To Prome and Back Again... Xargun (J) vs Admiral DadMan (A) [No Admiral DadMan]

[Xargun]

Malaya & Sumatra



As you can see by the picture above, I have captured Palembang on the first attack - I knew I had overwhelming forces so I shock attacked forcing the defenders to surrender. The base was in good shape with minimal damage (11/2/2 to the facilities) and better yet the shock attacked did what I hoped it would, it captured the majority of the oil intact. The base only has 98 damaged oil - leaving me with 802 oil producing. Refineries was about the same with only 81 damaged !!! This is by far the best success I have had ever in taking Palembang. With this much saved, I am thinking of stopping all repairs on the oil at Miri and concentrate here since its much easier to haul from Palembang.

I have moved 20 Zeros and a dozen Oscars into Palembang to protect it from air attack. KB is pulling back so it can disappear for a few turns. I think she will head to Hong Kong to reload supplies, fuel and repair a few points of damage before supporting the invasions off Borneo - Tarakan, Samarinda and Balikpapan. Then, depending on forces available, I will probably plan for an invasion of northern OZ.

I am thinking of taking northern Oz from Port Hedland to Darwin and Katherine. This should force the few reinforcements from the US to be sent to Oz to protect against the chance of me fully invading. That should allow me to take other targets.

In Malaya my troops are half way to Singapore and travel is slow in the jungle. The next allied defensive position looks to be Kuala Lumpur.

Xargun

[Xargun]

Philippines & Mindanao



I am still holding at Clark Field and Cabantuan in the north but an making progress in the south. I am in the midst of dropping off a full division and an arty unit at Iba which will go to Clark Field - that may give me enough to break the allies there. I have a few more artillery units to bring in as well.


In Mindanao I am moving to Malaybalay from Davao - a long trek into the mountains. Troops are also moving up the west coast to Cotabato.

Xargun

[Xargun]

In general the war is going good so far - only a single capital ship has been damage - and I am doing some heavy damage to the air units in the area. I am slowly beginning my training program for my pilots. The war in China is going very slow as I move troops around and try to get to the isolated Chinese troops everywhere.

I am a bit frightened to expand in the south pacific where at least 2 US CV TFs and the RN CVs are playing without my own CVs backing me up, so I think expansion here will wait until the SRA is under control and KB is freed up to support the move on places like Rabaul and possibly Port Moresby.

With Palembang under my control I now need to begin hammering Singapore and take it. It won't be very safe to move oil / fuel out of Palembang until Singapore is at least neutralized.

Xargun

[RangerJoe]

Repair all of the oil but not the refineries. The only oil not to repair is in Burma. Bring in AAA and fighters for CAP, including Petes for at night.

[PaxMondo]

watch your ops losses, they are almost as high as your A2A losses ....

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

watch your ops losses, they are almost as high as your A2A losses ....

Yeah its because I am operating at max range (or with drop tanks) most of the time. I am capturing airfields much closer now, so I hope those go down.

Xargun

[Xargun]

It is now 1-7-42 and nothing too exciting has been happening. My troops in Malaya continue their slow advance to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur should fall this turn moving me closer and closer. I am a bit surprised to find allied troops at places like Port Dickson and Port Swettenham. Recon shows a total of 4 units between these bases. I would think he would be moving everything to Singapore. Both of these bases are easily bypassed and cut off from escape.

Luzon is all mine except for Cabanatuan, Manila, Clark Field and Bataan. In a day or two I will have troops at Manila which means only what is at Clark will have somewhere to retreat to - everything else will be lost. Current recon shows:

Cabanatuan has 3 units
Manila has 11 units
Clark Field has 23 units
Bataan has 7 units

Storms in the area are hampering my ability to bomb the airfields to prevent fort building. If the weather will clear I will continue to bomb Clark and Manila to prevent fort building while I take Cabanatuan. Then those troops will go to Manila to help take that. Then Clark and finally Bataan. Although with Bataan I may just let them sit a month or more and starve before attacking. Will depend on how badly I need those units elsewhere.

KB is repairing a few damage points and resting for a day or two before escorting the invasions for Tarakan, Samarinda and Balikpapan. Once done there KB will retreat and fall of the board for a bit to keep the allies guessing where she is and repair all damage while I decide my next use for her.

Xargun

[Xargun]

Just a quick post - Turns have been very slow and sporadic from Admiral Dadman through the Christmas / New Years holiday and are just now starting back up. So expect more reports coming soon.

Xargun

[PaxMondo]

Thank goodness!

[Xargun]

Quick post here. Turns are slow and its hard for me to keep up the rhythm needed to get a good early start. I am finding myself when I get a turn to hurry through it - touching on the current high points, but failing to plan ahead like I need to be doing. Never had this with any other games - turns were steady. Any suggestions?

Xargun

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Quick post here. Turns are slow and its hard for me to keep up the rhythm needed to get a good early start. I am finding myself when I get a turn to hurry through it - touching on the current high points, but failing to plan ahead like I need to be doing. Never had this with any other games - turns were steady. Any suggestions?

Xargun

Make a cup of tea, then start doing your turn. Take sips of tea and relax.

You are trying to get a quick turn around in the hope of getting a turn back. Find out when he needs it back and take your time. Start planning ahead and making those moves of getting everything ready.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Quick post here. Turns are slow and its hard for me to keep up the rhythm needed to get a good early start. I am finding myself when I get a turn to hurry through it - touching on the current high points, but failing to plan ahead like I need to be doing. Never had this with any other games - turns were steady. Any suggestions?

Xargun

Make a cup of tea, then start doing your turn. Take sips of tea and relax.

You are trying to get a quick turn around in the hope of getting a turn back. Find out when he needs it back and take your time. Start planning ahead and making those moves of getting everything ready.

+1

And if you are finding problems with when you have time available because you want to keep the game moving, then you can open up a pre-end turn save to look around and make notes of orders you can give later when you get the real turn. This can help with tactical stuff (but that's limit of course) but where it can really help is the strategic stuff like finding the units you should assign to various targets for preparation, where are the transport ships you need and how you should group them. You can often get a bunch of decision making/planning done without the same time pressure. When you get the turn, do all the usual stuff and when you get to the strategic stuff just pull out your notes and execute.

[Xargun]

It has been 2 months real time but only a bit over 3 weeks in game time. The turns have been pretty slow and dry, with my troops slowly moving down Malaya towards Singapore, pushing up towards Pegu and grinding away at Clark Field - which finally fell a couple days ago. Here are some updates.

First off Burma


I have been sitting at Pegu for a week, waiting for supplies to catch up. I forgot how slow supplies move overland from Bangkok. I need Singapore to fall so I can ship in 30k supplies to support the Burma campaign. But finally I have 4k supplies in Pegu - enough to move out. I have 1 Inf Div moving directly into Rangoon, with some artillery, while the smaller combat troops move northward around Rangoon to cut it off from retreating. I have a regiment moving around Rangoon to take Bassein and then move into Rangoon from that hex. While a smaller unit will move in from the hex above Rangoon, effectively cutting them off from escaping northward.

Some Oscars at Pegu have been flying cap and killing Blenheims as they attempt to bomb my troops. A few small Ann air groups have been bombing Prome and Bassein - mostly to gauge what enemy units are there. I am moving paratroopers up to Rahaeng with the intention of dropping them on Prome to leap frog up the coast some.

[Xargun]

The Malaya Theatre



I am finally about to move into Singapore itself after nearly 2 months of mostly marching and some fighting. Supplies are low, but I should be taking Johore in a day or two and then I'll move the 2000 AV into Singapore in one big jump - hopefully it will be large enough to avoid the auto shock attack for crossing the river. I am already bringing more supplies from Saigon over and will pound on Singapore until she falls - moving all the combat engineers I can find in the area over to help with forts. I am guessing he probably has level 5 forts by now.

[RangerJoe]

You will still have the auto shock unless the units are in Reserve (Pursuit) mode and make it across with the retreating units.

[Xargun]

Lastly the Philippines




Mindanao
Small units are taking empty bases on the western half of the island, while the bulk of the troops (250 AV) just arrived in Malaybalay - it took forever to march there from Davao. I hope the base will fall within a few days so I can push all the enemy troops north and begin the final onslaught. I probably do not have enough AV here to take the last couple bases, but I am hoping the fighting on Luzon will be mostly over and I can transfer some regiments south to help.


Luzon
I just dropped off a 2nd reinforcing division that I bought out of Japan at Iba. They are marching directly to Manila. The bulk of my forces at Clark are moving east into Cabanatuan and will smash the resistance there, then with the troops there, they will move into Manila. I hope the city falls within a few days once I arrive. The will free up several hundred AV to take the smaller islands and reinforce Mindanao, while the bulk moves to Bataan to begin the historical siege.


I just got my first big group of land reinforcements - all in china, but that will allow me to pull the 21st Division out of Shanghai and send it to Malaya to help taking Singapore.

The first group of air groups were all naval bombers - Vals and Kates - I could really use some more fighter groups, especially zeros if possible.

Xargun

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

You will still have the auto shock unless the units are in Reserve (Pursuit) mode and make it across with the retreating units.

I thought I have seen other places where if the initial landing was large enough it wasn't a shock attack. But maybe I am just remembering wrong. Either way a 2000+ AV assault should handle it pretty well I hope.

Xargun

[Xargun]

I apologize for the small font - didn't realize how hard it was to read until I posted. Next time I will use larger font.

Xargun

[RangerJoe]

If the initial shock attack is large enough, the following forces won't have to shock attack. This prevents the REMF in an HQ to make a bridgehead which then could be exploited by other units without suffering a shock attack.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

I apologize for the small font - didn't realize how hard it was to read until I posted. Next time I will use larger font.

Xargun

It's the red on blue that is hard to read - both are "dark" colours so it is hard to see the edges - and the black slanted lines on the water hexes don't help either.
Yellow text shows up well on blue background. Ask any Swede. [:)]