Andy Mac ...... Revenge of the Allies

[veji1]

Why don't you secure  Sabang and the bases of northern Sumatra to give you more room for  use of your LBA and build up of your forces ?

[Kereguelen]

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

ah well I went for it and have not succeeded.

Options

A Land 1 Div at Georgetown, 3 Divs at Alor Star cutting off forces at Songkia and only allowing reinforcements for Alor to arrive by air or from Taiping.

B Land 4 Divs at Alor Star cutting off forces at Songkia and only allowing reinforcements for Alor to arrive by air or from Taiping/Georgetown.

C Land 4 Divs at Kuala Lumper possibly 3 with 1 Div at Alor Star

D Land 4 Divs at Malacca

E Land 4 Divs at Bankha and wait for an opportunity

F Land 4 Divs at VP and use them to try and clear 6th Armies LOC

G Land 1 Div at Alor, 1 Div at Georgetown, 1 Div at Kuala and 1 Div at the hex between Kuala Lumper and Malacca and hope to find a weakspot.....

E and F are low risk G is probably to extreme....

A B or C are all viable

D looks like a waste of resources althoug I Amphib Corps is at least stopping supplies moveing forward and will be difficult to shift

IMHO you have to take Kuala Lumpur asap or the whole operation will end as a complete desaster. If you can afford to land a blocking force in the base north of it, do it. But the most important thing will be to take Kuala Lumpur within two days after landing there. Four divisions should be enough to do the job in time (that is, before Pauk can reinforce the place). But because you ostensibly don't know the disposition of the Japanese forces, it is still a risk. Thus you should fly some ground-attacks against all Japanese bases in Malaya to find out which forces are present where in the turn before you land your invasion force. How many days before you can land with your four-division-force?

[Andy Mac]

5 or 6 days they are near andaman islands now...
 
I will take Veiji's advice though as well Medan looks to be unguarded with hindsight I should have went there rather than Kuantan.
 
If I have Medan and Kuantan and some of the seabees accompanying 14th Army are diverted to these bases and bankha to aid the build up.
 
(All please dont forget I am prepping for the Marianas and/or Bonins at present with 10 Divs in the East and will able to divert c 5 more Aussie/US Divs from SWPAC to support it I am just awaiting more carriers I will have c 20 CVE's 3 CV's and a couple of CVL's in that attack this is NOT my only attack !!!!.)
 
Andy

[Andy Mac]

p.s. I accept I got a tad over ambitious but the stalemate at Mandalay pissed me off so a rush of blood to the head has cost me a lot ofgood ships but thats ok I get more...[:D][:D]

[Andy Mac]

Pauk has beaten me again 14th Army landed at VP last night and in conjunction with a 6th US Army offensive will clear the rail line I am abandoning the attack on Malaya until my lines are clear
 
In the East I have decided enough is enough I have been playing Pauks game attacking with complicated plans to try and draw him out of position but no more all that I have achieved is to screw myself and cost a lot of ships to go down.
 
My next attack will go in on the assumption that the whole jap Navy is waiting for me and that I weill have the ability to CRUSH it enough of this faffing about.
 
Forces are reconcentrating at Pearl no more messing !!!!

[Andy Mac]

OK its been a busy few days so my AAAR has been a little lacking.

I am extremely pissed off at ground combat.

Malacca no progress despite air superiority supplies and an AV and numerical superiority - forts are to strong.

Songhkia - same story I have 3: 1 AV superiortiy but cannot knock a single fort down.

Bandou will probably be lost in my rear and there is nothing I can do about it as my troops at Songhkia cannot get out to relieve. Last tuen Pauk driopped forts to lvl 3 and I expect a shock attack tomorrow

VP again total air and ground superiority but cannot make progress.

Mandalay - dont make me laugh.

Basically Burma malaya is a total clusterfuck.

I got frustrated and tried to break the Mandalay deadlock with a high risk move and then compounded it by doubling my risk going all out for a Malayan port. It hasnt come of and is going to cost me a huge amount of troops.

Some if not most is my own fault but the fact that the allies cannot seem to knock down a sinlge fort level in this game is very annoying.

(Against PZB its went the other way at Bangkok every attack knocked a fortlevel off so I guess what goes around comes around)

I have allowed myself to be split and defeated in detail so its bad tactics on my part and I dont know what to do about it.

If only somewhere a single fort level would drop just once to boost my morale.

I have 3 Divs at Malacca, 10 Divs at Songkia, about 1 at Bandou and 5 at VP plus another 8 at Mandalay

I am pulling the 3 Divs out of Malacca because they are never going to suceed there.

Andy

[Andy Mac]

OK things are moving on forts at Bandou are falling supply is ok but I am pulling everything I can into the base to try and extend the life.

I NEED to clear my lines to the rear to do that I need to hold on for another week at Bandou.

If I can I should be able to get out of the pocket.

FT's are picking men up from Songkia and pulling them back to Bandou

80 C46's are ferrying in 25th Indian Div. (I wanted to rest them more before committing but this is an emergancy)

I NEED a week

So far Pauk has had 1:1's and reinforcements are en route

4th Dutch Regt is en route on board FT's and will land in the hex below VP to try and get the Jap Armoured Regt off of LOC.

If I can get my army back to VP I will be happy Malaya/Burma is a bust. My total inability to lower forts makes a land offensive pointless.

3:1 in AV and Men fully supplied plenty of Engineers and total air superiority and not a single fort falls <mutters>.

In other news Pearl is now up to 10 Divs and climbing.

I am going to wait on a force of 6 Divs from SWPAC and 2 or 3 from the West Coast - my next landing is going to be IN FORCE and supported by B29's on AF Suppression.

PDU is about to bite back as all those allied B24's become B29's

Its a pity no sqns have P51B's as this means I wont be able to use them even under PDU I will need to wait for P51D's

This is far from over. Pauk has had the better of me so far but I an undaunted..... (although the fort/land combat thing is piising me off)

Andy

[Andy Mac]

Pauk and I are discussing Bandou/Songkia situation and we need opinions guys see main forum

My airhead survived an attack and his reinforcemetns are slowed when 9th Aus Divs FT landed 60 miles north.

I have flown in most of 25th Indian Div and now 7th is en route I have large numbers of suplies in base but forts are all gone.

As I pointed out on main thread I would have 100,000 men and 1,500 AV there by now but for the bombardment attacks at Songkia

[Andy Mac]

A few more turns have passed.
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Pauk has me stalemated my forces are split into to many bite sized chunks and I can make no progress anywhere I just don't have the troops where is he getting all these soldiers from !!!
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OK my left is bogged down it is almost time for my right to take the strain...
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I have a powerfull fleet assembled at Pearl and getting stronger (3 CV's, c 24 CVE's, 10 BB's etc)
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With more coming every day.
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In 60 days I get Bennington and Tico and that is the designated start date.
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All 5 Fleet Carriers will have 40 F6F's and 36 F4U1D's in the main sqns I am going to remove ALL bombers from the fleet carriers and give them 21 F6F's each by transferring a sqn from the escort Carriers which would otherwise carry Wildcats.
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So 485 Front line fighters plus 3 of the CVE's are bigger ships able to carry Hellcats so add another 63 to the mix.
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All other slots in CVE's will be held by bombers mostly TBD's with a few Helldivers and Wildcats.
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This is a defensive mix of assets the carriers are there to defend the invasion fleet and provide CAS I dont have the sustained hitting power of massed fleet carriers because I do not have them !!!!
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Much as I would like to go on the attack I don't have the birdfarms (yet....) my losses have been to heavy and Eastern Fleet is wrecked (Of three remaining Eastern Fleet Carriers only 1 is operational).
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So this leaves my fleet as defensive.
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OK but this is not all bad....
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I Have 12 Divs and 10 Armoured Regts at Pearl now.
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4&nbsp;more Divs and 5 Armoured Regts are en route from SWPAC
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3 Divs are at San Fran awaiting transport and more arrive over time.
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By the time I hvae concentrated I will have a force of 20 Divs covered by a powerfull (albeit defensive) fleet.
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So where do I go...
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I have as I see it 4 options in terms of risk.
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1. Finish off Marshalls and then Tinian
2. Marcus with 5 Divs the 15 onto Iwo
3. Tinian with 20 Divs
4. 20 onto Iwo or Bonins direct
5. Toyohara direct
6. PI Direct
7. Formosa Direct
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Each of these plans is risky and is not ideal but each does have possibilities - I am opn to ideas.....
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I am very tempted by 5. as it is not mountainous terrain and he would not expect it in mid 44 but 1 or 2 are probably more sensible
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[veji1]

In my very humble opinion, and I know that you would have many good reasons to do it, going for Toyohara straight would be, if not a game breaker, a painful move for all of us who enjoy the game you and Pauk are having.

I would go heavily for the Marianas, Throw all you have to one base, take it, and from there finish of the other two. then from ther you could go to Iwos, Formosa or Luzon. But a very deep strike sort of "ruins" the game in the sense that it is a very brutal reversal of situation.&nbsp; The Japs would be throwing everything at you because they couldn't let you get Toyohara. But you would prevail, and afer a brutal month you would be sitting there, ready to invade the HI, with the japanese fleet by the bottom, with a virtual game over.

One of the nice things in your game with PZB is the fact that you progressively broke his toys in a protracted campaign... I know this game has been frustrating, but it is obvious as well that if you commit your assets to one target, it will fall. But if you strike to deep in the heart, because it is a game it is possible, but you will kill the game cold in 3-6 months, instead of letting us shameless spectators enjoy the whole rest of the war !!!

Hopes this help.

[Andy Mac]

Yeah I know what you are saying Veiji but I am am really on the ropes with Pauks play so far and my total inability in this game to lower forts (as opposed to v PZB where every attack I seem to lower them - I guess the luck goes around but it has been extremely frustrating to always be on the recieving end in this game).

Toyohara would be a decisive move and I am sure that whatever it costs I could take the base and then you are correct its game over.

Formosa the same.

The issue is I dont have the toys that I possess in the PZB game. I have lost two carrier battles and I am now scared stiff of being able to take a base no matter what I throw at it - I have zero confidence in my ability to take a base if defended. (Mandalay for a year with 100% air superiority 3 x the base AV and all the allied combat engineers and not a single fort level falls....)

Iwo Jima with 500+ AV is effectively invulnerable (Mountains+lvl 9 forts = 500 AV x 9 = 4500 adjusted more if HQ's are present) That means 20 Divs is only barely enough for 1 to 1 if he only has 500 AV.....

Tinian as flat terrain is more vulnerable but the Marianas dont actually achieve much for me I have Wake and if I really want to launch unescorted daylight raids for massed interceptors to slaughter thats the place to do it.

The fact is I Just dont know what to do.

Logic says go for Iwo direct but its mountainous and will have AT LEAST 500 AV which means a campaing right on the edge of my ability to fight.

or go deeper where defences are weaker and I can secure an AF quickly.

I just don't know.....

[Mistmatz]

Time for an overview map I'd say.

[veji1]

I understand that the situation is very frustrating, it all depends on how you want to play it really. Do you really want to win it by the historical timeline, or do you want to win it having a feeling that you did well considering the situation and the self imposed limits you used.

You could consider going south with the east pincer : Palau --> Mindanao. That way you would sever the links between the SRA and the rest of the empire. Then there are plenty of bases to be had around for your LBA to have fun, and once you are strong enough go north..

But this would be very slow.

Even if the Marianas are of no use, oign for tinian and then mopping up the other islands gives you freedom for the next attack.

The problem with Toyohara is that it is a game killer in the sense that either you make it (90%) chances, and then it is over, or you fail and have lost extra CVs + have several divs stranded, and then it is over as well..

You might want to go north in order to make him divert his assets, but not as a decisive blow : Go for PJ so that you can harass him from there and weaken his airforce, force him to divert units to that front...

It is obviously up to you and it all depends on the balance of frustration/fun you are having in this game and want/hope to have in the next 18-20months game time still ahead of you.

If you want to go for the kill, Toyohara it is, if you want to go for a WWII victory feeling, I would got for Tinian with everything and then from there strike to somewhere between Philippines and Formosa.

[Feinder]

At least in my game vs. Erstad, I've reset my mentality to -allow- for the fact that the game ends in April(?) 1946.&nbsp; I don't know what the current score is in your game, but consider the fact that you actually have 2 years left in the game, it's just now a little more than half over, so there's quite a bit of time and many events yet to unfold.
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All you really have to do is make sure you don't LOSE (for now).&nbsp; It's mid-43 in game vs. Erstad.&nbsp; Points are 2.5:1 in his favor.&nbsp; He would need 4:1 in 43 (won't happen), and 3:1 in 44 (also not going to happen).&nbsp; So my current planning says I have 18 months (a very long time) to get the score below 2:1 for '45 (and I don't see that being a problem either).&nbsp; I'm thinking a 1946 mindset, and it's a lot less frustrating.
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I don't know what your score is, perhaps you should worry about 1945 if can't hold 2:1.&nbsp; But if you're not going to get killed in 1945, permit yourself the luxury of considering that 1946 will actually be the end-game, and that it's ok to take your time.
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-F-

[Naskra]

veji1 says that invading Toyohara would be a war-winning move, and he opposes it for that reason.&nbsp; I call such talk treason.&nbsp;&nbsp; If you wish to break the stalemate, something along the line of a Toyahara landing is indicated.

[veji1]

obviously if you want to win at anycost that is the move to use, yes Naskra. The point is to know if Andy wants to win at any cost, at the risk of the end game being quite frustrating and disappointing, or would rather win the war in a way that makes him feel like he won it like a WWII general would have... Don't forget that PBEM is more than a game, it is a social experience, like boardgaming, an sometimes the fun is more in playing the game the "right way" than in actually winning it at any cost.

[Andy Mac]

Valid reasons all round if it was 45 or KB was neutralised I would mpre strongly consider going for Toyohara it isnt and KB is not neutralised and its a step to far for realism I take insane risks but that is an insane risk to far.
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So it comes down to Marianas (I cant see the point)
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Iwo (risky with mountains)
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or
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Marcu (boring)
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Choices choices

[Andy Mac]

p.s. this turn I have ordered the 1st attack on Palembang AF by B24's out of Medan.

A sweep and escort fighters will come from Bankha and Medan.

Lets start cutting oil reserves

[Naskra]

obviously if you want to win at anycost that is the move to use, yes Naskra. The point is to know if Andy wants to win at any cost, at the risk of the end game being quite frustrating and disappointing, or would rather win the war in a way that makes him feel like he won it like a WWII general would have... Don't forget that PBEM is more than a game, it is a social experience, like boardgaming, an sometimes the fun is more in playing the game the "right way" than in actually winning it at any cost.

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I have several disagreements with this, but won't hijack the AAR by expounding.&nbsp; IT's AndyMac's game, thread and choice of strategy.

[RUPD3658]

My opponant took Battan Island then took Formoasa. It has made things very rough for me by effectively cutting the Empire in two. I made him pay a high price to achieve this but I don't see it as gamey at all.