Matrix Games Forums

Feb 20, 1943

Strange, odd turn.

For about 2/3rds of the air attacks I got a line item on the large map screen, but it never jumped to the combat animation, and didn't generate a combat report.

I am hoping I accidentally hit some shortcut key while trying to get a screen capture.[&:]

But judging from the air loss page and recon from airfields the combat went thru, but I have no idea the effectiveness of any raid on Prome other than about 15% airfield damage, no planes destroyed on the ground, and unknown casualties inflicted on the ground troops.

A shame, cause the sweeps went in perfectly, the bombing raids looked good over Prome, but I lost 14 bombers to Flak.

Allies bombed the airfield at Ramree, and also Kwaj in the Marshalls. Several CA spotted in the Marshalls, looks like he might be running into Nauru for a bombardment run. Bad timing as three pbs are unloading there...

In Burma, I scaled back the sweeps some, put a few more squadrons on defense, but will keep bombing Prome. Hopefully, I can disrupt some of those AA units there.

Overall, I lost 40 planes to his 11....a good bombardment of Rangoon damages 10 P-400.

But really unsure what happened overall. I hope it was just a one time blip. EDIT: A problem with my computer, too many other programs running, closing and restarting the program fixed it. I was too lazy to watch the turn over again.

Burma

My troops will mostly enter Prome with the next turn, and some on the following turn.

He has 27 units there. Some are chewed up like the Chindits and the American division, others have to be all those small units that originally start in Burma, but there is still a strong armored presence.

This is going to be a bloody campaign.

Something is up!

Are you willing to commit KB without the full complement of CVs?

ORIGINAL: setloz

Are you willing to commit KB without the full complement of CVs?

For about the next 3 months absolutely.

Feb 21, 1943

Jackpot![:D]

I just scratch my head here.[&:] Why in the world were those planes there? It is not like I haven't been bombarding the base almost daily...

Makes me feel much better about my attack on Prome.

Prome is socked in, so some bombers divert to Rangoon. What initiative![:D]

F4Fs sweep in Marshall: 3 Zeroes lost for 1 Wildcat; but no invasions there.

IJN bombardment force at Rangoon thoroughly trashes 1 Dutch sub and 1 American sub. Heavy damage done to the submarines.

Below Burma: Clash at Prome!

Wow, that's a lot of damaged 4Es. [8D]

Can you keep up the bombings? Those planes can't get out until repaired since the railway is blocked. So you could put a serious dent in his bombing abilities.

ORIGINAL: setloz

Wow, that's a lot of damaged 4Es. [8D]

Can you keep up the bombings? Those planes can't get out until repaired since the railway is blocked. So you could put a serious dent in his bombing abilities.

Less planes damaged than you think.[:(] Each hit on a plane counts as one damaged plane, and those guys can absorb a lot of hits. Or that is my belief.

Only 6 were destroyed on the ground, despite a couple of good bombing runs after the bombardment.

Rangoon will get the same treatment (heck the ships rearm at Moulmein), while the bombers and sweeps will be on Prome, plus LR CAP on Prome. Egads, I am going to lose planes over Prome, and the weather will probably prevent me from ever closing the base.

The troops at Prome are going to dig in, and await more troops. I hope he bombards me, since counter battery fire always seems to be more effective. I hope he doesn't ground attack after a super heavy aerial bombardment. Maybe we will both just sit there.[>:]

I have the Chindits totally enclosed and am shock attacking with a division and deliberate attacking with a brigade. I hope I can get them to surrender this turn, before he escapes. But they are tough troops so I think not.

Fusan

Fuel is really starting to flow into Fusan. Resources back up too.

Better yet, no shortages anywhere in Manchuko or China.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Fusan

Fuel is really starting to flow into Fusan. Resources back up too.

Better yet, no shortages anywhere in Manchuko or China.

Stockpiling not set on.
Do you use stockpiling along any of the major stops Singapore to Fusan?

I thought using Stockpiling would be one of the commands to pull extras along the road

Stockpiling seems to create shortages in Manchuko, Port Arthur. So I turned it off everywhere.

Feb 21, 1943

An ugly day in the air, made worse by a miscalculation on my part in the Marshalls.

Night attacks at Moulmein by Allied 4Es, the KAI Dinah rise to interfere, but there are so many and as always very effective. 19 planes destroyed on the ground, more damaged. Runway 17 percent damaged.

Well, it would have been worse if not for the Dinahs on CAP. One got shot down during the waves, but at least the Dinah was able to sortie and interfere with every wave.

Not a single 4e lost. Sigh.

The Rangoon bombardment gets a little payback, but is unable to actually destroy any planes on the ground. Will try again tomorrow.

Then the first sweeps of Prome, and this time they aren't coordinated, a lot of funky sweeps arriving piecemeal. I wonder if that is because I had two squadrons on LR CAP.

From the picture below you can see how many fighters the Allies put there in Prome.

Well, it was a bloody day in the Air, but a dozen P38 are down.

I will revert to night bombing of Prome, and continue the sweeps as best I can morale willing. We will see what happens.

Prome is now a level 4 airfield.

The air war -- absolutely the bane of my life.

In the Marshalls, I moved 14 destroyers to Jaluit, which has not been observed in a long time, however, they did not make it in time to disband, and were subsequently attacked by every American Naval unit from his dead carriers. Wave after wave for both am and pm.

It wasn't until the pm phase that any hits were made, the torpedo bombers reverted to bombs and started making hits. One destroyer sunk, another with 85 percent fires and another with 83 percent flooding. Well, two lost destroyers for some valuable intel....

Once I get my carriers sorted out and upgraded, I will try to run in another decoy destroyer group with a ton of LR CAP.

Still, stupid of me...thinking of nailing those lousy pt boats and not giving the destroyers any LR CAP to begin with for fear of his bombers hitting the airfields.

Attack on isolated Chindits.

Just die already.

All quiet at Prome. No attacks by either side on the ground. My infantry divisions and some artillery are dug in to level 1.

After much juggling of air frames in the Burma area, there will be a large night air attack from a half dozen bases against Prome. Hopefully, it will work. I really dislike the night model, but what can you do?

KAI Dinah's are on night CAP, and at least a couple of his 4e squadrons are mangled at Rangoon.

Many, many sweeps of Prome are scheduled. Fresh Tonies, Tojos, and even Oscar IIa.

It will be another bloody, bloody day in the Air over Burma. I would rather fight Lightnings on CAP than have them sweep me.

More troops arrive at Prome, and in two days I will launch the Magwe assault to the west and cutting off the road. CA bombardment of Rangoon as normal.

Don't dispair about the air war. We all wrestle with it.

You're doing a great job. Keep the attrition on the Allies in Burma - every squad, tank and plane the Allies commit to Burma is one that they're not going to be using elsewhere.

Some comments:

- What is your fighter pilot training regime like? Are you making sure that your pilots have as high a DEF skill as possible? I've found that DEF can be a critical skill in preventing big losses in A2A.

- How are you constructing your sweeps? Are you making the most optimium use of your aircraft? Despite what some people on this forum will say, altitude isn't everything (though it does seem the single most significant factor). You need you use your airframes to suit their advantages. Tojo's make the high sweeps while the Zero, Oscar and Tony take the middle to lower altitude. Don't be afraid to send in high MVR planes (Zero and Oscar) in at low altitude on sweeps - they'll do an excellent job of drawing the CAP down into a big turning dogfight where they'll have the advantage. Take this with a grain of salt, I've had results almost exactly the same as yours.

- Are you using Rufe's in the Marshalls at all? I'm developing a growing love for these aircraft as excellent second line fighters. Resizing them on CS's can give you a decent sized fighter unit to work with, and they don't even need an airbase. A disbanded AV or two in a dot hex gives you the Rufe equivilant of a size 1 airbase, which in the Central Pacific (with all the 0(0) bases) can be quite important. The Rufe's can't do frontline work, but they can disrupt bombers on LRCAP or serve as CAP for bases farther in the rear that are exposed to 4E's, freeing up better fighters for the frontline. You have the airframe and the squadrons, you may as well use them.

- Don't get disheartened about the lack of airframes destroyed on the ground. With the Allies in their current position, a damaged airframe is as good as a destroyed one - they're not flying out, nor railing out.

- I suggest you look at trying to take the base directly NW of Rangoon (Bassien?), and then close the hexside between Rangoon and that base with a expendable unit (the shock attack will likely trash it). Considering how fickle river shock attacks can be in AE, you'll want to get on the west side of the Irrawady as soon as you can. It also has the dual purpose of making Prome look very, very exposed.