Castles in the Sand - Spidery(J) vs MrKane(A) no MrKane please

[Spidery]

September 16th

Despite 96% moonlight no night strikes.

Sent some cheap PB to Oosthaven to make pick ups from Merak and covered them with a few N1K1-J. A group of B-25G come in unescorted and all 24 are downed for no losses. Nice[8D] 3 new Aces.

SC CHa-47 arrives, also an Air Flotilla arrives at Saigon.

[Spidery]

September 17th

No night strikes.

5 DD are sent to raid the Allied minesweepers at Soerabaja. 8 AM and 1 SC are sunk with one left damaged when my forces retire because of low ammunition. On the way out they avoid combat with a group of 4 AMc so they won't have prevented the Allied mine clearing efforts. Still over 20 VP of ships sunk is a nice bonus[:)]. Pick up some useful night experience, Yamakaze's jumps from 71 to 82.

Thunderbolts vengefully sweep Oosthaven in mass but there are no planes there.

Thunderbolts sweep Magwe: 12 P-47D2 downed for 18 Ki-43-IIb, 9 N1K1-J, 8 Ki-44-IIc not the 2::1 result needed but fair against Thunderbolts.

Damage the SS Scamp, near Dadjangas, sending her back for repairs.

RO-103 is badly damaged off the North Papau New Guinea coast as Allied ASW team raids forward[:(].

[Spidery]

Turns are taking me a lot longer now and I need to do some organising.

One problem is that I just don't have enough aviation support, air capacity, fighter groups, etc. to cover all the oil production sites and key ports both against day and night raids. Therefore, I find myself moving planes around a lot.

Also, I have evacuated a lot of troops from Java, Southern DEI, Papua new Guinea, etc. and many of these units have become split. I need to do a lot of re-organising to get sensible groups of troops in each place. One thing that is apparent is, because you can't mix LCUs on ships, it is often more supply efficient to fly small fragments around than ship them - even taking into account the cost of replacing the occasional loss.

I need to rethink my sub deployments. I had a lot of subs interfering with his Java operations. Some good hits scored but hardly anything sunk. I think I need to consider redeploying them.

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

Turns are taking me a lot longer now and I need to do some organising.

One problem is that I just don't have enough aviation support, air capacity, fighter groups, etc. to cover all the oil production sites and key ports both against day and night raids. Therefore, I find myself moving planes around a lot.

Also, I have evacuated a lot of troops from Java, Southern DEI, Papua new Guinea, etc. and many of these units have become split. I need to do a lot of re-organising to get sensible groups of troops in each place. One thing that is apparent is, because you can't mix LCUs on ships, it is often more supply efficient to fly small fragments around than ship them - even taking into account the cost of replacing the occasional loss.

I need to rethink my sub deployments. I had a lot of subs interfering with his Java operations. Some good hits scored but hardly anything sunk. I think I need to consider redeploying them.

I am in a similar position to you in my game and at about the same time (Oct 43). IMO forget about defending any oil except Palembang now. If you have not done so already you should be shipping all the AA units with 88mm guns from the homeland there. Is he in fighter escort/sweep range of Palembang yet?

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

Turns are taking me a lot longer now and I need to do some organising.

One problem is that I just don't have enough aviation support, air capacity, fighter groups, etc. to cover all the oil production sites and key ports both against day and night raids. Therefore, I find myself moving planes around a lot.

I wondered about this. It is so hard to stay organized; so many clicks and potential units put at risk...and that takes away from other planning.

[Spidery]

I am in a similar position to you in my game and at about the same time (Oct 43). IMO forget about defending any oil except Palembang now. If you have not done so already you should be shipping all the AA units with 88mm guns from the homeland there. Is he in fighter escort/sweep range of Palembang yet?

About 100 8cm guns at Palembang but really could do with shipping some 12cm guns in. The 12cm guns are a lot better than the 8cm. The effect 45 versus 26 seems to mean they shoot Liberators down rather than damaging them and hoping for ops losses.

Palembang gets as many fighters as will fit on the airfield, including all the night fighters (but they take 2 spaces each), so I have barely enough fighters left to cover Magwe, Balikpapan, Samarinda, Miri, Tarakan, Djambi, Bengkalis, Singapore and Rangoon and then try to get some fighters to lay traps. Balikpapan and Samarinda are the least important of these since it won't be long before he threatens them by land/sea.

He isn't yet in range to sweep with anything other than Lightnings but it won't be long before he takes a base in range for Thunderbolts to sweep from.

[Spidery]

September 18th

No night strikes again.

Nothing much happens.

A Glen picks up a task force moving East around Australia. 2 subs spotted off Balikpapan. All minor suggestions that the next Allied attack will come soon and it may be in the Pacific.

Allies clear the minefield at Soerabaja - it wasn't very big.

Ki-84r to 6/44

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

No night strikes again.

I know I have a difficult time getting bombers to hit at night in Downfall, especially once morale starts to fall a little. Throw in bad weather, and night bombing is very unreliable in the short term, but very deadly in the long term. Plus in Downfall, all the starting commanders of the B29 squadrons are very meek and in general very poor air commanders.

What is oil production at Palembang now?

[Spidery]

I know I have a difficult time getting bombers to hit at night in Downfall, especially once morale starts to fall a little. Throw in bad weather, and night bombing is very unreliable in the short term, but very deadly in the long term. Plus in Downfall, all the starting commanders of the B29 squadrons are very meek and in general very poor air commanders.

MrKane has rarely launched airfield or port night strikes; just contenting himself with city attacks. Not sure if this reflects how he likes to play or his cost-benefit analysis.

He seems to have abandoned night attacks; possibly he has lost too many 4E bombers. The very last night strike he tried he launched lots of small attacks against many oil sites - may have been testing to see what night cover I had or trying a new tactic.

I think he is conserving his 4E bombers until he can get fighter cover over the oil bases and launch daylight strikes.

What is oil production at Palembang now?

618

[Spidery]

September 19th

No night strikes.

Heavy bombing of troops at Cheribon.

Morning Air attack on 2nd Area Army, at 51,100 (Cheribon)

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 3
B-17F Fortress x 24
B-25C Mitchell x 19
B-25D1 Mitchell x 32
B-25G Mitchell x 24
B-26 Marauder x 3
P-40K Warhawk x 102
PB4Y-1 Liberator x 7

No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
338 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 18 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 87 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 21 (1 destroyed, 20 disabled)

----

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 12
Spitfire Vc Trop x 8
B-17E Fortress x 2
B-25C Mitchell x 30
B-26 Marauder x 12

No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
165 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 12 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 26 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)

----

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 12
B-25C Mitchell x 12

No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
81 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

----

Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 12
B-25G Mitchell x 12
B-26B Marauder x 3

No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
68 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled

-----

Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 3
B-26B Marauder x 12

No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
36 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

However, fog of war is heavily over-estimating losses: 2 support and 2 squads destroyed and about 150 devices disabled (after the recovery phase).

No 4E involved in those strikes and no 4E night-strikes for days.

Hiei has reached the yards at Kure and will take 73 days to fix the structural damage now all the system damage has been fixed.

[Spidery]

September 20th

Awfully quiet in here...

In the Makassar strait a group of Allied DD encounter 4 PB in the morning; CDR Sanami, J, craftly manages to maneuveur his force and escape with no shots fired.

Allies do the usual training runs against Buka but otherwise launch no air strikes.

An Allied sub is spotted in the shallow water near Singkawang.

E W-29 arrives

[Spidery]

September 21st

I decide it is too risky leaving a badly damaged PB at Balikpapan and try to head for a safer yard, but she sinks.

A Dutch sub is attacked in the shallow water off Singapore and takes 12 hits, including 2 direct hits, but is not recorded as sunk.

Banjoewangi falls at the first attack with 13,000 supply lost that I had been unable to remove from Java.

Ki-46-III KAI Dinah to 6/44.

[Spidery]

September 22nd

A Dutch sub appears off Miri and takes a shot at a big passenger liner, but misses. Allied subs seem to be getting more aggressive moving into the South China Sea - I guess this is because they have Soerabaja as a base.

Allied AMc clearing mines at Banjoewangi. Allied attack at Banjoewangi and chew up the defenders some more.

Allied bombing practice at Buka. 1 Allied plane lost, no Japanese, very quiet in here...

Evacuation of Southern DEI is now complete. There is some supply to pick up but the only troops left are a small airforce detachment at Koepang and a garrison at Dili. Most of the transports are heading for Manila to load resources and head for home.

CV Katsuragi arrives and CVL Chitose completes its conversion. Mizuho finishes conversion in early October and Shokaku is out of it for repairs for months. Hiei and Hyuga are under long term repairs. Otherwise, KB is back in fighting condition but I don't want to waste the fuel.

I am going to use spare Naval production to accelerate the torpedo bomber carrying subs, just to see how well they work. However, need to be careful they don't arrive too much before the planes are produced, but they do come with a basic complement. In 3 days time the Musashi arrives and will then have to make more of a decision.

Do I build more subs, accelerate some DD, or save the HI points? I think I will save the HI.

[Lowpe]

Late game IJN subs just die. You might get the occasional CVE, but subs are just victory points for the Allies.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Late game IJN subs just die. You might get the occasional CVE, but subs are just victory points for the Allies.

I disagree. I think massing the subs can still work and I had some good results with them, taking out some CVs at major points in the late game. They're also goo for scouting even though they may die. You're losing so many points in the air at this stage of the war, a few more 7-10 point subs won't matter too much in the end. I lost 7-10 points a day from search/recon in 44/45 most days.

I would build all of the quicker subs, definitely build all of the DDs, although I don't accelerate them. anything that is quick and has a gun or some good ASW ability is going to be useful. Minesweeping is also pretty important late when your ports are getting hit with 200-800 air dropped mines.

[Miller]

I agree with Obvert, Jap subs are excellent at finishing off damaged capital ships if used in swarms.

Incidentally, which AA units use 12cm guns? I cannot see any in my game.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Miller

I agree with Obvert, Jap subs are excellent at finishing off damaged capital ships if used in swarms.

Incidentally, which AA units use 12cm guns? I cannot see any in my game.

Not my Downfall experiences...and if I needed to save HI, I would sacrifice the subs over the destroyers any day of the week.

The 12cm guns is a toe upgrade for the Independent Gun AA units.

[Spidery]

Incidentally, which AA units use 12cm guns? I cannot see any in my game.

DBB, the small ones with 4 10cm AA guns upgrade.

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Late game IJN subs just die. You might get the occasional CVE, but subs are just victory points for the Allies.

By late game do you mean just 1945/46 or does the same apply in 1944?

One CVE is 90+ VP plus the aircraft on board. A Sub is 11 VP or so. So if I can trade 15 subs for 1 CVE that is a fair trade.

I've not been very happy with the reduced effectiveness of torpedo hits in DBB. However, the Kaiten may be better (except that 50% dud rate could drive me up the wall).

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

Incidentally, which AA units use 12cm guns? I cannot see any in my game.

DBB, the small ones with 4 10cm AA guns upgrade.

Playing stock so that's the reason I cant find them. Build your subs if you can afford to, so what if you lose them, everything dies as the Japs late in the game anyway[;)]