Turnaround? Lowpe (J) vs Tiemanj (A) Stock

[JocMeister]

I don´t miss the sleepless nights when you are waiting for a crucial turn...or when you get the turn at 2 in the morning on a work day and you get up to run the turn. [:D]

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Lok,

I hate to say it, but I brew it from a kit. Still good....

Sorry no turn yet, and I talked with my son in the Army rather than drink.

So sorry...

I brew from kits too, and craft recipes when I have time . BB is a bit on the expensive side for me. Runs what, $50 per kit? Ick. I get $30-35 for grain recipes.



In any case... the strike against Ominato throws me here. And low CAP. Where are the CVEs? Is this a giant feint? And yet you can't help but hit what you can here. If only you had better DL.... and if only I were a sorcerer.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Lok,

I hate to say it, but I brew it from a kit. Still good....

Sorry no turn yet, and I talked with my son in the Army rather than drink.

So sorry...

I brew from kits too, and craft recipes when I have time . BB is a bit on the expensive side for me. Runs what, $50 per kit? Ick. I get $30-35 for grain recipes.



In any case... the strike against Ominato throws me here. And low CAP. Where are the CVEs? Is this a giant feint? And yet you can't help but hit what you can here. If only you had better DL.... and if only I were a sorcerer.

I got a deal on it and avoided the shipping costs, you it was like $32. $50 is steep.[:)]

[JocMeister]

No turn yet?

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

No turn yet?

Just watched the replay and working on the graphics.[:)]

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

No turn yet?

Just watched the replay and working on the graphics.[:)]

Is the smile indicative of results? [;)]

[obvert]

Wish I had a turn to work on graphics for. [:(]

[Lowpe]

Jan 17, 1944

In the moonlight night the Allied armada moves closer, and about 100 Betties and Emilies sortie out, but they all miss....however, it provides a lot of ship information. CV, CVE, CVL, BB, oh my!

Unfortunately Obvert was right, not a single hit.[:(] The replay showed the Betties and Emilies dropping bombs, but the combat replay shows them launching torpedoes. Go figure.

During the day, there are several large air battles over Ominato, and 130 Allied planes are downed for 160 Japanese, 60 of which are nailed on the ground at Ominato (mostly fighters). Still, no other base was touched and I am good to go for today.

Here, you can see the situation...unfortunately a surface fleet with the Musashi is spotted (10/10) at Sendai, I had hoped to sneak into port and disband during the night.

So, now I need to plan how to throw the kitchen sink at him!

[Lowpe]

A failed night attack! Shucks...

[Lowpe]

Lots of scary moments. But, no joy.

[koniu]

Night attack are lottery. There is chance but i will not count on it.
Also it looks that single engine planes perform better in night raids.

My luckiest strike was 20 B6N2 attack at 0% moon enemy slow battleships. They damage two BB with single TT hit each

[obvert]

If you can predict a few landing sites you might be able to 'short range' his forces, as it looks like he'll have CVs on the front end of things and not on the Kuriles side.

Set a few at 1 hex range from near landing sites so they won't go to the CVs and only on the landing. Expendables like FP and some kamis especially. However you do it your goal is to spread his CV air over many hexes so it has to react to all kinds of different strikes on different TFs at different heights. They will wear down, especially if he just lost 130 planes in an ill-advised airfield strike.

Try of course to use bases that have no chance of being bombarded be surface forces. You have so many options here, and it should be really hard to make this invasion work, especially after day 1 when you sink more than half of his CVEs and further whittle down his airframes. Even damaged planes are great, as they're out for day two.

Do you have small quick TFs to send on the Kuriles side too? He's gonna run out of ammo fast and there is no place to get more until and invasion succeeds.

How many fighters did he lose? Even 20-30 fewer Hellcats tomorrow will mean a big difference in performance and duration of effective CAP. Tomorrow looks like the day!

[Lowpe]

No kamikazes yet.

I was thinking the same thing about hitting the invasion fleet. He is going for Kushiro or the two bases to the east. I have manged to double the AV to 210 on Shikotan, but it won't be enough. Will switch to building up Hokkaido now, I think.

I am just now picking and selecting strike forces. I really want to get the Myojo in on the invasion fleets/baby carriers but if I hold them in reserve because really anything can damage a CVE. If he invades more than one spot, his cap will be even weaker, so I think max attacks on the invasion fleet set to very short ranges. Then as you say attacks on the deathstar which I bet stays west to shield his fleets.

I am not sure about setting a squadron to LRCAP or not over the likely bases.

[JocMeister]

Go get him!

[Lowpe]

I am going thru the turn, thinking about restricting the air attacks to hit his invasion fleet, like Obvert said.

But, several times this game, I have tried to get cute restricting ranges and it has always come back to bite me. So my thinking is now to max naval search, and hit him with the max I can set to full normal ranges, and simply have faith in my local commanders. With one exception, I will use a Myojo squadron set to four hexes since it is being escorted by Jacks and they will be looking to hit Kushiro or Kunashiri.

I have so many planes still traveling in, I shouldn't try and get clever here. It is simply attack!

[topeverest]

Aside - he has consolidated forces, which makes it harder. IMHO, the best option now is to pulse directly into his CV hex with everything. the harder part is finding that hex.

Perhaps you should wait until he commits to an invasion to give yourself time to aggregate as much as you can and a better chance to make the counter pulse work.

IME, these are always scrums. You throw absolutely everything at the enemy and hope to break up the force enough that future KAMI and LBA will win the day. Sequence has some value, but it is mostly about overwhelming the combined force.

Can you be specific what you have to commit to the battle?

No pressure! This combat sequence will determine the timing of the outcome of the game.

good luck.

[topeverest]

I would limit the attack range on all planes too.

[Lowpe]

Good thought Topeverest. If I wait a day I can pulse in everything to the invasion hex or hexes or pick a hex.

Now you have thrown me into turmoil...perhaps I should limit my attacks to the potential invasion cites of Kushiro, Shikotan, and Kunashiri, while building else everything up for the next day. Shikotan could be tough to hit, without wandering into his deathstar I think, however.

He will keep planes on naval attack in case I send out my surface fleet? Perhaps one more day of grinding air battles and then hit him with everything on the next day. Assuming the invasion starts, I think some of his surface ships will have expended ammo bombarding.

Decisions, decisions, but I think maybe I like waiting a day for an even bigger strike.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

No kamikazes yet.

I was thinking the same thing about hitting the invasion fleet. He is going for Kushiro or the two bases to the east. I have manged to double the AV to 210 on Shikotan, but it won't be enough. Will switch to building up Hokkaido now, I think.

I am just now picking and selecting strike forces. I really want to get the Myojo in on the invasion fleets/baby carriers but if I hold them in reserve because really anything can damage a CVE. If he invades more than one spot, his cap will be even weaker, so I think max attacks on the invasion fleet set to very short ranges. Then as you say attacks on the deathstar which I bet stays west to shield his fleets.

I am not sure about setting a squadron to LRCAP or not over the likely bases.

How do you know it won't be enough? And not enough for what?

Firstly, if he's going for Hokkaido that's silly right now as you can back load more troops on it from the Sapporo side to send in, plus that activates kamis. I think the two islands closest to Hokkaido do as well.

Also, the invasion turn is not the battle. That's just a landing, and he might have enough to take the base but it's not a shock attack so it'll have to be the next day, during which you fly more strikes. He could take the base and end up with not enough air cover to keep it.

If your forts get to level 4 at Kushiro the territory is good enough to hold with half as much AV as he brings for at least a few turns. He has to bank on getting bases quickly and then building and reinforcing them. One won't be enough, and small islands are way better than a bigger landmass like Hokkaido.

[Mike McCreery]

I agree with Obvert. He would be foolish to attack Hokkaido without any backup islands taken. It would be sensible for it to be an island invasion.