Mushrooms over Maizuru: Chickenboy (J) vs. AcePylut (A)

[Lecivius]

Queue up song "The siege of the Alamo". [8D]

[AcePylut]

On VP's, right now CB has about a 2 to 1 lead over me. Auto-Victory is 4-1 a the end of '42, right? So that's what I need to prevent.

As for the usual IJ conquests, I still hold Rangoon, most of Burma, Port Moresby, Batavia, and a host of other riff-raff in the DEI.

[AcePylut]

Next turn - no action at Wake Island.

In Burma, CB dropped a paratrooper unit behind Mandalay on the rail line. It's auto-assaut failed but the unit is still there. I'll be sending in the bombers, and LRCapping the base from Ledo to try and bag some transports.

A Japanese sub arrived at Adak, and managed to sink a ship that was docked. The joys of this game engine...lol... I had a large convoy that was well escorted bring a division of troops to Adak. once I got there, the port went to level 2. I created a fragment transport tf of just AK's and docked them. Apparently, 10 escort ships around a transport fleet "not" docked" is less vulnerable than a ship "at dock". To make matters more "lol", the sub surfaced and engaged my docked transport fleet above the waves... while my escorts for the other TF located about 400 yards to the west just watched and - as Robert Redford said in the movie A Bridge Too Far... "drank tea".

In China, I"'m retracting my lines around Sian to my 2nd line of defense. I still hold the rail/road line going to Changsa.

Like a noob, in my haste I overloaded Baker Island, so now I'm transporting a unit from Baker over to Canton Island to get under stacking limits.

[BBfanboy]

Subs tend to go after the slowest moving ships when they can get by any escorts. Docked ships in a small port are ideal targets.
The game does not allow for "nearby" TFs reacting to attacks on another TF. It has no way to determine just how near the second TF is in the 40 NM hex and therefore cannot calculate how long it would take to intervene. Just a bit too complicated to program and still have a game engine that would run on Win XP, I guess!
The action will raise the D/L on the sub so it may be detected next turn by your non-docked TF.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Subs are a good idea, forgot about the transport capability of the non-SST subs. I just sent 6 of them to Wake.

Just one more thing. If he wises up and gets Netties on your port (to subdue your CD's), these subs could be very vulnerable. Its my understanding that they unload rather slowly (don't know if its so, just what I've read). At any rate if he does so, beware.

I commend your attempt to assist your units, but I think its a lost cause, eventually.

My preference for such ops is hit-and-run, or preemptive ops. You did well, but now it looks like you're going to hand the victory, and Victory Points, back to him.

Its all about the VP's.

Don't understand your logic on potential threat to subs delivering supply. The sub transport TF isn't going to disband into the port so bombing the port will only slow unloading, not threaten the subs.

The only threat to the subs is ASW and the occasional Nav search plane attack.

Subs actually unload very quickly because they are carrying so little cargo.

Obviously port size is a factor.

I have had a devil of a time getting supply to flow to Vladivostock. I've pumped over 750K supply to Komsomolsk and none of it ever gets to VLad. I finally decided to use my sub fleet, that has nothing else to do in October '45, as supply haulers.

I had 4 separate sub transport TFs arrive on the same day. Two were carrying 1500, one 1200 and the small capacity Russian sub TF was carrying 378.

All supply unloaded in one day. Of course Vlad is a level 9 port.

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: AcePylut

On VP's, right now CB has about a 2 to 1 lead over me. Auto-Victory is 4-1 a the end of '42, right? So that's what I need to prevent.

As for the usual IJ conquests, I still hold Rangoon, most of Burma, Port Moresby, Batavia, and a host of other riff-raff in the DEI.

Still holding Rangoon and most of Burma, is the Burma Road still open at this late game date? If so, that bodes really well for your supply levels into China!

[AcePylut]

I don't know about the Burma Road. The manual confuses me.

To note, here's what the manual says:

15.8 BURMA ROAD
For the Allies, if a rail/road/trail path free of Japanese units between Tsuyung and Ledo or between Tsuyung and Rangoon can be traced, than each day, 500 supply points per turn are added to Tsuyung.


Rangoon is cut off, so that's out... but... do YOU see a trail between Ledo and China? I don't.

[AcePylut]

I will say that I haven't had an issue with supply in China, yet.

[USSAmerica]

Burma road info in the manual is incorrect. It only runs from Rangoon to Tsuyung. If any part of the road/rail is cut, then it's closed. The way to tell is opening the base display panel for Rangoon or Tsuyung and the bottom left will say "Burma Road Open" which nets you 500 supply/day at Tsuyung.

With the enemy units cutting the rail, your supply pipeline is turned off. You can confirm this with the base view of Rangoon.

[AcePylut]

Well, my air transport planes at Ledo have just about finished airlifting the last unit out of China that I wanted (these 5 Chinese units are headed to the rear areas of India to build up to full strength).

Once complete, the transports will shift to dumping supply into China. So far, so good as far as supplies go.

[AcePylut]

After a day or two of respite for my embattled defenders of Wake Island, another pair of IJ BB's show up and plaster the island.

Of course, my subs at the base didn't do squat. I'm very disappointed in my sub force. It's not that I'm getting "hit but no explosion", it's that they aren't even engaging. Shortly, I'll have some PP to change commanders for my submariners.

That IJ unit in Burma attacked and defeated my soldiers and the rail line north of Mandalay is cut. 3 turns I had multiple bomber groups set to attack that Japanese unit, I had LRCap over the base. I was sweeping it with other fighter groups. But nothing ever flew. Sigh.

[AcePylut]

Something of note...

There are lessons to be learned, even in defeat. To note - that IJ sctf that sank my Port Moresby sctf of 2DD and 2 AK was comprised of 1 CL and 2 DD.

This is the same composition of 'raider fleet' that was lurking between PH and Christmas Island early in the war. It's the same combination that was lurking around Ceylon.

So I'm going to try and lay some bait and traps with 1 CA, 1 CL, 4 DD fleets in likely raider locations and sink them.

I also might send another 1 CL/2DD fleet of mine in between Tokyo and Truk. But without Marcus Island, I might get spotted "way early" and abort.

[AcePylut]

Here's a looksie at the situation in South China, on April 15, 1942.

He doesn't have anything, anywhere, strong enough to threaten my front line. Yet.

The solid yellow indicates my MLR.

The dashed yellow are my fall-back / covered retreat routes to my secondary line of resistance (purple line) which is being populated by low exp/morale troops, on rest, that are digging in and learnin' how to fight.

[AcePylut]

Jusssss a quick note… summer was busy so I had to drop something on my list of everything I do every day… and that was keeping up the AAR.

Lets advance it to today. It’s June 9th, 1942.

On June 4th, I attacked at Wake Island and threw out the last remaining defenders. IRL Midway now has it’s “turning point” in our game. Lol. Or so my propaganda machine says so.

Adak Island is built up pretty strong. CB landed a detatchment at Attu but nothing else.
I’m investing in some local islands as Adak support.

Tabiteuea is still in my hands and seems to have been forgotten by CB. I’m starting to bring in units to build up these islands.

CB tore through those Islands S and E of Suva. I hold Pago Pago and the 3-4 bases around it. I’ll try and build these up to create a friction point – as this is at the very end of the IJ supply line.

In India: Burma has fallen but no further actions have been taken.

In China: Sian fell and I’m making a fighting withdrawal towards Chunking. Changsa is surrounded. My line along the rail line west of Change was blown up pretty bad and these lines are all in retreat to the next MLR.

In Australia: CB has landed a pair of divisions at Carnavorn, N of Perth. I have lots of units in the area, lots of planes. As soon as the KB departs, fireworks begin. I have enough to cause issues to CB, unless he brings in a few more divisions.

[rustysi]

summer was busy so I had to drop something on my list of everything I do every day… and that was keeping up the AAR.

Yeah, I imagine its not all that easy to keep an AAR going. If you find time, would a few regional maps be possible?

Good to see an update though, thanks.[:)]

[Bif1961]

If you go alphabetically to dropping things from a list AAR would probably be first on the list.

[AcePylut]

ORIGINAL: AcePylut

Here's a looksie at the situation in South China, on April 15, 1942.

He doesn't have anything, anywhere, strong enough to threaten my front line. Yet.

The solid yellow indicates my MLR.

The dashed yellow are my fall-back / covered retreat routes to my secondary line of resistance (purple line) which is being populated by low exp/morale troops, on rest, that are digging in and learnin' how to fight.

Sitrep in SE China - I'm at the purple fallback position. I only had one "half-stack" retreat due to combat. The rest were all able to get in a few turns of resistance before moving back and resetting.

I have approximately 1200 AV in Changsa.

[AcePylut]

Here's what's going on in Perth. I'm so excited and happy that I acted on that magic bit of intel received about three months ago, indicating that a Jap HQ was planning for an attack on Perth.

The only thing that sucks is that I also had about 50 B17's in the region, that (about a month ago) mad a prayer flight to my last level 3 base in the DEI, then flew up to India. I'm kinda wishing I would have kept them. As it is, any B17's I have would be about 10 days out. They'd be making the "PH-PagoPago-Sydney-Kalgoorie" transit loop.


I'll try and get a pic of the Suva/Tahiti region over the weekend. What sucks, but is good in a good way, is that I had an old WW1 BB escorting some transports to Pago Pago, and it ate three torpedos. Only ended up with 34/34ish damage (miracle!) so it will retire and repair.

[AcePylut]

He will take Carnavorn this turn, but it's a level 0 airbase and he only has a tiny "af coy" there. It will be a while before that runway is operational.

His forces were *heavily* disrupted upon landing at Geraldton thanks to my 2 CD units. One had something like 12 or 16 6" guns. I chewed his xports up, again, just like at Wake. When I bombarded his forces on the 2nd day, with my ground forces, one enemy division had 0 AV, the other had 18AV. It will be a while before they recover. In the meantime, I'll be able to push in a couple hundred AV from Cunderdein to hold his forces down.

Then, he will have no LBA air cover. The KB and Mini-KB will either have to sit here and babysit his units or they will leave and I will open up with all of my bombers. I'm thinking he's probably going to sit here because he has follow up transport fleets "a few days back".... (I'm guessing that he does, anyways), but between the CD hammering he got at Wake Island and here... he might really be afraid of my CD guns. (little does he know that only 4 are operational at the moment hehehehe. Repair repair repair!!!!)


A great majority of my subs are/were running supplies to Wake, so I don't have many. I'll be pushing the 10 or so Dutch subs down here. ETA is 7 days.

I have about 600 AV at Tahiti, along with all the usual secondary units. I'm going to push a division of troops and support units into Melbourne from Tahiti in case they're needed in Oz. Luckily, I have a number of 22Kt xports at Tahiti. ETA to Melbourne, or possibly Esperance depending on the situation, would be about 7-10 days.

[AcePylut]

Things are not going well for CB in Geraldton.

It's June 26th. He's been subjected to continuous bombardment from my arty units. He has continually run BB's, CA's and CL's into the hex (almost daily) but their bombardments aren't doing anything. He' bombarding from extreme long range because my CD chewed up some invasion fleets, and I have 4 forts. Very soon (1 week) I will have naval forces in the area to interdict these runs and maybe pop a BB or two... but... i don't think it's going to matter.

He's only got 2 divisions in Geraldton. I currently have a 2-1 AV advantage. 2 turns ago I did my first deliberate attack. We took equal damage in casualties, but I have a lot more troops so I can afford it. My guys recovered their fatigue and disruption in one day (yesterday). I bombarded yesterday, and 1 of his divisions showed 0 AV, the other was around 200 AV. I put all my troops to deliberate attack, again, for today. We'll see how it goes.

He moved one unit down from Carnarvon, but I was anticipating a such move, so I pushed 2 armor units NE of Geraldton. If his unit moves to "open the hex" to Geraldton, I will swing my armor over and down and close the lane. Things aren't looking good for him. He needs a massive reinforcement of troops just to preserve the status quo. If it's coming, it'll be coming in a few days... but I'm not so sure.

I still have 600 AV protecting Perth. My only fear is "cartwheel in reverse" where he invades along Albany and/or Esperance.

If that doesn't happen in the next two weeks, I will have 2 US divisions and a wealth of armor, arty, and air support in the region.... as these units are "just getting ready" to dock at Melbourne and rail over the Kalgoorie.