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Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2025 6:24 pm
by PaxMondo
RangerJoe wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 5:51 pm I.... then block Jahore Bahru from sending anything on to Singapore ...
What do you mean by this?


:ugeek: :ugeek: :ugeek:

Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2025 6:46 pm
by RangerJoe
PaxMondo wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 6:24 pm
RangerJoe wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 5:51 pm I.... then block Jahore Bahru from sending anything on to Singapore ...
What do you mean by this?


:ugeek: :ugeek: :ugeek:
If the resources, oil, and/or fuel is stockpiled at Jahore Bahru, then it will not flow to Singapore. Instead it will flow to Saigon and points beyond towards China.

Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2025 8:40 pm
by Mike Solli
PaxMondo wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 5:25 pm
Mike Solli wrote: Fri Nov 21, 2025 8:41 pm I now own the entire east-west railway. Hopefully, that'll help begin the movement of oil/resources/fuel from Singapore.
Whoo-Hoo!!!

( You may need to pump it a couple of times, and watch out where your HQ-C's are. Other than that, you should be fine ....)


:ugeek: :ugeek: :ugeek:
Southern Army command HQ is in Singapore. Should I move it? If so, where to?

Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2025 8:42 pm
by Mike Solli
RangerJoe wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 6:46 pm
PaxMondo wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 6:24 pm
RangerJoe wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 5:51 pm I.... then block Jahore Bahru from sending anything on to Singapore ...
What do you mean by this?


:ugeek: :ugeek: :ugeek:
If the resources, oil, and/or fuel is stockpiled at Jahore Bahru, then it will not flow to Singapore. Instead it will flow to Saigon and points beyond towards China.
Hmm, interesting. I'll do that next turn.

Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2025 9:01 pm
by PaxMondo
Mike Solli wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 8:42 pm
RangerJoe wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 6:46 pm
PaxMondo wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 6:24 pm

What do you mean by this?


:ugeek: :ugeek: :ugeek:
If the resources, oil, and/or fuel is stockpiled at Jahore Bahru, then it will not flow to Singapore. Instead it will flow to Saigon and points beyond towards China.
Hmm, interesting. I'll do that next turn.
So, I'm VERY conservative with stockpiling switches. My experience is that it can screw up the flow pretty easy. In my current game I have only ONE base (in All of Asia continent) stockpiling anything, and that is FUSAN. Then, I would move Southern command to someplace more useful to support your next major campaign ... CK? Rangoon? Anywhere, but Singapore (or anywhere else with a Lvl 9 port on the Asian continent ...

JB blocking may very well work as well. Never done it, but if so, then I would be careful about stockpiling anywhere else ... once the resource movement algorithm gets hosed, it is a REAL pain to get it to reset* ... RJ may be able to share more experience about it ....


+ I've experienced this in 2 games. One of them I was able to get it back on track ... the other ... non-recoverable. And I mean that I spent a couple of months trying to get it going again ...

Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2025 11:40 pm
by RangerJoe
PaxMondo wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 9:01 pm
Mike Solli wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 8:42 pm
RangerJoe wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 6:46 pm

If the resources, oil, and/or fuel is stockpiled at Jahore Bahru, then it will not flow to Singapore. Instead it will flow to Saigon and points beyond towards China.
Hmm, interesting. I'll do that next turn.
So, I'm VERY conservative with stockpiling switches. My experience is that it can screw up the flow pretty easy. In my current game I have only ONE base (in All of Asia continent) stockpiling anything, and that is FUSAN. Then, I would move Southern command to someplace more useful to support your next major campaign ... CK? Rangoon? Anywhere, but Singapore (or anywhere else with a Lvl 9 port on the Asian continent ...

JB blocking may very well work as well. Never done it, but if so, then I would be careful about stockpiling anywhere else ... once the resource movement algorithm gets hosed, it is a REAL pain to get it to reset* ... RJ may be able to share more experience about it ....


+ I've experienced this in 2 games. One of them I was able to get it back on track ... the other ... non-recoverable. And I mean that I spent a couple of months trying to get it going again ...
I started to do that routinely. If nothing else, loading at Cam Rahn Bay is a shorter haul to the homeland. Or better from Hong Kong, not to mention Shanghai.

If you drain Port Arthur of oil, then oil will flow there. Even from Urumchi! You can "prime the pump" by unloading oil at Fusan with it stockpiled there, then start your CS convoys to attract more oil there. Fuel as well if you stockpile it. Get fuel flowing to whatever port that you want it to flow to by setting the port as the home port of any large TF with it somewhere else where it will stay on station. Then that "home port" will demand fuel in the expected amount that it will need for any operations there as well as the expected demand from the large TFs.

Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2025 9:21 pm
by Mike Solli
20 Apr 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Well, KB did its thing. I'm beginning to remember how irritating things can be in this game. My goal was to knock down the fighters at Townsville and then hit the airfield and any shipping in the area. Yeah right. Nothing at all happened in the morning. In the afternoon, a daitai of 18 Zeros from Kaga swept Townsville right on schedule and managed to lose 6 fighters while shooting down only 6 enemy planes. I lost 5 pilots. Ok, I can live with that, but all of the enemy fighters weren't sent packing. I was a little worried but I had 36 Zeros assigned to escort the bombers.

Next, 41 Kates (all torpedo carrying) and 90 Vals, escorted by 35 Zeros went after Cairns. Really? Ok, there were fighters that they knew about at Townsville, so I can live with this. A handful of Kittyhawks on a training mission got caught up in the attack and managed to shoot down a Zero and lost 2 Kittyhawks with the rest driven off. Here's where it started to get weird. No other carrier lost a pilot or plane. FOW, I guess. The bombers went in and sank an APD and badly damaged (probably sank, there were sinking sounds later) 3 more APDs. Not a single torpedo hit. I'm having really bad luck with torpedoes. I chalk it up to the fact that the APDs were small and fast. I figured that was that. Well, no.

Another flight of 25 Kates (torpedo armed again) and 30 Vals went after Townsville, and guess what? They had no fighter escort. Really? Well one Kate got through the gauntlet, missed the xAK(!) it launched at, and then was shot down. Now here's where it really got weird.

Hiryu and Soryu launched their Vals and Akagi launched their Kates:

Hiryu: 21 Vals, 14 pilots (so 14 sorties), all shot down, 8 KIA & 4 MIA, 7 planes remaining, and 6 pilots in the unit still! And yes, they're survivors of the attack. There should have been 2 survivors.
Soryu: 20 Vals, 16 pilots (so 16 sorties), all shot down, 5 KIA, 9 MIA & 1 WIA, 2 planes remaining (should be 4), 9 pilots still alive. There should have been 1 pilot left.
Akagi: 30 Kates, 28 pilots (there were 25 sorties), all shot down, 13 KIA, 9 MIA, 2 WIA, 5 planes remaining, 13 pilots left. There should have been 4.

The numbers just don't add up. I'm not complaining because I have a lot of ghost pilots that should be dead. I can replace the losses but it's just irritating that the engine will send unescorted bombers where it knows there are fighters.

At any rate, Ted and I were both scratching our heads. Ted also admitted that he never saw KB coming. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment because I have been seeing a TF slowly moving SW from Pt. Moresby to Australia. I think it's a badly damaged CL that I hit earlier near Pt. Moresby and was in port there trying to repair damage. I moved KB 8 hexes west. There were 3 subs adjacent to KB. Had to get out of Dodge.

I've decided that I'm going to keep KB in port until I can increase the size of the fighter units, which will happen in July.

SRA

Borneo

Nothing to report.

Burma

The invasion force TFs are about to their jump off points just west of Rangoon. I did see that a new unit of about 11k troops arrived at Cox's Bazaar (maybe more Chinese?). I have Imperial Guards Division slated to land there with 48 Division a few days behind as a reinforcing division. I'm going to go ahead with the landing at Akyab and I'll wait and send in both divisions together at Cox's Bazaar a little later.

China

The Zeros shot down 7 Chinese planes for no loss over Lanchow today.

In my maneuvering to clear out more Chinese held bases, I caught and chewed up another Chinese Corps.

Other Stuff

The Ki-44-IIa R&D advanced to 5/42. I upgraded the 5 R&D factories to the Ki-44-IIb, currently scheduled to arrive 7/43. It will become operational 10/42.

The Ann factory is now not needed anymore because the Ha-5 engines are depleted. I'll convert it and the Sonia factory to the Ki-44-IIa on 1 May.

Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2025 9:37 pm
by Mike Solli
21 Apr 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

KB is unspotted again. I have been watching a small TF slowly heading SW from Pt. Moresby toward Australia. I think it's a badly damaged CL that I hit a while back. I saw it it port at Pt. Moresby for a while. I'm hoping that's it. I am going to move KB to the NW so it is just in range of that TF but not any Aussie base. Let's see what happens...

SRA

Borneo

Nothing to report.

Burma

The BB TF and MKB are in position, but the Akyab invasion TF is still lagging a little bit behind. They'll be in position tomorrow and invade the day after. IG Division is waiting for 48 Division TF to catch up. They're still 3 days back.

China

I figured Ted would use his fighters as fighters instead of bombers over Lanchow, but he didn't. I set my LRCAP Zeros at high altitude and the enemy bombers got through. I reset them to lower altitude.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements
DD Teruzuki - Akigumo class - KB escort
DD Takanami - Yugumo class - KB escort

Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2025 9:48 pm
by Mike Solli
22 Apr 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

KB launched at the little TF as I had hoped, but it was at 7 hexes, so no Vals flew. Only 20 Kates (torpedo armed again) escorted by 33 Zeros went after the ships. I saw two DDs and all the TBs missed, again. They're traveling really slow so they're either ASW or they were escorting something I never saw. I'm not sticking around any more. I suspect Ted has every sub in the area headed there. I'm heading east past Tulagi then north to Truk, 4 days away. Then I'll replace the lost pilots and planes and fill up the units with rookie pilots and do a little training.

SRA

Borneo

Nothing to report.

Burma

Akyab invasion fleet goes in tomorrow.

China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement
Sagara Maru-1 (9 FP) - I lost the AV Sagara Maru early in the war off Java and rebuilt the air unit. It'll provide naval search somewhere along a SLOC.

Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2025 10:04 pm
by Mike Solli
23 Apr 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

KB successfully got away.

Ted has been bombing 20 Division at Pt. Moresby daily with ~45 B-17Es and a dozen A20As. He figured it was softened up enough to attack. Oops. It didn't go so well for him. The 18 British Division didn't take a lot of losses but the other infantry units got mangled.

SRA

I finally landed at Saumlaki. I intend to build an airbase there to be used to harass Darwin.

Borneo

Nothing to report.

Burma

18 Division landed at Akyab today! I'm not going to attack tomorrow because I want the entire division landed and also want to give them a little time to recover some disruption. The defending units are the 63 Indian Brigade and 100 RAF BF. I don't anticipate 18 Division having any issues taking the base. I may wait until a tank regiment moves over the river to the road hex between Akyab and Cox's Bazaar. That way, I can destroy the units instead of just pushing them out of the base.

I have 2 tank regiments just east of Akyab moving to join 18 Division. They were bombed (unsuccessfully) by 19 Blenheim IVs escorted by 16 Hurricanes. I anticipate they will bomb 18 Division tomorrow so I put 36 Zeros from MKB on LRCAP over Akyab.

China

No more bombing at Lanchow. A reinforcing division is getting close. When it arrives, I attack!

Other Stuff

The Ha-45 R&D advanced to 3/43 and will become operational 8/42.

Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2025 11:59 pm
by RangerJoe
You could swap some of the Vals for fighters and give them the same target hex as your bombers with the airfield targeted. The fighters will drop their bombs prior to bombing and then engage the enemy fighters.

Apparently you messed up with your approach and should have had Townsville targeted and the only target within the strike distance set.

Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2025 12:23 am
by Mike Solli
RangerJoe wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 11:59 pm You could swap some of the Vals for fighters and give them the same target hex as your bombers with the airfield targeted. The fighters will drop their bombs prior to bombing and then engage the enemy fighters.

Apparently you messed up with your approach and should have had Townsville targeted and the only target within the strike distance set.
KB is headed home now. Yep, I screwed up. In all, I ended up losing 5 fighter pilots, 17 DB pilots and 15 TB pilots. Fortunately, I've got a fair number of spares. I'm learning. I don't anticipate any type of aggression from Ted until fall. He starts getting 35 Avengers a month next month. So, he'll have replaced his Devastators with Avengers by early August. I will be able to modify my fleet carrier aircraft load outs in July so I'll be ready with a LOT more fighters than I have now (only 18 per fleet carrier). I'll have ~180 Zeros in KB by then. I'll also have a LOT of reserve pilots (70+/70+ fighter pilot reserves). No operations planned for KB until the load out changes.

Re: Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2025 9:48 pm
by PaxMondo
Mike Solli wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 9:21 pm 20 Apr 42

SE Fleet

Well, KB did its thing. I'm beginning to remember how irritating things can be in this game. My goal was to knock down the fighters at Townsville and then hit the airfield and any shipping in the area. Yeah right. Nothing at all happened in the morning. In the afternoon, a daitai of 18 Zeros from Kaga swept Townsville right on schedule and managed to lose 6 fighters while shooting down only 6 enemy planes. I lost 5 pilots. Ok, I can live with that, but all of the enemy fighters weren't sent packing. I was a little worried but I had 36 Zeros assigned to escort the bombers.

Next, 41 Kates (all torpedo carrying) and 90 Vals, escorted by 35 Zeros went after Cairns. Really? Ok, there were fighters that they knew about at Townsville, so I can live with this. A handful of Kittyhawks on a training mission got caught up in the attack and managed to shoot down a Zero and lost 2 Kittyhawks with the rest driven off. Here's where it started to get weird. No other carrier lost a pilot or plane. FOW, I guess. The bombers went in and sank an APD and badly damaged (probably sank, there were sinking sounds later) 3 more APDs. Not a single torpedo hit. I'm having really bad luck with torpedoes. I chalk it up to the fact that the APDs were small and fast. I figured that was that. Well, no.

Another flight of 25 Kates (torpedo armed again) and 30 Vals went after Townsville, and guess what? They had no fighter escort. Really? Well one Kate got through the gauntlet, missed the xAK(!) it launched at, and then was shot down. Now here's where it really got weird.

Hiryu and Soryu launched their Vals and Akagi launched their Kates:

Hiryu: 21 Vals, 14 pilots (so 14 sorties), all shot down, 8 KIA & 4 MIA, 7 planes remaining, and 6 pilots in the unit still! And yes, they're survivors of the attack. There should have been 2 survivors.
Soryu: 20 Vals, 16 pilots (so 16 sorties), all shot down, 5 KIA, 9 MIA & 1 WIA, 2 planes remaining (should be 4), 9 pilots still alive. There should have been 1 pilot left.
Akagi: 30 Kates, 28 pilots (there were 25 sorties), all shot down, 13 KIA, 9 MIA, 2 WIA, 5 planes remaining, 13 pilots left. There should have been 4.

The numbers just don't add up. I'm not complaining because I have a lot of ghost pilots that should be dead. I can replace the losses but it's just irritating that the engine will send unescorted bombers where it knows there are fighters.

At any rate, Ted and I were both scratching our heads. Ted also admitted that he never saw KB coming. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment because I have been seeing a TF slowly moving SW from Pt. Moresby to Australia. I think it's a badly damaged CL that I hit earlier near Pt. Moresby and was in port there trying to repair damage. I moved KB 8 hexes west. There were 3 subs adjacent to KB. Had to get out of Dodge.

I've decided that I'm going to keep KB in port until I can increase the size of the fighter units, which will happen in July.
Frustrating.

I wish I could say I've never seen this before ... but I have. Too many times.

I wish I could say that I understand how/why it happens ... but I can't.

I've run replays, I've done sandboxes .... I can't intentionally re-produce it. When it happens, I can re-load and it will happen again. But, I can't create it. I've taken the exact setup where it did something like this and put it into a sandbox and ... nope, it works more like I intended, not the be-fuddled muck I got in game.

Sorry that you had to experience it on an op that you planned so long for and really had it nailed ... until you didn't. The only thing I can think of is that this is part of GG's randomness thingy ... you went over the 200 plane TF limit and got a terrible roll on cohesiveness, or something like that.