Better late than never (Lowpe (J) vs tiemanj (A))

[DanSez]

ORIGINAL: tiemanj
6/17/1943

Pilot Training Experiment, 1 1/2 months in

Those of you actually reading my musings may remember that back at the beginning of May, I filled out 6 training squadrons with freshly drawn in replacements. The leaders of each squadron were picked to see what leaders qualities were most desired for your training wings, and if it even made a difference (and was thus worth the PP expense and opportunity cost to have good leaders training your replacements instead of on the front lines).

Following is the results after about a month and a half of training:

Yes please keep us updated.
On both the training and your operations in game.
Thanks for the extra effort to post an AAR.

[tiemanjw]

6/23/1943

CENTPAC

Not much. My CVs are roaming around trying to get a fix on something to kill. He keeps moving his A/C away from any possible locations though, and the few times I guessed where he was going to be correctly, nothing flew. I've shot down several scouts, wrecked his few remaining airbases in the Marshalls and parried one feeble air attack on my CVs. But all in all, there is a lot of nothing going on here.

Burma

P47s have arrived! The first squadron has finally made the long journey from CONUS through Aden and down to Prome. A second squadron is 6 days out of Aden. I've also had a P38H squadron just arrive in the area. I'm going to hide them until I get a fix on where I think his fighters are. Then I'll send in the kitchen sink. On the waves, Prince of Wales (my perenneal yard queen) just arrived at Akyab meeting up with 2 CAs and 4 CLs. Right now, I don't have any missions in mind. He move up, I think, 4 CAs to the Burma pan handle, but I can't venture too far. I'm considering a bombardment of Moulmein - hopefully timed to when he has fighters there - but nothing is planned right now.

On the ground, the supply in southern Burma is a constant headache. To relieve the pressure, I've sent 2 marine regiments to take Ramree Island. It will still be a while before they are in position, so I may need to tempt fate and run another supply convoy down to Rangoon in the mean time. If this happens, the extra naval firepower should help.

I have pushed out of the central basin on the road toward Lashio. Resistance consists of a beat up tank regiment and elements of an RTA Division. He appears to be trying to move some units from Taung Gyi and Toungoo in this direction (or he may just be trying to set up a defensive line). At any rate, it shouldn't matter... I should have a US Regiment blocking the road before he gets there (in 3x terrain), shortly followed by a division. Plus, if he weakens Taung Gyi too much, it will be open to attack from another US division in the area.


Long Range Burma Plans

I still haven't fully settled on my next CENTPAC move, but I think I rulled out Java. Instead, I'm going to do an Andaman Islands offensive pushing down to Sabang. Currently he has airfields at Car Nicobar and Trinkat. The plan would be to jump on Trinkat, than move on to Sabang - possibly landing on the currently unoccupied Great Nicobar to build an airfield. Currently, I have 2 Indian Para Bdes and the US 503 PIR preping for Trinkat. 3 USMC para Bns and 2 Raider Bns are preping for Sabang (and enroute from the Marshall's) - and I have the 3 USMC regiments comprising the 4th Marine Division either in theater or enroute (2 of which are planning for Ramree right now). It appears that he has pulled most of his combat forces into Burma though, and this may be an exposed flank. Car Nicobar has just a few small JAAF Coys, Trinkat shows 1 LCU. Sigint has the 6/41st Infantry regiment there (and 9/41st has shown up elsewhere) and a few construction / JAAF Coys. Not sure exactly what remains there right now, and I don't want to tip him off too long before the invasion - so recon will be slow. Sabang may have more, but again, it is all JAAF Coys, construction Coys, 22nd Air Flotilla a piece of the 41st Infantry Regiment and 2 mortar Bns.

If Sabang can be taken, it opens up a world of possibilities. Singapore is 14 hexes away - in normal B24 range. Attacking the port could bottleneck his oil/fuel transport operations - hitting the shipyards would mean the only other shipyard outside the home islands is Saigon (I probably should hit those). Manila's were wrecked and Soerabaja's puny size 9 can't do CAs. All oil north of Palembang is in range - and an overland thrust to Langsa solves that problem.

[tiemanjw]

7/11/1943

It has been a while since I last posted. A few things happened in both CENTPAC and Burma, as well as a new long range CENTPAC strategy.

Burma
My last update says a second P47 squadron is 6 days from Aden... well, it’s been so long I now don't remember not having them in Burma.
The air war has been mostly stagnant. I've sent fighters after him a few times, but he is usually no longer there when I strike. I did manage to corner a bunch in the central Thailand bases one day, with F4Us getting more than 50. The hyped up P47s entry has been less than stellar - they have yet to get a good fix on some targets. They mostly just sweep empty skis.

At sea, I ran another supply convoy down to Rangoon. Enroute, he attacked with aircraft - and of course this was the day my LRCAP decided to wander off into central Burma instead of protecting the convoy (40% LRCAP set to keep fatigue down - the other 60% or so escorted bombers instead of scrambling to help my ships). Bettys got through and suck one xAK (no big deal), and got 4 fish into Prince of Wales. Overall damage is not bad at all. She made Akyab without a problem and only 32 major float (3 major engine) - so it could have been a lot worse. But it is back to the yards again. Maybe someday she'll do something more useful than absorb torpedoes.
In the end though, the mission was a success. 25k supply was delivered to Rangoon. Instead of trying to engage his ships though, I suspended unloading and ran away once I saw him moving up the coast. The additional 25k being carried by the convoy was dumped at Akyab... most of which moved inland (instead of back up into India).
As of today, the convoy has been reloaded, and is moving back to Akyab (too many CAs and what shows as BBs and CVs (I don't believe that last one though) lurking too close to Rangoon).

On the ground I've completely taken the Central Basin. I've also pushed east to Lashio, finally taking it yesterday after a bitter week long fight. The remints of his shattered forces have retreated north east into the jungle. I'm sending in some fresh troops to pursue and hopefully open the Burma road to Paoshan (a tank regiment is on the road 1 hex west of Paoshan).
The front has stabilized on a line from Rangoon up the western road - turns right to Toungoo and then up to Taung Gyi. Given the terrain, his strength concentration in this area, and my supply issues, I don't see any attempt to breach this coming any time soon. My next ground moves are:
Clean up around Lashio and open the Burma road to flow supplies into China.
Take Ramree Island (Marines and armor are about 3 days march remaining) so supplies can be unloaded there and flow into central and southern Burma
Continue preps for an assault down the Andaman chain - starting with an airborne assault on Trinkat.
Stockpile supplies at Prome, Bassein, and bases in the Central Basin to support future operations.

China
I've neglected reporting on this theater because it is a total disaster with no real long term plan.

At this point he recently managed to force me out of Changsha and the surrounding area. Survivors are spreading out to sit on any road I can.
More recently he moved on Kweiyang in force. I retreated back across the river to the north. He crossed the river quickly and caught my forces forcing a retreat (mostly orderly), but in the wrong direction. He used armor to then cut the road between Chungking and Kumming.
Around Chungking he is moving in force to cut it off and take the central valley. He hasn't captured anything there yet, but Neikiang will fall within a week. Most of my forces are either turtled up in Chungking (4200 AV, high moral but low experience, size 6 forts) or running down the crap (brown / yellow) road out of the valley toward Tsuyung (3300 AV) - and eventually Kumming. I want to keep Kumming open, so any available AV (currently 1200) is holding the mountains 2 hexes east of Kumming. They do have some AT guns and high moral - plus he appears more interested in the central valley. So I'm hoping they will hold. Some of the LCUs in better shape coming down the road from the central valley will join them there. The rest will refit and take replacements from the hopefully soon to be open Burma road.


CENTPAC

I launched a quick strike invasion on Ontong Java. Intel suspected nothing more than a company held this dot base. So I sent in an invasion force consisting of a USA regiment. It wasn't prepped beyond 30%, but the light opposition was swept aside (with BB support). The next day the island was bursting at the seams with engineers. In 2 days the AF was already up to size 2. I plan to build this base up full, and use it to launch strikes (air and naval) into his flank on the Solomon’s. I may push into some of the dot bases in the central and northern Solomon’s if it appears to be beneficial, but I don't want to commit too many resources to this.

After the island was secure, the fast CVs covering the operation executed a high speed run to bomb the port at Truk. I think this caught him by surprise - 2 BBs got walloped at anchor (2 CAs, a DD, and a SS were hit as well). Of course there were no penetrations on the BBs, but each had over 15 hits and 2 40cm gun mounts "hit" (destroyed?), and were left with "heavy fires". Depending on how long the fires burn for, I'm guessing the system damaged will be quite high. Combined with needing to repair the weapons, I'm guessing he'll return to the home islands at some point. I'm guessing these boats will not be combat ready until sometime in 1944. The same day, some hapless convoy consisting of an xAK and SC were hit by my top torpedo bomber group between Truk and Ponape. There was nothing left after that. A group of CAs that was at Truk the day before the raid moved east, and was just out of range. My CVs retreat was to the east (all east of Ponape are flattened and can't launch strikes), and I hoped to catch them, but they continued east themselves. I currently don't have the fuel to chase him, and my boats are heading for the tankers north of Kusaie.

Future plans:
He has built up Ponape to now over 20k troops and 250 guns. At this point, I don't think Ponape gives me enough value to warrant the cost. Rather, I think it shows an intent to close off the Solomon’s, but can't actually enforce it. Thus far, he has been good at withdrawing his forces before I can close the door, and I don't want him retreating too far. The move at Ontong Java will make it difficult to impossible to pull his 20k off of Guadalcanal, but doesn't directly threaten to cut off Kavieng or Rabaul. So I'm going for the Marianas - probably in the late Sept / early Oct timeframe.

Rough plan:
I will use CVs to strike at bases in SOPAC (Truk, Rabaul, possibly Manus) to similar to operation Hailstone. The objective will be to destroy / scatter his shipping and prevent them from interfering with future CENTPAC operations. An invasion forces will move from Pearl and the Marshalls. Wake Island will be taken to blind his search and, hopefully, make him think that this is where the invasion is headed.
2 divisions (each) are prepping for Guam, Rota, and Tinian, as well as armor, arty, and engineering support. Rota and Guam will be the first 2 targets to provide air cover and a forward refuel / rearming point. Tinian will follow once the shipping is freed up from the first 2 invasions.

[tiemanjw]

Burma Map

[tiemanjw]

CENTPAC Plan

[tiemanjw]

7/16/1943

Burma
Ramree is taken. I really shouldn't have waited so long. He only had few troops left over from the 41st Inf Regiment with a raw AV at a massive 7. I may have been able to take it with a base force. Instead I use the 23rd Marine Regiment and Gardner’s Horse Tank Regiment. I guess there is no kill like overkill.
At any rate, I now have hundreds of engineers being flown in to improve the docks as well as naval support squads to assist in quick unloading. The first shipment of supplies arrived the day after it is taken. LRCAP from Akyab proved worthless. He sends 60 Betty's (unescorted). I had 6 fighter squadrons at 60% LRCAP (and nothing else assigned) - 110 A/C total. During the morning fight, I get a grand total of 4 show up. At least this time, he just hits 3 xAKs, sinking 2. But a repeat in the afternoon sees CA Shropshire and CL Nashville each get 1 fish. At least in the afternoon all my fighters show up AFTER the attack. It doesn't fix my cruisers, but it does decimate his betty forces for a little while. Given the putrid response of my fighters, the fact that the damage wasn't far greater is a small miracle. Well over 100 fish were dropped, and only 6 hits. I wonder if he is starting to run a bit short on quality TB pilots?

After this debacle, I've crammed several fighters into Ramree's tiny airfield. Once the port gets up to snuff, I'll expand it, as I plan to bring a lot of material in here. 3 fresh British Cruisers (1 CA and 2 CLs) are enroute from Colombo escorted by a gaggle of Fletchers. I also have 4 CLs (though 1 is the old Dutch Sumatra) still fresh in the area.

As for future moves here, I now have to get the following ships in need of repairs:
BB Prince of Wales (Akyab)
BB Ramillies (Chittagong)
CA Shropshire (Akyab)
CL Nashville (Akyab)
CL Caradoc (Akyab)
and the really tricky one, CA Sussex in Rangoon.

Prince of Wales is patched up, and ready to make a run for her favorite home, the shipyards at Colombo. Ramillies is ready to go, as soon as I can spare a few DDs to escort her. Caradoc has high flood damage, but is otherwise ready to go (probably to Calcutta). Nashville and Shropshire can't fight, but they can move - again, as soon as I can spare DDs and fighters. Sussex is also ready to go, but being in Rangoon makes it tricky. He has built up a sizable force of what reads to be battleships (and probably a few CAs) at Mergui. As soon as I move DDs to Rangoon, he'll probably stop by for a visit. I may risk an unescorted high speed run (at 17 knots!) and meet with escorts in the Bay of Bengal if she survives. There is no urgency for now though, (other than a strong desire to have another CA), so I may just sit on my hands (probably not though, I'm sure impatience will get to me).

The good news is, that now with Ramree, I can force feed supplies into southern Burma. He can come visit with his navy, but he will have trouble providing CAP. Any delay in getting out of harm’s way could be met by my growing anti-shipping air power. I have a 2 low level bomber groups in place, plus the Vengeance’s. I'm also shipping over about 5 USMC squadrons (SBDs and TBFs) to beef it up even more. With Ramree as a US base (SOPAC command), I will be able to bring some PTs into the mix as soon as I get enough supplies there.

In other air news, I've reached critical mass of recon assets. Between bringing in a few extra squadrons, and no longer needing to scout out Central Burma, I have enough assets to start poking around and second level targets. Saigon and Cam Rah Bay are both undefended. I've ordered my bombers to hit Cam Rah's port and airfield where nearly 60 ships and a bunch of ASW A/C (but no fighters) are operating out of. I rested my bombers 2 days ago, and ordered it yesterday, and it failed to fly. Hopefully he doesn't get spooked by not seeing my bombers for a few days and start protecting high value assets in the back field. If the attack is successful, it may force him it start defending these far away targets, and thin out his fighters near the front.

On the ground, the Burma road is nearly open (in the sense that supplies can flow - the game concept of "Burma Road" with the 500 free supplies is still a ways off, as I don't own the roads out of Rangoon). I have blocked the units that retreated from Lashio from taking the roads. I just need to get rid of that tank regiment next to Paoshan. I'm sending the Indian 255th Armor Bde to dig him out. It may be a bit of fight... he has been there forever to dig in. But now that his supply lines have been cut, I'm hoping to grind him down quickly with a combination of air and armor.


CENTPAC

After hitting Truk, I retired east, hoping to hit that group of "CAs" I saw heading in that direction. Well, one day out, I didn't catch them... but my CVs had no DL. I don't think he expected a easterly retreat. The enemy SAG, feeling safe stops at Roi Namur.
Turns out to be a group of 9 DDs (I guess target inflation is alive and well). Roi, as well as all other air fields in the area are flattened, so he can't provide any air cover. CV bombers team up with LBA out of Ailinglaplap and pound the group (or more accuratly, the fish that were foolish enough to swim near his boats). After the first day 1 is sunk, and 3 more damaged to varying degrees as over 100 A/C attack in both the morning and afternoon. On day 2, Burke moves in with 7 DDs. He, and the undamaged group of 5 trade torpedoes and gun fire, but only 1 shell hit aside is scored. Burke, low on fuel, then retires, and pounds a lone, damaged DD off near Kwajalein. The remaining 5 retreat towards Wake Island, and make a clean getaway.

My CVs are in dire need of an overhaul after a few months of operations. Further, most of my escorts are overdue for upgrades. I need to send them back to Pearl. On the way, I'll visit Wake again and see if I can cause some damage. Every time I look there, I see nearly half a dozen small TFs. I have no idea what he is doing here, but I'm getting tired of it.

[tiemanjw]

******************************************************************************************
7/27/1943

SE Asia
The Cam Ranh raid flies, and it was a beauty! About 20 merchants hit multiple times and on heavy fire. Another dozen or so hit at least once as well as 3 assorted other ships (a DMS, an ACM and a SC) probably sunk. The runway was also hit about 40 times along with a pair of Helen’s and a Dinah. Hopefully a few more crashed after returning from sub hunts.

This first order effect of the raid was good enough by itself - considering I had no losses. But now he is starting to protect these far away bases with his fighters, reducing his numbers in Thailand and Burma. Fighters have been spotted now at Saigon, Cam Ranh, and Hanoi (bombers used to be here). Right now it is just small potatoes (a dozen here, a dozen there). I'll keep recon poking at these bases from time to time to remind him I'm looking. If he leaves some place unguarded, I'll come back.

After the Cam Ranh raid, I went after Bangkok. Noticing only about 30 or so fighters along with a large number of bombers, I decided to roll the dice. P38s went in first brushing aside the roughly 20 Oscars he had on CAP that day. B24s follow hitting no opposition. Nearly a score or so A/C of different types are destroyed on the ground along with 40 runway hits, again for no bomber losses (a few P38s were lost). Hoping he would relocate his remaining functional A/C due to the runway damage, I went for a second day of attacks. Not so much luck this time though. He had a mix of about 50 Georges, Oscars, and Tojo’s flying CAP. The first group of P38s goes about even, and the second group gets a few kills for no losses, but the bombers don't fly.

Next up was Moulmein. Despite not seeing any fighters there for a while, I expected him to move some in just prior to hitting the place - as he often does to cover his naval assets when they come up in response to my supply runs. This raid was a costly success - but I don't know how much of one. The combat report had nearly 130 fighters show up to protect the place. Sweeps from F4s cause a good bit of damage for light losses. The first bomber group comes in well-coordinated with lots of B24s and plenty of P40 escorts. The escorts get mauled, but the bombers are untouched all the way to their bombing runs. Clear weather ensures about 10 night fighters and 80 runway hits are scored on this first attack. Later raids (one unescorted B24 group takes larger losses than I'd like), continue to flatten the air base. All told, about 50 Japanese A/C are reported lost to about 40 of mine. But intel only sees about 20-30 fighters remaining the next day (DL of 9). I'm guessing those fighters flying CAP tried landing on Moulmein after the bombers came through during the A/C landing phase... does this mean he could suffer a larger number of op losses / write offs that would not be reported in tracker. I know fog of war affects this kind of thing, but I don't know how it is affected in this case. I'd be curious to know what his true losses were for this raid.

Finally, before completely abandoning the topic of the deep strike, I had a radio chatter hit at a place called Battambang (I've never heard of it before, but now I know it is a major transportation and rice growing center in present day Cambodia!). A scout found a size 4 AF along with 50+ bombers and no fighters. Perhaps he is stashing them there for safe keeping? I ordered another recon, though this time with 100 tons of ordnance. Hopefully, tomorrow they fly.


On the ground, most movement is slow right now. The 762nd Tank Bn is pursuing the survivors from Lashio up the road to Myitkyina. The Indian 255th Armor is slowing wearing down his forces in the mountains near Paoshan. Here, he appears to have switched out the tank regiment that was there originally with a third of a RTA Division. They are cut off and out of supply, so slow deliberate attacks are steadily wearing him down.

He attacked on my left flank with the 1st Tank Division supported by an infantry division. He must have thought that I was defending with a few armor Bns that were originally there. Instead he finds the 41st Infantry Div and an anti-armor Bn dug into size 2 forts (in x3 terrain). It did not go well for him, and now the tank division is retreating back towards Taung Gyi. Otherwise everything is static now. I'm building up forces and bases in the while trying to get more supplies in, but it is slow going in the Monsoon. This front will probably be mostly static for a while now.


CENTPAC

Slow moving after the Truk raid. My CVs and BBs are in desperate need of some yard time. Wasp has engine damage at 11 and system damage at 10. She is the worst, but everyone needs work. Plus most of my BBs are due for upgrades (as well as several CAs and nearly all of my DDs). Most of my heavy forces are nearly back in Pearl for repairs and overhauls. CV 10 (which I renamed Enterprise II) and Independence have reached Pearl as well and will join up with the rest of my CVs.

I did hit [try] to hit Wake on my way back to Pearl - but all those TF icons must be a bunch of SSXs or something. No naval strikes fly, but my scout SBDs kept reporting hits on SSXs.

In another kiss a bubble head moment, Shokaku was moving east (my guess is out of Palau islands) north of Truk where Snook scored a hit. Of course this kiss a bubble head moment quickly turned into another I hate Christie moments as only 1 detonates. Steelhead takes a swing later in the day, with no detonations. 36 more days...


The only other CENTPAC news is that the up until now lightly defended Marianas (at least according to sigint), are getting reinforced. The 42 division (haven't seen them before... a reinforcement?) is reported to be heading to Guam. Dang. I guess I have to fight divisions at some point.

[tiemanjw]

7/30/1943

Two updates in 3 game days! Either important things are happening, or I'm bored. Sadly it is the latter.

CENTPAC

Most of my fleet is in upgrades / refurbishing after running hard for a few months. Even with that, the invasions of Kwajalein and Roi-Namur are a go, and transports are loading now. This is a small invasion compared to ones in the past. Both atolls can only hold 6k troops, so each invasion is 1 USMC regiment, 1 armor Bn plus a combat engineer regiment. Air cover will be provided from Ailinglaplap. 2 BBs and 4 CAs will provide direct support and an additional CA and CL will screen the invasion. PT boats will also be sent from Ailinglaplap to help with recon and screening. All enemy airfields in range from Ponape to Wake island have been bombed with anything over size 1 and closer than 13 hexes in complete ruins.

Burma

60k supplies have been dumped into Ramree in the past 2 days. These supplies have flowed to Prome and Bassein, and hopefully soon to the Central Basin. On the ground his 1st Tank division, which was all the way on his right flank is moving south and is now past Taung Gyi. I'm not sure where he is going or why. I'm assembling ground forces at Meiktila for a push somewhere. That somewhere will depend more on his strength when I'm ready. I can go either to Taung Gyi or Toungoo depending on where I suspect he is weaker.

In the air, I've launched a full out air offensive to prevent him from being able to use his airpower. Targets have been large concentrations of bombers inadequately protected by fighters. The Battambang raid goes off without a hitch... 2 squadrons of Vals are found there and over 2 dozen are destroyed. Next up was Mergui. Here is where he has ships, including Yamato (spotted by a sub) that have been hanging out for a while. There were also lots of Bettys and Kates protected by 30 Tojo’s and a handful of Zeros. P38 sweeps make short work of his fighters before the bombers come in. Unmolested by enemy fighters, B24s than proceed to level the airfield with over 95 runway hits and more than 30 bombers.
Next up is Uttaradit in central Thailand. Here he boasts 60+ fighters and 20 bombers, plus 17 others (Emily / Dinah ?). Yesterday, 50 P47s swept the place and smoked over 30 Tojo’s reducing his fighter strength by more than half. Additional sweeps followed by B24s are scheduled to hit the place today. I suspect that he will have moved his remaining assets to protect them... but at least this will be one less place they will be able to operate from for a little while.
All told, over the past 4 days, 220 Japanese A/C have been destroyed for 62 of my own... mostly ops losses and fighters that don't make it back. A handful of B24s have been lost to flak (I bomb low), but I've horded airframes for a little while and plenty of replacements are on hand.

[tiemanjw]

Ok, I'd like some suggestions. Yamato is loitering down at Mergui, laughing at my torpedo-less bombers. I'd like to get a good shot at her, but I can't think of any good options. So the question is, how do I hit her, at least hard enough to put her in the yards for some time?

I'm not at my computer right now, so I may be off by a bit, but Mergui is about 9-11 hexes from both Rangoon and Port Blair - my 2 closest bases. My tools are as follows:
I have fighters that can reach Mergui for sweeps and escorts.
I have bombers that can lay waste to the airfield there. A recent strike leveled the airfield, and he currently has no A/C stationed there to protect his fleet.
I have Beaufort bombers there and Avengers on the way (and 1 beast that hasn't been killed yet!)
I also have vengeance dive bombers in theater and USMC SBDs on the way.
All of which is good, except none of them have the legs to make the strike.
I also have B25s, but Yamato's armor will just laugh at the 500lbrs - and I'll probably get chewed up by flak.
I also have a couple of CAs, a few CLs, and a gaggle of DDs (including several Fletchers) - none of which I want to involve in a gun fight with 18"ers. Prince of Wales is in the yards for 3 more months - but even then I don't think I want her and her 15" guns to mix it up with the monster.

A few ideas I've spitballed:
horde attack with PT boats. I haven't had a whole lot of success with these guys in direct action, but if necessary, I can put about 40 on him

bait him with some DDs - I don't know what his react range is set to, but if I can draw him north, I may be able to hit him with air power

mines - air dropped and / or sub laid. Problem here is he keeps an AMc nearby, as he has had several DDs and a CA hit by mines in this area

sub swarm - similar to the PT boat attack, only with subs.

[BBfanboy]

I like the PT boat idea, not because I expect you to get a lucky hit in Musashi's magazine (as Greyjoy once did with a PT vs Yamato) but to get him using his ammo on small elusive targets. Five groups of 8 PTs should leave her empty. I don't think you have seen any AE/AKE support there and unless Mergui is a Level 8 port or has a Naval HQ there, I doubt he can reload there. Once the guns are empty, pile on the DDs/CAs etc. and have your nest of subs waiting for her to bolt.
Don't forget to put some cheap ships near Mergui to buddy-refuel the PTs which only have 12 (US) or 15 (Brit MTB) hex range.

[tiemanjw]

8/19/1943

Its been a while...

CENTPAC

Ships are coming out of repairs / long overdue upgrades now. Lexington (part II) is a day out of Pearl with Princeton, Belleau Wood, and a posse of DDs in tow. A few squadrons from the west coast are a day behind that on transports. Once all of this is assembled, they will transit down to the Marshalls / Gilberts and start raiding his deeper bases in the area (Rabaul and Truk specifically).

Kwajalein and Roi-Namur were taken in early August. For about 2 weeks afterwards, nothing happened. Then I put a pair of CAs about 9 hexes from Ponape to run in and bombard. I see they are spotted, and so I scrub the mission. It’s a good thing I did, because the next turn all hell breaks loose. He saturates Ponape and Eniwetok with about 100 A/C each (about half fighters and half bombers). An evil CA group sneaks in from the north west (just outside LBA range). Then, after not having seen hide nor hare of the KB for a looooong time, I get this during a routine suppression bombing of Kusaie:

Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 20


CAP engaged:
Kaga-1 with A6M5c Zero (4 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(4 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
4 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 15000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 15000.
Raid is overhead
Soryu-1 with A6M5c Zero (6 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(6 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
6 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 15000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 15000.
Raid is overhead
Ryujo-1 with A6M5c Zero (3 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(3 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
3 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 15000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 15000.
Raid is overhead
Hiyo-1 with A6M5c Zero (2 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(2 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
2 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 15000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 15000.
Raid is overhead
Zuiho-1 with A6M5c Zero (3 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(3 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
3 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 15000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 15000.
Raid is overhead
Hiryu-1 with A6M5c Zero (2 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(2 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
2 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 15000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 15000.
Raid is overhead

The A6M5c has a normal range of 8 with drop tanks (max LRCAP range). I have good nav search well out past Kusaie, and all I see is a lone PB halfway between Ponape and Truk. They could possibly come from Ponape (it is 8 hexes away), but I would think I'd see more than 50 fighters. This looks more like it came from 150 fighters. Is he nearby, missed by Nav Search? I've turtled up in my bases until I find out.

Regardless of what this actually is, the aborted bombardment gave me a wealth of information:
His CV VFs are flying at 15k ft - and are not stacked. As my CVs approach the area, I'll probably set my strike for 15k ft so he can't bounce all over it. I'll probably set a VMF or small VF to escort at 17k-20k as well. They may not join the party, but if they do, It will give me a good chance to bounce him.
It also means his strike will have to come at 15k as well, or risk coming in uncovered. I typically stack my CAP, but I'll make sure a few more than average are waiting at 17k-18k. I'll also put some bait at 13k.
He is LRCAPing from his CVs (or from Ponape). Either way, those squadrons will be tired - and can be prone to getting sucked off.
His response has drawn off fighters from Truk. Could be useful when the time comes.

So the game of move - counter move continues. Usually, he runs in and runs out so I can't bring overwhelming force against him (he has already abandoned Eniwetok), but I'll play ball this time. For next turn, I sent some sweeps of Kusaie (F6s, P47s) and Ponape (P38s). I also added 2 more NavS squadrons to the area from Pearl. Let’s see if I can unblur this picture some.


Burma

His A/C have run to Bangkok and haven't budged. I poked him with some P38s a few days ago... bad idea. It is just outside normal range for the jugs, and I don't want my top pilots facing heavy ops losses that would result. So I'll just have to leave him alone. Dang.
On the ground it is just quite building while mopping up some scattered forces in the north (good training!). Supplies are slowly flowing into the central basin. In the south I have nearly 100k supply in Rangoon and Prome. Monsoon rains are slowing the flow into the central basin, though stocks there are approaching 10k at each base. So much is now piled up on the docks at Ramree, I've stopped sending in more until it can get pushed inland.


In other news...

He sent Tone with a DD escort down to Perth. Perth has become a backwater, so nothing important is there... but he did catch a convoy from CT bringing in supplies. This CS convoy has been coming since the beginning of the game, and for some reason included an xAP. The loss of a handful of merchants kind of sucks, but maybe I'll get lucky and he'll think that xAP had a higher purpose. Fool him with my stupidity! It just might work.


I also recently started looking at air frame fatigue (not just pilot fatigue). Interesting stuff. I see that my CV fighter groups (that fly a lot of CAP from the CVs), are especially beat up - 60 - 100+ fatigue (by contrast most LBA fighters are between 20-40). I stood them down at Pearl to see what happens, and it looks like A/C over 70 fatigue all went into maintenance. But this leaves a lot of other A/C with fatigue in the 60s. This seems a bit high, so before loading onto CVs, I "upgraded" them back to F4s, then upgraded again back to F6s. This has reset the fatigue back to 0. A bit gamey? I don't think so, as I can't "order" that A/C go into maintenance, and I needed to have a sizable pool of F6s to do this. I would think of it as the current beat up air frames going to depot level repair. Plus it will be nearly a week before these new F6s are all up. Does it make any difference? I don't know, but if we are approaching a CV vs CV battle, I want every advantage I can get.



BB Fan Boy
A belated thanks for your comments. I hadn't even thought about PTs to drain his ammo, but I like it. Sadly, though he ran for Phuket, and then somewhere even further back after I bombed the port there. I will keep this in mind though, if he tries to come back.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: tiemanj

The A6M5c has a normal range of 8 with drop tanks (max LRCAP range). I have good nav search well out past Kusaie, and all I see is a lone PB halfway between Ponape and Truk. They could possibly come from Ponape (it is 8 hexes away), but I would think I'd see more than 50 fighters. This looks more like it came from 150 fighters. Is he nearby, missed by Nav Search? I've turtled up in my bases until I find out.

The trouble with the A6M5c is this short range making extended use difficult for the reasons you mention below. You really have to watch airframe fatigue because you're constantly setting it to max range. That said it's a difficult defender and escort.

Regardless of what this actually is, the aborted bombardment gave me a wealth of information:
His CV VFs are flying at 15k ft - and are not stacked. As my CVs approach the area, I'll probably set my strike for 15k ft so he can't bounce all over it. I'll probably set a VMF or small VF to escort at 17k-20k as well. They may not join the party, but if they do, It will give me a good chance to bounce him.
It also means his strike will have to come at 15k as well, or risk coming in uncovered. I typically stack my CAP, but I'll make sure a few more than average are waiting at 17k-18k. I'll also put some bait at 13k.

Not a bad idea to go to 15k, but you should be fine getting to his strikes with your ever improving radar. Layering a few units might help, and you might consider a low one as well in case any LBA is set to very low altitude. DL is the main factor in a CV engagement, so really make sure if you're going for him to get a good look first and have as much search out there as you can get.

I also recently started looking at air frame fatigue (not just pilot fatigue). Interesting stuff. I see that my CV fighter groups (that fly a lot of CAP from the CVs), are especially beat up - 60 - 100+ fatigue (by contrast most LBA fighters are between 20-40). I stood them down at Pearl to see what happens, and it looks like A/C over 70 fatigue all went into maintenance. But this leaves a lot of other A/C with fatigue in the 60s. This seems a bit high, so before loading onto CVs, I "upgraded" them back to F4s, then upgraded again back to F6s. This has reset the fatigue back to 0. A bit gamey? I don't think so, as I can't "order" that A/C go into maintenance, and I needed to have a sizable pool of F6s to do this. I would think of it as the current beat up air frames going to depot level repair. Plus it will be nearly a week before these new F6s are all up. Does it make any difference? I don't know, but if we are approaching a CV vs CV battle, I want every advantage I can get.

You can exchange airframes to your heart's content. No gaminess about that. For Japan he has to worry about supply doing that, but the Allied don't. I've noticed that with short ranged planes the fatigue gets very high set on continual 5-7 hex CAP/escort. When you know absolutely that you're safe you can stand them down, set to 0 hexes or put them on training. Only when you know you're way out of a danger area though. [:)]

[tiemanjw]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: tiemanj

The A6M5c has a normal range of 8 with drop tanks (max LRCAP range). I have good nav search well out past Kusaie, and all I see is a lone PB halfway between Ponape and Truk. They could possibly come from Ponape (it is 8 hexes away), but I would think I'd see more than 50 fighters. This looks more like it came from 150 fighters. Is he nearby, missed by Nav Search? I've turtled up in my bases until I find out.

The trouble with the A6M5c is this short range making extended use difficult for the reasons you mention below. You really have to watch airframe fatigue because you're constantly setting it to max range. That said it's a difficult defender and escort.

Thanks for the insight. I haven't played as Japan yet so I don't have a real good feel for the strengths and weaknesses of their various platforms. Looking at tracker, it seems that the A6M5c breaks the IJN trend and adds armor at the expense of range - making it more like most allied fighters.

Regardless of what this actually is, the aborted bombardment gave me a wealth of information:
His CV VFs are flying at 15k ft - and are not stacked. As my CVs approach the area, I'll probably set my strike for 15k ft so he can't bounce all over it. I'll probably set a VMF or small VF to escort at 17k-20k as well. They may not join the party, but if they do, It will give me a good chance to bounce him.
It also means his strike will have to come at 15k as well, or risk coming in uncovered. I typically stack my CAP, but I'll make sure a few more than average are waiting at 17k-18k. I'll also put some bait at 13k.

Not a bad idea to go to 15k, but you should be fine getting to his strikes with your ever improving radar. Layering a few units might help, and you might consider a low one as well in case any LBA is set to very low altitude. DL is the main factor in a CV engagement, so really make sure if you're going for him to get a good look first and have as much search out there as you can get.

I meant I was thinking of moving my strike A/C up to 15k so he couldn't bounce all over them. Historically, I have struck at 10k to maximize steal on target. However, I don't want 100 fighters dropping down on me - better for my escorts to meet them head on.
I've been doing some thinking with respect to this. The manual gives a teaser "there is a chance the escort aircraft will bounce the enemy CAP". A while back, he struck at a transport group off Akyab which I had well covered with layered CAP from 5k-18k. But his bombers came in low (can't remember the altitude), but his fighter escorts all came in at 22k+. It didn't "feel" like he was using LRCAP - all his fighters were there at the beginning of the fight, and not trickling in. Further the combat report looked different then when I know he was using LRCAP. The result was nasty to my CAP. I'm trying to figure out how he was set up there, so I can duplicate it. I'm thinking, maybe, he had "escort" set (perhaps to protect the base they were flying from, or perhaps he forgot to set the altitude to match the bombers) and got a good die roll for air strike coordination. I figure I can "spend" one VMF or a smaller VF (not the 36 A/C ones) - set it to escort, range 6, CAP 30% and put it at about 20k. If I get lucky, they may fly top cover for the strike. If they don't, I'll still have them at a good altitude to intercept an incoming strike.

As to defense, I always have my CAP layered from about 2k - 6k with small groups (they chew up scouts well), 8k-17k layered. What I was trying to say was that I'll probably spread this out to 8k-20k with a bit more space in between in order to hit a strike expected at 15k. I'm not going to pull my pants down to do it though.

As to scouting, roger that. I have literally hundreds of PBYs and dozens of PB4Ys between the Marshall's / Gilberts and Solomons (the area I plan to be operating in). I'll supplement that with CV based SBDs to make sure I don't miss anything. At least one, and probably 2 VBs. I expect to need 175 bombers to truly devastate his KB. I'm taking 300 to sea, so I'll probably task nearly 70 to scouting.

I also recently started looking at air frame fatigue (not just pilot fatigue). Interesting stuff. I see that my CV fighter groups (that fly a lot of CAP from the CVs), are especially beat up - 60 - 100+ fatigue (by contrast most LBA fighters are between 20-40). I stood them down at Pearl to see what happens, and it looks like A/C over 70 fatigue all went into maintenance. But this leaves a lot of other A/C with fatigue in the 60s. This seems a bit high, so before loading onto CVs, I "upgraded" them back to F4s, then upgraded again back to F6s. This has reset the fatigue back to 0. A bit gamey? I don't think so, as I can't "order" that A/C go into maintenance, and I needed to have a sizable pool of F6s to do this. I would think of it as the current beat up air frames going to depot level repair. Plus it will be nearly a week before these new F6s are all up. Does it make any difference? I don't know, but if we are approaching a CV vs CV battle, I want every advantage I can get.

You can exchange airframes to your heart's content. No gaminess about that. For Japan he has to worry about supply doing that, but the Allied don't. I've noticed that with short ranged planes the fatigue gets very high set on continual 5-7 hex CAP/escort. When you know absolutely that you're safe you can stand them down, set to 0 hexes or put them on training. Only when you know you're way out of a danger area though. [:)]

Hmm... didn't think about supply - but no matter. I have 4M at Pearl. I'll have keep this in mind though if I'm going to try this at a forward base. Thanks for the pointer.

I only stood them down when the CVs were at the docks in Pearl. Never at sea! I get chills just thinking about it.

I also don't set 5-7 hex CAP / Escort. My VFs (and VMFs) are at their layer altitude, range 0, CAP 40%. This seems to give me the most fighters quickest. Or they are at strike altitude, range 6, CAP 10%. This way the bulk will escort the bombers if they go, but if they don't escort, they will still participate in defense.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: tiemanj


I've been doing some thinking with respect to this. The manual gives a teaser "there is a chance the escort aircraft will bounce the enemy CAP". A while back, he struck at a transport group off Akyab which I had well covered with layered CAP from 5k-18k. But his bombers came in low (can't remember the altitude), but his fighter escorts all came in at 22k+. It didn't "feel" like he was using LRCAP - all his fighters were there at the beginning of the fight, and not trickling in. Further the combat report looked different then when I know he was using LRCAP. The result was nasty to my CAP. I'm trying to figure out how he was set up there, so I can duplicate it. I'm thinking, maybe, he had "escort" set (perhaps to protect the base they were flying from, or perhaps he forgot to set the altitude to match the bombers) and got a good die roll for air strike coordination. I figure I can "spend" one VMF or a smaller VF (not the 36 A/C ones) - set it to escort, range 6, CAP 30% and put it at about 20k. If I get lucky, they may fly top cover for the strike. If they don't, I'll still have them at a good altitude to intercept an incoming strike.

I've had this happen, mostly from CV strikes but I think I remember it happening from LBA as well. The fighters show up in the screen before the bombers and get a hit on the CAP before the bombers show up, so that they usually get through more easily. I'm not sure how it happens, as I didn't vary my settings much in the game as Japan. I used 10k exclusively.

You could do some tests, but I've not seen a setting with 10% CAP and escorting before. It's a seemingly good idea, as long as you then have a ton of dedicated CAP. I just think, well, I can assure myself 40%, or 50% of my fighters will be on CAP if I set them all that way, but if I start messing around I can't make sure that will happen. I need to do some tests again. Using CVEs en masse with my CVs might change how things work a bit, so it would be good to look at it all with some detailed testing.

[tiemanjw]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: tiemanj


I've been doing some thinking with respect to this. The manual gives a teaser "there is a chance the escort aircraft will bounce the enemy CAP". A while back, he struck at a transport group off Akyab which I had well covered with layered CAP from 5k-18k. But his bombers came in low (can't remember the altitude), but his fighter escorts all came in at 22k+. It didn't "feel" like he was using LRCAP - all his fighters were there at the beginning of the fight, and not trickling in. Further the combat report looked different then when I know he was using LRCAP. The result was nasty to my CAP. I'm trying to figure out how he was set up there, so I can duplicate it. I'm thinking, maybe, he had "escort" set (perhaps to protect the base they were flying from, or perhaps he forgot to set the altitude to match the bombers) and got a good die roll for air strike coordination. I figure I can "spend" one VMF or a smaller VF (not the 36 A/C ones) - set it to escort, range 6, CAP 30% and put it at about 20k. If I get lucky, they may fly top cover for the strike. If they don't, I'll still have them at a good altitude to intercept an incoming strike.

I've had this happen, mostly from CV strikes but I think I remember it happening from LBA as well. The fighters show up in the screen before the bombers and get a hit on the CAP before the bombers show up, so that they usually get through more easily. I'm not sure how it happens, as I didn't vary my settings much in the game as Japan. I used 10k exclusively.

You could do some tests, but I've not seen a setting with 10% CAP and escorting before. It's a seemingly good idea, as long as you then have a ton of dedicated CAP. I just think, well, I can assure myself 40%, or 50% of my fighters will be on CAP if I set them all that way, but if I start messing around I can't make sure that will happen. I need to do some tests again. Using CVEs en masse with my CVs might change how things work a bit, so it would be good to look at it all with some detailed testing.

Actually, this one was even weirder... I've seen what you describe as well, and I think it is the result of CAP or LRCAP joining the fight, or coming in early. On this one, all the fighters and bombers showed up at once. I thought great news, I'll slaughter some helpless escorts and splash some bombers. But as the fight went on something was clearly "wrong". My fighters were getting beat up way more then usual, and they weren't getting much in return. It really got me thinking on how to duplicate it. I haven't had an opportunity to test it yet.

And, yea, I'll have plenty of dedicated CAP. That is what all those 0 range, 40% CAP is for (5/6 airborne, 5/6 on ready alert, about 20 waiting around for something to do - since they can't escort (range 0), they join the CAP - for the 36 VF groups).

The "top cover" squadron is kind of an extra. I estimate I'll need about 275 fighters (150 CAP, 125 escort), and I'm bringing nearly 375, I have a few to play with. Most will go to extra CAP - can't ever have too much, but I'll "bet" an 18 A/C squadron for this. Especially when "failed" simply means it takes a little longer for a handful of fighters to contribute to my already oversized CAP. I'll probably make it a VMF with experence 70+ (80+ if I can spare them from Burma) and the best leader money can buy to maximize the chance of escort. I'll specially equip them with F6s for this job (I've been keeping the F6s away from the marines to appease my sense of history). I'll see how it goes.

[tiemanjw]

8/20/1943

CENTPAC

Sweeps fly against Ponape and Kusaie. At Kusaie, nothing. At Ponape, just a dozen float fighters (Rex and Rufe). No sign of the KB or its air groups. Hit both Kusaie and Ponape with recon again - Kusaie is still empty, Ponape has nearly 50 fighters, 50 bombers, and a dozen scouts... same as before. Truk and Rabaul (also recon-ed), show no change. The mystery deepens.
A pair of his CLs come and thump one of my SCs on picket duty. Since I'm in full defensive mode right now, I've pulled the pickets back to protect them.

At Pearl, the skipper for the transport group bringing in some airwings for my CVs managed to coax out warp speed and arrived in Pearl a day early. Room was made at the docks for the ships carrying A/C, and my CVs should now launch a day earlier than previously planned.


Burma

One of his retreating, broken down units, manages to sit on the road east of Lashio and cut off China again. No big deal though, as the Indian 255th Armored uses them as target practice. They are vaporized after 1 fight.

[MrKane]

ORIGINAL: tiemanj

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: tiemanj


I've been doing some thinking with respect to this. The manual gives a teaser "there is a chance the escort aircraft will bounce the enemy CAP". A while back, he struck at a transport group off Akyab which I had well covered with layered CAP from 5k-18k. But his bombers came in low (can't remember the altitude), but his fighter escorts all came in at 22k+. It didn't "feel" like he was using LRCAP - all his fighters were there at the beginning of the fight, and not trickling in. Further the combat report looked different then when I know he was using LRCAP. The result was nasty to my CAP. I'm trying to figure out how he was set up there, so I can duplicate it. I'm thinking, maybe, he had "escort" set (perhaps to protect the base they were flying from, or perhaps he forgot to set the altitude to match the bombers) and got a good die roll for air strike coordination. I figure I can "spend" one VMF or a smaller VF (not the 36 A/C ones) - set it to escort, range 6, CAP 30% and put it at about 20k. If I get lucky, they may fly top cover for the strike. If they don't, I'll still have them at a good altitude to intercept an incoming strike.

I've had this happen, mostly from CV strikes but I think I remember it happening from LBA as well. The fighters show up in the screen before the bombers and get a hit on the CAP before the bombers show up, so that they usually get through more easily. I'm not sure how it happens, as I didn't vary my settings much in the game as Japan. I used 10k exclusively.

You could do some tests, but I've not seen a setting with 10% CAP and escorting before. It's a seemingly good idea, as long as you then have a ton of dedicated CAP. I just think, well, I can assure myself 40%, or 50% of my fighters will be on CAP if I set them all that way, but if I start messing around I can't make sure that will happen. I need to do some tests again. Using CVEs en masse with my CVs might change how things work a bit, so it would be good to look at it all with some detailed testing.

Actually, this one was even weirder... I've seen what you describe as well, and I think it is the result of CAP or LRCAP joining the fight, or coming in early. On this one, all the fighters and bombers showed up at once. I thought great news, I'll slaughter some helpless escorts and splash some bombers. But as the fight went on something was clearly "wrong". My fighters were getting beat up way more then usual, and they weren't getting much in return. It really got me thinking on how to duplicate it. I haven't had an opportunity to test it yet.

And, yea, I'll have plenty of dedicated CAP. That is what all those 0 range, 40% CAP is for (5/6 airborne, 5/6 on ready alert, about 20 waiting around for something to do - since they can't escort (range 0), they join the CAP - for the 36 VF groups).

The "top cover" squadron is kind of an extra. I estimate I'll need about 275 fighters (150 CAP, 125 escort), and I'm bringing nearly 375, I have a few to play with. Most will go to extra CAP - can't ever have too much, but I'll "bet" an 18 A/C squadron for this. Especially when "failed" simply means it takes a little longer for a handful of fighters to contribute to my already oversized CAP. I'll probably make it a VMF with experence 70+ (80+ if I can spare them from Burma) and the best leader money can buy to maximize the chance of escort. I'll specially equip them with F6s for this job (I've been keeping the F6s away from the marines to appease my sense of history). I'll see how it goes.

I have noticed that sometimes my CAP is joining raid,
It looks like they are doing sweep before just before bombers show up.

here is example ( all zeros are set to CAP %30 at 15k and 16k alt, raid is set to fly at 6k):

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on 66th Chinese Corps, at 85,39 , near Sian

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid spotted at 19 NM, estimated altitude 7,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 64
Ki-21-Ic Sally x 48
Ki-21-IIa Sally x 29
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 30

Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 10
P-40E Warhawk x 40

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
Ki-21-Ic Sally: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-21-IIa Sally: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra: 3 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 4 destroyed

Allied ground losses:
377 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 23 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 35 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Aircraft Attacking:
23 x Ki-21-Ic Sally bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
14 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 16000 feet <--- HERE
24 x Ki-21-IIa Sally bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
24 x Ki-21-Ic Sally bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
5 x Ki-43-Ic Oscar sweeping at 15000 feet
12 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 15000 feet <--- HERE

[tiemanjw]

ORIGINAL: MrKane

ORIGINAL: tiemanj

ORIGINAL: obvert




I've had this happen, mostly from CV strikes but I think I remember it happening from LBA as well. The fighters show up in the screen before the bombers and get a hit on the CAP before the bombers show up, so that they usually get through more easily. I'm not sure how it happens, as I didn't vary my settings much in the game as Japan. I used 10k exclusively.

You could do some tests, but I've not seen a setting with 10% CAP and escorting before. It's a seemingly good idea, as long as you then have a ton of dedicated CAP. I just think, well, I can assure myself 40%, or 50% of my fighters will be on CAP if I set them all that way, but if I start messing around I can't make sure that will happen. I need to do some tests again. Using CVEs en masse with my CVs might change how things work a bit, so it would be good to look at it all with some detailed testing.

Actually, this one was even weirder... I've seen what you describe as well, and I think it is the result of CAP or LRCAP joining the fight, or coming in early. On this one, all the fighters and bombers showed up at once. I thought great news, I'll slaughter some helpless escorts and splash some bombers. But as the fight went on something was clearly "wrong". My fighters were getting beat up way more then usual, and they weren't getting much in return. It really got me thinking on how to duplicate it. I haven't had an opportunity to test it yet.

And, yea, I'll have plenty of dedicated CAP. That is what all those 0 range, 40% CAP is for (5/6 airborne, 5/6 on ready alert, about 20 waiting around for something to do - since they can't escort (range 0), they join the CAP - for the 36 VF groups).

The "top cover" squadron is kind of an extra. I estimate I'll need about 275 fighters (150 CAP, 125 escort), and I'm bringing nearly 375, I have a few to play with. Most will go to extra CAP - can't ever have too much, but I'll "bet" an 18 A/C squadron for this. Especially when "failed" simply means it takes a little longer for a handful of fighters to contribute to my already oversized CAP. I'll probably make it a VMF with experence 70+ (80+ if I can spare them from Burma) and the best leader money can buy to maximize the chance of escort. I'll specially equip them with F6s for this job (I've been keeping the F6s away from the marines to appease my sense of history). I'll see how it goes.

I have noticed that sometimes my CAP is joining raid,
It looks like they are doing sweep before just before bombers show up.

here is example ( all zeros are set to CAP %30 at 15k and 16k alt, raid is set to fly at 6k):

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on 66th Chinese Corps, at 85,39 , near Sian

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid spotted at 19 NM, estimated altitude 7,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 64
Ki-21-Ic Sally x 48
Ki-21-IIa Sally x 29
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 30

Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 10
P-40E Warhawk x 40

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
Ki-21-Ic Sally: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-21-IIa Sally: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra: 3 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 4 destroyed

Allied ground losses:
377 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 23 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 35 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Aircraft Attacking:
23 x Ki-21-Ic Sally bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
14 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 16000 feet <--- HERE
24 x Ki-21-IIa Sally bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
24 x Ki-21-Ic Sally bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
5 x Ki-43-Ic Oscar sweeping at 15000 feet
12 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 15000 feet <--- HERE

Thanks Mr Kane. I went back and hunted for the combat report to try to see what was "weird" about it (my brain just filed it away as weird, but left out the details). It turns out to be roughly the same as you post... zeros and Oscars "sweeping" at 20k - 22k, while I had my fighters stacked to hit an attack coming in between 5k-15k.
So, perhaps my plan may bare fruit.

I did see in both your CR and mine, that the number of fighters doesn't quite add up. You have 64 zeros listed under A/C, but only 26 show up as "sweeping", or 40%. If 30% flew CAP, that leaves an additional 30% unaccounted for. It is probable that dice rolls play into this, as they do with any air strike, or you had additional fighters acting as true escorts - or perhaps you allocated 30% to something else (rest?). I think it is time to run some tests... does anyone have a ready hot seat save just before a CV vs CV battle, or do I need to make one? I'm guessing the stock scenario Marianas would be the best starting point - or is there a more even one where both sides have 4-8 CVs.

[tiemanjw]

8/28/1943

A lot of activity is going on, mostly in CENTPAC, and I'm trying to sort it all out. But first, of course, I'll talk about Burma

Burma

He had his day in the sun with respect to the air war. I've been bombing Taung Gyi and Toungoo daily with the British trying to keep them suppressed and to train up bomber crews. He few LRCAP out of Chiang Mai and got the jump on me good. Over 70 A/C destroyed as the sweeps fail to fly. The only good news is that it was nearly all P40ks, Hurricanes and a handful of Blenheim’s. I launched a retaliatory raid on Chiang Mai knowing he would be gone. I considered hitting Bangkok, now with far fewer fighters - but my P38s had double digit fatigue from a recent (and pointless) adventure into China. I don't want to risk my jugs (well, actually, their precious pilots) on an extended range mission from Rangoon. So I let him get away.

I did discover that he is keeping 75 fighters at Ayuthia (just north of Bangkok - and in normal drop tank range for the jugs). I've ordered an all-out sweep / bombing for tomorrow.

More bad news on the seas. The same day my fighters are dropping like flies, a sub attacks a convoy of xAPs and LSIs passing Madras. He hits nothing, but knowing I have amphibious assets in the area could lead to him taking steps I don't want him to... in the Andaman's. Otherwise, his capital ships appear to have fled. I haven't seen any in over a week and I'm scouting past Phuket.

There are a few DDs near Sabang. SS Saury is playing cat and mouse with them for a few days... but so far no results for either side.

On the ground there is little to report. I've done some ground attacks to clean up the his forces that were driven out of Lashio. 4 LCUs remain in 2 groups. None of them have any combat power remaining.


CENTPAC

Found him! The KB shows up 6 hexes west of Kusaie. No idea what he is doing here (sweeps against Kusaie encounter no opposition. The bad news - my CVs just arrived in Tabiteuea and refueled. Unless he pushes forward (which I doubt), I can't catch him. The good news - he is nearly surrounded by subs. I'm guessing he'll head back to Truk, and that big mass of fish farms you see to the east of Truk is now coming south to get in between his current position and Truk. Of course, this has to happen 3 days before I can get working torpedoes... but hey, I've damaged two so far. Why not a third?



If he does move forward, I've moved 50 SBDs, 20 TBFs and 60 fighters to Nauru along with another 35 TBFs and 18 SBDs (along with 50 fighters) to Ailinglaplap. My CVs will be moving in just outside scout range in 2 days. I've also scheduled over 100 fighters to sweep Kusaie in case he tries LRCAPing it again. Finally, a group of LowN skilled B25s is moved to Ailinglaplap, which will hopefully strike at the small ships loading / unloading at Kusaie (and drive home the need to keep his CVs in killing range).

Finally, he is getting a bit more active with his subs. He is operating in my supply lines between Pearl and the Gilberts / Marshalls. I sunk one, and damaged another, but he got an AO in the process. The damaged one is now south of Johnston, and appears to be retreating. I've bumped up night patrols out of Johnston and vectored in a hunter killer group.

[tiemanjw]

Kiss a bubblehead, part 3



2 hits (plus one more dud), "severe damage" and "engine damage" came up after the first hit.