The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Canoerebel]

CVL Nisshin confirmed sunk today. That brings the number confirmed sunk thus far to 11: eight CVE, two CV (Kaga and Zuikaku) and one CVL. I'm anticipating three more CVL as almost certain casualties. There's a possibility that one or two other CVs went under.

[CaptBeefheart]

I like bringing overwhelming force to my atoll attacks. The key is to have enough supply in LSTs to make up for the overstacking supply drain.

Cheers,
CC

[Canoerebel]

With this email comment, John couldn't help himself playing spoiler for the movie: "Might need some more please..."

[Canoerebel]

For about the 20th time in 10 years, I've appealed to John's sense of fairness in not playing the spoiler. He usually gets irritated when I make this request but complies for awhile. So I sent tihs: "Don't forget - don't hint at the events or outcome of a turn in your emails. 100% of the time, you get to watch the "movie" unspoiled. Occasionally - like two out of the last three turns and two other turns within the past month - you've commented on things that happened, thus playing the spoiler..."

He'll be pissed, I bet.

[BillBrown]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

For about the 20th time in 10 years, I've appealed to John's sense of fairness in not playing the spoiler. He usually gets irritated when I make this request but complies for awhile. So I sent tihs: "Don't forget - don't hint at the events or outcome of a turn in your emails. 100% of the time, you get to watch the "movie" unspoiled. Occasionally - like two out of the last three turns and two other turns within the past month - you've commented on things that happened, thus playing the spoiler..."

He'll be pissed, I bet.

I 100% agree with you. It can really spoil the game if your opponent makes comments on the current turn.
I always tell my opponents that I will freely( up to a point ) discuss previous turns, but please let me
enjoy my replay.

[Canoerebel]

10/2/43

Flying Trapeze: Another BB bombardment today followed by Japanese artillery bombardment. This shows that the Japanese have a raw AV of zero. But I know that the six forts would elevate that considerably. The Canadian brigade is recovering nicely and will be able to deliberate attack in a few days. But I'll await the return of some of the combat TFs from their replenishment runs to Midway.
There is a chance that the 115-AV Canadians can handle the defenders if badly disrupted. But I'm not particularly optimistic. So I am casting a net for reinforcements: a combat engineer unit at Tarawa (56 prep), a Sherman tank unit at Pearl (37 prep) and an infantry battalion at San Fran (100% prepped). I'll have a better feel for how this will go after the next round of bombardments and the Canadian attack in four or five days.

No encounters with subs or ships or aircraft today. There is danger involved in remaining in one place too long, but there is danger in leaving Wake unguarded so that John can send in reinforcements. I'm not sure yet how I'll balance these competing needs.

CVE Sangamon is showing the same damage level.

CV Victorious is two days from San Fran, where she'll withdraw. Damaged BB Massachusetts will reach Alameda tomorrow. I'm expecting her to need three months or longer in the yards. But the damaged ships at Pearl - including Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, Enterprise, Hornet, Princeton and South Dakota - will all be ready in three weeks or less.

Over the past few months, John has stuffed defenders forward, creating real bastions. But these forward positions could be isolated if the Alies succeed in moving behind them in 25-30 days, when Big Tent is scheduled to get underway (depending on what happens at Wake).

[HansBolter]

Put the American RCT in reserve and it will not participate in the attack so you can land the tanks and shock attack with them and the Canadians,

That should do the trick.

[poodlebrain]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Put the American RCT in reserve and it will not participate in the attack so you can land the tanks and shock attack with them and the Canadians,

That should do the trick.

He might want to wait until he can land the combat engineers he referenced in a prior post that were 53% prepped for Wake, in order to better deal with the fortifications. That would require some additional shipping, but the shipping could be used to withdraw some superfluous infantry to reduce any overstacking issues.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: poodlebrain

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Put the American RCT in reserve and it will not participate in the attack so you can land the tanks and shock attack with them and the Canadians,

That should do the trick.

He might want to wait until he can land the combat engineers he referenced in a prior post that were 53% prepped for Wake, in order to better deal with the fortifications. That would require some additional shipping, but the shipping could be used to withdraw some superfluous infantry to reduce any overstacking issues.

Agreed. The subsequent delay would allow for more recovery of the Canadians.

I was just pointing out a method for leaving the shattered unit out of combat instead of having to wait an inordinate amount of time for its recovery.

I always include both a tank battalion and a combat engineer battalion in any atoll assaults.

[Canoerebel]

Man, what a helpful tip. That's a tactic I would have never come up with on my own. Thanks.

Here's what I'm going to do at Wake. The Canadians should be ready to attack in no more than three turns. About then, I'll have two BB TFs and a large CA TF ready to bombard. I'm going to set the Canadians to deliberate attack on the turn of the bombardments. I'll also try to get the dive bombers to participate.

If that doesn't achieve some success, by then TFs carrying the combat engineers and the tanks should be drawing fairly close. In that case I'll use your tip, Hans.

The six forts are going to be the problem, but I do think the repeated big bombardments might make this possible within a time frame that won't become problematic.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel



I've never expanded an aircraft squadron before. Never. Not because I can't or there's a house rule. It's because I've never tried before. I'll look for the buttons and see if I can figure it out (ought to be simple). Great suggestion.

Yes, training TBF pilots is a huge problem.

Pretty easy, just remove one of the two groups that you have on your CVEs or CVLs and then set the other to "expand to fit ship size" or you can manually select the size of the group. All naval carrier groups can do this and some but not all Marine.. You can even put a single group on a large carrier and expand it up to 90 planes but neither Viberpol and I do this. It does sort of become gamey at a point.

It doesn't happen instantly - the change in size you set for the squadron is just an authorization. It takes a day or two after that for the planes to arrive. You also need to be in a big enough port (or is it airfield?) with enough supply, and have the planes in your pools.

If you meet the criteria, port and supply, it happens the day after you set the order.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy


I don't understand this. "Resizing" is just changing the TOE of the squadron to a new size, and whenever I have done it, it takes one turn for the message "Squadron XXX resizes to size YYY". That does not give them planes, it just updates the database on the squadron size. You still need to get planes into the squadron (and add pilots) to fill it out.

I have only done this with the squadron on board. Are you saying that offloading the squadron to the base will instantly update the database AND fill out the squadron without touching the pools?

No, You are correct. The squadron expands the next turn but you still have to do the leg work and fill out the pilots and aircraft.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel


Over the past few months, John has stuffed defenders forward, creating real bastions. But these forward positions could be isolated if the Alies succeed in moving behind them in 25-30 days, when Big Tent is scheduled to get underway (depending on what happens at Wake).

The simulation is about sea power just as the real deal was. One more major fight-even trading ships should serve to seal up your dominance in that sector. My experience is that once the Allies control the sea they can fight when and where they want and no forward Japanese base can be defended. Does not matter if he has 100 divisions if he cant move them or supply then Any number of them can be defeated-or bypassed.

Frankly, I find it is just easier to isolate and bypass most strong defenses. However, as you mentioned I do like to have some protracted land campaigns going. It eats up Japanese resources and even more important. builds up experience for Allied units. As it is, seizing atolls and island hopping does nothing for experience and I like to see my Allied units pushing 70 exp by mid 44. One reason why I like to fight in SE Asia and Burma.

[Bearcat2]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy


I don't understand this. "Resizing" is just changing the TOE of the squadron to a new size, and whenever I have done it, it takes one turn for the message "Squadron XXX resizes to size YYY". That does not give them planes, it just updates the database on the squadron size. You still need to get planes into the squadron (and add pilots) to fill it out.

I have only done this with the squadron on board. Are you saying that offloading the squadron to the base will instantly update the database AND fill out the squadron without touching the pools?

No, You are correct. The squadron expands the next turn but you still have to do the leg work and fill out the pilots and aircraft.

You do not have to wait a turn if you resize a SQ on a CV in port and then disband the CV, resizing is immediate; put the CV in a TF and you have a resized SQ without waiting a day.

[crsutton]

Nice tip.

[Canoerebel]

Disregard.

[witpqs]

OK!

[Lokasenna]

Damn, I'm pretty sure I actually read it before he deleted it.

[JeffroK]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Damn, I'm pretty sure I actually read it before he deleted it.

I read your email and disregarded it before i read CR's email to disregard it!

Sad puppies aren't we!

[JohnDillworth]

TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS JOHNIII RR THE WORLD WONDERS