The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Up to 4/42 certainly it is much better. I'm not sure what the losses are like on the Allied side, but the Empire should come out on top in most engagements during this period, yeah.

So if you mean just this first part of the Game I guess John could have done more to strike, but CR is a veteran player as well. It is often hard to hit the Alies in the early going because they pop around to the many available bases and don't have to defend anything they don't want to. So an experienced player might avoid some conflict in China and the DEI, and only begin fighting if the Empire strives to cross certain lines, like India or the Australian coasts, thus limiting losses.

I just posted my total loss air results to roughly the same date as this game in my AAR. While all the points made here have merit I would also (gently) add that pilot quality is not of much import when facing AA. I think use and deployment of AA by many Allied AAR players is pretty poor. It's the reheaded stepchild of LCUs.

[Cribtop]

Really can't figure John's moves here. He usually has a deep target selected from day 1. Perhaps trying to take Singers and Clark on the cheap early blew up his timetable, but you would expect him to siege them and move on. Well played, CR.

RE attrition, I subscribe to the Nemo school that Japan should seek attritional battles in the air and avoid them on the seas. In my expereince, the key is to use the deeper pilot pool of the IJAAF and Mr. Tojo to bear the brunt. If things work out, the attrition tends to snowball and the Tojo inflicts losses at a high ratio until the Allied second gen fighters arrive. By then, you have a big pilot advantage and have delayed the Allied counter-attack. Once the good toys arrive for the big green machine, the equation changes IMHO.

[Canoerebel]

Bullwinkle makes a good point. 
 
I think most of us instictively feel that AA units on islands are pretty useless.  Most islands aren't attacked and those that are tend to fall quickly so that AA units don't get a chance to go into action.  Since some players are wired by genetics to see AE as an oceanic struggle, the utility of AA units may therefore be overlooked from time to time.
 
In my last game vs. PzH, where he seemed to be setting up for a big air war against Canada and northwest USA, it was obvious where to post AA units (Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, etc.).
 
What about in this game?  Singers go my attention (I didn't send extra there, but I did replace the commanders of each unit there).  The balance will go to the "big city" targets - Melbourne, Sydney, and Calcutta at this point.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Bullwinkle makes a good point. 

I think most of us instictively feel that AA units on islands are pretty useless.  Most islands aren't attacked and those that are tend to fall quickly so that AA units don't get a chance to go into action.  Since some players are wired by genetics to see AE as an oceanic struggle, the utility of AA units may therefore be overlooked from time to time.

A corrollary: islands present unique challenges. AA units have no AV, but they eat up stacking limits. On the continents I also think they get the stiff-arm due again to not having AV, and for many players AV comparisons are the be-all of combat analysis. AV is important, but it's not the whole pie.

[Crackaces]

just posted my total loss air results to roughly the same date as this game in my AAR. While all the points made here have merit I would also (gently) add that pilot quality is not of much import when facing AA. I think use and deployment of AA by many Allied AAR players is pretty poor. It's the reheaded stepchild of LCUs.

I think before the lastest Beta release LCU AA was kind of borked .. then Michealm adjusted accuracy and I have found IJ AA to be effective especally the fixed guns found within fortress units like Truk. Before that change I could take 4E's and clean the island off of life in about 2 weeks .. now the costs of one attack are far too high unless fleet assests are in port. The Allied AA units especally the "heavy" units I have found to be quite effective at lowering the combat results of IJ bombing runs if not downright forcing the altitudes to go higher. After the mentioned change, I noted IJA night attacks became a real risk for the IJ player losing 2 -3 aircraft per 100 plane night raid with many more damaged -- these planes out for 2 - 4 turns. Before the IJ would visit quite reguarly, my night fighters would offer zero resistance, and the IJ would simply extract a toll. Now LCU based flak units make this a much different game IMHO.

[GreyJoy]

I do respect others' view on this subject and, obviously, i do agree on a certain level.
 
Let's say that to me, an attritional battle may favour Japan IF (and only IF) Japan is using that particular air battle to obtain a strategic objective (say a particular city or base). In that case a battle where raw pool numbers and pilots quality do play a big difference and i admit, in those cases, that's a winning strategy for Japan.
 
Otherwise, the philosphy that say: Attritt the allied pools everywhere you can, no matter what, isn't that smart imho. As Obvert pointed out, it's damned easy to lose crack pilots and you will never get them back. Behind a certain line, those constant air battles will simply boost the enemy's quality.
 
 
Won't comment on John's moves cause i'm reading both AARs... I just add that i truly love the way Dan writes his own[&o]

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Bullwinkle makes a good point. 

I think most of us instictively feel that AA units on islands are pretty useless.  Most islands aren't attacked and those that are tend to fall quickly so that AA units don't get a chance to go into action.  Since some players are wired by genetics to see AE as an oceanic struggle, the utility of AA units may therefore be overlooked from time to time.

A corrollary: islands present unique challenges. AA units have no AV, but they eat up stacking limits. On the continents I also think they get the stiff-arm due again to not having AV, and for many players AV comparisons are the be-all of combat analysis. AV is important, but it's not the whole pie.

The marine defense units have AV and flak devices .. as well as coastal batteries effective agasint counter-invasions. Devices are sometimes more important than AV ...

[Canoerebel]

And now for something completely different.

While I am a writer of sorts, I am not a poet.  Or, I've never thought of myself as one.  Poetry, to me, is the highest form of writing - it's a gift and can't be learned (though it can be honed).  Sometimes, the mood strikes to try writing a poem.  Usually, after about thirty minutes, I realize that what I've been toying with is really, really, really bad.  Occasionally, though, I end up with something I feel good about.  Such was the case last summer, when I wrote four poems about the Battle of Chickamauga.  I might have posted some of them in my AAR with PzH.  (If memory serves, I don't think the post elicited a single response, which was kind of telling....)

Anyhow, on December 28, I did a long hike on on of my favorite mountains in northwest Georgia.  I toyed with the idea for a poem, which I started working on serously last week.  Here, for your pleasure (I hope) it is.  Go gentle, dear reader.  Posting poetry for all to read and scoff at leaves one feeling vulnerable:

[font="times new roman"]Christmas Ornament[/font]

When gray December chill is here
I walk a lonely mountain brown
I look for color far and near
But winter’s washed the color down

So brown my mood
And brown the leaves
Gray my thoughts
And gray the trees
Green the pines
I envy spring
Tri-chromatic everything

In meadow old a tired barn
Leans beside a sweetgum tree
Up high the hanging seed balls swarm
With the merry chickadee

This cheerful chattering ornament
Joins the finch in harmony
Then whistle of a waxwing lent
From twig atop a white oak tree

Now bright my mood
And bright the sounds
Light within me
Light abounds
Green the pines
Why envy fall
Winter’s tri-chromatic ‘thrall

[witpqs]

I like it.

[MateDow]

I also like it.

[JeffroK]

Is going back to Law an impossibility???

[8D]

[BBfanboy]

Your poem captures the power of wildlife to brighten our mood in an otherwise humdrum landscape.
When we did winter camps with the scouts we would often get Whiskeyjacks [Gray Jays] and Chickidees coming to us for morsels of food.
There are Ravens using the roof of my apartment building as a winter roost, and they deliberately swoop close to my glass balcony doors to spy on me and check what is on TV. Gives me a chuckle to have such peeping Toms! [:D]

[Houtje]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel


[font="times new roman"]Christmas Ornament[/font]


Why envy fall
Winter’s tri-chromatic ‘thrall

I like it as well; it sounds Tolkien-ish to me, like something an Ent might recite. The last lines, however, I don't fully comprehend. I know what 'thrall' means, but what does it mean to say that 'envy falls'? Googling it did not help.

[obvert]

Americans use the word 'fall' for autumn. This confuses my Australian girlfriend as well.

[Canoerebel]

2/16/42 and 2/17/42
 
NoPac:  Small enemy combat TF at Umnak.  I think John is reinforcing via fast transport.  No sign of enemy carriers yet.  American carriers arrive at SF tonight.  All the transports are about back to Seattle.  Summary:  The Allies are in a good position to make noise in the Aluetians when and if they wish to do so.
 
Pacific:  Quiet at the moment.  From the Coral Sea to Hawaii, no signs of enemy activity.
 
Oz:  One enemy infantry unit is a hex north of Geraldton.  I have about eight units there (mostly fluff), so I'm hoping John won't reconnoiter the hex.
 
DEI:  Singers just went "yellow" for supply.  Air transport from Batavia is meager.  Some "forlorn hope" supply ships are nearing Java to try to run the gauntlet.  They won't make it. 
 
India:  All is calm.  All is bright.
 
China:  MLR intact.

[princep01]

This has become quite a lull in IJ operations.  I would expect a lull of sorts after the first "big push", but this is exceptional.  I think Cribtop has a point about John's timetable being messed up by the early reverses.  But, then, you may look back on this lull as a "happy time" soon enough.

[Canoerebel]

Yes, the lull has lasted unusually long.  I can't figure out why - Singers and Clark shouldn't have thrown John off given the small commitment he invested at each.  No doubt the lull will end soon.  But where's John coming next?  I'm guessing Perth and Port Blair.  He might go deeper and move on Ceylon or NE India.  Any of those I'm prepared to deal with one way or another.  I'd be suprised, at this point, if he did something more bold.
 
What about the Allies?  Now that the Aluetians operation has ended, what's next?
 
I'd love to move on Cocos Island, but I'd need the timing to work and I don't think it will.  I'd want my assets, including carriers, in place to move on Cocos at the same time John moved on Port Blair (or other distant point utilizing his carriers).  I don't think I have sufficient time before he hits Port Blair, but I will go ahead and work on the program hoping that something will come up that will give me a window of opportunity.
 
Other than Cocos, I would like to reinforce Noumea and Luganville.  I will look for an opportunity to invade Carnavon.  And, if John really screwed up and delays unusually long, I will reinforce Port Blair.

[Chickenboy]

I miss Grotius' AAR-written in Haiku format. You were the only other consistent contributor to that AAR, and I found our WiTP:AE AAR contributions (in Haiku format) bemusing. I think Grotius liked them as well. [8D]

[Canoerebel]

I agree, that was alot of fun!  I think that for people who "love words" and who have decent vocabularies, haiku is a pretty easy poetry format.  It's also easy to subtly tweak them to make them humorous. 

Poultry Lad misses
Clever Grotius poetry
They made him so moist

[Chickenboy]

Country lawyer Dan
Speaks truth about moisture
Tears of laughter flow