Notes from a Small Island

[BBfanboy]

With the Japanese may be running short of supply because they have built and researched so many aircraft. You also cut them off from a lot of resources when you moved on Hokkaido. So Eric may end up with lots of aircraft but no avgas (supply) to send them out. That could be part of the reason he is husbanding his offence.

As for interminable replay times, it seems to be the Air to Ground segment that you find least useful. You can fix that by going into your preferences (second button from the left at the top of the screen) and set the time delay to 0.0. The animation will not show but you still get the combat report at the end if you have that selected.

[jwolf]

When you take Chungking, won't that trigger a massive re-spawning of the Chinese army? I wonder if the resulting supply drain will negatively impact operations elsewhere in China.

[Canoerebel]

That's a good suggestion, BBfanboy.

I haven't watched a movie in a long, long, long time. Perhaps once in the past 60 turns, and that was more than a month ago. That's not optimal but it is okay, under the circumstances.

Even in my game with Dave I'd fallen into the habit of watching about one out of 20 replays.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: jwolf
When you take Chungking, won't that trigger a massive re-spawning of the Chinese army? I wonder if the resulting supply drain will negatively impact operations elsewhere in China.

I'm not sure, since I wasn't around when Erik consquered China. I don't know if my predecessor retreated all the units out or if they were destroyed. I think it was mostly the former. So supply may not be a huge issue. And it may not be anyway. Lots of supply coming in through Russia, where Allied TFs are unloading each day.

[HansBolter]

I almost never watch the animations for air bombing except when ships are the targets.

I 'escape' out of them, although I know you PBEM guys are loathe to use the escape key for fear of triggering a sync bug.

The late 45 and 46 time period can become very tedious during the air phase.

I have 1,200+ B29s, 1200+ B24s and 900+ B17Gs all targeting the same hex (Tokyo), not to mention several hundred Lancasters and Lincolns.

The B17Gs for some odd reason I can not fathom, more often than any other land based airframe get huge coordinated strikes of 500-700 planes, while all the other types only manage coordinated strikes of 150-300 planes. The B17s are occupying the same base as the B24s (Hiroshima), but the B24s never get the large coordinated strikes the B17s get.

This means there are an interminable number of straggler attacks of 6-9-12 planes that seem to drag on FOREVER. It gets to a point where I am escaping out of the combat reports along with the animations, not really caring how much damage the straggler attacks are doing, but just wanting to get the end of them.

[Canoerebel]

Yeah, viewing the night air bombing routine is horrible during the late war. 300 strikes by three aircraft each is tedious beyond belief.

By the way, the Superforts perform well at night. The Liberators do okay. The Flying Fortresses are useless but useful at helping clear out enemy CAP (IE, serving as ablative armor). The Lancasters are a liability beyond belief.

[BillBrown]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

I almost never watch the animations for air bombing except when ships are the targets.

I 'escape' out of them, although I know you PBEM guys are loathe to use the escape key for fear of triggering a sync bug.

The late 45 and 46 time period can become very tedious during the air phase.

I have 1,200+ B29s, 1200+ B24s and 900+ B17Gs all targeting the same hex (Tokyo), not to mention several hundred Lancasters and Lincolns.

The B17Gs for some odd reason I can not fathom, more often than any other land based airframe get huge coordinated strikes of 500-700 planes, while all the other types only manage coordinated strikes of 150-300 planes. The B17s are occupying the same base as the B24s (Hiroshima), but the B24s never get the large coordinated strikes the B17s get.

This means there are an interminable number of straggler attacks of 6-9-12 planes that seem to drag on FOREVER. It gets to a point where I am escaping out of the combat reports along with the animations, not really caring how much damage the straggler attacks are doing, but just wanting to get the end of them.

As a PBEM person I use the "z" key. It sets all the delays to 0 for that animation sequence. So the turn 1 PH attacks takes about 10 seconds. I do watch the Naval Attacks on my opponents, not my own. I rarely watch any type of ground attack( airbase, port, LCU ). I do not watch ASW attacks on my subs, but on the enemy's subs. I think I get most of the pertinent information that way.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Yeah, viewing the night air bombing routine is horrible during the late war. 300 strikes by three aircraft each is tedious beyond belief.

By the way, the Superforts perform well at night. The Liberators do okay. The Flying Fortresses are useless but useful at helping clear out enemy CAP (IE, serving as ablative armor). The Lancasters are a liability beyond belief.

I find the B17Gs to be the best performers at shutting down airfields, but meager performers on bombing ground troops.

I never used anything but B29s on strategic bombing.

[Canoerebel]

12/31/45

Points: Allies lead by 63k, 29k from victory. I don't think there's any way in this wide world that the Allies can score 29k in two months, much less hold Japan to 0k. But I'll see what I can do to close the gap as much as possible.

China: Here's where the Allies will harvest a lot of points. The main IJ army is at Chungking and out of supply. It's facing a humongous Allied army of roughly 13-14k AV. Chunkging won't last long. The Japanese have other armies scattered hither and yon at some good bases. After Chungking, those will be targeted.

Strategic Air War: Erik has 1000+ AA at Tokyo. He's pulled back all his defenses to a main core of important bases. These are hard to get at efficiently. So I think the Allies will transition over to a major fighter sweeping campaign to see if it's possible to whittle down his defenses. I doubt it, because he has elite fighters and pilots. But I want to see if the economy might finally affect him.

End-War Campaigns? China might be the final ground campaign, but I'm taking a hard look at Korea and the Home Islands.

The Japanese High Command: No major offensive activity in more than a year, I believe. Erik's biding his time, hoping to launch massive, coordinated attacks against an Allied invasion/escorting armada. I'm still determined not to give him that opportunity.

[BBfanboy]

Still no A-bombs available? Something isn't working right if that is the case.
A high level A-bomb attack might be the only way to get strat points out of Tokyo.

[Capt. Harlock]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Still no A-bombs available? Something isn't working right if that is the case.
A high level A-bomb attack might be the only way to get strat points out of Tokyo.

As has been discussed in this thread, the use of a third A-bomb has significant penalties. Given the indifferent results of the first two, I wouldn't blame CR if he's decided to go with conventional strikes for the remainder of the game.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Still no A-bombs available? Something isn't working right if that is the case.
A high level A-bomb attack might be the only way to get strat points out of Tokyo.

As has been discussed in this thread, the use of a third A-bomb has significant penalties. Given the indifferent results of the first two, I wouldn't blame CR if he's decided to go with conventional strikes for the remainder of the game.

Somewhere I missed or forgot about the first two being used - I thought none had shown up yet as I remember that discussion! I plead old age!

[Canoerebel]

Yes, both were dropped. No. 1 in September for about 4500 points. No. 2 in late Nov. or early Dec. for about 8k points. Those were disappointing results. I won't drop any more, lest I fudge-up the victory level, which I think will be a draw, which makes sense to me.

[Bif1961]

So you are say the A-bombs were a bomb?

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

So you are say the A-bombs were a bomb?

Yes, someone wished CR "Good Luck" and it jinxed him; shoulda said "Break a Leg".

[Bif1961]

Is everyone doing the Michigan Rag?

[Canoerebel]

1/5/46

This may have been the best day of the war for the Allies. The Allies took both Chungking and Kienko, displaying and mauling two important IJ armies. The IJA defenses in China are now fractured and isolated. There are still some major base points to be harvested and huge armies to be liquidated, meaning lots of points. It'll take time for movement and liquidation, but Japan can't stop anything here. Moreover, a good bit of the Allied army will proceed immediately to Shanghai or Korea, for future amphibious or ground ops.

Of lesser note, a major Allied daytime sweep was effective vs. 1100 fighters at Hiroshima. There are enough P-51H models in the pools to permit this kind of activity from this point forward, supplemented probably by carrier or navy-land-based Corsairs.

Strat Bombing continues pretty efficiently. Today's missions picked off little residual pockets at secondary bases. Erik's defenses are pretty much concentrated at Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and a few other bases. A trial run vs. Tokyo a week back was horrendous, so I'll have to pick targets carefully (and hope that the Allied fighter corps might eventually take control of the air).

With China now mostly in mop-up mode, Allied armies will retire to ports of embarkation (or Korea). It's likely the Allies will invade the Ryukus by the end of this month while also invading (or reinforcing Hokkaido) on the north side. An alternative under consideration is to shift most of the Allied troops to Korea and try to hammer my may through Erik's big strongpoints.

[Canoerebel]

1/5/46

China: Allied victories at Chungking and Kienko unhinge enemy defenses on the continent. There are pockets all over worth liquidating, both for base points and army loss points. Trying to allocate between that opportunity and the opportunity to detach armies for use elsewhere is challenging. The air force can help with liquidation, though, especially when enemy armies retreat off-road. That's how I handled the enemy army booted from Peiping in northern China.

[Canoerebel]

For the first time, the AI reports that the Allies have "Major Victory" status. I think that might be true if the Allies achieve 2:1 by the end of February (or perhaps it's reduced to "Minor Victory").

No matter what the AI happens to report at games end, I'll consider this match a draw. Given the quality of the opponent and the starting position, I'm pleased with that. This has been a hard match, and I learned (somewhat to my surprise) that I could hold my own against Obvert.

More thoughts along these lines later, when the game comes to an end.

[RangerJoe]

I say that you are doing very well, way better than I would have.

My condolences on the loss of your stepfather.