|
Cimber posted:Wouldn't Midway or Wake be a great forward staging point for Eastern Pacific shenanigans? In a vacuum Midway is fair to middling; it’s a bit small, but much bigger than Wake. The problem with Midway is that it’s proximity to the Hawaiian islands makes it incredibly hard to defend. One of you is at the end of a hilariously long logistic tail, and the other is sitting at a major fleet base with tons of land forces, enormous airbases and nearly endless naval and aircraft support. Midway is so close that task forces generally don’t even require oiler support. Pearl is so close that going back for fuel is a minor inconvenience. Having oiler support just means that he can park naval assets off Midway indefinitely, while you have to shuttle all the way back to Truk or the home islands for repairs.
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2021 17:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 16:16 |
|
|
  Time for some mines at Darwin then.  After a brief interlude to shoot at something worth it, we’re back to destroyers.  No, it doesn’t matter how many times you try to hit a destroyer with two torpedoes. It’s never going to work.  The airphase opens with sweep at Tezpur.  When there’s a Scythe present, anything less than getting our asses kicked is good.  He’s back with sweeps of Milne Bay already?? This could be unfortunate.  By some miracle the Nicks pull it off.  Second wave in at Tezpur is the Zeroes.   Welp, I don’t know what went wrong for them there but it was pretty catastrophic whatever it was.  Better weather over Bandoeng.  And pretty solid results.  A couple stragglers trickle into Tezpur and report no CAP left.  He’s intent on ensuring our retreat from Bangalore is as slow and painful as possible.  What happened to rough terrain bonuses? That actually hurt!  Biplanes gonna biplane.  Hudsons over Katherine???  We haven’t heard anything from the aestern flank of Darwin for ages, but it looks like he’s on the move on the ground as well.  Sweeping again at Broome.  1:1 trade is very good for him here, so I don't suppose he’ll stop anytime soon.  We really need an airfield closer than Jaffna for basing CAP out of, but Madras is going to take at least another week to be suitable.  Despite being clear terrain these Blenheims somehow all miss.  The main effort is saved for our tanks within Bangalore itself.  Thunderstorms, jungle rough and they still get a hit.  He's got bombers too at Port Moresby.  I didn’t really expect the remnants of our LRCAP to achieve anything there.  The Marauders achieve considerably less than the Mitchells.  Only one Nick left when the forts arrive.  And there’s really not much he can do.  On the other hand the weather does plenty.  Sweeping again at Madras.  We handle them as you would expect Warhwaks to be handled, but I hope there’s no torpedo bombers behind them because that must have taken most of our ammo.    Something happened at Calcutta??  Very few defenders left at Trichinopoly.  And we push them away from a valid line of retreat, excellent.  I’m sure seeing this he will attack tomorrow, but we should be out of here by then.  Again? Now this is getting serious!   Another quiet day, but a storm is definitely about to break over the Southern Pacific.  Solid here.  And quiet.  New plane available, the second Hellen model, and the first to be noticeably superior to the Sally, in particular notice it has armour. As such all of our army twin engine plants switch over, for a total production of 60 aircraft a month, although it will take us three weeks to reach full production levels.  Last month I started manufacture of the first Helen model, even though its range is rather inferior to the Sally, just to have some factories ready now for immediate production of the IIa model. This gives us enough spare frames to upgrade one of our badly depleted Sally Sentais at Chittagong.  For now Milne Bay remains in supply and making progress on the forts.   There’s resistance of some sort at Kohima.  And it looks like the 1st Tank Regiment may have bitten off more than they can chew at Patna, but we’ll hold for now and see what happens.  I think we can start hitting Tezpur again.  We’re pursuing from Trichinopoly.  We load the 37th, plus supporting armour at Singapore for Burma.  Currently the plan is to use paratroopers from Chittagong to seize a beachhead for safe unloading at Pegu, in the event that proves unfeasible we will land at Tavoy instead.  We’re sending the DMSs into Port Moresby. I’m hoping they haven’t got Dauntlesses back there yet.  And that if they have, LRCAP will be enough to protect us.  I recall the Zeroes from Derby where they weren’t being particularly useful, and send them to sweep Daly Waters. As you can see the Americans are finally making their move.  A move that we shall greet with bombs. I’m not at all worried, infact I would say I welcome this thrust at the extreme end of his logistics train, where we have two divisions plus support waiting for him.  And CAP for Katherine. I’d like to build a better runway at Katherine, but first we need the engineers concentrating on fortifications, and level one is enough for putting up CAP anyway.  Let’s get this minefield up.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2021 18:42
|
|
|
When are you going to have the KB up and ready to send to the Solomons? And how long will getting an actual buffer of Zeroes take? Or that extremely ulikely at this point due to continued operations and no real abliity to boost production?
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2021 22:47
|
|
|
I know you’ve got very few A6M3s in reserve, but do you have any A6M2s left in the pool that could refit some less-critical air groups to free up some newer airframes?
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2021 23:20
|
|
|
MrYenko posted:I know you’ve got very few A6M3s in reserve, but do you have any A6M2s left in the pool that could refit some less-critical air groups to free up some newer airframes? Does he have anything in the Philipines or Manchuria?
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2021 00:05
|
|
|
MrYenko posted:I know you’ve got very few A6M3s in reserve, but do you have any A6M2s left in the pool that could refit some less-critical air groups to free up some newer airframes? A6M3 isn't carrier capable, he's short of the carrier capable M2
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2021 05:07
|
|
|
Rogue0071 posted:A6M3 isn't carrier capable, he's short of the carrier capable M2 What MrYenko was getting at, I think, was wether Pharnakes has any land-based IJN squadrons still flying A6M2s, and wether he could upgrade them to M3s to free up M2 airframes for the carriers.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2021 14:41
|
|
|
Magni posted:What MrYenko was getting at, I think, was wether Pharnakes has any land-based IJN squadrons still flying A6M2s, and wether he could upgrade them to M3s to free up M2 airframes for the carriers. Bingo, but: Rogue0071 posted:A6M3 isn't carrier capable, he's short of the carrier capable M2 I didn’t know that.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2021 16:15
|
|
|
  A quiet night (and day) at sea, so we open with our Nells getting butchered over Daly Waters.  Or maybe not too badly butchered.  Still very much not worth it.  Sweeeeeeeeeeep!  Where are you sweep??    Free of interference, the second wave of Anns even manages to hit something.  And the Sallies do very well.  Much unlike these biplanes.  And indeed these Blenheims.  Main effort going to Bangalore today.  He could really be ripping our tank regiments down on the plains new aseholes, so I really appreciate this Bangalore panic. It’s not like we could even take Bangalore anyway.  Our planes from Gasmata are busy elsewhere today.    The Havocs might not have achieved much, but I’m afraid Fortresses are going to be another matter.   The delights of having plenty of ammo for our AA available.  Still sweeping.  And now our turn at Tezpur.  Very late, since we’re into the afternoon now, but thankfully the bombers seem to be even later.  They don’t leave much for the Zeros.  Sixteen on one, and they can’t catch the bugger   Some bombers fly, but at Bandoeng.  Reasonable results for the conditions.  Pretty drat good for six planes in the worst possible weather.  Not so good   Totally clear now, but I’m not at all sure the bombers are actually going to turn up.  Still ongoing at Bandoeng though.  Nooo, what???    gently caress.    Kirishima is becoming a god damned torpedo magnet. It was only two months ago she finished repairs from the last two torpedoes she took back in, January, was it?  OK I don’t think we’ll have any issues here tomorrow.  Bandoeng, we’re recovering nicely and just need the HQ to arrive.  Calcutta.  As expected they are nice enough to reveal their hand. ~150ish AV and I’d be tempted to press it with our tanks, but this is a little too much I feel.  Not Aunt Beru!   Another quiet one, apart from poor Kirishima.  And we got a Fortress at least.  Nothing here, yet.  Not bad at all for two torpedoes. Still, that’s at least two months in the yards. I deviate them 40 miles west to try and avoid any repetitions.  Sureko has had a bad time minesweeping, and is going to be scuttled. I don’t know if that’s some guns he’s moved in since the last bombardment, none of our bombardments have experienced any return fire.  At least they cleared four mines!  His CVs are maybe hanging out at Funafuti today?  And the Royal Navy is back to play! I got bored of waiting for them yesterday and sent the Mini KB towards Ceylon, if I hadn't we would have been three hexes from them and in perfect position to fight    He can’t see anything of ours today, which is very helpful. So I think if we dash down like this we should be just about right to catch him, and protect our shipping in the area.  Loss of this convoy for example would be absolutely catastrophic.  In a slight change of my approach from last time, and mindful of the huge quantities of fighters RN CVs tend to carry, we’re going for a 15k strike.  This hopefully gives us a slight edge in the initial dogfight, and also means the Vals will release from around 3-4k feet, reducing their accuracy but boosting their survivability significantly, which is important when attacking hedgehogs like RN capitals.  This puts the Zeros at 17k feet, which is too high for our own CAP. Therefore Junyo and Hiyo will provide escorts only.  While the CVLs will concentrate 100% on CAP.  All this excitement isn’t to distract from the war on the land, tomorrow we will be taking Kohima.  And Jorhat.  The Imperial Guards have flanked Tezpur, and since they won’t have to cross a river we’ll make them the first unit into the hex.  And we’ve occupied Silchar, meaning we can now move a couple of hundred miles further by rail before having to unpack and slog it.  I think we need to withdraw our probe from Patna for now.  We’ve caught them again outside Sambalpur.  Really I’d like to LRCAP Bangalore, but we'll settle for Trivandrum until Madras is ready.  Looks like we’ve got another bombardment of Tabiteuea coming in, I will pull all the aircraft I can back.  To counter this situation down here, we need to move the 1st Raiding Regiment from Kwajalein to Jaluit. From there they can be transported by Topsy to Tabiteuea,and then used to take back these atolls. I can’t just use Mavises from Kwajalein like we did to take them in the first place, because with contested landings we need to drop more than a couple of squads. That needs us to be close enough to use our more numerous land based transports. Pharnakes fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Aug 2, 2021 |
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2021 16:24
|
|
|
How long would it take for those atolls to be developed to the point where they could provide some form of support for an invasion of Tabiteuea? Incidentally, the only thing I can ever remember about this general region is that Tabiteuea was the site of a Crusade led by a Hawaiian pastor to install a localized form of Christianity in the late 19th Century.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2021 22:30
|
|
|
  Here comes the bombardment at Tabiteuea.  Sorry, no planes here. Better luck next time!  I stood down the bombers over Daly Waters, so of course the first action of the air phase is sweep here.  Well, in this weather the bombers wouldn't have hit anything anyway, and that has put a pretty hefty dent in his numbers for tomorrow I’d hope.  We’re rolling good on the sweeps today, with Tezpur next.  Here we do have bombers tasked, but with severe storms they probably won’t even fly.  Making Bandoeng look positively pleasant, really.  How many support squads can they have left here??  A couple stragglers at Tezpur.  And that’s it clear, in case the bombers do feel like doing something today.  Confirmation.  The good news is these raids are costing him ~20ish supplies a day.  He’s coming for Darwin. He’s coming for Darwin unescorted.    It’s only Hudsons, but that’s still ten points at least.  Bomber Harris has spared him another three Wellingtons. We’ll have to do something about that.  The main strike is on our tanks near Trichinopoly. Which just so happens to be where I put the LRCAP.  Mitchells are a tougher prospect than Hudsons however. And escorted of course.  Well, we mulched the escort and claimed a bomber or two. Good enough I think.  Trying again at Colombo.  And Fortresses are of course tougher still.  But not tough enough!  We’ve had the Mitchells, now it’s the Marauder’s turn.  Oh. That was supposed to go differently.  He’s not giving up easily on Milne Bay.  As long as they confine themselves to hitting the runway I don’t really care.  No I said the runway  We take Kohima rather easily.  A very nice result.  Looks like we got bombed rather too heavily here.  We avoid casualties at least, despite our massive disruption penalties.  Wow.  Swiftly balanced out  We’ve caught us a cavalry regiment.  And proceed to curb stomp them.  At Jorhat the Burmese surrender.   No throwdown with the RN, but a solid day all around.  And we can really use days like this to make up for the clusterfuck of the Coral Sea.  Wait, where’s Sureko? In the end I didn’t scuttle her because in a TF by herself the commander dies anyway.  But how the hell is she still afloat? And how has she made it almost 500 miles in her condition??? I’m sure she’s going to sink tonight, but if she can make it through at Milne Bay it’s theoretically possible to manage to rescue her, which would be hilarious.  The fleet has returned to Truk, and is stood down for overhaul. Apart from Kongo, we should be ready to go again in a week. Well, and Kirishima obviously, who will have to head home after some patching work.  Tabiteuea is smashed up, but I think most of this damage is left over from when we got bombed by the carriers.  We have SIlchar, and will start building an airfield here to improve the supply throughput. A large wave of artillery and some tanks have also arrived by train, and will start unpacking to move up the road to Tezpur.  No sign of them now, or is there?? That’s the first time our shipping in the Bay has had any detection in months, and he can’t have any search based at Madras now. Theoretically he could have something at Akyab or Ramree Island, but we can’t discount the possibility his carriers have turned north at full speed. Sighting Reports posted:TF 142 detects Allied Aircraft at 43,48 near Port Blair   So I’m turning the MKB north for Chittagong instead, escorting this all critical troop convoy. We cannot afford to have them caught by a carrier group.  The task force out in the middle is far less valuable, only carrying resources from India. Still, I have them turn for Trincomalee and run as fast as they can.  And send the Jaffna Zeroes to give them LRCAP.  Now we have Kohima and Jorhat, we can set off for the final two bases at Imphal and Ledo.  We’ve extricated ourselves safely from Patna, so we will use the tanks to start surrounding Jamshedpur.  I think we will push our luck here at Sambalpur, and go for an attack with the regiment that pursued.  Supported by CAS they ought to do OK.  And with LRCAP incase he tries to bomb.  The enemy has reappeared on the other side of the Tel. I don’t want him to cross and give him a free run on Vizagapatnam, but I don’t want him to notice anything different either. So we will drop from move to combat mode which will buy us a couple of days to decide what to do here.  That’s maybe slightly too extreme disruption to press the attack here, even against a basically broken enemy.  Going to set the Darwin Squadron up for a dash at Groote Eylandt tomorrow night.  I’m going to be super sneaky, and send the bombers from Darwin not to Daly Waters but to this one unit that’s ran ahead. Or maybe what will happen instead is the sweep will go over Daly Waters perfectly, then the bombers will hit here and all get slaughtered by a separate LRCAP
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2021 16:00
|
|
|
Oof, that's a good air day for you / bad one for Alikchi. Glad that Kirishima made it. I found this in my day-to-day history of the irl world war 2 at sea: quote:12.2.1940 Feb 12, 1940: British cruiser Glasgow captures the German trawler "Herrlichkeit" (splendor, magnificence). Kinda hilarious name for a fishing boat. aphid_licker fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Aug 3, 2021 |
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2021 18:08
|
|
|
BB Canada? Near Bombay? Why is she in the sunk ships list?
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2021 19:35
|
|
|
Canada got hit hard a few weeks back (eating multiple 800kg AP bombs IIRC) when the mini-KB Pearl Harbor'd the french and british BB squadron sitting in Bombay. Quite possible she sunk in harbor and the Allies now admitted the loss.  aphid_licker posted:Feb 12, 1940: British cruiser Glasgow captures the German trawler "Herrlichkeit" (splendor, magnificence). Kinda hilarious name for a fishing boat. Oi now, don't hate on some guy who probably spent his live's savings on his own boat just because he's got an enthusiastic naming sense. 
Magni fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Aug 3, 2021 |
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2021 21:46
|
|
|
Magni posted:Oi now, don't hate on some guy who probably spent his live's savings on his own boat just because he's got an enthusiastic naming sense. Oh, I'm loving it. Hope that boat is still puttering around somewhere.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2021 21:50
|
|
|
Magni posted:Canada got hit hard a few weeks back (eating multiple 800kg AP bombs IIRC) when the mini-KB Pearl Harbor'd the french and british BB squadron sitting in Bombay. Quite possible she sunk in harbor and the Allies now admitted the loss. But it's still gotta be more likely that the intel guys are sniffing glue.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2021 22:34
|
|
|
Magni posted:Canada got hit hard a few weeks back (eating multiple 800kg AP bombs IIRC) when the mini-KB Pearl Harbor'd the french and british BB squadron sitting in Bombay. Quite possible she sunk in harbor and the Allies now admitted the loss.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2021 22:40
|
|
|
MrYenko posted:Anecdote: After the game I played against Pharnakes concluded (I folded after a crippling defeat,) he showed me his Google drive folder of notes. Dude takes this game seriously. I've though about maybe doing a video of me running a turn, but I'm not sure its really that interesting. If people want me to I will, but does anyone really want to watch me ramble and scroll randomly round the map for an hour plus? If I put it in words then my turn sequence is just Watch replay whilst taking screenshots > load turn into combat reporter > read reports top to bottom taking action as appropriate > load turn into witp tracker > read reports top to bottom taking action as appropriate > read over last 2 weeks of notes taking action as appropriate, > send to Alikchi > go back and write up turn. Ghost of Mussolini posted:Is there a mod that adds newer aircraft? There is, but the thing is WitP can't handle combat between hexes, only within hexes. SO there's hard limit of 23 mile range on any weapon system, which makes any kind of modern combat even stupider than the existing ww2 combat. Cimber posted:How far ahead in the game are you from the RL date? I've just finished the turn for the 9th of September. August took us ages I think we did the first turn of August at the beginning of June, but Alikchi has sped up again recently and we've done two turns every day for nearly the last week. TheDemon posted:I've done this for Dominions 4 and for Yooper's CMANO let's plays, daily turn strategy games at a decent level are super engaging and if you let it into your brain you think about it every free moment you get. I even used a note app so that any time I have my phone I can jot note ideas, though thankfully that was not the only reason I had a note app. I mean that's why these games are fun. On the face of it it's just some truly terrible graphics and UI, it's only by fully immersing yourself in it that you find the fun. What else can offer 24 hours a day 7 days a week entertainment? wedgekree posted:When are you going to have the KB up and ready to send to the Solomons? And how long will getting an actual buffer of Zeroes take? Or that extremely ulikely at this point due to continued operations and no real abliity to boost production? It's another couple of days to finish repairs, then about 5 days from Tokyo Bay down to Truk. As for how long it takes to recover our Zeros, that depends entirely on how many we lose Magni posted:What MrYenko was getting at, I think, was wether Pharnakes has any land-based IJN squadrons still flying A6M2s, and wether he could upgrade them to M3s to free up M2 airframes for the carriers. I've already long since exhausted the possibilities of that We're producing *enough* Zeros total, so I'm reluctant to spend resources expanding M2 production when in October the lines merge back together with the development of the A6M3a, which is carrier capable. Grammarchist posted:How long would it take for those atolls to be developed to the point where they could provide some form of support for an invasion of Tabiteuea? A long time, even if h could get engineers and supplies in. I think he's just scouting more than anything, and maybe trying to confirm that we aren't doing anything with them. If he wants Tabiteuea he needs to take Tabiteuea, and I'm sure he realises that. Actually as much as anything I suspect he just got a shiny new paratrooper unit and doesn't know what else to do with them. gohuskies posted:But it's still gotta be more likely that the intel guys are sniffing glue. I'm not even going to try and speculate on the motives or otherwise of intel.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2021 23:08
|
|
|
Intel is definitely just trying to look busy to avoid reassignment to Val pilot duty
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2021 23:36
|
|
|
Pharnakes posted:I've though about maybe doing a video of me running a turn, but I'm not sure its really that interesting. If people want me to I will, but does anyone really want to watch me ramble and scroll randomly round the map for an hour plus? Not so much… Pharnakes posted:If I put it in words then my turn sequence is just Watch replay whilst taking screenshots > load turn into combat reporter > read reports top to bottom taking action as appropriate > load turn into witp tracker > read reports top to bottom taking action as appropriate > read over last 2 weeks of notes taking action as appropriate, > send to Alikchi > go back and write up turn. …But this is a better descriptor of what I was asking. I really need to get reporter and tracker running. Thanks 
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2021 23:47
|
|
|
CannonFodder posted:Ahh, I remember the raid now. Yeah, getting news like that several weeks later is odd. It happens, mostly from intel or the other side admitting the loss after a while. Canada is a really old and lovely pre-WWI battleship. She's got tinfoil deck armor and a couple 800kg AP hits blowing her straight to the bottom is absolutely believable. Magni fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Aug 4, 2021 |
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2021 01:48
|
|
|
I'd be interested in seeing an example of your notes or how you keep track of things
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2021 03:50
|
|
|
 [img]https://lpix.org/4039691/p[rom.gif[/img] Prompt sweep of Tezpur again.  Let’s hope the bombers actually fly today.  Even if the conditions aren’t fantastic.  Prince of Wales spotted!  She’s a tough nut though, and the first hit is landed on a cruiser.  Very tough. She’s dodged at least 20 torpedoes now, and shot down three or four bombers.  But it can’t last forever.   But shortly after we get our second detonation.  And unlike the first one, this seems to have actually hurt.  Albeit maybe not that much. Still, there might be more to come, and even if not there’s hope she will have been slowed enough for Nagato and Fuso to sortie from Colombo and catch her.  There’s more.  That should be Exeter hosed.  And then another on PoW.  What?? Who bought a batch of Mk14s for us to use???  But she’s lost a lot of speed now, and the hits are piling up.  Exit HMS Exeter, stage bottom   That’s maybe it for morning strikes, now it’s the army’s turn at Bandoeng.  Considerably less flashy.  And then it’s the navy’s turn to get in on ground pounding. For a wonder my cunning plan seems to have worked, instead of resulting in a heap of dead Nells.  How about the Anns?  The Anns even kill a tank! Well, probably it was a jeep, but whatever.  Back at Bandoeng, we’re a bit fragmented today.  But even these small waves are getting work done.  Clear skies for the Nicks in the CAS role.  That should all but guarantee us victory here. Well, as long as they don’t bomb, but we have the LRCAP in place for that  .And the raid on Tezpur.  A little underwhelming for the Hellen’s debut, but there is a lot of flak here.  That’s pretty much the end of these guys as an effective fighting force for at least a week.  A few more at Bandoeng.  Have you guys heard of this thing called formation flying? It’s pretty cool I hear.   He’s kitchen sinking us on the march back to Madras. We’re still in the hills for today so no actual damage.  I guessed right where the Welingtons would go!    Once would have been enough to disrupt our movement, so why is he pounding us here instead of out on the plains around Trichinopoly?  Oh, OK, He’s trying that too.  With indifferent success.  Really those Zeroes were supposed to be LRCAPING our ships, but I think if their carriers were around we’d know about it by now.  Milne Bay is up next.  It’s going to take him a loooong time to bomb us out again at that rate.  Still morning phase, but we’ve got one more wave to throw at PoW it seems.  No, that is not Prince of Wales.  This, on the other hand…  WitP does not model the flaw with the KGV’s secondaries where they become useless as the ship lists.  AA or no, two more is too much and she plunges as we merrily mob another destroyer.  It’s still a complete mystery what the hell she was doing here. Why on earth isn’t she escorting the carriers for example? Although this does mean he can’t have any fast battleships in the west anymore, and thus maybe his carriers might be susceptible to surface action from ours.  PM and we’re back to bully the escorts.  But without result.  The biplanes hit something?? Too bad it’s not our tanks but instead the infantry we moved up to contain Darjeeling.  Back to torpedo school with you.  At least with PoW and Exeter gone we aren’t losing any to flak.  Emerald is a slippery little bugger.  And that’s it for the air.  More cruisers in bound to Ndeni. Maybe to bombard Lunga again?  Less dramatic than yesterday, but we’ve had enough drama probably.  Looks like this should be easy.  It was. There can’t be much left of the 3rd Cav now.  Calcutta is back to being quiet.  And Jamshedpur.   Well. That was a good day, although I’m left with a nagging feeling that it was Alikchi’s fuckup rather than my triumph.  Only thirteen Betties and Nells, I thought that would be worse. Positively surgical compared to our attempts on West Virginia.   Prince of Wales is a truly modern battleship, and apart from our own Yamatos and maybe Richieleu, the best in service. Not sorry to see her go.  I forget exactly what it is that Exeter did that annoyed me so much, was it a raid on Trincomalee maybe? All I remember is I hate her and I’m glad she’s dead  Canada might have ten 14” guns, but is otherwise in no way comparable to PoW, or even to Australia & New Zealand.  Intel’s theory that she sank last night a couple hundred miles off Bombay is plausible enough, we certainly hammered her a month back and there’s no drydock at Bombay large enough so she would have been forced to try for Cape Town.  Our first new launch in a while.  I really don’t get what PoW was supposed to be doing. The only vaguely rational reason for her to be there would be to bombard Colombo, in which case she would just have run face first into Nagato & Fuso, who he can perfectly well see here, and has been able to see for at least a week.  Hnnnggg so close to 50% forts here. Otherwise quiet in the area apart from a few cruisers that have been hanging at Ndeni for a few days.  The 14th army will arrive at Batavia late tomorrow, and start unloading the day after. Two or three days until we can make another push on Bandoeng, and see how this command chain stuff will work for us.  Jesus loving christ on a fuckstick.  One more hex and they would have been in range    As we are running this flotilla with only properly militarised transports, we are at least fast. So we can have them run all the way up to Pegu tomorrow.  While the Mini KB can swing around to block him. There’s no particular reason to think he will come this way, since he can’t see anything we have, but I’m taking no chances. It’s also quite possible he’s got some kind of decrypt telling him there’s an invasion fleet around here.  After today’s work I’m going to stand the bombers at Trincomalee down for some rest. If their carriers get even one hex closer we’ll have the Nells suicide training into them, and the Betties too if they come within 17.  One more hex to Imphal.  Two of our tank units will pursue the 3rd Cavalry.  While our 48th recon turns north to block the rail line into Jamshedpur.  This turn we were supposed to start recon of Pegu, to drop paratroopers next turn and land the day after. That has been thrown off a bit by the need for the amphibious ships to go to flank through the night, so I’m just going to blindly drop on Pegu. I’m almost certain it can’t be significantly, if at all, defended.  Takao & Nachi are making a run in at Groote Eylandt.  LRCAP again at Milne.  And sweep of Port Moresby.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2021 16:51
|
|
|
Anything smaller than a CA is just a nightmare for Torpedo Bombers to actually hit, or so says my Rule the Waves experience. Even CAs are kinda tricky. It always feels like TBs are good for a short window of time (during which they're terrifying) before becoming outmatched by flak and other defenses. Just 'this was a critical weapon during the most important war in human history' is a hell of a window to have been effective for.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2021 17:01
|
|
|
Those yuge Soviet antiship missiles seem like their successors in spirit? Increased range etc but fundamentally it's still a means to ruin a capital ship's day that you can hang off a plane. Holy crap the big moments just keep coming. Congrats on nailing (another) battleship and good luck for Pegu / the possible carrier encounter.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2021 17:19
|
|
|
Well, soviet SSM were more inspired by Kamikaze than by TBs. Planners soon noticed the devastation wrought by crashing what's essentially a can of Avgas with a warhead attached into a ships superstructure. At sufficient speed, they would punch through even heavy flak. Heavily armoured ships were on their way out, which negated the need for AP-warheads. http://www.admiraltytrilogy.com/read/Kamikazes-The_Soviet_Legacy.pdf this pretty much sums up the thoughts going in the soviet fetish for big missiles.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2021 19:42
|
|
|
This thread brightens my day in my darkest hours. Never had a darker hour than the Prince of Wales is going through right now, but still.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2021 19:43
|
|
|
What a cursed boat.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2021 23:23
|
|
|
Well she lasted about a.. 7/8 months more than historically.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2021 23:30
|
|
|
Kodos666 posted:Well, soviet SSM were more inspired by Kamikaze than by TBs. Planners soon noticed the devastation wrought by crashing what's essentially a can of Avgas with a warhead attached into a ships superstructure. At sufficient speed, they would punch through even heavy flak. Heavily armoured ships were on their way out, which negated the need for AP-warheads. The really big soviet AShMs were actually plenty able to break through armor anyway. Those things were designed to bust the Iowas or fly halfway through a supercarrier before detonating. For example, the P-15 had a gigantic hollow-charge warhead (several feet wide!), placed behind the main rocket fuel tank for max incendiary effect. And the warhead of the P-700 basically looks like they took a Fritz X and made it bigger, and then placed it behind the ramjet engine to use that as an additional penetration aid.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2021 23:35
|
|
|
Is the Repulse still afloat? I don't recall her sinking, but this has been a pretty eventful war.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2021 02:44
|
|
|
It's like he wants Pharnakes to win. Sure, lets take the remnants of the royal navy on a leisurely cruise along the scenic Indian coast, what could go wrong
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2021 07:41
|
|
|
  We’ve had a submarine on patrol in the bight for months without getting a contact, and then they flub their first opportunity  At the other end of Australia we’ve caught them at Groote Eylandt.  A lot of ineffectual banging away from Makigumo as we close the range, but then she redeems herself in style.  Cushing is missing everything forward of the bridge, but Makigumo isn’t the kind to stop kicking just because you’re down.  She is quickly deprived of her target though.  As the cruisers finally open fire on the transports.  Transports full of guns, apparently. GPFs and 90mm AA, let’s hope.  Bonk.  First time we’ve seen a submarine in the Marshalls in a long time.  Not bonk  Only one hit from a spread of four, and this close to Soerabaja she just might manage to limp to safety.  Sweep at Port Moresby. Not nearly as much opposition as I’d anticipated.  Outnumbered 10:1 against Zeros is not a good prospect for Warhawks.  A good day for bombing Bandoeng.  And good results.  That’s a lot destroyed.  Escorts in India are again focusing close to Bangalore.  We’re still in the mountains, so they aren’t going to hit much.  Lunga is going to receive a maximum effort raid today I think.  We take a heavy toll, and conditions do not favour them.  And we go for them again on their way out.  I think we can say that was not worth it for them.  Milne alos is facing a wall of heavy bombers.  The Nicks focus too much on the Fortresses, and as a result the raid gets through intact.  It fails to inflict significant damage though.  Dauntlesses!  I do love the smell of burning Dauntlesses in the late morning.  They should really have sent the escorts here, not that it would have done much good.  We bag four  They aren’t finished with Lunga yet.  This is shaping up to be a good day.  For the cherry on top, sweep is ontime at Daly Waters.  Now all we need is the bombers to fly.  And fly they do. [img]https://lpix.org/4040356/ann].gif[/img] The Anns are staying on yesterday’s target, since that is within their full load range.  It gets them results.  The Sallies are the star of today’s show though.  One day maybe we should do something about this, v0v.  Yes, we are still in the mountains. No, you are not going to hurt us.  I’m surprised they didn’t surrender, but the road to Imphal is now clear.  Not long now.  If only we could say the same here  Although he does seem to be moving something out of Howrah towards Jamshedpur..  Pegu is defended, but it’s only militia.  Op mode (-)   That was a good day.  He only gets around 35 Dauntless a month, so that’s a pretty healthy chunk of August’s allowance gone already.  Shame about Yubari Maru, but we’ve made it up.  We finished the first airstrip on Shimushiri Jima. With its central location and potential for a large airfield, Shimushiri Jima will anchor our defence of the Kuriles.  The 14th Army is unloading at Batavia.  Our cruisers didn’t go home quite the way I wanted them to, which has resulted in them being well within Dauntless range of Groote Eylandt, but nothing seems to be available to hit them.  The US flattops seem to be heading for Pearl.   The Royal Navy is safely leaving the area. We certainly don’t have the fuel to chase, and the paratroopers could use the support at Pegu, so let’s go and do that.   Standard CAS orders for when we don’t anticipate heavy AA.  And yes, I’ve done the forget to unpack thing again. Still, it’s only one day for them to unpack, they will receive extensive reinforcements and support tomorrow, we should be fine to take the place.  On to Imphal, where recon is confident we face only the shattered remnants of the BFF brigade. Whoever would think we could just casually stroll up the road from behind to take Imphal  They look to be in full retreat towards Raipur, so I change our regiment back to move mode.  And it would be a shame if something were to happen to disrupt their retreat, right?  Looks like Lunga is in for a flattening, and since we have no battleships in the area I will simply withdraw the airgroups to Shortlands.  Since it won’t be safe in the Solomons tonight, we will do a supply run to Milne instead.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2021 16:55
|
|
|
I'm surprised he hasn't landed his invasion yet of Tabiteuea in the Gilberts. And with those carriers heading back to Pearl it looks like you have bought yourself some time to get the KB down to Truk and be ready to smack his fleets around.
Cimber fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Aug 5, 2021 |
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2021 18:12
|
|
|
  At last.  Let this be an end to our dry spell   Err, well, I wasn’t expecting quite such a quick response.  Critical damage, and looks like we’ve wrecked a prop shaft.  gently caress you Colorado, that should be you back in the yards for another three months, minimum.  I-159 back to finish what she started.  That’s my girl.  On time sweep again? Someone up there really is shining on us.  Beaufighters might have the firepower, but they lack the speed that makes Lightnings and Scythes such bullshit.  On time at Tezpur as well.  Today is going almost too well.  Ahhhh, now that’s more what I’m expecting.  Although remarkably light losses, in the circumstances.  One last Hurricane left at Tezpur.  Should be clear for the bombers now, apart from the clouds.  No better at Bandoeng.  Still doing some damage though.  The Nells find no opposition over Daly Waters.  It can’t be long until he realises this is completely hopeless for him.  The mini KB launch their strike on the defenders of Pegu.  That should do it, OP mode (-) or no.  The Nicks with one 20mm and one 12.7mm aren’t particularly impressive at this.  But the 250kg bombs get results, despite the weather.  Then Tezpur.  I think that’s the first solid blow we’ve managed to land here.  The flak is still causing us problems though.  An impressive effort from the Anns here, given the weather.  This on the other hand is just feeble.  And that’s not much better!  Like I said we can’t really kill a unit from the air, but we can certainly reduce it to a shattered wreck incapable of mounting any kind of offensive.  We’re out of the mountains now, and consequently they actually hurt, a bit.  Having our movement disrupted here isn’t great, but the other tank unit here should be able to keep going at full speed.  Or not  I’m surprised we still have any Nicks in the air.  Well, one less now.  And they’re restarting sweep at Broome.  This should get us revenge for Milne Bay.  I uhh, what? Evens? How???  Their CVs were not, in fact, going to Pearl  That’s a lot of bombers.  But remarkably light damage.  But not as light as the biplanes.  Missed, and in shallow water. Could we, maybe?  We could not.  That’s the weakest result we’ve had in months.  It drags on.  Something happens at Jamshedpur, but I’d have kind of preferred if it didn’t, really.  Final chance at Pegu. If this fails, we’re screwed. We’d never land at Tavoy in time to march up here and rescue the snlf.  I needn't have worried.   I’m calling that another good one.  We didn't do great in the air though. Surprisingly it’s the Zeros not the Nicks taking the brunt of it.  No intel, no we did not sink Colorado.  Repair of the airfield at Madras has proceeded far enough for it to be a valid base, at least for some single engine fighters.  He’s getting serious at Tabiteuea, as here comes another bombardment if I’m not mistaken. The place is thoroughly wrecked, but he is now on an extremely tight schedule to land, fight and win.  Why’s that you ask? Well, all five of our original carriers are done with their refits and are heading for Truk.  So if he doesn’t get Tabiteuea wrapped up in a week, we’re going to catch the invasion flotilla at sea, and that would be bad. From his perspective, anyway.   The lagoons at Truk are absolutely crammed with everything from destroyers to battleships, all surrounded by lighters and tenders at frantic work to prepare the fleet. Not everything is going to be ready in a week, but most of the important stuff should be, including of course Yamato & Musashi.  It seems he’s thought better of an attack towards Darwin. Enjoy your 1000 mile slog back to anywhere meaningful, losers. I kind of regret going in so hard with the bombers now, it would have been better to lure him into contact   The 14th army HQ is full ashore, and catching the train down to Kalidjati, from where they will be in range to oversee Bandoeng.   Now we have Pegu the landings can proceed. This is in fact to the original schedule, just with a bit of hurry up and wait in the middle  The Raiu division will sweep south to take Moulmein from whatever militia is holding it, freeing the 17th and the armour to push straight for Rangoon.  The MKB is returning to Georgetown for fuel.  Where they will be joined by Mutsu and Shoho.  The only thing we can do to reinforce Tabiteuea right now is send in paratroopers, but it’s so remote only our tiny hikotai of Mavis transports have the range to reach.  Except it isn’t, quite. There’s also this tiny little airstrip at Mili, which is in range for our army transports, and fortunately I’d had the foresight to send the 1st raiding regiment here a couple of days ago, for just this necessity. Our transports are going to take horrible attrition with his carriers there and the runway wrecked, but what can you do. I very much fear we’re about to see an entire division or so landing, in which case we’re just throwing these men to their deaths, but if they can just hold out until the KB arrives it would be a massive victory for us.  The only other thing we can do is send some cruisers to be ready to make a potential night run on an amphibious fleet. We have no battleships ready for a minimum of three days, five to have enough for a fleet.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2021 17:06
|
|
|
Cimber posted:I'm surprised he hasn't landed his invasion yet of Tabiteuea in the Gilberts. And with those carriers heading back to Pearl it looks like you have bought yourself some time to get the KB down to Truk and be ready to smack his fleets around. Guess not 
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2021 17:17
|
|
|
Oh god the cliffhangers these last couple weeks have been amazing 
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2021 17:27
|
|
|
Pharnakes posted:
“Moving Northwest.” I saw that when I read the update yesterday, and figured you just linked the wrong screenshot. Whoopsie.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2021 20:27
|
|
|
MrYenko posted:“Moving Northwest.” I noticed this when I was making my editing pass yesterday, but left it in because at the time that's what I interpreted it as. I was wondering if anyone would pick it up. steinrokkan posted:It's like he wants Pharnakes to win. Sure, lets take the remnants of the royal navy on a leisurely cruise along the scenic Indian coast, what could go wrong Ask him on twitter, but I think he said they were supposed to move to Cochin not Trivandrum, and he mis clicked. Presumably if they had gone to Cochin their journey would have been short enoguh for them to safely auto disband into port. Grammarchist posted:Is the Repulse still afloat? I don't recall her sinking, but this has been a pretty eventful war. Almost certainly. I was rock solid convinced she'd gone down because we hit her with 4 torpedoes one morning in December and never saw her in the afternoon, but Alikchi leaked that she was still afloat a few months ago. Grammarchist posted:This thread brightens my day in my darkest hours. Never had a darker hour than the Prince of Wales is going through right now, but still. If your only solace is a witp LP that's a pretty dark place you find yourself in friend Grumio posted:I'd be interested in seeing an example of your notes or how you keep track of things quote:23/07/42 Tats the last two weeks of notes, covering up to this turn. In notes I reference the in game displayed date, so 07/08 is the notes I wrote as I played this turn just posted. Night10194 posted:Anything smaller than a CA is just a nightmare for Torpedo Bombers to actually hit, or so says my Rule the Waves experience. Even CAs are kinda tricky. Torpedo bombers are pretty obsolete by 44 really, just as they were in real life. they had to be broken out to deal with Yamato and Musashi, but after that the USN was using ever greater quantities of fighters with bomb capabilities, and of course the Japanese had already switched to (manned) AShMs.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2021 20:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 16:16 |
|
|
What are your thoughts on management of escort floatplanes? Do you bother splitting them to search and ASW, or straight search? Do you direct them, or just 360° search? Speaking more about battleship floatplanes, and less about Japan’s floatplane cruisers. (Which were designed as a significant scouting force for the carriers.) I always feel like my float scouts are a bit wasted.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2021 21:10
|
|