Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A)

[JoV]

ORIGINAL: Miller

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

You also lost less than before. While he lost 23,000+ last time he went down to 20,000+ so from 10% loss rate to just under 10%. You went from almost 5,000 troops lost to just over 3,000. So you actually made out better than he did as a percentage loss rate. The first time he lost over four times more than you this time he lost over six times more. Always look on the bright side.

I will try, but I'm the ultimate glass half full kind of guy...

Completely understandable, given your profile pic [:'(]

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: JoV

ORIGINAL: Miller

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

You also lost less than before. While he lost 23,000+ last time he went down to 20,000+ so from 10% loss rate to just under 10%. You went from almost 5,000 troops lost to just over 3,000. So you actually made out better than he did as a percentage loss rate. The first time he lost over four times more than you this time he lost over six times more. Always look on the bright side.

I will try, but I'm the ultimate glass half full kind of guy...

Completely understandable, given your profile pic [:'(]

Indeed!

[Miller]

21st-30th April 44

Events on the 26th are all that stand out during this period and it was a bad day for the KB, but to be fair it could have been much worse....

Having had sigint of Rabual for several turns which indicated over 100 ships in port but only 50 or so fighters present, I decided to try another of my patented full speed run KB port attacks. However I think I was too obvious in my approach and he had a trap set for me. Fortunately as it turned out a collision between 2 of my DDs meant I was 10 hexes away from Rabual during the day rather than the 6 as I had planned. I had set all my a/c to max range of 8 hexes but for some reason my entire force of TBs does a Torpedo eight on steroids and flies unescorted into 300 fighters on CAP. They down 250 Jills, I think all of 2 get through to attack the port[X(][:@]. By some miracle about half the pilots survive to swim back to their carriers. Next the KB has to face a load of attacks from land based SBDs and TBFs, some escorted, some not. Fortunately the 350 Zero CAP makes short work of most of them, downing about 200 in total (including escorts) for about 20 losses. CV Unyru takes a bomb hit but little damage. Of course I order a swift retreat for the next day....

So how could it have been worse? I hear you ask. Well if my DDs did not collide and I'd ended up 6 hexes from Rabual I'm guessing I would have lost most of my DBs in addition to the TBs anyway for minimal damage in return. However on top of that my CAP would have half the actual amount that flew as the other half would have escorted the port strike instead. So as well as saving me losing an extra 200 or so aircraft it probably prevented a few of CVs being hit and possibly sunk. Fair play to Kane as he was one step ahead of me this time and its a lesson learned the hard way as usual.[&o]

Other events of note during this period were a daytime B29 raid on the home island that was caught by my CAP and he loses 10 of them. As expected his invasion of Wake goes off without a hitch as he nuke bombards with his fast BBs beforehand and it falls on the second day, thus allowing me to get fragments of the ground units out by air to rebuild elsewhere.

[Miller]

1st-10th May 44

A pretty awful period and a taste of lots more to come[:(]

Firsty, at Moulmein his daily bombardments by 3 separate BB and CA TFs combined with never ending B24 raids have reduced my supply to zero. I'm not even going to bother trying any further re-supply. I will hold till my forts are down to 2 then it will be a general retreat. I'm already sending most of the support units south to help build up the next line of defences. All the RTA units vanish in a couple of months time so no doubt some of the divs at Moulmein will end up taking their places.

Meanwhile B29s flying from China are racking up the points by night strat bombing my western HI bases. No matter how many planes I have on night CAP, even my few dedicated NF sqds do nothing to stop them. He has gained about 500 VPs from this in this period alone.

To round off the pain he has been night bombing Babeldaob port where the bulk of my carriers are. Again my NFs do nothing and after a few CVL/E take a bomb or two I decide to retreat them all...straight into about 50 subs[:@] Junyo takes two torps and is finished off in port, although at least I manage to offload her airgroups first. Kaga takes one torp that causes an ammo explosion, she is currently at Guam and I'm hoping she can make it back to the HI for repair but its likely she will have to run a gauntlet of subs on the way.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Miller

1st-10th May 44

A pretty awful period and a taste of lots more to come[:(]

Firsty, at Moulmein his daily bombardments by 3 separate BB and CA TFs combined with never ending B24 raids have reduced my supply to zero. I'm not even going to bother trying any further re-supply. I will hold till my forts are down to 2 then it will be a general retreat. I'm already sending most of the support units south to help build up the next line of defences. All the RTA units vanish in a couple of months time so no doubt some of the divs at Moulmein will end up taking their places.

Meanwhile B29s flying from China are racking up the points by night strat bombing my western HI bases. No matter how many planes I have on night CAP, even my few dedicated NF sqds do nothing to stop them. He has gained about 500 VPs from this in this period alone.

To round off the pain he has been night bombing Babeldaob port where the bulk of my carriers are. Again my NFs do nothing and after a few CVL/E take a bomb or two I decide to retreat them all...straight into about 50 subs[:@] Junyo takes two torps and is finished off in port, although at least I manage to offload her airgroups first. Kaga takes one torp that causes an ammo explosion, she is currently at Guam and I'm hoping she can make it back to the HI for repair but its likely she will have to run a gauntlet of subs on the way.

As to the night bombing, flak is essential in the combo, as is a port/airfield combo of 7+ to get balloons active.

So. You want 18+ NF at all big bases, and use your best pilots.

I put mine on at least 70% CAP and often on 1-2 hex radius, and I usually vary altitudes depending on the base, the strikes recently and the amount of other NF groups that can cover different bands bleeding over. The J1N1-Sa is great because the radar will allow good reactions to other bases.

If you don't have a LOT of good AA in the bases then the NF will not be as effective. If the NF damage then the flak will get kills. You will need at least one of the big radar units plus one of the 12cm gun units if you have them yet. Then lots of 75mm and 88mm for the big bases.

For anything 6k and under the balloons will take their toll and each fort level makes more balloons. Also, the IJNAF base forces have radar and the 25mm guns for anything that makes it through the balloons. He will lose a LOT of beasts if all of those things are in place.

On that side you have what ...

Nagasaki Sasebo
Fukuoka
Shimoneseki
Hiroshima/Kure (with the massive IJN AA battery)

Most of the other bases are not so important, so I'd cover the bigs and let NF bleed to others.

Have you converted the restricted big 49 plane IJAAF Nick FB group to NF?

Anyways, with the beasts flying from China you should be able to take a heavy toll and reduce mission frequency with all of those measures in place. I don'y find the need (yet) to use any day fighters in night CAP. I have converted everything that can be converted and it seems to cover the HI pretty thoroughly. If you do have to use day fighters prioritise durability over everything else. So Nicks or Randys, maybe Ki-100 or Georges.

I've also kept a lot of flak at home and spread it around so that every base has some, but the big ten or so are completely loaded.

[Miller]

Hey thanks for all the tips Obvert, a lot of stuff there I'd never considered. He's mainly bombing Shimoneseki and I'm in the process of moving more AA and base force there and the other bases in range. Alas I don't get the radar equipped Irving till Aug or Sept but I have just converted that large Nick sqd you mentioned to the NF Nick and I will split that up into 1/3s for use in the HI.

[Miller]

11th-20th May 44

Another deliberate attack at Moulmein, another stack of dead and disrupted Allies:

Ground combat at Moulmein (55,55)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 229275 troops, 3749 guns, 4106 vehicles, Assault Value = 9144

Defending force 141611 troops, 1513 guns, 1759 vehicles, Assault Value = 4105

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 3

Allied adjusted assault: 6371

Japanese adjusted defense: 24873

Allied assault odds: 1 to 3 (fort level 3)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(+), disruption(-)
experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
4539 casualties reported
Squads: 16 destroyed, 373 disabled
Non Combat: 17 destroyed, 241 disabled
Engineers: 48 destroyed, 150 disabled
Guns lost 272 (49 destroyed, 223 disabled)
Vehicles lost 300 (40 destroyed, 260 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Allied ground losses:
19215 casualties reported
Squads: 87 destroyed, 1482 disabled
Non Combat: 23 destroyed, 178 disabled
Engineers: 46 destroyed, 619 disabled
Guns lost 166 (19 destroyed, 147 disabled)
Vehicles lost 315 (25 destroyed, 290 disabled)

This will be the last time the defenders will not be strongly penalised for lack of supply. Assuming the next attack comes off a lot less costly for him it will be time to head south.


Not much to report elsewhere, his night bombing campaign has now netted almost 1800 VPs since it started barely a month ago. At this rate he will take the lead points wise before the end of the year (its currently 36k to 32k).
I manage to get Kaga back to the home Islands for repair but she is out of action for at least 5 months. I also allow the upgrade of a large portion of my surface fleet, some of my cruisers had not upgraded since the start of the war!

[Lowpe]

The carnage here has been incredible. Can you post a picture of the victory point screen?

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

The carnage here has been incredible. Can you post a picture of the victory point screen?

As requested

[Lowpe]

Thanks.[:)]

Be careful with that Manchuko Garrison...isn't there some troops that withdraw? I can't recall.

My basic rule of thumb is IF the Allies purse a dedicated strategic bombing campaign they will score at least 30,000 points. I seem to recall giving up over 60K in strategic points -- but the memory is very hazy perhaps it was just a bad dream.[;)]

Having said that, Japan can win the night bombing war thru 44 and into 45. But the definition of winning is really point denial, an Allied slow down, and attrition. It is not spectacular victories that bring the night war to an immediate halt. Rather the Allies start looking to generate better results thru ground bombing, hitting ports and runways, or even bombing all industry closer to the front lines where they can generate air superiority.

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Thanks.[:)]

Be careful with that Manchuko Garrison...isn't there some troops that withdraw? I can't recall.

My basic rule of thumb is IF the Allies purse a dedicated strategic bombing campaign they will score at least 30,000 points. I seem to recall giving up over 60K in strategic points -- but the memory is very hazy perhaps it was just a bad dream.[;)]

Having said that, Japan can win the night bombing war thru 44 and into 45. But the definition of winning is really point denial, an Allied slow down, and attrition. It is not spectacular victories that bring the night war to an immediate halt. Rather the Allies start looking to generate better results thru ground bombing, hitting ports and runways, or even bombing all industry closer to the front lines where they can generate air superiority.

Yeah I will be careful not to let in dip below 8000. Apart from the entire RTA going up in smoke in two months time there are no more units withdrawing in the game apart from a couple in the HI. I've had a bit of success against his night B29 raids in the latest period which I will detail in my next update.

[Miller]

21st-31st May 44

After continued merciless pounding of Moulmein by his BBs and CAs at night and anything that can carry a bomb by day my supplies are down to absolute zero. He deliberate attacks on the last day of the month:

Ground combat at Moulmein (55,55)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 227228 troops, 3763 guns, 4112 vehicles, Assault Value = 8844

Defending force 128602 troops, 1434 guns, 1726 vehicles, Assault Value = 3700

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Allied adjusted assault: 8397

Japanese adjusted defense: 9683

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 2)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(+), disruption(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
5988 casualties reported
Squads: 21 destroyed, 412 disabled
Non Combat: 17 destroyed, 249 disabled
Engineers: 11 destroyed, 65 disabled
Guns lost 211 (147 destroyed, 64 disabled)
Vehicles lost 250 (33 destroyed, 217 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
17029 casualties reported
Squads: 128 destroyed, 818 disabled
Non Combat: 18 destroyed, 305 disabled
Engineers: 56 destroyed, 364 disabled
Guns lost 340 (23 destroyed, 317 disabled)
Vehicles lost 357 (30 destroyed, 327 disabled


Time to go. I should be able to get everything out in decent shape assuming he has to wait for disruption levels to drop before he attacks again. Also hopefully my units should come back into at least partial supply when they move out.

Meanwhile in China I've managed to force the retreat of several of his corps who were trying to manouver behind my lines in off road hexes as they were struggling for supply. Chihkiang seems to be his main hub of operations now and where his B29s are flying from. Thanks to Obvert's sound advice which I've put to good use this period has seem him lose about 20 of them for roughly the same number of NF lost, but as long as most of my pilots continue to survive that does not matter. No sign of his navy anywhere other than on the east coast of New Guinea which he continues to build/crawl up towards Babeldaob and the southern PI.

[Miller]

1st-10th June 44

I retreat out of Moulmein on the 4th without incident. I am resting the stack just one hex SW at the moment, I already had a few divs in the hex to the SE and diverted a few of the retreated divs there so I now have about 2000 AV in each hex. He shows no sign of pursuit so far.

He has halted his B29 strat bombing campaign for the time being but he has netted 2200 VPs alone just from the few weeks free reign he had until I got my defences in order, and I'm sure they'll be back soon enough....

He continues to creep up the coast of eastern NG and now has Biak built up, putting him in fighter range of Babeldaob. He has been very thorough since he lost the CV battle. It's multiple fighter sweeps followed by large B24 raids that ruin my AFs and there's nothing I can do about it. All my large AFs in China are permanently unusable due to this.

And just to top it off it appears I will have to withdraw 600 fighters on the 10th July, great[8|]

[Miller]

An example of how bad the air war goes for me:

Morning Air attack on Hankow , at 85,50

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 17 NM, estimated altitude 32,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 145
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 47
Ki-84a Frank x 193

Allied aircraft
F4U-1D Corsair x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 6 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1D Corsair: 2 destroyed


Morning Air attack on Hankow , at 85,50

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 31 NM, estimated altitude 32,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 8 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 132
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 47
Ki-84a Frank x 187

Allied aircraft
P-51B Mustang x 25

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 3 destroyed
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 1 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 4 destroyed

No Allied losses


All the Franks have 70/70 exp pilots or higher. Even when I attempt to swarm him, his relatively small sweeps come out way ahead. The rest of the game is going to be brutal in this respect.

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: Miller

An example of how bad the air war goes for me:

Morning Air attack on Hankow , at 85,50

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 17 NM, estimated altitude 32,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 145
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 47
Ki-84a Frank x 193

Allied aircraft
F4U-1D Corsair x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 6 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1D Corsair: 2 destroyed


Morning Air attack on Hankow , at 85,50

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 31 NM, estimated altitude 32,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 8 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 132
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 47
Ki-84a Frank x 187

Allied aircraft
P-51B Mustang x 25

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 3 destroyed
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 1 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 4 destroyed

No Allied losses


All the Franks have 70/70 exp pilots or higher. Even when I attempt to swarm him, his relatively small sweeps come out way ahead. The rest of the game is going to be brutal in this respect.

The only thing I have found him resistant to in his game against me as the Japanese is sweeping into 200+ fighters. He may still come out ahead but I think in terms of pilot losses and plane fatigue/damage it is somehow not worth it. Otherwise, he is still beating my butt as the Japanese in very late 1945.

Learn what you can from one of the best :]

[Lowpe]

Can you post the complete combat report. You have a lot of planes there, and certainly should have done much better.

Thanks.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Can you post the complete combat report. You have a lot of planes there, and certainly should have done much better.

Thanks.

Yes. Corsairs are tough, but your numbers should win out.

Are you layering CAP?

Are the layers close enough so that the best fighters are high and dive on the lower layers if he sweeps?

Is he at max or at 20k or does he change it up?

My suggestion would be Oscars 50% at 5k, A6M5 50% a 7k, Franks 70% at 9k.

[Timotheus]

Miller, you're one heck of a player.


Maybe it was a misclick on Kane's part with those CV's.... maybe the weather mechanic REALLY messed him up.

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Can you post the complete combat report. You have a lot of planes there, and certainly should have done much better.

Thanks.

I think you are on to something here Lowpe:

Morning Air attack on Hankow , at 85,50

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 17 NM, estimated altitude 32,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 145
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 47
Ki-84a Frank x 193

Allied aircraft
F4U-1D Corsair x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 6 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1D Corsair: 2 destroyed

CAP engaged:
263 Ku S-1 with A6M5 Zero (0 airborne, 43 on standby, 0 scrambling)
21 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 24 minutes
263 Ku S-2 with A6M5 Zero (0 airborne, 54 on standby, 0 scrambling)
27 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 15000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 24 minutes
1st Sentai with Ki-84a Frank (0 airborne, 30 on standby, 0 scrambling)
15 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 30000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 27 minutes
11th Sentai with Ki-84a Frank (0 airborne, 9 on standby, 0 scrambling)
4 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 30000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 22 minutes
22nd Sentai with Ki-84a Frank (0 airborne, 17 on standby, 0 scrambling)
8 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 30000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 23 minutes
48th Sentai with Ki-43-IV Oscar (0 airborne, 31 on standby, 0 scrambling)
16 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 30000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 26 minutes
50th Sentai with Ki-84a Frank (0 airborne, 31 on standby, 0 scrambling)
15 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 30000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 15 minutes
52nd Sentai with Ki-84a Frank (0 airborne, 18 on standby, 0 scrambling)
9 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 30000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 26 minutes
73rd Sentai with Ki-84a Frank (0 airborne, 25 on standby, 0 scrambling)
12 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 30000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 15 minutes



Despite having them all set to 60% CAP 20% Rest I have NONE in the air when his sweep arrives WTF[&:] I know there is no radar at Hankow but even so at least some planes should be in the air??

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Can you post the complete combat report. You have a lot of planes there, and certainly should have done much better.

Thanks.

Yes. Corsairs are tough, but your numbers should win out.

Are you layering CAP?

Are the layers close enough so that the best fighters are high and dive on the lower layers if he sweeps?

Is he at max or at 20k or does he change it up?

My suggestion would be Oscars 50% at 5k, A6M5 50% a 7k, Franks 70% at 9k.

He always sweeps at the max height (30K for 44). I usually put the best fighters there with the crap like Zeros lower down so I can try and get a dive with my Franks. If I was to fly all my plane at lower altitude they would just get murdered even more. The fact that none are in the air when his sweep arrives probably explains the terrible result (see post above).