Amis vs Aussies - World Domination(no jrcar or Tony)

[erstad]

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

02 Feb 1942
For comparitive purposes with Erstad's losses posts from the previous day in his game. Note his losses overall seem to be about double ours, and I'm impressed with his low Japanese bomber losses!!!

Puh-leeze! Only 60% higher, none of this double stuff [:D]. Ratio-wise, it's not that bad although my ratio is worse than yours. Aztez' losses are just shy of 50% higher, so it would seem part of it is a more active air battle in our game (the sortie counts for both sides support that as well). Aztez is a scrapper, not one to sit on the sidelines.

But the bomber/fighter difference is interesting. I've lost far fewer bombers than you but perhaps almost 3X the fighters [X(]. Sounds like I need to brush up on my fighter tactics. Although Aztez has lost 127 P-40E to jrcar/Tony's 30, so part of it may be just his aggressiveness. (P-40B is about the same, H81 I've taken out 36 to your 18).

So here's an interesting question - how do your pilot losses compare?

[jwilkerson]

As far as our bomber losses, they are mostly due to a few situations in which fighter escort did not coordinate, mostly over Singapore.

Regarding pilots, well other than posting the shot of the pool (above) not sure how to tell. My air units are mostly full, and so if yours are as well, then the pool reflects the difference in pilot losses - or at least should in theory.

[erstad]

Pilot pools aren't the best comparison as I like to stuff my squadrons with pilots (a preference developed before the Patch 1 training change[8|]) and you are very sparing, IIRC. But the "top pilots" screen directly tells how many pilots are lost. At 2/1, I was at 163 MIA (I assume most of whom will never be found again), 91 WIA, and 419 KIA. So mebbe around 600-650, depending on how the WIA do. (Many of the airframe losses were over china which is more forgiving in terms of pilot losses)

[jwilkerson]

Ah, ok, in our 2 Feb save we have 79, 84, 208 (MIA, WIA, KIA)

[jwilkerson]

08-09 Feb 1942

Malaya
First big pair of battles for Singapore. We won the casualties inflicted battle by over 2:1 that's the good news (8000 to 3200). Also reduced the forts down to level-3, from level-4. So decent progress for the first attack. Also killed 2 of the 32 Allied units.

Sumatra
Zeros sweep Batavia and shot down more than they lost also got some recon on what is there, mostly a motley collection.

China
Advance on Loyang continues. First major fighter on fighter clash between Oscars and AVG over Hankow. We lost two Oscars but got 8 AVG fighters "H-18-X" or whatever they're called.

Philippines
78 Regt continues to move torwards the front. Otherwise fairly quiet.

[jwilkerson]

10-11 Feb 1942

Malaya
Artillery exchanges, we got about 1500 guys over the period, at least according to the combat report.

Philippines
Got another 8 P40E, all of a sudden the Allied fighters seem to be getting weak?

China
He keeps throwing pieces of units in front of our advance on Loyang, but we destroyed one this turn and the path is finally clear, so we are advancing into the town.

Sumatra
We continue to recon Batavia and advance towards "Ost".

[jwilkerson]

11 Feb 42

Here is a pic of the area around Sumatra including Singapore, Palembang, Batavia and Tarakan.

[jwilkerson]

11 Feb 42

And here is view of China. 11 Army attempts to hold Sinyang and Nanyang while 12 Army and 1 Army combine to attack Loyang and Chengchow.

[jwilkerson]

12-13 Feb 1942

Malaya
Wuhu! Singapore falls, about 1-2 turns before I thoguht it would. Deliberate attack slayed the dragon with "minimal" casualties. Downside is that every installation is 100% destroyed.

... gotta rush to day job ... more later ...

[jwilkerson]

12-13 Feb 1942

Malaya
Ok, so Singapore falls. Now it is time to distribute the freed up forces to new tasks. We decide to send one division to Burma with preparation starting for Akyab, typically one of the tougher nuts to crack in my experience. Three divisions will start to prep for Java and two of the three independent regiments will prep for Northern Sumatra. Looks like the garrision of Singapore requires 100 AV, so we will have to leave the third independent regt in Singapore for now. 25 Army HQ will plan for java as will the bulk of the artillery. Independent engineers will move in to start repairing the port and airfield.

China
We will launch a probe attack at Loyang with 12 Army and start the 1 Army moving to reinforce. Three artillery units are packing up at Shanghai to transfer to Philippines.

Sumatra
1 Raiders are headed to Djambi. 7 Armor and 124 Regt are heading to Oosthaven.

[jwilkerson]

14-15 Feb 1942

China
Attack in Central China retreated a stack of 5 Chinese units. Attacks at Loyang continue.

Philippines
78 Regt continues to move to the front, otherwise things are fairly quiet. Three arty units are loading up at Shanghai.

Sumatra
We will attack at Djambi and continue to advance towards Oosthaven.

Malaya
Some units are beginning to transfer out, most are recovering and preparing for new tasks.

Burma
Slow advance while awaiting establishment of airpower in Southern Burma.

Borneo
Nik took Tarakan this turn and started landings around Balikpapan. At Sea the "Uber PTs" sank one of our DDs and damaged another.

[jwilkerson]

16-17 Feb 1942

China
Well the Chinese finally wised up and attacked our division at Loyang, we retreated North across the river. We will still be able to bring 3 additional divisions to bear on Loyang, so we still have a chance for victory, but it will take a few turns to regroup.

Sumatra
We continue mopping up in Southern Sumatra, this is part of the prepartion for attacking Java.

Philippines
Awaiting reinforcements from Korea and China.

Burma
Awaiting reinforcements from Malaya

==
Our next big operation will obviously be Java. Nik and I need to coordinate more closely on this than we have up to this point, so we are huddling in the back room.

[jwilkerson]

18-19 Feb 1942

I think for me, one summary will work for everywhere: Loading, regrouping, preparing. Nik beat back a counter attack near Legaspi.

[jwilkerson]

20-21 Feb 1942

Sumatra
Oosthaven falls. We will move in some engineers and aviation support and set up a fighter base here. This and building up Palembang into a bomber base will give us the pre-requisites to fulfill our end of the bargin and attack Western Java.

Burma
We're lacking aviation assets and some smaller units to fulfill all the little garrison requirements.

China
We're still regrouping.

Luzon
Three artillery units from China are unloading this turn. This should help us stabilize the front.

[jwilkerson]

22-23 Feb 1942

Sumatra
Aviation and Engineer units rail into Oosthaven. First Oscar unit flies in. Additional aviaiton and engineer units will move in from Malaya via fast transport and air transport.

China
Elements of 1st and 12th Armies moving through Kaifeng towards Nanyang then will counter march back towards Loyang for a second attempt on the city.

Hokkaido
Enemy carrier raid sink 3xAKL, we are redeploying in case they stick around.

[jwilkerson]

24-25 Feb 1942

Sumatra
Preparing for Java invasion for me requires moving the IJA bomber force from Malaya to Sumatra. This involves moving in some engineers to build up the airbases, moving in some aviation support, resting and refitting the bomber force (Sallys) allowing time for their WIA aircrew to return to the units and replacing the aircraft as permitted. Then of course actually moving the air units to the new air bases. All this seems to be taking more time than I allowed for, but progress is being made.

China
Bulk of 1st Army is moving up to the West of Loyang and will join with elements of 12th Army to resume advance on Loyang. Chinese seem to be heading out of the Loyang complex in many directions. We welcome their dispersal.

Luzon
The three artillery units from China have now unloaded and are moving the Clark.

Hokkaido
USN Carrier headed far to the East and pounded sand in the Kuriles this turn.

[jwilkerson]

26-27 Feb 1942

China
Elements of 1st Army moving to the SW of Loyang over ran a small Chinese unit and destroyed it. Next turn we should be reconcentrated and ready for the second attempt on Loyang. These Chinese have moved a number of units out of Loyang, but that have one more good turn to reverse this trend and send everyone back into the barn, if they can detect our purpose, which should be easy enough, but we've used a wide sweeping circular movement to reposition ourselves and sometimes that can confuse a bit.

Sumatra
Aviation support quantity is now adequate, but we need more building engineers to increase airbase levels more quickly.

Luzon
Artillery units still several turns from the front, but they are crawling forward.

Air
Interesting turn, where we dodged through several air combats and shot down 11 fighters in the air for no loss. H81s in China and P40Es in Luzon. We don't see results like that very often.

Hokkaido
USN Carrier disappeared, normal operations have resumed.

[jwilkerson]

28 Feb, 1 Mar 1942

Luzon
Even elements of 20ID and artillery from China, too little, too late to stop might PA from pushing us back in Luzon. We will pull back to beach head at Aparri and regroup.

China
Elements of 1 and 12 Army now concentrated SW of Loyang. Also we released 32ID from the Interior to join attack, this will now give us 2ID and 4IMB on the Kaifeng side of the river.

Sumatra
Still need more engineers and time to build up airbases sufficient to attack Java.

Burma
38ID is now "in country". Need more aviation support. Have 4 Oscar units ready to come in and contest airspace with AVG. Recon units unable to see any enemy units.

[jwilkerson]

2-3 March 1942

Luzon
For over a month now, we think the Allies could've shocked attacked our main stack at Clark and sent us reeling, but even now with us moving out, they still are holding back. We made 29 miles progress this turn, so most troops will make it out if no shock attack happens this turn.

Sumatra/Java
My air offensive will start this turn. It would take a number of turns to eliminate the airforce the Allies have at Batavia. Nik may want to go before that happens. Our risk of loss may be higher, but having both of us land at the same time has advantages.

[jwilkerson]

6-7 March 1942

Java
Nik and I have been struggling to coordinate the Java landings, so "by accident" we wound up going in on the same turn [:D].

In an unauthorized action, one IJA Commando Platoon "captured" Merek on the Western tip of Java last turn, so we started flying in a Brigade this turn. The 21 IMB is now 55% flown over.

Meanwhile, Nik started landing 16 Army on the Eastern tip of Java.

No Allied aircraft interfered with either landing.

Oz
At the same time, KB has been off Perth giving the harbor a pounding. I have 6 submarines milling around South of Java as cover for Nik and to try to intercept any last minute reinforcements. We've seen nothing so far.

China
The 1 and 12 Army are now back in Loyang. We will do a deliberate attack this turn to see what is up.

Luzon
We're still trying to pull back from Clark to no avail, hopefully we will have some "luck" this turn.

Burma
Aviation support is finally arriving and we are preparing to push on towards Mandalay!


Luzon