Newbie AAR

[Raverdave]

Interesting CV battle.............Rob must have got in real close to be able to launch his torp bombers.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Raverdave

Interesting CV battle.............Rob must have got in real close to be able to launch his torp bombers.

He did.. I think 2 hexes... He's probably using B-17s or PBYs on Midway to track my fleet and used that info to home in on them.. I didn't spot him at all.. Range 4-5 planes suck at scouting. Wish my Zeros could scout - range 11 would make a nice scout plane.

Xargun

[rroberson]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: Raverdave

Interesting CV battle.............Rob must have got in real close to be able to launch his torp bombers.

He did.. I think 2 hexes... He's probably using B-17s or PBYs on Midway to track my fleet and used that info to home in on them.. I didn't spot him at all.. Range 4-5 planes suck at scouting. Wish my Zeros could scout - range 11 would make a nice scout plane.

Xargun

One of those things i dont get...I have caught you flatfooted twice...and both times I come away with unhappy results. You didnt see me either time until my bombers where diving on you yet your carriers seem to escape with limited damage and I get hammered. Seems like to me if a naval force gets surprised ...well you get the idea . I have been tracking that fleet for a while, to me both attacks should of been slam dunks. Ah well live and learn I guess.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: rroberson

One of those things i dont get...I have caught you flatfooted twice...and both times I come away with unhappy results. You didnt see me either time until my bombers where diving on you yet your carriers seem to escape with limited damage and I get hammered. Seems like to me if a naval force gets surprised ...well you get the idea . I have been tracking that fleet for a while, to me both attacks should of been slam dunks. Ah well live and learn I guess.

I don't know either, but I am glad of the results. What is the experience of those air crews ? Not 100% on mine, but most of my CV groups are 80+ and either you are hitting me with duds or your pilots lie alot more. I will admit that the Hiryu came into battle damaged from our previous encounter and did not suffer much damage in this battle compared to the last one.. Not sure how or why, but I'm glad. The BBs you hit have suffered basically no damage nor gun losses, although both CVs have numerous guns knocked out. I was too scared to watch the actual battle and just looked at the results... so I don't know if you were dropping 500 lbers or 1000 lbers - my guess is 500 lbers from the lack of damage.

Xargun

[rroberson]

according to my reports 1000 lbers.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: rroberson

according to my reports 1000 lbers.

ouch... and my CVs survived ? I remember in PacWar a CV would be sunk from 2 or so hits from 1000 lbers...

Must be the FOW working then... Take a look at the experience of your units and let me know.. If its low (below 70) that may be part of the problem.. I know my units below 70 do not perform nearly as well as those above.

Xargun

[Deathifier]

I'm betting its their experience.

Even in mid 1943 I just ran into 4 Jap CV's, vs 3 CV's, a CVL and 3 CVE's.

Since the Jap CV's hadn't really faught anything since the start of the game, and my fighter pilots had not taken many shots against enemy aircraft I had lower experience (low 70's).

When the dust settled 3 Jap CV's had sunk, the fourth I lost track of, one of my CVE's had sunk, 70%+ of my fighters were missing and every ship in my taskforce had been hit with something!

Given that and the fact that your battle was more evenly matched in terms of CV numbers I'm not really surprised at the result.

Great AAR so far too, keep it up

- Deathifier

[Oznoyng]

I'm addicted to thsi AAR. I keep coming back to see what happened. Could you guys speed things up a bit, I'm getting withrdrawal again. [:D]

[Capt. Harlock]

One of those things i dont get...I have caught you flatfooted twice...and both times I come away with unhappy results. You didnt see me either time until my bombers where diving on you yet your carriers seem to escape with limited damage and I get hammered. Seems like to me if a naval force gets surprised ...well you get the idea . I have been tracking that fleet for a while, to me both attacks should of been slam dunks. Ah well live and learn I guess.

Pilot experience is very likely the key, but there is one other thing. IMHO the USN is not ready for carrier-to-carrier combat until all F4F-3's have been replaced with the F4F-4 model. The -4's have six guns instead of four, and even more important have folding wings allowing half again as many fighters to fit in the hangars.

[kaleun]

I'm addicted to thsi AAR. I keep coming back to see what happened. Could you guys speed things up a bit, I'm getting withrdrawal again.

Yeah, this guys need to concentrate more on the game and less on work, food, wives and such[;)]

[Whistling Death]

I second what Oznoyng, posted.
I come into work, get my Starbusks coffie, Wall Street J., and then I turn to this AAR, and see how the war is going.
I have learned so much from this AAR, and I really feel rroberson's flustration right now. Can you imagin Xargun's thoughts were when the above Midway battle started! Right out of Butch Castady and the Sundance Kid. "Who are those guys!"
Men, thank you so much for letting us see the good, bad and ugly. You make us all better because of it.
Rroberson, it is a long war, and payback is, you know what.

[rroberson]

No worries.. the war will grind on and on. I think perhaps the programmers message to US Navy players is to not take on the Japanese navy prior to March. Perhaps it is just hard coded in the game that no matter what kind of advantage US Players have they will not beat the Japanese prior to the Coral Sea date. I will check on my flyers exp tonite (since both of my carriers will likely survive the battles unless a jap sub pops one of them) and see if that was the issue. I now know better then to take him on unless I have overwhelming odds...something which I will have in a few months. Back to taking my lumps .

[Oznoyng]

ORIGINAL: rroberson

No worries.. the war will grind on and on. I think perhaps the programmers message to US Navy players is to not take on the Japanese navy prior to March. Perhaps it is just hard coded in the game that no matter what kind of advantage US Players have they will not beat the Japanese prior to the Coral Sea date. I will check on my flyers exp tonite (since both of my carriers will likely survive the battles unless a jap sub pops one of them) and see if that was the issue. I now know better then to take him on unless I have overwhelming odds...something which I will have in a few months. Back to taking my lumps .

Roberson, are you LISTENING recruit? NO POSTYING UNTIL YOUR TURN IS DONE, AND NO WORK EITHER. March *RIGHT* home and do your turn!

[rroberson]

ORIGINAL: Oznoyng

ORIGINAL: rroberson

No worries.. the war will grind on and on. I think perhaps the programmers message to US Navy players is to not take on the Japanese navy prior to March. Perhaps it is just hard coded in the game that no matter what kind of advantage US Players have they will not beat the Japanese prior to the Coral Sea date. I will check on my flyers exp tonite (since both of my carriers will likely survive the battles unless a jap sub pops one of them) and see if that was the issue. I now know better then to take him on unless I have overwhelming odds...something which I will have in a few months. Back to taking my lumps .

Roberson, are you LISTENING recruit? NO POSTYING UNTIL YOUR TURN IS DONE, AND NO WORK EITHER. March *RIGHT* home and do your turn!

I'd love to do my turn...but alas I must wait for my opponent to get off of work .

[Erik Rutins]

Rob,

Nothing hard-coded, but experience and leadership advantages do add up. There's definitely a gap in the early war and some of the US advantages in Anti Air, and faster, sturdier planes are not in full gear yet. You took a big risk and got smacked, but I thank you because I enjoyed reading every minute of it. [;)]

Keep up the good work, I'm impressed with your ability to bushwhack Xargun from time to time. Don't worry, the Japanese player gets his kick in 1942, but you are in for a heck of a fun ride as time goes on.

Regards,

- Erik

[netjam99]

Great thread...I enjoyed the heck outta reading it for the past hour or so!

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Whistling Death

I second what Oznoyng, posted.
I come into work, get my Starbusks coffie, Wall Street J., and then I turn to this AAR, and see how the war is going.
I have learned so much from this AAR, and I really feel rroberson's flustration right now. Can you imagin Xargun's thoughts were when the above Midway battle started! Right out of Butch Castady and the Sundance Kid. "Who are those guys!"
Men, thank you so much for letting us see the good, bad and ugly. You make us all better because of it.
Rroberson, it is a long war, and payback is, you know what.

My thoughts ??? Well at first they were "God I hope thats not his CVs" I figured it would be 3 or all 4 of his CVs. Then after he launched and my CAP didn't do crap I was like "OH crap. There goes two of my CVs" But luckily his first wave didn' hit hard and the second wave was a joke. Then I struck back and put some torps into good old Enterprise.. I was happy about that.

Imagine this happening in the real world.. Both Rob and I went into this battle with a damage CV.. Rob admitted that the enterprise was damaged from our last engagement and so is the Hiryu. Now the Hiryu has more damage - but less than a third of it was inflicted this time around.. and the Akagi is hurt a little too... But now the Enterprise should be crippled and the Yorktown in the same boat as my 2 CVs... This leaves him with 2 good CVs and a damaged one against my 3 good and 3 damaged... Definately my advantage...

He gets another carrier soon (Hornet) but then so do I - unless I get hit by the possible bug surrounding an accelerated CV [if it happens this AAR may end unless Rob and I come to some sort of agreement]. SO the odds will still be in my favor.. PLus I've got like 2 CVEs and like 2 or 3 CVLs as well.. I should maintain the CV advantage for most of 42 I believe... Then it doesn't matter as even a 2:1 in my favor against his fighters and AA will mean a wiped out air group...

Oh well... Hopefully by fall 42 I will own China and most of Burma or at least beating the crap out of the Brits from 2 directions...

OH YEAH !!! MY good news... You will never guess what I found sitting around in a couple of bases on the asia coast ?? Nope.. 2 complete Divisions playing garrison... I don't know how they got there or why they are still there, but they are getting an express ride to the front.. I wonder what 2 MORE divisions will do for me in china.... These are actual chinese area divisions and not ones of the 4 or so divisions I've pulled out of Manchukuo...

China will be mine....

Xargun

[rroberson]

ORIGINAL: Xargun


OH YEAH !!! MY good news... You will never guess what I found sitting around in a couple of bases on the asia coast ?? Nope.. 2 complete Divisions playing garrison... I don't know how they got there or why they are still there, but they are getting an express ride to the front.. I wonder what 2 MORE divisions will do for me in china.... These are actual chinese area divisions and not ones of the 4 or so divisions I've pulled out of Manchukuo...

China will be mine....

Xargun

Sadly I believe that will be true. I just have not figured out how to slow him down there. I almost swear those are panzers bearing down on Lanchow. I have tried the molasses strategy of pulling back everywhere and smacking him where he is weak, but he has made a huge effort in terms of troops and the Chinese just arent up to it. I may lose the entire country (though not soon thank god for slow movement in China) unless I can figure out something to slow down the Japanese hordes that are everywhere. You guys should see the map...in fact...here it is .

[Xargun]

Those nice big guns in the arty units from Manchukuo pound the hell out of these chinese nicely.. I would probably already have another chinese base, but I have half of my units chasing Rob's units all over the map trying to pin them down and wipe them out.. What you see in his post is just the northernmost attempt at wiping out units. I think I have like 4 or 5 Armies / Corps / whatever they are called trapped and should be wiping them out soon.

The only way he could save them is to send units from Lanchow and if he did two things would happen...

1. They would arrive too late
2. My troops in Kungchang would hit Lanchow like a hammer and take the city trapping more of his men

Xargun

[Luskan]

Now we're talking Xargun - early chinese debacles aside and full steam ahead to victory in china! As soon as you do that, we'll be able to hear the screams of tortured allied fanboys everywhere, followed by the sound of them crying themselves to sleep every night [:D]