Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Taking Marcus and then the Bonins gives you a good penetration into the Emperors perimeter, but you could suffer a lot of grief from LBA [Netties] striking from both the HI and the Marianas [and maybe the Philippines]. You may eventually be able to load strong fighter cover on the Bonins but raids will always be an issue until you can close some of his airfields in range. Problem is, they are beyond your fighter range so your HB are on their own.

And then what? The airfields on the Bonins won't support much in the way of B-29s for strategic bombing. The Bonins give a nice naval location for your subs, but any AS in port could be hit in a raid. Same goes for any surface naval forces and supply convoys. I am not that confident that your fighters can always protect the bases and ships in the area.

Again, a matter of personal style but I think the NG - Palau - Philippines - Okinawa route offers more potential for short hops that do not rely on CV support for extended periods. The CVs can remain ghosts, appearing and striking suddenly and vanishing before he can react.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
Well, Nimitz was looking at the same map you are.

quote:

ORIGINAL: JocMeister


[Good points! I´m actually not that worried about Nettie strikes. Erik has proven so far to be very risk averse and so far my CAP has performed very well even against his most concentrated attacks. That being said, good things never last for long!

The Bonins activate kamis, and you willl worry about Nettie strikes then. I believe at least one of the Bonins is 13 hexes from a big AF near Yokahama. (From memory.)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
Well, Nimitz was looking at the same map you are.

Nimitz probably wasn´t feeling the stress of having played a terrible 42 and 43 and trying to find shortcuts wherever he could.

Don't obsess too much on the carriers. As you've said the CVEs can do for many ops in a pinch, and once you have Corsairs ashore you have air control. It's a hard psychological transform to go from tip-toeing around in 1942, when every DD is precious, to having the hammer you do in the second half of 1944. Then it's about speed of advance, not being subtle. You can dump a quarter-million supply pretty much anywhere in ten days. You have hundreds of dedicated amhib ships. You have AA castles. You just need to pick a path that gets you to strategic range of the HI. It's not about sparring and knocking down his planes. Now it's about getting close and burning him out. Most of the USN and USMC casualties took place in the last year of the war. The op tempo gets fierce, you lose a lot of ships and men, but you get the job done if you have a plan and don't waffle.

My reasoning is simply just to gain some time.

You can't gain time. You can only use time. There's as much as there is. He's playing for time; you have to play to win. 1944-45 is when the game design really comes into play. Totally asymmetric OOBs, opposite game goals. You play to win, he plays to not lose.

I´m thinking it takes just as long to prep for Eniwetok as its takes to prep for something in the Bonins. If I can skip the Marshalls completely I gain 100 days of prep.

It's almost a certainty that Eniwetok is not Forts 6. Iwo very well could be. Eniwetok does not activate kamis. It's far enough from Truk to give you sortie warning; otherwise I would recco Ponape. Marcus has pros and cons, but it's a 6000 stack too (in stock Scen 2 at least.) I would be comfortable landing on Eniwetok in force with 30-50 prep if there was good bombardment and enough LCUs to withstand the disruption. Iwo? 100, and then it may not be enough.

So I´m thinking along the lines of doing Wake - Bonins - Marianas instead of Wake - Marshalls - Marianas - Bonins.
I´m just not sure its doable!?

Not sure why you would do the Marianas AFTER the Bonins. Maybe Formosa, but if you survive the Bonins make of them what you can and start strat bombing.

Why would you waste men on Wake at this point? Pride?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

A quick note on rearming BBs. In my current game I isolated Rabaul and set up milk run bombardments on it frrom Shortlands with a 4 BB TF. I had only a single AKE in Shortlands and found that it took several days to rearm all 4 BBs. It was also running the single AKE dry on supplies very quickly.

I moved an additional 2 AKEs in and the TF rearms in one day. I also have to remember to go into the base interface and hit the "reload tenders" button after every 2nd or 3rd bombardment run.

I haven't assessed it scientifically, but I guess it comes down to one AKE uses up so many ops points rearming a single BB that it runs out of ops points somwhere in the middle of rearming the second BB.

The point is that it is beneficial to group AKEs to support a major BB TF and sustain bombardment runs over time.

quote:

Morning Air attack on TF, near Abemama at 136,130

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 54 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 20 minutes


Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 155
SB2C-1C Helldiver x 31
SBD-5 Dauntless x 62
TBF-1 Avenger x 30


Allied aircraft losses
SBD-5 Dauntless: 3 damaged

Japanese Ships
AK Tokai Maru, Bomb hits 9, and is sunk
AK Kansai Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
AK Aobasan Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
AK Nankai Maru, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
AK Atutasan Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
xAP Teia Maru, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
AK Tacoma Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Shikinami
DD Hatsuharu
xAK Hokkai Maru, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Wakaba, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Hawaii Maru, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk

Japanese ground losses:
4057 casualties reported
Squads: 116 destroyed, 90 disabled
Non Combat: 136 destroyed, 144 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 60 (55 destroyed, 5 disabled)
Vehicles lost 6 (6 destroyed, 0 disabled)


Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AK Tokai Maru
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AK Atutasan Maru
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AK Tacoma Maru
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring xAK Hokkai Maru
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AK Kansai Maru
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AK Nankai Maru
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AK Aobasan Maru


Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Abemama at 136,130

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 51 NM, estimated altitude 20,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 18 minutes


Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 60
SBD-5 Dauntless x 31
TBF-1 Avenger x 15


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AK Aobasan Maru, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk
DD Shikinami
DD Wakaba, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Hatsuharu

Japanese ground losses:
1239 casualties reported
Squads: 56 destroyed, 110 disabled
Non Combat: 34 destroyed, 80 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 15 (9 destroyed, 6 disabled)

quote:

Ground combat at 56,49 (near Toungoo)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 5045 troops, 380 guns, 331 vehicles, Assault Value = 2819

Defending force 97609 troops, 1688 guns, 1924 vehicles, Assault Value = 2799

Japanese ground losses:
Vehicles lost 6 (1 destroyed, 5 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
306 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 14 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 11 disabled
Guns lost 10 (5 destroyed, 5 disabled)
Vehicles lost 6 (1 destroyed, 5 disabled)

quote:

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

As usual you say a lot of things that makes sense. I did not even think of the Kamikazes. I havn´t faced any in any of my games but I understand by your post its something major to take into consideration.

I have learned the hard way what happens when I don´t listen to the more experienced players. Troops will continue to prep for Eniwetok. But perhaps 3 divisions are a bit on the heavy side. I will go through the map and find an additional atoll to take somewhere close to Eniwetok.

Wake is simply because I think it would make a good staging point. I can use it as a forward sub base and put an AKE there to rearm BB when I go for Eniwetok. I have only a tank BTL and a (sep) RGT prepped. So it would require a lot of pounding before landing but won´t cost much in terms of forces. Not worth it?

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

A quick note on rearming BBs. In my current game I isolated Rabaul and set up milk run bombardments on it frrom Shortlands with a 4 BB TF. I had only a single AKE in Shortlands and found that it took several days to rearm all 4 BBs. It was also running the single AKE dry on supplies very quickly.

I moved an additional 2 AKEs in and the TF rearms in one day. I also have to remember to go into the base interface and hit the "reload tenders" button after every 2nd or 3rd bombardment run.

I haven't assessed it scientifically, but I guess it comes down to one AKE uses up so many ops points rearming a single BB that it runs out of ops points somwhere in the middle of rearming the second BB.

The point is that it is beneficial to group AKEs to support a major BB TF and sustain bombardment runs over time.

quote:

Wake is OK. A lot of islands are OK

quote:

ORIGINAL: JocMeister
Big Red,
Minefields seems to have almost no effect at all. I have had Japanese ships go straight through 500 mine minefields without pausing. I´ve stopped using them defensively as they seem to be ineffectual.

quote:

Ground combat at Hansa Bay (97,121)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 3295 troops, 41 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 46

Defending force 10396 troops, 211 guns, 207 vehicles, Assault Value = 382

Japanese ground losses:
64 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled



Assaulting units:
53rd Infantry Brigade
4th South Seas Gsn
1st Indpt SNLF Coy
13th JAAF AF Coy
3rd FF Const Unit
46th Nav Gd /2

Defending units:
6th Infantry Division

quote:

Ground combat at Hansa Bay (97,121)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 10420 troops, 211 guns, 207 vehicles, Assault Value = 385

Defending force 3470 troops, 41 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 42

Allied adjusted assault: 172

Japanese adjusted defense: 3

Allied assault odds: 57 to 1 (fort level 3)

Allied forces CAPTURE Hansa Bay !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: leaders(-)

Japanese ground losses:
1202 casualties reported
Squads: 113 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 80 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 19 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 15 (15 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 5
Units destroyed 1


Allied ground losses:
21 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Remember you can overstock the CVs with fighters if you pull off strike planes. Or vice versa the CVEs.

quote:

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Remember you can overstock the CVs with fighters if you pull off strike planes. Or vice versa the CVEs.

I´m using the default setup on the CVs and CVLs. The CVEs I have made either pure Fighters or pure Strike. I´m experimenting a bit with the CVEs but it has worked very well so far. Its far easier to manage them this way!

I thought about overstocking but I decided not to do so. If I would do this I would add fighters. But I don´t want to pull any fighter squadrons from active combat to fill the CVs and then have strike planes on the ground doing nothing. I have an abundance of strike planes in both Burma and SOPAC. I have so many extra because I bought back the air groups from the lost CVs!

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

I understand there are trade-offs. I only suggest this because in the first days around the Marianas he will saturate your CAP until you knock him down. Then you have a window to get some LBA fighters ashore while he's under the once-every-7-days rule. CVEs will usually sink from one torpedo or two large bombs; they're very fragile, too fragile IMO. You can hold them back as LBA transports, flush their loads ashore when you have (say) Tinian, and send them back to Pearl empty. Up front, you can heavy-load the CVs with top-drawer figthers which attrit the islands. If he overstacks use your BBs to crunch the air fields. TBs going for BBs aren't hitting your carriers. Rock-paper-scissors. Split your TFs into smaller chunks and let the code work for you. You will take losses; no question. But the Marianas have only a couple of keys and taking down his LBA fast and rough is #1.

quote:

Morning Air attack on 39th/A Division, at 60,47 , near Mandalay

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes


Allied aircraft
Beaufort I x 21
Blenheim IV x 13
Blenheim VD x 13
Liberator II x 3
Liberator B.III x 9
Liberator GR.III x 6
Wellington GR.VIII x 13
Wellington B.X x 13
B-17F Fortress x 3
B-24D Liberator x 6
B-24D1 Liberator x 18
B-24J Liberator x 59
B-25C Mitchell x 38
B-25D1 Mitchell x 11
B-26B Marauder x 13


Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort I: 2 damaged
Liberator GR.III: 1 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 2 damaged
B-25D1 Mitchell: 1 damaged
B-26B Marauder: 2 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
248 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 16 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 22 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled

quote:

ORIGINAL: Uncivil Engineer

Where is the 1st IJA Division?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Olorin
Putting the entire IJA, minus two divisions, in Burma... is not a blunder since it has work well for him so far. It could even be argued that it's efficient force management