Banzais Don't Make Victories - Anachro (A) vs John 3rd (J) BTS 5.7

[Anachro]

We eagerly await the coming turn.

[Anachro]

November 3rd, 1942

An interesting result. Again, we are not satisfied, but a very good day nonetheless. 8,000 Japanese soldiers are captured and or killed with 1000 Japanese tanks knocked out of the war. The rest of his forces split, with some heading south (2 units) and some heading north (11 units). We have a good chance to capture both, but we must beware of John's significant forces still around Calcutta. We have noticed some forces moving east from that city. We'll see what his plans are. For now, the pathway to Rangpur and further east is open, but it is an open question if I should push here or move south to constrict and trap Calcutta. I'd like to at the least pursue and finish off his forces that were at Rajshashi.

What do you think?

[Uncivil Engineer]

My 2 cents - keep the pressure on Calcutta - it's worth something (a lot of something!)

His 453 AV that got decimated is now likely only 200 and split - pursue each part with 200 +/- AV and keep them retreating into open terrain, so you can pound them from the air. Your troops look to be tired, so rest some of them for the next push.

[Anachro]

I'll probably do something like that. Most of the forces at Rajshashi will rest due to fatigue and disruption. Tanks will chase the unit in the north that has ~700 AFVs I want to destroy. My 1500 AV to the east of Rajhshashi will push south to hit the other force before moving to help begin constricting Calcutta. Small amounts of troops will continue the push to Rangpur and eastward. I think Calcutta looks tougher than it actually is and a concerted push should make it fall.

Here's something interesting. In the South Pacific, John's two SNLF assault divisions appear to be planning for Christmas Island and Efate. I wonder if he will actually do this or perhaps this was a plan from the past that he now might be re-thinking. John is very aggressive; so I can't doubt that he might actually try these invasions.



Apparently these sank (though not fully confirmed) in the strike I did awhile back on surface vessels at Lunga. Others sank as well, but these are what I know probably sank.

[Anachro]

Estimated enemy combat vessel losses to date. Not as good as I'd like, but we'll take. I really want to cause some attritional damage to his carriers as I think it's pivotal to do so early on before he can put the Georges and Jacks on them. I'm hearing worrying things about these planes' potential from others farther along in John's mods.

[Anachro]

Allied combat vessel losses. The main thing is we haven't lost any carriers.

[Anachro]

Intelligence Summary and VP Score. Maybe I'll avoid auto-victory. It's been at 2-1 for awhile.

[Canoerebel]

You mean 2:1, right?

John hasn't been building a case for AV; of late, he's been doing the opposite (with your effective assistance, of course).

One of these days, you'll be able to gang up on one of his carrier divisions, 'cause he'll send it out there with inadequate information about where your guys are or aren't.

[Anachro]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

You mean 2:1, right?

Yes!

[JohnDillworth]

Estimated enemy combat vessel losses to date. Not as good as I'd like

That's pretty good for the early war. Especially those CA's and DD's. John loves those and is quite good at maximizing their value. Not sure of this mode but CA's are hard to come by so these hurt

[Anachro]

@JohnDillworth Yup, but John has 14 CAs so he still has 12 in operation, I think. I'm also pretty sure I sank one of his Aoba or Furutaka-class CLs though for some reason its not showing up in the intelligence report. And he starts the war with 27 CLs and some more on the way so his cruiser fleet is still pretty strong.

Here's some other ships I've sunk. Wish I'd done more, but my sub warfare has been pretty ineffective so far. Notice all the TK's sunk from mines at Palembang, though! I also think there are more AO's sunk then what's shown in the report so far.





John has lost a decent amount of minesweepers, which is nice.

[Canoerebel]

In stock, Japan gets 18 CAs. Since you're playing his Mod, there may be more than that.

[Anachro]

I think as part of the "alternate history" logic that John uses to get to some of his new devices, a number of CAs in stock/real history are CLs in this mod, such as Furutaka or Aoba. I think these CL's are CL's in name only.

1. Japan--at all costs--sticks to its goal of 70% for CAs (instead of 60%). Japan is authorized to build a total of 14 CAs while the Allied Forces have 18 each.

It should be noted that to take maximum advantage of the revised Treaty tonnages, Japan converts several of the oldest CLs into fast ML, builds two additional Myoko-Class CAs and completes the Mogami-Class as CAs instead of CLs. The oldest Japanese CAs (Kako and Furutaka-Classes) are downgraded to CLs with 6" guns replacing the 8" turrets.

[Bif1961]

You are in no danger of auto-victory at 2-1 in November, 42. I think your harvest of Japanese units in India is keeping his score down. So keep pressing there and he will fell pressure to do something bold elsewhere to even the score.

[Anachro]

November 4th, 1942

Anticipating that John would use his bombers to slow down my pursuing forces, we setup our fighters to do LRCAP only for the day in India. We bag a good haul. Air battles take place in the areas circled in red. 7 pilots achieve ace status this day.



This is something I've never noticed before. I guess it's a good thing given that they will be pushing eventually into the jungles of Burma perhaps. What does this change? The 7th Aussie Division has seen rough fighting in India and is due for some recuperation.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Anachro
This is something I've never noticed before. I guess it's a good thing given that they will be pushing eventually into the jungles of Burma perhaps. What does this change? The 7th Aussie Division has seen rough fighting in India and is due for some recuperation.

That's just a fancy (historical?) name for the division's new TOE, consisting basically of the same devices. To my knowledge there is no mechanics in the game for some devices (or LCUs) having preferences over others in the jungle.

[Bearcat2]

The Tropical division loses 1/3 Art[54>36] & AA, lose some support, gain mortars[36>54].

[RangerJoe]

It gets rid of a lot of heavy devices that are difficult to move through the jungle even though it may not be depicted as being able to move faster. It does make it more air transportable.

[Anachro]

November 5th, 1942

It would seem that there is still some fight left in John in India as he seems to take an offensive action. Over the last week or so, I have been gradually reducing Vizagapatnum with minimal forces and it was at 0 forts last turn. John, however, has other ideas and over night he flights in parts of the Imperial Guards Division and 5th Division to raise a garrison that was below 50 AV last turn to ~131 this turn. Moreover, the dreaded Liz makes an unexpected appearance and effectively wipes out my Humber I's and Marmon Harrington's in the area. Moreover, a heavy surface force seems to be on its way from to south, either to bombard or something else.

I don't know what John's plans are here, but I suspect he is attempting to extract these units (which I will try interdict). I'm guessing the 5th and Imperial Divisions were flown in from Ceylon, so it seems he has reinforced that area, which is valuable information (though there is also heavy radio activity at Diego Garcia). If not that, John is trying to open another front to try to force me to take pressure off from Calcutta. If that is the case, I'm happy to simply reinforce my very dug-in forts at Bezwada and Raipur with various small units not being used in my offensive land campaign, which I will do for now. If John tries to hold Viza, he can simply do continuous bombardments of any force there as its a coastal hex. It's not worth attempting to do so until Ceylon is taken.

But I very much suspect John just wants to get his troops out.

Around Rajshashi, my tanks are moving north to wipe out his tank divisions that fled that way. Those battered divisions and a Japanese para assault division seem to be converging on ~120 AV of tanks, but my own tanks are moving to support them. In the South, 1500 AV is about to shock his 11 units that fled south from Rajshashi, before moving to put pressure on Calcutta. 1000 AV is recuperating in Rajshashi still. I have several base units on the way to turn that into a forward air base, as its airfield level is 3(4).

[jwolf]

I confess that I don't understand the strategy of flying in troops -- elite ones, at that -- just to safeguard an evacuation (if that is indeed what John is doing at Viz).