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

[House Stark]

I'd go for the deliberate attack on Pegu. The defensive bonus might be a little better than the forest terrain, but a failed deliberate attack is a lot less risky. Bad rolls on a shock attack across a river into defensive terrain...that could set you back for a long time.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: House Stark

I'd go for the deliberate attack on Pegu. The defensive bonus might be a little better than the forest terrain, but a failed deliberate attack is a lot less risky. Bad rolls on a shock attack across a river into defensive terrain...that could set you back for a long time.

I agree. With your superior unit stats, 8k AV against 5k...even with forts 5 it won't set you back a lot. If you have time, I'd bomb or bombard first to check casualty rates and guesstimate forts. If you don't have time, I'd probably risk it. If you somehow get 1:1 or better, I think it would be worth it. Though take what I say with a big grain of sea salt... I still have a lot to learn.

[JocMeister]

Thanks guys! [&o]

I did a naval bombardment earlier indicating high levels of forts. I´m guessing either 5 or 6 but it might be lower! No place in Burma have had higher than 6 and Prome is not a good defensive position so Erik might have decided not to build it too much. But anything lower then 5 is probably hoping for too much.

I decided to try at Pegu. Even if I do fail, a deliberate attack feels a lot better then a shock attack across the river and losses on my side will be less severe than a failed shock attack. I don´t need to kick him out or capture the base. I just want to weaken his stack as much as possible hopefully causing at least the same amount of damage I sustain. So doing a deliberate attack here does hopefully helps with the inevitable river crossing that will have to occur.

And this certainly might help:

Defender: disruption(-), supply(-)

[JocMeister]

Here is a comparison of the frontlines at 1/44 and 9/44.

[JocMeister]

Perhaps not the best dates to compare but because of a disc crash a few month ago I lost all the old saves. The only old one I could find was from May -43. Its clear though that the enormous IJN dominance early game after the disastrous USN defeats has been reduced quite a bit and the IJN has suffered in the last 18 months.

[ny59giants]

Don't get hung up so much on raw AV. [:-]

What amount of troops don't have '43 devices?? Hopefully, very few to none.

What about your HQs?? Do you have both a Corp and Command HQs prepped for Pegu??

Have your recently double checked your major LCUs leaders to make sure your generals have not died in the jungle??

How much armor do you have in your attack??

How much disruption does his troops have??

These are things I consider more important than just AV vs AV comparisons.

Rant over! [;)]

[catwhoorg]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Panzer Corps

A bit off topic here. With my game vs Erik grinding to an almost complete stop lately after doing 3-4 turn per day I now find myself with a pretty big chunk of spare time to fill out. I´ve been looking for a singel player "beer and pretzels" kind of game. The one you can fire up for 30 minutes and then walk away from. My eyes fell on Panzer Corps Allied assault. Its pretty cheap (20ish Euro). Anyone of you guys tried it or have any other suggestion for a game?

Still no turn from Erik. Getting pretty annoyed as he has been online all morning and I asked him to upload the replay as soon as it was ready. Even more so as Ida now has been sleeping for 2 hours in which time I could both have watched the replay AND updated the AAR. Now instead I will have to rush it whenever the opportunity arises during the day. I asked the same thing yesterday but received the replay 14 ([8|]) hours after it was generated. Bah.

I have Panzer Corps, plus Afrika Corps, and the DLC. But not Allied Corps as of yet.

Its a lot of fun (think the old Panzer General for the basic game), and the designers have gotten better at scenario building as the series progressed, so I would expect Allied Corps to be the best of the whole bunch

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Don't get hung up so much on raw AV. [:-]
What amount of troops don't have '43 devices?? Hopefully, very few to none.

All US troops have '44 devices and all other including the Ozzies have '43.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
What about your HQs?? Do you have both a Corp and Command HQs prepped for Pegu??

Command HQ 35 Prepp (recently switched over from Toungoo), Corp HQ 100.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Have your recently double checked your major LCUs leaders to make sure your generals have not died in the jungle??

Not since the initial attack. But I will do so again. Have 750 PPs available.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
How much armor do you have in your attack??

About 600 worth of AV. 400 Heavy tanks.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
How much disruption does his troops have??

About half his troops are severely disrupted after coming down from Toungoo. The other half is probably in good shape.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
These are things I consider more important than just AV vs AV comparisons.

Rant over! [;)]

Yes sir! [;)]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: catwhoorg

I have Panzer Corps, plus Afrika Corps, and the DLC. But not Allied Corps as of yet.

Its a lot of fun (think the old Panzer General for the basic game), and the designers have gotten better at scenario building as the series progressed, so I would expect Allied Corps to be the best of the whole bunch

Thanks for the review! Sounds very good. I think I´m going to buy it right away! [:)]

[JocMeister]

13th September -44

Just a few short notes as Erik uploaded the replay for me but I havn´t gotten the turn yet.

Somehow the Yap invasion went bonkers and the ships ended up 1 hex short. Crap. No damage to any ships though as only 8 Emilies attacked. That will probably change tomorrow though...

Celebes Sea

Manado managed to hold out for another turn. That will hopefully change tomorrow!

Ground combat at Manado (75,99)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 38628 troops, 684 guns, 1090 vehicles, Assault Value = 1339

Defending force 18896 troops, 195 guns, 28 vehicles, Assault Value = 405

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Allied adjusted assault: 675

Japanese adjusted defense: 335

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

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 2

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

Japanese ground losses:
1420 casualties reported
Squads: 23 destroyed, 87 disabled
Non Combat: 33 destroyed, 68 disabled
Engineers: 17 destroyed, 6 disabled
Guns lost 21 (7 destroyed, 14 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
399 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 35 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 15 disabled
Vehicles lost 14 (1 destroyed, 13 disabled)

Assaulting units:
2nd USMC Amphb Tank Battalion
93rd Infantry Division
40th Infantry Division
706th Tank Battalion
632nd Tank Destroyer Battalion
1st Marine Division
711th Tank Battalion
II Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
148th Field Artillery Battalion
156th USA Base Force
163rd USA Base Force
2nd Medium Regiment

Defending units:
80th Infantry Brigade
2nd Ind.Infantry Brigade
78th Infantry Brigade
109th Division
37th Ind. Engineer Regiment
Gohoku JNAF Base Force
103rd AA Regiment
51st Base Force

Burma
Arrrrghhhh! Erik luck continue to hold!! For the second day in a row my air strikes rain in. This is very, very bad as it mean he isn't slowed down.

Also my troops failed to attack Rangoon. So I probably forgot to tell them to. That is another day lost. Stupid!

[DOCUP]

nice intel screen love the changes

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Don't get hung up so much on raw AV. [:-]
What amount of troops don't have '43 devices?? Hopefully, very few to none.

All US troops have '44 devices and all other including the Ozzies have '43.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
What about your HQs?? Do you have both a Corp and Command HQs prepped for Pegu??

Command HQ 35 Prepp (recently switched over from Toungoo), Corp HQ 100.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Have your recently double checked your major LCUs leaders to make sure your generals have not died in the jungle??

Not since the initial attack. But I will do so again. Have 750 PPs available.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
How much armor do you have in your attack??

About 600 worth of AV. 400 Heavy tanks.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
How much disruption does his troops have??

About half his troops are severely disrupted after coming down from Toungoo. The other half is probably in good shape.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
These are things I consider more important than just AV vs AV comparisons.

Rant over! [;)]

Yes sir! [;)]

Your AV-vs-AV rants are always appreciated . It was what I had in mind when considering my input.

With the information he's given about devices, this poor student says Joc should risk an attack.

[JocMeister]

14th September -44

This was a very, very busy day. And a very good day for the allies! [&o]

Yap Invasion
I havn´t had much time to talk about how and why. So here is the backstory. Basically I wanted a base between the Marianas and New Guinea. I started prepping some tanks for the job and the idea was to add an infantry division as one became available. I reconned Yap about 20 days ago and found about 6000 men but only 10 guns and no AFVs. Going through the intel I could only find a Recon Regiment. So now when Erik revealed the KB and sent it to the wrong side of the world (DEI, more on that later) I decided to try with only some armor and Inf RGT. I have no engineers at all so this is a bit of a test.

My thinking here is that Erik has no AT on the island he should be mostly unable to inflict damage on me despite high level of forts. These are not the ordinary Tank battalions Erik has encountered so far. These guys REALLY pack a punch. Each battalion has 53 Shermans and 6 CS tanks. So in essence the assault is 150 Shemans backed up by some artillary and some infantry. Should work in theory but I guess we will find out next turn! [:D]

After yesterdays strikes I was not impressed by my CAP so for today I decided to up the CAP a but. Results were...perfect!

Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 67
Hellcat I x 15
Seafire IIC x 24
F4U-1A Corsair x 216
F6F-3 Hellcat x 146
F6F-5 Hellcat x 134

Thats a 500 plane CAP. Nothing broke through to the CV fleet standing off outside Yap. One bomber managed to wriggle through the LRCAP up over Yap planting a TT in a AKA. She will live though with 52 FLT.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Yap at 96,97

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 7,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 11
Ki-43-IIIa Oscar x 42
Ki-67-Ia (T) Peggy x 17

Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 14
F6F-5 Hellcat x 80

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 2 destroyed
Ki-43-IIIa Oscar: 18 destroyed
Ki-67-Ia (T) Peggy: 9 destroyed
Ki-67-Ia (T) Peggy: 1 destroyed by flak

Allied aircraft losses
F6F-5 Hellcat: 2 destroyed

Allied Ships
AKA Betelgeuse, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
CA Vincennes

The first deliberate attack here where very underwhelming. I don´t know why? I did attack with the armor only letting the RGT bombard.

Ground combat at Yap (96,97)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 6216 troops, 72 guns, 498 vehicles, Assault Value = 367

Defending force 5008 troops, 42 guns, 42 vehicles, Assault Value = 176

Allied adjusted assault: 168

Japanese adjusted defense: 387

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

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

Japanese ground losses:
174 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 21 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
27 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Defending units:
46th Naval Guard Unit
4th South Seas Gsn
30th Recon Regiment
61st Naval Guard Unit
64th JNAF AF Unit

I´ll just keep it up for a while and see what happens. CV fleet will have to be maintained outside Yap or Erik will only fly in a few hundred AV.

[JocMeister]

Burma

The attack went and didn´t go as well as we had hoped. No disasters though. Damaged is spread very evenly among the troops with only 20-30 disablements per unit. Was a bit surprised to find that two of the US IDs really took a beating though. They will have to be pulled out.

Ground combat at Pegu (55,53)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 200677 troops, 3681 guns, 3825 vehicles, Assault Value = 13734

Defending force 184231 troops, 2361 guns, 2798 vehicles, Assault Value = 5765

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 5

Allied adjusted assault: 1711

Japanese adjusted defense: 7294

Allied assault odds: 1 to 4 (fort level 5)

Combat modifiers
Defender: forts(+), preparation(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
6017 casualties reported
Squads: 13 destroyed, 517 disabled
Non Combat: 11 destroyed, 163 disabled
Engineers: 8 destroyed, 50 disabled
Guns lost 332 (56 destroyed, 276 disabled)
Vehicles lost 141 (10 destroyed, 131 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
14892 casualties reported
Squads: 98 destroyed, 1145 disabled
Non Combat: 8 destroyed, 161 disabled
Engineers: 49 destroyed, 274 disabled
Guns lost 298 (14 destroyed, 284 disabled)
Vehicles lost 111 (5 destroyed, 106 disabled)

¨

Allied AV numbers are off as the second stack entered the hex the same turn. The are in move mode and did not participate in the attack. Stupid or not. I will attack again next turn with all units that arn´t disrupted and/or too damaged.

My thinking here is simple. I have a gazillion fully built up bases including Rangoon and 800.000 supply. My units will be sitting in comfy bases with plenty of supply. Erik will be stuck in the Jungle with hopefully bad supply and Malaria. I´m thinking I will recover a lot faster then him. And I have endless supply while each recovered squad will cost him precious supply ! [8D]

So tomorrow we go again. Its a good chance he will have left the hex by then though. Sadly I will have to stand the bombers down now. Fatigue is just too high now and its starting to show as I have over 200 4Es stuck on the ground repairing. AA is vicious but is luckily causing very little destroyed planes.

I have also decided to make the crossing. I will rest off the fatigue in Pegu and then make the crossing ASAP. Once most is across I can reinforce without triggering another shock attack.

[JocMeister]

Operation Payback Pt.2

About a week ago I noticed Erik had been a bit careless with his CAP above Manilla. Only 80-100 Fighters and 51 ships in port. The list included CLs, DDs, AE and many other nice stuff.

So I decided to try and take revenge for the debacle in the Celebes Sea last week. While the haul wasn´t as good as expected and there were no CLs or other warships this still felt very good! [:D]

400 B24s and 150 B29s took off. They were supposed to be proceeded by 200 P38s and 150 P51s. Of course only one P38 squadron went in ahead of the 4Es. Luckily the CAP was meagre and losses were very light. This is only the first strike of many, many strikes. [8D]

Morning Air attack on Manila , at 79,77

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 27 minutes

Japanese aircraft
N1K2-J George x 41

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 3
B-24D Liberator x 10
B-24D1 Liberator x 14
B-24J Liberator x 55
B-29-1 Superfort x 89
PB4Y-1 Liberator x 12

Japanese aircraft losses
N1K2-J George: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-24D Liberator: 2 damaged
B-24D1 Liberator: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
B-24J Liberator: 2 destroyed, 4 damaged
B-29-1 Superfort: 2 destroyed, 6 damaged
PB4Y-1 Liberator: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
xAKL Anbo Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AKE Kazan Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
AKE Mamiya, Bomb hits 2, on fire
PB Rokko Maru #2, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Choun Maru #18, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
TK Mutsuyo Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
SC CHa-42, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
AKE Syoryu Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
AG Boko Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Taikei Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
TK Tsukuba Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
PB Kaiyo Maru #1, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
SS RO-114, Bomb hits 2, heavy damage
SS RO-103, Bomb hits 3, heavy damage
SS RO-115, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
TK Tatsuhiro Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
PB Teiko Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Kakyu Maru, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
AD Otori Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AS Rio de Janiero Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires
SS I-172, Bomb hits 2, heavy damage
SS RO-113, Bomb hits 2, heavy damage
AKE Asama Maru #2, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
xAKL Nittatsu Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
AR Kikukawa Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
TK Kanto Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Taijin Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAKL Taibu Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Miyako Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
AD Gyoko Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
PB Fukkai Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Arisan Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
AS Fushimi Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
PB Teibo Maru #2, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires

While mostly small shipping there are some nuggets there like the 24 point AS and 24 point AKEs. All in all 51 ships are listed as sunk and is consistent with the recon. All in all its 335 VPs listed as sunk. While not making up for the 475 VPs lost in the Celebes Sea it at least makes it a less painful.

This raid together with the strike at Singapore two weeks ago is an ongoing effort to force Erik to either withdraw shipping way out of reach or heavily CAP everything. I will continue these deep attacks every now and then.

[JocMeister]

Operation Fenrir

Stay tuned...information coming later this weekend!

[JocMeister]

14th September -44 (cont.)

Besides the above three actions there were some things of significance!

Celebes Sea
Manado finally fell into allied hands. We kicked out 20.000 Jap troops that will now slowly be ground down and killed off. I also noted a lot of movement in the Sulu sea. Looks like several subs and a small ASW TF. Sent in the Fletcher to check it out.

First 4E ground attack ordered on Jolo. Last deliberate attack lowered forts to level 1. I´m hoping for a carnage here so I´ll be able to capture the base soon. I also secured a 4th base on Manado. Troops and most importantly engineers are spreading out. The southern portion of Mindanao are now completely cut off.

Ground combat at Manado (75,99)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 38437 troops, 684 guns, 1091 vehicles, Assault Value = 1291

Defending force 17204 troops, 188 guns, 28 vehicles, Assault Value = 316

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 1

Allied adjusted assault: 803

Japanese adjusted defense: 161

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

Allied forces CAPTURE Manado !!!

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

Japanese ground losses:
3077 casualties reported
Squads: 93 destroyed, 62 disabled
Non Combat: 50 destroyed, 69 disabled
Engineers: 92 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 62 (54 destroyed, 8 disabled)
Vehicles lost 32 (32 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
285 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 22 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 10 (1 destroyed, 9 disabled)

Assaulting units:
40th Infantry Division
1st Marine Division
711th Tank Battalion
93rd Infantry Division
632nd Tank Destroyer Battalion
706th Tank Battalion
2nd USMC Amphb Tank Battalion
II Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
148th Field Artillery Battalion
156th USA Base Force
163rd USA Base Force
2nd Medium Regiment

Defending units:
78th Infantry Brigade
2nd Ind.Infantry Brigade
109th Division
80th Infantry Brigade
37th Ind. Engineer Regiment
Gohoku JNAF Base Force
103rd AA Regiment
51st Base Force

My troops are very beat up and will gradually be shuttled to Cotabato and its 800.000 supply and 9600 Support. Erik also returned to Sidate and "recaptured" the empty dot base giving my the opportunity to kill off more of his troops!

Rabaul
Hmm, this is getting annoying. Erik once more jumped in with strike planes here sinking two small dutch AOs and putting a bomb in a xAK. I moved in some B25s to close the AF again and some Corsairs to provide LRCAP for a massive Tanker (280.000 fuel) convoy passing through in a few days. This convoy is working on emptying Suva and Noumea of its excess fuel.

DEI
KB popped up here. Given Eriks frisky movements lately I reinforced CAP over Darwin as much of its previous CAP was moved to participate in the Strike of Manilla.

Plane losses
It has been a few very good days in the air for the allies. About 800 Jap planes have been shot down over Pegu and Yap. While I have no hope of ever being able to make Erik run out of planes I sure hope the pilot losses sting! Allied losses has mostly been OPS losses of Heavy bombers and not many precious bomber pilots are lost.

I´m also fiddling a bit with my own air force. I have almost 300 P38s in the pool but they are almost impossible to use outside level 9 AFs due to their SR. So I´m shuffling a bit and actually downgrading some P51 and P47 squadrons. Their elite pilots go back to the pool and are replaced by fresh pilots.

Here is a two day old screen of the Celebes Sea. Forgot to take a screen last turn.

[JocMeister]

This is a problem. I will have to start going through all the navy squadrons and downgrade some Hellcats to CrapKittens and then in turn downgrade some Corsairs to Hellcats. All squadrons at PH and WC are CrapKittens since day 1.

What a blessing I´m getting 128 332MPH navy fighters per month in late 44. Thats REALLY useful... [8|]

[JocMeister]

Latest Allied toy!

Boom? [:D]

[Cpt Sherwood]

Just keep in mind that the B-29B should only be used for night bombing. It only has 2 guns for defense.