Nomonhan Redux: Seydlitz (Japan) vs. MBatch729 (Allies)

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: Takeshi

How is your supply and HI holding up with all the expansion?

So Far better than expected. I still have over 2 million supply surplus and still have some HI in the bank. In fact, my opinion is this.....

If the designers missed on something, it was by giving Japan very large stockpiles of oil, fuel, supply, and HI at the start. It totally goes against the historical notion that Japan was on the border of economic ruin and had to go to war to obtain the resources that she needed to feed her people. The huge stockpiles that Japan gets at start allow the Japanese player to customize his production as he sees fit and also to power the first 3-5 months of his offenses. In fact, I can even keep most of my cargo shipping in port during January and live off reserves if I do not think that it is safe to sail.

Later on, this will not be the case, and often you see Japanese players who greatly over expand and when the stored surplus is used up they wind up crashing their economy. I believe that Japan should not be given the huge stockpiles at start. That would do more to help the tempo of the game than anything else.

[Q-Ball]

I need to look it up, but IIRC, according to Kaigun, the IJN had a 2-year stockpile of Oil on hand at start. That may have been 2 years of estimated usage, since the IJN burned alot more than they projected. You're right in that there may be a little much at start, hard to tell though until we start getting games in 1944.

[aztez]

Good to hear you got the software dilemma solved. There are plenty of these around.

I wonder why your opponent is not trying to kick you out of Changhsa. The chinese have a lot of av value in this region so he could easily start massive assaults there. Another thing is that he propably still has his troops adequate supplied too.

Good for you though! [:)]

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: aztez

Good to hear you got the software dilemma solved. There are plenty of these around.

I wonder why your opponent is not trying to kick you out of Changhsa. The chinese have a lot of av value in this region so he could easily start massive assaults there. Another thing is that he propably still has his troops adequate supplied too.

Good for you though! [:)]

Oh, he has been trying, but I have enough there that he can't make it happen. He made several attacks that were not successful. I am pretty much letting him run around in the countryside SE of Changsha in order to ensure that I have enough troops there. Besides, with the lack of roads in the SE, I want him to waste time moving around down there. It's like moving through quicksand.

[erstad]

ORIGINAL: seydlitz
Besides, with the lack of roads in the SE, I want him to waste time moving around down there. It's like moving through quicksand.

More importantly, the lack of railroads.

[bklooste]

So Far better than expected. I still have over 2 million supply surplus and still have some HI in the bank. In fact, my opinion is this.....

If the designers missed on something, it was by giving Japan very large stockpiles of oil, fuel, supply, and HI at the start. It totally goes against the historical notion that Japan was on the border of economic ruin and had to go to war to obtain the resources that she needed to feed her people. The huge stockpiles that Japan gets at start allow the Japanese player to customize his production as he sees fit and also to power the first 3-5 months of his offenses. In fact, I can even keep most of my cargo shipping in port during January and live off reserves if I do not think that it is safe to sail.

Later on, this will not be the case, and often you see Japanese players who greatly over expand and when the stored surplus is used up they wind up crashing their economy. I believe that Japan should not be given the huge stockpiles at start. That would do more to help the tempo of the game than anything else.

Japan definitely had about 18M - 2 years of Oil left. Yamamato stated his Naval requirements for the attacks will require 1 year from the strategic reserve against expectation Tojo approved the expenditure.

Japanese expenditure expanded pretty significantly historically though im always surprised by how little supplies offensives use (esp in CHina).

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 41 16 Jan 1942

This was a very slow turn compared to many. No major land battles and only a few moderate air battles.

Mark instisted on bombing my oil wells at Shikuka, but did no damage.

[seydlitz_slith]

For most of the turn, waves of Russian bombers attacked my surface combat TF in the Sea of Japan consisting of 3 light cruisers and several destroyers. After about 8 waves one of the attacking bombers, an MBR-2 managed to score a hit on the Oi with a 100kg bomb which did all of 2 system damage.

Meanwhile, my Mabels flying out of Honshu made multiple runs on a group of Soviet destroyers, eventually scoring one hit on DD Ryanyi.

[seydlitz_slith]

Mark has split the AVG up into components. I ran into one of the subunits during a sweep over Moulmein.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on Moulmein , at 55,55

Weather in hex: Severe storms

Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 22,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 10



Allied aircraft
H81-A3 x 6


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
H81-A3: 2 destroyed



Aircraft Attacking:
3 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 21000 feet
2 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 21000 feet

CAP engaged:
AVG/1st Sqn with H81-A3 (4 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
4 plane(s) intercepting now.
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 2 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 17000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 1 minutes
Morning Air attack on Moulmein , at 55,55

Weather in hex: Severe storms

Raid spotted at 19 NM, estimated altitude 26,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 11



Allied aircraft
H81-A3 x 17


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
H81-A3: 3 destroyed



CAP engaged:
AVG/1st Sqn with H81-A3 (0 airborne, 12 on standby, 0 scrambling)
12 plane(s) intercepting now.
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 5 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 17000 , scrambling fighters to 17000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 2 minutes

[seydlitz_slith]

Another of the subunits is operating around Changsha where they tangled with one of my better Nate units. Amazingly, the Nates escaped without loss.

Afternoon Air attack on 30th Group Army, at 84,54

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 45 NM, estimated altitude 19,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-27b Nate x 10



Allied aircraft
H81-A3 x 3


No Japanese losses

No Allied losses



CAP engaged:
AVG/3rd Sqn with H81-A3 (3 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(3 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
3 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 22000
Raid is overhead

[seydlitz_slith]

Both of us made continued attacks against ground targets in Russia, but overall nothing decisive happened.
The weather continued to stink.

Here is the summary of losses for the turn.

[seydlitz_slith]

As you can see from the aircraft loss summary no Nates went down and I lost only two zeroes while the AVG lost 9 planes.

During the turn no ships were sunk, so I didn't show that screenie.

Here is my aces leaderboard. Note that I do have a double Ace located with the Yamada Datai. This unit has been fighting in Malaya since the start of the game and recently relocated to Bangkok where they are flying sweeps against the AVG at Moulmein. Most of the pilot's kills are Buffaloes and at least two are AVG P40s.

[seydlitz_slith]

Here is a snapshot of what my pilot pool looks like as of Jan 16, 1942

[seydlitz_slith]

Since several have asked, here is a shot of my industry status.

[seydlitz_slith]

Arms and vehicle production pools as of Jan 16.

[seydlitz_slith]

Frank Research.

[seydlitz_slith]

After all the frank factories repair I should be able to make decent progress. When I went to check the factories this turn for the screenshot I saw that I had most of them on do not repair and I just corrected that issue. Luckily most of the Frank factories are small. I believe it was some of the other factories that I expanded to 120.

Now awaiting my next turn from Mark.

[n01487477]

Hi, just reading various AAR's thought I'd contribute a bit if you don't mind ...

I'd check out this thread about R&D tm.asp?m=2253970

I'd agree somewhat that Stock for witp in-particular & AE have been a little generous with some of the res/oil/supplies. I think that you will find however as time goes on this will become harder and harder to maintain especially on the Homelands. But then from your information, this can't be determined as they are aggregate numbers.

Hope you don't mind me posting a pic of your economy as a flowchart.

So you are surplus in resources now, still having problems with Oil and fuel production and you are on the edge with HI need V want.

[Swenslim]

You need to double research of Ha-45 engine at least , you have 30 now. Otherwise you will have plane in the middle of the 1943 and no engines for him.

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: Swenslim

You need to double research of Ha-45 engine at least , you have 30 now. Otherwise you will have plane in the middle of the 1943 and no engines for him.

Thanks, I will check up on this during the next turn.