Japan 1st

[Alpha77]

May 42 nears its end........

Noumea, the US sent more stuff this time even BBs plus escorts. A sub scored one torp hit on one of their BBs. The number of units at Noumea decreased interestingly, so we are sending 4-5 units back there from La Foa to check these out. We lost a transport sunk plus an escort damaged to dive bomber attack at Koumac. Fighters still not enough there.

China, no news only an advance to Shaoyang. Otherwise we rest and siege several bigger units that *should" be isolated behind our line. This is not certain, they may get also some supply even if no road or rail can supply them. Takes a long time if terrain is in their favour.

NG, no news only minor skirmish with some Allies that marched to Buna. We took Terapo as a forward recon base. PM probably is too strong garrisoned to take it without major effort.

Burma, India........building supply stocks and marching through dense jungle. As well preparing landings (where is still secret). Port Blair and Georgetown taken (we lost 2 AK/APs to coast guns).

Ah forgot: Bataan is liberated, all Allies surrendered finally.

[Alpha77]

We reached with difficulty June 1st of 42.

And we had some serious slaughter (mostly of air from both sides). Eg. 1 CV complement almost totally gone near Australia (Cairns area), Allies send wave after wave of bombers every escorted by masses of P39,P40,P400. They eventually overhelmed the one CV Zero unit. The 2 Kate and Val units were decimated in quite fruitless anti shipping strikes. 1 Val left eg. but luckily 10-12 pilots survived. One of the Zero units from an CVE did not fly a single mission, so I now assume this CVE can not launch planes but is onyl for ferrying them. The CVL in the same fleet launched but this was of course a bit to weak a force... the fighters on the CVs/CVLs are way to low in numbers as for taking the risk to go near the enemies coast. On the positive side, not one major warship in this OP took serious damage...the 2 CVs are back at Rabaul just today. The one is out of action for some days due to its air got slaughtered as described. The other one is fine and could sail again in 2-3 days, guess I will create a 2 CV and 1 CVL single air task force. The CVE seems useless for combat ops but ferrying planes this will be its mission.

In the India area this was not so serious, the Hurris did not perform as well. But one of their torpedo bombers got through and hit Junyo (I believe this is the one weaker CV we got build, I struggle to remember ship names). But the torp caused only minor damage, air ops could continue even. Apart from the massive air losses, not many ships got hurt seriously in teh invasions / raids to Allied lands..we also did not sink much apart from the usual AKs and escorts etc. British navy did not come out to play at all [:@] And we had a massive effort there, I believe 5 CVs and 2 CVLs. They found not much to hit[>:] But the RAF therefore lost a lot of Hurris And some bombers of course too. We not so much, compared to the near disaster near the Aussies lands....

I just post 3 pics of the major areas now and write something later when more time...

Pic1 China:

One victory so clear cut you wish every one to be, the battle of Shaoyang...this time we assembled enough power (i believe it were 6 Divs)...enemy was shattered and town taken in first try. [&o] Also send first wave of another try on Sian... this time more and hopefully better coordinated then the 1st try[:@]

[Alpha77]

Pic 2 India, you can see where we landed.....the Brits have already send a force of unknown size to this coastal town. 6 units are shown, if these are small ones without armor we can deal with them...we only have Imphal in eastern India. Very slow progress in the jungles. As well there too British reacted they have several units at Silchar and Kohima etc.

The Guards div has no air cover as of now. So Wellingtons etc. hit it every day. Guess Imphal has right now gotten air support and airfield size 2 so we can send some fighters there.

[Alpha77]

Pic 3 Australia, you can see where we landed. I described already a bit the huge air battles which was more in their favor I believe. But we only lost 1 AP and 1 DD as for shipping iirc.

The Aussies have sadly blocked our advance already on the coast road to Townsville. They have motor brigades and armour. Our first attack was beaten off. Needs 1-2 more divs there. We have units from the Phils available, need transports there. As well one div still in reserve at Rabaul. Sadly no tanks or 15cm art as of yet [:(]

[Alpha77]

Btw. you can now think this guy is a total noob in this game. Which is only partly right, but let me correct: The CVE above seems to be a real carrier not a plane ferry. It has missions, 220 from 220. Why the Zeros did not fly from it must have been another reason.

Also correct my statement about Imphal, it has airfield of 3 and I already have air support there. As well now a Zero and a recon unit. I admit that sometimes I go under in the scale of the game and my partly self inflicted chaos in unit and fleet organisations etc. [;)] Partly only because as told already this scen has units pre loaded with already set invasion targets etc. So unit fragments were scattered over half of the map, not by me [:-]

Also forgot to tell about the Noumea matter. We made a last effort as recon told that 2 units dissapeared one of these was the tank unit. This tank was drowned on some of their AK/APs that was sunk. So a last try might be in order... BUT it has no use the 155mm art and Americal div still there (together with smaller apparently French and New Zealandish units) just held their town with fort 3 with ease. Also they landed AGAIN at La Foa, which means now if they would really take La Foa, everyone from me at Noumea would be cut off[:o]
So again everything back to La Foa and then just bury this whole theater and go over to the defensive at La Foa, Koumac, Luganville....the air war however was this time better for us, as all their bombers and fighters flew off (probably to Suva for R+R?). So we could again start some anti shipping missions. Also our surface fleet (1 BB,1CL + escorts) sank CL Java and 1 or 2 DDs at Noumea. Also the usual cargo ships hit. Sadly one of our DDs was damaged so heavily it sank 3 hexes away from Koumac [:(] But CA Chester is now included in the "sunk ship" list after a torp hit ca. a week ago....[:)]

[Alpha77]

Game laid to rest, have no time to play. Maybe next year more

[Alpha77]

Howdie, played some more turns and just shortly upload the pics here I made:

Guess this should show my CV fleet dangerously close to Colombo and the various subs operationg there....which lead to some battles. 2 CVs of mine damaged, but also 2 2 of theirs. However the main damage was taken by Hiryu when they ran into a strong Brits/US mixed surface fleet after the air action. 1 UK CV was shown as sunk as it was hit by ca. 30 bombs but it later turned out it survived.

Of course my planes flew into land based ships also and had to deal with the land CAP. But sailing so close to major bases is a mistake anyway. Guess I was mad at the Brits for some reason and forgot about proper tactics.

[Alpha77]

This is the damage right after the battle. The other CV had only slight damage. Both are meanwhile back in Singapore and also are updating while repairing....

[Alpha77]

Shows situation in Australia:

[Alpha77]

Invasion India, I see I added some numbers to pic... so originaly planned to explain every spot on there. Maybe will do later...

[Alpha77]

f people actually read this, I can add much more detail also about economy, research etc. Or more detail of battles? Just post.

I just type from memory because my PC with the game is in another place - there without internet. Start with review of op areas

1. North:

As you rememember from above the US made raid to north Japan and sank some AKLs with resources and interupted the supply chain (even if they later hopefully lost 1 of the Omaha CLs used there). But such raids are annoying and might be even dangerous if they come with more force (for sure we also stocked up our recon, search and naval air assets there, so normally such a surprise should not be possible anymore). But some forward defense would be nice, so we landed at Adak and Amchitka. The latter was easy as only AA/support forces were there. But Adak had already big garrison actually a whole regiment + 2 support units. The AI can use any unit it wants cause they have no restricted units. I even found a canadian mounty unit at Fiji ([8D]). So even with bombardements our forces were too weak and finally destroyed. I guess a battalion plus engs or so lost. So switched to Attu (not worth normally but we got some light inf forces as reeinforcements in north Japan so we use these)..First however get some recon, but float planes do not work. So transported proper recon there first, later a fighter and anti ship unit. Lets see how much Attu has. Not much navy action there except some subs hit US cargo once in a while but generally not much.

The major action was we send Yamato to Adak and the other more eastern base (name?) this base has most of their air. Yamato did a bombardement run which damaged a lot of aircraft and even destroyed some. As well sunk 2 AKLs - with total overkill (4-5 46cm shells for an AKL?). Then the US would send a lot of level bombers but no one scored (they luckily do not have torp bombers there). There she was hit by 3 155mm coast guns, which gave 7 system damage. Also only 1 reload for each maingun left. This was the first sorty of the giant...[:D] Not optimal ofc as the harbous are too small to support this ship anyway. Lets see what we do with her on a more proper place (if we even can afford the fuel supply at e.g. Rabaul to feed this one and the other numerous bigger units. That remains to be seen if it pays out, cause she seems to run out of 46cm ammo pretty quick anyway.

[Alpha77]

2. China

They took back Sian for a while, cause I simply forgot about some stronger Chinese "stranded" some hex near it. Also there are still 4 "pockets" of stranded Chinese without supply (for months and weeks now) but it seems it is still impossible to take them out without major forces. Looks like they eat the grass and plunder remaining villages in the hex to stay alive and set up small ammo productions themselves.

Otherwise we are closing in to the "mainland" (which is the plain area with Chungking as major city. Looks like they have a million or so troops there. However a portion of these sortied and struck some of ours that were nearing somewhat to fast and careless to this area and kicked them out of the hex. No biggy, as the much larger portion of IJA troops are closing in over the main road. As it seems the AI does not pull back their troops that sortied from a city this may actually help to really take Chunking. However this will take a while, I am now advancing slowly and more careful. 95% of these troops are all restricted ones so cannot be used "overseas" anyway. So no real hurry to free them up for other duties.

Also we had some air battles the Chinese have now better planes (Lancer) that actually can fight Oscars. And due to the good exp the AI planes got from flying endless CAP rounds over their bases, these Chinese pilots arent that bad either. But at last our Oscars and the left over Nates prevailed. The Nata ofc can not used as escort or sweeper they will be shot down even by the Chinese. But for defensive they are still ok. We also have another fighter unit there meanwhile converted to Tojo, that should have no problems dealing with the remains of their airforce. As it is not really needed to (and not enough air support) at the main frontline city they entertain themselves with bombing stranded Chinese with 100kg bombs. Not much effect, but their ground bombing skill raises quite quickly.

[Alpha77]

3. Burma/India: See also pic above

Had some senseless battles with Brits/Indians (further only called "BRITS" for shorter writing)in the jungles that lead to not much. But the landings were succesful, as you can see. Meanwhile the Brits took Impal back, no big deal but a mosquito bite for sure. Imperial guards div was hunting down some smaller left overs and now is prepping for Impal to take it back along with those guys that were thrown out (retreated to jungle hex below Impal) only weak and mostly support troops but as soon they recover a bit they will join the guards in the new Impal siege. And judging from recon the brits tried to went after some other guys from us and pulled out most of their Impal force for that reason. So should be back in our hands in a week or so. Until the stranded UK guys decide to go back to town and it will take longer. Otherwise all towns captured in this area there, except Ledo (which is stonger garrisoned and also has fighters, seems the AVG - YES this is AI they do NOT withdraw anything so AVG is still there only weakened from some earlier losses, but they caused I believe more losses on our side). Some "decent" forces are prepping for Ledo - decent means not the best. Eg. 2 Thai units and 1 more soso regiment - only the arty seems good.

The other guys from us meanwhile took Chittagong, cause the main unit (brigade or even weaker div there) sortied out to throw out some of ours from Dacca. This opened up a relativly easy taking. Later we also threw them out of Dacca (and some other place near which name I do not remember). From the landing site (Vizagapatnam) the major forces walked along the coast in direction Howra. 1 good div and 1 reg + arty + support had to hold Vizag. cause the Brits reacted there with sending some pretty strong forces which still besiege the place. But both sides have given up offensive action as neither is strong enough to beat the other. Only bombardements happen. Meanwhile it turned out the Brits also threw some more strong units to Howrah (good Indian div, 70th. Brit with both a lot of arty, 25 pdr en masse plus some support) which couldnt be beaten. So a portion of the force ended the siege and went over in direction Calcutta - which was the original target anyway. After some rather undisturbed march they were assembled the hex over Calcutta. Seems there is a river (iirc) so needed a shock attack. Which worked ok and the rest of troops followed. Garrison much weaker there than Howrah so was taken 2 days ago (game time). Most retreated to D.Harbour - we rested a bit than followed. Should be also taken.

In the air were some battles, with a sweep over Calcutta which wasnt so good for our side, so we decided it is not worth the risk and bomb the place (as explained above the garrison wasnt the best anyway). But they had for a time over 100 fighters there (recon said)... a smaller portion of those were destroyed while storming the city along with transport planes (ca. 30-40 all together).... Allies also for a while bombed us, but they lost too many bombers (their fighter fared better) and gave it up after a while. Guess they also run out of stocks of Hudson, Wellington & Blenheim to reinforce these weakened units. However they started to bomb again in far west front. We send some Tojos there to re-inforce the one Oscar at Vizap. They only bomb troops so far outside the city so no slaughter of Allied planes. Only some diverted CAp planes occasionally shot down someone. They also tried once more to interfere with carriers but had no luck. But we did not have luck too, cause no own carriers in area anymore, as well no anti ship planes. Planned some straf/low level nav bombing with a portion of the fighters there.But RN dissapeared. Set fighter again to CAP. RN than showed up again, had forgotten to send one Tojo unit back to CAP so flew the low naval mission alone - enemy naval air arm with their "Martlet" could dive on the unprotcted Tojos from above and shot down a number. Most Tojos jettisoned their bombs and fought back, I believe 1 or 2 enemy planes shot down, but 7-8 lost on our side. The planes with ordnance still on board, made the low level attack but scored nothing. It were only 10 planes that could make this unplanned attack..In total this hickup from me cost 11-12 Tojos. [:(]

Forgot we also lost a number of Sallies to the apparently the AVG flying from Ledo which suddenly appeared while we bombed Kohima/Dimapur etc. No escort as I thought no enemy fighters there at all. Only recon later showed them at Ledo, ca. a dozen or so bombers went down [:(]

PS: Latest news from spies and air recon says 50-60 fighters and maybe a few bombers could flee from Calcutta are now at Madras and the other major base in the area (SORRY I do not have the game here on this PC, so again do not remember the name of the other place [:(])...anyway these both towns were the logical locations for the RAF as these have AF 6 or even 7 and should be in full supply.

PPS: After our not so good action against British CVs (2 of our CVs damaged, 1 heavily - see above) when land based air from Colombo intervened, the naval action died down more or less. Also it seems the ship trafic is quite low there, as our numerous subs do not find much. 2 or 3 of them will be send elsewhere after next patrol end phase..

[Alpha77]

Meanwhile Diamond Harbour taken:

Ground combat at Diamond Harbour (52,38)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 23208 troops, 230 guns, 251 vehicles, Assault Value = 649

Defending force 11913 troops, 57 guns, 66 vehicles, Assault Value = 40

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Japanese adjusted assault: 440

Allied adjusted defense: 54

Japanese assault odds: 8 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Diamond Harbour !!!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIc Trop: 11 destroyed
Hurricane IIb Trop: 2 destroyed
Lysander II: 1 destroyed
Blenheim IV: 2 destroyed
Wellington Ic: 1 destroyed
Mitchell PR.II: 3 destroyed

Combat modifiers
Defender: op mode(-), preparation(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
64 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 14 disabled

Allied ground losses:
8862 casualties reported
Squads: 53 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 590 destroyed, 15 disabled
Engineers: 78 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 78 (78 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 54 (54 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 6
Units destroyed 1

Assaulting units:
4th Ind. Engineer Regiment
5th Division
6th Tank Regiment
91st Naval Guard Unit
31st Special Base Force
6th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
9th RF Gun Battalion


Here earlier Calcutta combat:

Ground combat at Calcutta (52,37)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 25035 troops, 252 guns, 251 vehicles, Assault Value = 641

Defending force 8825 troops, 43 guns, 110 vehicles, Assault Value = 10

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 0

Japanese adjusted assault: 745

Allied adjusted defense: 197

Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Calcutta !!!

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

Japanese ground losses:
291 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 21 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled

Allied ground losses:
2759 casualties reported
Squads: 25 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 287 destroyed, 35 disabled
Engineers: 48 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 46 (45 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Vehicles lost 84 (84 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 6

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
18th Naval Guard Unit
5th Division
6th Tank Regiment
4th Ind. Engineer Regiment
91st Naval Guard Unit
9th RF Gun Battalion
6th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
31st Special Base Force
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
23rd Field AA Machinecannon Company
21st Ind.AA Gun Co
43rd JNAF AF Unit
45th JNAF AF Unit

Defending units:
Fort William
Tenth USAAF
1st Indian Light AA Regiment
AHQ Bengal
Eastern Command
823rd Engineer Aviation Battalion


Nice sub vs. sub kill:

Sub vs Sub: SS I-4 attacking SS Sealion at 94,165 - near Newcastle

Japanese Ships
SS I-4

Allied Ships
SS Sealion, Torpedo hits 1, on fire


Brits try to sally from Howrah and FINALLY I note a PLUS for leaders on our side

Ground combat at Howrah (52,36)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 17717 troops, 370 guns, 300 vehicles, Assault Value = 369

Defending force 16715 troops, 252 guns, 177 vehicles, Assault Value = 208

Allied adjusted assault: 99

Japanese adjusted defense: 603

Allied assault odds: 1 to 6

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

Japanese ground losses:
147 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 18 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 15 (1 destroyed, 14 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1002 casualties reported
Squads: 66 destroyed, 18 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 26 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 32 disabled
Guns lost 18 (1 destroyed, 17 disabled)

Assaulting units:
26th Indian Brigade
70th British Division
254th Armoured Brigade
26th Indian Division
24th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
RAF 224 Group Base Force

Defending units:
Kure 5th SNLF
Sasebo 5th SNLF
Sasebo 8th SNLF
24th Special Base Force
1st Mortar Regiment
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
25th Army
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
10th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
21st Medium Field Artillery Battalion
3rd Mortar Battalion
9th Base Force

Some "wasting" of torps (4 torps each for an AK?)

Submarine attack near Yasawa Islands at 130,157

Japanese Ships
SS I-9

Allied Ships
AK Arcturus, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage

AK Arcturus is sighted by SS I-9
SS I-9 attacking AK Arcturus on the surface


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submarine attack near Efate at 120,154

Japanese Ships
SS I-24

Allied Ships
xAK Mount McKinley, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage

xAK Mount McKinley is sighted by SS I-24
SS I-24 attacking xAK Mount McKinley on the surface

bmarine attack near Efate at 120,154

Japanese Ships
SS I-24

Allied Ships
xAK Ernest Meyer, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage

xAK Ernest Meyer is sighted by SS I-24
SS I-24 attacking on the surface

Looks like " scratch 1 flattop " finally - seems they sortied a weak CV force to far in our area. Also their air groups are already weakened cause they bombed somewhere before already. I have 1 small CV at Sourabaja which covered landings at Timor before. Now we have land based air there. So CV back to Soerabya. Also to upgrade one air group. It should be joined by others coming Singapore as soon repairs/upgrades completed. Anyway it was 1 hex away from the ex-Dutch city which also holds Nells and 2 VAL units. This time they did their job. Enemy detected quite early. Came in Nell range, but 6 Nells down without result. Then they launched a weak strike at the CV which got through with ca. 10 Avengers but no hit - they lost a fighter and 2-3 bombers to our weak CAP. They we launched all we had (this time it worked good probably also because an air HQ is there). First weaker strike from CV with Zeros and Kates was also decimated (6 Kates down, 1 Zero down for no loss on their side).

However then all the Vals came and the enemy CAP apparently was out of place/ammo from the earlier combats (which they won). So the sacrifice before worked. Also the Nells flew again. However DD(s) escaped even if one reportedly also got 2 VAL hits.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Bandjermasin at 60,102

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 76 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 28 minutes

Japanese aircraft
D3A1 Val x 27

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A1 Val: 2 damaged

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
CV Yorktown, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires
CA New Orleans, Bomb hits 6
DD Lang

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x D3A1 Val releasing from 1000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
13 x D3A1 Val releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
8 x D3A1 Val releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb

CAP engaged:
VF-42 with F4F-4 Wildcat (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
10 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 1 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 12000 , scrambling fighters between 10000 and 21000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 41 minutes

Fuel storage explosion on CV Yorktown
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CV Yorktown

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Bandjermasin at 60,102

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 39 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes

Japanese aircraft
G3M2 Nell x 18

Allied aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M2 Nell: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
SBD-3 Dauntless: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
CV Yorktown, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk

Aircraft Attacking:
18 x G3M2 Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 45cm Type 91 Torp

fternoon Air attack on TF, near Bandjermasin at 60,102

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 38 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes

Japanese aircraft
D3A1 Val x 25

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
CA New Orleans, Bomb hits 14, heavy fires, heavy damage

Aircraft Attacking:
12 x D3A1 Val releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
5 x D3A1 Val releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
8 x D3A1 Val releasing from 1000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb

Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CA New Orleans

[Alpha77]

4. Australia and NG area:

We took meanwhile Rockhampton and 1 smaller city below it. Also we had to land at Townsville before, because the troops that came overland from Cairns seemed to weak to take. That causes a lot if ship losses to coastal arty. We still have 1 good div and 1 reg "behind the lines" to fix some Australians on the main coastal road. Seems they are now cut off and can´t interfere with what is going on further south - their own fault. Guess a better human player had set up a defensive at the Townsville / Charters Towers area, to block further southern movement. But AI sent to many to good troops to far forward to retake Cairns (they also landed there and lost a lot of AK/AP and some troops that way). Anyway we arrived at Bundaberg meanwhile and threw weak garrison out. They have a lot of troops in Maryborough and tons of planes (mostly fighters cause their bombers seriously suffered the same as in India) at Brisbane. We make a flanking manouvre toward Brisbane over Towoomba. But leave some digged in troops to protect Maryborough and Rockhampton (our supply would be cut off if they fall). One of our sweeps over Brisbane (to be exact the only one as soon we learned how much they have there and not the worst pilots too) suffered ca. 15 Zero AA and OP losses for hardly 3-4 of their number lost. 1 Oscar and 1 Nick which should go in too did not fly at all. But on the defensive we take revenenge and P40s, Hudson, Marauder etc. go down a lot. Their P39 pilots and planes seem to be quite good however we must admit. The Nick does good work vs. any bomber they have. Looks like the 4E bombers are more in the Darwin area. After taking Timor, we also wanted to clear that area. Will take time, we landed at Wyndham. No fighters there, so their 4E bomb the troops at will in flat terrain which takes quite a toll. Therefore they do not try to bomb Timor bases anymore (which no have Tojos all over the place anyway so would be no good idea [:'(] ).

Otherwise not much, except that they seemed to have sneaked in supply to PM as some planes from there fly again - maybe better take it as it is weakened now and when CVs arrive should be seriously cut of from supplies. Amazingly right "under our noses" they build up Milne to meanwhile 2/2 and have some numbers there. They still lose of course some of the supply ships. We can make a major effort to cut this off to, but want to end the major Australia mainland OPs before. My bain can only do so many complicated actions at same time before suffering and making too much errors. This is also why on New Caledonia we strickly defend only now. Takes seom shuffling of fighers around as they hit both Koumac and La Foa. It looks like the latest re-inforcements of 1 Oscar unit for the 2 weaker Zeros there eased the pressure. Also they lose lots of bombers. The US landed at Efate too. Now finally at the last turn they took it with shock attack - there was one "raiding regiment" only which did its job and prevented them from easy taking for a while. The US CVs showed up there finally too and bombed the shit, so had to evacuate the fighter or stand them down for a while. Now after they disapeared the odds are better again. As reported above a weak US CV force was send north it seems. Where the other carriers are no idea at the moment. But I know that Fiji is stuck with troops and planes to the limits.

They also sneaked weaker units to Guadalcanal btw. I did not want to bother with it before, because I think why replay lost battles? But they build the airfield there just like in reality so guess need to do something. For now made a weaker counter landing at Tulagi (only 1 support from them there, so was taken)...

[Alpha77]

See Noumea area with the quite strong force (1 div and at least 2 stronger parts of regiments) besieging La Foa, as well they took Efate.

[Alpha77]

See here their action and our counter landing at Tulagi /note that flags appeared their also on Milne which means bigger bases already)

[BBfanboy]

It is impossible for the reader to assess how you are doing without the game date.
Could you please post the game date at the start of each post about the action that has taken place?

[Alpha77]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

It is impossible for the reader to assess how you are doing without the game date.
Could you please post the game date at the start of each post about the action that has taken place?

Yup, it is now 16. Aug. 42

North: Not much, we landed on Attu finally (2 small inf units, one of the Ichi command). Pretty much disabled stuff, so our attack did not succed (they have only 1 unit there). Ordered DD bombardement to arrive as well loaded a air support which has also 9 squads (will they make the difference? [:'(])

China The Chinese crossed the river under Chungking.. and blocked the main road where my forces arrived. Both are very strong. We also send another a bit weaker force the other road, but it can not cross too on any road because this time the Chinese left masses of garrison in Chungking. Looks like a deadlock. They reacted good here. However we have still troops closing in from the other side (=east, coming from Sian). Lanchow in the north was taken by 1 strong div and 1 art. Also quite some air battles at first the CHinese held their own with Lancer and Vanguard fighters, but now they are on their last legs - it seems. 1 Tojo, 1 Oscar Ic and 1 Nate are our fighters there.

India: After we took Calcutta fighting died down, because both sides need rest. We re-took Impal with the guard. We do not need it really, so this div will try to hunt down the several British/Indian units that are scattered all over the area. To free the rail connection there. Some more troops are finally closing in to Ledo which needs a river crossing. British made a counter there, but ours we to strong (or better they to weak) so they were thrown back into Ledo. The Brits still hold Howrah with strong forces and we meanwhile gave up the siege. It looked like we always had higher losses in the arty duels. But soon more rested troops will be available (also more div coming from Dacca). In the far west, we still hold Vizagapatnam and are besieged by the enemy. There neither makes progress. But we send some troops in direction Bezwada. This is only diversion. Soon we need to give up the offensive as we now must cover quite a lot of area. Guess we will look for a defensive line near Calcutta / Howrah / Ranchi. Some naval battles occured in the Indian ocean too. THIS WILL BE reported later with combat reports.

Australia: We made a hook around Maryborough (strongly held with lots of tanks it seems) and arrived at Brisbane. 2nd attack broke through and it fell. Otherwise heavy air battles. While for a while it looked like we had the upper hand, now they had the better results for 2 days. One NICK unit which always was doing a fine job for some reason lost 8 planes in air to air plus 1 for OPs with all good pilots while protecting a small DD force send to Maryborough to sink only 1 AK. The Oscars flew too - they lost much less but did not make a difference. The enemy also has new dive bombers (Vengeance and Banshees)and sunk 1 of the DDs. Our fighters were not fatigued and were in 3 hex range so no idea why they failed suddenly. Maybe the enemy pilots were some crack unit. The numbers were quite even. Normally the Nicks were doing fine [:(] North we landed at Wyndham and are marching inland, while they bomb our troops. They need to endure that- no air support for them. Only 2 AA units.

Noumea, Luganville: Looks like we now have the upper hand in the air battles there. Only a recent Oscar sweep of Noumea city failed. The 1c is ending its usefulness. Luckily we have 2 Zeros and 1 Tojo units (smaller ones with up to 12 planes) which do all fine. The Americans did not waste much time and after they took Efate they landed on Luganville. They were faster than we could re-inforce the island which only has on air support unit. We assembled an emergency force to sortie from Rabaul. So will take a bit. They also bombed the airfields busily with B17s. So we could not build the forts. But now another small Zero fragment arrived there and deters their bombing accuracy. As well the one left over bomber unit there is busy hitting AMs and AKs on low naval (these are Jeans which were put back into production)...

Also some more carrier and surface action, cause the AI made one of their famous raids again.... will post the reports later, but it was quite nail biting [;)]

[Alpha77]

Some older combat report from JULY 42 which I saved:

Ground combat at Shaoyang (80,52)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 62004 troops, 505 guns, 153 vehicles, Assault Value = 2158

Defending force 35600 troops, 174 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 645

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 1

Japanese adjusted assault: 2365

Allied adjusted defense: 234

Japanese assault odds: 10 to 1 (fort level 1)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Shaoyang !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: preparation(-), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1620 casualties reported
Squads: 39 destroyed, 121 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 21 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Guns lost 5 (3 destroyed, 2 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
15850 casualties reported
Squads: 530 destroyed, 53 disabled
Non Combat: 212 destroyed, 123 disabled
Engineers: 110 destroyed, 16 disabled
Guns lost 77 (40 destroyed, 37 disabled)
Units retreated 14

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Vizagapatnam at 42,37, Range 1,000 Yards

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
E7K2 Alf: 2 destroyed
E8N2 Dave: 2 destroyed

Japanese Ships
BB Haruna
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 33, and is sunk
CL Nagara, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
DD Kazegumo
DD Arashio, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Arare, Shell hits 2

Allied Ships
BB Revenge, Shell hits 74, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CA Pensacola, Shell hits 6, on fire
CA Australia
CL Sumatra, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Isaac Sweers, Shell hits 10, heavy fires
DD Pakenham, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Night Time Surface Combat, near Vizagapatnam at 42,37, Range 1,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Haruna
DD Kazegumo
DD Arashio, heavy fires
DD Arare

Allied Ships
CL Capetown, Shell hits 12, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Express
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Time Surface Combat, near Vizagapatnam at 42,37, Range 19,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Haruna
DD Kazegumo
DD Arashio
DD Arare

Allied Ships
DD Isaac Sweers, Shell hits 8, and is sunk

//////////////////////////////////////////////////
Morning Air attack on TF, near Vizagapatnam at 42,37

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid spotted at 8 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 2 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 6
D3A1 Val x 25
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 4

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
DD Express, Bomb hits 8, and is sunk
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Ground combat at Townsville (92,144)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 15334 troops, 126 guns, 7 vehicles, Assault Value = 334

Defending force 7124 troops, 75 guns, 78 vehicles, Assault Value = 11

Japanese adjusted assault: 69

Allied adjusted defense: 23

Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 1)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Townsville !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: disruption(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
290 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 34 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled

Allied ground losses:
2732 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 173 destroyed, 50 disabled
Engineers: 36 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 87 (86 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Vehicles lost 76 (76 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 5
Units destroyed 2

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on Charters Towers , at 91,145

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid detected at 44 NM, estimated altitude 23,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 24

Allied aircraft
P-40E Warhawk x 32

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 9 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-40E Warhawk: 3 destroyed

(Here another case of a good unit getting their asses handed[:@]

)