War in the Pacific: AE - Let's Play (Part 22 - Turn 2)

[@BayardHamar]

As usual, a few thoughts and/or hopefully helpful informations: - Squadrons flying CAP: -- The number of aircraft flying CAP at any one time is 33% of the total aircraft currently assigned to CAP. If you have a squadron of 15 fighters and you set them to 100% CAP 5 fighters are flying CAP at any given time. 5 fighters are either in the process of getting rearmed and refuelled or are in the "Standby CAP", those can and will be scrambled rather quickly and can even intercept the enemy before it reaches its target. The other 5 aircraft are not on standby, need to be rearmed and refuelled berfore scrambling. This will begin automatically, but most of the time they come too late and may only intercept the enemy flying home again. -- This is independent of you selecting day or night operations, the behaviour is identical. -- See manual, p. 172 . - Coastal Guns during naval invasions -- There are of course dedicated coastal defense guns in various LCUs, usually marked with a "CD" in its name, e.g. "14in CD gun" -- During the combat summary all guns that fired (or could fire, not sure) on the ships are listed, which can include things like 81mm mortars, 4mm Bofors AA-guns etc. (depending on what LCUs are in the hex, or course). -- Unfortunately the marked "Shell hits" can be anything from a 14in CD gun to a 0.5in MG and you only see what gun hit during the combat animations. In the case of the hit on the xAK Asakasan Maru, it was a 2pdr AA gun hit. - Mk XIV Torpedo: -- For the whole story in 33 minutes I want to recommend Drachinifel's video: "The Mark 14 Torpedo - Failure is Like Onions": kzbin.info/www/bejne/m4KYg6htj9qSZ6s -- The Realism Option "Reliable USN Torpedos" sets the Reliability/Failure Chance of the Mk 14s to the standard 10%, which is a HUGE boost to USN subs

[@mrAMMW]

i would recommend doing the turn replay either in the beginning of the video or at the end, just to keep it as a turn per video

[@strategygamingdojo5278]

Good point. I'll try to do that as we settle into a routine

[@brandon188]

Love these, keep them up man!

[@strategygamingdojo5278]

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words

[@Shaunus82]

This is the part of the game that I'm going to struggle with the most, because I no longer have anything to follow, and appart from the task forces that are already setup, anything new that comes along, I'm not gonna have a clue what to do with them, or where to send them. It would be incredibly useful to me, if you could possibly make your spreadsheet available as a download, as it would make the ongoing learning process a lot easier. I'm feeling that the way your doing these follow on turns, is a bit too abstracted for me. I need something to follow, if I'm going to be able to continue to learn this game. I would not expect you to do this for each, and every turn of the game, but just at least for the first few turns, just until I get a good feel for the game.

[@wolfapostle]

I feel that specifically the decision-making is of interest to me. Where you send which troops when? Etc. thx for doing this -rlly enjoying the series

[@BayardHamar]

@@wolfapostle I agree, it would be nice to get a bit of insight in the decision making. Here a few rough examples from my point of view: - There are new ships turning up at Balboa/Christobal. What kind? -- Subs? Send them to Australia, Pearl Harbor or Dutch Harbor. Brisbane, Townsville, Darwin or Perth would be good bases for subs in Australia, from Pearl Harbor you can patrol the Marshall Islands or even the Japanese Home Islands and from Dutch Harbor you can patrol the seas between Sakhalin, Hokkaido and Honshu or even the Sea of Japan. -- Anything DD-sized or bigger: Send it to Pearl Harbor to sort it into TFs there. -- DEs/SC get sent to Los Angeles to be integrated into convoys to Australia or the local West Coast ASW-TFs. -- Transports/Tankers: Depending on the type either to Eastern USA and from there to Cape Town (remember purely off-map-movement doesn't use up Fuel/Endurance) or to LA, maybe with a load of Supply/Fuel to one of the smaller islands in the South Pacific first. -- Tenders/Auxilliaries: To Pearl Harbor if you're unsure where to put them to use at the moment or directly to their destination (most likely Australia or a port in the South Pacific). Or: - The Japanese are about to surround Manila, Clark Field and Bataan. -- Are there any squadrons that you want to fly out? Then hop them South via Cebu, Tarakan, Balikpapan to Soerabaja. -- Are there ships left that could try to flee? Then let them try to flee, probably also south to the Sulu Sea, the Celebes Sea and further. -- Are the LCUs set up to your liking? Maybe retreat those HQs to Bataan? Or: - A few Japanese carriers have been spotted last turn attacking Palembang entering the Java Sea from the North. -- Check all squadrons in the area, rebase them as needed and give them new orders. Concentrate fighters in bases you want to protect. -- Check all TFs in the area, do you have enough fighters to try and protect them in a harbor or should they try to run? Look for a base somewhat nearby (Christmas Island IO, Port Hedland, Koepang?) and send them there until the immediate danger is over. -- Are there any forces that you want to counterattack with? Do you dare risk a night attack with your Surface Combat TF including a few CAs, CLs and DDs in the hope of catching the carriers in the night but risking air attacks during the day? Or do you try and turtle up to weather this storm? Maybe a local "Brave Sir Robin" ? (kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIqplpmmpdZ4qqcm17s ) Or: - You want to evacuate Celebes to try and defend Java better with those forces. - With what forces can these units be evacuated, air, or sea? -- Where are the nearest free units to do so? -- Where should those forces end up? "Set Future Objective" accordingly. Or: - You have a ton of different LCUs (unrestricted), xAPs and xAKs waiting in LA. Where to put the LCUs? -- ENG: Which base do you want to build up? Send a pure engineering unit there. Do you plan to relocate a few squadrons to a forward base but it lacks Aviation Support? Send a Base Force over. -- ART/INF/ARM: Any base under threat from direct infantry attack within the next month that you want to defend (e.g. currently Port Moresby)? Send ART/INF/ARM over. -- AA: Any base likely to come under air attack or that you want to better protect against air attack? Send AA over. Similarly with new squadrons: Once a squadron is trained enough it gets sent to where you think its needed: - Patrol aircraft get sent to a base where you want better Naval Search - Fighters get sent to a base that you want to protect better. - etc. Later (mid-42-ish?) you can transition to making a few plans at the strategic level: - Where do you want to try attack first? (for me its Guadalcanal) - Start gathering forces (LCUs, squadrons) for this and Set Future Objective, since it takes 3 1/2 month to fully plan. Make notes of your rough timetable, forces involved, maybe ships needed etc. - Get those LCUs somewhere near the objective, ideally with time to spare. Currently I'm gathering those on Suva, Noumea and in Brisbane. - Remember to gather the needed transports early enough. - Shortly before you're set to go gather your warships (CVs/CVEs/CVLs for air cover, BBs for guarding against surface action and for Naval Bombardment, DDs for ASW etc etc. ) - Then set them all in motion and watch your carefully crafted plan come crashing down 😂

[@strategygamingdojo5278]

Yes, I will start going into the decision making soon. It really doesn't come up in turns 2 and 3 because you've already given everything orders and they are just fulfilling those thought processes. Once things start arriving at their destinations I will start going in-depth on where they go next and why I think it is the best approach

[@wolfapostle]

@@BayardHamar good stuff! So much going on in this game, thx for homeoffice 💯