Here come the Rebels! (Canoe v. Q-Ball)

[vettim89]

Well one lesson I hoped you learned is that having all your assets training at vulnerable bases is a bad idea. I had the same thing happen when a cruiser TF that was bombarding Johnston Island got intercepted by IJN CV's. ALl my air power in Hawaii all the way down to Midway was in full training mode. Needless to say that required some rethinking.

[Capt. Harlock]

Several times in the game Brad has created mock invasion TFs and set them to Allied-held bases. His intention is for the Allies to pick up SigInt. On one occasion I did - a force bound for the base adjacent to Surat, India. But the "invasion" never arrived. It was all a deception and was recalled.

That's what happened this time, too. The TF consisted of a few xAK carrying tanks. Brad set it for the base at the northern tip of NZ, but then forgot about it over the next few weeks because he's been so busy at work.

If that's the case, I think you should have kept the turn. The result seems entirely realistic. Japanese field commanders were often overly aggressive, and Japanese communications not always the best. Let it be a potential penalty for trying to mess with SIGINT. (Unless you feel the reinforcements gained are not worth the losses incurred.)

[Canoerebel]

CaptHarlock:  There's alot of merit to what you say.  I would have seriously contemplated taking that position, but I know that Brad has really been under the gun lately at work. I truly believe this oversight was purely a result of unusual pressures he's facing in real life.  (I do wish, however, that he had made the same offer to me on the game's first turn.  I was incorrectly under the impression that House Rules prohibited me from issuing orders to Force Z.  So I didn't issue any and lost both the BC and BB.  Had Brad offered a re-do just to correct that oversight, I would have accepted.)
 
Vettim: Early in the game I made the strategic decisions to send all troops to the Aleutians, Hawaii, Oz, and India.  NZ was to be left expendable.  I also knew that the further we went into the game, the more likely it would seem to Brad that NZ had been reinforced, thus dissuading him from attacking.  Thus, from day one, NZ has been left to fend for itself.  I haven't sent patrol aircraft there because I need them more other places.  Even if I detected an approaching invasion, there's nothing I would or could do in reaction.  Nevertheless, there's no sense in not having any Hudsons set to naval search, so I've made that change.

[princep01]

Well Canoe, since Oz is well protected (and under no apparent pressure from the enemy), is it wise to leave NZ unprotected with the enemy in striking range of the 4-1? Surely India is still the greatest danger, but you have reacted well to reinforce it to the point that you are capable of offensive action there. But, sigint has given some indication that he is going to try to pick up additional points before the end of the year in the southern and eastern Pacific. KBs long absence has given time for a shift in its focus. Some land units appear to be headed eastward.

I still think he will make his grab in the last quarter to minimize your reaction time. Many points can be garnered with the fall of Bombay, capture of Indian villes above THE LINE, successful capture of Auckland, some of the rest of NZ and other South Pacific islands. If you cannot get much back by year's end, he could win.

This is why I'd be fighting this a bit differently from you, especially at this point. Make him react to you for a change. Attack in India now. Reinforce NZ. If KB is in the Pacific, then use the CVs to attack his LOC in the Bay of Bengal and anywhere else you can garner points. So what he knows their general location for a short time? Knock of 200 points in Japanese shipping and it is hard to get the 800 it takes to even that out and maintain the 4-1. "Kill Japs....kill more Japs".

[Canoerebel]

That's one of the real beauties of this game - trying to allocate limited resources among unlimited needs. It's a blast trying to figure out what's going where, especially under the immense amount of pressure that Brad has exerted in this game.

I can't send anything to New Zealand without stripping away troops already committed to higher priorities. Take any from Oz, and I've weakened Oz too much. Take any from Suva, and I've weakened Suva too much. Take any from Hawaii, and I lose the ability to invade Marcus and Wake (eventually I do have to go on the offensive!).

I believe I made a good assessment of New Zealand: Brad has to believe it has been strongly garrisoned (we're now ten months into the war and he hasn't seen a single USA Army division to date - for all he knows one or two could be sitting in Auckland). I just don't think he'll take a stab at NZ.

I do think he's likely to target Fiji. I'm trying to get a few more men there, but it's pretty well defended. (Early in the game, Fiji was left totally unprotected as I had much higher priorities, but the island's garrison was substantially boosted in the late spring and early summer - 200 AV at Nadi and 530 at Suva).

[cookie monster]

How are you getting on with pilot training?

[Canoerebel]

I have 12 zillion USAAF fighter pilots well trained (experience low 50s, skill low 70s).

I don't seem to have enough USAAF bomber pilots or RAF pilots of any kind.

I don't know yet about USN pilots, only because my carriers have been parked the entire game, so I haven't lost any carrier pilots. I suspect my stocks of those are pretty low, though.

[cookie monster]

For the USN pilots you get a lot of navy float planes,

these can be trained on sweep,nav search,naval bombing,asw etc. You will have so many you can train all the navy pilots you want, only probs is they cant train torpedo.

Only way to train torp skill I think is with patrol planes but their always in use.

I guess could always substitute a marine TB squadon with a navy to free up a navy aquadron for torp training.

Ahh I remember all those CVE replenishment squadrons can be used to train pilots, so in the end there's tons of training potential available.

As for army bomber pilots I would use the trained men from Pearl and North Pacific to fill front line squadrons.

[JohnDillworth]

I don't seem to have enough USAAF bomber pilots

I have never found an answer to this one. Against the AI I was able to remove a trickle from the B-17, B-26 and B-25 squadrons. but I am in late 42 and I am in low double digits of reserves. I am presently playing the Downfall scenario and that is a blast because I have thousands of bombers and they all have pilots in the 60's it seems. Of course the AI has thousands of fighters but US bombers do not go down easily and if you fly em high enough you start to get messages like "some fighters could not reach altitude in time" or something like that

[paullus99]

The United States had no lack of pilots (to the detriment of the infantry corps, but whatever) - so what is behind this decision to artificially limit the number of bomber pilots for the US?

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

CaptHarlock:  There's alot of merit to what you say.  I would have seriously contemplated taking that position, but I know that Brad has really been under the gun lately at work. I truly believe this oversight was purely a result of unusual pressures he's facing in real life.  (I do wish, however, that he had made the same offer to me on the game's first turn.  I was incorrectly under the impression that House Rules prohibited me from issuing orders to Force Z.  So I didn't issue any and lost both the BC and BB.  Had Brad offered a re-do just to correct that oversight, I would have accepted.)

Vettim: Early in the game I made the strategic decisions to send all troops to the Aleutians, Hawaii, Oz, and India.  NZ was to be left expendable.  I also knew that the further we went into the game, the more likely it would seem to Brad that NZ had been reinforced, thus dissuading him from attacking.  Thus, from day one, NZ has been left to fend for itself.  I haven't sent patrol aircraft there because I need them more other places.  Even if I detected an approaching invasion, there's nothing I would or could do in reaction.  Nevertheless, there's no sense in not having any Hudsons set to naval search, so I've made that change.

But it was a deliberate move on his behalf and was set for a specific purpose (to mislead you). It was not accidental. The move in itself is good gaming. However, forgetting about it or not even considering the possible results of the move can't be just written off with an excuse since the action may have actually led you to take action that you would otherwise not have.

But, you really do yourself no harm giving him a break because if you screw up big time later on it will be hard for QBall not to cut you some slack as well. Bargaining chip....[;)] And you collect one more good deed chit that will help you eventually get into gamer's heaven.

[Canoerebel]

We've all been over this before, but the air war is really skewed terribly.  In my game with Miller, I had to assume that my failure to train pilots skewed things, so I just didn't say much about that aspect of the game.  But now that I'm training pilots religiously, I still have problems out the wazzoo.  Even though the air war has not been particularly hot in our game, there are no RAF fighters or bombers in the pools, no USAAF fighters or bombers, and a dearth of RAF pilots and USAAF bomber pilots.

That seems badly skewed, and all the more when Japan can put Tojos in the air in big numbers early, and has no problem in mid-1942 filling the air with scads of Helens, Sallies, Zeroes, Oscars, and Tojos that have decent pilots.

The Allies do get the 4EB, which are terrific at downing enemy CAP, and which can inflict big damage.  But, unlike the observations made by several IJ players, I can't keep mine in the air and I have limited numbers as of September 1942.

Despite what one poster said, I think Allied 4EB are more than offset by IJ Netties. They pack a powerful punch that the Allied player has to seriously respect out to a range of 10 or 15 hexes. The Allies have nothing like that.

There are other things, too, like flak.

In this game, the Allied "soft defense" strategy has minimized the impact of many of these problems. In fact, only in India, where I don't have enough planes or good pilots, am I even being pressed at the moment. But I can sure see why this state of affairs would be a real problem in games following a more historical pattern.

Finally, I need to point out that I requested Scenario Two and thus have to take what perks it provides Japanese players.  As far as I know, my mutterings are limited to things outside of Scenario Two (i.e., things that apply in every scenario) that don't seem consistent with reality.

[Mike Solli]

In my opinion, the Allied 4E bomber is the best fighter they have.

[witpqs]

He means highly trained via on-map training.

[Mike Solli]

I understand what he means. I think that Allied 4E bombers are practically impossible to bring down and that they kill lots of unarmored, poor Japanese fighters. Not complaining, mind you. I'd rather take on Allied fighters than 4E bombers. Then there's the fact that whatever is below the bomber is obliterated too.....

[vettim89]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I understand what he means. I think that Allied 4E bombers are practically impossible to bring down and that they kill lots of unarmored, poor Japanese fighters. Not complaining, mind you. I'd rather take on Allied fighters than 4E bombers. Then there's the fact that whatever is below the bomber is obliterated too.....

Few would disagree that 4E bombers are too powerful but all in all the game is in balance from a broad perspective. Yes, the 4E are overstated but that is offset by the fact that the 2E Allied bombers are about useless. In RL, AB suppression was where the 2E really shined with all those forward firing 0.50 and parafrags/WP bombs. The game doesn't represent this at all. So I guess in my mind, everythings seems to balance out. JOMHO

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I understand what he means.

My response was to paullus99... I should have quoted him for clarity. [8D]

[Canoerebel]

9/17/42 to 9/20/42

We've redone the accidental invasion of New Zealand turn, and now we've put a few turns under our belt.

India in the Air: The Allies won a 2:1 victory in the air over India on the 20th - Japan losing 50 aircraft and the Allies 25. I'm interested in seeing if the sharp little loss over Bombay persuades Brad to rest for a few days.

India at Sea: Two reinforcement convoys are unloading at Karachi.

India on the Ground: More Japanese troops are advancing west (true west) from Benares towards the twin Allied armies at Jalagon and Indore. Two hexes still separate Jalagon from the vanguard of the Japanese army, so I'm not sure if Brad is even coming all the way. The IJ stack includes 54th Division.

India Logistics: Bombay is down to about 35k supplies. I'll have to reopen the road, probably within 40 days or so. I'm probably going to await arrival of the new Indian division and the two Chindit units, set to arrive at Aden in about ten days. Elsewhere, the supply situation is great.

India Plan: When those reinforcements reach India, I can probably create an army of roughly 1,000 to 1,500 AV to push down the coastal road toward Bombay from Surat. This army will be in addition to 2,600 AV at Bombay, 1,200 at Jalagon, 1,000 at Indore, and a rear-guard garrison of about 500 AV at Surat. Brad has about a division posted on this road, plus five divisions at Bombay, about four divisions posted NE of Bombay, and at least one division, probably more like four, moving west from Benares.

KB: No sign of it.

Pacific: Remains quiet at the moment.

[witpqs]

If you do get a relief army to Bombay and they then move into the city using the same hex side the enemy entered via (presumably only one) that would be the AE equivalent of cutting them off Stalingrad style. Your supplies would flow but theirs would not.

[Canoerebel]

Clever idea, but Brad made sure to have units enter Bombay from every surrounding land hex. (He's clever, too.)