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#Post#: 763--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Rick McKown Date: December 29, 2018, 11:15 am
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Hi Elias,
I've never played WL by e-mail, only FTF, VASSAL-solo or
VASSAL+Skype, so you'll have to enlighten me on how to do it.
I am curious how the Japanese managed to come in to the Avengers
from above without getting tallied themselves. We found that if
we went for the Avengers and a British fighter got into the
fight the Ki-43s especially were essentially dead meat.
Rick
#Post#: 764--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Elias Nordling Date: December 30, 2018, 1:52 am
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Mail me at elias@nordling.nu, pbem vassal is dead easy. I'm not
sure why the Ki43 would be dead meat, since both it and the
British fighters have ratings around 5-6. The firepower and
protection advantages are somewhat compensated by Japanese
experten.
#Post#: 767--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Elias Nordling Date: December 30, 2018, 1:39 pm
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V0.2
Player: Elias Nordling (Solo)
Mindful that the bombing results would make or break the British
result, I put both British veterans in the trailing two bombers.
I didn't try anything fancy with either side, the Japanese just
dived straight towards the bombers and the bombers dived to
under the clouds then went for steep angle bombing.
Given the results, the Japanese were obviously lucky, but I have
a hard time putting my finger at exactly which rolls were lucky.
The Japanese tallied at a fair distance. Some British fighters
broke early and suddenly the raiding fighters were outnumbered
and scrambling to cover the bombers. Some Japanese combat rolls
were hot. I tried to count the number of attacks the Japanese
got on the bombers but lost count after 10. Two Avenger
squadrons were broken and a third disrupted by fighters. The
Firefly had to be called in to protect the bombers, balloon
busting was out of the picture. Flak took a few more bombers and
broke a third bomber squadrons. The broken bombers rolled 5, 3
and 2 so I didn't have to bother figuring the modifiers anyway.
But the final bomber squadron had somehow avoided disruption and
was lucky with flak modifiers to, getting to bomb with +3.
Rolling...
11. 100%, adding 24 points to the brirtish score, not to mention
the British morale, giving an epic feel to the battle.
Final score:
British 24 bombing pits, 4 Ki44, 2 Ki43, 1 Ki45: 31.
Japanese: 6 Corsairs, 3 hellcats, 1 Firefly, 9 Avengers: 19
Final score: Japanese victory. Felt like a Japanese victory.
Well, it also felt like a moral British victory with that last
bombing roll, but if the Japanese don't win from downing 19
British aircraft, I don't know when they ever would.
Suggestions: Well, I don't think this was very representative.
From my experience with the somewhat similar meridian II, I seem
to have much more trouble protecting the bombers than other
players, but I'm not sure why. Maybe it was just the rolling
this time. I'll give it another shot.
#Post#: 773--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Elias Nordling Date: December 31, 2018, 9:19 am
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V0.2
Player: Elias Nordling (Solo)
Meridian 1
This playthrough went more like I expected it. The bombers split
up into two smaller formations, forcing the Japanese to get
closer to tally and the sweeps were more successful in tallying.
The British fighters were also fairly successful at engaging the
Japanese in dogfights.
Still, the numbers told, the Japanese started to get through to
the bombers. They weren't terribly successful in disrupting the
bombers, but they did make a difference in helping up the flak
results.
The Fireflies went for flak suppression instead of balloon
busting, and actually managed to suppress the heavy flak despite
losing a fighter and becoming disrupted. Nevertheless, the flak
rolled well and was really effective.
The First bomber was broken by accurate flak, and its bombs hit
nothing.
The 2nd bomber was disrupted by flak, thanks to a straggler
being shot down, so thank the fighter attacks. 10% hit.
The 3rd bomber also suffered accurate flak, but was an
undisrupted veteran bombing at +2. Rolling 4. Only 10%
The 4th bomber, finally, rolls on +3... 5. 25%
10 pts for bombing (including 3 for the flak). If all rolls
would have been 7:s, it would have been 27 pts, so definitely
below average.
Poor bombing coordination made flak more accurate, basically one
bomber attacked per turn. The reason for poor coordination:
Japanese fighters were still attacking the bombers, so no time
to circle. The Japanese veterans especially passed uncounted
cohesion rolls. So in many senses the Japanese air attacks
helped making the bombing results poorer.
But the Japanese also got a positive VP exchange in the air
combat. Especially the last two turns, after bombs were dropped,
5 more bombers were lost, to 1 Japanese fighter.
Final score:
British: 10 pts bombing, 9 Japanese fighters: 19,5
Japanese: 7 fighters, 8 bombers: 15:
Final score: 4,5. Overwhelming Japanese victory. Felt like
Japanese victory.
With all 7:s for bombing, it would have been 21,5 points, a
draw, that would have felt like a draw.
With average bombing and without that last two turns of bomber
hunting, it would have been 27 points, a British victory that
would have felt like a British victory.
Comments and suggestions: As far as I'm concerned, this scenario
works. I have no suggested changes and would be ready to sign
this one off, but Rick and I am going to try to play it PBEM to
compare our contrasting experiences with the scenario.
#Post#: 784--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Gordon Christie Date: January 4, 2019, 9:25 am
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Andrew (IJAAF) & I (FAA) have had another go at this one. We
played it fairly straight with the Japanese trying to get
through to the bombers as best they could rather than massing
against particular units or trying to avoid contact. Fighters
accounted for 1 Avenger & disrupted one Avenger squadron &
overall the Japanese definitely had the better of the die rolls
including a catastrophic Firefly attack on the balloons where
the Fireflies managed to shoot down only 1 balloon with 2 +4
attacks, losing 2 (!!) aircraft to the balloons (12 on the
barrage table, 2 6s for hit confirmation...) & another to flak.
Final result was (correctly we felt) a solid IJAAF victory with
the FAA going 5 Avengers & 8 fighters & the Japanese 4 single &
2 twin engined fighters with poor bombing resulting in 10 hits
on one refinery (12 VP ) & 1 hit ion the other (1 VP)
Final score:
IJAAF +13 (kills)
FAA +13 (bombing) +7 kills--->+20
Final +7 for IJAAF victory.
I think the scenario perhaps inevitably runs on rails to some
degree but it reflects the history & there are relatively few
choices there in design terms. Both sides do have options & I
think both have incentives to engage-the Japanese may inflict
losses & disruption on the bombers &, if they abstain from
engaging, flak suppression & balloon busting will significantly
improve bombing outcomes. The FAA should do better than even in
fighter versus fighter combat but want to preserve fighters to
take out the balloons if possible. The balloons do have a
potentially significant effect on bombing & there are some
choices to be made in how to bomb (in this test I think I might
have been better to have massed on one refinery rather than
spread the attacks across both....this would have particularly
been the case if I could have cleared the balloons from one
refinery square).
Replay value isn't infinite but the aircraft & situation are
interesting, the balloons are important & both sides i think
have valid tactical choices to make.
VP balance I think is about right.
Overall happy to sign off on this.
Cheers
Gordon
#Post#: 786--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Elias Nordling Date: January 4, 2019, 12:17 pm
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[quote]I think the scenario perhaps inevitably runs on rails to
some degree[/quote]
You'd be surprised at the amount of fancy maneuvering going on
in my and Rick's game as I am trying to think of clever ways of
reaching the bombers as fast as possible and Rick's bombers are
parrying.
#Post#: 836--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: Elias Nordling Date: January 10, 2019, 2:21 pm
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v0.2
Players: Rick McKown (UK), Elias Nordling (Japanese) PBEM
Since Rick and I had different impressions of the Japanese
chances of standing toe to toe with the UK fighter force and
getting through to the bombers, we decided to try a PBEM game
against each other.
I had a plan that turned out to be too clever by half, putting
my vectors below the bombers to allow me to end up in the same
square as the bombers for an auto tally if necessary. This plan
backfired when Rick climbed with the bombers. As a result, my
Japanese fighters ended up having to climb to engage, which is
never a recipe for success.
Nevertheless, some Japanese fighters got through, bombers were
lost and one bomber group disrupted. All in all, the Japanese
lost 4 points in air combat for a disrupted bomber squadron,
something I consider a fair trade.
The UK managed flak with another loss but no further
disruptions, but the bombing rolls were mediocre, scoring 6 hits
on one refinery and 1 hit on the other, for 13 points for
bombing. "Picking 7" would have generated 5 more points.
Final score: 12 Japanese fighters lost, 4 of were 2-engined. 27
total. Japanese shot down 6 bombers and 5 fighters for 11
points.
Final score 16, Japanese victory. Average bombing results would
have made it a draw.
Conclusions: Rick agrees with me that the Japanese can handle a
stand up fight with the British. I'm ready to sign off on this,
but you might take another look at the average scores. I have a
feeling it might be a little tough on the British.
#Post#: 843--------------------------------------------------
Re: E19 Operation Meridian I
By: pilotofficerprune Date: January 12, 2019, 3:09 am
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We have quite a good sample of score outputs now, only slightly
distorted by the outsize results of Gordon and Andrew's first
test. If I drop that first result, the new drops by a whole 3
VP. So I think that's what I will do to the draw window here.
That should help ease things for the British a bit.
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