Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: castor troy


I think the game models something very well and thatīs the way the Allied should advance as thatīs the same way they had to do in real life. Take a base, move in a hell a lot of engineers (building a level 9 airfield from scratch is a matter of no time if you bring enough eng which you should have more than you need), lay waste to anything in range of your bombers, bring in the invasion for the next base five or six hexes away from step one and build up again. Rinse and repeat. It is totally boring in the end but a methodical approach and there is no Japanese PBEM player on Earth that can do anything against it on the big picture. A little surprise now and then yes, stalling, no.

quote:

ORIGINAL: castor troy

IMO you donīt have the normal Allied hammer now in 5/44 because you dispersed and took a lot unnecessary losses the last two years.

I AGREE - NOT 100% MY FAULT AS I BELIEVE I HAD A PARTICULARILY BAD RUN OF LUCK BUT IN PRINCIPAL I AGREE

You still have enough to lay waste around every level 9 airfield so that you can move forward 5 or six hexes at a time.

AGREE AND IN CENTPAC WITH XMAS ISLAND, NG WITH MERAUKE AND IN BAY OF BENGAL ITS EXACTLY WHAT I AM PLANNING ON DOING

Though you seem to keep doing the same to be further atritted and instead of atritting the Japanese, itīs the Allied that are getting atritted (I still donīt know why you shock attacked right into Moulmein for example when you could do otherwhise with no problem at all)

TIME PZB HAD FINALLY WITHDRAWN HIS 2ND ARMY FROM THE NORTH AND I HAD ONLY A SHORT TIME TO HIT HIM - I SENT A FLANKING FORCE BUT IT WAS MAKING HEAVY WEATHER OF THE ROUTE - MAYBE IT WAS A BAD CALL 10K CASUALTIES I WAS EXPECTING AND WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SUSTAIN - 30K STOPPED ME COLD

My last PBEM saw my carrier TFs moving around with 1500 Hellcats in a hex and enough LBA to nuke every base in range at the same stage you are now. Every CVE lost was a tragedy to me! To me your strategy looks like your Timor invasion, a bit here, a bit there. Then PzB shows up and kills your first bit there, the next bit there and another bit over there as he immediately FOCUSSES all of his available assets in one area.

MAYBE BUT I AM TAKING THE OBJECTIVES NOW AND DOING IT WITH SECONDARY FORCES MILNE BAY IS GOING TO BE MINE THAT MEANS NEW BRITAIN AND ITS AF'S CAN BE SAFELY TAKEN BY GROUND FORCES AND LBA WITH MINIMAL NAVAL SUPPORT FREEING UP ASSETS FOR THE ATTACK ON THE MERAUKE AXIS

And then most of the times itīs a ce la vie experience in the end. Now if you succesfully land on the Philipinese and lose a cruiser and some transports itīs ce la vie, it would even be ce la vie if you wouldnīt own a single base on New Guinea yet and you lose those ships for the first base to have a foothold on the island but when you have PM nearly fully built up, own Buna too I donīt know why it is a ce la vie experience to take a rather unimportant base right next to PM that does what? Win the war? Interdict LOS to any cut off Japanese? Threaten something that isnīt already threatened by PM? I canīt see what Milne Bay gives you to accept any loss for little gain.

IT FREES ME UP TO TAKE AND BUILD ALL THE BASES IN THE AREA FOR FUTURE LBA OPERATION TO MAKE UP FOR MY LACK OF CARRIERS AND ALLOWS ME TO KEEP A THEATRE GOING WITHOUT A COMMITTMENT OF MAJOR NAVAL ASSETS - I CAN NOW USE MILNE BAY BASED BARGES/PT BOATS AND LCT'S FOR ALL FUTURE INVASIONS IN THEATRE ALLOWING ALL MY HEAVY SHIPS TO PULL BACK

Itīs your game afterall and I donīt want to stand up as a teacher so pls donīt get me wrong, I just have the feeling you have to start to get away from ce la vie and stop losing some cruisers here and a couple of CVE there as youīve lost just too much already and so far you are the atritted and not PzB. Even the Allied reinforcements are limited if I just can bring up the P-40 example again, an aircraft that should be thousands of miles away from the front at this stage of the war with the Japanese producing purely Georges, Jacks and Franks.

P40'S DO OK AS ESCORT FODDER AND THATS WHAT I USE THEM FOR MOSTLY P47'S AND P38'S ARE NOT EXACTLY AVAILABLE IN GREAT NUMBERS UNTIL THE D25 ARRIVES

I think the game models something very well and thatīs the way the Allied should advance as thatīs the same way they had to do in real life. Take a base, move in a hell a lot of engineers (building a level 9 airfield from scratch is a matter of no time if you bring enough eng which you should have more than you need), lay waste to anything in range of your bombers, bring in the invasion for the next base five or six hexes away from step one and build up again. Rinse and repeat. It is totally boring in the end but a methodical approach and there is no Japanese PBEM player on Earth that can do anything against it on the big picture. A little surprise now and then yes, stalling, no.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bliztk

The inherent problem is that maybe PzB has gotten into your mind, and you are advancing at his pace, instead of setting the pace of the game as you should be doing right now.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

ps feedback always welcome - even when I dont want to hear it.

Castor I overall don't disagree with what you say you are not wrong

quote:

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

To reiterate my plan

SEAC
1. Use forces in Burma to pound his oil centres and bases in range to dust
2. Attack Andaman Islands and Sumatra to eventually allow an attak on Borneo eliminating Malaya as a viable base and to provide support for an eventual push into either Formosa/Okinawa or PI

SWPAC

1. Advance from Merauke Darwin NE into Celebes sea to eventually linkup with SEAC in Borneo
2. Using Milne bay and surrounding bases build unsinkable aircraft carriers to enable me to attack new Britain before end 44 and take Rabaul or Kavieng/Manus to allow neutralisation of Truk

CENTPAC

1. Secure Gilberts/Marshalls/Line Islands and all bases south to prepare for eventual push on Marianas
2. Attack Marianas after 1. or if KB not neutralised transfer Carrier force to support SWPAC/SEAC join up at Borneo - leave option open as it to some extent depends on fleet in being status of KB

quote:

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

ps guys my biggest flaw is I am not a micromanager - I make occasional mistakes because I never take more than 30 mins to do a turn

Milne bay was not one of those !!!!

quote:

ORIGINAL: Nemo121

As to you wanting to lure PzB into action the periphery so you nibble at KB. Sure, that's a fine plan. On the other hand you could have achieved that force commitment AND had enough CAP flying over the TF to not only lure KB out of position but also:
a) kill lots of its pilots
b) save most if not all of your lost ships.

So, with proper planning and force allocation you could have achieved more at less cost. That's the problem. I can see what you are trying to do but the constant drumbeat of unnecessary attritional losses cripples you - especially since you won't engage in a sufficient pause to build a sufficiently strong fleet to be able to achieve strategically vital objectives ( mostly because you just engage in unnnecessarily high cost operation after unnecessarily high cost operaiton with all of these attritional losses preventing you from building the necessary mass to achieve more at less cost 6 months from now ).

quote:

ORIGINAL: castor troy

quote:

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

ps guys my biggest flaw is I am not a micromanager - I make occasional mistakes because I never take more than 30 mins to do a turn

Milne bay was not one of those !!!!

wow, my average turn takes 1.5 hours with turns in between that take twice that time just for looking around and those super long turns when major fleets engage each other.

quote:

I make occasional mistakes because I never take more than 30 mins to do a turn

quote:

ORIGINAL: beppi

I would not count it as tragic as some other players if you lose some ships. Yes in my opinion not a single CVE is worth a sacrifice even if they the E is for expandable. Some advices, ideas:

In burma as your opponen has quite a good force and quite a lot of reserves use a stretch the lines and cut off tactic. Just build a wide line of units of acceptable strength (3+ divisions) through the jungle and crawl forward. Have some strongpoints to force Pzb to guard his bases (best is a strongpoint for every base) and focus on flanking and cut off operations. A good method is:

Move a suitable force into a base hex. The force has to be strong enough to stay there, but you do not need to capture the base. Use some divisions from you wide line and start to flank the base. For every flanking hex move one unit into the besieged base to change the hexside to friendly. After that the exit is secure and you only need to take care of the surrounding hexes. But it still takes time to recapture a hexside for your opponent as you need to first controll the hex (which is impossible if you leave at least a small force there) and after that to move one of his units through the hexside. THis usually gives you enough time to respond if you encounter a problem (to weak protection force in the hex). If you need more information i can provide it to you. I have a massive problem in Burma currently as me and my opponent have both around 12 - 13k AV there (he might even be a little stronger than my forces). But with airpower and the denial of open hex and a good movement tactic you still can advance.

Have you considered to skip a push to Singapure and instead head SE to Vietnam ? You have a lot of potential lvl 9 bases and with some meds on naval attack you can cut off the supply path throuhg the chinese sea. You do not actually need to cap the oilfields if you can cut them off. Wont be as effective as capturing but still causes troubles for japan.

A push against Sumatra is a good move. But you cannot drop all your (20+ divisions) in burma as you lack the transportation. So use a few divisions (as much as you need) and do something useful with the remaining in burma.


I AM HAVING MAJOR SUPPLY ISSUES IN BURMA BUT A FLANKING ATTACK REMAINS ON THE CARDS - TO BE HONEST PZB HAS NOW COMMITTED SO MUCH FORCE TO STOP ME THAT I WILL THREATEN THE FLANK JUST TO TRY AND DEMONSTRATE THAT IT REMAINSA CREDIBLE THREAT AND TO STOP HIM FROM DIVERTING TROOPS TO MORE CRITICAL FRONTS AND I HAVE A CUNNING PLAN TO ACHIEVE THAT !!!!

SWPAC
Use your insinkable carriers to cause havoc. You should have so many 4E in the pool and active to easily have 500 in Burma and 500 in SWPAC. As you cannot use them in CENTPAC you can cause havoc there. Focus on the important islands, shut down the airfields and crawl forward to link up with your CENTPAC approach. If KB remains intact, to capture the Marians you need Kawieng. Without it and not total carrarier dominance (which you lack) it is close to impossible to cap the Marians. So move on and hammer him. Your B-29 can reach the Marinas from Kavieng with normal range and that will be the key to capture them even if KB is active.

I DO HAVE LOTS OF 4E BUT THEY AND ESPECIALLY SUPERFORTS EAT SUPPLY SO I NEED TO BE CAREFULL IN THEIR USE

CENTPAC
If you want try to open a path through the Gilbers/Marshals. My current path is Wake and 15 hex south of it. Usually that is enough as you can get a quite dense naval search network to protect against KB and if you place some fighters which provide leaky cap for you convoyes you do not need to completly cap every base. For me 5 Divisions and some BDEs where enough to create a secure corridor. So the rest of you forces can be used in SWPAC to focus for Rabaul/Kawieng area. Most important Base is Ponape. Focus on it, you need it as it is the only base withouth stacking limits in the area. It is much easier to assault the Marians from there.

VERY SIMILAR THOUGHTS THE ONLY QUESTION I AM DEBATING IS WHETHER TO GO FOR BAKER/CANTON BEFORE GOING INTO THE MARSHALLS - ANSWER PROBABLY YES BUT AM WATCHING SITUATION CAREFULLY

General
I currently work on the capture of the Marinas. They are heavily guarded (I expect 10k AV + distributed between the bases) with around 1000 planes on it. In addition in my game 5 Allied CVs where sunk before i took over the game. But it was careful with my CVEs and i have 48 of them (and additional 12 or so replacement ones). I think about reactivating my AAR just to provide a working way how to cap the Marinas against heavy defense, with KB alive and in full force. And i am shure that it is possible (but i still might fail). In 1944 your forces are the hammer, the islands are the forges and everything between it has to be crushed. That is the way how you need to act.

Another addition, attacking the phillipines without the marines and KB alive and some lost own carriers can be quite a pita as the Marinans will always threaten your flank and are a save spot for KB. So consider taking it, whatever the opposition is.