Speedy vs Fabertong - time to smack back the Penguin

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: castor troy

if Raver isn't able to produce aircraft then he is doing something wrong or still seriously fails to understand how the system works. [&:]

I had a Japanese opponent pushed back to Japan and he told me that if he just halts his nav/merchant/arm/veh production and only uses the fuel/oil he produces in and around Japan (resources are pretty much unlimited anyway) he can still outproduce me in aircraft numbers if he wanted to. I thought he would be pulling my leg but when he finally surrendered he sent me his pw and I took a look at what was left and he was correct!

At the point he was telling me, there has long been no need anymore for merchant/naval factories to producing anything and he had lots of arm/veh pts in the pool and just had no need to really fill out his units anyway the way battles were fought (you invade, kill stuff and it takes too long to rebuild units so that would be a fault late war).

That said, the only way to stop Japan from producing pretty much as many aircraft as they want to is to bomb the factories/engine plants. If he doesn't produce aircraft, his fault.

Yep, I concur. My scen 2 campaign vs Ark and I am sure he has plenty of aircraft in 6/45. And I killed off his oil production well over a year ago.

That said, it does not bother me much. I am finding that I can always win the air war at the point of attack and really am just using my air to cover my land advances which are going quite well. Have yet to strat bomb a single point in the Home Islands and now am thinking that it may not be worth starting.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Mariana's:

At long last and after a bitter struggle lasting 22 days Tinian fell to the Allies on 12th October 1944. I now, coincidentally, have a minor victory according to the intel screen as well.

Guam is close to falling as well:

Ground combat at Guam (106,95)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 54241 troops, 1315 guns, 1478 vehicles, Assault Value = 1564

Defending force 22354 troops, 214 guns, 167 vehicles, Assault Value = 221

Allied adjusted assault: 438

Japanese adjusted defense: 393

Allied assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 6)

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 5

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

Japanese ground losses:
1183 casualties reported
Squads: 85 destroyed, 37 disabled
Non Combat: 12 destroyed, 31 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 14 disabled
Guns lost 33 (6 destroyed, 27 disabled)
Vehicles lost 28 (10 destroyed, 18 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
504 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 71 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 17 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled

Assaulting units:
43rd Infantry Division
2nd USMC Amphb Tank Battalion
77th Infantry Division
22nd Marine Regiment
111th(Sep) Infantry Regiment
38th Infantry Division
671th Tank Destroyer Battalion
93rd Infantry Division
31st Infantry Division
5th USMC Tank Battalion
11th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
I Corps Artillery
10th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
XIV Corps Artillery

Defending units:
Guards Mixed Brigade
2nd Mobile Infantry Regiment
17th Ind.Mixed Regiment
10th Ind.Mixed Regiment
7th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
38th JNAF AF Unit
18th JAAF AF Bn
4th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
64th Infantry Group
55th Construction Battalion
2nd JAAF AF Bn
4th Fleet
8th Base Force
36th JNAF AF Unit
157th JAAF AF Bn

Support forces and planes will disembark at Tinian tomorrow. Over 100 x BB29 will then fly in from PH to begin night bombing Manpower raids on mainland Japan.

Once Guam falls the remaining Allied TF's and CV's will retire to PH to fuel up for the next invasions.

------------------

SRA:

Troops loading up at Ambon for the Manado invasion. Recon indicates no enemy troops at Sirdate so I'll likely land there and march overland to Manado.

------------------

Malaya:

All ships reached Oosthaven on the 12th and will begin loading up the 2nd phase troops for Malaya tomorrow. Once they're in Malaya we'll begin the march Southwards towards Johore Bahru.

------------------

Submarine Warfare:

2 x dud/missed attack.

SS Skipjack blew up SC CHa-59 near Mindanao on the 10th.

On the 11th SS Spot claimed TK Hachijin Maru sank near Ominato

SS Gurnard also reported in heavily damaging AO Shioya with a torpedo near Davao.

SS Burrfish claimed DD Mikazuki sunk near Dadjangas but was in turn sank by the other DD convoy escorts.

SS Pintado reported sinking DD Minegumo with a torpedo near Okinawa.

[DuckofTindalos]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Indeed. Massive credit to Faber for carrying on. It can't be much fun doing nothing! I don't know all of the details other than Faber mentioned he'd taken his eye off the economy for 6 months and when he realised he didn't have enough material it was too late to rectify.

Well, he can take some morale boosts from the pasting he's giving me in our game. SYNERGY!

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Pax, you have to be joking! No one I've ever seen has anywhere near 4 million HI and 500k (!!!) armaments and vehicles.

I've looked at tracker and if I'm understanding it correctly I should only need another 90k ARM and 35k VEH to fill out what is in the pipeline. Maybe I'm reading or understanding it incorrectly. I'll look at that again and try to do some economics posts in my AAR so we can leave Speedy to talk about more interesting things here! [:)]

As for Faber here, yeah, there should have been some even if he wasn't trying if he didn't overproduce airframes and accelerate every single ship early on.

No you are correct, but you need to factor in losses that you must replace. The ground war in 44/46 goes at a horrendous pace, nothing at all like 42/43 which is mostly an airwar with a few naval battles for diversion. You lose 100's of devices every turn ... 100 * 12 = 1200 ARM pts a turn for 600 days ... ~720,000 ARM for loss replacements. So if you enter 44 with 400K, then you still need to build another 320K over 2 years ... or 2M of your stockpiled HI will go to ARM pts. This is what you are preparing for ... and if you can't, then this is when your defense collapses completely and the allies are able to invade the HI. IRL, the IJ did a remarkable job in this respect. They were able to contain the hordes in CHI/MAN/KOR and present a formidable defense. A lot of players overlook this, over build in 42/43 and then suffer a collapse in 45.

It is completely predictable because there is a fixed amount of oil produced in the game, which means there is a maximum HI that the IJ can produce. The game reality is that you only are able to achieve an percentage of that maximum ... better players will get more. Knowing this though, you can then also calculate what you need to survive to '46. You then build your expenditure model backwards from there based upon an assumed total HI that you will produce. You can expend more only when you play better than your original assumption. simple. [:D]

[obvert]

Got it Pax. Thanks for the clear explanation.

Something new to worry about now! [;)]

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Got it Pax. Thanks for the clear explanation.

Something new to worry about now! [;)]

For an IJ player, we never suffer from a lack of something to worry about! [:D]

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

A week's update as the war grinds forward.

Mariana's:

Faber flew in more planes to Saipan and Pagan. They tried to break through the massed Allied CAP one last time before Guam fell but were unsuccessful losing c.150 planes to 20 Allied.

The stubborn resistance at Guam finally ended and Guam fell to the Allies on 18th October! It took 23 days to take Guam. With both Tinian and Guam in Allied hands the rest of the fleets began to head back to PH to rest, repair, upgrade and begin loading for the next invasions......

Both Tinian and Guam have over 250 Allied aircraft of all types and can comfortably keep the Jap held bases in the area supressed. I'll soon fly in B29's to begin attacks on Japan.

-----------------------

SRA:

The invasion of Sidate began on the 17th and the unoccupied base was taken quickly. Allied soldiers and equipment are still coming ashore. Once the unloading is complete the men will march NE to take Manado.

2 x CVE TF's have provided air cover and 2 x SC TF provided sea cover. Both have been needed as the Japanese reacted.

A small CV Battle was fought on 18th October as the, presumably, remaining Jap CV's moved from Brunei south to a position west of Mindanao. My CVE's were off the beaches at Sidate and an ineffectual CV battle took place:

Morning Air attack on TF, near Sidate at 75,100

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 31 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 8
A6M5b Zero x 14
A6M5c Zero x 11
B6N1 Jill x 4
B6N2 Jill x 11
D4Y1 Judy x 13

Allied aircraft
FM-2 Wildcat x 19
F4U-1D Corsair x 70
F6F-5 Hellcat x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 2 destroyed
A6M5b Zero: 6 destroyed
A6M5c Zero: 3 destroyed
B6N1 Jill: 2 destroyed
B6N2 Jill: 8 destroyed
D4Y1 Judy: 5 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
FM-2 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
PF Gascoyne, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AO Kaskaskia, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage

AND:

Morning Air attack on TF, near Gorontalo at 71,95

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 36 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 11
A6M5b Zero x 22
A6M5c Zero x 16

Allied aircraft
FM-2 Wildcat x 9
F4U-1D Corsair x 6
F6F-5 Hellcat x 12
TBM-1C Avenger x 20
TBM-3 Avenger x 13

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5c Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
FM-2 Wildcat: 2 destroyed
F4U-1D Corsair: 1 destroyed
F6F-5 Hellcat: 3 destroyed
TBM-1C Avenger: 5 destroyed, 3 damaged
TBM-1C Avenger: 1 destroyed by flak
TBM-3 Avenger: 4 destroyed, 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
CV Katsuragi
CVL Chiyoda
DD Yukikaze
BB Kirishima
CVL Nisshin, Torpedo hits 1

The Jap CV force fled away the next day. All in all a damp squib of an affair! My AO sank quickly.

On the 20th a Small Jap CL TF tried to reach the invasion ships but the BB TF saw them off:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Sidate at 75,100, Range 6,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Nagara
CL Isuzu
CL Abukuma, Shell hits 1
CL Kuma
CL Tama, Shell hits 12, heavy fires
CL Yubari

Allied Ships
BB Nevada, Shell hits 1
BB Oklahoma, Shell hits 8
CA Portland
CA Astoria
CA Minneapolis
CL Achilles
CL Hobart
CL Detroit
CL Biloxi
CL Miami
DD Cowell
DD Daly
DD Heywood Edwards
DD Evans
DD Franks
DD Gatling
DD Albert Grant
DD Guest
DD Haggard
DD Hale
DD Halford
DD Hall
DD Halligan
DD Morrison
DD Mullany

TBM's located the fleeing Jap TF in the daylight and reported finishing off CL Tama and sinking CL Yubari south of Mindanao.

---------------------

Malaya/Sumatra:

All quiet here as I dig in at Malacca and expand the facilities waiting the 2nd phase reinforcements which will arrive by sea on the 21st/22nd October. Once they do I'll move southwards to take Singapore before then deciding whether to march north from Malacca (recon indicates Faber has railed 30K units to Kuala Lumpur) or to Amphib somewhere else instead.

As a sideshow I've been testing 100 x B29 night bombing from Siberoet to Soerabaya and the results have been disappointing to say the least. I managed to get up to around 20,000 fires and caused a few points of damage on industry but that's as much as I've managed to do. I hope attacks on Japan will be more successful.

On Sumatra, I've not forgotten the Jap troops starving at Prabomelih. I'll soon begin to attack them to see if they've any fight left in the 95,000 of them.

---------------------

Submarine Warfare:

No dud/missed attacks.

SS Bonefish claimed TK Ejiri Maru off Palawan on the 13th.

SS Cero damaged AO Toei Maru with a torpedo near Shanghai on the 15th. In return she was heavily damaged by the escorts.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Lots of credit to Faber for continuing the game. His economy was really toast from the time he could not evict you from the islands off Sumatra. The oil at Palembang is useless if you cannot dare send tankers/xAKs there.
I hope he sticks with it to 1945 - drawing close to Japan and triggering Kamikazes makes for a different game.

No, I don't think so. Most Japanese players can produce aircraft well into 1945. If Faber can't make airplanes then he is doomed and it will come fast. Even Kamis won't help him much without some aircraft production.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Mariana's:

This region has quietened down now with both Tinian and Guam in Allied hands. All Japanese resistance officially ended on the 25th on Guam and 26th at Tinian. Daily air raids by LBA keeps Pagan, Rota and Saipan under cover as my recently arrived B29's sit and rest at Tinian. Recon from Marcus Island has started flights over Japan. It's quite exciting to know I'll soon be launching air raids against the Mainland. On the flip side there's such a plethora of targets I don't know where to hit first [;)] I expect the first air raids to be launched in the next 2-3 days. It won't be at Tokyo though with over 350 enemy fighters present!

My fleets continue their journey back to PH. I'd say in the next 10 days every ship involved in the Mariana's Operation will be back at PH. We'll begin immediate loading and preparation for the next invasions!

------------------

SRA:

Allied troops marched overland to Manado from Sidate and launched an immediate attack on the 25th October. Weak Japanese resistance led to Manado falling!:

Ground combat at Manado (75,99)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 14402 troops, 229 guns, 437 vehicles, Assault Value = 566

Defending force 3318 troops, 67 guns, 16 vehicles, Assault Value = 74

Allied adjusted assault: 231

Japanese adjusted defense: 37

Allied assault odds: 6 to 1 (fort level 3)

Allied forces CAPTURE Manado !!!

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5b Zero: 5 destroyed
Ki-57-II Topsy: 1 destroyed

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

Japanese ground losses:
444 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 51 disabled
Non Combat: 14 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 21 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 31 (18 destroyed, 13 disabled)
Vehicles lost 14 (14 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
222 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 25 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Assaulting units:
102nd(Sep) Infantry Regiment
41st Infantry Division
2/4th Armoured Regiment
41st Aviation Base Force

Defending units:
64th Naval Guard Unit
16th AA Regiment
8th JNAF Coy
Gohoku JNAF Base Force

Good. Allied BF's and planes will soon land. The Talaud-Eilanden invasion force is departing Ambon now and will join the CVE TF's off Manado before heading in. Talaud will be built up quickly (currently un-occupied with 0 AF) to act as a forward AF and fighter base for the invasion of Mindanao. There's been no further Japanese interference in the area after the disappointing CV combat and CL TF foray.

---------------------

Sumatra/Malaya:

The Allied attack at Proboemolih (Sumatra) on the 24th October was a failure and very disappointing to say the least:

Ground combat at Praboemoelih (48,92)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 35689 troops, 579 guns, 733 vehicles, Assault Value = 1234

Defending force 67837 troops, 991 guns, 850 vehicles, Assault Value = 1845

Allied adjusted assault: 666

Japanese adjusted defense: 906

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2

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

Japanese ground losses:
2221 casualties reported
Squads: 12 destroyed, 176 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 66 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 26 disabled
Guns lost 70 (4 destroyed, 66 disabled)
Vehicles lost 16 (8 destroyed, 8 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
3263 casualties reported
Squads: 49 destroyed, 399 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 98 disabled
Engineers: 17 destroyed, 25 disabled
Guns lost 96 (7 destroyed, 89 disabled)
Vehicles lost 84 (3 destroyed, 81 disabled)

Assaulting units:
14th Canadian Brigade
706th Tank Battalion
100th Indian Brigade
711th Tank Battalion
1st Filipino Inf Regiment
11th Airborne Division
82nd (West African) Division
364th(Sep) Infantry Regiment
99th Indian Brigade
182nd USAAF Base Force
126th RAF Base Force
I US Corps
46th Construction Regiment
76th Coast AA Regiment
88th Medium Regiment
48th Aviation Base Force
341 Wing

Defending units:
2nd Amphibious Brigade
8th Division
32nd Ind.Mixed Bde /1
18th Garrison Unit
6th Guards Inf. Regiment
21st Ind.Mixed Brigade
58th Infantry Regiment
138th Infantry Regiment
21st Division
36th Infantry Regiment
1st South Seas Det.
3rd Tank Division
34th Ind.Mixed Brigade
46th Div /1
51st Field AA Battalion
3rd Mortar Battalion
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
31st Mountain Gun Regiment
28th Air Flotilla
1st Ind. Field Artillery Battalion
23rd AA Regiment
13th RF Gun (Pack) Battalion
1st Guards Field Artillery Regiment
21th JNAF AF Unit
34th Road Const Co
2nd Area Army
55th Const Co
69th Field AA Battalion
1st JAAF Base Force
68th Field AA Battalion
32nd Port Unit
97th JAAF AF Bn

I'll be bombing and resting for weeks before trying this again.

Siberoet based B29's hit Soerabaya's port on the 223rd caused heavy damage and reportedly sinking 8 x SS/SST, 1 x AKE, 1 x AK and 2 x E for the loss of 2 x B29.

On Malaya the 2nd phase of troops are still slowly unloading over the beaches and small port at Malacca. The flip side to having a well equipped and strong OOB with late war Allied units is they are equipment heavy and take a long time to fully unload!

I suspect it will be a further 5 days before all equipment is ashore and the troops can move south towards Johore. I've attached a current screenshot of Malaya with reported enemy troop levels.

Rather than slogging through the Malayan jungles to the north (knowing what a headache they caused me in Burma) I'm increasingly thinking of bypassing the centre of Malaya and landing further to the north or maybe even in Indo China to make the Jap forces in Malaya (and Burma) redundant.

-------------------------------

Submarine Warfare:

I've enough data to confirm the trend I've been seeing now. Due to the constriction of the Japanese Empire and the dismal state of her economy I'm encountering far fewer convoys and ships than previously so there's a massive reduction in the activity of my subs out there. This trend will only exacerbate IMO.

3 x dud/missed attacks.

SS Dragonet well and truly sank DD Mochizuki with 4 torpedoes north of Luzon on the 22nd.

On the other side SS Hawkbill was sunk by an ASW TF south of Tokyo.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

CentPac/Strat Bombing:

Still awaiting some final ships to return to PH before beginning loading for the next phase of Ops.

The first Superfort raid was launched against Wakayama's Manpower on the 29th. Over 80 of them only caused 10K fires and didn't damage anything else. Disappointing, Bad weather prevented the Superforts launching on the 30th October. The weather cleared on the 31st and Osaka was hit:

Morning Air attack on Osaka/Kyoto , at 109,59

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 54 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 16 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 48
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 14

Allied aircraft
B-29-1 Superfort x 79

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 destroyed
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 3 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-29-1 Superfort: 11 damaged

Manpower hits 230
Fires 82425

Relatively happy with this. The screenshot below shows Osaka after a further raid the following day. I netted over 1000 VP's for these 2 raids alone! Wow.......

-----------------------------

SRA:

Final supply is being unloaded at both Manado and Talaud-Eilanden under heavy CAP and SC TF cover. The Mindanao troops will then be loaded at Ambon....

A small enemy TF was located by search planes and 1 of the CVE TF's attacked the enemy near Balikpapan claiming 5 x AK.

On Malaya all troops and material is ashore at Malacca and troops have begun to march towards Johore Bahru in the south......

------------------------------

Submarine Warfare:

2 x dud/missed attacks.

SS Shalimar blew up AK Manila Maru off Balikpapan on the 28th October.

SS Gurnard sank SC CHa-33 near Davao.

SS Shalimar was in action again on the 31st, off Balikpapan, sinking SC CHa-26.

On the other side SS Sabalo was lost with all hands off Formosa on the 27th.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

October saw decent Allied progress on the ground. Both Tinian and Guam fell. The first B29 raids were launched on the HI. Progress in southern SRA saw Manado, Morotai and Talaud-Eilanden fall in preparation for the Mindanao invasions in November.

Malaya has also been strengthened with Malacca being made a fortress as troops march southwards to Johore and Singapore.

November will, hopefully, see the re-capture of Singapore, Mindanao being invaded and troops on there way in CentPac for the next set of invasions. After initial air raids on Japan I aim to rack up thousands of VP's this month on Strat bombing alone!

The Sub War continues the same as September with fewer attacks than before due to the continuing reduction of the Japanese Empire.

In terms of reinforcements. In the air P51D's are the best addition along with B29-25's.

On the sea BB Missouri, New York, Arkansas along with 2 x CL, 2 x CLAA and 8 x SS are the highlights.

-----------------------------------

Points:

Allies: +3,590 points
Japanese: +598 points


Bases:

Allies: +9 (+982 points)
Japanese: -9 (-131 points)


Planes:

Allies: +435 lost
Japanese: +428 lost


Troops:

Allies: +147 lost
Japanese: +1,222 lost


Ships:

Allies: +11 lost (+147 points. 5 x SS, 2 by Subs, a bunch by collision and hitting reefs.)
Japanese: +43 lost (+477 points. Half of these by subs and the other by airpower).

Allied Strat points: +480 points

------------------------

Sub Kills:

16 of 27 attacks were successful = 59.26% success.

Dutch Boats:

PB - 5 (1 mine)
AK - 35
TK - 10
CM - 6
DD - 4
TB - 1
DMS - 3
E - 1
APD - 1
ACM - 1
AP - 1
AMC - 1
AR - 1 (+1)

= 70 ships
-------------------------------

British Boats:

DD - 1 (1 mine)
AK - 13 (1 mine) (+2)
SC - 2 (+1)
PB - 2
TK - 2
AO - 1
SS - 3 (2 mine)
DMS - 1 (1 mine)

= 25 ships

-------------------------------

Fleet Boats:

AK - 307 (+12)
SC - 28 (+3)
AP - 15
PB - 53
TK - 75 (+2)
AKE - 1
CM - 6
ACM - 2
E - 33
APD - 2
DD - 11 (+2)
CL - 1 (Oi)
AO - 8 (-1)
PC - 1
AMC - 1
AV - 2
AM - 1 (1 mine)
SS - 3 (+1)
DMS - 4
CVE - 1 (Chuyo)

= 554 ships
--------------------------------

S-Boats:

AK - 22 (+1)
AP - 2
CM - 1
PB - 5
DMS - 1
SC - 7
TK - 4

= 42 ships

= 691 ships = 52.43% of reported sunk ships total.

[JocMeister]

Looking good Speedy! [:)]

[Speedysteve]

Thanks. I'm hopeful I could try and get enough VP's to get a major victory by the end of the year. I'll need 25,000 more VP's for that. That would mean 12,500 per month. It's a real ambitious aim but I wonder if Strat bombing could make it. I netted 1800 VP's in the first 5 days of November as is.......

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Speedy
I netted 1800 VP's in the first 5 days of November as is.......

[X(]

[Speedysteve]

It's actually less than I thought as I believe a decisive victory is 1.75 the enemies score? If so 17k points to go.....

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

The first week of November passes with it being fairly quiet with Allied Troops embarking for upcoming invasions. The only other action of note was B29 raids and progress on land in Malaya.

CentPac:

Almost all necessary shipping is either back or repaired at PH for the next 2 invasions. Troops will begin embarking on 8th November. I'll detail the invasions in the next update.

B29's launched a couple of fairly devastating raids in early November on the Osaka Manpower conglomeration. Fires raged and were not extinguished until 7th November. During this time damage was caused across many industries netting 2150 VP's for the Allies.

Unfortunately, the long range and presence of 20-50 fighters on CAP causes many of the B29's to be damaged or need maintenance. As such for every 2 days of raids I need 4 or 5 or so of rest! Further BG's are appearing in the US now and will ultimately base at Guam to begin relay raids with the other B29's on Tinian.

The first raid on Nagoya was launched on 6th November. A follow up will be launched on the 7th:

Morning Air attack on Nagoya , at 111,60

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 25 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 49

Allied aircraft
B-29-1 Superfort x 50

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-29-1 Superfort: 4 damaged

Manpower hits 46
Fires 26910

-----------------------

SRA:

Quiet here as troops embark at Ambon for Mindanao.

-----------------------

Malaya/Sumatra:

I don't mention these much nowadays but Siberoet based B29's continue to spread the love on enemy held Oil and Industry centres across the SRA. Soerabaya received the love recently knocking oil production down to 1/3 recently.

I decided to attack the surrounded Jap at Praboemoelih on the 5th with VERY disappointing results:

Ground combat at Praboemoelih (48,92)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 33733 troops, 579 guns, 733 vehicles, Assault Value = 1003

Defending force 63689 troops, 956 guns, 827 vehicles, Assault Value = 1651

Allied adjusted assault: 792

Japanese adjusted defense: 785

Allied assault odds: 1 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1780 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 81 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 37 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 25 disabled
Guns lost 39 (3 destroyed, 36 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
2740 casualties reported
Squads: 93 destroyed, 330 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 83 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 38 disabled
Guns lost 49 (5 destroyed, 44 disabled)
Vehicles lost 41 (2 destroyed, 39 disabled)

------------------

Malaya:

Johore was reached on the 4th and an attack went in successfully on the 5th (despite me forgetting to change the mode to Attack = idiot!):

Ground combat at Johore Bahru (50,83)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 81977 troops, 1730 guns, 1676 vehicles, Assault Value = 3140

Defending force 10518 troops, 79 guns, 43 vehicles, Assault Value = 167

Allied adjusted assault: 1060

Japanese adjusted defense: 127

Allied assault odds: 8 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied forces CAPTURE Johore Bahru !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+)
Attacker: op mode(-)

Japanese ground losses:
3234 casualties reported
Squads: 64 destroyed, 19 disabled
Non Combat: 217 destroyed, 196 disabled
Engineers: 122 destroyed, 8 disabled
Guns lost 67 (48 destroyed, 19 disabled)
Vehicles lost 49 (44 destroyed, 5 disabled)
Units retreated 4
Units destroyed 1

Allied ground losses:
726 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 101 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 18 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 16 disabled
Guns lost 16 (1 destroyed, 15 disabled)

Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
29th British Brigade
2nd British Division
45th Recce Regiment
111th Chindit Brigade
18th Cavalry Regiment
11th (East African) Division
23rd Chindit Brigade
81st (West African) Division
44th (Support) Battalion
150th RAC Regiment
28th (East African) Brigade
26th Indian Brigade
16th British Brigade
Provisionl Tank Brigade
209th Combat Engineer Battalion
14th British Brigade
Gardner's Horse Regiment
22nd (East African) Brigade
5th Indian Division
134th (East Ang) Regiment
87th Medium Regiment
86th Medium Regiment
85th Medium Regiment
18th SP Field Artillery Regiment
32nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
122nd British AT Gun Regiment

Defending units:
14th Ind.Mixed Regiment
29th JNAF AF Unit
5th JAAF AF Coy
5th Field AF Construction Battalion
93rd JAAF AF Bn
3rd Air Division
12th Base Force
180th JAAF AF Bn

On to Singers we go!

--------------------------

Submarine Warfare:

2 x dud/missed attack.

SS O23 damaged TK Shimpo Maru with a torpedo near Balabac on the 2nd November.

SS Triton blew up AKL Dalakita Maru SW of Japan on the 6th.

On the other side SS Terrapin was sunk off Balabac on the 6th.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

It's actually less than I thought as I believe a decisive victory is 1.75 the enemies score? If so 17k points to go.....

I just stumbled upon the VC in the manual. It seems you need 2x the VPs for an AUTO victory. 1.75 is for a major victory at the END of the war.

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Speedy

It's actually less than I thought as I believe a decisive victory is 1.75 the enemies score? If so 17k points to go.....

I just stumbled upon the VC in the manual. It seems you need 2x the VPs for an AUTO victory. 1.75 is for a major victory at the END of the war.

This is confusing .. but if the IJ make it until 1946 .. that major victory becomes a draw [Bolding this authors for emphasis]

17.1.1 VICTORY AFTER 1945
If the game ends in 1946 when the scenario time expires (as opposed to ending due to an
Automatic Victory), the Victory Level moves two levels in the Japanese player’s favor.
Example: scenario 15 ends when time expires in March 1946 with the Allies having 1.8 times
the Japanese points. Normally this would be a Decisive Allied Victory, but since it is ending due
to time expiring in 1946, it shifts to a Draw.

I read this as that the Allies have to achieve AV or the best they can hope for is a draw ...

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Thanks. I'm hopeful I could try and get enough VP's to get a major victory by the end of the year. I'll need 25,000 more VP's for that. That would mean 12,500 per month. It's a real ambitious aim but I wonder if Strat bombing could make it. I netted 1800 VP's in the first 5 days of November as is.......

It is a ratio Speedy .. so I might propose that the denominator is far more important than the numerator. That is Strat bombing will certainly increase the numerator but each point taken away from the IJ is really 2 points toward the AV goal.

Let us say I have 10 VP's and the IJ 8 VP's a 1.25 ratio .. I take one IJ point away and I boost my ratio to 1.43! If I gain a VP keeping the IJ points stable (11/8) I only boost my ratio to 1.38. Demonstrating the power of the denominator in this equation. Just add one VP and take one away 11/7 boost the ratio to 1.57....This is what happens when bases are taken.

Now clearly we are looking at much bigger numbers.. but this example demonstrates taking bases valuable to the IJ where a thousand or so VP's can be subtracted from the denominator with some Allied VP gain to the numerator. Find the bases with big IJ multipliers and you accomplish this goal. The optimization of this process are the bases that are big Allied/IJ multipliers that swing the ratios on both ends .. like Hong Kong and Singapore.

One thing I do early on in the war is build up all the US bases. This increases the IJ's denominator making their AV a little harder .. but at the end of the war it adds a slight gain to the numerator and every point counts ..

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Speedy

It's actually less than I thought as I believe a decisive victory is 1.75 the enemies score? If so 17k points to go.....

I just stumbled upon the VC in the manual. It seems you need 2x the VPs for an AUTO victory. 1.75 is for a major victory at the END of the war.

This is confusing .. but if the IJ make it until 1946 .. that major victory becomes a draw [Bolding this authors for emphasis]

17.1.1 VICTORY AFTER 1945
If the game ends in 1946 when the scenario time expires (as opposed to ending due to an
Automatic Victory), the Victory Level moves two levels in the Japanese player’s favor.
Example: scenario 15 ends when time expires in March 1946 with the Allies having 1.8 times
the Japanese points. Normally this would be a Decisive Allied Victory, but since it is ending due
to time expiring in 1946, it shifts to a Draw.

I read this as that the Allies have to achieve AV or the best they can hope for is a draw ...

Nothing shameful about a draw...[;)] Quite frankly, I would rate any Japanese player who can make it into 1946 without some Allied presence on the Japanese mainland as the winner. No matter the VP accumulated by his opponent.