Another half a dozen fleeing Allied merchant ships are picked off by IJN warships around the Bay of Biscay. I believe they are now starting to run out.
Ledo is raided by Betty bombers and a couple of DC-2 transports are destroyed and numerous others damaged, including Dutch L-18 Lodestars. This is Encircled's main air transport hub.
Northern Australia
Four Japanese battleships dart in and bombard Darwin but all four battleships decide to engage Emery fortress so the airfields are left unscathed.
China
Lanchow is taken and Chengtu is about to be attacked. Strong progress continues to be made in China.
Today was all about China where Japanese forces scored two important victories. Both Kweilin and Chengtu were conquered. The first is an important supply production point and secures the Liuchow-Changsha rail line, the second is an even bigger supply production site and the second most important base for the Chinese after Chungking.
I have even continued to take advantage of the heavy action by buying out damaged Japanese divisions for service elsewhere. Thus far I have secured three Japanese divisions from China in this manner. I am sending them to the Home Islands to recuperate and to act as a strategic reserve before deploying them once more to the frontline.
The next major step in China is the siege of Chungking. I plan to pursue a very holistic approach to the well defended target, leveraging plenty of armor, siege artillery, and airpower for the task.
Japanese destroyers cleared away enemy small craft (HDMLs and MTBs) in front of Chittagong on the 19th which allowed a Japanese convoy to land the 112th Infantry Regiment, the 55th Engineer Regiment, and a JAAF Base Force there.
Further to the west, the Imperial Guards Division arrives at Hyderabad and finds the position strongly held. It is quite obvious that Encircled is waiting for me to invest myself heavily against Hyderabad before launching a counterattack on my rear with other Aussie units assembling nearby at Warangal:
Ground combat at Hyderabad (39,32)
Japanese Bombardment attack
Attacking force 12698 troops, 106 guns, 42 vehicles, Assault Value = 459
Defending force 22101 troops, 442 guns, 449 vehicles, Assault Value = 802
Defending units:
18th British Division
18th Australian Brigade
7th Armoured Brigade
23rd Indian Brigade
1st RM Heavy AA Regiment
2nd Ceylon H AA Regiment
4th NW Frontier Base Force
21st Light AA Regiment
6th Medium Regiment
225 Group RAF
RAF 223 Group Wing
1st Bombay Construction Battalion
South Pacific
I triangulated the location of a USN naval search position to Funafati so I sent in a fast transport force to take the atoll and destroy the three PBY-5s encountered there.
Battleships Nagato and Mutsu moved in to bombard the Chittagong defenses and remained in the area during daylight. This attracted a significant Allied dive bomber attack of 30 SBD-2/3s escorted by 30 Hurricane IIbs. Japanese Zero LRCAP did a very good job and Nagato and Mutsu's AA gun batteries did a credible job too. Eight Japanese Zeros were lost for 24 Hurricanes and ~ 10 SBDs shot down for the day. I did lose a destoyer however when 5 SBDs attacked it and hit it with two 1,000lb bombs.
Chittagong was captured by the Japanese at the end of the day.
China
Neikiang was captured by advancing Japanese troops.
Japanese forces, including two infantry divisions and two tank regiments, stormed ashore at Diamond Harbor and took the base before marching directly towards Calcutta. Comilla was also taken and other Japanese forces are squeezing Allied forces back around Warangal and Hyderabad. Essentially over the last week, the Allies have been slowly retreating deeper into India across the entire frontline.
SRA
Mostly mopping up operations and empty base capturing. Japanese air pressure on the Allied garrison on Luzon also intensified.
Overall Situation
As we enter a new month, the overall score is strongly in the Japanese favour.
Time to catch up - 15 game days have passed since my last update.
India
This is the main theatre of the war at the moment. Japanese forces have pushed hard over the last two weeks and have taken Calcutta, Hyderabad, and numerous other bases. Allied forces have taken heavy casualties and been forced back but Encircled is fighting skilful rear-guard actions to slow me down. The non-damaged Allied carriers (Lexington, Enterprise, and the British CVs) are present in theatre and have managed to sink ten empty Japanese xAKs in a dash across the Bay of Bengal before retiring towards Ceylon. One of my submarines did spot the carriers and launched 6 torpedoes at Lady Lex but alas missed the target. Wirraway also occasionally sends destroyers racing forward in attempts to intercept my convoys (as can be seen in the map below) but thus far without much success (one of his destroyers connected last turn but no Japanese ships were sunk while the DD was hit by a torpedo from a Betty bomber).
The air war is also very heavy here, with the Allies pouring fighter and bomber squadrons into India. On the whole I am still shooting down more Allied aircraft than losing but the margin is no longer as lopsided as earlier in the campaign. Speaking of Allied reinforcements, the first American units are already pouring into India, mostly in the form of anti-aircraft units thus far but I am sure more powerful US combat formations are not far behind.
India
War in the Pacific - Admiral Edition (1.8.11.26b) 24_10_2022 6_11_21 PM (2).png (1.8 MiB) Viewed 1872 times
Having taken all that I want in the Pacific, I am no longer conducting significant offensive operations in the Pacific. There has still been quite a lot of action however as the USN pushes forward in bombardment runs against forward Japanese outposts and as ultra deep Japanese raids intercept Allied shipping. In one of these, two Japanese heavy cruisers detected what I am pretty sure was a transport convoy carrying American troops south of Los Angeles but Encircled detached the destroyer escort which successfully sacrificed themselves giving enough time for the troop ships to flee.
Burma
Burma is largely in Japanese hands with the bulk of the remaining Allied forces pushed back to Lashio. The 1st Burma Division has been destroyed while the 17th Indian Division is at Lashio.
SRA
The last meaningful Allied presence in the SRA region is in Luzon where the American/Filipino forces continue to hold both Manila and Clark/Bataan. The Japanese forces here have been reinforced over the past week and are moving in to assault Manila.
China
Very good progress continues to be made in China with Chungking solidly under siege for a while now. Japanese troops are getting into position for their first assault on the now heavily garrisoned city. I anticipate it will be a very bloody battle - I just hope I manage to lower forts.
This was followed the next day by Encircled's attempt to take advantage of my disrupted force (and perhaps catch me unawares as I pulled out some of the battered units from the city). Luckily, I had ordered my airforce to strike the Chinese troops in heavy raids which undoubtedly helped a bit:
Ground combat at Chungking (76,45)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 98330 troops, 557 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3713
Defending force 75758 troops, 695 guns, 1395 vehicles, Assault Value = 1754
A very large air battle (by early 1942 standards) takes place over India today. Japanese sweeps do pretty well against a well organized and layered Allied CAP of 180 fighters.
Bringing closure to this long dormant AAR - the game has concluded with a Japanese victory. This was the toughest contest I have had yet. While I was on track to get AV in January 1, 1943, this would likely not have been possible if it wasn't for a couple of late encirclements in India and Darwin. A bit sad this didn't go further as my war production was set for the long game, but it was a very fun game!
I dragged myself back into it with an ambush of the Mini-KB and a successful invasion of New Caledonia but I made an almighty f**k up in India that made it impossible to avoid AV
Encircled wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2024 4:11 pm
DW is too kind!
I dragged myself back into it with an ambush of the Mini-KB and a successful invasion of New Caledonia but I made an almighty f**k up in India that made it impossible to avoid AV
He's a bit good!
Good game though!
Two main things about the game, as long as you both enjoyed it and learned from it.
Seek peace but keep your gun handy.
I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!
“Illegitemus non carborundum est (“Don’t let the bastards grind you down”).” ; Julia Child
; Julia Child