The Hive - Cruft PBEM (Japan, Scen 2 Beta + Stacking Limits)

[Captain Cruft]

Mar 6 1943

Upon further inspection I see that I have about another 1m tonnes of spare fuel scattered around various places not mentioned above. Which is nice.

Tarawa is now at 2/3 and Tabituea is at 3/3. No offensive activity from either base thus far. My Rufe pilots are itching for a fight ...

[Captain Cruft]

Mar 8 1943

Around 60 B-24s out of Rabaul attacked the airfield at Ponape. As before at Truk, the Zeros on CAP did really well, and despatched 13 of the evil 4E beasties. However, the bombers did do some considerable damage, with 9 Zeroes being shot down and another 18 planes (Nells, Jakes, Kates & Tinas) destroyed on the ground. The airfield is not shut down though, and I have moved another Zero unit in for next turn.

In China, next turn will feature a cross-river shock attack at Hengyang and a massed tank deliberate attack at Shaotang.

[Captain Cruft]

Mar 9 1943
[font="Courier New"]
HI: 1.194m
Fuel: 6.316m
Ready aircraft: 4,327
Ship losses: 1 x DD, 8 x E, 6 x APD, 5 x SS
[/font]
Hengyang falls, there was only one Chinese unit there ... Shaoyang will take a bit longer.

All quiet elsewhere.


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Ground combat at Shaoyang (80,52)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 28427 troops, 462 guns, 2281 vehicles, Assault Value = 1332

Defending force 85128 troops, 512 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3321

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Japanese adjusted assault: 840

Allied adjusted defense: 891

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 2)

Combat modifiers
Defender: preparation(-), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
897 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 118 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 43 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 62 disabled
Guns lost 45 (2 destroyed, 43 disabled)
Vehicles lost 145 (6 destroyed, 139 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
756 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 122 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled

Assaulting units:
2nd Tank Division
1st Tank Division
7th Ind.Tank Brigade
Guards Tank Division
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
20th Ind. Engineer Regiment
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
5th Mortar Battalion

Defending units:
26th Chinese Corps
18th Chinese Corps
10th Chinese Corps
9th Prov Chinese Corps
50th Chinese Corps
79th Chinese Corps
3rd New Chinese Corps
28th Chinese Corps
25th Chinese Corps
2nd Prov Chinese Corps
12th Group Army
56th AT Gun Regiment

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Ground combat at Changsha (82,52)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 1640 troops, 107 guns, 116 vehicles, Assault Value = 3606

Defending force 77084 troops, 349 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3094

Allied ground losses:
21 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Assaulting units:
36th Division
13th Division
60th Division
26th Division
6th Division
34th Division
15th Division
40th Division
71st Division
8th Division
3rd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
11th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
14th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Army
12th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion

Defending units:
63rd Chinese Corps
6th Construction Regiment
78th Chinese Corps
99th Chinese Corps
87th Chinese Corps
5th Construction Regiment
72nd Chinese Corps
94th Chinese Corps
70th Chinese Corps
100th Chinese Corps
14th Construction Regiment
27th Group Army
17th Chinese Base Force

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Ground combat at Hengyang (80,53)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 25836 troops, 308 guns, 68 vehicles, Assault Value = 917

Defending force 9594 troops, 58 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 411

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 1

Japanese adjusted assault: 1190

Allied adjusted defense: 6

Japanese assault odds: 198 to 1 (fort level 1)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Hengyang !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(+), disruption(-), preparation(-), supply(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
171 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 30 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled

Allied ground losses:
7334 casualties reported
Squads: 296 destroyed, 196 disabled
Non Combat: 94 destroyed, 58 disabled
Engineers: 21 destroyed, 3 disabled
Guns lost 43 (21 destroyed, 22 disabled)
Units retreated 1

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
22nd Division
116th Division
1st Mortar Battalion
4th Mortar Battalion
1st Art.Mortar Regiment

Defending units:
67th Chinese Corps

[Captain Cruft]

Time to dump some stuff out ...

First, air losses. You can see that Japan is losing the air war quite badly, but the key point is that it can afford to do so given Scen 2's uber-economy.

[Captain Cruft]

Air pools and production.

[Captain Cruft]

Intel screen.

[Captain Cruft]

Some key bases ...

Tsushima just hit fort level 7.

[Captain Cruft]

Iki-shima has a way to go yet ...

[Captain Cruft]

Manila.

[Captain Cruft]

Brunei is a fleet base. It has 2nd Fleet Naval HQ and I do not extract any fuel.

[Captain Cruft]

Singapore.

[Captain Cruft]

Babeldoab has 3rd Fleet HQ.

[Captain Cruft]

Ulithi has 8th Fleet.

[Captain Cruft]

Guam is home to Southeast Area Fleet.

[Captain Cruft]

Saipan.

[Captain Cruft]

Truk is home to both 4th Fleet and 11th Air Fleet.

[Captain Cruft]

Kwaj.

[Captain Cruft]

Finally, a picture of the key area of the map.

[Captain Cruft]

Mar 10 1943
[font="Courier New"]
HI: 1.199m
Fuel: 6.295m
Ready aircraft: 4,298
Ship losses: 1 x DD, 8 x E, 6 x APD, 5 x SS
[/font]
I thought I would try another deliberate attack at Changsha since he had moved about half his troops out to the west. Well, unfortunately he moved them back in again just in time for my assault. Ouchie.

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Ground combat at Changsha (82,52)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 108812 troops, 1080 guns, 404 vehicles, Assault Value = 3637

Defending force 128819 troops, 679 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 4716

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 4

Japanese adjusted assault: 3222

Allied adjusted defense: 8889

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 4)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), op mode(-), preparation(-)
experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
13329 casualties reported
Squads: 211 destroyed, 1738 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 144 disabled
Engineers: 7 destroyed, 70 disabled
Guns lost 150 (7 destroyed, 143 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1637 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 65 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 108 disabled
Engineers: 36 destroyed, 18 disabled

Assaulting units:
71st Division
40th Division
60th Division
13th Division
26th Division
15th Division
36th Division
6th Division
34th Division
8th Division
11th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
2nd Army
2nd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment
12th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
3rd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
14th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
13th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion

Defending units:
6th Construction Regiment
65th Chinese Corps
99th Chinese Corps
3rd Chinese Cavalry Corps
63rd Chinese Corps
11th Construction Regiment
100th Chinese Corps
94th Chinese Corps
5th Chinese Cavalry Corps
5th Construction Regiment
74th Chinese Corps
72nd Chinese Corps
70th Chinese Corps
16th Construction Regiment
62nd Chinese Corps
78th Chinese Corps
87th Chinese Corps
14th Construction Regiment
27th Group Army
16th Group Army
23rd Group Army
17th Chinese Base Force
14th Chinese Base Force
25th Group Army
11th Chinese Base Force
2nd Chinese Base Force
18th Chinese Base Force
7th Artillery Regiment
7th War Area
3rd War Area
32nd Group Army
29th Group Army
10th Group Army
4th Heavy Mortar Regiment

[Captain Cruft]

Mar 30 1943
[font="Courier New"]
HI: 1.300m
Fuel: 6.440m
Ready aircraft: 4,289
Ship losses: 1 x DD, 8 x E, 6 x APD, 5 x SS
[/font]
Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been distracted with playing DC:CB, which is a great game if you haven't checked it out. We have still been churning out the daily turns though.

I have taken Changsha, which marks the end of offensive operations in China except for Operation Yak.