March 17 -
Well, this is interesting - Tophat has a sub about six hexes south of Christmas Island, moving eastwards. Does he think that I still have task forces moving that far south? Is he setting up to catch task forces that go south if he sends the KB out again? Is he trying to sneak back into the Eastern Pacific from the south? In any event, I'm sending an AVD after that sub just in case I can hit it and get it out of the way. There haven't been any other Japanese sub sightings in quite a while. I suspect that Tophat thinks that I am rushing reinforcements to Australia and the DEI.
Otherwise, Tophat is back to doing lots of aerial attacks, particularly against Manila and Singapore. He also started to unload troops at Guiuan and captured Wasile this turn with the troops that he landed last turn. In China we continued to exchange artillery bombardments and build up forces against each other.
My bombers in Java took off this time after another Japanese TF off the south coast of Borneo. The Dutch bombers missed an AP in a task force but did set an MSW on fire. It's not much, but every little bit helps.
Tophat has a couple of engineering units in Mandalay so they were able to increase the airfield size from 2 to 3. Soon I will have to contend with Japanese bombers in Mandalay too. But that's okay; I'm more than willing to let Tophat take air losses over my bases in India.
Dave Baranyi
Here's an interesting bit of additional information I got while I was compiling the SIGINT into my Intel spreadsheet - the 1st Parachute Regiment is in Palembang now. I wonder where they will try to go?
ADB
Tophat vs ADavidB - Back at It
Moderators: wdolson, Don Bowen, mogami
There is a price...
I decided to post a mid-March update of the main score page to point out a couple of things. First off, Tophat has come within a couple hundred points of me, even without taking Manila and Singapore yet. One thing to keep in mind is that I'm not actively increasing the size of too many ports and airfields right now (which give me more points) but I am building up fortifications like crazy (which don't give me more points).
But more something more interesting is showing up in the air stats - Tophat is now almost a hundred loss points ahead of me. Look at his losses due to anti-aircraft fire. His current campaign to try to get experience through bombing my troops is costing him dearly. I am definitely better off keeping my planes out of the line of fire and letting AA and operational losses be my "secret weapon". [:D]
Dave Baranyi
BTW - the reason that I don't have any political points is that I have been changing leaders like crazy recently, all over the map.
ADB
But more something more interesting is showing up in the air stats - Tophat is now almost a hundred loss points ahead of me. Look at his losses due to anti-aircraft fire. His current campaign to try to get experience through bombing my troops is costing him dearly. I am definitely better off keeping my planes out of the line of fire and letting AA and operational losses be my "secret weapon". [:D]
Dave Baranyi
BTW - the reason that I don't have any political points is that I have been changing leaders like crazy recently, all over the map.
ADB
- Attachments
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- March17Totals.jpg (42.85 KiB) Viewed 232 times
Doubts in the DEI...
March 18 -
I'm not sure what Tophat is up to in the DEI. This turn there were no air attacks on any of my remaining Dutch bases, nor any bombardments, nor any task forces heading in directions that suggest invasion. In fact most of the Japanese task forces were headed away from the DEI, with the exception of that five-battleship TF that is sitting in Amboina. Maybe Tophat is just taking a breather in order to pull some fuel, supplies, oil and resources out of his recent acquisitions. Maybe he is repositioning his forces - he did start to land troops at Manokwari this turn and captured Guiuan with the troops that he landed there last turn.
A breather in the DEI is not bad from my perspective. I need to rest my Dutch air units and I'm certainly not going to try to contest the "high seas" against his big combat TF with my remaining Dutch surface forces. Anyway, Tophat is not being totally quiet - he continued with his daily aerial bombardments of Singapore and Manila along with an artillery bombardment of Manila.
In China Tophat kicked my two Chinese cavalry units and one Chinese infantry unit out of that crossroads hex between Changsha and Hengchow with only one Japanese infantry unit. However, he only achieved a 3:1 ratio, and my troops were pretty heavily fatigued, so I've decided to try again by sending four rested, strong Chinese infantry units forward along with a Chinese headquarters unit. I'll set them up at that hex just up the road towards Chungking from that crossroads and wait for an opportunity to try again.
The Central Pacific remains quiet. I am repositioning a new submarine picket line to the west of the Midway/Johnson Island line. I pulled back all of my subs that are due for April upgrades and am repairing them while waiting for the beginning of the month. However, Tophat continues to do something very odd with his subs in the Southeastern Pacific. That sub that was south of Christmas Island last turn is now 9 hexes southeast and heading in a south easterly direction. (My AVD didn't make contact - I was expecting the sub to continue to the East.) What the devil does Tophat expect to find down there? Oh well, I'm not going to complain about him wasting fuel and putting on system damage out in the Great Vacant South East.
Tophat has another sub that my planes spotted heading east seven hexes due South of Kona. That sub is also out of range of any of my ships, and heading towards the northern edges of the "Great Southern Nowhere", so once again I don't really care. I did swap my Coronado squadron from Hilo with the Midway Catalina squadron, and I changed my Johnson Island Catalinas to Coronados, so I ought to decrease my "blind zones" a bit in the Central Pacific where I really care.
BTW - Another fighter-bomber group and a squadron of Dauntlesses will land at Pearl in another day or too. That will give me nearly three hundred fighters and fighter-bombers along with several hundred level bombers and two dive bomber squadrons on my four current bases in the Hawaiian Islands. And I've got most of my long range bombers still on the West Coast or Alaska where they can fly directly in to add hundreds more level bombers to any fight. So along with the base force and combat unit that are sailing towards Molokai, all these planes are making feel much better about Hawaii. (Particularly in light of Admiral Laurent's AAR of his Hawaiian invasion! [;)] )
BTW II - I now have around 3000 fighters and fighter-bombers, and around 2000 bombers of all sorts. (And no, I don't have them all in one big base… [:D] )
BTW III - The big news in my build-up strategy is that the Port in Anchorage finally reached level 9. This will make mining the Aleutians and supporting future operations in the north much easier.
Dave Baranyi
I'm not sure what Tophat is up to in the DEI. This turn there were no air attacks on any of my remaining Dutch bases, nor any bombardments, nor any task forces heading in directions that suggest invasion. In fact most of the Japanese task forces were headed away from the DEI, with the exception of that five-battleship TF that is sitting in Amboina. Maybe Tophat is just taking a breather in order to pull some fuel, supplies, oil and resources out of his recent acquisitions. Maybe he is repositioning his forces - he did start to land troops at Manokwari this turn and captured Guiuan with the troops that he landed there last turn.
A breather in the DEI is not bad from my perspective. I need to rest my Dutch air units and I'm certainly not going to try to contest the "high seas" against his big combat TF with my remaining Dutch surface forces. Anyway, Tophat is not being totally quiet - he continued with his daily aerial bombardments of Singapore and Manila along with an artillery bombardment of Manila.
In China Tophat kicked my two Chinese cavalry units and one Chinese infantry unit out of that crossroads hex between Changsha and Hengchow with only one Japanese infantry unit. However, he only achieved a 3:1 ratio, and my troops were pretty heavily fatigued, so I've decided to try again by sending four rested, strong Chinese infantry units forward along with a Chinese headquarters unit. I'll set them up at that hex just up the road towards Chungking from that crossroads and wait for an opportunity to try again.
The Central Pacific remains quiet. I am repositioning a new submarine picket line to the west of the Midway/Johnson Island line. I pulled back all of my subs that are due for April upgrades and am repairing them while waiting for the beginning of the month. However, Tophat continues to do something very odd with his subs in the Southeastern Pacific. That sub that was south of Christmas Island last turn is now 9 hexes southeast and heading in a south easterly direction. (My AVD didn't make contact - I was expecting the sub to continue to the East.) What the devil does Tophat expect to find down there? Oh well, I'm not going to complain about him wasting fuel and putting on system damage out in the Great Vacant South East.
Tophat has another sub that my planes spotted heading east seven hexes due South of Kona. That sub is also out of range of any of my ships, and heading towards the northern edges of the "Great Southern Nowhere", so once again I don't really care. I did swap my Coronado squadron from Hilo with the Midway Catalina squadron, and I changed my Johnson Island Catalinas to Coronados, so I ought to decrease my "blind zones" a bit in the Central Pacific where I really care.
BTW - Another fighter-bomber group and a squadron of Dauntlesses will land at Pearl in another day or too. That will give me nearly three hundred fighters and fighter-bombers along with several hundred level bombers and two dive bomber squadrons on my four current bases in the Hawaiian Islands. And I've got most of my long range bombers still on the West Coast or Alaska where they can fly directly in to add hundreds more level bombers to any fight. So along with the base force and combat unit that are sailing towards Molokai, all these planes are making feel much better about Hawaii. (Particularly in light of Admiral Laurent's AAR of his Hawaiian invasion! [;)] )
BTW II - I now have around 3000 fighters and fighter-bombers, and around 2000 bombers of all sorts. (And no, I don't have them all in one big base… [:D] )
BTW III - The big news in my build-up strategy is that the Port in Anchorage finally reached level 9. This will make mining the Aleutians and supporting future operations in the north much easier.
Dave Baranyi
-
AmiralLaurent
- Posts: 3351
- Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2003 8:53 pm
- Location: Near Paris, France
RE: Doubts in the DEI...
Eat you supper or AmiralLaurent will invade you...bbooooOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!! [:D]
Nice defence Dave, in none of my game had the Allied player still more points than Japan in March. Can you post a map of the main area or the strategic map to help understand what is happening ?
Nice defence Dave, in none of my game had the Allied player still more points than Japan in March. Can you post a map of the main area or the strategic map to help understand what is happening ?
RE: Doubts in the DEI...
ORIGINAL: AmiralLaurent
Eat you supper or AmiralLaurent will invade you...bbooooOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!! [:D]
Nice defence Dave, in none of my game had the Allied player still more points than Japan in March. Can you post a map of the main area or the strategic map to help understand what is happening ?
Okay, here is the strategic map.
Thanks for the comments -
Dave Baranyi
- Attachments
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- MidMarch..gicView.jpg (88.03 KiB) Viewed 232 times
Easy pickings...
March 19 -
For the most part Tophat is now going after "easy pickings" - those bases in northern PNG, the Bismarks, or the Solomons that are undefended. So, for example, this turn he landed troops at Talasea and Buka, his troops captured Manokwari and he occupied Samo by "osmosis". But he is trying to capture Samarinda by attack, and things didn't work out that well for him this turn:
Ground combat at Samarinda
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 6071 troops, 61 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 5234 troops, 62 guns, 7 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese ground losses:
783 casualties reported
Guns lost 11
Two things happened to Tophat's forces there. First off, his forces crossed a river and so were forced into a shock attack. Second, not all of my troops at Samarinda have retreated from other lost bases and thus are not already combat-shocked. So, who knows, if Tophat doesn’t send in more troops I might be able to create a nice little stalemate in Samarinda too.
Otherwise, things were pretty quiet, other than the usual air attacks in China, Singapore and Luzon. I now have nearly 500 planes in the Hawaiian Islands split among four bases, with another big naval base force just a couple of days sail out from Morotai, where they will soon to be setting up my fifth Hawaiian base. (Sweet! [:D])
Dave Baranyi
For the most part Tophat is now going after "easy pickings" - those bases in northern PNG, the Bismarks, or the Solomons that are undefended. So, for example, this turn he landed troops at Talasea and Buka, his troops captured Manokwari and he occupied Samo by "osmosis". But he is trying to capture Samarinda by attack, and things didn't work out that well for him this turn:
Ground combat at Samarinda
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 6071 troops, 61 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 5234 troops, 62 guns, 7 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese ground losses:
783 casualties reported
Guns lost 11
Two things happened to Tophat's forces there. First off, his forces crossed a river and so were forced into a shock attack. Second, not all of my troops at Samarinda have retreated from other lost bases and thus are not already combat-shocked. So, who knows, if Tophat doesn’t send in more troops I might be able to create a nice little stalemate in Samarinda too.
Otherwise, things were pretty quiet, other than the usual air attacks in China, Singapore and Luzon. I now have nearly 500 planes in the Hawaiian Islands split among four bases, with another big naval base force just a couple of days sail out from Morotai, where they will soon to be setting up my fifth Hawaiian base. (Sweet! [:D])
Dave Baranyi
More easy pickings...
March 20 -
Tophat is continuing his steady, "risk free" approach to expansion, and quite frankly, there is little I can do but watch and admire it. [:(] This turn he started to land troops at Tacloban and I just noticed that he has a combat unit just outside of Teloebetoeng. I have an infantry unit and two base forces in Teloebetoeng - I wonder if they can delay his forces as well as that base force did in Palembang. In any event, I am sending some bombers after that incoming unit and I'll put some CAP over Teloebetoeng just in case Tophat tries to use his air transports again.
Elsewhere, Tophat sent bombers after Samarinda while he rested his combat troops there. He also sent a lot of bombers after Manila and Bataan. And as a sign of how close to the end are my troops in both bases, there was no AA fire against any of Tophat's planes.
Tophat also sent some Nells after Tjilitjap, but they ran into a flight of Brewsters who shot down two of the Nells and damaged a bunch more. I wonder if Tophat is planning an "end around" and will try to invade Java at Tjilitjap instead of somewhere along the East Coast? I've got every base in Java defended as best as possible, and I'm moving an AA unit and another base force to that inland base that can't be bombarded so that I have a relatively safe place to keep my bombers during any serious attack. Of course, my strategy presupposes that Tophat continues to keep the KB in reserve and doesn't bring it into the DEI to suppress my air units in a big way.
My forces were pretty quiet this turn. Some Dutch bombers flew out of Java and tried to hit transports at Balikpapan, but Tophat has Zeros on CAP and my bombers didn't get any hits (although their losses were remarkably light). I'm going to leave those bombers set to "naval attack" so that they force Tophat to keep fighters on CAP over his TFs. I want to keep his air power split up as much as possible.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat is continuing his steady, "risk free" approach to expansion, and quite frankly, there is little I can do but watch and admire it. [:(] This turn he started to land troops at Tacloban and I just noticed that he has a combat unit just outside of Teloebetoeng. I have an infantry unit and two base forces in Teloebetoeng - I wonder if they can delay his forces as well as that base force did in Palembang. In any event, I am sending some bombers after that incoming unit and I'll put some CAP over Teloebetoeng just in case Tophat tries to use his air transports again.
Elsewhere, Tophat sent bombers after Samarinda while he rested his combat troops there. He also sent a lot of bombers after Manila and Bataan. And as a sign of how close to the end are my troops in both bases, there was no AA fire against any of Tophat's planes.
Tophat also sent some Nells after Tjilitjap, but they ran into a flight of Brewsters who shot down two of the Nells and damaged a bunch more. I wonder if Tophat is planning an "end around" and will try to invade Java at Tjilitjap instead of somewhere along the East Coast? I've got every base in Java defended as best as possible, and I'm moving an AA unit and another base force to that inland base that can't be bombarded so that I have a relatively safe place to keep my bombers during any serious attack. Of course, my strategy presupposes that Tophat continues to keep the KB in reserve and doesn't bring it into the DEI to suppress my air units in a big way.
My forces were pretty quiet this turn. Some Dutch bombers flew out of Java and tried to hit transports at Balikpapan, but Tophat has Zeros on CAP and my bombers didn't get any hits (although their losses were remarkably light). I'm going to leave those bombers set to "naval attack" so that they force Tophat to keep fighters on CAP over his TFs. I want to keep his air power split up as much as possible.
Dave Baranyi
Yet more easy pickings...
March 21 -
One of those rare miracles happened during the night phase of this turn - my Blenheim IF night fighters actually hit the target at Mandalay and destroyed an Oscar on the ground. Of course, that's assuming that the buggers aren't just pulling my leg. Tophat isn't having many doubts about the effectiveness of his bombing attacks; he has been spreading his attacks out and getting causing more damage with fewer losses. It's still a case of Oscars against open cockpit Chinese fighters as neither of us has committed modern fighters in China.
Speaking of modern fighters, a strange thing has been happening to mine recently. I have been getting a number of damaged planes in units that are not flying active combat. Sure, they are on limited training or CAP, but still it's very odd how sometimes a bunch of fighters will suddenly become damaged for no apparent reason. And my rate of repair of planes has slowed down recently, even at big air bases with plenty of air support units and even Air HQs present. Hopefully these planes will get over this "unknown damage" stage before Tophat launches any long range attacks.
Tophat's invasions continue to go successfully. This turn he captured Buka, Tacloban and Talasea. He is still bombing and bombarding Manila - I guess sooner or later he will deal the final blow to those defenders. Once that happens I will have to keep my eyes peeled for where his units end up going.
I just noticed this turn that my DMS ships are due for the April 42 upgrade too. I hadn't realized that. Fortunately, most are within range of ports with repair facilities and don't have significant system damage. I have been deliberately moving damaged transport ships out of "upgrade" ports and into secondary ports so that as many of my combat ships are at less than "3" system damage. I can't wait until I start to get more AR, AS and AD ships to help with repairs.
Dave Baranyi
One of those rare miracles happened during the night phase of this turn - my Blenheim IF night fighters actually hit the target at Mandalay and destroyed an Oscar on the ground. Of course, that's assuming that the buggers aren't just pulling my leg. Tophat isn't having many doubts about the effectiveness of his bombing attacks; he has been spreading his attacks out and getting causing more damage with fewer losses. It's still a case of Oscars against open cockpit Chinese fighters as neither of us has committed modern fighters in China.
Speaking of modern fighters, a strange thing has been happening to mine recently. I have been getting a number of damaged planes in units that are not flying active combat. Sure, they are on limited training or CAP, but still it's very odd how sometimes a bunch of fighters will suddenly become damaged for no apparent reason. And my rate of repair of planes has slowed down recently, even at big air bases with plenty of air support units and even Air HQs present. Hopefully these planes will get over this "unknown damage" stage before Tophat launches any long range attacks.
Tophat's invasions continue to go successfully. This turn he captured Buka, Tacloban and Talasea. He is still bombing and bombarding Manila - I guess sooner or later he will deal the final blow to those defenders. Once that happens I will have to keep my eyes peeled for where his units end up going.
I just noticed this turn that my DMS ships are due for the April 42 upgrade too. I hadn't realized that. Fortunately, most are within range of ports with repair facilities and don't have significant system damage. I have been deliberately moving damaged transport ships out of "upgrade" ports and into secondary ports so that as many of my combat ships are at less than "3" system damage. I can't wait until I start to get more AR, AS and AD ships to help with repairs.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat takes the lead...
March 22 -
Tophat has finally pulled ahead of me on points. I guess that those last three bases he took were enough to push him in front. Of course, once he takes Manila he will get a big point boost, but he does have to take it first. And that shouldn't take much longer. Tophat continues to hit Manila with artillery and aerial bombardments every turn. I would expect that one more shock attack ought to be enough, assuming that his troops aren't too fatigued.
Tophat is starting to put a lot more pressure on Java. This turn he sent 27-plane Zero sweeps against both Batavia and Tjilitjap. My Dutch fighters managed to shoot down one Zero, but that is little consolation for the losses. But my bombers and remaining fighters in Batavia still managed to take off and hit that Japanese unit that is marching on Teloebetoeng.
And Tophat is also getting more serious about Samarinda - he sent a CA-lead task force in to bombard the base this turn. They caused lots of damage but that's okay - I don't expect to hold the place in the long run and Tophat will have to eventually fix that damage.
My frustration with the "mystery" plane damage is continuing to build. I now have one squadron of the AVG that has half of its planes damaged - and that unit was at "stand down" last turn. And that was in a non-malarial base, with lots of supplies, lots of air support, a level 4 base, only around 100 planes, and an Air HQ sitting there. I vaguely remember this problem occurring in earlier versions of the game; I only wish that I remembered what I had to do to stop the problem. I will likely need to pull the AVG out of the border area, recombine it, stand it down, and leave it alone for a while. Gawd, I hate fighting the bugs in this game. [:@]
Dave Baranyi
Tophat has finally pulled ahead of me on points. I guess that those last three bases he took were enough to push him in front. Of course, once he takes Manila he will get a big point boost, but he does have to take it first. And that shouldn't take much longer. Tophat continues to hit Manila with artillery and aerial bombardments every turn. I would expect that one more shock attack ought to be enough, assuming that his troops aren't too fatigued.
Tophat is starting to put a lot more pressure on Java. This turn he sent 27-plane Zero sweeps against both Batavia and Tjilitjap. My Dutch fighters managed to shoot down one Zero, but that is little consolation for the losses. But my bombers and remaining fighters in Batavia still managed to take off and hit that Japanese unit that is marching on Teloebetoeng.
And Tophat is also getting more serious about Samarinda - he sent a CA-lead task force in to bombard the base this turn. They caused lots of damage but that's okay - I don't expect to hold the place in the long run and Tophat will have to eventually fix that damage.
My frustration with the "mystery" plane damage is continuing to build. I now have one squadron of the AVG that has half of its planes damaged - and that unit was at "stand down" last turn. And that was in a non-malarial base, with lots of supplies, lots of air support, a level 4 base, only around 100 planes, and an Air HQ sitting there. I vaguely remember this problem occurring in earlier versions of the game; I only wish that I remembered what I had to do to stop the problem. I will likely need to pull the AVG out of the border area, recombine it, stand it down, and leave it alone for a while. Gawd, I hate fighting the bugs in this game. [:@]
Dave Baranyi
Voodoo science...
March 23 -
Tophat continues expand steadily. This turn he occupied Muntok by "osmosis" and started to land troops at Sansapor. His troops also tried a deliberate attack on Samarinda, but were rewarded with a 0:1 result and twice the casualties of the Dutch defenders. Tophat doesn't have any engineers in Samarinda to lower the fortifications which stand at 2, on their way to 3.
Tophat's air units continue their domination of the air over Java. I've stood down more fighters just to save and rest them a bit. As long as Tophat doesn't start to send in his planes in on sweeps at 100 feet I will be okay. Tophat is also increasing the pressure on my Chinese air units. Now with the AVG having general maintenance problems, the Chinese flyboys are definitely on their own.
Tophat and I agreed to try some "voodoo science" on the game since he is also suffering from "mystery" damage to planes. So we are now both shutting down and restarting our PCs before running turns, and erasing the old saves so that the new saves go in "clean". None of this should make a difference, but we don't know what else to do. [&o]
Just another week and I get the April upgrades. That will be a relief. I am also only a few weeks away from the next big release of reinforcements which will also be quite welcome. Tophat has some serious plan underway, so I am expecting a big hammer stroke to fall somewhere in the near future and I want to be as prepared as possible.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat continues expand steadily. This turn he occupied Muntok by "osmosis" and started to land troops at Sansapor. His troops also tried a deliberate attack on Samarinda, but were rewarded with a 0:1 result and twice the casualties of the Dutch defenders. Tophat doesn't have any engineers in Samarinda to lower the fortifications which stand at 2, on their way to 3.
Tophat's air units continue their domination of the air over Java. I've stood down more fighters just to save and rest them a bit. As long as Tophat doesn't start to send in his planes in on sweeps at 100 feet I will be okay. Tophat is also increasing the pressure on my Chinese air units. Now with the AVG having general maintenance problems, the Chinese flyboys are definitely on their own.
Tophat and I agreed to try some "voodoo science" on the game since he is also suffering from "mystery" damage to planes. So we are now both shutting down and restarting our PCs before running turns, and erasing the old saves so that the new saves go in "clean". None of this should make a difference, but we don't know what else to do. [&o]
Just another week and I get the April upgrades. That will be a relief. I am also only a few weeks away from the next big release of reinforcements which will also be quite welcome. Tophat has some serious plan underway, so I am expecting a big hammer stroke to fall somewhere in the near future and I want to be as prepared as possible.
Dave Baranyi
RE: Voodoo science...
Hi Dave,
I've also experienced problems with my Allied air wings - especially 72 strength Warhawk and Tomahawk units.
Even on 30% CAP in a large and well supported base more and more ac became damaged. I've had to divide them or stand them down
altogether.
I've also experienced problems with my Allied air wings - especially 72 strength Warhawk and Tomahawk units.
Even on 30% CAP in a large and well supported base more and more ac became damaged. I've had to divide them or stand them down
altogether.
"The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without"
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
RE: Voodoo science...
ORIGINAL: PzB
Hi Dave,
I've also experienced problems with my Allied air wings - especially 72 strength Warhawk and Tomahawk units.
Even on 30% CAP in a large and well supported base more and more ac became damaged. I've had to divide them or stand them down
altogether.
I'm having this problem both with unified groups and split groups - and also with P-39s as well as P-40s. I keep on suspecting that this has to do with how the program is tracking losses in memory and the database. It seems to happen more when the Allies are losing more planes - it's as if the program sees lots of Brewters get whacked and counts the damage against the P-40s in California instead.
I wish some other company would buy WitP away from Matrix/2x3 and do it again, but without all these bugs. I'm willing to bet that most of the current owners would buy a new, fixed-up version at the drop of a hat if it were available.
Dave Baranyi
(just dreamin' on...)
Mystery disease...
March 24 -
Tophat continues to press throughout the DEI and PNG. A cruiser-headed bombardment task force hit Samarinda, while the big five battleship bombardment TF hit Kai again. There's not much to damage at Kai, therefore not much happened other than the supplies being destroyed. So I'll just fly in more supplies again the next few turns. Tophat also started to land some troops at Sag Sag while his troops from the previous day's landing captured Sansapor.
Tophat also tried another deliberate attack at Samarinda after that naval bombardment but the result was still 0:1, although this time casualties were just about even on both sides. Everywhere else Tophat stuck with artillery bombardments. Who knows, Manila may last until April.
As expected, Tophat's Zeros tried sweeps over Java, but he didn't find any of my fighters - I am resting them all. In fact, I may end up having to rest all of my fighters everywhere because of the ever increasing number being hit with the "mystery disease". Maybe the program can't handle there being 4000 Allied fighters in the game at one time and it arbitrarily sets some percentage to "damaged"?
Anyway, that bug or "feature" (I'm not sure which) aside, the rest of my slow build-up is proceeding as planned.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat continues to press throughout the DEI and PNG. A cruiser-headed bombardment task force hit Samarinda, while the big five battleship bombardment TF hit Kai again. There's not much to damage at Kai, therefore not much happened other than the supplies being destroyed. So I'll just fly in more supplies again the next few turns. Tophat also started to land some troops at Sag Sag while his troops from the previous day's landing captured Sansapor.
Tophat also tried another deliberate attack at Samarinda after that naval bombardment but the result was still 0:1, although this time casualties were just about even on both sides. Everywhere else Tophat stuck with artillery bombardments. Who knows, Manila may last until April.
As expected, Tophat's Zeros tried sweeps over Java, but he didn't find any of my fighters - I am resting them all. In fact, I may end up having to rest all of my fighters everywhere because of the ever increasing number being hit with the "mystery disease". Maybe the program can't handle there being 4000 Allied fighters in the game at one time and it arbitrarily sets some percentage to "damaged"?
Anyway, that bug or "feature" (I'm not sure which) aside, the rest of my slow build-up is proceeding as planned.
Dave Baranyi
RE: Mystery disease...
You have enough air support in your bases, haven´t you?
If you like what I said love me,if you dislike what I say ignore me!
"Extra Bavaria non est vita! Et sic est vita non est ita!"
"Extra Bavaria non est vita! Et sic est vita non est ita!"
RE: Mystery disease...
ORIGINAL: Frank
You have enough air support in your bases, haven´t you?
Oh yes, definitely. For example, in one of the more offending cases, I have a level 6 airfield, with something over 300 air support points, just over 100 aircraft in the base, 200 general support points over what is required, 10 times the required supply, a land HQ, an Air HQ, a 70/70 leader in charge of the fighter squadron, and it is in a temperate zone. The 7 bomber squadrons in the base (Brit and Australian Blenheim IVs with 12 - 16 planes per squadron) are not seeing this problem at all - they repair essentially the next day. But my AVG "third" went from 26/0 (repaired/damaged) to 22/0 to 19/7 to 15/11 to 13/13 over consecutive days, with no combat, no raids on the base and training set to 20% at 10,000 feet. Now that I've set training to "0", they have gone back to 15/11.
On a hunch I looked at the air rating of the Air HQ leader and I found that it was pretty abysmal - 20 or so. So I checked out the other available leaders for that Air HQ (a Brit air HQ) and found that most had equally bad air ratings or even worse! (There is one in there with an Air rating of 5!) But I found one with an air rating around 50, so I substituted him. So, yes, I've changed two variables simulataneously, but I am too frustrated at this point to "play scientist" too closely.
BTW - I have been seeing similar things with my fighters and fighter bombers in the West Coast bases too.
Thanks for your comments -
Dave Baranyi
A busy man...
March 25 -
Tophat is really increasing his pace of advancement now. This turn he landed troops at Ormoc, Tomini and Buin, captured Sag Sag and sent a bombardment fleet against Singkawang. In addition he also sent a lot of bombers against Singapore, so he is obviously planning to go back there in the near future. Tophat's troops also reached Teloebetoeng. All of Tophat's other ground attacks were artillery bombardments.
In contrast the Allies were pretty quiet this turn. A Japanese AK did sink in port from old damage, but nothing new was attacked. The "fighter disease" continued to spread to most Allied fighter squadrons and groups that weren't set to "stand down", with the exception of the planes in the Soviet Union and Australia. (Go figure that one… [&:] )
Now that Tophat is spreading his troops farther into the Solomons, once the April upgrades show up I may very well send a carrier TF out there to try to find some "easy pickings". Tophat is probably expecting that too, but I can't just let him sail along without any interference.
Speaking of "sailing along" - Tophat's subs have disappeared off of the map recently. He is doing no obvious scouting of the Eastern or Southeastern Pacific sailing routes. This really makes me wonder what he was doing with those subs that were sailing to the far Southeast…[&:]
Dave Baranyi
Tophat is really increasing his pace of advancement now. This turn he landed troops at Ormoc, Tomini and Buin, captured Sag Sag and sent a bombardment fleet against Singkawang. In addition he also sent a lot of bombers against Singapore, so he is obviously planning to go back there in the near future. Tophat's troops also reached Teloebetoeng. All of Tophat's other ground attacks were artillery bombardments.
In contrast the Allies were pretty quiet this turn. A Japanese AK did sink in port from old damage, but nothing new was attacked. The "fighter disease" continued to spread to most Allied fighter squadrons and groups that weren't set to "stand down", with the exception of the planes in the Soviet Union and Australia. (Go figure that one… [&:] )
Now that Tophat is spreading his troops farther into the Solomons, once the April upgrades show up I may very well send a carrier TF out there to try to find some "easy pickings". Tophat is probably expecting that too, but I can't just let him sail along without any interference.
Speaking of "sailing along" - Tophat's subs have disappeared off of the map recently. He is doing no obvious scouting of the Eastern or Southeastern Pacific sailing routes. This really makes me wonder what he was doing with those subs that were sailing to the far Southeast…[&:]
Dave Baranyi
Still a busy man...
March 26 -
Tophat continued his Pacman approach to taking bases, occupying Arawe and capturing both Tomini and Ormoc. He also sent a bombardment TF to Samarinda this turn. But I got in my own surprise as my Chinese IL-4c bombers went to Taan, got past the Nates that were on CAP and hit three APs and an AK, with one of the APs set on fire. Otherwise, Tophat kept up his usual aerial bombardments and artillery duels. His artillery fire is causing more Chinese casualties, so I will have to reinforce those bases and locations where we are duking it out.
I mentioned last time that I haven't seen any of Tophat's subs recently. Well, one showed up this time - southeast of Pago Pago and heading SE at 13 knots. Huh??? Is he intending to invade the Logo or the Terrain Key? [:D] Seriously, I can't figure out why he is sending his subs so far to the Southeast unless he is hoping to "sneak up" on the West Coast. But why bother? It is so hard to find Japanese subs in the Eastern Pacific anyway.
Less than a week is left until I get my big April ship upgrade and it looks as if I will get it uninterrupted by Tophat. I will also get the "Lost Island" (Long Island) in another couple of days, which will be nice because it will mean that I won't have to put small air squadrons into AKs to get them to the front. I'm still battling the "fighter disease" although things are getting better for those units where I've been able to set them to "stand down" (as PzB suggested). But I obviously need CAP in some frontline locations. I only hope that this problem fixes itself in some manner - maybe when all of those big air groups that I moved by ship are repaired the problem will go away for the other units.
Dave Baranyi
Tophat continued his Pacman approach to taking bases, occupying Arawe and capturing both Tomini and Ormoc. He also sent a bombardment TF to Samarinda this turn. But I got in my own surprise as my Chinese IL-4c bombers went to Taan, got past the Nates that were on CAP and hit three APs and an AK, with one of the APs set on fire. Otherwise, Tophat kept up his usual aerial bombardments and artillery duels. His artillery fire is causing more Chinese casualties, so I will have to reinforce those bases and locations where we are duking it out.
I mentioned last time that I haven't seen any of Tophat's subs recently. Well, one showed up this time - southeast of Pago Pago and heading SE at 13 knots. Huh??? Is he intending to invade the Logo or the Terrain Key? [:D] Seriously, I can't figure out why he is sending his subs so far to the Southeast unless he is hoping to "sneak up" on the West Coast. But why bother? It is so hard to find Japanese subs in the Eastern Pacific anyway.
Less than a week is left until I get my big April ship upgrade and it looks as if I will get it uninterrupted by Tophat. I will also get the "Lost Island" (Long Island) in another couple of days, which will be nice because it will mean that I won't have to put small air squadrons into AKs to get them to the front. I'm still battling the "fighter disease" although things are getting better for those units where I've been able to set them to "stand down" (as PzB suggested). But I obviously need CAP in some frontline locations. I only hope that this problem fixes itself in some manner - maybe when all of those big air groups that I moved by ship are repaired the problem will go away for the other units.
Dave Baranyi
Pago Pago
Alot of people circumnavigate PagoPago in the delivery of supplies and fuel to NZ, Noumea and Brisbane South. They do this to lessen the chance of an important TF being found by the KB and despatched. I would figure Tophat is therefore looking to put subs along these convoy lanes.
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RE: Pago Pago
ORIGINAL: wobbly
Alot of people circumnavigate PagoPago in the delivery of supplies and fuel to NZ, Noumea and Brisbane South. They do this to lessen the chance of an important TF being found by the KB and despatched. I would figure Tophat is therefore looking to put subs along these convoy lanes.
I feel that I've got enough of a warning network in place so that I don't have to worry too much about a surprise by the KB way down there. Also, I don't have a lot of ship traffic in that region because I'm not trying a "rush" build-up of Australia and the DEI.
It will be interesting to see how long Tophat keeps those subs out in southeastern "Never Never Land" with no traffic flowing through. [;)]
Thanks for the comments -
Dave
March 27 - Manila Finally Falls...
March 27 -
Manila finally fell; long after I expected it to fall, and I bet long after Tophat expected it to fall too. Now he needs to rest up his troops and then figure out what he needs to take Bataan and the rest of the Philippines. Of course, he could just leave my remaining troops in place and use them for target practice, but I suspect that he will eventually go after them. Certainly at this stage, and with so little in the way of supplies, my troops shouldn't last too long. But you never know. Tophat's forces also captured Buin this turn and started to land at Torokina.
I turned the tables on Tophat this turn at Teloekbetoeng. I sent all of my Dutch planes in Java after Tophat's troops there (the 4th Mixed Brigade). My bombers did a pretty good job of causing casualties to the Japanese. The air was pretty crowded over that base because Tophat also sent planes in to bomb my troops. I noticed that Tophat now has a combat TF to the east of Toboali heading SW. Is that TF heading for Teloekbetoeng or for Batavia? Just in case I pulled my planes out of Batavia and put them in Bandoeng, which is safe from naval bombardments. I also reset all of my planes in Java to Naval Attack just in case they get an opportunity to strike at that Japanese TF on its way out of whichever base it goes after.
Elsewhere, I forgot those Chinese IL-4c bombers and left them on Port attack on Taan. So they flew again and took more damage this time, but they still got a hit on a transport and on the Port. I've now put them on 20% Naval Search so that they rest up and repair the damaged planes.
BTW - the reconstituted AVG finally repaired itself and is back to its undivided full strength. I now have plenty of other fighter squadrons around India so I won't have to split the AVG again. This way I can keep them in reserve so that I can contest the skies in a serious manner. (I'm also still playing with aircraft reserves and replacements and I prefer not to use up P-40Bs on unnecessary battles at this time.) Now if my other air units in other locations repair themselves too I will feel a lot better.
Dave Baranyi
Manila finally fell; long after I expected it to fall, and I bet long after Tophat expected it to fall too. Now he needs to rest up his troops and then figure out what he needs to take Bataan and the rest of the Philippines. Of course, he could just leave my remaining troops in place and use them for target practice, but I suspect that he will eventually go after them. Certainly at this stage, and with so little in the way of supplies, my troops shouldn't last too long. But you never know. Tophat's forces also captured Buin this turn and started to land at Torokina.
I turned the tables on Tophat this turn at Teloekbetoeng. I sent all of my Dutch planes in Java after Tophat's troops there (the 4th Mixed Brigade). My bombers did a pretty good job of causing casualties to the Japanese. The air was pretty crowded over that base because Tophat also sent planes in to bomb my troops. I noticed that Tophat now has a combat TF to the east of Toboali heading SW. Is that TF heading for Teloekbetoeng or for Batavia? Just in case I pulled my planes out of Batavia and put them in Bandoeng, which is safe from naval bombardments. I also reset all of my planes in Java to Naval Attack just in case they get an opportunity to strike at that Japanese TF on its way out of whichever base it goes after.
Elsewhere, I forgot those Chinese IL-4c bombers and left them on Port attack on Taan. So they flew again and took more damage this time, but they still got a hit on a transport and on the Port. I've now put them on 20% Naval Search so that they rest up and repair the damaged planes.
BTW - the reconstituted AVG finally repaired itself and is back to its undivided full strength. I now have plenty of other fighter squadrons around India so I won't have to split the AVG again. This way I can keep them in reserve so that I can contest the skies in a serious manner. (I'm also still playing with aircraft reserves and replacements and I prefer not to use up P-40Bs on unnecessary battles at this time.) Now if my other air units in other locations repair themselves too I will feel a lot better.
Dave Baranyi