Castles in the Sand - Spidery(J) vs MrKane(A) no MrKane please

[Quixote]

Would 3 divisions be enough to take Ceylon? And, is it worthwhile?

At the present stage in your game, yes - three divisions is enough.
I'd also consider it worthwhile, but only if you can do it without substantial risk to any of your carriers.

[Spidery]

January 3rd 1942

Air Losses: 3 Japanese, 0 Allied, 3 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Tioman Island (auto), Wake Island, Rangoon (air drop), Liuchow
Japanese land at: Wake Island

Mystery

The mysterious sinkings continue with 2 more sinking sounds. That makes six - it must be stranded Dutch MTB.

Philippines

PG Tulsa sunk by port attack in Manila docks.

Malaya

An Allied AVP suddenly is spotted near Singapore. It meets various transport forces that refuse to engage and then an ASW group of PB that score a single hit.

DEI

Troops enter Batavia.

China

Liuchow is taken by leading armoured unit, this cuts the railway nicely. It is too small a garrison and there are partisan problems.

Pacific

Wake Island is taken by an assault. Bombardments have so weakened the defense that it is an easy victory. One transport takes minor damage.

At Wake island, SS Tambor is inflicted with another 5 minor DC hits, it attacks and misses a transport.

Burma

Air drop on Rangoon and then realise this is a mistake as Partisans will now be taking points off me and there is no AA and not enough aviation support to prevent city attacks against the industry.

[Spidery]

January 4th 1942

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 1 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Baybay(auto), Pegu, Hwaiyin, Merak (air drop), Talaud-eilanden(air drop)
Japanese land at:

Philippines

Baybay is auto captured, annoyingly this costs a VP to partisans.

Malaya

Bombardment attack at Singapore inflicts more losses than it takes. Still need 1 or 2 days of recovery before can attack again.

DEI

An air drop takes Merak to complete the encirclement of Batavia - also opens the straits.

China

River-crossing North of IChang crushes a Chinese corps and starts moving along the rail line.

An attack at Wenchow gets a 1:1 result, drops forts to 1 and is good for an attack tomorrow.

Other Chinese cut off units are destroyed or chased around.

Pacific

[>:]

Burma

Allies try a city attack against Rangoon, Zeroes from Moulmein on LRCAP are ineffective but no hits scored. For some reason, the attempt to fly aviation support in fails.

Pegu is taken against no opposition.

Engineering

Hankow airfield expands to 8. This gives double aviation support and a strong air base for central China, but too far to be used against the central plains.

[Spidery]

January 5th 1942

Air Losses: 6 Japanese, 1 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Surigao(auto), Ankang (air drop), Altimonan
Japanese land at: Gasmata

Philippines

Reinforced Bataan and will try attack again.

Malaya

Not quiet recovered from disruption at Singapore.

DEI

Advancing on Soerabaja

China

A bombardment attack reveals 1300 AV just South of Sian.

Ankang is unoccupied so an air-drop is sent in. None of the adjacent hexes shows enemy so will try and advance up the minor road and cut off troops in the Sian area.

A small airfield attack at Changsha does some damage.

B-17's attack Hankow. The only CAP is some Nates but Flak does some damage. Attack has marginal effect.

Wenchow attack fails and will have to wait to recover before try again.

Pacific

SS Tambor remains at Wake and is attacked again with 1 small hit.

Burma

[>:]

Oz

SS I-165 intercepts a convoy off the North East but does not penetrate screens.

Engineering

Wakkanai port expands to 4, this gives enough capacity to run resources out of Toyohara and start emptying Sakkhalin.

Allies expand Sian airfield to 3.


Map of Northern China

Numbers are number of Chinese units and arrows lines of Japanese movement. X are where hope attacks can advance.

[Spidery]

January 6th 1942

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 1 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Bataan[8D], Tagbilaran (auto), Gasmata, Toboali (air drop), Djokjakarta, Ningsia, Pare Pare
Japanese land at: None

Philippines

Bataan attack succeeds with only light damage, forces will head for Manila. That is 200 AV destroyed that is not in Manila[:)].

Japanese ground losses:

500 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 40 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled

Allied ground losses:
9718 casualties reported
Squads: 119 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 570 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 62 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 286 (286 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 92 (92 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 9

Assaulting units:
16th Division
65th Brigade
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
2nd Mortar Battalion
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion

Defending units:
4th PA Constabulary Regiment
2nd PA Constblry HW Regiment
Provisional GMC Grp
Manila Bay Defenses
1st PI Base Force
202nd PA Construction Battalion
Bataan USN Base Force
201st PA Construction Battalion
301st PA Field Artillery Regiment

Continue to bomb facilities at Manila.

CAs bombard Dadjangas because of reports of ships in dock but only damage facilities and ground forces.

Malaya

Attack ordered against Singapore.

DEI

Djokjakarta taken unopposed and undamaged.

China

Numerous attacks do some damage but nothing particularly grand.

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Quiet

Oz

Quiet

[Spidery]

January 7th 1942

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 1 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Singapore[8D][8D], Billiton(auto)
Japanese land at:

Singapore falls, Allied LCU VP jumps by 1242 on the day[:D]

Philippines

Bad weather stops bombing Manila.

Malaya

Singapore fell, of the 4 divisions present, 1 is about 100 squads short and needs R&R the other three should be ready to move as soon as the minefields can be cleared and transports move in.

Japanese ground losses:
1951 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 123 disabled
Non Combat: 10 destroyed, 32 disabled
Engineers: 13 destroyed, 36 disabled
Guns lost 16 (1 destroyed, 15 disabled)
Vehicles lost 42 (3 destroyed, 39 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
28135 casualties reported
Squads: 414 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 2332 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 130 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 340 (340 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 354 (354 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 35

DEI

Quiet progress

China

Continuing minor progress.

Pacific

Small attacks against retreated forces on New Britain.

Burma

Quiet

Oz

Another sub attack on the slow moving convoy that contains the Dutch ARD fails to penetrate screens.

Planning

Decision time on where to send forces from Singapore. Outside of China, I have no indications where any Allied forces are[:(].

Recon in Burma is finding very little. There are some suggestions that the CVs are in the Indian Ocean but that could be false. I am 5 days away from being able to buy out a division in Japan, 1 division in Singapore needs R&R so that leaves 4 divisions to assign.

Will probably send 2 to Java to accelerate finishing off Batavia and thereby release 5 divisions. Could send the other two to Luzon to finish Manila in a hurry.

Decisions, decisions...

[Spidery]

January 8th 1942

Air Losses: 11 Japanese, 1 Allied, 4 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Basilan(auto), Tjepoe
Japanese land at:

Very quiet turn.

Philippines

Mines not yet cleared at Bataan

Malaya

Clearing mines at Singapore continues.

DEI

Tjepoe captured undamaged[:)].

China

The AVG has LRCAP over a force and downs some Mary and Ann [:(]. First encounter with it.

Supply shortages are showing up on some lead units[:@].

[Spidery]

January 9th 1942

Air Losses: 5 Japanese, 3 Allied, 5 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Siargao(auto), Davao, Jesselton
Japanese land at: Ruteng

Quiet almost everywhere

Philippines

Mines not yet cleared at Bataan

Malaya

Minefield at Singapore cleared.

DEI

5 subs are reported in port at Soerabaja. A visit by Lily's puts 100kg bombs into three of them, one penetrating hit.

Only about a week left before Soerabaja falls.

Engineering

Fusan port expands to 6.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

January 8th 1942

China

The AVG has LRCAP over a force and downs some Mary and Ann [:(]. First encounter with it.

Supply shortages are showing up on some lead units[:@].

If he uses the AVG in China it bodes well for you if you can determine the base they're flying from. Find them then sweep and bomb. If you can get a bunch damaged you will cost him a lot of supply getting them fixed up in addition to the cost of flying them there. The AVG has only decent pilots, but if they jump you a lot in the beginning, gutting these kinds of kill to loss ratios, then they become a beast. They don't have a lot of airframes though, so concentrate and hit them back hard.

[Spidery]

Obvert,

I think they were in Sian, Changteh being the only other base in range. I suspect he will hop them around a bit.

At the moment he has pulled back so fast that I need to develop some airbases nearer the front lines, Nanyang, Ankang, Liuchow. I also don't have enough fighters because, until Java is conquered I am still protecting my oil fields - even though he has shown little interest in attacking them.

Although he hasn't been attacking in China he has been doing things that use supply - airfield expansions, some airstrikes etc. I think this all helps me.

[Spidery]

Plans

I can see no evidence of Chinese units having moving to India so I think I will cancel the Assam invasion. So the divisions in Singapore:

- one will head for Luzon along with the artillery and a division bought out from Japan. 5.5 divisions plus a massive artillery train should be able to take Manila.
- two will head for Java to assist in taking Batavia and then carry on to take Darwin and Port Moresby

After Batavia falls the 3 divisions on Java will head for Burma.

After Manila falls 2 divisions will head for New Caledonia and 3 may be sent to China or Burma or maybe the Aleutians.

Any badly damaged divisions will be sent to bases where they can start building defenses.

Most of the aviation support and engineers in Malaya will head for Burma and the various Islands such as Cocos, Port Blair.

[Spidery]

January 10th 1942

Air Losses: 3 Japanese, 1 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Lashio (air drop), Ruteng, Namatanai(auto), Culion, Soerakarta, Kolaka
Japanese land at: Manus

Philippines

Mines not yet cleared at Bataan

Malaya

Nells use torpdoes to sink 2 HDML that ran from Singapore - not a good use of supply.

Start loading troops at Singapore

DEI

Soerakarta is captured but takes 5 points of LI and Resource damage.

China

Continuing attacks wearing the Chinese down.

Burma

An air-drop grabs an unoccupied Lashio. There are no Allied forces next to it further suggesting no significant movement of Chinese forces.

Engineering

Ominato expands to port 7
Saipan expands to airfield 4
Allieds raise Deigo Garcia airfield to 1

Sigint

Radio transmissions are detected at 208, 45 - this is in Canada on the road, not the railway, why would anyone be there?

[offenseman]

Interesting read so far. Will continue to follow this! Thanks.

[Spidery]

January 11th 1942

Air Losses: 6 Japanese, 1 Allied, 4 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Sandakan (air drop), Banggi(auto), Manus
Japanese land at:

Philippines

Minefield cleared at Bataan

DEI

2 Dutch subs and an HDML are sunk in port by port attack at Soerabaja

A bombardment attack shows 700 AV at Batavia

Pacific

A large xAK travelling alone is sunk by SS I-26 off San Francisco.

Engineering

Canton expands airfield to 6

Allies expand Calcutta airfield to 5 and Changteh to 2.

Sigint

Radio transmissions are detected at 218, 71 - one hex down from San Francisco

Economy

Everything seems to be pooling at Port Arthur: 600,000 fuel, 1,000,000 resources, 300,000 oil and 160,000 supplies. The supplies are needed in China but Port Arthur seems to be sucking them away. Lead forces outside Sian are not fully supplied because Nanyang doesn't hold enough to pass on.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

January 10th 1942

Sigint

Radio transmissions are detected at 208, 45 - this is in Canada on the road, not the railway, why would anyone be there?

Oh, the mysteries! [:D]

Of all of the Allied movements going on currently the other question is why did the game choose this one?

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: Spidery

January 10th 1942

Sigint

Radio transmissions are detected at 208, 45 - this is in Canada on the road, not the railway, why would anyone be there?

Oh, the mysteries! [:D]

Of all of the Allied movements going on currently the other question is why did the game choose this one?

Because the game is malicious[:D]. Japanese sig int is so rarely useful that it hardly seems worth checking, so any time there is an intercept not at a base I feel optimistic and check it out but this...

[Spidery]

Thoughts on the sub war

My subs are doing a very poor job of finding Allied convoys (and also when they find them having some bad luck on attacks[:(]). So far they have sunk 2 small ships near Pearl Harbour and a couple of bigger ships near San Francisco. They have spotted and failed in their attacks against ships in the Bass Strait and evacuees from Java heading for Perth. They also lucked out and sunk a CA near Rabaul and damaged the Saratoga but both those were from subs in transit to a patrol area[8|].

There have been a few contacts with ASW forces near Pearl. My subs off the American West Coast aren't even being spotted by air search.

The Allied subs are just absent. The Dutch were aggressive near Java and earlier near Miri but recently I'm not seeing any Allied subs. I haven't seen any signs of subs near the Home Isles. About a dozen Allied subs have been sunk (mostly by the first turn port strike at Manila) and there are probably another 10 or so that are damaged and in repairs but there should be lots more available - even with dodgy torpedoes.

So, any advice on what to expect from the subs and how best to use them? Is there anything clever he could be doing with the Allied subs that explains why I am not seeing them?

[Spidery]

offenseman, thank-you, hope it can maintain some interest.

[Spidery]

Engine and Aircraft Production By Engine

Ha-35:
251 engines in 2 factories that are expanding
62 A6M2
63 Ki-43-1c and will continue to expand this to 90
2 Ki-56 and 34 Ki-48-1b not producing

Ha-34:
116 engines in 3 factories that are expanding

Ha-33:
100 engines in 1 factory that is expanding
33 E13A1 will expand this to 50
20 D3A1
6 H6K4
23 G3M2 not producing

Ha-32:
130 engines in 2 factories that are expanding
25 G4M1 and 28 Ki-21-IIa not producing

Ha-31:
45 engines not expanding
11 Ki-46-II and 8 Ki-15-II

Older engines using up pools:
9 E14Y1, 3 Ki-32, 7 B5N1, 7 E8N2, 11 Ki-57-I

Airframe production is generally being kept down to get the engine pools up to the level to get R&D bonus when factories are repaired.

There are some 162 TB stock-piled so I think that should last out with the extra B5N1 production until the B6N2 is available. Hence, not producing any B5N2.

There are 79 Ki-21-1c stockpiled but will probably need to produce a few more Ki-21-IIa before the Ki-49-IIa is available.

Currently, don't have enough float planes to fill out all the expanded air groups being used for training. Hope to have enough Jakes for the groups that are assigned ASW work when I have ASW traind pilots available.

IJA fighter pools are low with some groups not fully filled out.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

Thoughts on the sub war

My subs are doing a very poor job of finding Allied convoys (and also when they find them having some bad luck on attacks[:(]). So far they have sunk 2 small ships near Pearl Harbour and a couple of bigger ships near San Francisco. They have spotted and failed in their attacks against ships in the Bass Strait and evacuees from Java heading for Perth. They also lucked out and sunk a CA near Rabaul and damaged the Saratoga but both those were from subs in transit to a patrol area[8|].

There have been a few contacts with ASW forces near Pearl. My subs off the American West Coast aren't even being spotted by air search.

It sounds like he is doing a very good job of routing his convoys so as to confound your efforts to find them. Also, and pretty likely, he might simply have sent very few so far. The Allies are mostly caught flat-footed when the war starts. Even supply on the West Coast will take time to build up. There are few troops available to move.

As far as why your subs off the West Coast, it is still really early in the game. He might have decided that it makes no difference if he is not shipping much out and has his search and ASW air assets all or mostly all training.

The Allied subs are just absent. The Dutch were aggressive near Java and earlier near Miri but recently I'm not seeing any Allied subs. I haven't seen any signs of subs near the Home Isles. About a dozen Allied subs have been sunk (mostly by the first turn port strike at Manila) and there are probably another 10 or so that are damaged and in repairs but there should be lots more available - even with dodgy torpedoes.

So, any advice on what to expect from the subs and how best to use them? Is there anything clever he could be doing with the Allied subs that explains why I am not seeing them?

In WITP, (before WITP-AE), subs were better at moving troops and supplies. Even though that ability is much reduced, he could be using his subs as transports?? I don't know. Maybe he has set them up in defensive patrol areas that you haven't gotten to yet??