Scenario 17 at start forces

[spence]

I'm playing a Scen 17 as the IJN with 120% Ship Commitment and I'm having a good time and all but it sorta occurred to me as I waited a month for any new warships to show up in theater and since a little spurt of arrivals in late June - early July reached the conclusion that the Scenario is not really about an IJN attempt to reach a "Decision in the South Pacific". Certainly it's not about the IJN attempting to continue its initial "Maritime Blitzkreig".
Does jacking up the ship commitment levels and/or changing the reinforcement options have any effect on the date of arrival of ships or does the ship commitment level more or less just govern how many the IJN gets to play with and the reinforcement option (fixed, variable, very variable) effect only air and land reinforcements?

[bilbow]

Increasing the committment level means you will ultimatly have more ships, but not any sooner. The variable reinforcements setting will govern timing just as it does with ground and air units. Commit level determines quantity in points you can have on-map at one time.

If you want to avoid the long buildup period, try scenario 15 instead. The OOB is the same except that it starts to July 1, and the Japs start owning NG. Both sides start with a lot of stuff.

[pasternakski]

If you REALLY WANT TO HAVE SOME FUN, play sc. 19 and jack the reinforcement level up to 200 percent.

[denisonh]

ORIGINAL: pasternakski

If you REALLY WANT TO HAVE SOME FUN, play sc. 19 and jack the reinforcement level up to 200 percent.

Yeah, then play as USN.

[pasternakski]

Yep - with your reinforcement level at 100 percent of historical. Nothing quite like getting your @$$ handed to you while carriers, battleships, cruisers, and so on ride quietly at anchor in the pristine beauty of Pearl Harbor.

But you do get the Long Island every time you send it back.

[mbatch729]

Ah, the LI. An opponent of mine and I agreed, based on a wager for the Super Bowl, that the losing side would send the LI to a port of choice to serve as target practice. (We're playing two games, IJN in one and USN in the other) Fun wager (I lost) but got rid of that d*mned ship!

[pasternakski]

Hee hee. A fitting fate.

But it raises what I think to be an interesting question. What do you guys do with the Altamaha and Copahee? They have more aircraft capacity and can accommodate a Marine F4U squadron, which is quite ahistorical, of course, but I'm just curious (I usually treat 'em like the LI and send 'em back in hope of getting something more useful, particularly when I'm in a game where I have agreed to a low ship commitment rate).

[bilbow]

My carrier boys sure appreciated the practice. We picked the LI largely because of it's haunted nature. I've been a victim of it's way of making planes disappear. As for the other transport carriers, they go back to Pearl or Tokyo.

[Hoplosternum]

I am just about to receive a couple of the (none Long Island) US Escort Carriers in one of my PBEM games. I intend to keep them. At least for a while.

I have certainly used the Japanese CVEs a time or two. Put a squadron of fighters on one and a squadron of Kates on the other. Helped my last IJN CVs win a remarkable July '43 battle with some US CVs - with the help of some LBA

The Japanese suffer from a lack of air support on land and those two CVEs can hold about 60 aircraft that otherwise might end up sitting on an airfield 'damaged'. Maybe the allies don't suffer from the same problems. But your forward bases can only hold a certain amount of planes (200 for each size four airfield) so maybe they have some use. Also their 'value' is not that high. Your not likely to get that much even if you send them back.

[crsutton]

I never send the Long Island back. I find her and all other ships to have value if used correctly. The long Island goes to Brisbane with an escort or two. She is then used to transfer P40s and Airacobras to Noumea when needed. Simply load them onto her Send her out to sea for a turn and then fly the planes off to Komac of Noumea. Without her there is no way to get Allied LB fighters from Australia to Noumea-and you might need them there. Historically, the LI was nothing but a plane ferry. This is how I use her and she does a fine job.

[Rocco]

I use the LI for that too, crsutton. I haven't lost a squadron yet, but I always cross my fingers.

Rocco

[RevRick]

Right now Copahee is carrying Sangamon's Air Group while she is in Pearl for some body and fender work. Don't have a lot of problems with it - so far. They haven't disappeared, and they have covered their own rears and the Transport TF that took Munda.