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Allies vs. AI. March 9th. First game finished in AE. Last straw was Manila falling. Took back all of the DEI, Rangoon, Iwo, Okinawa and Bankock. B-29's never came into play so I think I did not use them correctly. AI much improved. Biggest issue was the AI not concentrating their carriers and sending out CV's in small (1 CA, 4DD) TF's. Once the CV's were gone I did not have to play defense. Wow, what an enjoyable ride. I will take a it of time off and then consider PBEM.

The AI has already lost all its prewar CV's in my game by 12/42, doing exactly what you described.  After Java and the DEI fell, the AI appeared to break up the CV's into one or two CV TF's with minimal escorts.  Two were sunk off of Brisbane, two others sunk off of Milne Bay, one was sunk NE of Pearl Harbor (!!), and a couple others sunk around the Solomons.

same with me, I keep restarting after I sink a big CV by dumb luck 5 42 and every CVE CVL is sunk. The CVs still exist because I let them but unless they have some crazy cheat in Ironman on hard they can't have any pilots worth a damn left.... I need to find a way to fit a PBEM in my schedule.

Congratulations John

                           I had the same problem in my game and if i remember well Andy said that it would be resolved.

Nice going, John. [&o]

Tell us about the kamikazes...

I've had basically your same experience except the DEI never fell, so I've had a bit of an advantage. I moved the early allied carriers to the DEI and slaughtered everything that came that way, including the ineffective 1 CV TFs the AI would occasionally send. Palembang did not fall, though it was close at times.

By 9/42, I've recaptured Balikpapan, Kendari, Makassar, Singkawang, and Hong Kong. In addition, reinforcements in the Burma area have pushed back the Japanese with little trouble, and found indo china practically empty. Thus Bangkok, Saigon, and Hanoi have all fallen. Malaya is cut off, and I'm working over the shipping that tries to run the gauntlet to Singapore. All Japanese major carriers are gone, while all allied carriers are alive and well. Even the Chinese have had some success, and they retook Canton and Hong Kong, though we've been mostly stifled in the center and northern fronts.

The next offensives will be against Milne Bay, (the AI deployed a lot of forces to the Solomons) against Miri/Brunei/Tarakan, and against Palau or Mindanao. It's a great bit of fun, definitely, but other than the speed and decisiveness of the early invasions, this campaign has followed much the same path as my last WITP campaign before switching over to AE.

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth
I will take a it of time off and then consider PBEM.

Yes, you should!

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Allies vs. AI. March 9th. First game finished in AE. Last straw was Manila falling. Took back all of the DEI, Rangoon, Iwo, Okinawa and Bankock. B-29's never came into play so I think I did not use them correctly. AI much improved. Biggest issue was the AI not concentrating their carriers and sending out CV's in small (1 CA, 4DD) TF's. Once the CV's were gone I did not have to play defense. Wow, what an enjoyable ride. I will take a it of time off and then consider PBEM.

Allied lost more ground troops and the Japanese lost only 50% more ac, bringing the ac loss rate to 1:1.5. Wow, the AI must have done quite good. Not to talk about over 1000 Allied ships sunk.

Have also had the same problems with the carriers being broken up nito small fleets and have sunk a fair few of them.

INterested in the very fast retaking of the conquered areas - i'm in July '42 and am slowly taking back early AI gains in Solomons, about to hit Noumea etc.

By 9/42, I've recaptured Balikpapan, Kendari, Makassar, Singkawang, and Hong Kong. In addition, reinforcements in the Burma area have pushed back the Japanese with little trouble, and found indo china practically empty. Thus Bangkok, Saigon, and Hanoi have all fallen.

This is way ahead of my timetable - guess though I sort of let the AI take what it should historically and didn't make too many efforts to hit it hard early. Also it sneakily took Noumea very early which shocked me after the WITP days. Also played quiet China. What difficulty level were you playing on?

Castor, I assmume, that the 1000 allied ships losses are 65% of to japanese attack SSN in the game [8|]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Allies vs. AI. March 9th. First game finished in AE. Last straw was Manila falling. Took back all of the DEI, Rangoon, Iwo, Okinawa and Bankock. B-29's never came into play so I think I did not use them correctly. AI much improved. Biggest issue was the AI not concentrating their carriers and sending out CV's in small (1 CA, 4DD) TF's. Once the CV's were gone I did not have to play defense. Wow, what an enjoyable ride. I will take a it of time off and then consider PBEM.

Voluntarily take time off from AE?! [X(] That's blasphemy!

I have to take time off from it. Wife's orders. She doesn't like the fact that I can play it for 10+ hours straight. She says it's addictive. I am unable to see the problem - but I guess most addicts can't. [:D]

ORIGINAL: Icedawg

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Allies vs. AI. March 9th. First game finished in AE. Last straw was Manila falling. Took back all of the DEI, Rangoon, Iwo, Okinawa and Bankock. B-29's never came into play so I think I did not use them correctly. AI much improved. Biggest issue was the AI not concentrating their carriers and sending out CV's in small (1 CA, 4DD) TF's. Once the CV's were gone I did not have to play defense. Wow, what an enjoyable ride. I will take a it of time off and then consider PBEM.

Voluntarily take time off from AE?! [X(] That's blasphemy!

I have to take time off from it. Wife's orders. She doesn't like the fact that I can play it for 10+ hours straight. She says it's addictive. I am unable to see the problem - but I guess most addicts can't. [:D]

How long i takes for you to finish it?

Tell us about the kamikazes...

All over the place but never in enough numbers that 4 CV task forces could not handle.....Except...... Off the coast of Japan. As mentioned my B-29's never made a difference. Too many fighters. They would get through at high altitude, but never cause much damage. Even with p-51 escort. If getting Manila didn't do the trick I was going to start doing thunder runs around the home Islands with big CV task forces. I did it once with 2 4 CV task forces with the Cousair upgrades and 100% cap. Probably 1,000 kamikaze raid, 6 hits and 350 planes destroyed for 40 on my part. They come in big waves. About 3 each turn. By the 3rd wave you are out of AA ammo and 60% of your fighters are damaged or shot down. That 3rd wave is when all the hits happened. I may reload the game and try again. This time with 4x4 CV taks forces and my 100 P-51's at Iwo on long range cap. IF I can really knock the number of fighters down my B-29's should have a better time of it. I think I can have a 1,000 kill day if I do it correctly and don't take too many losses. A week or so of this and there can not be many aircraft left.
BTW, they throw everything at you,mostly fighters but every kind of bomber and even flying boats!. The quality of pilots was pretty low at the end. Here is the tracker list of experience level:

By nationality/exp: Number Avg experience

IJ Army : 2228 53
IJ Navy : 2541 48


By type/exp: Number Avg experience

Fighter : 2687 53
Fighter-Bomber : 142 53
Night Fighter : 343 50
Dive Bomber : 247 44
Level Bomber : 492 42
Recon : 90 53
Jet Fighter : 0 0
Electronic Warfare : 0 0
Transport : 151 55
Patrol : 24 39
Float Plane : 300 56
Float Fighter : 44 48
Torpedo Bomber : 249 35

After Java and the DEI fell, the AI appeared to break up the CV's into one or two CV TF's with minimal escorts. Two were sunk off of Brisbane

Yup, does that Brisbane thing every time, part of the Port Morseby strategy. Same result usually. surface action or land based AC slow them down and any carriers in the area trap them down in the Coral sea and finish them off. If the AI didn't try so hard for PM or used all the CV's in one TF to venture near Brisbane it would have prevented me from killing 2 CV's. Those 2 CV's made a huge difference. AI should have sat tight and let me come to it in the and it would have done better.

The next offensives will be against Milne Bay, (the AI deployed a lot of forces to the Solomons) against Miri/Brunei/Tarakan, and against Palau or Mindanao. It's a great bit of fun, definitely, but other than the speed and decisiveness of the early invasions, this campaign has followed much the same path as my last WITP campaign before switching over to AE.

Makasar and Tarkan were key. I go both of the m with AF HQ's and based Avengers there. It was a tanker shooting gallery

Allied lost more ground troops and the Japanese lost only 50% more ac, bringing the ac loss rate to 1:1.5. Wow, the AI must have done quite good. Not to talk about over 1000 Allied ships sunk.

Quite China and early victory in the Solomons. It think that results in many more Japanese fighters going to Burma. IT was an 18th month air battle of attrition there. The air war was proably a draw for the allies at best. The only thing that turned the tide was time, numbers, taking bases and moving up lots of AA. AI threw plenty of 100+ Oscar sweeps that chewed up my fighters. I bet 2/3 of my losses were in Burma and few of them were operational

ORIGINAL: Icedawg

quote:

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Allies vs. AI. March 9th. First game finished in AE. Last straw was Manila falling. Took back all of the DEI, Rangoon, Iwo, Okinawa and Bankock. B-29's never came into play so I think I did not use them correctly. AI much improved. Biggest issue was the AI not concentrating their carriers and sending out CV's in small (1 CA, 4DD) TF's. Once the CV's were gone I did not have to play defense. Wow, what an enjoyable ride. I will take a it of time off and then consider PBEM.



Voluntarily take time off from AE?! That's blasphemy!

I have to take time off from it. Wife's orders. She doesn't like the fact that I can play it for 10+ hours straight. She says it's addictive. I am unable to see the problem - but I guess most addicts can't.




How long i takes for you to finish it?

How long did it take? Started a new game after the first patch, when was that? I have a hour and half commute each day and I generally play both ways plus an hour at night plus 5 hours on Saturday and Sunday.

As for the time off, same issue with family. Other things have suffered. I have a pile of reading and my photography time has taken a drastic hit. time to recharge the batteries a bit. I have been going to sleep each night thinking of things like how many APA's do I need to get 7 Divisons plus support ahsore at Naha and how will I keep them supplied.

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth
I have been going to sleep each night thinking of things like how many APA's do I need to get 7 Divisons plus support ahsore at Naha and how will I keep them supplied.

You say that like it's a problem? [;)]

...yes this game is able to kill your social life and you don´t even notice it.
 
On monday evening, my wife was in hospital, i started the 41 campaign, and at the end of the beginning japanese action phase, 2 bottles of beer were empty and i ask myself what kind of life i had as i played WITP 2004- .[X(]
 
 

It's 1/43 and I'm already seeing LBA squadrons disappearing all over the Pacific.  The SoPac area used to be death on my transport TF's from Bettys out of Rabaul, now they are all over on Timor fruitlessly attacking Darwin, or in Burma going against Diamond Harbor and Chittagong.  I've not seen anything more than a Dinah at Rabaul for weeks.  There are some Bettys up in CentPac but they won't attack my CV TF's that raided Eniwetok and Kwajalein (sinking an AR, a sub and an AD, good show boys!), and recon is showing the CentPac atolls sparsely to barely held.
 
I'm wondering if the AI has a "pull back the horns" strategy if it loses all its CV's in 1942; I'm seeing reports from sub attacks on transports of men being lost from land units being carried, but are they reinforcements or evacuees?