ALLIED ONLY: aztez (A) vs erstad (J) ...2nd ROUND

[seydlitz_slith]

I agree with you that the main thrust is coming from Nanyang up towards SIAN.

If you think about it, if he pushes up the road, capturing Sian and then continues his advance to the dot where the Sian- Lanchow road intersects with the road to Chungking, he can effectively eliminate all oil supplying your Chinese factories.

No oil=no fuel=no HI running. That means no replacements for your losses and your pitiful trickle of supply becomes no supply at all.

Longer term, your units that are destroyed (which they would be with no supply) will regenerate in Chungking as hollow shells without supply or the means to rebuild or effectively fight.

South China is really nothing more than a side show for Japan. His goals there are to keep the allies far enough from the coast to prevent air bases from being established that could threaten his convoy lines back to Japan. For me, Changsha is one of the primary objectives here since it sits on road and rail junctions.

No doubt about it, your war for China will be decided on the Sian-Lanchow road.

On a positive note, you outright killed around a hundred combat squad in 85,44 and it will suck up a lot of armaments points and time for him to rebuild those losses.

[aztez]

seydlitz: Yeah, I do know that. Thus basically meanig I cannot lose here or everything will fall apart.

I did divert some 1500 worth of troops into Sian. These troops are coming from southern china which is as you stated an side show.

I also send troops from Yenan towards Sian.

Whether this will be enough remains to be seen. This is kind of do or die battles from now on.

Intrestingly Singapore was not captured. It still holds and has around 250av value left. At least these guys forced him to assault one more time!


Central Pacific (february 21st and 22nd 1942)

We almost got lucky with one of our submarines.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Gardner Island at 146,147

Japanese Ships
CV Zuikaku
DD Yamagumo

Allied Ships
SS Silversides



SS Silversides launches 6 torpedoes at CV Zuikaku
Silversides diving deep ....
DD Yamagumo fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Yamagumo fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Yamagumo fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Yamagumo fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Yamagumo attacking submerged sub ....
DD Yamagumo loses contact with SS Silversides
Escort abandons search for sub

..but it wasn't to be. Damn, I mean we launched 6 torpedoes here!!!

The positive thing is that intel is golden and these carriers are definately moving towards Pago Pago.

I have some 70 Aircobra fighters there set on 90% CAP so it will not be an pleasure cruise.

The bad thing is that there are transports unloading as we speak and ship losses will look imminent.

Again it seems Dave feels confident about Java since his main carriers are still operating from Kwaleijin and Truk.

[offenseman]

Regarding Zuikaku:  I wonder if you got lucky and Fog of War is not showing you the hit(s) on Zuikaku.  Has anyone seen under-reporting of results like this?

[SireChaos]

Wait... Zuikaku is escorted by only one DD?

[aztez]

offenseman: Lets hope so and the question you asked remains to be answered. I really do not know whether FOW can under-report damage in naval battles.

My intel screen still shows 2 BB's sunk but I'am 90% certain that this is not the case.

We actually had another submarine attack againts the enemy carriers. No hits reported this turn either.

The loss of Singapore was FOW but now it is actually captured. So, who knows.

SireChaos: [:D] ...no, no and no! Dave brought in the cavalry so definately escorted by punch of more vessels here.

[aztez]

Samoa Island (february 23rd and 24th 1942)

Enemy carriers launched heavy raids againts transport shipping unloading at Pago Pago.

The P-39D Aircobras intercepted the morning strike and shot down few enemy zero fighters.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on TF, near Pago Pago at 148,161

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 38 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 44



Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 52


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 6 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra: 6 destroyed



Aircraft Attacking:
7 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 11000 feet
4 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 11000 feet
1 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 13000 feet
2 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 13000 feet

CAP engaged:
50th PG/12th PS with P-39D Airacobra (4 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(20 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
4 plane(s) intercepting now.
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 16 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 17000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 5 minutes
35th PG/40th PS with P-39D Airacobra (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(18 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 16 being recalled, 2 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 17000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 39 minutes
35th PG/41st PS with P-39D Airacobra (8 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(14 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
8 plane(s) intercepting now.
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 6 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 17000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 2 minutes

After this initial strike there were total of 4 more airstrikes and our CAP did not cause much damage. I do not know what is the condition of these airgroups but I estimate that they should be ready for battle if he chooses to stay in the area.

The following transports were sunk on this slaughter.

xAK Shooting Star
xAK Ruth Alexander
xAK Examiner
AM Kingfisher

There were multiple hits reported so most like all of these vessels unloading supplies were lost.

The firepower of this indicated that the TF's contained the KB itself. One strike had +100 aircraft in the air.

As for the submarine action. Well, SS Silversides continued its lonely war effort. This time target was CV Akagi.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Savaii at 146,153

Japanese Ships
CV Akagi
CA Tone
DD Arare
DD Tanikaze

Allied Ships
SS Silversides



SS Silversides launches 6 torpedoes at CV Akagi
DD Arare attacking submerged sub ....
DD Arare cannot reach attack position SS Silversides over
DD Arare cannot reach attack position SS Silversides over
DD Arare cannot reach attack position SS Silversides over
DD Arare cannot establish contact with SS Silversides
DD Tanikaze fails to find sub and abandons search
DD Arare attacking submerged sub ....
DD Arare fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Arare fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Arare fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub

So if the reports are to be believed than we shot total of 12 torpedoes againts CV Zuikaku and CV Akagi and scored zero hits.

I wish this is FOW but no way to tell.

[aztez]

China (february 23rd and 24th 1942)

The japanese army continued it push towards Sian. Unfortunately chinese were unable to stop the juggernaught offensive.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground combat at 85,44

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 112149 troops, 865 guns, 300 vehicles, Assault Value = 3215

Defending force 46943 troops, 269 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 867

Japanese adjusted assault: 849

Allied adjusted defense: 280

Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker: disruption(-)

Japanese ground losses:
2416 casualties reported
Squads: 29 destroyed, 112 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 106 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled
Vehicles lost 20 (1 destroyed, 19 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
21725 casualties reported
Squads: 720 destroyed, 42 disabled
Non Combat: 560 destroyed, 56 disabled
Engineers: 33 destroyed, 11 disabled
Guns lost 7 (5 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Units retreated 15


Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
41st Division
11th RGC Ind. Brigade
35th/A Division
37th Division
6th Division
51st Recon Regiment
9th Armored Car Co
13th Tank Regiment
61st Infantry Brigade
110th Division
12th Indpt Infantry Regiment
8th Ind.Mixed Brigade
9th Ind.Mixed Brigade
102nd NCPC Route Brigade
3rd Division
35th/B Division
12th RGC Temp. Division
35th/C Division
2nd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
1st Mortar Battalion

Defending units:
7th Chinese Corps
30th Chinese/B Corps
30th Chinese/A Corps
90th Chinese/A Corps
84th Chinese Corps
92nd Chinese Corps
41st Chinese Corps
90th Chinese/B Corps
85th Chinese Corps
77th Chinese/C Corps
2nd Group Army
22nd Group Army
5th War Area
21st Group Army
31st Group Army

Damn. Those chinese were forced to retreat towards Sian. Now I need to organize my defenses here for the battle south of Sian.

The orders will be issued to start moving troops into position there. I think I can muster around 3000av points in total. As said more troops are enroute towards this area.

I have another 800av points trying to move north of Loyang. These guys are getting daily ground bombardments which are slowing down their progress.

The situation is not good at all. I will move AVG into to the combat zone thus giving me 30 fighters that can cause at least some damage to the enemy. Allthough these guys have been highly disappointing so far.

[cfulbright]

Aztez,

Please clarify on reason for turning off repair on resources, and also which to turn off and which to leave on, of the following:

Repair Shipyard (in Manila and Singapore)
Resources
Light Industry
Heavy Industry
Oil
Refinery
Resources
Manpower

[aztez]

ORIGINAL: cfulbright

Aztez,

Please clarify on reason for turning off repair on resources, and also which to turn off and which to leave on, of the following:

Repair Shipyard (in Manila and Singapore)
Resources
Light Industry
Heavy Industry
Oil
Refinery
Resources
Manpower

Hi! ..and welcome to this "journey".

Ok. First I'am definately not the most skilled person to answer this but I will give my views.

I don't think the allied industry as separated columns. Instead I think it as an whole.

The basis of the orders to turn off any industrial repairs is simple. It is because it can eat up a lot of supplies. At this stage of war you know you are going lose a lot bases on the map.

Thus repairing any industrial assets in ABDA, Malaya or Philippines is not wise at all. I don't want to repair factories for him instead I'am hoping to destroy as much as possible. If he hits any industrial targets than I'am more than happy to let him do so.

I will leave the industrial repair ON in the "rear" areas where I do not think there is much threat or at least not imminent threat. Ie. India, WC and Pearl Harbour area.

I did think whether to turn on the light industry repairs at Chungking. It came down to the fact that chinese are already in short of supplies. They need forts (which are somewhat useless now with AE) and more importantly ground units need them for battles. I don't think turning the light industry on would give me any benefits in "short" term and for now I need to think "short" term.

There really is not much in china and unfortunately it is starting to show. Personally I would prefer to have off map supply feed for the chinese since I think it way too easy to starve this country out.

To put it simple terms. I keep the repair ON in areas that are not threatened and turn them OFF in areas that I'am going to lose anyway. It all comes down to supply points.

[treespider]

ORIGINAL: aztez


Assaulting units:
41st Division - From Kwantung Army
11th RGC Ind. Brigade
35th/A Division
37th Division
6th Division - From Wuchang/Hankow area
51st Recon Regiment
9th Armored Car Co
13th Tank Regiment - From Wuchang/Hankow area
61st Infantry Brigade
110th Division
12th Indpt Infantry Regiment
8th Ind.Mixed Brigade
9th Ind.Mixed Brigade
102nd NCPC Route Brigade
3rd Division - From Wuchang/Hankow area
35th/B Division
12th RGC Temp. Division
35th/C Division
2nd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
1st Mortar Battalion

What does he have in Central China near Wuchang/Hankow?

How about HK?

[cfulbright]

Aztez,

I'm working my way through your AAR while I plot my first day's move in the GC, so please forgive these questions as they come in.

Did you leave a subtender (AS type) in Manila, or did you send everything south except for PT's, DD's, and SS's?

[seydlitz_slith]

Aztez,
do you have any other subs that you can throw over in the area where the KB is operating?
You will continue to have duds but might get a lucky hit. Even if they are all duds, you will disrupt his tempo of operations. He will not be comfortable with his carriers mired down by submarines. It might alter his plans. Also, you can potentially run him out of depth charges pretty easily in the task forces, and that will make him even more nervous if your subs are still around.

[Xxzard]

How are you managing to get those subs to intercept the KB? I've been chasing the KB around Celebes for about a week now with 10+ subs, and despite having plenty of opportunities to intercept, no subs have made contact, much less an attack. Are they reacting or are you predicting where the KB will end up?

[seydlitz_slith]

Silversides has Captain Burlingame aboard. Historically he was plenty aggressive and plenty skilled. Just wait until Mush Morton and the crop of skippers that he groomed arrive.

Seriously if you haven't adjusted your capatins to ensure that you have skilled and aggressive commanders then your intercept rate will be very low.

Go get 'em Aztez!!!

[Graymane]

Good to see you still hanging in there! I seem to remember a screenshot where you are supplying the south pacific via Port Stanley. How many hexes is it from there to Suva or wherever your destination point is?

[aztez]

Thanks for the comments guys!

treespider: Nice to "see" you here. Good questions since my intel is not up the level I want. Simply because he has moved so much fighters / bombers into this theatre that I'am unable to do proper recon missions.

I don't think he has that much in central area after those info's you stated. Than again he really doesn't need that much either since there light urban hex cities there and taking into consideration the chinese awful supply levels offensive most propably would be doomed.

In the south I think he has decent av values. Simply because there seems to be recon and bomber activity. This kind of is an trademark for oncoming advance for Dave.

But as said very hard to say due to the poor intel I have. Another thing to keep in mind is the new railroad movement particulary in central china, He can move quite a lot of reserve av troops anywhere within just days. I can only use combat movement which is much slower and thus meaning he has the iniative here. I would assume he has 1500-2000 av worth of troops ready to move to counter any chinese offensives.

I did move up 30 AVG fighters into forthcoming turn since he seems to like bombard my troops moving towards Sian. So, lets see whether they can actually start shooting down enemy aircraft. The LRCAP is set on 20 000 feet.

I'am moving those hammered chinese troops towards north. There are new defensive line to be outlayed just south of Sian.

More reinforcements in their way from southern and central china areas.

cfulbright: No need to explain. As said these forums have very helpful people around so there simply there are no "bad" questions.

I did send the AS ships towards DEI and Oz. I only left 1 AS ship into Manila. You have decent numbers of fighters there at the beginning so it is highly unlikely he can cause any serious harm.

The rest of the transports were send towards south. Too bad Dave managed to do text book ambush there so I lost a lot of ships near Borneo.

The PT's and destroyers were left behind to contest any weakly escorted landings, Another thing they did was to tie down some enemy capital surface vessels.

Take your time with the 1st turn. I think it took me some 20-30 hours. Moving around quicker now since I'am building up an rhytm on how to check turns.

seydlitz: Pretty no other subs in the imminent area. Only SS Thresher lurking there and she had been ordered to move to intercept those enemy carriers.

Yeah, my submarine warfare has been very disappointing to say at least. I haven't managed to hit anything with them in philippines nor in borneo areas. I really need to check what kind of captains they got onboard.

As you stated SS Silversides has top quality skipper and this seems to be very important factor when decieding the effectiviness of sub warfare. Another area where the PP will be spent in forhcoming future.

I think he has 3 separate TF's. Two of the seems to carrier TF's while the third is most likely tanker TF. I'am aiming to hit that with SS Thresher.

Those P39 aircobras shot down around 20-30 enemy aircraft and few more with op losses. Not bad and I still have nearly 50 of them left these guys are set on 90% CAP.

Lets hope the cheer will result to good fortunes!

Xxzard: Oh, as I stated my sub warfare has been total disaster so far. I think you having kind of the same issues.

I checked the skipper in SS Silversides and he is A class. So, I think we both need to start spending more PP on better captains in order to gain anything from it.

I'am using max react 6 and the new patrol zone feature. I'am not that certain that this is they way to go though.

I checked and very hard to say whether these submarines that launch strikes are reacting or not. Impossible to say.

Graymane: Thanks. Yeah, I'am holding out for the skin of my teeth. Dave has kept his carriers in southern areas making raids there.

We now twice encountered the mighty KB. Once at Suva and now at Pago Pago. Both times we have inflicted casualties to his aircrews. By looking at the turn I think he is staying around for another go here again.

I hate to retreat and prefer fighting out. This has good and negative effects in diffrent situations.

Port Stanley is secondary base. I have some ships hauling in supplies and such just in case it becomes more important. (Which it might)

I haven't actually checked the total hex amounts from Port Stanley to Suva. It is significant though. You might want to build up hub or two in order shorten the distances. Personally I'am building up the Tahiti base.

Lets hope for more suprises next turn. Dave has kept sweeping the airspace at Soerebaja with significant naval bombings too. If he launches next turn he will face up +100 fighters set on 90% CAP and hopefully get his plans thrown into waste basket. We that is if everything goes to plan ofcourse and not much has gone my way in this PBEM yet.

Lets leave with an pic from SS Silversides. The skipper has good attributes all around.

[Smeulders]

ORIGINAL: aztez


I checked the skipper in SS Silversides and he is A class. So, I think we both need to start spending more PP on better captains in order to gain anything from it.

I'am using max react 6 and the new patrol zone feature. I'am not that certain that this is they way to go though.

I checked and very hard to say whether these submarines that launch strikes are reacting or not. Impossible to say.

In my game against the AI I've had quite a lot of attacks from different subs, without having changed any leaders. I'm keeping reaction range at 0 or 1 and while some are patrolling, most have one hex where they stay. Problem with moving them around in patrol zones might be that they use a lot more fuel and thus can't stay on station as long. Haven't paid too much attention to it though, so not sure which are more effective, with/without patrol/reaction range.

[Xxzard]

Well, it's worth metioning that earlier in my campaign, the subs that were sent to do damage to the Luzon invasion forces made 5+ attacks every day and even with defective torpedos managed to sink some number of japanese transports. And that is without replacing captains.

In the DEI though, even with good coverage of choke points, the KB (technically 1/2 KB) slipped through several sub screens. It was my impression that ships could intercept mid ocean now, so this has been somewhat disappointing

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: Xxzard

Well, it's worth metioning that earlier in my campaign, the subs that were sent to do damage to the Luzon invasion forces made 5+ attacks every day and even with defective torpedos managed to sink some number of japanese transports. And that is without replacing captains.

In the DEI though, even with good coverage of choke points, the KB (technically 1/2 KB) slipped through several sub screens. It was my impression that ships could intercept mid ocean now, so this has been somewhat disappointing

I think that your observations are quite sound Xxzard. In my pbem I have wondered why my opponent hasn't done more with his subs. I have seen several attacks that either missed or were duds, but I know that he could be doing much more in this area. Even with duds, eventually you will have some successes.

One of the things that I like best about the allies is being able to play the sub campaign. I love history, and aside from the Japanese Navy in WWII I like to focus on the American sub campaign against Japan. I literally have two complete shelves of books on the submarine war including every book on the individual subs that I have been able to find or collect.
(including "Silversides" by Robert Trumball which was published in 1945).

Perhaps Aztez would be interested in discussing his submarine campaign and what he wants to do there. I would be more than happy to help him lay out his campaign to include where to patrol and which subs and captains make the better hunters forthe different missions. After all, I don't get to do this since I am playing Japan in my PBEM and that is the one thingthat I miss by not playing allies.

[Sardaukar]

In WitP my rule for selecting sub captains was like:

1. High Naval skill
2. If experienced boat crew, high aggressiveness
3. If unexperienced crew, lower aggressiveness

High aggressiveness and low crew experience, big chance for sub getting damaged or sunk (hig aggressiveness commanders love to attack on surface etc.). Low naval skill, high aggressiveness and low crew exp...almost doomed sub.

Seems to work in AE too.