Wait, I can't read Cuttlefish's new AAR? - Cribtop (J) vs CF (A)

[jrcar]

Agree with ny59giants, buy those instead of more cbt units. 100 squads is about the minimum, plus plenty of supply.

Cheers

Rob

[Cribtop]

Great advice, gents. Thanks.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: princep01

Indeed. And I got called out for "tarry" in one of the other AARs today. What the heck? Don't young people still do the vocabulary quiz in the Reader's Digest anymore?

Yes, I find this disregard for the king's English quite "vexing".

[princep01]

Hear! Hear! It is vexing. Next thing you know we shall all be speaking in ebonics. The language is being befouled by gangs of mental midgets and linquistic lollygaggers.

[Cribtop]

Ahh, but if you read this AAR and my contributions to Canoerebel's AAR, you'll know that he and I often joke about my fondness for big words. So I am striking a blow for sentence diagrammers everywhere! [:D]

[ny59giants]

Lawyers

[Cribtop]

Barristers. [8D]

[Cribtop]

June 15 & 16, 1942

We're trying to finish up some AE before leaving for Thanksgiving, so we will double up the report on these two quiet turns.

Subs

IJN ASW ships & planes harass Truant and KXI near Sabang. Our mid-ocean I-boat between San Fran and Pearl spots a convoy and will try for an intercept. Looks like we found the route CF is using here. A Glen spots a 3 ship convoy, including a TK, at Umnak Island.

4th Fleet

Ponape makes level 3 forts.

SE Fleet

The first half of 90th Regiment finishes unloading at Munda. The second half will pull in and begin to unload tomorrow. Merauke is almost ready to host Nicks and surprise the B-17s over Horn Island.

14th Army

A TF arrives to re-distribute elements of a big Naval Guard unit to cover garrison requirements at Iloilo, Cebu and the northern base on Leyte. This will allow the two regiments here to go take a few defended DEI bases (including Pamakasan, for which they are prepped) before going into the perimeter.

16th Army

Batjan occupied.

25th Army

Two days of recon appears to show Cocos Island unoccupied, so we will go in with a snap invasion tomorrow.

DA Sibolga takes the base with 3:1 odds, tossing out the defending unit with casualties of 184(14) vs 12(0).

15th Army

Port Blair makes level 4 airfield.

China

Troops move out of Canton for Wuchow in two echelons. Echelon 1: 23rd Army HQ, 4 Divisions, various artillery units. They will make straight for Wuchow. Echelon 2: 17th Army, 2 Tank regiments, 1 Division (support - 1 paratrooper unit at Hankow). This force, with the tanks in the lead going hell for leather, will bypass Wuchow and make for Kweilin. Here we go!

Massive supplies unload at Canton to provide rice and bullets for the advance.

We continue to harass the enemy on the central front. CF currently has 4 LCUs caught by our troops just East of Changsha, 3 LCUs in the hex SE of Wuchang, and 9 LCUs in the hex in between.

The northern pincer will move out shortly. We want to time that river crossing just right to create maximum confusion and chaos. We will also shift our bombers from the central front to Sian to support the northern pincer a few days before the assault.

Other

We are pleased to note that Oil is increasing in the Home Islands by a good amount. This is a testament to how much we're bringing in given the excess refining capacity in Japan.

A question on Manchuria's economy. Recall we had a little resource crisis in Japan a month back. This was solved by creation of several additonal resource convoys, including a third big convoy working Port Arthur. Since then, the Home Islands are in good shape, but we note that resource stocks at Port Arthur have dropped from 800K to 486K. Are we actually pulling too many resources here? Should we shut off the 3rd convoy?

[Mike Solli]

Resources in China/Manchuoko/Korea (C/M/K) shouldn't be a problem. Together, they produce an excess of over 700k resources a month. Of course, that will change based on what bases you have liberated but I can't see it going negative.

[ny59giants]

I have built up both ports at Fusan and Keijo to near max or max. Now, I don't use Port Arthur as the Resources have flowed to these two ports that are closer to Japan. Move some of those small Engineer units to these two bases.

[Mike Solli]

Did you use them from the start or build them up and shift to them?

[ny59giants]

Since my game as Japan started before the beta patches started to come out, I used Port Arthur in the beginning. During the first two turns, I order the BF, Engineers, and Ind Eng Rgt that are awaiting PPs to be shipped out to move to these two ports along with a few divisions that I will eventually ship out. Might as well use their capabilities while they are waiting, right?!?

Early Feb '43
Port Arthur - Port 9...Resources - 83k
Keijo - Port 5(3)... Resources - 151k
Fusan - Port 7(5)...Resources - 11k
Both ports still expanding...slowly

Convoys
Keijo to Shinonoseki - (2x) 8 x Aden TF plus escorts
Fusan to Shinonoseki - 8 x Kasu-D TF plus escorts

Is there something you think I should change Mike S??

Edit - I'm in early Feb 43

[Mike Solli]

No, that looks great. More notes for my upcoming game. [:)] When I started AE the first time, I used Pt. Arthur, Keijo and Fusan as well as a couple of others although they fizzled out pretty early. When you send supplies to China where do you send them? I usually send them to Shanghai and then use the convoy to ship resources back to Japan.

[ny59giants]

I have 15 x Kasu-D TF going from Shanghai to Shimonoseki bring 28k worth of Supplies and Resources back along with escorts. This is a CS convoy ongoing for months.

I now have a 10 x Daigen TF with escorts going to and from Hong Kong to Nagasaki with 17k Supplies and return with Resources or with a stop over at Pescadores, sometimes. I have large air force at Canton, so it helps.

Shanghai - 82k Resources
Hong Kong - 115k Resources


Philippines
I built up Naga to size 4 port. From there I run two to three TF with 7 x Daigen and 2 x To'su PB to pick up Resources from lower Philippines. They fit in nicely to those size 2 ports (12k) and my TF are 11,980. [8D] Then large AKs go to Japan from Manila.

The small TKs (1250 capacity) and Std-C TKs (2850 capacity) run from Miri to Manila or other bases with Oil and Fuel. Get it closer to Japan and then stockpile in parts of the SRA for later operations. The Std-C TKs are great for picking up Oil since it loads so slowly in larger capacity TKs.

[Mike Solli]

If I remember correctly, there are 5 islands south of Naga each with 20 resource centers. I was planning on having 5 small TFs running resources CS to Naga. That way I wouldn't have to mess with it. I figure if you dump some fuel at Naga, they'd be good for a long time. Then Manila as you described.

I agree with you on the Std-C TKs. They're definitely needed because of all the small ports with oil/fuel in them. It takes some doing to keep Miri empty. Do you have the tonnage of a Std-C TK handy?

I'm beginning to realize the importance of the small TKs and xAKs considering all the small ports that need to be emptied of fuel, oil and resources. I'm beginning to think the Kasu-Ds may be the most important xAKL with their small size and 12 kt speed. In a size 3 port with a little naval support (or small resource center), they can be loaded in 1 phase.

I'm convinced that there is a lot to deciding what type of xAK should be used in each specific port based on the industry there and the port size.

[ny59giants]

Std-C TK....Tonnage 2900 and Capacity 2850

[Cribtop]

Great info gents. Cribtop HQ's Copyright Infringement Division is hard at work copying this stuff.

As to the original question, I figured we were safe but wanted to be sure. Also note that we've drawn resources at Hakodate down from about 2 million to under 1 million in a month despite re-routing the Sakhalin convoys to Sapporo as suggested. Many thanks for all the assistance.

Finally, I have a supply convoy running up the river to dump at Hankow. Really helps keep central China and the large conquests I've made in northern China in the white.

[nashvillen]

Without giving my current opponents too much information, I have supply convoys that go to Canton, Shanghai, and Hankow that bring back resources to the HI. The Hankow TFs stop in Shanghai on the way back to the the HI to pick up resources as more gathers there than at Hankow.

[Insano]

Hi Cribtop. What is Cribtop HQ doctrine for potential "disguise" of preparation objectives of key divisions? Knowing how effective Allied sigint is I would be very tempted in your case to set objectives for key divisions such as 2nd, 5th, 38th to Ceylon, Fiji, wherever to throw Cuttles offtrack. The at start unrestricted divisions will always be top of the list for Allied players wanting to know where they are going.

If I were your opponent and I got a sniff of one of these divisions preparing for a city in Central China I would be on the alert. A second division reported similarly and I would know you were going big on China. Thus I would know you're not big on Australia, India, etc. On the other hand preparation is a huge advantage in ground combat. It's one of the many risk-reward decisions. What's your take in this case?

[Cribtop]

Great question. Most of them were prepped for Batavia and I just left them that way. We'll switch to Liuchow once the mask is removed in a day or two. That way CF assumes we're just being lazy as the offensive period of the war comes to a close.