Miller (A) vs Mind_Messing (J) No M_M!

[Miller]

7th Feb 42

Cenpac:

I land a part of a rgt at Wake along with more supply. I cannot see MM prevailing here now unless he makes a major effort. He could have avoided all the pain by using the KB to crush the defenders a few days after PH.....Meanwhile more troops and ships arrive at PH in preparation for my invasions in the Gilbers/Marshalls. BB Idaho takes a sub torp but makes port and will repair soon.


PI:

Daily bombing of Clark and Bataan. I have 1900 AV at Clark to his 1600. Still plenty of supply as well, but time is on his side here.


Malaya:

More Zero sweeps that come off badly against the P40s, he losses 18 for 6[:)]. Forts should get back to 3 next turn as long as he does not try another attack.


India/Burma:

He continues to bombard at Rangoon but no sign of a deliberate attack (I have 360AV to his 300AV). I think he is struggling to find more troops for this region at the moment.


China:

Three hexes NE of Sian he launches a shock attack across the river into 3 full strength Chinese corps:


Ground combat at 85,39 (near Sian)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 29277 troops, 281 guns, 101 vehicles, Assault Value = 975

Defending force 25850 troops, 114 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 923

Japanese adjusted assault: 471

Allied adjusted defense: 439

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
8106 casualties reported
Squads: 162 destroyed, 388 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 40 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 99 disabled
Guns lost 48 (2 destroyed, 46 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
716 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 80 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled

Assaulting units:
41st Division
37th Division
9th Ind.Mixed Brigade
1st Army
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
57th Chinese Corps
16th Chinese Corps
76th Chinese Corps

An excellent result and it looks like his attempt to reach Sian from the east is halted. I am sending another corps to this hex just to help keep the door closed. His two large stacks in the forests to the NW and NE of Nanyang are completely stalemated. A similar state of affairs in the hexes to the SE and E of Changsha. He has pulled back from Kweilin, I'm unsure as to where these troops are headed for now.


DEI:

I have a British CL/DD TF guarding Batavia harbour against bombardment. A small number of Nettys and escorts sortie from Palembang to attack them but are routed by the massed Hurricane/P39 CAP.


Overall:

I have to be fairly happy with the way things have gone up to now. I can sense MM is becoming more frustrated, especially in terms of his airforces performance. I wonder how long before we see the KB again? Even with its reduced strength, the last thing it should be doing at the moment is nothing...

[Sangeli]

ORIGINAL: Miller
Fortunately the fort goes straight back up to level 2 at the end of the turn. I still have nearly 100 P40s in place there so he has not sent in any bombers lately fearing another turkey shoot.

Big mistake IMO to start deliberates before he has knocked your planes out of the sky and destroyed the air base preventing you from rebuilding the fort.

ORIGINAL: Miller
Several small sweeps over Singapore meet 80 P40s and I continue to get 1:1 or slightly better kill ratios. MM is not best pleased about his fighters going in in bits and pieces but that's the risk you take. Hopeful of getting the fort level back up to 3 in two more days.

In my experience small sweeps against heavy CAP don't do well. But if you send enough fighters you'll catch the CAP as they are taking off which allows you to get those really good kill ratios. He should have been more serious about getting base units in place in forward bases so that he could base more fighters in Malaya. He really needs to be sending 200+ Japanese fighters at Singapore each turn. How many is he sending now?

[pontiouspilot]

What do you each do for encore when no ships left in mid-'42??!! All very entertaining.

You seem to have gambled everything on keeping DEI. You might pull it off if KB now under 3 CVs in strength....what are you doing for follow-up to hold it now that so much invested? Your opponent isn't having much luck on land either so the gamble might have paid off!

If opponent has 3xCVs operational and you have 1 for 4 more months I think he is fairly free to rampage. Please don't invest the last CV because I believe its mere existence makes him be careful everywhere.

[Miller]

Hello and thanks for your interest in the game. It is not my intention to try and hold onto Java, its not possible imo. My aim is to make it as costly as possible for him. The longer Singapore holds out the longer I have to get the defences strengthened on Java, as he will need the bulk of those troops to take it. The one CV I have left will be used to cover my upcoming invasion of Tarawa. I took a calculated risk with my CVs near Java and imo opinion it paid off, even though I came off worse. Should be an entertaining next few months anyway!

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: Sangeli

ORIGINAL: Miller
Fortunately the fort goes straight back up to level 2 at the end of the turn. I still have nearly 100 P40s in place there so he has not sent in any bombers lately fearing another turkey shoot.

Big mistake IMO to start deliberates before he has knocked your planes out of the sky and destroyed the air base preventing you from rebuilding the fort.

ORIGINAL: Miller
Several small sweeps over Singapore meet 80 P40s and I continue to get 1:1 or slightly better kill ratios. MM is not best pleased about his fighters going in in bits and pieces but that's the risk you take. Hopeful of getting the fort level back up to 3 in two more days.

In my experience small sweeps against heavy CAP don't do well. But if you send enough fighters you'll catch the CAP as they are taking off which allows you to get those really good kill ratios. He should have been more serious about getting base units in place in forward bases so that he could base more fighters in Malaya. He really needs to be sending 200+ Japanese fighters at Singapore each turn. How many is he sending now?

No where near that, maybe 50 at the moment.

[Miller]

8th-9th Feb 42

Pretty quiet, he captures Oosthaven on the southern tip of Sumatra with a whole division (total overkill as I had next to nothing there), and destroys about 20 planes on the ground in the process. This will no doubt be his main LRCAP base for the upcoming invasion of Java. I have set a large bombardment TF from Batavia to pay it a visit next turn...

Singapore fort back up to level 3, no sweeps here during this time. Wake forts up to level 2, I have sent another engineer unit with a lot of supply enroute from PH. Just waiting for one more large troop convoy to arrive at Pearl in the next few days before I start loading for the Tarawa invasion. I will probably look to grab Mili and Makin at the same time. Still no sign of the KB....

[Miller]

10th Feb 42

My bombardment of Oosthaven achieves little, but it was more of a show of force than anything else. I still have 15 battle ready CA/CLs and 20 DDs in the area. I go on the offensive in the sky over Palembang, Hurricanes from Batavia sweep the skies clear for 70 Dutch Martins and 20 B17s to finish off his cripples in the port, 6 APs confirmed sunk by the looks of it.

He tries another attack at Singapore:


Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 56384 troops, 789 guns, 324 vehicles, Assault Value = 1268

Defending force 41522 troops, 499 guns, 353 vehicles, Assault Value = 864

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Japanese adjusted assault: 1045

Allied adjusted defense: 3365

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

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

Japanese ground losses:
3097 casualties reported
Squads: 55 destroyed, 197 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 90 disabled
Engineers: 41 destroyed, 86 disabled
Guns lost 47 (12 destroyed, 35 disabled)
Vehicles lost 14 (1 destroyed, 13 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1730 casualties reported
Squads: 15 destroyed, 58 disabled
Non Combat: 12 destroyed, 42 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 13 disabled
Guns lost 12 (4 destroyed, 8 disabled)
Vehicles lost 12 (2 destroyed, 10 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Forts down to 2 again but I can rebuild them to 3 in 2-3 days. Most of my losses are all the crappy little bits and pieces units, my main defenders the Indian 9th and 11th Divs are still in good shape.

[Miller]

Well unfortunately MM's morale has collapsed and he has resigned. What a shame. I have "won" but take little or no pleasure from it. Back to the "Opponents Wanted" section then[:(].

[JocMeister]

That sucks. [:(]

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: Miller

Well unfortunately MM's morale has collapsed and he has resigned. What a shame. I have "won" but take little or no pleasure from it. Back to the "Opponents Wanted" section then[:(].

I was wrong about facing off with the KB in this circumstance.

Congratulations on your win.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Miller

8th-9th Feb 42

Singapore fort back up to level 3, no sweeps here during this time. Wake forts up to level 2, I have sent another engineer unit with a lot of supply enroute from PH. Just waiting for one more large troop convoy to arrive at Pearl in the next few days before I start loading for the Tarawa invasion. I will probably look to grab Mili and Makin at the same time. Still no sign of the KB....

Ugh, I knew you'd be going straight for the Central Pacific as soon as things settled one way or another in the DEI.

There was no sign of the KB because all of it was sitting in port with repair crews drinking sake and complaining about inadequite facilities.

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

ORIGINAL: Miller

Well unfortunately MM's morale has collapsed and he has resigned. What a shame. I have "won" but take little or no pleasure from it. Back to the "Opponents Wanted" section then[:(].

I was wrong about facing off with the KB in this circumstance.

Congratulations on your win.

To be blunt, it was a solid move. If it had worked as Miller had intended, it would have been as near to perfect as you could get. American carriers close enough to Palambang to worry me, but close enough to Java to get some land-based air cover meant that Miller ditatcted the terms of the CV clash and I felt compelled to commit to battle.

If Batavia's fighters had joined the CV clash, the trade would have been likely equal. As it was, I lost a pair of CV's and had the rest knocked out for six months upwards. Combine that with the MKB losses and the slaughter of the IJ air wings...