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dr. smith -> D'oh!!! What not to do. (10/12/2004 7:52:37 PM)
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While waiting for the patch, put my '41 campaign aside and tried the '44 campaign.
So after weeks of playing as Allies just hoping for a paint scratch against IJN ships, I thought "Butt-kickin' time is HERE!!!"
Ooops. Not quite.
1. Sent my 7 CVs with 8 CVLs on a "World Tour" of Ponape, Truk, Satawal pounding airfields, before I realize "Daggummit, gotta pound Saipan before the invasion!" and set off for Saipan. But the deadly triangle of Palau, Yap, Ulithi beckons. "Come on, plenty of easy pickin's here!" I heed the siren call and think 120 F6Fs is enough cover and detach the Enterprise, Lexington (CVs), Princeton & San Jacinto (CVLs) group to pound the enticing triangle, to this welcome:
Day Air attack on TF at 55,65
Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zeke x 100
D4Y Judy x 67
B6N Jill x 53
Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 50
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zeke: 80 destroyed, 5 damaged
D4Y Judy: 42 destroyed, 27 damaged
B6N Jill: 20 destroyed, 23 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
F6F Hellcat: 60 destroyed, 11 damaged
Allied Ships
CV Enterprise, Bomb hits 2
CVL Princeton, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
CVL San Jacinto, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1
CV Lexington
CA Indianapolis
OK, not too bad, should be fine!
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Day Air attack on TF at 55,65
Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zeke x 22
D4Y Judy x 16
B6N Jill x 8
Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 11
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zeke: 6 destroyed
D4Y Judy: 10 destroyed, 11 damaged
B6N Jill: 4 destroyed, 3 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
F6F Hellcat: 10 destroyed, 1 damaged
Allied Ships
CV Lexington, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CV Enterprise
OH NO, not Lady Lex! Well, maybe she can recover planes . . .
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Day Air attack on TF at 55,65
Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zeke x 14
D4Y Judy x 18
B6N Jill x 8
Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 8
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zeke: 4 destroyed
D4Y Judy: 5 destroyed, 12 damaged
B6N Jill: 2 destroyed, 7 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
F6F Hellcat: 12 destroyed
Allied Ships
CV Enterprise, Bomb hits 3, on fire
CV Lexington, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CVL San Jacinto, Bomb hits 1
C'mon Captain Kirk, get Scotty's ass in gear!!!
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Day Air attack on TF at 55,65
Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zeke x 114
D4Y Judy x 39
B6N Jill x 22
Japanese aircraft losses
D4Y Judy: 6 damaged
B6N Jill: 1 damaged
Allied Ships
CV Enterprise, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CVL San Jacinto, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Indianapolis, Bomb hits 1
CL Birmingham
&*%$#@&%%*$$&#!!!!!
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End result, with everybody still in range:
Entereprise 99-82-49
San Jacinto 99-56-49
Enterprise 41-65-39 (go Scotty go!)
Princeton reef-bait
I can see part of my problem, in my exuberance of playing the Superior Allies in 44, I was sadly lacking in in-depth planning, as when the invasion forces got to Saipan with only 1 day of Air bombardment:
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Naval Gun Fire at Saipan (63,64) - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
Japanese aircraft
no flights
Allied aircraft
no flights
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 6 destroyed
G4M2 Betty: 2 destroyed
Ki-57-II Topsy: 2 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 2 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony: 5 destroyed
Ki-84-Ia Frank: 2 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
A-36A Apache: 2 destroyed
270 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Allied Ships
LCI(G) LCI-69, Shell hits 16, on fire, heavy damage
LCI(G) LCI-68, Shell hits 12, on fire, heavy damage
LCI(G) LCI-67, Shell hits 13, on fire, heavy damage
AK Fomalhaut, Shell hits 2
AK Prince Georges, Shell hits 13, on fire, heavy damage
AK Leonis, Shell hits 16, on fire, heavy damage
AP Fremont, Shell hits 5, on fire
AP Herald of Morning, Shell hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
AP Winged Arrow, Shell hits 15, on fire, heavy damage
AP Cavalier, Shell hits 6, on fire
AP Custer, Shell hits 4
AP Harris, Shell hits 13, on fire, heavy damage
AP Heywood, Shell hits 12, on fire, heavy damage
ML Keokuk, Shell hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
DE Baron, Shell hits 8, on fire, heavy damage
Allied ground losses:
1201 casualties reported
Don't look too "suppressed" to me, damn flyboys!
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Then, I had assigned a bunch of CVE task forces to provide air cover to the landing forces and assigned them "Follow TF" tasks. Man, it was just like those fog-shrouded 200 car pileups. These STUPID CVE say "Ooh, is that a coastal gun, lemme get a look at it!!!" and boy did they look:
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Naval Gun Fire at Saipan (63,64) - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
21 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Allied Ships
CVE St. Lo, Shell hits 13, on fire, heavy damage
actually got 60 miles from Saipan before sinking!
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Naval Gun Fire at Saipan (63,64) - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
46 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Allied Ships
DD Laws, Shell hits 2
DD Bullard, Shell hits 1
CVE Gambier Bay, Shell hits 6, on fire
CVE Kitkun Bay, Shell hits 5, on fire
Both will make it back home, but with about 60 Sys damage
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[:-] So, no matter WHAT scenario, you still gotta PLAN, PLAN, PLAN!!!
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