. I am convinced your plans in China will also help a bit. Finally, if you manage to increase the number of planes on CAP, you will hurt the heavies notably more...

Thus all in all, I think you are on a good way to make strategic bombing more difficult. I hope Dan will see the need to invade the home islands after all...

Regards

Hartwig

Combat Report
June 28, 1944

Singapore
All I have to say in thick Austrian accent is "CROM!"

I do not even want to describe this in narration. Screenshot:

That air result is about what I get from Big-B I'm afraid. I understand most of your pilots are sub-70 exp, it was about 1 to 1 in numbers, and his aircraft were way better than yours. Franks may have done somewhat better, but even there you can expect losses.

I use only 70+ exp pilots in front line, and right now I am fighting to keep Singapore open. I have been successful, but only by having over 125 Franks on CAP. Even then, we are taking heavy losses. I have lost over 500 planes in the last 2 days over Malaya. (took 2 RN BB's with them though, plus a whole bunch of transports)

Shinden for anti-bomber and anti-fighter work. Those cannon will ensure that instead of a few kills and lots of damages you'll get lots of kills and few damages.
 
Reppu is good for high-altitude kamikaze work. Those 2 x 250Kg bombs will do a good job of hurting enemy shipping if the kami hits.

You do need both. Reppus can go on your carriers and make your carriers far superior to what they are now. Almost as good as Hellcats and takes apart Wildcats, gets beaten against the USAAF. Shinden point defense excellent against all comers, eats Hellcats for breakfast.[:D]

This is testing in Stock only not sure of mods

Looking forward to Shindens in June 44 is a good sign of the Japanese being already very desperate! [;)] Still a year to go until the Shinden and it will be the worst for the Japanese compared to the years before...

ORIGINAL: castor troy

Looking forward to Shindens in June 44 is a good sign of the Japanese being already very desperate! [;)] Still a year to go until the Shinden and it will be the worst for the Japanese compared to the years before...

Isn't he a nice guy with all that cheering up... [;)]

ORIGINAL: Mistmatz

ORIGINAL: castor troy

Looking forward to Shindens in June 44 is a good sign of the Japanese being already very desperate! [;)] Still a year to go until the Shinden and it will be the worst for the Japanese compared to the years before...

Isn't he a nice guy with all that cheering up... [;)]

Yes--He has always been a font of optimism, love, and support! [:D]

I will completing the June 30th-July 1st turn this morning and will then do an Economic ad as as Theatre-wide report. The thing will be massive and hands are hurting just thinking of the typing I will be doing.

Hi John -

Do you guys have any set game end conditions already? Or are you just playing until the Allies get the points to trigger an "official" game end?

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

ORIGINAL: Mistmatz

ORIGINAL: castor troy

Looking forward to Shindens in June 44 is a good sign of the Japanese being already very desperate! [;)] Still a year to go until the Shinden and it will be the worst for the Japanese compared to the years before...

Isn't he a nice guy with all that cheering up... [;)]

Yes--He has always been a font of optimism, love, and support! [:D]

I will completing the June 30th-July 1st turn this morning and will then do an Economic ad as as Theatre-wide report. The thing will be massive and hands are hurting just thinking of the typing I will be doing.

[;)]

June 1, 1944
Victory Points and Economic Summary

Victory Points:

Score
Japan    54,226  (Up 517 Points)
Allies   54,229  (Up 3,977 Points)
 
Strategic Losses  6,844 (Up 2,192)

For the fourth month in a row I GAIN victory points.  It seems like a small victory to me. Fully 66% of Dan’s point gain comes in the area of strategic losses.
 
The slugfest in Malaya settled into a stalemate.  This is only an illusion, however, as he has 30 units in Georgetown that can sweep my forces from the peninsula whenever he wants.  I pulled another 100,000 men out of Saigon and Singapore so they can live to fight another day.  Have probably pulled in excess of 500,000 troops from these theatres in the last three months.    

The capture of Paramushiro Jima, Amchitka, and La Foa were the main areas of ground action.  Landings at Wake have also riveted Japan’s attention.
 
Two major Japanese Operations occurred with the supply line strike east of Wake and the mis-carried attack on Iwo Jima.

Ships Sunk
Japan   885—8,964 VP (up 244)—I lost 35 ships during June.  Considering the heavy fighting in Malaya and my withdrawal from Saigon/Singapore, I continue to expect this to be far worse.  These were my losses:  13 AP, 8 AK, 2 TK, 1 DD, 3 MSW, 4 PG, 3 AG,  and 1 SS.   

The MSW and PC were nearly all sunk by SS demonstrated the degree of fighting between my ASW TF and enemy Subs. 
 
Major Japanese Vessels Sunk to Date---CV Junyo, Hiyo, Hiryu, and Katsuragi, BB Fuso, Yamashiro, Mutsu, Nagato, Musashi, and Yamato, BC Kirishima, Haruna, and Kongo, 6 CA , 14 CL, 107 DD, and 46 SS.
 
Allies    1,307---14,518 VP (up 431)---Dan also lost a respectable 61 ships for the month of June.  Exact Losses are:  31 AK, 2 DE, 3 LCT, 10 LCI, 8 LST, 1 AP, 1 MSW, 2 TK, 1 DD, CVE Corregidor, and 5 SS (Ronquil, Robato, Hawkbill, Templat, and Barb)

Major Allied Vessels Sunk---CVs Enterprise, Lexington, Hornet, Wasp and Intrepid, CVL Langley, 6 CVE, BBs Colorado, West Virginia, Idaho, Tennessee, Arizona, Prince of Wales, Alabama, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Mississippi, BC Renown, 15 CA, 9 CL, 99 DD, and 63 SS.  

ASW Attacks for May:
ASW Task Force:  29 (up 15)
ASW Land-Based Air:  19 (up 11)  

These are attacks that scored damage on an Allied SS.
 
Manchukuo Garrison---8,499---Down 123---(8,000 Needed)
Political Points---5,110
 
Units Transferred: 
I shifted to China Command 3 Aviation Regiments to strengthen my AF support.  

There are ten identified Hv AA Regiments moving to Pusan for transition to Japan.  I will but them out in July as well as another Infantry Division to move to the Eastern DEI area.
 
Industrial Report
Supply              1,425,928--Down 129,431
Fuel                  1,261,197—Down 91,920
Manpower       748 (1,243275)—Down 96,248
Heavy Industry 14,303 (277,726)—HI Down 149 and surplus DOWN 5,621
Resources        14,416 (1,829,498)—Lost 649 Resource Centers---Strategic Bombing…
Oil                    2,263 (690,093)—Down 61 Oil Centers but surplus is up 364,950

The Americans continue hitting the wrong target within my economy:  Resources.  Strategic Bombing does damage but it isn’t anything I can live without yet.  Dan is creaming my Resources but my surplus is this area only fell about 19,000 over the previous month.  Fuel is pretty good considering I hauled almost 300,000 out to Palau, Saipan, Manila, and Cebu.  Oil has come back up due to my heavy use of Tankers moving fuel to the locations I just mentioned.   

I was losing about 2,000 HI a day right off my surplus but thanks to Tracker I have managed to achieve an balance.  Several Naval Shipyards, Merchant Shipyards, and Repair Yards were partially closed starting June 1st.  I’ll do the same with my vehicle production this month.
 
Shipyards
Naval             1,253 (8,253)—Lost 53 yard points to Strategic Bombing.
Merchant          981 (10,886)—Massive increase in stockpile.  
Repair            1,475—Down 45 to Strategic Bombing

ALL merchant shipping except anything with less then 100 days to go has been stopped.  I have left ASW Forces on to be completed and they are coming out at pretty good speed.   There is NO Repair Yard safe from Strategic Bombing and I don’t know what to do about that.

Carriers           
Kasagi (60 Days--Normal)
Aso     (125 Days--Accel)
Ikoma   (185 Days)  
Ibuki   (83 Days--Accel)
 
CL Sakawa (63 Days—Accel)  

Have decided to bring Kasagi, Ibuki, Sakawa, and 5 DD in on the SAME day.  It’ll be a ready-made TF that will immediately leave port, evade detection, and head for safer waters.

Weapons
Armament        778 (1,260)-Nice increase of 26 to the industry.
Vehicles        179 (18,635)

Armament plants increasing in Manchuria and Korea.  I had 4 new Inf Div and 5 Brigades come in during June as well as having about 30 units refitting in Java and the DEI area.  
Vehicles are in great shape and I will shut down some of my vehicle plants to conserve HI.
 
Aircraft
Engines             2,014 (down 214)
Assembly        1,769+(38-Rd)

My engines dropped a bunch of points due to bombing and shifting ALL my Kawasaki plants to Nakajima..  

Assembly increased 22 and Research plummeted due to MISTER Frank, Peggy, and Randy starting production this month.  I shifted a number of factories into researching J7W Shinden so Research will start to rise again over time.
 
Engine Production
Mitsubishi         637(63)—Need 724—959 in Pool
Nakajima          1,297(284)—Need 1,495---1,515 in Pool
Kawasaki          000---Need 12---130 in Pool
Aichi              80---Need 85---145 in Pool
 
Big changes in the engine area with those new planes coming online.  SHOULD have enough stockpiled as Nakajima expand.
 
Plane Production
Fighters            Planes/Month (in Pool)
A6M2              0 (138)
A6M3              0 (0)
A6M3a             0 (174)
Oscar             0 (0)
Oscar IIa         0 (14)
Tojo              267 (10)---will shift anytime into Frank Factories.
Tony              0 (40)
Jack              156 (256)
A6M5c             31 (207)
A6M5              111 (583)
Oscar III         60 (10)
Ki-61 Tony       0 (156)
N1K1 George  79 (79)
Frank 1a          307                  I month early (Thank Gawd)
Frank 1c          0-Rd (12/44)
A6M8              0-Rd (06/45)
J7W-Shinde        0-Rd (08/45)   

Naval fighters stay in pretty good shape because I am producing three main models.   

The Army side finally fixes itself with Frank coming online.  As soon as the Tojo autoconvert then I will be producing nearly 600 planes a month.  Tony and Tojo will move to training units and everything else will fight in Frank.
 
 
Bombers
Betty              0 (176)
Betty 2            40 (249)
Frances            104 (149)
Sally              0 (57)
Helen              41 (167)
Lily               40 (40)
Nick-a             0 (24)
Nick-b             0 (0)
Val                0 (380)
Kate               0 (146)
Judy               85 (231)
Jill               0 (232)
Grace              127 (32)                       Started production last month!  
Randy              Lily plants will convert.
Peggy              124                              3 months early.
Betty 2e           38-Rd (10/44)

My Bombers look excellent as Peggy, Grace, and Randy enter service.

Recon/Float
Emily                26 (1)
Alf                  16 (23)
Pete                 0  (99)
Pete A              0  (7)
Rufe                 11 (97)
Glen                 0 (28)
Dinah                0 (0)
Irving-R             24 (63)
Irving-S             23 (28)
Jake                 12 (14)
Babs                 0 (0)
Dinah-3              52 (10)
C6N Myrt             24 (107)

I restarted Alf and Jake production.  Emily expanding slowly to help with numerous losses.  Myrts are coming in and that helps too…

Transports
Tina                14 (0)
Sally               0 (0)
Topsy               28 (7)
Mavis-L             0 (0)
Tabby              0 (15)

Transports did not get heavy losses this month so I have been refilling the units as quickly as I can.  Am using about 100 Transports to help Wake.  
 
 

Hey John ...

[*]Naval and Ship Yard Production spiked this month, which tells me that you 'halted' a lot of ships, but didn't turn off the shipyard... you should be looking at Yard points & ship points needed to find a happy medium.. I know you say you are going to do this, but you said that last month too so I thought I'd pipe up this time.

- as you may well know 8&10K surplus for both is pretty good, but use it up ~ gotta have '29 mentality of using everything off the carcass. Either ride down these points until you get almost to Zero (so have a deficit) or just turn off all the shipYards for a two or three turns, so that you save the HI, the ships are still built, and the Points are reduced ...

Also remember the av. AK = 10 durability and will take 100 days to build. so 100*10 = 1000 points...
Hope you don't mind a quick hijack ...


[*]Very concerned about the Armament production ... unless you want all those units coming in at 25% I'd halt reinforcements to all until these units appear. It is easier to get a full strength unit on arrival than waiting 6 months for it to fill out.

Sorry if you already have instituted these changes / thought about ...
Damian

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

Hi John -

Do you guys have any set game end conditions already? Or are you just playing until the Allies get the points to trigger an "official" game end?

Dan is playing for points and he finally passed me on the July 1st turn. I, personally, don't care. I am fighting to survive/win.

Have been pretty despondent today. My life situation magnifies whenever things go wrong (or right) with the game. I am strongly considering self-revoking my Probation and going back before the Judge for some form of 6-24 month Sentence that could range from Suspended Sentence to Work Release to County Jail. I'll make that decision by the end of January.

The stress is pretty high. My wife is having real issues with my two sons and since I am not allowed to be with (INSANE BULLSHI*) I would prefer jail to the current situation. All my opponents and former opponents are aware of the choices before me and I thought I should throw them out onto the AAR so everyone understands if this simply stops.

Damian--Thanks for the advice.  NEVER feel like you should hold back!

I will shutdown some yards over the next turn or two and burn-up those points.  Cannot believe that I am actually looking forward to a CV and CVL being completed in early-August!  Crazy where you think on it but it is fun. 

As mentioned above it was a rough day. 

I got Dan's morning turn and watched him butcher my air left and right and then panicked when I saw two raids hit Shanghai's Port.  It is one of the three Repair Yards I am using for Warships.  I had 115 Fighters (Good Quality 65-75 Range) protecting the base but they did JACK CRAP.  Down went 33 Fighters for only 9 Fighters, 1 B-24 and 1 B-29.  CV Soryu (which was at 99 Sys during the Sakhalin Invasion) went from Sys 32 to 50--2 Bombs--and CVE Unyo went from 23 Sys to 99 Sys--5 bombs--.

Was so disgusted that I didn't do another turn until just a few minutes ago.  I asked Dan HOW did he know to hit this place?  There has not been ONE Recon flight over the target---NONE!!! 

I wrote the following:

-----Original Message-----
From: John Cochran <jrc_3@msn.com>
To: ropersfive@aol.com
Sent: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:08 pm
Subject: July 1944

.ExternalClass #EC_AOLMsgPart_3_276f4bb9-1abc-432d-a7b4-50524c3295b1 .EC_hmmessage P {padding:0px;} .ExternalClass #EC_AOLMsgPart_3_276f4bb9-1abc-432d-a7b4-50524c3295b1 body.EC_hmmessage {font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana;}

I wanted to get into a discussion regarding the very good points you brought up in the below note but I am so hopping mad right it is better that I don't.  HOW do you KNOW things without doing any Recon over a target???  Gawd I hate the AI within this game.

I'm venting due to frustration.

Also when I copy a successful tactic of yours I get it handed to me!   Ugggggg...

Headed over to see dad, will be calmer, and will write something cogent and perhaps insightful (maybe).
[/align]

His response was:

Looking through the combat report I gather you're speaking of my bombing raid at Shanghai.

I figured long ago that you would harbor ships there, so I waited and checked the port periodically and lo-and-behold cursor intel indicated there was a CV in port.  I wasn't sure it was accurate, but I thought it worth a shot as it was a likely place.Looing through the combat report I gather you're speaking of my bombing raid at Shanghai.

The fearsome reality is that there are NO PORTS safe for me to repair my warships.  NONE!  I have the Fleet disbanded at Soerabaja right now (July 2nd).  It is the safest location in that no Escort can protect his B-29s from Australia.  I have 150 Fighters based there and now all of the KB's Zeros are set on 70% CAP Range ZERO.  If he wants to hit my Fleet after flying through 500 Fighters then please do so.

How do players do this when they enter into the endgame of the war?  Is that a rhetorical question? 

ANY advice would be helpful.

Sorry for the Ranting but I had to vent to someone other then my Cat--Anakin.

That blasted airfield and anchor symbol gives everything away. Might not tell you exactly what ship is there, but it makes it a target with free intel. Sooner or later, you will get a ship count and possibly what ship is there.

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

The fearsome reality is that there are NO PORTS safe for me to repair my warships.  NONE!  I have the Fleet disbanded at Soerabaja right now (July 2nd).  It is the safest location in that no Escort can protect his B-29s from Australia.  I have 150 Fighters based there and now all of the KB's Zeros are set on 70% CAP Range ZERO.  If he wants to hit my Fleet after flying through 500 Fighters then please do so.

How do players do this when they enter into the endgame of the war?  Is that a rhetorical question? 

ANY advice would be helpful.

There comes a point in every game for Japan when there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Even if there are bases outside the range of his land-based aircraft his carrier forces will end up cruising up and down your coasts blasting ports at will.

Usually by the time this happens, though, your fleet has pretty much been expended so it really doesn't matter all that much. You are in an unfortunate position, with bombers within reach of most or all of the Home Islands while you are still trying to contest control of the seas.

You might try sending some ARs to places like Port Arthur and then sneaking some ships up there for repair. Soerabaja seems like a pretty good bet. Any large port that is not currently under air threat will do in a pinch - I've used Manila for this too.

Good luck!

John ... the icon free recon issue is the biggest gripe I have with the game... talk about giving the Allies a HUGE leg up on intel... as if they don;t get enough!

I thought at one stage there was an icon set that hid this stuff ... but both of you would need to use it anyway ... (But I'm not sure)

Good Luck
Damian

Forward planning is the key.... In my game vs 2nd ACR which is in May 1942 I am only expanding repair yards/factories etc at about 6 locations in the Home Islands so that when 1944 comes around I can minimise the number of bases I have to cover in order to maintain an effective military threat.

Obviously if you only have to protect 6 bases instead of 12 you get to have twice the number of fighters over each base with all sorts of non-linear benefits which derive as CAP numbers increase.