Rise of the Sheep! JocMeister(A) vs. Obvert(J)

[JocMeister]

Update is coming sometime today. We only did two turns over the weekend. Fantastic weather here in Stockholm have meant I have had very little interest in the game. Also my game vs Joseph is starting to get interesting which is stealing more and more time!

[JocMeister]

14th-17th May -44

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have hit one of those motivational downs lately. Game has ground to an almost complete stop. We only got 3 turns done the last 4-5 days.

New Guinea
Erik had dedicated the KB to this area. As soon as a big TF approaches Sarmi he sends it in. I wonder how much fuel it burns!? [:D] This makes it impossible for me to reinforce Biak though. I have a big TF at Sarmi right now picking up the 2 IDs there. After that I will shift focus to DEI.

Darwin
I have recon of most bases north of Darwin. Erik is even thinner here than in New Guinea! [X(] Most bases are empty and those that has a garrison is never more then 10k men. The question is: Can I do the jump without CVs? With the KB protecting Biak I think I can. Darwin is now level 9 and I can get around 800 fighters here to LRCAP. Range will be big problem though. Can it be done?

Eniwetok
Assault ships has left PH with the rest of the fleet trailing. Erik has only 2k men on Eniwetok. No guns so probably just a BF! [X(] If so I will just do one quick strike from the air and sea before dumping the troops. I have 1 ID, 2 Tank BTLs 1 engineers RGT in the first wave. Should be enough. With Eniwetok secure I also have the possibility to get my CV fleet over the NG quite easily.

Marianas
First recon flight over Tinian show 2k men here! [X(] What the heck is he doing? [&:] Has he left everything empty in order to cover New Guinea and Burma? I´m stepping up preparations.

Burma
I hate Burma.

Strategic Bombing
I think I might be getting a hang of it. Oil at Lanchow is down by 60% after just one night. No AA there helps! [:)]

[Historiker]

Maybe he prepares for an invasion on the West Coast?

[Bullwinkle58]

This AAR desperately needs to start a new page.

Oh, yeah, 2k on Tinian?



LUUUUUUNNNNNNNCCCCCCHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! [:'(]

[Bullwinkle58]

OK, that didn't work. Do any of you The Thread lusers know how to force a new page?

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

OK, that didn't work. Do any of you The Thread lusers know how to force a new page?

I don't know for sure, but I suspect the number of posts determines the page change. Yours was #24 on the page. This will be #25. Maybe #26 starts a new page?

[JocMeister]

You think #26 is the magic number?

[JocMeister]

It wasn´t... [:D]

[JocMeister]

Marianas

More recon in. See screenshot. [X(]

I will REALLY speed this up. I´m going to pack two IDs with armor and engineers on xAKs and send them to Wake. It will burn supply like crazy but I´ll divert one of the 100 ship xAK TFs to Wake. As soon as the troops are dumped on Eniwetok I´ll head straight for Wake and pick them up. This would save 2-3 weeks of travel from Eniwetok and back.

Drawback is that I will have to be careful to not spend too many sorties on Eniwetok. It also means that CV Franklin will probably miss out on the invasion. But I have another 6 CVEs that will travel with the xAKs to Wake boosting numbers with 180 more fighters.

I think this is a really big opportunity and it justifies rushing in. Agreed? I don´t have enough lifting capacity to move everything in the first go as ships hasn´t arrived from SOPAC yet. I will have to leave 1 ID, and all arty at PH. Its still some 1000 AV including a USMC Division and one of the 72 LVT Tank Battalions. Against 2000 troops and some guns I don´t think that will be a problem even with level 7-9 forts?

I will also speed up the DEI landings to coincide with the Marianas one. Erik will have to choose which to cover. If I can also do something creative around Biak/Sorong at the same time...I think Erik will start to regret relying solely on the KB for protection on three vectors.

I wonder which one he will protect? To be honest I rather have him oppose the Marianas one. If I can get some bases in the DEI the B29s will soon arrive to start pounding the oil.

vs. the KB
This time I will have to stand and fight if he comes. With almost 2000 planes I should be able to put a pretty good resistance. To my advantage is also the sheer numbers of ships I will have. 16 CV/CVLs and 32 CVEs. Add to that some 8 BBs and a gazillion CAs/CLAAs/CLs/DDs and 300-400 other ships. This will hopefully split his incoming strikes in many, many different packages allowing my CAP to deal with them one by one. At least this is my experience with the engine so far.

He on the other hand will have perhaps 40-50 ships. All important.

Also worthy of note here it the numerous times I have "overstacked" my AFs. (Having more engines than AS). This is something Erik has had issues with. If he lives like he preaches this will mean very little LBA opposition from the Marianas given the extremely low number of troops on the first 2 islands he can´t have much AS in place. I still think he is going to pack those AFs from top to bottom though. Regardless of his prior...objections to this! [:D]

[JocMeister]

Tinkering a bit with TF compositions. I might actually be able to lift 3 IDs, 3 Tank BTLs 1 Engineers RGT AND some Arty in one go in CENTPAC. Unfortunately it looks like Erik is moving in troops from Truk to the Marianas. I can´t stop this right now as my subs only target the PBs. Will soon have CVs in range though.

Also took a stupid risk this turn. Lets see if it works out.

[ny59giants]

Drawback is that I will have to be careful to not spend too many sorties on Eniwetok. It also means that CV Franklin will probably miss out on the invasion. But I have another 6 CVEs that will travel with the xAKs to Wake boosting numbers with 180 more fighters.

Where are your AEs and AKEs?? They can reload your sorties from a base with port with these ships. You need the big AEs with 5400 capacity to reload your BBs fully.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Tinkering a bit with TF compositions. I might actually be able to lift 3 IDs, 3 Tank BTLs 1 Engineers RGT AND some Arty in one go in CENTPAC. Unfortunately it looks like Erik is moving in troops from Truk to the Marianas. I can´t stop this right now as my subs only target the PBs. Will soon have CVs in range though.

Also took a stupid risk this turn. Lets see if it works out.

Be careful with Saipan. Even if there are few troops I believe a Naval Fortress is hard-coded in the OOB. Those things will mess you up. Go to Tinian first, get some aircraft in there, and probe Saipan before running in with your fly open.

So to speak. [:)]

[Bullwinkle58]

Also, recon Guam. The icon looks slightly more red, which indicates a stack. He might have his LBA there. Guam AF can be built pretty large.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Where are your AEs and AKEs?? They can reload your sorties from a base with port with these ships. You need the big AEs with 5400 capacity to reload your BBs fully.

They are moving for Wake from Midway right now. But even with 2 AEs and 3 AKEs it takes several days to replenish the BBs!

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Be careful with Saipan. Even if there are few troops I believe a Naval Fortress is hard-coded in the OOB. Those things will mess you up. Go to Tinian first, get some aircraft in there, and probe Saipan before running in with your fly open.

So to speak. [:)]

Thanks for the warning! Didn´t know that! [:)]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Also, recon Guam. The icon looks slightly more red, which indicates a stack. He might have his LBA there. Guam AF can be built pretty large.

I should be able to get recon over Guam in 2-3 days. Just flew over Rota. 5k troops there.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

You think #26 is the magic number?

30 posts per page. [8D]

[JocMeister]

19th May -44

Daughter AND Maria is sleeping! Me time! And no turn to do. Murphy in the works...

New Guinea
That risk I took? Worked out just beautifully! As I wrote earlier I had a big Amphib TF at Sarmi to pick up the two divisions there. What I didn´t mention was that they carried a partially prepped ID for Biak and a NZ 100% prepped tank unit. My intention was to slowly get them in to Biak using barges from Sarmi. But I figured "WTH" and sent them in during day time for the first time. I figured they might get about half the ID off in just one phase. WRONG! Everything unloaded in just one phase except 12 support squads. Thank you! [:)]

Now I can at least try another attack in a few days.

Ground combat at Biak (87,110)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 14382 troops, 81 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 538

Defending force 22303 troops, 455 guns, 596 vehicles, Assault Value = 920

Japanese ground losses:
18 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Allied ground losses:
51 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled


Assaulting units:
3rd South Seas Gsn
49th Infantry Regiment
53rd Infantry Brigade
9th Tank Regiment
4th South Seas Gsn
Kure 2nd SNLF
1st Indpt SNLF Coy
I/84th Naval Guard Unit
8th Garrison Unit /2
66th JNAF AF Unit
24th Field AF Construction Battalion
3rd FF Const Unit
37th JAAF AF Bn
13th Air Fleet /1

Defending units:
1st Cavalry (Spec) Cavalry Division
3rd NZ Armoured Sqn
138th(Sep) Infantry Regiment
110th Combat Engineer Battalion
1st USMC Tank Battalion
32nd Infantry Div /8
98th Field Artillery Battalion
51st Marine Defense Battalion
2nd RAA Jungle Regiment

Erik takes a heavy toll over Biak losing some 200 planes for 50 Allied. I´m really worried about my P47 pools. I right now have 322 in the pool but they have to last until December and I´m losing them at an alarming rate.

I hope this took another good chunk out of his Navy pilot pool. He did say in an e-mail earlier they were running low!

Darwin
Another big Cargo TF starts unloading supply. Drop tanks are now enabled again! Soon the SOPAC fleet will move to rebase here. Erik will see me coming a mile away. But the alternative is to march the units to Normanton and load there. It will take too long.

CENTPAC
Looks like I will have to leave a portion of the 3ID slated for the Marianas OP. I can only get 82% of it loaded. I´m hoping it will leave the support behind while the important stuff gets picked up.

I will delay the Eniwetok landing a tad. I´m hoping Erik will think I will take another month to secure it. The plan is instead to blitz it after just a day or two and then go almost immediately for the Marianas. I hope this might catch him off guard.

NOPAC
A small mini op here using VERY limited resources. I´m going to land at Dutch Harbour with some small forces covered only by 4 CVEs and a Fletcher force. I don´t have enough lift to get everything (400AV) in one go. I think I will have to go 3 or 4 times. Looks abandoned mostly.

Burma
I took an empty Bessain, Prome and Bhamo.

Strategic Bombing
I took out the HI in Bangkok. Looks like Erik is repairing the Oil both and Lanchow and Medan. Anyone knows why? Does that means he is swimming in supply while is genuinely worried about oil?

Here is a screen of the carnage over Biak.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

I took out the HI in Bangkok. Looks like Erik is repairing the Oil both and Lanchow and Medan. Anyone knows why? Does that means he is swimming in supply while is genuinely worried about oil?

Interesting.

He still has over a year before he might get a draw or minor vic. It's too early to write off an oil source like Medan. Still 139 days and 139,000 supply . . .

I doubt he's swimming in supply, but a strat campaign puts the Japanese player to multiple tests for scarce resources.

[BBfanboy]

About the partially loaded ID, the fighting troops and guns always load first; support troops and support vehicles load last. Be aware that any disruption your ID suffers will repair very slowly unless there is lots of outside support from HQs and BFs.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Interesting.

He still has over a year before he might get a draw or minor vic. It's too early to write off an oil source like Medan. Still 139 days and 139,000 supply . . .

I doubt he's swimming in supply, but a strat campaign puts the Japanese player to multiple tests for scarce resources.

The thing is that I have been quite successful in taking out stuff with night bombing. So he must know its in vain? Or could it be FOV I´m seeing?

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

About the partially loaded ID, the fighting troops and guns always load first; support troops and support vehicles load last. Be aware that any disruption your ID suffers will repair very slowly unless there is lots of outside support from HQs and BFs.

Do you know if that true even when lacking troop space but have plenty of cargo space?