ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon
I ended up deciding to simply keep the pressure on China and begin withdrawing some LCU's for Pacific duty without necessarily defeating China. I've now since changed my mind and am looking to knock China completely out of the war.
I think it is the sensible thing to do. Most of your troops in China won't go anywhere anyway, so you'd better use them, destroy the KMT, accumulate VP, and secure the continent. The Chinese get 350 squad replacements every month, and you don't want to let them build a large army in your back once they manage to transport enough supplies from Burma (and they will be able to do it eventually)
ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon
We've discussed strategic bombing in China, or rather Jocke's asked when he can start pummeling my forces there. I've been preparing for Allied strategic bombing in China from day one, but we've agreed to the standard HR of Jan. 1st, 1943 as the start date for Allied strategic bombing in China. I'm good with this and have been preparing my air defences at Lanchow and Sian accordingly.
If he's bombing from Burma, he will be on a very long range, and his bombers will fly unescorted. This is pretty good training for your restricted squadrons.
Sorry that my post was unclear. I mean I have just over 900k worth of repairs still to complete and will drop below 900k at the end of the month. I think in total I will have spent about 1.7 million on R&D and aircraft factory expansion.
I'm looking at about the same . In one of my games, my HI supply levels are frighteningly low, but I actually trended up last turn so I think I'm OK.
I think more than anything, it affects the pace of acquisitions in early '42. If you can't ship a couple hundred thousand supply out of Tokyo because you're using it for factory repairs instead, then completing the conquest of the SRA and China might be on a tight budget.
I think it is the sensible thing to do. Most of your troops in China won't go anywhere anyway, so you'd better use them, destroy the KMT, accumulate VP, and secure the continent. The Chinese get 350 squad replacements every month, and you don't want to let them build a large army in your back once they manage to transport enough supplies from Burma (and they will be able to do it eventually).
If he's bombing from Burma, he will be on a very long range, and his bombers will fly unescorted. This is pretty good training for your restricted squadrons.
Francois
I agree, there's no point having the threat of a supplied Chinese army constantly looming over the horizon if I can do something about it now. As to the bombing, that's exactly my thought. I'm dedicating a number of Sentai's and FLAK units to China for the sole purpose of defending the fuel/oil at Lanchow and Sian.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
I'm looking at about the same . In one of my games, my HI supply levels are frighteningly low, but I actually trended up last turn so I think I'm OK.
I think more than anything, it affects the pace of acquisitions in early '42. If you can't ship a couple hundred thousand supply out of Tokyo because you're using it for factory repairs instead, then completing the conquest of the SRA and China might be on a tight budget.
I think I'm in good shape actually. I chose to limit my expansion in order to pay for my aircraft R&D program. The SRA was captured relatively cheaply. Limiting my expansion also conserved a lot of supply which has been used to build fortifications.
I've got HI savings of 1.24 million already and supply is recovering nicely overall. I've been pretty successful in China and have only recently needed to ship in supply from the Home Islands.
My strategy is go only for VP's that are permanent rather than base driven and temporary. The only fly in the ointment is my inability to catch Allied forces with KB. I've come close twice now, but always miss out by a day or two for any number of reasons. I need to start sinking Allied ships on a regular basis.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
There's Allied movement from Chittagong to Cox's Bazar. Whether this means simply reinforcing Cox's Bazar and Akyab or redeploying for offensive operations I don't know yet. I am going to reinforce Burma with a couple of divisions. I want to move on Paoshan to increase pressure on China to ensure no land route for supply flow into the theatre will occur.
I believe Jocke will try landing directly on Sumatra or Malaya in late 43 and I plan on heavily reinforcing both theatres.
Southeast Pacific:
The Allies landed only the 41st Division at Noumea. I'm picking up some more activity in the area which must be follow up TF's deploying support forces to the island. KB is fueled up and I may sortie back to try and disrupt Allied operations in the area.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
Turns are quiet these days with little action other than in China.
Sub Ops:
Allied submarines are active off the coast of Borneo and one duds on TK Ceram Maru. I hate to see a tanker come up in the crosshairs. I've resigned myself to accepting Japanese ASW efforts will be futile in this game. I simply go through the motions. No amount of air search or patrolling ASW assets are preventing me being attacked. The only thing preventing Japanese shipping losses are the Allied duds.
On the other hand, Japanese SS I-25 comes across an escorted amphibious TF and doesn't even get to launch a torpedo having been spotted immediately by the escorts. This has been the extent of my submarine operations for some time. Japanese submarines are suppressed immediately and have been targeting escorts and missing. Heck, I can't even hit an unescorted AV.
I do not understand why I have such terrible luck when it comes to submarines compared to the success stories I read about in AAR after AAR.
China:
Recent operations will result in completely isolating another 15 Chinese LCU's in a few days. This brings the current total to 25 enemy LCU's surrounded with no hope of breaking out or receiving supply until destroyed.
Chinese forces appear to be moving for Chungking, Chengtu and Kunming. Stacking limits in the mountains are usually around 20-25k worth of troops. This means I should be able to sustain the offensive towards Kunming using only a few divisions at the point of attack and just rotating fresh ones in occasionally. All HQ's are 100% prepped for Kienko, Chengtu and Kunming as are many of the units assigned to capturing these bases.
Chinese losses from bombing are increasing. I'm either catching these units in move mode or the disruption is high enough to result in more destroyed squads. I haven't even bombed Chungking or Chengtu yet, but the priority right now is to disable as many enemy squads as possible. A dedicated bombing campaign will begin against Chungking and Chengtu as soon as more bomber Sentai's arrive.
Production:
Merchant construction has been reduced to building tanker and CVE ships only. Naval construction has also been scaled back.
Fuel levels are increasing in the Home Islands as is supply. 13k supply was stockpiled yesterday.
Four R&D factories were converted to Randy 102c and Irving S airframe research. I also converted another factory to the Shinden. The Ha-42 engine factory is at 95% advancement and will be converted to the NE Turbojet once it does. That will give me three factories researching this power plant.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
I believe Jocke will try landing directly on Sumatra or Malaya in late 43 and I plan on heavily reinforcing both theatres.
Why?
Seriously, why? You can't hold it. Once the allies have the naval power to put a landing ashore south of Rangoon you have lost Malay. The only question is if you try to defend: How many ID's are you willling to lose? The coast is open and you cannot get enough reaction forces in place to contain a landing. So, he will cut the pennisula on you and isolate. Erik's AAR is the perfect example, it is so easy for the allies to cut you off and cost you 4 - 10 of your best ID's which is exactly what the allies need to do. Those same units in the PI or on Formosa stall him for months as in both of those places you can react to landings fast enough to cause him grief.
Remember with B-29's all he needs is Port Blair and Darwin and he can shut down all oil production in the DEI. At that point, what are you defending? The DEI also is not defensbile, look at GJ's AAR.
What do I do in both places? Set traps. Make it look like defense, but in reality I am trying to reverse the trap on the allies. I want to burn his units, particularly brit, oz and and marines as the replacement rates are relatively low and units are high quality. I will sacrifice 1:1 for those units, but I try to do better. I know I can rebuild up to about 10 ID's that I lose and it takes me 6 - 9 months to do so ... he won't be able to replace brit or oz ID's before the war is over*, and a marine ID takes well over a year.
Caveat to this is of course if I have taken Kunming and own the overland path out of Burma. Then I can get much more inventive.
*he can replace roughly one of each by disbanding all of the small units that he has. of course this eliminates a good number of his GAR forces and he has to use bigger units of India or something else instead.
Just food for thought from the counter-current guy. [;)]
Sining falls. This essentially concludes my planned operations in the north. I'm not sure if it's worth diverting forces to take the remaining bases as far as Urumchi. The priority should be sealing off Central China to prevent Chinese forces reaching Burma.
My forces are in position along the road to Kunming and will launch two deliberate assaults tomorrow in an effort to clear a direct route. I'm going to divert a division to hump it through the mountains and block the secondary road from Chengtu to Tsuyung.
Armoured units will assault Neikiang next turn. All bombers within range are ordered to support this attack and soften up the two defending Chinese units totaling less than 10k. A division will arrive in two days if the armour attack fails.
It's all out in China and the lack of supply is causing Chinese forces in 3x defensive terrain being reduced to less than 1/3 their normal combat strength. I still can't wipe out the isolated pockets with my current strength, but 40-80 Chinese squads are being destroyed after every assault so that is positive. I don't think I can reduce China to only Chungking by the end of 42, but providing I don't make any mistakes I think China could be knocked out by the first quarter of 1943.
R&D:
There will be a fair number of engine and airframe accelerations over the next week or so.
Production:
Vehicle points are closing in on 30k and armaments to 100k stockpiled.
Thoughts:
I'm trying to make up for taking the foot off the pedal in China. I want to knock it out as soon as possible in order to free up forces for my MLR.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
I've noticed the recent love fest for DaBabes in the main forum. I've decided I need to change the way I play and lower my expectations with Japan under the differences in game play the mod brings. I'm going to reserve future comments on DaBabes until the game is finished. The futility of Japanese ASW has been my biggest concern, but I'm at the stage now where I can accept it. I can't really comment on other features since I have no first hand knowledge due to the lack of combat and the beta changes not really influencing anything as yet.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
I think I'm really in trouble this game. More on this another time, but without inflicting high permanent VP losses on the Allies in 42/43 the VP ratio is going to explode in the Allies' favour once strategic bombing begins. This doesn't bode well. I fear playing a conservative Japan will be a huge mistake.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
I believe Jocke will try landing directly on Sumatra or Malaya in late 43 and I plan on heavily reinforcing both theatres.
Why?
Seriously, why? You can't hold it. Once the allies have the naval power to put a landing ashore south of Rangoon you have lost Malay. The only question is if you try to defend: How many ID's are you willling to lose? The coast is open and you cannot get enough reaction forces in place to contain a landing. So, he will cut the pennisula on you and isolate. Erik's AAR is the perfect example, it is so easy for the allies to cut you off and cost you 4 - 10 of your best ID's which is exactly what the allies need to do. Those same units in the PI or on Formosa stall him for months as in both of those places you can react to landings fast enough to cause him grief.
Remember with B-29's all he needs is Port Blair and Darwin and he can shut down all oil production in the DEI. At that point, what are you defending? The DEI also is not defensbile, look at GJ's AAR.
What do I do in both places? Set traps. Make it look like defense, but in reality I am trying to reverse the trap on the allies. I want to burn his units, particularly brit, oz and and marines as the replacement rates are relatively low and units are high quality. I will sacrifice 1:1 for those units, but I try to do better. I know I can rebuild up to about 10 ID's that I lose and it takes me 6 - 9 months to do so ... he won't be able to replace brit or oz ID's before the war is over*, and a marine ID takes well over a year.
Caveat to this is of course if I have taken Kunming and own the overland path out of Burma. Then I can get much more inventive.
*he can replace roughly one of each by disbanding all of the small units that he has. of course this eliminates a good number of his GAR forces and he has to use bigger units of India or something else instead.
Just food for thought from the counter-current guy. [;)]
I would be very interested in your inventiveness on this topic [;)]. As well as "reversing the trap."
I think I'm really in trouble this game. More on this another time, but without inflicting high permanent VP losses on the Allies in 42/43 the VP ratio is going to explode in the Allies' favour once strategic bombing begins. This doesn't bode well. I fear playing a conservative Japan will be a huge mistake.
Industry in Australia is permanent VPs... Is it worth attacking? If so, can you raid it with minimal losses?
I think I'm really in trouble this game. More on this another time, but without inflicting high permanent VP losses on the Allies in 42/43 the VP ratio is going to explode in the Allies' favour once strategic bombing begins. This doesn't bode well. I fear playing a conservative Japan will be a huge mistake.
Only if your conservatism doesn't pay dividends in slowing his advance. The trade-off is better first and more troops condensed in fewer bases to defend.
I agree though that a good cushion in points would help as well because that usually means you've also destroyed a bunch of stuff, making it harder for the Allies to come full force too early.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
Industry in Australia is permanent VPs... Is it worth attacking? If so, can you raid it with minimal losses?
I don't think the VP's I'd gain would offset the loss in pilots. With the increased FLAK effectiveness it may not be worth it. If I'm going to be losing aircraft and pilots I'd like it to be from destroying Allied aircraft and ships. So far Jocke has been able to avoid any losses due to my failure to interdict him...twice. Hopefully I'll be third time lucky against the next Allied move.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
I think I'm really in trouble this game. More on this another time, but without inflicting high permanent VP losses on the Allies in 42/43 the VP ratio is going to explode in the Allies' favour once strategic bombing begins. This doesn't bode well. I fear playing a conservative Japan will be a huge mistake.
Only if your conservatism doesn't pay dividends in slowing his advance. The trade-off is better first and more troops condensed in fewer bases to defend.
I agree though that a good cushion in points would help as well because that usually means you've also destroyed a bunch of stuff, making it harder for the Allies to come full force too early.
I think the lack of activity is always a killer. Just too much time spent dwelling on things and second guessing. [8|]
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
The Chinese are beginning to crumble. Losses caused from air attack amounted to 1162 casualties today. Chinese troops in 2x defensive terrain are being hammered while those in 3x not so much. A series of attacks throughout China caused more Chinese losses than Japanese regardless of odds. Here are the various AAR's on the day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at 80,40 (near Kienko)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 30062 troops, 267 guns, 478 vehicles, Assault Value = 1043
Defending force 23068 troops, 126 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 748
Defending units:
1st Chinese Cavalry Corps
26th Group Army
Most of these actions are not huge victories, but they show the Chinese are suffering heavier casualties and more destroyed squads after every action. I'm trying to keep the pressure on while continually moving forward. The Chinese in the mountains are going to be tough to budge, but if they continue to perform at roughly 1/3 of their actual strength they will have to give ground. I'll post a screenshot of China later tonight.
R&D:
Engine Ha-43 advances to 3/45.
Thoughts:
I can buy out another division from China, but I may not remove it from the theatre yet. I haven't really touched troops from the Kwantung Army. I'm 3k AV over the 8k garrison requirement so there is still a large number of divisions available to be bought out.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
There are 27 Chinese LCU's isolated or cut off from any hope of escaping destruction. As you can see Chinese forces are in danger of being split in two. If that occurs, I can contain one half while destroying the other. The immediate objectives are to block any movement west of Chengtu towards the Burmese border and capture Kunming. I plan on capturing Chengtu prior to Chungking to shorten my line.
Attachments
China.jpg (271.89 KiB) Viewed 199 times
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
I just got the next turn from Jocke and his frustration with China is clearly evident. To quote:
"I'm glad the absolute joke that is China soon is over with. Doesn't matter what you do. Without supply there is nothing you can do."
I understand his frustration. I think China is impossible to hold if Japan prioritizes defeating it under the current game design. Given the options though, I had little choice other than to concentrate on China. I don't have the strength for an Indian or Australian campaign and so much of my force is restricted that it might as well be used where it can, and that's in China. Francois pointed this out in an earlier post and I completely agree.
I feel cheated in some ways too. I performed well in china, but is it a result of strong game play on my part, poor gameplay on the part of my opponent or is China so poorly designed as to make this result inevitable? Most likely it's a combination of all three.
However, China's not knocked out yet. As far as I'm concerned it's still business as usual and there is much yet to accomplish.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
. In one of my games, my HI supply levels are frighteningly low, but I actually trended up last turn so I think I'm OK.
