Notes from a Small Island

[BBfanboy]

I think the 114% is because the AF went from 3 to 4 and had enough points to go to level 5, but can only go one level per day. Thus it will go to level 5.14 tomorrow + whatever increases you add.
If you have an Air HQ you will be able to upgrade aircraft soon. If not, you can at level 7.

[Canoerebel]

6/11/44

NoPac: Death Star reported to Shikuka without incident for critical logistical duties. This turned out to be the perfect turn, as I'll explain in the next post.

[Canoerebel]

6/11/44

Shikuka Air Battle: If I had known Eric would choose this turn to send more than a thousand aircraft against Shikuka, I would've had a heart attack. I don't have a great record in massive air battles, especially against experienced players. (Actually, my ratios seem to be in line with what most folks experience; but it's sobering to see Hellcats and Thunderbolts get chewed up by Japanese fighters).

Wave after massive wave of IJ fighters hit Shikuka. The Allied CAP, augmented terrifically by Death Star fighters, did very well. Eventually, enemy bombers came in, targeting the port. A few got through to drop with no hits scored. Erik was probably looking for crippled carriers.

The Allies scored a decisive victory here. See next post.

[Canoerebel]

6/11/44

Air Losses: A good day in the air for the Allies. I definitely prefer fighting defensively in the air war. I did lose a fair number of Hellcats, and for whatever reason my Hellcat pools aren't deep. I've already cast around the map, downgrading squadrons in Burma, SWPac, Hawaii and USA from Corsairs, Thunderbolts, Hellcats, to Wildcats and Warhawks. NoPac is the key to things, and it looks like Erik is throwing everything he has at me. When does he commit Kaigun?

[BBfanboy]

You must have had your heart in your mouth for ages watching that combat!
He can probably replace the fighter losses easily enough but the bomber losses will likely hurt his plans.

[Canoerebel]

I think I had 22 pilots killed on the day. Hopefully he had enough KIA to matter.

Air losses overall in the game have been low for both sides. He can absorb a tremendous amount of punishment and keep coming, which is why it's so important to force him to attack. This was a nice beginning.

[JohnDillworth]

Good work against subs. Hits by aircraft are rare so whatever you are doing keep doing and hope your opponent does the same. Quite a contrast to your other game

[crsutton]

The thing is that for every Jack, George and Frank you shot down, there are probably two more damaged. Being service level 3 means a lot of time on the ground before they recover. This is where you have the advantage and why you will now probably get a few days off from serious fighting. He needs all of his aircraft intact to mount anything serious. And if you have massive AA then a few points of forts will make your two bases pretty much immune from serious bombing attacks. Only naval bombardments can hurt you and knowing you, you must have brought some CD units with you as well. If things get dicey you can afford to move your fleet away for a while. He will never take those bases back. And quite frankly, he can't afford to ignore them so just leaving the bases to fend for themselves for a while is a viable option. It will open up plenty of doors elsewhere.

I like to one-two my opponents in that I would already have an invasion staged for another theater. You know his fleet is going to have to hang there for a good while. You can pull off an invasion elsewhere with lighter naval forces and CVEs. But you may have every assault ship with you. I know Longstreet hates to go into battle with one boot off....[;)]

[Canoerebel]

6/12/44

NoPac: Utterly quiet today, but the lid could blow off the cooker at any moment.

[Canoerebel]

6/12/44

Shikuka: A mighty strong fortress building in NoPac. Two million supply is pretty good, with about 200k more still to come ashore. I wish it was more.

[Canoerebel]

6/13/44

Shikuka: It was a quiet turn, so most of my focus was on Shikuka. All troops are ashore and 98% of supply is ashore. All the assault units that were prepped for Korea have been switched to Kuriles targets.

My TFs declined to leave port. I checked, re-checked, and triple-checked and none of them were still unloading. The only thing I could figure is that the number of TFs and the following orders were sufficiently complicated to overwhelm the AE. So I spent the turn aligning every single TF to follow 166, which is an ASW TF with a good commander that has a low aggression rating. Hopefully that works.

[BBfanboy]

If you want that ASW TF to actually kill subs the commander should have high aggression. Aggression includes persistence.

[Canoerebel]

I don't want the lead TF to chase sub sightings. It's the bell cow, leading the herd. I want it to go exactly where I tell it to go, but I want it to be an ASW TF leading the herd. So, for complex reasons, the TF commander has low aggression rating.

[Canoerebel]

6/14/44

NoPac: No combat today, so nicely quiet. But no do is actually "quiet" when such massive military force are in close proximity. The Allies are working like crazy to attend to logistics, prep, readiness, etc.

[Canoerebel]

6/16/44

Battle of the Kuriles: A one-sided, costly carrier battle today. The react feature and my defensive strike aircraft settings (range two to avoid CAP traps) left me in a pickle. It's not hopeless but it might be if the next turn is sour too. But I think the orders issued for tomorrow have a modest chance of success.

P.S. This is twice Erik's carriers have launched big attacks. Both times he hasn't said a thing, allowing me to run the turn with no forewarning that something was up. It's really a lot of fun to watch the movie and see events unfold without any tipping off ahead of time.

[witpqs]

Hang in there, buddy, his fists can't take that kind of beating for long!

Speaking as someone who lost more carriers in a day than many people lose in a game, I found one of the most demoralizing things to your opponent is when that happens and you still achieve the objective of the operation.

[Canoerebel]

Thanks, witpqs!

Let's see if I can pull a rabbit out of a hat or if I've stumbled into the lair of the Holy Grail's killer rabbit.

[BBfanboy]

That's a big ouch on both sides - he lost an awful lot of strike aircraft.
I see he configured his TF to include some single E's to try and draw off your strikes. Had your carriers stuck with the herd his strikes would have been the ones split up by the number of targets. But maybe you can throw some ships out there to draw his next strikes? xAPs seem to get carrier strike attention so if you have some that are expendable ...

Also note the DD TFs that he might throw at you looking for carrier cripples.

[Canoerebel]

He has a bigger combat TF trailing too, but it can't close unless he uses flank speed.

I've detached one DD TF to reverse course and try to mess with his vectors of approach. But I have a host of very big and powerful combat TFs that are supposed to follow the "Escort TF" of crippled carriers. If my TFs will obey orders it might be interesting. If they keep disobeying, well, I might end up applying for asylum in Ulan Bator.

[Drakanel]

To be honest, I thought that after this turn you'd decide to go for it at this point, with massed combat TFs and carrier strikes [8D]

I know, I know, the wishful thinking of the peanut gallery who likes to see big battles [:D]

Still, if it all goes well you only lost one CVL. Plus some yard time for the other big flattops. He did lose a lot of aircrafts for this.