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dang, that never occured to me, thanks great advice!

A couple of questions more;

-British CVs...Seems the planes available at British carriers are well...subpar at best (1942), can I exchange them for USN planes? aka can USN planes rebase to Brit carriers and fly from them?

-If/When Karachi falls, will the game still demand me to withdraw Brit ships? Will get hard to comply with no port to withdraw them from...

Yes, you may change the squadrons on the CVs, but anyway they'll eventually get Corsairs and Avengers too.
 
And yes, you'll have to withdraw British ships.  Karachi is not the only port for the British Withdrawal, you can also do this from San Francisco.

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

Yes, you may change the squadrons on the CVs, but anyway they'll eventually get Corsairs and Avengers too.

And yes, you'll have to withdraw British ships.  Karachi is not the only port for the British Withdrawal, you can also do this from San Francisco.

and Bombay, and Aden (if you are playing a mod with this).

ORIGINAL: terje439

I need to ask the more experienced players;

-how often did land based bombers engage Jap naval forces at altitudes of 6k feet and lower?
-how would you respond if the allied placed his LB at 6k feet and lower? (we have no HR against it, but)
-how is a KB lingering around PH best countered when my LBs decide that transports are more important, and my surface ships are unable to catch the enemy CVs, and my sub commanders are terrified of attacking?

Thanks.
Terje

Aside from the instances mentioned: in the course of actual events, 4 engined bombers actually pioneered the "skip bomb" tactics that the 2 engined bombers eventually excelled at. The Brits were conducting "mast-head" high attacks from the beginning of the war, but i don't think they were using the "skip" techniques.

Also B-24s routinely attacked at 1000' feet - at night using radar bomb sites are were said to be devastating at this. This was actually one reason the Japanese carried out their late war offensive in China (to deny bases to the B-24s that were routinely sinking their shipping along the Chinese coast). Of course, you can not use this tactic in game.

Thanks for the replies, greatly apreciated [&o]

Guess USN pilots will operate off a Brit carrier then since the USN ones are kinda submerged [:D]

Again, thx guys!
Terje

ORIGINAL: terje439

Thanks for the replies, greatly apreciated [&o]

Guess USN pilots will operate off a Brit carrier then since the USN ones are kinda submerged [:D]

Again, thx guys!
Terje

Actually, that also did occur during the war... one of the British carriers (HMS Victorious) was transferred to USN control and was dubbed "USS Robin".

The whole point of taking PH is to cut off Australia from the US west coast. Make this a painful, long lasting adventure for him and you're set up very well when your time comes.

Keeping PH as japanese player requires a serious amount of assets which he cannot use in other (econonmically more useful) places. I don't know your situation in the DEI, but move all oil and resources out if you can so he won't find huge stockpiles when he comes for it.

It should also be worthwhile using the PH adventure time to build up forts on some choke points in the DEI, so you probably need to bring in supplies on the roundtrip. I'd take these from India rather than from Oz, as you might eventually find Oz being isolated. Unfortunately your oil and resources from the DEI are of better use in Australia (depending on mod). So you need to find a balance.

Regarding Manila I'd say forget about the fort building. Nevertheless use your smallest AKs as blockade runners every couple of days. If possible use LRCAP to scare Miss Betty away. Again troops engaged there are not doing the econmocially better approach of going into the DEI, so try to keep them there and hang out as long as you can. I'd even use sub evac on damaged cadres as they'd also eat supplies, bring in supplies on the roundtrip. Btw. no replacements set is mandatory, repairing big devices will cost you lots of supply for little gain.

Good luck, and have fun.

Hehe I have heaps of fun, although I could rename my AAR into "how to lose a war in 100 days" [;)]

All Hawaiian Islands but PH gone [:D]
Karachi under 4:1 attacks [:D][:D]
Northen Australia under attack [:D][:D][:D]
Philliphines Jap controlled [:D][:D][:D][:D]
NEI also under Jap control [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
Only remaining CVs (April 1942) are one Brit carrier, Long Island, and damaged Hornet (94 sys) [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
Biggest Jap loss, 1 CL [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

But having fun? Always!

ORIGINAL: terje439

Hehe I have heaps of fun, although I could rename my AAR into "how to lose a war in 100 days" [;)]

All Hawaiian Islands but PH gone [:D]
Karachi under 4:1 attacks [:D][:D]
Northen Australia under attack [:D][:D][:D]
Philliphines Jap controlled [:D][:D][:D][:D]
NEI also under Jap control [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
Only remaining CVs (April 1942) are one Brit carrier, Long Island, and damaged Hornet (94 sys) [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
Biggest Jap loss, 1 CL [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

But having fun? Always!

Well that looks grim. Should be fun recovering from these blows. [8D][;)]

This game has been about me learning how to play all along, and I've learned heaps, and had great fun.
An example of what I've learned: NEVER leave a carrier force of (British) CV+CVL near a Jap lvl 5 airfield for extended time. [:'(]

Take heart!  If worse comes to worse, then unlike the real deal you get to start the war all over again and be all the wiser!  I would bet that most of us ran several PBEM's before really getting a feel for the game.

Guess what, I have more questions and since I'm too lazy to look through every post on this forum, I'll simply ask here [:D]

1. Due to erm...eh...hmmm...technical difficulties we (the allies) decided that Japan could have Karachi....So the question, what happens with the units that are scheduled to arrive in Karachi, do they appear once Karachi is once more British and then pops up all in once?

2. I understand why bombers do not want to fly unescorted against expected air covered targets. How many escorts do they tend to demand before flying? I doubt one Hurricane flying alongside will be enough, but any kind of formula here?

3. How much damage does a ship get when upgrading? Are we talking 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%?

Any help is appreciated even if it is for a lost cause [:D]

Terje

ORIGINAL: AirGriff

In my PBEM, we have no 4E nav attacks below 15,000', but everything else is ok. I don't know if you are playing a mod, but most mods only give a trickle of 4E's for quite a while, and you lose them more often at low altitudes, so I don't mind keeping them high.

2E's there is no restriction regarding altitudes. I typically keep them around 6k, but my opponent goes in lower. I've noticed morale drops significantly with those low altitude attacks. If he's coming in low, put some hard hitting fighters (losts of guns or cannon) on CAP at 10k or even 5k so they can pound the bombers.

If KB is hanging out by PH, then at least you know where it is. If he's actually hitting PH, then he's losing precious pilots, making it easier for you to cut down his carriers later. I would just sit tight and wait him out. Meanwhile, rush everything you can to your foward bases in CENPAC, SOPAC and New Guinea. Better yet, make a bold move somewhere else--move into Rabaul or Lunga and set up a trip wire for him now that you know where KB is. Do it fast with anything that floats, because he's eventually going to pull back his CV's to resupply, and then you don't know where he's going to pop up.

I would pull out anything that's only serving as targets. You will also need to resupply--the bombardment missions are unrealistically effective against supplies and aircraft--so prepare a well-protected resupply convoy on the west coast and have it lurk outside of KB attack range. The KB will eventually have to put into a port to regain sorties, and if the Japanese haven't taken Midway or Johnson, that will be in the Marshalls. Taken advantage of the lull to resupply. If the KB is running around at top speed, it will also need a replenishment convoy. If you can mouse-trap that, it should quiet things down for a while. I usually keep my USN SAGs and CVTFs slightly out of range of KB attack.

ORIGINAL: John Lansford

Twin engine bombers attacked ships all the time from low level during the war.  Beaufighters and B-25's especially were effective when fitted out with large numbers of fixed machine guns firing forward to kill off the AAA crews, then hit them with either skip bombs or low level bombing runs.  I wouldn't consider it gamey at all if either side used this tactic.

Starting in March 1943.

ORIGINAL: terje439

Thanks for the replies. The updated situation for me is as follows;

AF at PH is closed down. Kona is captured (and soon Hilo), my surface fleet are running for the west coast after losing 3 BBs at PH (2 scuttled, 1 sunk). Johnson Island is a lvl 9 port, lvl 3 AF in Jap hands. KB has been more or less stationary around PH for a week, and I can get no troops in nor any out. My PH based subs have mined Kona and Johnson Island.
Oh, and I lost two CVs on Dec 7th and Dec 9th [:D]

It is gonna be though just avoiding autovictory in this game!

Sounds like your opponent is exploiting the game engine's shortcomings in a big way. Be patient and do the same to him starting in 1943.

ORIGINAL: herwin

ORIGINAL: terje439

Thanks for the replies. The updated situation for me is as follows;

AF at PH is closed down. Kona is captured (and soon Hilo), my surface fleet are running for the west coast after losing 3 BBs at PH (2 scuttled, 1 sunk). Johnson Island is a lvl 9 port, lvl 3 AF in Jap hands. KB has been more or less stationary around PH for a week, and I can get no troops in nor any out. My PH based subs have mined Kona and Johnson Island.
Oh, and I lost two CVs on Dec 7th and Dec 9th [:D]

It is gonna be though just avoiding autovictory in this game!

Sounds like your opponent is exploiting the game engine's shortcomings in a big way. Be patient and do the same to him starting in 1943.

Game shortcomings is not what is losing me the war, its my own shortcomings [:D]
As of now, all of India, most of China, Northern Australia save Darwin, all island bases save PH and Noumea are all Jap controlled, and Noumea and PH seems to be attacked soon...

I'll take a stab at some of your questions.


1. Due to erm...eh...hmmm...technical difficulties we (the allies) decided that Japan could have Karachi....So the question, what happens with the units that are scheduled to arrive in Karachi, do they appear once Karachi is once more British and then pops up all in once?

I think the answer is "Yes". Recover the arrival hex and the bottled up units come into play.

2. I understand why bombers do not want to fly unescorted against expected air covered targets. How many escorts do they tend to demand before flying? I doubt one Hurricane flying alongside will be enough, but any kind of formula here?

I am very uncertain about this answer. I think escorts need to be at least one third of the CAP.

3. How much damage does a ship get when upgrading? Are we talking 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%?

The "damage" depends on the upgrade. A small vessel getting major upgrades takes larger damage representing the work required to install the upgrades. Simple upgrades on a larger vessel should generate a smaller amount of damage.

Thank you.
Hmm one third of the Cap (-ish).
New question then [:D]

Roughly how many Zeros can I expect over the KB?
(to my understanding the KB is still made up of the CVs present at PH and might have gotten one more CV in there, but carries a variety of planes).

Terje

Well, what the heck.  Since you'll probably lose to an auto victory anyway, then mount up a respectable assault force with tons and tons of supply/fuel and go hit the Bonin Islands.  Plant a bunch of bombers out there and sink everything you can coming out of Japan to supply all his new found gains.  There's no reason you have to let him have ALL the fun. 
 
Make it an all out deal.  You'll have to go way around to try and avoid his naval search patrols, but at this point you've got nothing to lose.  Bring lots of engineers to build up the bases, lots of aviation support, AA, a division or two per base...the whole works (you'll need everything that floats to move this stuff).  Whether it works or not, he'll come scurrying back with everything he's got.  Maybe it'll shake something loose for you.  It would be impossible IRL, but your game departed any sense of reality a long time ago.