BACK IN BUSINESS - PzB goes East again(st) Andy Mac

[PzB74]

There are no troops on the ships and the regiment is fully manned; guess the regiment hadn't combined completely after unloading when attacking. There's a full bird Colonel in charge - if the chief was lost a much less senior commander would replace him?

- Also discussed the ammo question with Andy; he commented on that the Tenryu bombarded Palmyra and spent ammo first.
True, but bomardment ammo isn't the same ammo used in ship to ship combat. HE vs AP.

Should AE have 2 different ammo stock for ships; one for bombardment and one for ship to ship combat?

[PzB74]

Found that my troops have been ashore their ships for to long and accumulated as much as 99 disruption BEFORE unloading [X(]
Didn't think about this; good I learned now and not later.

So to sum it up the Palmyra Operation has bee a messy one; many hard earned lessons.
Going to unload the backup regiment tomorrow; it's escorted by 2 heavy cruisers and 4 destroyers under Tanaka [8|]
- This unit is also severly disrupted, plan is to overpower the small garrison and get done with this embarrasing incident.

Looks like Andy is pulling back from Townsville area; less and less troops in the area.


AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR May 01, 42

Sub Attacks

Whoho, another "lock" family ship! [8D]

Submarine attack near Bombay at 33,25

Japanese Ships
SS I-20

Allied Ships
xAK Annalock, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage

xAK Annalock is sighted by SS I-20
SS I-20 launches 6 torpedoes at xAK Annalock
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Air Combat

Morning Air attack on 30th Australian Brigade, at 87,148

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 27 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-21-IIa Sally x 9

No Japanese losses

Allied ground losses:
45 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on 5th Recon Regiment, at 87,148
Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 21 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes

Allied aircraft
Hudson III (LR) x 6
B-25B Mitchell x 4

No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
Vehicles lost 8 (0 destroyed, 8 disabled)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 new US destroyers spotted of Palmyra;

Morning Air attack on TF, near Washington Island at 170,135

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid spotted at 11 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 40
D3A1 Val x 14

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A1 Val: 10 damaged

Allied Ships
DD Conyngham, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Perkins

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x D3A1 Val releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
8 x D3A1 Val releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb

Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Conyngham
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow up attack only score a dud? hit...

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Washington Island at 170,135

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid spotted at 41 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 40
D3A1 Val x 13

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A1 Val: 6 damaged

Allied Ships
DD Cushing, Bomb hits 1
DD Conyngham, heavy fires, heavy damage

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x D3A1 Val releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
7 x D3A1 Val releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
4 x D3A1 Val releasing from 1000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb

Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Conyngham
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on 3rd Australian Brigade, at 74,143 (Alice Springs)

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid spotted at 12 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 17
G4M1 Betty x 18

No Japanese losses

Allied ground losses:
14 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Aircraft Attacking:
18 x G4M1 Betty bombing from 14000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb, 4 x 60 kg GP Bomb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground combat

Pursuing a stack of Chinks and force them to retreat towards Sian;

Ground combat at 86,42

Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 36419 troops, 316 guns, 156 vehicles, Assault Value = 1350

Defending force 10087 troops, 92 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 227
Japanese adjusted assault: 817

Allied adjusted defense: 160
Japanese assault odds: 5 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
657 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 55 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 36 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Vehicles lost 5 (0 destroyed, 5 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
5157 casualties reported
Squads: 193 destroyed, 73 disabled
Non Combat: 180 destroyed, 66 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 4 disabled
Guns lost 4 (2 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Units retreated 6

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
32nd Division
6th Mongol Cavalry Division
59th Infantry Brigade
110th/C Division
1st Ind.Mixed Brigade
13th Tank Regiment
12th Indpt Infantry Regiment
41st/A Division
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
2nd Chinese Cavalry Corps
27th Chinese Corps
43rd Chinese Corps
5th New Chinese Corps
8th Group Army
4th Chinese Base Force
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Palmyra (170,133)
Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 288 troops, 12 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 12
Defending force 3143 troops, 26 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 94

Allied ground losses:
8 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Assaulting units:
Palmyra USN CPNAB
Palmyra (Det.) Defense Battalion

Defending units:
31st Infantry Regiment
---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Fishbed]

Your Val crews seem top notch. Hitting DDs is actually not that easy!

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: PzB

There are no troops on the ships and the regiment is fully manned; guess the regiment hadn't combined completely after unloading when attacking. There's a full bird Colonel in charge - if the chief was lost a much less senior commander would replace him?

- Also discussed the ammo question with Andy; he commented on that the Tenryu bombarded Palmyra and spent ammo first.
True, but bomardment ammo isn't the same ammo used in ship to ship combat. HE vs AP.

Should AE have 2 different ammo stock for ships; one for bombardment and one for ship to ship combat?

when fighting DDs, the bombardement ammo and the ammo against the DDs is the same. No sense using AP against tincans, still better than using nothing though. [:D] There´s no difference in the game though and the CL would not have used that much ammo in real life to be a sitting duck after the bombardement and also the damage done by the two DDs is off IMO. That´s due to your ships "trying to get underway", this leads to massacres in 85% of the time in AE. But I agree with you, it´s nearly everytime the same, ships run out of ammo far too fast. No matter if main gun ammo, secondary, AA, or dept charges.

[Kereguelen]

ORIGINAL: PzB

I expected the Tenryu to handle 2 destroyers fairly well but instead they handled both our light cruiser, the rest of the escortsand the convoy [:'(] Doing 4x more damage than the Houston and Perth of Java in RL they hit 16 ships,
sinking ca 10 of them - taking only a single 5.5" shell hit in return.

Ok we were caught by surprise and had to get underway; but the escorts shouldn't be at anchor - they should be buzzing around
looking for trouble, right? 2 destroyers shooting up 16 ships is a bit much.

The Tenryu ran out of ammo long long before the battle ended - this happens very often in daylight actions.
Think some tweaking is needed here.

Ahem, CL Tenryu was a vintage WW1 (commissioned 1919) light cruiser with 4x 5.5in/50 guns as its main armament, basically an enlarged destroyer.

Meredith and Grayson were modern (commissioned 1941) destroyers with 5x 5in/38 guns (each) as main armament.

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: Kereguelen

ORIGINAL: PzB

I expected the Tenryu to handle 2 destroyers fairly well but instead they handled both our light cruiser, the rest of the escortsand the convoy [:'(] Doing 4x more damage than the Houston and Perth of Java in RL they hit 16 ships,
sinking ca 10 of them - taking only a single 5.5" shell hit in return.

Ok we were caught by surprise and had to get underway; but the escorts shouldn't be at anchor - they should be buzzing around
looking for trouble, right? 2 destroyers shooting up 16 ships is a bit much.

The Tenryu ran out of ammo long long before the battle ended - this happens very often in daylight actions.
Think some tweaking is needed here.

Ahem, CL Tenryu was a vintage WW1 (commissioned 1919) light cruiser with 4x 5.5in/50 guns as its main armament, basically an enlarged destroyer.

Meredith and Grayson were modern (commissioned 1941) destroyers with 5x 5in/38 guns (each) as main armament.

yeah, that´s well true. Something you might forget when looking at the designation light cruiser and think about something like a Brooklyn class which the IJN hasn´t something even close to it.

[PzB74]

That is well true and if the destroyers had shot the Tenryu to pieces I wouldnt have mentioned it.
However, she is still armed with 5.5" guns and a single hit can disable a destroyer.
- What happened was that the destroyers lobbed the occasional shell against the cruiser and concentrate most efforts on the smaller escorts and transports. In the end the cruiser was almost unharmed and out of ammo.

In reality the destroyers would have had to contend with the cruiser first before committing themselves to the transports, if not they would have risked being blown out of the water.

Am a bit concerned about surface combat; many strange results that was not an issue in stock.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: PzB

That is well true and if the destroyers had shot the Tenryu to pieces I wouldnt have mentioned it.
However, she is still armed with 5.5" guns and a single hit can disable a destroyer.
- What happened was that the destroyers lobbed the occasional shell against the cruiser and concentrate most efforts on the smaller escorts and transports. In the end the cruiser was almost unharmed and out of ammo.

In reality the destroyers would have had to contend with the cruiser first before committing themselves to the transports, if not they would have risked being blown out of the water.

Am a bit concerned about surface combat; many strange results that was not an issue in stock.

The game seems to handle this with a routine whereby certain warships succeed in Screening certain non-warships. I forget the verbiage used in the combat reports but it explicitly lists this when it happens. Just guessing, but maybe what you saw was the DD in amongst the sheep while the CL kept trying to get the range/angle/LOF.

[PzB74]

Yep, and I did not see this happen with any of the escorts in this convoy.
Most of the action was 10-17k, closing down to 4k before expanding again.
- Many hits were actually scored from 16k by the US destroyers.

Andy has a lot to look forward to when he is to go onto the offensive.
- I checked and found that troops on a fast transport TF got 90 disruption after 2 days!!

The 2 regiments on Palmyra are almost wrecked, we should be able to handle minute garrison but glad Andy didn't but another man there.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR May 02, 42

Our seaplane tenders run into the damaged Meredith;

Night Time Surface Combat, near Palmyra at 171,126, Range 18,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
PB Taiko Maru
AV Kiyokawa Maru

Allied Ships
DD Meredith, heavy fires, heavy damage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground Combat

Ground combat at 75,140
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 960 troops, 0 guns, 144 vehicles, Assault Value = 205

Defending force 466 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1
Japanese adjusted assault: 77

Allied adjusted defense: 2
Japanese assault odds: 38 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(+), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
Units pursuing 2

Allied ground losses:
295 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 17 destroyed, 23 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Units retreated 1

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
1st Recon Regiment
8th Tank Regiment
20th Recon Regiment
48th Recon Regiment
26th Recon Regiment

Defending units:
1st Fgtr RAAF Wing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at 84,47

Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 12478 troops, 104 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 457

Defending force 10472 troops, 86 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 463
Japanese adjusted assault: 399

Allied adjusted defense: 171
Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: op mode(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
198 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled

Allied ground losses:
4332 casualties reported
Squads: 117 destroyed, 66 disabled
Non Combat: 91 destroyed, 60 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 4 disabled
Guns lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Units retreated 2

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
40th Division

Defending units:
55th Chinese Corps
77th Chinese Corps
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Palmyra (170,133)
Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 5176 troops, 29 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 168
Defending force 672 troops, 12 guns, 6 vehicles, Assault Value = 12

Japanese adjusted assault: 53
Allied adjusted defense: 29

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 4)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 3

Combat modifiers
Defender: forts(+), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), disruption(-)

Japanese ground losses:
281 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 7 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 10 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
92 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Vehicles lost 3 (0 destroyed, 3 disabled)

Assaulting units:
31st Infantry Regiment
56th Infantry Rgt /1

Defending units:
Palmyra USN CPNAB
Palmyra (Det.) Defense Battalion
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[PzB74]

Townsville falls; Andy abandons it but a rearguard!
- That suits me well, would have been 6 weeks until I could have put it under a proper siege [8D]
A size 3 harbour is the best I got beside of Darwin and should speed up unloading of mech troops.

Our advance will continue on Alice Spring. Except from this I have secured the ground I'm interested in here in
NE Oz!

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR May 03, 42

Sub Attacks

Yet another "...lock" ship; how many are there [;)]

Submarine attack near Goa at 30,31

Japanese Ships
SS I-166

Allied Ships
xAK Hatterlock, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

xAK Hatterlock is sighted by SS I-166
SS I-166 launches 4 torpedoes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Air Combat

Morning Air attack on 30th Australian Brigade, at 87,149

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 21 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 8
Ki-48-Ib Lily x 28

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-48-Ib Lily: 2 damaged

Allied ground losses:
61 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)

Aircraft Attacking:
28 x Ki-48-Ib Lily bombing from 11000 feet *
Ground Attack: 2 x 100 kg GP Bomb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on 30th Australian Brigade, at 87,149

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-21-IIa Sally x 8
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 7

No Japanese losses

Allied ground losses:
48 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x Ki-21-IIa Sally bombing from 10000 feet *
Ground Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb
4 x Ki-21-IIa Sally bombing from 10000 feet *
Ground Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andy sent some P-40's to Alice Springs; I'm bombing the place with second rate Betties (60 exp).
Zero's easily handled the first wave of P-40's - a couple got through to the bombers and then suddenly more and more
reinforced the CAP without having to engage the Zero's..thus shooting down 5 bombers. Hm, that was kinda unfair!

Afternoon Air attack on 3rd Australian Brigade, at 74,143 (Alice Springs)

Weather in hex: Severe storms

Raid spotted at 13 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 8
G4M1 Betty x 16

Allied aircraft
P-400 Airacobra x 16

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 5 destroyed, 6 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-400 Airacobra: 1 destroyed

Aircraft Attacking:
10 x G4M1 Betty bombing from 14000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb, 4 x 60 kg GP Bomb

CAP engaged:
20th PS (P) with P-400 Airacobra (5 airborne, 11 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(1 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
5 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 14000 , scrambling fighters to 14000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 17 minutes
4 planes vectored on to bombers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground Combat

Andy only left a Kiwi battalion as rear guard;

Ground combat at Townsville (92,144)
Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 600 troops, 0 guns, 90 vehicles, Assault Value = 51
Defending force 160 troops, 4 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 11

Japanese adjusted assault: 52
Allied adjusted defense: 1

Japanese assault odds: 52 to 1 (fort level 3)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Townsville !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: op mode(-), leaders(-), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: leaders(+)

Allied ground losses:
180 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Units retreated 1

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
7th Tank Regiment

Defending units:
34th NZ Battalion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the shock attack by the support troops unloaded for the 56th inf.

Ground combat at Palmyra (170,133)

Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 2593 troops, 28 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 159

Defending force 587 troops, 12 guns, 6 vehicles, Assault Value = 9
Japanese adjusted assault: 2

Allied adjusted defense: 13
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 6 (fort level 3)

Combat modifiers
Defender: experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), disruption(-)

Japanese ground losses:
365 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 23 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
32 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Assaulting units:
31st Infantry Regiment
56th Infantry Rgt /1

Defending units:
Palmyra USN CPNAB
Palmyra (Det.) Defense Battalion
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Mynok]

There's a table in the manual showing disruption accumulation and Fast Transport is the worst by far. It should only be used for supplies or one-day turnaround transport.

[PzB74]

Guess there's a table for everything, will have to look em up again one day [;)]

Palmyra falls...*relief*

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR May 04, 42

Bombardments

Naval bombardment of Palmyra at 170,133 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

4 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
CA Kako
CA Ashigara

Allied ground losses:
21 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)

CA Kako firing at Palmyra
CA Ashigara firing at Palmyra (Det.) Defense Battalion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sub Attacks

Submarine attack near Townsville at 93,145

Japanese Ships
SS RO-68

Allied Ships
AM Townsville, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage

AM Townsville is sighted by SS RO-68
SS RO-68 launches 2 torpedoes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground Combat

Finally we clear out this little pest hole!

Ground combat at Palmyra (170,133)

Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 5557 troops, 53 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 156

Defending force 558 troops, 12 guns, 6 vehicles, Assault Value = 6
Japanese adjusted assault: 76

Allied adjusted defense: 7
Japanese assault odds: 10 to 1 (fort level 3)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Palmyra !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: forts(+), leaders(-), experience(-)
Attacker: disruption(-)

Japanese ground losses:
100 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 2 (0 destroyed, 2 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1245 casualties reported
Squads: 18 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 108 destroyed, 43 disabled
Engineers: 17 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 15 (15 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 8 (7 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Units destroyed 2

Assaulting units:
31st Infantry Regiment
56th Infantry Regiment

Defending units:
Palmyra USN CPNAB
Palmyra (Det.) Defense Battalion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charters is abandoned;

Ground combat at Charters Towers (91,145)
Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 1025 troops, 4 guns, 42 vehicles, Assault Value = 38
Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 0

Japanese adjusted assault: 20
Allied adjusted defense: 1

Japanese assault odds: 20 to 1 (fort level 3)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Charters Towers !!!

Combat modifiers
Attacker: leaders(+), leaders(-)

Assaulting units:
22nd Recon Regiment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andy want Ankang back; I was opportunistic and grabbed it.
Think I'm outnumbered here....but let's see how well the chinks fight on the offensive.

Ground combat at Ankang (82,42)

Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 5811 troops, 23 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1885

Defending force 4249 troops, 34 guns, 58 vehicles, Assault Value = 168
Allied adjusted assault: 145

Japanese adjusted defense: 157
Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 0)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
102 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 7 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 16 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 16 (0 destroyed, 16 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
561 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 34 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Assaulting units:
40th Chinese Corps
85th Chinese Corps
48th Chinese Corps
14th Chinese Corps
29th Chinese Corps
12th Chinese Corps
98th Chinese Corps

Defending units:
15th Tank Regiment
41st/C Division
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Setting up for the Kill

[CapAndGown]

What are you scouting with?

[PzB74]

I'm using AVs - they have long operational radius and with 3 Jake's make up excellent scouts.
Put 3 together and you can comb the sealans; put a Car Div nearby and you have a party!

As my offensive ground targets are captured we move towards Phase III; the final offensive phase.
Interdicting convoys to Oz will be a main part of this strategy over the next year to come and this convoy may be a good start.

Ok, I need to sort out the mess at Palmyra and scout Christmas Island.
Should put some subs, mines and scout planes around. Pretty sure Andy will visit now and then.


AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR May 05, 42

Sub Attacks

Submarine attack near Perth at 48,147

Japanese Ships
SS I-122

Allied Ships
xAK Florence Luckenbach, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

xAK Florence Luckenbach is sighted by SS I-122
SS I-122 attacking xAK Florence Luckenbach on the surface
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground Combat

We're pursuing the enemy towards Alice Spring; just 2 more hexes!

Ground combat at 74,141
Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 1025 troops, 4 guns, 42 vehicles, Assault Value = 250
Defending force 245 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1

Japanese adjusted assault: 20
Allied adjusted defense: 1

Japanese assault odds: 20 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: op mode(-), leaders(+), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
Units pursuing 3

Allied ground losses:
84 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 11 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Units retreated 1

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
8th Recon Regiment
20th Recon Regiment
8th Tank Regiment
48th Recon Regiment
26th Recon Regiment

Defending units:
1st Fgtr RAAF Wing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at 87,149

Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 1805 troops, 2 guns, 163 vehicles, Assault Value = 108

Defending force 2057 troops, 18 guns, 33 vehicles, Assault Value = 64
Japanese adjusted assault: 50

Allied adjusted defense: 4
Japanese assault odds: 12 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(+), leaders(-), disruption(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
Vehicles lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
612 casualties reported
Squads: 18 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 37 destroyed, 18 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 17 (8 destroyed, 9 disabled)
Units retreated 1

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
4th Tank Regiment
5th Recon Regiment

Defending units:
30th Australian Brigade
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Closing In!

[Mynok]

Be careful he's not baiting you. Do you know where his carriers are?

I hope you have CS with your carriers. In-TF scouting seems to be much better than external scouting for triggering attacks.

[Cribtop]

ORIGINAL: PzB

Townsville falls; Andy abandons it but a rearguard!
- That suits me well, would have been 6 weeks until I could have put it under a proper siege [8D]
A size 3 harbour is the best I got beside of Darwin and should speed up unloading of mech troops.

Our advance will continue on Alice Spring. Except from this I have secured the ground I'm interested in here in
NE Oz!

We are all witnesses... [&o][&o][&o]

PzB - It's very good to see the Sons of Nippon doing so well. Given that it is harder to pull of these deep invasions in AE than in WitP, your feat of arms is all the more impressive.

[denisonh]

This is a good read John. Glad I am reading about you brutalizing Andy. Better than experiencing it first hand.[:'(]

Now I need to go over and read Andy's side of the story.

This is the first time in a couple of months having time to get back into AE.

[PzB74]

Andy says we need to slow down; a bug prevents his armored units from taking replacements.
We need to wait for the patch or upgrade to beta? Asked him about the latter.

Don't know were his carriers are Mynok; not at Pearl cause then he would have been more active around Palmyra me thinks.
Probably Suva area! Still, I got the KB nearby - so if he wants to trap my convoy he needs to handle 6 carriers in total.

Thx Cribtop; but honestly - Andy has been retreating up until now and the victories have been easy ones!
Logistics is hard to handle; my Central Pacific Operations turned out to be a shoestring ops [:'(]
- In a year we will know how succesful my campaigns have been!

Long time Harvey, which way did you go - Kabul?
Let me know, are things going according to Andy's plan? [;)]


Ok some good news today! [8D]
Andy is going to need Red Adair to put out these fires....


AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR May 06, 42

Surface Combat

My scouts run into the convoy - and it's more than 11 ships, it's 25!! [8D]
Without an escort loaded with FUEL! [:D]
EVIL KANIVIL

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Cocos Islands at 8,104, Range 9,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
AV Kamikawa Maru

Allied Ships
xAK Jalaratna
xAK Pundit
xAK Sirsa
xAK Taiping
xAK Tak Sang
xAK Tanfield
xAK Wo Sang
xAK Autolycus
xAK Clan Macilwraith
xAK Elmdale
xAK Empire Grenfell
xAK Forthbank
xAK Glenaffric
xAK Mahsud
xAK Pardo
xAK Subadar
xAK Turing Mary
xAK Siantar
xAK Iron Knob
xAK Momba
xAK Moonta
xAK Elisavet
xAK Mary Livanos
xAK Michael Goulandris
xAK Zannis Cambanis

Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions and 64% moonlight: 11,000 yards
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 9,000 yards
Japanese TF attempts to evade combat
Range increases to 12,000 yards...
Both Task Forces evade combat
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Air Combat

We have 72 strike planes minus 20% set of for searches...and only 27 launch in both AM and PM.
Why so lame? [&:] Still 6 ships lit up and sinking; only 19 to go. We split up the escort to hunt!

Morning Air attack on TF, near Cocos Islands at 6,108

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid spotted at 28 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22
B5N2 Kate x 18
D3A1 Val x 9

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
xAK Momba, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
xAK Forthbank, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
xAK Tak Sang, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Empire Grenfell
xAK Elmdale
xAK Taiping
xAK Clan Macilwraith, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Zannis Cambanis, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Mary Livanos, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
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Ground Combat

Ouch, found a more substantial Chink stack....

Ground combat at 85,42
Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 36393 troops, 316 guns, 156 vehicles, Assault Value = 1344
Defending force 83790 troops, 543 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3001

Japanese adjusted assault: 471
Allied adjusted defense: 5194
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 11

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), experience(-)
Attacker: disruption(-)

Japanese ground losses:
7715 casualties reported
Squads: 34 destroyed, 351 disabled
Non Combat: 37 destroyed, 312 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 23 disabled
Vehicles lost 41 (0 destroyed, 41 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
557 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 34 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 48 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled

Assaulting units:
1st Ind.Mixed Brigade
59th Infantry Brigade
6th Mongol Cavalry Division
12th Indpt Infantry Regiment
32nd Division
13th Tank Regiment
110th/C Division
41st/A Division
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
1st Chinese Corps
36th Chinese Corps
41st Chinese Corps
27th Chinese Corps
95th Chinese Corps
2nd Chinese Cavalry Corps
47th Chinese Corps
34th Chinese Corps
76th Chinese Corps
92nd Chinese Corps
57th Chinese Corps
96th Chinese Corps
43rd Chinese Corps
5th New Chinese Corps
22nd Group Army
5th War Area
8th Group Army
4th Chinese Base Force
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Caught up with the main Allied force retreating to Alice Springs; tried to defeat it with
a single recon regiment to allow 2 to pursue. Need more firepower I see.

Ground combat at 75,142
Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 1025 troops, 4 guns, 42 vehicles, Assault Value = 157
Defending force 2453 troops, 3 guns, 68 vehicles, Assault Value = 36

Japanese adjusted assault: 18
Allied adjusted defense: 63

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 3

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), op mode(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Allied ground losses:
48 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 4 (0 destroyed, 4 disabled)

Assaulting units:
48th Recon Regiment
8th Tank Regiment
26th Recon Regiment

Defending units:
2nd Recce Battalion
Tennant Creek RAAF Base Force
Katherine RAAF Base Force
NW Aus Aviation Rgt
1st Fgtr RAAF Wing
10th Patl RAAF Wing
24th NZ Pioneer Coy
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Securing my Holliday Island

Ground combat at Palm Island (92,143)
Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 33 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3
Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 0

Japanese adjusted assault: 4
Allied adjusted defense: 1

Japanese assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 0)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Palm Island !!!

Combat modifiers
Attacker: shock(+), leaders(-)

Assaulting units:
2nd Raiding Rgt /1
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Convoy Battle

[aprezto]

re carrier bombers attacking.
This is exactly as I note with carrier ops. I'd love to know what is knocking down the numbers or not even getting the planes in the air at all.
 
I'd normally point at experience, morale and TF Admiral. But you can't get much better than what you're using? Does this mean you wont ever utilise a full strike???

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: PzB

That is well true and if the destroyers had shot the Tenryu to pieces I wouldnt have mentioned it.
However, she is still armed with 5.5" guns and a single hit can disable a destroyer.
- What happened was that the destroyers lobbed the occasional shell against the cruiser and concentrate most efforts on the smaller escorts and transports. In the end the cruiser was almost unharmed and out of ammo.

In reality the destroyers would have had to contend with the cruiser first before committing themselves to the transports, if not they would have risked being blown out of the water.

Am a bit concerned about surface combat; many strange results that was not an issue in stock.

Yeah, I think it is a little out of whack myself. In WITP sometimes a surface force would hit a merchie TF and only sink one or two. Now one or two warships can easily intercept a merchant convoy in open water and slaughter them all. Happened me once or twice.

They need to find something in the middle.

Also, the game should considers escorting ships as underway. Perhaps it is the case if it were an amphibious TF rather than just a troop convoy. Not sure.