Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: ADavidB

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ORIGINAL: BLurking

David,

Relax - sounds like you are winning and don't know it yet .
You've kept his score low, so you must have preserved much of your starting assets. The problem seems to be that BOTH scores are pretty low, thus the proximity (relatively speaking) to the magic 4-1 ratio. Time for you to pick a safe objective, and force the issue. Attrition battles favor the Allies, but you can't attrit (sp?) if you don't engage. Start prepping for an offensive now, you'll have the necessary assets (LR fighters, etc.) in place by the time your LCUs have enough PPs.

End of '42 is the time for the Allies to quit worrying about IJN offensives, and make the IJN worry about Allied offensives...

Brian

Oh, and I frequently use Chinese (and especially Manchuko garrison) LCU objectives to 'spoof' the Allied sigint. I'm sure that's what your opponent is up to.

Thanks for the comments Brian. But I'm still not sure that an "attrition" strategy is a viable way for an Allied player to win. Certainly I haven't seen many AARs here where the Allied player has started to close in on an Allied Auto Victory.

My gut feeling, from playing this game since it first came out, and from reading many AARs, is that the Allied player has to crush the Japanese player, which means crushing the KB, then play "Pacman" with the Japanese bases. The key is - how to crush the KB without losing too many points and losing too much offensive capability?

I'm also not certain that slugging it out on low value outer perimeter bases is such a good idea either. I want to bypass those heavily fortified atolls and go onto attack non-atoll bases that are worth more points. But it all gets down to control of the air. Tophat can put up 600 first class long range fighters right now. The reality is that I won't be able to match that until mid-1943, and then only if I don't fritter away my planes first.

But I've also got to be able to survive all the little things that cumulatively go wrong with the Game. If my ships don't upgrade to get radar, then they are ships that are useless to me. If my replacement aircraft come in with experience 40 pilots then there are a bunch of planes that I can't send into battle. If it rains 90% of the time over my bases then I can neither train my pilots nor fly my planes.

And when it gets down to it, I'm tired of playing turn after turn, month after month (of real time) and not being able to commit my forces with a good hope of success except in few very limited situations. I don't find the Game Design "fun" to play as an Allied player. I'm playing it still out of stubborness, to see if it really can be won, but I don't believe it can be.

And I still have to be terribly careful. Sure, I've got all my starting forces, but so does Tophat. And PzB and others have shown how the Japanese player can keep on with successful offensives well into 1943.

Once again, thanks for the comments. I'm sorry that I'm blowing steam so often here, but this is so close to being a great game that it kills me to stumble into the game's shortcomings time after time.

Dave Baranyi

Yammas from The Apo-Tiki Lounge. Future site of WITP AE benders! And then the s--t hit the fan

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ORIGINAL: ADavidB

October 21 -

Ah, the "wonders" of the @#$%^&* database and data structure in this game. On top of the return of Bad Weather Everywhere, my new air replenishment CVE is taking on pilots with experience of 40!!!!!!! Where does the Game find them? I have 600+ USN pilots who are supposed to have 55+ experience.
Dave Baranyi

Banner by rogueusmc

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ORIGINAL: Frank

Really, I think about too successfull ASW and abundance of Japanese supply!

Yammas from The Apo-Tiki Lounge. Future site of WITP AE benders! And then the s--t hit the fan

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ORIGINAL: Wolfpack

David,

One thing about the replacement CVEs. I think I read somewhere that they are designed to replenish planes and not pilots so they have pilots of very low experience so as not to pull pilots from combat commands. I may be completely wrong though.

Paul

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ORIGINAL: PzB

Are you really so sure that you can't fight the Japs in 1942 Dave? Never seen you try

In all my Allied games I've been rather reckless when called for and each time I manage to surprise the Japs they hurt - big time!
Patiently I feed Warhawks and Wildcats into the fight until the crack Zero Daitais dwindle away....

Your tactic has worked well thus far Dave, but you say the game isn't much fun - so why not throw caution out the window and get at it?
You may risk loosing the war, but it will be a helluva ride

Hope you don't mind me being blunt, but you know what Churchill said after the landings in Anzio bogged down because of an over cautious Allied commander?
“I had hoped that we were hurling a wildcat onto the shore, but all we got was a stranded whale.” - Winston Churchill

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ORIGINAL: BLurking

David,

I think there's entirely too much focus on points by the players. As the Japanese, I just try to work out a strategy to survive past Aug '45 - and as the Allies, how to crush the Japanese before that date. PzB's game is a very poor example, since he's freed most of his Asian troops to the rest of the Pacific. My experience has been that the Japanese are stretched much too thin, but the Allied player doesn't know this until he starts probing those defensive lines. Part of the joy of PBEM is the fact that you're playing a person, not the AI. So psychology plays a factor. Right now, you've been the whipping boy for so long - this and PzB have stuck you into the defensive mindset. A good offensive will help change your outlook, and may change the outlook of your opponent.
At this stage of the war, the US forces took quite a beating at Guadalcanal, but stuck to their guns. In the end, the Japanese were broken - but it was painful getting there (the Allies had what, maybe one carrier left by the end?). Brace yourself for some losses, and go in guns blazing. With proper planning, I think you'll be suprised how successful you are.

Brian

And if you'd like a taste of Allied firepower, I'd be happy to let you beat up on me in the '43 scenario. Might be interesting to see how quickly the Allied forces can advance with a historical setup for the Japanese vs. the more aggressive positions that most players end up with in PBEM games.

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It really sucks not getting those four Essex class CVs because you did not lose CVs early. Of all things I think the respawn design makes me laugh/cry the most.

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When my first Replenishment CVE arrived the pilots had 35 Exp
One excuse I heard was that they are only ferry-pilots, for taking the a/c to the CVs. I'm loath to use them yet as, knowing how this game likes to screw us, the pilots will transfer too - NO WAY do I want 35 Exp pilots in my VF Squadrons with high 70s av exp.
I've sat these CVEs in West Coast on 100% training, after a couple of weeks their exp was 40+ (they are getting there slowly

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Really, I think about too successfull ASW and abundance of Japanese supply!

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ORIGINAL: ADavidB

October 23 -

The Pennsylvania sat at system damage 3 for the third day in a row in Seattle Harbor this turn. Currently Seattle has greater than 3 times more repair points than the durability rating of the Pennsylvania, so there is no good reason why the ship won't repair and or upgrade. Having this sort of function controlled by a random number generator is idiotic beyond belief. (That's assuming that the OOB isn't wrong as it was in earlier versions of the game.) Oh well, I'll give it a few more days then if nothing happens I'll sail the ship down to San Fran to see if a "change of scenery" helps.

Tophat's pilots in China aren't getting much of a change in scenery - they are still bombing Hengchow, Sian and Kungchang by the hundreds every day. I got one nuisance raid off on the troops at Hengchow, and then I moved my bombers again. Today I'll try a nuisance raid on the Japanese troops at Sian.

Tophat sent a couple of MSWs to Lautem to try to clear the rest of the mines that the Argo left there a few game days ago. The MSWs were less effective than the APDs that stumbled into the mine field first.

Otherwise, I'm just moving ships, planes and troops.

Dave Baranyi

Yammas from The Apo-Tiki Lounge. Future site of WITP AE benders! And then the s--t hit the fan

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ORIGINAL: ADavidB

October 26 -

Well, I should have expected it. While nothing disastrous happened directly, most of my efforts didn't work at all. Let's see what didn't happen this turn:

1 - The bombers and escorts at Chandpur didn't fly, leaving Rangoon unscratched. Fortunately the heavy cloud cover appears to have masked my intentions. The only good side of this was that one more P-38 was repaired and could join the others in Chandpur. (What's frustrating about this is that I have Brit Air HQs with good leaders in each of Calcutta, Diamond Harbor, Dacca and Chandpur. However, they don't seem to help either the recovery rate or the take off frequency of my air units.) I've left all the planes on their original attack settings. (And yes, they all have their full complements of pilots.)

2 - The Supply Transports didn't fly out of Diamond Harbor. Once again, the only "bright side" was that the one leftover transport plane was repaired and I was able to move it to join the rest. I've left the transports set to transport supplies again. (Yes, all pilots were in place.)

3 - The troops in Hengchow all got stuck at "59" miles, thanks to the unbelievably moronic programming in the Game. This is despite the fact that there are TWO clear hexes behind Hengchow and a clear pathway to Chungking. But because this is the absolutely stupidest programming in the world, the idiotic Game engine insists that the troops must leave via the highways, and the highways are blocked by the Japanese. So in utter desperation I have reset the movement objective to Kweiyang. Kweiyang is closer, so maybe the brain dead programming will allow my troops to move there since the pathway is also clear. If my troops don't, then all I can say is that Mike Wood, in all honesty, ought to send me a check for $100 CDN to reimburse me for this game which never worked right from the beginning.
What "worked"?

1 - The Spits flew over Akyab and buzzed the Japanese recon plane, allowing Tophat to see that I've put a lot of planes into Akyab. But since Tophat didn't try to attack my planes simply picked up storm damage.

2 - The Brit fast BBs took off, got halfway, and were hidden by thick clouds, but Japanese search planes were still able to scout the TF and even see and identify each battleship. Not bad for flying in a rainstorm that stopped my planes from flying.

3 - The Brit Carrier TF got a third of the way to Rangoon and miraculously didn't get spotted! I have no idea how that "mistake" slipped through.

Okay, those things aside, what is the situation? Well, despite the fact that Tophat knows that I've got that BB TF on his doorstep, he has left all his planes (75 fighters, 40 bombers and 40 miscellaneous planes) in Rangoon. It appears that he doesn't expect my task force to be able to do anything. Is this bravado or does he have forces there that have been hidden from me?

Tophat also appears to be pulling back from Mandalay, although he also has what appears to be a combat unit at the crossroads to the north of Rangoon. I wonder if he is planning to use the indescribably bad programming of the "railroad slingshot" effect to whip a combat unit into Akyab before my troops can finish their unbelievable one-mile-a-day journey?

Nothing much is changing in China. Tophat seems a bit surprised that I am pulling out of Wuchow. I guess that he keeps on hoping that I'll let him trap my troops in indefensible locations.

And I am still moving forces in the South Pacific. There is no sign of any Japanese movement - I suspect that Tophat is waiting until the last possible moment so that I don't have time to respond to his action.

Dave Baranyi

Yammas from The Apo-Tiki Lounge. Future site of WITP AE benders! And then the s--t hit the fan

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ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

Mogami is not upgrading Oscars at this time (or he is just starting too, the huge numbers of Tony's and Tojo's are not there yet) because of a self imposed limitation. So my situation is a bit better than yours but the fundamental issue is the same.

When he does upgarde I am going to have big problems too. Though I think the pilot quality gap in the lunacy game is narrower than the pilot quality gap in your game. That is one of the benefits of the high loss rate, the Japanese suffer some problems as well.

Part of my counter strategy is the two P40B groups in CBI the 23rd and the AVG. I use them very sparingly but from time to time I concentrate them either in big offensive raids with lots of bombers or put them both up as CAP over an important base.

The offensive raids have been very successful but to keep it that way I don't launch more than 1 a month or so. I also have a lot of Dutch groups in CBI, I sent the Dutch airforce there at the start of the war, so I can push the numbers of range 7 planes up into the 150 range with perhaps 110 bring P40Bs and the rest Dutch. This means I don't suffer the numbers effect in the combat system.

On the defensive I am concentrating my CAP more and more but I have not caught Mogami and Massacred him in Burma. I did manage to inflict some serious defeats in the air in China and his bombing campaign there is much reduced. Also he is now bombing an isolated Chinese unit regularly which tells me I must have hurt his pilots enough to force him into training.

I completely agree that PDU breaks the air game. And with the leader bug, disappearing units and all the rest I cannot reccomend the game either.

Yammas from The Apo-Tiki Lounge. Future site of WITP AE benders! And then the s--t hit the fan

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I don't mind the randomness of the refit/repair issue as who really knows what damage is being repaired, what facilities are available, what equipment is ready etc? Considering refits are much to swift and occur immediately (I wanted longer repair/refit times and the actual weapon changes to occur after the "system damage penalty" was fully repaired) the randomness by no means is a hindrance, especially since one can just sail away the same turn the new refit is added. Don't get me going on permanent flood damage either. Anyway, I'm no programmer so perhaps it was too difficult for too little gain.

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Having a bad day Dave? Leafs take it in the arse again?

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ORIGINAL: DarkOmen

You, sir, have just sold me this game! Fantastic AAR.

-Jon