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

[witpqs]

[JocMeister]

Well...game (over) set and match in Burma. In a turn or two Erik will have another 3-5000 AV in the hex. [:(]

Ground combat at 55,51 (near Prome)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 282214 troops, 4477 guns, 4529 vehicles, Assault Value = 11587

Defending force 111438 troops, 1431 guns, 2168 vehicles, Assault Value = 3960

Allied adjusted assault: 4290 Come on ffs..give me a break! [:(]

Japanese adjusted defense: 7945

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2

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

Japanese ground losses:
10046 casualties reported
Squads: 253 destroyed, 481 disabled
Non Combat: 12 destroyed, 276 disabled
Engineers: 16 destroyed, 56 disabled
Guns lost 237 (50 destroyed, 187 disabled)
Vehicles lost 222 (55 destroyed, 167 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
17545 casualties reported
Squads: 149 destroyed, 2165 disabled
Non Combat: 58 destroyed, 242 disabled
Engineers: 78 destroyed, 607 disabled
Guns lost 234 (16 destroyed, 218 disabled)
Vehicles lost 441 (134 destroyed, 307 disabled)


Assaulting units:
18th Cavalry Regiment
Guides Cavalry Regiment
5th Chinese Corps
14th Chindit Brigade
16th Chindit Brigade
3rd Commando Brigade
3rd New Chinese Corps
26th Indian Brigade
268th Motorised Brigade
IV Corps Engineer Battalion
11th PAVO Regiment
20th Indian Division
XV Corps Engineer Battalion
254th Armoured Brigade
18th British Division
5th Indian Division
209th Combat Engineer Battalion
22nd (East African) Brigade
6th Chinese Corps
2nd British Division
26th Indian Division
9th Indian Division
41st Infantry Division
7th Infantry Division
14th Indian Division
36th Div Engineer Battalion
43rd Infantry Division
14th Army Engineer Battalion
17th Indian Division
Lushai Brigade
Provisionl Tank Brigade
29th British Brigade
6th Australian Division
Gardner's Horse Regiment
150th RAC Regiment
23rd Indian Division
45th Indian Brigade
46th Indian Brigade
255th Indian Tank Brigade
Merrills Marauders Regiment
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
XXXIII Corps Engineer Battalion
50th Tank Brigade
81st (West African) Division
9th Australian Division
30th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
2/13th Field Regiment
XXXIII Indian Corps
32nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
8th Medium Regiment
31st Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
122nd British AT Gun Regiment
23rd AA Bde
225 Group RAF
14th Army
III Indian Corps
Southeast Asia
1st Indian Light AA Regiment
8th Mahratta AT Gun Regiment
1st Indian Coastal Artillery Regiment
2nd Indian Heavy AA Regiment
2/11th Field Regiment
6th Mixed A/T Mtr Regiment
6th Medium Regiment
12th Indian Heavy AA Regiment
33rd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
101st Heavy AA Regiment
XV Indian Corps
2nd Indian Coastal Artillery Regiment
15th Indian Heavy AA Regiment
20th Indian Heavy AA Regiment
118th Light AA Regiment
IV Indian Corps
2/9th Field Regiment
163rd Light AA Regiment
X' Force
16th Indian Heavy AA Regiment
28th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
137/155th Field Regiment

Defending units:
65th Brigade
21st Division
9th Garrison Unit
24th Ind.Mixed Brigade
1st Tank Division
12th Tank Regiment
3rd Tank Division
2nd Division
33rd Division
22nd Tank Regiment
16th Division
55th Division
3rd RTA Division
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
8th RF Gun Battalion
3rd Mortar Battalion
2nd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
28th Army
38th Field AA Battalion
5th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
21st Medium Field Artillery Battalion
1st Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
51st Field AA Battalion
10th RF Gun Battalion
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
14th RF Gun (Pack) Battalion
68th Field AA Battalion
10th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
5th Air Defense AA Regiment
25th Army
1st Ind. Field Artillery Battalion
17th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st RF Gun Battalion
8th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st Art.Mortar Regiment
56th Field AA Battalion
11th RF Gun Battalion

This sucks [:(]

[Bullwinkle58]

I continue to not understand why you keep doing this sort of thing in Burma. It's about terrain and supply. You can't just pile a huge stack of "somethings" up and attack.

The war is there to be won in the Marianas. Burma is a backwater. To some extent so is the DEI. You guys are just bashing at each other like two old ladies with bricks in their handbags. Be subtle. Use your mobility. Use your air. Above all use your navy. Position yourself to attack his homeland. He will NOT be able to supply Burma if you do that.

Unitl then, stop driving continental armies through the jungle. It's nuts, man. Think how much more useful those prime Aussie LCUs would be---for example--attacking Balikpapan. Or Guam.

[House Stark]

Ouch Joc, that does hurt a bit. It does look like you might not break through. But there does appear to be a silver lining-that of Japan's limited supplies. His stack was showing a (-) for supplies, so it already appears to be a possible issue. I don't know the answer to this, but I'm sure someone reading this AAR can tell you how much supply it will cost for Erik to repair 1200 disabled devices and replace 400 destroyed ones. Have you considered mass bombardment with your superstack? Drain his supplies and you might eventually have a chance; at the very least you will hamper his operations and force him to ship his supplies to Burma as opposed to other areas that you are planning to attack. You lost a good deal of stuff, but most of it was disablements. Retreat the most damaged units and rebuild them with your infinite supply.

[Speedysteve]

Hi Jocke,

Not surprised to see that to be honest. Similar experience to mine in Burma. Learn from it is my view. There's little point in trying to break through in Burma if the japs have substantial troops there. I have always experienced these kind of results there regardless of having the right leaders in place, positive supply and better equipment.

[DOCUP]

Its a bad day Joc.  Shake it off, take a step back and look around.  I agree with Bull to a point. 
 
Burma
Look at what Obvert has in Burma.  Think about all the resources he is using in that area (fuel, supplies, HI, LI).  Don't go head to head with him.  Outflank him.  If you can't do it on land look at what your navy can help you with. If he has all his combat units forward look at his rear for an invasion.  Pt Blair, Sabang come to mind.  Go after his supplies, he can have 1 million men infront of you but without beans and bullets they are useless.  If Pt Blair is in your hands, you can cut his supply lines into Burma.  Sabang is the same way.
 
DEI
Watch out getting into a big attritional war here.  Get close enough so that you can level his oil centers.  Thats all you need in this area.  Oil is the Japs life blood, without it they are done.  Their are several bases that can be built up to base B 29s.  That all you should need.  Bomb his oil at night destroy it and move on.  Maybe try and get some nav search bases to help your subs out finding his tankers.  PI is a good place to cut off his oil routes.
 
Keep the faith man.  You got this.  Just relax and make him pay for pissing you off.  Only in the game, don't go knocking on his door or anything like that.  This is just my 2 cents.  I'm not that good a player.
 
 

[Bullwinkle58]

I needed a nap when I wrote my last entry here. [:)]

But I still stand by my central point. It's mid-1944. The war is in a new phase. You are a very good player in the technical sense. You understand the rules and game mechanics. Now, take the next step. Focus on the "why" of every move, not the how. Stop worrying about which side blew more stuff up on the last turn; it doesn't matter. Ask how your move is getting you closer to the goal of winning the game. Every day he can get you focused on aircraft exchange ratios is a win for him.

Pin him in Burma and leave it alone to rot. Use your sealift to get behind him if you like, but I'd pull a lot of those premium LCUs out and give them new jobs. He can't easily redeploy his huge stack if you control the seas. It's a long walk to Shanghai and then home.
Relentlessly pound on the Marianas, take them, and get after the next closer targets. Remove his means to resist. Those guys in 1944 weren't stupid, and they were playing with real lives.

When the war ended on VJ Day the PI wasn't secure and neither was Burma. It didn't matter. Japan still was in total collapse mode.

Focus, focus , focus. Take losses when they are necessary, but no more than are necessary. Drive for your objectives. Leave the bashing alone. [;)]

[JocMeister]

Hey guys! Thank you for the support! [&o] Short note before the Ice Hockey begins in 8 minutes!

The actual damage wasn´t as bad as it looked. I dropped down to 9200 AV. The damage is spread among all units with two Chindits BDE took quite a beating. Two small armour units also took the brunt of the damage. All Engineer units will need some time off though-

There are some good thing in there though. Supply. I also have a crap load of arty (4000 guns) here and 200.000 supply at Prome...Why not just bomb away for a while and start burning his supply even more. Most of the divisions will need a bit of rest before their integrated arty will help out.

Thanks for all the input and advice! I really appreciate it! I´ll make a more proper post tomorrow. Now Beer and Hockey...in that order! [:D]

[JocMeister]

20-23rd June -44

Everything has been quiet besides the massive stack fail in Burma. I´m still shifting everything into position. Most of the stuff is in place but I´m waiting for the Fleet to arrive. It just passed outside Truk taking out some 20 search planes.

KB
Is found at Davao. I´m fairly certain its the whole shebang. I guess he will follow my Fleet movement and wait for an opportunity. I´m still confident that together with the CVEs I can handle the KB plus LBA. Opinions on this is welcome!

Air war
For the last week I have put Erik under massive pressure. Sweeping him wherever I can get to him. This has mostly been done in Burma, New Guinea and the DEI. All in all the Empire has lost 712 planes over the last 6 days. I have lost 324. While not a stellar ratio I am happy with the result. I have deliberately put fresh pilots in Hellcats, Corsairs and P38s to the test. They are still outperforming anything the Jap has with about 2-1. During these days I have only lost 22 P47s and 6 P51Bs. The rest are non essential pilots and airframes! I like to think they have gone up against the best Japan has to offer. I´m happy with the result at least! [:)]

Short update today as I havn´t even had time to do the turn.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: House Stark

Ouch Joc, that does hurt a bit. It does look like you might not break through. But there does appear to be a silver lining-that of Japan's limited supplies. His stack was showing a (-) for supplies, so it already appears to be a possible issue. I don't know the answer to this, but I'm sure someone reading this AAR can tell you how much supply it will cost for Erik to repair 1200 disabled devices and replace 400 destroyed ones. Have you considered mass bombardment with your superstack? Drain his supplies and you might eventually have a chance; at the very least you will hamper his operations and force him to ship his supplies to Burma as opposed to other areas that you are planning to attack. You lost a good deal of stuff, but most of it was disablements. Retreat the most damaged units and rebuild them with your infinite supply.

Good advice on the Bombardment! I actually tried the first one this turn. Not stellar results but I do hope it burns supplies for him. And I havn´t let any of the divisions bombard yet. Want them to heal up for a few days before they add to the bombardment.

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Hi Jocke,

Not surprised to see that to be honest. Similar experience to mine in Burma. Learn from it is my view. There's little point in trying to break through in Burma if the japs have substantial troops there. I have always experienced these kind of results there regardless of having the right leaders in place, positive supply and better equipment.

Yeah, its a shame. But I kind of expected it. I´m going to shift focus the make him burn supply here instead of attacking directly!

ORIGINAL: DOCUP

Its a bad day Joc.  Shake it off, take a step back and look around.  I agree with Bull to a point. 

Burma
Look at what Obvert has in Burma.  Think about all the resources he is using in that area (fuel, supplies, HI, LI).  Don't go head to head with him.  Outflank him.  If you can't do it on land look at what your navy can help you with. If he has all his combat units forward look at his rear for an invasion.  Pt Blair, Sabang come to mind.  Go after his supplies, he can have 1 million men infront of you but without beans and bullets they are useless.  If Pt Blair is in your hands, you can cut his supply lines into Burma.  Sabang is the same way.

DEI
Watch out getting into a big attritional war here.  Get close enough so that you can level his oil centers.  Thats all you need in this area.  Oil is the Japs life blood, without it they are done.  Their are several bases that can be built up to base B 29s.  That all you should need.  Bomb his oil at night destroy it and move on.  Maybe try and get some nav search bases to help your subs out finding his tankers.  PI is a good place to cut off his oil routes.

Keep the faith man.  You got this.  Just relax and make him pay for pissing you off.  Only in the game, don't go knocking on his door or anything like that.  This is just my 2 cents.  I'm not that good a player.

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

I needed a nap when I wrote my last entry here. [:)]

But I still stand by my central point. It's mid-1944. The war is in a new phase. You are a very good player in the technical sense. You understand the rules and game mechanics. Now, take the next step. Focus on the "why" of every move, not the how. Stop worrying about which side blew more stuff up on the last turn; it doesn't matter. Ask how your move is getting you closer to the goal of winning the game. Every day he can get you focused on aircraft exchange ratios is a win for him.

Pin him in Burma and leave it alone to rot. Use your sealift to get behind him if you like, but I'd pull a lot of those premium LCUs out and give them new jobs. He can't easily redeploy his huge stack if you control the seas. It's a long walk to Shanghai and then home.
Relentlessly pound on the Marianas, take them, and get after the next closer targets. Remove his means to resist. Those guys in 1944 weren't stupid, and they were playing with real lives.

When the war ended on VJ Day the PI wasn't secure and neither was Burma. It didn't matter. Japan still was in total collapse mode.

Focus, focus , focus. Take losses when they are necessary, but no more than are necessary. Drive for your objectives. Leave the bashing alone. [;)]

Thanks for the advice both of you! [&o] I think we are actually thinking quite alike. I´ll try to explain how I´m thinking here and you can tell me if I´m an idiot! [:D]

Burma
Burma stopped being my main push a long time ago. I still wanted to try the "death star" thingie to see if it would work. Now I know it didn´t. But the (-) supply modifier showed me my constant bombings of Rangoon is doing its job. So I´ll continue to do that. I´ll also add ground bombardment to the mix to try and burn even more supplies. I want him to keep his troops here and pour in reinforcements, supply and aircraft. This is what Bullwinkle called my "pin".

New Guinea
My main push is still the New Guinea to PI route. I have 9 divisions working on this route plus an insane amount of Tanks. All prepped and ready. If everything works out I will still land on Mindanao before the year is up. Even I can destroy the KB I can land there in 2 weeks. I already have troops prepping the landing sites. I´m that close! Three jumps and I´m there. The good part is that since Erik has everything in Burma all I need to do is get the troops ashore and its mine.

Marianas
For the last 5-6 months this area has received 95% of all reinforcement. I now have 5 divisions for this area. Another 4 will be added in the coming 30 days. ETA on clearing the Marianas is before 44 is up. Erik is shipping reinforcements in and I will let him (its only small units). He needs divisions here to slow my advance but he doesn´t have them. Anything he send here will be a waste.

In early 45 I hope to join the NG and Marianas advance into an unstoppable 20-25 Division advance to clear the Philippines, Formosa and Okinawa. I just need to break through and under his very thin defense there is NOTHING. I have no intel on any combat troops whatsoever on the Philippines for example. I just need to get there! [:)]

DEI
Only ambition here during 44 is to secure a level 9 AF within his oil. I´m loosely looking at the Celebes just to secure the flank of my NG advance. Manado will be secured by the NG advance though so it might not be needed. I just havn´t looked very closely at the area yet.


I do think I have a solid plan going here. And everything I have done for the last six month have been in accordance with this. I think it will work. The hammer will soon fall again and I hope to crush the KB under it and whatever happens the floodgate of New Guinea will soon open again! [:)]

[JocMeister]

Sweden vs. Canada



18 minutes left...!

[JocMeister]

Goodbye Canada! [&o] [&o]

Now this is how you do a game deciding penalty. No fancy schmancy dribbling and crap! [:D]

EDIT: Link removed by youtube. But I assure you it rocked! [:D]


Finland in the Semi... Thats the ultimate hate game when it comes to Ice Hockey here in Sweden. Will be a very tense game.

[JocMeister]

Oh, I should mention that turns have been really slow the last 2 days. None infact. That is on my part and is due to work problems, the World Cup and a big exam coming up today. I should be able to get Erik a turn tonight though.

So now I´m off to a 6 hours exam on electrical motors and their operating systems. Fun fun fun! Wish me luck!

[JocMeister]

Thrym

In Norse mythology, Þrymr (Thrymr, Thrym; "uproar") was king of the jotnar. In one legend, he stole Mjollnir, Thor's hammer, to extort the gods into giving him Freyja as his wife. His kingdom was called Jötunheimr.

A big name for a big operation!

As seen in the screenshot this is a 3 phase operation. If all goes well I hope to conduct this operation with great speed. The troops are already prepped and ready. Its just a matter of getting them onshore. Ground opposition is expected to be light with the exception of Sorong. Both SOPAC and SWPAC command together with the whole US Fleet are committed to this operation. All in all I will land almost 5000 AV in the operation.

KB and IJN
I´m expecting KB and IJN intervention in phase 2. Despite having 2 Fleet CVs in the yard I will have roughly 2,5:1 advantage in CV planes. All planes are the best possible with some 400 Corsairs ready on CAP. I hope to be able to get some P47 cover over the fleet as well. Although Erik will definitely have the strongest LBA support in Phase 2. In Phase 3 I can probably put up a strong LBA fighter CAP from bases in the Sorong area.

Erik will most definitely try and take advantage of the silly unhistorical 8 hex strike again. I will try and use that against him and lure him into a wall of massive CAP crippling the KB. I have a good plan for this.

I´m optimistic about the operation. I have been itching to get a shot at the KB. While the KB has been largely irrelevant and hasn´t done anything useful since late 42/early 43 beside getting skewered on LBA CAP it would be a massive psychological blow to Erik I think. He has built his entire defensive strategy in the DEI and New Guinea on the KB being there to counter any landings. If it were to be removed I would be able to land on Mindanao as fast as the ships can get me there.

So will he come for Sorong? He kind of has too! After Sorong he doesn´t have any troops in place. Huzzah!

[JocMeister]

Sweden vs. Finland here we go!

Skål!

[JocMeister]

YES! The Evil Finns will have to retreat from Stockholm after a humiliating 2-0 defeat in the Globe arena!!! [&o] Now the glorious "Three crowns" will either face off against the big surprise in the tournament (Switzerland) or the Allied juggernaut (USA) in the final!

This is fantastic!!! [&o][&o]

[JocMeister]

Flotplane squadrons


I honestly don´t know why some allied players upgrade their FPs to TB/DBs?? That removes the possibility to train Sweep. Something I would never forego. Especially early game the FPs are kind of the only way to train USN pilots? Am I missing something? With all the Venturas coming online in 43-44 I´m swimming in bomber pilots but is always short on fighter pilots. ALL my FP squadrons are currently training Sweep.

[JocMeister]

CV CAP

Given the info in this thread tm.asp?m=3326927 I´m considering redoing my CAP settings again. I also felt that during the Tinian invasion I did not get the number of planes in the air I had wished for. Perhaps range 0 for CAP is the way to go?

[LoBaron]

People usually are much too static in their thinking. Such questions close to never have yes/no answers. If they have, in most cases the question is very detailed, or plain wrong.

Range settings, as close to all other settings, highly depend on the position and situation of your carriers. In confined waters range restrictions can be an option depending on the ownership, distance and size of the sourrounding bases, and the general tacticaI situation. But I would usually not do it on blue water ops or when expecting CV battles in open water.

[JocMeister]

LoBaron,

In this case I have the Sorong invasion looming. So pretty crowded area with lots of opportunity for Jap LBA to intervene. Hence I feel a good sized CAP is very important. My plan was to let the CVE TFs follow the amphibs into the base hex while the CV/CVLs waited 1 hex outside. This way I had hoped for mutual supportive CAP with range 1 "overlapping" each other. But during the Tinian invasion none of the CAP from my CV/CVLs showed up over the CVE TF despite having good weather in both hexes. Was it just a fluke or am I expecting something that won´t ever happen?