Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002
From: Northwestern Georgia, USA
Status: offline
|
Howdy, Bullwinkle!
quote:
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
Hey, CR. Couldn't resist a comment.
I've read everyone else's views re Japanese plane production, pilot training, 2-day turns, etc. I think they're all true, so I'll just add a few thoughts that haven't been presented. Agree or not.
1. Macro quesiton: a few weeks ago everyone was hoisting a glass to the thought that AE has shown the wisdom and power of a late-1943--early-1944 DEI campaign as an alternate to the Mid-Pac historical strategy. Does this battle shake that assumption, or did you just move too far too soon? I think it's the former, and it's not a matter of your tactics, it's a matter of pure geography. Your CAP was beefy, but it got worn down by LB fighters. Take away just the Oscars and you have at least two more CVs alive. You have been very careful to expand in a triangle out from Darwin, staying under decent LRCAP. This thrust put you in his "triangle"--Ternate, Manado, Peleliu, and Morotai itself. The geography of the DEI makes it inevitable that at some point the Allies are going to hang a curve ball and hope for the dice to fall their way. Here, they didn't fall for you. He got perfect strike sequencing, and by the time his huge, CV-hammer fell, your Hellcats had already been nibbled to death by Oscars.
Would it have mattered if you'd done Timor first and taken a bigger roundhouse swing at the NE DEI? Maybe others can comment on that. But the bottom line is the DEI is DENSE. There are lots of medium good airfields, and he has internal lines of communication to shift out of your sight. The Marianas, OTOH, are air-isolated. The carrier force you had for this op could have attitted all four islands there pretty safely, and set up the historical path to strat bomb the HI. The DEI campaign, if it works, is faster, and perhaps more beautiful in its gear-works. But as we saw, much more dice-critical. If the IJA air had been in historical shape by late 1943 here, you'd probably have been fine. In a Scenario 2 economy, is the DEI really do-able? Comments?
I still like the DEI because of the multitude of bases and potential bases, and therefore the ability to use LBA. But I see what you mean about the Marianas. Perhaps that would have been easier, although that's not a certainty. As for Lautem, I have it and can build it up. If I knew this was going to happen I would have held back, built up Lautem (and continued building Sorong, Boela, and Babo, and then pounced on Ambon and Namlea before taking on Morotai). I also like your comment about hanging a curve ball. I did so. Sometimes you have to take chances in the game and I felt good about this one, so I don't have any recriminations with what happened (although some of the game oddities still bother me - react against orders, Japanese pilot quality, and weakness of good Allied CAP in late '43 being the chief complaints).
quote:
2. I had been 90% convinced that CVE durability is porked in the game, and your results convince me. They go up like kerosene-soaked rags, and they didn't in the war. They're essentially xAKs durability-wise, and in reality they were built to milspec, had big, regular Navy DC-trained crews, and losing one in the real war was a Big Deal. In the game the Allied player loses them like lunch money. I've been exploring the editor, and in my next AI game I will adjust these guys so they're useful for more than one op.
xAKs (and AOs and TKs and everything else) go down too easily in the game IMO (as I've stated for the record many previous times). But yes, CVEs are rather brittle, just as they were in WitP.
quote:
3. You don't seem too down, and you shouldn't be. In your carnage there are gems of goodness. You clocked his CA force and it's not coming back. I forget how many BBs he has left after the Kuriles (4?) but you've basically taken out middle-management STF-wise. Yeah, he has carriers to spare, but it's a long way from a CV to a DD.
I'm having a blast and I'm really tipping my cap to Miller. I'm also frustrated with certain aspects of the game, but oh well. The Japanese have lost at least six BBs with several more in the yards for months.
quote:
4. I don't know how you set up each TF, but I've played with my BBs and have concluded that bombardment is too light in AE to waste them there. I put at least two modern, or near-modern, fast BBs in for every three CVs in Air TFs. The code targets them nearly as much as the carriers, and they can shrug off most DBs, taking out 30-40% of his DB weapons, plus AA loses to airframes themselves. After the 1943 upgrades the BBs are AA castles. As you've said, CAP in AE is not to be totally relied upon. What the Iowa or New Jersey can do to a flight of Betties is scary. I don't know if you had the BBs in tight with the Essexes, but in my experience, in 1944, they work well together. Not just the AA rating, which is huge, but the fact that they subtract bombs from the offense--defense equation.
I had slow BBs (California, Colorado, and Maryland) with the fleet carriers. They didn't do as well as usual, but in part that's due to the (ridiclous!) react (against orders!) and the overwhelming number of Japanese aircraft. I've also just lost South Dakota. Barring further calamity I still have a sizeable set of BBs, though some need some yard work.
quote:
5. I don't recall your exact agreement/situation with China, but is it time to activate there, just to soak up some squads and armament points of his? I've been doing Chinese attacks, even at 1:3 or 1:4, and they do get some Japanese squads out of the pool and into Asia. That's one area where the Japanese production system can be bled.
Miller declared a unilateral ceasefire in China. He realizes that China is borked and that I can never move out of it due to total lack of supply. So he pulled out dozens of units and sent them to the Pacific. So, he got his cake and gets to eat it to. To be honest it bothers me that he took advantage of the total borking in this fashion.
quote:
6. On that, same with the Burma theater. Some of those Oscars would have been in Burma if you were doing an air attrition campaign over there. The Spits can hold their own by late 1943 if they have enough mechanics, (and I have some P-47s and P-51As there too) and every plane and pilot lost in Burma stays out of the DEI. Just a thought. You've as much as told him you're living or dying in the DEI. Now, you need to diversify a bit and make him look at more than one axis. If not Burma or China, open a second front somewhere. If you don't have transports to spare, do it by air.
The Allies are active in Burma and have shut down Rangoon's airfield. Miller pulled his aircraft out a few weeks ago, but they'll be back.
quote:
7. Re HMS Victorious (?), she's late for withdrawl, yes? Is she damaged enough to not be withdrawlable without months of repairs? If so, that's a PP sponge. She doesn't sound scuttleable either, so . . . maybe a tough row to hoe if she makes port. Maybe you do a suicide run with her if she can't make Sydney, and save the long-term PP losses?
Astute observation! You're right and it would've been a nightmare. But the Japanese just finished off Victorious.
quote:
Anyway, just some thoughts.
|
Printable Version
RE: A Non-Historic Luxury - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread