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

[seydlitz_slith]

None yet, but when I get through with the campaign I should be in possession of a fair amount of oil. I can't remember how much off the top of my head, but it is also close to home which matters a lot.

[ComradeP]

Seydlitz, what's the situation at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy and what are your plans for the future in that area?

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: ComradeP

Seydlitz, what's the situation at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy and what are your plans for the future in that area?

Pretty quiet for now in that area. He still has some bombers based there that occaisionally bomb my northern islands. I have chosen to leave that pocket of resistance alone, keeping a sub on patrol up there just in case he tries to ship in allied forces.

I would like to take this port, but it will be a low priority and will be done only after I wrap up the other targets on the mainland and only if I do not need the troops elsewhere.

[ComradeP]

Won't increased forts (due to leaving the base alone) be a serious problem when you choose to invade in the future, especially considering what happened to your first landing there?

[seydlitz_slith]

Yes. In fact they are already a problem in other locations. It means that I will have to come with a much larger force.

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 175 30 May, 1942

Not much happened this turn. The only thing worth note was the I-20 put another torpedo into the CLAA Atlanta off San Diego. This should pretty well do that ship in as she is not large enough to handle two torpedoes.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR May 30, 42
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near San Diego at 224,83

Japanese Ships
SS I-20

Allied Ships
CLAA Atlanta, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage



SS I-20 launches 6 torpedoes

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 195 June 19, 1942

I haven't updated in a while, but the game has continued apace.
I find myself in a bad situation in mid-1942 for the first time as a Japanese player. The Russian campaign has continued to tie up resources well beyond the timeframe that I had originally expected. Even worse, victory there is by no means a sure thing. I am engaged on multiple fronts with enough forces to stay in the battle but not enough to win anywhere. In order to pull away from the stalemate, I abandoned my ongoing seige of Alexandrovsk and moved the troops to Gavan in two waves with a third wave destined for Rashin and the Vladivostok front.

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 195 June 19, 1942

In China, I advanced as far as Sian, but Mark had fortified the place and put every bit of supply and all units that he could muster there behind the heavy fort levels. At the limit of my supply chain, I held no hope of taking the place. Accordingly, I retreated my forces to Loyang to restore supplies and rebuild. However, as you can tell, I have supply shortages cropping up all over China and no spare supplies to send as the black hole of Russia commands all spare supply to be sent there to keep the massive forces engaged at Vladivostok supplied.

[seydlitz_slith]

In the DEI, I have been unable to close the deal at Singapore. I need more troops and airpower. Both are tied up fighting Russians.

[seydlitz_slith]

Since I was stretched thin, I didn't even try to advance on Rangoon. He sensed this and began a counter offensive in Thailand.

[seydlitz_slith]

Celebes...same

[seydlitz_slith]

The Rabaul theater. I do have a huge base built up at Manus that Mark knows nothing about.

[seydlitz_slith]

Last turn he took Tarawa.

[seydlitz_slith]

Aircraft losses have been moderate over the past six months.
I still have all of my carriers, as does he. I have, however, lost several battleships while fighting the Soviets.

[seydlitz_slith]

June 23, 1942

The Japanese have finally captured Vladivostok. 50,900 Soviet troops surrendered or were casualties in the final assault. I watched my engineers reduce the fortification level from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1 to 0 during the same combat phase. Never seen that before. After that, my 5987 AV of troops crushed his less than 500 AV of troops. I have bombed his troops there for months with everything that could fly and finally broke his supply stockpiles.
This makes all the difference.
I have immediately set all troops to rest for a few turns. All of my bombers are standing down to rest and replenish. Minesweepers are enroute to sweep the mines in the harbor, and multiple large troop convoys are enroute to pick up the southern and 14th army units to take them south to close the deal at Singapore as well as to reinforce Bangkok. Most of my bombers will be going south soon also. The korean and kwangtung army units will rest for a few days and then start working to roll up the trans-siberian railway clearing out the other half of his army that was not at Vladivostok. I should be able to do this with these forces as I have already beat them two or three times in battle already.

[jonreb31]

Important win... maybe now you can remedy the situation in the Pacific before it's too late.

[janh]

Give us more!! ... information!  This is one of the most interesting AARs!

[seydlitz_slith]

Here are the details from the last combat at Vladivostok. The turn was the June 26th, 1942 turn and not the 23rd as earlier reported.


Ground combat at Vladivostok (112,46)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 199971 troops, 1960 guns, 1225 vehicles, Assault Value = 5789

Defending force 27694 troops, 1013 guns, 15 vehicles, Assault Value = 476

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 0

Japanese adjusted assault: 5789

Allied adjusted defense: 295

Japanese assault odds: 19 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Vladivostok !!!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
No Allied losses

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(+), supply(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
3339 casualties reported
Squads: 33 destroyed, 480 disabled
Non Combat: 88 destroyed, 380 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 76 disabled
Guns lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Vehicles lost 170 (53 destroyed, 117 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
50221 casualties reported
Squads: 1693 destroyed, 481 disabled
Non Combat: 3455 destroyed, 570 disabled
Engineers: 116 destroyed, 29 disabled
Guns lost 1666 (1535 destroyed, 131 disabled)
Vehicles lost 20 (16 destroyed, 4 disabled)
Units destroyed 25


Assaulting units:
4th Tank Regiment
11th Tank Regiment
2nd Tank Regiment
14th Division
16th Recon Regiment
29th Division
23rd Division
21st Division
36th Infantry Regiment
12th Division
27th Electric Engineer Regiment
11th Division
57th Division
9th Division
7th Tank Regiment
48th Recon Regiment
5th Infantry Regiment
21st Ind. Engineer Regiment
19th Division
4th Division
24th Division
25th Division
26th Recon Regiment
8th Mountain Gun Regiment
2nd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
4th RF Gun Battalion
12th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
4th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st Medium Field Artillery Regiment
20th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
22nd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
5th Army
8th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
7th RF Gun Battalion
3rd Army
48th Field Artillery Regiment
9th Ind. Engineer Regiment
7th Ind. Engineer Regiment
15th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
22nd Ind. Engineer Regiment
6th Army
46th Road Const Co
1st Mobile Field Artillery Regiment
47th Road Const Co
7th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
5th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
3rd RF Gun Battalion
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
14th Army
48th Road Const Co
2nd Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion

Defending units:
105th Rifle Division
40th Rifle Division
190th Rifle Division
22nd Rifle Division
Vladivostok Naval Fortress
13th Naval Infantry Brigade
59th Rifle Division
247th Rifle Brigade
83rd VVS Base Force
33rd VVS Base Force
50th Cannon Regiment
1125th Cannon Regiment
273rd Cannon Regiment
46th Engr-Sapper Brigade
1192nd BM Howitzer Regiment
Soviet Far East Cmd
Soviet Pacific Fleet
25th Army
1139th Cannon Regiment
199th BM Howitzer Regiment
9th Air Army
100th OM Howitzer Battalion
165th Hvy Howitzer Regiment
78th/186th PVO AA Battalion
VVS Outpost Base Force
372nd Hvy Howitzer Regiment
98th VVS Base Force

Japanese forces CAPTURE Vladivostok !!!
105th Rifle Division SURRENDERS !!!
40th Rifle Division SURRENDERS !!!
190th Rifle Division SURRENDERS !!!
22nd Rifle Division SURRENDERS !!!
Vladivostok Naval Fortress SURRENDERS !!!
13th Naval Infantry Brigade SURRENDERS !!!
59th Rifle Division SURRENDERS !!!
247th Rifle Brigade SURRENDERS !!!
83rd VVS Base Force SURRENDERS !!!
33rd VVS Base Force SURRENDERS !!!
50th Cannon Regiment SURRENDERS !!!
1125th Cannon Regiment SURRENDERS !!!
273rd Cannon Regiment SURRENDERS !!!
46th Engr-Sapper Brigade SURRENDERS !!!
1192nd BM Howitzer Regiment SURRENDERS !!!
Soviet Far East Cmd SURRENDERS !!!
Soviet Pacific Fleet SURRENDERS !!!
1139th Cannon Regiment SURRENDERS !!!
199th BM Howitzer Regiment SURRENDERS !!!
100th OM Howitzer Battalion SURRENDERS !!!
165th Hvy Howitzer Regiment SURRENDERS !!!
78th/186th PVO AA Battalion SURRENDERS !!!
VVS Outpost Base Force SURRENDERS !!!
372nd Hvy Howitzer Regiment SURRENDERS !!!
98th VVS Base Force SURRENDERS !!!

[offenseman]

Comrade Stalin will not be pleased.  It will be real interesting to see where this goes from here. If you can close out the Soviets, then you can turn west with overwhelming force.  That would be fun to watch.

[seydlitz_slith]

As you can see by the post prior, for 25 soviet units to comprise only 476 AV, it is pretty clear that these troops were pounded into mush by the daily bombardments and airfield attacks. After I was certain that I had destroyed the airfield and port, I moved to attacking the ground troops with the bombers. Due to the fort level there were very few indications of casualties from the attack so I had to go on faith that I was doing damage.

Now, my troops set in Vladivostok, red exclaimation point denoting short supply, the port and airfield bombed to rubble. The battle sucked a significant amount of supply out of not only Korea, but out of China and Japan throughout the course of the conflict. The forces involved were so massive that I had no choice other than to continue to feed the monster in hopes that I could win. Now that I have finally won this battle, I must generate and move needed supplies back into Korea and China. This will take a few weeks to do.

Here is the current theater map: