The Hive - Cruft PBEM (Japan, Scen 2 Beta + Stacking Limits)

[Captain Cruft]

15 Jun 1944

It's IJAAF ToE upgrade day. I have set all the units to Rest so hopefully most of them will upgrade next turn.

Wuchow has fallen and Kweilin is besieged. The Chinese are now marching towards Canton.

I am withdrawing all the IJNAF airgroups which have to be removed before 10th Jul 1944 a month early. This will mean that for the first time in aeons I don't have a PP shortage.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

07 June 1944

I have turned off the HI at Tokyo to save fuel.

Why?

[pharmy]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

So, it looks like the Lilly DB is an effective plane except that the bomb load is sub-optimal. Effectiveness is likely due to DUR and Armor as compared to Val ... too bad teh IJA doesn't have Judy's ...

I once wrote to someone on the RA or babes team regarding the loadout of the Ki48-II, since I was playing RA 3.4.2 at that time and in that version the bomb load of the Lily was in my opinion correct at 4x100 kg bombs (INT) I think it was when RA got converted to babes and it got changed back to the incorrect stock 2x100kg. EDIT : deleted my text as I found the thread tm.asp?m=3123090

[Captain Cruft]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

07 June 1944

I have turned off the HI at Tokyo to save fuel.

Why?

I will need it later.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

07 June 1944

I have turned off the HI at Tokyo to save fuel.

Why?

I will need it later.

For?

Sorry, I'm not following the logic here at all. Fuel can be bombed. HI can't .... only ships use fuel ... you expect to sortie for long duration?

[Captain Cruft]

I still have an intact fleet remember.

OPSec prevents saying more

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

I still have an intact fleet remember.

OK, I guess I will fade back and watch ...

[Cribtop]

Hmmm, can't wait to see what goes down...

[obvert]

Noisy in here. Gettin' close to the hive.

[Sangeli]

I think all of us are eagerly awaiting the turns when 1,000+ KB planes supported by an equal number of land based planes facing off against the combined Allied fleets. No matter what there will be enormous carnage (and therefore excitement) for both sides

[Cribtop]

Yep, win, lose or draw, this game will soon become a Michael Bay movie.

[Sangeli]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Yep, win, lose or draw, this game will soon become a Michael Bay movie.

It's going to be a combination of the Battle of Jutland (in terms of surface action), Midway x3 or so (based on the number of carriers), and Okinawa (in Kamikazes and amphibious forces), all in one giant engagement. Any of these alone is exciting enough.

[obvert]

Unless the Allies figure out what is coming might hurt, and split forces over several vectors.

Then how does the Hive react?

[Captain Cruft]

Well right now apart from the land vector into China he's sitting on his arse mostly. Or at least so it seems.

[Captain Cruft]

Size 9 Forts

It really is very difficult to build these across the board. Here is the current list:-

Tsushima
Takao
Babeldoab
Saipan

Guam & Karenko should get there soon, and apart from that the only place in the plan is Shanghai which is currently at 8.16. Supplies are currently fine but I want them to stay that way.

[Sangeli]

Is there really that big of an advantage of level 9 forts over level 8 that would warrant that huge investment? Curious what people's experience are dealing with level 9 forts as I've never had that in any of my games.

[witpqs]

Level 9 forts give x3 modifier, level 0 forts give x1. AFAIK each level of forts gives the same increase as other levels. So,

3 - 1 = 2

So all 9 levels result in x2 modifier, otherwise stated as 200% increase.

200% / 9 levels = 22.22% per level.

Hat tip to Alfred who first did those calculations.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Sangeli

Is there really that big of an advantage of level 9 forts over level 8 that would warrant that huge investment? Curious what people's experience are dealing with level 9 forts as I've never had that in any of my games.

The best part about a level 9 fort vs a level 8 fort is that it's one more step that has to be reduced, thus more time attacking at a disadvantage. The Allies have a ton of combat engineers and can reduce forts with every attack in some situations, even while getting a negative modifier.

Level 6 were pretty tough in the Marianas in my game, and a few levels took longer to break down. If those had been level 9 they would have likely held another month at least. Supply would have of course gotten very scarce in that time, though.

[Captain Cruft]

Higher forts means higher Allied casualties and longer delays. I see no possible argument against either of those.

If it were not for supply worries I would still be building them everywhere.

[Captain Cruft]

18 Jun 1944

Piccie.