Hairy Asian Experiences - GreyJoy (J) vs. Q-Ball (A)

[obvert]

If he's in the Aleutians, that's great. A very good place for you to fight, as his retreat is difficult should you catch his ships there. Plus, if he takes something, you can always to take it back. Not much he can do once the KB is there.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: obvert

If he's in the Aleutians, that's great. A very good place for you to fight, as his retreat is difficult should you catch his ships there. Plus, if he takes something, you can always to take it back. Not much he can do once the KB is there.

I'm not that confident obvert. He has 5 US CVs by now, plus at least 1 brit CV ( the indomitable who took a torp near pago pago two months ago) . That means something like 550 planes...equal numbers with the full KB ( and i have zuikaku in the yards) .
The japanese aleutinas haven't an air HQ, nor any heavy LCU ( just naval guards units) .

Why should i risk a 1-1fight without my LBA cover?

[obvert]

Depends on if they are all there I guess. It seems you've committed to moving the KB up there. Why move it then if you've decided not to use it?

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Depends on if they are all there I guess. It seems you've committed to moving the KB up there. Why move it then if you've decided not to use it?

My fear isn't for the aleutinas, but for the kuriles! If he puts a foot there it would be a disaster right now, cause i'm not ready to defend them yet without the KB.
While the solomons and NG can defend themself for the first week after the initial assault...

[GreyJoy]

The aleutinas are, for my strategy, just a delaying ground. Too exposed, imho, to be defended well in 1942 . For a decent defence you need air HQs, base forces, engineers and planes.... All assets that i don't have at disposal right now. Especially engineers and base forces... Same goes for northern oz...is a delaying ground...cannot really contest it if he decides to go for it seriously... Dn't have the supplies, and the base forces needed to develop and build all those juicy bases....it's a shame, i know, to conquer ground with blood and then leave it easily conquerable...but i feel i have no choice right now.

[Grfin Zeppelin]

Finally I catched up after three days reading this AAR. Its a blast again And your progress in China is very impressive.
Also let me say that you did a really good job in managing Japan. first time eh ? o.O You learn really really fast.

Thanks alot for this nice written AAR (now to Cribtops and Canorebels.....missing a few months worth of reading.)

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

The aleutinas are, for my strategy, just a delaying ground. Too exposed, imho, to be defended well in 1942 . For a decent defence you need air HQs, base forces, engineers and planes.... All assets that i don't have at disposal right now. Especially engineers and base forces... Same goes for northern oz...is a delaying ground...cannot really contest it if he decides to go for it seriously... Dn't have the supplies, and the base forces needed to develop and build all those juicy bases....it's a shame, i know, to conquer ground with blood and then leave it easily conquerable...but i feel i have no choice right now.

If you want to give him a surprise up there, the 5th Fleet supports torps for your Netties. I moved mine to Adak for a while.

[GreyJoy]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Jun 18, 42

Too late for any surprise i guess Obvert... We're facing what it seems to be a full scale invasion of the Aleutinas. BBs, APs, AKs, CVs... many and many TFs are spotted...even if the identification of all those TFs isn't precise, you can bet QBall has moved there everything but the kicthen sink.

Ok, let's face it: he outplayed me here. All those recons and those ships movements in SOPAC and at Syney were all just baits to drive my attention there, while his target was in up north...
Well played. Ok. I think, however, that this is not completely a seatback. I'll lose ground, for sure. The Kuriles will be far more exposed now, for sure. His subs will have a short trip from Addak to HI, for sure. But we're also not losing anything strategic. Some 10 Naval guards units, 3 base forces and 4 AA units... i can live without them.

In the meanwhile, his presence there it means he's not attacking Tabiutea or PM anytime soon.

So here are my decisions: KB will turn around once again and regain its position in the Mariannas, joining and melting with mini-KB, while Shokaku will reach the Zuikaku to get her upgrades at Hiroshima.
The 56th Division will be moved to Rabaul, while an Air HQ will be placed at Makin Island. Kusiae and Eniwetok will be garrisoned with engineers and we'll also garrison Ocean Island and the nearby places.
More air units will be transfered to the Mariannas (4 IJA bomber sentais and 3 Oscar Sentais)

In China we took Lanchow...with 90 oil and 90 rafineries factories completely undamaged [:D]. Now we'll push forward towards Sining with 35,000 men, while the rest of my Northern Armies will be reorganized and sent back to the central front.

The 48th Division arrived in Burma, along with the last regiment of the 55th Div. These big units will free the 18th and the 5th in their guarding role so that the whole 25th Army will be free to march towards Paoshan (western China).
In one week the first 100k supplies will be unloaded at Rangoon...so the air war will be raging again there!

Balikapan is ready to be invaded from Samarinda

The 53rd Division is ordered to be moved to Shimushiri Jiima, that will become my main base in the Kuriles.

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Ground combat at Lanchow (81,34)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 34093 troops, 365 guns, 451 vehicles, Assault Value = 1139

Defending force 24611 troops, 154 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 319

Japanese adjusted assault: 728

Allied adjusted defense: 315

Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Lanchow !!!

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

Japanese ground losses:
340 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 29 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Vehicles lost 18 (4 destroyed, 14 disabled)
Units pursuing 2


Allied ground losses:
8060 casualties reported
Squads: 299 destroyed, 32 disabled
Non Combat: 222 destroyed, 43 disabled
Engineers: 58 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 85 (64 destroyed, 21 disabled)
Units retreated 13
Units destroyed 3


Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
5th Armored Car Co
61st Infantry Brigade
3rd Tank Regiment
110th Division
13th Tank Regiment
23rd Tank Regiment
9th Tank Regiment
12th Tank Regiment
10th Tank Regiment
32nd Division
11th Tank Regiment
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st Army
Mongol Garrison Army
1st Mortar Battalion
14th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
5th Medium Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
34th Chinese Corps
3rd Chinese Corps
36th Chinese Corps
42nd Chinese Corps
55th Chinese Corps
19th Chinese Corps
82nd Chinese/B Corps
15th Chinese Base Force
8th War Area
7th Group Army
3rd Construction Regiment
22nd Group Army
6th Chinese Base Force
8th Chinese Base Force
6th Group Army
17th Chinese/A Corps

[ny59giants]

Nic - Do you know how to change the command of a base?? You will need to change some of yours in the Kuriles to "General Defense" command from 5th Fleet. This will allow you to base aircraft that are restricted to the Home Islands and Formosa there.

[obvert]

Wow. He does look to be going all-in up there. Good move.

You're absolutely right that it's not critical. It is important to think about the Kuriles now though. Move some of the bought out engineers from Manchuria there if you haven't yet. They're cheap but you'll need a lot with the winter rules half of the year. As long as nothing else major happens before October 1, you'll have a year to build up and reinforce the north.

It really does help to change your main Air HQ base in the Kuriles plus at least one other to General Defense. Then if something does happen all of those groups in Tokyo can shift easily over.

[GreyJoy]

Yes Micheal, i've tried to do what you suggested me few months ago. It didn't work as intended, but from that moment on, the 12th Air Flottilla (the one at which all the restricted air units in Japan are attached permanently) became "unrestricted" and so i was able to move in and out all those air units.... strange, i know[&:]
 
The 12th Air Flottila is now stationed at Shimushiri Jima, along with 36 Nells, 36 Zeros, 9 Mavis and 18 float planes...
 
The Kuriles are already pretty well built imho. Paramushiro is 1-4 (Port-AF) with 3 forts, Onnekotan is 1-3 with 3 forts, Shimushiri will be built up to its max in a couple of months now, after the arrival of the 53rd Division with all its engineers.
 
I've already bought out all the engineers and base forces i could from Korea and Manchukoku...but consider that in this Mod the typical eng small unit (the "contruction co") has 4 (FOUR) engineers!! ...it takes forever to build bases... the typical IJAF base force has 12 engineers...to do it properly at decent speeds you need to use the big Infantry units (bde or divs), that, as you know, are needed always somewhere else! It's a constant challenge!
 
 

[Cribtop]

Lanchow is absolutely key. Well done. You have deprived the Chinese economy of fuel while materially extending the time that Manchukuo's industry can operate on "domestic" sources.

[GreyJoy]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Jun 20, 21, 22 42

Yes my friends, the Allies brought nearly the whole Navy against Addak and another island southwest of it (can't remember the name now).
We had 230 AVs there, composed around 5 SNLF units, 3 AAs and one naval base force, behind 3 forts. Nearly 12,000 men in total.
Despte the decent AV, it has been immediately clear that the tiny naval infantry units didn't have the firepower to sustain the attack of 2 American Full Divisions, supported by a combat engineer unit.
The americans brought also 5 BBs, that pounded Addak two times in two days, while 200 bombers from a carrier TF (probably 5 american carriers, not less) pounded my troops.
The autobombardment clearly showed we had no hope to hold without any external support. The american counterbattery fire almost wiped out one of my SNLF unit...
However, we got a 1-2 on the 21st and, the following day, we repulsed a shock attack (1-1).-..but losses are so great that it's pretty sure tomorrow we'll fall....

It was a sad decision to let those brave guys die alone on that cold Island... but i cannot regret that decision. Too risky. Too exposed. Too little strategical possible gains.

The only good news is that one of our sub put a torp into CVL Hermes' belly...she will survive, but it feels good to have damaged her none the less.

Everywhere else is pretty calm... we finally bombed Manila with our BBs...[:D]...not a single ship suffered any damage and not a single enemy unit fired back...they are finally out of supply! Now we'll move in another division and we'll begin to attack.

The KB, after having left both Zuikaku and Shokaku at the yards to get their 6/42 upgrades (Radars! [:D]), the KB is now re-directing to the Marianns.

More supplies and more Tojos are flowing to Burma, while in China we're advancing towards Sining and getting ready for an attack at Chikkiang...

July will be interesting.

The Kuriles are being reinforced. The Addak destroyed units will be rebought and sent to the pacific, while the Kuriles will be guarded by 2 infantry divisions, divided into 6 regiments, along with several minor units (AA, base forces, HQs etc...)


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Night Naval bombardment of Adak Island at 162,52 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

1 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Allied Ships
BB Mississippi
BB Idaho
BB Nevada
BB Maryland

Japanese ground losses:
438 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 36 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Guns lost 8 (2 destroyed, 6 disabled)
Vehicles lost 2 (1 destroyed, 1 disabled)



Airbase supply hits 1
Port hits 3
Port supply hits 1

BB Mississippi firing at 7th Base Force
7th Base Force firing at BB Mississippi
BB Idaho firing at 7th Base Force
7th Base Force firing at BB Idaho
BB Nevada firing at Adak Island
BB Maryland firing at Adak Island


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Naval bombardment of Manila at 79,77

Japanese Ships
BB Ise
BB Fuso
BB Nagato
CA Suzuya
CA Mogami
CA Nachi


Allied ground losses:
672 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 26 disabled
Non Combat: 8 destroyed, 36 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 10 disabled
Guns lost 21 (1 destroyed, 20 disabled)
Vehicles lost 3 (2 destroyed, 1 disabled)


Manpower hits 3
Fires 1716
Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 21
Port hits 2
Port fuel hits 3


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Sub attack near Ulak Island at 161,55

Japanese Ships
SS I-29, hits 1

Allied Ships
CVL Hermes, Torpedo hits 1
DD Flusser

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Ground combat at Adak Island (162,52)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 21199 troops, 367 guns, 241 vehicles, Assault Value = 680

Defending force 10386 troops, 99 guns, 19 vehicles, Assault Value = 241

Allied adjusted assault: 380

Japanese adjusted defense: 155

Allied assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 3)

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), fatigue(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1572 casualties reported
Squads: 49 destroyed, 52 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 25 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Guns lost 29 (11 destroyed, 18 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
224 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 13 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 6 (1 destroyed, 5 disabled)


Assaulting units:
40th Infantry Division
27th Infantry Division
2nd AmphTrac Engineer Battalion

Defending units:
83rd Naval Guard Unit
89th Naval Guard Unit
41st Naval Guard Unit
48th Naval Guard Unit
11th Ind.AA Gun Co
1st Ind.AA Gun Co
43rd Const Co
3rd Air Defense AA Regiment
7th Base Force





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TF 327 encounters mine field at Merak (48,97)

Allied Ships
SS KX, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage[8D]





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Naval bombardment of Adak Island at 162,52

Allied Ships
BB Mississippi
BB Idaho
BB Nevada
BB Maryland

Japanese ground losses:
67 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Vehicles lost 2 (2 destroyed, 0 disabled)



Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 3
Port hits 2

BB Mississippi firing at Adak Island
BB Idaho firing at 7th Base Force
BB Nevada firing at Adak Island
BB Maryland firing at 7th Base Force



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Ground combat at Makassar (65,106) We're finally isolating Balikapan

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 3612 troops, 38 guns, 4 vehicles, Assault Value = 116

Defending force 1964 troops, 18 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 60

Japanese adjusted assault: 46

Allied adjusted defense: 11

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

Japanese forces CAPTURE Makassar !!!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
Do-24K-1: 2 destroyed

Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(-), fatigue(-), morale(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
160 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 13 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Allied ground losses:
834 casualties reported
Squads: 16 destroyed, 26 disabled
Non Combat: 13 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 9 (4 destroyed, 5 disabled)
Units retreated 3


Assaulting units:
Sasebo 3rd SNLF
Sasebo 8th SNLF

Defending units:
Kendari Garrison Battalion
Makassar Garrison Battalion
12th Avn Sup Afd


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Ground combat at Adak Island (162,52)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 22885 troops, 366 guns, 244 vehicles, Assault Value = 660

Defending force 9067 troops, 89 guns, 17 vehicles, Assault Value = 154

Allied adjusted assault: 342

Japanese adjusted defense: 193

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

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), fatigue(-)

Japanese ground losses:
1116 casualties reported
Squads: 26 destroyed, 40 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 24 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 4 disabled
Guns lost 19 (11 destroyed, 8 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
579 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 47 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled


Assaulting units:
40th Infantry Division
27th Infantry Division
2nd AmphTrac Engineer Battalion

Defending units:
89th Naval Guard Unit
41st Naval Guard Unit
83rd Naval Guard Unit
48th Naval Guard Unit
11th Ind.AA Gun Co
3rd Air Defense AA Regiment
1st Ind.AA Gun Co
43rd Const Co
7th Base Force

[Gridley380]

Still only June, no 'Midway', and the Allies are on the offensive? Bold.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Gridley380

Still only June, no 'Midway', and the Allies are on the offensive? Bold.

Sure he's been bold. And sneaky too! He got me out of position with my assets and caught me with my pants down. It's also true that The Aleutinas are very far away from the center of gravity of the Empire and, in mid june 42, we haven't the strenght to garrison properly every area. We had placed 230 AVs there...thought it was enough... facts prooved me wrong [8|]

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Lanchow is absolutely key. Well done. You have deprived the Chinese economy of fuel while materially extending the time that Manchukuo's industry can operate on "domestic" sources.

Yes, now China's industry is in decent shape.

I'm now wondering if it's worth to push any further than Sining... up there there are some lightly garrisoned bases with some oil...but probably it's too far away and that oil won't never reach anyway the Sian Area... so is it worth?

[crsutton]

I think you did the correct thing. The Allies have very little invasion type ships in mid 42 and he obviously took them all up North.

So, now you know where he is "not" going to invade for the time being and can plan accordingly.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

I think you did the correct thing. The Allies have very little invasion type ships in mid 42 and he obviously took them all up North.

So, now you know where he is "not" going to invade for the time being and can plan accordingly.

Well, i don't know if it was the right decision not to intervene... it was a forced decision to say the truth... my CVs were all out of position and i didn't have the chance to move any LBA up there (not having an Air HQ present in the area). My CVs would have arrived late and possibly when the allied had already estabilished a fighter base force at Addak... no, too risky.

Now we're moving south again...KB's approaching the Caroline Is.....


....till june 27

The Amerikans, after a couple of days of rest, obtained a 3-1 at Addak, conquering the base and so finishing this brief and succesfull (for them!) campaign. The only thing we could do was sending a sub flottilla based at Tokyo.
Our brave subs managed to put a couple of torps into the british CV Illustrious and 2 more into CL Releigh. The latter should be in sinking conditions, while i doubt the sturdy british CV will sink...but she'll need some R&R for sure.
Our garrison at Addak, after having lost the base, shock attacked in order to save the honour... few more days and there won't remain any japanese alive on that icy rock

The allies are building Exmouth (NW of Oz)...this will surely be an active front very soon i fear....

In China the japanese supply situation is getting worse...sending some more supplies there before resuming the attacks against Chikkiang.

As said, the KB is approaching Truk, trying to avoid the huge number of enemy subs that are infesting the waters around the Mariannas...

Supply situation is overall very bad. Java has, in total, 18k supplies. Northern Oz 5k... The whole Malaya 30k...China 70k.... Japan 400k.... we're doing our best to keep the empire aive but the whole empire has only 2milions of supplies... simply not enough to fight, build and repair the R&D industries. I really hope to finish the chinese campaign soon, so that we can concentrate on creating a decent defensive perimeter.

The Kuriles are now safe, imho, with the equivalent of 2 divisions guarding them.

...hopefully this weekend will be able to post some datas (maps, industry etc...)

[GreyJoy]

Burma...
I count 300 bombers and 400 enemy fighters in southeastern India... i can master 300 fighters in Burma...not more... and the main problem now is, with the monsoon season, everything north of Mandalay is out of supplies and there's no way to make them move any further! While the allies, having built their assam bases, will not have this problem. This means i cannot project any kind of airpower towards the enenmy's AFs.

I'm also considering moving out the IJN daitais from Burma... those pilots are too precious to be left there waiting to be killed by the enemy's masses that will surely arrive anytime soon.
I'm thinking about substituting the zeros with the Nicks, leaving only IJA air units to defend Burma... so to say 200 Tojos and 100 Nicks... The Nick, so far, has performed really well and i discovered that there are quite a lot of units able to be upgrade to Nicks (basically all the 1E bombers can upgrade to Nick)

I'll try to develop these concepts a little bit more in the nearby future...

[obvert]

With my IJN groups I also moved them out of Burma for a while. Some are back there now, though, just for more numbers and in anticipation of the new fighters soon.

It's probably a good idea to gut some of the extra elite groups and add in newly trained pilots around now. I kept only 1/3 elite pilots, put in 2/3 pilots trained to 50/70. Those guys get experience fast in Burma, and now I'm having to do this again with some groups to conserve experienced guys for better airframes and also to get them onto CVs.