Notes from a Small Island

[Canoerebel]

Oh, man, it's a multi-national, United Nations peacekeeping force: Americans, Kiwis, Aussies, Fijians and Filipinos.

[Canoerebel]

11/25/44

Uruppu Jima: Today's bombardment is considerably more effective than yesterday's. The effect on enemy troops and supply far better than the average bombardment, meaning the dice smiled on me today.

[Canoerebel]

11/25/44

Uruppu Jima: The progress is slight but measurable.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: jwolf

Good luck as you continue the Kurile campaign. FWIW I think you already have enough firepower at Uruppu to begin chewing down his forts, attacking say once per week and then keeping the pressure on the enemy trough naval bombardments. It will be interesting for the spectators to see this playing out. [8D]

I haven't made the final decision, but I'm leaning towards a general deliberate attack in about four days. A big HQ unit is set to come ashore next turn, prepped 70%, so I hope it helps since there's also a corps HQ 100% prepped there.

I think the first attack will be awful, with adjusted AVs of Allies 800 Japan 6,000, forts six, 3x terrain, and the Allies suffering heavy disablements with probably a division or more shredded and out of action. If forts don't drop a level then it wasn't worth it.

I do have three divisions and a big combat engineering unit in reserve, prepping. All of them will come ashore in about ten days to two weeks.

[ny59giants]

Just checking, but you do have a Command HQ prepping or prepped for this base already?

[Canoerebel]

A corps HQ 100% prepped is there. 6th Army HQ (Walter Krueger) will come ashore next turn at 70% prep.

SoPac and SWPac HQs are on Sikhalin Island but prepping for other targets.

[RangerJoe]

Also keep an eye on the amount of coastal gunfire. Unless someone were to change commanders to vary the aggression rating and/or put units on reserve mode, that should be an indicator of the supply level as long as the number of actual guns stay about the same. If you were to keep track of the strength of various units from turn to turn, if they are not getting rebuilt that could also show supply problems unless there is an indication that cadres are being flown out.

[Canoerebel]

Yeah, those are things I'm keeping track off. The Japanese raw AV drops by 10 to 50 each day, recovering a bit overnight. And enemy CD gunfire continues effectively right now. So there's still supply.

I don't think Erik will fly out cadres until the ice really starts breaking. We're a long way from that happening.

[Canoerebel]

11/26/44

Uruppu: A marginal bombardment takes out one supply point. This is TF Richelieu's first crack at Uruppu. She'd been assigned to Death Star escort duty since the fall of Ketoi.

[Canoerebel]

11/26/44

Uruppu: BB Idaho and gunboats provide covering fire while 6th Army HQ comes ashore. The HQ unit has a command radius of five, so Ketoi would have sufficed. But every unit that comes ashore at Uruppu triggers counter-fire by Japanese artillery, which to this point is the most effective way of hurting the Japanese.

[RangerJoe]

Uruppu: A marginal bombardment takes out one supply point.

The amount of supply removed depends upon various factors such as the explosive size of the armament that did the damage and the amount of supply in the respective depot. It was one supply hit which could take out many supply points.

But it all accumulates, including the supply used when firing at your ships and aircraft.

[Canoerebel]

11/26/44

Uruppu: Meaningful drops in the two IJA division AVs today, but I suspect they'll both recover well overnight, just as 302nd Battalion did today.

[RangerJoe]

Are you keeping a low CAP to inhibit resupply by transports?

[Canoerebel]

Low and medium LRCAP from Death Star and from Ketoi.

I haven't seen any signs of enemy air transport in at least 10 days. Sometimes, air transport seems to avoid LRCAP without generating any kind of report that would alert me to an ongoing air-transport op, but his roster of units is the same, so he's not bringing in new ones, and the AVs of his units isn't climbing. So if there is "magic" air transport taking place - and I don't think there is at the moment - its probably limited to supply.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

11/26/44

Uruppu: A marginal bombardment takes out one supply point. This is TF Richelieu's first crack at Uruppu. She'd been assigned to Death Star escort duty since the fall of Ketoi.

That is one hit on the supply. Depending on the size of the shell it could take out a little or a lot of supply. Bombing from the air is a far more reliable means of destroying supply, IME.

EDIT: Whoops - Ranger Joe beat me to it. I should have read further.

[Canoerebel]

I think, but I'm not positive, that terrain (and also possibly forts) has an effect on "potency" of Allied bombing attacks on airfield supply and port supply. IE, a large 4EB that might take out 5 supply points against a level 3 airfield in open terrain with two forts might not take out any supply against a level 3 airfield in wooded-rough terrain with six forts. That's a hunch I've had since back in the game with John III. Here, bombing attacks mostly don't score against enemy supply, even when the raid involves 60+ B-24s.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I think, but I'm not positive, that terrain (and also possibly forts) has an effect on "potency" of Allied bombing attacks on airfield supply and port supply. IE, a large 4EB that might take out 5 supply points against a level 3 airfield in open terrain with two forts might not take out any supply against a level 3 airfield in wooded-rough terrain with six forts. That's a hunch I've had since back in the game with John III. Here, bombing attacks mostly don't score against enemy supply, even when the raid involves 60+ B-24s.

It's my hunch as well, but I am not testing that. It would be tedious for minimal gain.

To me, I either get supply (or other) hits or I don't. It's not going to change my target selection in any meaningful way.

[Canoerebel]

If my bombers were regularly getting supply hits, I might devote most of them to airfield and port strikes. But since the hits are relatively uncommon, they mostly target ground troops. They aren't scoring hits there either, but my experience is that ground-bombing missions induce disruption and fatigue, even if the enemy units are well-dug-in and don't report any casualties.

[RangerJoe]

If you see any transport type aircraft, including flying boats, in the air to air column that would indicate that your CAP is shooting them down. But that CAP needs to fly low since most players would fly them at around 1000 feet.

Sometimes you will get ground units damaged with port and airstrikes but I think that those are mostly the REMFs. I would spread the hits around since all of that damage is worked on before the forts.

[Canoerebel]

11/27/44

Uruppu: Modest results for this bombardment TF. That's a consistent trend - the Alabama TF seems to underperform compared to the Iowa TF, even allowing for the size and quality differential in the BBs and the TFs. I'll check the quality of the commander.