Notes from a Small Island

[GetAssista]

Y'all pay too much attention to the real-life Japanese RR limitations but do not consider Allied limitations, like those thousands of ships coming into a river and unloading in a couple days on an undeveloped river bank with no artillery harassment from across the river.
It all balances out, every side has its advantages vs real life

[adarbrauner]

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

Y'all pay too much attention to the real-life Japanese RR limitations but do not consider Allied limitations, like those thousands of ships coming into a river and unloading in a couple days on an undeveloped river bank with no artillery harassment from across the river.
It all balances out, every side has its advantages vs real life

True as well...but they are not thousands, and the majority are landing crafts, the river is not a small stream but 2-3 miles wide and navigable even by the Queen Elizabeth, and regarding the artillery shelling, who says there's artillery there, and that it did not fire?

US-Allied Nations came up the Yangtze river with a show of might;

they for sure aim to impress the Chinese and have post-war concerns as well, no doubt;

[adarbrauner]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Not to mention the different gauges of the railways are not modeled in the game. To do that, it would have to have a pause at the places where the disparate gauges meet. You would also have to model the passenger cars, the freight cars and the flat bed cars as well. It does take awhile to load vehicles on a train and you also may not want them combat loaded in case of accidents. Especially with any electric trains and loaded tanks with antennas flying to ground out the overhead wires . . .

Thank you for your comment;

every simulation and abstraction is good as far as it is realistically plausible, and no further than that;

in this respect, the over capability of railway transportation in the game isn't good in certain situation, as here, and could be exploited;
the supposed bug, whether a real bug or not irrelevant, comes to nicely and delightfully offset that behavior.

[Canoerebel]

5/14/45

SEAC: Japanese defenses here have collapsed and the Allied army is just moving out into Cambodia, pointing towards Indochina. This is the successful culmination, to my way of thinking, of an unusual strategy.

For nearly a year, the Allies and Japanese were in an MLR standoff around Rangoon, Pegu, etc. That suited me, as the alternative was a long, difficult campaign in which Erik would have the advantage of his army being dug-in. I didn't want to fight at a disadvantage, where my losses would be higher, giving him a Victory Points advantage. I wanted him to maintain his army as far forward as possible. Then, when the Allies landed in China, or as they threatened two, Erik would face a tough choice of retiring precipitately and in disarray or having his army cut off.

And that finally happened. Now, with next to no battle losses, the Allied army is moving forward to seize vast territory it otherwise would've bled for. In turn, the Japanese will have to cobble together defensive positions. And if those positions look too strong, I can load my army aboard ship and go around Erik's new MLRs.

Erik is so experienced and good that he'll get his guys out of harm's way and into strong positions, but many advantages are now with the Allies.

[Canoerebel]

5/14/45

Malaya: Shortly after Erik lost nearly 1000 aircraft in attacks against Death Star, he seemingly withdrew KB from the East China Sea Theater. Where did he send it and why?

The two most obvious and dangerous deployments would be (1) close to the Home Islands, from where it can spearhead an attack on Death Star in conjunction with LBA, or (2) in the South China Sea, to ambush RN DS or to keep it from venturing into that sea.

Other possibilities: raiding shipping in the Aleutians or around Hawaii.

Remote possibility: heading some kind of Battle of the Bulge attack into SWPac or SoPac or Oz.

Right now, the possibility of an ambush in the South China Sea is the biggest threat.

[adarbrauner]

"The main Allied army ...is in Bangkok, nearly all in strat..."

Well he could pay you back by severing the railway in points with air drops forcing your units to unload in the middle of nothing...if he absorbed the tactic..

That would be very nice to see

[Canoerebel]

He could, but I won't let him.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: adarbrauner
"The main Allied army ...is in Bangkok, nearly all in strat..."

Well he could pay you back by severing the railway in points with air drops forcing your units to unload in the middle of nothing...if he absorbed the tactic..

That would be very nice to see

You can only airdrop onto bases in WITP. And CR has enough troops to have ample garrison against paras at every such base.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: adarbrauner

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

Y'all pay too much attention to the real-life Japanese RR limitations but do not consider Allied limitations, like those thousands of ships coming into a river and unloading in a couple days on an undeveloped river bank with no artillery harassment from across the river.
It all balances out, every side has its advantages vs real life

True as well...but they are not thousands, and the majority are landing crafts, the river is not a small stream but 2-3 miles wide and navigable even by the Queen Elizabeth, and regarding the artillery shelling, who says there's artillery there, and that it did not fire?

US-Allied Nations came up the Yangtze river with a show of might;

they for sure aim to impress the Chinese and have post-war concerns as well, no doubt;

Hundreds of multiple-thousands-of-tons displacement ships, then.

The point is that, if artillery were present there, it wouldn't be firing because of how the game works.

And the real big point is just that the game engine is an abstraction and whinging about this or that ahistorical bit of it is simply not productive.

[RangerJoe]

True, the ocean, seas, and rivers have no stacking limits per hex. If you want to put in minimum ship distances and operating room for carrier operations, the complexity would make it a very much larger program.

The electric type train (I don't know if they had them there or not) that I referred to would have overhead wires. An M-60 tank, loaded with live combat rounds cross such tracks in West Germany (the FRG) with its antenna up. The resulting electrical shock only caused one tank round's propellant to ignite. The resulting explosion blew the vehicle commander, the loader, and the driver out of the vehicle. The gunner, who has no hatch, stayed inside the tank. They were injured but survived. Dumb A$% Tanker (DATs) leaving the antenna up . . .

Of course, I did not get to see the result of the stupid tankers when they fired a 105mm gun on an M1 tank with two feet of packed dirt at the end of the gun tube . . .

Now, if the Japanese are trying to build up a fortified area in Southern China and Indochina, the goal would be to let them wither on the vine. Base attacks targeting airfields and ports to destroy supplies as well as city attacks against Resource and Industry are needed. If the AAA is not there nor the Japanese fighter force, you should not lose too much doing so. Once they have withered, then it should be easier to harvest them . . .

[RangerJoe]

The differences in gauges is because I remember that when the Germans invaded the USSR in World War II, the Soviets used a different gauge than the Germans. I remember reading that the rail line to Alice Springs was a single track, narrow gauge rail line. Cars changing lines would have to have their wheels adjusted. Either that, or the cargo and passengers would have to unload from one train and load onto another with the correct railroad gauge. The game does not model that other than to have the rail lines broken up.

[ChuckBerger]

Australia too. To this day, we have three different main gauges in use. During WW2, there were 16 main "break of gauge" points in Australia, necessitating lots of effort on transfers. The break of gauge transfer on the main Melbourne-Sydney line wasn't removed until 1962 with the opening of a standard gauge line in Victoria. (But 2/3 of Victoria is still broad gauge rail.)

[Canoerebel]

5/15/45

TNNBT: A modest bombardment TF registers hits on the Nanking airfield. This came as a surprise to me, because I had intended to target Shanghai. How could I misclick to that extent?

P.S. The Allies control the river. No enemy ships seem to be present. I can park 25 CAs at the bridge between Nanking and the hex to the north. But my ships cannot close that rail link.

[Canoerebel]

5/15/45

TNNBT: USN sub puts a TT into an IJN sub. Erik doesn't have many of these left, I believe. Down near Georgetown, an S-boat missed a shot at another enemy sub.

[Canoerebel]

5/15/45

TNNBT: Chinese collaborators from Nanking attack across the river and get mauled. I think this is intended to open the Nanking hexside. Then, when IJ units from the big stack to the N advance into this contested hex (Pengpu), Erik will have open hexsides to march to Nanking (but not for rail transit). The Allies intend to fight for the hex, though it's a question whether I can get enough there fast enough.

A major air battle was fought over this hex today, as a ton of Ki-83s swept in conjunction with a few other "brands." The enemy fighters won easily. LRCAP over this hex is gonna be an issue for both sides.

[RangerJoe]

In one way, you might want to consider letting the IJA go to the other side. Then, rush through the open country to cut off supplies from Manchuria as well as invading Manchuria. That would also cut off resources from the south going to Fusan (Pusan.)

If you have enough AAA and want to contest that hex, I would not even consider CAP on that hex. Let his bombers get chewed up by AAA but put LRCAP over his home bases to increase ops losses. When a plane is damaged or is an ops lost, the pilot loses an experience point . . .

[palioboy2]

CR do you mind taking the screen shots of China with the hexside control on. It makes it easier for the peanut gallery to understand what is going on in the more flexible terrain.

[Canoerebel]

Will do, palioboy.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

In one way, you might want to consider letting the IJA go to the other side. Then, rush through the open country to cut off supplies from Manchuria as well as invading Manchuria. That would also cut off resources from the south going to Fusan (Pusan.)

If you have enough AAA and want to contest that hex, I would not even consider CAP on that hex. Let his bombers get chewed up by AAA but put LRCAP over his home bases to increase ops losses. When a plane is damaged or is an ops lost, the pilot loses an experience point . . .

I don't mind if Erik gets a large force across the river (assuming that's his intent). I'll oppose him anywhere the odds look good, including the river-crossing hex, but if he does manage to make Shanghai/Nanking redoubts, I'll turn my army north.

[Canoerebel]

5/15/45

TNNBT: Another quiet day in the East China Sea. The Allies have unloaded and are moving forward. Base building is going well. The enemy, in turn, is on the move. Erik's air force will be a real challenge, but so be it. The time has come to mix it up until something is resolved.