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

[njp72]

I'm a little slow here but great commentary/summary from Alfred.

Given the situation you have done a fantastic job.

Also in my limited experience, Alfred's 5th point is quite pertinent. From May 44 onwards, being able to mount serious, well planned and orchestrated defence which can inflict losses is a victory of sorts for the Empire.

Keep up the fight.

ORIGINAL: Alfred

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

...I am getting trashed, but learning a lot. [8D] Funny things you don't really think about, like hiding ships and planes, how to protect supplies, air festungs, force in being, nibbling away at the Allied might, vehicle production and pool management. Little victories...

No, you are not "getting trashed".

Firstly, you have to remember the state the Empire was in when you took over. In that state it would not survive past the middle of 1943. Under your stewardship not only has it survived to the middle of 1944, it is still very much capable of inflicting defeats upon the enemy.

Secondly, there remains considerable doubt that the Allies can achieve anything better than a draw. Unless the Allies can achieve an auto victory before the scenario ends, the best they can achieve then is a draw.

Thirdly, it is only in harvesting strategic points that the enemy is progressing towards the auto victory level. Enemy air losses, bearing in mind each downed 4E is worth 2 VPs is well short of the 2:1 ratio. Army and naval loss ratios are not that much more beneficial to the enemy than the air loss ratio.

Fourthly, you are not factoring the ride of the Valkyrie to harvest your own strategic points off Australian industry. Not only is there potential for substantial harvesting there if the enemy rear has been denuded of forces but it may also lead to a reduction of enemy pressure on your frontlines as units are redeployed to meet the Valkyrie.

Fifthly, unlike almost every one who plays Japan, you do not have the unwarranted "American" expectation of achieving decisive military victories. You have the historical Japanese attitude which few properly follow and yet it is the attitude which can deliver a good outcome for the Empire.

Alfred

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Can they make it across the river and into the IJA troopers best friend -- the jungle?

How far do they have left to go?

32 miles.[X(] Sigh. Should have started a day earlier.[:(]

Your brilliant (or lucky) capture of Cam Ranh Bay, and the previous brilliant invasion in Burma, has led you to pocket a lot of Japanese defenders and made your travels thru Indochina rather sunny.

Not the case here...[:)]

I've noticed! (Not so sure about the "brilliant" comments, but thanks just the same. [:)])

[obvert]

Hey Lowpe! Good to see this still going. Glad you're keeping up your end of the fight.

While I've been on hiatus I've been playing Head to Head with some late game stuff involving a Kuriles invasion and letting the Allies get quite far behind in points to see if they can come back in late 44 and 45. This has changed my ideas about late defense for Japan. Previously i was happy to lose 500-1,000 planes in a day if it inflicted even some losses on the Allied fleets, 4Es or ground forces. I've begun to realize that in addition to the points lost in strike planes the pilot experience improvement on the Allied side shooting down all of those planes changes the air war completely.

Defending doesn't have to mean counter-attacking. This is sometimes not as exciting, but it's certainly been hard for me to get air supremacy over the HI even with P-40N and P-51D (at a 2:1 or better VP ratio for the Allies) once Japan has the Frank ki-84r, the J2M5, the Sam and others. Against the J7W1 it's even tougher. Sure, the strategic points are racking up, but Japan is still in the fight in June 45, still has some good pilots, still isn't close to falling to 1:2 in VPs, and the army is holding in some places.

So what I'm saying is pick your spots. Just as Alfred pointed out above, it's not about winning a battle tactically at this point, it's about winning points at a ratio that keeps you in the game for a draw or better. [:)]

Now I've got a bit to catch up on to see how you got here!

[obvert]

How in the world did Obvert have around 20 divisions that Jocke managed to cut off here?

No SL = stupid play. When your opponent can put 500,000 men in a hex then your 300,000 can hold them off. Until the lines are cut by poor tactical decision making. Tried to go the fast risky path instead of the slow safe way and I hadn't learned yet about reserve mode movement which doesn't slow due to air bombardment.

Also there was a bit of hubris.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: obvert

How in the world did Obvert have around 20 divisions that Jocke managed to cut off here?

No SL = stupid play. When your opponent can put 500,000 men in a hex then your 300,000 can hold them off. Until the lines are cut by poor tactical decision making. Tried to go the fast risky path instead of the slow safe way and I hadn't learned yet about reserve mode movement which doesn't slow due to air bombardment.

Also there was a bit of hubris.

I wasn't talking about that, but they are valid points too.

I can barely scrape together a dozen divisions for this theater. I guess you would have shipped more divisions from Honshu, but still it is an impressive feat amassing that many troops there in a scenario 1 game.[&o]

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Hey Lowpe! Good to see this still going. Glad you're keeping up your end of the fight.

While I've been on hiatus I've been playing Head to Head with some late game stuff involving a Kuriles invasion and letting the Allies get quite far behind in points to see if they can come back in late 44 and 45. This has changed my ideas about late defense for Japan. Previously i was happy to lose 500-1,000 planes in a day if it inflicted even some losses on the Allied fleets, 4Es or ground forces. I've begun to realize that in addition to the points lost in strike planes the pilot experience improvement on the Allied side shooting down all of those planes changes the air war completely.

Defending doesn't have to mean counter-attacking. This is sometimes not as exciting, but it's certainly been hard for me to get air supremacy over the HI even with P-40N and P-51D (at a 2:1 or better VP ratio for the Allies) once Japan has the Frank ki-84r, the J2M5, the Sam and others. Against the J7W1 it's even tougher. Sure, the strategic points are racking up, but Japan is still in the fight in June 45, still has some good pilots, still isn't close to falling to 1:2 in VPs, and the army is holding in some places.

So what I'm saying is pick your spots. Just as Alfred pointed out above, it's not about winning a battle tactically at this point, it's about winning points at a ratio that keeps you in the game for a draw or better. [:)]

Now I've got a bit to catch up on to see how you got here!

Welcome back. When I have gotten burnt in this game,it was opposing force with force (which I knew was a mistake at the time). Sigh.[&:]

What I wouldn't give for a chance to do a few days over.[:D]

[Lowpe]

May 28, 1944

Saigon is bombed heavily in the air and bombarded by ground troops, but they make 14 more miles in combat mode. They are now only a scant 19 miles from escaping Saigon.

In other news, a IJN SC sinks a Yank submarine near Shanghai and I use two squadrons of Jacks to sweep the Allies with pretty poor results. I didn't think they would do all that well and actually they were remnants from yesterday's big attack that failed to materialize and I missed changing their orders.[:(]

[Lowpe]

Not horrible in the air...

[Alfred]

On those figures, today the Allies lost 40 aircraft points and Japan 35 aircraft points.  This is assisting Japan to achieve at least a marginal victory.

Alfred

Edited typo on Japanese lost aircraft points. 

[Lowpe]

Lots of excitement for this next day:

Can the Saigon defenders make a mad rush across the river/bridges and into the jungle?

The Allies are probing here and there deep into the Empire with taskforces of what I am guessing are Fletchers. The Lilly IIc stand ready to lay some hits into them...some escorted and some not. A little dangerous since I have lost track of the Deathstar -- I suspect it is on the way to Guam.

Another targeted naval attack attempting to sink several baby carriers.

In China the IJA will seek to destroy another isolated corp, and in western China there are signs of life along the road to Burma.

I have turned off almost all replacements except for artillery and select divisions. I will turn on upgrades and repairs for the Tank Divisions next month with the new tank models coming along. Looking forward to them.[:)]

In addition I have stopped fort/runway/port construction everywhere. I will examine in the coming weeks some forts to be turned back on.

All of this is an attempt to generate positive supply generation. I am also looking at measures to ship supplies from SRA back home somewhere.

[Lokasenna]

Less speculation, more maps! More pictures! More shiny!

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Less speculation, more maps! More pictures! More shiny!

I mean "what he said". [:D]

[Encircled]

If I could be bothered, I'd make a massive banner saying "More Maps!"

This will have to do

MORE MAPS PLEASE![:)]

[ny59giants]

A picture is worth a thousand words. [;)]

[Lowpe]

Wow! You guys are tough.[:)]

One of the neat aspects of playing Japan is the planes, r&d, and advancing to newer models. Unfortunately, that enjoyable part of the game is over for me.

Nothing great on the short run horizon, and Randy and George will come way too late.[:(]

[Lowpe]

In a few scant days I will be getting the best IJA Tank!!!! All vehicle production will be geared to it.

[Lowpe]

In fact, we are already busy at work (letting the vehicle pools grow)...

[Lowpe]

Sixty more days before these units become operational. Type 4 20cm Rockets!

[BBfanboy]

I had no idea you had any control over the type of vehicle produced. Where do you access that - through the Intel Report Troops/Industry screen?

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

I had no idea you had any control over the type of vehicle produced. Where do you access that - through the Intel Report Troops/Industry screen?

You don't, aside from setting some things to stockpile and setting units to upgrade (or not) and take replacements (or not). So long as the device is still Available, then presumably you could set units to continue taking replacements of older devices instead of upgrading them to use new ones, and the production system will automatically create those devices when the unit takes replacements. I assume, but have not tested this, that setting devices to Stockpile will prevent them from being taken as replacements, and therefore from being produced.

Basically, he was being facetious.