Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Anachro
I lost a few tankers, a FA unit and Marine Defense Battalion - so what?

Resist your inner Canoerebel you must, young padawan![:D]
Every little ship matters

Those losses are literally and figuratively a sunk cost (OK, I'll step out now).

Cheers,
CB

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart

Those losses are literally and figuratively a sunk cost (OK, I'll step out now).

Cheers,
CB

Right - he put those TFs out there to feed John's bloodlust and keep him raiding instead of thinking about what he should be protecting! Just an investment!

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
Right - he put those TFs out there to feed John's bloodlust and keep him raiding instead of thinking about what he should be protecting! Just an investment!

Judging by the screenshot, Anachro can feed some of those TFs twice in a row! Talk about efficient investment [;)]
I'd prefer him feeding John with empty ships though instead of filled with whole units

BBFanboy, nice emoji!

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
Right - he put those TFs out there to feed John's bloodlust and keep him raiding instead of thinking about what he should be protecting! Just an investment!

Exactly! It was all part of the plan. Right? Right, guys?! [8|]

November 22nd, 1942

Interesting quote from John with his last email. Maybe he's guessing I have those TFs up by Midway, but they have shown no D/L the last few turns.

Me thinks YOU thinks your SNEAKY because you are hunting wabbits…

But it's interesting to me given the paths his carriers are taking. Some continue east towards Canton, others move northwest from their last position in a direction towards Wake Island. The carriers that raided last turn aren't spotted and could appear anywhere. We'll see. Sigint and the ships spotted seem to point to John attempting a landings against Christmas Island.

November 23-26, 1942

It seems that John had some foreknowledge of my troops coming to Midway; either a lucky guess from sigint radio activity or something else. A number of subs have been posted west of Midway and have been harrying my forces. A torpedo bomber hit the CL Danae, which is struggling, but might be able to make it to home ports if she doesn't run into any further subs or John's carriers. Adding to the damage, the CVE Nassau was torpedoed and sunk, even with a decent escort. Japanese sub menace strikes again!

John seems hellbent on ranging across the length of the Pacific to get to my forces that were near Wake, though I suspect given the amount of roving they've been doing without any tankers nearby, they might be running somewhat low on fuel. We'll see if he makes it to my ships, but the mad dash has begun to escape to safer waters.



Funnily enough, John's carriers that had raided deeply near Panama seems to have stuck around and are spotted southwest of Pearl Harbor. John's other carriers were last seen five or six hexes northeast of Baker Island. Interestingly, perhaps as retribution for the Nassau, the little S-Class submarine S-44 manages to torpedo a Shokaku-class CV while returning to Pearl for refit. Unfortunately, she took some damage in the process and it remains to be seen if she'll make it home for refit and...now also repair.

The key here is that John's western-most carrier task force that seems to be moving northwest (with what fuel, I don't know) might not be slowed down due to one carrier being damaged. John might split off some carriers, but he might also need to split off a escort task force to escort the damaged CV to port. We'll see what happens.



I'm worried about my forces north of Wake and can only hope John can't pursue due to fuel already expended.

Without secondary explosions, I can't see a Mk 10 torp slowing Shokaku down more than five knots. Given its top speed of 34 knots, it is now just slowed down to the top speed of some of the other carriers in the TF.

Yup, I think so too. Next turn shows carriers moving directly west at normal speed (9 hexes). I believe my various task forces are pretty safe now.

ORIGINAL: Anachro

Funnily enough, John's carriers that had raided deeply near Panama seems to have stuck around and are spotted southwest of Pearl Harbor. John's other carriers were last seen five or six hexes northeast of Baker Island. Interestingly, perhaps as retribution for the Nassau, the little S-Class submarine S-44 manages to torpedo a Shokaku-class CV while returning to Pearl for refit. Unfortunately, she took some damage in the process and it remains to be seen if she'll make it home for refit and...now also repair.

The key here is that John's western-most carrier task force that seems to be moving northwest (with what fuel, I don't know) might not be slowed down due to one carrier being damaged. John might split off some carriers, but he might also need to split off a escort task force to escort the damaged CV to port. We'll see what happens.

A single torpedo hit to a Shokaku class CV might not cause too much speed reduction. It's important to note whether there were any messages of further explosions or flooding. Anything?

Yup no secondary explosion.

November 27-28, 1942

This is the position of the only part of the KB that we have any visibility on, the one that includes the torpedoed CV Kaimon. It is moving west, though last turn it went north and then west to avoid some spotted submarines. In other news, last turn gave us sigint that a CVE or something was in port at Lae and, postulating tthat John wouldn't have any CAP there as I haven't shown any interest in it, we launch a 4E raid on Lae (northeast of Port Moresby for those who don't know). We don't find a CVE, but we do find an AV and put 5 bombs into her. My pilots report that the ship listing, showing heavy fires and smoke. We believe she should burn up or sink, which is nice. Sinking Japanese AV's is always a pleasure that denies crucial air support to the Japanese.

In India, allied forces take Rangpur, causing significant damage to a Japanese tank regiment (8th Tank Regiment) while destroying a Japanese mortar battalion. We would like to note that in India and Australia, Japanese armored units have taken a pretty large beating. The 1st Tank Division was destroyed, the 2nd Division always nearly destroyed, and about 4-5 other tank regiments have either been destroyed or have suffered a severe mauling.

Meanwhile, 38,000 Japanese troops are at risk of being cutoff at Dacca by pursuing Allied forces.

Can someone explain this to me again? What are the major repercussions if any of having realistic R&D set to "off" on the Japanese player's R&D and plane production potential? What type of outcomes should I expect as we head into '43 and '44?

ORIGINAL: Anachro
Can someone explain this to me again? What are the major repercussions if any of having realistic R&D set to "off" on the Japanese player's R&D and plane production potential? What type of outcomes should I expect as we head into '43 and '44?

With RR&D Off Japan can switch production factories to R&D. Apart from greater flexibility, this means faster start to many R&D chains where the first model is already available like Zero, Oscar or Betty. You can build up production factory for the first model to size 30 in one month, and then immediately start R&D for the future models. Even better if you are allowed to skip the intermediate models (dunno if John does that). Advancing A6M8 starting from Jan-42 is nice
So you can expect earlier arrival of some models. And also higher supply usage on the John's side [:)] cause it is really hard to stop oneself from switching factories to and fro

November 29-December 1, 1942

Been a bit since an update, so now is the time. In the South Pacific, John's carriers were last seen a 2-3 turns ago. However, John also spotted my carriers southwest of Vaitupu, so there'll probably be no sought-after action on my part as I would be in a position where he knows the position of my carriers, but I don't know where his are. I will pull back and then send some most likely to India to support operations there. I do know, however, that John has AO's in the Makin area, as both this turn and last turn saw my submarines attack one successfully. Unfortunately, both this turn and last turn also saw torpedoes hit but fail to explode. A shame.

For now, I'll just keep bombarding Ndeni where John has two divisions.



In India, my major Indian forces cross the river and successfully take Comilla, destroying five Japanese units including a tank regiment in the process. More interestingly, John's 38k troops are still at Dacca, meaning I have both a clear path to Chittagong and John's forces are, if not cut off, in a bad position to my rear. I wonder how much of his army I can destroy. Meanwhile, a British division takes Diamond Harbor and Calcutta is surrounded. If I now take this division to Calcutta where John appears to have 17,000 men, I should be able to cross the rivers from elsewhere to begin a siege of the city.

I think the next stage here will be to take Ceylon and free open wide-open action throughout the Indian Sea. John's forces are highly concentrated in the South Pacific and his DEI garrisons are most likely weak.

I'm guessing that John was putting those troops at Dacca into Strat mode and just about to move them to the coast to be extracted. Your river crossing foiled him and if I am right, he will have to spend the next three days getting any major units out of strat mode. Bombs away!

@BBFanboy Yeah they are not in a good position. I can bomb them while moving forces over towards Silchar to begin opening up the rail network. I think these 38k troops, I think ~2-3 divisions and various support units, are in a bad position and might not even make it over to Burma. We'll see. This raises the question of just what John has in Burma. Moreover, John seems to be building up my airfields for me for when I take them. Chittagong is 7(7) in airfields; Imphal is 3(4); Dimapur is 4(7); Ledo is 3(6). These should all eventually be taken without issue, allowing immediate air missions into Burma.

I forgot to mention that today these 2 CVLs in Capetown officially finish their conversions to CVLs from Carrier-Cruiser hybrids.

Well, one could argue letting your opponent burn through his fuel supply is as good as bombing the oil wells ...
Did the mod enhance supply production?
All these additional vessels must consume a lot; maybe even the fact that his CVLs survived somehow could contribute to the starving of this empire on steriods.
Big victory in India btw, very well executed (like in RL, conquering of China didn't really go well, so let the navy do their stuff).

For good reason I would hesitate to give any advice at all, but keep in mind that the imperial naval aviation might have some very nasty developments in progress...

ORIGINAL: Wuffer

Did the mod enhance supply production?

No