Newbie Allies vs. Experinced WitP

[Crackaces]

BURMA AIR DEPLOYMENT:

The picture below shows the current depployment of air HQ's. To say the least Burma is a mess. For any newbie . if they plan to make Burma a front like I have .. I would suggest prethinking this a bit. Great suggestions like moving CB's and Engineers early to build up bases .. particularly Dimpur, Komima and then Imphal to move supplies toward Imphal which only has a road and no rail junction.

I beleive I will leave the 221 on the coast and mine the ports .. eventually one of those BB's will hit a mine. The IJN have zero fear righ tnow of aircraft or my naval assest in the area as Betty's and Nell's project well into the battlespace. Soon Ramree Island will be built up and I will be contesting the skies of Burma .. the pressure will be intense all the way thorugh 44 I suspect ..

10 USAAF airgroup will move to Imphal ..

Otherwise we need to think more how to organize this front ...

[Crackaces]

GILBERT's Islands:

Below illistrates the Gilbert Islands. Of note are the B17E ranges from Tabiteuea to project power into the lower Marshalls. Basically we can interdict the airbases threating the Gilbert's but we cannot hit Kwajalein which is 19 hexes from Tabiteuea. However, enough work is here for the rest of 1942 once Tabiteuea is a level 5 base.

The intense submarine network is slowly redistributing to engage further out. The game has an algorithum for subamrine attacks I just do not understand. But this configuration has reuslted in a higher number of "rollovers" or his ships simply rolling over the top of multiple submarines rather than have an intercept. Some of the longer ranged Dutch subamrines have already started patroling the Home Islands .

In the meantime Base Forces and supplies have to get on Tarawa somehow ...[;)]

[Crackaces]

I know I promised more combat pictures but I have not perfected freezing the action yet ...

********************************************** 26 JUN 1942 ************************************

The Captian and crew of the SS Herring gets an extra share of Rum and a few more days at the Royal Hawaiian hotel. I hear 9 "whooshes" total with all torps hitting but only 2 explode... then he surfaces to finsih off this 4.8 tonne xAK. It's not a carrier but you have to admire the agressiveness and determination [8D]

Submarine attack near Tanegashima at 102,63

Japanese Ships
xAK Kotohira Maru, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS Herring



xAK Kotohira Maru is sighted by SS Herring
SS Herring attacking on the surface



Our Dutch friends miss and go hide ..

ASW attack near Tanegashima at 102,63

Japanese Ships
DD Kiku
xAK Holland Maru

Allied Ships
SS O23

SS O23 launches 2 torpedoes at DD Kiku

And by Wenchow he finds another submarine ...

ASW attack near Wenchow at 91,61

Allied Ships
SS Searaven



SS Searaven is sighted by escort
Sub escapes detection



The Lilly's come calling again ..

Morning Air attack on Akyab , at 54,45

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 39 NM, estimated altitude 5,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 30
Ki-48-Ib Lily x 54



Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-48-Ib Lily: 13 damaged
Ki-48-Ib Lily: 1 destroyed by flak



Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 29

It will be awhile before we can project fighter forces over Akyab .. but it is interesting he has committed 30 Oscars to escort these attacks ..

[Crackaces]

So my recon pilots are actually getting good enough in Burma to get accurate information. At least within the bounds of FOW. The IJ just shipped another 20K troops to Mandalay (DET /9/10) making that little village contain 48K troops. I am suspecting my recon flights and bombing have made the IJ nervious.

The KB have not shown their ugly side for quite awhile. I suspect it is time for a raid. If I were the IJ I would hit Perth and park somewhere to disrupt the CT-AUS convoy route. Radio traffic is suggesting that the KB is moving through the DEI right now. We shall see .. It will be the KB's last hurrah whatever the IJN decide as the USN is building strength ... strength that must be countered ..

I am not making moves in response to "body count" but I will post later the game status. My bungling has cost us a lot more airframes on the ground than optimum play but as a newbie we have been holding our own. We establsihed CENPAC at Tabiteuea/ Tarwa, SoPAC at Pago Pago/Suva, SoWest PAC Alice Springs. China is stable although I suspect an offense soon to dislodge my holdings at Wenchow. For now we continue to build our bases that will act either as jump-off points for offenses in '43 or as I found out from Kfsgo .. vital supply links down dusty roads.

[Crackaces]

**************************************** 27 JUN 1942 ******************************************

The Great Yamamoto unleashes her shells on Wenchow ..

Night Naval bombardment of Wenchow at 89,58

Japanese Ships
BB Yamato
CA Chokai
CA Chikuma
CL Oi
CL Kiso
CL Natori


Allied ground losses:
83 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 17 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Manpower hits 2
Fires 671
Airbase hits 9
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 30
Port hits 4
Port fuel hits 2
Port supply hits 1



Our submarines contunue to keep the IJN busy ...

Submarine attack near Amami Oshima at 98,65

Japanese Ships
xAK Zyunyo Maru, Shell hits 2

Allied Ships
SS Swordfish, hits 1



xAK Zyunyo Maru is sighted by SS Swordfish
SS Swordfish attacking on the surface
Smith, C.C. decides to submerge SS Swordfish due to damage

.....................

ASW attack near Ominato at 120,54

Japanese Ships
SC CHa-14

Allied Ships
SS Permit

ASW attack near Tokara Retto at 99,62

Japanese Ships
xAK Teikoku Maru
DMS W-5

Allied Ships
SS Herring




So the Swordfish will have to come home for repairs. The Zyunyo Maru will need a new paint job ..

The IJ have gotten a lot more aggressive with their submarines.

ASW attack near Tabiteuea at 137,134

Japanese Ships
SS I-22, hits 1

Allied Ships
AM Vireo

Sub attack near Tabiteuea at 137,134

Japanese Ships
SS I-22

Allied Ships
AM Vireo
SS I-22 launches 2 torpedoes

The IJN has parked a submarine right nestled into the port of Tabiteuea ... the good news is that everything comes escorted with DD's and if the plan was laying mines .. local mine sweeping occurs daily ...

otherwise pretty quiet .. I suspect those Subs at Tabiteuea and tarawa are busy laying mines .. it just means more mine sweeping ..

More later ..

[Crackaces]

Status 28 June 1942

The diagram below shows the body count after 202 days of war. One can see the diaster of losing all kinds of planes on the ground. BTW) The IJN CV is most certainly not sunk but it in the pen getting fixed. I am not sure about aircraft losses and how we are either stressing teh IJ industry or we are not .. I do know the loss of 8 of the larger xAK/AK's has put a cramp in the IJ's style ...

Still we feel good about progress. We are engaged in Burma and the advance has stopped. We are building in Oz preparing for an offense once Tennant Creek is up to level 6 airfield, and I see some supplies moving that direction. SOPAC is secure and we are moving HQ's int the area. CENPAC needs one more mission .. I suspect will be a huge clash .. but it must be done .. no rush but we have to clean up our mess on Tarawa ..

[Crackaces]

****************************************** 28 JUN 1942 **********************

The KB plus .. I think every platform is 7 hexes away from Tarawa with 6 BB's escorted. The KB comes calling ..

Afternoon Air attack on Tarawa , at 136,128

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid spotted at 37 NM, estimated altitude 6,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 29
B5N2 Kate x 123



Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 4 damaged


Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Airbase hits 10
Airbase supply hits 21
Runway hits 61

If I were not so chicken thinking he would close the gap putting my carriers just out of range would allow some of my fighters to intercept . but we wait in outr postions ..

The Nell's come too ...

Afternoon Air attack on Tarawa , at 136,128

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid spotted at 19 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 6
G3M2 Nell x 9



No Japanese losses



Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 8

So Tarawa is shut down for a few days ..

What we have done is to put our PBY's with torps on a night naval attack ... we shall see what 2 squadrons of PBY's can do with torps. Just one torp into a carrier will make my day.

Wenchow the IJ tests my defenses ..


Ground combat at Wenchow (89,58)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 25391 troops, 222 guns, 84 vehicles, Assault Value = 854

Defending force 32189 troops, 157 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1274

Japanese ground losses:
7 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Allied ground losses:
14 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

.. we push him out at Ichang


Ground combat at Ichang (83,48)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 83466 troops, 475 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3394

Defending force 15454 troops, 116 guns, 42 vehicles, Assault Value = 595

Allied adjusted assault: 5116

Japanese adjusted defense: 219

Allied assault odds: 23 to 1 (fort level 4)

Allied forces CAPTURE Ichang !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
7573 casualties reported
Squads: 127 destroyed, 356 disabled
Non Combat: 103 destroyed, 47 disabled
Engineers: 47 destroyed, 10 disabled
Guns lost 66 (42 destroyed, 24 disabled)
Vehicles lost 33 (31 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Units retreated 2


Allied ground losses:
8351 casualties reported
Squads: 74 destroyed, 461 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 59 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 52 disabled


Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
55th Chinese Corps
59th Chinese Corps
2nd Chinese Corps
45th Chinese Corps
75th Chinese Corps
32nd Chinese Corps
39th Chinese Corps
67th Chinese Corps
77th Chinese Corps
68th Chinese Corps
94th Chinese Corps
26th Group Army
33rd Group Army

Defending units:
34th Division
13th RGC Temp. Division


We have to send a huge fuel convoy to Sydney and Melborne to keep those industries going. That will be a mission for the full month of July '42 ..

[CaptBeefheart]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

We have to send a huge fuel convoy to Sydney and Melborne to keep those industries going. That will be a mission for the full month of July '42 ..

Your situation may be different (i.e. you probably have more tankers), but I find it easier to move supplies than fuel to Oz, so I shut off all HI on the continent in order to conserve fuel. The LI cranks out a pretty goodly amount of supplies without using fuel.

Cheers,
CC

EDIT: Grammar.

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

We have to send a huge fuel convoy to Sydney and Melborne to keep those industries going. That will be a mission for the full month of July '42 ..

Your situation may be different (i.e. you probably have more tankers), but I find it easier to move supplies than fuel to Oz, so I shut off all HI on the continent in order to conserve fuel. The LI cranks out a pretty goodly amount of supplies without using fuel.

Cheers,
CC

EDIT: Grammar.

BTW) No problem on grammar in this thread Commander Cody -- I switch letters within words with uncanny frequency [;)] However, others on this forum might not be as tolerant ...[8D]

Good feedback but here lies a problem .. there is an ol' thread in the war room that discusses a software behavior where the random die roll for aircraft arrivals from production is modified by the total aircraft production and HI. Meaning shutting off Oz has a deleterious affects on aircraft produced in LA. It is quite possible that a rounding error and the effects of a die roll end up with the total build out never being acheived.

Thus I am expending the effort to keep the Oz factories going. I have also bought out the "dead" AUS units from the Singapore disaster, which requires the Oz factories to equim 'em ...

You might have a point that in the end it is not worth the trouble anyway ..

Ok right now the IJ are sitting in Northern Oz wounded from the landing and waiting to be taken. That will require at the very least building up Tennant Creek and Daily Waters. The IJ are building up Kathrine for me ..

[Crackaces]

The brightest lights are always noted after the darkest hours. The operational aspects of landing on Tarawa went very smoothly but strategically three major mistakes were made that we are paying for right now. It was decided to first land small BF's for speed of landing and then establish a base than bring in the big Base Forces .. this is killing me now. I also thought strategically once the KB got a carrier smacked by a submarine they would turn their attention elsewhere .. that was a 'misunderestimation' (sic) of the detemination of the IJ to engage wherever the USN show up no matter the risk. Third, I did not bring up enough supply to sustain this operation forcing the operations to fix this situaiton.

The SITREP below provides the story. The IJ have brought to bare 3 TF's -- the full KB + 2 Mini-KB with BB's. I suspect the BB's will detach and bombard Tarawa. In repsonse we have dropped 100 mines off on Tarawa, and submarines continue to patrol. We have to wiat until this little operation returns to Truk so we can continue our operation to land the 111th BF and some flak units on Tarawa. It is quite conceivable that the KB could remain on station for quite awhile given all the support ships in theater.

If this unfolds we have to open another front in the Solomon's ...[8D]

In the meantime the Lady Lex and Saratoga complete their refit and LA keeps turning out aircraft to keep the carriers full of airplanes ... We will be ready mid-July for another Major operation if the IJ continue this foolishness in the Gilbert's ....

[Crackaces]

I really have not figured out paintshop yet and well its going to take me a day or two ..

But as promised I have a couple of combat pictures to post .. basically the KB has come calling again shutting down Tarawa and delaying our operations there. A little gamey in my opinion is rushing from island to island rolling over my submarines in between. It looks like one has to be resting on a submarine at the end of a phase for something to happen .. if so .. submarines are pretty borked ..

We decided to givce our new ships along with some vets a little ASW experince .. nothing to write home about but if the IJN are goign to keep submarines parked off the coast of SF then I am going to make it exicting for them. They will come off duty on a couple of turns to make a very long journey ..

***************************** 29 JUN 1942 ***********************************************

The night opens with a submarine attack with zero effectiveness ... [8|]

Sub attack near Mili at 136,122

Japanese Ships
AK Azumasan Maru

Allied Ships
SS S-45



AK Azumasan Maru is sighted by SS S-45
SS S-45 launches 2 torpedoes

Submarine attack near Mili at 136,122

Japanese Ships
AK Azumasan Maru

Allied Ships
SS S-45



AK Azumasan Maru is sighted by SS S-45
SS S-45 attacking on the surface



Then the Growler runs out of ammo ...

Submarine attack near Nauru Island at 125,127

Japanese Ships
xAKL Daitei Maru, Shell hits 2

Allied Ships
SS Growler



xAKL Daitei Maru is sighted by SS Growler
SS Growler attacking xAKL Daitei Maru on the surface
SS Growler low on gun ammo, Gilmore, H.W. breaks off surface engagement and submerges



There are actually better assests in this hex but the Morris decides to engage ..

ASW attack near San Francisco at 217,72

Japanese Ships
SS I-29, hits 1

Allied Ships
DD Helm
DD Morris


The Nell's find no Naval target so they hit Tarawa ..

Afternoon Air attack on Tarawa , at 136,128

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid spotted at 18 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 6
G3M2 Nell x 9



No Japanese losses



Runway hits 2

and at long range in the rain ...the KB leave a calling card shutting down Tarawa ..

Afternoon Air attack on Tarawa , at 136,128

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid spotted at 39 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 30
B5N2 Kate x 54
D3A1 Val x 48



Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 2 damaged
D3A1 Val: 3 damaged



Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 15

The KB has split into two divisions .. I am susuepcting the BB's will form up into a Bomabrdment force with a split KB provding air cover .. I have backed off my CV's until this unfolds ..

[Crackaces]

*************************************** 30 JUN '42 ****************************************

June ends with increased IJ activity everywhere and our subamrines just starting to bring some fear into the IJN hearts ..


First the little sneeky SS-I 17 finally sinks the AM Vireo that has been sweeping mines ..

Sub attack near Tabiteuea at 137,134

Japanese Ships
SS I-17

Allied Ships
AM Vireo, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage


The Tambor launches 4 at a CL and one actually goes KA-BOOM!

Sub attack near Guam at 103,95

Japanese Ships
CL Katori, Torpedo hits 1
E Kunashiri
DMS W-4
TK Toa Maru
TK Itukusima Maru
TK Gen'yo Maru
DD Hatsushima
DD Hatsuharu

Allied Ships
SS Tambor

One of those takers would have been a better haul but anyting is gravy at P(.20) * whatever it takes to get an engagement ...

The Searaven launches 2 cold ones near Formosa ..

Sub attack near Iriomote at 91,62

Japanese Ships
xAK Ueizuru Maru

Allied Ships
SS Searaven


The Plunger finds some Tankers near Siapan ..

ASW attack near Saipan at 109,92

Japanese Ships
PB Kyo Maru #6
TK Zuiyo Maru
TK Ryuei Maru
TK Kozui Maru
TK Akatuki Maru
PB Takuna Maru #6

Allied Ships
SS Plunger


The Helm enages three times and puts 2 hits on SS-I-29 ..


Sub attack near San Francisco at 216,71

Japanese Ships
SS I-29, hits 2

Allied Ships
DD Mustin
DD Helm


Truk receives some attention by our subamrines ..


The SS Grunion duds two ..



Sub attack near Truk at 112,103

Japanese Ships
xAK Neikai Maru
xAK Okuni Maru
xAK Shinsei Maru
xAKL Taiyu Maru
xAKL Tateyama Maru
xAKL Takunan Maru #10
PB Yokae Maru

Allied Ships
SS Grunion


But the Dutch commander takes charge and puts a hot one into an xAK .

Submarine attack near Truk at 112,107

Japanese Ships
xAK Kashiwara Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS O21


Somebody is coming ashore at Wenchow ..[&:]

nvasion Support action off Wenchow (89,58)
Defensive Guns engage approaching landing force

23 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
xAKL Tokuwa Maru
xAKL Bunzan Maru, Shell hits 1



Ground combat at Wenchow (89,58)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 25377 troops, 222 guns, 84 vehicles, Assault Value = 852

Defending force 32216 troops, 157 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1276



Assaulting units:
22nd Division
17th Division
56th Infantry Brigade

Defending units:
86th Chinese Corps
49th Chinese Corps
70th Chinese Corps
100th Chinese Corps
25th Group Army


So far nobody has come ashore yet ..

The same characters showed up at Tarawa again .. 2 Kates and 5 Vals damaged for 22 runway hits .. I am not sure the EV is quite positive but the IJN is delaying my operations ..

We shall see if the CL Katori sinks, otherwise for all this action one 3800 tonne xAK is probably sunk The SS-I-29 has some flooding and will be encouraged to return home ..

More later ..

[DOCUP]

Nice work with the photos.  Thanks for letting me know what you did wrong with your Gilbert op. 

[CaptBeefheart]

Crackaces: Thanks for the heads up. I didn't know about the effect of Oz HI on aircraft production. I'm going to look for that thread.

However, my understanding is that HI is HI regarding the rebuilding of your Oz units (i.e. Allied HI points in general are needed regardless of where they come from--witness how HI in India helps the Empire build stuff in Greyjoy's AAR). I'd be happy to be corrected.

Regarding grammar, I'm a bit anal retentive on that--I can't let my own mistakes stay there on screen.

EDIT: [:)]

Cheers,
CC

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: DOCUP

Nice work with the photos.  Thanks for letting me know what you did wrong with your Gilbert op. 

Well once I figure out how to use Paintshop I can dream of being in league with Dennishe [:D]

Must certainly DOCUP I would have landed at elast 2 units of flak and a big big BF right off the bat .. that has really hurt.

Commander Cody:

Here is the link .. tm.asp?m=2949764

Now re-reading it .. the player shut down both India and Oz leaving 9 HI points in the pool
Heavy Industry.

Required for on-map production.

18 HI per plane produced.

Section 13.2.2.4 of manual

Only 9 HI in pool - how it is that low for Allies is weird!

Only the onmap factories need HI and as you It is as you stated a Allied wide pool so India produces HI as well as WC etc for everybody in a big pool. Anyway, after figuring out he shut off India and Oz .. read about how the game generated die rolls for production ..

The God's have a sense of humor .. after the IJ provided feedback that I would rue the day of using submarines to support my strategy in the Gilbert's the USN have sank no less than 5 ships near the home islands and the Marianas ... [:D] I had been patrolling, but his ships have been avoiding contact. Then, the die rolls have started going my way and I am getting contacts as well as putting a couple of hot ones on the mark .... never anger the probability God's ...[;)]

This brings up Commander Cody's feedback .. he offers sage advice supported in the forums. I read something make a change and at the same time the production die rolls go my way. Now I am thinking my actions caused the result when in fact randomness occured. Probabilites and randomness are very fickle things ... but they most certainly do not like being criticized [:D]..

I have been avoiding the front in the Solomon's on purpose. I have the bases and the troops to attack but I really do not want to get into a war of attrition there yet .. the KB actions might dictate that this must occur. I have to think about it.

In the meantime, this turn four SeeBee units landed at Brisbine headed for Alice Springs. They will help to build the airfield there to level 7, and then on to Tennant Creek. I suspect that this is a two month long operation just to get the infrastrructure n place . Once Tennant Creek is build up I will see of supplies move down that road as per Ksfgo's earlier postings. I have a HQ unit at Tennant Creek which should boost supply depending on infrastructure. One other question is if supplies move down Cloncurry to Tennant Creek also. I have built that base up to lvl 3 .. according to the '5' key supplies move in that area ..

If we can pull this off it will support Yamamoto's thoughts that at least 200,000 troops would be needed to secure Northern Oz .. right now less the 40K show up on the recon missions and SigInt suggests and a great portion of the OOB in Oz are support troops. Plus many troops were lost in the intial invasion. Its a huge amount of work and investement of resources with little gain. In actuallity this whole area could be by-passed and the overall strategy still executed. However, I am very curious to duplicate Ksfgo's tests [8D], and two, the threat to the DEI will draw his resources away from the real prize [;)] The pattern has been to immediately react to any Allied gains no matter the cost or consequince for the latter strategy .. this is our opporunity ..

[Crackaces]

********************************************** 01 JUL 1942 *********************************

The IJ had a great turn .. we got no die rolls and so no aircraft flew to attack in Burma ..

First ..

Night Time Surface Combat, near Goa at 23,23, Range 6,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
AMC Kiyosumi Maru

Allied Ships
xAK Itria, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
xAK La Pampa, Shell hits 3, on fire
xAK Anna Odland, Shell hits 1


So we will lose these ships. There are 3 AMC's in this area and we cannot find them .. but they can find us .. that means all the ships in this area must be escorted ..

The IJ has committed lot's of submarines to stop our traffic along the coast of India ..

Submarine attack near Diamond Harbour at 50,39

Japanese Ships
SS I-153

Allied Ships
CV Formidable



CV Formidable is sighted by SS I-153
SS I-153 launches 6 torpedoes




Submarine attack near Cuttack at 49,39

Japanese Ships
SS I-15

Allied Ships
CV Formidable, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage




The escorts never reacted and let her sink ... anyway we sacrifiedVP's for PP's because she was due to withdraw ..

Despite our patrols teh IJ can make it from somewhere we cannot see to bombard Cox Bazzar and leave without any resistance ..

Night Time Surface Combat, near Cox's Bazar at 54,43, Range 5,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Kuma
DD Akigumo
DD Ikazuchi
DD Inazuma
DD Hatsuyuki
DD Shikinami

Allied Ships
xAKL Belawan, Shell hits 9, and is sunk




They follow up with a bombardment attack on Cox's Bazzar
Night Naval bombardment of Cox's Bazar at 54,43

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb Trop: 1 destroyed on ground

Japanese Ships
CL Kuma


Allied ground losses:
12 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled


Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 6
Port hits 1
Port supply hits 1

CL Kuma firing at Cox's Bazar


In SF our YP's take one for the team ..

Sub attack near San Francisco at 216,71

Japanese Ships
SS I-29

Allied Ships
YP-114, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage



SS I-29 launches 2 torpedoes at YP-114
I-29 diving deep ....
Escort abandons search for sub



4 Squadrons do not fly but one tries to take out the Nagato

Morning Air attack on TF, near Makin at 133,126

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 37 NM, estimated altitude 6,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 28



Allied aircraft
B-26B Marauder x 4


No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
B-26B Marauder: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato


The IJ have started to bomb HI at night ..

Night Air attack on Changsha , at 82,52

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid spotted at 21 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-48-IIa Lily x 11



Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-48-IIa Lily: 2 damaged

Heavy Industry hits 1

Ok I have to put up with the Allies being borked for another year or so ... [Just my frustration with the withdrawal penalties which a single ship costs as much per day as activating many large units for the entire war ..[8|]]

Ok .. more later ..

[kfsgo]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

In the meantime, this turn four SeeBee units landed at Brisbine headed for Alice Springs. They will help to build the airfield there to level 7, and then on to Tennant Creek. I suspect that this is a two month long operation just to get the infrastrructure n place . Once Tennant Creek is build up I will see of supplies move down that road as per Ksfgo's earlier postings. I have a HQ unit at Tennant Creek which should boost supply depending on infrastructure. One other question is if supplies move down Cloncurry to Tennant Creek also. I have built that base up to lvl 3 .. according to the '5' key supplies move in that area ..

Supplies will flow from Cloncurry as far as Fenton, but it's completely irrelevant; Alice Springs is a more efficient routing for any of the bases involved and is the sole determinant of the size and timing of supply movements. Actually the infrastructure at Alice Springs itself is irrelevant except insofar as it should have sufficient supply storage that you can keep a week's supply on hand for whatever units it's supporting without wastage. The HQ at Tennant Creek is also irrelevant while you're building the base; actually it's harmful, since it's consuming supplies which could be used in construction. Remove it, even if you just send it 46mi south.

If we can pull this off it will support Yamamoto's thoughts that at least 200,000 troops would be needed to secure Northern Oz .. right now less the 40K show up on the recon missions and SigInt suggests and a great portion of the OOB in Oz are support troops. Plus many troops were lost in the intial invasion. Its a huge amount of work and investement of resources with little gain. In actuallity this whole area could be by-passed and the overall strategy still executed. However, I am very curious to duplicate Ksfgo's tests [8D], and two, the threat to the DEI will draw his resources away from the real prize [;)] The pattern has been to immediately react to any Allied gains no matter the cost or consequince for the latter strategy .. this is our opporunity ..

Construction of bases on the Alice-Darwin track actually has no real effect on your ability to support troops at Darwin itself; any force large enough to take Darwin needs to be on the order of 3x what the Japanese have there; I don't know what you're looking at in that respect, but given movement wastage 30000t/week is probably a sensible supply allotment, and you will never get anything like that number out of any of them while combat operations are ongoing. It can only come from Alice Springs; any attempts to build up bases past Tennant Creek while also attempting to support a field army will stagnate due to lack of supply, and will take so long that the Japanese will have all the time in the world to reinforce Darwin if you sit around waiting for them to build before moving on.

I'll just quote myself, even though it's tacky:

Contrary to popular belief, supply does flow from Alice Springs to Darwin. Not often - twice a week if you hold it and once a week if you don't and units in-hex are drawing their own supplies, but it does flow. En-route losses are high - ~70%. That is a big problem if you do hold it, since the base has a supply draw limit, but not such a big problem if you don't, since individual units will draw an appropriate extra amount to compensate.

So - in your situation (Darwin held by enemy), the problem is that your army will only move supplies up from Alice Springs once per week. If the intermediate bases had stockpiles they'd draw on those more often, but it's not strictly necessary, getting them to that point would take years and frankly it's probably more effort than it's worth. What you need to do is:

- Install a top-level HQ at Alice Springs and make sure it's as full of kit as you can make it;
- Send to Darwin three times as many troops as you'd need to evict the Japanese if you didn't have supply issues;
- Figure out which day supply movement occurs on; further movements will be on this day +7, +14 etc
- Set the whole force to 'bombard' the day before this occurs, so that when it does they draw a double supply load;
- Don't attack with the whole force, as they'll use up all their kit in two days and you'll be left hanging for the remaining five; rotate forces in and out of reserve so that you always have a supplied fraction of the force active, either on offense or defense;
- Repeat ad nauseam.

Do that and you'll push through them in the end. "Simple", but time-consuming and not easy; you probably don't have three times whatever you sent available, there are probably more useful things they could be doing, and if you're going in without knowing how the times work out it could take you up to two weeks just to figure that out, which gives the Japanese plenty of time to reinforce/land 10 divisions in Sydney Harbour/whatever, so if you can at all go by sea (or skip Darwin entirely) that's preferable. If you really, absolutely gotta do it overland, though...

It can be done, but it is not a trivial undertaking - you will need a major, major force commitment to avoid the risk of being kicked out while sitting in Darwin undersupplied.

[Crackaces]

Ok .... I totally misunderstood your post. I thought the size of bases/fortifications influenced how many supplies moved between the connection points. I am assuming this is a misunderstanding of my reading the post. Ok .. I will look for a different plan and use of the forces .. leaving engineers only at Tennet Creek for now and move I AUS and II AUS back to Sydney ... I was quite optimistic in defeating the IJ at Darwin in DEC '42.

What we will do is although is build up Tennent Creek as we can lauch air raids on Darwin and at least take Daily Waters.

BTW) I totally screwed up at hex 23.23 the smart thing to do would have been to scatter into 3 small TF's rather than give the IJN 3 prizes ..[8|]

Ahhh the ebb and flow of this game ...[:'(]

[Nemo121]

Honestly, it is much simpler to just bypass Darwin. Sure you need a bit of naval support to do so but if you take an island, dump 200,000 tons of supply there and lots of troops the supply sits there until used up at a predictable rate.

Pick the right island and you can neutralise Darwin on the cheap.

[kfsgo]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

Ok .... I totally misunderstood your post. I thought the size of bases/fortifications influenced how many supplies moved between the connection points.

It does, but the amounts involved are not and will never be large enough to support a combat force large enough to take Darwin against a Div+ scale defending force, and they will provide minimal if any forward flow during such period as you spend attempting to expand them, as their (tiny) supply draw will be entirely dedicated to construction. The real relevance of expanded bases up here is in allowing you to operate aircraft out of them - either transports (to deliver supply forward to bases at high efficiency) or combat aircraft. LCUs attacking Darwin can draw their own supply from Alice Springs as long as you hold the track between them, but it will only happen once per week. That's why you need such a large force - you can actually supply whatever you need up here, as long as it is not in a friendly base hex, but you need a buffer for the part of the week the units will be low on supply.

I am assuming this is a misunderstanding of my reading the post. Ok .. I will look for a different plan and use of the forces .. leaving engineers only at Tennet Creek for now and move I AUS and II AUS back to Sydney ... I was quite optimistic in defeating the IJ at Darwin in DEC '42.

What we will do is although is build up Tennent Creek as we can lauch air raids on Darwin and at least take Daily Waters.

There is nothing stopping you from taking Daly Waters right now, if you want to. It's much easier to do as you can take advantage of all the mobile units available in Australia to cut it off from supply, and your own supply movements will be more efficient in the area. Again, LCU supply is only tangentially related to base supply - LCUs will draw whatever they need subject to no rate restrictions unless they are in a friendly base with rate restrictions.


[/quote]

e: and yes, there are more useful ways to expend your energy than overland attacks on Darwin, if you have the shipping. Infrastructurally, Port Hedland can be built up to the same scale as Darwin, if you have that you can almost certainly take Broome and Derby (which are both reasonable ports), and if you have those you can do most things you can do from Darwin, effectively - ranges to targets are longer, but the aircraft that can hit Timor, Flores, Soemba from Darwin etc can pretty much still do so from Broome or Derby (or Truscott, if you can push that far).