General Patton vs. larryfulkerson Focus Pacific #75

[larryfulkerson]

I've been moving RES from four or five nearby RES centers, depicted in the image below. As the levels descend slowly in some of the
ports I've been adjusting the number of TF's until the RES value is relatively stable and most of the routes are working okie dokie but
several of them swing so widely that I've had to watch them from turn to turn. The Tracker Industry Overview says that the RES level
is rising slowly in the home islands so I guess we're good to go on RES so far. I'll have to concentrate on oil next. Toyohama has a
large stockpile of oil and I've been drawing lots of barrels from there. There's oil at Port Arthur but I've been holding off grabbing it
from there so far, hoping that it will travel to Fusan so as to make the trip to the home islands shorter. So far no go.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's happening in China. My heart isn't in the land war on the mainland so there's been a lack of excitement overall in China.
But there's currently two hot spots and my Jap troops are getting bombarded on land but I'm pounding the Allied groups by air and
I'm killing more than he is so far. It's going to be a slow process. I've moved most of the Sonia's to China to do some simple ground
pounding. Other types of light bombers are operating there as well. I've shut off most of the production of the light bombers so as to
concentrate on the Betty and Nell. I've only just a week ago converted the factories so there's still a lack of Betty's in the field. There's
absolutely none in the pools. I may have to boost production of the Betty more yet.

EDIT: I've just had another hard look at the picture and I've noticed a lack of troops moving here and there. I've stripped off most of
the troops in China for the battles in the PI and China hasn't the troops left to make things happen. I'm mostly holding onto what I have
possession of.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's happening at Sarawak and Borneo. I was really fortunate to capture the three oil centers on Borneo and Sarawak
intact. I remember having to do a little light repairing at Miri but it's done now and we're cooking full-time. I've already been drawing
fuel from them and Miri is shipping to CRB and Balikpapan and Tarakan are shipping to Bubble Drop and Truk. I'm going to start
shipping fuel from down south to the home islands eventually I guess. I'd rather move oil at first.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's happening around Davao. There's one more hot spot left and I'm pounding it by air before doing land bombardment
because I have less arty than the Allies do and everytime I bombard I lose more than he does plus some of my guns. I need more
arty here. I have some moving from Nakagima to Tokyo and I can jprobably move them to Davao within two weeks time port to port.

I'm wondering whether or not to use Davao as a hub rather than Bubble drop because it has the possibility of expanding it's port
larger than Bubble Drop. But it's kind of out of the way for traffic moving north and south. I'll have to give it more thought.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Brian. I've watched the combat replay and now I'm checking out things Tracker is pointing out. I'm learning how to
find things, the information I need. I still haven't found a way to get a list of the ports with their sizes and so on. Here's the aircraft
and engine pool. Still no Betty's are showing up in the pool. The squadrons must be low of planes. I may need to place another
factory to making Betty's.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the factories building Betty's. They are all working as designed and putting out planes. Maybe we need a boost in production?
I'll check out the squadrons and see who's low on planes.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Betty squadrons. As you can see quite a few of them are depleted and need to refill with planes. I need to get them to a
level 8 airfield so they can do that. That's the theory. All of the squadrons are doing something useful and that's a good sign. Those
depleted squadrons that still have a few planes are put to the training mission as that's just about all they are good for. I'm slowly
moving all the training going on to the home islands. They have the most high-level airfields in one place.

[nikoslejeune]

Your problem with the Betties is not the factory/production number of those aircraft.
As far as I can see its the engine side thats low.

You are producing (after repairs) 185 engines but two planes (afaik) are using them;

50 Sally IIa needs 100 engines ( 2 per plane afaik in stock so should be the same in your Mod)

130 Betties needs 260 engines ( 2 per plane, again afaik in stock)

Easiest way to spot discrepancies, if you have the know of engines per plane but its mostly one for fighters and light bombers
aand 2 for medium bombers, some PA use 4 , is to sort the list you show in post 285 by engines. You can then do the math and see what to expect
when more planes come out of research.

So afaik can tell its engines^^.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: nikoslejeune
Your problem with the Betties is not the factory/production number of those aircraft.
As far as I can see its the engine side thats low.

You are producing (after repairs) 185 engines but two planes (afaik) are using them;

50 Sally IIa needs 100 engines ( 2 per plane afaik in stock so should be the same in your Mod)

130 Betties needs 260 engines ( 2 per plane, again afaik in stock)

Easiest way to spot discrepancies, if you have the know of engines per plane but its mostly one for fighters and light bombers
aand 2 for medium bombers, some PA use 4 , is to sort the list you show in post 285 by engines. You can then do the math and see what to expect
when more planes come out of research.

So afaik can tell its engines^^.

Thanks very much for your analysis. People like me would be lost with this game if it weren't for people like you. I'll take a good
look and see if I can't boost the number of engines the Betty uses. I think maybe it's the Ha-32 and there's only one in the pool.
No wonder. You're worth your weight in platinum dude.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the next 30 days or so of ship availability for the Jap side. I've had to stop the building of a lot of the smaller ships because I
don't think I can spare the HI for those kinds of ship. The LCI and SC, etc. I'll probably need those LCI's eventually.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Jap economy just before April rolls around. So far so good. I'm going to have to boost the Nav and Merch shipyards
some more yet and the number of Betty's and Zero's is inadequate for my needs but the pool levels are rising otherwise so I'm
optimistic.

[larryfulkerson]

I've detected a potential problem. The fuel level in the home islands dropped about 400K in about 2 weeks time. And there's about a
million gallons left and that's enough for about four weeks maybe at the rate it's dropping. So the war might be over sooner than I
thought.

[larryfulkerson]

I found ( via Tracker ) the highest leadership officer in the game and it turns out he's a DD driver. I have to see if there's some way
I can get him into a higher posting. His crew loves him though....look at the crew experience.

[larryfulkerson]

I found one leader with an outstanding leadership value in charge of a floatplane group. Needless to say I need him in a different
posting so I replaced Kubota with a different guy. I'll use Kubota in some higher unit or somewhere.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Brian. Here's the air R&D that's going on right now. I've got several aircraft models coming ripe soon. I bumped up
some of the factories but some of them looked dubious to me. I guess I really should go through the list of possible aircraft and find
those models that I really need ASAP and start researching them. What a good idea.

[Bif1961]

When it comes to your KB all 6 CVs and 3 CVLs and a CVE in the same carrier TF, I believe it will have a severe airstrike coordination limitation according to the rule book. It would be better to break them up to Carriers TFs of 2 CV and 1 CVL, to minimize the coordination restriction and have the 3 equal size carrier TFs follow the slowest of the three with the same reaction range so they will stay together in the same hex when they move and react. By the looks of it you would have 520 plus AC, which will not coordinate in the same strike if from only one TF with all the carriers assigned to that one TF. However you might get off a strike that big if you have 3 carrier TFs working together and not subjected to the coordination restriction.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961
When it comes to your KB all 6 CVs and 3 CVLs and a CVE in the same carrier TF, I believe it will have a severe airstrike coordination limitation according to the rule book. It would be better to break them up to Carriers TFs of 2 CV and 1 CVL, to minimize the coordination restriction and have the 3 equal size carrier TFs follow the slowest of the three with the same reaction range so they will stay together in the same hex when they move and react. By the looks of it you would have 520 plus AC, which will not coordinate in the same strike if from only one TF with all the carriers assigned to that one TF. However you might get off a strike that big if you have 3 carrier TFs working together and not subjected to the coordination restriction.

Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention. I'll reorganize the carrier TF's so as to maximize efficiency etc. And I'll have the
slowest TF be the master and the two faster ones be the slaves and move them together. Sounds really good.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the refinery and oil center pairs. I've found several refineries that could be boosted a bit and boosted them. I'm looking for
those refineries that have an oil center in the same hex that's larger than the refinery. I boost the refinery to be the same size as
the oil center in that hex. I think that's safe and will boost production of fuel, which is slowly draining out into the hubs. Fuel in the
home islands is going to be a restricted item soon. I'm slowly running out of it.

[BillBrown]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

When it comes to your KB all 6 CVs and 3 CVLs and a CVE in the same carrier TF, I believe it will have a severe airstrike coordination limitation according to the rule book. It would be better to break them up to Carriers TFs of 2 CV and 1 CVL, to minimize the coordination restriction and have the 3 equal size carrier TFs follow the slowest of the three with the same reaction range so they will stay together in the same hex when they move and react. By the looks of it you would have 520 plus AC, which will not coordinate in the same strike if from only one TF with all the carriers assigned to that one TF. However you might get off a strike that big if you have 3 carrier TFs working together and not subjected to the coordination restriction.

It does not seem to be much of a problem. Having too many aircraft in a CVTF will double the possibility of uncoordinated strikes. It seems that with good commanders it is not much of a problem. Consider how many
escorts you have available and let that decide what you want to do.

Don't forget that having multiple CVTFs traveling together runs the risk of one or two of them reacting and the others not reacting so you end up with small CVTFs in multiple hexes.

[larryfulkerson]

I did some cutting and pasting and put together the TF with a list of ships and the aircraft on the carriers. I've got a good set of escorts
but only adequate, not enough for tricky plays. I'm not convinced that it's not a good idea to split up the carriers. The problem may be
that there's only bombers on some of the carriers and no fighters. I'll have to watch out for that when I'm pairing up the separate ships.

EDIT: I've had another hard look at the picture and I'm not sure I have enough DD's for three TF's. And as luck has it there's another
TF in the area that has a CVL and some escorts. I think they just got appropriated.

EDIT2: I noticed too, down at the bottom of the list of aircraft that there's a floatplane group training. This is a holdover from when they
went red in the fatigue department and I stood them down. Then due to my inaptitude I left them on training instead of naval search.
More than one game was lost because of little things like this.

EDIT3: I've already shipped my moves off to Brian so it'll probably be late tonight before I can make the changes.