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

[zuluhour]

+1
drank a whole bottle of red, Spaceman, I think, a California blend.

[JocMeister]

Too tired for the update. Managed 3 turns today! You will have to settle for this screen tonight. Only a lone TT but its good for morale. [:)]

[ny59giants]

It will be interested to see how the P-38s do in your game with the altitude restrictions. In late August '42 with the "E" models, three groups of 25 planes each swept Cox's Bazar. Facing just Oscars and Zeros on CAP, I was able to sweep in at 34k and get 42:2 odds in destroyed planes. Needless to say, John 3rd is not too happy with these results. The Tojo didn't do much better. In October, I get the "G" models in at 60/month. Superior speed and altitude sure does help. [;)]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]May 4th-7th[/font]
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Two not so good days in the air...

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NORPAC
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Tried something new here which really didn´t work out. I sent around 50 B17s to hit the anchorage at Allford bay. Sadly Jeff was paying attention and the recon tipped him off. The Harbor was emptied short of a sub probably stuck in repair.

Morning Air attack on Alliford Bay , at 199,46

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid spotted at 17 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 26

Allied aircraft
B-17D Fortress x 6
B-17E Fortress x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17D Fortress: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 6 damaged

Japanese Ships
SS I-7, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk

I lose no less then 14 bombers on the day. Can´t afford that. Good play by Jeff. Not giving up quite yet though...

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China
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A not so good day here either on the 6th. I´ve been jumping the 1st/AVG back into China to try and intercept some bombers. Sadly we got caught up in a big sweep losing 10 planes and 4 pilots. Not good.

We also held another attack on the Ankang road. Not even a bombardment the following turn. Jeff must be struggling with supply?

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India
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Frustrating here as my recon is so bad I don´t really know where the main force is!! The units cut off all went to Ledo and its level 3 forts. Hopefully I can get some more forts going here once the BFs with their engineers arrive.

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In other news...
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Nagato just came off the sunk list. Kind of expected as I never got any VPs for her...but I still hoped...

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

IIRC, 6th Guards is a newly raised division with green troops and unfilled TOE - less than 50% I think. If he deployed it he is desperate for ground troops and will likely bring the NorPac troops to Luzon to clean up the mess. All part of the opportunity cost of going too far too fast in the first few months.

Suggestion for your strategic musings - if you get parity or superiority on the sea before you have to launch, you could consider leaving PH alone and reach down from SFO to Midway, Wake, Eniwetok and the Marshalls or Kusaie/Ponape. Lots of water here so it would be a naval campaign more so than the slog up from the south, but you could trap a lot of troops at PH. The naval battles will be vicious but you will be getting more replacements than the IJN...

From the Japanese perspective, once you have Midway he needs to guard against attacks on the Aleutians, Kuriles and Hokkaido. Once you have Wake, he needs to guard Marcus, the Marianas and Truk. He can only really strike back by committing to a naval battle he doesn't want.

Yeah, I think he may want Luzon cleared now so he can use Manila! He has way to few troops though. Only about 600 AV against 2500 allied AV. Supply is short but its good terrain and forts.

Regarding PH I have no intention of liberating it. At least not until 44-45. He will have to keep both troops and planes there. And make sure they are fed. [:)] Suits me fine. Unless something changes dramatically he can have all of CENTPAC for all I care! Not my intended route unless he gives it away. [:)]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

You do have a chance in China... to get out [:'(]. Your only real option for productive operations in China is to keep an eye on what the Japanese are doing, and try to give them a costly defeat or two. And you might be able to pick off advances that are too audacious for what the Japanese are sending. That's about it.

Pretty much what I´ve been trying to do. Had some good fortune at Lanchow but short of that not much to write home about. Its been a slow but steady Japanese advance!

But to be honest I can´t complain. I´ve held out until May which is far better then usual. [:)]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: JeffK

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India
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Jeff cuts the rail between Calcutta and sothern part of India. Everything got out short of a Indian BDE and some battered BFs and battalions from Burma. They will now hide in the mountains while we prepare the counter attack.

I hope you mean "Game map south of Calcutta", otherwise you are in deep doo doo!

Not sure I understand what you mean but he cut the rail between Dimapur and Calcutta. [:)]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

It will be interested to see how the P-38s do in your game with the altitude restrictions. In late August '42 with the "E" models, three groups of 25 planes each swept Cox's Bazar. Facing just Oscars and Zeros on CAP, I was able to sweep in at 34k and get 42:2 odds in destroyed planes. Needless to say, John 3rd is not too happy with these results. The Tojo didn't do much better. In October, I get the "G" models in at 60/month. Superior speed and altitude sure does help. [;)]

They will still do very well. But rather 4:1 then 40:1. [:)]

Not a fan of the dive bonus!

[BBfanboy]

Too bad about Alliford Bay, but I-7 is a nice consolation prize - Glen carrier, 14,000 nm range, 11 VPs.

[ny59giants]

Not a fan of altitude restrictions. [;)]

With the revised air data found in DBB, each new generation of fighter steadily increases their max ceiling. IMO, you lose the dive bonus when everybody stays at 20k.

[JeffroK]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: JeffK

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India
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Jeff cuts the rail between Calcutta and sothern part of India. Everything got out short of a Indian BDE and some battered BFs and battalions from Burma. They will now hide in the mountains while we prepare the counter attack.

I hope you mean "Game map south of Calcutta", otherwise you are in deep doo doo!

Not sure I understand what you mean but he cut the rail between Dimapur and Calcutta. [:)]

IRL, Thats Nth East India (Assam), on the game map its south because the map is skewed about 90 degrees in that area.

If he was south of Calcutta he would be near Madras/Vingzanpatnam.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
Too bad about Alliford Bay, but I-7 is a nice consolation prize - Glen carrier, 14,000 nm range, 11 VPs.

Oooh. That is even better. Thought it was just 8 VPs. [:)]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
IMO, you lose the dive bonus when everybody stays at 20k.

That is precisely the point! [:)]

Got pretty fed up with the 50:1 results me an Erik was getting all the time.

ORIGINAL: JeffK
IRL, Thats Nth East India (Assam), on the game map its south because the map is skewed about 90 degrees in that area.

If he was south of Calcutta he would be near Madras/Vingzanpatnam.

Ah, I see. Forgot the AE map is a bit off. [:)]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]May 8th[/font]
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Not much to report besides a boon in China. [:)]

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NORPAC
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More bombings. I´ll try something new tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

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India
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Did I mention I´m struggling with recon here? Indian 9th ID gets ready to move into Calcutta. Its a good ID rebuilt from scratch with 50 EXP. Not completely filled out yet but almost 300 AV they will do good in defense.

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China
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Tihi. Jeff got impatient and tried to overstack on the Ankang road. [:'(]

Ground combat at 83,44 (near Ankang)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 21805 troops, 303 guns, 24 vehicles, Assault Value = 2141

Defending force 36980 troops, 184 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 494

Japanese adjusted assault: 229

Allied adjusted defense: 613

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2

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

Japanese ground losses:
2908 casualties reported
Squads: 71 destroyed, 116 disabled
Non Combat: 7 destroyed, 21 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 16 disabled
Guns lost 20 (5 destroyed, 15 disabled)
Vehicles lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
347 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 36 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Assaulting units:
39th Division
13th Tank Regiment
6th Division
41st Division
36th Division
3rd Division
9th Ind.Mixed Brigade
1st Mortar Battalion
52nd Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st Army
14th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
30th Chinese Corps
1st Chinese Corps
59th Chinese Corps
24th Group Army

Thats it. No screen because I forgot too take one. [:)]

[JocMeister]

Turns will slow down for a while as Jeff leaves on a 5 day trip.

I´ll try and use the opportunity to do some map updates in the coming days.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]May 11th[/font]
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A good couple of days.

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NORPAC
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Jeff loses over 50 planes here for NO strategic points over the last 3 days. He does sink 3 ACMs I had a Seattle together with two AMcs for a total of 11 VPs. We tried a big sweep with almost 100 Fighters at Anette Island hoping to catch some LRCAP from Coal Harbor. No luck though. Pulled back to Pendelton in the nick of time as a big BB bombardment hit Prince Rupert. The 50+ CD guns did...absolutely nothing as usual. [8|]

KB moves south and hits the repair yard at Astoria. I turned off repair for now. I´m finally getting some recon and better naval search up. Lots and lots of traffic going west. This includes 2 AKEs that are moving towards Dutch.

A nasty surprise for Nick just arrived on the East Coast.... [:)]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]May 11th[/font]
______________________________________________________________________________

A good couple of days.

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China
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Not really sure what to make of China right now. I think Jeff might actually be suffering from the same problem I do. Supply. There has been no more attacks on the Ankang road and his bombers have moved on to other targets.

Up at Lanchow he keeps bombarding but he don´t have enough to take the base. In the south the Panzer Armee keeps bombarding my troops but no more attacks. I´m a bit worried the inactivity is so low because he is planning on opening a 4th front in China. All I can do is wait and dig in. I actually have some reserves to spare again and I´m trying to rotate out the worst beaten up units for fresh ones. Unfortunately the Japanese air force takes a huge chunk out of anything trying to move.

Pretty amazed I´m still pretty much intact here. [X(]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]May 11th[/font]
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A good couple of days.

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SOPAC/OZ
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The Allied Navy is finally upgraded and ready for some action. I´m pretty strong here in terms of naval and air power. Weaker on the ground though. But the geography actually doesn´t require big combat formations but rather smaller units in big numbers.

Plan is to start pushing my boundaries here slowly and quietly until July. Don´t want to make too much noise here quite yet but I want Jeff to remember that this part of the map exists. Fleet will reform in Melbourne while I await another 20 DDs coming from the states together with some ground reinforcements.

Jeff is starting to move quite boldly here lately and it might give me an opportunity. A recon squadron with F4s just arrived in Sydney and I´ll start feeling out the Japanese defenses.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]May 11th[/font]
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A good couple of days.

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India
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Jeff is slowly advancing here and I´m trying to find out if I should counter attack or not. Can´t get good enough intel right now though.

I feel pretty strong here on the ground at least. I can muster another 2000 AV currently garrisoning Madras, Bombay and Karachi. Those troops are of poor quality though. Indian IDs with low MRL/EXP. US 32rd ID and British 2nd ID are arriving shortly though together with some USAAF fighters.

Might even send the Marines here... I like Marines.

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Not really sure what to make of China right now. I think Jeff might actually be suffering from the same problem I do. Supply. There has been no more attacks on the Ankang road and his bombers have moved on to other targets.

Up at Lanchow he keeps bombarding but he don´t have enough to take the base. In the south the Panzer Armee keeps bombarding my troops but no more attacks. I´m a bit worried the inactivity is so low because he is planning on opening a 4th front in China. All I can do is wait and dig in. I actually have some reserves to spare again and I´m trying to rotate out the worst beaten up units for fresh ones. Unfortunately the Japanese air force takes a huge chunk out of anything trying to move.

Pretty amazed I´m still pretty much intact here. [X(]

I think the focus of attacking along the Ankang road is the main reason you're intact. It just leaves too much supply generating capacity for the Chinese untouched. It's still relatively early, but I think the Japanese campaign to subdue China has focused on the wrong objectives. A lot can change before the end of the year, but I wouldn't write China off yet Jocke.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

I think the focus of attacking along the Ankang road is the main reason you're intact. It just leaves too much supply generating capacity for the Chinese untouched. It's still relatively early, but I think the Japanese campaign to subdue China has focused on the wrong objectives. A lot can change before the end of the year, but I wouldn't write China off yet Jocke.

I´ll try not to write it off just yet. Eventually it will come crashing down though. Of that I´m 100% sure. Not enough supply in China. [:)]