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What the hell is a Scythe (IB?)? I can't find a single result for it on Google or Wikipedia. Was it some kind of plane that never made it past prototype IRL that you added in the mod?
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Jan 16, 2021 12:57
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sum posted:What the hell is a Scythe (IB?)? I can't find a single result for it on Google or Wikipedia. Was it some kind of plane that never made it past prototype IRL that you added in the mod? Supermarine Type 325
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Jan 16, 2021 13:53
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Pharnakes posted:Note the complete absence of flak, an indication of their AAA (and thus everybody else) units being out of supply. I love these small asides that are really revealing of the attention to detail Pharnakes is giving to the game. "well from the increased number of handkerchiefs that were coming out of Group 36's laundry pile I think their pilots might have the sniffles, so let's commit an additional Sentai to the sweep in the hopes of overwhelming them while some of their pilots are staying home with just the flu"
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Jan 16, 2021 14:11
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Toilet paper requisitions at Clark's Field are up 50 percent, but we haven't seen any ships docking or troops marching in. They may be literally making GBS threads themselves to death, so let's try to help that along, shall we?
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Jan 16, 2021 14:46
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Alchenar posted:Did the mod change much with regards to shipping availability? Tankers and Oilers are like gold dust in the first two years for the allies. It doesn't add any at all for him. I get maybe 20% more tankers overall, and, unlike in vanilla I actually get oilers. The tanker loses I've inflicted on him are very far from crippling but I'm quite happy with them all the same.
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Jan 16, 2021 19:46
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  O25 misses our subchaser, and our sub chasers fail to chase.  He’s found another batch of Fokkers from somewhere. How many of the bloody things do the Dutch get in this?? At least they are terrible.  A second, smaller wave does well too.  The Oscar is less dominant than the Zero, but still superior to the Warhawk, found flying CAP over Rangoon in chinese markings for some odd reason. Note: In the mod it is assumed the flying tigers volunteered for Britain instead, and were busy in the desert in late ‘41. This is their arrival, but why they use H81s instead of Kittyhawks I don’t know.  Our sweep of Medan goes about as well as it can against Scythes.  The AVG do some sweeping of their own. Interestingly it looks like they are flying from Central Burma, not Rangoon.  Some Sallies find the CAP reduced but by no means eliminated. They then get eliminated in turn.  Still no apparent effect at Kuala Lumpur, but at least we don’t take too much damage at 10k feet.  A wave of Sallies manages to score some hits. This is the first time at Kuala Lumpur I think.  A second wave of Sallies then gets butchered over Rangoon. Today is going to hurt in the air.  Fortresses fly from Kendari to hit the wells at Samarinda. I hate taking oil damage but it’s only one hit and the Kido Butai is about to render the Kendari airstrip thoroughly unfunctional.  He tries bombing the airstrip at Cagayan for some reason. Maybe the three Vals I based there are being over reported?  Stop dieing to stupid poo poo! I hate this “worthless 1vp bait with CAP over it trick”.  The medium bombers from Balikpapan begin softening Kendari for the landings.  The LRCAP trap over Ambon produces results at least.  I-173 lands a nice hit on a large auxiliary. If she would have just launched more torpedoes she probably would have sunk it even!  A bombardment at Kuala Lumpur goes poorly for us, but it turns out that is because the defenders consist primarily of artillery regiments. We could direct assault and win here easily, but we will wait until we have totally surrounded them first.  At Taiping we get our revenge by outright destroying a squad. Unprecedented!  Ambon goes “well” for us too. Now if only the KB planes had decided to actually do something, and the Sallies and Nells hadn’t congalined into deathtraps    At least those army points from yesterday make up for it.   20 loving Sallies   Well that doesn’t help much.  The 3rd KuS-1 based at Balikpapan are becoming a serious bunch of bad asses.   I decide to make life hard fo the poor sods at Lingayen before they can run off into the jungle again. All the light aircraft based here will hit them tomorrow and then the troops will shock attack. Since Lingayen is a clear hex this should work very well.  I decide the KB is safe enough where it is for splitting off the Kongos to bombard Kendari, since the air groups won’t do it.  Recon of Koepang reports 12 bombers and a moderate - large amount of troops. He will probably evacuate those bombers though since he can see us coming now.
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Jan 16, 2021 22:51
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  Destroyers blockading Manila Bay sink a random xALK that has been hiding who knows where. Let's hope this was Macarthur's evacuation boat.  The result at Kendari is less spectacular than I would like, but we do score a few patrol boats at least.  Seadragon gets better luck than Sealion. This is a giant convoy of transports moving to Batangas, which is just south of Manila bay and thus outside the sweep of the guns at Corregidor. At Batangas we can safely load the more critical troops to move on from Luzon to other areas,without having to wait to fight our way down Bataan peninsula.  CAP over Soerabaja is severely reduced today, and we reduce it even further. Soon we can start bombing the airfield I hope.  Despite outnumbering them more than 3:1 we still can’t score a Scythe at Medan.  A second wave over Soerabaja partly compensates.  Subsequent waves at Medan find no opposition though. You can't shoot a plane down if it doesn’t fly   Even our most modern version of the Oscar struggles on the offensive.  We start roughing up the straggler Philippine division at Lingayen.  Where the hell did these arseholes spring from??  For some reason there were some undeclared Oscars involved in this fight, who down the last Kittyhawk after the others left for resupply.  No opposition at Taiping though. Rather irritating really because I had certainly intended and though I had, put every bomber onto Taiping since nothing seemed to be getting achieved at Kulala Lumpur. Oh well, C’est le WitP.  He continues to have fun bombing bases I have no intention of using.  I have no idea what the gently caress is going on here. He (city) bombed Makassar and hit a 46cm gun somehow????  I can only think this must be some kind of database lookup error. I hope it isn’t desync.  The airworthy Banshees fly from Kendari to attack the approaching convoy, but we have LRCAP up to blunt their attack at least.  Goddamn Fortresses sail through a cloud of Zeros at Koepang like our planes are gnats. Thank god they suck at naval bombing. And are big fat targets for DP guns.  Dutch nonsense on the other hand doesn’t stand a chance.  American nonsense persists in bombing Cagayan.  AMc Bogor’s extremely bad not good day. In fact the very first Val to release hits her dead on obliterating her entirely. An AMc is a coastal minesweeper, good for nothing other than keeping stealth mines out of bases, but a kill is a kill I suppose.  Some Banshees turn up to die as well.  Zeros sweeping from Balikpapan find only two Warhakws over Kendari, and put both of them down. It would be nice if the KB would actually fly sorties against Kendari today. If that’s not too much to ask.  The bombers from Balikpapan show up in the afternoon, and thankfully there is no renewed PM CAP. I had debated putting them on airfield orders instead, but then I thought; nah, surely the KB won’t sulk for two days in a row. Let’s see how wrong I was!  Thankfully for once I wasn’t wrong. Not many aircraft outright destroyed but hopefully a whole lot that will never fly again as they can’t be repaired before we take the airfield.  We hopefully pin a few Fortresses down at Koepang too.  A PM strike of Banshees on the Kendari convoy takes no casualties despite being engaged by the CAP. Oh well, maybe they will all crash later trying to land on the cratered mess that is the Kendari strip.  We claim one from a smaller wave at least.  Seadragon!  I hate it when their submarine captains engage with all their tubes. Seadragon fired all four in both attacks, scoring two hits each time, but with one dud.  We push ashore at Koepang in the face of moderate opposition.  And we are landing at San Jose on Panay.  Despite a massive advantage on clear ground the result at Lingayen is rather tame. Oh well, we’ll get them tomorrow if they haven’t marched out the hex by then.  I should really get better at remembering to cancel undesirable bombardment attacks.  A bombardment at Koepang goes minorly in their favour, but we have tanks here and they don’t, which should prove decisive.   A quiet day mostly. But hopefully some big consequences to the landing at Koepang.   Slightly busier in the air, and slightly in favour. But the Oscar is obviously going to have to be stood down from offensive action over Rangoon. The Tojo can’t arrive fast enough.  Losing transports always hurts, but at least she wasn’t loaded.  And Sagimi Maru is a big girl, not about to be sunk by a single torpedo.  Supplies at Ambon are holding up well. We had less than 3k to start with so we aren’t going to run out for at least another week.   Against that much opposition even our tanks will need help. I’d rather avoid the inevitable runway damage that will come from a battleship bombardment, so the KB will come down to be within range and we will hit Koepang with every carrier bomber we possess. This should hopefully inflict enough disruption if not outright casualties to decide the issue.  I change the bombers at Balikpapan over to keeping the airfield at Kendari suppressed.  I notice that he isn’t sweeping at Raheng, so I try some LRCAP there.  The SNLF have finally arrived back at Manado. I load them up again and point them at Bandjermasin - we need eyes on Western Java.  And an invasion of Kuching. Nagato might seem like overkill but I’m pretty sure there’s 6” guns here and after Rabaul I’m not taking chances with 6” guns.
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Jan 17, 2021 19:36
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doesn't WITP do that thing where there's two MacArthurs, one that exists in the Manila garrison and another that "spawns" in Australia just to model his evacuation.
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Jan 18, 2021 07:34
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Indeed it does yes. Fucker just won't stay down.
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Jan 18, 2021 15:41
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So if you evacuate the guy from Manila you have two?
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Jan 18, 2021 19:04
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Honestly not sure how that works. Knowing witp, quite possibly.
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Jan 18, 2021 19:37
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  The shore Batteries at Koepang continue to extract a price.  Searaven takes a completely ineffectual depth charging.  A lone DMS crossing from Balikpapan to Makassar for minesweeping gets torpedoed instead.  We arrive at Kendari.  I ordered a sweep of Taiping in case he would manage to guess I was shifting the bombers to here.  There are only two fokker heavy fighters over Medan today, but somehow they both manage to escape from a horde of Zeros.  Two Scythes fly at Sabang, and of course we don’t manage to shoot them down.  The KB strike arrives over Koepang.  Let’s hope they at least managed to cause some disruption.  Kaga & Ryujo’s contribution arrives immediately after.  The Anns maintain the pressure over the last active fighting on Luzon.  And we bomb Taiping to little if any more effect than at Kuala Lumpur.  A wave of Sallies does manage to achieve something at least.  We catch some Blenheims over Chiang Mai and down a couple.  Whatever’s left of the 31st Philippine Army Division still refuse to surrender, although at this point they are incapable of offering effective resistance.  Thank god we brought tanks here, we are going to need them. And continuous air support. And probably battleship bombardment    Not much to say really.  Extremely quiet.  I am seriously going to run out of DMSs, which is annoying as they are quite useful.   What’s all this then?? I don’t have anything in the area to respond on the surface but I put the Betties at Roi Namur on high alert, to attack with torpedoes at 1000ft. If there are carriers around their best bet is to try and get under the radar and CAP.  Struck by what a genius idea this is I decide to apply the same principle to our problems around Malaya. I can see ships out there but the bombers keep getting slaughtered by CAP going after Sabang. I had had them set to the “default” of 10k feet though, by lowering them to 2k they should be able to slip in under a high CAP if they do get tunnel vision on the PT boats again. And if he brings his CAP down to match then they will get slaughtered by our sweep, even if they are Scythes.  I put together a TF with oilers to head for Makassar. I had hoped to have the place swept of mines before risking my precious oilers there, but that isn’t going to happen now. The KB will need fuel the turn after next probably, and I don’t want them to have to return all the way to Balikpapan for it.  We are going to pound Koepang night and day with four battleships plus all the carriers again in an attempt to get this over with quickly. I’d really much rather the solution to Ambon doesn’t become Ambon 2.0 I also set the ground troops to shock attack. This is prehaps very stupid, but possibly also very genius   The 21st & 35th divisions are off the transports at Bangkok, and can rail down to Johore Bahru. Pharnakes fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Jan 18, 2021 |
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Jan 18, 2021 20:58
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Are you losing more airframes than him, or does he just have a greater diversity of airframes? I see that his aircraft loss points are higher, but then I look at the aircraft loss numbers and see 250 Zeroes, 100 Betties, etc. without any Allied aircraft having such big numbers.
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Jan 19, 2021 15:42
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The Allies have way more different airframes, seeing as Japan is fighting China, the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands simultaneously. Admittedly, I don't think China has its own planes, but that's still three different countries worth of separate plane lineups.
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Jan 19, 2021 16:35
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Zurai posted:The Allies have way more different airframes, seeing as Japan is fighting China, the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands simultaneously. Admittedly, I don't think China has its own planes, but that's still three different countries worth of separate plane lineups. China uses a mix of US and Russian planes, so its more about if the airframes were named anything different and if that is tracked in separate pools or not (and knowing this game, they should)
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Jan 19, 2021 16:39
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Pirate Radar posted:Are you losing more airframes than him, or does he just have a greater diversity of airframes? I see that his aircraft loss points are higher, but then I look at the aircraft loss numbers and see 250 Zeroes, 100 Betties, etc. without any Allied aircraft having such big numbers. Like others have said, yeah it's a diversity thing. I have only one front line fighter, the Zero, the Oscar in two variants as a backup, 2 kinds of Sally, 1 Liz, 1 Betty, 1 Nell, and the Mavis for patrol. And that's about it. He for example has 8+ Catalina variants alone between different models, some of which are then in service with multiple nations. Plus at least half a dozen different designations for a P-40, ect. And thats just the lend lease stuff, there's also all the indigenous Dutch and British stuff as well. Overlall despite my bitching about Scythes we are doing very well in the air, we are pushing the offensive hard but still coming out ahead on losses despite that.
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Jan 19, 2021 19:32
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How dare you poo poo on the Ki-44
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Jan 19, 2021 20:19
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I would love to be able to poo poo on a Ki-44, but sadly I can't yet because it doesn't arrive until June 
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Jan 19, 2021 20:33
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How dare you not speed up its research AND production!
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Jan 19, 2021 21:34
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  Our girls open up for the first phase of the bombardments at Koepang.  Not bad but will it be enough?  The gently caress is this poo poo? A situation where a DMS could get torpedoed and it didn’t happen? Fake news.  Unsurprisingly there is still no CAP over Kendari. I should probably tell these pilots to do something else.  What is surprising is the dregs of the CAP left at Soerabaja manage to trade evenly.  We manage to return the favour against Scythes at Sabang at least.  Some Betties waste their time going after PT boats, but at least none of them get shot down by the lone Buffalo still in the air.  A second wave at Sabang continues the even exchange. When we are fighting only Scythes like this the Zeros do ok, I’m happy with 1:1. It’s when the Scythes have other things round to be bait what usually happens is we trade Zeros for obsolete crap, and that's not ok.  I’m hoping this is just FOW and that the entire might of the Kido Butai achieved something other than chasing half a squad into a bunker. It probably isn’t.  The mini KB again performs fractionally better despite the much smaller strike package.  Anns continue to fly CAS at Lingayen.  And we need to start bombing Singapore airfield again. There’s nothing we can do about this flak, it’s just a price to be paid to take a city this fortified. If it was anywhere else we could try naval bombardment with plenty of minesweepers along, but the 15” guns at Singapore make that a non starter.  At Taiping nothing much continues to not happen.  He tries to hit Raheng today and the Oscars rough up the escort nicely. The bombers get through but that’s whatever the point here is grubbing kills not protecting some rice farmers.  A belated sweep arrives to bully a lingering Oscar, Hahahahahahah how do you like it now when it’s your strike getting butchered before the sweep, bitch.  No contact at Medan today.  Our plan to get under the Scythes works flawlessly and he is down three bait ships.  Unfortunately the Betties at Balikpapan are still set at 10k feet, and the CAP over Soerabaja is renewed in the afternoon.   Fortunately some of the bombers are sensible enough to go and provide tactical support at Kendari instead of suiciding over PT boats.    Solid progress at Kendari at least.   Sucks having to fly into the flak over Singapore but, I suppose war kind of sucks really.  The Bettys on the other hand I do have a choice about and this is just stupid.  Sinking four ships in a day sounds impressive until you look at what they actually are.   Welp, we obviously need more men at Koepang, which has indeed become Ambon 2.0  At least we now have the men available and the gun batteries at Koepang aren’t so powerful. They also aren’t going to be constructing any larger forts anytime soon.  We are moving the tenders from Balikpapan to Makassar, in order to be closer to the action. All the carriers and battleships are turning back tonight, they need replenishment but we will do it at Makassar instead. This should mean we are back and pounding by the time the reinforcements arrive.  I set all the Oscars at Bangkok to sweep over Rangoon tomorrow. My logic is we’re unlikely to get so lucky with the order of strike and sweep tomorrow, but maybe he will double down on his sweep efforts and leave little CAP up. Let’s see!  I’m concerned he might do a CAP trap at Singapore tomorrow, and it’s unfair to ask the pilots to fly into that shitstorm twice in a row anyway. I send them to bomb the airfield at Medan by way of a holiday. The Oscars that have been sweeping Taiping in case of LRCAP I send to Singapore instead.  The bombers at Balikpapan I set to exclusively tactical bombing at Kendari. With the carriers around it’s not like there going to be any surface targets of significance anyway.  The airfield at Bangkok will be expanded to support our developing air offensive against Rangoon. I also start shuffling airfield units, construction battalions and AAA up from Cam Ranh and Saigon to the railhead at Phnom Penh, from where they will be sent to Raheng and Chiang Mai to establish secondary fields. Since they are undeveloped currently his bombing efforts this far will be very quickly reversed and expansion can proceed.  We now have them what I consider to be sufficiently surrounded at Malacca and will attack tomorrow. Red hex sides belong to us, green to them, and you can only leave a hex through a side you own. So they can only retreat to the W or SW, which is fine by me. I just wanted to wait until I had taken enough hex sides to prevent them from either escaping to the north and linking up with the troops in Taiping, or getting pushed east and cutting the eastern rail line down to Johore Bahru.
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Jan 19, 2021 22:35
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DMS vs MTB battle of titans and the motor launches getting sniped with torpedoes were my favorite bits
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Jan 19, 2021 23:08
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I like this reverse Brave Sir Robin strategy of actually fighting back while retreating and preparing other attacks.
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Jan 20, 2021 00:22
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What's your plan for the troops on Luzon once that campaign is done?
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Jan 20, 2021 00:51
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Triggerhappypilot posted:What's your plan for the troops on Luzon once that campaign is done? At this stage of the war I deliberately avoid making long term plans because there's no need and it's so easy for me to pivot without having to plan each invasion for three months. Possibilities include: Java, Sumatra, Australia, Fiji, Ceylon, Burma and Bengal. Java is probably likeliest.
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Jan 20, 2021 09:19
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 So I thought I’d do a quick post about one of the less flashy additions to the mod - the Yoshino class CL/CLAA/Destroyer Leader.  Historically Japan built the Agano class cruisers during the war, they had been intended to be built earlier but priority to CAs resulted in delays. As you can see apart from a good torpedo armament these ships are not very good, with six 150mm guns they are outgunned by RN relics dating back to before WW1.  They were to be followed by the Oyodo class. Designed and built (one example) as command cruisers from the start, they had less armament on more displacement, making them not very good ships at all as witp considers it. So as we were designing the mod I was very keen for Japan to get good light cruisers, and also to get something to address the general lack of dual purpose guns in the Japanese fleet. To answer this I proposed essential a scaled down CA:  Quite obviously tracing her design family from Takao and subsequent heavy cruiser designs, but featuring the three double turret arrangement aft as well as forward for a total twelve of the excellent 10cm/65 T98 Dual Purpose gun. With twelve dual purpose tubes, an above average ration of 25mm guns and armour scheme heavily focused on the horizontal the Yoshino class is highly optimised as a Carrier Escort. If involved in a surface engagement her weak vertical armour, mediocre speed and low penetration value of her guns does not bode well unless she could achieve a lucky torpedo hit early from her long lances, however she actually has a less powerful torpedo broadside than most of our modern destroyer classes. Nevertheless she remains light and cheap enough we could justify Japan having an ambitious build program for the class and she is highly utilitarian for what we will actually need a light cruiser to do. We have plenty of heavy cruisers for direct engagements. In addition to Yoshino and her sister Otowa present for Pearl harbour a further thirteen are under construction: Agano Suzuka Teshio Noshiro Yahagi Ninaru Yodo Minase Otonase Sakawa Kamishima Miyako Tokachi Throughout the war they will prove invaluable at providing heavy AAA cover for our carrier, and possibly in times of desperation our surface fleet as well, although like I said I am not keen to see them engaged in a surface fight if I can help it.
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Jan 20, 2021 17:21
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Huh, your own Japanese Atlantas, that's interesting.
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Jan 20, 2021 17:28
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If anyone else finds this sort of thing fascinating I highly recommend "Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887 to 1941" by Evans and Peattie An excerpt: quote:Because of its heavy investment in cruiser construction during the 1920s and early 1930s, the Japanese navy was convinced that it could, for the present, maintain a 70 percent ratio with the United States in heavy cruiser construction. Japan considered it essential, however, to maintain a qualitative lead in speed, firepower, and torpedo armament in ships of this category. This was particularly important because of the role that the navy continued to assign to cruisers in the deployment of its destroyer squadrons. As described in chapter 8, aggressive torpedo attacks by destroyer forces were an essential preliminary to the decisive gun battle between opposing battle lines. Navy tacticians had planned that these forces would be led into battle by light cruisers acting as flagships for the torpedo squadrons. By the end of the 1930s, in light of the advanced performance of Japanese destroyers, the navy was seeking to replace the old 5,000-ton Kuma class that had served in this capacity for nearly two decades. Authorization for four such cruisers of a new design was obtained in 1938, but bickering over the specifications between the various naval branches delayed until 1940 the laying down of the first of these ships, the Agano, a 6,652-ton cruiser armed with six 6-inch/50 guns in three twin turrets, two forward and one aft.70 Two quadruple 24-inch torpedo tube mounts with quick reloading gear were placed on the centerline between the funnel and the rear mast. Although the speed and gun armament of the Agano and her sister ships was no greater than the Kuma class they were meant to replace, their torpedo armament was more powerful and their facilities as command ships were obviously superior. Yet, because of the press of other construction work at the Sasebo Navy Yard, where three of the four were built, none of the four ships of this class (the Agano, Noshiro, Yahagi, and Sakawa) was ready by the time the Pacific War broke out. Hence, in the early surface battles of 1942, Japanese destroyer squadrons were obliged to go into action with the old 5,000- tonners as flagships.
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Jan 20, 2021 17:57
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  I-173 torpedoes a patrol boat near Fiji.  The battleships empty the last of their ammo over Koepang.  That’s my girl  Fire more torpedo tubes you useless fucks!!!  For some reason he’s bought more fodder in at Soerabaja. I’m not really quite sure why, it doesn’t seem to me like there’s much there worth defending now. Maybe he was hoping to catch the Bettys again.  Clear over Medan. Let’s see if the bombers can hit some of his grounded fighters here.  And clear over Kendari.  A smaller flight of nine Zeros arrives over Soerabaja and proceed to outdo themselves.  The CAP over Rangoon does indeed seem to be reduced today.  Even so the Oscar simply lacks the firepower to really hurt the tough Allied airframes.  This on the other hand is going to be a slaughter over Sabang without Scythes to prop them up.  Get hosed AVG.  The Balikpapan bombers hit Kendari properly today rather than dying at Soerabaja. I am getting a good feeling about today’s airscore.  A second sweep at Rangoon claims another kill.  The remnants of the 31st are now squatting in the jungle on the edge of the gulf of Lingayen. They are not so easily bombed here.  Looks like he moved whatever it was based at Medan away overnight. Oh well.  But he did LRCAP on Taiping!  Fortunately by the second wave he only has enough ammo left for a couple kills.  Presumably hoping I’d forgotten about Miri he raids it with a couple of old Dutch bombers. I had forgotten, but before I forgot I had set up Nates for CAP. Despite making good intercepts however they are unable to shoot the modern bombers down.  These guys choose a very poor time to attack Makassar.  Looks like I’m going to have to station some modern fighters here. I’m not sure I really have any Zero’s available though. Maybe that one squadron of Tojos.  The Vals I’d based at Cagayan a long time ago for reasons that elude me now suddenly decide to do something.  Oh come on just give up already. I promise we treat prisoners very honourably!  At Kuala Lumpur they know what’s up.  Now we can march up the road and hit Taiping from the back, and then we will be able to bring everything we have in the area against Singapore. Not long now!  Kendari however is now also definitely stalled out.    A solid day on the whole. Look at those juicy British Army points.  Shame about those Lilly’s but oh well. We out played him on the whole.  Yeah no not with a single torpedo you didn’t. Fire all your tubes!  Our Ace list is growing nicely.  I send the most elite Zero unit we have to Miri. If he tries again here hopefully that puts an end to this nonsense in one day. Of course it’s quite likely he won’t do the same thing twice, and I don’t want these guys cooling their heels here for long, so I send the Tojo unit from Lingayen to Cam Ranh - they don’t quite have the range to reach Miri directly but will be ready to take over tomorrow when the Zeros move on.  Nope, there are still fighters reported at Medan. If he is going to be awkward about Taiping I cancel all attacks there (which were largely ineffectual anyway) and send all the bombers to hit Medan airstrip.  I set the fighters at Bangkok to be defensive for a day or two. We did well but I don’t want to push the fragile Oscar’s luck, and with insufficient aviation engineers here sortie percentages are going to be dropping dangerously. More are on their way but the pilots will have a break from offensive actions until then.  I discover we have a mountain gun regiment at Balikpapan, and hastily order it to Koepang. Coordinated, planned invasions! :ironycat:  The tenders have not yet arrived at Makassar, but the refreshed Kongo & Haruna have. We use them to refuel the rest of the KB and send them out to keep hammering Koepang. This is quite possibly a total waste of the KB’s time, but I want him to think the KB is busy on invasion support here, then try to slip past Java and hook around to Ceylon.
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Jan 20, 2021 20:40
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That destroyer leader / light cruiser post reminded me: you can build zero boats, right? Not even some piddly subchasers / minesweepers / HDMLs?
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Jan 20, 2021 22:51
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Oyodo was actually designed as a submarine flotilla leader, so was even more specialized (also likely why it carried so little armament - it wasn't supposed to get into fleet fights to begin with).
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Jan 20, 2021 23:09
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aphid_licker posted:That destroyer leader / light cruiser post reminded me: you can build zero boats, right? Not even some piddly subchasers / minesweepers / HDMLs? You can hit a button and convert supply instantly into PT boats.
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Jan 20, 2021 23:57
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Alchenar posted:You can hit a button and convert supply instantly into PT boats. Normal torps-and-50cal ones or something that helps against submarines?
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Jan 21, 2021 00:16
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I remember when Grey did his day by day, there was some air group that couldn't be withdrawn that wound up sapping all his political points. Is that potentially an issue here?
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Jan 21, 2021 02:45
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mercenarynuker posted:I remember when Grey did his day by day, there was some air group that couldn't be withdrawn that wound up sapping all his political points. Is that potentially an issue here? In general it shouldn't be a problem for Japan. The allies have a lot of politically restricted units so that you can't do silly early war gambits like pulling 10 divisions out of India to shore up Singapore or get combat restricted P-38E that show up on the west coast out to Java in the opening months of the war. These restrictions tend to go away after 1942 with exception of a couple of important ships like British carriers operating in the Indian ocean. Japan only cares about Japan, so no ships ever need to be withdrawn from the theater. I can't remember if air units need to be withdrawn, but I think there are some units that automatically disband after a certain date. The forced withdrawal system really is one of the worst parts of WITP:AE and could have been handled much better by just putting negative planes/devices in the equipment pools and delaying the arrival new ships of equivalent class every time you keep one longer than you should. It's a classic case of the game trying to match real history so much that it overcompensates and produces absurd results.
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Jan 21, 2021 08:05
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I think the issue Grey had was a bug with a unit that was supposed to be recalled but wouldn’t go away no matter what he did.
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Jan 21, 2021 08:15
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aphid_licker posted:So if you evacuate the guy from Manila you have two? if I recall my WITP correctly, you can't actually evacuate MacArthur using the in-game mechanics: he's assigned to a Restricted HQ which means the unit he's a part of cannot be put on a boat and so is fated to be destroyed in Manila or in Bataan, and he's so high-ranking that it costs thousands of political points to reassign him to a different unit. That's why they needed to create a second MacArthur that was already in Australia.
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Jan 21, 2021 08:17
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  A US submarine is active in the Sea of Japan it would appear. Rude. You don’t see me operating in the Sea of USA now do you??  I-169 has a little bit of a slap and tickle South West of Pearl.  The air phase opens with an uncontested sweep of Medan.  Soerabaja is also clear today.  He chooses to send his fighters up where we have been using Oscars, but they give a good accounting for themselves. They don’t manage to nail a Scythe though.  Nothing at Sabang either.  Tactical bombing continues to mild effect around Kendari.  He sweeps at Chiang Mai but we stood our LRCAP down yesterday in anticipation of this.  Bombing of the 31st in the thick jungle continues.  We hit the field at Medan, but today there probably really aren’t any planes to catch.  An afternoon sweep arrives at Raheng.  Looks like he didn’t stand down the Miri strikes   I-18 seems to have got confused about the orders to launch a midget submarine at Townsville and tries to penetrate the harbour herself. Then proceeds to get caught in shallow water and depth charged  Surely can’t be long now.  We take Iolio, the main town on Panay. Once we have moped Panay we can take Cebu, the last significant resistance left in the central Philippines.   Hmm, that's a bit of a jump in naval points isn’t it?       Very quiet, but it’s been a while and I’ve got a new mouse so let's have a complete breakdown.  So the midget sub foundered, doesn’t explain why I-18 was in the harbour herself though.   It’s time to dig that little bitch Mcarthur out of Bataan and open up Manila Harbour for us. I had been considering leaving them there to rot while we go and do more important things, but decide instead to just bring the hammer down super hard and get the Philippines campaign wrapped up ASAP.  With this in mind the Liz and Sallies will start hammering Bataan. How effective they are tomorrow will tell us a lot about how long this is likely to take.  I send the Lilies at Georgetown to bomb Sabang, where there are apparently still planes even if they didn't fly today.  Everyone else bombs Singapore, under cover of heavy sweeping. I would like to get the Liz down here soon but I don’t have a field big enough for them yet. Kuantan is 42% of the way from 5 to 6 today.  I-169 is a bit banged up. She needs to head for Truk and the floating drydock we have there.
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Jan 21, 2021 19:39
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What the hell is Bolingbroke IV?
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Jan 21, 2021 20:08
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Gervasius posted:What the hell is Bolingbroke IV? Its the not-Blenheim that became a Blenheim but is still technically distinct from the Blenheim. Funnily enough I'm working on something to explain it and its history for the near future.
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Jan 21, 2021 20:12
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 21:39 |
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Gervasius posted:What the hell is Bolingbroke IV? Not much, what's bolingbroke with you?
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Jan 21, 2021 22:31
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