Rise of the Sheep! JocMeister(A) vs. Obvert(J)

[ny59giants]

Besides the raw combat power an Allied division, especially your Marines, have at this time in the war the use of an Corp/Army HQ with a Command HQ both getting their prep bonus should swing the battle in your favor at Masan eventually. Hope you are doing this with multiple combo of HQ across Korea. [;)] Since there was the (-) experience sign there, he probably has lots of newer troops there. Good news for you.

[JocMeister]

Yes, I´ve started prepping 3 different HQ combos. Keijo, Masan and Kaishu! [:)]

I would say even in 2X terrain a lone USMC can probably dislodge 3-4 Jap IDs given enough time. They are brutal. The USA IDs are a bit more brittle but soon their TOE upgrades to include Pershings! [&o]

[JocMeister]

I went through the 12 IDs at Masan and they are a mixed bag.

The 14th ID is a great one with 80 EXP. [X(] The 11th, 19th and 57th are decent ones that start out with 50 EXP and a good TOE. The rest (96th and upwards) are rubbish. They start out with 25-35EXP and have a very light TOE. Only squads and a couple of guns.

[Encircled]

Still looks good

The superstack in China is probably trying to make the railway line to withdraw into Manchuria

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]21st May -45[/font]
______________________________________________________________________________

Pretty quiet turn.

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Korea
------------------------
I sweep Masan but no LRCAP encountered. I´m pulling the armor back. I´m going to move them up towards Gunzan in a week or so to see if I can entice Erik to move in more troops.

Supply +2k. Airfield goes to 7.55. Might need 2 more days to level 8.

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China
------------------------
The picture clears...Erik will try and open the hexside from "behind" again using some troops at Changsha. See map for details. This time I think he has miscalculated though. I might be able to smash both stacks.

The Canton/HK superstack shift NW and leaves the clear hex with a last goodbye from the 4Es.

Morning Air attack on 36th Division, at 81,57 (Kanhsien)

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Allied aircraft
Liberator B.VI x 31
Liberator GR.VI x 9
B-17E Fortress x 9
B-17F Fortress x 3
B-24D Liberator x 3
B-24D1 Liberator x 12
B-24J Liberator x 57
B-25D1 Mitchell x 20
P-38J Lightning x 18
P-38L Lightning x 36
PB4Y-1 Liberator x 11
PBJ-1D Mitchell x 13

Allied aircraft losses
Liberator GR.VI: 2 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 2 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 1 damaged
B-24D1 Liberator: 2 damaged
B-24J Liberator: 11 damaged
B-25D1 Mitchell: 5 damaged
PB4Y-1 Liberator: 2 damaged
PBJ-1D Mitchell: 2 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
1350 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 90 disabled
Non Combat: 24 destroyed, 156 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 124 (22 destroyed, 102 disabled)
Vehicles lost 50 (12 destroyed, 38 disabled)

In total another 3000 or so casualties. AA has pretty much stopped shooting back so the stack is out of supply as well. I think this stack is doomed. Why on earth Erik simply didn´t move them East instead I have no idea. Perhaps he got greedy and thought he could trap the CMA between this stack and the one coming out from Changsha. He should know by now how fast the CMA gets around though.

The former defender of Canton is evaporated in a river crossing.

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Ground combat at 78,60 (near Hong Kong)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 83341 troops, 1581 guns, 1530 vehicles, Assault Value = 2509

Defending force 6800 troops, 114 guns, 1 vehicles, Assault Value = 33

Allied adjusted assault: 2107

Japanese adjusted defense: 1

Allied assault odds: 2107 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: disruption(-), supply(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
7066 casualties reported
Squads: 295 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 221 destroyed, 16 disabled
Engineers: 27 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 100 (100 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 4
Units destroyed 2

Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
XXXIII Corps Engineer Battalion
14th Indian Division
XV Corps Engineer Battalion
9th Indian Division
26th Indian Division
36th British Division
14th Army Engineer Battalion
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
IV Corps Engineer Battalion
41st Infantry Division
5th Indian Division
1st Indian Medium Regiment
III Indian Corps
86th Medium Regiment
8th Belfast Heavy Regiment
6th Mixed A/T Mtr Regiment
33rd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
30th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
85th Medium Regiment
163rd Light AA Regiment
Southeast Asia
134th (East Ang) Regiment
18th SP Field Artillery Regiment
31st Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
134th Medium Regiment

Defending units:
17th Ind.Mixed Brigade
37th Ind.Mixed Brigade
4th South Seas Det.
Canton Special Base Force
7th Guards Inf. Regiment
7th Base Force

------------------------
Victory Points
------------------------
For the first time in the game Japanese LCU losses pass the allies. I would estimate 90% of the allied LCU losses to be from Chinese troops.

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: Encircled

Still looks good

The superstack in China is probably trying to make the railway line to withdraw into Manchuria

I am with you on this one .. over time the losses in Korea will mean having to keep feeding the garrison or the Soviets are released
I suspect you are right in that a calculation in how much to withdraw and when is being made ...

The real crux is supply and unless things have changed .. things get weird when bases that were hording supplies get taken
thus the supply moves to pull supplies to Fusan will start to take an interesting turn once Fusan is taken.
When there is not enough supplies I believe LCU's in the open will draw supplies, and then bases will try to hoard to achieve X2?
The key being the propagation of supplies and from where? Thus I suspect once the internal supplies troops bring with them are used up ..
The IJ will be in trouble in Korea .. this I suspect will worsen with more troops in the area ...

[JocMeister]

He might try and get them to Korea. Didn´t consider that. But if he is he has completely given up on China. And he need 3 days of peace and quiet to get into strat mode. Even if he manage to open a "backdoor" on a hexside to pass through I can just walk after him. If he walks to Wuchang I can just walk after him. As soon as I enter the hex he won´t be able to rail out any more and will be a sitting duck in strat mode. [:)]

Not sure what he is doing on Korea to be honest. It looks like he is absolutely piling on troops from the HI and Manchuria. I share your suspicion that while piling on this much he will be digging his own grave with lack of supply. He has even stationed fighters in Korea now. He now has 300.000 troops in Korea and it looks like more is on the way! Tomorrow I´ll start bombarding his 200.000 superstack at Masan. Thats going to eat a lot of supply for him. And when Moppo reaches level 9 and I can station bombers there...

[DOCUP]

Fun AAR to read.

[zuluhour]

Can't post....reading both.

[JocMeister]

Had some small actions around Moppo this turn. Too tired to do the update tonight though. Will do a two day one tomorrow morning!

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]22nd-23rd May -45[/font]
______________________________________________________________________________

Erik is starting to put pressure on Moppo.

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Korea
------------------------
On the 22nd Erik sends in a large number of "Es" backed up by 3 DDs to Moppo. The PT boats nothing at all but getting sunk though. 6 DEs are hit by mines and will likely not make it back.

A big TF of "E" encountered my MineLaying TF. I was quite worried but the DMs wrecked the "E"s.

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Day Time Surface Combat, near Moppo at 100,55, Range 18,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
E No.57, Shell hits 5, on fire
E No.67, Shell hits 9, heavy fires, heavy damage
E No.69, Shell hits 15, and is sunk
E No.73, Shell hits 5, heavy fires
E No.75, Shell hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
E No.77, Shell hits 2
E No.79, Shell hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
E No.219, Shell hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
E No.221, Shell hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied Ships
DM Gamble
DM Montgomery, Shell hits 1
DM Ramsay
DM Tracy
DM Robert H. Smith, Shell hits 2
DM Harry F. Bauer

Another 3 are finished off by subs after that. MLs didn´t drop any mines though but retreated out of ammo back to Naha.

On the 23rd 3(!) CAs escorted by 3 DDs make it to Moppo to bombard the fields.

Night Naval bombardment of Moppo at 100,54

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
P-47N Thunderbolt: 21 damaged
Spitfire VIII: 47 damaged
Spitfire VIII: 2 destroyed on ground
F4U-1A Corsair: 21 damaged
F4U-1A Corsair: 2 destroyed on ground
Thunderbolt II: 7 damaged
PBY-5 Catalina: 7 damaged
PBY-5 Catalina: 1 destroyed on ground

Japanese Ships
CA Mikuma
CA Nachi
CA Maya

Allied ground losses:
552 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 54 disabled
Engineers: 5 destroyed, 80 disabled

Airbase hits 6
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 39

3 Corsairs and 2 Spits are destroyed on the ground. The airfield is fully operational without a single point of damage and it actually made it to 8.00 this turn! The question is what will come tomorrow night...and will I try to do something about it? Not decided yet. The fleet is 2-3 days out. When it gets into position stunts like that will be very dangerous for Erik.

I ordered the first bombardment at Masan. Went horrible wrong! Erik is moving in so much stuff its actually making me laugh. I need to let my troops dig some forts before bombarding again. I wonder how much supply that ate for him!

Ground combat at Masan (102,54)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 81113 troops, 1678 guns, 1418 vehicles, Assault Value = 3108

Defending force 154922 troops, 1930 guns, 413 vehicles, Assault Value = 5341

Japanese ground losses:
118 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 10 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
870 casualties reported
Squads: 25 destroyed, 77 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 9 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 13 disabled
Guns lost 33 (8 destroyed, 25 disabled)
Vehicles lost 10 (2 destroyed, 8 disabled)

Assaulting units:
34th Combat Engineer Regiment
33rd Infantry Division
Americal Infantry Division
2nd Marine Division
81st Infantry Division
6th Marine Division
5th Marine Division
3rd Marine Division
3rd USMC Field Artillery Battalion
I Corps Artillery
1st USMC Field Artillery Battalion
8th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
I US Corps
10th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
X Corps Artillery
Tenth US Army
XXIV US Corps
251st Field Artillery Battalion
12th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
V US Amphib Corps
147th Field Artillery Regiment
4th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
XIV Corps Artillery
X US Corps
XXIV CorpsArtillery
148th Field Artillery Battalion

Defending units:
Yosu Fortress
78th Infantry Regiment
87th Infantry Regiment
94th Division
109th Div /2
123rd Division
111th Division
160th Division
109th Division
57th Division
30th Infantry Regiment
140th Infantry Regiment
11th Division
4th Manchukuo Distr Division
127th Division
77th Infantry Regiment
112th Division
96th Division
19th Division
150th Division
14th Division
120th Division
16th Garrison Unit /9
15th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Mortar Regiment
14th Area Army
30th RF Gun Battalion
121st Division
10th Mortar Battalion
7th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
71st Mountain Gun Regiment
17th Mortar Battalion
31st RF Gun Battalion
13th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
28th Mountain Gun Regiment
Tonei Hvy Gun Regiment
29th RF Gun Battalion
26th Field Artillery Regiment
11th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
2nd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
12th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
6th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
76th JAAF AF Bn

I need Moppo to level 9 so I can rebase the bomber fleet here. All those troops in clear hexes...I am getting a bit frustrated here but I have to keep my calm. Supply will decide the battle for Korea and not number of troops. I now see almost 400.000 Japanese troops in Korea alone. For now I don´t think I have enough troops to make any advancements here. So I´ll shift focus to burn supplies and pin troops for now in preparation for the landing at Kaishu. Once Moppo reaches level 9 I can perhaps go on the offensive.

Worst case I´ll have to wait for the SU to activate. With almost half a million men in Korea Manchuria should be a fair bit easier then with those troops there in good terrain and forts.

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China
------------------------
The Canton stack has shifted hex to the CMAs hex. Lets see if he tries to attack. My main army is 3 days out. Eriks "backdoor openers" are 5-6 possible even 7-8. I´ll start slowing these guys down. Make or break I´ll try and stop that stack from opening the hexside.

In the North I´m temporarily stopped by the heavy forts at Tuyun.

Ground combat at Tuyun (74,51)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 66270 troops, 788 guns, 162 vehicles, Assault Value = 2734

Defending force 7061 troops, 75 guns, 16 vehicles, Assault Value = 187

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 5

Allied adjusted assault: 1235

Japanese adjusted defense: 1360

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

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

Japanese ground losses:
820 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 23 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 16 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 20 disabled
Guns lost 8 (1 destroyed, 7 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1269 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 88 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled

Assaulting units:
11th (East African) Division
3rd New Chinese Corps
81st (West African) Division
16th Chindit Brigade
6th New Chinese Corps

Defending units:
17th Division
12th Ind.Infantry Brigade
3rd Ind. Engr Rgt /1
149th JAAF AF Bn

I´m going to have to rest for 2-3 days. The 2Es will lend a hand.

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Singapore
------------------------
A small squadron of British DDs take out 3 DDs and some other smaller ships.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Singapore at 50,84, Range 8,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Kuroshio, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
DD Oyashio, Shell hits 13, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Natsushio, Shell hits 20, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

Allied Ships
DD Stewart, Shell hits 1
DD Quiberon, Shell hits 1
DD Quickmatch
DD Arunta
DD Isaac Sweers
DD Relentless, Shell hits 1
DD Roebuck

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Strat bombing
------------------------
Or rather strat recon. I´m starting to get a good picture of whats where. Still havn´t found all NF factories though. I´ll continue to search for now. Rebased a lot of short range recon to Okinawa to speed up. The B29 recon version is nice but spends way too much on the ground...

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Japanese Industry[/font]
______________________________________________________________________________

As I mentioned I´ve started mapping airplane factories across the HI. I´ll update this post as I´m finding more factories and gather more recon.

To sum it up (and keep in mind this isn´t complete) all I have to say is. Jesus Christ. No wonder I have been struggling in the air... [8|]

------------------------
Fighters
------------------------
Ki-83r Frank: 378
A7M2 Sam: 256
J2M5 Jack 195
Ki-83: 62
Ki-44 Tojo: 111
N1K2-J George: 72
Ki-100-I Tony: 67
Ki-102c Randy: 73
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 153

Total Fighters per month (found so far): 1367

Admittedly some of those fighters are not very potent or even used in a CAP role. The Oscar and Tojo for example are very outdated by now and only used as Kamis or Escort. But the Frank, Jack, Ki-83 and Sam are very potent and can go toe to toe (on defense) against anything but the P47N.

Against this I can throw 100 P47Ns, 150 P51Ds, and 158 Corsairs per months. So production wise I´m being outproduced by 4:1.

Defensively I feel confident I can hold my own. Erik is extremely loss averse and with fantastic defensive fighters like the Spitfire he takes very heavy losses when sweeping CAPed bases. On the offensive though the only plane that is getting close to a 4:1 is the P47N.

I also found 92 Shinden factories which is a major worry. Those can easily go to to toe with even the P47. So once Erik gets those rolling I won´t hold a quality edge until September when the P51H comes online. To top that off I found almost 70 Jet factories. No idea when those will come online either. Could be any day for both the Shinden and the Jets.

Is there no end to the powerhouse that is the Japanese aircraft industry?

[Lokasenna]

The 102c is a night fighter, so you shouldn't count it when comparing to your fighters IMO.

I would guess that he isn't producing all of those any more, but what do I know?! As a counterpoint to the oft-repeated "powerhouse" - it looks like with factories of that size, he spent millions of supply on this when you take engines into account. There is an end to this "powerhouse" and it's lack of supply. Fat lot of good all those planes are going to do him if they don't have any gas.

Also, how confident is your DL on those factories?

And in my experience when looking at industry, the reported value is always 1 higher than actual. Palembang shows up as 901(0) Oil when in actuality it's 900(0), for example.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

The 102c is a night fighter, so you shouldn't count it when comparing to your fighters IMO.

I would guess that he isn't producing all of those any more, but what do I know?! As a counterpoint to the oft-repeated "powerhouse" - it looks like with factories of that size, he spent millions of supply on this when you take engines into account. There is an end to this "powerhouse" and it's lack of supply. Fat lot of good all those planes are going to do him if they don't have any gas.

Also, how confident is your DL on those factories?

And in my experience when looking at industry, the reported value is always 1 higher than actual. Palembang shows up as 901(0) Oil when in actuality it's 900(0), for example.

Ah, my bad! I just checked tracker real quick and I saw a Randy there. Didn´t see there is an "A" vesion and a "C" version. Wow he must be making something like 100-150 NFs per month.

I hope the end of the powerhouse comes soon. I´ve been banging my head against it for 4 years now! About the DL I would say they are pretty good. Perhaps spot on. I´ve compared with older recon and they are a 100% match.

[jeffk3510]

What do you have left at Moppo to protect against bombardment now?

Thanks.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

What do you have left at Moppo to protect against bombardment now?

Thanks.

Pretty much nothing but some beat up PTs and 550 mines. The question is if he will dare risk the BBs against the mines. I´m betting a massive bombardment tonight.

But I also bet he won´t be able to close the AF. I have 1500 engineers there now. [:)]

[jeffk3510]

He bombarded with the CAs and didn't hit any mines?

Unless I am missing something.

Thanks.

[JocMeister]

Nope you didn´t miss anything. [:)]

Bombardments seem almost immune to mines. He lost 3 "Es" to them though.

[jeffk3510]

ok, thanks.

I have been gone since Wed and have to catch back up on your game.

[Capt. Harlock]

Nope you didn´t miss anything.

Bombardments seem almost immune to mines. He lost 3 "Es" to them though.

And apparently, the three CA's managed to dodge all the Allied submarines as well.[X(]