Tale of the Sheep! - JocMeister (A) vs. Lowpe (J)

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Back home again. No turn so no update!

There's clearly only one solution here. Start a second game! [;)]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Is the slow down due to events at home or is Japan losing interest after taking Pearl? Or is there simply a huge re-organization going on for the next wave of attacks?

Nick blames "summer". I´m not too happy though. I´ve been renovating the kitchen, have two kids + wife to take care of and can still put aside 1-2 hours to make a turn per day. So I´m not too sympathetic to his "plight". He had 4 days to do a turn while I´m gone and still nothing. Last time I was gone he had 5 days.

He says he will pick up the pace in August though so I´ll be patient until then. For me this pace is unplayable. I spend more time trying to remember what I did last/was going to do then I do actually doing the turn. I get no flow at all.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Losing Hawaii and the Line Islands makes a very big hole when it comes to having PBYs cover all that water. Nothing between Dutch Harbor and Tahiti for me! [:(]

I´ll probably face the same situation in 1-2 months. But I feel prepared for the situation when it comes. Setting up the new LOC is PITA but once its done things are fairly simple. I lose about a month in travel time but once you get the convoys rolling it doesn´t matter much. I have a big convoy arriving at OZ about every 3-4 weeks. Between that I have faster troop convoys. Problem is mostly refueling. Currently only have two AOs to spare to refuel the navy while the rest is busy refueling the convoys on their homeward leg.

Port Stanley will be very important in this. Going to send some NavSupport there to speed things up.

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
There's clearly only one solution here. Start a second game! [;)]

Hah! I actually considered it. But I´ll be patient this time in case Nick gets things flowing again. Back to work in a months which will drastically cut my playing time.

[JocMeister]

Yey, finally got a turn. [&o] Sadly nothing interesting happened and Nick is out of town until Sunday. I´ll do an update (however boring) sometime tomorrow.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]February 18th 1942[/font]
______________________________________________________________________________

Almost nothing to report.

------------------------
Pacific
------------------------
Eerie quiet.... a lone sub is spotted Vancouver Island.

------------------------
IO
------------------------
First Japanese sub moving for the IO is encountered as it tries to sink one of my pickets.

Sub attack near Great Nicobar at 35,64

Japanese Ships
SS I-162

Allied Ships
AMC Pansy

------------------------
DEI
------------------------
The O21 finds a convoy probably heading for Ambon with the 55th Infantry Regiment (SIGINT).

ASW attack near Bara at 73,108

Japanese Ships
APD Sawakaze
E Hashidate
APD Hagi
xAK Awajisan Maru
xAK Taizin Maru
xAK Koyu Maru
xAK Gokoku Maru #2
TB Hiyodori
PB Rokko Maru #2
PB Nishho Maru

Allied Ships
SS O21

SS O21 launches 2 torpedoes at APD Sawakaze

------------------------
OZ
------------------------
The sub outside Sydney still lingers and QE is again spotted.

------------------------
China
------------------------
Nick pulls out from the mountains North of Ichang. I´ll leave enough to stall him here if he comes again but the rest will move back towards Ankang.

Nick did try an attack on the Ankang road. He got a decent result.

Ground combat at 83,45 (near Nanyang)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 27535 troops, 282 guns, 91 vehicles, Assault Value = 848

Defending force 30932 troops, 153 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 657

Japanese adjusted assault: 365

Allied adjusted defense: 1270

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 3

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

Japanese ground losses:
561 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 85 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Guns lost 7 (1 destroyed, 6 disabled)
Vehicles lost 16 (1 destroyed, 15 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
624 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 58 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled

Assaulting units:
15th Tank Regiment
34th/B Division
6th Division
34th/C Division
40th/A Division
14th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
52nd Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
1st Army
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
55th Chinese Corps
59th Chinese Corps
92nd Chinese Corps
22nd Group Army[

59th Corps will be replaced by 66th Corps and head back to Ankang for some R&R.

China still worries me greatly. Nick really caught me off guard with the thrust at Ichang. I now have much of my reserves scattered in the woods in that area. I think Nick will shift to the East now. While my troops have managed to dig in there reserves are slim with only 1500 left at Sian. All roadblocks have 500-800 AV in x3 terrain and level 3 forts though which is positive.

Changsha area looks pretty good with 3000 AV in reserve at Changsha and Changteh.

Lanchow area has grown to 1500 AV. Even when Nick has built up Ningsia I think supply will make any major effort here problematic.

[aleajactaest10044]

You may have mentioned elsewhere, but how did he do with resources when PH surrendered?

OT - Enjoyable AAR as always. A thought while your waiting, Matrix is looking for Beta Testers for WitW: Operation Torch! I know you loved WitW, I just can't understand how you came back to AE after all that love your expressed! JOKE, I have to agree with your thoughts. WitW did nothing for me when I played.

[Lowpe]

I look at all those Chinese troops off roads, in the woods, and can't help but feel you are out of position. This comes from playing a no stacking limit game I guess, and not having any experience with stacking limits.

The loss of mobility for so many troops would scare the heck out of me.

But, I am sure you know what you are doing![:)]

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I look at all those Chinese troops off roads, in the woods, and can't help but feel you are out of position. This comes from playing a no stacking limit game I guess, and not having any experience with stacking limits.

The loss of mobility for so many troops would scare the heck out of me.

But, I am sure you know what you are doing![:)]

Likewise.... I would let him have the crappy terrain hexes and defend the road.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: TheGreatDebate

You may have mentioned elsewhere, but how did he do with resources when PH surrendered?

OT - Enjoyable AAR as always. A thought while your waiting, Matrix is looking for Beta Testers for WitW: Operation Torch! I know you loved WitW, I just can't understand how you came back to AE after all that love your expressed! JOKE, I have to agree with your thoughts. WitW did nothing for me when I played.

Welcome aboard! [:)] No clue how much he got from PH. It might be in his AAR!

I think I´ll pass on the Operation Torch BETA! [:D] A bit curious why its taken so long for them to release it though. Either they have given up on it or they are actually trying to fix WitW and make it...fun and rewarding. [:D]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I look at all those Chinese troops off roads, in the woods, and can't help but feel you are out of position. This comes from playing a no stacking limit game I guess, and not having any experience with stacking limits.

The loss of mobility for so many troops would scare the heck out of me.

But, I am sure you know what you are doing![:)]

I am out of position. But I wasn´t a week ago when a large portion of the Jap Army was there! [:D] Now I have to try and pull out and get ready for the next attack wherever it will happen.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna]
Likewise.... I would let him have the crappy terrain hexes and defend the road.

If I do that Nick will just walk through the wilderness into the Chungking plains. Erik did that with a 200.000 man army and never suffered any supply problems. I´m pretty sure he could get enough supply flowing from Ichang to sustain a big offensive into the plains.

[JeffroK]

Has there been any sigint on the PI invaders??

IFF I was in for a fun game I'd be eyeing off some of the Alaska/Canada islands, is Vancouver Is above the line of death??

PS A couple of more patches to WITW, its about 50% there, I also dont see TORCH working any better with weekly timeframe

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: JeffK

Has there been any sigint on the PI invaders??

IFF I was in for a fun game I'd be eyeing off some of the Alaska/Canada islands, is Vancouver Is above the line of death??

PS A couple of more patches to WITW, its about 50% there, I also dont see TORCH working any better with weekly timeframe

Do you mean PH invaders? [:)] If so then nothing yet. Only been 3 or 4 turns since he captured it though. Getting about a turn per week right now. [:(] Alaskan and Canadian invasions doesn´t trigger the emergency reinforcements which is kind of odd. But I´m allowed to use WC restricted troops in Canada and Alaska if used within reason.

I think WitW is the game that shouldn´t have been. Its obvious that WITE engine didn´t transfer to WitW well. Too big scale and one week turns make it completely uninteresting. While I admire the will to make a "War in Europe". They should have realized that early in development. I hope they can sort it out though but I´m not hopeful!

[JeffroK]

Whoops, halfway between Pearl Harbor & Hawaiian Islands!

[njp72]

Getting about a turn per week right now.

That can't be good for the addiction.

I think that would kill me

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: njp72

Getting about a turn per week right now.

That can't be good for the addiction.

I think that would kill me

It is slowly but surely killing me. [:(]

[Lowpe]

1 turn a week...[:@]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
1 turn a week...[:@]

Nick should be back today so I really hope we can get back on track soon and do a turn per day again.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I look at all those Chinese troops off roads, in the woods, and can't help but feel you are out of position. This comes from playing a no stacking limit game I guess, and not having any experience with stacking limits.

The loss of mobility for so many troops would scare the heck out of me.

But, I am sure you know what you are doing![:)]

I am out of position. But I wasn´t a week ago when a large portion of the Jap Army was there! [:D] Now I have to try and pull out and get ready for the next attack wherever it will happen.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna]
Likewise.... I would let him have the crappy terrain hexes and defend the road.

If I do that Nick will just walk through the wilderness into the Chungking plains. Erik did that with a 200.000 man army and never suffered any supply problems. I´m pretty sure he could get enough supply flowing from Ichang to sustain a big offensive into the plains.

The road hexes are in the way there, too [;)]. I'm talking about the road between Chihkiang and the dot base. As it is, you're asking to eventually get outmaneuvered here. He could simply force you back up the road from Chengting and get behind your units before you could even get out of the woods. Or, he will eventually break your units on the road to Ankang and then he could head offroad to the west, getting to the dot base and cutting them off from that direction.

He's foolishly focusing on the north here, though. He should be taking the Nanning-Kweiyang area. It's the most important set of bases to a quick collapse of China. Take those and it opens up the use of armor to cut off pockets of Chinese units and dispose of them at will. Therefore, defending them is far more important to me than defending Sian and Ankang.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

The road hexes are in the way there, too [;)]. I'm talking about the road between Chihkiang and the dot base. As it is, you're asking to eventually get outmaneuvered here. He could simply force you back up the road from Chengting and get behind your units before you could even get out of the woods. Or, he will eventually break your units on the road to Ankang and then he could head offroad to the west, getting to the dot base and cutting them off from that direction.

He's foolishly focusing on the north here, though. He should be taking the Nanning-Kweiyang area. It's the most important set of bases to a quick collapse of China. Take those and it opens up the use of armor to cut off pockets of Chinese units and dispose of them at will. Therefore, defending them is far more important to me than defending Sian and Ankang.

I´m not sure I follow? To do that he would have to not only force the roadblock East of Changteh but also take Changteh itself? First the roadblock of 650 AV with level 2 forts and then Changteh itself with 1500 AV and level 3 forts. I wouldn´t want to shock attack over the river into that. [:)] If so a breakthrough at the Ankang road is far more likely. I do have 2100 AV on that road though counting troops resting at Ankang.

I am pulling out with most units from the woods though. Some started moving a couple of turns ago and a bunch this turn.

Interesting to hear you think the Nanning area is more important. Most players seem to believe otherwise. Its not exactly armor country there with all the WR hexes? [:)]

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

The road hexes are in the way there, too [;)]. I'm talking about the road between Chihkiang and the dot base. As it is, you're asking to eventually get outmaneuvered here. He could simply force you back up the road from Chengting and get behind your units before you could even get out of the woods. Or, he will eventually break your units on the road to Ankang and then he could head offroad to the west, getting to the dot base and cutting them off from that direction.

He's foolishly focusing on the north here, though. He should be taking the Nanning-Kweiyang area. It's the most important set of bases to a quick collapse of China. Take those and it opens up the use of armor to cut off pockets of Chinese units and dispose of them at will. Therefore, defending them is far more important to me than defending Sian and Ankang.

I´m not sure I follow? To do that he would have to not only force the roadblock East of Changteh but also take Changteh itself? First the roadblock of 650 AV with level 2 forts and then Changteh itself with 1500 AV and level 3 forts. I wouldn´t want to shock attack over the river into that. [:)] If so a breakthrough at the Ankang road is far more likely. I do have 2100 AV on that road though counting troops resting at Ankang.

I am pulling out with most units from the woods though. Some started moving a couple of turns ago and a bunch this turn.

Interesting to hear you think the Nanning area is more important. Most players seem to believe otherwise. Its not exactly armor country there with all the WR hexes? [:)]

All those grey roads... and they go everywhere. It also helps cut off any troops still at Changsha if you take it early. They have to walk instead of taking the train. Take it quickly enough and stacking limits really don't matter. At all. For example, what would you do if he dropped paratroops at Chihkiang tomorrow? He could then fly in the better part of a division and you'd never dislodge him... In the mean time, he's flying in more troops (and Av Supp to keep the AF open) and blocking hex sides. What little supply you had flowing to the forward areas from your Central Valley is now cut off. He could do this in a matter of weeks, all while still pressuring you at the front and beating you back. Then those units that he dropped behind begin closing hex sides, trapping your units in situ for later destruction at his leisure.

Speaking as Japan: Liuchow is a clear hex. Forget Kukong for now, and even Nanning can wait (though it's necessary for the Magic Road). Kweilin can wait - you want Tuyun after Liuchow. That combines with Chihkiang and Kweiyang to effectively cut off the entire forward area for the Chinese. He could drive tanks up this way and you'd never stop him. The IJA can send its unrestricted tanks here instead of Luzon and Malaya. I would. Knocking China out is huge and you can do it quickly with tanks and paratroops. Distract in the north while preparing your eviscerating blow in the south.


I wouldn't shock across the river into Changteh. I'd simply walk through the terrain if I were him. I know that's exactly what I'm saying you should be avoiding, but he's Japan and you're China. He can move around you almost at will.

Besides that - so what if he takes Sian and all that up there first? You would at least have a clear path of retreat to the western mountains.

*shrug*

[Lowpe]

+1 on Lok's strategy for getting to the Central Plains of China. Demonstrate and threaten on the east, drive up from Tuyun with mucho armor.

Although we have seen lots of different approaches work.