Payback - jzanes (A) vs. Rader (J). A Rader-free zone.

[Jzanes]

In the north, it’s mostly a stalemate. Neither one of us has committed much force and most of the forces are tied up keeping an eye on enemy units. I have one tank bn that’s broken free to cut rail lines. I anticipate it’ll be spotted and bombed into dust shortly. The japanese had pursued my motorcycle rgt to Wuteh but then pulled back after being heavily bombed by my air (one of my few air ops) and then being unable to overcome by tank bde guarding the dot.

My airforce is currently resting at Ulan-Ude and Krasnoyarsk (in the far north). Chita is regularly bombed by the japanese now and I’ve been unwilling to send in my last couple hundred fighters to defend it.

[Jzanes]

July 29 – August 3, 1942

Another month has passed and here’s the current scoreboard. We both earned about the same number of points in the last month and it’s looking as though he won’t reach the auto-victory threshold unless something crazy happens in the next few months.

The air war is pretty much one sided at this point. The soviet airforce has been pushed back to Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk and is resting and rebuilding. I have lots of bombers left but very few fighters. I’ll slowly collect MIGs and IL-2s and try to make a local air offensive at some key point in the months to come.

The japanese airforce wiped out a couple of my infiltrating tank bns. Against larger units, they don’t cause many casualties but the disruption really saps my hitting power. I’ll do my best to keep my key units defended by AAA and at least make the bombing expensive for the enemy.

For the 6 day period, the soviets lose 28 planes and the japanese lose 90.

[Jzanes]

(July 29-August 3, 1942 con’t)

Lots of ground war in the central area. The japanese are clearly redeploying large elements of their monster stack to the other fronts. I’ve followed suit and have pulled out the armor/mobile units of the “woods” stack and sent them to aid in the attack on Heiho.

At Heiho, I’ve managed to get 1:1 odds once but heavy disruption has forced me to take a break for a turn. Over 1,000 AV in reinforcements is about 10 days away. Until then, I’ll alternate resting and attacking to reduce the forts.

At Mishan, I got 1:1 odds and knocked the forts down to 4 on the first attack. Again, disruption knocked me down to 1:2 odds on the second attack. I did manage to reduce the forts to 3 though and will continue the attack. Especially, as I’ve been causing heavy casualties to the outnumbered japanese force (3600 japanese casualties vs. 2500 for the soviets). It looks as though lots of japanese troops are marching towards Mishan. I may have only a few more days to attack the city before enemy reinforcements and air power end my offensive.

[Jzanes]

August 4-12, 1942

A japanese TF of 6 BBs plus support bombards Petropavlovsk. Again the CD guns are brutal. My biggest CD gun at the base is 180 mm (7”) but they leave several BBs with heavy damage or heavy fires. The base suffers very little damage in return. I’ve moved some subs to try to sink the cripples limping away from Petropavlovsk.

My attacks against Mishan and Heiho stall out due to the arrival of japanese reinforcements and the disruption caused by his bombers. To add insult to injury, my Mishan force is routed back towards Rybolov. I will pull back and lick my wounds.

He has moved a force into the “woods” hex with my mega-stack. Neither of our forces has enough AV to push the other so we’ll probably just see an extended artillery duel. I’m considering pulling back to the Kuibyshevka area but will delay that move until I see signs of a japanese move to flank me.

Japanese reinforcements have arrived in strength in the north and have started to push my troops back to the border. I’ll delay and move up some reserves and try to keep him away from Ondorhaan, Choybalsan, and Borzya as long as possible.

For this 8 day period the japanese lost about 75 planes (OPS and flak) while the Russians lose only 6 planes. My losses are all float or recon plane losses. The soviet fighters and bombers continue to rest, train, and hide in the far northern bases.

I’m starting to think more and more about the first allied offensives. I hope to attack from multiple directions at the same time in an attempt to swamp the japanese air and naval forces. Here’s my early plans for each ally;

Russia: Strike along the northern borderlands in conjunction with the Chinese. Save up all my remaining soviet airpower for this local offensive.

China: Strike the far-northern japanese held Chinese bases in cooperation with the Russians. Try to find a use for the Chinese airforce in this offensive.

British: Suppress Port Blair with heavy bombers and then at least feint towards an amphibious assault. The British will strike first to try to draw in the japanese carriers. If the KB takes the bait, the British will withdrawal.

Australians: Begin operations to take back some of the north coast bases held by the japanese.

Americans:

North Pacific: Build up the currently empty Adak I. and use it as a springboard to recapture the japanese held Aleutian Islands further west.

South Pacific: Land at Norfolk Island and New Caledonia supported by the US CV forces. Once Noumea is captured, the Americans will move on the New Hebrides and make gestures towards moving towards the Solomons. In actuality they will move the bulk of their forces to Perth and start preparing the next wave aimed at the DEI.

Here’s a picture of two of the crack Coastal Defense Officers plotting where to hit the japanese battleships so that they will be crippled and forced to withdraw.

[Smeulders]

I've just taken a look at the Russians again, and the stacks of artillery are truly frightening. I'd guess a fight in an open hex with fortifications to protect your troops would suit you. Your opponent would have to face all that artillery out in the open. I think you should try to just stay put in Vladivostok. The 9 Fortifications should make it folly to attack you here and the supply reserves there in my game look huge. Of course, the army defending it will be huge as well so you'll need it. Interesting little fact, somewhere in 43' a convoy arrives in Vladivostok to drop of a pile of supplies. I'm not quite sure when, but if you can hold out until then ...

Can you give us a bit more information on Non-Russian front news ? What is your recon picking up in North Australia, New Caledonia, ... ? With that amount of forces in Russia he should be thin on the ground elsewhere, a good fast counter-attack now can put you in a strong position once he can start shifting troops away from Russia again.

A final question, what is the state of his BB and CA ? With 6 BB shot up and I believe earlier losses as well, his battleline probably isn't what it's supposed to be at the moment.

[Jzanes]

ORIGINAL: Smeulders

I've just taken a look at the Russians again, and the stacks of artillery are truly frightening. I'd guess a fight in an open hex with fortifications to protect your troops would suit you. Your opponent would have to face all that artillery out in the open. I think you should try to just stay put in Vladivostok. The 9 Fortifications should make it folly to attack you here and the supply reserves there in my game look huge. Of course, the army defending it will be huge as well so you'll need it. Interesting little fact, somewhere in 43' a convoy arrives in Vladivostok to drop of a pile of supplies. I'm not quite sure when, but if you can hold out until then ...

Can you give us a bit more information on Non-Russian front news ? What is your recon picking up in North Australia, New Caledonia, ... ? With that amount of forces in Russia he should be thin on the ground elsewhere, a good fast counter-attack now can put you in a strong position once he can start shifting troops away from Russia again.

A final question, what is the state of his BB and CA ? With 6 BB shot up and I believe earlier losses as well, his battleline probably isn't what it's supposed to be at the moment.

Hey Smeulders and thanx for the comments,

Good point regarding the artillery in the open. I'm moving 10 regiments or so from my Bikin blocking force to Rybolov. If he advances to this city maybe I'll catch him in the open and do some damage with my big guns.

I hadn't noticed that about the convoys arriving at Vladivostok. Unfortunately, it looks like it doesn't arrive until April 1944 (and one more in April 1945). Supplies are still looking good in the Vladivostok region but they will run out eventually.

I haven't flown any recon flights over the non-russian areas as of yet. I'm hoarding the few recon planes the western allies have until I'm ready to take advantage of what intelligence I gather. What I can tell you is that he has heavily built up Burma, the DEI, and New Caledonia/New Hebrides. He has not built up the northern oz coast and I suspect it is empty of any significant japanese forces.

I'm hesitant to do a "fast counterattack" until I'm actually ready. The British, Australians, and Americans probably have enough ground forces to make a move but they are still thin on transports and airpower at the front. There there's the fact that I have no idea where the KB is lurking. I would hate to make a shoestring invasion only to have the big bad KB show up and ruin my day. I will move the american carriers to Fiji/Samoa in the next couple months. With their arrival and a build up of APs and airpower at the front, I'll be ready to try some offensives.
I want to strike from multiple fronts so that he can only shutdown one of my attacks with the KB and reserve ground troops.

I know that several japanese BBs must be in drydock repairing the damage from the soviet CD guns but none are reported sunk. 2 japanese CAs are on the sunk ships list and I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple more or even a BB or two show up on the list in the next couple months.

[Jzanes]

August 12-13, 1942

A large japanese force has reached the fort north of Rybolov. I imagine he’ll blow up the fort and then advance to Rybolov. I’ve gathered 2300 AV at Rybolov and more is on the way. The city has 6 forts and should be able to hold up a large force for some time.

His major redeployment of his AV to Rybolov and to areas in the north has raised an interesting opportunity. His “woods” force is “only” about 1600 AV worth of second line garrison infantry with tons of artillery. I have 3000+ AV in the hex with another 500 AV nearby. I am going to try to break thru this force. If I’m successful, I might be able to drive all the way back to Birobidzhan or even Khaborvsk. He doesn’t seem to have much else left on this side of the river other than this blocking force and the force holding me up east of Bikin. To support this attack, I’ve moved my B17s to Spaask-Dalniy (near Vladivostok) and will commence some strategic bombing of the home islands. This is a diversion to cover the movement of the soviet bombers into the Kuibyshevka area where they will ground attack his “woods” forces to soften them up and disrupt them on the turn I try a deliberate attack. They (and the B17s) will then flee back to the safety of the northern airfields.

[Jzanes]

August 14-19, 1942

The plan for attacking the woods hex with a combined air-ground assault goes very well. The problem is that it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to break thru. Here’s how things went;

1. My B17s strike the heavy industry centers at Osaka and Hiroshima. Osaka is down 50-some heavy industry but the attack on Hiroshima doesn’t appear to have done any damage.
2. Rader’s bomber and recon assets concentrate on the Vladivostok area looking for my B17s. One big bomber was lost on the ground.
3. With the eye of Sauron focused on finding the B17s, I successfully move my MiGs and bombers into position for pounding “the woods”.
4. My MiGs sweep away the handful of Oscars guarding “the woods” and the soviet bombers and B17s hit the japanese ground forces.
5. My troops make a deliberate attack but get only 1:2 odds.
Soviet base AV: 3604 adjusted AV: 1376 casualties: 4232
Japanese base AV: 1712 adjusted AV: 3095 casualties: 3089

I’m going to give it one more shot and if nothing good happens, I’m gonna pull out the excess AV and send it to the rapidly developing battle in the north.

In other news, the japanese destroy the fort outside Alexandrovsk and the fort outside Rybolov. We’ll have to see if he advances to the cities and tries to grab them. I’m guessing no on Rybolov and yes on Alexandrovsk.

[Jzanes]

(April 13-19, 1942 con’t)

Strong japanese forces have been redeployed to the north and have routed my border forces and are driving towards Choybalsan/Borzya. I am trying to concentrate at these two key cities. Several divisions of troops are moving to Borzya via the railway from the Kuibyshevka area.

The japanese are bombing pretty much all my ground troops along the border every turn. My bombers have stopped off at Borzya/Chita and will try to hit the vanguard of his main force next turn. Hopefully, the MiGs will clear away any CAP and all my planes will be able to continue on to hide on the far northern airfields after a successful bomb run.

[Jzanes]

August 20-25, 1942

In non-russian front news, CA Portland is hit by two submarine launched torpedoes while escorting a convoy to SanFran. She reaches port safely and will be undergoing repairs for about a month.

On the Russian front, the action has moved to the north. My 2nd deliberate attack on the “woods” didn’t do much (1:3 odds, 3950 japanese casualties vs. 7300 soviet casualties) and much of this force is marching back to the Kuibyshevka area.

The japanese guess right and hit the northern airfields I had fled to. I lose about 100 planes in air to air and on the ground. The remainder has retreated to the far north to rest. The good news is that my MiGs did very well vs. the japanese CAP (about 3 kills per loss in air to air).

The japanese destroy the forts outside Rybolov and Alexandrovsk. As I predicted, they haven’t advanced into Rybolov but have continued on to attack Alexandrovsk. They got 1:2 odds on their first attack but will eventually capture the city with the large force they have there.

In the north, the border city of Tamsag has fallen and japanese forces are slowly advancing. I’m not sure whether he is heading towards Choybalsan or Borzya (or both). I’m gradually moving my troops into blocking positions to defend both cities. The terrain isn’t great for defense so I’ll probably just try to delay him until I reach a defensible line. The good news is that this is going to be a slow go for the japanese. There are no decent roads or rail lines in the border region.

Upwards of 50 russian and American subs ring the home islands. Every turn I’m sinking at least one (and usually several) ships. I’m sinking mostly small escorts but a fair number of AKs and even a small TK. I also hit a large AO but no word as to whether it actually sank.

[Jzanes]

August 26-31, 1942

The last week of August is fairly quiet. The japanese pound away at Alexandrovsk and have reduced the forts from 6 to 1. They should capture the city in the next few turns. They slowly advance on Choybalsan in the north. I have concentrated about 1,000 AV at this city to see if I can stop his offensive. More Russian forces are arriving at Borzya every turn from the Kuibyshevka area. The rest of the Russian front is fairly quiet except for soviet ground and japanese air bombardments.

My B17s hit the Mukden heavy industry (apparently no damage) and then hit Sunwu airfield and destroy a dozen japanese planes on the ground or in A2A. They have now flown back to Calcutta to rest and repair. They will be used to suppress Port Blair when the time comes for my british counteroffensive.

Assault transports are moving towards India, Perth, and Fiji. Once they arrive I should be just about ready to organize my attacks. My three patrolling CVs are returning to Pearl Harbor after a successful few weeks defending various convoys heading to and from the front. I spotted an AO but no planes launched to sink it. I did however find and sink an AMC surface raider and SBDs (reportedly) hit several subs lurking in the shipping lanes.

Here’s the scoreboard as of September 1st;

[Jzanes]

September 1-10, 1942

The short lull in the Russian campaign has passed and the japanese are on the move. I fell asleep at the wheel and didn’t notice that he was moving a large force across the river at Sunwu until the turn before he made his crossing. The result is several soviet divisions routed back to Blagoveschchensk and “the woods” force desperately trying to flee to safety before getting cut off from the Kuibyshevka area. Luckily, I had already moved about 2,000 of “the woods” AV to the Borzya area and worse case scenario, I’ll lose about 1,200 AV and a whole bunch of artillery units.

In other news, Alexandrovsk fell and the japanese are pursuing my defeated force towards Okha. Hoping that Rader has committed all his troops across the river or in the north, I am also advancing on Mishan again. Only 5 units reported in Mishan and I’m coming with 3,000 AV. Hopefully, I’ll at least draw off some of his strength from the other fronts.

[Jzanes]

(September 1-10, 1942 con’t)

In the north, the japanese have reached Choybalsan. They don’t have enough troops to push me out but I’m making a fighting withdrawal with the intention of forming a stronger line farther north near Borzya. I don’t want to get flanked by his stronger pincer advancing from the east.

[Jzanes]

(September 1-10, 1942 con’t)

Let’s take a look at my Chinese counteroffensive. Everyone is finally in position and on the move. I am attacking the japanese frontier in 3 spots. The first two attacks are more or less diversions hoping to draw some japanese reserves. The third attack at Paotow is the “real” attack. My 3,000 AV should arrive at this northern Chinese city in about 2-3 weeks. If I don’t break thru, I will still try to flood the japanese rear areas with a bunch of “expendable” Chinese troops.

[crsutton]

Very interesting read so far. Just got caught up. I think your opponents critical mistake was attacking Russia so late. By 10/42 you should be able to move into Burma overland and your non-soviet airforces should be pretty strong. I don't see where he can make up the air losses in Russia if you start to  hit him elsewhere, but it is definitely time to hit him elsewhere. Open up two more fronts on him in India and the DEI or Pacific and I just don't see where his economy can replace the losses. Russia becomes a "tar baby" just like China.
 
 

[Jzanes]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Very interesting read so far. Just got caught up. I think your opponents critical mistake was attacking Russia so late. By 10/42 you should be able to move into Burma overland and your non-soviet airforces should be pretty strong. I don't see where he can make up the air losses in Russia if you start to  hit him elsewhere, but it is definitely time to hit him elsewhere. Open up two more fronts on him in India and the DEI or Pacific and I just don't see where his economy can replace the losses. Russia becomes a "tar baby" just like China.

We are thinking very much alike Crsutton. I've only lost a handful of non-soviet airplanes during the last few months and have been able to build up my front lines is preparation for the coming allied counteroffensives. My intel of the home islands shows a massive increase in japanse airplane production so I think he can keep up with all but truly horrendous losses in airframes. Where he is probably hurting is in the quality of his pilots. Many of his 1st class pilots were likely killed in the massive air battles early in the soviet campaign and I know from experience that those are the guys that get the kills in A2A clashes. I've been stacking my front line fighter units with all the best pilots and I'm hoping that when the time comes, the loss ratios will heavily favor the good guys.

I don't think Rader ever thought attacking the soviets would be a good strategic move. He planned from day 1 to attack the russians to test the system and see how the battle would go and whether the soviets could be wiped out. Strategically speaking, attacking the soviets doesn't really make sense for the japanese as there just isn't much oil to be captured and capturing soviet territory doesn't really provide any extra protection vs. the western allies. A one-sided victory vs. the soviets would win the japanese a ton of points but probably not enough for the automatic victory.

Here's my rough working timeline for the coming offensives;

late September, 1942: Chinese reach and attack japanese held bases in northern china.

late September-October, 1942: Australians start minor operations to occupy Exmouth and move against japanese held north australian coast bases if lightly held by the enemy.

October, 1942: Occupy and build up Adak Island in the Aleutians. Prep for attacking japanese held Amchitka and Kiska.

late October-Mid Novmber, 1942: British make probing attacks along Burma border. American heavy bombers suppress Port Blair while the RN moves to invade this island. If the KB shows up, we will withdraw. Commence strategic bombing of Burma oil/refinery centers. Try to engage the japanese in attritional air battles.

Mid-late November: ANZAC move on Norfolk Island in conjunction with major US attack on New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. I want to complete the 10/42 upgrades on the US fleet before making my move.

[Jzanes]

September 11-16, 1942

The japanese capture Choybalsan in the north after I abandoned it. The good news is that it’s looking like I’ll be able to form a decent defense line to defend Borzya.

Farther south, Rader has done a good job in cutting off my “woods” force and it’s looking unlikely that I’ll be able to extricate much of my force from the tightening noose.

At Mishan, I’ve made two deliberate attacks and gotten 2:1 and then 1:1 odds. I’ve reduced the forts from 4 to 2. The japanese have railed in a couple divisions. I’ll continue my attack a bit longer but will likely have to pull back to Rybolov. I’m happy to have forced him to bring in some troops that may have been used in his northern/central offensives.

[Jzanes]

(September 11-16, 1942 con’t)

Meanwhile, the KB has made an appearance after several months. My naval search really dropped the ball and the KB suddenly appeared 6 hexes south of Fiji and shot up CA Houston (plus a couple escorting old DDs), CL Marblehead (at Suva), some APDs, and about a dozen small-medium AKs that were in the area. Houston was at sea after having sunk an AMC and looking for another one I knew was in the area. Luckily all the transport ships were empty and no other convoys sailed into the danger zone during the raid.

The KB and the marine aviators clashed throughout the 2 days of the raid. The marines lost 64 wildcats and 27 bombers (SBDs and TBFs). The KB lost 42 zeroes and 18 bombers. Most of the marine losses were due to having small attacks wiped out by the KB uber cap. The marines did well in defending against fighter sweeps sent against Suva.

I anticipated the KB hanging around and hitting Suva harbor (about 100 ships at anchor) on the next turn but they headed off to the SW. I’m happy with this result as I only had about 70 ready fighters at Suva and would’ve likely lost a lot more ships if he attacked. Then again, he probably would’ve seen pretty heavy losses to his carrier air.

Having moved in lots more marine and USAAF air from Christmas Island and Pago Pago, I have about 180 fighters at Suva now and another 200 army fighters at Pago Pago. This has accelerated my plan of stripping the air from Christmas Island and moving it up to the front. Christmas Island will now become a rear area “patrol plane” base. Convoys will probably move directly from the west coast to Samoa/Fiji.

All my convoys heading towards Samoa/Fiji are concentrating at Christmas Island. The American carriers have sortied from Pearl and will escort this mega-convoy to the front. If the KB hangs around we may have a carrier battle in a week or so. If not, the carriers will return to Pearl for October upgrades once the convoy is safely delivered.

In other news, the Chinese “first attack” has been sighted and I can see the japanese are moving troops to block them. In otherwords, they’ve taken the bait. No sign they’ve sighted the 2nd or 3rd (main) attack yet.

80 heavy bombers hit the Magwe oil centers. The combat report mentions 20 some hits but when I look at the center after the turn it’s shown as undamaged. I wonder how accurate this intel is and how much FOW is involved. Anyways, next turn the heavies will hit the Port Blair airfield where I’ve spotted 150 planes but no reported fighters. Chittagong airfield (level 9) is the base I’m using for these raids. It’s protected by 200 some hurricanes. They are on 50% CAP and I would love to see the japanese try to shut it down. The british are the one ally that has a fairly decent supply of fighters in the pool and should be able to go toe to toe with the bad guys for quite some time.

[Jzanes]

September 17-22, 1942

KB disappears to the west but lots more action in the war over the last week.

First the soviet area;

1. Mishan: I continued to attack but only got 1:2 odds and about even casualties. I’m now resting my troops, bringing up reinforcements (about 800 AV), and waiting for a tank brigade to reach the hex west of Mishan and cutoff the city from japanese reinforcements. The japanese are bombing my troops but failing to do very much damage or disrupt my troops very much.
2. Kuibyshevka Area: This is a mess. I’ve been trying to hold onto the cities long enough to let my cutoff “woods” force to reach safety. However, he has now crossed the river at Blovychensk and will capture this city very soon. He also has a large and growing force at Kuibyshevka. I’ve decided to pull my force back to Svobodny and then make a fighting withdrawal back to Skovorodino. Some of my “woods” force may squeeze out of the pocket but I’m not counting on it.
3. Okha: the japanese slowly advance through the forest. I’ve got about 600 AV at Okha with 5 forts. The Alexandrovsk remnants will add another 100 AV or so. If the japanese are low on supply or wore down by the long march, I may hold for a while.

[Jzanes]

(September 17-22, 1942 con’t)

In the northern area, the japanese have begun attacking the fort on the road to Borzya and slowly move their main force forward.

I’ve decided to move up my airforce and try some ground bombardment with my bombers. MiGs will sweep the target and hopefully clear away any CAP. I don’t anticipate doing too much damage but just want to keep him “honest” and force him to maintain a fighter force in the soviet theatre.