Marshall vs Russian Heel FOG OF WAR

[HansBolter]

KB toasted half an ocean away from home ports.......priceless.

Be careful of putting QE into a shipyard for repairs.

She has a pretty early withdrawal date.

[CaptBeefheart]

Well done. It looks like he rolled the dice on a Kiwi adventure and lost.

Cheers,
CC

[Marshall]

yes after the failed NZL campaign, My opponent found himself with the back door open, DEI is reinforced with British and NZL forces, and American units are coming in by transports as well.
I am now using DEI and Singapore (singer is in firm control, but the rest of Malaya is Japanese, but I cut them off at Bankok region, so they are isolated, only sea resupply is possible)
My opponent gambled on NZL then Australia for an early victory.
I held Fiji and suva, by putting some air units fro a US carrier on Suva early on, to control the Fiji region, it paid off, I kept Fiji, and grew stronger every week.
After the invasion of NZL, I got 2 full NZL divisions available off map (aden I think) but I was lucky I had a transport with US forces close to Suva, and diverted it to NZL, massed all my forces to the 2 main bases of NZL north and south, and had enough supply in.

After initial weeks, I grew stronger, and japan could not maintain supply to NZL.
After the carrier battle, japan lost 3 carriers CVE and CVL type, and the NZL campaign basically came to pieces.

Now I knew he needed oil, and we soon found our " guadacanal" at the Celebs, after japan took Balikpapan and Tarakan, and I reinforced the south of celebs
repulsing an invasion there
my air units are now in control of the southern part of the strait
japan holds the north
but I am putting new planes north now, and soon All of celebs will serve the allied cause, making oil transports from the strait almost impossible
my subs are already making japan pay for every run.
My opponent knows the strategic value of Madano, and send 30.00 troops to Madana as invasion forces, my troops are holding on to it, (8000 troops with 156 vehicles and 266 guns) ar emaking a fight off it.
last dice rols were 1-2 and 1-6 for allies.
I put together a make shift carrier force from the damaged carrier task force, 3 carriers, only 1 US in it, just to sink any transports there.
Bull Halsey is 3 turns away to arriving in the area with 3 US carriers, fresh and fully loaded and armed.
with that in place, I have NZL troops shipped and standing by to land in support of Madano.
If I hold Madano, I can link to Davao and put supplies and fuel there, move in my bombers and transport planes to supply Manila. (yes I still hold manila
If I manage to supply manila just enough to hold out, I can build up from southern phils, then land north, and relief the forces at manila
then I can just bomb the crap out off the jap industry from clark field
so madano is crucial in this plan, and my opponent is on to my plan, and throwing in all he has got.

Next game we will change sides, and see if I can lead the Nippon to victory.

[obvert]

Very interesting game. Can you post some maps? Love to see the progress in visual terms.

Losing those BBs doesn't help your cause if he's going for auto-victory. You might think of acting where he is not, like building bastions in Palembang and in Singers, getting a lot of supply to China and possibly to the PI, getting forces ready to move forward into Burma from India should this continue. I'd hunker down all of your Aussie forces into the SE area under the LOD and be careful about upgrades and which Aussie troops get replacements. build only forts at Sydney and Melbourne, but really plan to put it all in Sydney and hole up.

Did you get counter invasion reinforcements for the NZ landings? If I remember correctly there is a division there and some good air replacements as well, right?

[Marshall]

The battle for NZL was fought 2 months ago, I was victorious, due to some luck and nearby troop and air transports, and the fact I supplied NZL 2 turns before the invasion.
Also my opponent chose unwise landing beaches, having his armor cross the mountains at Greymouth, leaving me 9 turns to organize defense son the southern part of NZL
the rest I salvaged with the carrier battle, and shipping in more troops from Fiji, I have a supply chain from West coast, to Fiji, with Xmas island as fuel and gathering area for troops and ships
then to Suva.
from there i send them to NZL.
I was lucky with the first troop ships and air transports arriving close to Suva when he invaded NZL, a quick redirection and I got extra forces to hold the line
the longer it took to take NZL the stronger I grew with extra troops coming in.
resulted in his CVE/CVL KB to be committed to force things, but my carrier force manages to sink them, and my air units then prevented him from resupplying.
also the range for his resupply was to long he explained to me over email.
After NZL was clearly to be mine, I started to blitz troops I could spare to Perth, shipping from NZL to Melbourne, then railroad to Perth, and ships waiting there shipped them to DEI, Java mostly.
from there I secured the southern point of celebs before japan took control of Balikpapan and the strait of Makassar.
I hang on to my Makasar, and send in reinforcements, beating the Japanese force back to the position they are now (see maps I posted)
they are in the jungle, and my bases south of celebs are secure.
If I win the northern part as well and the link to south Phils , I can move supply in to Davao, and then send transport planes to airlift supplies to manila, making it " sustainable for defense only"
meaning it wont starve.
from that point on, I will plan an operation to land on Legaspi, and move up to relief Manila
if that will work, then I can take clark field and bomb the crap out of his industry

this battle for the northern part of Celebs is our Guadalcanal and Pearl harbor all in one.

[Marshall]

the maps, I have no idea how to post them so I got it right to put them as attachment

Burma area

[Marshall]

Phil area

[Marshall]

Fiji area

[Marshall]

NZL area

[Marshall]

Malaya area

[Marshall]

Celebs area

[Marshall]

I got 2 Divisions and air upgrades as reaction from his invasion.
Palembang is secure, Java as well, lots of air units, I even got 2 sqdns of P38 lightning who are doing a lot of damage on his zeros.
Balikpapan is basically under my air control
I flew in every Bxx heavy bomber I have to Surabaya and they are bombing the port and airfields of his bases east of Celebs.
Marine units are coming in from NZL by now, giving me more LCU power to secure the Celebs, but the Brit and NZL forces did well so far.
Singers is in firm control, and I got his troops trapped cutting off his supply routes, 25 units there. Japan not strong enough to push me out Joha Baru, but I am not strong enough yet to defeat him at JB also, as I am giving priority to Celebs.
I kicked these 25 units out of Singers, and I am not willing to take the gamble to move all troops to JB from singers, and then get burned with a sneaky move.
so I am fine with the status quo, as I am in air control of the region. And with the Thai campaign cutting off the direct railroad to Malaya for japan, I feel I am in the driver seat for Malaya, and singers is secure, and operating as air and naval base
I even got a CV there to be repaired [8D]
[8D]
[:D]

my BB losses so far are a total of 7 now, his are 3BB lost, but also japan lost 4 CVE and CVL carriers, and 2 CV. 3 damaged heavily, I think he can muster a 4 carrier KB at most, as there came in a CV new as reinforcement, (scheduled)
but I have all my USN carriers, 2 damaged and out for 2 months, 1 operating with small damage, and a fresh CV group arriving at Celebs with Bull Halsey in command. 1 Brit carrier sunk, 2 damaged.
I can replace the losses, Japan cannot....

[Marshall]

the BB was a surface fleet, also a landing force was in the same hex when the air attack took place
I guess they mixed up

[obvert]

If you choose the embed option on the maps we can see without having to download the attachments. [:)]

[Marshall]

Brave defense at Manado, frankly I am surprised my forces are able to hold the line.


Ground combat at Manado (75,99)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 16203 troops, 237 guns, 45 vehicles, Assault Value = 336

Defending force 3590 troops, 268 guns, 159 vehicles, Assault Value = 153

Japanese adjusted assault: 237

Allied adjusted defense: 305

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 0)

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

Japanese ground losses:
1174 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 77 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 9 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 8 (2 destroyed, 6 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
51 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled

Assaulting units:
61st Infantry Group
53rd Division
66th Infantry Group
22nd Recon Regiment
5th Amphibious Brigade
1st RF Gun Battalion

Defending units:
2nd USMC Tank Battalion
6th NZ Brigade
Bobcats USN Naval Construction Battalion
35th Light AA Regiment
48th Light AA Regiment
251st Coast AA Regiment
VII US Bomber Cmnd


Second assault the next day:

Ground combat at Manado (75,99)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 15389 troops, 235 guns, 45 vehicles, Assault Value = 253

Defending force 3545 troops, 268 guns, 159 vehicles, Assault Value = 138

Japanese adjusted assault: 16

Allied adjusted defense: 153

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 9 (fort level 0)

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

Japanese ground losses:
1000 casualties reported
Squads: 14 destroyed, 118 disabled
Non Combat: 16 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Vehicles lost 8 (8 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
58 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Vehicles lost 11 (1 destroyed, 10 disabled)

Assaulting units:
66th Infantry Group
61st Infantry Group
22nd Recon Regiment
53rd Division
5th Amphibious Brigade
1st RF Gun Battalion

Defending units:
2nd USMC Tank Battalion
6th NZ Brigade
Bobcats USN Naval Construction Battalion
251st Coast AA Regiment
35th Light AA Regiment
48th Light AA Regiment
VII US Bomber Cmnd

[HansBolter]

I find it a bit incredible that the Japanese player could be doing so poorly in so many strategically import locations and allocate so much effort and resource to an adventure in NZ.

So far behind schedule in Malaya, Burma, Philippines and especially Palembang and an adventure to NZ certainly wasn't going to win the war for him even if it did succeed.

You have this game so well in hand that your opponent will likely surrender before the end of '43.

If the AI is this bad off in one of my games by this date, I scrap it as an " I broke the AI again" game and start over.

[Marshall]

My opponent gambled all on NZL, and Aus.
hence when NZL failed, most of his AUS invasion troops where positioned in the south pacific rabaul area.
and I did a fast blitz on DEI to celebs
I could invest all my British and NZL and some AUS reinforcement troops to DEI, as Burma was found undermanned by japan.

NZL and Aus plus the sinking of my carriers would have won auto victory for him I think, and if he invaded Russia after aus, and gain Vladi base there, then it would have been enough
but it failed at the first steppingstone NZL, and the whole deck of cards crumbled after that, especially when I sunk his CVE and CVL force

my aim now is to take Phil and position bombers on it.
after that I can take Okinawa if needed.

[Marshall]

the score overview

[obvert]

Somehow I missed that this was in September 42. Yeah, the fat lady is warming up stage left.

[HansBolter]

Interesting point about Vlad.

I had always assumed that it would be sheer madness for Japan to bring Russia into the war.

Then I saw an AAR by Denishe where is opponent did so and the Japanese steamrolled over the Russians.

I presumed it must have been because Denishe never did anything to build them up.

So, just to establish a good practice, I do so even in games against the AI where I know they won't be entering before the historical date.

I set every last Soviet base with engineers present to build forts. I set all LCU to upgrade and take replacements and I upgrade their planes as new frames become available.

I believe all Allied players should develop the good habit of fortifying the SU against an early Japanese adventure.