Turning to the Dark Side - ctangus vs VSWG

[KDonovan]

Since Rabaul's being reinforced already I need to take it as a priority. The full KB will be used to support that until the job's done. Then KB will go to the SRA where I'm now sure I'll need it.

any thought of bypassing Rabual, and taking the Solomons, Lae, Miline Bay, and possibly Port Moresby. Then you can go back later when the DEI is in better situated in clean out the isolated units at Rabual

[Rob Brennan UK]

Aw, who needs BB's and CVE's anyway [;)]..

Very unlucky with the battleline and Claudes in enemy fighter range tsk tsk[:-].

Looking good all the same though.

I second that opinion of Rabaul too, would certainly suprise the allies if you take PM 1st [:D]

[ctangus]

Kenny -

That's not a bad idea. Lae's a 1(4) base & should build up quickly. I could immediately start reconing PM. I did make a mistake here though - I didn't really appreciate how much I'd need engineers in this theater & only sent 2 construction bns at the start of the game. I'm in the process of fixing that.

I also don't like the idea of a level 3 AF on my SLOCs when I don't have an open AF to close it down. Hmmm... I'll think about it for a couple turns.

Rob -

That's right. BBs & CVEs are for sissys! Real men don't need 'em... [:D]

That was a mistake with Baby KB. [:(] I also was operating Taiyo separately which was probably another mistake in hindsight. C'est la guerre.

We got one turn done but not a lot (relatively speaking) happened. I'll try to do an update after the next.

[ctangus]

12/21 - 12/24/41

Between real-life & turns from my other opponents I haven't had time to update this. I wanted to start an AAR of my game against George Patton, too. [:(] I'll try to make it up by providing more pics than usual. In short, I continue to take damage to my fleet, but the Japanese steamroller keeps on steaming & rolling...

4th Fleet

I've taken Baker & Abemama. Recon reports 2 units & @ 3000 troops at Canton Island. Probably a base force & a CD unit. I have the troops to take it, but few surface forces to cover it & I still don't know where the US CVs are. Hmmm...

Southeast Fleet

2 re-supply convoys are approaching Rabaul. I'll try to take them out with a SAG. Rabaul's been reinforced, but I'm not sure by how much. 4 units are there - might just be 2 of those (weak) Aussie Independent Cos. I have about 240-280 AV I could bring to the party.

Here's a pic.

[ctangus]

Amboina

Bad news first. Hosho sank - bugger. Also Nagato took two torps from enemy TBs when they staged out of Namlea. She'll be fine barring subs - flt damage around 20 - but she'll also be out of action for a while.

Good news:

Sorong fell, taking out an enemy float-plane base. (1 AVD & 1 Dutch patrol squadron destroyed.)

Boela fell.

Amboina fell on the first attack. 297:1 odds. Maybe a little overkill. [:D] I'd prefer that, however, to a long attrition battle in any one location.

As mentioned, enemy TBs staged into Namlea & hurt Nagato. But I happened to pick that turn to paradrop into Namlea as well. Two TB squadrons gone. BANZAI!

12/23/41
Ground combat at Namlea
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 356 troops, 1 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 17
Defending force 240 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1
Japanese max assault: 24 - adjusted assault: 7
Allied max defense: 0 - adjusted defense: 1
Japanese assault odds: 7 to 1 (fort level 0)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Namlea base !!!
Allied aircraft
no flights
Allied aircraft losses
Swordfish: 4 destroyed
Do 24K-2: 2 destroyed
T.IVa: 3 destroyed

[ctangus]

Malaya

Operation Go-Go is proceeding. I managed to surround & destroy in place one enemy brigade. He sent another to Kuching. I'm not sure if he's reinforced but I doubt it. I expect I'll own Singers before the end of January.

[ctangus]

Phillipines

On Luzon an attack at Naga brings the forts down from 3 to 2, but only gets 1:1 odds. I'll rest 2-4 days. 90,000 troops should enter Clark Field tomorrow.

I own most of Mindanao now. An engineer regiment is 60 miles from Cagayan - I'll start attacking once it arrives.

[ctangus]

South China

This was the most interesting theater to me. An enemy corps crossed the Yangtzke & entered Kiukiang:

12/22/41
Ground combat at Kiukiang
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 8704 troops, 46 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 281
Defending force 32995 troops, 159 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 625
Allied max assault: 266 - adjusted assault: 0
Japanese max defense: 664 - adjusted defense: 1762
Allied assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 3)
Japanese ground losses:
5 casualties reported
Allied ground losses:
2497 casualties reported
Guns lost 27

It auto-retreated & must be wrecked now. Most interesting was the intelligence my opponent gave me about that. WOW! That was 1 unit of a stack he intends to send to Kiukiang & his movement orders got screwed up. 12 units (well, now 11). 8-9 corps, 2-3 HQs. Maybe 2000 AV. I thought that was a blocking force - wow. I'll attach a pic of the movement so far & the identified number of Chinese units.

I've started to plan Operation Po-Go. I'll post maps if/when my opponent commits to an offensive against Kiukiang.

[ctangus]

North China

The enemy's attacking Sinyang. It might not hold but I'll fight for it. The enemy is also approaching Yangku, which I honestly stripped too much. [:(] It will be a race to Yangku between my units & enemy supply. I'm not sure which will win.

Further north, I'm about to route 4 enemy units near Tatung. A few days ago I only had 1 division there & my enemy could have easily routed it. That's the 3rd time he could have easily routed some units in China & didn't. I'm not yet sure if it was due to oversight or not.

[KDonovan]

any opinion on the strength of the Chinese in CHS, compared to history. Its seems like in stock the chinese are too weak, while in CHS they seem too strong.

[ctangus]

Caveat: I've only recently started to read about the CBI theater, so I don't know a lot of the history of it. I'd say perhaps the Chinese are too strong. Maybe there should be some initial disablements since many units were poorly equipped.

They certainly can mass more quickly in CHS than would have happened historically. I recently read this in The Burma Road by Donovan Webster: "Chiang had instructed Stilwell to allow the Japanese to continue their invasion and never to concentrate the Chinese forces in large groups - as they would run a higher risk of being destroyed by a single Japanese attack."

On thing to keep in mind: while the map shows Chinese all over the place, my opponent's playing this risky. To advance in so many locations, he seems to be sending every non-static unit to the front with little-to-no mobile reserve. (I've been flying a lot of recon the last few turns.) That might make my job tougher holding against the initial Chinese blitzkrieg, but if I can break his front in one location I could have a field day rolling up his rear bases. Also, most of his units are still low-experience, he hasn't had much time to build up supplies, and several of the supply lines he's advancing along are very long.

I have a few ideas on China I already want to suggest to the CHS team, but I also want to see how this plays out over a few months.

No turns in right now - I'll do an update in a bit.

[jolly_pillager]

It looks to me like he's attacking far too broadly.

The Chinese logistical system is terrible....once a unit becomes involved in combat it's supply needs double...and the further he advances the more wastage he will have from transport loss...AND the need to replace losses will eat even more heavily into it.

I would say that if you can take it for a month or two while working units around onto his flanks to cut his supply lines once he has overextended his logistical tail, you should be able to lauch a crushing counter-attack. Just build your own supply base and don't let him force your units into a retreat.

It is a little known fact in WitP that placing a unit on bombardament orders halves it's AV compared to it being on Defend orders...so don't bombard if defending will keep your AV where it needs to be.

Should be a good fight...but the Chinese are far better off digging in and defending than they are launching a theater wide offensive that they don't have the depth to support.

My $.02

[ctangus]

ORIGINAL: jolly_pillager

It looks to me like he's attacking far too broadly.

The Chinese logistical system is terrible....once a unit becomes involved in combat it's supply needs double...and the further he advances the more wastage he will have from transport loss...AND the need to replace losses will eat even more heavily into it.

I would say that if you can take it for a month or two while working units around onto his flanks to cut his supply lines once he has overextended his logistical tail, you should be able to lauch a crushing counter-attack. Just build your own supply base and don't let him force your units into a retreat.

It is a little known fact in WitP that placing a unit on bombardament orders halves it's AV compared to it being on Defend orders...so don't bombard if defending will keep your AV where it needs to be.

Should be a good fight...but the Chinese are far better off digging in and defending than they are launching a theater wide offensive that they don't have the depth to support.

My $.02

My thoughts are very similiar. It's already evident that he can't supply all these drives (more in a bit). I may lose a base or two in the short-term, but I also see two or three large opportunities for me.

12/25 - 12/29/41

It's been 5 days since I've done an update. Turns from this & other games are coming in too quickly. [:)]

I'll start with China since that's where I left off.

North China

I made a mistake here. I was chasing ghosts in the far north when I should have been concentrating on more important areas.

The Chinese I had hoped to route in the far north escaped my shock attack by one day's worth of movement. Subsequently they've been transported by Turbo-Charged Camels, while my own units are travelling by Mongolian Tortoises. Those Chinese have already reached Yangku while my own forces haven't moved much yet.

I've ordered a shock attack at Yangku to try to route them. I'm not sure if it will be successful - those 4 Chinese units start the game with a lot of supply & the Chinese probably have a slightly stronger AV here. A failed attack will lose the city early, but there's more Chinese approaching from the west & I'll certainly lose the city in a few days if I do nothing.

Even if it does fall I should be able to re-take it promptly.

[ctangus]

South China

My opponent has told me he's planning to attack Kiukiang but the attack hasn't materialized yet. I'm now starting to think it's a bluff. I hope he does attack there as it would give me a chance to cut off his supply line. (See pic.)

There's also a large force advancing from Ichang. I'm not sure if it's headed towards Hankow, Sinyang or both. I sent half a brigade to both delay & be a recon-in-force. The Chinese supply in this area must be low:

12/28/41
Ground combat at 48,34
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 79064 troops, 427 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2678
Defending force 3875 troops, 10 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 102
Allied max assault: 2271 - adjusted assault: 828
Japanese max defense: 106 - adjusted defense: 93
Allied assault odds: 8 to 1
Japanese ground losses:
510 casualties reported
Guns lost 7
Allied ground losses:
313 casualties reported
Guns lost 10
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

[ctangus]

4th Fleet

An allied float-plane base was established at Nauru Island, but was just abandoned. Bummer - I'm one day away from launching a fast transport invasion against that base.

Southeast Fleet

The Rabaul invasion is on, supported by the entire Kido Butai.

[ctangus]

DEI

Nagato made it back to Palau safely. She's now down to 0 Flt damage, but at 30+ sys damage she'll be out of action for a while.

Recon reports 7 (!) enemy units at Kendari.

B-17s & Hudsons, based at Kendari, have managed to keep the airfield at Amboina closed. I'll deal with that shortly but I don't want to spread myself to thinly & I'm planning on concentrating on closing Singapore & Manila first.

Malaya

Slow but steady progress. 117K Japanese will launch the first deliberate attack against JB tomorrow. (Estimated 37K enemy there.)

Phillipines

The 38th Div, liberators of Hong Kong, were sent to Lucena. I was hoping to isolate the allied forces further south. Martin must have noticed that movement & started to retreat but I still managed to isolate & eliminate 3 allied units. Not great, but not bad.

A sweep by A6M2s destroys 12 enemy P-40s over Manila.

My ground troops (both north & south) are now two days out from Manila. I'm starting to think I might own Luzon sooner than I wished.

[Japanese_Spirit]

After reading this divine AAR, I thought I'd drop in a make a comment. I am watching both yourself and VSWG's threads and I must say, the tension is indeed building the Pacific. It is a terrible loss though that you have lost several important ships but atleast Luzon is coming along nicely. [:D]

Anyway, Banzai! For the Emperor! I wish you well!

May you be victorious! [:D]