Scen 21 - SPOILER SPOILER

[PaxMondo]

The Singers issue looks like a naval draw script, maybe to Johore?

[Alfred]

Transiting AI TFs impaling themselves on minefields is usually due to having no MDL on the existence of the minefield.  Not something easily addressed very early into a scenario.  Initial waypoints for the TF can be ordered but that can also lead to problems as Andy would be second guessing where the human player is going to place his early minefields as well as where the AI will sow the at start defensive minefields for the human player.  The AI sowed minefields are randomly placed each start.
 
Alfred

[PaxMondo]

Alfred,
I hadn't thought of that, they might be trying to transit those straits. I'll see if I can't figure that out ...

[PaxMondo]

OK, so just reaching 1Jan42. Yep. I am slow.

West Coast
Coal Harbor will be many weeks before I can even think to start attacking it.

CV TF off of Victoria has finally left. I damaged several CV's, but with faulty US torps, I doubt I sunk any. They are likely just in drydock for a bit.

Seattle/Vancouver area has a lot of restricted ground forces deployed against a possible landing.

NorPAC
Evacing everything outside of Kodiak. Trying to get an Anchorage fortress in place. Maybe.
Ditto Prince Rupert. Maybe I can hold if attacked.

PH
First CV escorted convoy arrived. Mostly troops and fuel. Not enough supply, but that was due to not enough xAK's. Those have been arriving, so next trip will be better.
Hilo, is still occupied, but I have lvl3 forts now, daily bombardments (air and naval and ground). I will shift the newly embarked 2nd Marine Rgt to Hilo and then start attacks.
Midway, Johnson, Christmas all taken.

CHI
My blocking force at Nanning has survived and now been reinforced by 3 more corps. I think I can hold for sometime.
Pulling back into 3x terrain around CK valley. Will not try to hold Sian, but will try to hold CK/Kunming.

I've already lost a lot of squads, but that is good as it helps my supply situation. I still hold Changsha, but not for long.

Malay
I still hold singers and just got the Kota Bharu units back. The Mersing unit is in Singers, but not strong enough to take it.

DEI
Big Sir Robin to Koepang. Going well, but of course this is just a delay tactic. I had originally wanted Den Passar, but Andy fixed that idea in the first turn.

OZ
Forting up in Sydney, Darwin, Perth.
Sydney will expand the fortress area once Sydney is at lvl 5 forts. Everything has to be really tight. Pretty sure the IJ will try here, there have already been a couple of raider attacks.

Perth, will try to hold, but against determined attack, no way without jeopardizing Sydney.

Darwin, will build this up but not likely to hold. Need to make it pricey though. Lvl3 forts already and still going.

Burma
Cleared the southern ambush, barely. Middle one is blocked just outside Taung Gyi. Starting to move the reformed Burma Div north to clear the road to Ledo.

India
Karachi, Delhi, Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta are the 5 key areas. Each has a Command HQ assigned. Building forts in each. Calcutta and Madras have the most risk, but I plan to hold all 5 using mobile reaction force (not yet existing). Initial elements are just arriving in Aden.

Ceylon
Bait. Want to try and kill/damage as much as I can. I know I can't hold it, but I can make it pricey to take.

PI
Down to last few bases. Bataan grind is imminent. Lvl 3 forts and still growing.

NZ
Retreated to Auckland and Wellington. I just need to hold until I can get USN there. 6? months. Maybe.
Suva is already fallen. Depending upon what is deployed against me here ... no idea at the moment.

OZ and NZ are real dicey. IJ has untold numbers of CV's and BB's. Even with all of my CV's, I can't match up with aircraft at all. F2A/F4F aren't that good. SBD-3's hit hard, but are short legged. Gonna be tough to get all the way to NZ by June, 9 months before I see any F6F's … I'm hoping that I can re-take Christmas Island and then send a CV escorted convoy into Auckland. But that is a LONG way … 81 hexes … 11 days each way.
[&:][&:][&:]
[X(][X(][X(]
[:(][:(][:(]

Andy, you are a devil!!!
[&o][&o][&o]
[:D][:D][:D]

[PaxMondo]

Playing the allies for the first time in many, many years. Interesting in some respects as the units are so different, very defense oriented as compared to the IJ. At least here in the early war. The low exp and worse, the low morale make it very tricky to accomplish much. And both climb so very slowly. Whew!

On the flip. swimming in so much supply and fuel! OMG!!!!! I've been doing 2 max sized bombardment TF's on Hilo since Dec 10th. +20 days!!! as IJ I could never consider doing that. the supply expense!!! But here I am gaining almost 50K supply per day! WOW! [8D]

[PaxMondo]

Chengchow assault went very well for the IJ, but Loyang has completely stalled. 1/3/42 and the IJ have had 3 very bad attacks. Simply do not have enough units to take Loyang and are beating themselves to death. You may wish to look at that script. Somehow most of the units for Chengchow did NOT continue to Loyang which is going to be needed.

[Andy Mac]

Thanks guys I am dipping I and out doing more tests myself

[pcellsworth]

Hi Andy. I downloaded your zip file today but wasn't able to load scen21 - it hangs. I tried loading with the editor and got a AeAiDAta::ReadFile error. Looking at your zip files I see a file NDetail23.txt. Should that be NDetail21.txt?

Never mind, I got it working by loading part 2.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

Thanks guys I am dipping I and out doing more tests myself

Cool!

[PaxMondo]

Loc ID 2827 I think has wrong TOE ID.
Should be: (I think)
TOE ID = 2827
Upgrade TOE 2851

[pcellsworth]

I managed to drive off the CV task force next Washington using submarine attacks and PT boat attacks. I think the submarines damaged the CVL, which was reported sunk and a couple of days later reported sunk again. I think the PT boats put a torpedo in one of the CVs.

This one is going to be a long hard road to win.

[CaptBeefheart]

SPOILERS---late-June 1943

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OK, it's about June 20, 1943. Starting at the top:

NorPac: Took Adak a month or so ago. Had to destroy a brigade on the beach at Kodiak and then a brigade at Adak. Everything else in the Aleutians was empty.

CenPac: Midway and Johnston were empty of ground troops, but had aircraft. Retook with APDs. Both still get hammered by wandering CV TFs. Eventually re-took Christmas. Cleared out Nuka Hiva (?) and Tahiti before Christmas. Those weren't too hard since the first one had no aircraft and not too many on Tahiti.

SoPac: Was able to route in supply, fuel and troop-carrying TFs to either Christchurch or Wellington between IJ CV sweeps. Always a half a step ahead of the IJ in NZ until it finally became a fortress. I had an unsustainable amount of attrition of naval aviation (USN and USMC) assets even if I didn't lose any carriers (had a couple suffer 20-30-day repair stints). So, I eventually just let the IJ pound me and I sent an occasional CL or CA task force to mess up a landing if the odds looked good. Took Norfolk Island back from a small unit, then re-took Pago Pago, then landed on New Caledonia. La Foa built up big but Noumea is still his. Next will land at Nadi and Luganville. Still getting IJ invasion TFs trying to land troops on NZ, which is a waste of IJ ships and troops.

Oz: NE Oz recently cleared, troops prepping for Moresby and Milne. Once the SoPac stuff is done I'll do New Guinea. Still IJ troops camped outside Alice Springs and points north and west. Still getting invasion attempts at Geraldton, which is also a waste of fine infantry.

India: Ceylon holds and there are a lot of IJ troops on the beach at Koggala. IJ stopped sending troop/supply TFs and CV runs a couple of months ago. All quiet on the Eastern Front, except for Imphal. Big IJ invasion force there. Luckily, I had a division and odds and sods there and I've been able to reinforce a half step ahead of IJ. Stalemate. I also sent a force toward Akyab which is moving slowly. I've stabilized the air war in Bengal/Burma. No longer do bases get pounded every day but rebuilt every night (with huge amounts of flak taking down IJ bombers).

China: I don't pay much attention to this theater. It seems to have stabilized pretty much. IJ beating its head against a couple of stacks.

I should be able to answer specific questions if anyone is interested.

Cheers,
CB

[traskott]

How are your aircraft pools? and your naval forces? and land pools?

Thanks.

[pcellsworth]

It is Apr 42 and I just managed to get a large troop/supply convoy to Sydney. Much of West Austraila is occuppied by Japanese forces. On the way to Sydney a crusier force was spotted heading to Penrhyn Isl where I had a waiting Tanker train. I moved them out of harms way and sent the Enterprise, Lexington, Saratoga, and Yorktown ahead of the convoy to deal with the crusiers. No additional encounters until West of Norfolk Isl where BB Yamato task force tried to intercept. The carrier air units sank it and most of the ships before it got too close. Yamato is now a fish hotel in the bottom of the Coral Sea. A carrier task force crossed to the West along the coast headed for South Australia area. Mid Coral Sea I let the transports sail into Sydney with crusier escort, while the carriers and oiler head for Auckland. At Sydney and out of nowhere a small Japanese crusier task force entered Sydney harbor. My crusiers dealt with it but I lost the San Francisco and a destroyer. Near Waipapakauri a crusier task force got in amoungs the oiler but the escorting crusier and battleships dealt with it. I had the Repulse and Prince of Wales along for the ride to act as bomb collectors should I run into one of the many Japanese CV task forces. The West Virgina took some damage and I lost a destroyer. Now I just need to get everybody home safely. I'm sure the Aussies are happy about receiving 2 Inf Div and some other formations plus 9 air groups. It may be a while before I take another excursion to the Aussie Seas. I have Japanese forces in Canada, India, Ceylon and scattered Islands in the North and Eastern Pacific to deal with. I was surprised to get the supply task force to Sydney without a major battle and damage. Probably lucked out. I did line the route with submarines to act as scouts and early warning. I expect to lose half of the Pacific Fleet in this operation. Only one transport had to turn back near Christmas Isl due to collision. Fortunately there are no Japanese forces in New Zealand.

[pcellsworth]

o

[CaptBeefheart]

ORIGINAL: traskott

How are your aircraft pools? and your naval forces? and land pools?

Thanks.

Aircraft pools are starting to get better, what with F6F, Spitfire V, and others coming on line (USAAF still relatively low, but front-line squadrons are full). But the aircraft pools were quite low throughout 1942. Commonwealth manpower, arty and AA pools are still pretty light. US ground devices are pretty good.

My naval forces are pretty good. Not too many losses. I have been very non-aggressive since a few carrier battles and CAP traps kept carrier aircraft numbers weak and it's relatively easy to figure out and thus avoid the IJ CV run patterns. I also routed a lot of supply and fuel convoys along the southern edge (Balboa to Christchurch and Cape Town to Hobart).

Cheers,
CB

[traskott]

Thanks!

No raiders in the far south edge of the map?! I¡m surprised. In my campaign (1943/05), Tahiti and Pago Pago are surrounded by raiders...

[CaptBeefheart]

I'm now in August 1943.

A German Q-Ship mucked around SW of Melbourne a couple of times until I sank it. It took out a few TKs and xAKs. I routed convoys on the southern edge around Tahiti with no losses before I retook the island. Also, I mopped up a few raiders off the West Coast and a lot of them (e.g. AKA and AMCs with 20 aircraft capacity) have been sunk as part of NZ or Geraldton invasion fleets (which are still coming, by the way). Killer TBs have also been seen off the West Coast. Since I routed stuff through East Coast and Panama, those "killer" TBs (they tend to do well in surface fights and have good flak) have actually done nothing except to other surface ships, including sinking two of my CAs near Pearl, and I sometimes see them at the Frisco hex and close to LA.

I didn't move much supply, fuel or troops in the early days--basically just enough to keep NZ alive. I am over a year behind schedule, although I think I can go pretty quickly from this point on. I have all of the Aleutians and Milne Bay, Moresby, Merauke and Horn will be retaken soon, with the Southern Solomons and Tabiteau in September. Canton Island has 16,000 IJ troops, so if overstacking has an effect on the computer side, it can't be doing well.

Cheers,
CB

[PaxMondo]

Feb 8, 42
Yes, I am blazing. [:D]

IJ landed at both Koggala (Ceylon) and Busselton, just south of Perth today. Same day. Brilliant Andy. No idea how you pulled that off, but brilliant. Had me stalled now for over a week thinking about how to react to two new threats.

Large force in Burma moving north from Pegu.

Coal Harbor still occupied, but I've got control of the air now and every other day naval bombardments are starting to reduce it.

Hilo is now secured and forces are starting to prep for Johnston/Midway/Christmas.

PH BB's (all but 3 that have +70 major float, none were sunk on Dec7, but these 3 were all very close. All have major Eng damage as well. They are stuck a PH for a LONG time, want them to be able to move at least 3 hex/day before they head to WC and that's going to be a while) are in transit to WC … that will free up a CV TF to be able to escort the amphib forces. My other CV TF has to escort the convoys to PH. Given how lousy the USN aircraft are (the A6M's just decimate the F3F/F4F's), I need 2 CV's to be able to fend off the raiders that are patrolling. On the flip side, the USN DB's are really nice. Good range and with a bomb that when it hits does something (unlike the Val).

[PaxMondo]

Feb 11, 42
Series of sea battles over Ceylon. RN is taking a beating. No idea what losses on the IJN side as the 'green' limeys are claiming enough ships to constitute 2 full KB's. [;)]

They have fought bravely, no doubt, fought well enough to have turned back the first 4 waves. But more are coming and I won't have much to face them with. But the goal is not to win here, I know I can't. Not enough anything. Just hoping to make this a very costly purchase for the IJ.

The RN has bought time to shift air assets to the area. Not enough of course, but what there is.

Butchers bill:



Boise, of course, fought valiantly against an overwhelming force containing the Hiei, Tone, and Chikuma. She bloodied all 3 and forced them to withdraw but paid the price. Caledon, Evertson, and Napier were with her.

There are 3 more still burning in the port that can't dock yet. Crews are fighting furious fires on all 3. Maybe one of them will be saved, maybe. If it was the IJ, none of them would have a prayer, but this is the allies and they actually have fire brigades. [;)]