The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Is Mac around somewhere close by. His moment is coming very early now.

I look at the troops present at Manila, and scratch my head in disbelief.

It is only x2 terrain, so not great to defend in, but certainly an important base that should be properly defended. If John's understanding of ground warfare is so poor, you should be running riot. Of course, that is not your plan...

An HQ of some type would sure help him.

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Another air battle tactical note: In LBA battles, I have found that fighters flying escort are dead meat, always. I try to avoid combined missions, even for Death Star strikes against land targets. Better to sweep with fighters and let the 2EB and 4EB fly unescorted...even if that means that sometimes the fighters come in after the bombers (or don't fly at all, when the fighters happen to be operating from a separate field shut down by weather). Every now and then a mission contrary to this doctrine manages to assemble and go in, with results that refresh my resolve to prevent it from happening again, if possible.

Is that regardless of escort experience level? In fall of '42, as Allies I'am seeing how effective the Toryu is against P38/P40 as escorts with average experience.

Being tied to the bombers is tricky and may take a high level of escort ability to be successful.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Is Mac around somewhere close by. His moment is coming very early now.

I look at the troops present at Manila, and scratch my head in disbelief.

It is only x2 terrain, so not great to defend in, but certainly an important base that should be properly defended. If John's understanding of ground warfare is so poor, you should be running riot. Of course, that is not your plan...

An HQ of some type would sure help him.

How about 3? The command HQ could probably be on Formosa or China.

Where is the Artillery, Tanks, AA, Engineers, Radar!!!!!! My god, why did he even try to defend Manila in the air? He put how many hundreds of Franks there with what-- 40 AV support at most & no AA and one Radar set that I see.

The mind boggles![X(]

[Canoerebel]

I may be able to win the race for Manila. The Allies seem to hold the advantage in terms of troops currently in the hex. I don't see any major Japanese units elsewhere on Luzon; SigInt doesn't show any inbound, though that may be inaccurate or about to change.

I think I may have a decided advantage in troop prep. I also have two divisions highly prepped for Manila within two hexes of the base (one is resting from disablements incurred in the Battle of Batangas, the other is holding Lucena, awaiting a chance to thrash an inbound Japanese mixed brigade before moving on to Manila). I have a third divisions with high prep back in the DEI, about to board ships for Luzon. And I have several HQ units highly prepped - XIV Corps will reach 100% tomorrow; Sixth Army is 85%.

I've wanted Manila to become a vortex, drawing in enemy reinforcements; but a Japanese collapse at Luzon is also acceptable, since it will probably throw John into further confusion and disarray, allowing the Allies to attack forward more effective while John tries to plug holes in the dike.

[Canoerebel]

With regard to fighters escorting bombers, I see similar results whatever the quality of the fighter and fighter pilot. Corsairs get chewed up; Hellcats too; Lightnings too. Thunderbolts perhaps not quite as bad, but it doesn't make sense to accept 1:1 Thunderbolt results on escort missions when they would score 2:1 or 3:1 by sweeping.

My experience with escort missions is that they are never worth it.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

With regard to fighters escorting bombers, I see similar results whatever the quality of the fighter and fighter pilot. Corsairs get chewed up; Hellcats too; Lightnings too. Thunderbolts perhaps not quite as bad, but it doesn't make sense to accept 1:1 Thunderbolt results on escort missions when they would score 2:1 or 3:1 by sweeping.

My experience with escort missions is that they are never worth it.

Have you never gotten the sweeping ahead message?

[Canoerebel]

Not that I know of. I've never heard of it.

[Lowpe]

Often times as Japan, especially with Oscar IV the fighters escorting the bombers will "Sweep Ahead." They leave their escort duty, and sweep. The Animation has the fighters sweeping prior to the rest of the escorts and bombers arriving for the for standard escorted bombing mission. After sweeping ahead, the fighters will rejoin as escorts.

I believe it happens when you have a significant disparity between cruise speeds of the escorts and the bombers plus leader skills & HQa probably help too.

It is quite nice, and something I try hard to achieve. Allied forces have done it to Japan (me) on several occasions, but not it seems as much as I can get it to happen for Japan. But then again, I try to get it to happen.

[Canoerebel]

Battle of Manila details.

[Canoerebel]

As rare - and as coveted - as the triple play baseball, SigInt yields a gem today.

[paullus99]

I am really having a hard time trying to interpret what John is doing.....perhaps he's trying to get astride your supply lines? But, in retrospect, you're bringing in everything via Australia, so Saipan doesn't make sense for that.

Coupled with his abortive attempt to counter-invade at Miri, well, I'm just at a loss. Unless John is attempting to replicate the decision making of the late-war Japanese High Command.

[HansBolter]

Everyone posting should try to remember that John will eventually get to read this AAR when the game is finished.
I would recommend showing a bit of deference when it comes to criticizing his decision making and game play.
Better not to foster hard feelings later.

[Canoerebel]

6/17/44

The map speaks to things.

[Canoerebel]

Most of the units at Manila are in good shape, with fatigue and disruption in the 20s or teens. But 9th Aus. Div. is 30/38. That's too high to risk, so I'll rest the army a day.

[Lokasenna]

I don't know why he'd both with Saipan, either. For that matter, I don't know why CR would bother with Saipan. There's no point if the Allies are capturing Luzon already. Why face that murderous coastal fort if you don't have to?

[Canoerebel]

I had troops prepped for Eniwetok and Marcus for many, many months. Someday I will hit Marcus, though I diverted those troops to other uses six weeks ago. I permanently scrubbed Eniwetok awhile back. I don't envision any further action against the balance of the Marshalls, the Carolines, or the Marianas. I will probably attend to high-value targets in some areas (Rabaul, for instance) if points become an issue later in the game.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: morejeffs

That are a lot of dead Franks.....

In the city (Manila) do you get a bonus for having armor (when he does not)?

This question seems to have been overlooked so I will take a stab at answering it.

There is no "bonus" for armor, just calculations based on the anti-armor firepower of the Japanese vs. the modeled thickness of the Allied armour and the skill of the leaders involved (to get hits or avoid them).
The Japanese have few anti-tank weapons in the early game (in stock - not sure about John's scenario that give the IJ forces more goodies) but by 1944 their infantry should have hand held PIAT type a/t weapons, and they should have more "rapid fire gun" (a/t) units available. So the Allied tanks won't have a cakewalk in any terrain, and may suffer badly attacking in a city with good forts. However, if a LOT of allied tanks are available a shock attack can sometimes shatter the enemy resistance and rout their forces. Best plan is to grind them down first and shock attack when they appear to be close to cracking.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
The Japanese have few anti-tank weapons in the early game (in stock - not sure about John's scenario that give the IJ forces more goodies) but by 1944 their infantry should have hand held PIAT type a/t weapons, and they should have more "rapid fire gun" (a/t) units available.

In stock IJA infantry gets anti-armor rating at 5 and that's it, cavalry at 15, engineers at 25. Nothing to write home about as all Allies routinely have 35-75 rating by that time. Japanese IDs also do not have their TOEs changed much in terms of anti-tanking.
John's squad modifications if any can be checked in game through the database. But I bet he did not make any cause he is a sea/air war guy, not a land war guy

EDit: corrected for non-ironman stock. In the latter Andy gave 25 anti-armor to Jap infantry in 43

[ny59giants]

In this version of RA and in later versions, ONLY the IJN has been changed. So when posters here talk about what John (and me to a smaller extent) did in this mod, remember just that.

[jwolf]

From the map annotations: "But it looks like [John] is not yet ready to commit his carriers." I can understand his apparent reluctance at going against a presumably superior foe, but the relative balance of strategic power is not likely to improve for the Japanese at this point. And if Luzon is not the hill to die for, then what is?