Payback - jzanes (A) vs. Rader (J). A Rader-free zone.

[Jzanes]

(June 19, 1945 con’t)

Americans (rest of map):

Similarly to Java but on a smaller scale, American naval bombers and DD raids have shutdown the Japanese evac operation on Mindanao by sinking Japanese ships at Cagayan harbor. Rader has sporadically put up some small fighter opposition but it’s been swept aside by allied fighter sweeps.

Rader has moved some naval bombers to the Bonins and they shot up a couple raiding American DDs last turn. I will continue to raid with CLs and DDs but will be more careful when near large Japanese airfields.

The New Zealander/American Tarawa invasion force has regained some of it’s strength and will be trying a deliberate attack next turn. I have to admit that “auto bombardment” was probably the main thing that has destroyed the Japanese garrison. They are losing 500-700 troops every turn when they are forced to auto bombard. Stupid rule. The designers should get rid of it.

[obvert]

Well, looks like the plan to slow and stop the evacs is working. Also, it might not help at this point in Manchuria/China if your advances continue at this pace. Is his ASW air still as effective as it was, or could you move into the South China Sea and get at some of these TFs that way as well?

[Jzanes]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Well, looks like the plan to slow and stop the evacs is working. Also, it might not help at this point in Manchuria/China if your advances continue at this pace. Is his ASW air still as effective as it was, or could you move into the South China Sea and get at some of these TFs that way as well?

His ASW is still very effective but I'm still going to go ahead and move my subs into the south china sea. Pretty soon, I'll also be able to start running some DD raider TFs into the area. This will keep his ASW TFs honest and shoot up some of those transports.

[Jzanes]

July 1, 1945

The allies continue to advance on all fronts. As far as I can tell, Rader is pulling back all his forces to Korea and the home islands. I imagine he is setting up for the titanic final battle for the home islands. I am moving forward very quickly but time will tell whether I get in place for an invasion of the home islands before the clock runs out.

I feel Rader has overdone it with this massive retreat. There are many points on the map where even small forces could’ve held me up for a lengthy period that he has given up without a fight. Using his airforces, even for a short time, to support his evacuations or protect his ground troops would’ve allowed him to save large forces that are now cutoff and doomed to die.

My goal is to capture all the territory the Japanese have abandoned and form a loose ring around the Home Islands by September. Turning the South China Sea into an allied lake will be key to my plan. Being able to have my transport ships deliver supply to China directly will allow me to destroy Japanese industry thru strategic bombing. The capture of Miri/Brunei on Borneo, Indochina, and Samah will open up these shipping lanes.

Russia:

The 200+ unit strong Chita army reached Tsitsihar before I could cut it off but my infiltrating tank units have cut the rail lines farther south and his Chita army has been forced to march (rather than rail) out of the rapidly closing pocket around Harbin. It appears that his main army will escape before I can close the pocket but I should be able to shred at least a few more divisions before they reach Korea.

Farther west, the soviets are moving forward and getting close to cutting the rail lines from China. In the east, I have continued to destroy his small garrisons with heavy bombers and grab the next base along the rail line with airborne forces. This allows me to rapidly move forward with the ultimate goal being the recapture of Vladivostok.

In the center, the Japanese abandoned Changchun. This gives me a large urban base within escort fighter range of the home islands. For the time being, I will continue to pound the Japanese army with my bombers but eventually, Changchun, Harbin, Mukden, and the “east” flank bases (Khaborvsk and points south) will be used to fire bomb the home islands. The soviet offensive hasn’t had any supply issues yet, but I suspect I’m going to need to get some American supply convoys to China and have the supply flow to Manchuria before I’ll be able to mount a sustained strategic bombing campaign.

[Jzanes]

(July 1, 1945 con’t)

North China:

A combined Russo-Chinese army has reached Peiping. There is a strong Japanese force in this city but they appear to be retreating. I will “bombard recon” next turn and deliberate attack the following turn if this Japanese force isn’t too strong.

The Japanese Peiping force is the only strong Japanese army left in North China. The Chinese have pushed aside small forces throughout the rest of the region and are advancing into the central plain without any real opposition.

[Jzanes]

(July 1, 1945 con’t)

South China:

The Chinese just routed a 1-2 division japanese force at Nanchang with a river crossing shock attack. There doesn’t appear to be any strong Japanese forces left in this area. The Chinese will surround and capture Hankow while driving to the sea via the Nanchang-Shanghai road and the Canton/Kukong-Amoy roads.

[Jzanes]

(July 1, 1945 con’t)

Thailand:

Only scraps of Japanese forces remain in Thailand. Most of Rader’s forces have retreated to Indochina and are being evacced out via Cam Ranh Bay. Allied heavy bombers have been harassing his retreating troops while the British-Chinese army continues to mop up Thailand as fast as possible. The British have trapped several divisions in the jungle and will begin reducing these pockets shortly.

[Jzanes]

(July 1, 1945 con’t)

North Malaya/Sumatra:

All signs suggest there may not be many Japanese left in this region. In fact, other than Singapore, there may be NO Japanese left in Malaya at all. The british will advance down the Malaya peninsula as quickly as possible. They will use parachute assaults to speed up this progress.

The Royal Navy is standing by near Sabang to support the upcoming amphibious invasion of North Sumatra. This corps sized invasion force shouldn’t have any trouble with the smallish Japanese garrsions in this region.

[Jzanes]

(July 1, 1945 con’t)

North Java/South Sumatra area:

No resistance vs. American advances in this region. Allied airborne forces captured the Pontianak/Singkawang corner of Borneo. I quickly moved in my naval bomber force and the remainder of the DEI is now cutoff from the Japanese empire.

My submarine fleet is pulling back for their final refit. Large #s of American destroyers will take over the job of harassing any Japanese shipping spotted in the area.

[Jzanes]

(July 1, 1945 con’t)

South Java:

Soerabaja fell easily and its garrison was cutoff by parachute units and quickly wiped out. This leaves about 20,000 japanese left on Java. Most of the enemy is at Batavia. The US and Australian armies are advancing up the island towards Batavia while the marines and US fleet gather at Soerabaja for the next major operation.

Soerabaja provides me with a large port I can use to rest, repair, and reorganize for further ops. Up till this point in the conquest of the DEI, my largest port was Darwin (6) and ships needing more than minor repairs had to sail back to Brisbane, Melbourne, or Sydney. I can’t wait till I grab the even larger port of Singapore in the next few months.

Once Java is secure, I will use the Australians to capture the Palembang area while the US Army preps for Formosa or the Philippines and the Marines will make a move on Indochina, Samah, and the Chinese coast. The British will mop up North Sumatra and Malaya and join in on whichever operation needs some extra weight at that time.

[Jzanes]

(July 1, 1945 con’t)


Mindanao/Celebes:

Rader has been trying to evac troops from Cagayan using barges. Allied naval bombers just sank most of them. I’ll be curious to see if Rader tries it again and commits some fighters to defend his barges.

Given the swift collapse of the Japanese positions in Java and Sumatra, I will probably advance towards Japan via the South China Sea and not thru the Philipines area. I will keep some air forces and light naval forces in this area for raiding, interdiction, and defense vs. Japanese raiders.

[Jzanes]

(July 1, 1945 con’t)

Gilbert Islands:

Tarawa was captured shortly after my last update and my troops are now prepping for their next targets. I’ve learned my lesson after getting a bloody nose in my invasions of the atolls of Tabiteau and Tarawa and will be waiting for my troops to get fully prepped before I try anymore atoll invasions. In the meantime, I will attack Kusaie Island and then Ponape. These are not atolls and it should be much easier to overcome their brigade sized garrisons.

[obvert]

It's great to get these lengthy updates! Even when the entire Japanese Empire is in collapse it's stunning how long it takes to actually move through all of these campaigns to retake occupied territory.

It must be good practice for your next GCs to work through the Gilberts with the small force you're using there. Almost like working on '43 tactics in '45.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Jzanes

(July 1, 1945 con’t)

Gilbert Islands:

Tarawa was captured shortly after my last update and my troops are now prepping for their next targets. I’ve learned my lesson after getting a bloody nose in my invasions of the atolls of Tabiteau and Tarawa and will be waiting for my troops to get fully prepped before I try anymore atoll invasions. In the meantime, I will attack Kusaie Island and then Ponape. These are not atolls and it should be much easier to overcome their brigade sized garrisons.

Watch out that the shock attack is triggered not only in Atolls but also in small islands (don't know the specific thou)...think under the 30,000 limit the shock attack is triggered no matter what kind of atoll or island it is

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: Jzanes

(July 1, 1945 con’t)

Gilbert Islands:

Tarawa was captured shortly after my last update and my troops are now prepping for their next targets. I’ve learned my lesson after getting a bloody nose in my invasions of the atolls of Tabiteau and Tarawa and will be waiting for my troops to get fully prepped before I try anymore atoll invasions. In the meantime, I will attack Kusaie Island and then Ponape. These are not atolls and it should be much easier to overcome their brigade sized garrisons.

Watch out that the shock attack is triggered not only in Atolls but also in small islands (don't know the specific thou)...think under the 30,000 limit the shock attack is triggered no matter what kind of atoll or island it is

Right you are! Specific rule is A) all atolls regardless of size, and B) Islands of size 1 or 2. Note, under the new optional stacking limits that are supported in the Beta (and with an appropriate mod) it might be a little tough to gauge island size. Under the regular (old-style) stacking rules that would be islands with a capacity of 6,000 or 30,000.

[Jzanes]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: Jzanes

(July 1, 1945 con’t)

Gilbert Islands:

Tarawa was captured shortly after my last update and my troops are now prepping for their next targets. I’ve learned my lesson after getting a bloody nose in my invasions of the atolls of Tabiteau and Tarawa and will be waiting for my troops to get fully prepped before I try anymore atoll invasions. In the meantime, I will attack Kusaie Island and then Ponape. These are not atolls and it should be much easier to overcome their brigade sized garrisons.

Watch out that the shock attack is triggered not only in Atolls but also in small islands (don't know the specific thou)...think under the 30,000 limit the shock attack is triggered no matter what kind of atoll or island it is

Right you are! Specific rule is A) all atolls regardless of size, and B) Islands of size 1 or 2. Note, under the new optional stacking limits that are supported in the Beta (and with an appropriate mod) it might be a little tough to gauge island size. Under the regular (old-style) stacking rules that would be islands with a capacity of 6,000 or 30,000.

thanks guys. i didn't know that non-atolls could still require a shock attack. i'm pretty sure kusaie is a 30,000 capacity island so i'll have to wait and build some prep before i take that one on also. no biggy, as i will need a week or two to get all the troops together anyways.

[Heeward]

Interesting AAR - especially the effect of the house rule on fighter operations altitude vs maneuver band.

Given that he can rebuild his shattered land units with excess Supply / Heavy Industry / Vehicle Points with time, he just has to withdraw fragments of land units to reconstitute them.

Do you believe he is trying to withdraw whole units to the Home Islands / inner perimeter or just fragments.
Given you early lack of submarine / commerce campaign what do you estimate his HI / Vehicle / Resource / Fuel / Supply Reserves?


 

[Jzanes]

ORIGINAL: Heeward

Interesting AAR - especially the effect of the house rule on fighter operations altitude vs maneuver band.

Given that he can rebuild his shattered land units with excess Supply / Heavy Industry / Vehicle Points with time, he just has to withdraw fragments of land units to reconstitute them.

Do you believe he is trying to withdraw whole units to the Home Islands / inner perimeter or just fragments.
Given you early lack of submarine / commerce campaign what do you estimate his HI / Vehicle / Resource / Fuel / Supply Reserves?

With the changes in the beta, you don't have to worry about saving fragments any longer. When a unit is destroyed, you can spend some PPs and the unit will pop up at the home base where you can rebuild it from scratch.

I imagine Rader has massive piles of all the key resources. At this point he's cutoff from all the key oil/resource centers except for Korea and the Phillipines.

The war has been going slow due to holiday trips and whatnot and we are now at July 19, 1945. I've been gobbling up all the lightly defended bases in Malaya, the DEI, Indochina-thailand, and China. The russians are slowly advancing towards Korea, are besieging Mukden, captured Harbin, and are about to capture Vladivostok. I will post a thorough update once I get the time and things start to get more interesting.

[obvert]

Is this game still going? Curious what the status is now.

[Jzanes]

August 8, 1945

In the last month, there has been very little combat and the allies have swiftly gobbled up lightly held bases in the DEI, Thailand, Malaya, Indochina, and China.

Allied forces are prepping for targets on the road to the home islands. I plan to approach the home islands via Formosa and Okinawa. I will use allied held Chinese bases along the coast (Amoy, Wenchow, etc.) to provide LBA support for my attacks. Having noted the ease in which massed Japanese naval bombers get thru carrier CAP, I will be very wary in committing my carriers and depend on land based planes to do most of the work.

Supply is starting to run low in the Russian and Chinese theatres. I will be capturing Hong Kong/Canton shortly. I will use these ports to deliver massive quantities of supply to the mainland. Once I build up some massive supply dumps, I will start the strategic bombing campaign from large soviet and Chinese airbases.

I hope to reach a 2:1 victory point ratio by the end of 1945 and earn the “major victory”. The ratio is currently about 1.5:1 and climbing. I’ve gobbled up most of the easy points already but Formosa and Okinawa are worth a lotta points and should get me to my goal.

Here’s the overall map. You can see a few red dots in Sumatra and Indochina. These are cutoff bases that will be captured soon.