Managinng Burma at 1944 (no Kriegsmarine, please)

[traskott]

Ok, so, this is the situation:

WitP game, 6/1944.

It was my first PBEM and I fought for India which was invaded at 1942. I got to push out japanese troops but lost several LCU.

I managed to trap a lot of japanese units at Calcuta where they was destroyed. In 1944 I push trough Burma with an stack of 2.000 troops. This is my MAIN army at India. I have about another 2.500 but not in just one place:

500 at Akyab (fort9), 800/900 at Lashio, retreating to Mytikina as supplies are not high enough to supply all my units, so a withdraw is currently under way.

Imphal, Lashio and those bases have one brigade as garrison. At Dacca I have 900 A.V. reserve and about 3 divisions at India as garrisons, or reserve.

The main army (2.000 A.V.) get into Mandalay. Here I face another 2.000 A.V. entrenched at fort9. Well. Unbeatable. I can't retreat (damned Witp Ground system, my back is free to retreat but I can't !!!) and ANOTHER japanese 2.000 AV army is pushing back a 400 A.V. corps near Mandalay, so a trap is mounted to my 2.000 A.V. and I'm VERY worried because if they fall, with 4.000 AV they will be able to make me suffer at India (another Imphal battle at 1945 ).

In the others places of Pacific things go well: I'm at Legazpi, and Filipinas will be mine soon (I hope), but losing 2.000 AV is VERY fustrating. What can I do ?

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: traskott

Ok, so, this is the situation:

WitP game, 6/1944.

It was my first PBEM and I fought for India which was invaded at 1942. I got to push out japanese troops but lost several LCU.

I managed to trap a lot of japanese units at Calcuta where they was destroyed. In 1944 I push trough Burma with an stack of 2.000 troops. This is my MAIN army at India. I have about another 2.500 but not in just one place:

500 at Akyab (fort9), 800/900 at Lashio, retreating to Mytikina as supplies are not high enough to supply all my units, so a withdraw is currently under way.

Imphal, Lashio and those bases have one brigade as garrison. At Dacca I have 900 A.V. reserve and about 3 divisions at India as garrisons, or reserve.

The main army (2.000 A.V.) get into Mandalay. Here I face another 2.000 A.V. entrenched at fort9. Well. Unbeatable. I can't retreat (damned Witp Ground system, my back is free to retreat but I can't !!!) and ANOTHER japanese 2.000 AV army is pushing back a 400 A.V. corps near Mandalay, so a trap is mounted to my 2.000 A.V. and I'm VERY worried because if they fall, with 4.000 AV they will be able to make me suffer at India (another Imphal battle at 1945 ).

In the others places of Pacific things go well: I'm at Legazpi, and Filipinas will be mine soon (I hope), but losing 2.000 AV is VERY fustrating. What can I do ?

First: post a screen capture after activating the W key (so we can see where the zones of control are).

[traskott]

Here it is....




I have the air superiority, so, in the end, air evac could be done, plus 2.000 supplied by air should hold a loong time, but I'm not interested on having fixed SO much A.V.

[tocaff]

Why not reinforce Mandalay and possibly use your airmobile (paras) to cut off his supplies and then just maybe you could bag large forces the Japanese can ill afford to lose.

[traskott]

my only paras are the 50th Para Brigade and he has enough AV to push them without trouble cause he has deploy A LOT of Tanks (1st Tank Div. included)...Plus at Mandalay he has 2.000AV x 3 (forti9) = 6.000 AV --> Impossible....

[traskott]

[BTW: The chindits brigades are part of the forces at Mandalay, so they are out of question]

Perhaps an air extraction??? Pulling out cadres and left there only the armoured units to hold as much as they can ??

[gladiatt]

[:-]

You can retreat if you give orders to your troops : destination must be a friendly base.
In your case, give order to walk from Mandalay to Myitkyina , with the railroad it should be pretty quicK.
You can try to let one unit left behind, it will be a speed-bump for 1 or 2 days, just the time that the rest of your unit retreat north.


Also: there is still no trap from the japs. If he beat you, at least can you retreat (the game engine will choose the path, but you should be safe).

More: it depend of your airpower.
Unlike my own poor experience, you have Andaman Island.
Put a Aviation Regiment there. Bring supplies. Base 100+ bombers. And try to close Rangoon harbor, or Moulmein : it should severely reduce the japs ability to bring supplies. Without supplies, he can't be too strong.

Good luck [:)]

[traskott]

Thank you...
Damn... What I had tried was give the order to go to the NW hex, never tried to point a friendly base !!!!

He is trying to trap me bacause the stack one hex at west of Mandalay is 2.000 AV and he will pull back my force there easily (just 350 AV). So a retreat was a must. Now I know how to make it, I'll do it.

Oh, about the unit in the middle of nowhere, was a (vain) attempt to isolate Mandalay !! but my troops were beaten by his STRONG reserves. Well, at least the others front at the Pacific go VERY well...

[rtrapasso]

Yep - you have to give orders to retreat to a BASE, not a hex... it helps when you click on the base icon (well, usually).

If you DON'T give orders to retreat to a base, then every time the enemy orders a bombardment or any other land attack (and sometimes air attack), the "march progress" resets to zero! [:@]

[traskott]

Do you know I have been playing a PBEM for years and didn't know this ??

[:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o][:o]

[tocaff]

That's part of the game, we're all still learning new things as time goes on.  PBEMs have shown me very interesting tactics that I never thought of and then I employ some of them in the future.

[traskott]

Thanks to everybody, now I'll pull back the chinese troops to Mytikina, where with Fort9, and HQ Southasia will rest and reform, and the others troops will go back to India to rest, and recover from losses, disruption and morale ( lot of them have morale below 20 ). 

[traskott]

Finally i pull out everything from mandalay. My troops are replenish their ranks even in the way to mytikina!!! Excelent!!!