The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[MakeeLearn]

What does you Ace Roster look like?

[Canoerebel]

Top pilots.

Apparently some of them are still flying P-39s! I'll check this later today and either upgrade the squadrons or move the pilots to reserve, but I suspect these are guys still stationed at Colombo. I have 400 fighters there, protecting the ships and serving as the theater reserve. During the great air battles in Sumatra, these pilots developed high experience. I've "harvested" many of them to reserve, but possibly there are still some there.

[JohnDillworth]

Top pilots.

See that guy in the P-40K and the other one in the P-39???? Don't waste them in those planes. Get them into one of the P-47 Squadrons. No reason they should be in 1st generation aircraft

[Canoerebel]

The P-40Ks are still in use in the Aleutians and the P-39 in Ceylon. In both places, attack is possible but unlikely. I've gone through the squadrons and harvested most of the top pilots, but I'll check again. I suspect these are guys that are set to "stick with the squadron" even when I harvested the top pilots.

[MakeeLearn]

A couple of pilots with over a 1000 missions.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Top pilots.

Apparently some of them are still flying P-39s! I'll check this later today and either upgrade the squadrons or move the pilots to reserve, but I suspect these are guys still stationed at Colombo. I have 400 fighters there, protecting the ships and serving as the theater reserve. During the great air battles in Sumatra, these pilots developed high experience. I've "harvested" many of them to reserve, but possibly there are still some there.

Very much mirrors my list in 11/43. It is hard to make and keep aces. The nicest thing is that I have gone back and looked at my pilots in some of the quieter theaters. Lots of pilots with no kills but 70/70 experience just waiting to get a decent ride. The biggest thing is my British fighter pilots have pretty much been out of action. After performing yeoman service in 1942, they are just too vulnerable trying to fight in the outclassed Hurricane II. Now I am getting some Spitfire VIIIs I can get them back into the fight.

[JohnDillworth]

Now I am getting some Spitfire VIIIs I can get them back into the fight.

Spitfires are great....except for range. Love them for CAP. You should be getting and handful of Thunderbolts eventually

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: paradigmblue

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
The wrong word then. But power, and widely separated rudders. The P-38 was the bedrock of 1943 in several campaigns. In the game they're VP bait.

You really think so? In 1942 I find that they're very effective when used in the high-altitude sweep role. I can see how they would fall off in effectiveness vs later game Japanese aircraft though.

I know so. This is my experience across 3 games so far, from both sides of it. The P-38 is garbage relative to history. In 1942 it does OK when it's only facing Zeroes and the like (cannons being rare), but once it starts to face Tony/Frank/Jack/George it really suffers. I even kept producing the model that goes to 44K for the altitude bonus always and it just doesn't matter much.

It should have a higher durability, IMO, and I also think the maneuver rating (especially at high altitude) is maybe incorrect although my opinion on that is with no knowledge of how the devs assigned values. It's just my feeling of it.

The P-38's only great use, IMO, is its ability to LRCAP places your other fighters can't - in such cases it can sometimes fight against unescorted enemy bombers and does OK in that role. That's about it, though.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Two important questions:

1. The P-51A model doesn't seem to perform well in combat against Franks and Georges. How does the -B model perform, in your experience?

2. The rules tell us that fleet carriers in base hexes have their CAP halved. I don't recall ever having this tested - having enemy aircraft attack a bases with carriers at sea in the hex ('cause all of assiduously avoid putting our carriers in combat situations at half strength). Are you gents satisfied that the rule does work as it should - that Six 36-plane Hellcat squadrons would actually put up one-half the usual CAP?

(You may be thinking, "Why ask?" Well, I recall the original AE or WiTP rules specifying very clearly that there was a chance that fighters set to train only had a chance of contesting enemy aircraft in the hex; I've never, ever seen that happen. So I'm leery of counting on a rule in a critical situation unless I'm absolutely sure, and I'm not here.)

1. The -B is OK on CAP. Not a good sweeper. Big improvement over the A and you get a fair number of them, relatively speaking. I've used it as a decent stopgap until the -51D and -47D25/N are available in numbers.

2. Yes, this works as stated. CAP is halved. A recent experience actually has me questioning what I stated earlier about CVEs not needing to be in a CV Escort TF in order to provide full CAP in a base hex as I recently had some in an Air Combat TF and I'm not sure that full CAP was flown. I would have to test it, though - could've been just poor CAP settings on my part.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Top pilots.

Apparently some of them are still flying P-39s! I'll check this later today and either upgrade the squadrons or move the pilots to reserve, but I suspect these are guys still stationed at Colombo. I have 400 fighters there, protecting the ships and serving as the theater reserve. During the great air battles in Sumatra, these pilots developed high experience. I've "harvested" many of them to reserve, but possibly there are still some there.

Very much mirrors my list in 11/43. It is hard to make and keep aces. The nicest thing is that I have gone back and looked at my pilots in some of the quieter theaters. Lots of pilots with no kills but 70/70 experience just waiting to get a decent ride. The biggest thing is my British fighter pilots have pretty much been out of action. After performing yeoman service in 1942, they are just too vulnerable trying to fight in the outclassed Hurricane II. Now I am getting some Spitfire VIIIs I can get them back into the fight.

I'm not sure that the model flown in this list necessarily correlates with what they're still flying. Does it?

The next time a "IJNAF resizing all the units is gamey" thread comes up I'm going to compare this list (which I assume to be typical-ish) vs. mine. Having so many ace Allied pilots might be gamey, too.

[Canoerebel]

4/11/44

Battle of the San Bernardino Strait: The first great battle of the Philippines takes place today. Today it is called the Battle of San Bernardino Strait, but it will probably be better known in history as the First Battle of the Philippines (I expect more).

The Set Up: You'll recall that nav search showed a combat TF NW of Mindanao that I believed to be a combat TF John was sending to Legaspi. I weighed whether to pull everything out of port so that he could "drill a dry hole" or whether to contest. I chose the latter. I already had a small CL/DD force at Legaspi, which I left there. I detached from Death Star the CA Baltimore TF and a TF taken from a BB TF, comprised of CL Phoenix and some Fletchers; these two TFs to patrol just west of the straits.

The Battle: John sent in a large TF (CL Chikuma, a CL, and nine DDs) and a four-DD TF (Oite being one). The Japanese TF must've had a very good and very aggressive commander, because it tangled with everything in sight and kept coming...and coming...and coming. There were a series of about five battles, with ships running low on ammo, retiring, re-engaging, etc. The battles were immensely long. CA Chikuma and the enemy CL took moderate damage and retired, leaving the field to the good IJN DDs. CA Baltimore took moderate damage and tried to retire but kept bumping into more of the enemy. Enemy DDs kept taking hits and giving some back. One USN DD (a Fletcher) and at least four enemy DDs confirmed sunk. A half-dozen IJN DDs completed the run and bombarded Legaspi, but to no effect (low on ammo, no doubt). The long series of engagements meant that the surviving enemy DDs were in range of Allied carriers at daylight. Dive bombers and bomb-toting TBFs sortied in pretty large numbers, sinking at least two more.

Losses: All told, I think John lost between six and 12 destroyers, most of them good ones (13- or 10-pointers). I lost one good one. CA Chikuma probably took at least moderate damage and should be out of action awhile. CA Baltimore took moderately heavy damage - no more action for her, but she's in good shape to make an ocean voyage if and when that day arrives.

Impact and Meaning: I'm pretty certain the Allies came out substantially ahead. If the highest objective (as stated) is to attrition the Kaigun efficiently, this was a big step in the right direction. I emerge from the battle weaker - Baltimore's unavailability will be keenly felt - but John might well have lost 10 destroyers, with Chikuma out of commission for a month or more. Tellingly, John was trying to conduct a bombardment mission without battleships. He was also trying to fight without committing his carriers, though the bombardment might've been to set the table for his carriers. Now what does he do? Does he become increasingly leery of committing combat ships? Does he become desperate enough to commit his carrier? I don't know yet - I don't have a hunch. But I'm hunkering down for a naval battle.

Fun House: Legaspi airfield at 4.66 (to five, tomorrow); Naga at 3.36. All ships still at sea with troops aboard to report to Legaspi tonight to unload. Also coming in will be a combat TF and several support TFs, including AKEs. SigInt of 48th Div. inbound to Manila (I think from the Marianas). John will build a massive army on Luzon, with good reason. But should he lose a carrier battle, the Allies can then impose an embargo and reduce the enemy army at leisure. Not saying that's going to happen, but that's the downside for him if it does happen.

Burma: An IJ tank regiment tried moving to re-secure the left flank of John's MLR, but evaporated in a cross-river attack against a USA RCT. On the right flank, a Thai Div./A arrived just in time to spoil an Allied attack.

Pacific: Lots of non-sexy wheels in motion. I'll report more later, when something meaningful happens.

[Canoerebel]

CA Baltimore expended her ammo and took moderately-heavy damage, but most of it is repairable. But it'll take 37 years to repair.

[Canoerebel]

I addition to the loss of DD Kane and the damage to Baltimore it looks like two other Fletchers will be tied to port for a long time. The other ships engaged, especially CLs Columbia, Phoenix and Ceram suffered little or no damage.

[Canoerebel]

Six enemy DDs confirmed sunk, five others with "Heavy Fires, Heavy Damage."

[Canoerebel]

Details

[JohnDillworth]

Good job. no torpedo hits on either side which is weird. So you probably will get 6-12 DD's this month. John lost a bunch in 1942 IIRC and has been losing them at a steady rate. He had a good idea with good ships, could have gone either way. You have more, keep pressing. Unless he comes with the big stuff I would not expect any more surface incursions. John simply does not have the horses

[Canoerebel]

Both sides fired a lot of torps, but there was only one hit, that by a USN DD against an IJN DD.

[crsutton]

I think it is 1/44 when Allied ships get a gunnery bonus to reflect the more modern fire control systems. Somewhere around then anyway. It is not in the rule book but JWE confirmed it. I found that I did not lose many surface fights after that. Plus every ship that comes on after 1/44 has excellent day and night experience.

[Smoky Stoker]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Top pilots.

I see your fourth best pilot is "O'Hare,E.H.". Keep knocking 'em down, Butch, and get home safe when it's all over.

Number five is the developer of the "Thach weave" tactic. The original survived the war (they brought him back to CONUS to train pilots) with six kills.

[JeffroK]

I believe the asterix after the plane type shows they have changed types but not scored any victories in them yet.