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

[Lowpe]

Near Madras the British are running the Nestor and Nepal and possibly another ship in a hunter killer group. Let us see if we can turn the hunter into the hunted. The IJN is stalking them...

Prome continues to host lots of fts/bmbrs/aux. When the moonlight gets better, I will do some floatplane recon at night and try some very high altitude night bombing. I am still concerned for a paratroop drop...

I am trying to hide most of my air force this turn...for the first time this game the Wake CD guns may be reunited shortly at Umboi, and I am still working on combining divisions and other units up. It is a real chore with fragments spread all over creation.

Give me about 5 more days and I will feel somewhat better about Burma with the advent of an infantry division, and naval guard, more engineering and aa units.

Knock on wood, but I feel that he is starting to run out of time with the advent of the monsoon coming shortly. Why he has left Ramree alone, is beyond me unless it is that he is waiting for prep.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Burma simply frightens me....Allies can advance without exposing ships and it is a terrible deathtrap.

+1

Have I mentioned I HATE Burma?

[:D][:D][:D]

I look at Burma as a single line of defense. Once the first bit goes, it all goes. It all pivots about the coastline from Akyab to Prome (I know, technically that's not on the coast). If you can continue to threaten Ramree, he can't credibly supply an operation of sufficient size to break through your lines. If you can't threaten Ramree and he can get supply in, then you're better off just not defending Burma at all. Which means bad things for the SRA...sooner, or later.

Can not the jungle ridge line to the south and east not hold for a while, especially if you evacuate Burma in good order?

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Can not the jungle ridge line to the south and east not hold for a while, especially if you evacuate Burma in good order?

Which ridge line do you mean - west or east of the river valley? I suppose the line to the east of the river valley can hold for a while (Toungoo-Taung Gyi), but it's vulnerable to a fall at Rangoon. Or in your case, it still being in Allied hands. If Rangoon falls, the rest of the southern Burma coast is soon to follow and then your troops must retreat west into China. If they can.

I'd rather fall back to Thailand, I think. Once you've lost air superiority over southern Burma and the surrounding seas the dominoes will start to fall, I think.

[PaxMondo]

The issue with Burma is that the Allies can land south of you and cut you off. So, its not about terrain or a defensive line. If they seal China from you, all those units are toast. That's why from Pegu, my retreat lines are not south looking, but east towards Hanoi. The only units I send south are those I intend to lose in the Defence of Singers ...

obverts AAR and a couple of other recent ones illustrate the dangers of Burma perfectly.

Did I mention that I hate Burma?

[;)][:D][;)]

[Lowpe]

I was hoping to be able to hold here...and fight a delaying action as I retreat to the east primarily.

Raheng triangle is built up. Planning on building and holding a Vientiane line too...

[Lowpe]

Obviously the main goal is to protect the line of retreat, but a series of blocking positions can be set up in decent terrain...the goal a fighting withdraw.

[Lowpe]

April 11, 1943

Another day closer to the monsoon.

No night air attacks.

CV's or smaller show up and launch two sweeps of Nauru. Nobody home, and then some 4e's visit Nauru for some love. Allies are definitely getting gun shy about sending in the 4es by without fighter sweeps, LR CAP and Escorts.

[Lowpe]

Burma:

Every Allied bomber hits Prome. No fighter defense, AA knocks down twice as many victory points as the bombers destroy, mostly vehicles in artillery units.

However disruption runs high in the 1st Tank Division and some artillery. If he maintains this focus I have to leave. However, he has never shown that kind of focus in the past -- always jumping around.

I have two surface groups that can pound Akyab (undetected), no planes present there or at Chittacong or Cox. But there are ships in Ports. I will bomb the ports I think and bombard...ships at Calcutta but also 30 fighters.

Two more units reinforce the Allies at Prome, and there are 13 units defending against the Magwe push and another 16 units in Rangoon, 3-4 scattered along the line.

[Lokasenna]

Wow, that's a lot of planes all coordinated. Are you playing with the betas at all?

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Wow, that's a lot of planes all coordinated. Are you playing with the betas at all?

We are playing the Beta.

Nah, not really. He is flying from huge airbase with Air HQ. He has CAP in the province, and flew like 10 plus raids against me. Several waves were substantially larger.

Unfortunately, he is flying at 7K just outside of my 20 mm machine cannon guns.

I should be like Spidery and stockpile my artillery vehicles and not replace them, as that was 90 percent of the losses.

[Lowpe]

I got to thinking about the CVL sweeps the Allies ran earlier today at Nauru. So I went and studied the combat replay. 3 sweeps of 18 or so planes, F4Fs, at 30K.

That is pretty much all the planes he has in the task force. Maybe a few on CAP, but I bet, and I am willing to bet Betties on it, that the Americans are trying to coordinate LR CAP over those carriers from his land base and is using 100 percent of his fighters to sweep with. That never works well.[:)]

This is the second time he tried that plan of sweeping with carriers. If he would have tried just the day before, he would have been subject to a low level strafing attacks from Nicks, Oscars, and Rufes. That would probably have been painful for my pilots,but I bet I would have knocked out a carrier or more...timing, this game is all about timing.

If he holds true to past patterns, he will retreat his carriers. It would be worthwhile to set up a cap trap over some bait, but I simply don't want to use the fuel in these games. The KB is dark, the mini-KB is dark. Let him guess.

[Spidery]

I should be like Spidery and stockpile my artillery vehicles and not replace them, as that was 90 percent of the losses.

I've stopped doing this. Decided it was a mistake. It saves on armaments but it makes the heavy artillery units brittle as they have fewer devices and may be destroyed.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

I should be like Spidery and stockpile my artillery vehicles and not replace them, as that was 90 percent of the losses.

I've stopped doing this. Decided it was a mistake. It saves on armaments but it makes the heavy artillery units brittle as they have fewer devices and may be destroyed.

Good point.

Should be an interesting turn, moving the surface ships in the Bay of Bengal into trouble, LR CAP, but it isn't heavy. Trying to hit the ships in Calcutta with Oscars strafing, which may be a mistake if they get caught by Radar.

Ignoring his carriers in the Marshalls, and moving more troops around.

[Lokasenna]

Depends on the CVEs....he could've resized those F4F units. Or maybe he swept for one day, only to do full CAP the next...

[Lowpe]

Economy notes:

I have mentioned that I have been having trouble getting Fusan to pull enough oil and fuel to get surplus on the HI.

So, I dumped some seeder oil and fuel at Shanghai and Hong Kong (as well as resources),from there I turned stockpile on at Port Arthur 35 days ago -- I know Fusan pulls from there, since I can idle PA refinery pretty easily when running oil out of Fusan.

Success! Well, so far. For three days running now fuel has grown at Fusan,to 22K, depsite additional fuel being shipped to the HI, and PA now has 130k oil, up from 4K. Now to turn stockpile off at PA, increase the oil demand at Fusan, and keep dumping the stuff in Saigon, Cam Ranh Bay and China.

Hopefully this will work.

[Lowpe]

Got a little carried away here...had a splitting heat headache when I did my turn and made one key mistake.

Bay of Bengal operation for tomorrow:

One CA force will hunt down and kill the Nestor and Nepal, hopefully, just outside of Madras.

2nd CA force will steam into the coastline, using a waypoint[X(], and steam back out looking for a night engagement on his xaks running supply from Calcutta. Oscars will naval strafe the area...

3 -- BB force will bombard Akyab, and I left on remain on station![8|] At least they have LRCAP from Prome, but maybe it will be a daylight bombardment, and if I get really lucky they might even get some xaks sneaking in. On the other hand, they might all get sunk.

4. Not pictured is another CA force bombarding Rangoon.

[Lowpe]

If you are wondering about my fleet disposition here is the strategy.

KB is at Kavieng, keeping an eye on Marshalls/Solomons, but really just rusting. Mini KB is at Guam, reserve, rusting. Super BBs are at Etorofu really rusting. Two BBs are in reserves at the HI, most cruisers and one BB are in the Bay of Bengal, one CL and a few DD are in the lower DEI.

I need to show the heavy fleet presence in the Bay of Bengal to prevent an end run down to Tavoy, bombard his forces along the Burma coast, and in general act as a deterrent in Burma, Sumatra.

You have to remember the Allies have lost 750 ships, and the Navy needs to make up for an exceptionally weak air force in this game.

[Lowpe]

AFB Question:

If you are flying supplies from Ledo to China what base would you fly them to if all within reach where size 2 or greater. Closest? Biggest runway?

Second question: Can I bomb the Chinese air field and thus cause op losses among the transports ferrying supplies in. I searched, but couldn't find anything.

There are transports and 30 fighters at Ledo again. Instead of bombing the airfield, I will be sweeping the fighters I think.

[Lokasenna]

1) Chengtu, or even Chungking. Maybe Paoshan, Kunming, etc., if I want forts to build there.

2) No. You need LRCAP and to be within range.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

AFB Question:

If you are flying supplies from Ledo to China what base would you fly them to if all within reach where size 2 or greater. Closest? Biggest runway?

Second question: Can I bomb the Chinese air field and thus cause op losses among the transports ferrying supplies in. I searched, but couldn't find anything.

There are transports and 30 fighters at Ledo again. Instead of bombing the airfield, I will be sweeping the fighters I think.

Heh, just look at the OPS losses. He will suffer a couple each day. For some reason Allied transports seems to be made with paper, glue and duct tape. You can only fly 2-3 weeks before pools run dry.