SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - War in the Pacific AAR Thread

Molon Labe · 11-23-21, 01:15 PM

30 July 2021
Kido Butai fighter squadrons significantly degraded

Celebes Sea
An ASW group guarding the sea lanes around the southeast coast of Mindanao was spotted by the KXV, which put a torpedo into a PB, sinking it. Another PB in the squadron attacked the KXV, but its depth charges couldn't reach it.

E. Australia
Minesweepers on ASW duty spotted an enemy sub and lightly damaged it with depth charges before it escaped.

China
The air campaign for Chengchow cost us a P-40 and 3 medium bombers, the enemy lost 3 light bombers. I'm resting my bombers again while I try to lock the skies down. I have a squadron of Chinese P-40s (aircraft left by the AVG when they withdrew) that's just about ready to come over here, my pilots just need to increase their defensive skill slightly before I trust them not to waste these aircraft.

Sumatra
Palembang's Fulmars attacked a PB on ASW patrol, scoring 11 hits with 250lb, bombs along with several strafing runs because overkill is cool. We traded one Hurricane for a Sally over Palembang itself.

About 3 divisions and change are now besieging Palembang.

Thailand
We downed one Zero that was protecting the bombers hitting our troops near Bangkok, AA took down 2 Betties and a Sally. But the bombers are getting through and doing significant damage. I should have these troops in better terrain in a few more days, but the buildup of airpower in Bangkok continues.

A bit off the coast, our Catalinas have spotted 3 ships, 2 of which were classified as destroyers. They look like they're going to head past Port Blair. They're walking right into the British CVs.

Hawaii
Apparently displeased with the result of their small raid yesterday, the KB hit Pearl/Hickam with a major strike today: 43 Zeroes, 32 Kates, 49 Vals. We were completely focused on defense with our bombers resting and got 28 Wildcats and a Buffalo up to resist them. The aerial battle was very much in our favor: 11 Zeroes down with no losses. But we didn't get to the bombers:

xAK Wind Rush, Bomb hits 1, on fire
SS Thresher, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage
xAK Admiral Laws, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Lewis Luckenbach, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AA downed 9 Vals.
It looks like all these ships will survive.

The KB's air losses during the week+ it's been deployed here are accumulating. I'm counting 35 Zeroes down--and with a standard complement of 18 on all these carriers, that effectively means the KB has the fighter strength of 3 carriers instead of 5--assuming it can't resupply from Lahaina (we'll have an answer to that soon). In my mind, that means it's time to withdraw the KB, or he could end up with his 60 remaining Zeroes fighting 3x36 Wildcats from the Lex, Sara, and Wasp, plus another 30 or so from Hickam--that's 138 total. In reality, my carriers aren't here to capitalize on this: Wasp is playing aircraft ferry and is about to deliver more Wildcats to Hickam, along with a depleted VB-5. Sara and Lex are getting some maintenance after running from the area at high speed from when I lost track of the KB. But he doesn't know that. It'll be interesting to see just how desperate he is to evacuate these troops--is it really worth risking losing carriers?

EDIT: Ostfriese, I love that you were asking about the KB's air losses as I was reporting on them! About pilot losses, it's hard to estimate how many pilots he's losing because some fraction of them bail out, and some fraction of them are rescued. I'm fairly sure the game balances the odds of rescue based on whether the bailout was near friendly or enemy units. Here, we both have two major bases, Pearl and Lahaina, dueling each other in very close proximity. The pilots are being shot down over both. My take on this is that he was already hurting for quality pilots before this deployment, as there have been prior fights where KB Zeroes have gotten their asses handed to them by highly-trained USMC Wildcat pilots. And in this ongoing fight, we've won a couple rounds and lost one as well--so I think there's probably a significant difference in pilot quality from squadron to squadron as it stands right now. All of the USMC and USN pilots I'm bringing to this fight are what I consider "fully trained", an air skill of at least 70 and a strafing skill of at least 60 (strafing isn't that important, but having a secondary skill helps the Defensive skill grow more quickly). The days of him taking advantage of subpar American pilots are over.

11-23-21, 01:15 PM	#325
Molon Labe Silent Hunter Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Along the Watchtower Posts: 3,810 Downloads: 27 Uploads: 5	30 July 2021 Kido Butai fighter squadrons significantly degraded Celebes Sea An ASW group guarding the sea lanes around the southeast coast of Mindanao was spotted by the KXV, which put a torpedo into a PB, sinking it. Another PB in the squadron attacked the KXV, but its depth charges couldn't reach it. E. Australia Minesweepers on ASW duty spotted an enemy sub and lightly damaged it with depth charges before it escaped. China The air campaign for Chengchow cost us a P-40 and 3 medium bombers, the enemy lost 3 light bombers. I'm resting my bombers again while I try to lock the skies down. I have a squadron of Chinese P-40s (aircraft left by the AVG when they withdrew) that's just about ready to come over here, my pilots just need to increase their defensive skill slightly before I trust them not to waste these aircraft. Sumatra Palembang's Fulmars attacked a PB on ASW patrol, scoring 11 hits with 250lb, bombs along with several strafing runs because overkill is cool. We traded one Hurricane for a Sally over Palembang itself. About 3 divisions and change are now besieging Palembang. Thailand We downed one Zero that was protecting the bombers hitting our troops near Bangkok, AA took down 2 Betties and a Sally. But the bombers are getting through and doing significant damage. I should have these troops in better terrain in a few more days, but the buildup of airpower in Bangkok continues. A bit off the coast, our Catalinas have spotted 3 ships, 2 of which were classified as destroyers. They look like they're going to head past Port Blair. They're walking right into the British CVs. Hawaii Apparently displeased with the result of their small raid yesterday, the KB hit Pearl/Hickam with a major strike today: 43 Zeroes, 32 Kates, 49 Vals. We were completely focused on defense with our bombers resting and got 28 Wildcats and a Buffalo up to resist them. The aerial battle was very much in our favor: 11 Zeroes down with no losses. But we didn't get to the bombers: xAK Wind Rush, Bomb hits 1, on fire SS Thresher, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage xAK Admiral Laws, Bomb hits 1, on fire xAK Lewis Luckenbach, Bomb hits 1, on fire AA downed 9 Vals. It looks like all these ships will survive. The KB's air losses during the week+ it's been deployed here are accumulating. I'm counting 35 Zeroes down--and with a standard complement of 18 on all these carriers, that effectively means the KB has the fighter strength of 3 carriers instead of 5--assuming it can't resupply from Lahaina (we'll have an answer to that soon). In my mind, that means it's time to withdraw the KB, or he could end up with his 60 remaining Zeroes fighting 3x36 Wildcats from the Lex, Sara, and Wasp, plus another 30 or so from Hickam--that's 138 total. In reality, my carriers aren't here to capitalize on this: Wasp is playing aircraft ferry and is about to deliver more Wildcats to Hickam, along with a depleted VB-5. Sara and Lex are getting some maintenance after running from the area at high speed from when I lost track of the KB. But he doesn't know that. It'll be interesting to see just how desperate he is to evacuate these troops--is it really worth risking losing carriers? EDIT: Ostfriese, I love that you were asking about the KB's air losses as I was reporting on them! About pilot losses, it's hard to estimate how many pilots he's losing because some fraction of them bail out, and some fraction of them are rescued. I'm fairly sure the game balances the odds of rescue based on whether the bailout was near friendly or enemy units. Here, we both have two major bases, Pearl and Lahaina, dueling each other in very close proximity. The pilots are being shot down over both. My take on this is that he was already hurting for quality pilots before this deployment, as there have been prior fights where KB Zeroes have gotten their asses handed to them by highly-trained USMC Wildcat pilots. And in this ongoing fight, we've won a couple rounds and lost one as well--so I think there's probably a significant difference in pilot quality from squadron to squadron as it stands right now. All of the USMC and USN pilots I'm bringing to this fight are what I consider "fully trained", an air skill of at least 70 and a strafing skill of at least 60 (strafing isn't that important, but having a secondary skill helps the Defensive skill grow more quickly). The days of him taking advantage of subpar American pilots are over. __________________ Last edited by Molon Labe; 11-23-21 at 01:30 PM.