The willing Admiral - RA 4.6 - Allies Dan Nichols(A) vs Cavalry(J)

[Dan Nichols]

New Guinea.

He has taken Port Moseby, very expensive for him since he sent continuous streams of BB and CA bombardment
TFs. That had to cost a lot of fuel and wear and tear on his ships. He has not taken Milne Bay or any of the islands
around there, but I expect him to rectify that in the near future.

South Pacific

As you can see in the picture, there has not been much movement here by Japan. I have not yet sent troops to
Luganville, but they are scheduled to move in the next few days. I have more than two divisions on New Caldonia
and the airfields at Efate are building nicely. Suva, Nadi, and Pago Pago are staffed with a good number of troops
and will be expensive to take if he tries.

[Dan Nichols]

It is getting late, so last update for tonight.

Aleutian Islands.

As you can see in the picture, he has taken three bases in the Western part of the
Aleutians. I am building Dora Harbor( 1 hex West of Cold Bay ) as a major air base
to help stage air units and provide a place for defense. Other bases in the area are
being built also, but Dora Harbor is the main base for now.

[JocMeister]

Welcome back! [8D]

[BBfanboy]

Looks like you have been defending well everywhere. SOPAC appears to be at least 4 months behind the usual IJN landing schedule. My guess is he has lost the initiative for expansion and must now defend. Any naval action worth mentioning?

[obvert]

Great job in China. How has he used the IJAAF there?

Your roadblocks seem to be keeping him out of the Sian area completely.

[Dan Nichols]

Hi Jocke, I think I am over a couple of persons replies.

BBfanboy, no major Naval actionss in the last couple of months. He did make a
second PH attack in April. He sank BB Maryland and damaged most of the others.
I did not have any CVs there so no great loss. He also at the same time ran
a BB TF to bombard Johnson Island and ran into a fleet sub. SS Pompano put one
Mk 14 into BB Krishima and observed a large explosion. BB Kirishima is still
listed on my sunk ship report.

Obvert, he has been using incessant bomber streams in China, but my guys have held.
I still think the biggest thing was after our short game, I started moving everyone
to better terrain on day one. No lingering about. That plus the stacking limits
certainly help.

[obvert]

The stacking limits are a major factor of course. Although even in the Greyjoy/Q-Ball game with stacking the Allies are having some difficulty in China, and slowly being ground down in those defensive hexes. It looks like you've chosen the right plan but also implemented it really well.

Do you feel there are weak spots he can exploit but hasn't gotten there since Singapore and other areas of the SRA took so long as well? I've heard the changes in game have slowed the movement of supply from Burma. Have you found that to be true or can you still push several 100k through the passes before the Japanese roll through there?

[Dan Nichols]

I think it is a number of things combined. He did not seem to immediately attack in China with full vigor. This allowed me
to move into better terrain and my units were able to repair disabled elements. A large percentage, about 50%, of most units
are disabled. Getting those in action is critical. I have not seen any units that start out unrestricted being used in
China, so it is just the starting forces plus what he has bought out from the Kwangtang Army. I was able to move about 150,000
supply to Rangoon before things got too hot. In my next game I intend to at least double that number.

In an email a couple of weeks ago, he indicated that he was about ready for a big move. I have no idea what that will be. I
am waiting to see if he is going to make a serious attack somewhere. He really doesn't have a lot of land power to make one,
considering he will need 5-7 divisions to take Palembang. The next month or so will let me know what I can do.

[Dan Nichols]

We have played the June 19-20, 1942 turn.

nothing much happened that turn.

Here is the intel screen for today
Things to note:
My air-2-Air losses are about 1.22 to 1. Not bad considering that I lost a lot of
buffaloes and Dutch fighters.
You can see the effect of the AAA changes that the Babes team did to this RA scenario.
I assume that his longer range and lower durability is reflected in his much higher
Ops loss numbers. I manage to get about 1530 sorties per ops loss. He gets only about
700 sorties per ops loss. Much of the destroyed on field for me was the first turn, he
got two days of attacks before I could give orders.
I have lost a number of ships, but that is to be expected. He sank just about all the ships
that start in the PI. And I have lost a number of CL and CA of the Dutch and British Navies
trying to slow him down in the SRA.

[Dan Nichols]

Here is the top two pages of total aircraft losses.
I like the fact that he has lost about twice as many A6M2 Zeros as I have
P-40Es. And 224 Betties is great, like killing those for sure.
I made a terrible mistake without knowing it. I had about 12 B-17E units at
Mohave Air base, but no aviation support. The were only on the map for two weeks
and I didn't move them. Most of them were damaged when I had to disband them, 36
aircraft were lost to ops losses. I didn't realize that would happen. Live and
learn I guess.

[Dan Nichols]

A few more days have gone by. Not a lot happening until this turn. My opponent made his first DA at Palembang today.
Ground combat at Palembang (48,91)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 60709 troops, 506 guns, 564 vehicles, Assault Value = 2147

Defending force 33046 troops, 314 guns, 200 vehicles, Assault Value = 955

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 3

Japanese adjusted assault: 1204

Allied adjusted defense: 2107

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

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(-), experience(-)
Attacker: disruption(-)

Japanese ground losses:
6111 casualties reported
Squads: 107 destroyed, 388 disabled
Non Combat: 23 destroyed, 52 disabled
Engineers: 20 destroyed, 69 disabled
Guns lost 66 (20 destroyed, 46 disabled)
Vehicles lost 43 (10 destroyed, 33 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
1567 casualties reported
Squads: 17 destroyed, 65 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 16 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 11 disabled
Guns lost 23 (5 destroyed, 18 disabled)
Vehicles lost 6 (1 destroyed, 5 disabled)
---------------
It is going to be a bloody affair.

[obvert]

It is going to be a bloody affair.

Yuck. That is going to try out badly for the Japanese. Curious to hear how trashed the place will be when he finally gets it.

[Dan Nichols]

Another boring turn. My opponent is not pleased with Palembang and the fact that refineries make supply in this mod. I didn't realize it until a couple of months ago myself, I thought they didn't.

[Dan Nichols]

A couple more boring turns. He is grinding down Palembang, but that was expected. It will
be interesting to see what shape it is in when he takes it. The last turn was for July 22, 1942. I still have
93,000+ supply and an AV of 738. Palembang is a swamp hex, +3 for terrain. And I still have level 3 forts.
The airfield, runway, and port are quite damaged and I expect he will keep them that way. He has done a couple
of small Naval Bombardment missions and damaged the facilities a bit, but not too much.

[Dan Nichols]

We just did the July 27-28, 1942 turn. It appears he crossed the river with a unit into
Palembang and caused a shock attack that was not good for him.

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 6773 troops, 213 guns, 103 vehicles, Assault Value = 1624

Defending force 29226 troops, 300 guns, 207 vehicles, Assault Value = 667

Japanese adjusted assault: 19

Allied adjusted defense: 1102

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 58 (fort level 3)

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

Japanese ground losses:
1396 casualties reported
Squads: 21 destroyed, 98 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 26 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 47 (16 destroyed, 31 disabled)
Vehicles lost 27 (2 destroyed, 25 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
98 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 10 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
--------------
The only new unit was the 2nd Maizuru Assault Division. He also unloaded a TF at Palembang
but I got no reports of any troops losses, so I expect he is moving supply in via Amphip TF.

No other exciting news to report. China is mostly quiet, I am trying to surround a small unit up
North by Hami, but that is just a side note. Right now he is using the majority of his bombers
to deal with Palembang. Roughly 630 2 and single engine bombers hit Palembang that turn. Mostly
2 engine, but some Naval DBs and TBs also. That came in 27 separate attacks. It does get a bit
boring hitting ESC so often.

My AV is shrinking, but I still have level 3 forts and the hex terrain is swamp for another +3.

[Dan Nichols]

After a long series of ground, air, and naval bombardments, he finally took Palembang on August 22, 1942. It would appear
that no damage was done when he took the base. The oil had been damaged by 92 and the refineries by 12 before he took
the base. I was hoping for some damage by my engineers, but he has fatigued, disrupted, and disabled they a lot. I am
content with the results. He has lost about 1,000,000 fuel that spoiled, 250,000 oil that did not produce and the many
lcu devices lost. He used a lot of supply and fuel to continually bombard the base. He also lost a number of small
xAKL, xAK, PB, APDs unloading troops and supplies directly into the hex to feed what I suppose was an overstack.

[obvert]

Interesting to see this result. Surprised there was not a lot of damage to the facilities from the time the siege took. Still, you've done very well here. All of that oil/fuel lost is a killer, plus the other stuff and the time allocated for those troops as well.