Speedy vs Fabertong - time to smack back the Penguin

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Anyone have any ideas/thoughts on China? Thanks[:)]

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

CBI -

All quiet over Burma for now.

Plenty of action in China. The IJA 102nd Infantry Rgt was roughly handled SW of Nanchang. For 131 Chinese casualties it sustained over 1900!

An attack by 2 x Chinese corps SE of Kukong surprisngly failed. Japanese air attacks may have been the key disruptor:

Ground combat at 80,58

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 15250 troops, 81 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 648

Defending force 3571 troops, 37 guns, 15 vehicles, Assault Value = 128

Allied adjusted assault: 239

Japanese adjusted defense: 370

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2

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

Japanese ground losses:
376 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 24 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 21 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 7 (0 destroyed, 7 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
447 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 32 disabled
Non Combat: 7 destroyed, 29 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled


Assaulting units:
63rd Chinese Corps
79th Chinese Corps

Defending units:
1st Ind.Inf.Group
5th RF Gun Battalion

Japanese are closing in on Wenchow....they will probably get there before any Corps get back. This will in turn force my hand and I'll evacuate to the west to re-group and advance back from there.

I've upgraded my first Chinese Squadron to P43A Lancers! Woooo[;)]

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

SRA -

Buitenzorg still holds out.

An attack by IJA 41st Infantry Rgt at Medan met heavy resistance and failed to make headway. A counter attack by the Dutch on 20th also failed but did manage to cause more casualties on the Japanese.

The Japanese took Oosthaven. SS S-38, repairing major damage in port, was scuttled to prevent capture.

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

South Pacific -

Japanese CV's showed up on the 19th NW off New Zealand. They detected but didn't attack AP Tasker H. Bliss.......fires were raging on board and despite the Japanese CV's running away on the 20th Tasker succumbed to the inferno and what crew remained abandoned ship in sight of Auckland.....damn.

32nd USA Division is leaving San Fran for Australia in the next week.

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

Submarine warfare -

A couple more missed attacks. Grrr. A bad spell indeed for my subs!

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Hi all,

Anyone have any ideas/thoughts on China? Thanks[:)]

yeah, get your offensive into Burma rolling as soon as possible (or never lose it [:D]) as that´s the only way to get supplies to China. That solves the supply issue and should enable you to keep your units in bases being supplied. Without enough supplies, the only advise I can give is to not defend in bases at all. And of course don´t defend clear hexes whenever possible.

[Speedysteve]

Hi castor,
 
Hmm. Surely I'll need to wait for my Indian Divisiosn to fill out with 1942 squads and to get the equipment all upto scratch? Let alone the experience levels? [;)]
 
Why to not defend bases at all?
 
Thanks

[Alfred]

Speedy,

I don't think you should underestimate the value of a stalemate in China. Don't lose patience and try to become too active - it runs the risk of burning off your reserves which might be necessary to cover what looks to me a vulnerable position in front of Sian.

As to specifics.

(1) How weak are the t trapped units at Tatung. If they are forced to surrender, they will reappear 30 days later at Chunking, so a surrender may well be in your favour both in terms of increasing your AV and relocating the units away from their current out of position location.

(2) What exactly do you have at Yenan. That Chinese base does not really have any value as it doesn't produce supply nor does it have to be captured by the Japanese if they intend to approach Sian from the north east along the secondary road. The only real value of Yenan is as an airbase, but the difficulty of getting supply to it does usually curtail air operations from there. Thus you may be able to thin out the Yenan defenders to give yourself a local reserve, perhaps to advance to Tatung to rescue the 2 corps located there., or to move into position to block an enemy drive on Sian from the rear.

(3) Currently you may be confident of holding on at Nanyang and Loyang, but I see no fieldworks between them and Sian to provide rearguard positions. If you fail to hold at those two bases, or the mountainous rail line behind Loyang, you may find the Japanese quickly moving onto Sian.

(4) Sian is clear terrain but the terrain in front of it is good defensive terrain and is the area where you should anchor the defense of the oilfield.

(5) Some advise to defend outside of bases because of how supply flows viz to units rather than to bases. But this can be too simplistic an approach as one has to factor whether the base itself generates supply (Light Industry or auto supply) and how many units are inside the base itself. Certainly if you have units located between a surplus supply base and a deficient supply base, those units will commandeer supplies sent from the surplus to the deficient base.

Alfred

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

The main action for the past 2 days has centered around good old China again.....

First the bad, 62nd Infantry Bde has reached Wenchow before my Corps and will probably take it tomorrow. This is regrettable since Wenchow is a fantastic supply base. I am hoping to re-take it in due course though.

The good, Japanese attacks at both Sinyang and Chuhsien stalled.....massively.....I will post CR for this so you can see by how much. I'm launching probe attacks tomorrow to test enemy strength.

It also looks as though an opportunity may be present for progress in front of Kukong as the Japanese only have 235 AV worth of troops vs my 613 with an extra 211 arriving in 1 days time and an extra 300 arriving within 10 days.

Sinyang:

Ground combat at Sinyang (86,48)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 25861 troops, 231 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 962

Defending force 36262 troops, 239 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 992

Japanese adjusted assault: 1364

Allied adjusted defense: 2255

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2

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

Japanese ground losses:
3885 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 201 disabled
Non Combat: 20 destroyed, 146 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 23 disabled


Allied ground losses:
675 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 80 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 39 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled


Chuhsien:

Ground combat at Chuhsien (88,56)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 27376 troops, 329 guns, 137 vehicles, Assault Value = 869

Defending force 31991 troops, 157 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1077

Japanese adjusted assault: 1236

Allied adjusted defense: 3241

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 1)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
3265 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 156 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 145 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 32 disabled
Vehicles lost 18 (0 destroyed, 18 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
324 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 24 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 15 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled

In other news an Oscar was shot down over Katha.

A convoy arrived at Calcutta bring 116th RAF BF, Catalina Squadron, Wellington Squadron and the first 3 x C47 squadrons.

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

Submarine warfare -

Another 2 failed attacks....sheesh.

[Speedysteve]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Speedy,

I don't think you should underestimate the value of a stalemate in China. Don't lose patience and try to become too active - it runs the risk of burning off your reserves which might be necessary to cover what looks to me a vulnerable position in front of Sian.

As to specifics.

(1) How weak are the t trapped units at Tatung. If they are forced to surrender, they will reappear 30 days later at Chunking, so a surrender may well be in your favour both in terms of increasing your AV and relocating the units away from their current out of position location.

(2) What exactly do you have at Yenan. That Chinese base does not really have any value as it doesn't produce supply nor does it have to be captured by the Japanese if they intend to approach Sian from the north east along the secondary road. The only real value of Yenan is as an airbase, but the difficulty of getting supply to it does usually curtail air operations from there. Thus you may be able to thin out the Yenan defenders to give yourself a local reserve, perhaps to advance to Tatung to rescue the 2 corps located there., or to move into position to block an enemy drive on Sian from the rear.

(3) Currently you may be confident of holding on at Nanyang and Loyang, but I see no fieldworks between them and Sian to provide rearguard positions. If you fail to hold at those two bases, or the mountainous rail line behind Loyang, you may find the Japanese quickly moving onto Sian.

(4) Sian is clear terrain but the terrain in front of it is good defensive terrain and is the area where you should anchor the defense of the oilfield.

(5) Some advise to defend outside of bases because of how supply flows viz to units rather than to bases. But this can be too simplistic an approach as one has to factor whether the base itself generates supply (Light Industry or auto supply) and how many units are inside the base itself. Certainly if you have units located between a surplus supply base and a deficient supply base, those units will commandeer supplies sent from the surplus to the deficient base.

Alfred

Hi Alfred,

Thanks for your thoughts. As per my previous AAR you've provided some good stuff here[:)]

1.) Tatung - very weak now. Approx 100 AV left vs. 322 Japanese. There was a big Corps there which had 68% of it's TOE. Grrrr.

2.) Yenan is very weak. I've attached a SS showing the units there.

3.) Good point. The problem here is that I don't have enough of a reserve to place as a secondary defensive line. At present I do feel strong enough at Loyang and Chenchow. Both have 5 Forts with 1000 AV at Loyang, 1500 at Chenchow and 1300 to the SW of it. You're right htough it does look as though this is the main weak area - between here and Nanyang. Not sure what to change around here now though?

4.) Thanks. Didn't know that. Noted.

5.) Ah. Thanks. I'd heard this kind of thing before but wasn't 100% sure. Explains why units in the field (like SW of Nanchang) are fully supplied but some bases are sitting at orange level!

Thanks again for this [8D]

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Hi castor,

Hmm. Surely I'll need to wait for my Indian Divisiosn to fill out with 1942 squads and to get the equipment all upto scratch? Let alone the experience levels? [;)]

Why to not defend bases at all?

Thanks

Not wanting to say to not defend at bases at all but I guess you will soon find out (if you haven´t already) that you can´t supply your troops in bases due to the bases being out of supply but you can supply them outside of bases because as long as they are outside of bases they draw supply from "somewhere" while they only draw supplies from that base they are in when they are in a base. So the advise has to be: not defend in bases that don´t draw supplies. And if that base never gets supplies, your troops will starve there which makes it impossible to hold that base in the long run. The only way to counter this is to supply China out of Burma asap. To be honest, I don´t like the supply flowing from Burma to China the way it does but it more or less cures the borked supply how it is going in China with your troops not starving outside of bases but starving inside of the bases.

[Alfred]

Speedy,

1. The Penguin will be doing you a favour if he forces a surrender at Tatung. With only 100 AV in 2 LCUs, the resurrected units at Chungking will be of a comparable strength and their initial at start strength will not have reduced your Chinese infantry squad pool.

2. Yenan is already at level 4 fortification. The cost to build up to level 5 is quite hefty - in my experience I doubt that you will be able to get sufficient supply to the base to allow the building of further fortifications. Therefore IMHO, the two construction units currently located at Yenan could be moved out of the base to build fieldworks on the approaches to Sian (or anywhere else you prefer of course).

3. If you see value in maintaining Chinese airplanes at Yenan, then of course you would have to keep the Base Force at Yenan. I admit that due to the difficulty of getting supply there to maintain air operations, I am not certain of the wisdom of keeping airplanes there . Running recon or LRCAP (using the AVG) might be OK but offensive air seems to be too expensive. Thus if no aircraft present, there is no need to keep the Base Force at Yenan. That being so, you could consider relocating the Base Force to form a bridge to get the short legged Chinese fighters (the I-16 is particularly short legged at only 6 hexes transfer range, but the I-15 is not much better at 9) at Hami to Lanchow. If the Chinese 4th Fighter Group is left at Hami, you may never build up a large enough supply stockpile to allow the Group to upgrade post April 1942.

Alfred

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Hi Castor - thanks. Makes sense....well doesn't make sense but I understand what you say[;)]

Hi Alfred - you must have read my mind since after your earlier comments I've already ordered the 2 Construction Rgt's to Sian. I've also orderd the troops NE of Loyang either west to get them parallel to Loyang or NW towards Yenan where there'll stop behind the river.

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

CBI -

The big news over the past 3 days is that the Japanese have taken Wenchow! This is not a surprise as Faber's troops beat me there but is a disappointing loss my end.

My end troops are moving towards the key action areas for - south of Kukong and soutth of Nanchang.

Akyab (empty) fell to the Japanese on 23rd April.

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

SRA -

Buitenzorg holds again! Despite being low on supply they fought off a Japanese attack causing 2813 casualties whilst receiving 718.

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

Australia -

Out of nowhere KB (or at least part of it) sailed east of Brisbane and unleashed hell. Probably a mistake on my part but some shipping was left there without much fighter cover. An attack on 23rd caused little damage. However, an attack on 25th caused massive damage. Damaging all Ship Repair Yards, some HI and sunk SS O-16, AS Columbia, 3 x AK, an AP and an AMc. A further 10 ships are heavily damaged and burning. B*******.

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

Submarine warfare -

At long last a little bit of luck for my subs after a week barren patch!

On the 24th SS Grenadier was determined to sink AK Kiyama Maru off Shikuka, surfacing loosing 14 torpedoes at her and only 1 hit! It left her heavily damaged though.

On the 25th SS KVIII, following Allied doctrine, focussed on and doggedly blew to bits the 9000 tonne TK Nihon Maru with 4 torpedo hits over 3 attacks NE of Bangka Island.

Also TK Kyoko Maru was reportedly left heavily damaged after hitting a mine off Bataan.

Annoyingly SS O-20 missed the large AP Argentina Maru off Phuket. Grrrr.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Today the focus was on one city snd one city alone.....Brisbane.

After 2 attacks in 3 days the Allied commanders were ordered to make the skies over Brisbane 'a nest full of buzzing hornets'.

They succeeded......

The Japanese confident of another day of easy and merciless bombers were surprised when 166 Allied fighters met them. These were the latest models the Allies could offer - Kittyhawk 1's, P39D's and P40E's. I'll let the results speak for themsleves:

Morning Air attack on Brisbane , at 96,160

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 30
B5N2 Kate x 52
D3A1 Val x 47



Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk IA x 14
P-39D Airacobra x 86
P-40E Warhawk x 66


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 10 destroyed
B5N2 Kate: 14 destroyed, 4 damaged
D3A1 Val: 28 destroyed, 7 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra: 3 destroyed

Allied Ships
xAK Tarifa, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Nisqually, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Yunnan, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AM Launceton, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAP Montoro, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Kooringa, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
SS Saury, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
AS Platypus, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Lowana, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Prusa, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK American, Bomb hits 1

It wasn't totally one sided mind you as SS Saury, AM Launceston, AS Platypus, 2 x AK's an AP sank today BUT the cost outweighed the gain IMO.

2 further attacks took place but were smaller in magnitude but no different in terms of Allied victory. KB should be gone for a few weeks

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

CBI -

All quiet over northern Burma. I'm awaiting the arrival of a couple of Hurri Squadrons then will begin air efforts from both Imphal and Ledo. Oh yeah supply would be handy too.

A decent Indian Bde ahas formed up at Madras already with '1942' Squads. She'll rest for a bit before moving forward. As it stands I expect to move forward into Burma over the next few months, dependent on what Faber does.

China - not a lot of progress just some moving around of forces to try and trap each other and cut each other off. One of my corps has been wiped out by my own shock attack at Tatung.

A couple of plans are afoot but I'll keep them hidden for now for operational secrecy.

Chinese fighters ambush some IJA bombers over Wenchow claiming 9 of them.

22nd (east) African Bde has arrived at Mombasa. It's a decent unit equipment wise (African Squads have 55 ARM attack IIRC!) In due course she'll move to India.

CV Illustrious has arrived Cape Town. When my other CV's repair that will give me 3 x Brit CV's + Hermes. Not bad.

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

SRA -

The Battered B******* of Buitenzorg fight on exacting a heavy Japanese toll - 2000 vs 2200 Troops lost.

A few more empty bases (Babo for example) have been captured by Faber. 4th Division has landed at Cagayan.

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

Australia -

Daly Waters (empty) fell to the Japanese on the 27th.

KB (obviously) moved eastward away from Brisbane. I continued to track her.......

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

Submarine warfare -

A decent few days with 1 notable exception!

As mentioned I'd been tracking KB and I sent SS Grampus to greet them. She selected CV Hiryu and fired 6 torpedoes at her.......duds.....damn[:@]

On a more positive note SS Tuna stalked and blew up the small freighter Shinsoku Maru with a torpedo SE of Toyohara.

SS Skipjack had been tracking the Babo invasion force, evaded an escort in the morning and put a torpedo into AK Durban Maru later in the day.

[Speedysteve]

Guys,

What's your thoughts on this -

It seems as though Faber has landed a suicide squad via Sub at Suva clearly to scout out what forces I have there. Now, we have never said yay or nay to sub commando raids but I'm a little inclined to say this is gamey but am unsure since we didn't agree on it one way or tother at game start?

I clearly haven't mentioned this to Faber yet as I wanted to get a concensus.

[ckammp]

Commando raids inserted by sub on small bases like Makin are one thing, but landing on a base the size of Suva seems gamey.
Even if you haven't added any forces there, you start with 2 Bns and a BF, more than enough to completly destroy a sub-sized raiding force. Since the mission would be suicide, how would, in RL, Japan gain any intel from the landing?
It also appears unneeded; your opponent has Efate, all he has to do is build it up and send some Bettys to recon Suva.   

[Canoerebel]

I have no problem with the tactic.  In real life the US Navy used "commandos" for pre-invasion scouting of beaches and obstacles.  The Allies also developed a pretty detailed roster of the enemy troops they would face.  The game doesn't model this very well (there's no way to land "seals" and then retrieve them), but landing a cadre of troops accomplishes the same thing.

[ckammp]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I have no problem with the tactic.  In real life the US Navy used "commandos" for pre-invasion scouting of beaches and obstacles.  The Allies also developed a pretty detailed roster of the enemy troops they would face.  The game doesn't model this very well (there's no way to land "seals" and then retrieve them), but landing a cadre of troops accomplishes the same thing.

You are correct - the game doesn't model commando intel raids very well; in fact, not at all.
That is why the tactic should not be used.
Sending a squad sized group of men on a suicide raid to a base the size of Suva is gamey. If Faber wants intel on Suva, he can recon the base with a/c.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,
 
I've had confirmation from Faber it was a glitch. He conducted no sub raid, no transports etc. Whatever it was was wiped out by attrition apparently! Odd.......

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

CBI -

With the arrival of 60th Chinese Corps and 1st Group Army an all out attack will be made against Japanese positions south of Kukong tomorrow.

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

SRA -

At long last the Battered B******* of Buitenzorg succumbed to Japanese pressure. Starved, bombed and shelled every day since 17th February. Resistance and delaying the Japanese for over 2 months. I salute you and the 77000 Dutch marching into slavery[&o]

The last pockets of resistance for the Japanese to overcome are at Cagayan, Mindanao and Medan, Sumatra.

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

Submarine warfare -

SS KXI had the lone success today by reportedly sinking the troop laden AK Zuisyo Maru with 2 torpedoes near Groot Natoena.

[witpqs]

The code no longer even allows sub raids or sub evacuations. Subs can only load/unload in a port and only if the air threat they are under is not too bad.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Points:

Allies: +380
Japanese: +3358 (lots here from the surrender of Buitenzorg).


Bases:

Allies: -35 (-170 points)
Japanese: +36 (+695 points)


Planes:

Allies: +168
Japanese: +279


Troops:

Allies: +2217
Japanese: +127


Ships:

Allies: +26 (+200 points)
Japanese: +26 (+222 points)

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

Sub kills:

Dutch Boats:

AK - 16 (+3)
CM - 2
PB - 1
DMS - 3
TB - 1
APD - 1
DD - 2 (-2)
TK - 1 (+1)

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

British Boats:

DD - 1 (mine)
SC - 1

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

Fleet Boats:

AP - 1
AK - 24 (+7)
CM - 1
DD - 2
E - 1

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

S-Boats:

AK - 4
DMS - 0 (-1)
CM - 1
PB - 1

Total = 64 ships = 42.95% of reported sunk ships total.

[Speedysteve]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

The code no longer even allows sub raids or sub evacuations. Subs can only load/unload in a port and only if the air threat they are under is not too bad.

Really interesting. Didn't know that. Thanks [:)]

As I say it was really odd since whatever it was (no name shown) it was wiped out by attrition at the end of the turn so all's good as it's gone and Faber doesn't have free intel.