GreyJoy
Posts: 6750
Joined: 3/18/2011 Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: obvert Great comments GJ. Exactly. The only thing I'd consider for you is upping your Frank production slowly over time to around 200, and getting maybe a few more Georges/Jacks while dropping off the A6M3a altogether. I at least have enough in the pools to keep 2-3 groups going for escort into mid-44 and I haven't made any since mid-43. You'll need long-distance escort less as time goes on anyway. I've even used Georges on escort lately and they performed very well, getting to 12 hexes and actually holding their own in the escort role. Tough when all supply is crucial, as in your game. I had extra from bumped up Chinese and DEI production and could afford a few 'mistakes' and experiments. If you plan any offensive ops the extra Franks will be crucial as they and the George are your only real sweepers in late 43-44, and they still suffer against the better Allied planes. I've prioritized fighter over bomber production and have really tried to pick spots to use bombing, which is expensive (2E planes, escort losses, pilots KIA/MIA, etc). My bomber pools are nearly always under 100, and just barely keeping up with losses. As I get into 44 and add some factories from R n D of new planes (like the Peggy recently) I will add offensive capability without using any more supply (as the factories transfer fully repaired) and build my pools for kamis. I have a good Oscar and Nick pool now and some older Judys but could use more DB/TB types and 2E bombers for kamis. As the Grace and final Judy versions show up as well as the next Frances these will give those extra factories to pump up production. I agree Erik. Franks are necessary, but i don't wanna end up like i did with the Ki-44a...i overproduced them and, given the good results i obtained early in mid 1942 against enemy's attempts to break through my CAP, the air war has been very less bloody than predicted. This led to the fact that now, in july 1943, when the Tojo-c entered into production, i have more than 600 useless KI-44a in the pools.... Same may happen to the Frank-a. I'm heavily researching the "r" version, so i think i should get it by 5/1944 or something like that... that means that i run the risk of having too many KI-84as in the pool...and i hate wasting precious HI points. I halted the A6M line for many months but, to be honest, i find that i badly need at least 150 zeros every months. Their role of escort means that, every time i launch an offensive, the losses of the A6M are HUGE. My N1K1s, at the moment, are used only for local CAP duties and are performing fine. I'll use for sweeper duties only the KI-44c from now on, cause even after a succesfull sweep, the groups equipped with N1K1, with its terrible SR=3, gets grounded for a week and i cannot sustain that. For what concerns bombers, i've been changing my mind lately. I had lots of hopes in the P1Y1s and generally in the second generation 2Es naval bombers but found that the single engine naval bombers are much more usefull. With their terrible SR (4) and with the use of 2 precious engines, the P1Y1 hasn't prooved anywhere much usefull. especially in DBB mod, where the aviation support for Japan is greatly reduced, having too many 2E bombers in front line bases becomes a problem. I never overstack so for every Frances i can have 2 Jills...and the second version can fly up to 12 hexes carrying a torp...which is more than enough for mid-late 1943. The second Jill, in fact, has proven to be the best torpedo-bomber so far. It performs well both as a LBA and as a CV plane and uses only 1 engine. It has a great SR of 1 and can be used even from smaller fields. It goes up to 300mhp and it's flexible. Also it uses the Ha-32 engine, so the Ha-45 production doesn't get that stressed. Really a good plane imho. Same goes for the Judy. especially the D4Y3. Great SR, only one engine (Ha-33) and can operate even from smaller fields. But, above all, the engine number restrictions in smaller fields really make the 1E planes much more valuable than their 2Es counterparts. I've also found that the non-overstacking philosophy pays back a lot in terms of coordination...so it's way better to have 72 Jills than 36 Frances in a single air base
|