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

[Encircled]

He's looking for your reinforcement convoys at a guess

But the longer he stays in range, the potential is there for you to do some damage

[Lowpe]

Turning into a pretty decent air day...

[Lowpe]

The normal bombardment at Rahaeng...surely some must be Churchills, or Shermans, or Stuarts.

[Lowpe]

Snapshot taken before the end of the turn...

[Lowpe]

My viewpoint...

I have 26 Oscar IV kamikazes with LowN skill over 60 now....should I move them to Naha area and strike? Or wait until I can muster 42?





I am leaning to letting him run rampant until I can put together a serious strike...

[Lowpe]

The 7th Division dies to a man, rather than retreat from Muroran.



Not a lot of PP to buy back...but supply to fill the ranks. Don't know, although in 60 days Honshu will be invaded...

[Lowpe]

Obvert talked me into researching the Tony, the Ki100I; and boy am I glad he did. It can fight much better than the Oscar IV, short by only 1 hex in range than the Oscar IV.

Tony did a lot of heavy lifting last turn, knocking down 2 thunderbolts, 1 lighting, a half dozen each of Avengers and SBDs. Great showing...the Geroges took out 10 F6Fs. Good air day...no Allied bombing of Honshu. Surprise, surprise.

Now I expect him to sweep with Jugs, where he will run into a very low, and large CAP of Frank a, Jack, Tony, and Oscar but at Ominato and concentrated.

One George lost for 7-10 Hellcats although Tony got one or two of those...

[Lowpe]

Another day, another no shoot. One day, these guys got to figure out how to put a torpedo into the Prince of Wales.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Another day, another no shoot. One day, these guys got to figure out how to put a torpedo into the Prince of Wales.

If she's disbanded in port, I don't think they ever will.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Another day, another no shoot. One day, these guys got to figure out how to put a torpedo into the Prince of Wales.

If she's disbanded in port, I don't think they ever will.

Even if it is only a size 2 port, or does that just account for docked ships.

I tried a midget and she foundered. Very low on midgets right now.

[Alfred]

I didn't call it stupid.  I said the smart move is not to invade Honshu.  You are taking VPs into account and there are far easier and more effective ways for the Allies to acquire the necessary VPs than landing on Honshu in 1944.
 
1.  The threat to land on Honshu necessitates a substantial march to the rear by the Imperial forces.  This weakens the Empire everywhere else.  Hugh amounts of VPs are available from recapturing the weakened perimeter and centre of the Empire.  Not just VPs for the Allies but the huge loss of VPs to the Japanese denominator.
 
2.  The mistake that Allied players consistently make when conducting their strategic bombing of the Home Islands is that they do not eliminate the non HI economic centres.  That means not just the sea borne trade but also the overland trade must be dried up as well.  In the game the economic pools are global, unlike real life.  Significant Japanese economic activity occurs outside of the Home Islands.  Whilst that economic activity occurs and sea borne trade from Korea remains alive, the impact of strategic bombing is reduced as the reduction of the global pools is slowed down.  The short hop from Korea cannot be totally stopped unless the Korean ports are in Allied hands.  Bear in mind your opponent does not know whether you have successfully created the magical highway.
 
3.  Honshu does not provide flanking opportunities; neither on land nor on sea.  Other than the 4 cities on the Kanto Plain, everything else entails one frontal Allied assault after another frontal assault always against good defensive terrain.  Plus the garrison requirements cannot be overlooked.  Every single game where every Home Island city has been captured required (a) the use of the Soviets and (b) just about every other American and Commonwealth substantial combat LCU.  Your opponent will not have the Soviets on side (unless he does that end run to Korea) and he hasn't liberated the SRA, and China to free up Allied troops.  To attempt Honshu whilst substantial Imperial assets remain outside of Japan proper leaves him open to local counter attacks aimed at economic and logistic objectives which counter balance the strategic bombing of the Home Islands.
 
4.  Hokkaido brings much of the Honshu industrial base into direct daylight bombing range, and the whole of it for night bombing.  The industrial centres in the west on Kyushu and Shikoku can be addressed via the Marianas and Luzon.  But even these are not the most attractive next invasion homeland sites.  That belongs to Sakkhalin Island.  Once Hokkaido is fully occupied (which I did say was lost) the short hop from there to Sakkkhalin using some of the then unoccupied units from Hokkaido makes a lot of sense and is achievable at very low risk to the Allies.  With a 45:1 multiplier in favour of the Allies, the two Sakkhalin bases are juicy morsels, not overlooking their economic value.  After that operation the Kuriles should be starving having been cut off from resupply for a few months, so those bases will also be very ripe for capture.
 
5.  Honshu is a large Allied POW camp if the initial landing is limited to a single beach.  This is why the 4 Kanto Plain cities are so important.  However this is still early 1944, the great Allied invasion capabilities are not yet available.  Enough sea lift for one contested landing, yes.  For two, perhaps but not for four simultaneous landings where he does not yet hold air supremacy over the landing sites.  That air supremacy will take longer than 2 months to acquire.  September 1944 is when most of the Allied CVEs undergo a huge boost to their flak.  It is therefore October 1944 when the threat to Honshu becomes realistic.  Before then the Allies would have had plenty of time to take out Sakhalin, Mindanao, Luzon, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Malaya etc.
 
Alfred

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

I didn't call it stupid.  I said the smart move is not to invade Honshu.  You are taking VPs into account and there are far easier and more effective ways for the Allies to acquire the necessary VPs than landing on Honshu in 1944.

1.  The threat to land on Honshu necessitates a substantial march to the rear by the Imperial forces.  This weakens the Empire everywhere else.  Hugh amounts of VPs are available from recapturing the weakened perimeter and centre of the Empire.  Not just VPs for the Allies but the huge loss of VPs to the Japanese denominator.

2.  The mistake that Allied players consistently make when conducting their strategic bombing of the Home Islands is that they do not eliminate the non HI economic centres.  That means not just the sea borne trade but also the overland trade must be dried up as well.  In the game the economic pools are global, unlike real life.  Significant Japanese economic activity occurs outside of the Home Islands.  Whilst that economic activity occurs and sea borne trade from Korea remains alive, the impact of strategic bombing is reduced as the reduction of the global pools is slowed down.  The short hop from Korea cannot be totally stopped unless the Korean ports are in Allied hands.  Bear in mind your opponent does not know whether you have successfully created the magical highway.

3.  Honshu does not provide flanking opportunities; neither on land nor on sea.  Other than the 4 cities on the Kanto Plain, everything else entails one frontal Allied assault after another frontal assault always against good defensive terrain.  Plus the garrison requirements cannot be overlooked.  Every single game where every Home Island city has been captured required (a) the use of the Soviets and (b) just about every other American and Commonwealth substantial combat LCU.  Your opponent will not have the Soviets on side (unless he does that end run to Korea) and he hasn't liberated the SRA, and China to free up Allied troops.  To attempt Honshu whilst substantial Imperial assets remain outside of Japan proper leaves him open to local counter attacks aimed at economic and logistic objectives which counter balance the strategic bombing of the Home Islands.

4.  Hokkaido brings much of the Honshu industrial base into direct daylight bombing range, and the whole of it for night bombing.  The industrial centres in the west on Kyushu and Shikoku can be addressed via the Marianas and Luzon.  But even these are not the most attractive next invasion homeland sites.  That belongs to Sakkhalin Island.  Once Hokkaido is fully occupied (which I did say was lost) the short hop from there to Sakkkhalin using some of the then unoccupied units from Hokkaido makes a lot of sense and is achievable at very low risk to the Allies.  With a 45:1 multiplier in favour of the Allies, the two Sakkhalin bases are juicy morsels, not overlooking their economic value.  After that operation the Kuriles should be starving having been cut off from resupply for a few months, so those bases will also be very ripe for capture.

5.  Honshu is a large Allied POW camp if the initial landing is limited to a single beach.  This is why the 4 Kanto Plain cities are so important.  However this is still early 1944, the great Allied invasion capabilities are not yet available.  Enough sea lift for one contested landing, yes.  For two, perhaps but not for four simultaneous landings where he does not yet hold air supremacy over the landing sites.  That air supremacy will take longer than 2 months to acquire.  September 1944 is when most of the Allied CVEs undergo a huge boost to their flak.  It is therefore October 1944 when the threat to Honshu becomes realistic.  Before then the Allies would have had plenty of time to take out Sakhalin, Mindanao, Luzon, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Malaya etc.

Alfred

Great analysis. I used stupid, because it is the opposite of smart, poor word choice on my part. Sorry for that wrong attribution.

I still think he is going to invade. He doesn't have your breadth of experience and knowledge. Great point about the global nature of industry, and he could certainly be bombing a lot of industry outside of Japan, but hasn't, in fact could have bombed the industry within 9 hexes of Kushiro with Jugs sweeps and daylight bombing, but hasn't. Now with Franks online, I plan to put up some resistance there. Or try to.[:)] In two months or less I get big enlargement to my fighter forces and AA.

I suspect once the Franks show up, he will resort to massed night bombing of my runways. Unfortunately, I don't have enough night fighters to stop that tactic, and give marginal protection to the industry.

September for an invasion... hm, I am going to stick by guess that it is coming in two months. He has gone for massed big invasions early, I see no reason why he won't continue that. He didn't wait for Corsairs on his carriers, I can't see him waiting for flak upgrades to CVE.

However, I still plan on defending the Bonins, to Daito to Naha to Luzon and fight and in Indochina.

[JocMeister]

What GFX mod are you using btw? I like the clouds and planes! [:)]

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

What GFX mod are you using btw? I like the clouds and planes! [:)]

Heck if I can remember now. When I updated I did post links to it. I will have to go back and look thru the AAR; I was thinking about putting links in place for some of the better pages of information...we have had so many great discussions over the game but they are lost in the mass of pages.

I will work on it.[:)]

[Lowpe]

Turn is away, kind of rushed it a little. More sweeps out of northern Honshu with George, a destroyer raid, some good CAP at Ominato.

Try to lure some of the deathstar into launching a naval attack; but I also sent the 1st Sentai of 42 Kamikaze oscars to Okinawa, where they will be escorted by 42 Oscars at 36K. All Kamikaze are over 60 LowN, and a dozen or more are at 70. Would be nice to crash a few into some of his carriers, but I won't hold my breath. Hoping to avoid some of the bent wing whistling death planes that surely make up the CAP.

Over in Indochina, trying for a LRCAP trap; probably won't work as he is very good at flying either Spitfires or Jugs in first. But all it takes is a little poor coordination. Plus, yesterday I actually shot down 2 of the souped up Spitfires.

[Lowpe]

Cloud mod:

https://sites.google.com/site/jacesstuf ... -s-edition

Enjoy.

[Lowpe]

Combat screen mods:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/0foek ... creens.zip

[Lowpe]

Here is a post by Nemo in GreyJoy's AAR versus Radar.

Nothing will kill the IJAAF and IJNAF more quickly than continued targeted strikes on airframe factories which are producing fighters at present ( hitting R&D factories is a wasteful diversion of resources... if you hit 200 R&D factories which won't produce planes for 5 months you are basically "gifting" the Japanese 1,000 additional fighters over those 5 months which they can build from actually producing factories which you could have hit instead and stopped producing).

Night-time airfield attacks may kill some fighters etc ( whether or not there are HRs to outrule it ) but they won't do nearly the amount of damage needed to overcome Japanese new production and neither will they cause production to fall. As such I think you are better off just maintaining a laser-like focus on currently producing aircraft airframe factories ( a focus which, once again, has been lost ) since hitting airfields at night won't reduce the IJNAF and IJAAF fighter numbers - and thus won't actually achieve the stated strategic goal.

With that said Allied airpower is so overwhelming that even with significant misallocation it can still overpower the Japanese - as is happening here. However by this time after the initial landings Greyjoy had the capability to have remove all IJAAF and IJNAF fighter production capability entirely. The war should already be over.... but even with the inefficiencies the outcome isn't in doubt ---- especially as Rader is misallocating his primary strategic assets even more severely than GJ is misallocating his.

I think it is spot on. I can't believe the Allies are messing around with other targets, instead of destroying the Japanese air force starting with night fighters first.

[JocMeister]

Hitting factories (especially at night) can be fickle though. I tried doing this against Erik but more often then not I wouldn´t hit anything at all or the wrong target. When you lose 30-50 B29s per night and can only attack perhaps 2 times per week that is really not acceptable. Hitting MAN on the other hand was pretty sure way to do good damage. At least initially until some of the HI/LI had burnt down.

Its not impossible your opponent IS trying to hit your factories but he simply misses and hits something else. Have you checked if you have any important factories where he is bombing?

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Hitting factories (especially at night) can be fickle though. I tried doing this against Erik but more often then not I wouldn´t hit anything at all or the wrong target. When you lose 30-50 B29s per night and can only attack perhaps 2 times per week that is really not acceptable. Hitting MAN on the other hand was pretty sure way to do good damage. At least initially until some of the HI/LI had burnt down.

Its not impossible your opponent IS trying to hit your factories but he simply misses and hits something else. Have you checked if you have any important factories where he is bombing?

Manpower attacks have hit Osaka, Tokyo the big two...so much industry there. Places where he has targeted plane or engine factories has been Maebashi, Gifu. Targeted the port at Hiroshima, the runways at Yokohama.

Since there is no restriction on night bombing, he could simply spend one month trashing my night fighter factories first, and then fighter factories second -- with the odd strikes in at Tokyo and Osaka for manpower attacks. Heck, when he ran three or four straight nights of heavy night bombing runs by NF were shot. But you need to rotate your units to keep up that kind of pace.

Or, he could be bombing out my industry in the far west where there would be very little fighter opposition. He is very focused on bombing my dug in troops in JR terrain.

I just need to keep shooting down his planes, and bringing back more AA to protect the industry/plants. Be good to whittle down his surface ships some too.