Second Round

[herwin]

Japanese player still stunned and lying on his back like a dead bug with his arms and legs in the air.

Mar 6, 1942
Taung Gyi surrenders.
Baguio smothered.

Mar 7, 1942
Lunga surrenders.
Baguio smothered.

[String]

No Japanese assaults on Singapore yet?

[herwin]

ORIGINAL: String

No Japanese assaults on Singapore yet?

Feb 20, 21 (shock attacks), 25 (DA), Mar 4 (DA). The Mar 4 attack was 1364-1381, modified to 989-3786, bleh. I'm currently treating the island as a self-managing prison camp. I hit it from time to time to see if the supplies have run out yet, and I run air attacks to train my inexperienced air units and drain supply. The besieging forces are a full Japanese army with HQ. The other major siege is Baguio Pass. I had high hopes for that until the game engine messed me up good. Currently, I have a reinforced army group there that I'm supporting with most of the experienced units in the Japanese Air Force. I have a corps contesting Manila to prevent supply from moving out. There's activity in central Burma, too, and the IJN is landing in various places.

[herwin]

Mar 8, 1942

Tassafaronga occupied.
Baguio smothered.

Mar 9, 1942
Baguio smothered.
DAs at Baguio, Chengchow, and Makassar
SA at Mandalay
Not significant gains

Mar 10, 1942
DA Singapore repulsed.

Mar 11, 1942
Baguio smothered.
Mersign surrenders

Mar 12, 1942
Baguio smothered.

[herwin]

Mar 13, 1942
Landing at Lae.
Reinforcements at Kendari.
Allied SAG detected near Lae.
Baguio smothered.

Mar 14, 1942
Reinforcements at Kendari
RN CVTF strike on Kendari--I wonder where the KB is...
Singapore and Baguio smothered.
Deliberate attacks at Singapore and Baguio. Allied casualties higher in both attacks.
Lae captured. Allied SAG operating near Lae hit by Betty strikes.

Mar 15, 1942
Passage of lines aborted by the game engine. Other goofiness, too.
Nothing operationally relevant happens.

[herwin]

Air strikes continued against Baguio Pass and Singapore.

Mar 16, 1942
Batao surrenders.

Mar 17, 1942
House to house fighting in Mandalay continues.

Mar 18, 1942
Japanese regrouping in Luzon

Mar 20, 1942
Tacloban captured.

Mar 21, 1941
Major attack at Lingayen Gulf.
Americans pull out of Manila.

[herwin]

Mar 22, 1942
Zamboanga invaded.
Deliberate attack on Lingayen Gulf repulsed.
Shock attack on Manila (2 forts, urban) at about 1-4.

Mar 23, 1942
Baguio smothered.
Noticed that white hexsides do not generate shock attacks, even when they're river hexsides.

Mar 24, 1942
DA Singapore. 9-level fort, urban. Needs more engineers.
DA Mandalay, 1-level fort, urban, slightly less than 1-1. Needs more engineers.
Butuan captured.

Mar 25, 1942
Naval bombardment of Zamboanga
Baguio smothered--averaging >500 casualties per attack.
Amboina smothered by carrier attack.
Overpowered ASW attack on sub near Sydney.
Various bombardment attacks.
Japanese infantry reach Angeles/Clark via Mauben.

[Mistmatz]

Herwin could you please elaborate a bit about your economy? I'd be interested how your stocks HI/oil/resources are developing. Also did you halt or expand anything?

Also, which revision of RHSRAO are you playing?

[herwin]

The last turn is available as witp003.pws at <http://scat-he-g4.sunderland.ac.uk/~har ... index.html>. The replay files are posted there as well. Contact me by private message to get the password if you want to nose around. I believe an early message in this thread gives the version of RHSRAO.

[herwin]

Mar 26, 1942
Deliberate attack at Lingayen Gulf. Raw 1969-1294. Final 510-1959

Mar 27, 1942
Baguio and Kendari smothered.
RN CVTF attacks IJN SAG near Makassar, but unfortunately out of range of the KB, which had hit Kendari from the south. A couple of IJN CLs eat fish and limp back to Balikpapan. Borneo-based 2E bombers fail to make contact.

Mar 28, 1942
KB moves to Bali to cut off the RN force, which passes it in the night heading towards Darwin.
Fischafen surrenders.
Parachute landings on Palembang and Port Moresby.

Mar 29, 1942
Surigao surrenders; Pontianek falls to a shock attack; and Muntok is captured by a vertical envelopment to provide a supporting position for the paratroopers in Palembang. Paratroopers at Port Moresby pull back to Kokoda. Chinese forces investing Sinyang cut off from their base and attacked by Japanese relief force in conjunction with a sally by the defenders. Chinese survivors retreat towards Chengchow closely pursued by the Japanese forces.

[herwin]

Mar 30, 1942
Makassar and Wau smothered by carrier attacks.
Deliberate attack on Lingayen. 1959-1230, no forts, converts to 587-1637.

Mar 31, 1942
Bandjermasin smothered by carrier attacks.
Deliberate attack on Mandalay. 685-843, 2 forts, converts to 500-554.

Apr 1, 1942
Lingayen smothered by LBA.
Deliberate attack on Singapore. 1371-1579, 9 forts, converts to 832-5876.

Apr 2, 1942
Lingayen smothered by LBA.
Deliberate attack on Baguio. 120-289, 0 forts, converts to 20-601.

Apr 3, 1942
Lautern smothered by CVTF.
Deliberate attack on Lingayen. 1935-1195, no forts, converts to 583-729.

Apr 4, 1942
ABDA SAG attacks IJN landing at Muntok with air support by an RN CVTF. IJN destroyers and Zeros defend. Marginal ABDA victory.
Kendari smothered by CVTF.

[herwin]

Experience is that the supply sinks in RHS do three things:
1. Use up supply
2. Ensure any active units in a supply sink hex are supported.
3. Provide a minimal garrison of 200-400 AV, resulting in a failure of Japanese fantasy strategies.

Apr 5, 1942
Manila smothered by LBA.
Makassar smothered by carrier air.
Deliberate assault on Singapore ends up 1-12--the Allies gotta love that supply sink.

Apr 6, 1942
Lingayen smothered by LBA.
Japanese RO-class encounters an ASW TF garrisoning French Frigate Shoal. Since there hasn't been a Japanese SS in the Eastern Pacific since mid-December, that was a bit of a surprise. 4 USN DDs expended 12 depth charges to get 6 hits. (In reality, it would have been more like 50-100 DCs to get 1 near-miss and about 10 systems damage.)
Deliberate assault on Manila starts at 373-53 and ends up 168-1161--the Allies gotta love that supply sink.
Deliberate assault on Makassar by three battalions starts out 113-37 and ends up 14-59--the Allies gotta love that supply sink.
Deliberate assault on Kendari by one battalion starts out 34-16 and ends up 10-481--the Allies gotta love that supply sink.

Apr 7, 1942
Deliberate assault at Lingayen starts out 1937-1147 and ends up 1079-721.

Apr 8, 1942
Manila smothered by LBA.
Deliberate assault at Lingayen starts out 1849-929 and ends up 878-447.

The uber-ASW logic in the game engine means that it's very dangerous to use submarines for three of their important missions: search and rescue, patrol, and reconnaissance. The game programmers seemed to assume:
1. Submarine detection is easy (it ain't).
2. ASW weapons targeting is about 500 times too effective.
3. ASW weapons expenditure per engagement is about 30 times too low.
4. ASW weapons damage is 10 to 20% of what it is in reality.
5. Submarines are much more vulnerable to attack and detection in littoral/shallow environments (that's ass-backwards).
6. Submarines use speed to evade attacks. (They use stealth, creeping along at about 2 knots.)

The way the game engine handles ASW would imply a November class sub at mid-depth in the Atlantic doing 20-30 knots would be in the catbird seat.

[herwin]

Apr 9, 1942
Lingayen abandoned by Allies

Apr 10, 1942
Manila smothered by LBA
Amboina smothered by CVTF
Deliberate attack on Mandalay repulsed

Apr 11, 1942
Manila smothered by LBA
Amboina smothered by CVTF
Baguio abandoned by Allies

[herwin]

Apr 12, 1942
RN and USN SAGs bombard Muntok.
Bataan, Cebu, and Darwin smothered.
Angeles/Clark captured.

Apr 13, 1942
Buna surrenders
Manila and Iloilo smothered.

Apr 14, 1942
RN and USN SAGs bombard Muntok.
RN CVTF off Balikpapan
Koepang smothered

[herwin]

Apr 15 1942
Joure and Ormoc captured
Manila and Gorontalo smothered
USN CVTF attacks Buna
Deliberate attack on Manila, 2274-2130, fort 1, converts to 594-7241
Chinese shock attack at Chengchow forces a Japanese area army (9 divisions) to retreat

Apr 16, 1942
Roxas surrenders

Apr 17, 1942
Kairuku occupied
CVTF engagements with LBA off Soerabaya
Deliberate attack on Mandalay 778-940, fort 3, converts to 180-1181
Cagayan surrenders

Apr 18, 1942
Kokoda occupied
Makassar bombarded
Singapore, Bandjermasin, and Kendari smothered
USN CVTF attacks Buna

[herwin]

Apr 19, 1942
Makassar smothered (CVTF)
Chinese drive Japanese out of Wuchang

Apr 20, 1942
Muntok bombarded (by RN SAG)
Munda smothered (USN CVTF)
Makassar finally captured by assault

Apr 21, 1942
Manila smothered
Kaga hits mine and limps home
Air battles over Java

Apr 22, 1942
Manila and Merak smothered
Air battles over Java
Direct assault on Manila 2263-2222 fort 0, converts to 982-6237 (1-6.5)
Direct assault on Amboina 48-43 converts to 24-55
Direct assault on Kendari 33-13 converts to 21-23

[herwin]

Apr 23, 1942
Manila smothered.

Apr 24, 1942
Deliberate assault on Kendari, 41-13, fort 0, converts to 18-13.

Apr 25, 1942
Sawahloento smothered (CVTF)
Shock attack on Kendari (a deliberate assault was ordered, so what???) captures it.

Apr 26, 1942
Manila and Medan smothered.
Deliberate assault on Manila (besieged and low in supply) 2158-2364, fort 0, converts to 1080-5617.
Deliberate assault on Singapore (besieged and low in supply) 1455-1615, fort 8, converts to 1001-5116
Deliberate assault on Amboina (besieged) 73-42, fort 0, converts to 33-33, holds.
Shock attack by the Chinese on Nanchang captures it. 21 armies against a garrison. Reminds me of the first time I played D-Day about 50 years ago. My brother and I didn't read the stacking rules, and the game ended with a stack of all the Allied divisions attacking a stack of all the German divisions in the middle of France. My super-stack is currently further north in China.

[herwin]

My Allied opponent had been kicking me out of Chinese cities with shock attacks (usually launched because he was out of supplies and either had to retreat or force me to retreat), and I got nervous about my sieges of Manila and Singapore. So I suggested we run an experiment--he would launch shock attacks at both, deliberate attacks at both, and send me his real move for the game. The results were--ah--interesting.

The gory details:
Shock attacks at Singapore got 3 and 4-1 and ejected the Japanese.
Deliberate attacks at Singapore got 1-1 and didn't.
Shock attacks at Manila got 1-3 and 1-4.
Deliberate attacks at Manila got 1-3 and 1-5.
The key difference may be that the attacks in Singapore were from fortified positions.

Case 13 (shock attacks)
Singapore 1529-1333 fort 8 became 3181-660
Manila 2249-1931 fort 0 became 1144-4797

Case 14 (deliberate attacks)
Singapore 1529-1333 fort 8 became 1598-893
Manila 2249-1931 fort 0 became 1223-3733

Case 15 (shock attacks)
Singapore 1528-1333 fort 8 became 2979-917
Manila 2263-1931 fort 0 became 1211-3577

Case 16 (deliberate attacks)
Singapore 1528-1333 fort 8 became 1713-970
Manila 2263-1931 fort 0 became 805-4057

27 Apr 1942 actual move
Allied CVTF detected at Noumea
Singapore and Sabang smothered.
Deliberate attack at Amboina 1-1, holds.

[herwin]

Deliberate attack at Amboina captures the base.
Torokina surrenders.

[herwin]

That's me, over there, gibbering in the corner. I sent four CVTFs on a trip to Ceylon, and they made a peaceful port visit. What does it take to get them to carry out their orders??? I suppose I did cause the local commanders to have to change their pants.

Apr 29, 1942
Manila smothered.
Four IJN CVTFs swanning off Ceylon.