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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/24/2021 5:11:25 PM

PaxMondo

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Ach, to bad about the lack of AV at the base. This is the ideal scenario for the IJ to eliminate the allied air forces. Oh well.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/24/2021 8:36:10 PM

jdsrae

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Try LRCAP 50% over Calcutta from fighters based at Dacca, set range to 0.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/24/2021 10:12:35 PM

DesertWolf101

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February 28, 1943

Might try some LRCAP but overall I doubt I can keep him from closing the airfields. This past turn is a good example of my challenge. I slaughter his fighter sweeps but then my fighters don't have the guns to really deal with his massed 4E formations that are then able to plaster the airfields. It hasn't helped that there has been very good weather these past few days.

Right now I am fighting to impose casualties on his air forces and for time to finalize my Burma air defenses. For Burma I am going to lean more heavily on flak to counter his powerful bombers. I think my options should improve a bit going forward as well since the George has just entered production and judging from its stats it should have an easier time damaging/destroying 4E heavies.

Here is the latest turn, Andy is keeping Calcutta closed while shifting his attention to Diamond Harbor. My fighters shatter a Spitfire sweep but couldn't keep the bombers from breaking through.

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< Message edited by DesertWolf101 -- 3/24/2021 10:14:09 PM >

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/24/2021 10:23:59 PM

DesertWolf101

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The air battle of Calcutta concludes with Andy successfully closing down the city's airfields. In the four days during which the battle has occurred Andy lost 460 aircraft and I lost 154. Some of these losses occurred elsewhere such as in my bombing against Vladivostok but the overwhelming majority (especially the Allied ones) were lost in India.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/25/2021 12:06:23 PM

DesertWolf101

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I ran a turn earlier today and found something interesting. I am attacking one of the Soviet forts right next to Voroshilov and the combat report says the fort is suffering from a supply malus. Surely the Vladivostok pocket still has plenty of supply? Thoughts on what this could mean?

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/25/2021 6:06:55 PM

29000Kevin

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

I ran a turn earlier today and found something interesting. I am attacking one of the Soviet forts right next to Voroshilov and the combat report says the fort is suffering from a supply malus. Surely the Vladivostok pocket still has plenty of supply? Thoughts on what this could mean?

This could be either one of these two things.

Andy is stockpiling all his supplies in Vladivostok or Andy is running out of supplies already, this can only be confirmed if the heavy AA pieces are not firing their guns.

It seems too early for the Russians to be running out of supplies, unless he used it all to upgrade his units into their 1943 versions, which are far more deadlier than the 1942 version.

Meanwhile the lost of the Calcutta airfields are a shame, thankfully the George will be ready soon to place a nasty scar on those 4E planes, the early 4E Bombers will not fair well against the George from the combat reports I've seen, only the late war variants of the B-24 in 1944 seem to fair very well in getting rid of the George.

All those Ace pilots you have are a godsend for you, especially when the Frank will come online later this year with all the Tojo Aces.

Now we must pray to the gods of WiTP:AE for bad weather for the following days in India to give the base some relief.
Note that having any fighter opposition, no matter how small, against the 4E bombers will automatically lower how well they aim in the game since its hard coded in so make sure to disrupt those milk runs to Calcutta.

Still all those pilot loses over enemy terrian for the Allies will hurt, make sure that their is no Allied Subs nearby to rescue their pilots.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/25/2021 7:14:46 PM

DesertWolf101

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I have no doubt that he is stockpiling but I was under the impression that units out on the field (such as this fort which is not in a Soviet base hex) get supplies regardless of stockpiling when they are in range. Maybe this understanding of mine is faulty.

Yes, George is in production finally and I should have start equipping my squadrons with it soon enough. Just in time too, he starts getting massed Hellcats next game month.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/25/2021 7:20:08 PM

DesertWolf101

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March 1-2, 1943

On the 1st of March I was evacuating some support units from Diamond Harbor when enemy torpedo and dive bombers came in to wreck the party. I lost four good xAKs as a result. Painful!

I decided to extract my revenge so I sent in the KB that is covering the shipping in the area closer to Diamond Harbor on the 2nd of March. This drew out the same planes that attacked my merchant shipping which were promptly finished off by the Japanese CV fighters.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/25/2021 11:16:07 PM

29000Kevin

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The xAK loses were unfortunate, that is why you should always make sure to set up CAP trap in a region to make sure that the enemy player is not just letting Torpedo and Dive bombers fly wherever they want to go without escort, forcing them to escort will fatigue their pilots and remove some their planes away from CAP, Training and Resting duties which will help you overall in the campaign, especially with all the Fighter loses he has already lost, seeing knowing the low replacement numbers the UK has, its safe to assume that the US is the only nation with fighter flying, thanks to the replacement rate and pilots who are progressively getting worse.

Although I do find it gamy to make a CAP trap out of a worthless tiny boat.

Heck a bombing campaign against the Allied air bases could be really effective, it if weren't for Russia, the campaign could've even been elongated for much more longer.

Maybe night attacks could work, especially in a clear night with 100% moonlight.

< Message edited by 29000Kevin -- 3/25/2021 11:20:17 PM >

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/26/2021 8:19:39 PM

DesertWolf101

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March 6, 1943

Over the last few days Andy positioned his forces around Calcutta and began moving into the city for the river crossing. His bombers were distracted in engaging my garrison and plastering Diamond Harbor which allowed my engineers to repaired the runway damage. I took the opportunity to send in my fighters for another round of intense air combat. 9 Japanese pilots were killed in action, three of them aces.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/27/2021 1:22:05 PM

castor troy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

March 6, 1943

Over the last few days Andy positioned his forces around Calcutta and began moving into the city for the river crossing. His bombers were distracted in engaging my garrison and plastering Diamond Harbor which allowed my engineers to repaired the runway damage. I took the opportunity to send in my fighters for another round of intense air combat. 9 Japanese pilots were killed in action, three of them aces.

Crazy losses, don't know why Andy is so ruthless in pretty much every of his games. You won't have to worry much about late 43 if he continues to lose at such a ratio, especially as you will have better fighters by then and get a quality edge over the Allied for at least 6-12 months.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/28/2021 8:44:31 AM

DesertWolf101

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quote:

ORIGINAL: castor troy

quote:

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

March 6, 1943

Over the last few days Andy positioned his forces around Calcutta and began moving into the city for the river crossing. His bombers were distracted in engaging my garrison and plastering Diamond Harbor which allowed my engineers to repaired the runway damage. I took the opportunity to send in my fighters for another round of intense air combat. 9 Japanese pilots were killed in action, three of them aces.

Crazy losses, don't know why Andy is so ruthless in pretty much every of his games. You won't have to worry much about late 43 if he continues to lose at such a ratio, especially as you will have better fighters by then and get a quality edge over the Allied for at least 6-12 months.

I doubt this ratio will continue as I think his air offensive is specifically linked to the Calcutta crossing but we shall see. If only these losses included a significant number of 4E bombers. Right now those are really tough for me to bring down. Hopefully the entry of the George will change that.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/28/2021 9:07:32 AM

DesertWolf101

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March 7-8, 1943

Allied forces shock attacked across the river into Calcutta and encountered a dug in force with level 8 forts. I had almost reached level 9 forts before he started bombing my airfields and prevented further fortification. The garrison in place is made up of predominantly second line units so I am happy for them to hold in place indefinitely.

I am struggling with a huge decision right now. I had been planning to launch a massive counterattack using 20 divisions once his army shock attacked across the river where I can take advantage of their disrupted state. Two issues that give considerable pause however are the lack of sufficient supply forward and the fact that his bomber force is still very impressive. Besides about 250 4Es, He also has about 400 medium bombers, about 200 dive/torpedo bombers, and 300 IL-2s which I have found to be relatively weak at causing damage to infantry but great against armor and more importantly at draining supply. I have seriously eaten into his fighter force but he still has some 400 altogether although I have noticed he has been forced to downgrade some of them to older types (Less P-38s and more P-39Ds, and P-40Es are making a comeback).

Pros - High tempo of air operations, keep him away from my neighboring industry a bit longer, the potential to catch and hurt some of his LCUs.
Cons - Lack of forward supply, land based air threat to my shipping (about 6 divisions are on assault transports), the risk of having a substantial part of my army trapped forward, the bomber threat in clear terrain, and the distinct possibility that he will retreat to fortified bases if I gain ground (his ability to build up bases is astounding, I imagine he can do the same with fortifications very quickly).

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/28/2021 1:09:57 PM

DesertWolf101

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March 9, 1943

I have noticed that my fighter squadrons are exponentially more effective at tackling heavy bombers when they are still fresh. Even when they easily defeat enemy sweeps, the sweeps tend to exhaust them and they don't press home their attacks well against subsequent enemy bomber formations. Today a large formation of B-17E bombers attacked Dacca where a Japanese fighter force that mostly consisted of Tojos was on station. I am not sure if weather was a factor or what exactly occurred but unlike the battle of Calcutta the bombers came in without sweeps or escorts. They were slaughtered, with no Japanese pilots killed in return (two WIA).

I took a look at my aces list, and while the Navy still dominates the Army is catching up. I have 146 IJNAF aces and 84 IJAAF aces (total 230). I believe this is a very healthy stable of excellent pilots to build on going forward. The first Hikotai just transitioned to the George so I am starting to get them more capable mounts as well. I am currently producing 100 Georges a month and building up more production capacity towards 200 a month. Hopefully this will be enough.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/28/2021 1:32:25 PM

GetAssista

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101
I am struggling with a huge decision right now. I had been planning to launch a massive counterattack using 20 divisions once his army shock attacked across the river where I can take advantage of their disrupted state.

Umm, it's not clear what you are trying to say here. Counterattack exactly where? I only see 1400 AV in Calcutta (+6 ID on transports you mentioned which will take a turn or 2 to unload). Allied disruption will fall off really quickly, and you will have to deal with x4 terrain bonus in the city, so it is a hopeless struggle

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/28/2021 2:28:09 PM

DesertWolf101

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quote:

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

quote:

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101
I am struggling with a huge decision right now. I had been planning to launch a massive counterattack using 20 divisions once his army shock attacked across the river where I can take advantage of their disrupted state.

Umm, it's not clear what you are trying to say here. Counterattack exactly where? I only see 1400 AV in Calcutta (+6 ID on transports you mentioned which will take a turn or 2 to unload). Allied disruption will fall off really quickly, and you will have to deal with x4 terrain bonus in the city, so it is a hopeless struggle

I have 13 divisions in around Dacca where my India army retreated to. I was thinking of reinforcing this with an additional 6 divisions on transports and attacking to either trap the allied army in Calcutta or force it to withdraw and defeat it in the field. I have decided the cons outweigh the pros though so I hade decided otherwise.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/29/2021 4:12:13 AM

29000Kevin

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*Made another giant comment, but then realizing that its probably too late for the plan to work properly so gave up and deleted it due to how it advocated for a campaign that would've likely killed a few too many japanese, due to supplies issues involving the cancelled counteroffensive plan you had.

< Message edited by 29000Kevin -- 3/29/2021 5:00:48 AM >

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/29/2021 12:28:43 PM

DesertWolf101

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quote:

ORIGINAL: 29000Kevin

*Made another giant comment, but then realizing that its probably too late for the plan to work properly so gave up and deleted it due to how it advocated for a campaign that would've likely killed a few too many japanese, due to supplies issues involving the cancelled counteroffensive plan you had.

Not a problem.

I meant to respond to your earlier comment about using day and night bombing but didn't get to it. Andy unfortunately has brought so much flak to India that it's extremely difficult to bomb any of his major airfields. He doesn't even need CAP, his flak is so abundant it's overwhelming. The only time I was able to bomb was when he spread his air forces to some of the minor airfields with less anti-aircraft guns.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/30/2021 12:37:35 PM

traskott

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Suscribed. I have read both AAR sides, and it's very interesting. Old Andy Mac keeps playing same as in the PzB AAR....

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/30/2021 12:50:57 PM

DesertWolf101

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quote:

ORIGINAL: traskott

Suscribed. I have read both AAR sides, and it's very interesting. Old Andy Mac keeps playing same as in the PzB AAR....

Welcome!

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/30/2021 1:00:49 PM

DesertWolf101

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March 16, 1943

Over the last week or so, Calcutta has faced relentless bombing from the air while the Japanese field army slowly makes its way down towards the coastal road under the effects of Malaria. Supply is definitely an issue and Andy is making things worse by air dropping loads of mines on Chittagong port, the one viable Japanese port forward in Assam. Nevertheless, I am quite pleased with how things have turned out. Overall I have suffered an equal amount of casualties on the ground relative to Andy during the withdrawal from India and inflicted far more casualties in the air. Furthermore, I have delayed him enough to probably prevent a serious enemy threat to Burma until the end of the monsoon. I expect another serious enemy air offensive against the Magwe oil fields next.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/30/2021 1:03:35 PM

DesertWolf101

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Meanwhile in the frozen north, the Japanese army has almost entirely pushed the Soviet forces into the two bases of Voroshilov and Vladivostok. I am starting to get impatient in my effort to deplete his supplies, and may attempt a frontal attack soon that I will probably regret.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/30/2021 5:45:32 PM

castor troy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

Meanwhile in the frozen north, the Japanese army has almost entirely pushed the Soviet forces into the two bases of Voroshilov and Vladivostok. I am starting to get impatient in my effort to deplete his supplies, and may attempt a frontal attack soon that I will probably regret.

Just block him there. Leave a force big enough not to worry about his defenders and take the rest of the map that is held by the Russians. While you do that keep bombing bombing bombing and naval bombarding if you can do it without being threated and as soon as you have secured the rest come back and take the two bases that have run out of supplies.

If you are lucky he could even try to attack your blocking force and deplete his units and supplies while rebuilding his disabled squads/guns. Flak fire and getting squads/guns out of disabled state seems to be what takes the most supply, way more than the odd supply hits.

< Message edited by castor troy -- 3/30/2021 5:47:58 PM >

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/31/2021 1:28:16 PM

29000Kevin

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Problem is the remaining Soviet forces are dug in large mountains, so any offensive will be costly, unless we attempt to outflank the enemy by going around pulling the tricks that Germany did to France avoiding the fortifications with help from the fact that winter is over, send in the paratroopers when it's obvious that Andy has noticed the army and watch if he retreats his main army in the mountains then attack the remnants of it to gain an easy foothold into them if its obvious that he's abandoning the position.

But the more easier objective is to eliminate Soviet China forces.

Attacking Vladivostok is still too early, give it 2-4 more months to actually attack, but you can try to prob the enemy with artillery by Bombardment, which also helps with training your Artillery units. But maybe just maybe go full out and see the results, the result is either we get the best Dice rolls and defeat the enemy or the IJA stuck recovering from losses for the next 3 months.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/31/2021 11:40:55 PM

DesertWolf101

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quote:

ORIGINAL: castor troy

quote:

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

Meanwhile in the frozen north, the Japanese army has almost entirely pushed the Soviet forces into the two bases of Voroshilov and Vladivostok. I am starting to get impatient in my effort to deplete his supplies, and may attempt a frontal attack soon that I will probably regret.

Just block him there. Leave a force big enough not to worry about his defenders and take the rest of the map that is held by the Russians. While you do that keep bombing bombing bombing and naval bombarding if you can do it without being threated and as soon as you have secured the rest come back and take the two bases that have run out of supplies.

If you are lucky he could even try to attack your blocking force and deplete his units and supplies while rebuilding his disabled squads/guns. Flak fire and getting squads/guns out of disabled state seems to be what takes the most supply, way more than the odd supply hits.

I am resisting the urge to commit to frontal attack too early and am continuing the air and naval bombardments instead. I am destroying/damaging a good number of devices with my battleships in particular so that should help.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/31/2021 11:42:42 PM

DesertWolf101

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quote:

ORIGINAL: 29000Kevin

Problem is the remaining Soviet forces are dug in large mountains, so any offensive will be costly, unless we attempt to outflank the enemy by going around pulling the tricks that Germany did to France avoiding the fortifications with help from the fact that winter is over, send in the paratroopers when it's obvious that Andy has noticed the army and watch if he retreats his main army in the mountains then attack the remnants of it to gain an easy foothold into them if its obvious that he's abandoning the position.

But the more easier objective is to eliminate Soviet China forces.

Attacking Vladivostok is still too early, give it 2-4 more months to actually attack, but you can try to prob the enemy with artillery by Bombardment, which also helps with training your Artillery units. But maybe just maybe go full out and see the results, the result is either we get the best Dice rolls and defeat the enemy or the IJA stuck recovering from losses for the next 3 months.

Speaking of the Soviet forces in the mountains, it looks like Andy may be sending them forward to test my blocking positions. Japanese reinforcements are on the way.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 3/31/2021 11:51:45 PM

DesertWolf101

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March 25, 1943 - Naval Battle of Ceylon

Besides the ongoing bombing of Calcutta and the Vladivostok pocket, not too much has happened over the last ten game days. That changed today when I sighted heavy enemy destroyer activity near Ceylon and sent in a couple of task forces composed of a mix of heavy cruisers and destroyers to engage. My two task forces, one led by Tanaka, engaged two enemy task forces composed of a total of 17 destroyers in a series of night and day fights at short range (thunderstorms weather). In the end, I confirmed the destruction of 14 of the destroyers and heavily damaged one more. For my part, I lost DD Hokaze (a Minekaze class destroyer) and a submarine that fell afoul of the enemy but likely did much to delay them for Tanaka's boys. I will attempt to finish off a couple of the enemy survivors that ended up right next to my task forces next turn.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 4/1/2021 7:45:09 PM

DesertWolf101

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March 26-27, 1943

Japanese warships hunted down another enemy destroyer near Ceylon. I think only 1 of the 17 enemy destroyers remain, and the destroyer in question, DD Blue, escaped to Madras which has fallen to the Allies.

In the Soviet front, Andy launched a full scale attack on my blocking position in the mountains.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 4/1/2021 7:46:25 PM

DesertWolf101

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The Japanese forces hold their ground and inflict significant disablements on the Soviets but unfortunately not as many destroyed devices.

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RE: Empire of the Sun - 4/1/2021 9:51:12 PM

RangerJoe

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DD Blue was on patrol duty during Savo Island. It did not see the IJN coming in so it never sent an alarm but it survived. How appropriate here . . .

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