My guys are headed to the hex south of Patani, which is on the rail line.
Good plan! I think Kota Bharu has good development potential if not already done.
Had a thought about the carrier reaction issue - if CVEs do not react or are unlikely to, perhaps you could use their bombers to do the Nav Search you need.
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Lecivius
This is just a question, not a complaint, a whine, or a gripe, or anything along those lines. But isn't putting a lot of merchies up in all those TF's just a bit off? A few pickets is one thing, but to my totally ignerrant eye this looks like an attempt to bleed off attacks
I imagine they are performing, or were attempting to perform, actual convoy tasks.
This is just a question, not a complaint, a whine, or a gripe, or anything along those lines. But isn't putting a lot of merchies up in all those TF's just a bit off? A few pickets is one thing, but to my totally ignerrant eye this looks like an attempt to bleed off attacks
I imagine they are performing, or were attempting to perform, actual convoy tasks.
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Back from a long hike up and down a tall mountain, including eating lunch laying on the ground on a south-facing slope under a warm sun. That's a good day.
I think Erik is surrounding KB with merchants, primarily to soak off incoming combat TFs and subs. I don't think he's real worried about carrier sorties. He'd love for me to sortie and lose 500 escorting Hellcats, which is exactly what would happen.
His strategy is exactly what he should do and what I would do in his shoes.
In the, "Well, duh!" department, I think I spurred reaction by having my carrier dive bombers set to Naval Search range 10. I got lots of good intel about the disposition of enemy units, but at a cost of triggering the reaction.
I always assumed that setting a carrier TF react range was just to react to other CV TFs. I always set my amphibious escort CV TFs to zero react range when my main mission is aircover. Is there another reason for setting CV react above zero when not seeking to engage an enemy CV TF? Or was that a secondary mission consideration here (wiping out KB)? Or does the a/c range setting override the zero reaction setting?
thanks for the answer, so that means that the range settings to DBs and TBs for NAVsearch (even in the case of 0% naval attack), may force a CV TF, or in your case two of them,to react (overrides the zero react)
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This is just a guess on my part.
I think any detection of an enemy carrier can increase the odds that an Allied carrier within a certain range might react. But I think the odds are higher if the detection comes from search aircraft originating in the carrier TF (or possibly, if the carriers are part of an armada, any search aircraft from the armada).
So, in this instance, I stood down all search aircraft to minimize the chances of detection and reaction. And I didn't bring in a PBY squadron to Kume Jima, lest it increase the chances of reaction. But at some point, I may use Kume as a patrol base, as I think there's a chance that it would be less likely to trigger reaction. It's a hypothesis worth considering. Probably other players have already tested and know.
< Message edited by Canoerebel -- 2/14/2019 10:01:41 PM >
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quote:
Back from a long hike up and down a tall mountain, including eating lunch laying on the ground on a south-facing slope under a warm sun. That's a good day.
That hike might put me in the hospital or maybe just the emergency room. The snow was moving sideways earlier. That is not a good day.
Well, it looks like it is time for a lot of 2 DD attacks with maybe the threat level to safer just to take out the cargo ships but not hang around for a naval task force - unless you think that you can get to his carriers. Set the home port as Kume Jima and you can change it to Iromote (sp?) near Formosa if/when you capture it.
Beware the light at the end of the tunnel - it might be a train coming.
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thanks for the answer, so that means that the range settings to DBs and TBs for NAVsearch (even in the case of 0% naval attack), may force a CV TF, or in your case two of them,to react (overrides the zero react)
The CV reaction algorithm is entirely in the code- the react settings on your TF have nothing to do with it - they are for patrolling SCTFs. I think it makes a difference too whether your CVE TFs are set on an "Air Combat" mission or "CVE Escort" mission. The former should be used for aggressive moves like bomber strikes while the latter would be defensive and should not use the CV react code.
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5/7/45
TNNBT: The opening moments of a new turn. Lots of anxieties: Will DS re-combine; will enemy combat TFs intercept; will KB or LBA launch massed attacks?
This opening screen shows four enemy subs prowling around. Erik lost scores and scores, so he doesn't have a lot left.
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5/7/45
TNNBT: Turns out that's a big cruiser TF bombarding Kume Jima.
Erik will easily damage the island and stop any construction, but that's one of the roles of this base - draw his attention. And, eventually, Allied subs or combat vessels may draw blood. Erik's combat vessels are relatively scarce now.
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5/7/45
TNNBT: Good to see that DS obeyed orders and moved two hexes SW. I don't yet know if the two carrier TFs that reacted yesterday have rejoined DS or if they're still hung out in Indian country.
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5/7/45
TNNBT: During the course of the turn, several small to medium enemy air strikes target Allied DD TFs east of DS. Some Allied LRCAP lends a hand. No hits are suffered.
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5/7/45
TNNBT: This is a beautiful map. The lack of enemy TFs means I managed to stand down all search aircraft. In turn, DS reunited and there were no reactions today. Hooray!
So I now face an impossible choice - sale around with no search aircraft up in order to avoid reaction (and hoping this really works) and chancing an ambush of massive proprotions, or turning on search and knowing - just knowing - reactions will take place at the worst moment and in the worst circumstances.
Quite a dilemma, eh?
I have three options now: (1) turn around, steaming blindly NE towards the invasion beaches, trusting in sheer braun to make it relatively whole; (2) steam immediately for the coast of Indochina, looking for a weakpoint to land, hopefully isolating Erik's massive army in Thailand (and there's a real risk that any base I choose to invade will be reinforced by rail before I actually get there); or (3) proceed to invade Iriomote, giving Erik another problem to deal with, and then proceeding to invade lightly held Hainan Island.
Tough choices, really. Can I really risk taking on a still strong enemy fleet and massive air force almost blindly? Probably not.
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No. There usually aren't enough superb naval comannders with low aggression leaders to cover my carrier TFs. I don't want to have some TFs with low aggression and some with moderate, so I err on the side of choosing superb commanders with moderate aggression (50s or low 60s).
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5/7/45
TNNBT: Planning and thinking about tomorrow.
The primary invasions targets are still weakly defended. A successful landing at either or both would catch Erik's armies badly out of position.
I haven't given up on that plan yet, but I'm leaning against it. Reaction and the number of enemy aircraft makes things so risky. If Erik did manage to gut DS, every Allied ship and the holdings in NoPac would come into play. I'd spend the next month or six on the defensive,trying to regroup and to build.
If the Armada switches to the two tertiary targets (Hainan Island and Busuanga Island, just south of Manila), everyting remains in play. The Allies succeeded in totally unhinging Erik's defenses in SEAC. Moves on high-value Manila proceed. And from Hainan Island, this vast Allied army and navy can coordinate with the huge Allied SEAC armies plus RN Death Star (after it handles Singapore) to deal with Indochina and China.
That's the better plan, though the original is the BEST plan, can I somehow assure it works.
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5/7/45
SEAC: This theater has all the appearances of France in August '44...which means I have to watch for Erik turning and striking back. The main possibility right now would be if he used Singers as a major bomber/fighter base to lash out at my shipping.
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No turn from Erik today, thus far, but I received a horrifying email from somebody named Alvarez in Bolivia:
You should read this message through! If don’t pay attention to notification, the consequences will be irreversible. I got a video of you masturbating.. Appeal to the police, it’ll be too late!!! I dwell abroad, a lot of time will pass before they detect me! Anyway I will manage to damage ur reputation. I stole the contacts of your friends and relatives and accessed your social networks. I am no gonna explain u how this happened, but I’m gonna counsel u to update your antivirus and avoid clicking on pornsites! U have 24 hours since after opening this message (I will receive a notification ) to buy my silence. U should transfer 37 LTC to La1324gVv8DRr7HrCuTG21iEkTKNHH1Kuw wallet during twenty four hours and be 100% sure I will remove all the dirt on u! If you don’t pay attention to this notification, I will send all the damaging information to your buddies and relatives and publish it in social networks. I doubt that anyone would be happy to deal with you. You can beseech, but it won’t help. U have twenty four hours! Don’t send anything to this email address, it is used to deliver messages, I’m not going to check it. I apologize for my English, I’m not a native speaker!
No turn from Erik today, thus far, but I received a horrifying email from somebody named Alvarez in Bolivia:
You should read this message through! If don’t pay attention to notification, the consequences will be irreversible. I got a video of you masturbating.. Appeal to the police, it’ll be too late!!! I dwell abroad, a lot of time will pass before they detect me! Anyway I will manage to damage ur reputation. I stole the contacts of your friends and relatives and accessed your social networks. I am no gonna explain u how this happened, but I’m gonna counsel u to update your antivirus and avoid clicking on pornsites! U have 24 hours since after opening this message (I will receive a notification ) to buy my silence. U should send me the targets of your invasion forces during twenty four hours and be 100% sure I will remove all the dirt on u! If you don’t pay attention to this notification, I will send all the damaging information to your buddies and relatives and publish it in social networks. I doubt that anyone would be happy to deal with you. You can beseech, but it won’t help. U have twenty four hours! Don’t send anything to this email address, it is used to deliver messages, I’m not going to check it. I apologize for my English, I’m not a native speaker!
And since we're talking psychological Warfare already, and given the fact that i don't even own this version of the game (no AI control for minor theaters turned me off), and since i know nothing about your opponent and well knowing that i haven't posted here for many years, you should not even be considering my advice to think out of the box.
Erik got you here CR. His delays are making you insecure, triple checking on everything you thought covered already.
And if you asked me - which you should not as already explained - i would recommend anything to throw him off. Like, say, detaching a CVE group from DS 2 squares away and making this one the only (but needed damnit!) scout plane group. Or give a TF bombardment orders on a fake target. Such things happen once every 3000 clicks...
But whatever you do, in my honest opinion, NOW is the time to think outside the box.
Back to lurking mode for me. And thanks a ton for this exceptional AAR!