Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[John B.]

It's hard to tell if weather kept Scott from bombing shiminoski or the flak losses. But, it helps my troops in that they are "only" bombarded by 21 BBs and then not also subject to bombing from the air. Interestingly, it's been my 88 mm flak and 75 mm artillery that seems to be getting the most hits on his landing ships.

Bad but not unexpected turn for the Empire of Japan. Scott sank a lot of AK/AKLs languishing in port with no fuel up in northern Japan and also plastered Nagasaki. I'm not defending either one but concentrating things in Central Japan for as long as I can. Right now Scott can't quite reach Kobe with anything in normal range except his 1A corsairs and those are almost gone.

I lost 28 squads and Scott lost 9 squads in my bombardment at Shiminoseki which I think is a Japanese victory. My 28 squads is 4.5 VP and his 9 is 3 VP and 4.5 is less than 2x3.5. The Emperor was pleased even though it's a trifle.

[John B.]

Another day and more strat bombing. this time Scott wiped out a large NK-45 engine factory. I have 201 Frank KI-84rs stockpiled so I'm going to scale back their production to conserve the 45 engine production. I have 119 of them stockpiled but they seem to be critical to Japanese fighter defense. As Scott shuts down one factory area I redeploy the defensive resources to another thus slowly concentrating.

21 more BBs bombarded me at Shiminoseki. I probably sank an AK and a couple of landing ships with return fire from the shore.
I do have 741 engineers there trying to get ahead of the damage so I can start building my fort level back up but so far that is making limited progress. I'm not sure if I'll ever catch up with his entire BB force bombarding me every turn. I guess the only bright spot is that it's tying down his BBs and it makes it hard for him to do another invasion.

[RangerJoe]

Too bad your mini subs don't work better.[:@]

You probably can't lay mines either.

[John B.]

I can't. minelayers can't make it in there and I can't lay mines from the air because it's not an enemy base. I've also tried night air attacks and while allied AA was very effective at shooting down my planes I never got a single hit. It's just not cost effective. Basically he has a free run with BBs until the end of the war.

So far the troops are holding up well, they have high disruption but their morale remains at around 95 and I do still have level 4 forts. He's hemmed in for now. It will be interesting to see if he tries another invasion.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: John B.
Another day and more strat bombing. this time Scott wiped out a large NK-45 engine factory. I have 201 Frank KI-84rs stockpiled so I'm going to scale back their production to conserve the 45 engine production. I have 119 of them stockpiled but they seem to be critical to Japanese fighter defense. As Scott shuts down one factory area I redeploy the defensive resources to another thus slowly concentrating.

Woah, alarm! Those are very thin stocks of the most important Japanese engine [&:] And thin stocks of one of the best army fighters. Both can run out in a week of air fighting. What are your fighter pools?

[John B.]

Another day and not a bad turn in the air for the Empire of Japan given that we out shot the allies on a pretty wide basis. But, as we shall see, Scott was able to plaster another Japanese city.

[John B.]

Here are the actual plane losses. Sadly, almost none of the heavies were shot down. Scott did massive everything that can fly sweeps over Kobe and bombed the snot out of Osaka. His anti airfield mission at Osaka went in before the sweeps but probably saved a number of his heavies from being shot down.

I did pick up about 60 bonus planes from an anti-shipping strike that went over Kobe again. You have to be careful when you set your ranges since they were going after an SC TF.

I did notice a number of instances of my pilots ramming enemy bombers. At least six this turn. Not sure I like that but I don't think I can control it.

[John B.]

But, here is what happened to Osaka. Given the damage to the airfield I pulled my fighter defenses out and reinforced other non-bombed locations.

[John B.]

One thing that is a bit annoying is that I can't prevent my troops from bombarding Scott at the Shiminoseki beachhead if he lands more troops. So, I get bombardment results like this that I can't stop and which are very damaging to me. On the plus side, He has been taking heavy losses in the troops he has been landing. All told this turn, I lost 203 squads/devices to his BB bombardment and my own bombardment and Scott lost 190 squads/devices to his landing stuff through the hail of shellfire I can put into the way of his landing craft.

[John B.]

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

ORIGINAL: John B.
Another day and more strat bombing. this time Scott wiped out a large NK-45 engine factory. I have 201 Frank KI-84rs stockpiled so I'm going to scale back their production to conserve the 45 engine production. I have 119 of them stockpiled but they seem to be critical to Japanese fighter defense. As Scott shuts down one factory area I redeploy the defensive resources to another thus slowly concentrating.

Woah, alarm! Those are very thin stocks of the most important Japanese engine [&:] And thin stocks of one of the best army fighters. Both can run out in a week of air fighting. What are your fighter pools?

Get Assista, Well, I was actually happy to have the 84rs at above 200 in the pool for the first time in the game but that did not last more than a turn. Here is the latest pool info. I've been living hand to mouth on fighter production for a long time and the increases have basically only kept pace with losses and bombing. Since this is my first time as the Emperor I may have saved up too much supply (I'm still at 1,800,000 or so saved up) as opposed to converting into more aircraft production more quickly. But I really don't know. Given that Scott can sweep with godawful numbers of fighters to clear the way for his bombers, I've focused fighter and AA defense on a few cities and I'm basically letting him bomb elsewhere for free.

[John B.]

I have also converted several Nate squadrons to 84r squadrons. So I have a number of these aircraft on the front lines. But that may be typical and so may not be an explanation for my low pool numbers.

[RangerJoe]

If a one point fighter destroyed a 2 point bomber, then he has to get how many more points from elsewhere for Victory Purposes? He would need three points so that does work in your favor. The Japanese did form units to do this and some pilots did it more than one time.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: John B.
Get Assista, Well, I was actually happy to have the 84rs at above 200 in the pool for the first time in the game but that did not last more than a turn. Here is the latest pool info. I've been living hand to mouth on fighter production for a long time and the increases have basically only kept pace with losses and bombing. Since this is my first time as the Emperor I may have saved up too much supply (I'm still at 1,800,000 or so saved up) as opposed to converting into more aircraft production more quickly. But I really don't know. Given that Scott can sweep with godawful numbers of fighters to clear the way for his bombers, I've focused fighter and AA defense on a few cities and I'm basically letting him bomb elsewhere for free.

Well, luckily Scott does not know about your glass chin here. Else he would've consistently bombed the fighter factories and it'd all come to an end really fast. Supply will help you in the land war if he insists on Home Islands invasion

[John B.]

I think I got one 4 engine bomber that way and 2-3 twin engine bombers. But, I'd rather my boys shoot planes down and keep my planes in the air.

[John B.]

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

ORIGINAL: John B.
Get Assista, Well, I was actually happy to have the 84rs at above 200 in the pool for the first time in the game but that did not last more than a turn. Here is the latest pool info. I've been living hand to mouth on fighter production for a long time and the increases have basically only kept pace with losses and bombing. Since this is my first time as the Emperor I may have saved up too much supply (I'm still at 1,800,000 or so saved up) as opposed to converting into more aircraft production more quickly. But I really don't know. Given that Scott can sweep with godawful numbers of fighters to clear the way for his bombers, I've focused fighter and AA defense on a few cities and I'm basically letting him bomb elsewhere for free.

Well, luckily Scott does not know about your glass chin here. Else he would've consistently bombed the fighter factories and it'd all come to an end really fast. Supply will help you in the land war if he insists on Home Islands invasion

I think he is starting to figure it out as he has targeted engine and fighter production the past few days. I'm building up factories where I have defenses so we'll see how long I can keep that going.

[RangerJoe]

I have told the Allied players who did not know what to target, to target the engine factories. The engines will produce and stockpile with no air frame to put them in, but the air frames don't stockpile if there are no engines. So make them early and keep production on for the necessary engines that you will need later.

[John B.]

I'm building up the engine factories in Tokyo as much as I can. It's my last redoubt!

[John B.]

Another day and more mayhem and death. I tried the mini-subs again and lost all 4 without them firing a shot. I sent my DDs in and lost 4 and only sank one so not too hot on the naval front. The losses at Shiminoseki favored me but I really wish the troops would listen to me and not bombard just because Scott is landing troops each turn. I'm already disabled enough from the BB conveyor belt.

Air losses were pretty even which favors me and Scott sank a whole bunch of AKLs up north that were out of fuel and there until the end of the war.

[John B.]

So, I'm going to try another Kamikaze attack. These have never worked against one of Scott's beachheads. If the sweeps don't fly the Kamis go in in the morning and get slaughtered. If my sweeps do fly, then the Kamis go in during the afternoon and get slaughtered. Or, no one flies at all.

This time I have sweeps coming from 4 hexes and Kamis from three of those. The CVs are going to sail part way and attempt to join in the attack. I have about 75% of the Japanese fighter force there so, if Scott guess right he can pretty much plaster any town as there really are no fighter defenses this turn.

We shall see!

[RangerJoe]

If you put some units on reserve, then they should not participate unless they are needed in an attack.