Notes from a Small Island

[Canoerebel]

I didn't know that. Is there some practical reason for that or just a peculiarity of game mechanics?

[Canoerebel]

10/20/44

Strategic Situation: Erik remains potent and cagey, but I feel good about the Allied position at the moment. Well, "good" in all respects except the actual score.

When I stepped in beginning March 1, 1944, the Allied front lines were pretty far back and their OOB was weighted very heavily to New Guinea and vicinity.

I've managed to leapfrog forward, seize Sikhalin Island, and withstand the furious, prolonged, costly counterattack by the Japanese. (That was an intense and memorable campaign.)

Taking over, I had no expectations about a projected date of victory. I felt like the game would go into 1946. It probably still will but at least I'm in a position where it's possible to attack the Home Islands in strength.

I think the Japanese navy has suffered serious attrition. The Japanese army and air force remain very strong. The Japanese commander remains very formidable.

[Canoerebel]

10/20/44

CV Lexington: This is the only ship damaged in the June naval battles still in a shipyard.

The FM-2 fighter squadron is indicative of the situation at the front. All available Hellcat and Corsair squadrons are aboard carriers or at Toyohara or Shikuka.

VF-9 must have been destroyed during the June clashes, except for a detachment of 5 planes (now whittled to one) that ended up at Shikuka. VF-9 reforms at San Fran in 11 days, so it will take over fighter duties aboard Lex (assuming I can find enough airframes and qualified pilots).

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I didn't know that. Is there some practical reason for that or just a peculiarity of game mechanics?

Apparently a peculiarity of mechanics.

Symon stated long ago that three ships is optimal as the fourth adds nothing to the equation.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

10/20/44

Ketoi: Allied bombardment counterproductive. I'll rest my guys a few days. Then they'll attack, with the primary objective being to reduce the 4 forts.

Reinforcements are prepping at Shikuka, including 6th Division. I may bring in at least a RCT in the near term, hoping that massed LCI(G) gunships will have a positive effect on enemy shoreguns and dug-in infantry.

You have had at least two good examples now of what I elaborated on earlier.

While you need the overstack to take the heavily defended, heavily fortified base, bombarding while overstacked is counterproductive.

Resting between attacks needs to be full rest w/o bombardments.

I also found that not attacking with the full stack resulted in less massive casualties to the attacker.

In taking heavily fortified Tinian I launched each attack designed to lower the fort by one point each with ONE division, ONE combat engineer regiment, ONE tank battalion and all of the artillery including the artillery organic to the non-attacking divisions.

Next turn, that assault group rests, while another assault group with the same configuration as the first performs a similar attack.

I had three divisions, three combat engineer regiments and three tank battalions.

After three straight days of deliberate attacks reducing the forts by three points I rested for two days and repeated the sequence.

This means each attack group got five days rest before attacking again.

With this technique, I had the forts reduced from 9 to 3 after two full rounds of staggered attacks.

At that point I rested again and shock attacked taking the base.

This is how to take a level 9 fort with 15+ LCU in it.

[BillBrown]

Excellent advice Hans. Thank you.

[HansBolter]

Of course the entire duration of attacks and resting was also filled with daily airfield, port and troop bombing and naval bombardments.

The fort reductions can be realized even with 1:2 odds as long as combat engineers are participating.

And of course, eliminating supply before launching attacks, or at least before trying the final shock attack is always beneficial

[Canoerebel]

Thanks, Hans.

Before reading your post, I'd already sent the turn back to Erik. It's supposed to include two naval bombardments, air bombings, and an attack by combat engineers combined with armor. Infantry fatigue is still too high for an attack. If forts drop by one, it'll be a success.

Thereafter, I'll see if I can work out a rotation system along the lines you spell out.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter
In taking heavily fortified Tinian I launched each attack designed to lower the fort by one point each with ONE division, ONE combat engineer regiment, ONE tank battalion and all of the artillery including the artillery organic to the non-attacking divisions.

Great advice. I just chime in with noting that in assaults tanks' disruption/fatigue accumulates much slower compared to infantry LCUs. So you can attack with tanks again and again.

In fact I suspect that tank LCUs with some infantry squads in them report inflated disruption/fatigue for the unit specifically because infantry guys are such snowflakes. And tank devices are ok even if unit d/f figure is still high.

[HansBolter]

Just so I don't come across as some kind of expert, I didn't go in with that technique in mind.

I learned the hard way that my first approach of an all out shock attack with everything wasn't going to work.
After the initial disastrous shock attack with 4 divisions plus all the assets, the 4th Marine division, which took the brunt of the assault, was gutted to less than 1/2 strength.


I decided to pull it out, to allow it to recover and reduce my over stack a bit.
Then I started experimenting with limited deliberate attacks with the three remaining divisions aimed specifically at fort reduction and came up with the rotation system to facilitate it.


Another small point that I'm sure anyone with decent experience in experimenting with sieges likely already knows, as the forts drop bombing and naval bombardments increase in effectiveness, keeping disruption high, until a critical point is reached where the defenders are ready to collapse and getting a feel for this is critical in knowing when to go ahead with the shock attack.



Land warfare in this game is an interesting model that requires trial and error to get a handle on.

[zuluhour]

Very calculating of you Hans, remind me not play drinking games with you. Looking at the history at Iwo it could be just a squad
that finally overcomes a particular hard point and moves the ball down the field a couple of yards. Bloody business. I'm trying to
follow up with the math as far as supply is concerned but that should not be as issue at this date.

[Canoerebel]

10/21/44

Ketoi: Inbound bombardment TF tangles with an enemy sub.

At the moment, Erik has low or no detection on Allied TFs, due either to weather or to him conserving his search planes (Death Star CAP downs alot). But my search planes have decent detection on his subs. Advantage: ASW.

[Canoerebel]

10/21/44

Ketoi: First bombardment has modest results.

[Canoerebel]

10/21/44

Ketoi: BB bombardment effective.

[Canoerebel]

10/21/44

Ketoi: Erik vectoring subs. I have a bunch of ASW in the vicinity but my bombardment TFs have been doing the ASW work the past two turns.

[Canoerebel]

10/21/44

Burma Sweeps: General sweeps of the big Japanese airfield at Chang Mai meets heavy resistance (yesterday, weather kept what was to be the opening day to just a few squadrons of Allied fighters).

Today's action is long and violent. Early sweeps go Japan's way. Later sweeps are decisively in favor of the Allies. I won't post further sweep screens, but I'll post overall air losses later.

This is good terrain to fight. I think Japan is using first team fighters while I'm using mostly second team.

[Canoerebel]

10/21/44

Ketoi: Weather clears over Ketoi, too, allowing 4EB to hit ground troops. The strikes have an effect but aren't overpowering. Cumulatively, will a series of bombardments and bombings affect Japanese ground troops?

[Canoerebel]

10/21/44

Ketoi: Amidst a number of other bomber strikes, the Venturas again fly cohesively and seem to perform well.

[Canoerebel]

10/21/44

Marcus: KB making a grand tour of the Pacific.

[Canoerebel]

10/21/44

Ketoi: Deliberate attack limited to Allied armor and combat engineer unit doesn't touch forts, but damage inflicted is decent. Enemy malus for disruption is encouraging.

This graphic shows the units at the start of the attack, so IJ AV probably dropped a bit.

Erik will take more aggressive action if he feels like the Allies attacks are gaining ground or otherwise feels his position is precarious. With KB away, the biggest threats are subs and LBA.