Monday Night Montage (ex-Moose Crossings) - (J) vs. Bullwinkle/Obvert (A)

[Lokasenna]

Geraldton falls! That attack yesterday really did save me. It's possible that I would have been able to get it in 2 attacks, depending, but every LCU of his in the hex was at 0 effective AV in the combat screen except for a newly-arrived brigade (42).

About 10,000 supplies are captured with the base. This is a nice boost also.

Ground combat at Geraldton (49,141)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 30642 troops, 277 guns, 217 vehicles, Assault Value = 996

Defending force 16722 troops, 409 guns, 557 vehicles, Assault Value = 165

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Japanese adjusted assault: 389

Allied adjusted defense: 81

Japanese assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Geraldton !!!

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

Japanese ground losses:
2882 casualties reported
Squads: 11 destroyed, 90 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 16 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 31 disabled
Vehicles lost 21 (3 destroyed, 18 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
4722 casualties reported
Squads: 64 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 503 destroyed, 19 disabled
Engineers: 43 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 323 (316 destroyed, 7 disabled)
Vehicles lost 530 (530 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 10
Units destroyed 2

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
18th Division
4th Division
8th Tank Regiment
33rd Division
23rd Ind. Engineer Regiment
1st Ind. Engineer Regiment
21st Medium Field Artillery Battalion
14th JNAF AF Unit
3rd Ind. Engineer Regiment
16th Army
23rd JNAF AF Unit

Defending units:
2/9th Armoured Regiment
2/7th Armoured Regiment
13th Australian Brigade
32nd Infantry Division
5th RAA Coastal Artillery Regiment
2nd RAA Coastal Artillery Regiment
4th RAN Base Force
2/16th Field Regiment
97th Field Artillery Battalion
77th Coast AA Regiment
Geraldton RAN Base Force
Geraldton Fortress

Sadly, the Mikuma sunk just before the ground combat phase.

Only 12 aviation support is active at Geraldton, but I'm flying in 40 Zeroes anyway. I'll land my reinforcements once my reinforcement BBs (sortied 2 and 4 days ago from Truk, for Koepang) arrive in the theater. Also going to replenish KB's fighter losses, I think.

[offenseman]

I bet he dislocated a knee kicking himself for that shock attack. That was a huge turn of events.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: offenseman

I bet he dislocated a knee kicking himself for that shock attack. That was a huge turn of events.

I understand why he did it. If I hadn't come in prepared, with extra supply and plenty of units landing, he could have kicked me off the beach. I'm guessing that the 32nd ID had 1941 squads still, but maybe not. I don't think SW Australia was high on his list of priorities in terms of upgraded US Army units, especially considering he was only able to start upgrading in the past few months and I think he has been doing so in San Francisco to take advantage of its status as a "National Base."

Still, the 1:16 odds is a huge difference. I'm not sure why it was so bad for him, although it did look like the 33rd Division got forts 1 built before the attack, which is really impressive!

[Lowpe]

Good job![:)]

This game has it's shares of ups and downs, daily it seems.

[obvert]

That changes everything. Well, now you'll find out if anything else is over here I guess. Getting interesting. I'd land your support ASAP. Just get the KB out front, drop them in and then let LBA take over.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: obvert

That changes everything. Well, now you'll find out if anything else is over here I guess. Getting interesting. I'd land your support ASAP. Just get the KB out front, drop them in and then let LBA take over.

I actually have both AF Bns on the ground completely. Trouble is, they took some disablement coming in. Only 23 out of 46 Av. Support is operational, and 2 are missing... I still have planes at Koepang and the only support there is the air HQ I want to move in. It will be a little bit of time before I get more at Geraldton. I'm hoping the support repairs quickly. Until then, I have Zuiho-1 there and will fly in some Oscars as soon as the airfield damage goes down.

Also of note, Hiei/Kirishima left Koepang yesterday with about 10 DDs. They'll rendezvous with the AOs 7 hexes NW of Carnarvon (where KB and my remaining landing forces are grouped, undetected as Wirraways are only searching out 6 hexes). There are about a dozen newly-upgraded Kageros and such at Soerabaja as well, ready to set out with replenished Ise/Hyuga/Mogami/Suzuya. Then I'll make a move for isolating Perth from the sea while I reinforce Geraldton. Also bring in my reinforcement LCUs.

Heavy radio transmissions and radio transmissions at Sydney last turn. The response is coming. It may be that the best I get out of this is bombing of Perth's industry for some length of time, which can still be a worthy amount of VPs. That, and trashing some LCUs [:D].


PS - I'm pretty sad about the demise of Kumano/Mikuma, especially to "minor" damage. I really, really, really like the Mogamis for sentimental reasons. Don't know why, probably something to do with PTO2. The Takaos may be better in this game, but I still like my Mogamis. I have a model of Suzuya and Mogami is the flag of the class, so I'm glad I still have those two at least.

[obvert]

Why not use your Mavis and fly some AS in?

Sucks to lose those ships. Always hurts.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Why not use your Mavis and fly some AS in?

Sucks to lose those ships. Always hurts.

Currently using my only "spare" Mavis unit(s) up north, to evacuate Amchitka of units that are not essential to the eventual defense to the death of the island. I don't really have much AS to spare in the southern half of the map. I have some at Madang which has stupidly been left there since the first weeks of the war, and I am moving to pick it up, but it will be a couple of weeks. I am thinking that these guys will go to Koepang/Hedland to maintain my "air bridge" from the SRA to Geraldton. Darwin has nothing to spare. Soerebaja is scraping by.

I do have AF units at otherwise empty airfields like Sinabang, soon to be Siboret, Babeldaob, and so forth. I like to keep "ready" airfields at key locations around the map from here on out, if I can.

I have decided to turn off most of my ground bombing at Chungking. Until I manage to get the forts down a few levels, it just isn't going to make enough of a difference. I'm burning a lot of supply for only a handful of AV change every turn. This means I can also maybe transfer some of those bombers out of China, but that would mean moving away from their level 8-9 airfields.

I need to get some other places to level 8+ to take advantage of the air support bonus. I don't think Bullwinkle has it in him to slug it through the DEI, so a couple of 8+ AFs in key locations would be good. Even though I expect him to eventually take it from me, Manila is an obvious location.

Hrm, I may be able to pull some AS from Batavia, now that the Brits on Sumatra are about to be dead. Those bombers can also head to Australia if need be, but will chill at Singapore for now, I think.

EDIT: I may have a Mavis unit nearby, and could fly AS from Hedland on a temporary basis. I do have a unit of 27 Tinas at Koepang as well... It's 14 hexes from Hedland to Geraldton, which should be good enough for the Tina.

[mind_messing]

Check Manchuria, plenty of AS there.

Centralize your training in the urban hexes (Changchun, Mukden and Harbin) and expand them to size 8. This should give you enough AS to cover a fairly extensive training program and start buying out all the IJA AS units.

Also, check your Air HQ's in Manchuria. There's the "2nd Air Division" that spawns at Harbin that can be bought out cheaply, the "4th Air Division" can also be bought out. These two units go a great way towards improving your aviation support at the frontline.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

Check Manchuria, plenty of AS there.

Centralize your training in the urban hexes (Changchun, Mukden and Harbin) and expand them to size 8. This should give you enough AS to cover a fairly extensive training program and start buying out all the IJA AS units.

Also, check your Air HQ's in Manchuria. There's the "2nd Air Division" that spawns at Harbin that can be bought out cheaply, the "4th Air Division" can also be bought out. These two units go a great way towards improving your aviation support at the frontline.

Emptied it Manchuria a long time ago. It all went to China. I've bought out a lot of AF Bns and sent them to some Pacific islands. In fact, that's where the two units at Geraldton came from. Same with the 2 currently at Soerabaja.

I still need to expand a few of those AFs to size 8, but I'm mostly doing on the job training for my IJAAF. There might be about 12-14 training units in Manchuria.

There's only one Air HQ left there as well, I think.

What I really need is to get the reinforcement HQa's in the next few months...then I'll be set. I could do some forward planning. I have a turn in my inbox, so I might get to that tonight.

[Lokasenna]

Just sent back the September 6 turn. The stack of units from Geraldton escaped, but I wasn't trying to run them down so much as they're pretty well wasted. The foothold at Geraldton continues to consolidate. The base is fully repaired today, with 40 A6M2s flying 80/20 CAP. My AvSupp is still short and overworked, but I'll scale down the CAP if need be to keep whatever planes I have there in the air.

I am working to encircle 2 units just east of Geraldton. A handful more days and I'll have closed the important hex sides.

I'm bringing the amphibs back, this time with 2 Kongos and 8 DDs as a surface escort. However, I fear that he may have delayed me just enough in the initial resistance that he may have too much on the rails to Perth. That's fine, though will mean that my primary objective may not be attainable. The reinforcements that will begin unloading at Geraldton in 2 days include the Southwest Area Fleet, to assist in unloading/reloading.

Setting sail from Soerabaja today, in case he gets aggressive again with his naval forces, are 2 Nagatos, 2 Fusos, and 6 DDs (to be split into 2 BB/3 DD if it seems desirable) as well as the remaining 2 Mogamis and 4 DDs. Also on the way is another AF Bn and another ART unit. This should allow me to transfer in some of the planes waiting at Koepang, and I'll begin working on whatever is at Perth. Recon planes will arrive in a day or two.

KB is a bit to the west, ready to pounce if any of his naval forces show up. Moving them 3 hexes closer (15 from Perth), though it may get them detected this turn. I just want them close enough to strike at any naval forces moving to interdict my reinforcements.



Also of note on this day are 4 reports (4!!) of Heavy Radio transmissions at Pearl Harbor. I wonder what's going on here... it could be nothing more than a few convoys, but 4 reports leads me to believe that he may be setting out on an adventure. Will be double-checking everything in CentPac these next few weeks.

Lastly, I debated sending in another attack at Chungking as most of my divisions are now fully repaired. He's back up to 11.3k AV, so he appears to have only lost about 1k AV permanently in the last attack. Nowhere near as much as I was hoping. I'm back up to 10.3k in the hex, with the 1st Tank Div at Kweiyang to upgrade/repair faster (CEA HQ is there). The deciding factor was that the last piece of 2nd Tank Div is at Hong Kong. I will wait for it to arrive at Chungking and recombine into the full division before I attack. That should give the 1st Tank and a couple of the Ind Mixed Bde's repairing at Neikiang to get back into the mix at Chungking. Perhaps I'll be close to 12k AV with that.

[Lokasenna]

A demonstration of something I actually hate about this game. If this were ever to happen at Palembang, I'd probably rage quit and restart fresh. Why is something so vital subject to the whims of a die roll?

More to the point, why does it seem to be, more often than not, Total Destruction or Captured Intact? There is very, very little middle ground.

In this game, all Deliberate Attacks:

-Miri, taken "intact" (largely expected given there is little resistance here). Allied engineers present but not bombed or disrupted.

-Tarakan, completely destroyed - 0/90 Oil and Refinery. Very few, if any, Allied engineers.

-Singapore, completely destroyed - everything at 0. Allied engineers present, but bombed daily for weeks.

-Palembang, completely intact. Allied engineers present but bombed daily for months.

-Medan, completely intact. Allied engineers were present and not worn down ahead of time.

-Magwe, completely destroyed

-Balikpapan, partially damaged, ~80 damage. This is the only partially-damaged base I have taken. Some Allied engineers present.

-Samarinda, 2 Oil damage. I guess this counts as partial damage also, but it's only 2...

Major battles at Singapore, Palembang, and Magwe. Semi-major battle at Tarakan, in that it took me several weeks to take the place from 2 Dutch Bns and another small unit. The Palembang siege was several months. The Singapore siege was a matter of days. Magwe was over a month, but very little ground combat - I took it on the 3rd or 4th assault.

Is it just that high odds attacks have a higher chance of destroying the infrastructure? How does that even make sense? Why the predominance of Intact or Sh*t Sandwich? Is this WAD? There doesn't seem to be anything the IJA player can do that makes a difference. You either win the die roll or you don't.

Needless to say, I'm on the verge of seething right now. What's the point of careful preparation if it all comes down to some arcane bit of luck with far too much chance of getting something totally destroyed?

If Bullwinkle hadn't had 12 units here for me to collect their VPs, I'd be livid with this result. And I suppose I can now move forward with probing the India/Burma border to see if I can make any worthwhile gains. But that's about all this got me. Ugh.

Here's the combat report:

Ground combat at Magwe (57,47)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 32439 troops, 494 guns, 226 vehicles, Assault Value = 968

Defending force 19310 troops, 146 guns, 99 vehicles, Assault Value = 350

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Japanese adjusted assault: 1211

Allied adjusted defense: 142

Japanese assault odds: 8 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Magwe !!!

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

Japanese ground losses:
550 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 20 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 35 disabled

Allied ground losses:
9874 casualties reported
Squads: 315 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 802 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 130 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 176 (176 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 104 (104 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 12

Assaulting units:
51st Engineer Regiment
Imperial Guards Division
22nd Division
16th Guards Regiment
3rd RF Gun Battalion
4th JAAF Base Force
12th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
6th RF Gun Battalion
5th RF Gun Battalion
4th Mortar Battalion
91st JAAF AF Bn
2nd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
4th RF Gun Battalion
51st Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
5th Army
11th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
2nd RF Gun Battalion
15th Army
7th RF Gun Battalion
92nd JAAF AF Bn

Defending units:
1st Burma Battalion
Rangoon BAF Battalion
19th Indian Division
Railway BAF Battalion
39th Indian Division
BFF Brigade
16th Indian Brigade
103rd RAF Base Force
103rd RN Base Force
104th RAF Base Force
Burma Corps
4th Burma Battalion

This was the last bit of Oil I could take. I have 79 points to repair at Tarakan and 5 to repair at Miri. My current deficit is 383, so I can get down to -299. However, I'm not sure if this is counting Urumchi's Oil or not. Even if it is, the Fuel from Urumchi isn't really flowing out. So that's either 30 or 50 points I'm not really getting anything from, depending on how you count it.

I wanted a "balanced" Oil/Refinery economy, even if only for a few days . I was ready to move in with 45 A6M5, 27 A6M2, 12 Nicks, and 27 Ki-43-Ia.

Off to the store to buy some mouthwash, to get this crappy taste out of my mouth [:'(].

[obvert]

Sucks. I agree, there seems no rhyme or reason to it. Both of my opponents bombed it out at Magwe before the end of summer 42 anyway, so it was a short lived bonus.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Sucks. I agree, there seems no rhyme or reason to it. Both of my opponents bombed it out at Magwe before the end of summer 42 anyway, so it was a short lived bonus.

Given how much of his 4E force is in Australia and was in the Aleutians (with no way to fly all the way to Australia given that I own every airfield between Australia and India), I was confident I could at least bleed him before a slow destruction of the Oil fields. I think I could have held them more or less intact until perhaps 1/1/43, especially with my A6M5 and Nicks (more of which were available to come in).

This individual case isn't so bad, just the final bit of WTF to annoy me, given that I got 215 VPs for LCUs this turn. And, strategically, I can now call Burma complete (excepting Akyab).

Game date 09/15/1942.

Maybe I should sandbox to see if I can determine if higher odds, lower odds, deliberate attack, shock attack, etc., make a difference in destruction. Or if base size matters. Blech.

EDIT: My mistake. I hadn't loaded up the latest turn into Tracker. I gained 679 VPs from LCUs that turn. That's quite a bit... VP ratio increased from 2.657 to 2.711.

[Lokasenna]

I have some updates to post, but they'll wait until I get the next turn so I can do the screenshots just after I do orders, with an updated interim save. However, one thought:

Everybody playing Japan, replace CA Tone's stock commander. Middling-40s Naval skill...in this game for me, he's rammed friendly CVs twice now!

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I have some updates to post, but they'll wait until I get the next turn so I can do the screenshots just after I do orders, with an updated interim save. However, one thought:

Everybody playing Japan, replace CA Tone's stock commander. Middling-40s Naval skill...in this game for me, he's rammed friendly CVs twice now!

Ha! [:D]

I always miss one or two of those guys. But to start off Japan has a lot of good ones compared to the Allies. i'm imagining the Allies must get better as time goes on.

[Lokasenna]

I just didn't figure that such an important ship, present in the initial KB, would have such a cruddy captain. He does have 70-something Air skill, but damn. First, he rammed Akagi in the surface skirmish off Ceylon.

Now he's rammed Zuikaku off Perth.

Thanks, guy! Although lucky for me, I think I held off on Zuikaku's upgrade anyway so the repairs can be done at the same time. Tone, on the other hand, is not a ship I want to spare from KB right now.

[Lokasenna]

So, questions about Ramree Island. I'm noticing that Bullwinkle is beginning to reconnoiter the place, DL 7/10 on this previous turn (October 3). I don't have anything there, and haven't. I'm probably late to this party. I think he might try to come in from this way? Can somebody point me to threads or referenced posts on the utility of Ramree? Is the crux of the matter that once you have a base built, supplies flow better along that crappy sheep trail from Prome to Akyab?

I am just now moving towards Akyab, which he has left lightly defended, with the bulk of my forces in Burma. If I can isolate and destroy the units at underbuilt Cox's Bazar and Akyab, then I want those VPs. Chittagong is a fortress. Overall, I am underinvested in Burma. I have plenty of LCUs, but air forces are still transferring up with aviation support from Malaya. Having to leave behind some forces as a rapid response to any surprise thrust at the SRA is diminishing my air power (as well as my campaign in SW Australia), and leaving behind support units to base 24-plane Jake units for searches is also draining my aviation support. But crucially, I have not been keeping up with Supply in the theater. I am rectifying that now, with the surplus from Palembang heading up this way for the foreseeable future.

[witpqs]

So, questions about Ramree Island. I'm noticing that Bullwinkle is beginning to reconnoiter the place, DL 7/10 on this previous turn (October 3). I don't have anything there, and haven't. I'm probably late to this party. I think he might try to come in from this way? Can somebody point me to threads or referenced posts on the utility of Ramree? Is the crux of the matter that once you have a base built, supplies flow better along that crappy sheep trail from Prome to Akyab?

Yes, that's basically it. It's no free ride, and you really need to build up the port (plus support helps), but Ramree Island is very important. If you're looking for a reference, see my AAR. [:'(]

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2966329

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

So, questions about Ramree Island. I'm noticing that Bullwinkle is beginning to reconnoiter the place, DL 7/10 on this previous turn (October 3). I don't have anything there, and haven't. I'm probably late to this party. I think he might try to come in from this way? Can somebody point me to threads or referenced posts on the utility of Ramree? Is the crux of the matter that once you have a base built, supplies flow better along that crappy sheep trail from Prome to Akyab?

Yes, that's basically it. It's no free ride, and you really need to build up the port (plus support helps), but Ramree Island is very important. If you're looking for a reference, see my AAR. [:'(]

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2966329

Even though it's not on the sheep trail? Seems pretty weird.