17 May 1942
Quiet turn so we'll just go around the table and see where we stand.
First up, CBI.
India has been totally unmolested from the word go and it continues to be that way. No opposition of any sort means I've had time to build up on land and more importantly, in the air. Allied plane pools being the way there are I need every frame I can get my hands on and being unmolested means I get to flesh out squadrons as they come into theatre as well as build up a reserve pool for when the crap starts flying. Apart from building up the border airfields near Burma there isn't much I can do here at this point due to house rules.
In Burma, the long awaited advance on Lashio has begun, having cut the Burma-China road CTG wasn't in a hurry to go any further when he occupied Mandalay so something has changed, or maybe he was waiting for the Monsoon season HRs to kick in cos he didn't want the Allied air forces to hinder his advance too much. Either way, should be an interesting fight, I should have near parity in terms of AV so it's a question of the quality being on his side..
In China, it's been calm but I reckon if he wanted to, CTG, like every other IJ player worth his salt could kick in the door anytime and the whole deck of cards would collapse. It's very much a "his action, my reaction" approach in this particular corner of the war.
SWPAC - Australia
Here's a shot of the northern coast. Nothing about this picture has changed much in the past couple of weeks of game time but it seems that might be able to change, CVEs spotted at Koepang just this past turn.
NORPAC
No sign of the opposition here but I'm still going ahead to build up the Aleutians in preparation for the later stages of the game.
CENPAC
Relatively unmolested except for the invasion of the Gilberts. Nothing significant worth reporting.
Supply situation
Except for Burma and China I'm not in any desperate shortage of supplies or fuel so everything's peachy in this department.
Look what came in the mail
The remainder of 1 MARDIV arrives on the map together with a bunch of other mean looking Marines in assorted supporting arms units all numbered 1st. They'll hustle to Pearl asap while I figure out where I want them in the medium term.
18 May 1942
Things look to be heating up with a fair bit of action this turn.
China
Things are on the move again in China with an attack on Sian. This stack has the potential to go far, I've got to bleed him as much as I can so the defenders will stay in contact till they perish or they slip in behind the stack and cut the supply lines.
Ground combat at Sian (83,41)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 74390 troops, 648 guns, 95 vehicles, Assault Value = 2092
Defending force 43215 troops, 157 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1310
Japanese adjusted assault: 1674
Allied adjusted defense: 2019
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 4)
Assaulting units:
35th Division
116th Division
36th Division
37th Division
4th Ind.Mixed Brigade
1st Ind.Mixed Brigade
41st Division
9th Ind.Mixed Brigade
1st Army
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
Defending units:
36th Chinese Corps
57th Chinese Corps
3rd Chinese Corps
76th Chinese Corps
Jingcha War Area
34th Group Army
SWPAC
A naval bombardment of Townsville, I have to admit I literally and figuratively didn't see this one coming. Fortunately the numbers vastly inflate the Allied air forces (which hopefully gave CTG a bit of a fright) although I do lose a total of 28 frames on the ground, including a dozen Warhawks, not a small number by any means.
In other news
I'm beginning to feel the bite from the relatively small amount of aviation support I have versus the growing number of airframes on map, to compound the problem there's a half dozen base groups sitting on their asses in CONUS/PH for want of escorts and to a lesser extent APs, that would carry them forward to the front lines.
Sub War Drum continues to make a nuisance of herself off the Home Islands by attacking a DD escorting a group of xAPs, wonder who/what's on board that he's escorting with DDs.
Allied Sub killboard
Seadragon - xAP Rakuyo Maru (7,470t), xAKL Kanjo Maru (1,650t), xAKL Tamaki Maru (1,650t)
S-38 - xAK Tamon Maru (6,400t), xAK Gyoun Maru (1,900t), xAK Kikuryu Maru (1,900t)
O 20 - xAP Taizan Maru (3,380t), PB Hirota Maru (2,780t), PB Teshio Maru (830t), PB Tatsumi Maru (830t)
K XIV - AK Sakura Maru (6,840t)
Truat - AS Nagoya Maru (6,400t)
K XI - xAK Kinugasa Maru (5,935t)
O 23 - xAP Manzyu Maru (5,830t)
S-34 - xAKL Kanaiyama Maru (1,650t), xAK Kotobuki Maru #5 (2,375t)
K XV - xAK Nojima Maru (3,425t)
Sargo - xAK Gosei Maru (3,425t)
Swordfish - xAKL Yamatsuru Maru (1,650t), xAKL Muko Maru (1,650t)
Snapper - DD Hatsuyuki (2,090t), APD Hagi (935t)
O 21 - DD Urakaze (2,553t)
K XVII - CM Itsukushima (2,400t)
S-35 - xAK Daifuku Maru (2,375t)
Perch - DD Sazanami (2,090t)
Shark - TK Arima Maru #4 (1,120t)
Drum - PB Ichiyo Maru (830t)
Tarpon - TB Manazuru (775t)
Probable
xAK Kogyo Maru (torp hits 2, hvy fires/dmg, 07/12/41-Kota Bahru 53,74) - K XI
xAK Kano Maru (torp hit 1, hvy fires/dmg, 06/02/42-Oosthaven 49,96) - S-38
xAK Azuma Maru (torp hit 1, hvy fires, 11/02/42-Pontianak 54,90) - K X
DD Kamikaze (torp hit 1, hvy dmg, 19/05/42-Saishu To 100,56) - Drum
In other news
In keeping with the spirit of the game with it's many HRs and a historical bent and my own OCD tendencies I'm looking at the placement of the Brit airgroups and their HQs in the defence of India and Burma. Why I do this to myself I cannot explain. FML.
You let the IJN Waltz Matilda off of Townsville??? Don't you have any Whirraways to make them pay? [;)]
LOL. I've got no offensive air assets north of Brisbane at the moment, I suppose with this attack that will change, or maybe it won't. Or maybe it will seem like it didn't. Or maybe it will seem like it didn't but really did because it would be too obvious that something is up if nothing changed but perhaps being too obvious would not be what I'm looking for because I want it to happen again, wait, what's the question again?
20 May 1942
Tried to find something interesting to talk about for this turn but couldn't find something worth the time it would take to type it, the Phoney War goes on.
China
A nasty result for the defenders of Sian.
Ground combat at Sian (83,41)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 71177 troops, 648 guns, 95 vehicles, Assault Value = 1757
Defending force 40694 troops, 157 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1013
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 3
Japanese adjusted assault: 2207
Allied adjusted defense: 2743
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 3)
SIGINT
SIGINT has been reporting transports loading at Kalidjati the past 2 turns, I've sent the 2 remaining Dutch MTBs based at Soerabaja to have a look.
China
This IJA Bde was one of the original 5 that tried to take Lanchow, since it appears the odds are on my side I'm going to take the opportunity to chip away at him.
Ground combat at 82,34 (near Lanchow)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 21626 troops, 112 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 623
Defending force 6645 troops, 38 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 202
Allied adjusted assault: 614
Japanese adjusted defense: 217
Allied assault odds: 2 to 1
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), supply(-)
Attacker:
Assaulting units:
27th Chinese Corps
82nd Chinese Corps
Defending units:
6th Ind.Mixed Brigade
Elsewhere in China, a bombardment attack on the hex southeast of Patung reveals it's the 32nd Division there with 406 AV. Last count in Patung itself was 3 divisions but recon shows 5 units there, going to have a look to see what else he's flown/sneaked in.
In other news
A VMF attains carrier trained status today, that brings the grand total to 2. Oh and Long Island came on the map the last turn, will probably use her to carrier qualify the Marine squadrons.
SIGINT
3/1st Medium Field Artillery Regiment is loaded on xAK Ikushima Maru moving to Balikpapan. (Balikpapan still in Allied hands)
33rd Division is planning for an attack on Lashio.
China
We both press where it is in our favor.
Ground combat at Sian (83,41)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 68787 troops, 648 guns, 95 vehicles, Assault Value = 1563
Defending force 48002 troops, 195 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1173
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2
Japanese adjusted assault: 1741
Allied adjusted defense: 1090
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 2
SIGINT
40th Division is planning for an attack on Changsha.
2nd Raiding Regiment is planning for an attack on Fenton.
DEI
Soerabaja falls and with it the last significant port in Allied hands in Southeast Asia passes on the Japanese Empire.
China
Just about all the action over these past 3 days is in China, focusing on Sian and Lanchow. Combat reports are arranged by date with Sian first followed by Lanchow. I haven't been keeping an eye on the numbers but CTG has and he tells me I've lost 1,650 Chinese squads over the past week of game time. Think that's a bit of creative accounting there since he's probably counting disabled as killed but it doesn't take away the fact that I've lost a fair chunk of AV trying to hold Sian, the last attack on the 25th was particularly painful with 436 squads destroyed so that's a month and a change of worth of squads right there. On the bright side, I don't have as many mouths to feed as I did a week ago game time. War humor, how's that for an oxymoron.
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Ground combat at Sian (83,41)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 65337 troops, 648 guns, 95 vehicles, Assault Value = 1230
Defending force 45697 troops, 195 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 934
Japanese adjusted assault: 1779
Allied adjusted defense: 827
Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 1
Looks like the evil empire suffered parallel losses to yours last report. Any idea what the monthly IJA manpower replacement rate is?
I once looked at the deep end of the pool that is Japanese production and decided I like breathing so I've never dived into it but your question got me digging into the good ole manual. Simply defined,
Manpower Centres: Don't need any 'input' resources to function, they generate 5 Manpower Points per Manpower Centre point per day.
Manpower Points: Used in conjunction with Vehicle/Armament Points when vehicles/squads are 'drawn out' from pools to fill out/replacement a ground unit element. Also used in the expansion of shipyards/factories. The Japanese player can also gain Manpower Points when infantry/engineer squads are upgraded.
So, like the other resources manpower supply is variable and can be manipulated by the Japanese player, and like the other resources it's in the interest of the Allied player to keep pressure on reducing Manpower Points either through direct or indirect means seeing as it's used in just about every facet of the Japanese war machine.
China
A small measure of revenge for Sian. I see at least 1 more IJA LCU coming up on the road from Nanyang so I'm hoping to finish the job before more reinforcements arrive.
Ground combat at 82,34 (near Lanchow)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 21012 troops, 112 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 539
Defending force 4527 troops, 37 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1
Allied adjusted assault: 435
Japanese adjusted defense: 5
Allied assault odds: 87 to 1
Assaulting units:
27th Chinese Corps
82nd Chinese Corps
Defending units:
6th Ind.Mixed Brigade
SWPAC
Big boo-boo on my part here, Formidable was covering a CA force that was sneaking up from Perth in a bid to take a shot at the CVEs lying at Koepang but I miscalculated and ended up within Betty range on the day pulse, I compounded this error when my opponent pointed out I was carrying out training flights on what is basically the front line. Oops. Also, thunderstorms prevented 40 Betties from flying so somebody up there really likes the RN.
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Broome at 61,127
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid detected at 71 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 24 minutes
Aircraft Attacking:
6 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 45cm Type 91 Torp
CAP engaged:
No.888 Sqn FAA with Martlet II (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
16 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 20000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 15 minutes
Training flight from No.888 Sqn FAA has been caught up in attack
Sub War
The ships on ASW duty in Suva have been banging away at the I-boats camping the hex every other turn and scored hits but they're either ineffective or inflicted negligible damage as the subs still there, I have a grand total of 2 dedicated minelayers on the whole map so deploying mines there won't be an option for a while, bloody parasites. On the bright side, the I-boats can't seem to hit the broad side of a barn (touch wood) so maybe it's better not to upset the status quo.
