Matrix Games Forums

March 4, 1944

No night bombing.

Allies do bombard with CL/DD forces all along northern eastern Honshu. No mine hits.

No bombing of Honshu or sweeping of Honshu other than Akita, which is not defended.

I did lose a damaged xap to a Yank sub, escorts then put heavy damage on the sub.

Never having played this far I am learning a ton of lessons, mostly the hard way.[;)]

My biggest fear in an invasion of Honshu. I figure I need minimum 2+ divisons, generous ART and CD and AA guns in the likely hexes. With a rapid reaction reserve of at least 4 divisions. I am not there yet.

My next biggest fear, is an attack that somehow cuts the Fusan lifeline. Korea is fairly well protected now against that (not against the Soviets, how cheesey is that?).

My third biggest fear is getting cut off in Thailand. I have 150 days until the RTA goes away, and I am not sure how I am going to make up for those lost AV. They really aren't on the front lines now, but they do provide the rear area garrisons. This army has to survive intact for me to avoid autovictory in 1945. Perhaps it should be my greatest concern?

My fourth biggest fear is the arrival of B29s. Why you ask...simple. Their presence will make me protect many more bases, in effect greatly dispersing my fighters and night fighters.

I have inflicted 21,000 land VP on the Allies. This will to a large degree protect me from the strategic losses I am suffering (I will guess that he will get 40,000 by the end of 1944). But this only works if I can avoid horrendous land losses myself – especially at risk is the Thailand divisions.

I have not weakened the defenses at Daito, Bonins or Okinawa. And actually need to build Formosa and Okinawa along with the better potential island bases west of Honshu. So many demands for troops.

So, yeah, I threw away the KB in the Marianas. And, yeah, I lost Hokkaido. Old news.[>:] But perhaps I can make 45 without giving up an autovictory. It will be tough, but it is doable.

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Your opponent could be running low on 4Es. Or at least have realized his losses are way above his replacement rate. In my game vs. Erik I had to do the same thing. No 4E combat for something like 6 month just to be able to fill out all the squadrons! [X(]

There is no question I have been inflicting severe losses on him. A six month hiatus would be too good to be true however.

I really wonder what the Allies will do next: straight for Honshu, or pick off the bases across the Empire. Heck, I am still in Oz!

I never, ever thought I would be here in March 44 still shipping fuel and oil from the SRA. Probably won't need it, but then again you never know!

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Alfred




This is a "gamey" use of a bugged engine mechanism. It won't ever be fixed because too many players like to exploit it.

Alfred

Aha, Lok! You gamey player.[:-][:'(][:D]
[:D]

Shrug. It's part of the game, for good or bad. Unless you and your opponent have agreed not to use it, you should use it.

I use it. [:)]

March 6, 1944

Back to night bombing of Honshu. I am glad he gave me that nice long break to rebuild my flight crews and planes and add lots more AA. Tokyo for example is up to 14 AA units now.

I lose 7 Nicks and 1 Irving -- Allies lose a lot! Plus, in some kind of strange weird way the Allies bomb my airfields! Imagine that.

His altitudes are all over the place: from 2K to 20K.

NF with Tracom pilots are really saving the day for Japan. It will be a different story come the B29 which is faster and tougher, but they really don't show up in huge numbers till 45.

I get two more NF squadrons shortly, and I really do need them, because my NF are good, but very brittle. They can't stand up to day after day (ergh, night after night) work.

These beasties came in at 2K and got shredded...

Allies did bomb heavily in Thailand unopposed, and also nailed Ominato unopposed.

But a solid win for the NF -- look at all those beasties down and they were almost totally ineffective! I lost 4 or 5 planes on the ground, didn't even scratch the runway after the night crew finished patching.

Today was perhaps the best NF performance of the war...so I doubt it will get any better.

I sense the Allies getting frustrated here...jumping around their targets, day and night, but suffering nasty losses no matter what they do.

Elsewhere I sank a Yank sub, lost a IJN Destroyer to a sub near Fusan, and had some inexpensive xakls hit by assault bombers.

I reinforced Hirosaki with two more regiments, landed two more regiments on Honshu and started to get my AA reinforcements.

And Honshu industry remains strong.

A good day for 1944.

Even more 4E losses posted in Tracker than here. Woohoo! This was my first positive points day in quite a while.[8D]

Sent the turn, trying a LRCAP trap this turn. Pretty tricky, as the Allies are sweeping all over the place and the LRCAP could react into the wrong hex, so I am trying new settings.

I set the LRCAP squadrons to 0 react, but picked the hex which is two away from their base. We will see if this keeps the squadrons only over the targeted hex.

I will probably have an engine crunch in ha45 in six months or so...not good, if I am still alive.

Sent my kamikaze helens (69 average LNav skill) 14 oscars for escort, and a squadron of babs to Paramushiro which has been neglected by the Allies lately. They will look for a nice target up to 11 hexes away...flying down low at 2K so flak will be nasty, but they could slip under something.

March 7, 1944

Lots of sub action. It seems my older Es are better than the Super Es. Perhaps it is a crew experience?

A little night music. Only 4 of the baby beasts come knocking, and only one gets thru to bomb.

Allied sweeps all around the target hex, but Zeke stays true to their 0 range and fly 2 hexes and intercept these beasties.

Over in Honshu, lots of sweeps. Corsairs and Jugs, Oh my!



If only I would have known this trick for LRCAP many months ago, it would have saved me many a fighter and inflicted some good knocks on the Allies.

Over Tokyo, the Allied sweeps come in.

Corsairs of every flavor, Jugs, more Corsairs, and then more Jugs. Jugs, here, Jugs there, Jugs everywhere....

A good day in the air...Honshu industry remains cranking! The Zekes nails some Beasts.

The Allies have stolen a march by getting Hokkaido now, and have hurt the industry on Honshu, but everywhere else across the Empire it is cranking at full power. A strategic mistake I think.



Over off the coast of China another small Destroyer gets sunk by Yank subs, and then we return the favor by sinking a PF of the West Coast. An even 6 vp for each ship.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

March 7, 1944

Lots of sub action. It seems my older Es are better than the Super Es. Perhaps it is a crew experience?

Shallow waters...?

Yes, shallow waters. But my Super Es in shallow haven't done as well yet.

Turn is away, and I immediately forgot to take of my Zeke CAP trap in Thailand. Guess they will get shredded tomorrow.

Oh well, I didn't do an end extra save...heavy rain here, power on and off, so I decided just to eat it.

That's life.

Interesting to see what the Allies do this turn over Honshu. Probably tough to take 30+ Jugs losses in a day, but he does have a newer version coming out bolstering his numbers.

I now regret not attriting those Jugs more over Thailand along the excellent rail network earlier.

No bites on my Kamikaze Helens out of Paramushiro. I have planes and subs scouting for them now.

He can´t keep losses like this up. Even with the "25" model coming online it only runs for 4 months. This attrition fight is in your favor and not something the allies should ever try.

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

He can´t keep losses like this up. Even with the "25" model coming online it only runs for 4 months. This attrition fight is in your favor and not something the allies should ever try.

This means the Allies will eventually try a new strategy in the air. On the ground, will it mean they will change their targets for the next invasion? Doubtful, I still expect a huge invasion of Honshu.

I know he's been super aggressive, but he won't invade without massive air support surely?

He could lose a lot, and as has been said on the thread already, he doesn't need to.

Surely the aggressive tendencies will be tempered with a bit of realism?

I agree with Jocke, he cannot keep up with his losses. 300 Jugs to date is a lot, IMO.

How are your IJA and IJN fighter pilot pools?? About how many trained do you have in each??