Empire of the Sun - DesertWolf101 (J) vs Andy Mac (A)

[DesertWolf101]

Even better, my little side maneuver in the Ulan Bator sector worked even better than expected. His surging tank units attempted to quickly eject me from my position but the combination of Nick strafing attacks (looks like they ate up his supply too) and the perfectly timed arrival of Japanese reinforcements proved catastrophic for his attack. Despite low supply following the battle the Japanese counterattack will go in next turn.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Alfred
In AE, flanking bases is quite popular, and very much over rated. It succeeds because the base defender panics and abandons the base to maintain their LOC. But due to the abstraction in the game, flanking never cuts the LOC. There is onlyh one way of cutting the LOC to a base and that entails entering the base from all 6 sides. To which there is a very simple antidote.

Bases are like fortresses. There are two classic military functions for fortresses; (1) a secure supply depot, and (2) buy time for the field army. Both roles are well represented in the game. Against the flanking operation, the classic riposte of the field army trapping the besiegers against the fortress defenders is well enabled in AE.

Flanking is quite popular in real war too for obvious reasons - defense is easier than attack. And the antidote is obvious yes - you need to maintain the front with the field army, with base being an integral point. Cause as soon as the opponent is allowed to go around freely, closing the hexsides into the base is just a matter of time. It is much harder to dislodge the opponent's front denying approaches to the encircled base afterwards, compared to not allowing the opponent to encircle it in the first place.
Closing hexsides into the base is easy if your opponent gives you time, thanks to game abstraction

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101
Well lads, it looks like even without bombing supply in the pocket may be consumed at a higher pace after all. Andy's forces appear to be moving out in force towards my lines. If he really goes for it he is bound to penetrate at least a few hexes into my territory but hopefully he will be eventually halted by the arrival of my reserves.

That would be interesting, and is to be expected given Andy's recent setbacks to the north. Whatever relief possible is welcome for the northern Soviets. You have your airforce and terrain on your side, and not that much to lose in terms of occasional forward bases. Soviet supply would be consumed much faster in the offensive too. Bide your time, bomb him, trade space for time and fight on favourable terrain. Don't repeat Andy's mistake of trying to shock attack some units in hope of some local tactical victory without being dead certain of the outcome. This pocket is a global, not local one.

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

November 14, 1942

Well lads, it looks like even without bombing supply in the pocket may be consumed at a higher pace after all. Andy's forces appear to be moving out in force towards my lines. If he really goes for it he is bound to penetrate at least a few hexes into my territory but hopefully he will be eventually halted by the arrival of my reserves.

Nothing to lose, everything to gain. His troops are useless there, but if they die fighting, he has enough replacements to sent them back to combat in less than a year, maybe less than six months, from the north, with supplies and in a great army. Remember, he probably has a stockpile of 4000 Rifle squads, and soon to be even better Rifle ‘43 squads. Fighting now will help him hurt your troops more than after withering without supply.

[DesertWolf101]

I agree with you both. I also think it makes logical sense for him to move forward now, both to relieve the pressure on his northern flank and to actually have a decent chance of scoring some victories while the bulk of my forces are distracted elsewhere and while he still has plenty of supply. If he does come I will definitely not be rash. I am willing to trade some space for time where necessary and will attempt to fight him in advantageous terrain. As GetAssista rightly says, it's a global pocket not a local one.

His troop movements are a bit puzzling though, doubling back after reaching my frontier but still moving quite a bit. Maybe he is trying to feint, or maybe he decided to change the direction of advance. Either way I will find out in a few days if this is for real.

[DesertWolf101]

November 15-17, 1942

A few updates and some other issues I want to mention:

India

His escaped convoys came back through the wormhole and unloaded at Karachi. I debated going for a round two but thought better of it. Andy has more than 150 fighters on CAP at Karachi, more than a dozen subs, whatever surface assets he has, plus the very likely probability that he has Russian torpedo bombers in the area in addition to other types of bombers. With the ability to come in off map, I think my ability to continue imposing a strong blockade that prevents him from reinforcing India is no longer realistic.

Upgraded Equipment
I still firmly believe that the decision to invade the USSR only makes sense if China is neutralized, but it would have been really nice if I had been able to eliminate China even quicker to allow for an earlier war with the Soviets. Still, I am finding that there are some advantages to having invaded in September 1942. The first is in terms of the upgraded airframes. The Tojo is great and I am able to beat the MiG-3 with it through good tactics, the Nick offers excellent flexibility and added ground attack capability, the A6M3a's phenomenal range gives me great options for long range LRCAP, and the armored Helen provides greater survivability against the Soviet's dense flak. The second is in terms of the Type 1 medium tank that all my tank units are equipped with. It is considerably superior to the Soviet BT-7 and T-26 tanks and greatly bolsters my armored fist.

Pilots
In general my pilot training is going quite smoothly and the number of elite pilots still in service is very healthy. I am starting to be concerned over the rate of pilot losses however as the air war considerably intensifies. Here is where I am at with pilot casualties. I have no idea how this compares to an average game so please let me know if you think it is too high.

[DesertWolf101]

Andy's submarine activity around the Home Islands has dramatically decreased. Aside from the three xAKs he sank in the first week, the Soviet submarines have not had any more successes. I have meanwhile destroyed about 20 Soviet subs and damaged a dozen more.

In the Ulan Bator sector my counterattack destroyed one of his tank Brigades and gutted a second. This has forced Andy to retreat his main army into Ulan Bator proper to prevent me from taking it through the secondary road I have opened as a new front here. Meanwhile farther to the north, I have taken Kirensk with a paradrop and hope to threaten his rail from there and hopefully force him to divert even more troops to guard his lines of communication and supply.

[RangerJoe]

Count up the Resource centers in the North and see what his production is and then determine just what he needs to produce supplies from every industrial source every turn. There may be a deficit.

Congratulations on those Soviet armoured losses. I know that the Soviets get a lot of armour but those are not very good tanks. But they are better than no tanks. Destroying the units help also on depleting the universal devices such as the support and motorized support squads.

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Count up the Resource centers in the North and see what his production is and then determine just what he needs to produce supplies from every industrial source every turn. There may be a deficit.

Congratulations on those Soviet armoured losses. I know that the Soviets get a lot of armour but those are not very good tanks. But they are better than no tanks. Destroying the units help also on depleting the universal devices such as the support and motorized support squads.

I don't think the resources in the north matter much since he gets 4,000 supply aerogeneration from off map. I may be wrong, but I would think that ensures he will never run out of supply even if the LI is starved off resources.

Yes indeed, knocking out those support devices, especially the motorized ones, could cause a real scarcity not only for Soviet units but other Allied ones as well.

[DesertWolf101]

November 18, 1942

And just like that, Sakhalin is Japanese. Out of the morning mist the Yamato task force appeared on the horizon and the Soviet garrison could see the spouts of flame in the distance before they could hear and feel the effects of the bombardment. Dazed and bewildered by what had just happened, they find themselves set upon by the attacking Japanese infantry of Tanto force and eventually surrender after a stiff day of fighting. Once the danger subsides some more I will start getting some of the oil repaired and delivered to the Home Islands. Four experienced Japanese infantry divisions have also been freed up for operations elsewhere.

[DesertWolf101]

Aside from Okha in Sakhalin, Japanese troops also took Iman today.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101
Aside from Okha in Sakhalin, Japanese troops also took Iman today.

I see a Soviet movement indicator in there near Vlad. Is Andy pulling back on the western edge of the pocket? So offensive plans are reconsidered?

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101
Aside from Okha in Sakhalin, Japanese troops also took Iman today.

I see a Soviet movement indicator in there near Vlad. Is Andy pulling back on the western edge of the pocket? So offensive plans are reconsidered?

Yes, take a glance at post 824 above. I'm not exactly sure what Andy is up to in the pocket but he changed direction at the last second.

[Ambassador]

4000 supply per day looks like much, but it isn’t. If he reconstitutes a lot of division, he can’t supply more than 20 or 30 on a battlefield at a time, if that much, and certainly not on a protracted battle. This is the reverse of the medal of the amount of artillery. He probably will need 20-25% of that supply to fill his reconstituted divisions too.

To give you an idea, 4000 is less than the supply production of India or Australia, when enough fuel is brought, and it’s not nearly enough for the kind of battles which may happen once the Allied forces are built up a bit.

So, while he’ll never run out of it completely, it will have an effect on the rythm of his offensive in ‘44-‘45. That’s why, once you conquer Irkutsk (let’s be optimistic), you need to keep a strong garrison up there, to force him to bring most of his armies to break the roadblock. This way, it’ll slow him. Ideally, pressing your advance beyond Irkutsk will also cause him to spend more supply defending, therefore reducing the stockpile he can create to feed his late-war advance, but there’s a balance to be achieved between how much supply you make him lose versus how much you can afford to use, instead of stockpiling for the defense of the Home Islands.

[RangerJoe]

For every unit that he reconstitutes costing supply to do so, then there is the higher supply consumption of that unit. Even more so until he gets more and better fighters to contest your air units attacking his units which will cost even more supply. Those little Ida units won't use much supply but may cost him a lot. As always, you can keep moving and he will have to respond.

Also, his supply of some devices may be limited so his units may get short changed as well. Maybe not infantry, but some of the artillery? I have not opened my game for awhile so I don't remember what they get. I guess that I will do so before I start cleaning the apartment . . .

[DesertWolf101]

You guys make some good points - perhaps given all the necessary supply expenditure Andy will have in the north the supply he has is not as overwhelming as may seem at first glance. His device pool is also very deep but there are some devices whose replacement rates are not as plentiful as his likely need. For instance Soviet HMGs and 152mm howitzers come to mind, not to mention BT-7 and T-26 tanks where he only gets 300 replacements each before production ends. Anyways, the name of the game is reaching the mountains south of Irkutsk. If I can make it there I will at least have excellent terrain to hold against the coming hordes. The coming few weeks will be decisive for the course of this entire war.

[DesertWolf101]

November 19-21, 1942

The northern front in the USSR is heating up. Japanese forces are on the advance, ever vigilant for any weaknesses or openings. Andy is bringing up reinforcements to the Ulan Bator sector but seems to be pulling back from the river near Chita.

[DesertWolf101]

The Tojo proves itself against the MiG-3 once more. Best of all only one Tojo pilot was KIA, and that was to a landing accident... [:-]

[DesertWolf101]

November 22-26, 1942

Maneuver is the word of the day as the Japanese forces push forward through gaps in the Soviet line, circumvent their strongpoints, and flank their defense lines. In the Ulan Bator sector, Japanese tank regiments destroy the previously battered Soviet 206th Tank Brigade and positions themselves within striking distance of the Soviet supply line to the city. I am fairly certain that Andy is now pulling back his forces from the base.

[DesertWolf101]

Defending in India

With Andy making full use of the Karachi wormhole, it is really only a matter of time until the Allies assemble a large enough force to try to take back India. The days of the Japanese offensive in the subcontinent are largely over, so I am starting to wrestle with how to defend here or really, if to defend at all.

I have and expect (hopefully) to maintain naval superiority in the area for at least another 6 to 12 months. Hopefully this means an Allied amphibious invasion to cut off my troops in India is off the table and I will also likely have the option of a sea evacuation if necessary. I don't want to rely on that too much however and I also don't want to wait to pull out until it's too late - I would rather do so at my own pace to prepare the defense in Burma etc. So thinking out loud here, is it realistic to still be in India in June 1943? With all my other commitments (USSR cough cough) maybe that is taking too big of a risk.

In any case, at least for the period where I do decide to defend, where should I draw my defensive lines I wonder? When I look at the map of India in the game I see precious few clear defensive lines, even if there are some excellent strongpoint locations like Calcutta. Anyone defend in India before as Japan? Some additional thoughts/perspectives on this would be very welcome.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

A unit can expend up to 10 shots in combat. Each shot raises the supply required by 10%. Hence if all 10 shots are expended the total supply requirement figure is doubled. Most combat doesn't result in all 10 shots being expended.

The only way to attempt to reduce a unit's supply consumption from combat is to have it in "reserve" mode, and hope it isn't automatically moved out of "reserve" status.

Alfred

Alfred,

Just to clarify; the supply consumption is based upon the device LC, correct?