The Italian Job 2- Gen.Hoepner(J)-vs.-Mc3744

Post descriptions of your brilliant successes and unfortunate demises.

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Gen.Hoepner
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RE: The Italian Job 2- Gen.Hoepner(J)-vs.-Mc3744

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

ORIGINAL: Alikchi

An impressive carrier force! What divisions are in the 17th army? Are they Southern Area Army divs from the beginning of the game or have you been using PPs to take units out of other theatres?

Also, I think that you should drop Nagumo and consider Ozawa, who has a good air combat rating. Nagumo is pretty poor, really. I put him in charge of surface combat forces sometimes.


Thanks Alikchi for the suggestion!

the 17th Army ( which is however under the command of the 2nd Army Group HQ) is composed by the Imperial Guard Division, the 18th and the 16th Division, with the South Seas Detactchemnt and the 56th Bde.
Only the Imperial guard has been actually shifted to the 4th Fleet HQ...but that was not a bold move:-( those PPs could have been really usefull if spent in China...[:@]
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Production drop?!!?!??!

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 10/03/42

Ok, another day of intense bombings in Burma. He's using every single plane he has to bomb my troops, the 4Es are taking care of Port Blair, while the B-17s are resupplying Chungking...

For pure case i checked the industry pool....and OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The HI pool dropped incredibly to 1000 points!!!! Where the hell have i spent those points!??! What's going on?! I didn't change much...just the some HI upgrades few months ago...something like 400 points if i remember well...but...oh...i checked my bases in Japan and found that i have tons of oil but very few resources left...quite strange indeed. I keep my chargo ( oil and resources) checked every 2 turns and they're running regularly since Jannuary 42....Any ideas? I'm getting a bit scared...

He started to recon Thursday Island today. only a malaria decimated NLF there...a bunch of paras can do the trick. Sending a Air HQ to PM from Darwin...it's a risky trip...let's hope...
Planes are resting at Gasmata, while the AV points is being brought up to 250.

CS invasion force is moving up towards Georgetown. Unseen[8D]

In one month we'll advance again towards Chungking.




The usual day in Burma/China
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Magwe , at 31,29


Allied aircraft
P-40E Warhawk x 23


No Allied losses

Runway hits 8

Aircraft Attacking:
20 x P-40E Warhawk bombing at 2000 feet
3 x P-40E Warhawk bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Magwe , at 31,29


Allied aircraft
Catalina I x 2
P-40E Warhawk x 71


No Allied losses

Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 24

Aircraft Attacking:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Mandalay , at 33,29


Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 12
Kittyhawk I x 9
I-153c x 34


Allied aircraft losses
Wirraway: 1 damaged
I-153c: 1 damaged

Airbase hits 2
Runway hits 5

Aircraft Attacking:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Myitkyina , at 36,28


Allied aircraft
P-40E Warhawk x 24


Allied aircraft losses
P-40E Warhawk: 2 damaged

Airbase hits 2
Runway hits 13

Aircraft Attacking:
21 x P-40E Warhawk bombing at 2000 feet
3 x P-40E Warhawk bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Port Blair , at 23,34


Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 4
LB-30 Liberator x 48
B-24D Liberator x 31


No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
94 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 28
Port hits 4
Port supply hits 9

Aircraft Attacking:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 65th Brigade, at 31,30


Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 12
Spitfire Vb x 9
Wellington III x 63
I-16c x 13


No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
133 casualties reported
Guns lost 8

Aircraft Attacking:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 33rd/C Division, at 36,28


Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 29
SB-2c x 43


No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
123 casualties reported
Guns lost 7

Aircraft Attacking:


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RE: Production drop?!!?!??!

Post by jwilkerson »

For pure case i checked the industry pool....and OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The HI pool dropped incredibly to 1000 points!!!! Where the hell have i spent those points!??! What's going on?! I didn't change much...just the some HI upgrades few months ago...something like 400 points if i remember well...but...oh...i checked my bases in Japan and found that i have tons of oil but very few resources left...quite strange indeed. I keep my chargo ( oil and resources) checked every 2 turns and they're running regularly since Jannuary 42....Any ideas? I'm getting a bit scared...

I had HI stop on me due to lack of resources in one game ... so I shut down just about everything ... built up the resources again ... and then selectively started turning things back on ...

You may think you had some kind of bug induced disappearance of HI - and I can't help you there - I haven't seen that - but regardless - probably your only option is to try to figure out how to go forward from where you are.

I check the industry screen almost every day to make sure nothing strange is happening ... I check resource, oil, HI, naval, merchant etc. I like all the reserve pools on the industry screen to be at least slightly climbing ... if they are not .. I make adjustments ... my HI reserve on the industry screen is between 250,000 to 550,000 across my 3 PBEM ... oil and resources are generally between 1.2 and 1.6 million in all three games ( in one resources are right around a million and i'm reacting to this - to bring it back up ). If the resource pool gets too low .. I think the AI gets confused and it might move it to the wrong places ... so I always try to have big reserve pools ... I know eventually I won't be able to do that .. but I haven't got to that point yet ... my 3 PBEM are Nov 42, May 43 and Aug 43 respectively ...


So anyway, shut down all HI eaters since you don't even have enough HI reserve to get through one turn ... leave all the HI on and see what happens for a turn or two .. from the screen it looks like you have enough resources and oil ... and if so .. then your HI pool should start to climb back up right away ...

I guess another option is that your game somehow got corrupted ... I supposed anything is possible ... but I haven't seen or heard of anyone else having their HI pool evaporate. Any chance you have a save from a week back ? You could reload that and grab industry screen and show us that ... if it shows 200,000 HI reserve ... then I'd start to think corruption ... if it shows 2,000 HI reserve I'd think you were running too close to the ( bottom ) edge ...

If week back shows 200,000 HI then you may need to try to negotiate returning game back a couple of days prior to HI disappearance ... and then hope that whatever corruption caused it to disappear ( hopefully a file transmission issue ) doesn't repeat. I have certainly seen file transmission errors ... and repeated turns due to that ... fortunately we usually detect them right away .. not as insidious as dropping 200,000 HI and then realizing it a few turns later !!!





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Gen.Hoepner
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SCARED

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

Ok, now i'm scared.
Thanks a lot Jwilkerson!
I'm checking all those nasty numbers right now...
I have only a save of the 30th September...so 4 days ago...and it showed a HI pool of 13500...then the 2nd october it was at 2000 and now at 1000....so it's dropping fast!!!!! In July it was at 136000!!
I checked each Japanese base...we have in the Homeland( Honshu,Shikoku,Kyushu) bases 29,569 res points right now...many more oil ( around 100,000).
If my calculations are correct each day the HI industries eat 9039 resources ( in these 3 main islands we have 9039 HI ) and 9039 oil points. Then the resources are eaten by manpower centers...each mwp points eats 10 res points each turn...so, always speaking of the 3 main jap islands....so...577 menpower points eat every day 5770 resources..... for a grand total of 14809 res each day...

So it shouldn't drop...i mean..i know i'm very close to the edge but it should however work....but probably with the dumb resources movement the system makes some mistakes...i do not know...

However i think i should follow jwilkerson's suggestion. Stop everything for few days and see what's going on.
However seems strange to me....i never had these problems. I gotta admit that i do not check out so often the HI pool, but i check my res and oil cargos every day and i know that i haven't been lazy...[&:]

Let's hope guys, let's hope
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RE: SCARED

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 10/04/42


Today the HI got to 1300....it's clearly not a bug...probably i simply got too overconfident and didn't see the drop of resources in homeland...however i turned off many HI eaters...let's see how and if the pool raises tomorrow.

Nothing happened today.
I'm massing my air groups at Gasmata.

In the screenshot attached you'll see what i have at my disposal as Land based units for the Operation Poison in the Cradle.




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RE: SCARED

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 10/05/42

Ok, HI pool slowly rising. 1800 today. I'll keepmy main industries shut untill it reaches back at least 13000...but i will pay a daily attention to it from now on!

Another quiet day...before the storm.

I bet his next move will be a para drop or a fast transport action against Thurday Island. Quite sure of that. None i can do about it. I'll try to use this precious time given to me to consolidate at Maximum my defences and be ready when the day will come. Cooktown is still at 4 level AF.... few days and it'll be at 5.

At port Blair everything is quiet...wonder what is he waiting for...probably some p-38s.....

I.O. quiet like a winter garden.

Eastern Pacific: calm

China-Burma: nothing new. 7000 APs are resting at Kweyang.

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RE: SCARED

Post by DuckofTindalos »

The longer the quiet, the bigger the KA-BOOM once it finally happens.
We are all dreams of the Giant Space Butterfly.
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RE: SCARED

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

Yeah terminus, you're right....and seems that MC is awaking up!

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 10/06/42


Today at Gili Gili a big sub commando tried to unload...only to be polverized by my mines[:D]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TF 1030 encounters mine field at Milne Bay (57,96)

Allied Ships
SS S-18, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage


Allied ground losses:
8 casualties reported

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TF 1030 encounters mine field at Milne Bay (57,96)

TF 1030 troops unloading over beach at Milne Bay, 57,96


Allied Ships
SS S-23, Mine hits 1, on fire


Allied ground losses:
8 casualties reported

Coastal Guns at Milne Bay, 57,96, firing at TF 1030


However message is pretty clear: he's sniffing the terrain...like a hunter....he wants to know what are my defences...
I'm ready...almost....
Now the only thing i miss is the Air HQ at PM...it's comming from Darwin loaded up on 7 different AKs....let's hope to get there safe and in time!

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RE: SCARED

Post by jwilkerson »

After my game where HI stopped I made rule HI reserve must be above 100,000 preferably much higher .. this gives plenty of time to react if the reserve starts dropping. You should be able to run with 13,000 reserve but time to react and be able to shut down selectively what you want while you fix will not be there - so larger more involuntary shut downs may be required. I've only had that happen once - but I wasn't watching closely enough when it did happen - now I watch more closely - keeping you eye on it - and reacting quickly will probably prevent a recurrence. ALso making steady state be where HI is slight climbing is a good policy ( all important reserves should be slightly climbing in steady state ).

Landing commando's off Pig ("S") boats ? That's quite a stretch !

Your air farce looks about as good as it could look ...
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RE: SCARED

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

After my game where HI stopped I made rule HI reserve must be above 100,000 preferably much higher .. this gives plenty of time to react if the reserve starts dropping. You should be able to run with 13,000 reserve but time to react and be able to shut down selectively what you want while you fix will not be there - so larger more involuntary shut downs may be required. I've only had that happen once - but I wasn't watching closely enough when it did happen - now I watch more closely - keeping you eye on it - and reacting quickly will probably prevent a recurrence. ALso making steady state be where HI is slight climbing is a good policy ( all important reserves should be slightly climbing in steady state ).

Landing commando's off Pig ("S") boats ? That's quite a stretch !

Your air farce looks about as good as it could look ...


Let's hope. Now i stopped naval and merch yards,Armamentes and Vehicles...do not wanna stop engines and planes....



I noticed something quite strange.
The Emily Chutai ( 9 pilots, 83 avg exp) plying at 100% naval search got a fatigue level of 60!!!!![X(][X(][X(][X(][X(]
All the other 5 chutais based at Gasmata,Rabaul,Munda,Buin and Shortland flew for ages at 100% and they never passed the 10 fatigue level....my guess is that from Pm the Emilies fly on the Oz eastern coast, probably full of fighters and they got stressed trying to get away safe and sound.....
This game is just awesome
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RE: SCARED

Post by jwilkerson »

I noticed something quite strange.
The Emily Chutai ( 9 pilots, 83 avg exp) plying at 100% naval search got a fatigue level of 60!!!!!

Could be - if all other factors are the same - but what about leader and altitude ?
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RE: SCARED

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson
I noticed something quite strange.
The Emily Chutai ( 9 pilots, 83 avg exp) plying at 100% naval search got a fatigue level of 60!!!!!

Could be - if all other factors are the same - but what about leader and altitude ?


The leader is a fantastic one. 72 and 90.... Altitude is always the same....6k ft.
So nothing special. I have to let this chutai rest every another day because i do not want to risk not to have them at full fit when the important day will come....
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Poison in the Cradle

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

10/07/1942

While my CS operation is ready to go, just waiting for his landing at port Blair, at Truk everything is being getting ready for the great Storm. All commanders have been ordered to assemble and move towards Rabaul.
The Carrier force that tomorrow morning will move towards New Britain is composed of 4 carrier divisions under the command of Yamaguchi, Nagumo, Abe and Yamada. Each Division will be composed of 15 ships. 702 planes between Zeros,Vals and Kates, plus something like 100 float planes ( mostly Alfs for naval search role). Each division will have 1 BB plus 3 CAs and some DDs for the AA role. 5 BBs,5 CAs,5 CLs and some 30 DDs will form two strong Surface Combat TFs that will escort the Kido Butai. A replenish TF with 120,000 fuel is already moving from Truk towards Rabaul.
As soon as i understand where he wants to land i'll start loading the divisions at Truk.

He's sending tons of subs from Oz to NG...probably minelayers or sub commandos to check my strenght.

He's doing the same in Japan...tons of minelayer subs are messing up my ports...it's a pain!

However, i feel rather confident. From Cooktown he cannot use his p-38s...PM is just too far from there, while from Gasmata my zeros can cover a large portion of the seas approaching NG from Oz. With the carriers at Rabaul i will be able to answer fast to any move he makes.
6 ARs are coming from Truk to Rabaul....hope they won't become usefull....


I hope..i really hope he will come to Gili Gili and not to PM...





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RE: Poison in the Cradle

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

About the HI pool.... it's now at 2100....it's not going up as fast as i hoped. Now some 35k of resources are unloading at Sasebo...Let's hope this will boost the process a bit.

Now that almost every IJAF fighter group has been upgraded ( except for 2 sentais that are still in their 60s so still training using nates and oscars), the pools of Tony and Tojos are rising quite well. I already have 180 Tonies and 140 Tojos in bank.
Looking forward for the Jacks....oh, well...not really, cause by the time the jacks will be available the corsairs will be already raping everything[:-]

waiting for MC to send me the right turn[:)]
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RE: Poison in the Cradle

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 10/08/42

Another turn of boredom. Cooktown still AF level 4. He's probably filling his groups with p-38s and waiting for the cooktown upgrade.

His subs near NG are moving towards Gili Gili. Let's see if he likes my mines[:D]. SS-I18 sunk today after the mine hit 3 days ago[8D]

Organizing a Sub-Hunting group in the waters in face of Homeland.

CVs moving towards Rabaul.

Waiting for the storm to come.

In the map you can see the aircraft japanese production so far.
I'm quite happy about the choices i've made till now concerning production.





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RE: Poison in the Cradle

Post by jwilkerson »

ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner

About the HI pool.... it's now at 2100....it's not going up as fast as i hoped. Now some 35k of resources are unloading at Sasebo...Let's hope this will boost the process a bit.

Well in the last screen shot where you showed resource and oil you had 1.5 Million resources and 1.4 million oil ... so those should not be the problem ... you may just need to build more HI ... if you increased air production, that could be the reason.

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RE: Poison in the Cradle

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

more HI than 13730? Consider that Vals,Kate and Betty production is stopped since May...so i do not think i need more HI...i do not want to overextend...gotta do some calculations again but i prefer to switch off some industries than expand the HI...

...but i'm a bit confused...how many HI points are needed to produce an aircraft? and an engine?
Is this formula correct?
Heavy industry points = + (1 * Heavy Industry) – (18 + (36 * number of engines) * planes built) – (6 * Vehicle industry) – (6 * Armament Industry) – (3 * Naval Shipyard) – (3 * Merchant shipyard)
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RE: Poison in the Cradle

Post by jwilkerson »

You have exactly the same number of HI that I have - 13728 - ( I'm in Aug 43 in the game I'm looking at ) .. which is interesting, because I have expanded HI some .. so guess you have too .. otherwise keep watching and waiting - your HI reserve is at least going up ! Though I agree - I would expect it to go up faster ... [:(]

As to formulae which can only be definitely addressed by those who can see the code - I do not like to speculate. Hence, instead I manage empirically by watching and changing and watching and changing.

If you've shut down all your ships and armaments ( as you've said ) then I'd just hold on and keep watching the reserve pools, you should be ok as you stand - and unless your resources are dropping fast, you should have enough of them also. You should be able to turn back on most of your HI eaters, but I'd gain at least a few days reserve first, and then turn back on gradually.

How are supply totals at the Japanese Home Is. ports - are you very short ( under 50,000 at all ports ) or are you "rich" ( 100,000 or more at many ports ) ?? This can also indicate if your HI are producing - if they are producing you should have lots of supply - unless of course you're pulling it out as fast as it is made. I like to leave a lot of extra supply in Japan, again just to make sure the AI doesn't get confused.

I manage resources and oil, in part by looking at the "Base" screen and sorting by first resources and then oil. Any base that is approaching 30,000 of either is a definite "go pick up" candidate. Some bases can only store up to 30,000 hence if they hit that number new resources/oil are just disappearing. Hence you pretty much want to clear any port that is approaching 30,000 of either. Then take back and unload somewhere in Japan, Sasebo, Hiroshima, Osaka are ports I use .. I don't use the same one all the time for 2 reasons, one I want to vary my convoy patterns and two if the port fills up to 1 million points I'm afraid I would lose anything else I unload .. and I've hit 1,000,000 in these ports, that is one driver to change port of debarcation.

So if you're "clearing your ports" back to Japan for both oil and resources, then I'd say you're in good shape ...

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RE: Poison in the Cradle

Post by Gen.Hoepner »

You're tellin' me that at 9,999,999 oil at one port the next cargo will be lost??!!?!?!?!?!?!?

OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

ok, let's calm down.

I'm following your suggestion. Nxt cargos will move to Tokyo!
The HI pool is slowly rising up...now at 8500...so i'll wait few more weeks before switching on again those HI eaters. Only the Aircraft industries will keep on going.



AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 10/09/42

The usual boring day. Only bombings in China and Burma....he's so slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww[:D]

3 things are worth to get reported here.

1st: He's mining my ports in Japan. Moving 8 APDs with an AV with 12 float planes to Tokyo. With some 30 land based float Planes and 27 Sallies with 90 exp they will form the Japanese ASW task force. MSWs are already on the move to clean my harbours.

2nd: the HUNGE group of subs moving from Oz weren't directed towards Gili Gili but Bouganville. Lets' see if for minelayin' or sub commandos. Moved to Buin and Shortland 50 planes for ASW role. MSWs are ready at Rabaul to clean back the ports.

3rd: I was almost going to order to my CS invasion force to get back to Singapore when i noticed a 5 Ship TF moving from Colombo. I doubt it's the invasion force for Port Blair, but however every single Nells has been allerted and the CVEs are ready along with the CS force. If he dares to come in i have the right medicine for him[:D]



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RE: Poison in the Cradle

Post by jwilkerson »

ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner

You're tellin' me that at 9,999,999 oil at one port the next cargo will be lost??!!?!?!?!?!?!?


Nah - I'm not saying for sure - because I've never tried it - but - I didn't wanna try it and find out in a real game - and I'm not gonna bother to test it otherwise - so I call it "just being careful" !!!

If I get up around 800k at a port .. then I switch ports !


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