Rob V miller . Allied game vs. Miller41

[Rob Brennan UK]

OK I see my enemy has started one and i am sooo tempted to sneek a peek .. but no ! behave Robin !

This thread is for the allied side and any and all comments are welcome. I assume that miller has started the 'house rules' which is just as well as i've forgoten them already [;)]

What am i planning on doing for turn 1-10 .. well not much to be honest.

I do not know where the KB will strike .. maybe PH .. manilla ? Singers ? i just have to wait and see.The CV's at sea will be run at max speed away from any jap areas and meet up at canton is. for evaluation . cap will be increased on turn 1 and non naval strikes disallowed. the AD sailing to PH is to be diverted to anchorage. and may prove useful in the alutians later on. The subs at sea vectored intom wake and the uss argonaught will head back to pearl and upgrades disallowed forever as this sub is too valuable as a minelayer !

So while waiting for the hammer to fall, a bit about my style of play and maybe what will transpire soon.

The PI will be invaded (duh) .. concetrate defence on clarke and naga ( or manilla) , pull back the outlying divs and set all replcements off. Forts will try and be constructed in manilla,clarke and bataan. As for the navy at manilla all depends of what japan does. I do consider withdrawing cardes here a bit gamey ... but if march come around i think its ok to do so. not too much but the marines and the hq would be nice.

The malaya defence depends on where he lands too .. im expecting khota baru as the a/f is valuable. but we will see. I'll try and do a fighting withdrawl as opposed to a sir robin approach as i want to delay the inevitable, cadres will be moved to india when possible and transports will attempt to rescue the base force at victoria point.

Dutch airpower will be concentrated and moved regularly to harass jap shipping and the tIV's may well be moved closer to the PI as a scare weapon vs jap BB's .. similarly the swordfish and wilderbeast of the RAF will be as annoying as possible. I would like to keep the AVG intact and sending it to singers will get me short term gains but the AVG will die fast, i will probably split it .. 1/3 to china and maybe 2/3 to the DEI .. palambang and batavia spring to mind.

In Burma i consider rangoon indefensible .. and the CD will be moved to tha andaman is along with a mall dutch agrrison and BF .. main defensive base is mandalay.. forts build up and troops concentrated here. transport planes will try initially to collect the chinese (burma corps) troops and march them to calutta to build up initially. running them overland to lashio and mtyilinka tires them out and the malaria prevents them from recovering.

China .. stand off if possible .. troops north of yenen will rush back to the city and others in the countryside to move back to where they are prepped for. a/f will concentrate in chungking and be moved where needed later on , i like the SB2 combined with P40b's .. and the IL4 can harass many industrial centres from here.

Main US moves will be to build up in the south pacific. canton and pago if i get the time to do so. I consider especially canton to be invaluable in the counterattack on the marchalls. Also noumea will get some aussies and NZ troops and planes. then maybe luganville .. lunga is a lost cause imo. Also one aussie unit will be moved from rabaul to .. ?? luganville/efate to prevent freebie captures by the japs.

PM is initailly to be ignored. depending on the situatuion i may defend it or may not. Its a useful base but not critical.

Several dutch island forces will be sent to timor to prevent 'freebie' capturing and the engineers can build up keopang to a reasonable level. Again details really depend on japans actions for the first few months.

Well this will start up soon , after miller has gone bowling ! .. bowling ! .. over a witp turn .. he's insane ! [;)]

I hope this is mostly legible .. <points to sig>

[aztez]

Nice to see you got this AAR up and running [:D]

It is intresting to see how your strategy plays out... all I can say at this point --->>> Best of luck and I'll reading this one regularly! [;)]

[Little Joe]

Dont frequent these forums much anymore, but ill definately be watching this.

Im pretty sure you know what your doing as Allies!

[LittleJoe]

Whoops, my other account. [:D]

[KDonovan]

I'm currently playing Miller in Nik Mod 3.0 as the allies, he attacked Manila on our first turn....luckly his KB was rained out the next 2 days....so half my subs survived...but good luck with the new mod...i like it alot (for now), since i'm on the receiving end of all the bomber attacks, therefore they are less frightening as opposed to the stok scenario

[mc3744]

Hey Rob [:)]

I'll try to find the time to follow this. I have a sweet side for the Allies [;)]

Btw, I don't 'know' your opponent. He is an expert PBEM player? How many games under his belt so far?
I think it's a key variable to define a strategy.
For example, you can try to keep Timor vs. a medium or low experienced player, but with a tough one it's only lost units and VPs (I know by experience [:'(]), IMHO of course [:)].

[Rob Brennan UK]

Thanks you all for replying and giving encouragement .

Kdonovan .. nice to have you along for the ride but please dont let me know how Ken plays his turns, no offence i just want to find out the 'hard way' . [:D]

Silly joe .. 2 accounts .. silly boy [;)].. and thanks for the comment saying i know how to play allies .. your my first game. blimey in 5 years i may be an expert [:D]

I know very litte about Ken i guess we are meduim players, i got a lot of info from reading here and playing joe and thomas (as allies both sides ) joe and myself are continuing and are in aug 42 right now, he also know i do like my surface combat units rather a lot [;)][;)]

Mc3744 , hello and thank you for watching, always nice to have an expert on board .. I'm going to ty and have a stab at saving Timor, planning on evacing 2 ducth regiments from soerbaja later on for just that job, along with the 2 aussie brigades. Must remember to keep some dakotas in N.aus so i can help reinfrce/supply and/or evac if needed. I expect to lose all historical objectives but im no run away and hide style player.

still waiting on turn 1 .. but franky if it is manilla im more than happy .. lots of useless yank subs get torched for 1/3 points of a BB at PH, and i do like using the slow allied BB's later on. this will allow me to hit hard in the south pacific much earlier than usual.

Canton is. is my love/hate friend/nemsis. kind of fixate on the place. I HATE losing it. I'm going to immediately ship down the 27th inf div from satates side and prep along the way. there is an arty unit heading for suve that will get dropped off too. then the transports sent to ( place one hex above pago ) to collect those troops to re-inforce pago-pago.

Much else rests on the japanese moves. I'd forgotten how awful the situation is on turn 1 ( just started another game vs. surrender monkey ) especially the aviation support in the DEI and china.

again thanks for the kind words.

[Nikademus]

Manila will be hotter target defense wise....thats for sure [;)]

[Rob Brennan UK]

Yup with your great AA upgrades .. definately after turn 1 .. and nik thank you for doing your mod. although my other game is with beta patch 1.77 and the ASW is very well modelled so far (3 days) lots of system damage .. by that i mean torps ko aa gun ko .. but no where near sinking .. maybe 1.77 has finally adressed ASW .. fingers crossed.

the AA routine will be of great interest in the long run. shame that jap DB are now practically useless other than hitting non cith hexes. but there you go .. hehe .. with PDU on its not really an issue anyway as those useless sonias soon become sally s who are a lot more dangerous.

thanks for posting too !

[aztez]

Don't forget to send supplies to Singapore and maybe even Manila (If you can "spare" couple of AK's) ...Those places can be hard to capture while their supply levels are even reasonable [;)]

I agree that you propably need put up an fight at Canton Island... another place were I suggest you should make a stand is Noumea... I know he propably can capture the place if he commits enough firepower there but at least I think you should make him pay for it. Noumea has a nice airfield from which you can operate in coming months. If you do have enough units than maybe you could garrison Luganville and Efate too... than you would have 3 airfields from which cause havoc to any Japanese advance towards South Pacific [:)]

It's intresting to see what he can come up with China too.

[Speedysteve]

Aztez my thoughts on supplying Singapore and Manila are be careful. It depends on the type of Japanese player you are up against.

For example it is possible to have Davao/Amboina/Khota Bharu/Kuching up and running with Nells/Betties/Zeros within a few days. They can almost shut down any Allied shipping movements around The Phillipines and Malaya. Ships can still get through but the risk is high.

Good luck Rob [8D]

[aztez]

True.. aggressive Japanese player can make you pay via LBA's [:)] ...Betty's are particulary nasty [:(]

I just think that couple of single ship TF can make quite a diffrence....I you manage to get even 3 AK's to the harbour than you would have recieved 15,000 - 20,000 supply points stocked... that can delay the Japanese capture of Singapore or Manila. (Those places will eventually fall but if you get lucky you can buy few more days/weeks with those supply transports).

[KDonovan]

actually....it will turn out to be less than 15000 supply points for 3 AK's, because in Niks mod the AK capacity are cut in half

[Speedysteve]

I personally don't bother attempting to try and get any supply into Sing or Manila. But hey thats just my approach.

Others are happy to risk a few AK's for a few thousand tonnes of supply.

[aztez]

Again True [:)] ...and if anybody is to try those supply runs than it needs to be done right away since those runs will be doomed within week or two.

[Nikademus]

Your welcome. a lengthy labor of love but worth it, making a great game better (well i think at least [:'(] )

ASW changes -

I was heavily involved in the new routine testing. There is much improvement in the upcoming patch, enough to warrent removal of the existing ASW tweak. Whether or not i'll try to re-tweak it is undecided. I have some concerns but the changes need to be given a chance to be better felt out in a real game environment.

I may also revisit some fine points with 4.5 in addition to removing the ASW changes. Because of the 'retreat' paths in the PI and Malaya, coupled with repairs and replacements caused by having (for a time) ample supply levels, I'm thinking there may be too many heavy AA guns lying around. From what i've read (much of it out of Chris Shores excellent chronicle of the fighting) AA defenses were pretty pathetic in both locations with chronic ammo shortages. However as Speedy and Bombur have found out, the retreating of all the ENG LCU's coupled with some repairs leads to concentrations at Singapore and Manila/Bataan of up to 85 guns each....a formidable barrier. Then again, its keeping Speedy honest and Bombur has had to settle for a siege in Manila. Not necessarily bad.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Wel i recieved the 1st turn and sent my CV's scurrying for cover toward pago pago. also turned off argonaughts upgrade path and sent a few at sea subs to try and catch the jap tankers if he goes for PH.

also with both O19 and O20 at sea i changed them to minelaying and sent them to mine the big base in N Borneo. 80 mines at start will help but reloading is a pain. lvl 9 port iirc. home base set to singers which is size 8. Other at sea subs are shuffled about to prevent knowledge of thier positions.

Completely forgot to look at china ! idiot. never mind. The only important move is the units north of yenen to head south to the city.

As for supplying batann/manill/singapore I plan of trying to get some oil to singers asap. the PI is a nightmare to resupply but i'll send out single ships after the expected blockade of manill s is over. southern PI will try and hold Naga . and ill send an inf unit to lamon bay to at least try and hold off a flanking move. All other units will move to clarke. A/c in the PI will be sent when possible to china then to india to rebuild. The B17's however will go to the DEI initally. I'll try and get soerbaja upto a size 5 , but singapore is also a possible base depending on jap activity.

IF he goes for PH he stated that he'll be hanging around for 2 days minumum ( we are playing 2 day turns) .. day 2 AA will be interesting but it is the best jap tactic to actully sink some BB's rather than just 0-1.

Nik , quick question , When officail patch 1.7 or whatever they call it comes out, how do you see it affecting current games using your mod ? I have a sinking feeling ( bad pun ) that with the revamped asw ( which i love watching ) will make subs unsinkable ? is this a real concern ?

anyway .. heres to really bad weather ALL over the pacific for about 400 days .. then nice and clear for the next 800 [:D]

again thx all for comments/suggestions all appreciated

[Nikademus]

ORIGINAL: Rob Brennan UK

Nik , quick question , When officail patch 1.7 or whatever they call it comes out, how do you see it affecting current games using your mod ? I have a sinking feeling ( bad pun ) that with the revamped asw ( which i love watching ) will make subs unsinkable ? is this a real concern ?

Yes, its a concern though i'm more concerned that the new code coupled with the tweak would result in too many slowly repairing subs. The old routine tended to be more of a hit or miss type. Near misses were abstractly represented and never really caused sub damage while the "hits" displayed in the animation represented damaging near misses or direct hits which usually would sink the sub. The tweak toned down the latter occurances in deep water leading to vastly improved sub survivabilty in the form of much more infrequent occurances of seeing those direct "hits."

Now, with the new routine, near misses and damaging near misses are more directly represented. Critical hits are reduced and the more common result is a sub with SYS and some FLT damage. For the Japanese subs this could prove detrimental, or, as you mentioned it might make the Japanese subs too resistant. I have not had time to test using the mod, only the stock scenario. (and i'm still recovering from that [:'(] )

Speedy and I plan to continue with our 4.0 game once the patch is official. That way we can see what impact the old tweak has in conjunction with the new coding.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Fair enough nik , thx for letting me know. lets face it the entire games changes after each patch anyway [:)].. and I'm in it for the journey not the end anyway.

It will, be interesting to see how the new ASW routines work out. 1.77 seems much better than stock 1.6 in ASW , i love the 'near miss' , 'conning tower leaking' messages etc. Also the fact that escorts run out of ammo pretty fast is a good feature too, no more unlimited ASW attacks and a lot more wasted ordinance , which irl it would be.

OHH im still waiting for the proper turn 1 to commence .. all a-quiver with anticipation.

[Nikademus]

Let me know what kind of results you are getting. [:D]