Turnaround? Lowpe (J) vs Tiemanj (A) Stock

[Lowpe]

A good day, until the very last ground combat. In China, a splinter of a division makes a river crossing to open up the hex, joining 3 other IJA units and triggers a shock attack. [X(] Disrupted from the crossing the unit is shattered, and will be combat ineffective for a long time. The worst setback I have suffered in China...[:(]

But in Burma, there are lots of possibilities now!

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Moulmein:

Radar picks up several flights of planes inbound! Standbye fighters are scrambled, the British have weak to no fighter coverage...not a bomber gets thru.[:)]

Moulmein:

Radar picks up several flights of planes inbound! Standbye fighters are scrambled, the British have weak to no fighter coverage...not a bomber gets thru.

How has Japanese radar been treating you? Is aprrox. 13 mins warning the norm for you?

[Lowpe]

18 minutes is my maximum, but 14 minutes is very common.

The KAI Dinah moves into Moulmein, where it joins the other assorted collection of Japanese fighters in their defense of Moulmein and Rangoon...I believe I added 60 fresh fighters to the defense there this day.[:)]

Two heavy cruiser forces are hitting Rangoon, then they steam so very far, all the way back to Moulmein where they reload, and will do it again on the morrow. Another cruiser force is set to hit Cox's, the heart of all the Allied bombers now that Akyab is down. Two divisions load onto trains for the planned attack at Tuang Gyi, and bombers will hit at a very low altitude two Chinese divisions that threated north Burma.

In Australia, the two tank regiments look to finish off the 4th ID in the desert, Darwin and Port Hedland look to get bombarded (there are fighters now at Port Hedland)...

The Nagato class battleships move forward in the Central Pacific and the Kaga returns to Japan loaded with fighters for upgrading to the A6M5c...

In China, there may be a forced river crossing south of Ichang...the Chinese defenders are being hit with lots of bombers to soften them up...

[Lowpe]

Jan 20, 1943

The heavy cruisers go into Rangoon, sortieing from the relative safety of Moulmein and the ever present fighters, the ship's guns work over the known Allied air bases and with intelligence from the spotting planes several of those devilish Lightnings were present. The IJN had just saved many pilots lives...

Because, as dawn arrived so did Allied fighters. But not in the old numbers, but in partial squadrons...the Allied fighters must be getting weary and worn down. The Allies, win, they always seem to win, but by much less only a three to two victory and 8 Lightnings are confirmed downed.

The damaged Lightnings on the tarmac at Rangoon have no where to go, and the Navy will visit them again tonight.[:)]

[Lowpe]

The Australian 4th Infantry Division has had a rough month...they get manhandled by Japanese armor again. Back into the desert, no supplies, no water...can they make Port Hedland?

[Lowpe]

Tarawa has a number of supply ships...hopefully something gets hit:

[Lowpe]

Looks like Allies are marching another full division, British, into Rangoon in attempt to break the siege there. I am responding by two naval bombardments and sending 1 regiment into Rangoon.

Heavy artillery should start flowing into Rangoon within 5 days...and be a continuous stream for a full month.

All the tanks coming up will either make a full attack at Prome or head to Magwe and cut west from there with 3 division -- not sure which counter offensive to take. Plenty of time to decide though.

[ny59giants]

All the tanks coming up will either make a full attack at Prome or head to Magwe and cut west from there with 3 division -- not sure which counter offensive to take. Plenty of time to decide though.

Tanks operating in clear terrain or in the jungle. Should be a no brainer, IMO. [:D]

Without knowing all the disposition of troops, I would take Prome and then drive to the hex due east of Ramree. Then you can come back and take Bassien and Rangoon at your leisure.

[Lowpe]

Wasn't clear enough in my previous post.

Prome makes the most sense most likely.

[ny59giants]

I was somewhat basing my thoughts on Prome on the fact that your last posting of the failed Allied attack in Rangoon showed the 254 & 255 Armoured Brigades, a few smaller tank units, and two Indian divisions. It will take some time to rebuild those two armoured units from scratch. Destruction of Allied troops or at least a severe mauling of Allied units should be goal in Burma. With the losses he had on Java, he is going to have trouble here for some time if you can hit him hard now.

Edit - Can you do more recon of the trail hexes between Akyab and Prome to get a clearer picture of what he has there??

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Without knowing all the disposition of troops, I would take Prome and then drive to the hex due east of Ramree. Then you can come back and take Bassien and Rangoon at your leisure.

If I go north of Prome, I can snag the armored units in Prome...plenty of time to decide.

I will lay mines north of Akyab, once by cruisers finish off bombarding Cox's, and return -- which was your advice. Thanks.[:)]

[Lowpe]

Urumchi

Economic workings:

I seem to be successful in drawing down oil out of Urumchi, but fail with resources and oil. There is 16 damaged oil factories at Urumchi which I will attempt to repair now, that the oil is flowing out.

At the beginning of my takeover of the game, resources were flowing out of Urumchi, and at the time there where resource convoys out of Port Arthur, which I have subsequently cancelled. I will start up a convoy again from Port Arthur and see what happens, although, I am not as concerned about the resources, as I am the fuel.

So, I will start a small fuel draw from Port Arthur too, to see what develops. I want that fuel.

[Lowpe]

Wake Island Defenses:

Currently any attack here would be a quick one or two day attack by America, lest they run into the KB. At which point, I could retake the island since it is isolated.

I have given some thought on how to use mini-subs, and Wake I think is a good choice for a mini-sub swarm. There is no American ASW patrol planes, so they should do something. Mini-subs use 1.3 fuel a day moving which is a definite downside.

I would like to get some coastal guns here, minefields,better naval search, and pull the 8th Armored Car unit.

I don't like having all those Vals there, but they are staging for the Marshalls.

Do think it is worthwhile building the forts any higher?

What would be a good Japanese counter invasion force look like?

[ny59giants]

Wake Island - The best thing to do will be put some mines there with 1 ACM (have some fuel there for it). Forts to 4 would be it. While it would be nice to go higher, Japan doesn't have enough supply to build level 6 forts everywhere. With the amount of CL/CA and BB the Allies will be getting, the forts will not slow them down when they bombard the base. Its not the casualties that will defeat you there, its the massive disruption they will cause. I just hit a base in eastern DEI with 5 bombardment TFs (2 with BBs, 2 with CAs, and 3 with CLs and at least 8 DDs each). Casualties were over 1000 and when the deliberate attack comes the two brigades will fold in one to two attacks. Since this base is so isolated, there is only KB to truly defend it.

[Lokasenna]

Turn off the refinery at Urumchi if the fuel isn't flowing out .

Mine still hasn't started shipping out. I did get some Oil to flow to Fusan, but nothing big yet.

[mind_messing]

From my experiance in defending atolls, you need:

- CD guns. They're not very good at hitting amphibious ships if the Amphib TF has embedded capital ships, but they draw the fire of bombardment task forces extremely well.
- Mines. Hitting a mine or two usually means a couple of months in the yard for capital ships - an excellent investment.
- Midget submarines. The slow BB's in bombardment/amphib TF's are torpedo magnets. A plucky midget submarine putting a battleship in the yard for six months is a fantastic return. I can see you've already done this.
- As many combat troops as you can realistically fit on the island. That means boots on the ground and not artillery tubes.


In your case, my advice would be as follows:

- Withdraw the armoured car unit and the artillery unit. I've no idea what guns that artillery unit uses, but I doubt they'll be of much value. Save them for the bigger islands (ie the Marianas) where they'll be engaged in longer battles rather than short, sharp shock attacks.
- Move in another infantry unit - Naval Guard or SNLF, doesn't really matter which. The "South Seas Garrison" units are also good candidates. The point is to have two units, so the Allied bombardment divides its fire between two units.
- If you want, return the Wake CD gun unit to Wake, but you may want to keep it for the Marianas.

From my own experiance, defending atolls is basically "minimize disruption, maximize assault value". If the defenders survive the initial shock attack, then the defenders are a good way towards having won.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Turn off the refinery at Urumchi if the fuel isn't flowing out .

Mine still hasn't started shipping out. I did get some Oil to flow to Fusan, but nothing big yet.

Might as well. Thanks.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing


- Move in another infantry unit - Naval Guard or SNLF, doesn't really matter which. The "South Seas Garrison" units are also good candidates. The point is to have two units, so the Allied bombardment divides its fire between two units.

Just throwing out ideas here:

Have you tried multiple COY size units? That would divide the bombardment the most, and perhaps one would get overlooked and provide a slight surprise?

They are about 400 men each and you could focus them instead of spreading them apart to cover lots of bases with 15 AV each...just a thought.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing


- Move in another infantry unit - Naval Guard or SNLF, doesn't really matter which. The "South Seas Garrison" units are also good candidates. The point is to have two units, so the Allied bombardment divides its fire between two units.

Just throwing out ideas here:

Have you tried multiple COY size units? That would divide the bombardment the most, and perhaps one would get overlooked and provide a slight surprise?

They are about 400 men each and you could focus them instead of spreading them apart to cover lots of bases with 15 AV each...just a thought.

On the other hand, they're apt to just straight up die in the initial shock attack...

Lack of arty tubes also leaves you really vulnerable to tanks, and the USN gets LSTs aplenty even if they don't have AKAs available.

[Lowpe]

(hvy thunderstorms last night -- working off generator power)


Jan 21, 1943

IJN bombards Cox's, Rangoon (twice), Darwin, and Port Hedland. A small seaplane tender is sunk at Darwin, I believe.

On there way back from Cox's, a mixed cruiser Allied fleet catches the IJN bombardment fleet and we swap CAs. I will see what I can do to nail those Allied cruisers...