Ah forgot about this. After months of on again and off again recon we decide to send the Paras in to take an apparently undefended Tezpur which is a key node on the Indian transport system. Unfortunately for us on that day enemy forces were railing through the area, a bit of a suprise for the Staff officers of the Eastern Fleet!
Ground combat at Tezpur (60,36)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 715 troops, 7 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 48
Defending force 8397 troops, 59 guns, 1 vehicles, Assault Value = 133
Japanese adjusted assault: 21
Allied adjusted defense: 85
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 4 (fort level 0)
Combat modifiers Defender: op mode(-), leaders(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)
I have longed admired the way you and your partner Tony play this game Jr.
I know broken China gets a lot of play with many but something just doesn't look right with the loss of Burma in 1943. I'm not speaking about your game play guys just the way the program is set up. On another note the Burma Railway and other improved infra structure in theater would not only help in defense but in retreat as well.
More than likely out of playability but I believe the developers have made the ease of supply flow into Burma and Monsoon effects too easy.
I wish you guys the best..Off the soapbox. [;)]
"There’s no such thing as a bitter person who keeps the bitterness to himself.” ~ Erwin Lutzer
While there certainly are issues with how things like the effect of Monsson is modelled you also need to look at the fact that in this game around 10-15 ADDITIONAL Allied dvisions and a large proportion of the best Allied Squadrons and pilots are employed here compared to real life.
As a consequence of this, and our modifications to production and troop numbers, any resemblance to the the real war is now meerly an unintended accident
What we are hoping to demonstrate is the employment of sound analysis of enemy intentions, consideration of options and how to develop a robust plan for defence.
Again though we would agree it would be nice to have stronger Monsoon effects; although I must say that what we have now does give us an efement of relief from air bombing and is forcing Andrew to sail in large protected convoys to Rangoon to feed the troops (which one day... maybe soon, we will try to interdict...). Those factors have given us enough to generate parity... although we are slowly being worn down... not unreasonable.
I suspect a different story with stacking limits too. Still, it's really hard to defend Burma. It's a shame it becomes the default Allied approach, however.
The problem with stacking limits will be having enough force to break Japanese... it just takes time to move around a stack...
At some point you will get routed... the key I think is to have a succesion of bases preping back into defence, rather than one massive base.
The last few days have been fairly quiet, we took a base next to Ledo in India... but it is more of an annoyance... although we did manage to CAP trap a few of his fighters... a little victory.
Here is the plan for our Defence.
Indications are that Andrew is pulling forces back from in front of Moulmein. They may be just recovering, however we are concenred that he may attempt some thrusts down the seaward flank.
So leaving about 1800 AV in Moulmein (which should recover to about 2200 or so behind 6 to 7 forts) and 1800 in the hex next to Moulmein we have pulled out two divs and two regiments to move into otehr defensive positions.
If he does land and takes the bases on the flank we will need to pull back from Moulmein. Our defences weill then split at around Bangkok. 2/3 will move to cover Malaysia, with the main defensive line at that first base on the left down from Bangkok.. The other 1/3rd will pull back via various routes to the Chinese border. Apart from some tokens and delay we don't intend to defend Bangkok, Saigon etc
Our aim is to try to keep the enemy north of Bangkok until April 1944... then the B-29 comes in and will be in range of our oil fields... and the war will change...
A recent arrival has the the "r" model of the Frank, we are now producing 500 a month!
All the action continues in Burma, although Suva finally fell when the supplies ran out, and there again is movement on the North East Australia coast...
Large well escorted enemy convoys (with CVE/CVL class vessels) continue to escort convoys to Rangoon. The CA bombardments of Moulmein have mostly ceased, the effect was minimal on us. Elsewhere our ground forces are holding... just... however this has given us time to build up our next line of defence and pull troops back from Moulmein. Moulmein is now over 1800 AV and we have pulled out 3 Divs.
Andrew has been doing the occasional sweep and recon around the place. He swept and reconed Chumphun in Thailand, which is one of our main bases and was full of fighters recovering/training. Sensing he was likely to return I put the fighters on 30% CAP while they trained... a few days later the bombers show up
Of his three sweeps one came before the bombers, two came afterwards. The base is heavily trashed, and unfortunately our first "r" model Frank unit was caught on the ground during its conversion process
06 Jan 1944
Today Andrew undertook the least dangerous to us of of the corses of action available to him by invading Moulmein from the sea.
With massive sea and air bombardment in support he landed... note the high losses in AFV, this is key to us as our AFV defences aren't great. Pity there aren't enough CD units to go round
1412 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Allied Ships
CA Frobisher
CA Hawkins
CA Minneapolis
CA Astoria
CA Northampton
DD Dewey
DD Balch
DD Lang
DD Russell
DD McCalla
DD Thatcher
DD Murray
DD LaVallette
DD Kimberly
APA Du Page
DD Dale
Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 2
Spitfire VIII x 16
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 27
F4U-1A Corsair x 12
F6F-3 Hellcat x 85
Allied aircraft
Spitfire VIII x 16
P-40K Warhawk x 10
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 27
F4U-1A Corsair x 18
F6F-3 Hellcat x 44
The Strikes:
Morning Air attack on 8th Division, at 55,55 (Moulmein)
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid detected at 79 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 19 minutes
Allied aircraft
Beaufighter VIc x 11
Hurricane IIc Trop x 15
Liberator B.III x 3
Vengeance I x 19
Wellington B.X x 3
DB-7B x 9
Kittyhawk IV x 12
B-24D1 Liberator x 6
B-24J Liberator x 15
B-25C Mitchell x 6
B-25D1 Mitchell x 55
P-40K Warhawk x 25
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 36
F4U-1 Corsair x 12
F4U-1A Corsair x 8
F6F-3 Hellcat x 69
Raid detected at 73 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 29 minutes
Allied aircraft
Vengeance I x 28
B-24D1 Liberator x 4
B-25C Mitchell x 12
B-25D1 Mitchell x 3
P-40K Warhawk x 10
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 18
F4U-1A Corsair x 6
F6F-3 Hellcat x 44
Allied aircraft
Liberator II x 9
Liberator B.III x 19
Spitfire Vc Trop x 16
Kittyhawk IV x 3
B-17F Fortress x 6
B-24D1 Liberator x 5
B-24J Liberator x 40
P-40K Warhawk x 10
P-40N5 Warhawk x 17
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 27
P-51A Mustang x 18
F4U-1A Corsair x 20
F6F-3 Hellcat x 75
Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 2
B-24J Liberator x 9
P-40K Warhawk x 10
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 36
F4U-1A Corsair x 18
F6F-3 Hellcat x 60
No Allied losses
Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 12
B-25D1 Mitchell x 11
P-40K Warhawk x 10
P-40N5 Warhawk x 16
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 27
F4U-1A Corsair x 18
F6F-3 Hellcat x 53
Tactically not a lot, have created some PT boats and SSX to try and disrupt and annoy the landing force. Otherwise we will continue to hold. At this stage our AV in Moulmein is still growing by 50-80AV a day as squads recover. Tactically this invasion is what we want to have happen... but it will hurt and at some stage we will rout, and it probably won't be pretty...
Operationally we have a dilema. We have a potent strike force of ground based strike aircraft, including around 150 single engined Jill TB, 120 Oscar IIa with high low naval attack, 120 Helen IIa with high Naval attack and about 100 Judy DB. In addition we have the 8 CV KB in strike range.
However this force is also protecting us from a deeper strike into Burma, Malaya or into Sumatra; which is far more dangerous to us than the slow grind at Moulmein....
I'm itching to send the roughly 800 strike aircarft and 300-400 fighters into battle... Andrew has around 300-500 fighters protecting the shipping... so it just ain't worth it.
Our strike is a one shot weapon, we currently have no depth of pilots (and limited aircraft) to recover...
So for the moment we will play it safe... sod it I like 'splodies!
Strategically this move complies with our intent to slow Andrew down and try to grind his ground forces on strongpoints while denying him the freedom to break out into our soft underbelly (because of the troops and ships he has committed here).
As we have largely halted him in Burma / Nth Thailand (and we have the fall back positions at Uttradit Raheng occupied in useful strength) we have freed up about two divs of forces that will soon concentrate at Singapore as our Strategic reserve.
In other News...
Logistics are not good.
Oil is down to 10 days, although about 10 days is about to be unloaded... but it will be at least 20-30 days before the next shipment. We are moving all that is available.
Fuel is at 50 Days, and lots more is coming.
Resources are at 133 days.
So we are shutting down even more convoys to minimise ship movement.
Supply is OK, but we are feeling the pressure of moving it to Singapore for use in Burma / Thailand.
HI has dropped from 5000 to 3000 points a turn as we have turned on more Armaments (when they got to around 105,000) and AFV (now around 8,000). We have stopped more ships, naval yards and turned off some engine production. The HI total is 1.3M.
Air production is going good. The Shinden is coming along nicely, although the engine for it is not as advanced, although soon that should change. The only other aircraft we have being developed of real interest is the Grace.
The latest Beta with the "coastal shipping" route option is awesome!
Attachments
194400107_..oduction.jpg (222.56 KiB) Viewed 238 times
Still my favourite AAR. It's great to see this one hit 1944 and provide a chance for us to see the late game. I've learned a lot following, so I want to thank you for the time and the informative posts explaining reasons behind your operations, tactics and production. Keep up the excellent gameplay and AAR.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
During this time things have been relatively stable until the last day. Andrew continues to concentrate in Burma with the bulk of his aircraft hitting the troops on our right flank. Last turn we did a nice ambush with the Frank "r" varient, having the altitude advantage was nice and we got a good haul. This turn though the troops finally rout out of the hex, we have been plesently suprised it has taken this long!
Ground combat at 60,53 (near Chiang Mai)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 24621 troops, 530 guns, 712 vehicles, Assault Value = 835
Defending force 16200 troops, 268 guns, 185 vehicles, Assault Value = 311
Assaulting units:
2/6th Armoured Regiment
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
3rd Motor Brigade
41st Infantry Division
2nd USMC Tank Battalion
9th Indian Division
XXXIII Indian Corps
Defending units:
12th Division
2nd RTA Division
5th/B Division
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
34th Field AA Battalion
15th Army
21st Medium Field Artillery Battalion
We are down to 200 AV, however this holding so long has enabled us to get a decent force into Uttaradit (now 1000 AV) and pull out of Chian-Mai gracefully. We only have one div still north of Uttaradit, along with the bulk of the Thai troops defending the approaches to Chiang-Mai.
Elsewhere in Burma we are slowly pulling troops out of Moulmein as the AV goes over 2000 AV. Forts are getting close to level 7.
Here is the current status in Burma. The yellow circle is where the battle last turn was fought. The purple where the Thai's and a single Japanese div are holding back another Allied Army.
His CV's have been nosing around Rangoon way, ours sortied out to show the flag, both sides then fell back. We are expecting an Amphib operation somewhere...
The area around Australia remains quiet, we sank one or two transports going into Perth via subs. otherwise the pattern of movements appear mostly random / administrative.
Just in case though a sub screen is out west of Port Hedland.
We have moved more force into the Kuriles and the bases continue to build over the winter months waiting for expected action in the spring. Our subs are patrolling these apparoaches.
In China we have systematically been destroying Chinese oil and light industry now that Jan 1944 is here (in accordance withour house rules). We are trying to remove China as a threat...
Aircraft production is going well and about half of the Army combat units are now in Frank "r" varients.
Logistics has slightly improved, although a lack of fuel and oil in China / Korea is sometimes shutting down industry.
HI is now only just keeping over the amount required and so almost no surplus is available. We have 1.36M banked though...
Indicators and Warnings
Long Range recon from the Adaman islands has detected interesting developments. Allied CV Tf detected heading back west towards two Allied Amphib (AP class) at Cochin.
Cochin is a good location to launch an invasion from, not on Ceylon, normally outside of recon / search range, on a rail line level 9 port and 6 airfield...
Therefore we are reviewing likely landing sites and starting to prepare. Sumatra is the greatest risk. So some forces are being moved around.
Subs
Burma
Typical night bombardment, the damage is cleared by the engineers:
Night Naval bombardment of Moulmein at 55,55
Allied Ships
CA Cornwall
CA Suffolk
CA Sussex
CA Shropshire
DD Allen
DD Kalk
DD Hobby
DD Stanly
DD Nicholas
Still my favourite AAR. It's great to see this one hit 1944 and provide a chance for us to see the late game. I've learned a lot following, so I want to thank you for the time and the informative posts explaining reasons behind your operations, tactics and production. Keep up the excellent gameplay and AAR.
Our AA cncentrations at Moulmein and Chiang Mai (now evacuated to Uttradit) have generally forced him to fly higher and be less effective... well as less effective as 150 4E bombers can be
We try to protect the shattered army on our right flank, those Spits are nasty, the Thuds worse The a model Frank was at 16000 the r at max.
Morning Air attack on 15th Army, at 60,54 , near Chiang Mai
Weather in hex: Heavy rain
Raid spotted at 47 NM, estimated altitude 35,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-84a Frank x 90
Ki-84r Frank x 47
Allied aircraft
Spitfire VIII x 13
Japanese aircraft losses Ki-84a Frank: 6 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses Spitfire VIII: 2 destroyed
Morning Air attack on 15th Army, at 60,54 , near Chiang Mai
Weather in hex: Heavy rain
Raid spotted at 28 NM, estimated altitude 35,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-84a Frank x 65
Ki-84r Frank x 45
The attack on Port Blair. Another 30 or so 4E come in in dribs and drabs.
Morning Air attack on Port Blair , at 46,58
Weather in hex: Clear sky
Raid detected at 78 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 25 minutes
Japanese aircraft
no flights
Allied aircraft
Liberator B.III x 26
Wellington GR.XIII x 7
B-17E Fortress x 9
B-17F Fortress x 9
B-24D1 Liberator x 26
B-24J Liberator x 55
F4U-1A Corsair x 34
Japanese aircraft losses
E13A1 Jake: 4 destroyed on ground
Hundreds of Allied aircraft take to the skies against no opposition. The bombers hit the defending forces (largely Thai) near Chiang Mai, and the forces on our right flank pulling back, here is a sample.
Morning Air attack on 5th/B Division, at 60,54 , near Chiang Mai
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes
Allied aircraft
Wellington B.X x 14
DB-7B x 6
B-25C Mitchell x 3
B-25D1 Mitchell x 30
P-40K Warhawk x 23
P-40N5 Warhawk x 16
Allied aircraft
Beaufort I x 3
Liberator B.III x 20
Wellington GR.XIII x 7
B-17E Fortress x 3
B-17F Fortress x 9
B-24D1 Liberator x 22
B-24J Liberator x 75
B-25C Mitchell x 3
F4U-1A Corsair x 54
Assaulting units:
3rd Motor Brigade
41st Infantry Division
193rd Tank Battalion
2/6th Armoured Regiment
2nd USMC Tank Battalion
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
9th Indian Division
XXXIII Indian Corps
Defending units:
12th Division
2nd RTA Division
5th/B Division
15th Army
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
34th Field AA Battalion
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
21st Medium Field Artillery Battalion
DEI
OZ
Pacific
The cheeky bastard gets a CL Tf in towards the inner arc, a transport TF evades it during the night, and a small strike unit takes off to deal with the intruders:
Morning Air attack on TF, near Agrihan at 111,84
Weather in hex: Partial cloud
Raid detected at 48 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes
Japanese aircraft
B6N2 Jill x 7
Japanese aircraft losses
B6N2 Jill: 2 damaged
Allied Ships
DD Warrington
CL Cleveland
Aircraft Attacking:
7 x B6N2 Jill launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Agrihan at 111,84
Weather in hex: Clear sky
Raid detected at 70 NM, estimated altitude 7,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 23 minutes
Japanese aircraft
B6N2 Jill x 7
Japanese aircraft losses
B6N2 Jill: 4 damaged
B6N2 Jill: 1 destroyed by flak
Allied Ships CL Cleveland, Torpedo hits 1
Tag! 70 Nell will move in next turn to try to get it.
Indicators and Warnings
Enemy CV forces have now moved out of our search arcs back further up the west Indian coast. We have increased assts in this area to track them if they come back.
Subs ASW attack near Laoag at 81,71
Japanese Ships
E W-29
E Hiyodori
Allied Ships
SS Herring, hits 7, heavy damage
Burma
Lots of uncontested sweeps and bombing of our land forces.
As anticipated Andrew tries to shut down our airbases supporting recon / search... The Tojo IIc do well against the bombers, but not so well when the fighters turn up. One guy does a "Kamikaze" into a bomber... not something we are trying to encourage with our pilots yet! Here are some of the attacks.
Afternoon Air attack on Little Andaman , at 44,59
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Raid spotted at 35 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 42
Allied aircraft
Liberator B.III x 13
Wellington GR.XIII x 4
B-17F Fortress x 4
B-24J Liberator x 20
Japanese aircraft losses Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 2 destroyed
G3M3 Nell: 1 destroyed on ground
We manage to fly out most of the Nell and half of the Tojo's , but the base it trashed. The kills on the 4E (around 40?) are worth it though.
DEI
OZ
Pacific
More minor landings around Fiji.
China
Moving stuff around and into position. We have managed to slip in behind his forces on the line in front of Chungking, he will have to react by moving troops, whcih we can then bomb to greater effect.. especially if he moves some out into the open...
Burma
Again lots of Allied aircraft against no opposition. Our crews are resting and training. The jungle provides cover enough, as long as you aren't moving...
Morning Air attack on 5th/B Division, at 60,54 , near Chiang Mai
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid spotted at 19 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes
Allied aircraft
Wellington B.X x 3
DB-7B x 6
B-17E Fortress x 3
B-25C Mitchell x 17
B-25D1 Mitchell x 64
P-40N5 Warhawk x 32
Japanese ground losses:
30 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Morning Air attack on 12th Division, at 60,54 , near Chiang Mai
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes
Allied aircraft
Beaufort I x 9
Liberator B.III x 6
B-17E Fortress x 6
B-17F Fortress x 6
B-24D1 Liberator x 9
B-24J Liberator x 48
F4U-1A Corsair x 50
Assaulting units:
1st Ind.Infantry Brigade
3rd Tank Division
2nd Tank Division
Defending units:
39th Chinese Corps
94th Chinese Corps
8th Chinese Corps
33rd Group Army
26th Chinese/B Corps
Several large convoys have arrived, or are about to arrive in Singapore. They bring the Guards Div (almost 600AV) some reconsituted Armoured units and some bases forces, plus lots of supply. The Div will form our operational reserve.
Also on the way are two new Air HQ these will go to Sumatra.
We are also pulling forces back from Moulmein (which will soon be level 7 forts) some all the way back to Malaya to try and generate another reserve of forces.
We are slowly loosing North Thailand, it has cost Andrew a month though... at this pace the war is one... Andrew knows this too so am expecting something "interesting" to happen soon. The spidery senses are tingling!
Assaulting units:
41st Infantry Division
3rd Motor Brigade
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
193rd Tank Battalion
2/6th Armoured Regiment
2nd USMC Tank Battalion
9th Indian Division
XXXIII Indian Corps
Defending units:
2nd RTA Division
12th Division
5th/B Division
15th Army
34th Field AA Battalion
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
21st Medium Field Artillery Battalion
DEI
OZ
Pacific
China
The current plan in North Thailand is to try and deny the use of Chiang Mai to the Allies by occupying it with a Japanese div and some Thais. They will get surrounded and may get killed off... So far the delay has allowed us to occumy and build a new defensive line at Uttradit.
This picture shows how we have pulled back and are forming defensive positions.
Wew aim to defend from Moulmein to Uttradit on the right as the main line of resistance. We are trying to do that economically to free up units to for a reserve and deal with any Amphib invasions to Sumatra / Malaya.
The Bangkok area will be lightly held as a delaying action to try and giv time for troops to pull back.
