Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: dekwik

much as I applaud GJ for an excellent AAR and a tremendous and audacious move, he is about the only person in the forum who seems to have anything good to say about Rader.

Now Rader may not be prolific on the AAR front, but he is a good half of the equation in this great conflict, and I think the fat lady isn't close to singing yet. Ultimately of course, Japan goes down in flames, but every JFB knows that. It's just when and how.

Of course there's plenty of fodder for "coulda woulda shoulda." But if GJ had been an experienced player (instead of a fast learning newb) Rader's swift China supression and India invasion and HI harvesting, combined with opposition to allied production in the only area he can compete (airframes) would have been applauded as a strategic master piece. Up there on a pedestal with PZB's AAR (admittedly in vanilla AE and not 2)

I can't understand the criticism that Rader is only a tactical player. The opposite seems true. His strategy seems to be well thought out and consistently executed. If anything I would say his tactics (over commitment of units in certain theaters, under commited in others, staying too long and strong in India, over aggression in some circumstances) are sometimes a bit short.

In any case hats ofF to GJ. But let's not sell Rader short.

quote:

Rader just remined my of our HR about Strat Bombing... it must be <20,000 ft...

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

crsutton's tongue in cheek post reminds me of a British officer captured by the Afrika Corps who was shown the 88mm gun that knocked out his tank:

"You can't shoot a tank with an anti-aircraft gun! It isn't Cricket!"

quote:

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

quote:

Rader just remined my of our HR about Strat Bombing... it must be <20,000 ft...

Woops, read that wrong. Above 20k, for the whole game? Looks like someone got beaten up by Strategic bombing in his last game. That's not a house rule, that's a pre-nup!

quote:

ORIGINAL: Nemo121

3. I presume your HRs limit strategic bombing to greater than 20,000 feet. There are two ploys here which would have significant benefit:
a) Examination of your HRs to check whether this also applies to dive-bombers etc? Even if it does the simple maths of numbers of torpedo and dive-bombers dropping bombs would help thicken any strategic bombing offensive. If the factories are in range I wouldn't be picky about whether I hit them with four-engined, twin-engined or single-engined bombers.

4. Right now his critical weakness is his ability to continue producing fighters. Assuming an HI and engine bank the best way to reduce fighter production is to hit his fighter airframe factories. Once he runs out of fighters his ability to defend against additional raids will disappear and you can strat bomb at will.

So, right now HI bombing etc etc won't achieve strategically decisive results ( giving you freedom of action in terms of strategic bombing and bringing in resupply to the Kuriles ) nearly as quickly as going after fighter airframe production. That should be your focus ( + only as many airfield strikes as necessary to attrit airframes and keep your losses down ).


If you do it right he shouldn't be able to produce more than 100 fighters a month in 1 to 2 months time and his collapse will quickly follow. His divisions from India are meaningless if all the ships carrying them are sunk for lack of CAP, as is KB etc etc.

Right now GJ you can have this game last if you lose focus. If you don't then, really, 1 to 2 months should see it done. 1 month with laser-like focus, 2 months if you get a little distracted.

quote:

ORIGINAL: princep01

Greyjoy (you are no longer, Reek), I am not a "nay-sayer" as that term was used by CR earlier, but I am still awaiting the landing of the other shoe before bestowing knighthood on you. Specifically, the show lands when Rader conducts his first, and probably strongest sustained counterattack on your positions. We shall see. I have no experience with kamikazes and an Allied invasion of this magnitude, but I have observed a certain submarine captain's Downfall game enough to know that things will likely get "Extremely Hairy in a Hurry". To what end? I do not know. But, this I do know. It is going to be grandly fun to watch.

Now, a question: Your landings have all the ear marks of being developed using Deep Battle doctrine. A certain submarine captain with a very "friendly" face is someone whom has commented extensively on Deep Battle doctrine. A question: Did the sea kraken consult heavily with that certain submarine captain in formulating this plan? No points off from you if the answer is affirmative. You executed your plan well and get all the credit for a job well done. However, was this plan formulated by you or dually conceived by the captain and you?

The world wonders?

princepBolton (man, I am glad you are on my side:)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

Notice the op mode negative modifier on the attack above. Methinks he was strying to strat move the 77th Division south.

Cheers,
CC

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I've already expressed at length my feelings about GJ's performance here - stunning and magnificent.

Surely, there are a few folks out there that think all the glowing congratulations are premature, that rader is going to thrash GJ?  I can just imagine a few folks popping up after rader sinks the entire Allied fleet, downs all aircraft, and boots out the whole Allied army, to say:  "Well, I knew this was going to happen.  All you people congratulating GJ were very premature.  I knew all along this was an exercise in futility."

If any naysayers out there feel that way, I would love to hear them speak up now.  Come on, put your cards on the table where we can see them!

Nah! There can't be any such sentiment out there.  No matter what happens at this point, GJ has achieved victory by achieving total strategic suprirse that let him accomplish what had to be accomplished for him to ultimately prevail.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Nemo121

In terms of this game:

2. Rader is unlikely to be able to counter-invade. He would need to suppress the multiple Allied airfields in order to get xAPs and xAKs into place and would suffer heavily in so doing. His better option is simply to flood across the straits from mainland Japan to Hokkaido using Barges. He could easily move a division a day ( minus heavy artillery ) with sufficient barges. I have done that in some of my games. DD raids into those waters would be sufficient to prevent much of this - albeit that there would be a cost in DDs hitting mines.

quote:

3. I presume your HRs limit strategic bombing to greater than 20,000 feet. There are two ploys here which would have significant benefit:
a) Examination of your HRs to check whether this also applies to dive-bombers etc? Even if it does the simple maths of numbers of torpedo and dive-bombers dropping bombs would help thicken any strategic bombing offensive. If the factories are in range I wouldn't be picky about whether I hit them with four-engined, twin-engined or single-engined bombers.

b) there may be some benefit in hitting 3 airfields one day, closing them all, forcing him to split his LRCAP between all three ( plus the significant fighter losses on the ground ) and then bombing his fighter factories at one of those bases the next day.

quote:

4. Right now his critical weakness is his ability to continue producing fighters. Assuming an HI and engine bank the best way to reduce fighter production is to hit his fighter airframe factories. Once he runs out of fighters his ability to defend against additional raids will disappear and you can strat bomb at will.

So, right now HI bombing etc etc won't achieve strategically decisive results ( giving you freedom of action in terms of strategic bombing and bringing in resupply to the Kuriles ) nearly as quickly as going after fighter airframe production. That should be your focus ( + only as many airfield strikes as necessary to attrit airframes and keep your losses down ).


If you do it right he shouldn't be able to produce more than 100 fighters a month in 1 to 2 months time and his collapse will quickly follow. His divisions from India are meaningless if all the ships carrying them are sunk for lack of CAP, as is KB etc etc.

Right now GJ you can have this game last if you lose focus. If you don't then, really, 1 to 2 months should see it done. 1 month with laser-like focus, 2 months if you get a little distracted.

quote:

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Yep Rader has fought an excellent campaign. Total command of industry, resources and production. I think he just got caught napping here. (Well, dead drunk in the gutter more than napping ) But we are all capable of this kind of error. He underestimated his opponent. But he is not the only one following this thread who did. Including me. Victory disease.....

quote:

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

No Obvert, thanks, but i'm far from being a master of anything. I learnt a lot, true, but a single positive operation in the bag doesn't make you a master...maybe a decent player, and that's all for the moment.

On the contraty i'm proud of being the author of the 3rd most viewed AAR in the history of this forum

quote:

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

1st April 1944 situation

<snip the picture>

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ORIGINAL: beppi

quote:

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

1st April 1944 situation

<snip the picture>

Ok some assumptions from me. The yellow dots are good targets as you already know. Might be little bit hard to take cause they need preparation but if the bases are taken you completed your harbor north of Hokkaido which makes everything easier including a safe line of approach to bring in reinforcements and supply/fuel.

Regarding to the situation on Hokkaido:

What does the blocking position of Reder tell me?

1.) He does not want to give up Hokkaido, so he expects to do something there. There is not majort advantage of controlling the southern part of Hokkaido with one exception as you already control multiple potential lvl 9 bases there which are more than sufficient to do strat bombing in Japan. The exception is that Reder might plan to dump a huge number of divisions which he is currently bringing from all the controlled Japanese area back to the homeland.

2.) As Nemo already pointed out, as long as he can keep the line between Omitano and Hokkodate open he can transport large number of divisions to Hokkaido with barges. With the number of Nemo (1 division each turn) this is quite fast. Major blocking situation right now is that i do not think that he currently has enough troops in Japan to shift them. So he needs to bring them back first and then barge transport them to Hokkaido. I would expect him to do so but you have still a few weeks time.

3.) The blocking point itself tells something about Reader too. He fears the power of your air force. If you remember his threads and his problems with 4E (especially B-29) nuking his troops in the open the current hex with the main troops from him is the best first choke point 1 hex wide. In addition it is a forrest hex, so no open 4E/2E ground bonus and air attacks are a little bit weaker than in open terrain.
If he would have created a 2Hex defense position (Sapporo and the Base sw of it) at least Sapporo would be a open hex but he would gain a bonus of being able to build forts quite high (question is if he has the time). Usually such a defense position is not bad even if it is 2 Hex wide. He would have a road between the base and you would have to move through open terrain. With the ability to quickly shift troops along the road it is usually quite easy to even defend 2 bases as whenever the attack tries to shift troops to cap one of the bases the defender can move his troops to counter that much quicker.

Push on until you reach his choke point. Use a army large enough to not get kicked out of the hex when you approach and isolate all other approaches to the hex. You can use some small units to approach the choke point hex from the SE and the NE (if NE is moveable) and just change the hexside control to allied. If all 3 exits (NE,SE and E) are allied you can contain him there with a number of troops which is large enough to not getting kicked out (it might be necessary to continually reinforce your troops there as Reader might bring more and more troops) . Then you can either push him out and back to Hokkodate or at least use your air assets (2E do a good job for that, 4E are deadly too if you do not use them in stratbombing) to grind his stacks down with air attacks. That means more or less to move your perimeter into the hex he currently controls. It think it would be easier to defend there.

The ground situation is quite good right now, only threat i see is a massive reinforcement to Hokkaido with 15+ divisions. If you can stop that you have a nice and safe position there from a ground war point of view.

quote:

I never strat bombed in my whole gaming life, so it will take some attempts before i can master the whole situation.