Spanking Lowpe (NJP72 vs Lowpe (A))

[Lowpe]

Good opening attack at Saigon...drop forts 1, no troops have prep....they are working on Formosa/China.

Ground combat at Saigon (60,71)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 29160 troops, 474 guns, 523 vehicles, Assault Value = 1190

Defending force 23973 troops, 216 guns, 96 vehicles, Assault Value = 648

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 1

Allied adjusted assault: 576

Japanese adjusted defense: 815

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 1)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
451 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 49 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 30 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 9 disabled
Vehicles lost 29 (16 destroyed, 13 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
880 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 102 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 26 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Guns lost 18 (2 destroyed, 16 disabled)
Vehicles lost 58 (5 destroyed, 53 disabled)

Assaulting units:
4th USMC Tank Battalion
32nd Infantry Division
627th Tank Destroyer Battalion
754th Tank Battalion
27th Infantry Division
766th Tank Battalion
4th Marine Division
1st Australian Division
145th Field Artillery Battalion
134th Field Artillery Battalion
33rd Medium Regiment

Defending units:
14th Tank Regiment
4th Division
16th Guards Regiment
1st Militia Regiment
Cape St.Jaques Fortress
112th Infantry Rgt /1
12th Base Force
11th Air Flotilla
25th Air Defense AA Regiment
9th JAAF AF Coy

[RangerJoe]

Our submarines have a field day in the afternoon nailing ships left right and center!

Submarine attack near Terempa at 54,84

Japanese Ships
xAK Momoyama Maru, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS Steelhead

Submarine attack near Muntok at 49,89

Japanese Ships
xAKL Korei Maru, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS Trident

Submarine attack near Palembang at 49,90

Japanese Ships
xAKL Nittatsu Maru, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS Trident

xAKL Nittatsu Maru is sighted by SS Trident
SS Trident attacking xAKL Nittatsu Maru on the surface


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Terempa at 54,84

Japanese Ships
xAK Taian Maru, Shell hits 12, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS Steelhead

SS Steelhead attacking xAK Taian Maru on the surface

Meanwhile, the Japanese on the ships fleeing are singing this song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=D88vc_GWw-g

[Lowpe]

Lots of ships at sea....I guess the warships will be in the 2nd wave...guessing here Japan is trying to absorb all my ammo on the cargo ships, and then look for engagements with his warships in the afternoon?

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[CaptBeefheart]

Not sure what IJ is up to, other than it's a bit late to unass that area.

Do you have any corps or army HQs near Saigon? Although I haven't sandboxed it, the manual says, and I do believe, they help. Also, what are your theater command HQs up to, if you don't mind my asking?

EDIT: Smart to have your Saigon LCUs prepping for amphib invasions elsewhere. I pretty much do the same thing until they are in Japan proper.

Cheers,
CB

[Encircled]

You have to assume he's planning to soak up and damage your air wings on the Death Star with the riff raff, and then his warships and the KB will appear

It looks like a Hail Mary by him, so you've just got to be super careful not to get sucked in

[Lowpe]

Each stage of our offensives kind of holistically support the following stages....LangSon is a valuable base and will be taken for free a bonus from our hopping/bypassing campaign.

Japan is moving troops into Singers from the DEI...which is okay as I am not concerned in taking Singers in the next month or two. Rather our priorities are Saigon and then western China push. The Commonwealth is setting up to ship supply from India to Victoria Point and then the USN will ship it across the Gulf of Siam until Bangkok falls.

Fuel will be shipped from Medan and also Rangoon into Malaya too.

In addition we have our huge fuel and supply shipments from Panama/West Coast all the way to Vietnam in operation.

UK to Aden, Aden to India is another big supply route.

Still, once we broach China the supply will evaporate so we will have to be very careful.

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[Lowpe]

Not sure what IJ is up to, other than it's a bit late to unass that area.

Do you have any corps or army HQs near Saigon? Although I haven't sandboxed it, the manual says, and I do believe, they help. Also, what are your theater command HQs up to, if you don't mind my asking?

EDIT: Smart to have your Saigon LCUs prepping for amphib invasions elsewhere. I pretty much do the same thing until they are in Japan proper.

Cheers,
CB

Even with converting 80 Liberty ships I struggle with my sealift and I have prioritized combat units and aviation engineers so the HQs are lagging behind. Command HQs at Chittagong, Tabbituea, Madras (uncertain if I can move him without violating a HR), Cairns, Darwin off the top of my head.

The closest Yank HQc is at Cotabato (Mindanao).

HQs do help immensely if the chain of command is followed and prepped. Probably how I held onto China and Lashio and India early on.

Burma is full of smaller HQs however...as is China.

[Lowpe]

You have to assume he's planning to soak up and damage your air wings on the Death Star with the riff raff, and then his warships and the KB will appear

It looks like a Hail Mary by him, so you've just got to be super careful not to get sucked in

That is my thought too. I am certainly expending submarine torpedoes rapidly. Multiple AS close by though.

[Lowpe]

Sept 6th, 1943

Subs hit a damaged cargo ship, as they all pull back...while one of our DESRONs nails two more damaged ships, while Japan sorties out a large destroyer force to cover the retreat back to Singers:

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[Lowpe]

By far and away the greatest obstacle to winning the war is click fatigue...the Allies are simply a huge war on clicks. I know as Japan I always tried to attack the Allies daily to get them to expend clicks....but I didn't think it was this bad.

Each turn goes by and there are dozens upon dozens of actions I would like to do...but simply just get fatigued doing the turn and I want to keep up a relatively medium speed of flipping turns. Is this by design or a simply a problem multiplied by the Dababes modding?

Anyhow, today marks the last of the initially tasked 7 divisions to Vietnam arriving. Most shipping returning to Brunei and points back along our long LOC. There are so many more units still moving forward or awaiting transports, and remember I converted 80+ Liberty ships to transports to improve sea lift. I am doing very well in getting troops to Pearl Harbor...but there is quite a backlog from there. Australia has too many troops idling too. And now I need even more sea lift for the Straits of Malacca and the Commonwealth forces. I will most likely prioritize more armor units and continue to push aviation support forward as priorities.

The British Navy is pretty much done pounding Moulmein, and the Japanese are in full bore panic retreat mode out of Burma. They are getting heavily bombed and bombarded...the armor around Saigon is now pivoting to head north to Indochina while I think the air war over Saigon is now won and gradually heavier aerial bombing there will commence.

I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was this bad....that is the IJ naval search patterns really key on the Carrier Groups, often time shooting down the searching planes and as a consequence most other task forces go undetected. As always this a a game of intel...and Japan really has to work hard to get it.

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[Lowpe]

The isolation of Singers:

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Soc Trang is now a size five runway...Saigon will be neutered...looking bleak for a breakout, but certainly is doable warships can go 14 to 19 hexes in one day.

[BBfanboy]

The click problem has been multiplied by the shotgun invasions - multiple points of engagement. In a more typical game the Allies are engaged in only two or three areas, moving forward slowly and consolidating. That means fewer assets to move each turn. Think of your clicks as future clicks you will not have to expend when you win early on!

Very surprised he put together a DD TF that big. Perhaps he has not noticed that you are deliberately going after DDs. Nice to see 3 BBs reported at Singers, even if the report is a little inaccurate. He may think he doesn't need such assets anymore when Japan is at risk, but the less he can throw at you from Japan the more you can be on the offensive.

[Lowpe]

Sept 7, 1943

Another base taken; heavy sweeps of Saigon again; two merchant TFs wander too close and get nailed by Kates and the 2nd steams into Tinian for some odd reason. Oh well...Allies trying to take some shortcuts.

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[Lowpe]

I was disappointed at myself and accidentally thought I had a transport wander into Tinian....where the USN subs there actually sank a 17 vp transport. Japan is weakening their troops there to move them to Vietnam or Formosa or somewhere more important.

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[Lowpe]

Saigon/Vietnam

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[Lowpe]

Our DESRONs missed these girls....but some infiltrating float planes found them! Sinking sounds heard....

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[Lowpe]

At Saigon now:

Ground combat at Saigon (60,71)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 564 troops, 56 guns, 48 vehicles, Assault Value = 1398

Defending force 24054 troops, 216 guns, 153 vehicles, Assault Value = 647

Assaulting units:
627th Tank Destroyer Battalion
27th Infantry Division
1st Army Tank Regiment
8th NZ Brigade
767th Tank Battalion
4th USMC Tank Battalion
754th Tank Battalion
4th Marine Division
194th Tank Battalion
766th Tank Battalion
1st Australian Division
32nd Infantry Div /3
145th Field Artillery Battalion
134th Field Artillery Battalion
33rd Medium Regiment

Defending units:
4th Division
2nd Tank Regiment
Cape St.Jaques Fortress
14th Tank Regiment
1st Militia Regiment
16th Guards Regiment
112th Infantry Rgt /1
11th Air Flotilla
12th Base Force
25th Air Defense AA Regiment
9th JAAF AF Coy

[Lowpe]

Japan brings up another IJA Division at Vinh....remember the crack 111th LRPs are on reserve no pursuit mode so our defense is stronger than what it appears:

Ground combat at Vinh (65,59)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 33845 troops, 282 guns, 100 vehicles, Assault Value = 1051

Defending force 13924 troops, 100 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 481

Japanese adjusted assault: 593

Allied adjusted defense: 549

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 0

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
993 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 132 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 18 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Vehicles lost 4 (1 destroyed, 3 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
449 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 33 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 12 disabled

Assaulting units:
17th Division
56th Infantry Brigade
34th Division
32nd Division
15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
50th Indian Para Brigade
111th LRP Brigade
99th Indian Brigade
7th New Chinese Corps
8th New Chinese Corps
Sikh Construction Battalion
22nd Light AA Rgt /1
118th RAF Base Force /1

[Lowpe]

Corsairs and Jugs are ripping apart the Japanese fighter forces at Saigon, Cam Ranh Bay now pretty much abandoned.

Morning Air attack on Saigon , at 60,71

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 16 NM, estimated altitude 41,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 13
A6M8 Zero x 4
N1K1-J George x 4
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 1
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 32
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 17

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 7

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5c Zero: 1 destroyed
A6M8 Zero: 1 destroyed
N1K1-J George: 1 destroyed
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 5 destroyed
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 1 destroyed


No Allied losses

Morning Air attack on Saigon , at 60,71

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 46 NM, estimated altitude 47,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 14
A6M8 Zero x 7
N1K1-J George x 6
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 2
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 46
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 28
Ki-84a Frank x 1

Allied aircraft
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M8 Zero: 2 destroyed
N1K1-J George: 1 destroyed
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 3 destroyed
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 4 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-47D2 Thunderbolt: 1 destroyed

[CaptBeefheart]

Looking good, as usual. Unless you are really short on supplies at the front, I'd convert a bunch more Liberties to xAPs. I'd also consider using some of your long-range flying boats to move HQs closer.

Click fatigue can be a problem. I try not to pay too much attention to air units--I don't care about airframe fatigue or pilot morale, and I don't shuffle pilots much at all. I figure I operate at about 95% efficiency with a quarter of the clicks required for 99% efficiency. You just have to figure out what clicks really add value to what you're doing. Heck, I remember an AAR where Canoerebel used to not even pay attention to pilot training--he'd just send raw pilots to his frontline units. He still did pretty well.

If they ever do a WIPT 2, there are a lot of things they could do to minimize clicks, such as standing orders for air units (rest if morale reaches 70%, graduate pilots to the pool when they've reached 50 EXP and 70 air skill, etc.). I'd keep the basic game intact while tackling a bunch of quality of life issues.

Cheers,
CB