Just Old, Old, Old Nomad(J) vs Gary(A) NO Gary

[Alfred]

Sounds like you are trying to approach Karachi by stealth (a point I have recently made in another AAR), hence the plan to transit the Sunda Strait rather than the Strait of Malacca and the prior capture of the Cocos, Christmas and Diego Garcia Islands. Whilst the capture of these islands prior to launching the Karachi invasion fleet would be desirable I'm not certain it is absolutely necessary. I would place more weight on landing at Karachi (or the hex adjacent) ASAP rather than on a stealth approach. With the POW and Repulse destroyed, if you can land in February 1942 there would be little which could be amassed against you even if the invasion fleet is discovered early.

I would modify your early planning to incorporate the capture of Cocos, Christmas and Diego Garcia en passant as the main fleet is transiting near those islands. IOW the Karachi bound invasion fleet would have two components; by far the larger one would be the ships travelling to Karachi with no intervening stopovers, the smaller one would be the ships carrying the troops to capture the Cocos/Christmas/Diego Garcia in the wake of the main component. Those islands will be lightly garrisoned in February. You could drop, capture, reembark the same troops and move onto the next island; rinse and repeat whilst you enjoy the amphibious bonus. It would not matter too much if the en passant component falls a bit astern of the Karachi bound component.

All three islands plus Socotro are important to keep the off map assets (includes any redeployed from CONUS to CapeTown) bottled up and unable to meaningfully intervene in India and South East Asia.

Also if you do proceed along your indicated route, I don't think it is vitally important that the whole of Sumatra be captured before you launch the Karachi operation. You already plan to capture Palembang in early December 1941. From Palembang it is a short distance to Oosthaven which will not be strongly garrisoned. Early capture of Merak on Java to secure the Sunda Strait would be more beneficial than the other, non built up southern Sumatran bases. The northern Sumatran bases (Medan, Sabang etc) are of course important for their oil and force projection into the Strait of Malacca but as you don't intend to transit through that waterway with your Karachi invasion fleet, you don't need those bases before launching the Karachi operation. Those northern Sumatran bases will not be overly strongly garrisoned so follow up forces, perhaps those released from the Luzon campaign, should suffice.

Essentially I am suggesting that the main factor to achieve success in a deep operation such as the one you are proposing for Karachi, is speed. Undertaken early enough (I am suggesting February, January would be even better but that depends on how quickly resistance in Malaya is overcome) with the amphibious bonus, weak RN and RAF theatre forces, USN unable to assist due to PH strike effects and travel times, you can risk leaving your flanks temporarily open.

Alfred

edited to clarify meaning, as the first paragraph might have been misinterpreted.

[Nomad]

You are most likely right Alfred, I am putting too many demands on the table. One of the the things I would be afraid of is my opponent having enough time to put additional troops into Karachi. Failing to take Karachi is pretty close to game over. And that is a problem. I really do not want to try something spectacular and fail. I'm not sure it is fair to Gary.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Nomad

You are most likely right Alfred, I am putting too many demands on the table. One of the the things I would be afraid of is my opponent having enough time to put additional troops into Karachi. Failing to take Karachi is pretty close to game over. And that is a problem. I really do not want to try something spectacular and fail. I'm not sure it is fair to Gary.

Alfred is correct that speed is the sine qua non of an India op. Q-Ball took an extra three weeks to dispose of Ceylon, and it was a vital three weeks of notification. He had not decided at the time to go all-in on India, and you have, so that is a key difference.

That said, Ceylon left for later can't be ignored early. You probably need to factor into your plans some forces to isolate the heavy ground units there from jumping across onto the railroads on the mainland. (I don't recall what starts at Colombo, but maybe the British 18th Diiv?) He'll also have Colombo as a refuel and repair yard to some extent, so you need to factor that into your routes for secondary and follow-on waves into NW India.

Also, take a good look at the Emergency Reenforcement thread, especially the Emergency Ind. Supply Convoy screenie. He will get a significant device pool dump of aircraft, including about 75 good fighters and a number of large bomber models. These could be used out of Bombay, pulled into Colombo for TF harrassment, or other places and missions. The LCUs in the reenforcement package will be largely bottled up in the Mideast unless he blasts Karachi back open, but the devices, so long as he has supply to pulll them out, are a factor to remember.

Really looking forward to an all-India go which uses the lessons of Q-Ball's try.

[fodder]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
Really looking forward to an all-India go which uses the lessons of Q-Ball's try.

I'd really like to see it also. One thing to remember is that Nomad does'nt have the extra units that Q-ball did.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: fodder

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
Really looking forward to an all-India go which uses the lessons of Q-Ball's try.

I'd really like to see it also. One thing to remember is that Nomad does'nt have the extra units that Q-ball did.

True, which is further recco for bypassing Ceylon. I think it's also very necessary to just pin Luzon and not try to take it until extra divisions can be bought out.

[Nomad]

I'm sure some of you probably think I forgot this AAR, but Gary took 5 or 6 days to do his first turn.

We hit Pearl Harbor a second day. These are the total results:
Dec 7th AM:
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 3, on fire
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA New Orleans, Bomb hits 1
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
AM Tern, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
CL Phoenix, Bomb hits 1, on fire
BB California, Bomb hits 7, on fire
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 2, on fire
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 6
DM Preble, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Henley, Bomb hits 1, on fire
BB Nevada, Bomb hits 2, on fire
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 3, on fire
CL St. Louis, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CM Oglala, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Detroit, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
AV Wright, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AVP Swan, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DM Gamble, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires

Dec 7th PM:
BB California, Torpedo hits 1
BB Arizona, Torpedo hits 2
BB Maryland, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
CM Oglala, on fire
DD Tucker, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
BB Nevada, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL St. Louis, Torpedo hits 1
BB Oklahoma, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage

Dec 8th
BB California, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Mugford, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
BB West Virginia, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
BB Nevada, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, heavy damage
BB Arizona, Torpedo hits 3, heavy damage
DM Preble, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DMS Zane, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage


Total:
BB Oklahoma 4 Bombs 3 Torps Sunk?
BB West Virginia 5 Bombs 2 Torps
BB Pennsylvania 5 Bombs
BB California 9 Bombs 6 Torps
BB Tennessee 5 Bombs 2 Torps
BB Arizona 6 Bombs 5 Torps
BB Nevada 3 Bombs 4 Torps
BB Maryland 4 bombs 4 Torps Sunk?

According to the ingame ship sunk list, only BB Nevada has been sunk at PH. I assume an adjustment will be made in the following turns.

I have reset my aircraft on KB for Naval attack and I am retiring to the Southwest and then West toward my tankers at Kwajalein Island. I did not spot his CVs yet, so I will try to see where they went. I am holding the Wake Island invasion off until I do spot them or get a part of KB into position to support.

In Malaya I took Kota Bharu and started marching units from Singora to Alor Star and from Patani toward Georgetown. I am not marching from Kota Bharu, but will reload most of the units for an amphibious attack on Kuantan. The 2nd Division is loading at Sendai( it is complete ) for Malaya. The 21st division is in Shanghai prepping for Singapore and waiting for transportation.

The 4th Division is loading at Osaka to transit to Cam Ranh Bay and is prepping for Palembang. The 33rd is in Nagasaki prepping for Palembang and waiting for transportation.

The 90th Inf Rgt has been combined and is prepping for Port Morseby and transportation will arrive the next turn.

China, I have a picture. I will be concentrating my first efforts to take Sian. I am in the process of moving to the area now and also freeing up some troops by sending the RGC units to garrison some cities.

edit: I see my text is a bit hard to read on the picture. I will attempt to hold at Ichang and the other is to herd all of the Chinese units toward Sian.

[Nomad]

I was asked some questions in a PM and for everyone, the 'herding' reference is something from Mogami, he likened China to herding cats. [:)]

[FatR]

If you are going for Sian right away, I suggest not to push hard enough to rout the Chinese on Central Plains unless you see that they are in full retreat from Turn 1. It's better to leave them where they can be cleaned up later, instead of facing a concentrated defense at Sian.

Check your garrizons in China, a couple of good divisions and brigades can be freed there just by rearranging units in the rear.

[FatR]

And on invasion of Karachi... it is pretty much gambling on your opponent not expecting such audacity. If the possibility and consequences of it are taken seriously from Day 1 (and so most construction units available in India are dedicating to building it up), it will almost certainly fail. It will most likely fail if move in this direction is spotted or indicated (by seizing islands like Diego Garcia) before the invasion convoy is 1-2 days from shore, because the Allied player can (and should) reinforce Carachi with everything he has if he sees a coming attack, and just accept both relatively minor VP hits from undergarrizoned bases for a time and possibility of relatively inconsequential Japanese conquests.

Of course, as no players of note have attempted this yet, a surprise IS possible... but judge carefully.

[Nomad]

Turn three was relativity calm. I lost an xAK with some troops off of Brunai to a sub and another xAK to some darn stringbags( using bombs ) at Singkawang. I think I can take Singkawang this next turn, we will see. I landed on Luzon at Aparri and at Laoag. I am not completely sure, but I think the amphibious TF ended its movement at Laoag and decided to start unloading. It is not a tragedy, just necessitates a slight redirection.

Had a couple of encounters with all of the PT boats in the PI, sunk 5 of them with no damage to me.
Oddly, I saw last turn that there were ships in Manila harbor still, so I sent two Betty units on port attack. I got this result:
Allied Ships
AV Langley, Bomb hits 1
AVD Childs, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Bisayas, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
PG Tulsa, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Paz, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Si Kiang, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAP President Madison, Bomb hits 1, on fire

My one CVL TF and a CA/DD TF are positioned off of Borneo. Ryuho is out of Torpedoes, but has lots of bombs ready. No sign of Boise or Houston yet. In fact, not many ships sighted at all in that area. Just a few TFs seem to have left Manila so far. I am sure the subs are out somewhere [:@]. I did find one and sank both AO Pecos and AO Trinity and AS Otus it still has more SC and a ACTF to get by yet.

I have invasions forces moving to Mando and Ternate that should arrive in two turns. I have small CA/DD and DD/TB escorts for them.

I have been very happy with the performance of my Ki-27b Nates in Malaya. Then have done excellent and have kept all of the British bombers from hitting any shipping there. They don't shoot done many aircraft, but they keep the disruption up and the bombers are not able to score any hits.