ALLIED ONLY: aztez (A) vs erstad (J) ...2nd ROUND

[cfulbright]

Speaking of the supply bug (cities hoarding supplies and not distributing them to troops in hex), has anyone asked Matrix if it also affects Fortification construction?

[Rob Brennan UK]

ORIGINAL: cfulbright

Speaking of the supply bug (cities hoarding supplies and not distributing them to troops in hex), has anyone asked Matrix if it also affects Fortification construction?

Actually hording at the base would imo not affect base construction/repair as i assume the supplies needed come from the base reserve and not the units themselves (could very well be wrong though) .

Aztez ,, im frankly amazed those banshees hit anything ! thier exp is horrible at start. well done. Are those P40's in java the same aussies (poor) pilots that turn up at the same time ? if so they have done well too. what are you planing on replacing them with? as iirc the banshees and P40's have to be withdrawn on 15th March ish.

China might be a bit of a disaster at the moment and unless a miracle happens i think sians dead meat. but the up side is Dave's having real problems and is behind the AI in the DEI. Did you get the valuable AS's(at least one) to darwin ? well worth it imo. and as much supply as poss as well as fuel.

On another note the Zero losses are horrific ! even if he built up to 100 production the delay in getting them running means that hes not realisitically increased his zero numbers on map at all. the ops losses [&:] while i expect to be high are astronomical. he must be running them ragged ! may also explain your success against them if hes happy to run at a high fatigue level.

anyway, good luck as ever and great read.

[aztez]

cfulbright: No. I think it was affecting only ground units. The forts kept on building slowly and pretty behaving way they are now.

Just keep an eye on the troop supplies if you have altered those supply needed levels. I'am not sure whether this was fixed in the 1st patch.

You should have no problems with this issue now that you know what to look for.

Rob: Nice to see you again. Those Banshees have hit quite a few transports. Actually these guys are the only ABDA squadrons to hit anything so far.

I didn't even bother to change their leaders. I'am using them around 20 000 feet and kept at least 2 squadrons together in order to gain numbers when they fly out. It has worked nicely. They actually might have hit enemy cruiser near Banjamarsin few turns back. Than again with the new FOW I don't know what they actually have accomplished.

IJN losses still show +30 ships sunk including those two battleships. I'am very skeptical on these losses.

Yeah. Those P40E's are the ones you mentioned. I upgraded the squadron leaders and it seems to have helped these guys out quite a bit. The initial bombing waves where repulsed with minium losses and we might see big air to air battles in the forthcoming turn or so.

These guys do withdraw March 15th (or they are set to do so) but I just might keep them in the game since I doubt they are hard coded. The lack of allied quality aircraft is imminent when you at those replacement pools.

I actually spent some PP's activating those high experienced fighters / divebombers I lost early on in this game,

If the zero losses are such high than I'am very pleased. Again the FOW is screwing everybody around and I have noticed some changes in total losses week by week.

I'am hoping to kill his pilots since I cannot outproduce or compete againts him in terms of aircraft build.

Dave might be a bit behind but he is coming forward steadily. His ship losses are not high since he hasn't made many mistakes at all.

As for china, Well, it is a mess. Actually to be more blunt it is an utter mess. I haven't written off the northern china just yet since I'am determined to go out fighting to the last men. We might need some good fortunes or miracles but just maybe these things will happen.

[cfulbright]

Aztez - Did you withdraw Wavell before Singapore fell, or is he building a bridge in Thailand now? How about your top aces in Philippines air force? Did you withdraw/disband them, transfer them to Cagayan, or are they lost?

[medicff]

ORIGINAL: aztez

Rob: Nice to see you again. Those Banshees have hit quite a few transports. Actually these guys are the only ABDA squadrons to hit anything so far.

I didn't even bother to change their leaders. I'am using them around 20 000 feet and kept at least 2 squadrons together in order to gain numbers when they fly out. It has worked nicely. They actually might have hit enemy cruiser near Banjamarsin few turns back. Than again with the new FOW I don't know what they actually have accomplished.

IJN losses still show +30 ships sunk including those two battleships. I'am very skeptical on these losses.

Yeah. Those P40E's are the ones you mentioned. I upgraded the squadron leaders and it seems to have helped these guys out quite a bit. The initial bombing waves where repulsed with minium losses and we might see big air to air battles in the forthcoming turn or so.

These guys do withdraw March 15th (or they are set to do so) but I just might keep them in the game since I doubt they are hard coded. The lack of allied quality aircraft is imminent when you at those replacement pools.

Yes those Banshees are awesome [:D] Regarding the withdraw date: If you withdraw/disband near a home base you will send all pilots and planes left back to the pool for use later. Hopefully by then you have moved some P40/fighter or Banshee/bomber groups from the US to OZ. You will have some banshee production to boot. The you can fill out those US groups (or upgrade others if you lost them) to replace the ones being withdrawn. The PP penalty is EACH turn and will severely hamper your accumulation if you don't withdraw them.

China is a learning experience for everyone reading your AAR. thanks for that. Great moves setting up better airgroups in DEI and hitting him since he is behind (the dutch groups are sorely lacking in AE and will never have the effect as in WITP). I don't think he expected that maneuver. Overall you have done well for such early losses.

[Xxzard]

What exp level are those Banshee pilots?

If they are the groups I'm thinking of, then they come in at rather low exp, and can't hit a thing. Trust me on that last point, I tried using them with low exp, and they may have well have not flown any missions at all.

[medicff]

ORIGINAL: Xxzard

What exp level are those Banshee pilots?

If they are the groups I'm thinking of, then they come in at rather low exp, and can't hit a thing. Trust me on that last point, I tried using them with low exp, and they may have well have not flown any missions at all.

They are the poorly trained hastily formed groups appearing in OZ. I trained them for a week but rushed them into service. Only 30 exp or so. Escort them well or put them up against no CAP and slowly they started getting hits and exp goes up quickly. (have to admit that was release and patch 1083, haven't tested 1084)

[Smeulders]

I transferred 2 of those groups to bomb Japanese landings at Lea, between the two of them they sunk about 4 xAK in a single day of strikes, so far from useless. They do get chopped up once there is CAP though. 

[Sardaukar]

To cheer aztez up about his pilots, here is US carrier pilot song:

Actually, found full song...[:D] Thus edited! [:D]

I WANTED WINGS

I wanted wings
'til I got those God-damned things
No I don't want them anymore.
They taught me how to fly
And they left me here to die,
I've had my belly full of war
You can leave those zeros,
for those God-darned heroes
Distinguished flying crosses
do not compensate for losses

I'll take the dames
While the rest go down in flames
I've no desire to be burned
Air combat's called romance
But it makes me s**t my pants!
I'm not a flyer I have learned.
You can leave those Mitsubishis
To those crazy sons-of-b*****s.
I'd rather lay a woman
Than got shot up in a Grumman.

I'm too young to die
In a God-damned P.B.Y
That's for the eager, not for me,
I don't trust my luck
To get picked up by a duck
After I've crashed into the sea
I'd rather be a bell hop
Than a pilot on a flat top
With my hand around a bottle
And not around the God-damned throttle.

Very enlightening! [8D]

[vlcz]

As smeulders says, if you manage to have them not intercepted are comparatively very good at this stage punishing too bold AKs, (but plan for extensive training asap as the situation allows). Being DIVE as opposed to level bomber is a really big bump in accuracy. This (retrained) units and a one group equiped with Helldiver biplanes (left from upgrades of carriers) are my favorite land based air in mid-42.

[aztez]

cfulbright: No, he building up bridges for the empire if he even survived! Actually haven't rescued any changed leaders since that would mean I would basically pay double PP amount for one commander.

Most of the aces died defending Luzon and few were disbanded into pools.

medicff: Agreed. These guys are definately the best assets ABDA forces have in the game.

Intresting. That would make them to be useful later on.I need to think this through since these guys might be worth the PP penalty I recieve. At least for few more weeks than again need to check the situation turn by turn, I would like them to do 1 or 2 big battles. After they are gone I don't have much left in terms of airpower.

Too bad there are no options to buy them out of withdrawing using PP's. Well, that is what the allies get. Nothing above historical levels with no chance of flexibility.

Dave propably has checked these dates since he did not launch any airstrikes againts Java. Too bad that those withdrawal dates are hard coded. I think he will start advancing into Java after the march 15th.

Learning experince indeed! It is fun and frustrating the same time. If everything goes badly we might not have china for too long. One thing I hate and I think the developers really made bad judgement calls is the supply production! I don't mind low supply feeds but this should be totally OFF the map stuff.

Yeah, dutch are diffrent and the forts build up very slowly. Changing leaders will make an diffrence so who knows whether we can actually pull off some suprised yet.

Xxard: I don't have the turn open but the exp. is low. I think they were around 40's.

Nope. These guys have hit several transports. The key is to move them around and hit ships that don't have high CAP numbers. If you manage to launch and somewhat co-ordinated strike +20 ac's than you should see good results.

That is my experience though.

Smeulders: Good move! I was thinking about moving them into Fiji's but I think I made the correct move by placing them with ABDA frontline bases.

Sardaukar: Well, I might sing that when I do the next turn! Those words are kind of captures the "spirit" so far in this PBEM. [:D]

vlcz: Welcome to the thread. I would love to train them more but the situation is getting worse and I think the training days are soon to be numbered.

There is the issue with PP cost too to be decieded.

I think the divebombers are the only useful aircraft againts enemy naval vessels for allies. I did personally spent PP's to reactive those that were toasted in the beginning of this war. Most of them are now either on their designated areas or enroute to frontline duty.

[aztez]

Pacific (march 1st and 2nd 1942)

Last turn did not ignite any major battles nor landings.

Don't get me wrong here. It had a lot of developments around the map but I would say that these were preparations for bigger things to come.

In china Dave is advancing steadily and made few paratrooper assaults. I hate those Kwantung army bombers (I guess they must be from this region) since he has so much of them flying that I really have nothing to put up againts them,

I noticed that AVG will be withdrawn soon and I'am left basically without any decent airforce. This kind of "sucks" since he has propably +200 bombers flying base / ground assaults. This figure does not include the fighter escorts. I hate this to be honest.

In the south he continued to seize smaller atoll bases. I think he wants to capture them all since kind of provides him with mutually supporting airbases. We all know that the japanese production can really "produce" once it gets ongoing.

Allied signit indicated that at least 1 division and 1 brigade is moving towards Truk.

Here is the overview map and you can check the turns actions plus can see how far he has expanded so far.

[aztez]

Submarine warfare plans/options (early 1942)

As promised I did lay out the plans for this army sector.

Instead of using a lot of words the overview map kind of speaks volumes.

Pointer dots = Possible submarine bases.
Green arrows = Possible directions for the submarines.

The bases are the following: Colombo, Perth, Darwin, Brisbane, Auckland, Tahiti, Christmas Island, Pearl Harbour, Midway and Anchorage.

Allied signit has already indicated that he has troops preparing for northern Oz and especially Darwin seems to be targeted.by some ground units. I think this operation will be done before the summer of 1942. If you look at the map the city is very useful for submarine warfare. If lost than the distances grow up and basically leaves just Perth and Colombo from where allied side can operate effectively againts Java, Borneo and Celebes area.

Another good location for this is Midway. It is not that far off from the mainland japan. Thus it gives out shorter legs for our submarines. I do expect this base to assaulted also maybe even before of summer 1942.

Darwin and Midway seem to be the best options but the same are most vulnerable and high threat areas for enemy amphibitous assaults.

The rest of the bases are in the second category. It seems that Colombo, Perth, Brisbane and Pearl Harbour are the most useful. All of these bases have good size ports.

Btw, If I did understand correctly you need an AD and AS ships in the smaller bases in order to operate from them? I know level 7 ports can automatically load torpedoes.

As for the target areas from these bases. I highlighted them with green arrows. This is yet to be decieded but I think the bulk of the submarines will be sent 1) Borneo/Java/Sumatra areas 2) Home Islands (which is hard to isolate due to long ranges) 3) Marshalls and Truk/Rabaul/Noumea,

I really would love to have more RN subs but unfortunately there are just 2 operational ones currently.

I think the wise move would be to target his supply lanes. At the moment it is hard to figure out where these will actually be. He might be using chinese coastline due the shallow waters.

As suggested I have started to upgrade captains using the sensible guidelines that Sardaukar laid out. It might take an while since most of the submarines are at sea and I'am not going withdraw them yet. Once they enter harbour for refuel their captains will be looked. Last turn alone I changed 4 of them.

Adding the patrol in this to days seems to be good option. It seems to consume less fuel and make them more "aggressive".

That is the basic plan what the allied HQ came up with.

[treespider]

In China - have you tried using the Chinese fighters on ground attack? They won't do much damage but may slow down his advances...

Although if he brought in much of the Kwantung Army then there really is no hope for you here.

[aztez]

treespider: Yeah, I did try and zeros eat them for breakfast. I have bomber squadrons refitting at Chungking but without proper escorts they don't amount to much.

I'am moving troops into the area but the movement is agonizingly slow since there are no railroads.

Actually considering launching offensives through Ichang and through central china towards Hankow. The problem is supply levels which are not that great.

I could also move some RAF bombers into area but these missions eat supplies too and yes the fighters is what I do need.

There are some Hurricanes in India but pretty much they are needed there in order to provide CAP on key areas.

At least you were quite blunt! [:D] ...and this time I hope that my stubborn mentality will give the allied some hope.

[Q-Ball]

There was no HR about Kwantung? Or other land forces?

Until borders are implemented, this is the ONLY house rule in my PBEM. You have to "buy" Kwantung units, Manchukuo units stay in Manchukuo, RTA units have alot of restrictions that limits them to Thailand and the Shan States, and there are Allied limits on use of Chinese Forces in SE Asia

[aztez]

Q-Ball: We do have an houserule regarding Kwantung Army units. (Same goes for chinese armies)

Basically we do need to spent PP in order to move anything in or out of china/manchuko.

I was refering to his air units. These guys must come from there since he could not have that much muscle otherwise.

I don't know how much he has released in terms of ground units. Allthough Dave stated in the war room thread that some armoured units were moved into china.

The houserules we have in place in this theatre are:

* No resource bombings by either side in china.
* PP must be spent in order to move any type of unit in and out of china/manchuko.
* No shock assaults by ground units. (This was implemented during the PBEM) This will also prevent me using any shock assaults if the russians do become active.

Other than that well game on.

As I have said Dave is just one hell of an opponent. I'am in no way implying he has broken any rules or such.

Nope. We have good communication (as we did in our earlier game) so definately mutual respect here.

[Rob Brennan UK]

FYI .. you need AS to rearm subs (any base size will do) but AS needs on board supply so you will periodically have to create a TF with the AS and re load supply from the base. will re supply if disbanded in port or in a support/replenish TF at the base.

AD Destroyer tender. won't re arm subs afaik. only torps on DD's and possibly Crusisers (japan)

as for the banshees and P40s Dave would be wise to wait till after the 15th for any java attack. But as you say it may be worth hanging onto those groups for a couple of weeks just to suprise him. maybe merge any damaged units to cut down on the PP cost. Without those P40's he'll close soerbaja and batavia but if you leave small BF's scattered about java there are a lot of lvl2+ airfields to operate the dive bombers from. beware para drops there too , but im not sure there is much you can do to stop them. At least the rail in java allows a v fast counterattack/build up as opposed to glacier warfare in china [:D]


I've been reading about AE production quite a bit and the consensus seems to be that its no longer possible for japan to have the massive air industry that was possible in WITP without seriously hurting his naval production. and now that japan no longer has 100's of spare merchants he cant afford to cut production imo. So even if he does build up his A/C factories he wont have enough AK's and TK's hauling resources back to feed them fast enough. seems like allied subs will play a much more important role in AE than in WITP (and as in real life too) yet another major service and no longer the naval scout and mini transports they were used for in WITP.

[Sardaukar]

I have found it painful, even against AI sometimes, to keep Darwin suitable supplied, if IJ builds up Timor bases and brings in Betties plus Air HQ.

[aztez]

Rob: It is almost the same than as it was with witp.

I don't know where that AD came into the last posting. I guess was thinking about the lack of destroyers available!

Those P40E's were in action last turn and didn't fair that well againts high alltitude zero sweeps. I need figure out how to get these more costly to him.

Definately not enough troops to properly guard againts paratroopers. Than again those guys will be killed once they enter the hex. I'am keeping around 100av worth of troops mobile in case he deciedes to any such operations. Should be more than adequate amount for these kind of counterstrikes.

Those brave chinese are about launch an counterstrike so fingers crossed we disable few enemy units there!

I have read few of those debates too. Personally I'am not convinced just as yet. The allied aircraft production/replacements were altered heavily in AE too. There propably is lack of exp pilots at least from the start but with the wastelands of china free for practise runs this might alter a lot. If you look at the chinese airforce and what could be sent there without dangering operations elsewhere. Well, it is not much.

Appreciated the comments as always.

Sardaukar: My thoughts exactly. I think this is one reason why has kept pushing towards Timor for weeks now.

I haven't seen many Betty raids lately now that you mentioned it. Dave has been too busy bombing the crap out of chinese ground units.