WiTP: AE...An AAR: Egan(A) versus Happy Times(J)

[Torplexed]

I'm almost afraid to ask, but how are things going with that clickfest known as pilot training?

[Egan]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

I'm almost afraid to ask, but how are things going with that clickfest known as pilot training?

I'm glad you asked.... Pilot training will be the subject of todays sermon. But first:

6th Jan 42

Another fairly quiet turn.

CenPac

Not much activity at Wake. His troops are staring down my troops. Although Air patrols have spotted a couple of task forces in the wider area, neither of them appear to be the KB. I still don't know whether this is good or not. I've ordered some cats from Midway to fly in supplies to the Wake garrison. In a couple of days I may risk a supply ship with a carrier escort.

China

A Japanese attack comes off at Chengchow, causing me 4800 casualties. The men have pulled back to Loyang which is now at about 1000AV. It should - hopefully - last a bit longer. These are important towns as they are the sleeping policeman on the road to Sian and it's oil wells.

South China Sea

My Pirate torpedo boats strike another blow for freedom against the evil Japanese empire. The attack two xAK, sinking one and badly damaging another. I imagine Juha won't let it continue for too much longer but there is little he can do about it right now.

PI

Various battles on Luzon don't achieve much. I don't think he has enough here to seriously threaten everywhere important. The easy bases have all mostly fallen, the harder ones will last for some time yet.

On Mindanao, the Japanese once again attack Cagayan and lose another 600 troops. Such loses all mount up. My biggest problem here is one of supply but I have a couple of plans in the works.....

Troop Movements

The Indian troops who are at Darwin are boarding transports for Madras where they will move forward and join up with the rest of the 11th Indian division.

the first brigade of the 6th Australian division is at Aden. The rest of the division is supposed to arrive within two weeks so these guys will remain here for the time being. I'm undecided where they will go, although I'm leaning towards sending them home.

Sub Wars

S-38 and Gudgeon both continue the our fine submarine tradition of missing everything. well done.

[Egan]

Pilot Training

Some people might say that asking the player of a game that covers almost every detail of the Pacific war - from the largest campaign down to individual mines in the sea - to involve himself in what virtually amounts to the manual training of every single pilot who finds himself in-theater is possibly asking too much. They may have a point.

WiTP players are divided into two groups: those who enjoy the micro-management of pilot training and those of us who hate it with a passion. It involves enough mouse clicking to give you RSI, is only a little bit faster than glacially slow, and is unfortunately of paramount importance to anyone who wants to be able to win.

All Squadrons start with a number of pilots of differing degrees of skill or, to be accurate, skills. They also each have an experience rating.

Green pilots can be drawing out of the pool and into squadrons but their skills and experience will be rather low, hence the need for training. It's not my intention here to talk in detail about the best current theories on pilot training; anyone looking for a detailed breakdown on various training stratagems should mosey on over to Matrix and have a look through one of the many threads that has been written on the subject. One thing I will point out is that you should always fill out those training squadron with as many pilots as possible, and it's also worth noting that they train as well with one aircraft as they would with 20 so you can turn replacements off for those squads and have airframe replacements go somewhere they are actually needed.

So, what have I done with my guys?

Most of my bomber squadrons who are not currently involved in combat are training in one of three area: General training, Low level naval bombing and ground attack. I could also train them in port or airfield attack, for the time being, these three are the better choices.

Patrol aircraft squadrons are training on ASW patrol or naval search. At some point I'll swap them over to train them on the other. I may even train a few on naval attack as well just in case an opportunity presents itself.

Fighters are all set to train on escort as I think this gives a better selection of all round skills than Sweep.

Float plane pilots are being trained in fighter sweep. It sounds strange but they are really the only place I can train up fresh carrier pilots so I have to use them some what unrealistically.

When a pilot in a 'training squadron' reaches 50+ experience, he will be removed and placed in the pilot pools from which other squadrons draw their personnel. Below is an example of a sqaudron whose pilots are reaching the transfer point:



Green numbers mean that the pilot has trained in that skill in the last day, orange that he has trained in it over the last month.

As it is somewhat difficult to improve pilot experience beyond 50, or a skill beyond 70 without actual combat experience, this is a natural point to 'cull' training pilots. In another few days I will begin the laborious process of going through my training squadrons and sending all pilots I think are good enough into the pilot pool.

The squadron pictured above is one of the better ones training wise, and as you can see from the text at the upper left hand side, it is attached to IV Us Fighter Command which is permanently restricted, meaning that this squadron isn't going over seas which makes it perfect for training. I use all restricted command squadrons for training, that includes temporary restricted units until they eventually ship out.

I am no expert on pilot training, and I find it pretty difficult to keep abreast of it as I play the game. In previous campaigns my approach has been rather hit and miss but this time I am determined to do it better.

[Egan]

NoPac

In previous games, the North Pacific theater is the one I've probably ignored the most. The Aleutian islands are far away from anywhere, difficult to keep supplied and of dubious use to either side.



In several AARs I've read however, the Aleutian islands are given a level of attention that mystifies me. I'm aware that the western most islands are within decent range of Northern Japanese islands but that isn't a route I would like to take. Attu Island is only capable of being built up to a maximum port of size 4 and a similar sized airfield which puts the brakes on the place if I were to use it for building up a massive invasion or wanted to base big 4e bombers there.

I do not know whether Happy Times is planning to move into this area. I have seen no submarines this far north - not that I have a great deal to spot them with if he did - and because of the way winter weather this far north is modeled it will be March before he is able to do much in the way of attacking.

I have a couple of units at Seattle and Tacoma currently prepping for Attu and Adak but I'm loath to spend the PP on them when there are so many other units I need to buy: I'm still thinking about reinforcing Rabaul and that's going to cost me a few points.

In most other theaters I have a fairly good idea of what I want to do, and when but with this one all I can do is shrug. So should I just pony up the points and move units in? or should I just leave it and see how it goes? At some point, maybe by the summer, I have plans to operate a sub tender at Dutch Harbour and use several boats to patrol the waters off northern Japan but aside from this I'll just send up the occasional convoy and see what happens.

[Egan]

7th Jan 42

South China Sea

Juha gets wise to the pirate boat raids into Hanoi and has a couple of destroyers waiting for the plucky lads. The destroyers sink a couple of them and the rest retreat in various states of damage. Fun while it lasted, and something to try again elsewhere.

Singers

Several big raids come over, targeting he airfield. He loses 6 sallies and 2 Oscars with 8 more Sallies damaged. I lose three Buffalo, tow of them on the ground. Damage to the airfield is minimal so I'll happily take those scores.

His troops are about 60 miles away now, I have troops transports heading back to Singers from Darwin as I would like to get a couple of units out. The base should hold for a while I imagine he's stiffened his air patrols in the area so it's a question of whether the ships can get in without being smashed by betties.

PI/DEI

Still holding at all points. An xAKL is torpedoed as it heads to Balikpapen. This was one of the damaged ships that escaped from Hong Kong when the city fell and I was going to load it with supplies and see whether I could get it back into Manila. No real loss.

At Cagayen Juha loses another 600 odd troop. He keeps throwing them against my defences and they keep getting battered. The base will fall sooner or later but will it have been worth the cost?

China

Chuhsien falls. Where? Quite.

CenPac

A cat hits a sub north of Pearl, which was nice, and several convoys ready to head north and south. A big fuel convoy is getting ready to head for Aukland. A supply convoy will join it in a coupe of days, I'm just waiting for some escorts to arrive.

Wake is still holding out but supplies have dropped a fair bit. I'm thinking about sending a supply run in, covered by the carriers. The KB is no where to be seen but a pair of ships are loitering about 120 miles from the island. Sure they are either destroyers or minesweepers. I still don't understand why he sent the KB all the way out here for a single days worth of ground attacks. seems a waste of fuel to me. I still believe the intention was to bait my carriers. Of course, it very nearly worked.

Oz

I now have two fighter squadrons in Australia now. Several more should arrive via convoy in 10 days/two weeks. The build up continues.

[Egan]

8th Jan 1942

PI

The Japanese fly several attack on shipping near Manila. For a single xAK damaged they lose 8 Betties and 4 Nells with several more of each damaged. No Allied aircraft were lost.

Burma

The first blows of the Burma campaign are traded when a strong Japanese force takes Moulmein from a single battalion of Burmese troops. Losses aren't very heavy and the battalion falls back to Allied lines. The Japanese will find it harder, they have to cross a river into the teeth of a fairly strong Allied defence. Their losses should be high.

CenPac

Japanese troops on wake launch a deliberate attack on the Marine defenders, losing 604 troops to no allied loses. He can't continue with such losses and not reinforce. These troops (An SNLF unit IIRC) should be well prepped for Wake, unless he's got more trained and hidden away somewhere it's going to take him another month or two to get them ready,by which time I will have reinforced the island, added dive bombers and built even more forts. If Juha wants to take Wake, it's now or never, unless he wants to expend major resources on taking this rock.

A supply ship is loading up with a stout escort at Pearl. I may add some troops on it too. The Wake garrison is fairly small and I can add another 4000 troops before I hit the stacking limit. Lex and Big E are loitering north west of Johnston preparing to cover the small convoy. Still no sign of the KB and the two ships from yesterday are heading south again. I suspect his troops are receiving supplies by submarine. If so, there shouldn't be enough to feed him, let alone let him continue fighting.

At Pearl repairs on the battleships are continuing:



The first few battleships have their estimated repair time in red (quite blurry I'm afraid. All these ships are at pier side just now and the red shows the time until minor damage is repaired. For major damage, these ships will have to go to a yard. Some of them will go to the west coast once all repairs that can be done here are complete. As you can see, though, West Virgina and Maryland will both be ready for action in 45 days.

Elsewhere in CenPac, Sigint picks up heavy radio transmissions from Kwajalein island in the Marshals south of Wake. It would seem that something heavy is going on. Is it the KB? it's last known course would have taken her past here.

Manado

The Japanese battleships Yamashiro and Fuso lead a bombardment of the island base taking out 430 men and damaging several of the facilities. He follows it up with attacks from his troops that still fail to make the breakthrough. Every day of stalling Juha's forces up here is another day of fortifying bases further south.

Reinforcements

A quick glance at my reinforcement schedules fills me with joy. 4 more fighter squadrons should be arriving in Australia over the next 7 days and over the next month I should start getting a lot of unrestricted units arriving including a substantial amount of infantry plus my first SeeBees unit.

The aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable arrived at Aden. She will move out once escorts arrive for her. Unfortunately she is only in-theater for about 140 days before she is withdrawn again. When she does go I may keep a hold of her three air groups as the commonwealth remain short of naval attack aircraft for virtually the whole war.

Two large and empty convoys departed Perth last night for Capetown. I have been surprised by how many ships I managed to get out of the DEI. This was no doubt made possible by Juha's reluctance to use the Baby KB in those shallow, confined waters.

[Egan]

9th Jan 42

Quite quiet again. Lots of battles in the Philippines which achieve nothing. Even the last, lightly held bases in north west Borneo are holding in the face of repeated attacks and bombings.

Malaya

The 22nd Indian Brigade are east of Kuala Lumpar and has just closed down the rail link to the south. Hopefully this will slow the Japanese advace, although he has a couple of advanced units not far from Singapore.

Sub Wars

Many of my subs are returning to their home ports for replenishments and command changes. I start getting more boats from the states over the next couple of weeks, beginning with Gato tomorrow.

A Japanese sub was spotted in the waters off Sydney for the first time, but most of his sizable submarine fleet has been conspicuous by it's absence.

Long Distance Flight

Half a dozen B-17 squadrons left a couple of days ago on the first stage of an epic flight that will take them to Sydney. Their route is Pearl -Christmas - Suva - Sydney. They are at Suva just now and will make the final leg in a day or two.

Signal Intelligence

For the Allied player SigInt is of real importance. It can let you know if there are troops prepping for targets, where various units are located and in what strength. Sometimes you can even get lucky and find out the location of a carrier or battleship.

reports of heavy radio traffic is often greeted by me with a slight burts of nervous excitement. It can often mean the location of a big task force or convoy, or lots of units preparing for something. today I got word of heavy radio traffic at co-ords 109, 98 which puts it south east of Guam and, sure enough, it appears to be a task force of some description. Heading and composition remains a mystery. Wait and see is the order of the day.

India

I have three divisions worth of troops plus a number of other units on the Burmese border now. What I need are two things: Aviation support groups and engineers.

Supply Issues

Although there are quite a few convoys moving around now I am running low of things in various locations. Australia is down to less than 100,000 tonnes of fuel. It's partly my fault; I hit the button that ordered all shipping at Sydney to be refueled. That drained a lot. Never mind, these things happen.

[Egan]

10th Jan 42

Sub Wars

Thresher misses etc.

An ASW Tf out of Sydney engages I-19. The sub gets damaged in the morning but the TF re-aquires her later on and forces her to the surface. I-19 bravely tries to torpedo her way out of trouble but the destroyers keep their distance and put round after round into her. Eventually, with all the smoke from the fires, the destroyers lose visual contact with her but sonar on board Electra claim they hear the noises of the sub going down. Seems a confirmed kill. It's worth bearing in mind that Electra and Express both have ASW ratings of 8 - substantially better than anything else I have just now.

PI

14th army are preparing for an attack on Manila, according to information collected by our code breakers. It doesn't mean much because I know there are several units preparing for the siege.

My PT boats find and harass a large convoy at it tried to land at San Fernando. Hopefully that will put any supply unloading back a day or two.

DEI

Manando falls, wiping out the garrison there. 50 odd survivors from the base force flee into the jungle but won't last long without supplies.

Burma

Bombers from Rangoon will attack Moulmein tomorrow in an attempt to disrupt the Japanese units there before they move north. A small convoy is about three days out from Rangoon and carrying supplies. I don't know how many more of these I'll be able to get in before his aricraft close of the port.

Pacific Aces

Ladies and Gentleman, may I introduce to you Warrant Officer HH Griffith of 453 sqn RAF. This Australian pilot, currently based at Singapore, has become the first Allied fighter ace of the pacific war with 6 kills to his name. Several more of his squadron are nearly there as well, reflecting the intensity of the aerial combat over the city.

[Egan]

11th Dec 42

I just went and deleted this entire post by mistake. I'm a little bit annoyed.

CenPac

Lex and Enterprise are on their way back to Pearl to refuel. This is unfortunate because PBYs from Wake have spotted two task Forces containing at least two battleships and two heavy cruisers moving north about 250 miles south of the island. I expect he's going to try and bombard the defenders into the sea.

I'm intrigued that he is willing to expend high level assets like the KB and battleships plus the attendant fuel costs on taking Wake but only seems to have one solitary and understrength unit available to actually occupy the place. Does this point to Juha assigning Wake a particular importance and, if so, why? Is an invasion of Midway on the agenda at some point? Or is it simply that he has not planned adequately?

Singers

More Oscar Sweeps further deplete my Buffaloes. They're fine little aircraft but utterly out of their depth against the strong Japanese airforce.

The Japanese advance is checked at Johore Bahru on the outskirts of Singapore. Once all available troops fall back into Singers I'll have about 500-550Av available and plenty of supplies behind 3 forts. It should hold for some time.

Borneo

Singkaweng falls. This strategically important base will allow Juha aerial access to a large part of Sumatra and Java and, once he moves in Betties and Nells, he will be able to effectively close the area down to surface vessels. I have troop ships heading towards Singers at the moment where I hope to pick up III Indian Corps and a pair of RAF air HQs but I don't know how possible that is going to be. I may have to evacuate cadres by air and rebuild them later instead.

SWPac

He has a lot of shipping at Badeledoodop, including a number of minesweepers. Our code breakers intercepted a communication about elements of the 4th division traveling to Truk. I'm assuming these are troops bound for either New Britain or the Solomons. There has been plenty of radio traffic at these bases in the last few days, as well as several reports of convoys. It looks like he's readying to expand further south.

Thoughts

Some aggressive moves coupled to obvious build up in the south. It's difficult to know what his actual intentions are but I'm certain he'll go for The Solomons as soon as he can. I'm moving two more battalions of Australian infantry into Port Moresby and as much in the way of supplies as I can. Once the Betties start rolling in I won't be able to do that very often.

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by Egan

In previous games, the North Pacific theater is the one I've probably ignored the most. The Aleutian islands are far away from anywhere, difficult to keep supplied and of dubious use to either side.

I've always wondered which was the more dubious move in the Pacific in World War II. The Japanese capturing these miserable Aleutian islands of fog and bog, or America expending any effort to get them back?

I'm moving two more battalions of Australian infantry into Port Moresby and as much in the way of supplies as I can. Once the Betties start rolling in I won't be able to do that very often.

I always try to pack Port Moresby with supplies and fuel early in the game, but that tiny port handling capability makes it harder. The groceries usually have to go in as amphibious TFs.

[Biggles]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

I've always wondered which was the more dubious move in the Pacific in World War II. The Japanese capturing these miserable Aleutian islands of fog and bog, or America expending any effort to get them back?

I remember the good ol' news report in SHIV.

Japanese troops have landed on Aleutian Islands. One week and they'll want to give them back.

[Egan]

I've always wondered whether there's some psychological issue involved when it comes to the Aleutians in the game, particularly with American players. After all, Attu island was the only part of US soil to be occupied by the Japanese during the war so perhaps some players tend to exaggerate it's importance? I guess if there was a ETO version of this game I would do the same if the Shetland islands were occupied by the Germans. Fair enough, with careful planning and lots of supply you can occupy some of the most northerly Japanese islands but 9 times out of 10 you're going to end up losing everything..

I've seen players commit aircraft carriers and thousands of troops to the area, which always seemed excessive; surely it's better to send those soldiers to other theaters and leave northern defence to specially trained garrisons of Kodiak bears. Those things look like they could open up a tank easier than i could open a can of beer.

I always try to pack Port Moresby with supplies and fuel early in the game, but that tiny port handling capability makes it harder. The groceries usually have to go in as amphibious TFs.

I have about 35,000 tonnes of supply there just now with another 50,000 tonnes leaving sydney tomorrow. I'll try and get it up to 100,000 or so and then see whether I have more time. With the two extra battalions I'll have just under a division of troops there, which will slow up an invasion but won't stop them from taking it if they want it. I'm still thinking about moving troops into Rabaul but am aware that i don't have unlimited time to decide.

Juha's lack of any activity in this region is slightly surprising. I haven't even seen any evidence that he is carrying out recon; a couple of subs off the coast of Oz, a small regular surface patrol out of Truk to the north of Kavieng and that's been it. As I said, there is evidence that he is beginning to build up in the SWPac area but as he haven't even taken Rabaul yet it's going to be a while before he's in a position to do much. Still, once he comes, he'll probably move fast.

12th Jan 42

PI

Batanges, south of Manila falls, which surprised me. I thought it would hold a while longer, the troops have orders to fall back to the big city.

Elsewhere my garrisons continue to frustrate the Japanese.

Malaya

More sweeps over Singers but they fail to do much. A couple of aircraft lost from each side but nothing drastic.

CenPac

The two IJN task forces are holding off Wake. One of PBYs got lucky and put a bomb onto an Armed Merchant Cruiser this morning. Probably not done much damaged but may slow him up. I don't know what they're waiting for; are there more ships on there way?

Lex and Enterprise will reach Pearl at sunset, will refuel, and be on their way by morning, I hope. If no flat tops are spotted, my CVTFs will move in and see if they can harass him. If they are, Wake might be on it's own. The base is runnning low on supply now. I have a ship loaded up and ready to go but it will take three or four days. He hasn't attacked in a while - either allowing disruption to lower or waiting for a supply run to arrive i guess.

Withdrawals

4 bomber squadrons were withdrawn from Fresno today, for use in the ETO. It's a little bit irritating as I had been using them for training. I'll get more though.

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Egan

I've seen players commit aircraft carriers and thousands of troops to the area, which always seemed excessive; surely it's better to send those soldiers to other theaters and leave northern defence to specially trained garrisons of Kodiak bears. Those things look like they could open up a tank easier than i could open a can of beer.

Well, them Japanese tanks are probably not as well armoured as a can of beer in any case...

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

Well, them Japanese tanks are probably not as well armoured as a can of beer in any case...

Just pray they never get their hands on a Chi-To or Chi-Ri...

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

Well, them Japanese tanks are probably not as well armoured as a can of beer in any case...

Attention Kodiak Bears. Japanese tanker, now available in the one man slam can.