Excel Empire - F Krieg vs Great Went - DBB-C 28

[FeurerKrieg]

July 5th, 1942

India/Burma
We try another attack on the enemy troops which seem to be marching towards Comilla/Dacca. No CAP today and our Sallys hit the 26th Indian Division, hopefully slowing the unit down. We also hit a unit called the NW Frontier Base Force.

In the screen below, you can see there are two division (70th UK and 26th Indian) in the hex two hexes east of Dacca. One is moving northwest and the other is moving east - I'm not sure which is moving which direction. I will send the 5th Division and a brigade east out of Comilla to engage them in the clear. Meanwhile, tanks and another brigade will run northeast two hexes NE of Comilla to try and catch the enemy unit crossing the river. If it is the 70th UK crossing, they might actually force a retreat, but we have to at least try to slow them down. If it is the Indian Division I think we can hold them. The 48th and two tank regiments are moving on Dacca and should capture that base with ease, and can then move towards the bases around Calcutta where we can get some more supply production. Lots of movements in this area at the moment.

Also of note, given the amount of tanks these Indian and UK divisions seem to have, we are unloading a half a dozen AT units into Chittagong to provide some AT support.

[center]
India situation[/center]

DEI/N Australia
Near Kuching, we occupy Soebi-besar.

Philippines
We launch our first attack at Cagayan and get a 1:1 result and drop forts from level 3 to level 2. We do take some casualties so we'll rest a bit before attacking again. Defenders don't have supplies so this should eventually go our way.

Pacific
We unload supplies at Canton, and manage to take out a couple more enemy squads with our escort ships. Bettys knock out three squads from the 6th Marine Reg. KB planes (117 Kates, 40 Vals) hit the Parachute Bn and knock out 3 guns, and 29 squads (184 casualties). I was thinking that would be enough to prevent any problems while our troops rested today.

However - a game mechanic I was unaware of rears its ugly head! Apparently, if the troops don't feel 'confident' of their odds, they can flee the island. They indeed did this - after the supplies were unloaded, this message popped up - "TF 35 re-embarks landing force at Canton Island and retires" and with that the 8th and 21st Divisions loaded up and said "so long" to Canton Island. Nice job guys, way to make a waste of all those lost troops on the landing.

Oh well - the good news is we have assets in place to keep Canton isolated and out of supply. The airfield and port there are 100/100 damaged and there are no supplies present to fix anything. I'll send the 8th and 21st to Tokyo for R&R and in the meantime keep some ships on patrol at Canton with our carriers nearby. The CV's will rotate out one at a time for the summer upgrades. Akagi first, Zuikaku is already in progress, Kaga next. Ryuho will arrive in a couple more days and will join the fleet as well. I can try again later with a better landing force (higher % of combat troops and better ships).

I also took some time to reorganize the fleet across the map. The surface TF's will finally have similar ships (main gun range and speed) so they should fight as well as possible. You can see them below as well as the CV TF's too.

[center]
CV TF Organization


Surface TF organization[/center]

China
The 19th Ind Mix Brigade arrived on the road to Tuyun and with their help we are able to get a 2:1 result and move the enemy stack back north. They lose 2,500 troops and I think they are about all that stands between us and Kweiyang so this could develop well.

Other
Fusan expands airfield to size 6

[JocMeister]

Lesson of the day:

Atolls suck? [:D]

[rook749]

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

However - a game mechanic I was unaware of rears its ugly head! Apparently, if the troops don't feel 'confident' of their odds, they can flee the island. They indeed did this - after the supplies were unloaded, this message popped up - "TF 35 re-embarks landing force at Canton Island and retires" and with that the 8th and 21st Divisions loaded up and said "so long" to Canton Island. Nice job guys, way to make a waste of all those lost troops on the landing.

Och that is a painful way to learn the game mechanic. Does he have an SST's that can run supply to the island?

[FeurerKrieg]

Jock - yes, your assessment is correct. On the plus side, we'll be defending a few of them in the future. Although the Allies are better equipped to take them with all those landing craft.

Rook - I'm not sure. But I do have a couple ASW ships stationed in the Canton hex, and my Bettys are bombing every other day (or more), plus I'll do the occasional bombardment run - hopefully all that will blow up any supply as fast as SST's can drop it off.

I should probably try LRCAPing over Canton sometime to make sure he isn't air dropping supply from the Line Islands.

[FeurerKrieg]

July 6th, 1942

India/Burma
Some Wellingtons join the Blens on night bombing of Chittagong. 1 Port hit is scored.

Comilla expands fortifications to size 2.

DEI/N Australia
Our tank regiment has reach the hex where it will leave the road and start driving cross country over the clear hexes to Wyndham. See below for visual.

[center]
Tanks turn north to Wyndham[/center]

Philippines
Butuan, east of Cagyan, is occupied. This base has flipped back and forth a couple times. Being Japanese now means that Cagayan is officially the last base to be held by the Allies in the Philippine Islands.

Pacific
Bettys continue to bomb Canton Island.

China
WE do another attack at Kiuchuan, 1:3 result, but no losses and 115 enemy casualties. Retreat and repeat tomorrow.

The Chinese attack at Chengtu again, getting 1:2 odds. Casualties are better, we lose 400 to their 2800.

[FeurerKrieg]

July 7th, 1942

India/Burma
Another night attack at Chittagong, no hits.

We bomb the 70th Brit Div again, and lose a couple Zeros to a small CAP of 5x P-40Es. We hit the division though, so it is slowed down a bit for another day. I get the 'Also attacking' message for the 26th Indian Div. Does anyone know if this also means that unit will have been dropped out of Move mode?

The enemy takes the same tactic and bombs our advance Brigade with Blenheim's in the daylight knocking us out of move mode. I may try to get some Nicks over that unit tomorrow.

DEI/N Australia
Landings aren't possible at Kalao, so I'll drop a SNLF Coy next door and hope that is enough AV to trigger an occupation of the dot base.

Philippines
We do another DA at Cagayan and get a 1:1 result against level 2 forts. Forts go down to level 1. Enemy is showing supply, experience and morale negatives so that is good. We still take more casualties though, so we'll rest a couple days again.

Pacific
A small base next to Tongatapu called Eua is occupied today. We will move on to Tua next.

Babeldaob expands port to size 4. This is good since the base is in between New Guinea and the Philippines.

China
We put most of our airpower on an attack at Changsha where we try a deliberate attack just to see what the situation is like. We reduce forts to level 5, so that is good, but level 5 is still a lot. Enemy shows at 66,000 troops to our 46,000 and we get 1:5 odds. No supply negative for them at the moment. Casualties aren't too bad at 6500 with about 80% of those disablement. The 58th Bge will head to Wuchang for recovery and I have a couple more units on the way. I will also bring some of the artillery from Siantan over to Changsha now that that base has level 4 forts and it is unlikely the Chinese can get the supply to take that base.

[center]
Attacking at Changsha[/center]

Other
Several AV's come out of conversion today. I'll gather them up at Tokyo and then decide where they need to go. One is already enroute to Truk. Most will probably go to place in the Pacific. One is going to go to the dot base next to Canton Island to help keep an eye on things there.

Aircraft H8K2 Emily advances R&D to 2/43

[FeurerKrieg]

July 8th, 1942

India/Burma
We put Nick's over our tank regiment, but unfortunately the enemy flies a sweep with 22x P-40E Warhawks. To my surprise, the Nicks do excellent and shot down one P-40E and chase all the other away without taking a single loss. My delight is short lived though as in the afternoon, Blenheims fly in escorted by Kittyhawks and the Kittyhawks take down six of the Nicks. The Blen's get through and hit our Brigade again. Wellington's hit out tank unit pretty hard, disabling 14 vehicles.

Every mile moved counts, so we again attack the British and Indian divisions. The CAP is heavy today with 5 Buffalos, 10 Mohawks and 8 P-40E. However, we still fight through and hit the 70th Brit Division. 7 Zeros and 8 Sallys are lost. For the day though, of all those Zeros, Nicks and Sallys lost we only lose 4 pilots.

Pacific
Raoul Island is occupied by a small SNLF unit today. It is located in the middle of nowhere between New Zealand and Tongatapu.

China
No bombardment at Chengtu today - perhaps they are low on supply too?

Submarines
I-4, southwest of Hawaii, puts a torpedo into BB Arizona. Lets hope it did more damage than the torpedo that hit Kaga the other day. I wonder if this TF is heading to the Line Islands to support Canton Island?

[center]
Hit on BB Arizona[/center]

Other
Aircraft Ki-45 KAIc Nick advances R&D to 3/43

SS I-30 arrives at Port Arthur
xAKL P-114 arrives at Hirosaki/Aomori

[FeurerKrieg]

July 9th, 1942

DEI/N Australia
Waigeo, next to Sorong, is occupied for free. I didn't take this with a COy since I knew I would eventually build up Sorong. A week or so ago I drop a IJNAF unit into Sorong and that caused Waigeo to flip today.

Pacific
The enemy airfield at Christmas Island goes up to level 4.

China
Don't want Siangtan to get any rest, so we switch air bombing back to this base today. We also do a artillery bombardment for good measure.

Attack at Kiuchuan gets 1:3 today. I've purchased a small unit from Manchukuo to send up here to help out. Will take a while, but it will get here eventually.

The Chinese resume their bombardment at Chentu.

Near Pakhoi, the stack of Chinese that were bounced from Liuchow manage to break loose from being trapped by the Yokosuka 4th SNLF. They get a 5:1 result (24,000 troops versus 2,000 troops) and we retreat t Pakhoi. I have a third of division already enroute, plus a tank unit halfway out of the wood to the east. They might take Pakhoi (again) but I should be able to trap them again before they can capture Kwangchowan.

Other
Aircraft A6M8 Zero advances R&D to 5/45.
I now have enough engines to get the engine bonus on the A6M8 research. That means I'll be getting ten points per day, so it should advance a month every ten days.

CVL Ryuho arrives at Yokohama/Yokosuka - conveniently it is already the 11/42 upgrade version.

This carrier has no organic planes, so it will current be used to keep each upgrading carrier's fighters on station near Canton Island during refit. So first up it will collect Akaki's fighters when they pass close together near the Bonins.

[center]
CVL Ryuho arrives[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

July 10th, 1942

India/Burma
Night attacks at Chittagong again. Not sure why he is attacking here. I have some AA unit on the way though.

We hit the enemy troops yet again. This time some Nicks join the escort. 2 Zeros and 6 Nicks against a CAP of 16 Kittyhawks. We lose 3 Nicks, 1 Zero and 3 Sallys, but take down 4 Kittyhawks and more importantly hit the 26th Indian Division. Since recon only shows one unit of about Division size in that hex, the 70th British Div must have moved east. Additionally, our units have won the race to the northeast and are now able to sit in combat mode. So a brigade and tank I think have a chance of resisting a river crossing by an Indian division, but we'll see.

Also, the 5th Division arrives in the same hex at the 26th Indian. I have another brigade due to arrive their tomorrow and if the 26th is still there we will try an attack. If the 26th crosses to the northwest and doesn't force a retreat, we will have that division trapped. If it doesn't cross, I think we will be able to force it to retreat east to join the 70th British, where it will be weakened and more importantly, unable to interfere with my movement to the north to capture several bases. I've tried to illustrate below. If you look closely at the Assault Value numbers you can get a sense for just how much strength we have in the area. 2 more division are at Comilla also.

Most importantly though, the 48th Div and friends attack at Dacca and easily capture the base (21:1). We destroy the 45th Indian Brigade outright and force the other units (3 units, 2,000 men left) to retreat to the northwest. We capture 2 Warhawks and the Light Industry and Resource are both at 17(3) so we'll get a bit a supply from here now as well.

The runway is only lightly damaged (7) so we will fly in a unit of Tojo's for local CAP and airlift in some AV support from Rangoon until a proper unit can be dropped off and march up from Chittagong.

[center]
Situation in India[/center]

DEI/N Australia
Apparently I missed some Dutch refugees, as Bandjermasin is occupied today. I'll get around to clearing it a some point.

Philippines
Another DA at Cagayan today, 1:2 is the result and forts stay at level 1.

Pacific
We lose a LB at Tofa. Lots of messages about it too -

LB-1006 founders in surf at Tofua
Extensive flooding aboard LB-1006
Decks awash aboard LB-1006, crew prepares to abandon ship
Major flooding aboard LB-1006
LB-1006 abandoned due to heavy damage

At Raoul some New Zealand troops unload as our troops are loading up. Our ship is still in the hex, so I'm guessing we either have no DL on the enemy ships, or they used submarines.

China
We start bombing the Chinese stack that is moving on Pakhoi to slow some of them down while our reinforcements head that way.

We just unloaded a couple 30k supply loads at Hong Kong and Shanghai and these flowed out today causing several air units to be able to restock, plus helping the ground situation across the map in China.

Submarines
I-121 lays some mines in the open ocean a hex out from Sydney. It is then attacked by some DD's. Later on, she find a pair of AM's and hits AM Cowra sinking the ship.

Other
TM-9 is reported to have been sunk near Wyndham on Mar 30, 1942

[FeurerKrieg]

July 11th, 1942

India/Burma
Blens hit Chittagong at night, for no effect.

Some heavy air action over the 26th Indian Division today. First we sweep with 11x Tojo from Dacca and 12x Nicks on LRCAP from Akyab join in as well. They hit 5x Buffalo, 9x Kittyhawk and 12x P-40E Warhawks on CAP. The enemy CAP is worn down somewhat, but not a ton of kills on either side.

Another separate morning sweep occurs with 4x Tojos and 1x Nick against a reduced CAP of 3x Buffalo, 9x Kittyhawk and 3x P-40E.

In the afternoon, 22 Sallys are heavily escorted by 6x Nicks and 40x Oscars. The CaP of 3x Buffalo, 8x Kittyhawks and 5x P-40E is mostly fought off although a couple Kittyhawks get through to the Sallys. We still manage to hit the 26th Indian Division though.

A second raid of 15x Sally and 22x Anns comes in with 3 Zeros and 6 Nicks and thankfully only 2 Kittyhawks remain on CAP. These also hit the 26th Indian.

Then the big surprise for me - the 26th Indian Division attacks us where it stands! I had expected either a crossing to the northwest or a march to the east. Instead they attack and get a terrible result of 1:144 against our 5th Division and the 56th/A Division. Causalities aren't crazy heavy for them, but that result bodes well for future attacks against low XP Indian units. Unfortunately I don't have the supplies to risk a counter attack. A couple more days and some supply will be unloaded at Chittagong. Not sure if that will be soon enough to get the 26th before it can retreat (if it does) but I don't want to risk wrecking the 5th Division in a low supply attack. AT guns are on the way as well which should be good if the 70th British Division decides to cross the river and join the 26th. I'd be okay with that since we could probably hold them here while a couple tanks and a brigade go up north and around the jungles to come back down to the Ledo region where the defenses are very light.

After all that air combat, we lose 4x Oscars, 3x Nicks, and 3x Sallys. We kill 6x P-40E, 4x Kittyhawk, and 3x Buffalo. Miraculously, we lose zero pilots.

I definitely think getting the Tojos into the fray at Dacca will help the air war here. I have flown in a second unit today, and they will all be on CAP tomorrow in case he decides to try and shut down Dacca with bombers.

[center]
Air battles over the ground troops in India[/center]

Pacific
Tofua (Tonga Islands) is occupied by our SNLF Coy. Farther south, Raoul Island is occupied by the New Zealand troops that landed there.

Wake Island goes to fort level 4 and Buna goes to 3. Wake will stay on forts, while Buna switched back to Airfield to go to size 5.

We unload a Nav Guard unit at Vaitupu (Ellice Islands) and capture it due to the atoll shock attack.

China
We will attack Tuyun tomorrow, defenses look light, but I've been here before and that major road to the north allows reinforcements to get here quick.

Also, looks like he might be trying to move out from Kweilin again. We'll move to cut him off, I don't think he has the supplies to push out my dug in troops in the woods.

Other
Some airfield upgrades today -
Niigata expands airfield to size 3
Shimizu expands airfield to size 4
Masan expands airfield to size 4

[FeurerKrieg]

July 12th, 1942

India/Burma
Wellingtons hit Chittagong at night, but do no damage. In the day time, Warhawks sweep over the 5th Division but we had kept our cap local to Dacca and Akyab so we don't engage them.

Pacific
Funafuti (Ellice Islands) is occupied today.

3 B-17's attack Port Moresby at night and do no damage.

Our Nells at Suva bomb Raoul to see what is there, and it is the 2nd RNZAF Base Force. I have some M3 Nells repairing at Truk that will relocate to Suva soon since they can cover more of the open ocean with their longer legs.

China
Chihkiang expands forts to level 3. Since it is a wooded hex, and we have a clear supply path, I will have my engineers move back to the trio of bases west of Changsha.

We have 55 Oscars escorting Sallys to bomb enemy troops at Chengtu. These are pilots that have their 60-70 air skill and they spend time in China to gain some experience points before going back in the reserve pool. Today, the Chinese put up 8 Lancers on CAP. Our Oscars do pretty well, downing 4 enemy and losing one of their own.

We launch a deliberate attack at Tuyun, but only get 1:3 results against level 3 forts. Casualties are not bad 1000 vs 800, with only 1 destroyed squad for us. However a yellow unit in the woods is moving to block our supply path plus the Chinese are making moves out of Kweilin again - so I will send the two tank units back down the road in case they are needed, and my two artillery units will go into daily bombard mode for now.

[center]
Not quite enough here just yet[/center]

Other
Fight and DB air groups for Akagi hop off at Truk as Akagi is headed home and they expand to size 30 from size 18. I kept the torpedo unit on 'no resize' since it would have gotten smaller. The Zeros will hop on the Rhuho when it comes by in a few days.

[FeurerKrieg]

July 13th, 1942

India/Burma
Wellingtons at Chittagong do a point of port supply damage this time.

Another P-40E sweep over our 5th/his Indian 26th Divisions hit air.

Worried about enemy CAP over the 26th Indian, we send in a single group of 10 Sallys on a low altitude run, hoping to get under a high altitude CAP if there is one. No CAP at all though, so our Sallys score a hit on the division, hopefully slowing it down. The 5th received supplies today so we will set them for deliberate attack. The 26th may exit the hex tomorrow though.

DEI/N Australia
We try a Zero sweep of Darwin from Saumlaki today. 28 Zeros meet 16 Kittyhawks and we do poorly, losing 7 A6M2 versus 2 Kittyhawks. The Zeros will rest a day or two, and then be used for LRCAP duty on a transport TF that is bringing air support and more tanks to Wyndham in anticipation of its capture by the 8th Tank Reg.

Pacific
Nukufetau is occupied today. This was nice, since I only had to unload at one of the islands in the three-island Ellice chain, and we already have all three under the Imperial flag.

SNLF Coy captures Lifuka today (Tonga Islands).

China
No CAP meets our bombers at Chengtu today.

The Chinese attack Chihkiang today and get a 1:3 result against our level 3 forts. They lose about 1400 folks to our 300. We show a lot of penalties but that is mainly because our engineer was on move mode heading out of the hex.

On the trail south from Kweilin to Liuchow, I've had the small 68th Ind Infantry Bn sitting there. I think it is up to level 3 forts. Today, the much large 60th Chinese Corp attacked there (10,700 troops vs 1,250) and they only got a 1:5 result. I am assuming this is mainly due to low supply. I've start moving a Nav Guard unit there to bolster the defenses in that vector, while 2/3s of a division are moving to cover the road route to the north.

I'm contemplating a move from the center (Changsha area) down the road to Kweilin to put that base under siege and remove the threat to Liuchow.

Submarines
Yesterday I had assumed some ships my be returning to Auckland from Raoul Island. Not sure if I was right or not, but I moved I-23 to the east side of Auckland and today that sub puts a torpedo into CA Portland. No special messages, so I'm sure the ship is in no danger of sinking, but maybe it will have to sit in Auckland for a bit.

[center]
Hit on enemy cruiser[/center]

Other
Eight AK's come out of their refit from xAK status at Osaka today.

Fusan goes to airfield 7 and Ndeni goes to size 2.

[FeurerKrieg]

Sorry for the delay in updates. We haven't run many turns as both John and I have been playing ArcheAge, a pretty fun MMO. If anyone is interested in it, or is already playing on the Naima server let me know - we can always use more folks in our guild. Especially those as strategy minded as people who frequent this forum.

Now that the initial rush is winding down I should have a bit more time to get back to the updates.

[FeurerKrieg]

July 14th, 1942

India/Burma
The Brits switch to Dacca as six Blen IV's launch a night attack. They score 3 runway hits. No AA or engineers here yet, so this small damage could add up. The engineers will arrive tomorrow I think, but the AA will take a bit longer. Probably about 8-9 days out from being unloaded at Chittagong.

Along with the night bombing, we receive some daytime sweeps of Dacca. First 16x Mohawks attack and we hold our own with a smaller amount of fighters - 5 Oscar and 2 Nicks to be exact. We lose 2 Oscars and bring down 2 Mohawks, both brought down by the Nicks. Next, 22x P-40E sweep, but our few fighters have left the scene and no combat occurs.

[center]
Air battles over Dacca[/center]

In the meantime, we sweep over the 26th Indian Division with 15x Tojos who meet 7x P-40Es. We manage to destroy 2 enemy for no loss. Similar to the sweeps at Dacca, our second sweep of 37x Tojos finds no enemy planes present.

On the day we lose 1 pilot.

On the ground, the 48th Division cross the river to the northwest of Dacca and shock attacks the units that had been bounced out of Dacca. The 75th Indian Bge and the 823rd Aviation battalion both surrender, while the 1st Bengal Base Force retreats to the west. The combat result was 44:1.

More importantly, the 26th Indian Division does not make it across the river in time and is hit hard by our units. The 5th Division, 56th/A Division, and the 4th Tank Reg attack the 26th Indian division and get a 6:1 result forcing a retreat over the river to the east. The 26th loses 3,100 troops, 31 guns and 40 tanks. This is good since the 26th is the only other Division east of our advance into India beside the UK Division. With it heavily damaged, the UK division is the only real resistance we have to worry about, and it will soon be cut off from the supply flows of India.

Pacific
About 8 hexes east of Canton Island, I-29 takes a hit from a DC. It spots three destroyers. However, on the map display there is also a TF symbol in the adjacent hex. I wonder if anything is headed to Canton? I-29 is at 49 float, but I think it will make it home.

If so, it doesn't arrive tonight as BBs Kirishima, Haruna and Kongo all shell Canton Island without interference. 252 casualties, 11 supply hits and plenty of damage to the port and airfield. Hopefully the supplies are getting very low there now.

Over at Port Moresby, our friends the B-17E's pay a visit. 10x B-17's attack and 9x Nicks and 12x Rufes defend. We manage to bring down two of the big planes and damage several more.

China
At Urumchi we have nearly enough supply so we try a deliberate attack. We do pretty well with a 2:1 result against fort level 1. The forts go to zero and as soon as we have more supply we will attack again, hopefully capturing the base.

Other
Tainan Ku S-1/A attains carrier trained status on Hosho

DMS W-21 arrives at Kobe

[offenseman]

Hey Bob, how are your Tojos fairing in general in DBB?

[FeurerKrieg]

Tojos are doing okay but I can't say they are outperforming the Nicks and Oscar by that much just yet. Part of that is pilot XP though. The Army units are generally upgrading when I pull them back to get new frames and pilots. So because of that, the Tojos come back with half a crew that have 70+ air skill, but lower XP. Once they have all been rotated out, I think they will seem to do better. At the moment, they are being compared to units of Oscars and Nicks that have high XP pilots.

You'll see several fights in the next few days involving them. I'm really surprised at how well the Nicks are doing against single engine Allied fighter. It won't last I'm sure, but it is nice so far.

[FeurerKrieg]

July 15th, 1942

India/Burma
Night attacks at Dacca by just a few Blen's, but they get lucky and destroy two Ki-15 recon planes.

Mandalay forts go to 2 and Magwe goes to 1.

DEI/N Australia
Our 8th Tank Regiment attacks at Wyndham and drives out the RAAF Base Force that was on garrison duty there.

[center]
The last 'easy' base is captured in northwestern Australia[/center]

Philippines
We launch an attack on Cagayan today with support from some Sally bombers. Results are good, at 2:1 and the level 1 forts are dropped to zero. Defense has xp, disruption and supply negative modifiers.

Pacific
DMW W-1 on station at Canton Island is hit by S-46 and the torpedo works, sinking the small ship.

Bettys knock out a couple squads on Canton Island.

China
Air attacks on Pakhoi, Paoshan, Kweilin and the Chungking valley inflict some casualties.

The Chinese attack at Chengtu. They get 1:3 odds against our level 2 forts. Both sides post supply negative modifiers, but the Chinese take 3 times the causalities we do.

Submarines
West of Hawaii, I-165 is hit with depth charges and will need to return to port for repairs.

[FeurerKrieg]

July 16th, 1942

India/Burma
Our troops occupy the small island base of Trinkat northwest of Great Nicobar.

We receive a couple of airbase hits at Dacca from night bombing Blenheim IV's, but nothing to write home about.

DEI/N Australia
Betty's hit the retreating defenders from Wyndham, destroying a fair amount of squads.

Broome expands fortifications to size 2 and Tjilatjap expands fortifications to size 3.

Pacific
Yamato and Hiei bombard Canton Island, but the results is only minor damage to the airstrip and troops stationed there.

11x B-17E's attack Port Moresby. Nicks and Rufe's do some damage and even bring one down. AA brings one down as well. No damage is received from the attack, although we do lose 2 Rufe's and 1 Nick to ops.

Noumea expands fortifications to size 3

China
Several of our units cross the river just north of Chungking in an attempt to cut off the Chinese troops at Kienko. The river crossing goes well as our troops (27,000) meet a Chinese Cavalry corp and construction unit and easily route them to Chungking. We will attempt to run north before the Chinese can redeploy.

[center]
A gamble, but the initial attack goes well[/center]

In Tienshui the Chinese attempt an attack but we repel it with 1:14 odds. Chinese casualties are heavy - 7,600 of the 112,000 present.

The Chinese also attack at Chengtu, but only achieve 1:5 results. Casualties are in our favor and we no longer show a supply modifier, although the Chinese do.

Other
AMc Calcutta is reported to have been sunk near Chittagong on Feb 13, 1942

[PaxMondo]

Welcome back. 6 months to get a turn done. Now you're talking my speed! [:D][:D][:D]

[Sheytan]

Dosnt sound like fun based on the negative player feedback...

This game is the perfect example of tons of potential with a horribly flawed execution.

What you expect
Incredible mix & match combat system involving combining various kinds of spellsets to create your own dynamic playstyle
A wonderous epic adventure, accomplishing quests, traversing the world by land, sea and even air
Carve out your own little piece of the world and place your house in public for all to see
Crafting/Harvesting system that also takes place in the open world

Wow! What a great list of features! I was sold on this game right away, even made the decision to go in on Archeum. Let's see how that turned out:

What you get
You know what I was hyped about? Making a guy who absolutely destroyed everything while nicely playing a banjo/flute to aid in my path of destruction. What ArcheAge delivered was one or two good combinations that could basically one-shot any other player. I desperately held on to the thought that this wasn't the case for the longest time out of everyone in my group and simply found myself worthless because I didn't spec into a specific set of spells.
Yep, you can go from point A to point B pretty plainly. Walking is well implemented. Oh, sorry, you were interested in flying and boating? So flying is alright. Unless you get a top-tier glider, you are stuck with basically just a glider, meaning you need to be generally above where you want to end up and do typical glider controls to get where you want to go. Now sea travel. Sea travel involves getting utterly destroyed by pirates and hilariously powerful sea creatures and not much else unless you voyage out at max level.
HAH. So you want a house? Tough. This game is plagued by bots and hackers. As soon as any plot of land becomes available for a house/farming plot to be placed on it, a bot or hacker owns it. Literally instantly. One of my friends bought an auto-clicker mouse to try to get our group a house after a week of playing and not even that stopped the nearby hackers who had already claimed 8 houses that day. Now you're thinking "Oh, that's a cosmetic thing though. A shame, but purely cosmetic." Keep reading.
Crafting/Harvesting is an absolutely core part of this game. The entire economy is based on it, the way you can get any of the gear or things you want require intense amounts of harvesting, crafting and bartering. Harvesting works by planting a crop/placing an animal, letting it grow for a few hours, then returning to collect it. If you plant/place in land you own, it is protected. If it's out in the open world however, your crops and animals are available for harvest to any player who happens upon them and returns when they're ready to harvest. Oh, did I mention you can't place houses/farming plots without being a Founder (which comes with a recurring fee)? Well you do.

On top of all of this, your crafting/building/harvesting/getting money from monsters you kill are all locked by two wonderful mechanics: Labor Points and Gilda Stars

Labor Points are generated automatically during play time at an unbearably slow rate. They are then consumed by planting, harvesting, building, opening coin pouches dropped by monsters and other various things. This mechanic is a leftover of the game originally being from Korea, where there are laws limiting the amount of time people can play MMOs.

Gilda Stars are the true bane of this game. You use stars to purchase things like blueprints for boats, gliders, houses, vehicles and other various interesting items. These items range from costing around 30 Gilda Stars to several hundred if not thousands of Gilda Stars. So you're thinking, "What's wrong with this? It's a currency system." Well, naive reader, the problem is in how you gain them. Gilda Stars are gained by completing story quests. At a rate of 1-5 per quest (I'm being generous since I didn't complete the story and I assume they go to higher than the 2 I was getting per mission at level 20) and another even more ridiculous method. The only reason your number of Gilda Stars aren't capped based on how many missions there are in the game is because you can get them also by doing trade runs.
Trade runs are an incredibly interesting concept. The idea is you gather a bunch of resources and transport them from point A to point B and get a reward for it. Here's what it involves:
Step 1: Gather or purchase (from the auction house) a few hundred wood, fish or some other material.
Step 2: Locate a special kind of crafting station and assemble your trade pack.
Step 3: Trek across the world (by land, sea or a combination of both) to one of the npcs who will trade you Gilda Stars for your trade pack. Please note: You travel at an IMMENSELY reduced speed, making a decent mount required. Oh, and if you log out with the pack on, it will nicely wait a short period of time before dropping off of your character and onto the ground for anyone to steal, meaning you must spend at least a half hour (depending on how far/profitable you want your voyage to be) just sitting at your computer to steer your character onto the path.

tl;dr Promised combat variations are basically worthless and unbalanced, anything interesting about the travel is worthless until you're max level, resource gathering is a joke for many reasons, housing is a joke for the same reasons and more.

Pass on this and save yourself the time and money.

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

Sorry for the delay in updates. We haven't run many turns as both John and I have been playing ArcheAge, a pretty fun MMO. If anyone is interested in it, or is already playing on the Naima server let me know - we can always use more folks in our guild. Especially those as strategy minded as people who frequent this forum.

Now that the initial rush is winding down I should have a bit more time to get back to the updates.