RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

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Encircled -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 10:15:03 AM)
He's going to struggle to find another opponent if he continues to try to nerf the allies even more than he has already. When I played as Japan, knowing full well the capabilities of 4Es (or even massed 2Es, something which Japan excels at in '42), any move in the open in Indian country has decent AA covering it. Those 10cm guns that you can buy out for about 4 PP each from the HI are ideal.

Canoerebel -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 12:34:11 PM)
John knows and loves WWII history as a student and teacher. As a gamer, I think he yearns for chess, where both sides are relatively equal in capability into late game; like the old Avalon Hill game, Blitzkrieg. He has some big airfields past Manila: Clark, San Fernando, and Appari are each at least size 7. Manila is also size 7 and has been closed by Allied 4EB bombing irregularly over the course of a month. At first, John had 200 fighters at Manila, but he lost most of them in the air and on the ground. SigInt has reported massive deployments of Japanese air at Home Island bases. John may be training hard there or this may be his defenses against the Superforts. One thing I'm not sure about is the quality of his pilots. My guys seem to handle his guys in nearly all combat situations. My pilots are mostly highly experienced and skilled in their missions. It may be that he's struggling to keep up with his losses. Or that may be wishful thinking on my part. He's had kamikaze capability for two months now. Based upon one of his emails, I think he'll be working that angle hard. And I think he envisioned a time when he could combine LBA (including kamis) from big airfields along with KB to deliver a devastating attack. I worried about that happening in the Philippines early on. But with Manila beat down, and with Mindanao probably suffering from supply woes, he doesn't have the right airfields (I think) until I move closer to Formosa/Okinawa. He may not have enough aviation support either. The Philippines campaign did catch him by surprise (he was leaning into Celebes), so I don't know if he attended to base staffing and building up supply levels. He's still pretty strong at sea and in the air and will strike hard one of these days, but overall you can see that he hadn't given real thought to defending the Philippines. Now he has at least four divisions on Luzon, which won't be nearly enough if he tries to fight south of Manila. He can still bring in reinforcements, but starting in about 20 days, I'll begin imposing a blockade on his ports to prevent that from happening.

jwolf -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 1:41:13 PM)
quote: But the easiest fix is to simply take Miri. I like your style! [:D]

paullus99 -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 1:51:29 PM)
John is completely consumed with the naval aspects of "his" mod - he loves throwing gobs of ships and carriers around & inflicting "crushing" defeats on the allies, for as long as he possibly can. On the other hand, he's never shown much subtlety when in comes to the land war aspects of the game in general. He's a bit more comfortable in the air game, but his play in this game & past AARs show a distinct lack of "combined arms" experience. The lack of AA in the PI, then his complaining about allied bombers (which were the bane of the existence of both German & Japanese infantry from 1943 on) is just sour grapes. While I understand the desire to achieve some measure of balance, especially in the mid to late game, John has created a mod that appears to be solely designed to give him so many toys to play with, as to make what is already a miserable Allied early game, nearly impossible to play....and now with John appearing to want to nerf any allied advantage, I concur that I don't know why anyone would want to play him. Just my $0.02

Canoerebel -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 2:02:46 PM)
There's no doubt John is a Navy guy first and foremost and most of all. He loves that aspect of the game above all others. And you're right, the air war is next in his heart. Then probably production. And lastly the ground war, though he does enjoy the early war rampages through Australia or other places. He's aggressive and wants to play offense, so he's not well-suited to the end game. The phased withdawal never occurs to him, as he demonstrated in Burma and now in the DEI/Philippines. That worked for him in Sumatra (but that was 1942 and early '43, a different paradigm entirely) and it worked for him but really against him in Celebes. You readers of John's AAR will have a better understanding of the strategy he employed following Big Tent (Allied invasion of the DEI in November 1943). From what I could see, he kept an offensive mindset and mainly positioned his assets forward, working towards a big clash around the Torres Strait. I thought, at the time, that was a big miscalculation: that he needed to be shoring up his defenses further back. But John is thinking offense all the time, even when giving a nod to defense. And thus he triggered his Celebes attack, the most costly and counterproductive decisive Japanese victory I think I've ever witnessed. He loves his navy so much that he can't bring himself to attack now, a fact he related in an email about two weeks ago. He's chewing and spitting nails now. I wonder what he'll do?

cwemyss -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 2:58:54 PM)
Thanks for the big picture map... I know real world geography, but I'm still getting used to the WITP version. :-) Im still reading both AAEs so I can't comment much... But thanks for keeping this up as long as you guys have. I've learned a ton reading it.

Flicker -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 4:43:10 PM)
Good job clearing out the "backwater". The large map is looking good.

Canoerebel -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 6:00:55 PM)
6/2/44 Fun House: For the most part, Allied 4EB declined to fly today, giving the IJA a reprieve. But I think John got the message. It looks like some or all of his army may be retiring towards Manila. That's the only move that makes sense given the circumstances. That means I won't get a chance to rough up the Japanese army in the open as I had hoped, but it likely means that my army will advance in good shape and can besiege Manila. He'll have the advantage of the urban terrain, but my engineers will be building airfields at Atimonan (and possibly Lucerna or Batangas). This will not be a blitzkrieg campaign, as I noted at the outset of Fun House two months ago, but I don't think John has a real chance of stopping the Allies now. The infrastructure (bases, aircraft, supply, ships) needed to properly support a big offensive are present. Fun House Borneo: I think I'll sortie Death Star today. That's a big decision, given fuel consumption and prior experience against enemy subs. But I think moving on Miri (and a few other related missions) is a worthwhile objective. Burma: The infantry is up, so tomorrow will see the first deliberate attack in the hex west of Rahaeng. John has 20k troops there, so this won't be easy given the terrain. But 20k shouldn't be enough to stand. He's probably buying time and I'm willing to concede time in return for keeping his attention focused in Indochina. Elsewhere: About three weeks ago, I made a key decision that triggered all kinds of moves all over the map. I've kept quiet about this for op sec purposes, but the curtain will be pulled back in another week or so. [image]local://upfiles/8143/34F0D77008AA4384BE4D13730D411DAD.jpg[/image]

anarchyintheuk -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 6:06:36 PM)
Buying out Aussie and NZ brigades gets pretty expensive but there aren't a lot of options. It would be nice if you could split the (Sep) regiments.

Lokasenna -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 6:19:07 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Canoerebel John knows and loves WWII history as a student and teacher. As a gamer, I think he yearns for chess, where both sides are relatively equal in capability into late game; like the old Avalon Hill game, Blitzkrieg. He has some big airfields past Manila: Clark, San Fernando, and Appari are each at least size 7. Manila is also size 7 and has been closed by Allied 4EB bombing irregularly over the course of a month. At first, John had 200 fighters at Manila, but he lost most of them in the air and on the ground. SigInt has reported massive deployments of Japanese air at Home Island bases. John may be training hard there or this may be his defenses against the Superforts. One thing I'm not sure about is the quality of his pilots. My guys seem to handle his guys in nearly all combat situations. My pilots are mostly highly experienced and skilled in their missions. It may be that he's struggling to keep up with his losses. Or that may be wishful thinking on my part. He's had kamikaze capability for two months now. Based upon one of his emails, I think he'll be working that angle hard. And I think he envisioned a time when he could combine LBA (including kamis) from big airfields along with KB to deliver a devastating attack. I worried about that happening in the Philippines early on. But with Manila beat down, and with Mindanao probably suffering from supply woes, he doesn't have the right airfields (I think) until I move closer to Formosa/Okinawa. He may not have enough aviation support either. The Philippines campaign did catch him by surprise (he was leaning into Celebes), so I don't know if he attended to base staffing and building up supply levels. He's still pretty strong at sea and in the air and will strike hard one of these days, but overall you can see that he hadn't given real thought to defending the Philippines. Now he has at least four divisions on Luzon, which won't be nearly enough if he tries to fight south of Manila. He can still bring in reinforcements, but starting in about 20 days, I'll begin imposing a blockade on his ports to prevent that from happening. Well, to be fair... if the planes are going to be returning to base, you don't need air support there. Just supplies.

crsutton -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 6:26:11 PM)
You don't need all of those bases in the PI. Some are redundant. Besides, I don't think your opponent really is in position to saunter into the PI in an attempt to take bases back. Even if he were lucky enough to snatch one or two back it would not matter in the long run. A base or two won't undo his screwed up position in the PI or affect the outcome. I would not lose to much sleep over garrisons. I would just keep a fire brigade handy with some air transport ready. Paratroopers are good for that.

Canoerebel -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 6:29:08 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk Buying out Aussie and NZ brigades gets pretty expensive but there aren't a lot of options. It would be nice if you could split the (Sep) regiments. I just bought out a Kiwi brigade, so I know what you mean. Some or all of the Aussie units seem inexpensive, however. The actual cost I spend is far less than the cost quote provided by the game. For instance, when I guy out a restricted Aussie division it might cost 300 PP rather than 1,300. I'll be buying a bunch of Aussie units soon. They are prepped for bases I want to take on my LOC, but I keep finding higher-priority needs up around Fun House. Eventually I've got to attend to Port Moresby or Darwin or a few other bases, but it's hard to see those as top priorities when the Battle for Manila is looming.

jwolf -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 6:44:52 PM)
In my (limited) experience, the Aussie units are not too expensive, but the Kiwis cost a fortune. I really don't understand why the disparity. The Aussie 6th division (going to Miri, 240 AV) seems kind of weak, or badly beaten up. Sorry, I've lost track -- what happened to it?

Canoerebel -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 7:31:39 PM)
As Fun House opened two months ago, 6th Aus. Div. invaded Tacloban at full strength. About a month ago, I switched prep for Miri. Then I got confused and dropped the division on Puerto Princesa rather than Miri. That unprepped landing resulted in high disablements. But the unit has been regaining strength steadily and has decent prep now for Miri. I think she'll do well in the role. She can then sit at Miri for a long time while prepping for another major target. Palembang is a possibility.

JohnDillworth -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 8:09:35 PM)
Does Miri produce fuel? Would solve some logistics problems

MakeeLearn -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 8:39:07 PM)
quote: Then I got confused and dropped the division on Puerto Princesa rather than Miri. That unprepped landing resulted in high disablements. Criminally negligent behavior......Title 10, Section 892, Article 92.... Dereliction of duty

Canoerebel -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 8:55:55 PM)
Oh, it was a nightmare. For those who weren't reading then, let me tell you how things devolved and are now evolving. A month back, Death Star and the Herd departed Legaspi for an important operation that included contested landings at Miri and Puerto Princesa and uncontested landings at Balabac Island and Sandakan, Borneo. The embarkation of troops was complicated and confusing, involving multiple ports and the putting together, taking apart, and then putting together again of the various assault components. I got myself good and confused so that the very first landing got screwed up, as 6th Aus. Div. came ashore at Puerto Princesa rather than Miri. The unit took high disablements, but I knew she would likely be enough to handle the modest enemy garrison. Then CV Lexington took a torp. Then I had to figure out what to do with 7th Aus. Div/A, prepping for Puerto, the only unit available to hit Miri. I didn't like the looks of that, so I diverted the Aussies to vacant Beaufort, which they took. The landings at Balabac and Sandakan went well. I had to cross my fingers and hope that 6th Aus. Div. would take Puerto. I kept the unit prepping for Miri, in hopes that eventually I could turn my attention to that base. Despite all this carnage, I ended up with four good bases, the engineers have built aifields at Beaufort and Balabac to level two, 6th Australian is now 55% prepped for Miri, and John apparently hasn't reinforced the base. So an operation that seemed to be swirling down the toilet turned into a pretty successful venture.

Canoerebel -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 8:59:58 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth Does Miri produce fuel? Would solve some logistics problems Miri produces oil and has a refinery. Does that mean she'll generate fuel? If so, Shazaam! This should've been a higher priority. All my combat ships and carriers have freshly refueled at Legaspi, which still has about 125k fuel on hand. So Death Star and associated combat TFs can likely operate for another month or two without running out of fuel. More fuel is on the way and there are reserves, including fuel in the DEI and 300+ merchant ships disbanded at Legaspi, most of them with lots of fuel in their tanks.

JohnDillworth -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 10:07:49 PM)
quote: Miri produces oil and has a refinery. Does that mean she'll generate fuel? If so, Shazaam! This should've been a higher priority. Truth be told I have been wondering why you have not been looking to pick up Tarkan or Miri as a gas station. Even if they are damaged you have engineers who can have those pumps running in a week

Itdepends -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 10:14:07 PM)
If you are buying out Aussie units at a 25% discount then it sounds like you are transferring them to an unrestricted HQ that is in the same command structure rather than say a US HQ. There is an aussie corp that allows this. You'll find the same thing happens if you buy out US units under the unrestricted air HQ that sits inside the restricted command structure. For this reason many players have a HR that full PP must be paid when buying out units.

BillBrown -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 10:17:02 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth quote: Miri produces oil and has a refinery. Does that mean she'll generate fuel? If so, Shazaam! This should've been a higher priority. Truth be told I have been wondering why you have not been looking to pick up Tarkan or Miri as a gas station. Even if they are damaged you have engineers who can have those pumps running in a week Engineers have no effect on the repair of oil wells or refineries.

Canoerebel -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 10:19:33 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Itdepends If you are buying out Aussie units at a 25% discount then it sounds like you are transferring them to an unrestricted HQ that is in the same command structure rather than say a US HQ. There is an aussie corp that allows this. You'll find the same thing happens if you buy out US units under the unrestricted air HQ that sits inside the restricted command structure. For this reason many players have a HR that full PP must be paid when buying out units. I've never bought restricted American units by using air HQ. Surely there's no thought that buying restricted Australian units by assigning them to their own I Corps HQ or II Corps HQ is in some way tainted?

Canoerebel -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 10:23:53 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth quote: Miri produces oil and has a refinery. Does that mean she'll generate fuel? If so, Shazaam! This should've been a higher priority. Truth be told I have been wondering why you have not been looking to pick up Tarkan or Miri as a gas station. Even if they are damaged you have engineers who can have those pumps running in a week The answer to that is complicated. To this point, fuel hasn't been an issue for my ships. My chief concern with Miri, Balikpapan, etc. is to (eventually) deny John access to their oil. That has been a secondary priority due to the significance of the primary objectives. A month ago, I decided not to allocate B-29s to raids on Balikpapan, Miri and Tarakan, only because I'll be taking those bases (or taking control of airspace) in the medium term, so why use the Superforts on hardened targets? But Palembang and the Java oil fields may be a different matter. I have no plans to invade those places until very late in the game, if ever. So I might target them, from time to time, to reduce fuel availability. Or I may just concentrate on totally severing John's LOC from DEI to Japan. That's not such a wild-eyed dream at this point.

BillBrown -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/14/2017 10:31:04 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Canoerebel quote: ORIGINAL: Itdepends If you are buying out Aussie units at a 25% discount then it sounds like you are transferring them to an unrestricted HQ that is in the same command structure rather than say a US HQ. There is an aussie corp that allows this. You'll find the same thing happens if you buy out US units under the unrestricted air HQ that sits inside the restricted command structure. For this reason many players have a HR that full PP must be paid when buying out units. I've never bought restricted American units by using air HQ. Surely there's no thought that buying restricted Australian units by assigning them to their own I Corps HQ or II Corps HQ is in some way tainted? Not as far as I am concerned.

Lokasenna -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/15/2017 4:48:15 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: BillBrown quote: ORIGINAL: Canoerebel quote: ORIGINAL: Itdepends If you are buying out Aussie units at a 25% discount then it sounds like you are transferring them to an unrestricted HQ that is in the same command structure rather than say a US HQ. There is an aussie corp that allows this. You'll find the same thing happens if you buy out US units under the unrestricted air HQ that sits inside the restricted command structure. For this reason many players have a HR that full PP must be paid when buying out units. I've never bought restricted American units by using air HQ. Surely there's no thought that buying restricted Australian units by assigning them to their own I Corps HQ or II Corps HQ is in some way tainted? Not as far as I am concerned. It does mean you can't buy out the HQ(s) themselves without increasing the cost to assign new units to them. IIRC, one of them starts assigned to Australian Command so is restricted.

crsutton -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/15/2017 2:42:43 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Lokasenna quote: ORIGINAL: BillBrown quote: ORIGINAL: Canoerebel quote: ORIGINAL: Itdepends If you are buying out Aussie units at a 25% discount then it sounds like you are transferring them to an unrestricted HQ that is in the same command structure rather than say a US HQ. There is an aussie corp that allows this. You'll find the same thing happens if you buy out US units under the unrestricted air HQ that sits inside the restricted command structure. For this reason many players have a HR that full PP must be paid when buying out units. I've never bought restricted American units by using air HQ. Surely there's no thought that buying restricted Australian units by assigning them to their own I Corps HQ or II Corps HQ is in some way tainted? Not as far as I am concerned. It does mean you can't buy out the HQ(s) themselves without increasing the cost to assign new units to them. IIRC, one of them starts assigned to Australian Command so is restricted. Any unit bought out under the Australian I and II Corps is free to roam. It cost about 1/3 of the usual PP point expenditure to do so and is one of the quirks of the game, I suppose. It is kind of interesting as those two actual HQ are restricted and need to be bought out if you want them to leave Australia But nobody thinks it is gamey to make use of them as they are legitimate Infantry HQ. New Zealand and Canadian units don't have that luxury so you pay full PP fare for them. They tend to be the last units I buy out-if at all. I would object if I thought my opponent were buying out infantry units under air HQ's.

MakeeLearn -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/15/2017 5:09:53 PM)
quote: Despite all this carnage, I ended up with four good bases, the engineers have built aifields at Beaufort and Balabac to level two, 6th Australian is now 55% prepped for Miri, and John apparently hasn't reinforced the base. So an operation that seemed to be swirling down the toilet turned into a pretty successful venture. General Serendipity has saved many "gone wrong" military plans. Now... about those strawberries.... [image]local://upfiles/55056/CFB4B8E9DDA24A138FA397E5E20F1FFF.jpg[/image]

Bif1961 -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/15/2017 6:02:43 PM)
Why not drop mines at night at Palmebang with B-29s, the allies did it during WWII.

Canoerebel -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/15/2017 6:16:41 PM)
I might when I'm within range. Thus far I haven't done any aerial mining. I'm reserving that until within normal range of several key ports, so that I can keep John guessing. I'm close to being in range of the southern Home Islands, Palembang, and Singapore, but I'm not quite there yet. I'm not targeting Hong Kong because I think John has cleared it of ships due to its exposure.

Lowpe -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (3/15/2017 6:24:56 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Canoerebel I might when I'm within range. Thus far I haven't done any aerial mining. I'm reserving that until within normal range of several key ports, so that I can keep John guessing. I'm close to being in range of the southern Home Islands, Palembang, and Singapore, but I'm not quite there yet. I'm not targeting Hong Kong because I think John has cleared it of ships due to its exposure. Get those long legged recon and search planes working for you! That is a huge Allied advantage, think of all the misdirection you can sow with it.[:)]

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