RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A)

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition >> After Action Reports >> RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A)

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/8/2018 1:02:09 PM

Lowpe

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Another tactic for CV planes is simply to leave them in a task force at a port being bombed by air. Recon oftentimes won't spot them, and they will come as a surprise.

They can provide quite a bit of anti-bomber defense, and if you have the NF Zero, you can actually conduct successful night CAP (well, about the best you can with Zero NF) because the carriers will use their radar to help detect the raid. And if you don't have NF, I think the radar still helps detect the raid sooner.

Using other ship radar to detect bomber raids is a good choice no matter what. It has always seemed to me that ship radars are more effective than land radar, but it might simply have to with the number of radars being greater in CV task forces. One of the reasons why battleship CAP traps in ports works well...

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/8/2018 1:11:14 PM

PaxMondo

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Using other ship radar to detect bomber raids is a good choice no matter what. It has always seemed to me that ship radars are more effective than land radar, but it might simply have to with the number of radars being greater in CV task forces. One of the reasons why battleship CAP traps in ports works well...

+1

And I concur with your opinion: you can effectively pack so many radars into the hex that detection probabilities really shoot up.

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Pax

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/8/2018 7:24:16 PM

Miller

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quote:

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

quote:

ORIGINAL: Miller

11th-20th July 44

Night bombing by his B24s in China and at Bangkok causes havoc despite having NFs present,

What altitude is he bombing at?

About 15k ft, above the range of most of my AA.

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/9/2018 1:43:40 AM

Bif1961

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Most players enjoy a successful nightcap.

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/9/2018 3:54:28 AM

PaxMondo

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Miller

quote:

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

quote:

ORIGINAL: Miller

11th-20th July 44

Night bombing by his B24s in China and at Bangkok causes havoc despite having NFs present,

What altitude is he bombing at?

Yeah, you need at least the 75mm AA to reach that and while you get a few of those, there are never enough to go around.

About 15k ft, above the range of most of my AA.

_____________________________

Pax

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/9/2018 10:46:01 AM

Miller

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21st-31st July 44

This period can be classified as the good, the bad and the catastrophic....

The Good:

Knowing the bulk of my fleet is far far away, Kane tries an amphibious assault at Paramushiro Jima. My search planes give me decent warning in time to load up the airfields on the Kuriles whilst I also throw in all my available naval assets in the area, which amount to only a dozen old DDs and a few subs. In turns out this is pretty much a "B team" operation, consisting of 10 CVEs and most of the old US BBs covering his transports. Over a 3 day running battle he losses 2 CVEs, 2 BBs (Mississippi and New Mexico) with several more damaged, about 10 APAs and twice as many DEs, mainly to my dive bombers. The cost to me is roughly 300 a/c and 4 of the old DDs. He manages to get 400 AV ashore but they are badly disrupted and cannot make a dent in the 150 AV defenders behind 4 forts. I'm rushing to get more troops there before his troops can recover. A bonus is that I receive 10 crappy Divs as emergency reinforcements which will act as garrison units in the HI, freeing up a few of the better Divs for use elsewhere.....

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/9/2018 10:48:33 AM

Miller

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The Bad:

He makes a big breakthrough on the Burma/Thailand border

As you can see he dislodges my stack to the SE of Moulmein, killing 400 sqds in the process. I am in full retreat now to my next defensive line at Tavoy and Bangkok. The bulk of his troops (circled) of roughly 10k AV will no boubt move SE onto the rail line, next stop, Bangkok. And to top it all, the RTA goes up in smoke the next day.

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< Message edited by Miller -- 9/9/2018 11:14:24 AM >

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/9/2018 10:48:54 AM

fabertong

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Where in China are his B=29s flying from......while you might not be able to hurt the airfield where they are based......supply is everything in China....can you counter attack by bombing supply in other bases?

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/9/2018 10:53:21 AM

Miller

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The Catastrophic:

Disaster in China

His mega stack of 8k AV from Ankang arrives in Sian sooner than I thought it would and with the help of his bombers easily kicks out the two divisions defending it. As you can see he also has 3k AV west of Nanyang that I can do nothing to stop. I'm trying to scrape up what I can and have about 3k heading into the woods to try and block any move south from Sian for a while. However, realistically he could send them off east towards Manchuria and there would be little or nothing I could do to stop them....

His mega stack of 11k AV at Shaoyang is being kept in check by 7K of my troops but they are subjected to daily air attack by hundreds of bombers with my fighters almost powerless to intervene. To the west in the orange circled area he is trying to manouver a way through but he has less than a 2:1 advantage in troops in poor terrain, so not too concerned there, yet...

Elsewhere several thousand miles south he kicks me out of Darwin, but not before I manage to airlift about 2/3 of the units out. He is still yet to attempt to move any further up the NG coast, probably fearing a massive CV strike.

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< Message edited by Miller -- 9/9/2018 11:05:12 AM >

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/9/2018 11:09:16 AM

Miller

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quote:

ORIGINAL: fabertong

Where in China are his B=29s flying from......while you might not be able to hurt the airfield where they are based......supply is everything in China....can you counter attack by bombing supply in other bases?

Not a hope in hell I'm afraid. He can smell my bombers a mile off and if I move them up to a forward base he simply bombs them on the ground at night, even if I get a good number to fly during the day he has plenty of fighters up to take care of them. He's building back up the HI at Chungking which I had managed to bomb down to about 50 but it's now back up to nearly 200. I'm basically screwed for failing to break through to Chungking in 42, hats off tp Kane he is a master player in the air and on the ground...

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/9/2018 11:56:05 AM

Miller

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This is pretty much a par for the course day in the air, around 10:1 kill ratio for the Allies.

Tried everything, layered CAP, hand picked pilots, various % settings, nothing seems to work. He simply has better planes and better pilots....

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< Message edited by Miller -- 9/9/2018 11:57:41 AM >

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/9/2018 1:09:24 PM

Lowpe

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I really see nothing wrong with the losses, as pictured without really any specific details...

You have lost 1000 Franks, The Allies have lost 530 Jugs. That is pretty darned good. You have lost 16.7K plane to Allies 10K, which definitely isn't great, subtract out the 2400 ? you have lost on the ground, and the picture is a little better.

By mid 44 to late 44 I would like to have triple the Frank losses. This is for either a PDU on or off game. Frank R should be coming soon, if not already here, and that gives you a decent Army sweeper.

How much longer till the Sam arrives? PDU off the Sam is the most important plane you get.

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/9/2018 1:23:52 PM

Miller

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I really see nothing wrong with the losses, as pictured without really any specific details...

You have lost 1000 Franks, The Allies have lost 530 Jugs. That is pretty darned good. You have lost 16.7K plane to Allies 10K, which definitely isn't great, subtract out the 2400 ? you have lost on the ground, and the picture is a little better.

By mid 44 to late 44 I would like to have triple the Frank losses. This is for either a PDU on or off game. Frank R should be coming soon, if not already here, and that gives you a decent Army sweeper.

How much longer till the Sam arrives? PDU off the Sam is the most important plane you get.

I doubt I will see the Sam or the Frank-r until March/April 45 if I'm lucky. I have a load of Sam research factories but they repair at a snails pace. I might get the Frank-b by the end of the year.

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/9/2018 2:26:39 PM

Lowpe

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Miller

I doubt I will see the Sam or the Frank-r until March/April 45 if I'm lucky. I have a load of Sam research factories but they repair at a snails pace. I might get the Frank-b by the end of the year.

Frank A can work for you, but it definitely hurts not being able to upgrade more squadrons into Frank B and Frank R from planes other than Frank A.

No Sam though. Sam can really stand up to Allied sweepers.

It seems the Allies are simply going to push forward grabbing air bases forward and bombing for strategic VP. I gave up over 60,000 VP in strategic losses alone. Check the location of your critical fighter and engine production cites...you might want to think about converting some eastern ones.

Are your supplies in good shape? Can you enhance your Sam r&d? Or is it too late?

Front line CAP traps where Jugs can sweep: Frank and George and Jack preferably on rail lines. Pretty much one day cap traps.

2nd Line CAP outside of Jugs sweep range: A6M8, Tony, Oscar,

3rd Line CAP outside of any enemy sweep range: Nicks, Rex, Rufe any fighter with a cannon. A6M5c has a lot of firepower.

You should be able to win the night bombing war in the 3rd line, and selectively in the 2nd line.

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/10/2018 10:43:15 AM

Miller

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

quote:

ORIGINAL: Miller

I doubt I will see the Sam or the Frank-r until March/April 45 if I'm lucky. I have a load of Sam research factories but they repair at a snails pace. I might get the Frank-b by the end of the year.

Frank A can work for you, but it definitely hurts not being able to upgrade more squadrons into Frank B and Frank R from planes other than Frank A.

No Sam though. Sam can really stand up to Allied sweepers.

It seems the Allies are simply going to push forward grabbing air bases forward and bombing for strategic VP. I gave up over 60,000 VP in strategic losses alone. Check the location of your critical fighter and engine production cites...you might want to think about converting some eastern ones.

Are your supplies in good shape? Can you enhance your Sam r&d? Or is it too late?

Front line CAP traps where Jugs can sweep: Frank and George and Jack preferably on rail lines. Pretty much one day cap traps.

2nd Line CAP outside of Jugs sweep range: A6M8, Tony, Oscar,

3rd Line CAP outside of any enemy sweep range: Nicks, Rex, Rufe any fighter with a cannon. A6M5c has a lot of firepower.

You should be able to win the night bombing war in the 3rd line, and selectively in the 2nd line.

All sound advice I'm sure. Unfortunately the 3 service rating kills the Frank at front line bases, even if they are railed out it takes them a week to repair. VPs are irrelevant now as he is barely 1000 points behind as it is. Supply in good shape but obviously I'm having to pump more into China. He will be in Bangkok within a week and when that falls it puts the B29 into range of Palembang......

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/10/2018 11:37:47 AM

Lowpe

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Miller

VPs are irrelevant now as he is barely 1000 points behind as it is.

Nonsense, your in good to great shape. In July of 1944 I had lost all but two CVs, all of Hokkaido and eastern Honshu all the way up to Nagoya. You would definitely be in great shape if you had Sam.

The end game for Japan is one endless series of bad days where you give up 400-1000 vp a day, but those days where you swing the vp tally your way are pure gold, and when you lessen the vp loss are silver. Success is measured in a good cap trap, an escape by a ground unit, losing equal number of night fighters for b29s, luring CVEs into CD gun units, a successful mine attack, etc.....

You have pulled off the greatest victories I have seen since Radar v GreyJoy (which was under broken air to air rules), now you need to figure out how to stave off auto-victory for as long as you can.

Every Japanese player has to learn how to play with SR3 planes or worse, and Frank is the absolute best you get.

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/10/2018 2:39:58 PM

GetAssista

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
...luring CVEs into CD gun units

Aww, the stuff of legends that is sung about for generations to come

The pinnacle of Japanese campaign!

Lowpe is the master of fighting when all hope is lost, listen to the guy.

Mr.Kane should have a hard time with supplying his Sian megastack, no good roads there. Is it too late to play the early war Chinese game and do infiltrations with small units for the purpose of cutting good roads here and there to further constraint supply and make him waste time?

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/10/2018 3:45:18 PM

obvert

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Miller

This is pretty much a par for the course day in the air, around 10:1 kill ratio for the Allies.

Tried everything, layered CAP, hand picked pilots, various % settings, nothing seems to work. He simply has better planes and better pilots....

Can you post a combat report of this day to check the settings? There could still be something ...

The other thing is to avoid putting up CAP every day. Make him wonder. What will you defend, what won't you? How much does it hurt for a bombing strike to hit versus losing 100 fighters?

< Message edited by obvert -- 9/10/2018 3:46:49 PM >

_____________________________

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/11/2018 2:26:17 AM

PaxMondo

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Miller

He will be in Bangkok within a week and when that falls it puts the B29 into range of Palembang......

But you are beyond 6/44 now. You should have all the fuel/oil you need to last through5/46 � what are your stocks of fuel/oil in the empire?

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/11/2018 9:45:47 AM

obvert

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quote:

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

quote:

ORIGINAL: Miller

He will be in Bangkok within a week and when that falls it puts the B29 into range of Palembang......

But you are beyond 6/44 now. You should have all the fuel/oil you need to last through5/46 � what are your stocks of fuel/oil in the empire?

He posted a while back. Not bad, but probably will only last 6 months or so. Although all of the depends on usage, fleet movements, HI destroyed, etc.

Still, from range it takes some time to wipe out oil centres if they're defended. In range simply means B-29s are in range, but not their escorts. That is an opportunity.

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< Message edited by obvert -- 9/11/2018 9:47:05 AM >

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"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/11/2018 10:44:18 AM

Miller

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1st-10th Aug 44

Kane forgets about a supply convoy loaded with fuel that strays too close to Port Blair, Vals and Oscars from there sink about 20 AKs......I forget Guam is in range of B29s from the south.....he bombs the port and sinks about 20 AKs disbanded there....

On the ground in Thailand he has an armoured stack rolling down the rail line towards Bangkok, it catches the 1st tank div that was retreating whilst under constant air attack and basically reduces it to a husk. I think once he gets to Bangkok rather than try and capture it he will be happy to leave a blocking force there then head SE into IndoChina, once he gets the southern bases there he will control the south china sea.

In China he makes a breakthrough on the western flank, could be a drive for Hanoi via Nanning. Meanwhile it seems he has sent half the stack that took Sian north, he kicks me out of Kungchang and soon no doubt Lanchow as well. No movement in the central area during this period.

He finally tries an amphib op to capture Sorong on the northern tip of NG. I send in a TF of 10 of my oldest, crappy DDs (the 4VP ones) and they meet about 50 Fletcher DDs, achieve nothing and all go down. However it finally gave me a chance to load up the airfields around Ambon and Ternate for a strike. Large numbers fly and most of the bombers get through his long range CAP, but the results are poor due to bad weather and AI targeting. A couple of LSLs and low value APs are sunk but 80% of my TBs go after the Fletchers and hit nothing. I lose about 200 a/c, mostly escorts in the process. Sorong will certainly fall on his first attack.

One final thing of interest. I receive 3 of the large subs that carry the Seiran torpedo plane and send them off after any cripples heading back to PH from his Paramushiro-Jima invasion. They launch and put two torps into an undamaged battleship, however the next day air ASW sinks 2 of them when they get too close to Pearl. A 10 day career for them

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/11/2018 12:29:34 PM

Canoerebel

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Paul, I'm following your AAR pretty closely, but wasn't aware there was a "Paramushiro-Jima invasion." When? Was it successful? Is it a limited op or part of a bigger push in NoPac? I scrolled back looking for info, but didn't find anything.

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/11/2018 12:55:14 PM

Kofiman

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Post #516. Looks like a fairly successful defence.

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/11/2018 6:03:02 PM

Miller

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Paul, I'm following your AAR pretty closely, but wasn't aware there was a "Paramushiro-Jima invasion." When? Was it successful? Is it a limited op or part of a bigger push in NoPac? I scrolled back looking for info, but didn't find anything.

Hi Dan, it was rather an opportunist attempt by him, nowhere near the scale of your invasion in our game all those years ago. He's troops are still there an in supply but I've sent a few more units there of my own and he won't be able to prevail unless he sends a large reinforcement soon, I doubt he will try without major fleet support.

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/16/2018 4:25:00 PM

Miller

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11th-31st Aug 44

Another brutal period with no bright spots for the empire.

He moves a stack into Bangkok and with his armour blocking any retreat by land I am forced to evacuate by sea to the base circled on the east coast of Malaya.

His stack to the west of Bangkok (green) is now headed for there. I have about 2000AV there and another 2000 marching SE through the forest form Merugi. Hopefully they get there in time and hold up any further advance down the eastern Malayan coast for the time being. Meanwhile to the SE of Bangkok I'm in full retreat from persuing armour, mostly support units but also the remnants of the 3rd tank div that was badly damaged in the initial retreat. The plan is to get them to Saigon and evacuate.

I have little choice but to give up the rest of Thailand and will cede him all the bases in the black circle without a fight and concentrate on the defence of Malaya itself. As you can also see he has captured an almost abandoned Port Blair.

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< Message edited by Miller -- 9/16/2018 5:36:24 PM >

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/16/2018 4:35:35 PM

Miller

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China:

Orange circle: Holding here for now, in most places he has 2:1 advantage in AV but in good terrain for the defender.

Red circle: Big danger here. He has a 2:1 advantage in AV at Nanyang and in the hex to the SE. He is bombing my troops in the open terrain and causing large disruption. I'm holding for now but he is trying to flank and cut me off. I'm consdiering a retreat towards Sinyang, thoughts?

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< Message edited by Miller -- 9/16/2018 4:40:49 PM >

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/16/2018 4:46:27 PM

Miller

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Kuriles:

He returns to Paramushiro Jima with reinforcements and this time brings the kitchen sink. I load up the adjacent airfields but strike co-ordination is horrible and over a 3 day period I lose 600 a/c against his 800 plane CAP in return for 1 bomb hit on a CVL. I throw in the naval assets in the area I have, mostly old CLs and lose 6 of them and a few DDs for nothing. He lands an extra 200 AV but I doubt that will be enough to capture the base. As of the 1st Sept his fleets are heading off east back towards the Aluetians......

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/16/2018 5:39:54 PM

Miller

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Industry:

As expected my supply level has started to dip as I pump it into China. You will also the notice the oil level is low, thanks to my sloppy play and lack of CAP over the bases in question he has bombed out most of the oil centres at Medan on Sumatra and at Balikpapan using B29s at extreme range. I've got CAP up at the others now but that's about 20% of my production gone for good. I guess the end of 44 would be a decent target to keep Palembang unharmed, but how long would my stockpiles last me for the rest of the game?

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/16/2018 5:47:05 PM

Miller

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And finally the points tally. He overtakes me on the 30th Aug and no doubt for the rest of the game. My a2a losses have been absolutely brutal. And the final kick in the balls is the attacks on his air TFs at Paramushiro Jima reveal that 2 CVs I thought had gone down in the Feb 44 actions are still alive and very much kicking, so only 4 CVs he lost that day rather than the 6 I thought

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RE: Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A) - 9/17/2018 1:49:24 AM

PaxMondo

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Well, I�m going to offer some thoughts, but take them with some caution as I am an AI player.

You�ve played very well so far in the sense of where the boundaries currently are, but you have finally arrived at the time of transition for IJ � the most dangerous time.

Economics.
Supply. At 5M for 9/1/44 it isn�t bad. Of course you always want more, but this isn�t way low or anything like that. Make sure you keep it dispersed around the HI. A lot of supply is lost in bombing raids, keep it dispersed as best you can and lose less.
Fuel: So HI will consume about 15K/day, 450K/month. So you have 10 months� worth of full production HI left IF you put all of your fuel into it and if you are able to preserve your HI factories from B29 raids. Granted you are still making some fuel, but in terms of big numbers, you need to be thinking in this context.
HI: you are low here for me, but given your current perimeter it isn�t terrible at all. Converting 1.7M HI into 1E AC equivalents, you have less than 45,000. You�re actually building 2E and 4E as well, so it is like 32K AC total left to build. 2K AC/month for 16 months. Assume the rest of the HI will be converted to ARM/VEH � 6000 HI/day => 180KHI / month. This also assumes you will lose most of your HI production within 9 months; you�ve been playing very well, if you extend this date then things get much better for you here. And of course, there is the additional HI production from above to help as well. Net of your ARM/VEH production you can add an additional 9K/day => 270K/month. That�s over 5000 potential aircraft each month you keep the HI at full steam. A big deal. I am assuming your NSY/MSY are shutting down very soon; there should not be much left to build �.
ARM/VEH: very low. Keep ARM and VEH factories running wide open for rest of the game � you have a lot of units coming and you will need a lot of replacements. ARM points will just fly off the board.

So, basically you are in pretty good shape. The path for IJ victory is a very thin line, and while you have a couple of areas of concern, the IJ is all about that. Keep a close watch on your HI pool ... convert as much as you can into end products ASAP: engines, ARM, VEH pools cannot be bombed. Build away.

Great game thus far.