Tale of the Sheep! - JocMeister (A) vs. Lowpe (J)

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]SOPAC[/font]
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We bombard Rabaul heavily with 4 different TFs. About 1k casualties in total. Pretty uneventful up until...

Sub attack near Aitape at 95,117

Japanese Ships
CV Kaga, Torpedo hits 2, on fire
BB Nagato
CA Kumano
CA Mikuma
CA Chikuma
CL Oyodo
DD Hatsuzuki
DD Suresushio
DD Tadeshiwa
DD Naganami
DD Wakazuki

Allied Ships
SS Finback

Fuel storage explosion on CV Kaga
SS Finback launches 6 torpedoes at CV Kaga
Finback diving deep ....

[X(]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Burma[/font]
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As expected my sweepers hit a heavy Japanese LRCAP. A good day!

Here are the first 3 sweeps.

Morning Air attack on 23rd Air Defense AA Regiment, at 60,44 , near Shwebo

Weather in hex: Severe storms

Raid spotted at 15 NM, estimated altitude 35,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 4
A6M5b Zero x 6
A6M5c Zero x 11
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 38
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 26
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 14
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 15
Ki-61-Ia Tony x 35
Ki-84a Frank x 75

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 31

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5c Zero: 1 destroyed
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 1 destroyed
Ki-61-Ia Tony: 9 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1 Corsair: 3 destroyed

Morning Air attack on 23rd Air Defense AA Regiment, at 60,44 , near Shwebo

Weather in hex: Severe storms

Raid spotted at 15 NM, estimated altitude 35,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 4
A6M5b Zero x 6
A6M5c Zero x 8
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 32
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 23
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 8
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 11
Ki-61-Ia Tony x 10
Ki-84a Frank x 68

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 1 destroyed
A6M5b Zero: 1 destroyed
A6M5c Zero: 2 destroyed
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 2 destroyed
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 3 destroyed
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 1 destroyed
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1 Corsair: 1 destroyed

Morning Air attack on 23rd Air Defense AA Regiment, at 60,44 , near Shwebo

Weather in hex: Severe storms

Raid spotted at 15 NM, estimated altitude 35,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 1
A6M5b Zero x 5
A6M5c Zero x 3
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 25
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 8
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 5
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 5
Ki-61-Ia Tony x 7
Ki-84a Frank x 60

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5b Zero: 2 destroyed
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 1 destroyed
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 2 destroyed
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 2 destroyed
Ki-61-Ia Tony: 2 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1 Corsair: 1 destroyed

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Airlosses[/font]
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This got to hurt for Jeff. Together with the bombardments he has lost around 600 planes in the last week or so. I doubt there will be any LRCAP up tomorrow but we will sweep nonetheless. More than half my sweepers hit empty skies so they are in good shape!

[BBfanboy]

3:1 is very nice! [:)]

You must also be happy with working torpedoes now! Turn those subs loose everywhere - it will give him fits.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

3:1 is very nice! [:)]

You must also be happy with working torpedoes now! Turn those subs loose everywhere - it will give him fits.

Yeah, pretty happy with the turn AND working TTs! [:)]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]NORPAC[/font]
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Sadly Jeff doesn´t seem to take the bait here. No fighting and no signs of him trying to reinforce. We will deliver some more bombardments before going back to pick up more troops.

Landed on 3 islands south of Kodiak to get some NavS up. I´ll expand one of the bases for CAP/LRCAP for the next push.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Burma[/font]
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We finally open the hex to the isolated Allied divisions. The cost was a LRPBde and 2 AA units. Worth it. Now I just need to get out.

Jeff opened the supply path from central Burma to his northern forces which probably means he will try an attack or two. We will try and suck some supply from him by bombarding as well as hitting his forces from the air.

Jeff is moving aggressively in Burma which I don´t really get. I think he has misjudged the situation here though and I mean to exploit his aggression here. Left 3 divisions in the south to secure my southern flank together with 1400 AV to secure the road to Ramree. 2 Indian divisions + 1st Marines move to join up with the forces that turned around from the south. The allies will strike straight for the central plains. I hope for a swift capture. We should vastly outnumber the defenders. In all we should have about 7 divisions for the initial attack. Another 3 divisions will be available in 2-3 weeks.

[Lokasenna]

Hrm, I'm not sure you've actually freed them yet.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Hrm, I'm not sure you've actually freed them yet.

Well, technically not. But I should be able to shift to the next hex fairly intact and if I can´t dislodge the broken Brigade there its far easier to open that hex than the previous one.

[Lokasenna]

The hex side you opened is to the southwest, across the river and in jungle, yes? That's a very slow rate of movement. And from that hex, your most reasonable egress is to the west - a hex he controls, as well as the hexes north and south of them.

He can completely prevent you from extracting those troops if he wants to, although he may need to bring more up to do it.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

The hex side you opened is to the southwest, across the river and in jungle, yes? That's a very slow rate of movement. And from that hex, your most reasonable egress is to the west - a hex he controls, as well as the hexes north and south of them.

He can completely prevent you from extracting those troops if he wants to, although he may need to bring more up to do it.

Yes, but the Japanese BDE there is almost at 0 strength after an earlier river crossing. So unless he can reinforce that hex (which is unlikely) I will gain hex control. And the hex to the west is clear terrain which is very unhealthy for Japanese troops...

I agree though. Too early for champagne.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]B29s[/font]
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First arrivals of many! A bit of limited use to me as I´m not allowed to strat bomb China due to HRs. Their main use will be to thin out Japanese CAP to protect vital rear bases within B29 reach.

They will probably be used in the first night time attacks of the war. While I don´t like how night time bombing works the way the air model works its impossible to use them in their historical role.

During the war they were pretty pretty much impossible for the Japanese to intercept due to their altitude, speed and inferior Japanese early warning systems. In this game though they are intercepted just as easily as a Bi-plane bomber and are apparently built out of cardboard, papyrus, duct tape and some glue!

(They get shot down in droves if they encounter any kind of CAP).

[Lokasenna]

I disagree with shot down in droves if encountering ANY kind of CAP, at least for that model. You may be thinking of the B-29B, which was pretty much exclusive a nightbomber [;)]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I disagree with shot down in droves if encountering ANY kind of CAP, at least for that model. You may be thinking of the B-29B, which was pretty much exclusive a nightbomber [;)]

Nah, goes for all models.

Did some extensive testing when I played against Erik. Same RoT for B29s as all 4Es. About 1 lost for every airborne fighter.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I disagree with shot down in droves if encountering ANY kind of CAP, at least for that model. You may be thinking of the B-29B, which was pretty much exclusive a nightbomber [;)]

Nah, goes for all models.

Did some extensive testing when I played against Erik. Same RoT for B29s as all 4Es. About 1 lost for every airborne fighter.

This is definitely not my experience, even against MM's ballooned aerial OOB. They've shot down more fighters than I've lost bombers. I didn't do anything special with the pilots or anything different with my bomber settings.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I disagree with shot down in droves if encountering ANY kind of CAP, at least for that model. You may be thinking of the B-29B, which was pretty much exclusive a nightbomber [;)]

Nah, goes for all models.

Did some extensive testing when I played against Erik. Same RoT for B29s as all 4Es. About 1 lost for every airborne fighter.

This has in no way been my experience with B-29s playing Lokasenna. They do very well against night CAP. They are faster and have better gun ratings than B-24s.

[Bif1961]

Deep strikes to oil fields, airfields and ports will force him to use CAP deeper in his rear.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
This has in no way been my experience with B-29s playing Lokasenna. They do very well against night CAP. They are faster and have better gun ratings than B-24s.

Not sure if something has been changed since my game with Erik?

I was losing about 30-50 B29 per raid (night attacks) attacking the HI from the Marianas. About 50 NFs on CAP. Granted it was at extended range but once I could rebase to the Philippines it didn´t seem to change much. The one daylight raid I tried was even worse. Ran into a 18 Plane Zero cap over Sumatra which shot down almost 30 B29s. In one attack. This was the 29-1 version.

It somewhere in my old AAR including the tests I ran. In my testing even Nates shot down B29s.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Deep strikes to oil fields, airfields and ports will force him to use CAP deeper in his rear.

That is the idea. [:)]

[Yaab]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
This has in no way been my experience with B-29s playing Lokasenna. They do very well against night CAP. They are faster and have better gun ratings than B-24s.

Not sure if something has been changed since my game with Erik?

I was losing about 30-50 B29 per raid (night attacks) attacking the HI from the Marianas. About 50 NFs on CAP. Granted it was at extended range but once I could rebase to the Philippines it didn´t seem to change much. The one daylight raid I tried was even worse. Ran into a 18 Plane Zero cap over Sumatra which shot down almost 30 B29s. In one attack. This was the 29-1 version.

It somewhere in my old AAR including the tests I ran. In my testing even Nates shot down B29s.

I tested Nates vs B-17 over a year ago. I modified the Nates for the test and gave them 12 x 7.7mm MG in F position. Damaged a lot of B-17s, but haven't shot down a single B-17.