The Gamiest Game in Town - EL (J) vs Rio Bravo (A)

[adarbrauner]

At my advice, 1st priotrity should be to keep China isolated AT ALL COSTS by every effort. You seem being too close to knock down the Chinese in Chunking. If and when this accomplished, life for the allies shall become extremely unconfortable, Opponent knows that therefore he may be under very strong psycological pressure.

The mountain passes on Burma road greatly advantage you on this, even if you may choose to start a retreat from Burma but keeping the iron ring on the mountains (around Paoshan-Tsuyung).

[el lobo]

Thanks guys, I hear you. I will start shifting units east and get into a more defensive, retreat mode.

Welcome adarbrauner. I agree.

ORIGINAL: PaxMo

... below LC 12 ...

Pax, not sure what you mean by this.

[adarbrauner]

Pax may have been saying that your units on the Prome-Mandalay line seem being on the verge of being sorrounded...

1)Pax has great great experience
2) I can't so much understand from the picture the force you have on that line and their rate versus Allies, but Pax may be suggesting you a break out of those close-to-be- sorrounded forces as long as you have the strenght to do that.

[adarbrauner]

The four hexes from the river to south east of Tang yi, latitude 49 in a line...

and the beach head over the river west of Toungoo, from where he can project a little further southeast...
are you at the preludes of a Stalingrad?

Do you have a solid reserve force with which to push him back over the river, and than break through through the road toward Meiktyla to disengage your army there in case of such an encirclement?

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: el lobo

Thanks guys, I hear you. I will start shifting units east and get into a more defensive, retreat mode.

Welcome adarbrauner. I agree.

ORIGINAL: PaxMo

... below LC 12 ...

Pax, not sure what you mean by this.

Max unit size that can be air transported. Anything heavier stays behind (heavy guns, armor, etc).

Not saying you bail, that is your decision, but the current status is untenable in my opinion. A decision on your part is required, move out or move in.

Not sure where you are with CK. If that falls within the next few weeks, then a force redeployment to Burma is a possibility. You should have +5000 AV to move. With some manouver on your part, his Burma army becomes what yours looks like right now: VP's to harvest. And if there are Aussie/Brit div's there, it means you can take both countries out of the war for a year or two as their replacement rates are so low.

This is one of those points that happens several times during a game; do you or don't you. You have to assess the risk/reward ratio. If CK holds out another couple of months and you don't move, I think he has you. Which means a draw at worst for the allies. Taking your Burma armies about equals his losing CK ...

Movement on your part is needed. Which way? Us punters in the gallery just watch. [:D][:D][:D]

[adarbrauner]

I don't know if he as few weeks before being encircled, but he could make a stand even if encircled. I don't like it, let be encircled and wait for salvation.

But maybe El Lobo has good reserves to break the encirclemnts, causing good losses to the British on the way, as I suggested above.

[el lobo]

Thanks again for the further explanations.

I may not be as bad-off as it looks but I can definitely see the reasons for your concerns and they are a good wake-up call. I have started to rally the troops and will keep up-dating the maps.

LC = Load Cost. The dime dropped. [:)]

[PaxMondo]

Your opponent has about twice the posts, and he has a large group of advisors, a couple of which are quite good players. You definitely may not be that bad off, but in '43 things can change quickly. How is your situation at CK?

OTOH your apparent weak position can also be turned into a trap if you are wily enough. Mid-43 is IJN's best chance to catch the allies. They get a couple of Essex and a bunch of CVL/CVE's and can get overly bold. The KB backed up by good LBA can really hurt them yet. By '44 you can't really hurt the deathstar except by using kami's and even then it is tough to do.

[adarbrauner]

There in Burma, if you have strong reserves to punch him and break the encirclements, Southwest of Taung Gyi, you can hurt him a lot.

A wondeful land campaign anyhow is unfolding. amazing.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: el lobo


LC = Load Cost. The dime dropped. [:)]

[:D][8D][:D]

[el lobo]

PRODUCTION Mar 1, 1943 Turn 450

Accelerated this month:

N1K1-J George 5/43

Tony 100-I 7/44
Oscar -43-IV 7/43
D4Y3 Judy 9/43
B6N2 Jill 7/43

The first group of Jacks are in the air over Shwebo today.

There will be no more additions to TRACOM. I am going with MrKane on this.

[Andav]

Like so many things, I agree with Pax here. Your Burma position is very scary to me as well. They biggest challenge is all the open terrain which makes it very easy for Allied 2Es and 4Es to really rough up your units. He is already behind you in many cases.

How much armor has he committed in this theater? It is really difficult for the regular IJA to deal with once it starts to upgrade to better tanks. They just lack AT assets.

I would work to flip some hex sides. The one east of Prome with 10 units at 500 assault specifically. I would worry about him cutting your rail lines and further infiltrating.

I am surprised he has not moved units onto the road south of Taung Gyi. It seems like a great opportunity to deny you use of that road in jungle and force you to move in the open if you want to retreat. You really do not want to have to move in the open.

I would leave a decent garrison at Remeree Island (or how ever it is spelled). Supply might be an issue for the Allies having to push everything from Akyab or overland from India. I know many Allied players say they can feed their Burma army and push supplied to China from Remeree.

And my personal nightmare is of course Pegu. witpqs landed there in force and basically cut off the entire army in Burma. I am not sure your opponent could do this but make sure you have at least some garrison there.

Wa

[el lobo]

BURMA Mar 1, 1943 Turn 450

The plan so far. adar should like this.

The three IDs, one Arm Div, and some Art in hex 55,48 east of Ramree Island will move on the road toward Prome. They will join an ID, an Arm Rgt, and a HQ unit in the hex to their south-west. They will take a turn or two to engage the enemy units there.

After their engagement they will move on to Prome from where they will Strat to Toungoo.

They will join three IDs and move up the road to Meiktila hopefully clearing the road as they go. They will end-up at Taung Gyi where they will move west and north and engage the units on the road.

If all this is successful, we will see what we need to do to secure the eastern front.

[el lobo]

Thanks Andav.

I mentioned it earlier but I think Rio is going to try the same thing witpqs did to you. As it stands right now, that is probably the worst case scenario for me. I have one more ID that will be on the high seas in a couple of weeks and I am considering putting them at Pegu. We will see.

I am leaving two IDs in hex 55,48 to continue to hold his units there and if necessary they can move into Ramree. That whole bunch I had there did their job of stopping his southern advance. He was surprised to bump into them.

----------------------------------------------------------

I'm glad to have everyone jumping in here.

Should we consider moving out of some of the bases into the jungle or wait a bit?

[adarbrauner]

finally...

Good evening el Lobo. It is so exciting following this campaign.

according to your plan, it is 11 days until your shock salvage divisions reach Toungoo, and then only they'll commence battling.

I don't know what you have south eastern of Prome, but if it is strong he won't frontal engage them, he'll rather concentrate resources to try to close the deal northern more.

That unit southeast of Taung yi (chindit?): he's assumingly trying to move it West on the road. When did he start moving? how much time shall it take to him? At least 8-10 days since moving given the terrain. Is the only free road remainig for the disengagement.

As soon as he'll read your moves, i.e. when you land at Taungoo, he'll presumibely start push and consolidate northern of Taungoo.

So start squeezing out throught that road, start evacuate.

Go out from Magwe and Mandalay. Can you evacuate Shwebo?


Try to halt that Chindit South of Taungyi, I don't now how.

Basically, as you push and press from Taungoo northern according to your plan, evacuate through the other parallel road.

Pax suggested air evacuation, if you can. Start from shwebo, but NOW, if you can.

"Should we consider moving out of some of the bases into the jungle or wait a bit? "

Of course we are retreating in the jungle! Let him die there! We can consider Rangoon as lost, but that's fine, you'll keep such a strong strong line in defense, while continue working in China.

We can frustrate him in his plan so much!

Any provision regarding countering a possible flanking amphibius landing (which may not happen if he does not posses enough assets)? Do you have some conspicous Nav bombers in the rear? Maybe mines? maybe some small crafts, submarines.

We need to hold the Rangoon-Pegu salient just for the time needed to retreat and consolidate a little eastern in the Jungle - and dead block him in the mountain passage to China, Kunming region!


P.s., as some one else said, he maybe be under pressure over his supply and run short soon or later soon.

another point, he's not going to exploit the "ocre" free road east of Taung giy, don't worry. Onlyi f he has paradrops..

But you HAVE to go up there later to take and hold the terrain.


any new or notice or piece of intelligence from Central Pacific?

[el lobo]

A WORD ABOUT CEYLON Mar 2, 1943 Turn 451

I was afraid to talk about this earlier as the evacuation was going so smooth I did not want to jinx it.

All but one unit is either on the high seas en-route to, or in, Burma, except for the Air Flotilla which is resting at another port awaiting assignment.

Once I decided to evacuate, I split the ground units into two groups and moved about two-fifths to Koggala and the rest to Trincomalee. I left one-third of an ID at Colombo as a rear guard and everyone else moved along with no problems. About two weeks ago Rio made his second (major) DA of the game and kicked my rear guard out of Colombo and started perusing them. I got the last units out of Koggala a week ago. Today, as the last unit is loading, Rio moved into Trincomalee.

Over the last few months I had a lot of units move from the HI to Rangoon so I had a lot of ships available. For the most part, the convoys and units matched-up well. On only two occasions did a convoy have to wait for a unit or vice versa. The convoys would be directed to port one turn, directed to load troops the next, and usually by the next turn they would be at sea, even if the convoy was unable to dock. The one exception was when I did not have enough ships to cover the load cost and it took an extra day to load.

Out of twenty-some-odd convoys I lost only one ship to a sub, so far.

A total of three IDs, two Regmts, a garrison unit, three Eng units, an Art unit, and an Air Flotilla. As a note, I had airlifted parts of each unit off of Ceylon early on.

[el lobo]

CHINA Mar 2, 1943 Turn 451

As far a Burma goes, we are not going to get help from China in the near future.

However, we are "progressing." My units have finished moving into Chengtu, the AV is where I want it, and I have been waiting for a good supply day, which happened today. We will DA tomorrow.

[adarbrauner]

There are cases where wars are won also by evacuations. Ceylon was one . Very very good sign. It had or should be burning for Rio Bravo more than a Dunkirk. Very bad performance by him (don't tell him), under his very nose.

to be repeated.

Regarding China, could it be possible please to se also what's happening western-left of this screen?

[el lobo]

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

El Lobo, don't just sit there in the clear waiting for the Allies building forts in the 3x terrain behind you and bringing more troops to reinforce the pincers. Pound him in those hexes farther away from India/coast,

I will switch my bombers over as soon as I finish bombing his units in the two clear hexes south of Megwe.

Also, get somebody on that road east of Chiang Mai, it looks dangerously exposed and leads directly into Thailand

I have a RTA Div on the road in the hex west of CM. Should they be on the other side?

Thanks

[el lobo]

ORIGINAL: adarbrauner

Regarding China, could it be possible please to se also what's happening western-left of this screen?