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

[Spidery]

October 6th 1942

Air Losses: 33 Japanese, 9 Allied, 5 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Quiet

China

Routine

Australia

Real bad day at Darwin. Only good thing was that 4 P-38F are lost by the Allies. Lightnings rip a hole in the Tojos on CAP and there isn't enough left to protect against the bombers.

Engineering

Shanghai now level 8.

R&D

B6N2 to 5/43

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Did you lose the entire AA unit? AKs are precious, that is bad luck.

No, I'll see when it lands but I don't think it was much at all.

Yes, probably shouldn't have been using an AK there.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

Real bad day at Darwin. Only good thing was that 4 P-38F are lost by the Allies. Lightnings rip a hole in the Tojos on CAP and there isn't enough left to protect against the bombers.

Hey, be thankful your AA probably has guns. Mine don't.[:D]

You know, I thought that Japan was supposed to rule the skies in 42.[:)]

[Spidery]

October 7th 1942

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 5 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy: Belep Islands (auto)
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Quiet

China

At last, take the hex between Kunming and Tsuyung.

A bloody battle near Chungking. The guns lost seem mostly to be AAMG but 7 27cm howitzers were lost. Will send three divisions across the river in a shock attack to join in in 3 days time.

Ground combat at 75,45 (near Chungking)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 28361 troops, 385 guns, 201 vehicles, Assault Value = 823

Defending force 114034 troops, 300 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1743

Japanese adjusted assault: 181

Allied adjusted defense: 302

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: op mode(-), disruption(-), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1585 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 93 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 30 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 70 (15 destroyed, 55 disabled)
Vehicles lost 66 (1 destroyed, 65 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
8335 casualties reported
Squads: 206 destroyed, 159 disabled
Non Combat: 97 destroyed, 196 disabled
Engineers: 37 destroyed, 36 disabled
Guns lost 23 (7 destroyed, 16 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Assaulting units:
40th Division
36th Division
11th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
Botanko Hvy Gun Regiment
10th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
5th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
12th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
13th Mortar Battalion
4th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
13th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion

Defending units:
35th Chinese Corps
2nd Prov Chinese Corps
37th Chinese Corps
7th Construction Regiment
4th Chinese Corps
74th Chinese Corps
13th Construction Regiment
39th Chinese Corps
25th Chinese Corps
1st Construction Regiment
49th Chinese Corps
26th Chinese Corps
6th Chinese Corps
47th Chinese Corps
72nd Chinese Corps
18th Chinese Corps
20th Chinese Corps
64th Chinese Corps
81st Chinese Corps
23rd Chinese Corps
3rd Construction Regiment
2nd Construction Regiment
57th Chinese Corps
16th Construction Regiment
32nd Group Army
27th Group Army
Central Reserve
18th Chinese Base Force
9th Separate Brigade
303rd Brigade
26th Group Army
17th Chinese Base Force
25th Group Army
20th Chinese Base Force
19th Chinese Base Force
Jingcha War Area
38th Group Army
37th Group Army
23rd Group Army
29th Group Army
21st Chinese Base Force

Near Chengtu a Chinese army turns out to be a phantom. I hope I can drive it back before it moves out of the hex.

Ground combat at 76,41 (near Chengtu)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 2460 troops, 219 guns, 133 vehicles, Assault Value = 1259

Defending force 49501 troops, 70 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 539

Allied ground losses:
593 casualties reported
Squads: 17 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 8 destroyed, 23 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Australia

All fighters withdrawn from Darwin. Annoyingly, today the sweeps come in after the bombers.

Allied bombing seems to be keeping Darwin at 50 Service, 0 runway so when I have 120 fixed aircraft I may fly them back in.

Engineering

Allies expand Dutch Harbour airfield to 1.

R&D

D4Y4 to 9/44

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Spidery

Real bad day at Darwin. Only good thing was that 4 P-38F are lost by the Allies. Lightnings rip a hole in the Tojos on CAP and there isn't enough left to protect against the bombers.

Hey, be thankful your AA probably has guns. Mine don't.[:D]

You know, I thought that Japan was supposed to rule the skies in 42.[:)]

It is the Lightnings that are a terror. I haven't worked out any counter other than by having 150 aircraft on CAP, even then losses are heavily in the Allied favour.

Outside of China, I haven't done much in the way of offensive air operations so MrKane gets to pick his targets. I have fighters protecting industry and that reduces the amount available at places such as Darwin.

Next month, I should start getting the Ki-44-IIc and I hope with armour and better weapons it will hold its own against everything except the Lightnings and even there only suffer a 2:1 loss.

[Erkki]

ORIGINAL: Spidery
It is the Lightnings that are a terror. I haven't worked out any counter other than by having 150 aircraft on CAP, even then losses are heavily in the Allied favour.

Outside of China, I haven't done much in the way of offensive air operations so MrKane gets to pick his targets. I have fighters protecting industry and that reduces the amount available at places such as Darwin.

Next month, I should start getting the Ki-44-IIc and I hope with armour and better weapons it will hold its own against everything except the Lightnings and even there only suffer a 2:1 loss.

They are also probably flown by the very best cream of the USAAF fighter force.

Could you possibly bomb their home field? They have high service rating so they are probably used 100% offensively, with other fighter types doing the CAP duty. You could take the risk and try it with a group or 2 of low-flying Ki-21s or Ki-49s.

Defensively, not much you can do beyond trying to outnumber them and layering your CAP in order to take away some of their speed advantage(when they attack lower fighters, some of yours will end up higher than those that went lower, and your guys are likely to get to bounce them, creating the occasional many vs. 1 situation).

Fighting the P-47 will be just the same except that they have servie rating of 1 instead of P-38s' 4 or 3, depending on exact model.

[Spidery]

October 8th 1942

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 2 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Rambutyo(air drop)
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Quiet

China

Chinese forces refuse to retreat despite being defeated.

Ground combat at 76,41 (near Chengtu)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 24514 troops, 468 guns, 609 vehicles, Assault Value = 1264

Defending force 48140 troops, 63 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 511

Japanese adjusted assault: 452

Allied adjusted defense: 61

Japanese assault odds: 7 to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
321 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 16 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 11 (1 destroyed, 10 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
2060 casualties reported
Squads: 67 destroyed, 111 disabled
Non Combat: 7 destroyed, 58 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 2 (1 destroyed, 1 disabled)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground combat at 79,49 (near Changteh)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 13601 troops, 113 guns, 56 vehicles, Assault Value = 447

Defending force 23218 troops, 5 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 444

Japanese adjusted assault: 436

Allied adjusted defense: 106

Japanese assault odds: 4 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), fatigue(-), morale(-), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker: leaders(+)

Japanese ground losses:
305 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 26 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
331 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 40 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Australia

Allied bombing of Darwin does better pushing it to 76 service, 24 runway damage.

I have a supply convoy trying to unload but it will probably be destroyed if left there so better pull back.

Engineering

Allies expand Katherine to 8.

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

China

At "A" there are some fairly intact Chinese so the hope is to bloody them and hope they disintegrate as they march across the mountains to Ledo.

At "B", I hope to set up a moving road block at X so these forces can never get to India.

At "C", I want to drive them back into Chungking. I have delayed entering the Chungking hex until this can be finished.

Tsuyung, "D", is the last serious road block before Paoshan

[Spidery]

Could you possibly bomb their home field? They have high service rating so they are probably used 100% offensively, with other fighter types doing the CAP duty. You could take the risk and try it with a group or 2 of low-flying Ki-21s or Ki-49s.

In Australia, not viable given the relative field sizes. I realise I made a mistake not developing Bathurst Island.

In India, he has a lot of choices where to base and can use the railroad to evacuate damaged aircraft but may be worth a try or two.

[Spidery]

October 9th 1942

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 5 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Bad intel, I tried sweeps and bombing against Comilla which reported as having 70 odd bombers but when I got there there were no aircraft present. At least, no losses taken.

Allies attack my troops in the jungle using a new aircraft, the Fulmar II. Looks like this is some pretty hopeless fighter-bomber. No damage or losses.

China

Chinese again fail to retreat despite a 9::1 result. Do forces that have no supply and no nearby supply source not retreat?

Australia

Allied bombing of Darwin continues to do heavy damage.

Carelessness costs, I pulled the supply convoy back to near Saumlaki and put LRCAP over it but failed to notice that a reinforcement convoy was arriving at Saumlaki the same time. Some B-26 attacked the reinforcements and only 6 Tojo met them. Four bombers were downed but the rest sunk an xAK and another xAK and an xAP are on fire and will most likely by lost. Some troops lost but most seem to have got ashore.

Engineering

Allies expand Rennell Island port to 1, Tassafaronga airfield to 1

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

October 10th 1942

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 2 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Allies are moving to the attack against a weak point in my line between the two rivers. I have a couple more divisions moving to Burma but they won't reach there for a couple of months so I think I need to fall back slightly.

China

Some Chinese units are destroyed or surrender rather than retreating.

A mess near Chungking. I had 3 Divisions plus artillery moving across the river into the Chinese held hex. I expected that to trigger a shock attack so had the forces already in hex launch a shock attack. However, the forces entering the hex did not participate and now I have 2 divisions needing some R&R. Fortunately, devices lost weren't too bad. Maybe some time I will understand the rules for when units crossing a river shock attack[&:].

Australia

No Allied air action today. Darwin fixes the runway and recovers service damage to 79.

The xAK damaged yesterday put out its fires [:)] but at 50/24/26 damage disbanded in a level 1 port it is going to take a while to get it fixed. The xAP has unloaded its troops but still burns.

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

Ki-43-IV to 8/44

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

A mess near Chungking. I had 3 Divisions plus artillery moving across the river into the Chinese held hex. I expected that to trigger a shock attack so had the forces already in hex launch a shock attack. However, the forces entering the hex did not participate and now I have 2 divisions needing some R&R. Fortunately, devices lost weren't too bad. Maybe some time I will understand the rules for when units crossing a river shock attack[&:].

There is a threshold number that needs to be met when reinforcing across a river for the units to shock attack. Less and they don't as you found out.

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Spidery

A mess near Chungking. I had 3 Divisions plus artillery moving across the river into the Chinese held hex. I expected that to trigger a shock attack so had the forces already in hex launch a shock attack. However, the forces entering the hex did not participate and now I have 2 divisions needing some R&R. Fortunately, devices lost weren't too bad. Maybe some time I will understand the rules for when units crossing a river shock attack[&:].

There is a threshold number that needs to be met when reinforcing across a river for the units to shock attack. Less and they don't as you found out.

Beta notes state:

50. Gameplay Change: Change to river assault – reversion to original rule - when crossing a river into a hex all units entering should shock attack in the turn they cross, unless 1/3 of the unmodified AV of the defenders has already crossed from that hex side in a previous turn.

No forces had crossed through that hex side before since the Allies had sole occupation of the hex so I expected a shock attack by the forces crossing. So I don't know if the Beta has further changed this, or there is some other factor at work.

[Spidery]

October 11th 1942

Air Losses: 4 Japanese, 3 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Movement arrows confirm an attack here.

China

Tsuyung proves to have forts 1 and one good corps, a promising start:

Ground combat at Tsuyung (68,46)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 19247 troops, 380 guns, 470 vehicles, Assault Value = 611

Defending force 19933 troops, 119 guns, 18 vehicles, Assault Value = 508

Japanese adjusted assault: 307

Allied adjusted defense: 484

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

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

Japanese ground losses:
42 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 24 (2 destroyed, 22 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
727 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 43 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 29 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 11 disabled
Guns lost 12 (1 destroyed, 11 disabled)

Assaulting units:
23rd Tank Regiment
3rd Tank Regiment
24th Division
9th Tank Regiment
11th Tank Regiment
14th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
5th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
12th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
10th Mortar Battalion
20th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
12th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
15th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
Tonei Hvy Gun Regiment
3rd Mortar Battalion

Defending units:
14th Chinese Corps
NCAC
33rd Base Group

Chinese units are fighting and being destroyed near Chengtu. A brigade has cut the route to India.

Ground combat at 76,41 (near Chengtu)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 36342 troops, 565 guns, 645 vehicles, Assault Value = 1131

Defending force 36382 troops, 34 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 264

Japanese adjusted assault: 695

Allied adjusted defense: 13

Japanese assault odds: 53 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), fatigue(-), experience(-)
supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
204 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 17 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Allied ground losses:
4185 casualties reported
Squads: 165 destroyed, 17 disabled
Non Combat: 275 destroyed, 66 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 17 (10 destroyed, 7 disabled)
Units destroyed 5

Assaulting units:
32nd Division
1st Division
2nd Tank Division
26th Field Artillery Regiment
15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment
4th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
52nd Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
2nd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
51st Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
22nd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
15th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
11th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion

Defending units:
2nd Chinese Corps
71st Chinese Corps
19th Chinese Corps
75th Chinese Corps
8th Chinese Base Force
2nd War Area
69th Chinese Corps
34th Separate Brigade
40th Chinese Corps
36th Group Army
6th Chinese Base Force
1st War Area
39th Group Army
15th Chinese Base Force

Chinese forces West of Chungking collapse, thousands surrender. Chungking is surrounded, recce report is of 367,160 troops, 854 guns in 97 units.

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 41100 troops, 652 guns, 220 vehicles, Assault Value = 1674

Defending force 94695 troops, 235 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1092

Japanese adjusted assault: 456

Allied adjusted defense: 100

Japanese assault odds: 4 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: disruption(-), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1340 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 100 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 16 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Guns lost 18 (3 destroyed, 15 disabled)
Vehicles lost 9 (4 destroyed, 5 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
37909 casualties reported
Squads: 852 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 1881 destroyed, 63 disabled
Engineers: 36 destroyed, 12 disabled
Guns lost 40 (34 destroyed, 6 disabled)
Units retreated 34
Units destroyed 2

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
59th Division
36th/A Division
40th/C Division
36th/B Division
40th/B Division
116th Division
110th Division
40th/A Division
36th/C Division
21st Medium Field Artillery Battalion
5th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
4th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
28th Mountain Gun Regiment
4th Mortar Battalion
13th Mortar Battalion
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
10th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
Botanko Hvy Gun Regiment
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
12th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
11th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
7th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
11th Field Artillery Regiment
13th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion

Defending units:
26th Chinese Corps
4th Chinese Corps
47th Chinese Corps
20th Chinese Corps
64th Chinese Corps
6th Chinese Corps
18th Chinese Corps
3rd Construction Regiment
74th Chinese Corps
37th Chinese Corps
25th Chinese Corps
49th Chinese Corps
57th Chinese Corps
13th Construction Regiment
1st Construction Regiment
37th Group Army
72nd Chinese Corps
20th Chinese Base Force
81st Chinese Corps
Central Reserve
19th Chinese Base Force
35th Chinese Corps
27th Group Army
18th Chinese Base Force
38th Group Army
Jingcha War Area
23rd Group Army
2nd Prov Chinese Corps
16th Construction Regiment
7th Construction Regiment
25th Group Army
32nd Group Army
26th Group Army
17th Chinese Base Force
29th Group Army
2nd Construction Regiment
21st Chinese Base Force

Australia

Darwin is flattened, flak takes out a single B-24D. Darwin is at 87 service, 55 runway damage.

Engineering

Allies expand Townsville port to 7 and Rennell Island airfield to 2.

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

Forgot this one.

Allies bombard Akyab

Night Naval bombardment of Akyab at 54,45

Allied Ships
CL Caradoc
CL Birmingham
CL Ceres
CL Dauntless
DD Fortune
DD Decoy

CL Caradoc firing at 52nd Division
CL Birmingham firing at 52nd Division
CL Ceres firing at 52nd Division
CL Dauntless firing at 52nd Division
DD Fortune firing at 52nd Division
DD Decoy firing at 52nd Division

That is correct, not a single shell hit!

[Lowpe]

Banzai!

[Spidery]

October 12th 1942

Air Losses: 7 Japanese, 4 Allied, 6 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

An Allied DMS hits a mine at Rennell Island and the Allies clear the minefield.

Burma

Quiet

China

Start ground attacks against Chungking, disable about 20 devices. Ground a number of groups to give their aircraft time to repair.

Launch airfield attacks against Paoshan and Tsuyung, not much damage inflicted and heavy flak encountered as I forgot to raise altitude from 6000 feet.

Recce suggests that some retreating Chinese units are disbanding from lack of supply.

Australia

No strike on Darwin, recovers to 87 system 11 runway.

Engineering

Allies expand Fenton to 4 and various others.

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

October 13th 1942

Air Losses: 11 Japanese, 24 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

I-30 is lost South of Pearl Harbour. Numerous reports of task forces but no carriers confirmed.

Burma

Quiet

China

6 Infantry Divisions plus supporting troops enter the outskirts of Chungking.

Attack at Tsuyung makes progress but Allies do well in the adjusted defense. Also, no supply(-) reported.

Australia

Oscars and Tojos fly into Darwin. By good fortune, the bombers all come in before the sweeps. Result[8D]! Allies lose 11 B-24D, 6 B-17E, and 5 B-17F for the loss of 3 Ki-43-1c and 3 Ki-44-IIa and only the one pilot. Allied losses are 9 air-air, 2 flak and 11 ops. By the time the Lightning sweeps arrive, all CAP aircraft have been grounded. A total of 119 aircraft bombed so losing 22 of them must put a bit of a damper on things.

Unfortunately, service damage is now 100 and runway damage 49 and the fast transports that were supposed to drop supply and then load damaged aircraft have failed to arrive.

Engineering

Neikiang now 2. Allies expand Luganville to 2.

R&D

Quiet

Economy

Chengtu is short fuel and Port Arthur is short oil, seem to be some supply movement problems.

Intel

Confirmation on the sinking of CV Wasp is received[:)].

I have a resource convoy at Soerabaja that is refusing to sail, looks like a bug.

[Spidery]

October 14th 1942

Air Losses: 24 Japanese, 3 Allied, 8 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Pacific

Quiet

Burma

Try to bomb some of the advancing troops in the Jungle but only hit a single Indian Brigade.

China

Have entered Chungking from the three non-river hexsides, now have 7 divisions in hex. Some 7 other divisions are moving there or fixing disablements. Should be able to attack with 13 divisions and a mild over-stacking about the end of the month.

More Chinese units that are out-of-supply but not surrounded surrender, useful VP but more strength to Chungking.

Australia

A right mess up at Darwin is costly, losing 4 APD and a training CL plus also more aircraft to the Lightnings.

Engineering

Dili airfield to 3, Saumlaki airfield to 3.

R&D

Ki-44-IIc to 12/42.
Mitsubishi Ha-43 to 10/44.

[Spidery]

China and Burma

At Chungking I can use about 11 divisions at a time to attack. With the artillery that will put me about 25% over stacked. I will have 17 divisions available so should be able to rotate out damaged divisions and maintain attacks weekly. Or, should I over stack more heavily?

In Burma, he appears to be attacking with at least 3 divisions. My line in the jungle is weak so I don't think it will hold.

If I detach the 2 tank divisions from China to help on the road to Burma then I can hope to get to central Burma with about 6 division equivalents in time to counter-attack. MrKane seems weaker at the land game than he is at sea and in the air so I may be able to do some serious damage.