The Power of Inexperience / GreyJoy(A)-Rader(J)

[GreyJoy]

Ok, you got me guys.
Thanks.
Everything you said make sense. I know i need to create pressure on Rader's perimeter. My attempts at Marcus and Wake were "blind"...and i paid for that blindness...if i had the chance to better recon those bases i would have not wasted that much time into an operation which was a failure even before starting.
Actually with only a small SNLF unit there i won't risk much. Think a reinforced regiment, along with a couple of Combat Eng and a tank Bn should be enough. Unfortunately i never ordered any preparation for PM. In Oz i only focused on defending the area of Malburne-Sydney-Brisbane till now so i'll have to move and shift some assets. All my forces are between PH and Christmas (naval assets and troops)...not to talk about fuel...Oz has enough fuel for normal light naval operation but not enough to support a major naval effort. I'll need one month to bring everything to Cairns area...at least...but i'm confident that his heavy commitments in India won't allow him to move in this period of time any sensible assets to defend PM.
 
I'll give proper orders for these movements right on the next turn.
 
I'll try to be as silent as possible...don't wanna alert him of my intentions.
 
And again...Thanks!

[witpqs]

"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." - George S. Patton

Edit to add: I second Alfred's advice on grabbing those New Guinea bases.

[GreyJoy]

I Checked: unfortunately i have no unrestricted units in Oz (the U.S. Division and the Afrikan Bde have been recently shipped to Noumea in order to start building that base in support of the newly conquested Efate and Lungaville) and my PP situation won't start getting better in the nearby future... so i'll have to rely on a NZ Bde and an U.S. Rgt that are at the moment at Suva plus the indipendent companies based at Sydney. i'll send 2 combat eng Bn from Christmas and a USMC Tank Bn.

[witpqs]

What role are the division and brigade playing in building up the bases on New Caledonia (Noumea, La Foa, Koumac)? Certainly moving them away places those bases at greater risk, but you might consider using them anyway.

[SoliInvictus202]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

What role are the division and brigade playing in building up the bases on New Caledonia (Noumea, La Foa, Koumac)? Certainly moving them away places those bases at greater risk, but you might consider using them anyway.

exactly - because with all his troops in India - he has to be running low on large offensive combat units in SoPac!

[GreyJoy]

Sept 8,9 1942
 
A quiet turn. Rader has moved 200 troops at Jodpur which is already AF level 5...[X(]
The first attack on Dehli posed by 4 Tank rgts did achieve only a 1-2...but 5 more units are entering in town so the capital will fall easily within a week...
 
I've made up my mind and ordered to the 27th US Division at Noumea to pack everything and be ready to be loaded on transports. This big unit will be attached with a NZ bde, 1 Aus Bde, 1 Arty unit, 1 Eng unit and 1 Tank Bn and will form the Port Moresby invasion force.
Noumea for the moment will be left guarder only by the Afrikan Bde.
Lungaville, Erromanno and Efate are building fast and i'm planning to send more units to this area in order to give some strenght to this newly conquered perimeter border.
Also the Espiritu Santo Islands seem to be empty...but i don't wanna overextend too much too fast.
 
Base forces and Seabees are moving from Christmas to Oz and Suva.
 
No sign of the KB yet...
 
At Karachi my active fighter force is composed by:
 
50 P-38Fs (flying at 31k)
18 P-38Es (flying at 30k)
50 P-40Es (flying at 14k)
25 P-40Ks (flying at 29k)
25 P-39s (flying at 9k)
32 Hurri MkIIa (flying at 20k)
32 Hurri MkIIb (flying at 19k)
48 Hurri MkIIc (flying at 30k)
32 SpitVIIIs (flying at 26k)
16 Mohawks (flying at 15k)
16 Buffalos (flying at 12k)
6 SeaHurris (flying at 20k)
24 Fulmars (flying at 10k)
12 Kittyhawks IA (flying at 15k)
 
 

[wpurdom]

You do know you have the unrestricted I Aus. Corps and 1st Aus. Army so that you can transfer Austrailian units into an unrestricted command for less than 1/3 the cost of transferring other restricted units? It can't take long to get enough PP's for the invasion force you want.
It's similar to the initial situation with the restricted Hawaiian Dept. units.

I would not think this is "gamey" since the force structure is set up this way from the start and corresponds to the historical transfers - unlike transferring an unrestricted HQ into the West Coast command. It seems to be an intended design feature of the OB in the campaign game.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: wpurdom

You do know you have the unrestricted I Aus. Corps and 1st Aus. Army so that you can transfer Austrailian units into an unrestricted command for less than 1/3 the cost of transferring other restricted units? It can't take long to get enough PP's for the invasion force you want.
It's similar to the initial situation with the restricted Hawaiian Dept. units.

I would not think this is "gamey" since the force structure is set up this way from the start and corresponds to the historical transfers - unlike transferring an unrestricted HQ into the West Coast command. It seems to be an intended design feature of the OB in the campaign game.

Hi,

thanks but in our game the I Aus Corp and the 1st Aus Army are both restricted commands.
However all the forces i've gathered are all belonging to unrestricted commands so the problem for the Invasion of PM seems solved under that particular aspect.


Sept 10,11,12 1942

Jodpur reached AF lvl 6 and now has already more than 450 planes in it. We tried to hit Surat with our 4Es and, as we thought, the flak was gone. We fought against Tojos at 15k and we did damage quite a bit the airfield. Only 6 units present there so it's clear that Rader is moving all togheder his AA massed (now at Jodpur).
Anyway Rader is waiting for having Jodpur at its max capabilities before jumping back on the aerial war against Karachi. This pause is giving me time to reorganize my air force and to get more modern fighters in my pool. At the same time more supplies are flowing to Karachi. Tomorrow from Adem will leave another 40k supply convoy.

At Dehli he got another 1-2 again my static unit there, despite he brought 1800 AVs the base isn't falling[:D]. He'll be forced to use his bombers to soften it or to committ more troops...again more time gained!

In SWPac we reconned the base north of Lae today. Level 7 AF and 7 units spotted. That shows my general theory is correct: he's not defending anything south of Lae but from Lae northwards he has massed lots of units and he's building up fast his aviation fields.

We're sending from CT to the pacific the Brit CV Illustrious so to give to my 6 US CVs another little help.

...oh and the 2nd Army is reported to be at Iwo Jiima...think we were lucky not to have pushed forward and landed there...against a whole army!?!?!?..Lord..

[Saros]

2nd Army is just the HQ formation not a full army. I can't imagine that there is a multi divisional force anywhere in the pacific considering he will have to bring everything possible just to have a chance to finish off India.

I also cant believe he is letting you get so many ships into Karachi. KB should be stationed off the wormhole whacking everything that comes through.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Saros

2nd Army is just the HQ formation not a full army. I can't imagine that there is a multi divisional force anywhere in the pacific considering he will have to bring everything possible just to have a chance to finish off India.

I also cant believe he is letting you get so many ships into Karachi. KB should be stationed off the wormhole whacking everything that comes through.

He has also stop sending SCTF raiders to Karachi harbour in order to interdict the flow from Aden.
I think Rader felt not safe to operate his combined fleet too close to Karachi (he has lost 3 CLs, 1CA and some 5/6 DDs during the previous attempts)...so i think before committing again his naval assets to Karachi he wants to have a total air superiority over my base...and to do so he needs to have Jopur at level 9 so that he can start sweeps with Tojos.

However i do feel he's making a mistake. Don't know where the KB is but without the KB the flow of supplies and reinforcements cannot be stopped, unless Japan holds Hyderabad and fills it with Netties and Karachi Air force no longer exists. untill these requirements are met the presence of the KB is, imho, mandatory.

Really don't understand why the KB isn't there. The only reason would be that it has been sent to Pacific in order to keep me honest with my invasions attempts...and in a certain way this is working fine cause not knowing where the KB is is making me plan and act with less impunity. If i knew the KB was in India i would have no problem landing at PM, Lunga, Tarawa...but the possible presence of the KB makes me feel unsafe everywhere...

Anyway, now that the LOD is crossed Rader has no other options than pushing fast forward to Karachi. I hope i'll be able to bring back the supply level up to 500k before he reaches Hyderabad. Everything now depends on how long my Air Force will be able to fight at decent terms against his allmighty air power...

It's a fact however that the long pause given to me by Rader allowed to breath and to arrive at September...and so to have 85 modern fighters monthly (P-40Ks and P-38Fs)....considering that in June i was my pools were empty and i had almost no more fighters to spare...i think my situation i defenetly better now.

I feel like England during the fall of 1940...when RAF was almost crushed the germans stopped attacking the AFs...and this allowed the brits to get back...let's hope history is going to repeat itself here

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Saros

2nd Army is just the HQ formation not a full army. I can't imagine that there is a multi divisional force anywhere in the pacific considering he will have to bring everything possible just to have a chance to finish off India.

Yes but remember that 16k men were also reported at Iwo...with an heavy mortar unit too...so i'd say that the forces there were, for sure, strong enough to repulse my aborted invasion...

[Saros]

Yeah they would likely have been enough to stop the invasion. However a base force is ~3k men with the 16th HQ being another 1500. Add in some engineers and air support and there isn't likely to be much more than an ind rgt and maybe a Naval guard unit or two.
Then again I have never played scen 2 so i'm not too sure what is available.

Also any plans for using the emergency reinforcements? They mostly arrive at Aden right?

[Canoerebel]

I've been gone a week, so I'm just catching up here.  I see that Picket has begun his charge after giving Meade and Hancock plenty of time to organize their defenses.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Saros

Yeah they would likely have been enough to stop the invasion. However a base force is ~3k men with the 16th HQ being another 1500. Add in some engineers and air support and there isn't likely to be much more than an ind rgt and maybe a Naval guard unit or two.
Then again I have never played scen 2 so i'm not too sure what is available.

Also any plans for using the emergency reinforcements? They mostly arrive at Aden right?

I've already sent the 5th and 10th Indian Divisions (both 450 AVs strong) from Aden to Karachi. I'm now considering what to do with the rest (i have more 1400 AVs between Aden and Adebadan) but i think i'll follow Andy's suggestion and keep them there in order to have a landing force to use against the Indian Coast or Scoodra once the situation at Karachi is stabilized (meaning once the siege will have reached a statlemate - if ever).

8000 AVs behind 9 forts 2x terrain and with 500k supplies will surely be a tough task for the japanese army. No matter what. If i manage to keep Karachi supplies (which isn't exactly an easy task) i think i can hold.

CR...yes, he game me a lot of time to prepare my defences. I think i couldn't do much more in terms of defensive positions and, gotta say, overall now i'm happy about the decision to dig in Karachi instead of Bombay...At this point Bombay would have been completely cut off from any reinforcement or supply route while Karachi's "life cordon" is still active and alive!

Now Rader will have to drive all the way eastwards from Jodpur and take the longer route to get to hyderabad. think it will take him not less than 1 month to get safely to Multan with all his forces...My calculations say he won't reach Karachy before November...

[Canoerebel]

Are you bombing his troops in transit to slow them down?

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Are you bombing his troops in transit to slow them down?

I tried to but he has LRCAP everywhere and he's moving his troops massed with all his AAs so it becomes really really expensive...i'll wait to have them closer. In the meanwhile i'll target his AFs (not Jodpur where all his AA is stacked) so to force him to keep CAP and so disperse some of his fighter groups.

[Canoerebel]

It doesn't take much to slow down ground troops.  I think even light raids that show no combat damage will slow down some ground units (automtaically switching them from "Move" to "Combat" modes).  Slowing down just a few units at a time might really slow down the IJ advance so that the army might be delayed for days or even weeks in concentrating to attack.  Try a few max altitude raids by a small number of 4EB.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

It doesn't take much to slow down ground troops.  I think even light raids that show no combat damage will slow down some ground units (automtaically switching them from "Move" to "Combat" modes).  Slowing down just a few units at a time might really slow down the IJ advance so that the army might be delayed for days or even weeks in concentrating to attack.  Try a few max altitude raids by a small number of 4EB.

Flak is deadly even at 22k over japanese stacks...however CR now Rader is massing everything at Jodpur so he has no units moving around (a part from those which are sieging Dehli)...as soon as he moves from Jopur i'll re-evaluate the situation. My idea is to start bombing the, as soon as they approach Multan so that his LRCAP won't be so deadly.

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I've been gone a week, so I'm just catching up here.  I see that Picket has begun his charge after giving Meade and Hancock plenty of time to organize their defenses.

I dont know much about the US civil war, but I guess this was the confederate equivalent of the charge of the Light Brigade?

He can't seriously hope to take a base containing 8000AV with plenty of supply behind 9 forts and x2 terrain bonus?

[Saros]

I think he's going to reach Karachi and just about die from shock.