The First Team: Take Two!

[ny59giants]

Since the top LCU takes mosty of the casualties, I would keep up the attacks as you have over 800 more AV unmodified. That unit will probably be a HQ as it has the lowest ID number and will lower their overall support which is an often overlooked area of ground combat.
 
Brad - I would start writing down their unmodified AV each day to see any trends at Bombay.  

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Here is the combat report. There are alot of Allies there. I think we don't take it until the supplies run out.

I agree with Brad. Think how long the siege of Manila takes, and that army is weaker and lower on supplies. Even if you are able to take Bombay, it should take many months. All the while the Allies are getting stronger and you have the threat from Karachi. Are you SURE this siege is to your benefit? Could you be using your troops and resources better preparing for the rest of the war?

[frank1970]

I am quite sure, that the engineers building forts are different from those lowering forts in attacks.
Could someone clearify this? I am sure you´d like your engineers to build airports and not being killed for nothing.

Another Question:

is it true, that each supply hit reduces the number of supplies 1%?
In this case it won´t matter so much whether they have 100k or 500k. just hit their supplies 100 times in one attack and everything will be fine [8D]

[Q-Ball]

July 31, 1942

We'll see what happens next in India, appreciate the comments. This is a combat report summary of the last couple days, John can expand further; I'm short on time.

*Today COLOMBO fell, netting 16,000 Allied prisoners. I question putting more troops on Ceylon other than the base forces, as this leads to unecessary POWs. There were 2 Bdes on Ceylon that delyaed the inevitable for a week or two, but eventually were POWs. Of course, we'll see those units again at some point, as the fragments are no doubt at Aden.
* At COLD BAY, the Allied landings continue. Many engineering units are ashore, but John is flying in reinforcements. I'm sure Paul didn't expect resistance, since there is one infantry and 5 engineering units. Unmak is level 2, and bombers from there hit transports, sinking 3 and leaving 2-3 more heavily damaged and on fire.

Not sure if John summarized the day before, but yesterday, air attacks shot down 17 Wildcats, and Helens went after Sara. No hits, but the CAP losses plus those bombers pretty much chased her away.

If they don't secure a base there, it will get VERY uncomfortable for them!

[ny59giants]

The daily to every other day naval bombardment runs will bring down their supplies levels quickly with the number of supply hits they get. Add in the diasablement of their support squads and their effective AV will suffer. As long as they can continue the naval bombardments and current air attacks along with weekly deliberate assaults, I think this base will be captured faster than most think. There are not many references in AARs of a base being bombarded this hard for a length of time.

[John 3rd]

I've got several posting about to be placed but I want to copy this note I just sent to Brad:

That turn provoked a ton of thinking on my part:

1.  Cold Bay--They are/have landed 2 RCT, 2 Large Aviation BF, and 1 Seabee unit.  If I can fly in a the balance of that Inf Brig at Attu, we should be able to hold the base.  Could fly in another Inf Brig and gain control of the fight.  Will fly in more Tina and Mavis tomorrow to strengthen the airlift. 

I want to load the Inf Div at Kwajalein and send it North.  What do you think? 

Need more troops up there.  It APPEARS this will be the major effort so why not bring more up to the party?  Where from remains the question?  That Armored Division comes in in 15 days.  We have 2,300 PP (4,100 in 15 days) right now.  A full strength Inf Div costs about 3,300 to buy.  I propose we buy the Arm Div for India first and then grab an Inf Div for the North ASAP after that.  Thoughts? 

The STF will strike and smash the shipping there tomorrow.  There is no evidence of a STF present so it should be easy pickings.  Vectoring in more SS as we speak.  Will also have a Daitai of Kate at Unmak tomorrow to help.

With how badly we handled Saratoga's Fighter Squadron, we have to plan on the other US CVs coming up to help.  I think the moment the Fleet is upgraded we go north with everything currently in Japan and give battle

2.  Bombay--With Pangrim at AF-3, I would move 100 bombers into there and have them hit the AF while all your bombers at Poona hit troops.  Keeps the Forts down AND weakens the soldiers.  Not a bad combination whatsoever.

You have the 9th Inf Div on the way to Bombay from Madras and now have another Division available from Columbo.  That will add a bunch of weight to your attacks and seige.

3.  Columbo--Now that we have this fine base to work from we should concentrate the Indian Navy there and prepare to rock the Royal Navy!  If I am going north to figth the American Navy, I would like my 3 CVL back but think they will be decisive for your Indian plans.  What do you think there?

4.  We FINALLY get the Army fighters upgrading after tomorrow's turn.  Tojo and Tony--THANK GOD!--will REALLY help us out.  Can I have two Sentai up north to aid my Zeros?  They would be a big help.

If the Allies grab Cold Bay, we can expect fighters moved in there immediately.  Would like to have some of our top-of-line present if and when that happens.

Got a lot of more thoughts but need to chew of them some more...

[John 3rd]

Here is the fighting around Cold Bay on July 30th:

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: Frank

I am quite sure, that the engineers building forts are different from those lowering forts in attacks.
Could someone clearify this? I am sure you´d like your engineers to build airports and not being killed for nothing.

Another Question:

is it true, that each supply hit reduces the number of supplies 1%?
In this case it won´t matter so much whether they have 100k or 500k. just hit their supplies 100 times in one attack and everything will be fine [8D]

I'll jump in here with a couple of answers as I'm getting caught up on another war. [:D]

1. There are 2 types of engineers. Airfield/Port/Fort building engineers are the usually seen one's in most base forces, etc. They don't reduce enemy forts. Engineer Squads are your combat engineers, which excel at reducing fortifications. They are usually in separate units from the "building" engineers, and sometimes included in larger combat units.

2. Yes, each supply hit destroys 1% of the supplies in the base, at the exact moment of that hit. If you have 1000 supplies at a base, the first hit destroys 1% of 1000, the second hit destroys 1% of 990, and so on. You get slightly reduced return for each successive hit. Never the less, the large number of hits that can regularly be racked up by a BB bombardment TF can put a serious dent in the supply stockpile of any base. Combined with the cumulative squad disablements, and occasional Deliberate attacks, I have to agree with ny59giants, that our heros can have success at Bombay, and Karachi after that.

John, Brad, great war so far. [:)] I like seeing someone start out with a pre-war aim of trying to knock out India, and then watching it unfold. Good luck!

[Q-Ball]

John, I agree the main Allied effort seems to be up there. They failed to protect those transports unloading at Cold Bay; they only brought 1 BB and 1 CV, and both were effectively neutralized by LBA (or the torp that one of our PTs put into California). Either way, they didn't bring enough troops or ships the first go-around which probably means they will up the ante.

I think round 2 will feature all 4 USN CV's, plus at least 3-4 BBs in support. They need to take Cold Bay before it gets.....cold. You are doing great with those Helens, etc.

I would start prepping the 1st Gd. Bde in Tokyo for a Northern Target. That's a good unit right there. We have 1 Oscar Sentai in Japan, we will upgrade that to Tojos first. The fleet needs a couple weeks repair, then we can go forth. Overall, this is a good thing.

Oh, hope it's OK I ordered a Recon flight tommorow over Pearl from Palmrya. Pearl is now in Emily range.

[John 3rd]

COOL!  I didn't realize the Emily could make that flight.  Great idea and that will concern them since they don't know where the KB is.

Like using the 1st Guards Brigade too.  I moved that in Dan's Game to Malaya for many battles.  It is an excellent unit.  I shall buy it as soon as you get the Tank Division for India.

[John 3rd]

Mike--Good to see you post onto the AAR. Hope things are well with you!

AUGUST!!! Let us hear it for TONY and TOJO! BANZAI! BANZAI!! BANZAI!!!





We have production set to 425 Tojo and 68 Tony. On DAY ONE of production we got 12 Tojo...

Here is a summary of the action fought by our STF the night of 31st/1st August.

[frank1970]

ORIGINAL: USS America



I'll jump in here with a couple of answers as I'm getting caught up on another war. [:D]

1. There are 2 types of engineers. Airfield/Port/Fort building engineers are the usually seen one's in most base forces, etc. They don't reduce enemy forts. Engineer Squads are your combat engineers, which excel at reducing fortifications. They are usually in separate units from the "building" engineers, and sometimes included in larger combat units.

2. Yes, each supply hit destroys 1% of the supplies in the base, at the exact moment of that hit. If you have 1000 supplies at a base, the first hit destroys 1% of 1000, the second hit destroys 1% of 990, and so on. You get slightly reduced return for each successive hit. Never the less, the large number of hits that can regularly be racked up by a BB bombardment TF can put a serious dent in the supply stockpile of any base. Combined with the cumulative squad disablements, and occasional Deliberate attacks, I have to agree with ny59giants, that our heros can have success at Bombay, and Karachi after that.

John, Brad, great war so far. [:)] I like seeing someone start out with a pre-war aim of trying to knock out India, and then watching it unfold. Good luck!

Thanks a lot.
So, the engineers should not be moved awy from building up airfields, and the bombardments will decrease allied supplies quite faster than estimated.
Very nice.

[John 3rd]

The two sides take a breath for--hopefully--a day or two or three!

[Q-Ball]

The more I think about this, the more I think we need to move the bulk of our assets up North there. Here is my thinking.

John and I agree that the USN is certainly going to up the ante. They MUST get troops to Cold Bay, and they better do it relatively quick. I think they are moving BB's to take care of our cruisers, and all the USN CV's. The USN will be committed to this theater. By definition, this will be the big fall push.

So, what do we do?

We had a plan to lure out and defeat the RN in the IO. I don't think, however, they are coming out. Even when they nailed our DD's, they did so from the Aden channel, and quickly withdrew, citing BETTY as the reason. They are painfully aware of the presence of IJN Bettys at Ahmadebad and Poona, and Malir will soon be able to support torp-carrying Bettys. As much as we would like to fight, I don't think they will out there, not until they can do something about the Betties.

I think we should move the bulk of the fleet up north. We could leave BB's in the IO to pound Bombay, as I think we need 6 BBs at least to counter the USN. So we either need alot, or don't bother. I do think we should send all the CV's up north, including Junyo, Hiyo, etc. We also need ALOT of DD's up north to run supplies and troops into Cold Bay.

So, I would send all the CV's. I would leave the old BB's in the IO; we will counter their BB's with Airpower. If we can keep them away from Cold Bay, we can capture all those troops, and really set them back.

If those troops are still stuck there by the end of October, then blizzards break out, and those troops will freeze to death.

[John 3rd]

All I have to say is BANZAI!

[John 3rd]

Perhaps I should translate that some...

Totally concur.  I will pull the Junyos, CVLs, and even the CVEs and move them back to Home Islands.  It will take some time but we need at least two weeks for repair and upgrades as is.

Already have a few DDs moving to Attu.  There are 2 CA, 2 CL, and 12 DD in Toyko fully repaired.  We can immediately issue them orders to move.

Should we buy 1st Guards Brigade now?  Should I pick-up the Inf Div in Kwajalein and get it moving also?  Thoughts?

[Canoerebel]

I don't think Arctic winter conditions begin until December 1.
 
If you can hold Cold Bay until then, the Allies won't be able to effectively land any further troops until March (for some reason, winter effects end in February).
 
Can't the Allies bring all assets to bear far sooner than you can hope to get your IO carriers way up there?
 
Once the Allies know your carriers are all up in the Aluetians, they'll feel more frisky about moving elsewhere.  Is the Cold Bay action that important?

[John 3rd]

Good question.

We might be drawn into something up there but we'll so so much firepower we should be able to handle it.

It will serve to open the Central Pacific up some.  That is a serious concern for me.

[ny59giants]

Per the manual (p. 173) - 12.0 Weather

Cold Zones (Korea, Manchuria, Alaska, Siberia, the Aleutian Islands, and Southern New Zealand). The negative effects of these zones only function 4 months of the year (winter) depending on the area. In the North, they function November through February, while in the South they function from May through August. Cold Zones during the winter impact ground untis the same way as Malaria Zones (extra fatigue), with the following added penalties:
1) Ships moving in Cold Zones during winter will suffer operational system damage at double the normal rate
2) All base construction in Cold Zones during winter takes twice as long
3) Air units will fly 25% less aircraft on strike-type missions
4) Ground units unloading at an enemy base/beach or into a non-base hex with an enemy unit will suffer roughly three times the losses they would normally suffer

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Once the Allies know your carriers are all up in the Aluetians, they'll feel more frisky about moving elsewhere.  Is the Cold Bay action that important?

Call it a hunch, but I don't think so. I think they've played this hand, and won't fold now; with 15,000 troops on Cold Bay, I see them going all-in. It's a good place for us to fight, because they really don't have LBA support there; we control the skies over Cold Bay. So far they have lost 10 transports, including 6 APs, which the Allies don't get alot of. This has the potential to be a major meat grinder for the Allies. We just have to be careful to keep track of Allied surface units, no use getting CLs and DDs killed over Cold Bay.

Point taken on Cold Bay's importance; in the end, it really isn't important. It's a pretty useless rock for the most part.

If they attacked elsewhere in the Pacific, they would be resigned to abadoning those troops at Cold Bay. It wouldnt' be a bad idea to try something, I just think they will stick to Cold Bay.

Here is a question: Why abandon all of the Aleutians, then immediately attack back into them?