RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy

RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (Full Version)

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1275psi -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/20/2008 10:46:46 PM)
Hi I've scanned your AAR -seems the same problems in CHS come up in all the games -heavy bombers on naval attack is a delicate question -as Japan it is frustrating to not ever be able to stop them, but (I am playing both sides in parrallel games) you have to appreciate how hard it is as Allies to keep them in the air. I personally do not use them on naval attack -will when I get Navy liberators -saving the B17s for airfield attack What really struck me -really, really stood out was his lack of garrison troops in Japan. Fatal mistake I think it shows several things 1/ he is not monitoring his HI (how much has he lost from sabataged factories) 2/ This is the equivelant of you using all those Bombers in China on a dedicated strategic campaign -a big win for you. 3/ he has vastly increased plane production -but I bet he is not keeping close track on the overall industry picture. 4/ thus -watch a dramatic Japanese collapse early 44. He can conquer all of china if he likes -but its a hollow victory if nothing is gained in production Nice AAR -like the red bits

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/20/2008 11:13:02 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: 1275psi Hi I've scanned your AAR -seems the same problems in CHS come up in all the games -heavy bombers on naval attack is a delicate question -as Japan it is frustrating to not ever be able to stop them, but (I am playing both sides in parrallel games) you have to appreciate how hard it is as Allies to keep them in the air. I personally do not use them on naval attack -will when I get Navy liberators -saving the B17s for airfield attack What really struck me -really, really stood out was his lack of garrison troops in Japan. Fatal mistake I think it shows several things 1/ he is not monitoring his HI (how much has he lost from sabataged factories) 2/ This is the equivelant of you using all those Bombers in China on a dedicated strategic campaign -a big win for you. 3/ he has vastly increased plane production -but I bet he is not keeping close track on the overall industry picture. 4/ thus -watch a dramatic Japanese collapse early 44. He can conquer all of china if he likes -but its a hollow victory if nothing is gained in production Nice AAR -like the red bits Hi, glad someone´s reading my AAR! [:D] The good thing is that I have also a game running as the Japanese, only three weeks behind this one at the moment. What Hortlund seems not to see is when he really hurts me. It´s correct that his fighters aren´t able to take down my bombers in satisfying numbers but it´s as severe (if not more) if you have 90% of a strike damaged from combined fire from fighters and flak. I don´t know what´s more frustrating, seeing my bombers attack his shipping or seeing the long range torp attacks from dozens to hundred Betties. If he´s able to send out 80 Zeroes with 80 Betties then such a strike will be VERY dangerous to everything that´s floating around. For sure more dangerous than an unescorted B-17 strike, not to think about if they attack a TF with a BB in it which they can´t hurt but Betties can hurt every ship. When I saw how the industry in China looked like I was first shocked, then amazed and after that I was shaking my head. I don´t know how much exp Hortlund has as the Japanese but seeing hundreds of HI/ressources/oil being damaged because he just sends out ALL his inf units to the front and not keeping the garrison requirements at those couple of bases is somewhat strange. It´s not just Tientsin it´s also Nanchang that is completely damaged. Have to check if there are more damaged sites in China. We have a truce in China until mid 43 but there aren´t a lot of ressource / HI sites to conquer anyway in Nikmod. And hopefully I will have enough supplies then to put up a fight, forts have long reached level 9 everywhere. What really strikes me are his shipping losses. In points he has already taken over the lead again, he´s nearing 400 ships lost, worth nearly 3000 points whereas I haven´t lost even 300, if I don´t count the PTs then there were 250 ships lost so far. Though I´m also near 3000 points for ships lost due to the loss of 3BB, 1BC and Yorktown to the damned sub off Brisbane. I know from my Japanese game that my AKs are needed everywhere (due to their reduced capacity) and losing 100 is not something to laugh about. Regarding his plane losses. Well, I don´t even know why he a) complains about the mod making it so hard for the Japanese regarding production (it isn´t hard at all, saying that as a Japanese player and after looking at his huge output) and b) I have no idea what he wants to do with nearly 500 fighters produced a month. another thing about the B-17s: if he wouldn´t put 200+ AA guns at every airfield at the front I would use my B-17s mostly for airfieldattacks too, but with 50 fighters on Cap and dozens of AA regiments at front line bases (Japan is surely stripped of AA rgts) I would have all my B-17s damaged after one attack that achieves nothing. So I just keep them back until a fat convoy shows up and then I set them to attack. So with his overstacking of AA guns at his bases he achieves exactly what he complains about - my bombers on naval attack...

Yakface -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/21/2008 2:55:30 AM)
Hi Castor. The losses of the Hurricanes are down to 3 things. Japanese superiority in plane quality and experience are the obvious tow. The one that isn't apparent is a result of the way the combat is written in sweep battles. Basically after the defender bounces the sh!t out of the frirst of the incoming group (which is always the army fighter ratherthan the zero) the advantage switches over to the attacker with his aircraft normally attacking beforethe defender has a chance to shoot. The larger the battle the longer the attacker has an advantage. It is something I am seeing in reverse (playing the japanese). Airbases are just impossible to defend. Until you are in a poition to go on the attack there is almost no point in trying to fight an air war. Once on the attack there is no point in the Japanese trying to defend. It's a pretty fundament flaw (IOM) in the code.

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/21/2008 12:34:44 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Yakface Hi Castor. The losses of the Hurricanes are down to 3 things. Japanese superiority in plane quality and experience are the obvious tow. The one that isn't apparent is a result of the way the combat is written in sweep battles. Basically after the defender bounces the sh!t out of the frirst of the incoming group (which is always the army fighter ratherthan the zero) the advantage switches over to the attacker with his aircraft normally attacking beforethe defender has a chance to shoot. The larger the battle the longer the attacker has an advantage. It is something I am seeing in reverse (playing the japanese). Airbases are just impossible to defend. Until you are in a poition to go on the attack there is almost no point in trying to fight an air war. Once on the attack there is no point in the Japanese trying to defend. It's a pretty fundament flaw (IOM) in the code. Hi! I think it mostly comes down to pilot exp as the Hurricane isn´t that bad - on paper. But if you have a 80+ pilot in a Zero then your 70 exp pilot (after months of training) in a Hurricane is dead meat. I wasn´t in a position to attack but when will that be? In late 43 when I get decent numbers of Spitfires? The Hurricanes will be my number one British fighter(bomber) until late 43. I get 25 Spitfire Vb until then and that´s it. The Warhawks alone are not enough in numbers, even if they´ve done a good job so far. And when my opponent brings 120+ ships into range of all my front line airfields of India then I just have to attack. It´s better to lose my pilots while I destroy the same number of aircraft that I lost BUT I also sunk a lot of ships. CL Natori was the biggest one but if I would be the Japanese player, I wouldn´t be amused about this operation.

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/21/2008 12:43:52 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/22/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 1074 encounters mine field at Akyab (30,29) Allied Ships DD Van Galen, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage Van Galen is in sinking condition after hitting a Type 93 mine... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Akyab at 30,29 Japanese Ships PG Eifuku Maru, Shell hits 2 PG Eiko Maru AK Kazan Maru AK Daishu Maru Allied Ships CL Newcastle DD Isaac Sweers we could sink all those ships but the battle is over in no time... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Akyab at 30,29 Japanese Ships DD Nowaki, Shell hits 3, and is sunk PG Saga PG Chosa Maru, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage PC Ch 12 Allied Ships CA Devonshire, Shell hits 2 DD Van Galen, on fire, heavy damage Amazing to see that Nowaki was still not sunk, but it was a floating wreck already and sunk after another 3x8 inch hits... Chosa Maru should be finished also... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASW attack at 29,27 Japanese Ships SS I-168 Allied Ships MSW Rampur MSW Cuttack MSW Baroda -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 4 encounters mine field at Akyab (30,29) Japanese Ships PG Eifuku Maru -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack at 28,31 Japanese Ships AK Hirota Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire PC Ch 17 PC Takunan Maru #5 Allied Ships SS KVII attack on retiring convoys... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack at 27,33 Japanese Ships AP Zenyo Maru, heavy damage Allied Ships SS Permit -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 44 Ki-21 Sally x 22 Ki-48 Lily x 26 Ki-49 Helen x 12 No Japanese losses Airbase hits 1 Airbase supply hits 2 Runway hits 23 Aircraft Attacking: 3 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on 125th IJNAF Base Force, at 100,64 Allied aircraft B-26B Marauder x 43 No Allied losses Japanese ground losses: 26 casualties reported Aircraft Attacking: 9 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 20000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Port Moresby Defense Brigade, at 54,92 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 19 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 3 No Japanese losses Aircraft Attacking: 16 x A6M2 Zero bombing at 2000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on No. 112 RAN Base Force, at 54,92 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 24 No Japanese losses Allied ground losses: 13 casualties reported Aircraft Attacking: 24 x A6M2 Zero bombing at 2000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Lautem at 33,78 Japanese aircraft A6M3 Zero x 31 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 15 Allied aircraft B-25C Mitchell x 5 B-26B Marauder x 33 Japanese aircraft losses A6M3 Zero: 11 damaged Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 damaged Allied aircraft losses B-25C Mitchell: 2 damaged B-26B Marauder: 3 destroyed, 14 damaged Japanese Ships AP Hikade Maru AK Asosan Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire APD APD-34, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage Aircraft Attacking: 2 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet we sent 200 B-25, B-26 to Darwin to attack the spotted convoy. Only 4 B-25 launch but nearly all my Marauders. We lose 6 bombers of this attack, so nearly 10% were lost (would that be realistic? Steve wants to see 40 lost...) but with a high morale from resting a long time again the bombers get through and sink APD-34 with 6x500lb GP bombs. Hortlund isn´t happy about that of course but the way he´s playing it out is more than strange to me. Yes, the Allied bombers are hard to stop BUT: he has 200+ fighters dispersed on 3 bases on Timor. When he sends in a convoy, why on earth isn´t he concentrating those fighters at the base he sends his convoy???? [8\|] It´s a level 4 or 5 airfield at Lautern so all those fighters would easily fit there and he would put up a Cap of around 130-150 fighters! And this would be easily enough to take down 30 bombers (means 50%!!!!) and damaging all other. Would mean those bombers wouldn´t attack tomorrow again, those bomber groups would be again out of action for 2 weeks. If he just acts amateurish then what should I do about that? Telling him how he should act? Best thing I would stand down my bombers so even if he brings his convoys in range of hundreds of Allied bombers all the time he would be safe... And so far he never tried to bring in ONE BIG TF so he hasn´t to come every second week again, he comes in with TFs of 4 or 5 ships and has to do that the next week again...

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/21/2008 12:47:47 PM)
SIG INT REPORT FOR 08/22/42 Radio transmissions detected at Noumea. 31410 men are based at Mutanchiang. 15th AA Regiment is located at 29,31. South Seas Det. is located at Port Moresby. 18th Mixed Brigade is located at 45,35. 40th Construction Battalion is located at Dili. 252419 men are based at Takao. Radio transmissions detected at Mili. Radio transmissions detected at Niigata. 50th Heavy AA Battalion is loaded on AK,Busan Maru moving to Gili Gili. Radio transmissions detected at Lunga. 34th Road Construction Battalion is located at Christmas Island. 14th Army is located at Rabaul. 4335 men are based at Kadina. 58th Construction Battalion is located at Takamatsu. 2nd Reserve AA Regiment is located at Tokyo. 19th Division is located at Port Arthur. Radio transmissions detected at Lunga. 211848 men are based at Masan. 235648 men are based at Changkufeng. While he wants to restrict the use of my bombers (stand down would be perfect) he brings more and more and more and more AA btn right to the front into some jungle bases... Japan will soon have no more APDs left. Good to see those excellent ASW platforms sunk during unimportant supply missions... wrong decision to use them that way Steve! [:-] [image]local://upfiles/13774/DD490BAE4B594B67BC03ED0459140803.jpg[/image]

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/21/2008 1:11:20 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/23/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASW attack at 27,33 Japanese Ships PC Ch 9 PC Ch 8 PC Ch 7 PG Kure Maru #5 PG Keiko Maru PG Chohakusan Maru Allied Ships SS Permit, hits 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASW attack at 27,33 Japanese Ships PC Ch 9 PC Ch 8 PC Ch 7 PG Kure Maru #5 PG Keiko Maru PG Chohakusan Maru Allied Ships SS Permit, hits 3, on fire 2 real hits, one near miss... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 132 encounters mine field at Akyab (30,29) Japanese Ships PC Ch 12 PG Chosa Maru, heavy damage PG Saga -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASW attack at 28,32 Japanese Ships PC Ch 9 PC Ch 8 PC Ch 7 PG Kure Maru #5 PG Keiko Maru PG Chohakusan Maru Allied Ships SS KVII, hits 3, on fire, heavy damage 3 real hits, immediately sunk... means one sub sunk another one in sinking condition. Japanese ASW works perfect so far, the only one that hasn´t checked that is Hortlund! [:D] He doesn´t need PC, PG, DD... he relies on air ASW. And with all the attacks and spottings I guess hundreds of Helens are on naval search or ASW patrol... [8\|] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack at 63,71 Japanese Ships AK Ryuzin Maru PG Seikai Maru MSW Hagoromo Maru Allied Ships SS Flying Fish big convoy going to Truk. Torps mis... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 42 Ki-21 Sally x 22 Ki-48 Lily x 25 Ki-49 Helen x 12 No Japanese losses Airbase hits 1 Runway hits 24 Aircraft Attacking: 9 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Port Moresby Defense Brigade, at 54,92 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 24 No Japanese losses Aircraft Attacking: 24 x A6M2 Zero bombing at 2000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 33,77 Allied aircraft B-25C Mitchell x 4 No Allied losses Japanese Ships AK Asosan Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage Aircraft Attacking: 4 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 6000 feet The TF that was attacked at Lautern is retiring North. Only 4 bombers launch... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 27,31 Allied aircraft Wellington III x 18 No Allied losses Japanese Ships PG Eifuku Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage PG Eiko Maru AK Kazan Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire Aircraft Attacking: 3 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet not a real good day for my bombers. Eifuku Maru at least takes a 1000lb bomb... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 16 A6M3 Zero x 30 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 14 Allied aircraft B-26B Marauder x 4 Japanese aircraft losses A6M3 Zero: 2 damaged Allied aircraft losses B-26B Marauder: 4 damaged low morale, all bombers turn back... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 29,30 Japanese aircraft A6M3 Zero x 8 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 8 Allied aircraft Wellington III x 3 B-26B Marauder x 22 IL-4c x 6 Japanese aircraft losses Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 damaged Allied aircraft losses Wellington III: 3 damaged B-26B Marauder: 1 damaged IL-4c: 4 damaged Japanese Ships PG Kure Maru #5 PC Ch 9 Aircraft Attacking: 2 x IL-4c bombing at 6000 feet 3 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet leaking Cap from Akyab into the hex 120 miles SouthWest. All Marauders turn back, the rest achieves no hits... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 50,91 Allied aircraft B-25C Mitchell x 62 No Allied losses Japanese Ships AK Nissyu Maru, Bomb hits 9, on fire, heavy damage MSW Tokuho Maru #5 AK Tatuno Maru, Bomb hits 17, on fire, heavy damage Aircraft Attacking: 1 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 6000 feet 3 TFs left Thursday Island and end up 2 hexes further South East in range of Cooktown´s bombers. This is again something that I wouldn´t call smart. Would the TFs go NORTHWEST they would have a longer way back to Truk (round New Guinea) but that would be safe. No, while he knows that Cooktown is full of my best bombers (B-17s) he still sends them straight back. I don´t feel for him... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Port Moresby at 53,91 Japanese aircraft A6M2-N Rufe x 6 A6M3 Zero x 52 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 22 Allied aircraft B-17E Fortress x 31 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2-N Rufe: 1 damaged A6M3 Zero: 21 damaged Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 damaged Allied aircraft losses B-17E Fortress: 2 destroyed, 27 damaged Japanese Ships CA Tone, Bomb hits 2 Aircraft Attacking: 2 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 10000 feet The B-17s are now attacking at 10.000ft - just to make Hortlund happy. He told me if I think it´s okay to use them on 6000ft then I should go ahead and it really sounded like a pretty much pissed of 10 year old, so I decided to use them at 10.000t. He even changed his AAR title into "The giant is awake - and he is pissed"!!! [&:][:D] I can just point it out one more time! I have something around 90-100 B-17s and use them at naval attack. No more 4Es on the whole map, I don´t even use the LB-30 I could use. He has something like 500 Betties that are 20 times more a threat than my B-17s, all Betties drop torps. It really seems that people are so used to see unlimited torp attacks that they think that this was reality, because Hortlund never said a word about his super ability to use Betties (and I pointed that out a dozen times already), but he thinks that my 100 B-17s are the wonder weapon par excellence and the best would be I wouldn´t use them at all, so he could send his ships without any cover to front line bases. The way he acted so far is just careless and that´s why he lost nearly 400 ships. Of course the fact that I use them at 10.000ft now will in Hortlund´s oppinion prove that I also think it was wrong to use them at 6000ft. Think I have to live with that. Unfortunately we think different in so many aspects of the game that I wonder how long it will really last. I just can´t accept house rules that primary restrict one side, while the other side can do what it wants. As soon as my Mitchels reach 80 exp (below 70 at the moment) I fear I will have to use them at 15.000ft then as they have the same bomb load like the B-17s while the Helens and Sallies will keep attacking shipping at 6000ft. A real problem is the fact that he just sees the GAME, while I see the MOD and the GAME ENGINE. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 27,31 Allied aircraft IL-4c x 7 No Allied losses Japanese Ships AK Kazan Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage Aircraft Attacking: 3 x IL-4c bombing at 6000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack at 50,91 Japanese Ships AK Montreal Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage Allied Ships SS O21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASW attack at 28,34 Japanese Ships PC Ch 17 PC Takunan Maru #5 Allied Ships SS O24 here´s the intel screen. As you can see, with the recent ship losses, the Japanese have again the lead in points for ships lost. The losses in APs is amazing and now also more and more AKs are lost during troop transports. While Hortlund told me he wouldn´t need those APs, he now uses his AKs for troop transports but he will need those for transports of ressources and supplies. So this works perfectly for me and at some point it will get difficult for him to keep up bringing more ressources to the Home Islands than he needs there. Interesting is also that he lost 1000 aircraft more than me. The only ace he still has left are his high exp Zero daitais, really the only ace left. The score is far away to become a problem for me... The only thing I´m really disappointed about is the loss of my 3BBs the BC and Yorktown as those losses could have mostly been avoided. The loss of my BBs was mostly a misinterpretation of the ability of my airdefense and the loss of Yorktown was because I was too lazy to plot a different path back to Brisbane when I´ve spotted the sub already for days. I was sure the 37 DDs would be enough to guard my CV. [image]local://upfiles/13774/E21B1514F88B4A5B8AD715B2103555EB.jpg[/image] In fact, when I look at the ship losses and don´t count the PTs I´ve lost, then Hortlund nearly has lost TWICE as many ships I did! [:D]

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/21/2008 2:15:41 PM)
getting quiet again... AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/24/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASW attack at 27,32 Japanese Ships PC Ch 9 PC Ch 8 PC Ch 7 PG Kure Maru #5 PG Keiko Maru PG Chohakusan Maru Allied Ships SS Permit, heavy damage Permit should make it home with 54 floatation, if she isn´t hit another time... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack near Port Moresby at 53,91 Japanese Ships MSW Tokuho Maru #5 Allied Ships SS KXIV miss with two torps... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on 125th IJNAF Base Force, at 100,64 Allied aircraft B-26B Marauder x 45 No Allied losses Aircraft Attacking: 9 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 20000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on No. 112 RAN Base Force, at 54,92 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 19 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 3 No Japanese losses Allied ground losses: 10 casualties reported Aircraft Attacking: 16 x A6M2 Zero bombing at 2000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 29,30 Japanese aircraft A6M3 Zero x 7 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 20 Allied aircraft Wellington III x 19 Japanese aircraft losses A6M3 Zero: 2 damaged Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 4 damaged Allied aircraft losses Wellington III: 1 destroyed, 14 damaged Japanese Ships PG Chosa Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage Aircraft Attacking: 3 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet 3 Wellington lost today, 2 A2A and 1 to ops... Chosa Maru was sunk with 3x1000lb bombs... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Chandpur at 30,25 Japanese aircraft D3A Val x 15 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 10 Japanese aircraft losses D3A Val: 2 damaged Allied Ships MSW Cromer, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage MSW Maryborough, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage Aircraft Attacking: 3 x D3A Val bombing at 2000 feet [:@][:@] [sm=00000946.gif] I have two ASW Tfs operating out of Chandpur to hunt subs in the near area during the night and the MSW retire to Chandpur during the day movement phase to be under a Cap umbrella. That was the theory! The problem was that I moved in 200 fighters but didn´t order them to fly Cap. [>:]

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/21/2008 6:04:31 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/25/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack near Port Moresby at 53,91 Japanese Ships AK Ryoka Maru, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage Allied Ships SS KXIV No surprise, the AK sunk immediately... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASW attack near Port Moresby at 53,91 Japanese Ships MSW Tokuho Maru #5 Allied Ships SS KXIV -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 44 Ki-21 Sally x 45 Ki-48 Lily x 25 Ki-49 Helen x 11 No Japanese losses Airbase hits 2 Runway hits 21 Aircraft Attacking: 8 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on 125th IJNAF Base Force, at 100,64 Allied aircraft B-26B Marauder x 39 No Allied losses Japanese ground losses: 24 casualties reported Aircraft Attacking: 12 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 20000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Chandpur at 30,25 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 23 A6M3 Zero x 16 B5N Kate x 22 Allied aircraft Hurricane IIb x 21 P-40E Warhawk x 59 Hurricane IIc x 6 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 12 destroyed A6M3 Zero: 5 destroyed, 6 damaged B5N Kate: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged Allied aircraft losses Hurricane IIb: 4 destroyed, 13 damaged P-40E Warhawk: 3 destroyed, 15 damaged Hurricane IIc: 3 damaged Allied Ships MSW Baroda, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage MSW Cuttack, Bomb hits 1, on fire MSW Rampur, Bomb hits 1 Aircraft Attacking: 1 x B5N Kate bombing at 5000 feet Today I have not forgotten about my Cap but it´s disappointing when you see only 86 out of 150 operational fighters in the air. Nevertheless, this time the Zeroes had a hard time, being outnumbered, on escort and bounced most of the time during the engagement. Though we were only able to take down O N E Kate and Hortlund didn´t mention it in his email with a single word! Now hopefully he stops complaining about my superd duper fighters being able to take down 90-100% of his bombers EVERY time... Nikmod works regarding "leakers" for both sides, while I have to say leakers is the wrong word here when 21 out of 22 Kates make it through my Cap. But I´m really thankful about this attack, perhaps the screaming stops now... [;)] The Warhawks performed excellent, even the Hurricanes were able to take down 3 Zeros for the loss of 4 of their own. 2 British pilots had to be drawn from the pool. [image]local://upfiles/13774/CB94B2D7A2014833B53D4CBAADFFD347.jpg[/image] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack near Port Moresby at 53,91 Japanese Ships MSW Tokuho Maru #5, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage Allied Ships SS KXIV KXIV kill her second ship today. After sinking three ships, she retires from her combat patrol to Brisbane.

ny59giants -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/21/2008 9:30:20 PM)
I have my own Lend-Lease going on in India/Burma. Thankfully, I have a HR in my PBEM game that allows TF to travel the west map edge and thus I was able to send 3 squadrons of Wildcats there and in 6 days (1/1/43) I start getting Corsairs, so i hope they do better against the A6M3a Zeros that are running through all but my best Hurricane squadrons. Hopefully, the Spitfires can take over for the best hurricane squadrons. I feel your pain in that theater, but I look at it as my main source of attrition of his pilots as I have encourgaed him to attack over my bases and thus I lose more planes than pilots. I found the LB-30s are very good ASW planes once there experince is build up around India/Ceylon. Continue to use your B-17s on Naval Attack with a secondary mission of AF with PM and/or Gili Gili as their target. They seem to be almost immune to his fighters for now, so use them that way. [;)]

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/21/2008 10:34:21 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: ny59giants I have my own Lend-Lease going on in India/Burma. Thankfully, I have a HR in my PBEM game that allows TF to travel the west map edge and thus I was able to send 3 squadrons of Wildcats there and in 6 days (1/1/43) I start getting Corsairs, so i hope they do better against the A6M3a Zeros that are running through all but my best Hurricane squadrons. Hopefully, the Spitfires can take over for the best hurricane squadrons. I feel your pain in that theater, but I look at it as my main source of attrition of his pilots as I have encourgaed him to attack over my bases and thus I lose more planes than pilots. I found the LB-30s are very good ASW planes once there experince is build up around India/Ceylon. Continue to use your B-17s on Naval Attack with a secondary mission of AF with PM and/or Gili Gili as their target. They seem to be almost immune to his fighters for now, so use them that way. [;)] even though the B-17s seem to be immune to his fighters, after one airfield attack 90% are damaged with a couple of bombers lost, so this seems not to be an option at the moment. We´re entering 9/42 soon and starting 10/42 I will get Lightnings (35/month) so this means starting in late 42 I will have escorts that can reach Thursday Island and Port Moresby. There will be Liberators also then and I hope to bomb those two bases to dust from an altitude around 20.000 ft... [:D] Perhaps I should just use my CVs to escort a huge convoy to India, they don´t have anything to do at the moment anyway. My carriers are waiting for their 10/42 upgrade. I could also have another Brit carrier join the rest when I send them to India. Don´t know at the moment, I think I won´t do a big invasion with my carriers only at the moment. I need Lightnings and Liberators to supress airfields in the near of an invasion.

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/22/2008 11:52:10 AM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/26/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 43 Ki-21 Sally x 47 Ki-48 Lily x 27 Ki-49 Helen x 12 No Japanese losses Airbase hits 1 Airbase supply hits 1 Runway hits 43 Aircraft Attacking: 6 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on 125th IJNAF Base Force, at 100,64 Allied aircraft B-26B Marauder x 35 No Allied losses Japanese ground losses: 24 casualties reported Aircraft Attacking: 8 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 20000 feet nothing happens but training runs from both sides. Unfortunately I need a spot where I can train my fighters, but I don´t have one. With an exp of around 50 I can´t use them at all... My fighter bombers with exp 70+ lose 7 or 8:1 against Zeroes...

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/22/2008 11:54:36 AM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/27/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 42 Ki-21 Sally x 50 Ki-48 Lily x 27 Ki-49 Helen x 12 No Japanese losses Airbase hits 3 Airbase supply hits 1 Runway hits 56 Aircraft Attacking: 9 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 27,31 Allied aircraft Wellington III x 5 IL-4c x 9 Allied aircraft losses IL-4c: 1 damaged Japanese Ships PC Ch 7 PG Chohakusan Maru PG Keiko Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage Aircraft Attacking: 1 x IL-4c bombing at 6000 feet another ASW TF is coming North, probably heading to Akyab. As we already know Hortlund doesn´t need his ASW ships. Can´t understand it, but that´s how it is. There are no subs of mine in this area at the moment so I don´t understand that he thinks it´s worth it to send his ships within range of my high exp bombers. And still he is lucky as only this small strike launches the whole day, even though we had 300 bombers on nav attack and excellent flight weather.

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/22/2008 12:00:25 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/28/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 115 encounters mine field at Victoria Point (25,39) Japanese Ships APD APD-39 what a pity the APD didn´t struck a mine. So far, Hortlund was never really interested to clear my sub laid mine fields - and he clearly suffered from them! I just think about the two VH2 mine hits on his BB! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 134 encounters mine field at Akyab (30,29) Japanese Ships PC Ch 9, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage PC Ch 8 PG Kure Maru #5 PG Chohakusan Maru another victim of a VH2 mine! [:D] Normally I consider sub laid mines more or less a wasted effort, but in this game they work excellent. It´s just a matter of what your opponent is doing. Still, I only use my 3 mine layer subs for mine laying missions and Argonaut is still in the repair yards with 30+ sys dam. The PC sunk later after taking a bomb from a bomber on nav search. Works great, first the ships take a mine, then they are finished by my search planes! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on 225 Group RAF , at 30,28 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 24 Ki-51 Sonia x 5 Ki-21 Sally x 19 Ki-49 Helen x 23 Japanese aircraft losses Ki-51 Sonia: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged Ki-21 Sally: 3 destroyed, 13 damaged Ki-49 Helen: 5 destroyed, 13 damaged Allied ground losses: 159 casualties reported Aircraft Attacking: 5 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 11000 feet 3 x Ki-51 Sonia bombing at 2000 feet This is an attack on my stack that is marching to Akyab. There are a lot of flak guns and the attacking bombers suffer. 14 aircraft are lost to flak in the end. Great way to reduce the Japanese pilot pool! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 42 Ki-21 Sally x 50 Ki-48 Lily x 27 Ki-49 Helen x 11 No Japanese losses Airbase supply hits 1 Runway hits 71 Aircraft Attacking: 6 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 6 A6M3 Zero x 29 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 48 Allied aircraft B-26B Marauder x 13 Japanese aircraft losses A6M3 Zero: 2 damaged Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 damaged Allied aircraft losses B-26B Marauder: 2 destroyed, 9 damaged A lot of fighters in the air at the important bases in Burma. Finally Hortlund seems to have realized how important the Burma front is. Thank god our Marauders have a very low morale and most turn back before being shot down.

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/22/2008 12:01:03 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/29/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 5 encounters mine field at Rangoon (29,34) Japanese Ships PG Keiko Maru, heavy damage silence.... [>:][>:][>:]

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/22/2008 1:55:37 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/30/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Gili Gili at 56,94 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 18 Allied aircraft B-17E Fortress x 34 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 5 damaged Allied aircraft losses B-17E Fortress: 11 damaged Japanese Ships AK Shinyubari Maru AK Tamishima Maru AK Zogen Maru, Bomb hits 7, on fire, heavy damage AK Shojin Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire AK Chikuzan Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage Aircraft Attacking: 1 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 10000 feet the only attack today and a very good example of what Hortlund is doing, while complaining about his inability to hurt my bombers. There are 50 figthers on Cap over Thursday Island, there are 100 fighters on Cap over Port Moresby and the place where he sends his supply convoy has 18!!!! Zeroes on Cap. [8\|] Both other bases in this area have NO ships unloading supplies and still he keeps his two other bases very well capped but the IMPORTANT base has a tiny cap. Now he will again complain about why 18 Zeroes can´t stop 34 B-17s. At least I have them at 10.000ft now, so he can´t complain about the alt (or perhaps I will soon hear it´s ridicoulos also to attack at 10.000ft), while it´s okay that all 500 Betties can drop torps. I was pretty much sure that there won´t be much of a difference regarding hit rates between 6.000ft and 10.000ft so it´s not a real problem. Two of those small Aks are surely sunk. Perhaps he realized what he´s doing and puts up a bigger Cap tomorrow, so I have reduced the range of my bombers to 8 (distance to Gili Gili is 9). There are also Lightnings flying recon to Gili Gili so it will be interesting to see the number of aircraft on Cap.

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/22/2008 2:57:13 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/31/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 1065 troops unloading over beach at Umnak Island, 102,36 Allied ground losses: 61 casualties reported first attempt to retake a base that was occupied by our enemy. While there are troops at Dutch Harbour (base to the East on the same island), there are no troops at Umnak Island. We dropped a USMC raider btn by fast transport and should seize the base tomorrow. The next base that has enemy aircraft is 20 hexes away. If we take Unmak Island tomorrow we will build it up (level 6 airfield possible) and then we will use it as training base for our new arrived fighter squadrons that will then attack Dutch Harbour. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 11 Ki-21 Sally x 24 Ki-48 Lily x 27 Ki-49 Helen x 10 No Japanese losses Airbase hits 1 Airbase supply hits 1 Runway hits 44 Aircraft Attacking: 4 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet and the daily Japanese training raid to Kai Island... my recon reported 30 Zeroes on Cap today over Gili Gili, so there were 12 more in the air than yesterday, but this would have been again completely insufficient against an incoming B-17 raid. I don´t understand Hortlund. There were still 100+ fighters on Cap over Port Moresby. I should have let my B-17s on nav attack 9 hexes to attack the rest of this convoy. Oh well, 2 AKs out of 6 reported are sunk.

ny59giants -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/22/2008 4:12:05 PM)
What is the size of your sub force in India?? Besides the British and some Dutch subs, I like to send most of the American Fleet subs with an endurance of 11,000 there to assist them and then use most of the subs to mine various hexes from Ragoon to Singapore. With him running so much back and forth to Akyab, I would form 2 sub minelaying TF and start sending them out from one or both Ceylon ports.

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/22/2008 5:13:46 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: ny59giants What is the size of your sub force in India?? Besides the British and some Dutch subs, I like to send most of the American Fleet subs with an endurance of 11,000 there to assist them and then use most of the subs to mine various hexes from Ragoon to Singapore. With him running so much back and forth to Akyab, I would form 2 sub minelaying TF and start sending them out from one or both Ceylon ports. not much subs left to use out of India. So forming them into mine laying TFs would mostly only bring two dozen mines into position. One mine layer sub alone can carry 48 mines. The subs I have in India are being mostly used for sub patrol but it´s just too dangerous to stay in the area when they have to face a hundred Helens on ASW duty. All my US subs are operating out of Australia, but at the moment I want to have most of them in port to get a complete repair to do their most important upgrade in 10/42. With radar I will send them out in dozens again. Hopefully we can then continue the excellent warfare we were able to do in the early months of the war.

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/22/2008 5:15:29 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 09/01/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 11 Ki-21 Sally x 20 Ki-48 Lily x 22 Ki-49 Helen x 11 No Japanese losses Airbase hits 1 Airbase supply hits 1 Runway hits 19 Aircraft Attacking: 8 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack at 63,71 Japanese Ships TK Rikko Maru Allied Ships SS Triton [:@] we miss the lucky big TK... hits on TKs would be very important... attack happened a couple of hexes North of Truk... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Umnak Island Allied Deliberate attack Attacking force 700 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 27 Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 0 Allied max assault: 26 - adjusted assault: 8 Japanese max defense: 0 - adjusted defense: 1 Allied assault odds: 8 to 1 (fort level 0) Allied forces CAPTURE Umnak Island base !!! hurrey!! First base seized from the enemy! We will now build it up as fast as possible.

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/22/2008 7:12:09 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 09/02/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack at 64,68 Japanese Ships TK Sacramento Maru Allied Ships SS Haddock we succesfully shadowed the TK TF heading North from Truk and we attack again... this time the torps hit the big TK but fail to detonate... [8\|] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-21 Sally x 24 Ki-48 Lily x 24 Ki-49 Helen x 8 No Japanese losses Airbase hits 1 Airbase supply hits 1 Runway hits 44 Aircraft Attacking: 8 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet what was interesting the last couple of days is Hortlund used again his Betties to recon nearly all my bases around Madras and on Ceylon. [&:] Today there were no more recon flights. I guess he´s preparing some of his 20 men paradrops... [8\|] I already told him what I think about suicide paradrops on bases that are in fact cities. I have around 800 assault points in the area around Madras but I can´t have a inf division in every base to fend off attacks by 20 paratroopers. So I don´t know what he is up to. Last time he reconed all my bases North of Calcutta. Perhaps he´s trying to make me nervous but I´m not really concerned at the moment. But honestly seeing paradrops from 12 Tinas/base in India is something I would not be amused about as this is just strange.

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/22/2008 8:26:40 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 09/03/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Dacca , at 31,24 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 26 A6M3 Zero x 34 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 68 No Japanese losses Hortlund tried a sweep of Dacca. What a pity I haven´t had Warhawks on Cap. Last time we took down 14 enemy fighters for the loss of only 3 Warhawks. Would like to see his bombers over my airfields. My flak would welcome them and we could work on bringing down the Japanese pilot pool... today, a Betty flew recon over Panaji again...

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/22/2008 9:52:16 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 09/04/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Mandalay , at 33,30 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 7 A6M3 Zero x 10 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 17 Allied aircraft P-40E Warhawk x 115 SB-2c x 2 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged A6M3 Zero: 4 damaged Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 5 destroyed, 7 damaged Allied aircraft losses P-40E Warhawk: 15 destroyed, 44 damaged [8\|] this sweep has convinced me that I will need Marines in India. I won´t use P-38s there for a long time as I need them in Australia and all I have left are those P-40 which can do quite okay on the defense but even with a sweep they are absolutely helpless against the Zeroes. For 3 Zeros I have to trade 15+ Warhawks and that is something I can´t afford with a replacement rate of 50/month...[:(] Those were my BEST Warhawk FS by the way... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Dacca , at 31,24 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 25 Ki-21 Sally x 42 Ki-49 Helen x 53 Allied aircraft no flights Japanese aircraft losses Ki-21 Sally: 3 destroyed, 14 damaged Ki-49 Helen: 3 destroyed, 23 damaged Allied aircraft losses Wellington III: 3 destroyed Allied ground losses: 11 casualties reported Airbase hits 7 Airbase supply hits 3 Runway hits 24 Aircraft Attacking: 18 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 11000 feet this is what I like! Even that I have lost 5 Wellingtons on the ground the enemy has lost more bombers AND pilots... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 11 Ki-49 Helen x 11 No Japanese losses Airbase hits 1 Airbase supply hits 1 Runway hits 5 Aircraft Attacking: 6 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Dacca , at 31,24 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 27 A6M3 Zero x 38 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 70 No Japanese losses another sweep finds nothing... first the bombers are going in, then the sweep. Would have been funny to chew up the bombers first! today Yanam was reconed with a Betty. Now the hammer! I have spotted three big TFs around 10 hexes South of Madras going towards Ceylon! [X(][X(] At least this is what my recon tells me. Is this a dream?? [>:] Ceylon is surely no fortress and I don´t know what he´s bringing but what if he takes Ceylon? And then? How will he try to hold it? This would be a wet dream of mine, as I would then have a base where I can train my pilots! If this is really an invasion of Ceylon, or the Madras area then it´s the worst he can do IMO. But again, it depends on how much he really brings. If there are 12 divisions that are going to land near Madras then I´m in trouble, as he would be able to probably take all of India. If not then it was the biggest mistake he could have made! But where on Earth should he take 12 divisions from? And after losing half of his APs, how would he transport anything more than 3?? divs?? Yippie! We will see... I have sent not even 2000 assault points towards Akyab, so India has something like 3000+ assault points left. Though 2000 are in the East. So all will depend on how much he will land and how fast he can take the rest of India in the West against my 800 assault points there. To be honest, at the moment I think it´s just a bluff, and those big TFs are made up of CVEs or something like that. I just can´t believe he really tries to attack India now. Not as he´s doing recon in the East all the time and he can see how many troops I have there.

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/23/2008 1:27:04 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 09/05/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Dacca , at 31,24 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 5 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 13 Ki-21 Sally x 33 Allied aircraft no flights Japanese aircraft losses Ki-21 Sally: 4 destroyed, 18 damaged Allied aircraft losses Wellington III: 2 destroyed Allied ground losses: 33 casualties reported Guns lost 1 Airbase hits 5 Airbase supply hits 2 Runway hits 22 Aircraft Attacking: 7 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 11000 feet Hortlund keeps on working on bringing down his pilot pool. For 3 bombers lost on the ground (no pilot) he loses 6 Sallies to flak and one to ops... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 11 Ki-49 Helen x 8 No Japanese losses Runway hits 6 Aircraft Attacking: 5 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet numbers of Japanese aircraft on training have gone down dramatically. Looks like he needs his daitais on the front... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Dacca , at 31,24 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 24 A6M3 Zero x 46 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 62 No Japanese losses again, the sweep goes in AFTER the bombers. Still, with 70 Zeroes in this sweep I wouldn´t be smart to put up my fighters as they would just all get shot down... depressing, considering the date already. 5 months until the Corsair which will rule the sky until the Shinden will show up... And here´s the situation in India. Believe it or not, it really seems the Japanese are making an attempt to land on Ceylon, expected place of the invasion is Trimcomalee which is a clear hex. I have spotted a TF that is probably the KB, escorted by a surface TF and one TF looks like an invasion TF. I expect to see more TFs, probably ASW and perhaps another surface combat TF but so far we "only" spotted those three TFs. So like I said in my last post, the Japanese commander must have gone nuts! [:D] It´s 9/42, my airforce in India is nowhere near defeated (in fact the bombers have never had such a high exp. than they have now), I have a lot of ground troops, even though they are mostly in the East (takes perhaps 14-20 days to bring them to the front via rail). I have ordered all my ships in this area to flee and have also my fighters flown out, my bombers are on nav search. If there´s KB and now I highly expect KB to be there, then it doesn´t make sense to see my fighters go down in dozens (or hundreds) against the super Zeroes with pilots all above 80 exp. So in fact we will just sit back for the moment, fly naval search and watch the Japanese making their first step into a disaster. IMO every result of this operation that won´t end in the complete conquer of India will be a disaster for the Japanese. Why? Because I will get bases to train my pilots! Even though a conquered Ceylon or some bases around Madras will stop my ship movement to the Eastern bases, it will bleed the Japanese and at some point I will overcome them and bomb those bases to dust. Then I will have my shipping lanes open again AND will have training targets. At the moment, I expect something like 3 divisions coming in, which will surely be enough to seize Trimcomalee. Then Colombo could be target, probably again an amphibious operation as the march there takes quite some time. I guess it will take at least 3 or 4 weeks until the Japanese would be ready for an attack (with more than a couple of para squads) on the bases in the Madras area. In fact I wonder why I haven´t seen any of those tiny paradrops to seize the bases of Yanam, Hyderabad and the two bases South West of Madras. I´m also very excited to see how my static base force at Trimcomalee will perform. 2x9,2 inch and 16x6 inch CD guns will be ready and very well supplied to open fire on the invasion TF. There wasn´t much recon (only one or two Betty flights) so without the needed detection level the expected BB/CA bombardments could find it hard to nuke the base. I´m not really afraid to lose India, but if so, then Hortlund proves to be an excellent commander! Party time! [sm=00000613.gif] [image]local://upfiles/13774/9BF3A92C5EF24032B8285750A04CC4B1.jpg[/image] Another thing that I find really interesting is the way Hortlund is operating his ships! While I mentioned that IMO he´s VERY careless with his ships and aircraft, the handling of his ships is something that really strikes me. An example: like you see in the screenshot, he has moved a TF of 6 PC/PG to Akyab. Now they have been sitting there for quite some time (one was sunk on the way to Akyab already). I´ve got a lot of bombers on nav search (very high exp bombers) and they put bombs into his ships daily, with two of those vessels already sunk... There is no reason those PC/PG should be there. Can you tell me why he sacrifices 6 of his limited ASW vessels. Oh, I know, he doesn´t need them anyway... [X(] Today, two of the AKs that were attacked at Gili Gili by my B-17s sunk! Now that isn´t a surprise, BUT guess where they sunk! They sunk North West of Rabaul, 4-7 hexes off Rabaul, on direct way to Truk! So instead of sending them to the port of Rabaul where perhaps he could save one of his ships, he just does nothing and he lets his ships retire to their homeport which probably was Truk. And that is something I have seen on and on. Ships that were hit somewhere (being normally in no danger of being sunk at all) then show up as sunk some 40 hexes away in the middle of the ocean, even though they had perhaps only 10 hexes to the next major port where they could be easily saved! This clearly shows me that he doesn´t care what happens to his damaged ships, those ships mostly retire just towards their home ports. So an AK is hit somewhere near Timor and then this AK tries to go to Japan instead of the next bigger port to bring down the 40 floatation damage. 15 turns later I´m surprised (now not anymore [8D]) that I get a message of this AK being sunk a couple of hexes around Palau! All in all, something I can´t understand as I´m always trying to save EVERY ship, no matter if PT or BB. And even more so when I play the Japanese side. With nearly 400 ships lost on the Japanese side, I guess between 50-100 were lost due to careless behaviour with damaged ships... not to mention the careless behaviour with undamaged ships! [;)]

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/23/2008 2:58:17 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 09/06/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 4 encounters mine field at Trimcomalee (15,25) Japanese Ships BB Haruna, Mine hits 2, on fire The obvious is taking place! Target of the Japanese invasion is Trimcomalee! Another BB out of action for quite some time. Not heavily damaged so I guess Haruna won´t sink. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 79 encounters mine field at Trimcomalee (15,25) Japanese Ships DD Hatsukari, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage DD Hiyodori, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage Those two DDs could be in trouble though. All mines were VH2! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naval bombardment of Trimcomalee, at 15,25 Japanese Ships BB Mutsu BB Hiei Allied ground losses: 139 casualties reported Guns lost 2 Vehicles lost 1 Runway hits 1 Port hits 1 pathetic results, as expected without heavy recon before... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naval bombardment of Trimcomalee, at 15,25 - Coastal Guns Fire Back! 4 Coastal gun shots fired in defense. Japanese Ships CA Mikuma CA Haguro, Shell hits 1 CA Takao BB Ise, Shell hits 1 Allied ground losses: 170 casualties reported Guns lost 4 Vehicles lost 3 Airbase hits 1 Runway hits 2 Port hits 5 same here, we nearly take no damage... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Dacca , at 31,24 Japanese aircraft D3A Val x 22 Japanese aircraft losses D3A Val: 9 destroyed, 4 damaged Runway hits 4 Aircraft Attacking: 12 x D3A Val bombing at 2000 feet now what can I say? After sending in Helens and Sallies at 11.000ft that got more or less butchered, Hortlund sends in Vals from Akyab that bomb at 2000ft. 11 are shot down. Can someone help him please?? [&:] Or has the AI taken over? [;)] This is what I mean when I say that he´s totally careless with his material! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Trimcomalee , at 15,25 Japanese aircraft G4M1 Betty x 2 Japanese aircraft losses G4M1 Betty: 2 damaged -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 11 Ki-49 Helen x 6 No Japanese losses Runway hits 4 Aircraft Attacking: 3 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Trimcomalee , at 15,25 Japanese aircraft G4M1 Betty x 2 Japanese aircraft losses G4M1 Betty: 2 damaged -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Bangalore [8\|] Japanese Shock attack Attacking force 250 troops, 2 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 15 Defending force 13456 troops, 120 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 352 Japanese max assault: 14 - adjusted assault: 0 Allied max defense: 348 - adjusted defense: 204 Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 0) Japanese ground losses: 176 casualties reported Guns lost 1 here we go! The para drops I expected to happen already last turn are happening today. Those guys are landing next to an Indian division... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Hyderabad Japanese Shock attack Attacking force 115 troops, 1 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 8 Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 0 Japanese max assault: 10 - adjusted assault: 12 Allied max defense: 0 - adjusted defense: 1 Japanese assault odds: 12 to 1 (fort level 2) Japanese forces CAPTURE Hyderabad base !!! of course he drops not just on one base... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Trivandrum Japanese Shock attack Attacking force 112 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 5 Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 0 Japanese max assault: 6 - adjusted assault: 8 Allied max defense: 0 - adjusted defense: 1 Japanese assault odds: 8 to 1 (fort level 0) Japanese forces CAPTURE Trivandrum base !!! next para drop... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Yanam Japanese Shock attack Attacking force 73 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2 Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 0 Japanese max assault: 2 - adjusted assault: 4 Allied max defense: 0 - adjusted defense: 1 Japanese assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 5) Japanese forces CAPTURE Yanam base !!! and the last one... he drops the same number or paratroopers on cities in India like he dropped on jungle bases in New Guinea. Well, I´m not surprised. I think I don´t have to tell anyone here what I think about it. But again, no way would Hortlund think some of his actions would be gamey. Not at all, as I am the one who has been acting gamey since 7 Dec 41... as you can see from the screenshot there are already aircraft symbols at Yanam and Hyderabad. So would someone like to bet with me? I bet those are transports and he will lift 50 of the 100 paratroopers he just dropped there further inland! [sm=crazy.gif] The only thing that could prevent him from doing this is that I told him I already expect him to do that.. with a lot of smilies behind my email... He doesn´t have aviation support at those bases, but he has 100 paratroopers, so he flies in 12 Tinas and drops 50 paratroopers on a city like Dehli! 50 paratroopers then take Dehli, a city with how many inhabitants? 1 Million? There would be more British soldiers on vacation than he has paratroopers now in whole India. Oh well, this is not my decision. He told me earlier I just should put troops into EVERY Indian base. Hey, no problem, there are only 30 of them. I could put one base force in each base and then there wouldn´t be more base forces. And not to mention that most of my base forces have an assault value between 0 and 10... [8\|] go ahead Steve... I want to point out that I have no problem with the use of paras! Would he drop a whole btn on Yanam or whatever base, noone would complain. No, what he´s doing is trying to take all of India with 300 paratroopers... [sm=crazy.gif] Wonder why Hitler not just took Moscow with a couple of paratroopers when he started the war against Russia in summer 41... There were a coule of aircraft that could reach the city...[8\|] But why am I complaining? Like I expected it, or should I say, like I dreamt about it, he provided me with lots of training targets for future operations. As you can see, so far, my base force hasn´t taken a lot of damage and his invasion TFs are still in danger of getting chewed up. I really would like to see one of those counter nukes from a CD unit! [:D] He even was lucky, as my CD unit LOST one of her two big guns. I haven´t spotted hundreds of ships, so for sure this invasion is nothing looking like 6+ divisions. In fact, I guess he will take Trimcomalee and then he will be stuck... And of course we see again one of his picket TFs that he moved 3 hexes near Madras to draw some bombers... I didn´t have any on nav attack, but the use of those "picket Tfs" is just strange. He loses ships, while he achieves nothing... As there were picket ships in WW2 also, I don´t have a problem. So far, Hortlund´s picket ships suffered the same fate as those in WW2, they get sunk... [image]local://upfiles/13774/C4CC141162504647884B0AE79CDC14A4.jpg[/image]

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/23/2008 3:01:20 PM)
I´m already thinking about mounting a 20 sub transport TF that lands 400 Marines at an empty base in Japan!

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/23/2008 5:45:11 PM)
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 09/07/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 133 troops unloading over beach at Mannargudi, 16,23 Japanese ground losses: 113 casualties reported one TF with around 2000 troops landed at Mannargudi. If he uses paras he should use them at bases where he intends to land troops by ship the next turn... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 133 troops unloading over beach at Mannargudi, 16,23 Japanese ground losses: 25 casualties reported -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 13 encounters mine field at Trimcomalee (15,25) Japanese Ships DD Hasu DD Samidare CA Chokai, Mine hits 1 [:D] DD Shikinami -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 79 encounters mine field at Trimcomalee (15,25) Japanese Ships DD Tanikaze, Mine hits 1 [:D] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Trimcomalee , at 15,25 Japanese aircraft G4M1 Betty x 1 No Japanese losses -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Trimcomalee , at 15,25 Japanese aircraft G4M1 Betty x 2 Japanese aircraft losses G4M1 Betty: 2 damaged -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 11 Ki-49 Helen x 6 No Japanese losses Runway hits 6 Aircraft Attacking: 3 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Dutch Harbor , at 103,36 Allied aircraft F4F-3 Wildcat x 46 B-26B Marauder x 30 No Allied losses Runway hits 2 Aircraft Attacking: 6 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 23500 feet we are starting with our training programme on Dutch Harbour. I have to train mostly fighter squadrons so first I have to take out the flak guns or the supply to silent the flak. Which means first we will see dozens of bomber attacks, slowly reducing the alt to be save from to much losses to flak... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naval bombardment of Trimcomalee, at 15,25 - Coastal Guns Fire Back! 11 Coastal gun shots fired in defense. Japanese Ships CL Sendai, Shell hits 10, on fire, heavy damage [:D][:D] CA Kako CA Kumano CA Chokai BB Fuso BB Nagato Allied ground losses: 235 casualties reported Guns lost 5 Runway hits 2 Port hits 4 Port supply hits 1 hehe! Looks like my 9,2 inch gun (which was destroyed, no 9,2 inchers left) was albe to hurt a CL. With heavy damage and that long way home I wonder if the ship will make it - I guess the chances are good to see it sunk! [:D] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naval bombardment of Trimcomalee, at 15,25 Japanese Ships CA Mikuma CA Haguro CA Takao BB Ise Allied ground losses: 63 casualties reported Guns lost 1 Airbase hits 2 Runway hits 5 Port hits 6 another bombardment and soon there won´t be BBs/CAs left with ammo to do bombardments... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 163 encounters mine field at Trimcomalee (15,25) TF 163 troops unloading over beach at Trimcomalee, 15,25 Japanese Ships MSW Tama Maru MSW Ataka Maru MSW Asahi Maru #2 MSW Aoi Maru PG Hashidate DD Akizuki AP Hakusan Maru, Mine hits 1 AP Kashiwara Maru, Mine hits 1, on fire Japanese ground losses: 45 casualties reported Guns lost 2 Coastal Guns at Trimcomalee, 15,25, firing at TF 163 381 Coastal gun shots fired in defense. Japanese Ships CA Ashigara, Shell hits 1 CA Suzuya, Shell hits 2 PG Hashidate, Shell hits 1 CA Aoba CA Furutaka, Shell hits 2 Japanese ground losses: 1842 casualties reported Guns lost 7 Allied ground losses: 41 casualties reported Guns lost 2 [:D][:D][:D] lots of smilies today! The reasons for my smilies are different! Don´t know where I should start. Honestly I think my opponent is either trying to throw away the game or he really has gone nuts. Guess what he landed at Trimcomalee! O N E division... no, nothing more! O N E division! [:D] LOL, I have two brigades and the base force there and have flown in another full brigade the last two days with Dakotas!! And he lands O N E division without any support troops (don´t know if there´s a HQ though). This is one of the worst planned operations I have encountered so far in my PBEMs. How on Earth does he think he could achieve something with O N E division? [sm=00000280.gif] I´m absolutely excited at the moment as all he´s doing at the moment is obviously just hurting him! And what I also don´t understand is the reason why he lands at the end of the day. I doubt he has unloaded all at once so my CD guns get another chance tomorrow. Still 13x6 inch guns left. Sorry, but this operation is badly planned. The only good decision I can see so far was to put those 4 IJN CAs into the invasion TF as not a single transport was hit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Trimcomalee Allied Bombardment attack Attacking force 11786 troops, 104 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 354 Defending force 9667 troops, 82 guns, 6 vehicles, Assault Value = 363 Japanese ground losses: 25 casualties reported Guns lost 1 Allied ground losses: 4 casualties reported Guns lost 2 as you can see the Japanese can achieve NOTHING here! We have level 5 forts and 2 of my bgds are 100% prepped. [8D] I just can´t believe my eyes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Benares Japanese Shock attack Attacking force 80 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1 Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 0 Japanese max assault: 0 - adjusted assault: 2 Allied max defense: 0 - adjusted defense: 1 Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 2) Japanese forces CAPTURE Benares base !!! like I´ve said, there will be more paradrops! 80!!! men take Benares... [sm=crazy.gif]But this is the one that I like the most! Benares is 2 hexes South of Lucknow! Lucknow can be built up to level 6 airfield (3 at the moment) and that is what I will have done in a month. Already sending out eng units to the airfield, then I will be able to train no less than 300 fighter/fighter bombers from this base alon against an undefended target that is only 2 hexes away! THANK YOU STEVE! Have I said that this "attack" on India is a BIG mistake?? [:D] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Ahmadabad Japanese Shock attack Attacking force 53 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2 Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 0 Japanese max assault: 2 - adjusted assault: 3 Allied max defense: 0 - adjusted defense: 1 Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 0) Japanese forces CAPTURE Ahmadabad base !!! and 53 men storm Ahmadabad... With this move it´s already game over for the Japanese, even though the enemy commander seems not to know that yet. [:D] With the possibility to savely train my pilots, I guess this is worth a year of slowly grinding forward. A 80 exp pilot in a Warhawk will eat a 75 exp pilot in a Zero for breakfast... I love this India operation!!!!! Don´t know how he could come up with such an idea...

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/23/2008 5:49:13 PM)
IMO the only thing he can (or better say should) do now is pick up his landed division again and turn back. He needs at least two more divisions at Trimcomalee and that was what I expected to see at min. So far he just has hurt himself.

ny59giants -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/23/2008 6:43:11 PM)
I briefly took over a PBEM game as the Allies in late 5/42 to try to save India (which I did) as I thought it was too late (Big B's Mod). I had a lot of Chinese LCUs already under SE Asia command, but they were too far forward deployed. Thankfully, on ABs extended map, it is easy to have them march to Imphal and then quickly overland back to India (only one hex worth of traveling at 2 miles per day). Thus, I don't see what he is trying to do at this late date unless he stops all offensive operations across the map and everything he's got is directed towards India. If not, then all these troops will be lost. Its just a matter of time (nice to have a self supplied POW camp in your mist). [:D] Time to place some low experinced fighters on LRCAP over a few of his bases to knock out some of his transports cheaply. [;)]

castor troy -> RE: The rant goes on... Pzjg Hortlund vs Castor Troy (2/23/2008 9:51:17 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: ny59giants I briefly took over a PBEM game as the Allies in late 5/42 to try to save India (which I did) as I thought it was too late (Big B's Mod). I had a lot of Chinese LCUs already under SE Asia command, but they were too far forward deployed. Thankfully, on ABs extended map, it is easy to have them march to Imphal and then quickly overland back to India (only one hex worth of traveling at 2 miles per day). Thus, I don't see what he is trying to do at this late date unless he stops all offensive operations across the map and everything he's got is directed towards India. If not, then all these troops will be lost. Its just a matter of time (nice to have a self supplied POW camp in your mist). [:D] Time to place some low experinced fighters on LRCAP over a few of his bases to knock out some of his transports cheaply. [;)] I just don´t know what he was up to. Never seen such a half hearted attempt to attack Ceylon. Even if it would be early 42, one division alone seems to be just not enough. And he hurts himself the most with his tiny paradrops, the fighter training programme will start in two weeks! [:D] Three months later it will be payback time.

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