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

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Mike;

Imperial Headquarters sez it's Feb 1, and you need to pick up the pace towards Timor. You need to grab it and clear it, and get boots on Australia ASAP before they have a chance to build up strength in Darwin.

You're not doing badly, but try to set aside your need for order to satisfy your need for SPEED. Get reckless, Samurai!

Or I could be wrong, but that's my 2 yen

Actually, you're right, Q-Ball. I do need to pick up the pace. I'm thinking of using 4 Div to take Timor before they move on to Java(if they go to Java). Also, 20 Div is going to be bought out of Korea to take S Borneo and then points south.

[Mike Solli]

Finally, here's how the economy has shaped up this last month. Supply looks good. Fuel is down, but most of my fleet is moving. Everything else looks good. The +31 in oil is repair of Miri. My pilot losses has spiked lately, due to the bombing of Singapore and Bataan. Most of the pilot losses are IJA.

[CapAndGown]

Your merchant points look whacked. Why aren't you building merchant marine stuff? And your pilot reserves look very bad. How is your training program going? You should be to the point where you are adding pilots to the reserve.

[erstad]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

Your merchant points look whacked. Why aren't you building merchant marine stuff?

There's a sizable surplus of merchant yard points at the beginning of the war. But you need to stockpile them as it turns to a cumulative deficit later. The former statement assumes you don't accelerate stuff excessively, the latter statement assumes you want everything eventually.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

Your merchant points look whacked. Why aren't you building merchant marine stuff? And your pilot reserves look very bad. How is your training program going? You should be to the point where you are adding pilots to the reserve.

I'm saving merchant points for the reason erstad mentioned. I'll need them later. I am accelerating nothing in the merchant arena.

My pilot reserves "look" bad because I add them about a week before I think I'm going to need them. I added a bunch early in the game from my training air units that had good pilots and then replaced the training units with rookies. I left a few good pilots and usually the mediocre ones as well. I'd rather keep the pilots training as long as possible. They still gain experience, but slowly. In reserve, they don't gain anything.

Most of the initial reserve pilots were used to reinforce KB when I resized their air units.

I am training a lot of pilots.

[Mike Solli]

I have all of the air units in Manchuoko and Japan maxed with pilots as well as many in the forward HQ that aren't in combat. Most of my forward air units have some extra rookie pilots in them to train the hard way. It's actually working very well with most of them training and gaining experience most days.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

Your merchant points look whacked. Why aren't you building merchant marine stuff? And your pilot reserves look very bad. How is your training program going? You should be to the point where you are adding pilots to the reserve.

I'm saving merchant points for the reason erstad mentioned. I'll need them later. I am accelerating nothing in the merchant arena.

My pilot reserves "look" bad because I add them about a week before I think I'm going to need them. I added a bunch early in the game from my training air units that had good pilots and then replaced the training units with rookies. I left a few good pilots and usually the mediocre ones as well. I'd rather keep the pilots training as long as possible. They still gain experience, but slowly. In reserve, they don't gain anything.

Most of the initial reserve pilots were used to reinforce KB when I resized their air units.

I am training a lot of pilots.

I don't think this is the best way to look at your reserve. For the IJN you have ~1500 replacement pilots. For the IJA you have ~2000 replacements. (Are you playing SCN 1?) These guys have exp of ~35 and no skills to speak of. What you need to do, IMO, is pull as many of these replacement pilots out of the pool as possible and get their skill levels up. Also their EXP. If you can get their EXP into the 50s and their skills (however many different skills you want for the various types, such as cross training in NavB and NavS or ASW) into the 60s, you should dump them in the reserve and start pulling more pilots out of the replacement pool. Basically, you have no reserves to speak of should you have a sustained heavy draw on pilots. All you have is what is in your training squadrons.

[USSAmerica]

Good stuff, Mike.  I subscribed when you first started the AAR, but then got way to busy for reading.  I read almost the entire AAR over the weekend and finished up this morning.  You're doing very well in my book.  Taking PM early and killing some quality Allied ships there was very well done. 

Good luck and good hunting!  [:)]

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

Your merchant points look whacked. Why aren't you building merchant marine stuff? And your pilot reserves look very bad. How is your training program going? You should be to the point where you are adding pilots to the reserve.

I'm saving merchant points for the reason erstad mentioned. I'll need them later. I am accelerating nothing in the merchant arena.

My pilot reserves "look" bad because I add them about a week before I think I'm going to need them. I added a bunch early in the game from my training air units that had good pilots and then replaced the training units with rookies. I left a few good pilots and usually the mediocre ones as well. I'd rather keep the pilots training as long as possible. They still gain experience, but slowly. In reserve, they don't gain anything.

Most of the initial reserve pilots were used to reinforce KB when I resized their air units.

I am training a lot of pilots.

I don't think this is the best way to look at your reserve. For the IJN you have ~1500 replacement pilots. For the IJA you have ~2000 replacements. (Are you playing SCN 1?) These guys have exp of ~35 and no skills to speak of. What you need to do, IMO, is pull as many of these replacement pilots out of the pool as possible and get their skill levels up. Also their EXP. If you can get their EXP into the 50s and their skills (however many different skills you want for the various types, such as cross training in NavB and NavS or ASW) into the 60s, you should dump them in the reserve and start pulling more pilots out of the replacement pool. Basically, you have no reserves to speak of should you have a sustained heavy draw on pilots. All you have is what is in your training squadrons.

Hmmm.... the war is only about 8 weeks old. How many "untrained" pilots can reasonable be trained on map up to around 50+ experience in 8 weeks? I like the idea of pulling as many raw recruit pilots as possible onto the map to train and then stashing the resulting "average" pilots in the reserve. I just think it will take more time to get this moving along.

Mike, how are your raw recruit pilots progressing on map?

[Mike Solli]

Mike, you're right about the pilot training.  I scan the training air units every couple of days and cull off those that are good enough for my front line.  I look at the skill and not the overall experience level.  For the IJN, >70 is the minimum.  It's usually lower for the IJA, but not much.  Every training group has one very experienced pilot as well as a high quality commander.  That seems to help out a lot. 
 
The way I look at replacement pilots, there are two schools of thought.
 
First:  You can train the pilots up to ~70 or so experience.  They will be better trained but you'll have fewer of them available as replacements.
 
Second:  You can train them up to ~50 or so experience then through them into the general reserve.  You'll most likely have a much larger general reserve but the quality will suffer.
 
I'm taking a risk using option 1 but am going to hedge my bets somewhat.  I am going to identify some of my training units to train up to ~60 (maybe 6 or 8 units tops).  This will be my reserve when I take some large losses, which is inevitable. 
 
My frontline units are primarily high quality pilots.  They continue to gain experience and suffer few losses.  What I have begun to do is to add rookies to some of them in excess of the maximum size of the units.  I increase the training of the unit to 10-20% and those rookies rise pretty fast.  I'm not sure if it's the best thing to do, but it seems to work well.  We'll see what happens when my expansion stops and Ted's airforce comes into play.

[Mike Solli]

Mike, you're right about the pilot training.  I scan the training air units every couple of days and cull off those that are good enough for my front line.  I look at the skill and not the overall experience level.  For the IJN, >70 is the minimum.  It's usually lower for the IJA, but not much.  Every training group has one very experienced pilot as well as a high quality commander.  That seems to help out a lot. 
 
The way I look at replacement pilots, there are two schools of thought.
 
First:  You can train the pilots up to ~70 or so experience.  They will be better trained but you'll have fewer of them available as replacements.
 
Second:  You can train them up to ~50 or so experience then through them into the general reserve.  You'll most likely have a much larger general reserve but the quality will suffer.
 
I'm taking a risk using option 1 but am going to hedge my bets somewhat.  I am going to identify some of my training units to train up to ~60 (maybe 6 or 8 units tops).  This will be my reserve when I take some large losses, which is inevitable. 
 
My frontline units are primarily high quality pilots.  They continue to gain experience and suffer few losses.  What I have begun to do is to add rookies to some of them in excess of the maximum size of the units.  I increase the training of the unit to 10-20% and those rookies rise pretty fast.  I'm not sure if it's the best thing to do, but it seems to work well.  We'll see what happens when my expansion stops and Ted's airforce comes into play.

[Mike Solli]

1 Feb 42
 
Quiet day, but lots of things in motion. 
 
The I-8 found a supply TF south of Hawaii and put 2 torpedoes into an xAK.  She reportedly sank. 
 
I bombed Rangoon, Singapore, Batavia and Palembang, losing an Ann and Sally while destroying 2 Vildebeasts and an L-212 on the ground.
 
On the ground, my artillery bombarded Bataan destroying a unit.  I'll figure out what was destroyed after next turn.
 
Stuff coming up.....
 
I have 90k troops a mile or two from Singapore.  I switched them to combat mode.  They should arrive tomorrow.  After the shock attack, I'll see what I'm up against.
 
The Java invasion force is moving out of Singkawang today.  They'll hit the beaches in 2 days.  They are escorted by a surface TF of 4 BBs and escorts and a minesweeping TF.
 
The TF that is going to pick up the 4 Division will reach Pt. Moresby in 2 days.  They'll be the second wave for Java.  They may hit Timor before moving on to Java.  KB will escort them.
 
The 20 Division is loading in Korea (minus 1 regiment which I will purchase in a few days).  Their destination is Tarakan then Balikpapan.  They will most likely move to Java after that.  They are moving by fast xAP.

[Mike Solli]

Duplicate.

[Grotius]

Their destination is Tarakan then Balikpapan. 

I've been meaning to ask you what your plan is for dealing with Allied PT boats in places like Tarakan and Balikpapan. Does one try to "sweep" the base with a Surface Combat group of DDs (or PBs or TBs or some such) first? Or assign Zeroes to naval attack (presumably at a very low altitude)?

[Mike Solli]

I hate losing ships.  I'll station some Zeros at Jolo and sweep at low altitude.  I've been reconning off an on and haven't seen any PTs, but I'll do it again a couple of days out to make sure.

[Mike Solli]

I hate losing ships.  I'll station some Zeros at Jolo and sweep at low altitude.  I've been reconning off an on and haven't seen any PTs, but I'll do it again a couple of days out to make sure.

[Mike Solli]

More stuff.....
 
The Ryujo is about 2 weeks from being fully repaired at 11-0-2(2)-2 at Babeldaob.  The Shoho is on her way to Takao to merge with the Zuiho and Hosho.  When Ryujo is fully repaired, the other 3 carriers will meet her at Babeldaob to form a nice little baby KB (74 Zeros and 52 Kates) to support the Tarakan/Balikpapan invasions. 

[Mike Solli]

More stuff.....
 
The Ryujo is about 2 weeks from being fully repaired at 11-0-2(2)-2 at Babeldaob.  The Shoho is on her way to Takao to merge with the Zuiho and Hosho.  When Ryujo is fully repaired, the other 3 carriers will meet her at Babeldaob to form a nice little baby KB (74 Zeros and 52 Kates) to support the Tarakan/Balikpapan invasions. 

[Q-Ball]

Mike, I like to train IJN pilots thusly:

1. Fighter pilots are easy; just use the Claude units stuck in Home Islands, total of 54 slots

2. Bombers: Take one Val and 1 Kate unit, and expand them each to 64 planes (by loading them on empty CV, setting to "Expand"). Convert them to training units. You now have 2 units with 128 slots each.

3. Train the VAL pilots on NavB, NavS,GrdB; once they are decent in NavB, put into pool

4. Draw the trained VAL pilots from the pool to put into the KATE unit; train them in NavT then put them back in the pool.

In this way, you have multi-trained pilots. I find that Val pilots need NavB, GrdB, and NavS, Kate pilots need NavT mostly with some NavB, and Nettie pilots need NavT, NavS mostly.

PS, the rail line from Kyushu works; go ahead and stand down those transport runs

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Mike, I like to train IJN pilots thusly:

1. Fighter pilots are easy; just use the Claude units stuck in Home Islands, total of 54 slots

2. Bombers: Take one Val and 1 Kate unit, and expand them each to 64 planes (by loading them on empty CV, setting to "Expand"). Convert them to training units. You now have 2 units with 128 slots each.

3. Train the VAL pilots on NavB, NavS,GrdB; once they are decent in NavB, put into pool

4. Draw the trained VAL pilots from the pool to put into the KATE unit; train them in NavT then put them back in the pool.

In this way, you have multi-trained pilots. I find that Val pilots need NavB, GrdB, and NavS, Kate pilots need NavT mostly with some NavB, and Nettie pilots need NavT, NavS mostly.

PS, the rail line from Kyushu works; go ahead and stand down those transport runs

I like it, Q-Ball. One question though. How many planes do you keep in these units?