Disaster at Shortland!

[ruffels]

Well, I should have listened. I thought I could. I KNEW I could...but I was wrong. Sent the entire Pacific Fleet and two Marine Divisions against Shortland after a long and intense bombing campaign. My boys are getting shot up on the beach and almost my entire merchant marine is on the bottom The 1st Marine Headquarters is down to 70 men The Japs had 60,000 troops on the island and a fortress at 9 Well, we've got that down to 7 and I may end up taking the island but at what a cost!
Furthur to the plane issue at one point I had 98 Wildcats on CAP above the fleet and they were attacked by 18 zeroes. What's that 5 to 1? Well each side took 8 losses. Doesn't seem right.
Hey, is there anyway to transfer troops from transports to LST's. I thought about this later. That would have alowed me to keep my transports a hex away and move the troops in on those. Is this possible. Am I an idiot?

More later...

[Hornblower]

If your and Idiot, then so am I!! - I had the same sort of experiance at Kevieng. I thought there was 1 division there, so I tossed in 2 marine div's. Much to my suprise there was @60,000 total Japanese troops there!!! (apparently it was a Japanese dumping ground when I cut off supply to rabaul- thank goodness they weren't all Inf) When everything was all said and done I had to pull in 3 more divisions, and use every level bomber I could lay my hands on to finally take it..

[HMSWarspite]

Use the recon, Luke. Lots of recon.

[pasternakski]

The problem with recon is the limited size of the information window. If you get detailed information about the units present, you only see five units, no matter how many are actually there. If all you get is the type of unit, you still only see 10, and you have no idea how strong they might be.

[mogami]

Hi, Thats been fixed in WITP you now get a total for the hex.

[ruffels]

Continuing on my tale of woe...the 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions were wiped out. How depressing So I lost countless ships, two divisions and I'm now 2000 points behind the AI and its March 43. I'll fight on...

[von Murrin]

Ow. Owwwww.... Stop...

When in doubt, throw every division you have at it.

My personal invasion "trigger" numbers for the big Japanese bases:

Shortlands: 4ID + Support.
Rabaul: 6ID + Support.
Kavieng: 5-7ID + Support. Depends on the previous two.

Allied for good measure:

Luganville: 4ID + Support
Noumea: The kitchen sink.
Townsville: 3ID pre-11/42; post-11/42 Impossible?
Brisbane: Impossible?

[Hornblower]

EWWWWW... Sorry. So long as you learn from it, its not a total loss. At least thats what I tell myself

[pauk]

Use the recon, Luke. Lots of recon.

[pasternakski]

Hi, Thats been fixed in WITP you now get a total for the hex.

I might have to buy you a beer or three yet.

[markbroughton]

I thought it was just me

I tried to land 2 Marine divs and support at Shortland and got creamed. I lost 18000+ troops I managed to withdraw some of the units which are now recovering at Nomoua.

That taught me an important lesson.

[Hard Sarge]

Hi Ruffels
did you bypass Shortland and cut them off first, or did you go head on to them ?

next time by pass that base, land on the big Island and build up the Airfields there, let Shortland rot on the vine for a month or so, and pound them with air

once you don't see Flak coming up you have pretty much burned out there supply levels (keep some ships in the port area and planes on long range cap over the field)

then plot your landings

most games, if Cannel don't become a major battle field, the troops go to shortland instead

HARD_Sarge

[pasternakski]

What Sarge said.

And be sure to bring along plenty of combat engineers to deal with fortifications.

Clear any minefields, then run a group of battleships on bombardment missions for a few weeks.

You have to be patient. Isolate, reduce, then invade.

[joliverlay]

HARD Sarge is right....bypass them and hit them where they aint!

In one of my Scenario 19 PBMs my opponent fortified IRAU, the Canal, and some other small islands north of Esprito Santo. He also held PM and Gillia.

My solution- I took Russel Island (Rossel??) near Gillia Gillia and then went to Shortland. It had almost no garrison!!! Now in 5/43 I've got LBA and CVs across his supply lines! I imagine he has three divisions or more out of supply. I've also bypassed Gilla and PM and landed on the north side of PM.....bypasing more enemy troops!

I can't wait for WIP

[Odin]

I my current game i took Munda and i´m loading right now base forces and seabees on it to upgrade the airfield...the next objective should be Kieta, because recon flights show mw that shortland has a strong garrison and 3 coastal defence units.

I will take Kieta, build it up and block shortland, later i will send some units from Noumea and kill whats left on this starving island[:D]

[crsutton]

Yes, if you are the Allies and have air superiority, then you should never be attack a base that has any supply. Bomb the port for a while. It will be a lot easier then to take it.

[madflava13]

Did anyone check the date on that original post? Let's hope he still needs the advice 3 months later! The one positive of that hacker is some unanswered questions are getting taken care of finally!

hehe

[Odin]

Ups...*lol*

[Hard Sarge]

LOL
yes, I seen the date of the first post, but it was something that I knew the anwser to, so posted anyways

HARD_Sarge

[foliveti]

ORIGINAL: pasternakski

What Sarge said.

And be sure to bring along plenty of combat engineers to deal with fortifications.

Clear any minefields, then run a group of battleships on bombardment missions for a few weeks.

You have to be patient. Isolate, reduce, then invade.

While I realize this thread is 3 months old, it raises an interesting question. It indicates that using combat engineers helps against fortifications. How does that work?