The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: venividivici10044a

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

It's Georgia Backroads, but we get phone calls for Georgia Backwoods, Georgia Blackwoods, Georgia Blackroads, and just about every other iteration that you can imagine. Our demographic is elderly too. Ninety percent of callers say they wish to order a "prescription."

How about changing it to Georgia Peach I guarantee you'd get all sorts of baseball aficionados calling at that point. Certainly OT, but I'm happy to see the last 2 bios on him are relying less on Al Stump. They have definitely built up from the older Alexander standard.

I think Georgia on my Mind would be better..

Nice title, but I am sure there would be royalties to be paid for using it!

[Canoerebel]

The magazine was founded in 1984 as North Georgia Journal magazine, a good name with a big following. Around 2001, the owner decided to make the magazine statewide. He considered many new names and had selected Georgia Geographic. At the time, I was merely an occasional freelance writer, but I felt strongly enough about it to urge him not to choose that name. I just didn't like it. So he went with his second choice, Georgia Backroads, which I think works well.

[Canoerebel]

4/22/44

Fun House: A good and productive day as the Allies work to advance and solidify their grip on Sulu Sea bases bordering the South China Sea. See map for details.

I don't think John will allow this to continue. His emails have been particularly interesting of late - more for what he doesn't say than what he says. He seems to be particularly irritated or troubled, either by the game situation or perhaps some aspect of the game that isn't sitting well with him. He hasn't said anything, but he hasn't been his usual self the past few days. It could be purely my imagination, though, so I'll just monitor for now.

I think he's going to bring in his BBs from the Bay of Bengal and KB from CenPac. I think he'll try to work a combined attack with kamikazes and LBA. At this point I don't think he has much of a choice.

[Lokasenna]

Did the BB TF refuel at all? To my knowledge, infantry units leaving hexes don't affect bombardment orders.

[Canoerebel]

It was set to "Do Not Refuel," had plenty of ammo, and had expended no ops points. It was set to go. Very strange, but I think I've encountered this before. This turn, I set it to bombard a different hex before re-setting it to bombard Atimonan - just to see if that shakes it free of its lethargy.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

It was set to "Do Not Refuel," had plenty of ammo, and had expended no ops points. It was set to go. Very strange, but I think I've encountered this before. This turn, I set it to bombard a different hex before re-setting it to bombard Atimonan - just to see if that shakes it free of its lethargy.

What about threat/routing settings?

The only times my bombardments don't go in, it's because they think they can't get there in the night phase.

Also, what beta are you running? There was a slight bug before one of the ones from last summer...

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

It was set to "Do Not Refuel," had plenty of ammo, and had expended no ops points. It was set to go. Very strange, but I think I've encountered this before. This turn, I set it to bombard a different hex before re-setting it to bombard Atimonan - just to see if that shakes it free of its lethargy.

Some other possibilities:

1. The DL on the base dropped too low for adequate targeting. I started having FPs do night recon of the target before the TF arrives in the target hex, and another FP set to spot for the bombardment. It definitely reduced the incidence of frozen bombardment TFs.
2. Weather
3. Mines or other threats, with the TF set to normal routing rather than absolute

[palioboy2]

How exactly does one set a FP to spot for the bombardment?

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: palioboy2

How exactly does one set a FP to spot for the bombardment?

Set to recon mission. You typically want them set to night time, as almost all bombardments go in at night. Despite the message in the combat report saying it's just spotting for 1 ship, it spots for all after the message shows up.

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

It was set to "Do Not Refuel," had plenty of ammo, and had expended no ops points. It was set to go. Very strange, but I think I've encountered this before. This turn, I set it to bombard a different hex before re-setting it to bombard Atimonan - just to see if that shakes it free of its lethargy.

Some other possibilities:

1. The DL on the base dropped too low for adequate targeting. I started having FPs do night recon of the target before the TF arrives in the target hex, and another FP set to spot for the bombardment. It definitely reduced the incidence of frozen bombardment TFs.
2. Weather
3. Mines or other threats, with the TF set to normal routing rather than absolute

I don't think any of these things would prevent the bombardment from going in. Poor DL would just mean poor results, weather doesn't affect ship movement as far as I know, and the TF would just run into mines.

[JohnDillworth]

He seems to be particularly irritated or troubled, either by the game situation or perhaps some aspect of the game that isn't sitting well with him.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: palioboy2

How exactly does one set a FP to spot for the bombardment?

Set a float plane squadron from a ship in the TF, any ship will do, to recon the targeted base. Set it for daytime recon for a daytime bombardment and night recon for a night bombardment.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: palioboy2

How exactly does one set a FP to spot for the bombardment?

To add to what Lokasenna said, it seems to work best if you set the FP with 0 range and no target hex. I guess if you set a target hex it just does recon, but leaving the target blank frees it up to do spotting.

[BBfanboy]

DL is essential for bombardments of troops in non-base hexes, so why wouldn't it affect bombardment in a base hex. The fixed location of the base is known but you want to be able to hit something worthwhile, not just throw shells in that direction.

And weather can obscure the target and coastal reference points, aborting the mission. I never said the ships did not move - I think they went to Atimonan, couldn't do the deed and returned still (frozen) in bombardment mode.

I have seen other ships balk at entering a hex with enemy mines, ships or in range of enemy aircraft. Low aggression and cautious routing orders seem to cause that.

[crsutton]

Dan, would you post a screenie of your top pilots? I asked John to do the same. Just curious about it.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: palioboy2

How exactly does one set a FP to spot for the bombardment?

To add to what Lokasenna said, it seems to work best if you set the FP with 0 range and no target hex. I guess if you set a target hex it just does recon, but leaving the target blank frees it up to do spotting.

I don't think these things matter, except indirectly. By setting a range greater than 0, you could have planes flying missions at that range and therefore increase pilot fatigue, which could factor into whether the plane is launched for bombardment recon or not. Same with the target hex.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

DL is essential for bombardments of troops in non-base hexes, so why wouldn't it affect bombardment in a base hex. The fixed location of the base is known but you want to be able to hit something worthwhile, not just throw shells in that direction.

And weather can obscure the target and coastal reference points, aborting the mission. I never said the ships did not move - I think they went to Atimonan, couldn't do the deed and returned still (frozen) in bombardment mode.

I have seen other ships balk at entering a hex with enemy mines, ships or in range of enemy aircraft. Low aggression and cautious routing orders seem to cause that.

Because you are bombarding the base which doesn't move. If DL is extremely low or nonexistent, the TF will simply expend less ammo and your results will be worse (above and beyond simply firing no shots - I've seen many a bombardment that gets no hits and it just says "Firing at Atimonan"). Further, bombardments of non-base hexes strike me as a special case given how special they are to set up.

CR could check whether fuel was burned by the TF (beyond simply staying in the Naga hex), but I pretty much guarantee that if he does check he'll find that the TF did not move. If they'd gone to Atimonan, they would have bombarded. Weather doesn't matter a lick (I'm not sure it even prevents the float planes from spotting).

I don't think ships move or don't move because of mines at all, or at least I've never seen it. Particularly never from a bombardment TF. I'd also be surprised if John had mines at Atimonan - it's not really a worthwhile place to drop them.

[Canoerebel]

4/23/44

A quietly productive day across the map. The map shall speak to events.

[Canoerebel]

Here you go, Ross. I posted this screen about two weeks ago. I doubt things have changed markedly since then.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Here you go, Ross. I posted this screen about two weeks ago. I doubt things have changed markedly since then.

Sorry missed it back then. Not out of line with mine. Amazing that your top jock is flying a P40 and still alive..

Bong and Pappy Boyington only lasted a mission or two but Neale was a top gun in both of my campaigns.

Robert Neale (May 3, 1914[1] – 1994) was the top flying ace with the American Volunteer Group (AVG), amassing 13 victories.[2]

He left his studies at the University of Washington to enlist in the United States Navy in 1938.[1] He became an aviator, receiving his wings in 1939, and was a dive-bomber pilot on the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3), flying the Curtiss SBC Helldiver and Douglas SBD Dauntless.[1] Ensign Neale resigned his commission to join the AVG of the Chinese Air Force in June 1941.[1]

He took over the AVG's 1st Squadron (the "Adam & Eves") after its commander, Robert Sandy Sandell, was killed, and was decorated by the British government with the Distinguished Service Order for his exploits in the defense of Burma. Neale was one of the AVG pilots who volunteered two weeks' additional service in China after the group was disbanded; during that interim, he commanded the U.S. Army's 23rd Fighter Group—as a civilian—pending the arrival of the designated commander, Colonel Robert Scott. He declined a commission as a major in the United States Army Air Forces.[1] The AVG records credit him with 13 air-to-air victories, making him its top-scoring ace.

After returning to the United States, he served as a civilian transport or ferry pilot for Pan American World Airways. He was running a Camano Island fishing resort at the time of his death in 1994.[2]

[Canoerebel]

He's not flying P-40Ks today - he's in a P-47. The "Top Pilots" screen must show the plane a pilot was in for most of his kills or for his most recent kill. But Neale has been in a Thunderbolt for many, many months now.