Lambs to the slaughter (Lowpe (J) vs Jocke; BillBrown (A)) Finished

[Lowpe]

Turn is away...and the Allies are massing troops in the central plains west and north of Magwe. I suspect he has to be flying in lots of supply...so I tried another LRCAP.

More artillery arrived at Katha, and the cut off two Allied units. The runway there is approaching level 1; I had hoped AA in the hex might down some transports but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I left the Rufe's on escort over Feni in the Bismarck Archipelago. They will probably get savaged, but there is a slim chance the Allies don't see the losses.

[Lowpe]

August 14, 1943

Rufe's swept by Warhawks and Hellcats over Feni...losing 7.

Burma...trying to cut/establish supply lines.

[Lowpe]

Aug 15, 1943

Allied super CAP is destroying my searching naval planes...3 shot down today. I am going to have to fine tune the search using arcs. I had thought to train some Dinah III pilots up and use them...I think they are far less likely to die than Nells, Bettys or Irvings.

A rare forced river crossing in movement mode. 21-1 attack delivers another setback to the Chinese.

[Lowpe]

Allies have one sub in the hex. I have two dedicated, patrolling TFs of sub chasers in that hex with lots of naval search, asw search..day and night.

And yet it is the two SC TFs that have 4/4 DL on them.

There is no other Allied DL in the area.

[Lowpe]

12cm DP guns. Only a few non static units have them....

The Kure 7th is headed for another base...

Normally these guys do next to nothing as the Allies know where they are and either avoid them or pound them into oblivion prior to invading. But that does cause delay.

[Lowpe]

8cm DP gun locations.

Need to fine tune their placement.

[Lowpe]

The Sam-J comes one month before the Ki94. Olorin also started three equally sized facilities on the Ki94. They are repaired to only at 32, 28 and 22.

I can't recall seeing a game where the Sam-J actually saw production.

[Lowpe]

Shinden is superior. Comes one month earlier, the cannons are CL, and the speed.

It is so very difficult to use a bomber killer in that role. Usually they end up getting swept by Jugs.

I wonder if the UP mounted cannons would actually fire in a dogfight with them Jugs.

[Lowpe]

August 16, 1943

A standard b tanker full of fuel goes down.

My first Run Silent, Run Deep success of the war outside of Balikpapen reports an American sub sank (but I am doubtful). Our surface escorts ran out of depth charges.

The idea is a target merchant ship, well protected with E's and SC, and a Rboat in the same hex. I am hoping the Rboat adds to the DL?

Anyhow...we will set up more of these sub traps now that some E's are coming thru with their upgrades.

I will use a 1000 unit tanker as bait...

[witpqs]

Interesting. I wonder how that will work out over the long run.

[Lowpe]

I shot down 2 Gooney birds today in A2A; but I cannot find any message where I did this at. Plenty of possible places, but my settings would lead me to believe that I couldn't shoot any down.

Can fighters with 0%CAP still sortie and intercept transports (especially if they don't escort any planes for the day).

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Interesting. I wonder how that will work out over the long run.

Without the Rboat, I had great success doing this in my last game. Especially when the cargo ship was loaded it seems, but that may merely be observer bias.

Far more effective than 3 or 4 ship ASW task forces. I really want to get the Rboat to put a torpedo into a crippled /damaged Allied sub. That would be too cool!

[Lowpe]

This looks like the Marine Division is being picked up from Ramree. There is a strong SAG TF here too. All protected by 150 fighters...and most likely good fighters like Jugs and not Warhawks or Hurricanes.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Can fighters with 0%CAP still sortie and intercept transports (especially if they don't escort any planes for the day).

I have seen fighters on pure training missions caught up in air attacks - so maybe? I think as long as the fighter is not on Standdown they CAN be called up into CAP - just lower chances.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Can fighters with 0%CAP still sortie and intercept transports (especially if they don't escort any planes for the day).

I have seen fighters on pure training missions caught up in air attacks - so maybe? I think as long as the fighter is not on Standdown they CAN be called up into CAP - just lower chances.

I don't think so.


Try changing the altitude on your search planes. Higher is less likely to encounter CAP, at least CV-borne CAP.

[Lowpe]

Aug 17th, 1943

I have abandoned all the eastern bases...but we spring a small surprise.

[Lowpe]

August 18, 1943

Yesterday Allies attacked and got a 1-1 at Feni...but swept with only Warhawks. So I put up some decent LRCAP.

13 Warhawks shots down for 6 Tojo losses.



The Tojo IIb gets a bad rap because of the inaccurate cannons. In today's action they got credited with six kills. I have noticed the the cannons seem to do much, much better against bombers than fighters.

[Lowpe]

In addition I flew a couple of Mountain Guns in by flying boat, and rushed in 36 AV of the Maizuru SNLF from Rabaul.

A good result.

[Lowpe]

I sent a 20mm machinegun AA unit out north of Shwebo to reopen the Katha hexside.

180 Corsairs, Hellcats and others sweep and then the bombers come in.

[Lowpe]

An impressive sight.