NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief?

NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (Full Version)

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uncivil_servant -> NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (2/19/2013 2:10:50 AM)
Complete utter newb {dyslexic) AAR comments welcome!! How else will I learn?! (meaning reading the manual and perusing forums has helped to a degree but almost never (the manual)covers the WHY of various things - particularly supply/logistics and as there is NO tutorial or even a scenario where the logisitics is set-up where one can study and change when needed, I have to learn by diving in) Found Witp-AE by playing Uncommon Valor - realizing it wasn't the whole pacific engagement and getting this but in the meantime encountering the sonar-guided-tactical-nuc jap air-launched torpedoes from that game versus the allied strategy of "wave bombing" which is when my bombers dropped loads of bombs into the water in the general vicinity of enemy ships then hoping the waves created might capcize a small vessel or resting migratory duck. This caused some hesitiation to start Witp as well as airpower seemed.. lopsided by just a weeeee bit and the sheer scope of logistics micromanaging (as autoconvoy doesn't really seem to work....) Anyway.. Allies December 7 surprise... on H 1st Turn: off pretty standard options... auto-base stuff: off Auto replenish and upgrade: on I AM utilizing the allied set-up spreadsheet from (Kull as i cannot link ) but as that covers day one and I have no idea why ships would be sent from australia to LA when LA has ships I'll find some use for them when they get there! or not.. whatever! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Scene 1. Take 14 China 30th Army group HQ near Nancheng.. officers discussing strategy.. cook's assistant's whipping boy A. Lee listening in.. Captain's Wu, Wei, and Wong are arguing with Cololnel Dum regarding their new orders.. Chinese forces up and down the front will be maneuvering in-between axis held cities to take advantage of stressed supply lines and cause havoc(tm) with the enemy..and we'll be defening! everyoneknows that is easier.. Wu stresses that our supply situation is even worse than the jap's, Wei says that CHN units are undertrained and understaffed, and Wong states that he doubts we'll get any defensive bonus by moving forward then plopping down on our butts. Col Dum bellows, "Wong you are lazy.. you're marching out first.. besides I've been promised local partisan support.. Wei! thats why we're attacking.. we're going to have lots and lots of learning! Wu.. you are correct but what you do not know is that apparently word is is that CHN industry cannot support its armies never mind how we were supplied yesterday.. we cannot supply ourselves going forward so our wise leadership gave us their wisdom from on high.. when you have too many mouths to feed...." Capt. Wu interjects, "yes.. yes. you fish more, grow more food.. and prioritize better Sir, but how..." Col Dum waves at Lieutenant from his personal peon minion auxilliary to slap Capt Wu and continues.. "No no no you damn foolish optimist.. when you cannot supply the mouths you have you reduce the number of mouths!.. so you all are bravely going to lead your forces East while I lag behind and hope to be able to esape your eventual slaughter." Cook's assistant Whipping boy (CaWb) Lee returns to his tent and informs the Cook's assistant that their workload should be reduced in the near future and now might be a good time to volunteer for infantry duty as we're moving into the "rear areas" very very soon. CaWb Lee plots how he is going to survive. Scene 2. Hong Kong (Scene 47.. generals are quite picky) British personnel are going about their normal tasks. Sgt. Willoughby and his men are "enjoying" a meal of week-old fatty corned beef und cabbage obviously supplied by some axis loving contractor-supplier and trying to stay out of the heat whereas the high muckety-muck -supplier General Christopher sits down to enjoy his Tea und Crumpetts when he discovers his crumpets are not freshly baked! They are at least 2-3 hours old.. He tosses them all over the place and orders Geeves to give them to the dogs as they are beneath his station to consume and even then his dogs are slumming it eating such old crumpets. Geeves runs to get the general his ust due. His mood shattered Christopher none the less attempts to enjoy watching the departure of the HMS as it is leaving the harbor to anchor just outside the jolly-old Kong as it were as the Thanet's Commander lost the bet over the polo match making the entire its entire command staff stay up all night singing "Henry the 8th I am" as Gen Christopher was curious as to how many verses one could get through before the voice died. Not wanting to be in the vicinity of such a racket the good general set-up a naval commander with a rigged polo match. The rest of the Naval force - also not watching anything to do with the scurvy singers of the Thanet- ordered the Thanet on a patrol. Lengthy pause as I am still working on turn one...

Cpt Sherwood -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (2/19/2013 3:06:15 AM)
First comment, you will need all the ships you can scrounge up from OZ, NZ, and the South Pacific to move to West Coast bases. You will have to move a lot of units, supply, and fuel. Most of the time you will feel you are short about 200 transports of various kinds.

BBfanboy -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (2/19/2013 7:50:57 AM)
Welcome to the forums uncivil_servant. I had a colleague in the civil service who was dyslexic. You wouldn't be from Canada, would you? Interesting choice of names for the Chinese leaders. Did Wu go the Wong Wei? Or did he play Dum? [sm=character0077.gif] Second piece of advice - it is much easier to decide what to focus on if you set goals for what you want to accomplish in six months, one year, two years, etc. That exercise will force you to choose which places to defend and build and which you will abandon and try to salvage units from. Any time you need to know how the game engine does things or what you need to do to make things happen [like setting up an amphib invasion], try doing a search in the War Room forum for this game. Lots of excellent tutorials and discussions there.

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/1/2013 12:50:25 AM)
NooB Aargh Actual on deck! First of all - masive thanks to the WtipTracker folks - a game or simulation shouldn't need such a massive secondary system to play it but you do a marvelous job! Also - thank you Kull for the Allies AE set-up spreadsheet... massive massive massive appreciation even if I have no idea what half of the units should do after two days... Today I shall endeavor to regale all ye warrior souls with tales of mock bravery, spunky fortitude, brilliance of high command, and the continuing tales of those we have met and those who have not yet been named* (When reading to young'uns do not substitute HWSNBN with the characters real name or any short nickname like "voldy".. there will be a baaaad reaction) BBFanboy> You have NO idea. Cololnel Wu and the adventures of his three unwilling stooges shall be gripping for as long as they live (only the pilot episode has been financed so far) and will CaWb Lee procure himself an officer's unform and, if so, what happens then? Joining our cast of characters will be Sum Yung Gui, Very Wong, Hu Dat and his brother Dat Hu, the Ho quintuplets, Guan yu, Zhang Fei, and Liu Bei. Capt Sherwood and BB Fanboy> if there is anything i felt the allies were not in short supply of is transports.. esp once the shipyards start spitting them out faster than the enemy could sink them.. Wow. I have attempted to pick goals on what to hold/look into for the six month window. But - let me piss of some experts here first by saying I will unhappily be playing defensive with my airforce as looking into the forums here and the aircraft details in Witptracker I saw some startling unhistorical determinations of massive proportions. Now my (long) rant..... it appears those in charge of the air-combat simulator/plane stats have somehow decided that aircraft speed is the great end-all be-all of aircraft combat where the opposite is true - it is barely minor aspect.. Speed helps you: get TO combat.. Get away FROM combat.. and helps in avoiding non-flak AA fire as a non-moving object firing into your predicted path of a fast-moving object is qute a difficult skill indeed.. now two planes shooting at each other @ 300 mph if we say one place is instead going 320 mph that means there is only a difference of 5% or a difference of 5 feet per minute - that and name the combat maneuveer where speed is the determiner for me. What DOES matter greatly is horsepower, maneuverability (wingspan volume), and armament as sorry to be a buzzkill but the high-speed low-caliber punching power of japanese aircraft armament had a historical difficult time shooting down armored apponents.. yes even the lowly F3F and F4F (just take a look at examples of wildats returning to their magic-carpets or airbases with only a sliver of a wing left.. try that with a canvased wing aircraft sometime) and radar vectoring. At Guadalcanal the USMC gave BETTER than it got against the Zero. Lt. Cololnel Joe Bauer had modified the training for the pilots going to the Canal and they changed their tactics to better take on the Zero. The Zero was lighter, hence could climb and accelerate faster, and was more maneuverable than the F4F and its little stubby wings. The W-Cat's main advantage was its durability (woefully underestimated in the game) and its armament and it had self-sealing tanks as would all american fighters from then on out (self-sealing tanks a HUGE deal folks.) The maneuver Col Bauer taught the young marines was the overhead pass which involved inverting themselves right before their pass as they had plenty of ammunitiion for long (thus trainable and adjustable) burts from its six (6!) 50-cal guns. By august 20, 1942 there were a mere five flyable F4F's. Those that were flyable were considered damaged as well as due to nightly bombarments and salavaged replacement parts.. no pilots could be described as combat-ready in anyplace else except the Canal due to high levels of fatigue from all-day Ops plus enemy attacks and nightly naval bombardments... for Japaneese attacks on august 26th the japaneese lost 16 bombers and SEVENTEEN zeros to the boys of the USMC FS-212. Augst 29 - four zero's August 30 - eighteen zeros... to F4F Wildcats with no radar vectoring.. salavaged parts.. tired pilots.. and the attackers knowing they wil face CAP but defenders not knowing when or from which heading (albeity a limited range) the attack was coming. In the game the Zero (all of them!) are deemed more maneuverable than the Hellcat which historically ate the zero alive anytime they fought. ANYTIME they fought. Here's why... The Hellcat was MORE maneuverable than any zero put out by the japaneese air-forces (except at low speeds).. it had higher horsepower.. a larger wingbase volume (helpful for airflow over the wings.. and airflow over the wings is the king of amneuverability.. see also maneuverability of bi-planes and tri-planes.. they weren't maneuverable b/c of their speed folks!..) hellaciously superior armament.. and obtw.. it was armored much like the B-17's which the zeros were particularly poor at shooting down (see B-17's arriving during pearl attack and the after action reports of the IJN pilots who warned their commaners of them as they couldn't shoot them down!!!) their low-caliber rounds lose much of their "punch" after going through the exterior armored covering over important locations. Further, The IJN pilots were trained to dive for the deck when being engaged and fired upon. That maneuver worked against the F4F and other pre/early war allied fighters. It did NOT work against the hellcat which is why there was a Turkey Shoot folks.. also.. a HellCat pilot could utilize a WWI combat maneuver called a deep chandelle - this is where one turns hard to either right or left.. still gunning the throttle and it uses your horse-power and wingspan volume to maneuver (wingspan voleme is the father of maneuverability).. and essentially one ends-up going in the opposite direction in a very short time and path.. zeros who tried to do it stalled out as one needed a very strong airframe to do it or ANY high-g against gravity n airflow maneuver.. plus one nedeed a strong horsepower engine to pull it off and the greater volume of your wings the tighter a turn one could do... as the dive for the deck became the IJN death-knell manaeuver the deep chandelle for single apponent became a very effective way of getting a zero off one's back.. darn near every time.. again.... the more maneuverable hellcat could pull it off and the zero stalled if it tried to follow.. I cannot post a link but history channel has done shows on AtoA combat and has talked with pilots long retired and long-past their review.. Whomever is in charge of WitpAE air-combat simulator is obviously a fan of playing the axis power and enoys the myth of the superior zero over what really happened (and also doesn't the game have ahistorically high ship kill rates for Jap level bombers/LAF torpedo bombers too?) Curious how all these historical innacuracies favor only one side huh. Grumman personally worked with the navy and experienced F4F pilots to counter the zero's advantages with revisions in their plans.. which they did beautifully. In it's first combat engagement over tarawa it was 30-1 in kills. end-rant.... as this went on for so-long i'll make next post the next-day of the aar... and give those whom are offended at what i stated a change to bug-out..

jmalter -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/1/2013 1:42:03 AM)
welcome uncivil guy! just dive right in! my advices to your Chinee - supply is key, you must beg for it, & all upgrades of LCU & airgroups cost supply. turn them off! husband your supply for defensive battles (unsupplied LCUs get creamed in land combat). if you can get your airgroups out of harm's way, that's good - but if they sit in safe rear-area bases at 100% training, they'll eat supply fast. keep a few groups on training, but stand down an equal number. transport shipping - withdraw to safe bases as quickly as possible, but watch your fuel carefully. Fuel is essential to re-supply & naval ops in general. look at Cape Town - likely you'll be wanting to ship fuel & supply from Cape Town to Perth, but if ships arriving at CT are set to Full Refuel, they'll drain CT & leave you nothing to ship out. the proper scheme is: arriving survivors are set to auto-disband/do not refuel. some of these should be sent to East Coast, but don't let them refuel at CT (they won't suffer on their off-map journey to EC). some of these should load supp & fuel for Perth, set them to Minimal Refuel for the journey there & back. Save your fuel, don't waste it by re-filling empty transports. tankers (TK & AO) are rare & valuable for the early-war Allies, they need the best protection from your naval assets, don't let them get sunk by IJ subs or creamed by roving IJ TFs.

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/1/2013 2:44:19 AM)
aarrgh continuing... December 8th - (first day was Dec 7 with the historical 1st turn off but December 7 surprise on - most ships are where they were on the seventh.. cargo transports were created on the US coast as well as CT/Aden - exception being subs to make room) - utilizing the Allies AE turn one spreadsheet by Kull. I'm frankly shocked at the number of continental US bases which have the little yellow exclamation point... seems.. odd. also.. all those squadrons doing ASW seach all over the globe from the allied set-up spreadsheet.. is that permanent or just temporary.. seems few are doing naval search training or active naval search to improve that skillset.. Further - is anywhere explained what exactly Tracom does - two forum topics but they devolve into the same question of what it does and how.. further.. how does one put them into it anyway? retire them seems to mean.. you know.. retire them.... give them their walking papers/give them an important desk job overseeing the removal of: extranoeus unimportant surplus generated base-materials that are stored in cylindrical metal containers with lids to reduce olifactory mission-creep.. With allied air-power what it is I will not count on holding things like midway or even moresby.. I will try and consolidate dutch defenses on java but peering at the map and supply usage in the game the mandalay peninsula seems to be a death-trap where even if commanded to counter the IJA tactics they used to take singapore against three times their numbers I doubt the game would allow british forces to expel them should they realize they had them outnumbered.... Scene-- Singapore... Staff meeting attended by General Percival & staff, Air Commander Cobby (a name that shall strike fear into the IJN nay for sure!) and Capt Leach taking a small break from touring palatial mansions of the rich and famous singaporeans representing the PoW.. Leftenant Henchly is taking notes.. "so arthur you're saying the jungle path up-north is impenitrable.. indeed.. that is good to know... Cobby ole-boy.. would you do us a favor and sink a few of those transports landing at Kota Baru.. that's a good lad.. you'll sink them all you say? Jolly good.. as for the PoW.. there are some IJN subs in the area.. i'll be dispatching some DDs to drive them off so I can take the lad up north for some target practice... No air cover cobby? beyond the range of your buffalos you say? hmmmm you fly hairy beasts? you pilots really are quite off-kilter you know... anyway i'm not worried.. the surprise attack yesterday by the japs sank the really important ships of an armed merchant cruiser (kanimbla) the mine-layer toowoomba, and the mine-laying cruiser kung wo while leaving well enough alone my battlewagons and destroyers.. as torpedo planes and bombers cannot hit moving targets well we'll dispatch north as soon as they subs are scared off" Lt. Henchley speaks up informing the command officer present that three fleets of reinforcements for the far east command have been diverted to rangoon. "Bloody hell thats a lot of people going to rangoon... can they fed them all?...... what are they going to do there if the jungles are impenetrable? Henchley continues.. apparently Sir command considers the jungles very penetrable indeed to our new tactics... the Ministry has given the troops some new boots.. quite high for transversing icky semi-solid type stuffs they have to deal with as well as the ministry has developed some new tactics for jungle fighting.. the forces will move east using a new walk.. they call it the Cleese Jungle High walk maneuver.. one pulls on shoulders back a bit.. kicks your right leg very high-up then taking a huge step forward with leg and torso.... the torso going back to perpendicular with the sludge when bringing the left foot along... the Ministry considers it an excellent way to step over pesky giant anacondas.. traversing mud by disturbing as little as possible... walking in each others footsteps in icky semi-solid material as well as stepping over small jungle plants..... the leftenant pauses.. waiting.. begging for someone to delare it a monumental idiotic idea.. or at least state the other side could do the same in the malayany penensula.... "what a marvelous idea! the good general exclaims.. i'll have the boys here start practicing it too.. might be good for the hip joints and besides should liven up the parades we have.. give the locals a good pick-me up seeing such professional soldiers show off their skills..." The meeting adjouned.. leftenant henchley.. holding off on his dual desires to.. a) drink heavily.. and b) headbut the concrete coastal defense bunkers puts in a transfer request to accompany the 3rd cavalry regiment.. which being an unrestricted unit vis-a-vis the new cleese marching maneuver as they have.. tanks.. is being sent out to java to give the dutch a hand as the japs obviously will be going for oil rich areas. All other units are restricted to cleese marching maneuver training. Scene.. Pearl Harbor... Admiral kimmel and Generl Short are meeting on the results of yesterdays surprise attack... Captain Obvious is giving the briefing.... "further sirs.. it appears that while the naval base was the primary target for some reason the airfield became the most popular target.. yes.. eah of the battleships took hits and the poor aircraft tender Wright took a pounding it was the airbase that bore the brunt of the assault.. even enemy torpedo bombers got in on the land-based affair dropping the elongated bomb-like ordinance into the hangers.." General Short asks what is left and exclaims what a blessing it was that the planes were lined wing to wing as if they were in the hangers the torpedo bombers could've blown them all up..." Major Thanos.. reduced to serving the coffee to the high-muckedy mucks as the enlisted personnel are all tasked to damage control duties drops the tray of coffee during the good generals rationalization.... Obvious reports that we have a surviving B-18, quite a few p-40's (10), pieces of a snj-3 texan, two B-17's, a couple of wildcats, two o-47 recon planes, 10 p-36's and most of the catalinas which luckily were either on patrol or training... we are down a few catalina pilots though as when they returned to their bases they did tend to complain about how the ground crews sloppily left fires buring obscuring their views landing and how all the debris was scattered around was ruining their clean parking spaces... as a result there were a FEW incidents of blue on blue engagements sirs... the patrols DO report through their feeding straws that a fleet of 10 enemy destroyers is still lurking to the north.... Admiral kimmel reports that hes putting together a task-force of minimally damaged ships (CAs n DDs led by the Nevada which only damage came from their paintjob getting smudged from shrapnel flying over from the Arizona (which has not sunk..) the enemy not attacking in the afternoon was a blessing. Runway damage is into the red while airway service and port damage are both orange. in other news.... Jap air forces attack phillipines.. macArthur reports he personally led defernders and shot down many planes... unfortunately many US planes are lost due to "technical malfunctions".. Hong Kong - the Thanet commander is trying to gather naval forces to withdraw some troops from HK as well as organizing gunship patrols to cover them... all across india..DEI.. malay..australia..New Zealand.. and FF holdings many many people are saying some variation.. "about damn time you got involved!!" regarding a until-now neutral party that has significant pacific holdings and naval forces... while at the same time wondering how they'll do against the asian octopus now stretching out its tentacles... Jmalter>>> ahh.. well.. i am now going through my chineese airforces turning off all upgrades.. how do land based units upgrade anyhow?.. and i shall endeavor to watch out for the cape-town refuel situation.... should any bases be set to auto-supply yes with some feets to do so? i.e. east coast to CT? or manual all the way?

jmalter -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/1/2013 5:51:46 AM)
hi ughcivil guy, pls to preface your reports w/ the campaign-date, otherwise confusion arises. 1) yellow excla-points in CONUS indicate supply < 3xreq'd. this is normal, after a turn or three the xcellent CONUS rail-net will auto-distribute supply to where it's needed throughout Canada, USA & the off-map East Coast base. after the 1st week, you'll never lack for supply or fuel here, but you'll need to ship it out to other theatres to support off/def activity. 2) all over the map, airgroups are needing attention. most are ill-trained, many are under the gun. fight where you must, otherwise transfer back to a rear-area, train up & live to fight later on. kull's spreadsheet might be a good guide, but it's only a guide. your airgroups have 2 functions: to fight, or to train pilots. think about your ASW needs, obv. it'd be great to have ASW air-patrols everywhere, but they'll only be effective if they fly 1st-line planes w/ well-trained pilots. transfer your best ASW pilots to combat groups flying patrol over important ports (Pearl, SF, LA), & set other groups to train pilots in ASW skill. the mighty USA industrial base will be providing add'l airgroups over time, but they'll be useless if you don't have skilled pilots. 3) TRACOM - pilots w/ EXP > 80 can be transferred to TRACOM. the effect is, these guys will somewhat accelerate the graduation of newb pilots that are climbing up thru the 12-month school into the 'Replacement pilot' category. TRACOM is also a 'reserve pool', move your best pilots there, collect a bunch, then transfer them all into a group of 1st-line fighters for xtra punch. if you open an airgroup's screen, tag the 'pilots' button on the lower left, that opens the group's pilots for perusal. TRACOM-capable guys (shown in yellow) can be individually clicked to TRACOM. note also that every airgroup can accept 33% more pilots than its max aircraft allotment. i advise that you max out w/ these add'l pilots for every airgroup, for both combat and training. learn to love the 'clickfest' - your best bet to maximize your air potential. set a day each month to examine an entire nation's air-types - for example, tomorrow you will look at all Chinese bombers. you'll want to throw all their pilots into reserve, then re-distribute them so that the highest-EXP pilots go to the best bombers for active ops, & the lowest-EXP pilots go to the 2nd-line planes for more training. next day, do the same for Oz fighters. 4) supply use - use hotkey J to examine your industry, and turn Repairs OFF everywhere. the only exception is Pearl, where your repair shipyard will prob'ly need some repair. factory repair req's a base of 10k supply & spends 1k supply to repair each point. don't spend supply to repair industry that's in danger of capture. 5) bases - some few of your bases are in danger of capture, don't build them. but others must be increased in size. set off-map bases to build port-capacity. sux to send a 62k-ton TF full of supply to Perth, if Perth hasn't been built big enough to accept that TF for docking. 6) early on, lots of Allied LCU don't have high morale. if not needed for combat, these should be set to Rest/Train. 7) i don't use the auto-convoy system at all, but sometimes use CS convoys. w/ either manual or CS convoys, assemble fleets of 8 ships w/ identical speed/capacity.

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/1/2013 8:22:08 AM)
Quesions embedded..... quote: ORIGINAL: jmalter hi ughcivil guy, pls to preface your reports w/ the campaign-date, otherwise confusion arises. 1) yellow excla-points in CONUS indicate supply < 3xreq'd. this is normal, after a turn or three the xcellent CONUS rail-net will auto-distribute supply to where it's needed throughout Canada, USA & the off-map East Coast base. after the 1st week, you'll never lack for supply or fuel here, but you'll need to ship it out to other theatres to support off/def activity. >>>>> Understood.. I just need to get in my head what replenishment TFs I'll send where and where the secondary supply branches will originate from/to LA/SF to Australia - easy.. its where else are hubs and where do TFs call home who deliver from hub to secondary supply depots, etc. 2) all over the map, airgroups are needing attention. most are ill-trained, many are under the gun. fight where you must, otherwise transfer back to a rear-area, train up & live to fight later on. kull's spreadsheet might be a good guide, but it's only a guide. your airgroups have 2 functions: to fight, or to train pilots. think about your ASW needs, obv. it'd be great to have ASW air-patrols everywhere, but they'll only be effective if they fly 1st-line planes w/ well-trained pilots. transfer your best ASW pilots to combat groups flying patrol over important ports (Pearl, SF, LA), & set other groups to train pilots in ASW skill. the mighty USA industrial base will be providing add'l airgroups over time, but they'll be useless if you don't have skilled pilots. >>>>> I believe I understand what you are saying from the theoretical standpoint - monthly pull pilots from commands - best ASW pilots go to active ASW comands, same for fighter commands, etc and send next best to rear areas/training squadrons. This leads to number #3 below... 3) TRACOM - pilots w/ EXP > 80 can be transferred to TRACOM. the effect is, these guys will somewhat accelerate the graduation of newb pilots that are climbing up thru the 12-month school into the 'Replacement pilot' category. TRACOM is also a 'reserve pool', move your best pilots there, collect a bunch, then transfer them all into a group of 1st-line fighters for xtra punch. if you open an airgroup's screen, tag the 'pilots' button on the lower left, that opens the group's pilots for perusal. TRACOM-capable guys (shown in yellow) can be individually clicked to TRACOM. note also that every airgroup can accept 33% more pilots than its max aircraft allotment. i advise that you max out w/ these add'l pilots for every airgroup, for both combat and training. learn to love the 'clickfest' - your best bet to maximize your air potential. set a day each month to examine an entire nation's air-types - for example, tomorrow you will look at all Chinese bombers. you'll want to throw all their pilots into reserve, then re-distribute them so that the highest-EXP pilots go to the best bombers for active ops, & the lowest-EXP pilots go to the 2nd-line planes for more training. next day, do the same for Oz fighters. >>> OK - 80+ can go into TRACOM. BUT in regards to previous item plus this item regarding setting a day each month to "throw all pilots in reserve then redistribute them so highest EXP pilots go to the best bombers for active ops and next best to 2nd line planes".. ok.. first of all that, while sounding effective I never would have thought of us even the most annoying prima-donnas of the air dont get tossed around all that often.. also - how on earth does one do that? I experimented with a dutch airgroup.. 2904 VI.G.II currently in Batavia. I went into pilots.. and did the release pilots which beside it in green - option to send to "group" doesn't say WHICH group.. as there is a "reserve {group}"- and the "Group {group}" which exists <somewhere but not defined> anyway - doing so turned names gray. If I manually click them after that I get a pop-up "Transfer to general reserve?" If I follow through and get rid of them.. I then learn that I have no pilots to reassign into the squadron.. again.. this is something not covered int he manual and there are no information pop-ups if you hold the cursor over something. Further - doing the same with a chineese unit after they turn gray I can manually click them and upon saying yes they actually dissapear.. but unfortunately dissapear as no pilots exist to put back in as the leaving pilots go <somewhere.. maybe to the group-group?> ??? While I'm on the subject.. going into the "Pilots replacements" from information area one can click on pilots in reserve and get the prompt "retire pilot?" - again - this is defined nowhere.. retired where? to what? if under active pilots one first gets a "transfer to reserve?" prompt which thankfully is self-explanatory as there is a reserve group (but not the "group {group}" mentioned earlier) So - how DOS one do the pull the pilots and reassign? Do I do the pilot change-eroo? Does one click the release pilots to reserve-group.. let a day pass then try the "get new pilot or request veteran options"? if yes - does one pull from the reserves or from the replacements? Will the kicked out pilots be in which group - reserve-group, replacement-group, or group-group? 4) supply use - use hotkey J to examine your industry, and turn Repairs OFF everywhere. the only exception is Pearl, where your repair shipyard will prob'ly need some repair. factory repair req's a base of 10k supply & spends 1k supply to repair each point. don't spend supply to repair industry that's in danger of capture. >>>>> OK - done - but does this mean I will not be repairing any damage done to any facilities that may get bombed/bombarded? semes like i could really forget that everything is "off" to repair then the enemy bombs/bombards somethign which will remain in damaged status for a long time. 5) bases - some few of your bases are in danger of capture, don't build them. but others must be increased in size. set off-map bases to build port-capacity. sux to send a 62k-ton TF full of supply to Perth, if Perth hasn't been built big enough to accept that TF for docking. >>> Duly noted! 6) early on, lots of Allied LCU don't have high morale. if not needed for combat, these should be set to Rest/Train. >>>Ugh 7) i don't use the auto-convoy system at all, but sometimes use CS convoys. w/ either manual or CS convoys, assemble fleets of 8 ships w/ identical speed/capacity. no auto-convoy but yes to CS.. what is a CS convoy? CC would be computer controlled.. CS - computer supplied? if yes.. what does that mean? Thank you for your postings.. eventually i might learn something

jmalter -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/1/2013 9:41:44 AM)
hmm, kay, going in reverse order here. 7) 'CS convoy' is an instance of auto-convoy that you can set up for a TF. i'll try to provide an illustration. once set, a CSconvoy will run continuously. let's say you've got an AK at Sydney, you want to send supply to Tasmania, so put it into a TransportTF. Dock the TF, tell it to load supply, and give it a destination to a port in Tasmania (be sure that the destination port's capacity can accept the TF tonnage-size). So now my AK is docked at Sydney, loading supply for port Launceston in Tasmania. [image]local://upfiles/36361/93D15EDD16BF46D198A232A30C28DE44.jpg[/image] see the yellow text "Human Control" ? if you click on it twice, it changes to "CS: <destination>", and you get an option on the right side for "Return Cargo" (you can click thru for 'Resources', and your TF will ship supply to its destination, then load resources their & return them to its home-port). NOTE that you'd likely prefer to click on the 'Full Refuel' text, change that to read 'Minimal Refuel', so the TF will only refuel itself for the journey there&back +10%. this is a short-way example, experience w/ the game might suggest other ways to use this feature. NOTE that the TF is using 'Cruise Speed'. Cruise Speed is optimal for travel for all types of TFs, unless combat-contact is expected. Once this TF is set to 'CS: Launceston', it'll run continuous back'n'forth, unless it's sunk, or unless you change it back to 'human control'.

jmalter -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/1/2013 11:03:28 AM)
6) morale is lousy for all your stuff on 12/41, also all your arriving airgroups & LCUs will have chump morale, they'll need time in rest or training mode to get up to speed. new airgroups can reach high morale in a week or 2 (training 100% at range=0), LCUs might need a month or more. 5) building bases strengthens your strategic points & helps prevent an enemy auto-victory. don't leave all those SeaBees to loaf around in SoCal, get them out working all up & down the west coast. 4) keep all industry repair OFF, unless it's irrevocably in your control & under no threat of capture. to repair an industry point, you must have 10k supply in the hex, and spend 1k supply to repair each point. DO NOT spend your supply to repair industry in China or the DEI in the early war - the IJ will prob'ly capture it, let the IJ spend points to repair it. a year (or more) from now, you might recapture a base w/ damaged industry. if you want to repair that industry, it'll take 1k points of supply to repair each point of industry - that means that you'll need to hold that base for 500 days before each point of repaired Heavy industry will break even on the supply spent to repair it, Light industry needs 1000 days to break even. 3) pilots are complixcated. you have the option to send them to 'Group', which keeps them in their current airgroup but suspends them from duty. If you click on 'Group', Group changes to Reserve, then pilots are sent out of their group to a general pool, other groups can glom from this pool (if the source is changed from 'Any' past 'Group' to 'Reserve'. it's complixcated, you'll just have to work w/ it & learn how to use it. 2) you're on the right track, shipping supply from West Coast bases towards Australia. but you need to ride the 'southern track', don't use the direct route. in early-war, be conservative, run south, Noumea is prime, but IMO Port Moresby is worth fighting for. 1) seems to me, you're down w/ the logistics idea. main hubs get supply/fuel from the main trunks, & distribute it where needed. alongside that, you'll have auxiliary ships (AS, AG, AVD, AVP) that support advanced units. which brings me to 0) some of your at-start transports (AP, AK) are quite valuable b/c they can be upgraded to APA/AKA status. these upgradeable ships will be the nucleus of your amphib counterattack, be sure you protect them in the short term & bring them to port as soon as their upgrades are available.

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/1/2013 11:40:49 PM)
So - how does one do the change-out of one pilot corps? I mean in-game where to click... Is it: Remove pilots to "reserve" and not group. Pilots names go gray. Either then manually click them to remove them with prompt and/or wait a day for change-over to hppen and the nextday begin all the reassignments? Reasignments being front line units/top line equipment get the veterans button - others get the "get pilots" button.. Do I pull the pilots from the replacements pool or from the general reserve and what is the difference? (If pilots unassigned the previous day go to reerve naturally I'd think I'd be pulling fron the same reserve pool but who are the pilots in the replacement pool?

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/2/2013 5:35:13 AM)
Events of Turn 2 - December 8. Some night bombing by some Lillies o minimal airway damage IJN subs near PH engage and sink one ASW picket. Another ASW unit engages and wounds one of the subs. Landing at Kota Bharu... Landing at Mackin.... Dutch sub KXVII caught by IJN escorts and attacked. BB Kongo is spotted by scouts but RAF attacks on IJN ships have disasterous results outside of Kota Bharu. Only one bomber in three seperate attacks makes it through the CAP. B-17 attacks from the Phillipines result in more poor results.. the single A5M4 Claude on CAP over Babeldoub damages two B17's and flak damages a third. A second attack results in two of four planes being damaged. I sank my first IJN ship! On the fourth sortie (!) the bombers scored a hit on a ship at port in Babeldoub and sank it! The mighty surface ship the AMc Wa. (and am I bombing too low.. bombers came in between 10K and 15K')? Well done! Chalk up one powerful 195K (kg) ship! yay me. Day 2 of Air Raid on Pearl at least one enemy air strike went for ASW TF's outside the harbor. I must say the single fighter on CAP did a bloody good job waving at the enemy before running for the hills. Wise man. I must have messed up my orders because I sent to Nevada' TF "Retibution" out with orders to find the enemy fleet (React = 6) but instead it sailed back to port after spotting an enemy carrier TF. Nevada takes five bomb hits. Next comes some unescorted Kates which meet a real cap of a few P-36's! A few kates are damaged. Next up.. a monstrous Air Raid on Hong Kong Harbor... 64 zero's, 8 kate's, 5 nells, and 40 betty's AK Nanning.. torpedo hits five, sunk AK Hai Lee - torpedo hit AKL Chengtu, torpedo hit, on fire AK Fatshan, torpedo hits 3, sunk... Lily bombers attack next.. thankfully no hits.. Pearl Harbor day 2, attack deux more bombs on the nevada.. 5.. on fire... In Tracker I do not see the sunk AMc Wu.. nor do I se it in the game's sunk ships listing. Ugh. Ships lost: DD Chew DMS Zane AM Toowoomba xAK Fatshan xAK Nanning CM Kung Wo AMC Kanimbla

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/4/2013 8:05:40 PM)
Just an update (to myself really) and something I must really put in writing.. I was given some good advice from jmalter regarding looking at pilots and reassigning and I have learned some things to be sure so that is my delay in posting episodes regarding adventures in newb babysitting.... (That and I just blew through lots of PP assigning air group commanders who aren't pilots so if leaders are killed leadership of unit doesn't go to crap.. but forgot that I dont have a big stockpile yet) Scene: Tacoma - local AFB in our movie titled "Adventures of the Skill level 20 pilots!" subtitled, "when shouldn't they all have 35s when graduating through pilot training????" A Jeep has pulled up in front of Hanger 1. In the jeep is a young captain (Smith) gathering information for a report to the 4th Army Air Corp - USAAF regarding readiness levels of its bomber commands. With the young Capt is a SMSgt (Robertson). Both are gazing at the small cadre of pilots milling about looking at the B-18s that belong to the 81st Squadron of the 12th bomber group. Thw pilots are running around making "rat-a-tat-tat-tat" sounds with their arms extended mixed in with "boom!" noises. One pilot is trying to spin one of the propellers and is exclaiming wildly to some of the assigned support staff regarding the deficiencies hes finding apparently... whereas the final cadre of pilots are all gathered around one pilot who is pointing out the support struts (or lack thereof) for the wings and is gesticulating wildly. The visiting captain and his SMSgt approach to hear what all the hub-bub is about. Both are in surly moods at pilots leaving their training cadres for assignment to units are supposed to have requisite levels of training but so far have appeared to not have the skill levels one would expect from those that made it through training and were selected for USAAF bombers. Studiously ignoring the two pilots (One captain Abner John Paul Grant and his younger brother Ned Heywood Elmer Grant) running around like fighter planes (now dive bombing the visitors with something dubbed a land-torpedo) they're close enough to take in what the other esteemed, professional, trained pilots of the 81st BS are discussing... The 2nd Lt. Redmond Rebel Rea is lecturing the maintenance engineers regardign the props on the plane. "You see these propellers? They're way too narrow. When we land on the water after deploying our landing gear with the rubber wheels to help us stay afloat the way we're gonna get around is by these here propellers slicing into the water pushing us forward.. just like any ship. But you guys dun installed the wrong kind! We need the wider propellers to handle both our air duties and our sea search patrol duties." The ground staff are paralyzed into in-activity. Sgt. Robertson glances over at Capt Smith and particularly keys in on the wide-eyed look and the throbbing vein in the temple of his head, "Sir.. we can get rid of the lone idiot without too much paperwork.. eventually.." studiously ingorning another land-shark-torpedo attack from the Grant brothers. More trouble brews as Smith and Robertson finally catch onto the conversation going on under the wing by three lieutenants, one lieutenant Urston Ward Emery-Eule (his friends call him u-wee for short) Hubble. "I tell you how in the dickens did this plane even get out here right properly like? We all know that these wings need strong struts both to support the weight of the plane but need to be thick and strong for the powerful hydraulics that these here planes are just missing!" He is met with a chorus of "yep", "sure is!", and 'you tell 'im Uwee!". He continues, "These wings are gonna need to flap mighty hard to keep us airborne at high altitudes!" Smith and Robertson both stumble and come to an abrupt halt.. motuhs agape... Captain smith utters the inevitable "Flap?" to the agitated lieutenant. Uwee Hubble squints at the newcommers lapels then exclaims, "Yes corporal Smitee (as in to strike) flap.. since the air way up yonder is nice n thin see.. one needs extra oomph to keep the bird afloat.. Flap! aint you ever watch birds flaping their wings when going high?" The good seargent takes Captain Smith asidee before anything can happen. The good Captain does not appear to have full control of his faculties as of yet. Robertson whispers, "I was not able to tell you before now but since you've met them.. welcome to your new command Sir. The general was mighty pleased over your reports and though you deserved a command." Smith's head turns towards Robertson with the look of sheer terror one can only see one the face of "extraneous blone #1" in a old Friday the 13th movie. Smith finally croaks, "How did these men ever get selected and approved as pilots?" Robertson retorts, "Im sure the corp applied tried and true methodologies, formalized after numerous quality control tests, the selection criteria following rigorous mathematical criteria highlighting those to become pilots." "Eeenie meenie miney moe?" Robertson, "I believe you're right Sir." "I'm taking them up tomorrow." Robertson retorts, "Do take them out over the water Sir, Physics being such a old-hearted mistress will be claiming numerous suitors with her lure of gravity and these things meeting the ground can make a horrible mess." "Is it too late to run away and join a circus?" Robertson: "You should know by now Sir that the circus has NOTHING on the Army." >>>>> Here I thought even a green rookie would have minimum of 35 skill..... If I could figure our how I'd post a screenshot of the pilots with their experiences of 24-28, the highest at 28 haveing a naval search of 6!!!and an 18 ground bombing....

jmalter -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/5/2013 5:30:57 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: uncivil_servant Here I thought even a green rookie would have minimum of 35 skill..... hotkey I then 5 to bring up the Pilot Replacements screen. In Pool: # of pilots that've completed flight-school. Added: #ofpilots added to flight-school this month (i think, or mebbe the #ofpilots graduated this month?) Experience: Avg (or max?) EXP of InPool pilots, caveat emptor. Replacements: #ofpilots added to flight-school each month. anyhow, at the beginning of the campaign you're mad for newb pilots to fill out the sqns you've assigned to 100% Training, you switch Source to Replacements & keep punching that Get New Pilots button. oops, once you've drained the InPool guys, now you're sucking pilots from the 4th qtr of flight-school, then the 3rd qtr - of course these guys will have EXP of mebbe 5, or 8. heh. good news is, they won't be drilling holes as often as you'd expect. airgroups at 100% Training & Range=0 will usually have few wipeouts, so long as they're located at a decent-sized airbase w/ adequate Aviation Support. "One a day at Tampa Bay" is not a WitPAE catch-phrase. keep an eye out for newly-arrived airgroups, which will be set to 40% Training & max range. & whenever you up/downgrade a sqn's planes, its range setting will auto-change to max. learn to remember to reset the airgroup range for all new sqns & whenever you change a sqn's planes. if you forget & leave a sqn training at max-range for a week or three, expect plane & pilot losses, heavy increases to plane & pilot fatigue, & can be a drain on base-force (aviation support) fatigue, disruption & morale. don't forget to thank your star that you're not playing the IJ side, those guys have to pay Heavy Industry points for their Trainee pilots, Allies get them for free. & if you're reading the manual, ignore the part in 16.3 that refers to Training Groups. these groups don't exist in WitPAE.

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/6/2013 1:35:15 PM)
Do Betty's Miss? NO - no they don't - at least not in this game. December 11, 1941 The evening of the 10th and early morning of the 11th things went well for the allies.. for once.. My PT boats based in the Philippines, and had been hiding out at San Fernando (as other air bases and ports were being bombed) headed noerth and jumped some IJN task forces unloaded troops. The first group of three PT's isgnored the fat troop transports and engaged the escorts... DMS W-12, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk DMS W-18, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk SC Ch 18, Shell hits 3 Whereas the second group of three was able to jump some unescorted transports... Night Time Surface Combat, near Vigan at 80,73, Range 8,000 Yards Japanese Ships xAP Husimi Maru xAP Kamo Maru, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk PB Yodozo Maru Allied Ships PT-31 PT-32 PT-33, Shell hits 1 Japanese ground losses: Vehicles lost 98 (94 destroyed, 4 disabled) Does that mean engineering units were killed or tanks or jeeps????? TF 278 with 4 MTB's out of Hong Kong - trying to distract attention fron transports ships attempting to pull men out of the doomed city... meet the enemy and promptly runs.. into a minefield.. yea!!!!! whereas their counterparts... went west to see if they could find any juicy targets and they found one! Night Time Surface Combat, near Samah at 69,63, Range 2,000 Yards Japanese aircraft no flights Japanese aircraft losses Ki-51 Sonia: 6 destroyed Did the motor torpedo boats bombard the airfield or were these planes being loaded on the transport? Japanese Ships xAK Zuiko Maru, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk Allied Ships MTB 7 MTB 8 MTB 9 MTB 10 I had received sigint that something was happeneing here so I had the MTB's stop by and give a limey jolly jack tar salute to the enemy. In other stange news the SS-38, part of a 2 SS TF seeing if I can get them to surface attack together in lieu of all alone.. comes across a juicy xAKL all by itself.... Submarine attack near Laoag at 79,69 Japanese Ships xAKL Tensyo Maru Allied Ships SS S-38 xAKL Tensyo Maru is sighted by SS S-38 Captain of SS S-38 elects not to launch torpedoes at this target WHY?!?!?!?! anyway.. end of the good news... by daybreak the opposition started their combat ops (other than night bombing which did minimal damage) A HUGE IJN TF outside of Legaspi unloading troops.. 8 xAK's, 1 xAKL, 1 xAP, 1 TK, 1 AO, 2 CS's and DMS's, and 7 PB's get jumped by some of my PT's... which promptly turn around and run away..... Three AKL's fleeing the 'Pines are caught by a IJN surface fleet of CL's and DD's and unceremoniously sunk. IJA Shock attack Hong Kong... Shock attack Wake Island.. Bomb wake island over n over n over n over and ove the past two rounds task forces attempting to spirit folks out of Hong Kong have been bombed... previous round it was 3 loading AKL's... today is was two loaded xAK's... Allied Ships xAK Haraldsvang, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk DD Thracian xAK Ming Sang, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk Allied ground losses: 1736 casualties reported Squads: 41 destroyed, 24 disabled Non Combat: 110 destroyed, 82 disabled Engineers: 10 destroyed, 4 disabled Guns lost 29 (18 destroyed, 11 disabled) Vehicles lost 62 (37 destroyed, 25 disabled) and IJA bombers absolutely crush allied ground forces in Malaya.... swarms of lba's... ouch.... Otherwise I am paralyzed with indecision over which transports to send where to carry what and sent to whom....

HansBolter -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/6/2013 3:51:12 PM)
I don't think the Japanese have engineering vechicles, at least not in abundance like the Allies, if they have any at all. The 94 vehicles lost were most likely tanks since trucks and jeeps are usually bundled with infantry and there were no troop losses just vechicles. That was a major, major victory if it was 94 tanks sent to the bottom by torpedo boats. The planes had have gone down with the ship torpedoed. MTBs have nothing to bombard with and bombardment only happens with a TF set with a bombard mission and I don't think MTBs can even be placed in a bombardment TF. If this was an initial invasion landing did the Japanese even have control of an airfield to have planes in place to be lost to bombardment? The planes definitely went down with the ship, but it seems strange for him to be invading with or even transporting in planes by ship that he could far more easily stage in once an airfeild is taken with no risk of being sent to the bottom in the hold of a ship.

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/7/2013 8:20:50 PM)
Thank you Hans - then I apparently caught transports playing move the fighters at Samah. anywho.. December 12, 1941 A mixed bag really but that might be "good" for the stage of the war.... Air Action: continued and sustained bombing of lcds in Malaya and SE Burma. continued bombing into rubble Hong Kong's deserted AFB and port Exploratory air unit maneuvers to Rangoon. IJN bombers hittig Wake Lots of Nell's. apparently bored over bombing the same retreating units, bypass Georgetown and hit Dutch units @ Medan. Twice. and some enterprising britich bombers decide to go after ships at anchor at Khota Baru - they meet very healthy CAP Sea Action: Two British ML's scouting the coast looking for unescorted booty find a fleet of 18 Transports at Kota Baru apparently finishing up their unloading. 8 xAKs, 7 xAKLs, and 3 xAP >>>>> and they promply are outmaneuvered by the transports and all the transports escape... all of them.. not even some raking gunfre to make them rodo their hull paint... Lots of American subs practice hitting nothing... Dutch sub KXV gets roughed up by a PG escorting an xAK off over CamRanhBay... then again by a fleet of 3 DD's, 2 DMS's and a PG guarding a single xAK (hauling diamonds or harem girls for Tojo?) American SS 38 in a sub fleet of two outside Vigan spots a PB and xAK pair outside Vigan and, again, decides not to fire torpedos.. again.. (he gots em loaded... ) but.. apparently he saw fatter game..... Submarine attack near Vigan at 80,73 Japanese Ships xAK Tsuyama Maru, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage Allied Ships SS S-37 Meanwhile, an attempt at meeting a PG up with two AMs to play a game of "Find the unguarded prizes" does not go well.... Day Time Surface Combat, near San Fernando at 79,73, Range 18,000 Yards Japanese Ships DMS W-9 DMS W-10 DMS W-11 DMS W-17, heavy fires Allied Ships AM Tanager AM Quail, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage Quail sinks <sinking sounds heard> Day Time Surface Combat, near Vigan at 80,73, Range 12,000 Yards Japanese Ships DMS W-9 DMS W-10 DMS W-11 DMS W-17, Shell hits 2, heavy fires Allied Ships PG Tulsa, Shell hits 12, heavy fires, heavy damage (42/51/12/ and only 47 fires) <-- not expecting them home for xmas. Land Combat - and some good news! now I just have to decide if I can afford to be agressive... Ground combat at 71,56 (near Lang Son) Japanese Deliberate attack Attacking force 3401 troops, 32 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 105 Defending force 7982 troops, 33 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 146 Japanese adjusted assault: 43 Allied adjusted defense: 71 Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 Combat modifiers Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), morale(-), experience(-) Attacker: leaders(+), leaders(-) Japanese ground losses: 120 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 14 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled Allied ground losses: 147 casualties reported Squads: 1 destroyed, 14 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled Assaulting units: 4th Ind.Mixed Regiment Defending units: 52nd Chinese Corps I am trying to withdraw this otherwise trapped unit SW and get to Kawngchowan of the FF and utilize the light industry there to supply themselves. some misc fighting around china.. wake and hong kong .. then a huge attack at Chengchow IJA unit just arrived Ground combat at Chengchow (88,44) Japanese Shock attack Attacking force 10902 troops, 94 guns, 32 vehicles, Assault Value = 368 Defending force 38156 troops, 171 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1184 Japanese adjusted assault: 3 Allied adjusted defense: 281 Japanese assault odds: 1 to 93 (fort level 1) Combat modifiers Defender: preparation(-), morale(-), experience(-) Attacker: shock(+), leaders(+), supply(-) Japanese ground losses: 3435 casualties reported Squads: 11 destroyed, 275 disabled Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 31 disabled Engineers: 2 destroyed, 38 disabled Guns lost 19 (2 destroyed, 17 disabled) Allied ground losses: 84 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 10 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Assaulting units: 35th Division Defending units: 40th Chinese Corps 15th Chinese Corps 93rd Chinese Corps 80th Chinese Corps 90th Chinese Corps 3rd Construction Regiment 7th Construction Regiment 1st War Area 39th Group Army Jingcha War Area 24th Group Army 10th Chinese Base Force I'm debating with myself to just remain on the defnensive.... bombard him.. or come out of out defensive positions (level 2) and hit back at him while hes wavering after getting socked in the nose. I'm going to try this.. putting the 15 Inf corp, 3rd and 7th const rgt's on reserve so they're out of the way if IJA just bombards. (Hopefully units in reserve can still construct fortifications) 40th CHI corps will be bombarding the 80th, 90th, and 93rd CHI Corps will make a deliberate attack (I am "spotting" enemy units - 1, AFVs of 29, and spotted troops of 16,440. So far, except for the landing on NE shore of Malaya and bombings things have been quiet in SW Pac and DEI. too quiet.... aspects of KB bombed johnston isl. and are bombing wake.... Now - at Legaspi previously we had the adventure of the transport ships and the PT boats that ran away.. I've now up'd their threat levels to Audie Murphy level and told them to attack.... as sighting reports there are ships still there... except what the spootes say are there are three CV vessels. no chance in hell of being right.. but JIC... charge!!! With no bugler on board the lead PT boat the charge is accompanied by a frenzied kazoo player.

jmalter -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/8/2013 5:40:15 AM)
hi uncivilian warrior, coupla' things; those vehicle losses you mentioned could also be "Motorized Support" devices (equivalent to supply trucks). sub torps: Dutch & USN S-boats have working torps, these SS generally have short endurance but will be more effective than the Mk 14 torp carried by the USN fleet boats. i'm pert' sure the 'Reliable USN torps'=OFF affects only the Mk14, w/ an 80% dud rate at start, reduced to 60% on 1/1/43 & to 10% on 10/1/43. but don't leave the fleet boats in port! sea-time and combat improves their crew & leader effectiveness, while you learn to handle patrol-zones, keep them upgraded as needed, & establish advanced sub-bases where you can (Aleutians, Midway, North Oz) staffed by an AS, w/ fuel/supply as req'd. quote: putting the 15 Inf corp, 3rd and 7th const rgt's on reserve so they're out of the way if IJA just bombards. (Hopefully units in reserve can still construct fortifications) reserve won't hide these guys from an enemy bombardment, but will prevent them from participating in any attacks you make. note also that there's 2 kinds of reserve, 1 is 'pursuit' that's useful for immediately chasing the bad guys if your attack forces an enemy retreat, & you've got units to spare from participating in the attack. i'm not sure if ConstRegts will continue to build if they're placed in Reserve, your experience (view the base details history in Tracker) will help you decide. working Engrs will always attempt to repair damage to their airfield/port before applying their talents to increasing forts or AF/P capacity, it's a common tactic to bomb enemy facilities, thus forcing their Engrs to repair damage instead of building their position. i'm interested to learn how your attack at Chengchow works out. kick'em while they're down is usually a good idea! but the combatresults you posted contain "Combat modifiers Defender: preparation(-), morale(-), experience(-)", which don't bode well for you. OTOH, the IJ had "supply(-)", unsupplied troops are especially vulnerable to attack. but along w/ that, attacking unsupplied troops will get a bloody nose, more so if they are also down w/ prep, morale & exp. lousy leaders will help them bleed, the Chinee don't have any good leaders to buy. short version, don't attack! sit down in good terrain, build forts, let the AI come to you. it's muy better to let the IJ attack the Chinese! the China battle is defense, unless you sure of a 20:1 attack. building up prep & morale takes months - roll the dice against that exposed IJ 35th Div if you like, but even a victory will cost you supply-use & damage to your troops that you can't afford.

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/8/2013 7:56:44 AM)
A Great Day by the boys of the Silent Service! December 13, 1941 ..and then they died.... a not so hot day for those getting bombed in Malaya nor for those minelayers I thought I'd get cute and mine the northern shore of SaraWak.. not a great day either... and once again small coastal craft run from transports... Hong Kong and Guam fall.but a land battle in China goes my way... and I spot 24 land units in Hankow!!!!! In the evening hours some enterprising subs continue their surface attacks on IJN TF's using gun and distance ramming devices (torpedos.. bound to bludgeon a hole sometime!) --------------------------------------- Sub attack near Laoag at 81,72 Japanese Ships xAK Hokutai Maru, Torpedo hits 2, heavy damage Allied Ships SS S-38 Japanese ground losses: 50 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 0 disabled Engineers: 2 destroyed, 0 disabled ---------------------------------------------------- Submarine attack near Vigan at 80,73 Japanese Ships xAKL Tohuku Maru, Shell hits 29, heavy fires, heavy damage Allied Ships SS S-38 xAKL Tohuku Maru is sighted by SS S-38 SS S-38 attacking xAKL Tohuku Maru on the surface Chapple, W.G. decides to submerge SS S-38 due to damage -------------------------------------------- Submarine attack near Vigan at 80,73 Japanese Ships xAK Tsuyama Maru, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage Allied Ships SS S-37 xAK Tsuyama Maru is sighted by SS S-37 SS S-37 attacking xAK Tsuyama Maru on the surface -------------------------------------------------- Submarine attack near Vigan at 80,73 Japanese Ships xAK Koyo Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire Allied Ships SS S-36 xAK Koyo Maru is sighted by SS S-36 SS S-36 launches 2 torpedoes at xAK Koyo Maru --------------------------------------------- Submarine attack near Vigan at 80,73 Japanese Ships xAK Hukuzyu Maru, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage Allied Ships SS S-36 Japanese ground losses: 33 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 4 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled xAK Hukuzyu Maru is sighted by SS S-36 SS S-36 attacking on the surface --------------------------------------------- Submarine attack near Vigan at 80,73 Japanese Ships xAK Tohuku Maru, Shell hits 9, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage Allied Ships SS S-37, hits 1 Japanese ground losses: 56 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled Engineers: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled xAK Tohuku Maru is sighted by SS S-37 SS S-37 attacking xAK Tohuku Maru on the surface --------------------------------------------- Submarine attack near Vigan at 80,73 Japanese Ships xAK Koyo Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage Allied Ships SS S-38 xAK Koyo Maru is sighted by SS S-38 SS S-38 launches 2 torpedoes at xAK Koyo Maru ---------------------------------------------------------- BTW - am using historic torpedos...... BUT - good luck had to end.. S-36 caught and pounded... crippled @ 16/43 (34 major)/9 damage (4 major) S-37 and S-38 both caught and some minor damage... they'll likely make manilla AM Finch sunk outside Miri Minelayer cruisers CM Gouden Leeuw, Shell hits 18, and is sunk CM Krakatau, Shell hits 10, and is sunk caught and sunk while laying mines. after the bloody nose I gave the IJA 35th Division @ Chengchow I counterattacked this turn and did somewhat sucessfully Ground combat at Chengchow (88,44) Allied Deliberate attack Attacking force 30326 troops, 157 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1172 Defending force 7862 troops, 94 guns, 32 vehicles, Assault Value = 49 Allied adjusted assault: 689 Japanese adjusted defense: 33 Allied assault odds: 20 to 1 Combat modifiers Defender: experience(-) Attacker: Japanese ground losses: 3007 casualties reported Squads: 132 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 86 destroyed, 9 disabled Engineers: 12 destroyed, 0 disabled Guns lost 15 (9 destroyed, 6 disabled) Vehicles lost 6 (5 destroyed, 1 disabled) Units retreated 1 Allied ground losses: 180 casualties reported Squads: 2 destroyed, 17 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled but I do not think I can make a true counter-attack and move my troops east to pursue as where they retreted - Kaifeng - is showing 3 units and some 17,340 spotted troops w/ 107 guns and 32 AFVs. Would love to try and cut off some more IJA unit's supply lines just to their NW but I doubt I can attack with any sort of strenght into an IJA fortified position. I wonder how long it will take the IJA 35th division to recover the losses it has sustained over the previous two days.

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/8/2013 8:17:35 AM)
and as my sensei sked.... Yes, the forts continued to increase from turn 5 to 6 with the two engineering groups in "reserve". Fort "exp" went from 48 to 72 (+24) to 7 (level 2) the current turn. Supply dissapeared after the attack - went from 5,060 to 2,708...

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/8/2013 3:00:20 PM)
December 14th (Betty's don't miss even when they're level bombing... allied bombers get lucky if they hit the right ocean) It was not meant to be.................. The remnants of the xAKs and xAKLs from Hong Kong (many which were torpedoed in HK harbor) were fleeing south when they meet up with a 6 ship surface IJN fleet - 3 CAs and 3 DDs bloodshed and tears were the general orders of the day. What really sucks is that only one of the three allied destroyers even fired back. The two shell hits the IJN DDs took were from the xAKs. JNight Time Surface Combat, near Iba at 77,74, Range 12,000 Yards Japanese Ships CA Myoko CA Haguro CA Nachi DD Nagatsuki, Shell hits 1 DD Harukaze, Shell hits 1 DD Tachikaze Allied Ships DD Scout DD Thanet, Shell hits 4, heavy fires DD Thracian, Shell hits 1, on fire xAK Bennevis, Shell hits 17, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Hanyang, Shell hits 18, and is sunk xAK Hinsang, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk xAK Munlock, Shell hits 5 The Thanet survives the attack but is immediately jumped by SS I-155 which hits with 2 of 4 torpedos and Thanet briefly becomes a sea plane before "landing" and sinking. Meanwhile............ Dutch subs are treated to the US Dud rules --------------------------------------------- Submarine attack near Singora at 51,72 Japanese Ships xAK Tazan Maru Allied Ships SS KXI xAK Tazan Maru is sighted by SS KXI SS KXI launches 4 torpedoes watching the battle I got multiple "Hit but no explosion" messages....... ------------------------ At Legaspi, the PT boats I ordered to attack the transport fleet three turns ago finally decide to engage. One is lost at the cost of: CS Chitose, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1 DMS W-7, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk DMS W-8 AMc Ataka Maru AMc Kyo Maru #1 AMc Takasago Maru, heavy damage and causing collisions amongst the TF. morning comes.. bad news and some good news.... Revenge for the doomed HK fleet! A 3 ship SC TF guarding a transport TF exiting the Philippines carrying the Cebu USN Base Force meets an unguarded IJN transport fleet. Revenge is sweet. Day Time Surface Combat, near Davao at 82,93, Range 22,000 Yards Japanese Ships CM Itsukushima, Shell hits 22, and is sunk xAK Tenryu Maru, Shell hits 24, and is sunk xAK Taifuku Maru, Shell hits 13, and is sunk xAK Teiryu Maru, Shell hits 30, and is sunk xAK Macassar Maru, Shell hits 20, and is sunk xAK Nittai Maru, Shell hits 10, and is sunk xAK Shinsei Maru, Shell hits 12, and is sunk Allied Ships CA Houston, Shell hits 1 CL Boise DD John D. Ford Japanese ground losses: 6962 casualties reported Squads: 78 destroyed, 449 disabled Non Combat: 82 destroyed, 409 disabled Engineers: 35 destroyed, 36 disabled Guns lost 82 (60 destroyed, 22 disabled) Vehicles lost 40 (40 destroyed, 0 disabled) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The CL Boise gets so damned trigger happy it all but runs out of 6" shells. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The IJA gets revenge though - Betty Bombers torch a transport TF outside of Medan xAK Wulin, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires xAK Wing Sang, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Ellenga, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage just after I bought out two base forces to move them to Java to reform.. which I started loading last turn.... two of the three sink immediately.. the Wulin is technically afloat with damage of (53/34(16 major)/12(4 major/and only 49 fires)

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/9/2013 5:22:38 AM)
Intermission I thought I'd jot down what I'm trying to do, especially since my purpose wth this AAR is to document my first time at bat as to glean outside information which I might catch onto much later, or not at all. DEI - Java: I have been buying out Dutch base forces and other forces on a as-able basis and moving them to Java for defense and realignment/reforming. Oil from Sumatra is being sent to Western Australia. Dutch Air Forces centered on Java. Malaya - Singapore: I am keeping a few forces at Georgetown so the entire IJA army already landed must leave skeleton forces as rear guard and/or divert aspects to deal with Georgetown. Also, I have been trying to combine land-forces that are identified as such. I am learnign that sometimes units will say they are part of a larger organization but othertimes it comes as a complete surprise. Air Forces: I made a mistake here. I moved my airforces south to be on three bases - Kuala/Johore/Singapore with Kuala being abandoned as the march south gained momentum. My good is that should I try and pull any forces out of doomed singapore Rangoon is now out of range for any current air forces (in range for surviving Hudon I's, out of range for: Blenheim I's, Blenheim IV's, Vildebeast III's, Swordfish, Wirrawray) Georgetown also a) does not have sufficient air support to relocate anything there (at 15 of 16 just to support resident Buffalos) - but also by now after bombings airfield is in the red at 56 airfield service damage and 89 runway damage. Philippines: Defensive positions are Bataan and Clark Field - 1st and 71st PA infantry divisions are holding manilla with Manilla's BF as I do not want to surrender Manilla to a simple light landing/paratrooper assault/etc. In Lingayen I have 4 infantry div's (11th, 21st, 31st, 91st) that got caught - they were in strategic move mode and had orders to go to clark field but they never budged. IJA forces just arrived in hex and they are caught out of formation. I have Clark Field at stockpile supply = no but raised the supply needed to 20K. Bataan is on supply stockpile = yes with supply needed at 27K+. The 86th Coastal Battery is at Clark Field along with the 200th Coastal AA, and the two Armor formation (hoping that Clark Field would be the best fighting position initially for them versus Manilla (urban) and Bataan. In Mandano I am trying to concentrate at Cagayan and Davao. West Coast: Sending units to PH. From there I will and and figure out who is best suited to go where. Burma: In trying to reform the 13th Indian Brigade I have all three at components at Moulmain. Units are not merging. Also, all untis of the 1st Burma Div are in Moulmein. It is not reforming either. I wanted to see if I could hold Rangoon/Burma for some time with the three reinforcement fleets directed here using the Allies AE initial spreadsheet instead of everyone running to the small and undeveloped bases SE of Calcutta. Some of Calcutta's Armor unit are being sent to Chittagong as to prevent it from being "land here and cut them all off bait". Some of the B-17s bought out from Mindano have been moved to Calcutta for Airbase bombing. Unfortunately it is extreme range to anything as Dacca has only 16 air support for a level 4 and Chittagong is a level one. CNAC transports are in Ledo ferrying supplies over the hump. (Gamewise if an PBEM this shouldn't be "crossying borders" as the game allows only ferrying of supplies TO Chengtu instead of being based in Chengtu and going to pick-up supplies at Ledo. They're doign the exact same thing. Ony difference is in which bed they sleep in do they call it "home". They're still flying one way unloaded and one way loaded. China - I am defending current Chineese positions with slight movements along the line. Chineese forces held many of these these positions/close to these positions IRL. I did let my bombers at Chengsha get caught by IJA bombers playing counter air-artillery fire. They have been subsequently moved to ChungKing. That and a Seagull piolt is going to get a smackdown of epic proportions. Now a Seagull is a ship launched scout. Can you imagine the surprise and Horror experienced by the commander in CiC on the enterprise when a report from a Soc-1 Seagull of a fleet of 9 IJN ships near San Diego at 219,95 (The CV fleet is at 218,96). So this complete moron launched from his cruiser and then identified his own damn fleet is an enemy fleet. That takes true skill. There are no other fleets anywhere nearby. (Side note: I have sent the CV TF's to west coast so I can attempt to resize their squadrons - never done it.. plus also try and upgrade birds to non-buffalos). Now off Australia I have a ghost fleet sighting by a Catalina of a IJN fleet of 7 ships near Esperance moving SE. I look there and see nothing. Nothing at all.. no red fleets.. but neither any green or blue or brown or dark blue.. nothing. But at least the Catalina pilot didn't get scared and misidentify his air force base.

PaxMondo -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/9/2013 1:37:43 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: uncivil_servant That and a Seagull piolt is going to get a smackdown of epic proportions. Now a Seagull is a ship launched scout. Can you imagine the surprise and Horror experienced by the commander in CiC on the enterprise when a report from a Soc-1 Seagull of a fleet of 9 IJN ships near San Diego at 219,95 (The CV fleet is at 218,96). So this complete moron launched from his cruiser and then identified his own damn fleet is an enemy fleet. That takes true skill. There are no other fleets anywhere nearby. (Side note: I have sent the CV TF's to west coast so I can attempt to resize their squadrons - never done it.. plus also try and upgrade birds to non-buffalos). Now off Australia I have a ghost fleet sighting by a Catalina of a IJN fleet of 7 ships near Esperance moving SE. I look there and see nothing. Nothing at all.. no red fleets.. but neither any green or blue or brown or dark blue.. nothing. But at least the Catalina pilot didn't get scared and misidentify his air force base. Low NavSearch skill creates this type of FOW ... common in the early days of the war ... sightings were everywhere for a couple of months ... tuna boat wre the Yamato, tramp ships were the KB ... etc.

jmalter -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/10/2013 7:44:37 AM)
hi uncivil, wrt your sub-units not merging - there are 3 possible causes. 1) units must be in the same mode to recombine - if 1 is in StratMove, and the other 2 are different, they can't recombine. easy to fix - just put all 3 into the same combat mode. 2) units must be in the same upgrade. let's imagine that all 3 parts were set to upgrade=YES, but their weren't enough devices available in the pool to upgrade all 3, only 1 or 2 got upgraded. the unit won't be able to re-combine until all 3 components are upgraded. harder to fix - you must wait until production provides enough devices to upgrade the laggards, make sure they're in Rest mode in a well-supplied base, & make sure that other units aren't set to accept upgrades of the devices your orphans need to make themselves whole. this kind of thing will cure you forever of setting upgrades=ON for all your stuff. 3) one of the 3 components got horked, this happens occaisionally (usually after an Amphib assault) & 1 of the 3 reports as a /1 fragment of itself, even if it's wholly present at a single base. there's no fix for this, except for mebbe posting your save-game to the TechSupport forum & begging michaelm to fix the offending unit. well-done w/ the Chengchow counterattack, you nuked the IJ 35th Div & threw it out of your hex. this Div is toasted, the reason is that it attacked your (chump low-strength poorly-fortified) guys across a river hex-side. LCU movement across a river is an automatic shock-attack, unless you've already got friendly units in the target hex w/ a substantial advantage in AV. essentially, the IJ 35th was conducting an amphibious assault into your hex, using poorly-trained troops & not nearly enough of them. learn from your enemy's mistakes - enter his hex from a non-river hex-side w/ overwhelming force that's fully prepped for the hex. but that's for next year, or the year after. for now, your Chinee guys need to withdraw into defensible positions, build forts, try to train some Fighters to defend rear-area bases, try not to deplete your supply. you're only 1 week into a 5-year campaign, fighting against a randomly-selected AI script that wants to kick your ass. IJ has 12-24 LCUs based in Manchukuo, these guys might move into North China & ruin you if you're not prepped & arrayed for defense.

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/17/2013 3:44:24 AM)
I have taken a new job and my days are long so today was my first chance to hop back in. December 15th - not really much happended.. other than many air raids.. Manilla's AF massacred. Few survivors moved to either Clark AFB or Bataan's AF. Fighting in China - bombing in china (them - not me) Wake Island - bombed nightly and bombardment attacks in the day by Maizuru 2nd SNLF - the poor marine fighters were nearly all destroyed so I disbanded them as I was now officially out of supplies. on my next turn I would put my marines on shock attack as they were out of supplies and going to expire eventually. December 16 - a really weird day. Weird in a Weird Science kinda way like Kelly LeBrock dumping you, her creator, then smashing and keying your car, burning down your house, going out with your best friend but that evening returning and giving you a full bout of "breaking up but she's not quite sure" dual make-up/break-up sex session and videotaping it for you. Bombing all around china.. poor guys getting pounded. Chineese AFs hiding in fear and their bomber corps slowly reovering from the pounding received at changsha. Wake Is. pounded AKLs loading cargo at Bengkalis in Sumatra pounded by Sally's that must be operating at logn range. Sally's continue IJA air force inability to miss and sink several AKLs. IJN Carriers get in on the fun (was wondering where they went) They catch a supply fleet at Tarakan which was rendering assistance to TFs fleeing the Philippines. (They have bi-planes too? wow - of course they dont miss either.) Raid spotted at 17 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 7 minutes Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 3 B4Y1 Jean x 8 B5N1 Kate x 16 No Japanese losses Allied Ships xAK Tjikandi, Torpedo hits 1 AVP Valk, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Tjikarang, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk DD Whipple AG Albatros, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk some more ground troops are unloaded at Wake Is. (very important.) Some IJN cruisers catch out of fual MTB's still fleeing HK but the MTBs get away and continue to manilla. Two (2) IJN sub attacks - sinking xAKL Regulus, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage, off of Lihue and xAK Autolycus, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage off of Portsea. Land combat - some minor stuff in chaina then fighting at Wake Island takes place.... Ground combat at Wake Island (136,98) Japanese Shock attack troops newly arrived I think Attacking force 1618 troops, 19 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 51 Defending force 1106 troops, 25 guns, 8 vehicles, Assault Value = 30 Japanese adjusted assault: 0 Allied adjusted defense: 55 Japanese assault odds: 1 to 99 (fort level 1) Combat modifiers Defender: preparation(-), experience(-) Attacker: op mode(-), shock(+) Japanese ground losses: 321 casualties reported Squads: 1 destroyed, 29 disabled Non Combat: 11 destroyed, 2 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Guns lost 5 (2 destroyed, 3 disabled) Assaulting units: Maizuru 2nd SNLF Guards Mixed Bde /2 Defending units: Wake USN CPNAB 1st Marine Defense Battalion --------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Wake Island (136,98) Allied Shock attack Attacking force 530 troops, 23 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 30 Defending force 1217 troops, 17 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 10 Allied adjusted assault: 16 Japanese adjusted defense: 4 Allied assault odds: 4 to 1 Combat modifiers Defender: op mode(-) Attacker: shock(+) Japanese ground losses: 1715 casualties reported Squads: 80 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 75 destroyed, 0 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Guns lost 13 (13 destroyed, 0 disabled) Vehicles lost 2 (2 destroyed, 0 disabled) Units destroyed 2 Allied ground losses: 23 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Assaulting units: Wake USN CPNAB 1st Marine Defense Battalion Defending units: Maizuru 2nd SNLF Guards Mixed Bde /2 Sweet Jesus.... What did the commanding officer do.. offer the boys some leave R&R with the lovely ladies from the "You have been ordered to disregard" thread? The next day the 1st Marine Def Btn shows a morale of 97 with Exp of 57.

jmalter -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/23/2013 7:59:01 AM)
hi noncivil, 'grats on the new job, i hope it works out for you. also i'd like to hear more about your WitP:AE guys & their battles, i've enjoyed reading your 'newb' posts & responding to them.

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/24/2013 1:30:46 AM)
a supplicant..[X(] [&o] come right in and hear tales of woe.. incompetence.. and tragedy.. I'm still trying to figure out which transports I send where, doing what... every island seems to be screaming for supplies December 17th - Wake Island - after the rightous green bastards threw off the barbarian horde assailing Wake I started getting ships together for a rescue mission... as those boys deserved saving. Otherwise Quiet December 18th: Wake - two fleets steam to Wake - one a fast transport to pick up n run, the other slower amphibious fleet. Unfortunately Wake falls from the 2nd group of the Guards Bde in an amphibious assault after the turn by the heathen horde. [:@] China - I underestimte IJA strength and get start to get assaults n my forces in the mountains between Yenan (A) and Taiyuan (J) - some 4 units 28K+ strength. IJA Starts assaults on Wuchow, ground combat at Sinyang, in SE China I start a blunder where I keep current forces in Chuhsien and Wenchow with "picket lines" east of Chengsha and SE of Nanchang (J) Air - Night attacks on Bataan, Singapore, and Rangoon Sumatra - IJA attacks ships with Nells @ Tandjoe..... - they miss! So they CAN miss... with bombs. Borneo - Ships leaving tarakan get surprised by a 4 ship SCTF with two CAs and two DDs. I lose the xAP Neptuna and some PTs running from Manilla. December 19: Gergetown Falls - everything in Malaya heads for Temulah to Rail south. Chinese army takes Sinyang (and I subsequently forget I have to tell them to dig in {fortifications}) South Pacific - Here begins the adventure of I do not know why they will not unload. Task forces at Norfolk Island will drop troops (some) but no one will drop supplies.. at Luganville as well.. unloading is horrendously slow.. if it occurs. Air attacks - air attacks on Bataan and Singapore ramp up.. Nells droping bombs miss ships in port at Singapore. China - Isolated force east of Lnag Sun (J) gets attacked.. I try to find a unit to go and help as they are in good defensive territory. Forces smashed at 92,38. Sailfish off of Formosa hits and sinks the xAK Anzan Maru Java - the grand reinforcing of Java continues. IJN subs brazenly sink ships all over and clueless ASW forces wave. 2 AKLs sunk USN suns off the Phillippines get hammered by IJN escorts. 2 SS's heavily damaged. Borneo - the 4 ship IJN fleet ctaches more ships - an AVD and two AKLs. December 20th: Malaya - with the taking of Georgetown ships carrying suplies and troops out of Singapore start dancing back and forth "running" from enemy planes then sailing back... VERY annoying. Manila - RN PTs from Hong Kong reach Manilla (were out of fuel after striking port way back) and begin to be repaired.. just in time for a bombing attack that sinks them and torches the DD Thracian and SS 36. China - 38K IJA troops arrive and shock attack Chuhsien and decimate the defenders. City lost and 5,800 cassualties. They flee south.. not west.. Counter-attack at Wuchow makes the attacking IJA forces retreat. Sea action: xAK Yomei Maru sunk by Dutch SS, IJN I-122 brazenly patroling java catches and sinks another AKL, I-10 operating north of Tazmania sinks an AK. I-7, SW of PM sinks an AKL. December 21: (still problems unloading at Luganville, Norfolk island, and Milne Bay) SS swordfish caught by enemy air patrol and bombed (hit of course) Air attacks - massive bombing campaigns all over China... remaining air forces in the Phillipines decimated and subsequently disbanded. Midway island bombed by a small air force. Japanese aircraft A5M4 Claude x 5 B5N1 Kate x 10 Bismark Sea - task forces seeking to withdraw units from Kavieng and Rabual are spotted. 6 Betty's arrive and do not miss with torpedos.. CA Louisville hit and badly damaged. Flak useless even against the flying gas tanks. Malacca Straight - Dancing TFs going north then running south bombed. xAP Kepong sunk, others hit. Rangoon Harbor - ships droping troops and supplies hit.. a KV and an xAK lost. South Luzon - Davao attacked. Apparently defenders threw their food and bullets at the enemy ships as all supplies used by defenders defending against the amphibious landings. Midway - a supply TF of two xAKs and two DDs encounters in surface action an enemy CVL fleet of CVL Zuiho, 3 CAs and 3 DDs. Both fleets run from the other. Allied SCTF assembled and sent towards Midway just in case I can get lucky and find the single CVL TF... hoping and praying that the KB carriers, which still are who knows where, are not near Midway. SS Pike SE of Hong Kong starts finding barges and enjoys practicing their gunnery as their torpedos do ** all. Japan subs are so brazen that the I-2 attacks an ASW TF near Seattle sinking a KV. December 22: Globally - I am shipping troops to PH. There try and combine units and decide who I am sending where. Supplies dropping off at other Hawaiian bases to stop the red !!!'s. some December 7 BBs I send towards Seattle to free up drydock space. 2 AGs I was sending to south pacific to man bases caught by 2 AMCs and sunk. Norfolk Island, Milne Bay, and Luganville unloading adventures continue. Midway - Hit again.. the Zuiho likely.. but the Catalinas I pulled back to PH. Straight of Malacca - two more AKLs caught and bombed and sunk. A horde of Sallys and Nates attempt to bomb the last combat vessels leaving Singapore (two DDs that were on ASW duty) and they mercifully miss. Manado - really weird.. in one turn I have an AP fleet picking up the base force here.. at the same time an unspotted IJN fleet deposits troops at Manado. No combat though. Davao falls easily. Manado falls. Sea action - Dutch SS sinks xAK Shinkyo Maru, IJN fleet of 6 - 3 CLs and 3 DDs meets allied TF at night but does not engage.. allied TFs transporting troops escapes. SS 38 hit a CM with a torpedo.. dear god the game does allow something other than 99% american torpedo failure. December 23rd: I discover that attempt to resize USN carrier plane squadrons fail miserably.. either wo go into combat under capacity (80 out of 90.. or over capacity... high 90s making number orange) this sems quite dumb as if planes were available they put them aboard didn't they? also I discover that I have to tell Air HQs to stock torpedos... !!!!!!!!! Do I need to tell them to order food and eat as well? Pee Pee breaks? aaarrgghh Milne Bay, Norfolk Island, and Lunganville fun continues.. I'm just sitting back wondering how long it will take and wondering what the hell is going on.. TF 127 can not completely unload troops at Milne Bay TF 233 can not completely unload troops at Norfolk Island TF 407 can not completely unload troops at Luganville TF 127 can not completely unload troops at Milne Bay TF 233 can not completely unload troops at Norfolk Island TF 407 can not completely unload troops at Luganville lots and lots of air raids all over..... Battle for Sinyang begins...** Ground combat at Sinyang (86,48) Japanese Deliberate attack Attacking force 30825 troops, 374 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1618 Defending force 43096 troops, 265 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1202 Japanese adjusted assault: 428 Allied adjusted defense: 997 Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 0) Combat modifiers Defender: terrain(+), experience(-) Attacker: Japanese ground losses: 2446 casualties reported Squads: 5 destroyed, 265 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 34 disabled Engineers: 2 destroyed, 32 disabled Allied ground losses: 398 casualties reported Squads: 3 destroyed, 50 disabled Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 9 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled Assaulting units: 13th Division 3rd Division 14th Ind.Mixed Brigade 34th Division 58th Infantry Regiment 1st Mortar Battalion 51st Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion 2nd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment 15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment 8th Ind. Engineer Regiment 2nd Ind. Engineer Regiment 11th Army 52nd Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion Defending units: 12th Chinese Corps 13th Chinese Corps 84th Chinese Corps 29th Chinese Corps 7th Chinese Corps 85th Chinese Corps 3rd Group Army 21st Group Army 2nd Group Army 31st Group Army Rabaul - night action SE of Rabaul... SCTFs trade shots.. JN cruisers give better than they get.. Two allied CLs damaged. Midway - Allied SCTF arrives (3 CAs, 5 DDs).. CVL fleet not found but enemy amphibious TF spotted headed for Midway - 9 ships.. only ID on 4.. a DD and three APs. 3 USN subs in the area as well. Formosa - Sailfish continues target practice of LB's

Blackhorse -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/24/2013 5:42:46 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: uncivil_servant December 16 - a really weird day. Weird in a Weird Science kinda way like Kelly LeBrock dumping you, her creator, then smashing and keying your car, burning down your house, going out with your best friend but that evening returning and giving you a full bout of "breaking up but she's not quite sure" dual make-up/break-up sex session and videotaping it for you. [X(][:D] First campaigns/ AARs are always the best (at least the most memorable). Re: Wake. Consider moving a second PBY to Midway, and using that to evacuate what you can of the base force and Marine Defense battalion from Wake. That way you don't have to risk ships. Resizing carriers squadrons: You can only resize squadrons that do not have an (or are past their) automatic resize date. There are precious few of them in the early war. By mid-43 you will have plenty to choose from. You can make up the difference by "splitting" a land-based carrier-capable squadron into three parts, and loading one or two elements onto a CV. Good luck! Enjoy.

jmalter -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/24/2013 10:06:17 AM)
hi uncivil, here's some more scuttlebutt for you: quote: ORIGINAL: uncivil_servant December 21: (still problems unloading at Luganville, Norfolk island, and Milne Bay) unloading at size2 or smaller ports is a prob, even from an AmphTF. unload rates are slow, & some devices (radars, hvy art, observer corps) can't unload at all. NavSupport squads (USN BaseForce) will help if unloaded in the hex, but you've gotta bring in the SeaBees & build the portsize. Air attacks - massive bombing campaigns all over China... remaining air forces in the Phillipines decimated and subsequently disbanded. always manually remove the pilots from a sqn that you're about to disband. Flak useless even against the flying gas tanks. upgrades will help Midway - a supply TF of two xAKs and two DDs encounters in surface action an enemy CVL fleet of CVL Zuiho, 3 CAs and 3 DDs. Both fleets run from the other. Allied SCTF assembled and sent towards Midway just in case I can get lucky and find the single CVL TF... hoping and praying that the KB carriers, which still are who knows where, are not near Midway. yowch - those CAs are quite capable of cleaning your clock, your CAs will be much more useful to you in 12/43 (w/ upgrades & trained Kingfisher pilots) than at the bottom of the sea. Japan subs are so brazen that the I-2 attacks an ASW TF near Seattle sinking a KV. again, upgrades, ship experience & a decent commander will help. in a year, you'll have enough ASW ships and trained ASW sqns to protect the entire WC, starting w/ the most important ports. for now, ASW escorts are more useful as convoy escorts than as hunter-killers. December 22: some December 7 BBs I send towards Seattle to free up drydock space. keep these guys at cruise speed, else they'll accrue add'l damage. i hope these guys have ASW escorts! 2 AGs I was sending to south pacific to man bases caught by 2 AMCs and sunk. wot no escorts? & AGs are only useful to repair/rearm light naval forces (DE & smaller but not PTs or MTBs). December 23rd: I discover that attempt to resize USN carrier plane squadrons fail miserably.. either wo go into combat under capacity (80 out of 90.. or over capacity... high 90s making number orange) orange is OK, carriers can operate at 115% capacity. red is doubleplusungood, no air ops are possible. also I discover that I have to tell Air HQs to stock torpedos... !!!!!!!!! Do I need to tell them to order food and eat as well? Pee Pee breaks? aaarrgghh heh, don't peg your frustration-meter just yet, you've got another 6 months of disaster to play thru. click on the TO&E text of an AirHQ, then you can click on its Torpedo ordnance & set an auto-level - the unit will auto-restock if supplies are available, it will also provide torps to LBA sqns within its command radius IF those bases are also 'in supply'. Milne Bay, Norfolk Island, and Lunganville fun continues.. I'm just sitting back wondering how long it will take and wondering what the hell is going on.. Port Hueneme W of LA is SeaBee WorldHQ, you'll be getting a steady stream of add'l CB engrs there. you can ship them out to your SoPac bases (don't forget Midway) & make efficient use of them w/o waiting for morale or prep. ntm quite a few of your major bases (WC & Pearl and all off-map bases) need to build out their facilities as well, they might profit from the presence of engr units. then you should check out your <I> screen for arriving airgroups, you might see that you've got some sqns arriving at, say, Pendleton in N days, well mebbe it's worthwhile to strat-move some engrs and an AirBF to Pendleton & create a training-base. wrt your TFs retreating, there's a Set TF Routing button, it gives you the screen for Follow/Meet/Waypoints/PatrolZones, at the bottom you can set its Routing Control (how much it wants to avoid detected enemy bases & TFs) as well as its Threat Tolerance (how likely it is to retreat in the face of actual air/surf attacks). also i notice that your AARs tend to concentrate on tactical matters & probs you've encountered. to take control of the game, you've got to start thinking 3/6/12/24 months ahead. do the best you can in combat, but don't waste valuable ships & sqns to overwhelming enemy superiority - work to establish defensible fall-back positions & a fleet-in-being strategy.

uncivil_servant -> RE: NooB AAR(gh): Which way's north? a.k.a we'll buff that hole right out won't we chief? (3/24/2013 3:21:20 PM)
One word - two syllables.. Whoop as in whoop your behind the then ..sie a more z-ish sea sound. Blackhorse: I tried that by moving a second PBY squadron to Midway but they couldn't reach Midway. The PB-5s didn't have the range to do it and the drop tanks is still greyed out and unavailable. Crap and double crap on the CV airgroups. I guess I'll try breaking into parts some marine fighters and/or bombers and putting sections on each. Wake really did break my heart - a great victory at the same time I'm having a homer simpson moment realizing Chuhsien and Wenchow forces might get cut-off as well as the mountain goat adventures a 20K IJA chasing bands of chinese and doing very bad things to them when they catch them. Jmalter'man!: (That screenname deserves, at least once, to have a faux jamaican-like usage once in its life - hence j'malter'mAan! Crap on the unloading bit. Unloading Sarawak CD at Kalidjati I did see eventually the guns too big message and unloaded at Batavia. Norfolk Island: Only the Observer Corp (0) x 1 remains on board the xAP unloading in amphibious mode. A group of 2 xAKs refuse to offload supplies, as well as a single xAKL. I dont know how to get supplies to them to build up the port. Luganville: 2 xAKLs stare at the unloaded people and fail at using telekinesis to unload their needed supplies. Union dock-handlers heard exclaiming "and people complain about us!" and "we need to practice more.. they're on the clock you know". On the Transport mode TF of 8 ships (cannot dock). The xAP Charmont is carrying two sound detectors for the 115th USAAF, and the xAP Republic is carrying two sound devices for the 114th USAAF. I think these two were part of the allies spreadsheet that I used to get me through early rounds but dont quote me. Milne Bay: Amphibious TF of xAP Macdhui.. what a name..(Drunken marchantmen,".. I serve on the micer.. o.. No damnit.. the mackie whoie.. no damnit.. the the micker woohoo'ee!" MP, "Sure ya do buddy.. why dont you heard over there and take yourself a nap". The MacDaddy is attempting to unload supplies while the xAP President Coolidge is trying to unload "Observer Corp (0) x 1". Side note: I have three fleets that escaped from the Phillipines with the Bataan USN BF, the Cebu USN BF, and the Cavite USN Base Force. Unsure where to plop them I was going to send Bataan BF to Luganville. I was going to skip Noumea as it has the Bundaberg RAN BF and the Bowen RAN BF en route. I was thinking Suva for one USN BF and Tahiti for the other. One or more of these bases I was planning on sending those auxiliary ships as I would think PH is capable of loading ships and repairing ships without the assistance of such repair ships and Tenders in port making one of these bases a stopping point for either ASW/scout fleets in SE Pac or as stopping points for damaged transports. Pilots: Oops. Yea, I didn't do the remove pilots bit. Midway - My fleet of 8 arrives - 3 CAs and 5 DDs.. no enemies spotted though the Catalinas are all pulled to PH. No enemy carrier fleet nor sign of the enemy fleet of 8 with transports. I was pondering the stay/go decision but if their CAs will chew up mine then they'll scurry back to pearl. Dec 7 BB's: No.. I didn't send them cruise.. sigh.. thinking mission speed needed if they spotted subs/etc.. I did give them three DDs as escort with a second ASW fleet of two DD's following by one hex with a 3 hex react command. The Ags I sent without escorts as they were "idiotically" traveling through "safe" waters. Yeah, I know.. that and I am absolutely out of escorts. I sort of overprotected the carriers I sent to the West coast. Carriers and orange/red capacity: I figured the orange number would mean like land bases that a certain percentage would not participate in operations thus nullifying the benefit of carrying the extra planes! I didn't get to red numbers. More distaster.. disaster is better swallowed if there are bright moments where I can smile after The Kid (tm) takes down Tyson, etc.. Thank you for the auto-allocate thing.. that will help. A Lot. WC ENG unit dispersion current: (all Restricted unless noted otherwise) Pendleton - hey.. I've heard of that place.. [:)] Forces in San Fran and La have been training, as well as forces at Eastern US I've left as training. LA 2- LA BF and 113th USAAF; San Luis 2- SL BF and 128th USAAF; San Diego 1- SD BF; Fresno 1- 132nd USAAF; Ft Ord 1- FO BF; San Fran - Shipping Out: 808 EAB, II US Ftr Command, and the B Det USN Port Srv. San Fran -3- SF BF, 19th Combat ENG, 125th USAAF; Sacramento -1- 126th USAAF; Eureka -1- 124th USAAF; Corvalis -1- Camp Adair ENG; Astoria -1- 127th USAAF; Portlnd -1- 117th USAAF; Tacma -2- Ft Lewis ENG, 122nd USAAF; Seattle -2- Bremerton USN BF, IV Ftr Cmd; Boise, Ogden, Spokane, and Salt Lake each have a USAAF. Le Grade Strategie: India/Burma: With the Allies AE strartup sheet diverting numerous land units to Rangoon it would feel silly to just retreat so I want to make taking Rangoon and Burma hurt. At the same time reserving forces near Calcutta, particularly ARM units to counter-attack and landings behind the Burma line. I do not wan to oppose landings with the IJN bonus but counter-attack and/or a "Pre-emptive Defensive Maneuver" one they do land. Singapore: I have done poorly. I have run out of time. I was planning on using unreserved units, and buying a few others to either escape (RAF HQs) or to reinforce fortress Java. I was so busy moving Dutch units that Singapore units are now dangerous to attempt to escape though I still have surviving CAP at Singapore. But I fear the Betties... Bettyphobia really. DEI: I wast to make IJN use good forces to take DEI. I do not want massive numbers of good units used for surprise events in places they do not take. So - the grand DEI strategy is to converge on Java - leaving some forces with a few supplied bases in Sumatra so when bases fall they cannot turn around and leave.. Units left with supply at remote locations can attempt to strike-back at now "rear". PBYs in Java will supply by air when possible. Bases in Guinea, Celebes, Timor, and Borneo have/are stripped of their armed forces as I can (tarakan forces partially caught) might leave minimal in Balikpapan.. as well as stripped of all supplies to send to Java so all Java bases have land forces and supplies. Mine operations centered on Palembang. Java strategy: Japan will land. If they land en-masse at Hard-points of Batavia/Soerbaja - OK. I have stacked defenders at each, 2 CD units each, and all Dutch Airforces are scattered around Java now that Dutch Base forces are here from elsewhere all are fully/almost fully supported by air support units. Most Dutch forces training for naval bombing resistance, Singapore bombers moved to Java - including torpedo planes.. Wildebeat, Blenheim, and Swordfish bombers. All other bases have one land unit minimum (not including Base forces) when IJN lands at non strongpoint bases.. I will attempt to resist at the nearest base with multiple units not trying to hold against the amphib landing with the "bonus" they get - but each is defending making IJN land decent sized units and not just one small unit per base to claim but have to land in force under aerial attack. All three approaches to Java are under stacked PBY search arcs. USN. This is the ??? part. Still wary about where to send units land and air and to what islands... Want to use Carriers on a 1-2 formation to strike as I can to sting enemy shiping/offensives but staying away from IJN Carriers as I doubt the game model will allow a midway like engagement or even a fair trade like at coral Sea where both sides made mistakes and got lucky/unlucky but neither side torpedo demolished the other. The december 7 smashing of the Hawaiin Air Force hurt. Most are still understrength. Subsequently as less naval attacks happened then ships are semi-decent (like me sending wouned battleagons to Seattle).

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