RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A)

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 10:21:29 AM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Ship losses in July

Japanese aviation finally sank everything in Pearl Harbor...

Check of various unoccupied bases in Philippines revealed two more American subs stuck there. They did not try to escape and were sank by bombers. I don't know what this was, but AS Otis was found escaping through the Pacific towards the Western Coast. (And unfortunately, not sunk, despite a surface intercept.) Maybe Yubari tried to operate them from there...
With at least one other USN boat sank by mines at Banjoewangi (eastern tip of Java) and losses at Pearl Harbor, Allies lost at least eight subs this month.

Also is notable reported loss of a DD at Fiji. My ships weren't anywhere close at the moment...

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 10:31:07 AM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Detailed Air Losses

Due to intensive air operations and resulting operational/flak losses, the gap in lost planes is hardly closing. Also, intense air battles over Andamans once again practically emptied my Oscar pool, forcing me to downgrade a Sentai at Hawaii. My fighter pilot situation also is not as good as I thought, with only about 50 trained Army pilots in the pool. Losses added up far faster than I believed... About 120 more pilots are about to finish training, but it is good that we finally have Ki-44 available. I hope with proper tactics it will be able to dominate at least Hurricanes.

I wonder how many planes Allies have left, though. I hope that after the last battles USAAF is short on Warhawks and Airacobras. Certainly my pilots have shot down more of them than Allies get as replacements, so at least some units should be underarmed...

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 10:39:13 AM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Pilot Losses

Over 150 more since the last month... I hoped losses will be more tame after the Allied fleet is beaten, but the Andamans campaign continues to take its toll.

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Post #: 393

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 11:18:50 AM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Air Production

Ki-44 is now ready to roll from the production lines. I've switched the Nate plant (which used up all the available engines by now) and two small Ki-43 plants to making Tojos, with the aim of making 140 planes/month. The big Ki-43 plant will keep producing 70 Ki-43-Ic per month. It will be expanded after newer versions of Ki-43 is available (and the land-based Zeros line switches to Mitsubishi Ha-33 engines). Starting from Ki-43-IIa, they carry 2x250kg bombs, and Ki-43-IIb also gets armor. This, combined with the long range and low service rating, makes them the most useful Japanese fighter-bombers (in function, if not in designation) and (later) kamikaze planes, that can be produced in the middle of the war. As I mentioned before, I plan to use Army fighter squadrons for low-level naval attacks once Japan is forced into defense, and Ki-43 is the only plane that can do the job. Sure they don't have much guns, but these seem to be practically ineffective against ground and naval targets anyway.
Also, I want to test if Ki-43 will be more effective against high-altitude Allied planes, like Lightnings, than Ki-44. Both of them are going to get bounced, but Ki-43 has much greater MVR, and, for quite a long period, is tougher, so I believe its survival rate against stratosphere sweeps should be greater. And 2x7.7 MGs don't make much difference against armored planes. Of course, this is still a choice between bad and worse options, and Lightnings/Thunderbolts are likely to give much better than they get against both types (particularly as my opponents seem to stuff all the aces their can into squadrons flying their new planes), but every improvement in the rate of attrition will help.
Well, and as about Ki-45, which, as you can see, are produced at a decent rate, these I use primarily as nightfighters (dividing 13th Sentai into smaller groups). They aren't good enough to contend with Allied fighters but during the night, when bombers get alot more chances to shoot than intercepting fighters, their armor and toughness is most useful.
Unrestricted 5th Sentai in the Home Islands also can upgrade to Ki-45, and I'll move it out, probably to Southern Pacific, once its pilots are sufficiently trained.

On the naval side, the slight surplus of Nakajima Ha-35 engines formed now will allow me to make more A6M3b fighters. This mod-introduces model proved itself so far. Well, of course IJNAF fighter units don't fly the most dangerous and bloody missions, those are relegated to IJAAF, but still A6M3b's kill-to-loss ratio is excellent.

I also should note, that since Bigred took over and Allies abandoned their old air tactics, my bomber pools started to climb. Now I can even continue upgrading units that have used second-line planes so far.

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Post #: 394

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 11:29:20 AM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Air Research

Many changes here. I've stopped research of planes that had no hope of accelerating and expanded research facilities quite significantly.

One thing that must be noted, as I missed it until recently: Ki-84a upgrades to Ki-84r, instead of Ki-84b. The latter must be researched separately. Well, dang. I wanted Ki-84b most of all.

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< Message edited by FatR -- 1/11/2011 11:35:29 AM >

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Post #: 395

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 11:31:36 AM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Industry

Fuel/Oil Situation: Sucks. I'm down from 7m tons to less than 5m and the levels still decrease. As a mitigation measure, I'll try to keep my battleships docked as much as possible. I recon they are premier gas-guzzlers of the Navy. Unfortunately, unless I want to completely shut down offensive operations, carriers, cruisers and so on still must move around. Hopefully the remaining stockpile will keep the Combined Fleet from the strict economy operational regime until the end of 1942.

Supply levels are finally on a steady rise, though. This is a relief.

Home Islands have enough oil for 170 days, enough fuel for 60 days and enough resources for 42 days. Well, this is bad. I need to pull resources more actively, particularly from Sakhalin, where about 1.5m tons of them has piled up despite my efforts. Although with the new conquests in China the situation is going to improve. I'll probably abandon moving resources from Ocean/Nauru now, to avoid fuel burn.

Vehicles&Armament: Even at 200 vehicles/month I can't create a stockpile. Kwangtung army moving to battle ate through my reserves in a few days. A couple of units now arrived understrength, thankfully mostly tank regiments, which aren't needed at the moment and can be now released cheaply to fill out for future battles.
Armaments level are increasing nicely. I think I'll shut down armaments entirely once I have 100k.

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 11:42:25 AM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Other Stuff

Great Summer Destroyer Upgrade: Defeats inflicted upon the Allied fleet made possible withdrawing much of my destroyer force on all of the three main theatres (SWPac, Hawaii, Andamans) back to the port for upgrades. While destroyer upgrades that happen from 5/42 to 8/42 are valuable in stock as well, they are vital in Scen 70. Some destroyer classes that don't have DP guns at the start receive them in the process. Well, and as always, ASW capabilities go way up. Type 95 Mod-2 depth charges still suck, but not nearly as much. And certain classes get 4 DC racks after their upgrades.

At the same time, I'm converting all Minekaze DDs to APDs, as 8/42 Minekaze APD upgrade gives them good stuff, like 4 Mod-2 DC racks and radar, so they become solid escort ships. From APDs they also can be upgraded to Es in 1/43, which will make them even better in this role. Minekazes don't get decent ASW/AAA loadout on their DD upgrade path until well into 1944, and by that point I will have much superior escort ships. I lost only 10 DDs so far, so I've no shortage of surface combatants, and Minekazes both aren't good in this role to begin with, and lose some of their guns on the DD upgrade path as well.
As about their APD fuction, it is not very useful at the moment, particularly as they lift few supplies. It probably will become more vital later in the war, but with skipbombing allowed for everything they won't be that much more able to survive Allied aviation, compared to normal transports. I'm placing more hopes on transport aviation as the way to resupply isolated garrizons.

EDIT: Just found that the APD upgrade path for Minekazes closes on 8/42! Four of them, that were out of port in the end of July, now are stuck as DDs. Well, that was rather unexpected...

Carrier Squadrons: I'm currently resizing carrier squadrons, increasing number of Zeros at the expense of attack planes (Vals, if a carrier has both types). As Japanese now have radar as well, a more defensive strategy is practical. Never mind that for the next year the main task for carrier squadrons likely will be protection from Allied LBA. On the Big Six 2/5th of the aircraft capacity now will be taken by fighters, on Junyos 1/2 and on light carriers about 2/3.

< Message edited by FatR -- 1/11/2011 8:00:25 PM >

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Post #: 397

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 12:08:33 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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Heroes of the Empire

A tough call again, because my successes this month were mostly thanks to the superior force.

47 I.F. Chutai probably should be mentioned for preserving nine of their Tojos until now. It also is a home for IJAAF's first ace (who achieved this status in battles against Flying Fortresses, no less).

Ichiki Detachment gets the award for being the only infantry unit to take practically no losses on Trinkat. Ironic, compared to its RL fate, but that's the war where Japan pulled a reverse Midway for you.

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 6:42:26 PM

Igel

Posts: 37
Joined: 8/13/2010
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Fantastic Aar Fatr, congratulations. Things are going on in your campaign. I usually don�t post but I couldn�t avoid seeing your numbers in researching planes ........ you like "round numbers", like me

Regards and keep it up.

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Post #: 399

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/13/2011 3:19:59 AM

John 3rd

Posts: 17178
Joined: 9/8/2005
From: La Salle, Colorado
Status: offline

Hey Stanislav.

Just read the last two pages of the AAR and I cannot believe the differences in our two campaigns. Lew and I are moving into mid-July 1942 and my air losses are drastically lower and I have a clear 3-3.5 to 1 over the Allies in A-t-A.

As to your comments above:
1. I like the Minekaze's shifting to APD and then E as well. Quite useful.
2. Already have researched all my Tojo's (July 6th) to produce about 190 of them a month and am hoping to get lucky for bringing them in a month early (August).
3. Really LIKE the A6M3b! Did you or BK come up with that variant? Nice plane.

Questions:
1. What have you thought of getting the Agano's and all those DDs in April-August? Seems like a new warship is hitting the waves ready-for-action about every 10 days or so.
2. I've got Musashi coming on October 31st. Are you completing her?
3. What about the two new CAs and pair of BCs?

If you spoken about these topics and I missed it--sorry!

_____________________________

Member: Treaty, Reluctant Admiral and Between the Storms Mod Team.

Reluctant Admiral Mod:
https://sites.google.com/site/reluctantadmiral/

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Post #: 400

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/13/2011 3:57:29 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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Both operational situation and tactics have a huge infuence on air losses. At the moment I'm steadily outperforming Allies in A2A, but flak and operational losses from my ongoing bombing campaigns eat all the difference. And A6M3b was a collective idea.

As about your questions, I noted before that Aganos seem to be very useful. Instead of second-class cruisers (and meduiocre by that standard), they are now first-class cruisers, and not even the weakest ones. By first-class cruisers I mean those that are de-facto on CA level (Aganos of course have weaker batteries than nearly all CAs, except a few British ones, but carry Long Lances).
Destroyers, haven't noticed much difference with their replacements. Three more will arrive in the second half of August, then again just a trickle until another small wave in 3/43. Are you playing with variable reinforcements?
I'm buiding everything, save for some subs. Not because I don't like subs, even though Japanese sub fleet clearly has a quite early expiration date (the last month I've suffered 1 sub sunk and 2-3 crippled, all in deep water against no meaningful air ASW), but because they are ungodly point-expensive for their role. So, I'm not building operationally useless Type KS, and shutting down some of the other smaller subs as necessary to keep my balance positive.

I need to visit Scen 70 thread again, once I get more time... unfortunately at the moment I again have too many RL problems to get immersed in modding again.

< Message edited by FatR -- 1/13/2011 3:58:01 PM >

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Post #: 401

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/14/2011 1:34:11 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

August 1-7, 1942

China - Stragegic Air Attacks: I'm disappointed with those. Firebombing of Changsha with about 180 planes produced no results and directed attacks on industry take about 3-4 days of the effort by the same bomber force to reduce a small factory. Still, I'm preparing to attack Chinese heartland from Sian. Judging by recent engagements, Chinese finally feel general shortage of supplies, so I don't expect non-
Chinese Allied squadrons to move there and contest.
I forgot to take a map screenshot, so I'll outline my current offensive plans for China a bit later.

Andamans - Torpedo Lanes: Besides ships mentioned previously, Allied subs managed to sink DD Usugumo and damage two xAKs over these days. One of them was hit not at Andamans, at Adak Island, during unloading of reinforcements, and is in danger due to fires.

My subs, in return sink about one xAK every two days in Andamans. Among others, I-155 bagged the third one in her career. As CL Dauntless also was her victim, this gives I-155 the biggest victory list in Japanese sub fleet so far. I wonder why Bigred is so insistent on sending unescorted xAKs in these sub-infested waters. Probably he correctly thinks that Allies have more of these than they need anyway, but still, it's a waste.

7th of August, Naval Battle of Little Andaman: Bigred is again busy pulling convoys to Andamans (I'm almost tempted to bring out carriers again and camp them in the gap between Andamans and Ceilon, except I believe Andamans are already too well-supplied and the assault on Port Blair will be won by sheer force, and more importantly, a continued effort might cost Allies more in the long run), so Admiral Tanaka tried to pay Little Andaman a visit for two days in a row. On 6th neither side even saw each other, but on 7th my flotilla ran into a more numerous Allied one:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Little Andaman at 44,59, Range 2,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
CA Tone, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1
CA Kumano
DD Yukikaze
DD Michishio
DD Asagumo
DD Hibiki, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Inazuma
DD Yugiri

Allied Ships
BB Royal Sovereign, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1
CA Cornwall
CL Enterprise
CL Capetown, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Smith, Shell hits 1
DD Preston
DD Parrott, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Scout, Shell hits 1
DD Electra, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DMS Dorsey

Low visibility due to Thunderstorms with 21% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 21% moonlight: 2,000 yards
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 11,000 yards
Range closes to 8,000 yards...
Range closes to 6,000 yards...
Range closes to 4,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 4,000 yards
Range closes to 2,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 2,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 2,000 yards
Tanaka, Raizo crosses the 'T'
CA Tone engages BB Royal Sovereign at 2,000 yards
BB Royal Sovereign engages CA Tone at 2,000 yards

As you see, the conditions were ripe for another Long Lance massacre, even though the Allied radar spoiled the surprise, but, alas one of two torpedoes that hit Royal Sovereign in the first salvo was a dud, so she appeared to keep decent combat speed and wasn't dogpiled. Also, Japanese destroyers concentrated on their Allied counterparts and pounded Electra into oblivion with enough hits to sink a cruiser, but did not even touch larger ships. Hibiki and Parrott exchanged hits with each other with mutual success. The taskforces lost each other after two gunnery rounds, which probably was for the best. Overall, this is a marginal Japanese victory, at least if Tone avoids subs on the way back, but Allies managed to protect their convoys. Another CA is going to need a month in the Singapore shipyard:

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/14/2011 2:03:31 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Research Note

Ki-44-IIb advanced to 43/6 on August 7, less than a month after I switched research facilities to it (on July 11th). As I have exactly 100 factories researching Ki-44s, this means, that producing 100 points of research is not necessary to accelerate a plane. There is clearly a chance of acceleration with accumulation of points, and hopefully further observation of this project will allow us to confirm, whether acceleration happens automatically, once 100 research points are accumulated.

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Post #: 403

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/14/2011 8:48:42 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

August 8, 1942

Tone got to Georgetown safely. Allies seem to be trying to sneak more stuff to Andamans, but unfortunately I forgot to send another squadron into position to replace damaged ships. Hopefully the next turn I'll be ready to stage more surface attacks.

Night attacks on warships seem to be practically ineffective, whether by Allied divebombers or my Sallies.

If anyone wonders, why I'm not trying to knock out Allied CAP, I've waited until Trinkat develops enough to launch massed sweeps from there (now it is level 4, so about time). Also, I want good weather prediction for the day, so that all sweepers take off.

Also, not converting the Nate plant to Ki-44-IIa ahead of time was a big mistake. It would have partially repaired by the moment of its availability, and started cranking out planes right away. Now I won't have enough Shokis to thrown them into an air offensive until the end of August.

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Post #: 404

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/15/2011 1:34:50 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Big Push

So, plans for the Chinese offensive - arrows for the intended advances, lines for the likely defensive fronts. As you can see, my field forces (not counting those I'll be force to leave as garrizons - those are excluded from AV calculations), form three general groups. And unfortunately, the direction of my intended push is currently occupied by weakest of them. I plan to use the central group to threaten Changsha, hopefully tie Chinese forces there and destroy some of them, as long as Bigred continue to fail massing his troops. The southern group should start doing cleanup and preparing positions for the big push towards the westen part of Chinese main defensive position across the railroad, which will happen once the northern group swings across China.

I do realize that this plan is logistically unsound and that Chinese will be able to reposition their forces swiftly in response to my ridiculously long flanking motion. It is even possible, that Chinese forces from the north will shift to the southern theatre before my main assault. I'll try to achieve operational surprise to the best of my ability, that's why the southern group will try to win as much land as possible before getting reinforces and that's why I'm devoting such large force to demonstration against Changha. Still, the perspectives don't look great. Unfortunately, every other direction of advance (Lanchow, Chinese heartland, Changsha) appears to be so heavily defended, that I can only hope to advance there if Chinese supplies totally run out. I do not want to gamble on this. Also, Chinese forces in my chosen sector are positioned very suboptimally. This might allow me to, at the very least, score some tactical victories, contributing to overall attrition of the Chinese army.

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/16/2011 8:22:55 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

August 9-10, 1942: Lion Against the Sun

August 9 saw Japanese subs doing in CL Raleigh in Andamans. First I-31 crippled her with a single hit, and then I-155 put three fatal torpedos into the damaged ship. This makes third Allied cruiser sunk by Japanese subs and the second by I-155. That subs shapes up to be the terror of the Indian Ocean.

Naval Battle of Southern Andamans

In the dark of the night Japanese tried to raid Little Andaman, while the Allied squadron they battled on 7th probably attempted to bombard Trinkat. As four taskforces that participated in the running battle clashed several times during night and day, I'll just post their force composition, total number of hits and final damage.

Division 1 (Tanaka's force, that did 90% of the fighting)
CA Takao, Shell hits 6, heavy fires (4 15in hits including 2 belt penetrations)
CA Suzuya, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Makigumo, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Yukikaze, Shell hits 1
DD Hagikaze
DD Asagumo, Shell hits 8, sunk!
DD Inazuma
DD Yugiri, Shell hits 1

Division 2 (Disgraces who failed to do much of anytning even when they caught the retreating Allied BB with just a single surviving DD for escort during the day)
CA Chikuma
CA Kumano
DD Yayoi, Shell hits 1
DD Fumizuki
DD Yakaze
DD Hokaze
DD Tachikaze
DD Nokaze, Shell hits 2, sunk! (Sniped by Royal Sovereign from 21k)

Allied Heavy Force
BB Royal Sovereign, Shell hits 38, Torpedo hits 1
CA Cornwall, Shell hits 18, Torpedo hits 1, sunk!
CL Enterprise, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, sunk!
DD Smith, Shell hits 3, heavy fires
DD Preston, Shell hits 18, sunk!
DD Parrott, Shell hits 2
DMS Dorsey, Shell hits 1, on fire

Allied Destroyers (Either these guys really ruined IJN's day by battling Division 1 before it ran into the heavy Allied force, or they saved Trinkat from bombardment by making Division 1 retreat and meet it at Trinkat).
DD Cummings
DD Cassin
DD Porter
DD Balch, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Clark
DD Van Galen
DD Norman

Also, a lone Allied AMc was found and sunk.

Takao really was the star of this battle once again, raining death on Allies from her main battery and accounting for 3 of 4 torpedo hits scored by Japanese ships. (DD Inazuma is responsible for the remaining one, that, however, started to turn the battle in my favor by dooming CL Enterprise.
However, my beaten up Division 1 tried to retreat to Georgetown after the battle, and on the way Takao was hit by a single torpedo from S-37. Miraculously, she remained afloat, but her condition is perilous to day the least:

Royal Sovereign really carried the battle on her shoulders for the Allies. I hoped it was crippled by the Long Lance hit on 7th, but nope. Unfortunately, my ships used up most of their torps on other targets today as well.

Air Battle of August 10th

My woes didn't end here, though, as I swept Little Andaman this day, leaving a minimal CAP at Trinkat. So when Dauntless came searching for my ships, they got through. 32 sorties per day wasn't enough for a true massacre, particularly as about half of them went after my destroyers, but both Chikuma and Kumano took one bomb each, with Chikuma suffering pretty serious damage. An AK from the convoy bringing supplies and an AA unit to Trinkat was hit too, but looks like the damage isn't fatal.

The day is still a Japanese victory, particularly if I manage to save Takao, as air combat's results were in my favor, but I'm rather worrried by the number of damaged ships at the moment! Together with destroyed upgrades this leaves me with just about two more combat-capable 8-ship TFs for the next 10 days, unless I want to send capital ships with weak escort into battle. Which I don't. The sub threat is too big

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< Message edited by FatR -- 1/16/2011 10:19:00 PM >

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Post #: 406

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/19/2011 9:09:25 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

August 11-14, 1942: Final Day and Aftermath of the Naval Battle of Southern Andamans

Bigred wasn't content me to get away with my victory, and on August 11 Allies returned to Trinkat with more ships. My force #2 fought poorly once again, as Tanaka's TF automatically retreated to Georgetown on the previous day and I wasn't able to simply transfer remaining undamaged ships to his command. Allies brushed aside my warships, hit an unloading convoy, sinking DD Fumizuki, two large AKs and damaging several ships (although most ships got away somehow), and then engaged my SCTF again:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Trinkat at 44,64, Range 1,000 Yards
Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
No Japanese losses

Japanese Ships
CA Kumano, Shell hits 26, and is sunk
CL Kuma, Shell hits 3
DD Yugiri
DD Yayoi
DD Okikaze
DD Akikaze
DD Yakaze
DD Hokaze, on fire

Allied Ships
BB Revenge, Shell hits 6
CA Exeter, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Stewart, Shell hits 1
DD Sands, Shell hits 1
DD Lawrence

Low visibility due to Thunderstorms with 0% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 0% moonlight: 2,000 yards
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
Range closes to 7,000 yards...
Range closes to 5,000 yards...
Range closes to 3,000 yards...
Range closes to 1,000 yards...
Willis, A.N. crosses the 'T'

Most of Japanese torpedoes went astray and Kumano got perforated by Revenge. Exeter got hit pretty hard in return (2 203mm penetrations in addition to the torpedo) and might be sunk. Still, a defeat.

This forced me to evacuate remnants of Japanese surface forces from Trinkat, allowing Allies to bombard the place from the sea on 12th. However, I moved away planes too, so only facilities got damaged by naval and air pounding. And damaged only non-critically. So on 13th, when Japanese fleet returned, I just flew the planes back. A few Dauntlesses tried to interfere with my ship movements and got wiped out by leaking CAP from Sabang.

Bad news, though, I was forced to move my battleships into the area, after all. I really hope no Allied subs gets too lucky. Fate of Royal Sovereign, hit and almost certainly sunk by I-5 on the way home, is not something I want for them. For now, Nagatos and Yamato are brought to the frontline, along with two remaining undamaged cruisers. Two Kongos are my last reserve in the theatre. I really do hope, that large Allied losses earlier and sight of Yamato will convince Bigred to give up for a time. And that USN doesn't have anything big to back RN with. I'm aware, that I mostly fought against second-rate ships until now. Subs spotted more of the same around the area, but no modern USN cruisers or USN battleships. My ships are stronger, but now, Allies can swamp them by numbers, if they'll bring everything and the kitchen sink, particularly as the Yamato bug left her with two shots in the forward battery for the entire rest of the war.

Of course, Allies don't have much time to do it. My shipyard at Singapore is very close, and all the majorly damaged surface combatants, except for Takao, which I'm afraid to move from the pier at Georgetown, are already there. I need to keep Allied fleet away just for a bit, before they'll start coming back.

This means that I need to hit Allied CAP harder to make air attacks on shipping around northern Andamans finally possible. First mass-production Tojos are already delivered to the theatre...

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Post #: 407

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/19/2011 9:57:47 PM

BigBadWolf

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Do you think that Tojo will make such a difference? I keep looking at those tiny guns and just can't imagine that plane having any significant effect... which is too bad ,as it other ways have nice stats.

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/19/2011 11:01:10 PM

FatR

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Well, it's not like I have other options. Ki-45 loses to second-generation Allied fighters and only works for bomber interception. Ki-61 has crippling range and service rating issues, never mind not being available yet.

In my experience, Ki-44-IIa performs significantly better than Ki-43-Ic overall. It can about match Hurricane IIc in a duel.
And Ki-44 line has a good pinnacle upgrade, which can be massively accelerated by the method of researching the earliest model, and switching the research facilities to every successive model in the line. Ki-44-IIc is the only good IJAAF fighter for late 1943 (when I intend to get it), 1944 and early 1945 that doesn't have a crippling service rating. Ki-100-Ia might be a sttong competitor for it in Scen 70 only (in stock it's a sluggish dog), but it is available much later, and it much harder to accelerate (the latter is also only true for Scen 70). Ki-43 only becomes competitive with the pinnacle model, which, in Scen 70, demands an engine switch. I'll build and research this line anyway, but not for contesting air superiority, as I elaborated above. Ki-84a/r have a crippling service rating, so you can't rely on them entirely. Ki-84b is available late and hard to accelerate, as no upgrades lead to it. Ki-61 line becomes obscolete by the time you get a plane with SR less than 3 and passable range in it (in RL, as I believe after looking at what people from j-aircraft.org have to say about it, Ki-61 had better range, totally not true in AE). I'll still build some just to see what they can do. Well, and in Scen 70 the pinnacle Ki-61 upgrade has 4x20mm armament, so it can be a worthwhile interceptor.
So, that's why I'm chosing Ki-44. The reasons are little different compared to stock, but Ki-44 line still appears to be the top choice for most of the war.

< Message edited by FatR -- 1/20/2011 12:24:55 AM >

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Post #: 409

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/20/2011 4:11:04 PM

BigBadWolf

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I see your point on Ki-44. Not really a matter of choice. As for Ki-61, I don't think I'll be producing any, let alone research it. The final model has a service rating of 4. there are better planes available with similar armament, although those cowling mounted 20mm guns look very attractive.

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/20/2011 5:17:30 PM

John 3rd

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My Scen 70 Army Fighter Choices:
1. I am about to get Mister Tojo II delivered in August 42 and, thanks to Michael, am already researching the heck out of the II-b to bring it in earlier.

2. Wasn't going to invest too heavily in Tony but it can be decent base defense fighter so I will be researching this line as you guys have described above.

3. Working to bring Mister Frank in as early as possible despite its bugs.

4. LOVE Ki-100 but it is SOOOOO far away...

Am in great shape to this point in the war and think I can do all this research without having to many issues. If I can keep the initiative for another 4-6 months things should be in pretty good shape.

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/20/2011 8:11:08 PM

crsutton

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I am about 600 turns into a hard fought campaign and can give you my Allied perspective on Japanese fighters. In 1942 the tojo has to be the fighter of choice. I am playing scen #2 and have seen scads of them. In spite of the lack of armor the tojo can handle any Allied first generation fighter. The only real opponent for it is the P40K warhawk which is not better but can keep pace due to it's top speed. The tojo will eat wildcats and hurricane IIs for lunch. These two planes are both slower and have poor climb rates. If they get caught in the endless dive circle you might see a 10-1 loss ratio. Problem is that by mid 1943 the tojo becomes more of a liability as the second generation fighters come on line. Speed kills and the tojo is not fast enough and has no armor. There is another reason why you should not put all your stock in the tojo-it is totally incapable of shooting down Allied heavies. However, the tony and Jack can shoot down bombers so you will need some of these. I don't think the tony is so great vs fighters though so you will need to rely on the tojo until the george and frank come on line. I have not seen many jacks yet but they seem to shoot down my bombers better than tojos. The service rating of both is a nightmare but who said it would be easy for Japan..

I don't see much value in the twin engine fighters. They really don't shoot down any more bombers than the tojo and any allied fighter can beat them.

I think the frank and george will be a problem for my bombers but don't think they will handle my faster fighters well. The problem with both of these planes are that they are both slower than the 2nd generation Allied planes and don't have the greatest climb rate either. Combine that with the 3 service rating and they will sort of be difficult to use-especially from forward bases where grounded fighters will most likely get pounded by Allied bombers. Your later war fighters look good on paper but won't match the performance edge that newer Allied fighters have. Some of the late 1944 and 45 Allied versions can climb like rocket ships, and next to speed I am beginning to think that climb is very important for a fighter in the game.

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Post #: 412

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/20/2011 8:21:18 PM

FatR

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About twin-engine fighters, Ki-45 is the only armored and cannon-armed IJAAF fighter for a long time. So, I'm using them to intercept bombers. Particularly at night, when fighters get shot up relatively easily. I hope Ki-102 will be useful as a bomber interceptor late in the war because of its big gun.

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/21/2011 9:28:50 PM

FatR

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Also, I fooled around with Downfall a bit. It's hard to make any conclusions, because AI air tactics are vastly suboptimal and different pilot skill levels in different squadrons skew the results, but I can say, Ki-61-Ib is certainly capable of shooting down Liberators in numbers, greater than can be explained by a fluke. By extension, Ki-44-IIc, which has the same armament, also should be. Now, they will never be particularly good at it (although I hope that better pilots will be able to exchange them for 4Es at better rate than 1:1 I observed for mediocre flyboys most Japanese units start with in Downfall), but no one said the life's gonna be easy.

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Post #: 414

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/22/2011 12:09:53 PM

FatR

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August 15-17, 1942

Heroic I-5: Apparently not satisfied with Royal Sovereign, she also sank damaged CA Exeter southeast of Ceilon. I hoped that Exeter was sunk already, but this way works too.
I feel that bigred really neglects ASW, by the way, with predictable results. Allied air ASW effort seem nonexistent, and escorts often are rather weak. I'll even say this to him.

More Torpedo Carnage: Old British battleships apparently escorted the next batch of transport to andamans. RO-67 hit Resolution with two torpedoes, and night-flying Kates put one into Valiant. Unfortunately, Japanese battleships, visiting Little Andaman on 17th, failed to engage. Otherwise, I believe, a big victory would have been possible, considering better ships and damage to the enemy. Well, at least this will weaken RN further. Nagatos also bombarded Little Andaman on 15th (expending only about 2/3rds of the main gun ammo), but failed to produce results.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Betties and Emilies, now flying from Adak Island, obliterated a small Allied convoy in Aleutians, sinking two Liberty transports. I wonder, though, what my unit exactly provides torpedoes on Adak. I sure have no Air HQ there (only a fleet HQ).

Air Battle to the Bitter End: I've hit Little Andaman with sweeps on 16th and 17th. 16th was a big victory for Japanese, and 17th a big defeat, despite theoretically fresher pilots (I rotate attacking sentais). It seems, that the key for victory is to send Zeros at 15k and Oscars at high altitude, because that's what I did on 16th. Zeros, with their much higher cruise speed likely will arrive first and draw the defenders down, and then Oscars will jump them, and will keep the bounce for a long time, instead of a few passes, racking alot of kills. Infortunately, this means sacrificing my relatively precious IJNAF pilots...

Meanwhile, Allied bombers are striking back, damaging some ships at Georgetown and trying to bomb Trinkat airfield. Bigred send Dutch medium bombers there on 17th, and they died quite horribly, but Flying Fortresses are having reasonable success at killing my planes in the air an on the ground - now they are much harder to take down than they were early in the war, even when flying in small numbers, probably due to increase in pilots' skills. Good thing, that my opponent does not concentrate all of his heavies against a single schwerpunkt. This keeps them an annoyance, instead of "Shutdown Airfield" button.

Japanes flak also gradually becomes more effective, as more guns are concentrated on Trinkat and particularly in Magwe. Even though 75-mm Japanese AA guns are weak, 48 of them in one hex (plus a bunch of 20mms from machinegun companies, but those don't reach Allied bombers now flying at medium altitudes) can take down bombers semi-reliably.

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Post #: 415

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/22/2011 10:52:03 PM

BigBadWolf

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Can you define "semi-reliably" a bit closer, please? We don't get to hear nice things about Japanese AA gunners very often

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/22/2011 11:15:40 PM

FatR

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The best result was flak at Magwe shooting down 2 Liberators out of about 9. At Trinkat Allies lose a bomber to flak about every second raid lately.

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/28/2011 12:36:50 AM

FatR

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Was a bit too busy actually making turns, as well as with that pesky real life stuff...

August 18-25, 1942

Air Verdun: For a whole week straight until 23th Japanese aviation swept Little Andaman day after day. Losses are appaling, on average 30 planes and 17 pilots/day. Planes-wise, Allies lost about as much. Once the resistance started to weaken, I tried to send bombers, but they can't fly from Trinkat, which is rather effectively bombed by 4Es in return (my fighters fail against them systematically now), as to avoid overstacking, and constant bad weather made coordination problematic. Twice I had sweepers at Trinkat fail to take off before bombers at Victoria Point, with obviously grim consequences.
Repeated naval airfield bombardments failed for no discernible reason. Battleships just fired at troops instead. I lost two DDs to mines and subs and the process.
Yet, it seems, that Allied fighter force is finally giving way. I encountered only around 20 planes in the air over the last two days, and managed to press a bomber attack with tolerable losses, killing some heavies on the ground. I can only hope I'm not deluding myself. It is very possible, that bigred just pulled back temporarily, as recon demonstrates quite significant fighter presence around Burma.

Happy Christmas Island! Happy indeed - as KB-2 moved south covering the Christmas Island invasion force from Lahaina (4th and 48th Divisions), it detected an Allied troop convoy and toasted it, destroying hundreds of engineer squads and vehiclies.

Battle for Port Hedland: Bigred recently moved two mechanized units there and bombarded from air and sea, damaging the base quite heavily. I have a 9-plane Zero detachment on the defence, and it scored well indeed against Allied Hudsons and Beaufighters. Not so well against 4Es, but detachment of precious 4Es to this backwater at the critical time is good by itself. I also flew in a small Sally unit and it bombarded Allied mechanized infantry with some success until 4Es and cruisers hit the airfield. On the ground, my troops are repelling Allied attacks without much problems, but I don't like that Allies take about equal losses even on failed assaults.

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Post #: 418

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/29/2011 1:28:38 PM

FatR

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Price of victories - the shipyard at Singapore is busy to say the least (my decision to upgrade some ships, primarily Soryu, did not help).

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Post #: 419

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/30/2011 10:28:30 PM

FatR

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August 26-27, 1942

Christmas Island Invasion Canceled: Aerial recon found as much as 26 units there. There is no way I can dislodge this force without putting my everything into assault. Certainly not with just two divisions. So, unfortunately, the invasion fleet has to turn back.

KB-2 continued zapping scattering Allied convoy over these two days, and launched a Kate-only port strike on 27th, with rather disapponting results. Attack planes took just a few ops losses, but over a dozen Zeros were lost in combat with P-40 from Christmas Island.

Overall headcount: AVP 1, AM 2-3, YP 1, YMS 1, SC 1, xAK 8, non-combat squads, vehicles and guns - a metric ton. Well, at least this makes the whole voyage somewhat worthwhile.

Sub Wars: Bigred is clearly improving his ASW techniques. I no longer get a lot of free shots at Allied merchants.

Meanwhile, Allied subs are stinging me more and more. Over the last week, I lost two merchants (including a troop-laden AK in Malacca Straight) and a CM to their depredations, besides a DD finished after ramming a mine. A PB was damaged.

Yet this battle is not one-sided. I-5 finished her glorious patrol into the Indian Ocean by sinking DD Nizam near Colombo on 27th. Also, a large fuel-laden xAK was sunk next to San Francisco.

Air Verdun Revisited: Continual bad weather really, really helps Allies at this time. This time my massed bombers refused to fly and plaster the airfield at Little Andaman on 27th, despite having a great opportunity to demolish more planes on the ground. The battle of attrition continues, but unless I can push my bombers through and make Allied airfield untenable real soon, sheer weight of reinforcements they get from the next month will stop my air offensive.

Meanwhile, Flying Fortresses visited Georgetown again and achieved their first clear success, sinking old DD Yugao at the pier. I have Zuiho's airgroup flying CAP there, but for some reason very few fighters scrambled to meet the attack. Nigh-unstoppable 4E raids is another reason I must proceed with airfield bombing.

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