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

[Spidery]

February 13th 1942

Air Losses: 3 Japanese, 3 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Milne Bay, La Foa
Japanese land at: Taberfane

China

Tuyun continues to resist. This turn got a 2:1 result and reduced forts to 0.

The Chinese 3rd Cavalry Corps is driven off the mountain pass[8D]. Unfortunately, I make a mistake and have two armour units set to pursue. The Chinese retreat towards Sian and the armour pursue directly into the hex with 6 Chinese reinforcements. Will be hard to extract them intact.

An armour unit has reached the road between Lanchow and Kiuchan, I doubt the Chinese know. The rest of the Lanchow assault force is 5 days away from the road as they walk across the desert.

Lead units are 30 miles from Hami and will be attacking there in 3 days time[:)].

Philippines

Manila continues to be bombarded.

Guards mixed brigade has landed at Batangas and will move on Manila.

DEI

Clearing mines at Batavia.

Elsewhere

[>:]

Engineering

Rangoon airfield expands to 5

[Spidery]

February 14th 1942

Air Losses: 3 Japanese, 3 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Emirau Island(auto), Taberfane, Vanimo
Japanese land at:

China

Tuyun continues to hold.

Chinese fighters straff the forces heading for Hami to no effect except to drop one unit out of move mode.

Australia

A few vals from KB attack an allied ASW task force near Sydney and sink 2 AM.

DEI

Still clearing mines at Batavia.

An xAK heading to Singapore for repairs opens its engine room to the sea and goes from 46 float damage to sunk just as it is about to enter Singapore harbour [:@].

Elsewhere

[>:]

Engineering

Canton airfield expands to 7.

Allies expand Bombay airfield to 6 and Pago Pago to 2

[Spidery]

February 15th 1942

Air Losses: 3 Japanese, 6 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Salamaua(auto), Larantoeka
Japanese land at:

China

Tuyun continues to hold.

Chinese try an attack against the Armour that pursued by mistake North of Ankang. The attack does minor damage on both sides and reveals that the Chinese force contains only the one infantry unit, 5 artillery units and one AT unit. This is interesting as it means that artillery is in the North, unsupplied, part and not with the defense of the central plains.

Australia

A BB bombardment of Port Kembla fails to occur.

KB planes hit the industry at Newcastle. The Kates, level bombing at 12000 feet, prove ineffective but the Vals net another 68 strategic VP by damaging Heavy Industry.

Recon of Sydney shows 23 ships in dock - apart from one SS, all small stuff.

DEI

Still clearing mines at Batavia.

Allied Subs

Still no signs of these. A few possible sub sightings in the New Caledonia area but these could be my own subs and none are confirmed.

R&D

The first A6M2-N factory is completely repaired and immediately changes to start work on the A6M5. Ha-35 pool should reach 500 tomorrow to allow benefit of engine bonus.

The Mysterious Sinking

Sinking sounds are heard during the turn. No idea what that could be but interestingly the air losses for the turn report 3 SOC-1 Seagull lost as ops losses, could he have lost a USN CA to causes unknown?

[Spidery]

February 16th 1942

Air Losses: 5 Japanese, 1 Allied, 3 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Talasea(auto), Tuyun [8D]
Japanese land at:

China

Tuyun falls. However, there are now a fair number of units dug in across the river making it hard to attack and going through the woods is likely to be slow and unsuccessful. Also need to expand the airbase quickly as supply demand exceeds the base capacity. Some of the infantry divisions have disruption as high as 45 so will need a little recovery time but only one needs withdrawing for R&R.

Japanese ground losses:
250 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 29 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Vehicles lost 11 (2 destroyed, 9 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
8971 casualties reported
Squads: 256 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 214 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 83 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 49 (47 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Units retreated 7

Attack at Hami achieves a 1:1 and would continue the attack except are now seriously short of supplies.

Mostly ineffective air attacks.

Need to work out a new direction for attacks in China. An attack towards the plains from the Ankang area is going to have supply problems as would an attack via Patung. The attack from Tuyun is likely to meet stiff opposition and requires an opposed river crossing. On the other hand, it is the shortest route to get the armour out of the woods where can try and out maneouvre the Chinese.

Australia

Battleships bombard Port Kembla, hits on Manpower, HI and LI and fires started. Strategic VP rise by 52 to 374 but some of that may be from fires at Newcastle.

DEI

Mines cleared at Batavia.

Some minor attacks in Borneo.

R&D

Ha-35 engine pool is at 501 giving engine bonus to the A6M5 research.

There will soon be 5 factories researching this model requiring 150 engines per month. Production is 322 per month of which 80 Oscars and 62 A6M2 are being produced so leaving 30 per month which will be exploited as soon as the Rufe is available to build. More expansion of production is needed to allow for future Oscar R&D and production but this can wait a while.

Engineering

Chengchow, Shaoyang and Ankang airfields all expanded to 2. More VP plus useful forward bases, particularly Ankang.

[Spidery]

February 17th 1942

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 0 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Oro Bay(auto), Madang, Banjoewangi
Japanese land at:

A horrible turn

Australia

I forgot to change orders for a CA force and it strays too close to the Australian coast and without cover from KB. The Kitakami is lost (99 fires) and Myoko and Aoba will need yard time.

Philippines

An attack at Manila goes horribly wrong. Forts are at level 3 and do not get reduced. I do not understand this as I thought there was only 1 or 2 days when the airfield or port has not been damaged.

Japanese adjusted assault: 675

Allied adjusted defense: 1301

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

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

Japanese ground losses:
3881 casualties reported
Squads: 103 destroyed, 97 disabled
Non Combat: 21 destroyed, 89 disabled
Engineers: 52 destroyed, 19 disabled
Guns lost 29 (1 destroyed, 28 disabled)
Vehicles lost 17 (4 destroyed, 13 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1508 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 175 disabled
Non Combat: 7 destroyed, 32 disabled
Engineers: 7 destroyed, 8 disabled
Guns lost 13 (1 destroyed, 12 disabled)

China

[>:]

DEI

Last Dutch forces on Sumatra are eliminated and some British and Dutch forces on Borneo surrender.

R&D

Another Rufe factory is fully repaired and starts work on the A6M5.

Engineering

Lashio airfield expands to 3.
Magwe airfield explands to 4.

Allies expand Calcutta airfield to 7.

[Quixote]

An attack at Manila goes horribly wrong. Forts are at level 3 and do not get reduced. I do not understand this as I thought there was only 1 or 2 days when the airfield or port has not been damaged.

Just inflicting a small amount of damage every turn will not by itself prevent fort building. Yes, any engineers present are forced to repair damage first, but any additional productivity they have left on that turn will then be spent on construction (in your case, on construction of forts.) When you factor in fog of war, this can make life interesting sometimes when attacking fortress bases.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Quixote

An attack at Manila goes horribly wrong. Forts are at level 3 and do not get reduced. I do not understand this as I thought there was only 1 or 2 days when the airfield or port has not been damaged.

Just inflicting a small amount of damage every turn will not by itself prevent fort building. Yes, any engineers present are forced to repair damage first, but any additional productivity they have left on that turn will then be spent on construction (in your case, on construction of forts.) When you factor in fog of war, this can make life interesting sometimes when attacking fortress bases.

Also, without showing the whole top of the report report it's hard to see if you've got enough there to be trying a DA yet. What are the relative AV before the attack?

[Spidery]

quote:

An attack at Manila goes horribly wrong. Forts are at level 3 and do not get reduced. I do not understand this as I thought there was only 1 or 2 days when the airfield or port has not been damaged.



Just inflicting a small amount of damage every turn will not by itself prevent fort building. Yes, any engineers present are forced to repair damage first, but any additional productivity they have left on that turn will then be spent on construction (in your case, on construction of forts.) When you factor in fog of war, this can make life interesting sometimes when attacking fortress bases.

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. What I meant was turns where recon didn't show at least some port or airfield damage present. However, there were a few days when attacks and recon didn't fly due to weather. Since the end of January, regular naval bombardments mean that port and airfield damage is high.

[Spidery]

Also, without showing the whole top of the report report it's hard to see if you've got enough there to be trying a DA yet. What are the relative AV before the attack?

Obvert, insufficient! The heavy losses came from the combat engineer units and a single regiment included in the attack. The divisions and brigades suffered disruption but few losses.

I expected that daily naval bombardments would have inflicted a high level of disruption.

[Spidery]

February 18th 1942

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 2 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Lihir(auto), Dobadura
Japanese land at:

Quiet, some minor attacks in China, bombardment in Philippines, chasing down the retreated defenders from Port Moresby.

A Glenn reports sighting a CV at Karachi.

R&D

Two Rufe factory complete repair and convert to start on the A6M5, making 4. That should have it available about June 1942.

Engineering

Henggyan airfield expands to 4.

[Spidery]

February 19th 1942

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 2 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Nadzab(auto), Hami
Japanese land at: On the coast between Wyndham and Darwin

China

Hami is captured and the defenders retreat away from Urumchi. Supply is short again.

Chinese have pulled back from their point on the Ankang road making it easier to move troops through and freeing up some more for deployment. However, this prevents a slow motion encirclement in the woods.

Australia

Landed a division on the coast with the hope that it can surprise MrKane and cut the retreat South from Darwin. However, the task forces have a 3 DL so he may have some idea of that.

Darwin is bombarded by 2 BB.

Engineering

Saigon airfield expands to 7.

[Spidery]

February 20th 1942

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 2 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Little Andaman(auto), Mataram, Koumac
Japanese land at:

Bad weather grounds most flights.

India

TK British Trader is probably sunk by I-124 off the Southern top of India.

Philippines

Bombardments are doing very well.

Pacific

I-173 takes two shots at DD Le Triomphant and misses. Counter attack does minor damage (3 float) and empties the DC ranks of the DD. This is near Suva and additional TF, possibly ASW, are seen in the area.

Engineering

Lao Cao airfield expands to 1.
Changteh airfield expands to 4, gives a base for Sallies within range of Chungking.

Allies expand Kalemyo airfield to 1.

R&D

Nakajima Ha-45 accelerated to 7/43.

Another Helen factory is fully repaired.

Economy

Three days in a row, tracker has reported total supplies as increasing.

[Spidery]

Strategic Planning

Situation

Actions are in progress to secure all planned targets except for the Aleutian Islands. For these I am waiting for April and the ability to buy out two divisions from the Home Isles.

Chinese are moving back in the Sian area and may be trying a break out to the plains.

Steps are in progress that should secure Urumchi and Lanchow and there is an attack that may be able to secure the road to Burma.

With the existing forces should be able to keep up the pressure and secure everywhere except Chungking by June. Once that is achieved will have to decide whether to try and take it or just isolate. If the Chinese are left in Chungking with inadequate supply generation to feed them will they be subject to attrition giving a constant supply of VP?

KB needs a couple of weeks R&R to fix plane fatigue.

There are minimal LCU in Burma and key defensive positions have not been secured.

Plans

Do I plan on doing another offensive during March or should I just start digging in?

Possible targets are:
- Chittagong and try and bag his army at Kalemyo
- Diamond Harbour and Calcutta
- Ceylon
- Western Australia
- N East Australia

I have 3 divisions recovering at Batavia and have two currently heading in to Burma which could be used for operations.

If in China I manage to secure the road to Burma then I can easily transfer divisions, artillery and AA overland to Burma and to protect Malaya. Or I can transfer via Indo-China.

My feeling is to start digging in and building defenses. I think that will make for the most interesting game long time. Any suggestions?

[Spidery]

(Noticed date was adrift and edited the last week's worth of entries to fix them.)

February 21st 1942

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 2 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Saidor(auto)
Japanese land at:

India

I-165 sinks DD Napier South-West from Karachi.

I-6 is damaged (15/38/1) near Karachi by DC attack and will retire for repairs.

Australia

Paras land at Fenton to cut retreat from Darwin and encounter forces in strategic mode. This does not look good for the paras as assistance is 13 days away.

Ground combat at Fenton (76,126)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 248 troops, 2 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 19

Defending force 3106 troops, 23 guns, 17 vehicles, Assault Value = 59

Japanese adjusted assault: 7

Allied adjusted defense: 19

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 0)

Combat modifiers
Defender: op mode(-), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), leaders(-)

Japanese ground losses:
71 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
54 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Assaulting units:
Yokosuka 1st SNLF /1

Defending units:
2/2nd Ind Coy
Sparrow Battalion
7th Mil. District
Darwin RAAF Base Force

An allied task force is spotted heading for Melbourne from the West.

Engineering

Rossel Island airfield to 1.
Tuyun airfield to 2.
Muroran airfield to 3.
Davao airfield to 3.
Truk port to 7.

[Spidery]

February 22nd 1942

Air Losses: 23 Japanese, 1 Allied, 23 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Isle of Pines(auto), Nookanbah
Japanese land at:

Philippines

DD Fubuki hits a mine at Manila, it takes (8/59/32) damage.

Australia

Only one Allied unit is left at Darwin now. The rest of the Allied defenders are at Fenton, they did not attack the paras.

Mini-KB strikes at the Allied forces but it won't be enough to save the paras.

BB Bombardment of Darwin manages to score 40 strategic VP[:)].

I-162 sinks the xAK Clan MacTavish and damages and may have sunk the xAK Baron Cawdor near Perth[8D].

I-17 sinks the xAK Missourain near Adelaide[:)].

Burma

A group of Sonias get forgotten about and launch a ground attack at commander's decision where they meet fighters and are slaughtered[:@]. The pilots were mostly trainees but all are MIA or KIA.

China

Recon shows a number of disappointing moves by the Chinese.

Lanchow has been reinforced to 4 units and 10000 men (but only 12 guns). I can have about 380 AV (a quarter of that in tanks), to attack across the river from the North in about 7 days (provided I can get supply). Two infantry divisions are about a month away.

Kweiyang shows a movement arrow West suggesting forces moving to bolster the defense of Kunming.

The hex on the road between Kweiyang and Loyang now shows 12 units, 98000 men, 300 guns. The hex has a 45000 stacking limit so this suggests over-stacking but it does look too much to risk the river crossing in the face of. To make the crossing I have 3 divisions plus about 200 heavy guns in artillery units.

Engineering

Liuchow airfield expands to 4.

Allies expand Vava'u port to 2.

R&D

The last of three Helen factories is repaired. The engine bonus won't be available for another 3 weeks but still should have the Ki-49-IIa available in May 1942.

[Spidery]

Also, have spotted a lone Allied AMC near the Kuriles. May be trying a raid?

[offenseman]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

Also, have spotted a lone Allied AMC near the Kuriles. May be trying a raid?

Definitely. Shikuka to Hokkaido (or Honshu) convoys are often lightly defended and easy prey and a lone AMC can wreak havoc on them. It is a good tactic for the Allies to use.

[Spidery]

February 23rd 1942

Air Losses: 4 Japanese, 1 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Panggoe(auto), Benkoelen
Japanese land at:

Australia

xAK Baron Cawdor near Perth was not sunk yesterday but is now[:)].

I-17 hits the CM Bungaree with a TT near Melbourne but does not sink it[:(].

This is part of a large convoy (34 ships including 8 escorts). Three other task forces are spotted in the Melbourne area. May be part of a mass exodus from Melbourne.

China

Sian is hit hard with more damage to the Airfield and HI and about 10 Airbase supply hits.

Home Isles

Allied task force seen near Kuriles has disappeared.

Engineering

Soerabaja airfield expands to 6.

R&D

The last of five factories is converted to work on the A6M5. Should have this researched late May 1942.

[Spidery]

February 24th 1942

Air Losses: 4 Japanese, 2 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Cox's Bazaar(auto), Butuan
Japanese land at: Horn Island, Tulagi

Philippines

The last defenders on Mindanao surrender as Butuan is taken.

Australia

TK Benakat is sunk by I-26[8D].

Horn Island landing fails to take the Island as it turns out to be defended by two Australian Brigades but it looks good for tomorrow:

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 11870 troops, 120 guns, 49 vehicles, Assault Value = 421

Defending force 7177 troops, 88 guns, 60 vehicles, Assault Value = 207

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Japanese adjusted assault: 310

Allied adjusted defense: 111

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

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
487 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 46 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled

Allied ground losses:
339 casualties reported
Squads: 12 destroyed, 29 disabled
Non Combat: 10 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Units destroyed 1

Assaulting units:
18th Div /6
28th JAAF AF Bn

Defending units:
Torres Strait Battalion
1st Australian Brigade
9th Australian Brigade
Horn Isl Base Force

Allies easily eliminate the paras at Fenton.

China

Mass sweeps of Paoshan find noone at home.

Engineering

Ankang airfield expands to 3.

Allies expand Bombay airfield to 7.

[Spidery]

February 25th 1942

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 1 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Tulagi(auto), Saumlaki(air drop)
Japanese land at:

Australia

A sub attack on a tanker near Melbourne misses.

The attack at Horn Island doesn't happen - I keep falling foul of the fact that changing the objective resets a unit to not attack.

Mini-KB fails to attack Australians in Fenton for no obvious reason.

The Allied base forces from Derby and Broome shock attack across the river into a Nav Guard unit in Nookanbah and are wiped out to a man.

China

Recce confirms that Chinese are moving from the Sian area through the mountains to the central plains.

Also they are retreating towards Sian en mass.

Sallys hit Chungking at night targeting manpower and get some hits that have started fires that seem to have destroyed resources.

Engineering

Tuyun airfield expands to 3.

Koepang airfield expands to 5.

Ominato airfield expands to 3.