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

[Lokasenna]

I am making so few Helens because the Sally is pretty much as good as the Helen - same bomb load, similar range. The Helen's main advantage is armor, and you don't need that if you're not facing flak or fighters (China and other backwaters). 90 per month is actually way more than I will use, long term. I will shut off 30 of them at some point I'm sure. I've lost 24 Helens over the course of 4 months. Even if I were to replace every Sally Ic and Sally IIa with Helens, it would only take me 6 months to build all of those planes (504 plus losses). And that includes the restricted Sally units. And then the Sally airframes can be used on the Lily units, the Ann units, etc.

Depending on upgrade path, I may upgrade the Anns directly to Helens.

Also note the sheer number of Sallys that I have. I lost about 300, have almost 100 in pools, and have 500 in the field. I made a lot of Sallys while I waited for the Helen. I think my production for them was 21/month for the Sally Ic and maybe 40/month for the IIa.

[Lowpe]

Well, Spidery put up his LB production/usage too, Fascinating.

tm.asp?m=3454012&mpage=24

I am definitely winning the Helen IIa production with a whopping 161 and really could use more of them! I have five sentai and five chutai upgraded to them and they are all seeing heavy work in China, the Kuriles, and Ambon.

I am not sure that is something I should be proud about.[:)]

[Lowpe]

A rough count, my level bomber units are short by over 200 planes. Other than bombing where there can be no Allied fighters, they pretty much train or do ASW or train and do ASW. [:)]

[Lowpe]

Nov 9, 1942

Quiet day. Allied 4e hit burma, at the ground troops again and kill a support squad.

Allies seem to have pulled their ships back and are content to fight in the air. I pretty much try to avoid fighting in the air.

Allied subs pretty active in the PI and Kuriles area, but no damage done.

1st Deliberate attack at Batavia for tomorrow.

I am starting to garrison the inner islands to prevent a slashing attack ala Nemo: Iwo Jima, Guam and improving the troops on Wake and Marcus.

[Lowpe]

Here you can see my absolutely devastated bomber ranks...pretty horrible eh? I am now building quite a few Helens, but it will be another full month or more before things finally improve here.

Next month the Lilly IIb will come on line with a production level of 60, so this should be totally turned around in two full months.

On the positive side, I do have half decent pilots and am training up even more.

However, they are having no real impact on the Allies other than ASW, and bombing one hex of Chinese troops.

I would like to blame all this on the other Emperor, but unfortunately I have flown into several good CAP traps. Not having fighters really kind of stinks.[:)] On the brighter side, I am saving a lot of supplies by having such a small air force.

[Lowpe]

Tiemanj might show up in the AAR, I have given him permission to access the first page. So it is ok if you see him here.

He will be starting an AAR, as he wants to improve his game.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I am starting to garrison the inner islands to prevent a slashing attack ala Nemo: Iwo Jima, Guam and improving the troops on Wake and Marcus.

Transfer the Bonin chain from Southern Army to General Defence Army. There are two Infantry Groups in the Home Islands that you can then fly out to the Bonins, artillery and all.

Better still, some time in late 1943 they get reinforcements to make them full divisions - just in time for when you're likely to be threatened by an Allied dagger into the Bonin.

[Lowpe]

Here is my wonderful, interlocking, mutually supportive defense of the Bonins and Marianas. Procrastination, apathy, and lack of strategic planning at its best.[:D]

I am shipping here now at least one garrison unit, and 7 construction or engineering units for construction to begin.

Given Allied ship losses, I can't foresee that they will launch another offensive, but I am surely wrong given the tenor of this game so far. I suspect he will use his carriers to fly planes into some land based airport and then retreat with the carriers like he has done in Java.

I am attacking in Batavia and its nasty terrain today, and the result of that battle will determine what I do with my PP saved up. Either I will buy a slug of ART for Rangoon or keep saving for a Division.

[Lowpe]

Nov 1, 1942

Allied Heavy Bombers hit Magwe, the refineries are nearly gone, but the oil production still mostly remains. 9 big gun AA units manages to disrupt the attacks and cause some casualties.

The Allies left Magwe alone, when I had 200 fighters there, until they cottoned on the idea of sending in night bomber sweeps. They did this for an entire moon cycle and I lost probably more than 40 fighters to no losses for the Allies other than the occasional op loss. After this degradation of the fighters, I also had to move a Sentai away to protect Soerabaja. Then the Allies, in one day launched a large day time assault that shredded the weakened defenders.

The Allies then hit the neighboring air bases to prevent surprise before revisiting Magwe for destruction.

This strategy seems to me impossible to defend against, at least until I get night fighters and even then not until I get the radar equipped versions.

If I don't fly at night, the industry will burn. However, the steady loss of planes at night eventually weakens the daytime defense. If I do fly at night, I suffer the steady loss of fighters until the Allies can overwhelm the base in a large daytime raid. No real good answer here, especially with my depleted air force.

First deliberate attack at Batavia goes very well dropping forts and getting a 1-1. Will rest for a day, and attack the following day. ART bombardments will keep up.

P38G sweep at 31K shows up at Rabaul and nails the Oscars there.

Another attack in China causes over 100 Chinese squads destroyed...slow steady progress with no losses.

[Lowpe]

Tracom pilot usage:

I am trying to stuff every army pilot I can into Tracom now. One, for the training boost and HI savings, and two to save them.

I don't know how well it will work, but every Army Tracom pilots is going to go into night fighter squadrons, especially the planes with radar and armor.

This is part of my supply preservation goal for the endgame.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing
Transfer the Bonin chain from Southern Army to General Defence Army. There are two Infantry Groups in the Home Islands that you can then fly out to the Bonins, artillery and all.

Haha-Jima is General Defense. I can't switch Iwo out, and Chichi-jima can only go to the Southern command.

Is there a trick to opening up the command structure?

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing
Transfer the Bonin chain from Southern Army to General Defence Army. There are two Infantry Groups in the Home Islands that you can then fly out to the Bonins, artillery and all.

Haha-Jima is General Defense. I can't switch Iwo out, and Chichi-jima can only go to the Southern command.

Is there a trick to opening up the command structure?

Yes, put a cheap unit in the base (e.g, an AA unit), switch unit to General Defense, then you can switch the base to General Defense.

[Lowpe]

Many thanks.

[mind_messing]

There are two infantry groups, I've sent one to Chichi-jima and the other one is going to Haha-jima. You need to get some engineers to Iwo Jima, however, as you can't fly troops in until that base has a level 1 airfield.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

There are two infantry groups, I've sent one to Chichi-jima and the other one is going to Haha-jima. You need to get some engineers to Iwo Jima, however, as you can't fly troops in until that base has a level 1 airfield.

Taken care of, thanks for the tip.[:)]

[Lowpe]

Looky...two CVEs off Karachi. Who knows if that is accurate, probably not. Perhaps he is trying to get some ASW there? He has to be tired of losing tankers in that area.

Today, I switched over a factory to r&d for the Nick d version night fighter. It is the first Army night fighter. I am convinced I need to staff as many night fighter squadrons as possible to avoid Obvert's fate in the endgame (no supplies). Tiemanj is already using night bomber raids to cause all sorts of losses, and I need to counter strongly as soon as I am able to.

Even though the Nick isn't a great plane, it does come earliest for the Army, and at least has armor.

I have three size 30 factories going after the first Irving.

The goal here is to keep the industry running for as long as possible in 45 creating supplies.

[Lowpe]

Events to look forward to:

1. I have two surface raiding groups of heavy cruisers out and about looking to hit Allied transports.

2. I am one day away from another raid on Makin, smaller in structure than the previous raid, but a couple of juicy targets have shown up.

3. Deliberate attacks in Batavia and the Kuriles soon. Hopefully, they will net me a large score of victory points. I have started to move small units to finish of the encirclement at Tjilatjap fully enclosing that mass of Allied troops.

4. Ship adventures in the Kuriles is slowing because of the brutal winter, but I still visit his base with a bombardment a day.

5. China: closing off the Changsha pocket and snaring 40 Chinese units.

6. Thinking about attacking Ceylon, especially if I can grab a port for free. This would be one to two months away, once Java is neutralized. However, I am starting to quietly recon the area. This would be a combined KB & mini KB action with overwhelming force. I would take the island, strip it of supplies and fuel, and leave.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

There are two infantry groups, I've sent one to Chichi-jima and the other one is going to Haha-jima. You need to get some engineers to Iwo Jima, however, as you can't fly troops in until that base has a level 1 airfield.

Taken care of, thanks for the tip.[:)]

Unless you use Mavis for it.

[Lowpe]

Just a quick note re plane upgrades. I have been relying upon Tracker to show me the units that can upgrade to the desired plane, and have been disappointed by the lack of Judy upgrades.

It seems however that I am doing something wrong with tracker, because I can convert all or almost all Babs units into the Judy. My second squadron upgraded yesterday and will be relocating to the mini kb.

My first use of this carrier capable plane and I am very happy with her performance in the Kuriles, flying in tough weather without a loss and always able to spot the enemy. I guess since the enemy was burning and emitting huge columns of oily black smoke made the Judy's job fairly straight forward.![:D]

So two thumbs up for the Judy-C, a plane I never bothered with against the AI.

PS: Jeesh! I have to be careful now not to accidentally enter the wrong AAR!

[Lowpe]

Nov 11, 1942

Hey, they can be shot down!