Where the eastern wind is blowing... AAR against Canoerebel

[Hortlund]

D -1

We are ashore! And we will capture the base on D-Day!

Very little action today. I was expecting to have the kitchen sink thrown at me, but no air-attacks whatsoever.

Notice that paratrooper unit among the landing forces? Day after tomorrow, they will wreak havoc deep inside Indian territory...

[pws1225]

Banzai!

[Wirraway_Ace]

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

D -1

We are ashore! And we will capture the base on D-Day!

Very little action today. I was expecting to have the kitchen sink thrown at me, but no air-attacks whatsoever.

Notice that paratrooper unit among the landing forces? Day after tomorrow, they will wreak havoc deep inside Indian territory...

PjH
Banzai, but...The divisions are significantly under strength. Were they completely unloaded when the screen shot was taken?

Mike

[Ingtar]

I am now reading both sides, so no comments from me except that seeing this from both sides is wildly amusing.

[Hortlund]

ORIGINAL: Wirraway_Ace

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

D -1

We are ashore! And we will capture the base on D-Day!

Very little action today. I was expecting to have the kitchen sink thrown at me, but no air-attacks whatsoever.

Notice that paratrooper unit among the landing forces? Day after tomorrow, they will wreak havoc deep inside Indian territory...

PjH
Banzai, but...The divisions are significantly under strength. Were they completely unloaded when the screen shot was taken?

Mike

They are not unloaded, in fact Im surprised that so many AVs got ashore this turn. They were 9-10 hexes out yesterday. Normal movement 5/4 but they made a full-speed run to get to the beaches as fast as possible.

[Cribtop]

Oh, my. [:D]

[Hortlund]

As could be expected, lots of action today. It seems most of the allied airforce is based at Calcutta, all the attacks flew from there.

My Zeros really held their own. The kill-ratio for today was 80 kills for 5 losses.

The allies came in wave after wave, mostly during the AM-phase. The first raid penetrated the CAP 18 SBDs and 15 TBDs escorted by 4 Buffalos. They scored bomb hits on the two CVEs escorting the invasion fleet. They paid a heavy price though, of the 33 attacking bombers only 1 (!) made it home.

Then 10 Swordfish came in unescorted...they all perished. Although some got through to an attack run first.

After the two big battles came Bleinheims escorted by Hurricanes. By the looks of things Canoe was LRCAP:ing Chittagong.

In the PM-phase, another handful of SBDs came, I think they were 5-6 in total, but they managed to penetrate the CAP and put two bombs in the remaining CVE.

Both CVEs should be gone, they are disbanded in port, but they are both on fire.

We took Chittagong, and now the race to the paratroopers to the north is on.

Those paratroopers are having a real Arnhem up there. They have held for three days now against shock attacks by the armored brigade they first threw out of the hex. I have another para-unit marching up the road to link up with them. Amazing, this is warmovie-material.


I lost two CVEs and a handful of transports in this offensive. On the plus-side I think we have bled most of the Indian airforce dry. At least the dangerous units. There really cant be much left of those USN-airunits now. The Swordfish are gone, the Vildebeeste went out during the battles of Palembang in the early days of the war.

My two Zero units were rebased to Burma, I think they have something like 15 exp 80+ pilots between them now. They will have a well-earned R&R, while two new fighter units take up position at Chittagong. We can expect heavy airbattles up here.

The supply-situation in Burma is so-so, mostly because this had to be a fast operation. I had no time to ship in supplies in advance. While the battle for northern India commences other units will attack Port Blair, Akyab and Cox Bazaar, and fresh supplies will be brought in. My main objective has already been achieved though. As long as those paratroopers hold the line at Arnhem, there are no supplies flowing to the Indian airbases flying supplies to China.

[Hortlund]

The battle for Tezpur. Is this our Arnhem, or is it Pegasus Bridge?

[Hortlund]

Orders:

NE India
Move north to cut railline. After that is achieved, commence strat-bombing campaign on Indian industry.

Malaya/Sumatra
38th Div ordered to clear out Port Blair, after that, Sumatra. Then Singapore. Goal is to "roll back" from NE India, removing all allied bases.

Java/NEI
Clear out last pockets of resistance at Java, after that, forces relocate to Singapore.

North Pacific
Prepare defence. My hunch tells me this is where the first counterattack will strike.

South East Pacific/Australia
Grab what can be grabbed, then dig in.

China
Cut off Lanchow from rest of China. After that, reposition for the offensive battles in the center.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

Orders:

NE India
After that is achieved, commence strat-bombing campaign on Indian industry.

May I ask what is the objective with this move?

[Hortlund]

Victory points. And lots of them.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

Victory points. And lots of them.

I thought that was your intent, but I didn't want to presume.

The manual (Section 17.0, page 264 in PDF) says:

Industry damage – Two VPs per point damaged, 20 VPs per point destroyed (an item destroyed
when damaged will yield 18 more VPs). Industry can only be destroyed by firestorms and
A-bombs, but can be damaged by any type of attack (including firestorms and A-bombs). VPs
scored by damaging industry is cumulative; if an industry hex is bombed, damaged, repaired,
then bombed again, the player keeps earning VPs as long as the industry hex keeps generating
value by repairing itself.
This is true for all industry types including manpower.
Points will only be scored by the Allies for bombing industry in mainland Japan, and by the
Japanese for bombing industry in North America, Australia, and/or Hawaii.

[PaxMondo]

I can confirm, no VP's earned for strat bombing in India for IJ.

[Coach Z]

Sorry for the lateness of my question but I'm planning my own JApanese !st Turn and opening moves.

But what units did you use to take Palembang?

[Hanzberger]

Great AAR PH, late to the party but I am pulling for ya~!
First a comment on the recent posts. Why have you stopped bombing in NOPAC? I thought it was a brilliant idea to take Alaska, almost a sucker punch. Or was the whole strategy merely to stop him from doing a northern advance?
2) How is the R+D looking? getting close to any new toys?
3) How about a screen shot of western China. IMO, and hopefully Pax will comment, I think this is the weak side of things in China and can cause some real headaches for the AFB's. If you can take both flanks, I think the center dies.
BANZAI~!

[Hortlund]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

I thought that was your intent, but I didn't want to presume.

The manual (Section 17.0, page 264 in PDF) says:

Industry damage – Two VPs per point damaged, 20 VPs per point destroyed (an item destroyed
when damaged will yield 18 more VPs). Industry can only be destroyed by firestorms and
A-bombs, but can be damaged by any type of attack (including firestorms and A-bombs). VPs
scored by damaging industry is cumulative; if an industry hex is bombed, damaged, repaired,
then bombed again, the player keeps earning VPs as long as the industry hex keeps generating
value by repairing itself.
This is true for all industry types including manpower.
Points will only be scored by the Allies for bombing industry in mainland Japan, and by the
Japanese for bombing industry in North America, Australia, and/or Hawaii.

Oh...that was somewhat unexpected.

Is there any reason to go after the HI anyway? Im thinking supply production, but on the other hand, there isnt enough fuel in India anyway to use all those HI, right?

[Hortlund]

ORIGINAL: Coach Z

Sorry for the lateness of my question but I'm planning my own JApanese !st Turn and opening moves.

But what units did you use to take Palembang?

I used a mix of units that all start in taskforces with the movement bonus. Also I load units from Samah and Cam Rahn on fast transports (speed above 14kts). I used the CVL that starts in a warp TF at Babeldaob to move and meet up with these units just north off Singkawang/Kuching. And the BBs and CAs that usually protect the Kota Bharu landings.

Of all these units I create several SCTFs to screen the invasion forces, one CVTF and one SCTF to stay in the same hex as the transports. There are alot of allied surface combat ships avaliable in this region from day 1 of the war, so it is important to have several SCTFs that can block any movement towards the transport TFs, and it is also important to have heavy enough SCTFs with the transports (in a separate SCTF) to be able to handle PoW and Repulse.

I think you can get about 250 AV from various units this way, more than enough to take Palembang if you land within a week.

[Hortlund]

ORIGINAL: Hanzberger

Great AAR PH, late to the party but I am pulling for ya~!
First a comment on the recent posts. Why have you stopped bombing in NOPAC? I thought it was a brilliant idea to take Alaska, almost a sucker punch. Or was the whole strategy merely to stop him from doing a northern advance?
2) How is the R+D looking? getting close to any new toys?
3) How about a screen shot of western China. IMO, and hopefully Pax will comment, I think this is the weak side of things in China and can cause some real headaches for the AFB's. If you can take both flanks, I think the center dies.
BANZAI~!

Thanks!
1) I have stopped bombing because there is no cost-efficiency right now. Canoe has hundreds of fighters on CAP. Im going to start building up the bases to prepare for the counterattack right now. Im expecting this area to be the first area where Canoe goes in the offensive.

2) I should get the Tojo sometime in April I think, two months before schedule.

3) right now Im moving for the northern flank. After that, the plan is to regroup and attack in the center. There is an opening right now that may mean I can take Siam, Im thinking about it.

[Hortlund]

Also note that Canoe has abandoned Nanyang.

[Historiker]

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

I thought that was your intent, but I didn't want to presume.

The manual (Section 17.0, page 264 in PDF) says:

Industry damage – Two VPs per point damaged, 20 VPs per point destroyed (an item destroyed
when damaged will yield 18 more VPs). Industry can only be destroyed by firestorms and
A-bombs, but can be damaged by any type of attack (including firestorms and A-bombs). VPs
scored by damaging industry is cumulative; if an industry hex is bombed, damaged, repaired,
then bombed again, the player keeps earning VPs as long as the industry hex keeps generating
value by repairing itself.
This is true for all industry types including manpower.
Points will only be scored by the Allies for bombing industry in mainland Japan, and by the
Japanese for bombing industry in North America, Australia, and/or Hawaii.

Oh...that was somewhat unexpected.

Is there any reason to go after the HI anyway? Im thinking supply production, but on the other hand, there isnt enough fuel in India anyway to use all those HI, right?

90 oil and 90 refinery in Ledo.

Propably better to turn off the refinery and let the oil be sucked into Burma and then to Indochina and Malaya.

But you may capture a few hundred thousand fuel. Still, the gain is rather limited.