Rumble in the Southwest witpqs-A vs Andav-J 2011-11-29 to 2017-02-08

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

I assume you don´t have any BBs to spare to help suppress the CD guns while unloading? [:)]

And while you were asking for questions. Any plans on a new front opening up soon?

That dastardly Admiral Wa destroyed most of the BBs at Pearl Harbor and at least one more at sea. I have 3 of them repairing on the west coast right now and another just about to refuel at Pearl before heading for the States. The only operational old BB is at Kavieng, just down to 20 sys damage. I want to get it lower and have it help with the Marianas Islands invasions.

I have 5x fast BB with the carriers, and a sixth one (Alabama, I think) is just nearing the front. I am thinking about detaching up to three of them to form a stout bombardment TF. The bombardment group on its way back to Truk is 4x CA, and another 2x CA have just refueled at Nauru to join the party. There are 3x CA repairing at Kavieng. Two are technically ready enough, but if I can do without them they will have more staying power for bombarding the Marianas. Then there are 3 more CA repairing at Pearl Harbor that will be ready within 2 weeks.

The bad news is that all the fast BBs are in want of their summer '43 upgrades. Those will have to wait until the Marianas campaign is over. Soon it will be time for most or all of the USN fleet carriers to get their October '43 upgrades, but at least those are quick to perform.

As far as fronts go, here is the run down.

1) Truk->Marianas: very active. Forces prepping for Siapan, Guam, and Tinian. Other forces prepping for Woleai, Yap, and Baeldaob.
2) Burma: stagnant and awaiting supply buildup in the south.
2A) Burma: open the northern Burma Road, very active.
3) China: when the upper Burma Road is open much supply should be pulled in from Burma. That will mipact Burma and China. Several Allied units will move into China to help repel the Imperial efforts to destroy the remaining major portion of the Chinese Army. In addition, they will try to push back the Japanese and free the large (and vastly over stacked) Chinese Army in Chungking.
4) Northern New Guinea Coast: Advancing slowly. Forces are prepping for Biak and some other bases. Vast movements of support troops and staging of combat troops into bases in this region as the infrastructure is built up to support this and the Marianas offensives.
5) Southern New Guinea Coast: pending, with many forces prepared. Awaiting carrier support for the next phase of advance. This axis will join with the northern coastal advance and proceed into the Spice Islands.
6) Sinabang, etc.: pending. Awaiting further preparation of troops. Another African division has arrived at Moulein that can support operations in this area.

Sinabang might have to wait for other support, as Victorious is due to withdraw in 37 days. [:(]

[JocMeister]

Agreed on the fast BBs. They are always short in numbers but so useful. The slow BBs are quite useless besides atoll bombardments and protecting landings by being torpedo magnets. [:D]

And plans for NOPAC? What do you have preping for the Marianas?

I think btw you are in a very good position. You are in the same position a year ahead of me. Perhaps we will see a HI invasion in your game? [:)]

[witpqs]

Walter is absolutely relentless. Just look at what he has achieved in China. Before that it was Burma where the Allies bloodied the Empire and he just kept coming. There most likely will be an invasion of the Home Islands!

Here is a pic of the Aleutian bases. Just defenses in place and building to support future operations. No forces are prepping for operations.

[witpqs]

Here are the forces preparing for the Marianas.

[witpqs]

Tinian will mostly be handled by units now tasked with Truk.

I've been giving a lot of thought to how to carry out the invasions. My current thinking is to land a full force (up to 3 divisions plus other units) at either Guam or Saipan along with a huge overage of supply, then send the transports back to load up and land the force on the other island. I would like to also be able to land forces on Tinian in a third wave, but we'll have to see what is available with adequate preparation. A new division will arrive at San Francisco in a few days.

[witpqs]

I should point out that I have to get recon of the Marianas, that plus SigInt will help me decide which island to land on first.

[JocMeister]

I didn´t realise you had already secured NOPAC. Wow! [:)]

Looking at your forces prepping for the Marianas it does look a bit on the light side. But of course that depends on what your opponent has in place. But a division on each with some hodgepodge of troops and you might not have enough.

Erik had very light defenses in place and I still struggled a bit. Especially the US divisions took a beating. The USMC divisions did a lot better and the tanks (Shermans) were absolutely essential.

This was the first attack on Saipan.

Ground combat at Saipan (108,93)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 42453 troops, 893 guns, 913 vehicles, Assault Value = 1887

Defending force 32888 troops, 412 guns, 363 vehicles, Assault Value = 758

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 5

Allied adjusted assault: 3129

Japanese adjusted defense: 4203

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 5)

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

Japanese ground losses:
2367 casualties reported
Squads: 28 destroyed, 155 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 50 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 39 disabled
Guns lost 59 (12 destroyed, 47 disabled)
Vehicles lost 16 (4 destroyed, 12 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
2884 casualties reported
Squads: 11 destroyed, 369 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 30 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 40 disabled
Guns lost 42 (2 destroyed, 40 disabled)

Assaulting units:
81st Infantry Division
3rd Marine Division
34th Combat Engineer Regiment
33rd Infantry Division
194th Tank Battalion
98th Infantry Division
766th Tank Battalion
4th USMC Tank Battalion
3rd USMC Field Artillery Battalion
V US Amphib Corps
3rd Eng Amph Bde
Pacific Ocean Areas
8th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
Eighth US Army
198th Field Artillery Battalion
12th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
4th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
11th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
97th Coast AA Regiment
4th Eng Amph Bde

Defending units:
9th Ind.Mixed Regiment
42nd Recon Regiment
10th Ind.Mixed Regiment
50th Ind.Mixed Brigade
53rd Ind.Mixed Brigade
17th Ind.Mixed Regiment
18th Army
11th JAAF Base Force
45th Field AA Battalion
22nd Ind. Engineer Regiment
32nd Air Defense AA Battalion
Saipan Naval Fortress
4th JNAF AF Unit
4th JAAF Base Force
5th Air Division
31st Army
13th RF Gun (Pack) Battalion
19th RF Gun Battalion
55th Field AA Battalion
33rd JNAF AF Unit
47th JNAF AF Unit /1

And this was with a fully prepped Command HQ/Corp HQ. The units Erik had in place was mostly the weaker late arriving RGTs with low firepower and crappy EXP. But look at the adjusted AV nonetheless! Have sigint provided some clues on what he has in place?

I think especially at Saipan you will want to land everything at the first go. The CD fire where nasty and I had something like 6 old BBs embedded in the TFs. That was essential.

[witpqs]

I haven't pieced together the Intel yet. That is a nasty defense you're showing there! I will get the four divisions from Truk, 3 of them USMC.

Looking at the Truk battle, the rotation of units has helped, but the real key has been recovering troops long enough between battles. I'm pretty sure that's been the biggest key to the better attacks. And Truk, even if it falls very soon, will have taken the better part of a month. I don't want to do that with each of the big three Marianas in turn, so I'm thinking about that approach of getting two or three islands invested. Then I will only have to deal with any rotations and such at sea. It will also allow me to grab whatever island is weak.

The CD guns will definitely influence the order of invasion. I want to go against the greatest CD gun opposition last. Tinian might be the exception, as mentioned earlier, since combat forces are not yet really preparing for it.

[JocMeister]

Yeah, A 4000 adjusted AV is pretty mean! [X(] And thats using pretty poor troops. Some of the RGT/BDEs are of the late arriving kind with a light TOE and low EXP. Had there been 2 real IDs in place that would have made it really nasty!

That being said you go in a lot earlier than I did. And if your opponent have neglected fort buildings and defenses it might be a lot easier for you. What does intel monkey say? I knew pretty well what I was going to get up against thanks to it. [:)] I think doing 2 instead of all three is wise. Better to grab two "easy" than all three "hard" or not at all.

And bring loads of arty. That way you can have the arty suppressing the troops while your infantry recovers between the attacks. No rest for the enemy!

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

The units Erik had in place was mostly the weaker late arriving RGTs with low firepower and crappy EXP. But look at the adjusted AV nonetheless! Have sigint provided some clues on what he has in place?

I think especially at Saipan you will want to land everything at the first go. The CD fire where nasty and I had something like 6 old BBs embedded in the TFs. That was essential.

Just for the general knowledge, the experience may not always be so low and crappy as it looks from checking out the organic unit. Most of these units were fully-prepped and in the 53-55 range of experience by the time of attack. Not high, but not terrible.

Several Anti-tank gun units were added, and there were two HQs on island for this particular one, which definitely adds to the troop effectiveness. The timing was just a bit too fast for the defenses as another arty unit and some other surprises were destined to be placed out here. Don't forget that brigades are not always only brigades. The Japanese have a lot that can combine into divisions, a lot of other strange combinations that also can combine and make larger units. A smart Japanese player might be able to use this to fool sigint a bit by placing the smaller units onto the islands, wait until an attack is imminent, and then combine the units into several divisions. This was the plan for several other islands out here, but the second half of the divisions hadn't yet made it due to PP constraints and my inexperience, really.

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Looking at the Truk battle, the rotation of units has helped, but the real key has been recovering troops long enough between battles. I'm pretty sure that's been the biggest key to the better attacks. And Truk, even if it falls very soon, will have taken the better part of a month. I don't want to do that with each of the big three Marianas in turn, so I'm thinking about that approach of getting two or three islands invested. Then I will only have to deal with any rotations and such at sea. It will also allow me to grab whatever island is weak.

The CD guns will definitely influence the order of invasion. I want to go against the greatest CD gun opposition last. Tinian might be the exception, as mentioned earlier, since combat forces are not yet really preparing for it.

The big three might be a big four. I had Rota as well or better defended than the others. Each of the three Jocke invaded did take 3-4 weeks to break down, so even with the defense not yet where I was hoping to get it, the time taken to get them all was still acceptable and it seemed the Allied troops were pretty worn out in most cases. Jocke did add in some troops after initial invasions as well to make sure on a few of these, so I was pleased that those extras had to be used there rather than somewhere else.

I would definitely think of investing several in quick succession rather than waiting for one to finish before trying the next.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: obvert
Just for the general knowledge, the experience may not always be so low and crappy as it looks from checking out the organic unit. Most of these units were fully-prepped and in the 53-55 range of experience by the time of attack. Not high, but not terrible.

Several Anti-tank gun units were added, and there were two HQs on island for this particular one, which definitely adds to the troop effectiveness. The timing was just a bit too fast for the defenses as another arty unit and some other surprises were destined to be placed out here. Don't forget that brigades are not always only brigades. The Japanese have a lot that can combine into divisions, a lot of other strange combinations that also can combine and make larger units. A smart Japanese player might be able to use this to fool sigint a bit by placing the smaller units onto the islands, wait until an attack is imminent, and then combine the units into several divisions. This was the plan for several other islands out here, but the second half of the divisions hadn't yet made it due to PP constraints and my inexperience, really.

Ah, good to know. I saw they arrived with just 45 EXP and I didn´t think they would have had time to get any EXP raise. Their TOE looked really light though with just a few guns. So not much firepower unless the recieved a TOE upgrade?

Nonetheless it took several weeks as you say to wear them down and especially the US divisions took a beating. The combination of terrain and forts make it a formidable obstacle. I think the USMC divisions and especially the tanks were absolutely crucial. As you say, add some more guns and it would have taken longer. Throw in an ID and it could have taken months. I guess it comes down to if witpsqs opponent have prepared the Marianas or not!

ORIGINAL: obvert
The big three might be a big four. I had Rota as well or better defended than the others. Each of the three Jocke invaded did take 3-4 weeks to break down, so even with the defense not yet where I was hoping to get it, the time taken to get them all was still acceptable and it seemed the Allied troops were pretty worn out in most cases. Jocke did add in some troops after initial invasions as well to make sure on a few of these, so I was pleased that those extras had to be used there rather than somewhere else.

I would definitely think of investing several in quick succession rather than waiting for one to finish before trying the next.

+1

I would do two to begin with. Once secured and LBA is establish the rest can be secured under LBA. I did only 1 to begin with. But there were special reasons and circumstances for that!

[witpqs]

Part of my strategy is to get in there before he can prepare them too much. BTW we do have optional stacking limits, so both the troops that I can put there (over stacked to a point) and those he can put there (not so much over stacked) are limited by the supply penalty.



BTW those are 1x DD + 4x AK at Almalgan. Maybe my strategy so far in this game of grabbing bases to isolate others is bearing some fruit, causing him to spread out his defenses a bit??

[JocMeister]

Certainly looks like he has neglected the base building! Heh, what if they are almost empty? [:)]

[witpqs]

You asked...

Guam

[witpqs]

Rota

[witpqs]

Tinian

[witpqs]

Saipan

[JocMeister]

Thats going to be tough. But not certainly possible! [:)]

Tinian looks lighter but I bet he has a division there too. Guess he has been building forts instead of of airfields...

PS. I love intelmonkey! [&o]

[witpqs]

Recon will influence this, but I'm thinking Guam first.

[princep01]

With all those construction units on Guam and Tinian, it looks like hWa is not neglecting the fortification of these island.  I suspect that Siapan, while showing little in the way of construction units, has already been built up.  Admiral Wa may be a little behind on the islands showing all those construction units.  Rota, probably not built up at all.  Thought:  while your main landing goes in at Guam or Tinian, I'd get Rota too and land many Seabees there to build a fast airbase. 
 
Taking the Mariannas wasn't easy in real life and it won't be easy in your game, but it is certainly doable.  Get Truk behind you ASAP and saddle up for the big event.  Taking Truk was a good idea as it will be a fine base from which to operate.  I had doubts about the advisability of going for Truk, but it appears you were way ahead of me on that one.
 
It will be very interesting to watch the Marianna event.