Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Nemo121

GJ,

With your invasion I advised total focus on the strategically decisive aspect/goal ( getting airfields for 4-engined bombers in Hokkaido ). You maintained focus and got a major victory. Once that was done though you began dissipating your effort, committing forces to tasks they were unsuited for etc etc. In short you are losing focus and gifting Rader time he shouldn't be getting and a much easier defensive problem.

Its a simple question: Is your priority clearing Hokkaido or beginning strategic bombing?

If it is clearing Hokkaido then you commit everything to that goal for a week and you should have no problem reducing the Japanese divisions at Hakodate to nothing in that time. If it is strategic bombing then you need to ask yourself what your objectives are.

You are firebombing AND bombing engines AND bombing airframe factories. This is terribly wasteful. Think of it this way: If you hit the aircraft engine factory for Ki-44IIcs AND the airframe factory and cause 5 points of damage to each you prevent 5 planes being built per month. If you, instead, hit just the airframe factory then you would get 10 hits and stop 10 planes being built per month.

You are finding your results from strategic bombing poor because you aren't doing it as well as you could. I, personally, believe a HR of 20,000 feet for strategic bombing is very reasonable in terms of getting reasonable results ( based on a lot of experience playing both sides in '45 ) but if you dissipate your efforts then, yes, you'll not achieve very much.

Your big problem right now is his ability to CAP bases so you need to be killing fighters. SWEEP his bases with your fighters, LRCAP bases you are going to bomb and then send the 4-engined bombers in to bomb his AIRFRAME factories. All of this nonsense of starting fires, hitting R&D factories ( your problem isn't hypothetical planes, but planes he is actually building ) and hitting engine factories is simply dividing your effort such that you are getting perhaps 1/4 of the return you should be getting given the forces committed. To be clear though this is because YOU are commiting your forces poorly.


In the same way as you had to have ONE FOCUS for the recent operation ( get bomber fields on Hokkaido operational to strat bomb Japan ) you now have to have ONE FOCUS for your strategic bombing campaign - I have suggested previously that this should be fighters since thats what you are having trouble with.

Continue to dissipate your efforts and you will continue to find this much, much tougher than it should be. You are the reason your strategic bombing offensive isn't having significant effects because you have been misallocating your resources.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Nemo121

As re: Hakodate.
Do you really want to take it? It serves as a useful distraction for Rader, encourages piecemeal committment of forces and allows attrition on terms entirely favourable to US ground forces. The longer it survives to be grinded down the more forces will be trapped there when it eventually collapses - forces which would, otherwise, be fortifying Honshu.

Think of this strategically. Does taking it gain you more than allowing it to stalemate for a while? In my Downfall AAR I trapped about 1500 US AV in Okinawa but chose not to push them into the sea, using them as a lure to force the USN into action in an effort to relieve them. When the USN was committed to action to clear the sealanes to Okinawa I ended up destroying an additional 6 US Divisions ( double what was on Okinawa ), 10 CVEs, 4 or 5 BBs and 2 or 3 CVs as well as dozens of other ships and several thousand USN planes. So, taking a place isn't always the smart thing to do. Sometimes leaving it in someone else's hands can help guide them into a huge strategic mistake.


Bottom line though: You've lost focus again and while that might make for a good AAR in which lots of people talk up the "titanic struggle" etc etc etc it isn't actually best play.

quote:

ORIGINAL: aoffen

It has taken me 3 weeks but I have now read this AAR from page 1 to page 137. All I can say is WOW what a journey!! Absolutely gripping stuff and well done to GJ and all for the effort and contributions. Very impressive.

Just a question. Saw he LRCAP'ed over the hex north of Hakodate. What happens if you both LRCAP the same hex? Do the fighters on CAP clash or does there have to be a an offensive mission to trigger a battle?

Regards
Andrew

quote:

ORIGINAL: aoffen

But if no mission enters the hex then no combat I guess. Thats quite funny - hundreds of fighters circling each other waiting for someone to show up so they can fight! Pretty unlikely to actually happen I guess.
Regards
Andrew

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ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

I think Nemo is right but for slightly different reasons. Leaving these troops trapped here for a while accomplishes something, it keeps 1,000 fighters bust. It all these fighters are here it means they are not somewhere else. Perhaps do something somewhere else. port attacks, strategic bombing, just something that is not going to bled your fighter pools to death. I know you are getting good results bombing his troops, but you can do the same thing with bombardment attacks, just takes longer, and gives his fighter pilots something to look at whilst your planes are elsewhere. Hit em where they ain't.

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ORIGINAL: Miller

Despite your losses, I think Rader's fighter pools will start to evaporate soon after a few more engagements like that.

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ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

quote:

ORIGINAL: Miller

Despite your losses, I think Rader's fighter pools will start to evaporate soon after a few more engagements like that.

Rader can produce millions of aircraft... Nemo's advice would make GJ's strategic bombing success skyrocket..

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

There was a time when GJ needed help and plenty of it.  A newbie was facing an experienced veteran in a Scenario Two match, and that veteran was toying with the newb in unpleasant ways.  China had fallen, India was about to fall, and the Allies were on the brink of utter ruin.

But the newbie did some unexpected things.  He didn't go and lose his carriers.  He did gradually learn how to fight on a tactical and operational level.  He sifted through volumes of advice, which was often contradictory.  He listened to his own instincts and began to thrive.  Perhaps most amazingly, his innate good nature never flagged throughout the process.  And then he pulled off one whale of strategic operation.

The "newbie" has won this game.  He's waxed very, very good.  I don't see any need to offer him micromanagement level advice at this point.  In fact, perhaps he will be the one offering me advice on quite a few things from this day forward. 

quote:

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

quote:

ORIGINAL: Miller

Despite your losses, I think Rader's fighter pools will start to evaporate soon after a few more engagements like that.

Rader can produce millions of aircraft... Nemo's advice would make GJ's strategic bombing success skyrocket..

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A part from Harbin, where i found no opposition, all his bases are covered with thousands of fighters

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i still don't have the numbers of long-legged fighters to sweep and LRCAP the targeted bases efficiently

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(i barely have 200 4Es in the theatre).

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...i have to convert many 2Es to 4Es

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have to get better planes for many of my fighter units (P-47s and P-38s instead of P-39s and P-40s).

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I imagine what a fleet of BBs could do starting from Hakkodate.... the work the 4Es cannot done will be taken by the ships...

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I don't think GJ needs much advice at this point as his play has been absolutely brilliant

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Dear Flying Spaghetti Monster in the sky please give me the strength to violently do unto that other poor ba**ard what he would like to do unto me. Give me the speed to do unto him first in all things. Lead me to focus my forces strategically and lead me not into dissipation of effort. For thine is the holy trinity of tactical, operational and strategic levels all of which must be intertwined together in order to achieve victory. Amen.