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You may want to reduce some of the training sqns into bigger units they are a real PITA to work with as I have found in my game
 
There are a lot of max capacity 10 training sqns on map I am deleting as many as I can and amalgamatting them into 40 - 60 plane units to minimise management.
 
 

Oh and ps Tokyo needs about 200k more supply at start

Andy,

Yeah I already consolidated all the training squadrons by removing 2/3rds of them and increasing the size of the remaining ones by a factor of 3. So, the same number of pilot training slots are available to Japan BUT there are 2/3rds fewer units to click through.

As for the supplies. I spread 300,000 additional tons around Japan, 50,000 here, 100,000 there etc.


I now have Tokas, Stellas upgrading to Ki-115s and the Ki-264 series available to both IJAAF and IJNAF.



Going to run through and boost the Allies a bit now, 25% more bombers and a few more naval fighters. Also, since I expect to sink a few CVs I'll be adding a dozen more CVs for the Allies ( the Essex class or whatever the big end of war one was ). 6 in March 46 and 6 more in July 46. I'll also be extending the end date to 31st December 1946 to give PH a bit more time to manoeuvre and attrit in order to reduce his potential casualties.

ORIGINAL: Nemo121
Also, since I expect to sink a few CVs I'll be adding a dozen more CVs for the Allies

That sounds rather omnious, doesnt it. I think its the first time Ive heard a Japanese player wanting to add more USN CVs [:D]

Well, I want to be fair and I do expect to render useless many USN CVs - some by sinking some by strategic manoeuvrings - and so you may need the additional 12.... Or they may just overwhelm me if I miscalculate. Either is fine as it just adds to the challenge. f you need more etc I think we can mod the scenario even after it has started...

It is saved as Scenario 70 so that should be possible right guys? I'm expecting to have to mod it a little to correct upgrade paths which will, undoubtedly, get a little messed up somewhere along the line.

ORIGINAL: Nemo121

It is saved as Scenario 70 so that should be possible right guys? I'm expecting to have to mod it a little to correct upgrade paths which will, undoubtedly, get a little messed up somewhere along the line.

Not that is matters too much but the "Reluctant Admiral" mod is using slot 70 as well ... and yes you'll be able to correct upgrade paths,devices&toe etc. Not sure you can delete/add ships on the fly though... should test it.

That sounds rather omnious, doesnt it. I think its the first time Ive heard a Japanese player wanting to add more USN CVs

Nemo thinks of Allied CV's as "Victory Point sources".

Incidentally, the class after the Essex was the Midway class, and the first one was commissioned in early September '45, so using one is fairly realistic. Since they displaced 45,000 tons instead of the 30,000-odd for the Essex types, they could be worth up to half again as many VP's.

Harlock,

GOOD catch. Since I don't want to be unfair to PH I took the opportunity of me forgetting to send him a scenario file ( I sent 10 out of 11 ) to update the scenario in the light of your comments and instead of 12 Essex Long Hulls he now gets 12 Midway class CVBs ( in addition to the Midway ) beginning March 1946 and all arriving by mid-April 1946. They arrive with some 40 F6F5s each ( so, 480 Hellcats in total ) and about 40 Corsairs each ( so 480 Corsairs ) as well as some 30 Avengers each ( an additional 360 Avengers ). So, that's a USN fighter boost of 960 fighters in March/April 46 and brings the USN fighter force up to outnumber the entire fighter force of the IJAAF and IJNAF combined by April 46.


Since VP are meaningless in this game their VP totals don't matter much. On the other hand I do plan to sink most of the class. They're big and tough but by no means invulnerable. Enough bombs and torpedoes in the right places will cause it to catch fire and/or flood just like any other ship. The problem is the BBs. Those will absorb hits meant for the CVBs and increase the survivability of those CVBs immeasurably.

I'll be starting the AAR tonight with some broad bones outlines....

OMG. You just simply think about "sink the whole Midway Class" as easy as "shoot down all the Dutch Air Force"...

Hummmm...perhaps you don't have the idea of making it but, publicy saying this you are trying to condicionate the allied strategy..[grrr...my english is worse than I thought]

Well, by publicly saying it it might be an attempt to influence Allied strategy but, really, they're just 13 CVs. Rationally that's 1000 fighters on CAP and a lot of FlAK but 1000 fighters can be defeated and FlAK can be saturated and if you are willing to pay the price you can get enough hits that even a 45,000 ton CVB will go down. It is just a matter of logistics. If I am willing to expend enough planes I CAN sink 1 Midway class. If I am willing to expend 13 times that number I can sink all 13.

Add in a bit of operational and tactical art and I can reduce the numbers required per CV. Overall though if it takes a 500 plane attack to sink a single Midway and that attack costs 300 planes then if I am willing to expend 3,900 planes I can sink all 13. The question is is that a trade-off worth making.


Remember, there's nothing mystical about any ship. Pay the price and you can sink it. Sinking 13 of them is just a matter of paying the price 13 times in a row.

Quick question: I'm doing the first turn now....

I have a couple of kamikaze units already and I have the option to send them to training... I would like them to train to be better at hitting ships obviously but amn't sure which setting would best cause this.

I have the option of choosing either:

Training as primary mission and naval attack as the secondary OR

Kamikaze as primary mission, setting training to 100% and then selecting naval attack.

Any ideaS?

Im doing the turn now...so far Ive given orders to roughly 1/3rd of the USN submarines...took me 2 hours. Expect the first turn sometime tomorrow...

I expect both two AARs !!! [:D][:D]

LOL!!! I'm not surprised, you have something like 290 subs on-map at start. Just for a laugh I check my ASW plane allocation and you have more subs than I have dedicated ASW planes. Ah well, each plane will just have to kill more than 1 sub [8D]

Nemo,
any chance of getting a look at the mod ? Can you upload it to your google page or email please ?

Thanks in advance

Well Mike was busy with work for a while so we've only completed 4 or 5 turns. We should be back to our normal schedule now though....

Nothing much has happened. I raided Southern Borneo with the BC Repulse and some escorts and sank a SC and an xAK. I knew there wasn't much there but I wanted some activity to make the lull not quite so obvious..

Loading is going slower than I'd like but I have 160,000 men loaded on amphibious and transport TFs now. I have another 100,000 to load before I'll be happy with the weight of the force though. It looks Like I'll be projecting some 250,000 men into Malaysia when I go ashore.

Apart from that it is quiet, too quite, so I'm going to send a CA force in to read his ASW efforts around Truk and try to make a little noise around Mindanao...

Really though the main news is 250,000 men, about 2000 vehicles and some 150,000 tons of supplies unloading into Malaysia in about 2 weeks time. Until then time will just drag....

Well, all the armoured units are now loaded. All that's left to load are 2 Indian Divisions, 3 Independent Brigades and a whole load of support units which I won't be waiting around for. I'll have to own the port to unload them so they can arrive a couple of days late without worries.

So, another 3 days of loading and then everything I need for the initial amphibious invasion will be on the way.


My CA-led TF is going to start sneaking into the waters around Truk with a view to killing Mike's ASW DD TF which he has been having circle Truk depth charging my subs for the past few days.


Apart from that it is all pretty quiet. The first P43s go into action over China today so hopefully they'll kill a few more of the Nates that are still the mainstay of Japanese airpower there.

The first P43s go into action over China today

P-43 Lancers?? Are you sure you don't mean something else?

Nope, P-43s it is... The Chinese Air Force gets some in earli 1942 - which is where we are in this game.

Over the last two days we've had a bit more activity again.

The BC Repulse made its raid on Southern Borneo and a CA TF raided Truk ( to no effect ) while a strong CL TF ( 2 modern USN CLs and about 6 DDs ) raided Singers but missed the IJN transport TF there.... All of this activity appears to have stung the Japanese into action.

1. 70+ fighters and 40 Bettys went in to attack the airfield at Ponape. I think he must have thought I was LRCAPing the CA TF. Instead if had 150 fighters at Ponape and they managed to blunt, although not completely annihilate, the raids. I lose about 5 or 6 fighters ( mostly P-400s and P-39s ) but shot down at least 14 bombers and 10 fighters.

2. Djambi: Over 150 Japanese fighters have swept Djambi today... I only had leaking CAP defending it so the sweeps cleared the CAP and bombers got through. That's fine though, I don't care much about Djambi being closed.

3. Palembang: Over 100 Japanese fighters escorted 40+ Nells into the attack. For some reason despite having 100+ fighters there very few flew so only about 20 Japanese planes were downed in return for 3 or 4 Allied planes. Fortunately the CLs which were refuelling there after coming down from Rangoon and doing a driveby of Singers weren't hit.

4. ASW efforts: My Harbour Defence Motor Launches managed to hit a submarine with a depth charge in Palembang port itself while the CL TF which tried a night-time SC interception at Singapore instead found itself a submarine and took a chunk out of it.

5. KB... KB is off the coast of Malaysia. CAP from KB "leaked" to cover a transport TF returning from Singers when my Catalinas attacked it.



More and more troops are loaded and on board ship to the assembly point south of Sri Lanka. I have another 2.5 divisions to load and then everything will be ready.


In the meantime I want to draw KB into action if at all possible so I'm going to put a 200 fighter CAP over Palembang and keep the CL TF there. I might be able to entice surface raiders and KB in.



In other news night-time raids by my first Wellington squadron have destroyed something like 8 planes on the ground at Singers over the past 2 nights. Tomorrow night the B-17s add their weight to this particular offensive. That should bag me considerably more Japanese planes destroyed on the ground.


In terms of propaganda etc... I am ostentatiously buying into the idea that the sweeps and KB being off Malaysia presage an invasion of Sumatra. Reminding Mike that his heavy surface combat units can't make it upriver to Palembang and that he'll have to clear the CLs if he wants to land there ( both buying in to an invasion and also making him think that to push his maskirovka he should continue attacks on the CL TF - which is what I want in service of my own strategic goals... games within games within games ) etc. He's downplaying KB and I'm talking about Kaga and Akagi's squadrons --- and how effective they were thus how he must have retrained them etc... Again speaking to my "fear" of their combat potential if directed at Northern Sumatra.

Really all I want to do is kill as many of his planes over my airfields as possible so my pilots survive vs killing them when my pilots are in the LRCAP role over some base on Western Malaysia.