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

[Lowpe]

March 13, 1944

No night bombing. Lose a PB off China's coast to American subs. A little revenge here:

[Lowpe]

Nautilus...that 13 knot SST/Minelayer sub?

She has shown up off and on the sunk ship report since I took over the game. I really don't like this trio of ships at all.

[Lowpe]

13 minutes worth of air warning...when will the 60 Jugs show up?

[Lowpe]

Allies getting more sophisticated, sweeping adjacent Mabaeshi.

Corsairs are harder than Jugs...Pilot exp + better maneuver.

[Lowpe]

Looks like the target du jour will be Mabaeshi.

[Lowpe]

Runway attack.

[Lowpe]

3-4 waves of Beasties bomb Mabashi, then it is followed by a sweep of souped up Spitfires and Jugs, but by then the CAP is pretty worn out. 4 more sweeps of Tokyo by Corsairs and Jugs.

Over in Indochina our heavy artillery does the talking! Every day it is like this, continual pounding.[:)] The Allied tank army was over 2000 AFVs.

[Lowpe]

Deathstar headed straight for Formosa.

Butcher's bill in the air. Only a few planes lost on the ground. I had to move Oscars and Zekes up forward, normally they fly out of Jugs range, but I needed to rest some of the Frank squadrons -- they paid the price of being forward.

Less the 3-1 in losses; and no damage what so ever to the industry of Honshu. I guess that is a win.



Tracker shows 22 F4U1A corsairs downed. He is very close to running out of F4U1. I wonder where the FM2's were today? I know the Lightnings are gone for 2 weeks or so.

[Lowpe]

Fun and games in Indochina. One of the Allied units, Sherman Tanks (ergh), are heading thru the jungle to the JR position west of Rahaeng.

I am going to have to move a little more artillery west down the road to counter, weakening the bombardments on the other tanks at Rahaeng. Maybe just more 47mm AT guns - if I can get away with so little.

[Lowpe]

The Tone needs to make a run to Phuket, which isn't under observation, and then the following day a bombardment run to Mergui.

Bombardments, especially at this distance, scare the bejesus out of me. I will of course triple check ops points, fuel, and settings, but still so many times they go screwy.

I probably can sweep Mergui, and bomb with 2 sentai of Helens if I so decide to. Not sure about that yet. 120 guns present at Mergui.

Mergui is just packed with Spitfires, and we hates them, we hates them forever!



According to my notes the Allies only have 130 Spitfires VIII (and tracker shows 58 destroyed), a good day at Mergui could really hammer them.

[Lowpe]

Need to go work in the yard, a perfect time to ponder the game.

My thinking is to pretty much hide from the Deathstar, continue building up on Honshu. Perhaps set up one or two kamikaze raids for the deathstar, and I have subs getting into position.

Perhaps a Frank escorted raid with D4Y4s screaming in at 30K. 36 D4Y4s with 65+ Low Naval might get thru if the past is any indication. Only need a few hits to ruin their day.

I will think on it...

[Crackaces]

Runway attack.

WitP AE executes air to air combat using an algorithm that might be described as the attacker suddenly coming out
of warp drive and appearing from nowhere. The concept of a layered defense is not possible. "Do you think we should intercept those B29's headed over our base .. Nah .. they are headed for Tokyo ... nothing we can do .." ..
(I discussed this previously with much emotional reaction from the peanut gallery. Including posting well known algorithms for aircraft intercept.
LoBaron's comments were so obnoxious I just blocked him ...)

Anyway .. within the game .. hitting the runway of the target forces LRCAP which is not as effective,
causes additional pilot fatigue, and aircraft fatigue ... So In WitP AE there is some indications this can be an
effective strategy ... The Home Islands have multiple interlocking bases so not quite as effective as say The Marshal's
A lone Island like Wotje can be completely isolated by an airfield attack even though my bombers are flying directly over Makin as an example.

Forcing LRCAP and CAP leak rather than local CAP can give the attacker quite an advantage ... enough advantage given the big picture (forces expended to damage the runways is still a question in my mind)

[Lowpe]

You are right, in that the Allied bombers can fly lengthwise across 1/2 of Honshu and there is no intermediate interception or even warning that the raid is coming.

I guess the Japanese aren't English enough.[:D] But, then again the English are English enough either. I guess it would just be too difficult to code/model.

It would be neat having a shot at intercepting bombers three bases away on bombers making a Tokyo run.

Here is my largest kamikaze group. 49 Planes. I think they can penetrate the enemy CAP, it remains to be seen how much damage they can do. Last time an Oscar did hit a CVL, but bounced off the belt armor. I had hoped the high altitude kamikaze run would yield more deck hits, but not so for this one test case. I have to see how many fighters I can scrape up for escort, at least two squadrons worth I am thinking. Average LowNav is much higher than 60 with the new pilots transferred in (some I will put on group reserve as they have high skills in other areas too).

This time all planes will fly the exact same altitude which should yield a much better coordinated strike as opposed to the cooperative strikes I was getting last time.

[Lowpe]

Three attacks in China to clean up 6 more units.

If the Deathstar comes within 6 hexes of Naha he might get a little surprise. The Oscar kamikazes escorted by 49 Tonies at 36K.

Other than that just preparing and preparing. I don't think there are a ton of F4Us on the deathstar, but full of F6Fs. Enough Corsairs to sweep, and maybe put 50 on CAP. Allies like to do a full speed sprint straight in, and that should put him solidly in range of Naha.

Allies did spot the KB west of Fusan. Perhaps he will steer a course in an attempt to close with it?

[Lowpe]

march 14, 1944

No night bombing.

The Tone TF is spotted at Phuket, I had hoped a full speed run there would allow them to disband into port and go invisible. Have to think about the bombardment now.

More sweepers over Tokyo, the Deathstar is 6 hexes south southwest of Naha.

[Lowpe]

At Tokyo we lose 3 Ha 33 factories and 2 Light Industry.

The raid on the Deathstar flies without their Tony Escort, splash 35 Oscar Kamikazes. It was 6 hexes, which meant I gave drop tanks to the Tonies, plentiful supply, but they obviously failed their roll.

Even with throwing away the kamikazes the Allies don't get 3-1 in planes lost for the day and damage on Honshu is light. 9 4E beasts destroyed over Tokyo which is 3x replacement rates.

I tried putting some fighters on higher CAP today at Tokyo, and I think I am better served by stacking CAP from 6K to 11K. I think the higher CAP raised the altitude of the dogfights. So, Low and stacked is the way to go.

Allied bombers keep coming in at 8K over Tokyo despite 14+ AA units and base forces with 12cm dp guns. I wish they could hurt the bombers more.

Over in Thailand Allies still moving thru Jungle...I am bringing reserves up to Bangkok, Force Tone at Phuket is attacked by Ventura's at 2000 feet and the Zeke CAP destroys them all. Force Tone will retire, surprise gone they shall slink back to the shadows. Their presence does cost the Allies some bombers, and perhaps the Allies will relocate planes for fear of naval bombardment.



All 3 large troop convoys make Shanghai, ran the gauntlet of subs. I lost 1 PB, 1 PB heavily damaged, and one xak damaged. He lost 2 subs. I left all the AA and base forces in Shanghai to help protect from a deathstar raid.

[MrKane]

Well, I am starting to believe that your opponent does not have any plan except "let loose some a/c". Those sweeps are example how to loose all allied planes without gain any tactical or strategic advantage. [:D]

BTW: To increase chance of strike coordination I suggest to use big AF, level 8 or 9, stand down all other planes on AF except those who will execute strike. Try to send just one Kamikaze unit plus 1 - 2 fighter escort per AF. Escort fighters should have little cruise speed and climb rate advantage over strike planes. When you are attacking base it is good idea to set one escort unit to sweep base at coordinated altitude, this way they will show up little before bombers and without "escort A2A" penalty.

[Lowpe]

I decided to buy back a destroyed division from Hokkaido that I was unable to evacuate a splinter. The PP cost was very low, under 20 PP I recall.

It arrived today.

I had thought rebuilding units cost armaments, vehicles, and manpower points only. Not supply. But reading earlier I saw a post where the supply cost of rebuilding destroyed units really hurt Japan.[&:]

So, back to the manual. Page 233 says to rebuild a vehicle it costs 1 vehicle and 1 manpower point per load cost of the vehicle in question. No supply. Whew! Now it does take HI to build the vehicle or armament point (and it takes fuel to build the HI). Infantry and weapons costs armaments points equal to load cost.

So in general, the larger the load cost the greater the armament or vehicle cost. Manpower is so plentiful as to be not a problem.

So the real cost to be worried about rebuilding units is the ongoing supply drain from the rebuilt unit, and the HI cost which might take away from making planes.

Therefore, the question becomes, can I effectively use that unit to merit its ongoing supply cost? And, is it worthwhile spending the PP to rebuild it in the first place (as opposed to buying out an existing unit from Manchuko/China)?

Now then, here comes the question of sunk costs. I have a pool of 202,000 armament points so the HI is already spent. New unit armament costs going out one year will be 100,000 points. So that gives me a solid 100,000 points of armaments for replacing troop losses. More than sufficient, since it is unlikely I will be around in a full year.

Now Vehicle points I am in serious trouble with. I will never be able to replace the motorized support, and will struggle mightily to replace tank losses. [:(]

Last turn I banked a positive 3500 HI points and have 1.4 million.

So my real economic woes will be vehicles (too few); plane engines (worrisome if he continues to focus on their destruction), supply (always Japan's weakpoint), and of course the kicker victory points.

[Lowpe]

Thanks Mr. Kane, your advice is always greatly appreciated!

For this raid on the deathstar, there was 3 squadrons at a size 5 base with Air HQ. The fighter escort, the kamikaze strike squadron, and some Jakes flying night search.

The weather was bad, so perhaps that played a part. It seems to me I should be able to punch thru a 200 plane CAP.

It looks like, bases on Allied air search, the deathstar is heading for Hong Kong.

[MrKane]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Thanks Mr. Kane, your advice is always greatly appreciated!

For this raid on the deathstar, there was 3 squadrons at a size 5 base with Air HQ. The fighter escort, the kamikaze strike squadron, and some Jakes flying night search.

The weather was bad, so perhaps that played a part. It seems to me I should be able to punch thru a 200 plane CAP.

It looks like, bases on Allied air search, the deathstar is heading for Hong Kong.

What I am trying to point out is that Ki-100 even with best weather and dice roll will have problem to escort Ki-43-IV.
Ki-43-IV cruise speed is 280 vs 249 for Ki-100, the same story with climb rate. So, even if they will fly they can fail to show up before combat end.