Here we go again! tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J) - No tc464

[Mike Solli]

26 Jan 42

Exciting turn today. Ted is probably running the replay as I type and no doubt is cursing me. [:D]

First the "boring" stuff:

Philippines

My troops finally made it to Bataan. I'm going to bombard tomorrow to get some intel on the enemy.

Malaya

I took Mersing with a tank regiment. I now control all of Malaya except for Singapore.

SE Fleet

At Rabaul, a US sub took a pot shot at one of my ships. During the inevitable retaliation, I got a hit on her with a DC. Hopefully, that'll encourage her to go home.

Now for the fun stuff. Ted had made a comment in email about sending that surface fleet to rough up my BBs while KB was away. What he didn't know was that KB was closing fast but was one hex out of range. Well, KB made up that hex today. Here's what Ted sent to Pt. Moresby to rough up my BB fleet:

BC Repulse
CL Java
CL De Ruyter
CL Tromp
CL Mauritius
CL Boise
DD Vendetta
DD Evertsen
DD Kortenaer
DD Piet Hein
DD Van Ghent
DD Scout
DD Stronghold
DD Jupiter

After the surface battle yesterday and KB's visit today, here's Ted's fleet going home:

CL Boise, Shell hits 1
DD Evertsen
DD Stronghold, Shell hits 4, heavy fires
DD Jupiter, Shell hits 6, heavy fire

And here's the BB fleet they were sent to rough up:

BB Mutsu
BB Yamashiro
CL Kitakami
CL Oi
DD Yamagumo
DD Sawakaze
DD Yukaze
DD Tachikaze
DD Namikaze

And here's the current status of my fleet (I lost 3 Kates in the battle):

BB Mutsu 41-12-15(1)-0
BB Yamashiro 37-33(6)-20(1)-0
CL Kitakami 4-0-0-0
CL Oi 9-0-1-0
DD Yamagumo 2-0-0-0
DD Sawakaze 7-0-5-0
DD Yukaze 19-3-4-0
DD Tachikaze 38-7-8-0
DD Namikaze 42-4-20-0

KB sank 3 CLs and 5 DDs today. Too bad that damn Boise escaped. My ships are 1-3 days sail from Rabaul. Unless Ted gets lucky with a sub, they're home free.

[Mike Solli]

Couple of questions:

1. How do you get the 24 Air Flotilla Claudes to upgrade to Zeros?! I don't know what to try. It's driving me nuts.

2. When you move into the Singapore hex, will that trigger a shock attack?

[SqzMyLemon]

Hi Mike,

1. There was a thread that dealt with upgrading the Claudes on Kwajelein, but I can't remember where it is. The thread was started by ny59giants and it's called "Claudes to Zeros - Upgrading in the Marshalls" I don't know how to attach the link. Some ideas were island hop it to Truk where supply and the airbase size are sufficient to upgrade it. I ended up transporting it with the CVE Taiyo to Truk, but that's higher risk. I also transported the 11 Air HQ from Takao to Truk. If you can find the thread there were a lot of different ways people had dealt with the situation.

2. Yes

Good luck at Singapore, it may fall sooner than you think, it doesn't seem to be nearly as hard as Bataan to take down.

[Grotius]

Congrats on a huge win, Mike! My answers are similar to SqzMyLemon:

1. Sure wish I knew. My Claudes remain un-upgraded.

2. Yes, the first time. I thought I read that once you have a certain percentage of troops into the Singapore hex, you won't trigger any more shock attacks. The number 1/3 of the enemy AV in Singapore sticks in my mind, but I could be wrong. I think Cap and Gown said one unit took the brunt of the losses from the first shock attack, and then after that he was able to get in the rest of his troops without shock attacking.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Couple of questions:

1. How do you get the 24 Air Flotilla Claudes to upgrade to Zeros?! I don't know what to try. It's driving me nuts.

2. When you move into the Singapore hex, will that trigger a shock attack?

Hi Mike,

If these were the Claudes from Kwaj and the Gilberts, I had to put the damn things in Rabaul with an air HQ and supply to upgrade. A bit of a hope and a prayer moving them on transport that they wouldn't be sunk by the journey.

Yes. The Singapore move will trigger a shock attack. Please be aware the newest beta public patch changed the protocol for shock attacking across a river hex.

[Mike Solli]

Thanks for the answers Guys. I'm going to move them to Truk and then Rabaul if Truk doesn't work. I'll place them on the Akagi and Kaga and sail west then fly them to Truk. Keeping fingers crossed.

[Mike Solli]

27 Jan 42

Another exciting turn, and pretty tough on the ole ticker. That'll come in a bit.

Malaya

I lost 2 more bombers to Singapore flak. I have about 2-3 division equivalents one hex north of Singapore. I was going to wait for the rest of the army to crawl there but I think I'll push them into Singapore to start bombarding while the rest of the 25 Army arrives.

Burma

The tank regiment chasing the remnants fleeing north hit them again, this time 1 hex SW of Meiktila, causing 311 more casualties.

Philippines

Bombardment (air and land) is starting to reduce the enemy forces. Ted has quite a bit of force there (1006 AV to 1111 Japanese AV). I have time, but I'd like to reduce Bataan in February. I may try an assault soon, just to test the waters.

SE Fleet

I took Milne Bay today, primarily to prevent Ted from dropping forces off there. I don't think he will, but you never know.

Remember what I said about Ted possibly getting lucky with one of his subs? [X(] Well, a Dutch sub put a torpedo into the tough old hide of the Mutsu. The damage wasn't too bad (45-24(9)-15(1)-0), but now her damage will require her to travel back to the Home Islands for repair. Another BB gone from the war for an extra couple of months. At least it wasn't forever.

That was only the beginning. KB was tooling around south of Pt. Moresby to prevent Ted from reinforcing. Another Dutch sub got the Shokaku in her sights. [X(] Fortunately, she missed. I almost choked during that attack. Then, a third Dutch sub launched against a DD in KB's screen but missed as well. The screen then managed to hit her with a depth charge. KB is getting out of Dodge tomorrow, heading west. They'll wreak some havoc in the SRA then head back to Babeldaob for replenishment. I'll detach one CV for minor repairs (that sys damage builds up) while the other 3 support missions in the SRA.

I shock attacked PM and took it! Banzai! I did take 660 casualties (primarily disrupted) but Ted left behind 1660 and the remainder fled into the jungle.

I'll post details on the OOBs for the SRA armies as well as my goals for February in a bit.

[CapAndGown]

Try changing the HQ for the 24th flotilla to the 4th fleet. (Or maybe SE fleet, can't remember off hand which one.) That is what I did. Then I rebased the Claudes to Truk through Ponape and voila.

[CapAndGown]

One more thing about the Kwaj Claudes: they have to be withdrawn fairly soon, so it may not even be worth it upgrading them. But it is worth it to change the HQ for the 24th air flotilla.

[Mike Solli]

Well, I'm waiting for another turn and decided to mess with WitPTracker some more. I had the Aichi Ha-60 R&D advance a month to Jul 42. Banzai!

[seille]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Well, I'm waiting for another turn and decided to mess with WitPTracker some more. I had the Aichi Ha-60 R&D advance a month to Jul 42. Banzai!

I asked myself if i really need this engine.
I produce 125 of them and all they are good for are some late war dive bombers and recon. Ok, a recon version comes online in 1942, but the most others muuch later.
I´ll at least switch the half over to other engine types
since i´m sure i won´t need that many engines of this type. What do you think ?

[Mike Solli]

Yeah, you won't need it for a lot of types. Here what I see them used for:

DB D4Y1 (TBO 108) arrives 4/43
DB D4Y2 (TBO 54) arrives 4/44
R D4Y1-C (TBO 15) arrives in 10/42
R D4Y2-C (TBO 72) arrives in 4/44
NF D4Y2-S (TBO 18) arrives in 6/44

Since I'm playing with PDU off, I need to produce them in order to upgrade. Some of the air units may not upgrade further. I'll have to check their upgrade paths. I plan on building 250-300 and see what happens then. If that's all I need, then I'll convert to something else. It'll be nice to start building them a month earlier so I can convert a month earlier.

[seille]

Ok thanks Mike. In my situation with PDU on and realistic R&D i´m not sure what to do.
 
Isn´t it the case that when i don´t convert to other R&D engines the Aichi R&D factories will become production factories
which can´t longer be converted to other R&D projects ?
I´m not fully sure about this, but if i remember right i´ve read this somewhere.
 
My wish is to speed up planes like A6M5 and Ki84. Beside this the engines i need for (Ha-45).
 
Ok questions with my realistic R&D:
1. Will the Aichi 60 be produced by the R&D sites (means do they convert to production sites) ?
2. If this is the case could i switch these sites again to R&D projects since this has been R&D sites before ?
 
Sorry for spamming into this AAR, but i think here are the guy´s to answer this [;)]

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: seille

Ok thanks Mike. In my situation with PDU on and realistic R&D i´m not sure what to do.

Isn´t it the case that when i don´t convert to other R&D engines the Aichi R&D factories will become production factories
which can´t longer be converted to other R&D projects ?
I´m not fully sure about this, but if i remember right i´ve read this somewhere.

My wish is to speed up planes like A6M5 and Ki84. Beside this the engines i need for (Ha-45).

With realistic R&D, you can not change an R&D factory to a non-R&D factory and vice versa (for both airframes and engines). But, when an R&D factory becomes operational, it become a non-R&D factory and can not be changed back. So, over the course of the war, the number of R&D factories will most likely diminish, which makes sense. The number of planes the Japanese produced increased until late in the war. I suspect the same will happen in the game.

ORIGINAL: seille
Ok questions with my realistic R&D:
1. Will the Aichi 60 be produced by the R&D sites (means do they convert to production sites) ?

Yes, the Aichi 60 R&D factory will convert to a production facility once that engine becomes operational.

ORIGINAL: seille
2. If this is the case could i switch these sites again to R&D projects since this has been R&D sites before ?

Sorry for spamming into this AAR, but i think here are the guy´s to answer this [;)]

No. In order for a factory to remain as an R&D factory, it has to be converted to a different R&D engine before the Aichi 60 becomes operational.

This isn't spamming. This is part of the reason I'm doing this AAR. We all need to learn. I asked this question a few weeks ago. That's the only reason I know the answer.

[Mike Solli]

Duplicate.

[seille]

Thanks Mike. That means i was right or better said i´ve read the right things.
I don´t want to see such a reduction in my R&D factories. To speed up the really important stuff
i need lots of R&D factories instead of 3 factories producing a unimportant (at least in my eyes...) engine like the Aichi-60.
 
A alternate way could be to wait for two facs (out of 3) to become operational and let them produce the Aichi-60, convert the other to
R&D Ha-45. This would speed up the Ha-45 a bit and when it becomes available i could switch the two Aichi facs to Ha-45 for a total
of 3 factories. The problem in this calculation is that the R&D factories repair VERY slow in my game compared to the producing sites.
 
To be honest i don´t care a lot about late war bombers. The only thing i want are fighters for defense.
Is it wrong to concentrate on this ?

[CapAndGown]

R&D engine factories repair at the same rate as other factories. It is the R&D factories for airframes that repair very slowly.

[crsutton]

Mike,

Tony or tojo? What is your take?

[Mike Solli]

It's easy for me.  PDU off says I build both.  Even with PDU on, I'd build some of each.  They're better (I think) than the model of Oscar that's in use when they come on board.  Even if you just build a few (150 or so), that would be enough for a couple of sentai and some spares.

[Mike Solli]

It's easy for me.  PDU off says I build both.  Even with PDU on, I'd build some of each.  They're better (I think) than the model of Oscar that's in use when they come on board.  Even if you just build a few (150 or so), that would be enough for a couple of sentai and some spares.