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My pools are basically empty of fighters and experienced fighter pilots at this point. Some of the french fighters are actually really good, better than anything Japanese until probably late '43. P-50 he gets 50/month and they have service rating 2 so they functionally have no service issues outside of dire circumstances. They are slightly worse than p-38 but he also gets 50/mo of them so I have to somehow contend with 100 untouchable fighters per month. No idea how I will manage this.
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Sep 12, 2015 10:56
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Turn's in and oh boy is there action. I've got a lot of work to do on it before I can get to the writeup so I will leave you with this little teaser. 
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Sep 12, 2015 21:04
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 No penetration though?
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Sep 12, 2015 21:05
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The hit message is all I screen capped I think. Penetration etc all come after and I was too busy being apalled to grab any. I also have no idea why the task forces moved so little, I suspect the 'follow task force' orders are loving up again.
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Sep 12, 2015 21:20
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Saros posted:Turn's in and oh boy is there action.  I love this AAR
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Sep 12, 2015 21:22
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Oh dear. Well, you do have extra carriers... Do you have sufficient bombing capabilites to try and toast the P-38s and P-50s on the ground? I'm not sure how heavily stacked the air bases they're at are, but if you can't beat them in the air... Velius fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Sep 12, 2015 |
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Sep 12, 2015 21:24
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They are based out of Clark Field which is level 8 and heavily protected by AA batteries as well as 150 or so P-40 and wildcats on CAP. I am going to try sweep his numbers down when I can but at the moment I simply don't have the pilots or planes to spare.
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Sep 12, 2015 21:31
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I do not play this game but the mod balance sounds a bit iffy if Japan gets its rear end handed to it in the air during the early war? Even if they get a bunch of new things to compensate.
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Sep 12, 2015 21:33
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Velius posted:Oh dear. Well, you do have extra carriers... Even if the carrier is mostly fine this part of the game is about Japan grabbing as much as they can before the balance of power shifts, and losing the use of one for a few months immediately lowers the cap on what you can achieve. Doubly painful if the hit was bad enough that the crew decided to push all the planes overboard.
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Sep 12, 2015 22:00
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Theantero posted:I do not play this game but the mod balance sounds a bit iffy if Japan gets its rear end handed to it in the air during the early war? Even if they get a bunch of new things to compensate. Yeah I think it has gone too far in reinforcing the allies early. You simply can't throw around lightly protected invasions like a normal game due to the presence of the CAV (flight deck cruisers) and the fact there are a lot of american dive bombers in the PI early on which means any level 2 airbase can be deadly to transports. Basically every invasion needs both a carrier presence for CAP, a battleship division providing cover (Force Z and two Dutch BC's are alive and well in the DEI) and the actual invasion task force to have heavy cruisers integrated in it becase every single goddamn Dutch base has extensive CD guns now, often 30-40 guns of a mix of 7.5cm/12cm/15cm. These CD guns also mean that even with CA suport I have 2-5 transports disabled or sunk with every invasion which is adding up to a serious shortage of amphibious shipping, especially with the extra troops. Finally the much larger number of allied fighters means that Betties simply aren't as dangerous in the early game as normal and are no longer an effective area denial weapon. Even a few fighters on CAP means that Betty strikes will get wasted due to their fragility (they are basically flying fuel cans). All that said I am thoroughly enjoying the game so far, it's incredibly tense and even though I doubt I will be able to expand as much beyond the historical Japanese perimiter as one would expect from the boosted IJN/IJA I think it will be more interesting than the usual flow of the game.
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Sep 13, 2015 18:05
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Theantero posted:I do not play this game but the mod balance sounds a bit iffy if Japan gets its rear end handed to it in the air during the early war? Even if they get a bunch of new things to compensate. House rules about flight ceilings and other gamey stuff help here. But yeah.
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Sep 13, 2015 18:47
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December 15 1941 Full combat report Subs Not a good day for the silent service. A fleet boat at Palembang and another two investigating Makassar run (repeatedly) into mines and sink. First SS casualties of the war. However three small dutch xAP (civ troop transports) are sunk outside Soerabaja and two small AO (Oilers) are sunk outside Darwin.   China Sporadic ground combat, we are forcing the Chinese back in the south and trying to concentrate forces elsewhere. Our small CL/DD task force investigates the french port of Kwangchowang and finds a DD and PC in the harbor.  After a short and brutal combat both the French ships are sunk without damage to our side. Soviet Union Our attacks go in on the SU borders. The northern border fort is reinforced by a Soviet rifle division arriving, however it is still in move mode and the ferocious IJA attack envelops the fort and descends upon the divisions marching columns.  The result is a massacre. The border fort holds however. In the south the border fort is surrounded and bombarded heavily losing most of its defenders, it holds another day however.  Malaya/Sumatra Let's not pretend this isn't what everyones been waiting to hear about. The Palembang invasion force gets tangled up in itself somehow and only moves a single hex in the whole day. I think the issue was chaining follow orders, I vaguely recall there were some issues with this so for the future I will endeavour to have all task forces in a group following a single TF. Anyway the invasion group shuffles forward and runs smack bang into heavy RAF strikes flying from Singapore. 150 zeroes rise to meet the strikes and do a wonderful job of slaughtering the RAF. It's worth nothing that actual casualties are usually about twice what is recorded in the text reports for some reason. The first strike of the day is ~50 fighters escorting 25 swordfish. The Zeroes tear first the escort and then the slow swordfish apart until SOMEHOW three swordfish break through to the carriers. CV Kaga appears in their sights and the last swordfish in the group puts a torpedo right into her amidships! Shortly after they are disposed of by the zeroes but the damage is done.  A second strike forms of 20 level bombers and another 50 fighters in escort. Again the zeroes pounce and slaughter the RAF. Four bombers break through to the Carriers but are completely ineffective killing only fish.  Finally in the afternoon a last heavily escorted strike rumbles in, only 10 bombers this time and it is another massacre, none even get to make attack runs.  In retaliation Betties from Kuching go after shipping, DD's and xAK's, outside Palembang.  The Dutch fighters are alert and ready and disrupt their attack, no hits (mostly because they insisted on trying to hit destroyers with torpedoes, this is difficult for obvious reasons). My carriers launch no strikes, I had calibrated strike distances to stop them going after shipping in SIngapore harbour and losing a lot of planes to the CAP there and because of the movement weirdness they had nothing in range. It could have been worse, the RAF has suffered very heavy firghter casualties today and the only damage is a torpedo hit on Kaga. The participating squadrons will also have wrecked morale and thus will be a lot less dangerous in the days ahead. I'm still a bit grumpy about it when I fire up the turn, I click through to the KB and am immediately very worried, my first reaction is that Kaga has dropped into an escort task force and is therefor going to be fairy hosed up.  However I take another look and well, see for yourself.   Holy poo poo I must be the luckiest bastard alive. I don't think I have ever seen a torpedo hit do so little damage on any ship. Kaga's old battlecruiser hull saves the day again, the damage isnt even major so it's in perfect shape. Yep, I think i'm gonna call today a win. I reorgainse the task force follow commands and order them to continue on to Palembang. DEI Sporadic attacks by dutch float planes and bombers on my Ambon invasion today, no damage and the defending zeroes score a few kills.  Naval search reports some serious trouble on the horizon however. Escorting the invasion is two BB's and three 24 plane CVE plus some cruisers so it looks like a roughly fair fight if I stick around. I think that might be Force Z, some australian flight cruisers and that RN carrier from around Singapore.  PERFECT. I have a much more serious unspotted carrier force on distant cover waiting for a opportunity like this. Despite beig a bit depleted on fuel and sorties (still okay for 1-2 days of fighting) they are ordered to break for the battle zone overnight while the invasion force withdraws north towards them. I also have about 20 subs crowding into the area, hopefully one of them gets lucky, if we can even slow the Allied forces down a bit they could be in some deep poo poo.  Tomorrow could be a interesting day. Phillipines He sweeps over my emptied out bases in the PI with P-50 again. My armies continue to move on MAnilla and Clark field. Zamboanga also falls giving me a float plane base for surveiling the southern PI.  Pacific More action here. An allied carrier task force with a weird mix of planes goes after my small invasion forces in northern Guinea. I think its probably the french CVL and 2 ANZAC flight cruisers.    Unbeknownst to them I have just finished loading my Rabaul and Port Moresby invasion forces and a rather significant Naval force is at Truk to escort them. I order my forces to sprint south to cut off the allied ships. This could be quite the haul if we catch them!  Summary Heavy losses for the allies in the air today.   Overall a good day and the promise of even more action tomorrow. What more could you ask for!
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Sep 13, 2015 20:54
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Saros posted:
Truly the allies stand no chance against glorious Nippon steel 
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Sep 13, 2015 20:59
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Do we have any aces yet?
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Sep 13, 2015 21:03
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 A single Ace but a very large number of pilots with 3 kills (list goes on for a lot longer)
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Sep 13, 2015 21:15
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186 kills and 10 losses. That's brutal, even if it's mostly buffaloes. Well done. Hopefully you take Palembang intact, that's one of the biggest game influencing dice rolls in the game.
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Sep 13, 2015 21:26
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^^Pretty good demonstration on how bad the escort malus is. Still they were up against the best of the best in superior planes so it was never going to be a good day for them. Paradigm is not going to be happy with this turn. Not at all. Writeup tomorrow I need to go to bed. 
Saros fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Sep 13, 2015 |
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Sep 13, 2015 23:53
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Oh dear, you caught him after all those fighter losses? That won't be pretty, for him.
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Sep 14, 2015 00:40
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December 16 1941: The battle of the Bismarck sea. Full combat Report Subs A good day for the silent service. Two CM (Minelaying cruisers), another dutch AO and a destroyer are hit by subs. The real score of the day is Dutch light cruiser De Reuyter. My subs sent to intercept what I thought was force Z swarm a dutch cruiser force. CL De Reuter takes a hit in the AM and then in the evening S-110 puts a full spread of four into the damaged cruiser. De Reuter is sunk with heavy loss of life.  An IJN AMC (armed merchant cruiser) and xAK (civ transport) transporting air support units are hit by dutch subs off the Malayan coast. China Nothing really to report today, sporadic ground combat usually coming out heavily in favor of the IJA. Soviet Union Attacks on the border forts continue but they stubbornly remain unmoved. I order some fighter sweeps for next turn. Malaya/Sumatra The Palembang invasion gets confused AGAIN and is separated from the main body of the carriers. The Yamato BB's and the Carriers end out at the mouth of the river while the transports are two hexes behind covered by the multiple cruiser forces. For reasons unknown the KB decides to not launch strikes against the allied shipping in the area, I really hope this doesnt end out with them getting into gun range of my carriers.  120 fighters sweep over Singapore from Kuantan. They get about 2:1 in the air and disrupt the RAF squadrons even more.  Dutch bombers come after the transport protected by LRCAP from the KB. No hits and the strike suffers heavy casualties.  Then 50 odd Vildebeast torpedo bombers go after the invasion force. I can only assume their escorts were disrupted by my strikes and the previous days carnage as the zeroes have a field day. code:The Palembang invasion should make landfall tomorrow. DEI My BB cover force for the Ambon invasion runs into a dutch surface force as it retreats. The Dutch are surprised at less than 2000 yards and DD Barker eats a brace of 40cm shells while the 14cm secondaries and AA guns on the battleships rake CL Marblehead. Marblehead also takes multiple 40cm hits as she withdraws leaving her in sinking condition. This is confirmed later in the day by overflights observing her slip under.  He has positioned his ships to intercept and Ambon landing. I have fled north to meet up with my bigger carrier force and will now turn around and dare him to do anything about it.  As you can see I have a *lot* of subs trying to chase him down. Pacific The Battle of the Bismarck sea. His carrier force is right where I hoped they would be and my carriers running from Truk at flank speed are able to get within 200miles. Multiple sightings are reported by search craft and a maximum effort strike is launched. Not many Val's for some reason. The light CAP over the carriers is brushed aside and the torpedo bombers get to work. - It is a massacre.  CVL Bearn is hit several times and her ammo and fuel cooks off before she breaks in half and sinks. CAV Melbourne is also hit and is consumed by a fireball of exploding avgas tanks. CAV Wellington takes two torpedoes and lists but is still afloat. BB Loraine a WW1 era battleship has absolutely no hope, she desperately weaves and dodges the first salvo of torpedoes but is soon overwhelmed by the number of aircraft and takes seven hits before rolling over and sinking. CL Perth is heavily damaged and CL Achillies take a single hit. Overall a bad day to be an ANZAC.  I order the carriers forward to pick off stragglers before retiring to cover the Rabaul invasion. Further north battleships are sent to support the Guam invasion which is proving so troublesome. Summary I got him completely wrongfooted. He was confident my carriers were all in the DEI and didnt even get a strike off. Coupled with the slaughter of his bombers off Palambang I feel confident saying today was a very good day indeed.   
Saros fucked around with this message at 09:57 on Sep 14, 2015 |
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Sep 14, 2015 09:54
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Beautiful, simply Beautiful.
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Sep 14, 2015 10:04
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December 17 1941: Full combat report Subs SS I-121 runs into a mine transiting the Merak strait by Batavia and sinks. poo poo. An allied xAK hits a type 88 sub mine we laid at Port moresby a week ago. Probably sunk and I suspect this one may have been carrying a squaron of French 2E (two engined) fighters as 32 of them show up as 'destroyed on ground.' A missed opportunity at Darwin, this is one of the Dutch battlecruisers, calling it a 'BB' is a bit much really as it only sports 9x 11 inch guns and Battlecruiser armor.   SS KXII, a dutch sub is hit by depth charges. Shortly after she is found by one of our Cruiser forces by Palembang on the surface and sunk by gunfire. China Not a lot of action today. Soviet Union My sweeps refuse to fly for some reason, oh well try again tomorrow. He attacks transports unloading the 16th army at Sakhalin which is tasked to occupy the oil rich soviet territories to the north. No damage to my ships thanks to the Zero CAP.  Mayala/Sumatra Not a great start to the region. He sneaks some unspotted destroyers from SIngapore to attack my amphibious force landing more air support at Kuantan. The transports are sunk including a valuble AMC (Armed merchant cruiser). I have had so much going these last few turns on I simply forgot to asign them escorts. Troop losses are also way overstated in the report I, didn't lose nearly that many men.  A destroyer detatchment then tussles with two old USN DD's on the way to bombard Muntok a Dutch base near the entrance to Palembang. It has been flying harasment stikes and i'm over it, the two forces inflict no damage on each other then my DD's give the Airfield a good working over.  Next my two cruiser forces sweep up the river to Palembang. British light cruisers Durban and Dragon are waiting for them. In a swirling and chaotic battle both allied cruisers are sunk for minimal damage to my ships. Of course CA Mikuma then runs right into a loving mine. Luckily the damage isn't too bad.    Next come the Minesweepers bravely clearing the way for the invasion force's transports. Two of them have a really bad time. code:code:code:Finally as a cheeky middle finger I sent my Battlecruiser force on a high speed run to bombard Batavia. code:Day breaks and the Malayan fighters are back over Singapore again.  They beat down the British and French CAP just in time for the IJN carriers to (FINALLY) wake up and realise they are surrounded by enemies. They rectify this in fairly short order.   Showing who are the new queens of naval warfare they sweep the seas clean of allied ships.  Finally for a last treat the German CB (Pocket battleship thing) has been wandering around in the Indian ocean looking for convoys. I have pulled her over close enough to go storming through the Merak Straits next turn guns ablaze.  Should be an interesting ride. Phillipines Some P-50 murder some Oscars 30-1, seriously.. 30-1. Boring. DEI He pulls his forces back south towards Darwin, I keep mine to cover the invasion of Ambon.  About a bajillion subs chase his ships. Pacific His ANZAC cruisers lunge for my carriers in the night but they duck south and avoid them. Morning brings more planes bearing presents.  We find and sink his cripples from yesterday.   Finally some extra excitable pilots go after shipping in and around Port moresby. A few transports are hit and we lose a handful of carrier planes. Smaller strikes claim another 2-3 transports.  The situation: The Rabaul invasion is covered by battleships and unspotted so I am confident they will be fine.  Seeing 32 French planes go down on a ship I get curious as to what they were.  loving great, the French get a P-50 equivalent as well. Thank god they never got to Port Moresby I would have had a hell ofa a time shifting them. Summary   Unpleasantly high losses of Carrier planes but I got a lot of ships too so probably worth it overall. Nice to confirm the Wellington is gone as well. Allies also lost 5 light cruisers and 4 destroyers across the turn with probably more to sink/be confirmed tomorrow. Saros fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Sep 14, 2015 |
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Sep 14, 2015 15:09
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Losses to mines seem higher than in the other LPs of this game I've read. Is this actually the case or am I just crazy?
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Sep 14, 2015 16:47
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A lot of players are pretty lazy about use and placement of mines unlike both me and Paradigm it would appear. Secondly mines by themselves are pretty easy to deal with in normal circumstances. On the offensive (sub laid or air-dropped) you have to find a base in use that doesnt have sweepers (uncommon outside the early game) and defensively you can sweep them pretty easily as it's the combination of CD guns + mines which is really dangerous. As you can see from this turn the sweepers get shot to pieces by CD fire and then the other task forces are forced to venture into unswept harbours. Also the actual reports of mine hits (when you even see them due to fog of war) are hidden away in the text file of the combat report. For some reason some sorts of mine hits and CD attacks on minesweepers dont appear in the ingame combat report.
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Sep 14, 2015 16:58
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After reading this thread and the first fifth so far of Lowpe's turnaround game I am curious about the whole fighter altitude thing. I get that higher altitude is a big advantage for planes, but what about it brings discussion of house rules into play? Are they saying the dive advantage is too good, that the planes couldn't go that high, or something else?
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Sep 14, 2015 18:11
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My understanding: the dive advantage is too good, and is calculated based on the differential between the altitudes without any sort of cap, so flying a P-50 at max altitude means it eats everything alive.
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Sep 14, 2015 18:30
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I'm honestly not sure if it's based on the differential or a simply a flat bonus. The issues with this are two really, first you simply cant dive a ww2 fighter through 10,000 feet onto a hostile fighter, you'd tear the wings off the plane trying so there really should be a limit to how far above something you can be and still receive the bonus. Secondly the altitude ratings of a plane only effect it's manouverability and not it's max speed which is the single most important stat a plane has. A lot of planes, especially early war, had absloutely terrible performance at high altitude and giving them slightly less manouverability up high doesnt really reflect that. Plane stats in rough order of importance to fighter combat goes Max speed > Firepower > Durability/Armor > > > Manouverability. Plus at altitudes like 30,000ft you need specialised planes and/or breathing gear which there's no way would have been around in the early war. Really though the issue with the P-50 and soon to be with the P-38 once he gets a squadron or two in theater is in many ways a numbers game. They are so numerous, fast and have so much firepower there's almost zero chance of a more fragile IJAAF/IJN fighter surviving the initial dive. With most allied planes you'd suffer a bit in the initial dive then it would be a turning combat where the superior Japanese pilots and manouverability would allow you to make back the kills but when P-38/50 pounce literally no Japanese fighters will be left afterwards. In a normal game you get about 20 P-38 per month for all of 1942 so the numbers you face are small enough you can just attrition them but between P-38/50 and that french fighter he's getting 130/month which is enough to totally dominate the skies wherever he chooses if employed correctly. My only defense is just what i'm doing now and be where his superfighters are not. Saros fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Sep 14, 2015 |
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Sep 14, 2015 18:40
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Saros posted:Secondly the altitude ratings of a plane only effect it's manouverability and not it's max speed which is the single most important stat a plane has. How is this a thing in this, the grognardiest of games? You'd think they would've patched it out a long time ago.
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Sep 14, 2015 18:55
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The design team is/was unbelieveably precious about their wonderful air model. It took years to get the '200 max passes' rule removed. It limited CAP vs strikes to 200 passes from the CAP against the attackers. You know what used to happen when you put together a strike package of 300 bombers? Even if they were completely unescorted and up against a thousand hellcats 100 of them would still sail through unmolested. It was loving stupid.
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Sep 14, 2015 19:03
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Now I'm curious as to how aircraft gun damage/ammo is calculated, and if it's calculated properly. Not to mention how those values are attained, when a hell of a lot of projectiles variants exist. IJN aircraft alone had something like 7 variations for their 20mm guns.
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Sep 14, 2015 19:32
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Its pretty genericised. All LMG and HMG variants are identical no matter the exact model, IJN has two variants of 20mm which are identical another Ijaaf has a army 20mm and a german 20mm which is significantly better. I think there is only one type of 30mm. There are wackier things like planes with 37mm, 40mm and a 75mm gun but they are all basically ineffective due to being inaccurate. Saros fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Sep 14, 2015 |
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Sep 14, 2015 20:06
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Jobbo_Fett posted:How is this a thing in this, the grognardiest of games? You'd think they would've patched it out a long time ago. The design team are not good programmers. Or designers.
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Sep 14, 2015 20:59
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Saros posted:Its pretty genericised. All LMG and HMG variants are identical no matter the exact model, IJN has two variants of 20mm which are identical another Ijaaf has a army 20mm and a german 20mm which is significantly better. I think there is only one type of 30mm. Now I just wish I was at my American ammunition books so I could compare with the Japanese stuff I've already posted  The only thing I recall that was terrible about the heavier cannons they used was that they were low velocity. If you could lead your target properly though... And while I'm thinking about it, maybe they didn't code in the fact that the 37mm projectile's thread was left-handed.
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Sep 14, 2015 21:07
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Alchenar posted:The design team are not good programmers. Or designers. "Team", you make it sound like there's 
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Sep 14, 2015 21:30
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Paradigm has gone silent and is taking a lot longer to get the turn back to me than usual so I will put some musings down about the game and my plans. Malaya Singapore is hosed. I have cut off a couple of Indian brigades in the north and the whole of 25th and 15th armies are going to storm the place. I anticipate it falls early January if not sooner. After the Singapore strait is open I will move on North Sumatra (lightly defended) and Port Blair (seems he's fortifying it). The DEI. Basically i'm going to take everything as fast as possible else I will run out of oil and lose. Philippines: I recently became aware that Paradigm probably gave them a lot more supply in stock. This is rather bad as normally you can park 1000-1200 AV on them and ignore them until March/April '42 when they run out of supplies and surrender. Currently I have the 14th Army assigned to the Philippines which is about 4 divisions and change which is not enough to force the Americans out of Bataan/Clark field and with extra supplies it could be a very very long time before they surrender. After Singapore falls I will assess the situation, If I can pull 25th army (4 elite divisions plus a lot of heavy arty) I can hopefully force the issue. India/Burma Right now a force is walking to Burma from Thailand. It should be sufficient to take it easily unless he heavily reinforces. I LOVE taking Ceylon because it makes it incredibly difficult for the allies to operate in that part of the world and Colombo is clear terrain so very hard to defend. It was also the only major shipyard around so damaged ships would have to go to cape town for repairs. I haven't checked if this is still true however and it's difficult to hold once the allies build the bases in southern India. Australia: I will definitely take Darwin, the road from the rest of Aus isn't sufficient to supply a decent force so it requires surprisingly little force to garrison. Plus troops crossing deserts are disgustingly vulnerable to airpower. I have turned back an entire allied armored Corps here just by bombing it to pieces as it crossed the desert. Perth is possible as well depending on how fast the DEI falls. I haven't got a lot of desire to go after the Australian East coast, maybe a quick smash and grab if I think I can wreck the aircraft factories but the AU army is a nasty beast to deal with. Pacific: I should have Rabaul tomorrow and Port Moresby (PM) inside a week. It looks like he has been fortifying PM but with his carriers and ANZAC cruiser force sunk or on the run I shouldn't have too many issues. I can land four independent brigades for about 700AV easily and if necessary I have a reserve division at Babeldoab of 450AV which is less than a week behind. He may send his Capital ships at Darwin to contest but that would mean exposing the DEI. The Various small islands are not an issue, they are not built and can be occupied at leisure. The next two redoubts south are Noumea and Fiji. I expect Noumea to be heavily fortified but I can land at the far end of the island and march on the south. I anticipate having three division equivalents for this and he simply can't being enough ground troops to stop a force like that at this point of the game. Fiji is similar except probably even less fortified than Noumea. Wake will be dealt with when I can spare the capacity and i'm more confident the US fleet carriers aren't around. Tarawa and the various ones south are the same, I want to sweep everything up all the way from the Marshall's to Fiji. The main rationale for this is if you can occupy Noumea/Fiji and the various islands it forces the Allies to make a big leap across ocean to gain a foothold. It is a LOT easier to work your way up an island chain from an existing base and you don't need to expose carriers to the superior (for now) IJN carrier forces. Soviet union It's a mess here. Once I get into contact with his main forces I can hopefully reassess the situation. Taking the oil In Sakhalin and near the Kuriles is the responsibility of 16th army (about 3 divisions). Once that is taken care of I can look at a large landing on the mainland or using this force to occupy the Aleutians.
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Sep 15, 2015 16:50
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December 18 1941 Full combat report Subs Not much action, CA Houston is spotted at Darwin. China His french airforce at Kwanchowang goes active again. A couple of transports in Hong Kong harbor are hit and a few Sonia are intercepted and shot down. Soviet union. Various sweeps net a pretty good ratio in the air.  A rifle division reinforces the border fort in the south and is thrown back with heavy casualties. Still can't take the fort for some reason.  Malaya/Sumatra CB Admiral Lutzow (German ship) sneaks up on a task force loading or unloading at Oosthaven. It is a wonderful massacre.  She then finds a smaller task force in the Merak straits and sinks them too before safely transiting the minefields and CD guns through to the Java sea, taking only three ineffectual 120mm hits from the guns that guard the straits. Not a bad start for the Germans! My Minesweepers at Palembang are wiped out by the CD guns. They sweep a channel through the mines however and we should be a lot safer for their sacrifice (minefields that have been incompletley swept are tagged as 'known' and are a lot less dangerous. We continue to beat down the CAP at Singapore. Looks like they are sufficiently depleted to send in the bombers.  Finally the Palembang assault goes in. It is less sucessful than I hoped and I suspended unloading operations to avoid the CD fire so my troops are now low on supplies. We will have to brave the CD fire for another turn to resupply them. More transports sunk (ugh).  Philippines Very little of interest happens. DEI Amphibious operations at Ambon and Tarakan. Both should fall tomorrow but we keep getting transports sunk by CD fire.  The number of transports going down despite heavy cruisers attempting to cover them is putting a serious wrench in my plans. CL's Boise, Dallas and Mauritius with three destroyers in tow attempt to attack my Ambon landings in broad daylight. Heavy weather protects them from the carriers and spotting by the heavy cover orce and they are just barely intercepted short of the transports by the light cover force.   CL's Ioshima and Ibi are outgunned, outmassed and simply outmatched by the modern USN cruisers. However they put up a valiant fight and the rain makes gunfire innacurate and they stop the Americans short of the transports. Both of my CL receive moderate damage and a destroyer is sunk of both sides. The USN cruisers are virtually unharmed.  The gunfire however attracts the heavy cover force. The steam out of the rain at high speed and cross the T of the USN ships. Boise fires her deadly rapid fire Mk 16 guns again and again and scores multiple hits on the opposing battleships and cruisers but the 6in shells are unable to penetrate their armor. The return fire and long lances are devastating and only CL Mauritius survives to flee south.  Another decisive victory for the IJN. Pacific Rabaul landing goes in. No losses to CD fire and the place is mostly abandoned. It will fall tomorrow. A couple of damaged destroyers are spotted and bombed to pieces by my carriers as they cover the Rabaul invasion. His ANZAC cruisers have somewhat worryingly disappeared.  German AMC Orion finds an allied task force south of Nauru island and lobs a bunch of shells into the transport before taking hits from the cruiser nad fleeing. She is moderately damaged and will withdraw to Truk. Recon fails to fly over Port Moresby today due to the weather.  Guam is bombarded by the first BB division and then assaulted. The disruption helps but the results are still disappointing.   Summary Bad weather shut down a lot of air ops today, hopefully tomorrow is better.   I a happy with the allied ship losses and especially the troops that went down at Oosthaven.  Mauritius is probably not sunk however.
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Sep 16, 2015 11:14
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Naval ops seems to be going well, and the air show is decent enough - those CD guns seems to be the main problem at this point. Can't afford to lose too many transports at this point, and landing ops are slowed down a lot due to damage suffered and need for heavier cover forces. Kinda hard to find any clever solutions for it... is it all the allied bases that got this massive CD boost or just the DEI/Phillies?
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Sep 16, 2015 17:13
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I expect Noumea is a proper fortress but other than that who knows. Half the reason I am having thses issues are the oil bases in the DEI. Because I need to take them intact I can't hammer them flat with a Battleship bombardment the turn the transports arrive and render the CD guns too wrecked or too disrupted to fire effectively. Honestly I think having guns at seemingly every single port in the DEI is just too much, especially when the smallest CD emplacement seems to be 18x 120mm and 21x 75mm and many have more than that including 15cm or 24cm guns. I get what he was trying to do though which is force a measured approach rather than the headlong charge you see most games but it's not like Japan suddenly gets more time to acheive all it's objectives so a slower pace is basically out of the question. The problem is partly due to the way the game works in that for example 20 CD guns is well over twice as good as 10. I am doing what I can but it's slowly but it's steadily attritioning my sealift capability, I also expect there is some serious CD firepower at Darwin, even in stock it has a handful of 9.2'' guns.
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Sep 16, 2015 17:46
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December 19 1941 Full combat report Subs Mostly quiet other than a rather spectacular miss.  FFuuuccckkkkkk so close. China He has reinforced Kwangchowang with Free french and RAF planes, they sortoie over Hong kong to ineffectively attack shipping. I task the BC group that recently bombarded Batavia (freshly rearmed at Camh rahn bay) to bombard the place and put a stop to this. Soviet Union Sweeps continue in the Vladivostok area. He is mow fielding MIG-3 which are much more capable than his older fighters and better than Oscars.  We heavily bomb an airbase at a rail junction in the north as he has massed ombers there without fighter cover. Attacks are mostly ineffective, a few soviet bombers burn on the ground.  22nd Rifle Division and 165th Hvy Howitzer Regiment wander into our assault on a fort around Vladivostok and are smashed and sent flying back. That makes three rifle divisions he has fed in piecemeal now, i'm not complaining but it's odd. Malaya/Sumatra Sweeps clear out the CAP over Singapore and then the bombers come in for the first time. He has placed squadrons on 'training' which means CAP ignores them but they have a chance to vector onto bombers. If this is on purpose its pretty poor sportsmanship and widely considered 'gamey' and manpulating the engine. If he continues i'll have to bring it up. Luckily they are set to 25-30k altitude so the bomber stream sails serenely under them.   I unload supply for the Palembang assault CL Jintsu hits a mine, she will be fine though. The CD forces also slaughter a ridiculous number of transport ships, some very valuble. I'm pretty over this at this point. - Palembang's divisions have got a huge disruption spike (50-60%) from nowhere so I will have to rest them tomorrow. Hopefully two more days of combat will see Palembang fall. Phillipines He gets bored sweeping and sets a 120 P-40 to ground attack. I'll see if I can catch them with CAP tomorrow. I haven't time to finish the post now so i'll cover the other area's tomorrow.
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Sep 17, 2015 00:22
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Continued DEI Some TF's I missed when I cancelled unloading are hammered by coastal guns and a damaged destroyer from the scrap yesterday sinks. I'll just post the days ship losses because it sums it up pretty well. Virtually all to CD fire.  He flies a few small scale strikes against the Ambon task forces, ineffective due to CAP.  Tarakan falls with its oil completely intact, hurrah!  Likewise for Miri in north borneo. Ambon holds another day but should fall quickly.  He seems to have some serious forces at Darwin and a few light ships hanging out near Timor. We will see what happenes next. Pacific Well I found at least one ANZAC cruiser. Canberra takes a large number of 250kg hits and registers as sunk.  Rabaul falls, I begin loading troops for Port Moresby at Truk, it seems heavily reinforced so I am bringing the kitchen sink.  Summary   A very frustrating day watching CD guns wreck my transports, mostly because I wasnt thorough enough to pull them all back =/ Turns are very long at this point and it's easy to miss things.
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Sep 17, 2015 13:53
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| # ? Jun 9, 2024 14:30 |
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I forgot, but are the oil producing provinces buffed too, so you get more oil out of the DEI for example? Or is it just a big batch bonus at the start of the scenario to fuel all those extra ships? How big of an issue do you think oil is gonna be, seems like a hard thing to balance when moddin in more ships.
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Sep 17, 2015 15:00
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