Hunting the Hibiki: Q-Ball (Allies) v Cuttlefish (Japan)

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Q-Ball
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Q-Ball »

Thanks for comments guys! In terms of the damage to the Japanese, we shot down hardly any aircraft. Our pilots reported 6 Zeros, so 4 or so is probably about right. Either way, pretty much nothing.

In terms of damage to the CVs, it's hard to say, though I did not see "heavy damage" or smoke obscuring the target, both of which usually mean something serious.

The results were poor probably because I was attacking at Max range of 7; all my fighters were using drop tanks, etc, and the Zeros were on home turf.

Nov 2, 1942:

I am pulling my CVs out of the DEI for now, and thinking about next moves up there. With KB around, it severly limits my options in the DEI to very limited moves. I will do this, but also take advantage of KB's presence there to move in a couple other areas.

First, I will spend the next couple months consolidating my position. This means finishing off Timor, building all airbases, landing at Raba and perhaps a couple islands north of Darwin. This is all to "creep" closer to the Japanese. In the meantime, troops are prepping for Kendari and Ambon, our next targets.

Elsewhere, I am planning a landing at POrt Moresby. I already have a US Inf Div, the 32nd, 100% prepped, and am moving some tanks to support. 1 Marine Regt and a couple Bns are going to invade the Ellice Islands, to set up seaplane base and shorten my supply lines a bit.

In Burma, I am prepping the Chindits for a para drop on tayung Gyi; I will initiate this as soon as I clear Lashio.
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Capt. Harlock »

Let's change the subject to something more pleasant; Burma. Things are rolling here, and still only 3 units in Lashio as we approach.

That seems careless on Cuttlefish's part. perhaps the advantage of opening the Burma Road is much less in AE?
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by crsutton »

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Thanks for comments guys! In terms of the damage to the Japanese, we shot down hardly any aircraft. Our pilots reported 6 Zeros, so 4 or so is probably about right. Either way, pretty much nothing.

In terms of damage to the CVs, it's hard to say, though I did not see "heavy damage" or smoke obscuring the target, both of which usually mean something serious.

The results were poor probably because I was attacking at Max range of 7; all my fighters were using drop tanks, etc, and the Zeros were on home turf.

Nov 2, 1942:

I am pulling my CVs out of the DEI for now, and thinking about next moves up there. With KB around, it severly limits my options in the DEI to very limited moves. I will do this, but also take advantage of KB's presence there to move in a couple other areas.

First, I will spend the next couple months consolidating my position. This means finishing off Timor, building all airbases, landing at Raba and perhaps a couple islands north of Darwin. This is all to "creep" closer to the Japanese. In the meantime, troops are prepping for Kendari and Ambon, our next targets.

Elsewhere, I am planning a landing at POrt Moresby. I already have a US Inf Div, the 32nd, 100% prepped, and am moving some tanks to support. 1 Marine Regt and a couple Bns are going to invade the Ellice Islands, to set up seaplane base and shorten my supply lines a bit.

In Burma, I am prepping the Chindits for a para drop on tayung Gyi; I will initiate this as soon as I clear Lashio.


It always drove me crazy that you could not drop the chindits as paras in WITP. It is nice to know that they can do it in AE.
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rader
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by rader »

Hey Q-Ball,

In response to your inquiry (and because I was wondering too), setting pilots to Train X% does not have the same effect on fatigue as Rest X%. Train doesn't seem to increase fatigue as mush as some missions (which may explain why train 100% dosen't kill all your pilots from ops losses at high fatigue levels), but it dosen't REDUCE fatigue either (like rest actually does). I tested it by opening the Coral sea scenario and splitting a zero unit. I had one element sweep 50% Lunga each day and train 50%. The other one was set to sweep Lunga 50% rest 50%.

The one set to train 50% eventually got up to an average fatigue of ~30 and it kept climbing alarmingly high. The one set to rest 50% stayed around 10 fatigue. The rest function did seem to rotate the pilots fairly well (getting the least fatigued to fly the mission).

In conclusion: training may not increase fatigue much (if at all), but it does not reduce fatigue. Rest does.

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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Blackhorse »

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock
Let's change the subject to something more pleasant; Burma. Things are rolling here, and still only 3 units in Lashio as we approach.

That seems careless on Cuttlefish's part. perhaps the advantage of opening the Burma Road is much less in AE?

In AE, you have to hold open the (original) Burma Road from Rangoon to China to get the bonus. The 1945-built Ledo Road is not in the game.
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by pacificbetta »

Qball,

How many pilots KIA/MIA did you suffer from out of the 135 plane loss?
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by sven6345789 »

how many carriers did you use , Q-Ball?
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Q-Ball
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Q-Ball »

PacificBetta: Not sure exactly; probably half, certainly alot, but also alot of pilots survived without a plane.
Sven: None. I think Cuttlefish thinks I did though, and he didn't spot them. I wouldn't have risked the CVs. I did use airgroups from a couple CVs, but they took off from the unsinkable carrier, USS Maumere. Anytime you can take a shot at KB without risk of ship loss in return, you have to consider it.

Nov 3-5 1942

Air Wars over the DEI: We have had several days of air battles over the DEI. The first two days, Cuttlefish definitely got the better of me, and the last day, we got him back.

First, Cuttlefish sent many Zeros, over 80 by my count, from KB and Macassar to sweep Waingapu. My fighters did very poorly, shooting down only a couple Zeros in return for 25 or so losses.

The next day, I re-set my CAP over Waingapu. Instead, KB planes attacked some small xAKLS unloading at Maumere, sinking 4 of them, and shooting down 15 P-38s of the CAP to boot, for hardly any losses. A large 4E strike on Makassar lost another dozen P-38s to few losses for Japan. The air war was going very badly for the Allies. P-38 performance has been particularly disappointing.

The following day, I sent a TF to Waingapu, and pulled every fighter I had to Waingapu at 30,000 ft. CAP. THIS worked well! KB launched large strikes at the transports again. They sank 3 of them, but at a reported cost of 90 airplanes from KB! Even if it's 70-ish, that's a nice loss. I need to start working on those KB pilots, and that will make an initial dent. Spits saw action for the first time, recording a dozen kills.

Tommorow over DEI: I expect still more action tommorow. I am keeping the TF's unloading at Waingapu, although I don't expect KB to attack again. I am sending some RN BBs there overnight, in case he plans to instead attack with Surface ships.

A surface TF was spotted at Ambon. I have an uncovered TF unloading at Lautem; I am fairly certain he will attempt to interdict that tonight. I am moving the transports out of the hex, and moving a BB/BC TF INTO the hex; hopefully we find a couple IJN cruisers and make them pay!

The Glorious Battle of 79,55!

COMRADES! The revolutionary ardor of our comrades in 79,55 has not dimmed, as we still are holding back the imperialist capitalist hordes! The latest combat:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground combat at 79,55

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 58561 troops, 581 guns, 170 vehicles, Assault Value = 1758

Defending force 40936 troops, 339 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1100

Japanese adjusted assault: 1039

Allied adjusted defense: 1443

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
2378 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 140 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 122 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 10 disabled


Allied ground losses:
1795 casualties reported
Squads: 39 destroyed, 32 disabled
Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 112 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 7 (6 destroyed, 1 disabled)


Assaulting units:
6th Division
19th Ind.Mixed Brigade
36th Division
37th Division
115th Infantry Regiment
13th Ind.Mixed Brigade
55th Infantry Brigade
41st Division

Defending units:
5th Chinese Cavalry Corps
20th Chinese Corps
10th Chinese Corps
1st Chinese Cavalry Corps
25th Chinese Corps
75th Chinese Corps
63rd Chinese Corps
3rd New Chinese Corps


Burma: I have uncorked a new Operation: OPERATION SCIMITAR, the campaingn to force the Japanese out of Northern Burma.

See the map for the inital plan; I have been prepping the Chindits for a drop at Tayung Gyi. This is a good spot for a drop, because if it goes well, I will threaten his flank, and if it doesn't....well, the remnants can still make it to British lines north of Lashio.

We are also reinforcing Akyab. Cuttlefish took away his troops that knocked me back; I think he thinks that was a fake, which it was. We have enough reinforcements to make it "real", however.

Once I am threatening his flanks and pressing hard on Lashio, he may feel compelled to abandon Northern Burma. We shall see if this works.



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radar
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by radar »

I love the name of the Burma operation, Scimitar...nice
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Astarix »

Q-ball,

P-38's seem to be much more effective as long range escorts and at High Altitude sweeps. Used in point defense of airfields, they seem to turn into targets against more maneuverable Japanese fighters. With their heavy firepower they seem to get more kills in their dive attacks.

As far as Burma goes, If Cuttlefish isn't careful those 3 divisions are going to end up Banzai casualties just like that regiment. If you're successful at seizing Tuang-Gyi, its lights out for the upper Irrawaddy valley. Burma is such a constricted theater that it's incredibly dangerous to whoever is trying to defend it if they don't carefully protect their rear areas. Make sure you tie down any fighters he has at Mandalay as any cap set for more than 1 hex range will intercept your transports flying to Tuang-Gyi. You probably want to bomb Mandalay's airfield back to the stoneage.

If you are able to seize Tuang-gyi and Lashio the back door into Thailand is open also. It's a very real possibility that you could threaten his oil with this drive out of CBI before you efforts in the Southern DEI do. Especially if he allows the 33rd, 55th and IG divisions to become more Banzai's.

I just used a lot of if's, but at this point you have more opportunities in this theater than he does. As you've noted you have more armor and artillery. Outside of the 33rd, 55th and IG, your troops will generally have better training, and will have much heavier TOE's. I don't think a lot of people really appreciate how powerful the forces in India are by this time. Particularly as the divisional TOE's fill out with Indian infantry.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Smeulders »

Problem is that once (if) Burma is taken, it's a long road into Thailand proper. He'll be able to get a pile of divisions from China to strengthen Thailand. Burma is at the end of the Japanese supply lines, Thailand is a lot easier to reinforce.
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by EUBanana »

Fascinating stuff. I do think the Burma/India theatre is the most interesting bit of the map for me. [:)]
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Smeulders »

Are you committing all your forces at Lashio already ? He may not fully realize the size of the force you have there and it would benefit you if he only saw an advance guard taking the city, with the other forces kept in the fog of war. On the other hand, a full scale attack to take the city faster may be worth the intel that gives him.
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Q-Ball »

Smeudler: Are we committing all units at Lashio right away? Yes. I don't 100% know what's there, the most important thing is to take it, and take it quickly. If I can roll it quick enough, he won't have time to move units in by rail. Looking at the map, if I take Lashio, and 1000 AV are marching toward Mandalay, I think he immediately has to abandon his positions north of the Irriwaddy, and concentrate on Mandalay. The para drop 2 days later at Tayung Gyi is meant to reinforce that, and maybe make him think the entire Upper Irriwaddy is untenable, and fall back toward Rangoon.

Astarix: You are correct in that assessment, though I think he can extract those 3 divisions regardless. I control the air over Burma.

I actually think this Burma campaign has been way too easy for the Allies, and a-historical. Pulling supplies over from India has been no problem at all. There is no shortage it seems of squads to bring all the Indian Divisios to full strength, and there are MANY of them, with more on the way. I am even getting tanks to round out the Brigades. I have plenty of troops, and this despite diverting 2 divisions worth of troops to the DEI!

Overall, this should be harder for the Allies than it is. I am worried about defending Burma as Japan.
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Smeulders »

Remember that the changes to supply draw were implemented after the start of this PBEM. I don't think the limits on supply draw for the bases in Burma are in effect for this game, if so, this campaign will be very hard to reproduce in games started after the patch.
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Q-Ball
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Q-Ball »

Smeulders: I would like to know for sure, but I thought the patch-2 changes were ONLY applicable to Monsoon season, May through Sept. I planned to self-imposed stop regardless at that time (and I didn't start this until Oct 1 for that reason). But did non-Monsoon supply moves changes as well?[&:]



November 6-8, 1942

Quick update from the front, including our first attack on Lashio.

DEI: After that large attack by KB that resulted in 80+ downed planes, things have been quiet.

The Japanese airforce is seemingly undercover. Kido Butai was last seen 4 hexes due north of Soerbaya, heading Northwest, probably to Singapore to replenish aircraft and refuel. A couple surface combat TFs have been spotted, but not in a threatening position, and mostly just transiting between Soerbaya and Balikpapan, which seems to be the focal point of the IJN.

I did put together a 4E attack on Ambon on the 8th; unescorted bombers were greeted by 61 Zeros, which did little damage, and 14 Bettys were torched on the ground. I guess 4E is still a wonder weapon in AE?

Burma: SCIMITAR is moving forward. The first attack on Lashio went off at 1-2; the Japanese shuttled in reinforcements at the last minute. Troops there now consist of 3 Infantry Regiments, plus the Imperial Guards Division. That's about 2 divisions worth of troops. Couple that with the 3 divisions south of Katha, and that's over 5 divisions in Burma. Not insubstantial.

We dropped the forts at Lashio to Zero; a day of rest, and we will try again. If we cannot dislodge the Japanese for whatever reason, we will look to a thrust out of Akyab. That should get things moving.
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Capt. Harlock »

I did put together a 4E attack on Ambon on the 8th; unescorted bombers were greeted by 61 Zeros, which did little damage, and 14 Bettys were torched on the ground.

So . . . you actually do better when your 4E's are unescorted??[;)]
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Smeulders »

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Smeulders: I would like to know for sure, but I thought the patch-2 changes were ONLY applicable to Monsoon season, May through Sept. I planned to self-imposed stop regardless at that time (and I didn't start this until Oct 1 for that reason). But did non-Monsoon supply moves changes as well?[&:]

Nope, their were also limits imposed on the max daily supplies that can be pulled into a base overland. The Monsoon effect is that this maximum is halved during the monsoon season.

http://hc-strategy.com/ae/wiki/index.php?title=Overland_Supply_Movement
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RE: Ambon

Post by wpurdom »

From reading other AAR's, my impression is that 4E attacks are wonderful when airfields are overstacked, not so much when they aren't. If so, that's as it should be. You shouldn't park your planes wingtip to wingtip unless you think you can get away with it for a climatic battle or you have complete air dominance.
 
CAVEAT - but if you have six groups of 2 airplanes on a level 3 airfields, it probably carries the same penalty as having too many planes.
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RE: Celebes Turkey Shoot?

Post by Q-Ball »

ORIGINAL: Smeulders

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Smeulders: I would like to know for sure, but I thought the patch-2 changes were ONLY applicable to Monsoon season, May through Sept. I planned to self-imposed stop regardless at that time (and I didn't start this until Oct 1 for that reason). But did non-Monsoon supply moves changes as well?[&:]

Nope, their were also limits imposed on the max daily supplies that can be pulled into a base overland. The Monsoon effect is that this maximum is halved during the monsoon season.

http://hc-strategy.com/ae/wiki/index.php?title=Overland_Supply_Movement

That's probably as it should be. And what it will produce is likely the historical result: That after the Japanese roll Burma, the British won't be able to do much more than look at them accross the India/Burma border. Alot of British units are restricted, and shipping is dear, so starting a major amphib landing isn't particularly realistic either until later in the war.

Combat Report, Nov 9 1942

Quiet Day: Not much going on in the Pacific today. Another 4E bombardment of Ambon was the main event; less effective this time, but I am trying to keep the airfield down while I unload at Lautem.

Sub Wars: I will update the Sub Wars to date; what prompted this was the sinking of Marblehead by a Japanese sub off Exmouth; this is the 2nd USN cruiser lost during the war (the first being Houston, way back in December of 1941).

RESULTS SO FAR: Allied subs have sunk a total of 2 CLs (Kashima, Tama), 1 DD, 28 AP/AK, 5 TK/AO, and 11 Escort Craft. About half have been sunk by S-Boat, the remainder by Dutch or USN Fleet Boats. I like the S-Boats, as the torps actually work!

The IJN has sunk 1 CL (Marblehead), 2 DD, 2 DM, 1 CVE (Long Island), 12 AP/AK, and 5 TK/AO. So, the IJN has sunk some better ships, especially that CVE, but fewer hulls.

NEXT STEPS: I have had my subs concentrated in the SRA and SW Pacific due ot campaign at Noumea. with the reduction in shipping in SW Pacific, I am moving all my S-Boats and most subs to the SRA, where all the Tankers AND the IJN are. That is where all the targets are. Many other Fleet boats are patrolling the Taiwan strait, and other choke points between the Oil and Japan.
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