WitP mod v903 Ngineer(Japan) vs. Feinder(Allies)

[OldCrowBalthazor]

Just had to jump in a say this such a brilliant AAR.
Proceed.

[Feinder]

Thanks OCB, it's my opponent who is making it an intersting and suspenseful story!

[Feinder]

Hi Elessar,

I think I found a minor map bug. Shouldn't that path be impassable?

[Feinder]

June 21st, 1944

India

Indian Army forces regroup to hold the mountains along the Burma border.

Some harassing strikes by my Fighters vs. his Artillery unit, trigger intercepts by a CVL parked in Rangoon.
1. I suppose that the air-replacements for the CVL might be cheaper? I know LBA replacements are pretty expensive.
2. He might not have a Fighter to dedicate to the theater.
3. If my fighters are tying down one of his CVLs, I'll take it.

I may send one fighter to China.

[Feinder]

June 21st, 1944

China

Japanese air and ground forces attacked my Nat-Chi Inf-Corp on Yenen's flank.
On the plus side, he did NOT attack Yenen, so my Inf-Corp in Yenen gets a chance to dig in a little more.
Comm-Chi Inf-Corp, that I want to upgrade, has to be moved back, for sufficient supply to upgrade.
And I started rebuilding some Chinese Fighters, to maybe intercept/harass his un-contested bomber strikes.

[Feinder]

June 21st, 1944

Banda Sea

First, the bad news. He flooded my CAP over Ceram Islands with LBA, 2x CVLs, and 2x CVs, and sank USS Lexington in port. Ugh. That sucked to watch. But it's done.

Meanwhile, I've moved up invasion forces for Davao, for next turn. Fingers crossed he doesn't get a spotting report or otherwise get spooked. Most of my CVs are back in Oz being repaired and upgraded, so this will largely be covered by LBA.

And you can see that he's abandoned the port that was contested last turn, so it'll flip to me.
The many ports of Banda Sea are finally getting repaired to Level-5, which will help speed up upgrades as well.

But my focus/anticipation is for the invasion of Davao next turn.

[Feinder]

June 21st, 1944

National Morale and Strategic Map

National Morale - You can see I took a hit for my air-step losses. An he got about an 800pt bump for sinking Lex. But he must have taken higher than expected air-losses, because you can see his net gain was only +40 national morale points. I'll take it. And he remains below 95%, so good. The minus -30k for USSR is obviously a typo. I'll fix it for next turn.

Strategic Map - He's definitely moving stuff around. And my subs in interdiction should draw some attention/assets. I don't have solid spots on 3x CV and 2x CVL, and I'm not keen on that. But invasion of Davao will proceed as planned.

[Feinder]

June 21st, 1944

Admin Stuff

Research, Production, Losses, and Economy

Research - Ship production completed. No new funding on research.

Production - +1 fighters for USAAC. Fighters are good.

Losses - Lady Lex, RIP.

Economy - His MPPs took a little bit of hit from my subs. Should also draw off some of his assets to hunt them.

[Feinder]

July 9th, 1944

India

Nothing really went on here. Just setting up my line. IJN CVL is still parked in Rangoon (now spotted by Mari-Bmbrs). I'll send the RCAF fighters to China next turn.

[Feinder]

July 9th, 1944

China

My re-constituting of Chinese AF arrives a turn too late. More attacks by LBA and ground forces, wiped out my Nat-Chi Inf-Corps. More annoying than anything else. But annoying none-the-less.

Com-Chi Inf-Corps has been upgraded. And a squadron of Chinese AF is now ready for next turn. Will be supplimented by a squadron from RCAF as well.

[Feinder]

July 9th, 1944

Celebes Sea

Invasion of Davao...

Recons showed that the north shore of Mindanao was undefended. So I landed with a USMC-Div, captured the initial settlement, and then moved into the town with the port. Marines took a surprisingly high number of landing casualties (4x SP), given that I have Amphib(4), but the landing was un-opposed, and the town/port secured, so I'll take it. I also noted that moving over-land, allowed me to capture the port intact?

I followed-up as planned, with landings to SE and SW of Davao. Marines landed in good order, suffering no landing casualties. A good start. Also sent some bombers against the Garrison there. However, after attacks by both USMC-Divs, 1sp remained. So I landed my 3rd USMC-Div, which again took heavy casualties on landing, but did destroy the remaining SP. So Davao will be an open-city for next turn.

I also bombed the port at Davao and the one in NorthWest. And bombarded the one in the SouthWest, so that he can't land troops via transport on the same turn. You can see that he's got a sub parked just south of Davao, but because my initial recons had spotted it, everybody just went around it.

So I ~think~ Davao and most of Mindanao should be secure next turn.

With that, you can see that I've marshalled an invasion force for Balikpapan off Celebes, should land next turn as well. Basically, I'll bomb and bombard his SNLF-Div at Balikpapan. I believe that between air and naval bombardments, he should be in poor shape that, after additional bombardments of AV/AVLs he should be dead. If I can walk into the city, great. I'll also be mindful of the port, so that he can't evac the Inf-Div. That will essentially give me 3x kills, since he won't have any way to evac or supply for the Inf-Div or AAA-Div.

[Feinder]

July 9th, 1944

Timor Sea, West Oz, and Solomons

Just some screen caps. Lots of shipping. Either ships trying to take upgrades or repairs. A bit of a back-up to unload inbound troops. Sending AVLs have priority, but it also clogs the port when I repair or upgrade a ship (CVs have priority), and then the regular transports are now arriving trying to find a berth to unload. So it's a bit of a juggle.

On the Timor Map, you can also see that he's got several ships including 1x CV, 1x CVL, 1x BC parked on the north coast of Oz. Makes sense, because he's got a Med-Bmbrand Mari-Bmbr there as well, and going after him, means a nasty counter-strike. I'll come back in the Strategic Map post, to current displacements, and how the impact my next intentions.

I'm using the ports on West Oz as well. And you can see a string of Destroyers that might catch his prowling sub. I doubt it, but I can spare 3x DDs to hunt him.

Solomons - He's still keeping 1x Mari-Bmbr, 1x Med-Bmbr and a CVL at/near Rabaul. He bombed the two Northern ports (not Townsville, as shown on the map). I presume he had spotted my DDs that were upgrading there, and thought I might keep them there. Nope. Slight damage to the port(s), but otherwise a whiff.

I did use my paras to capture a base in the Solomons. They were intercepted by by his CVL, and took 3x SPs in casualties. What's actually amusing is that, somehow my un-armed C-47 troop transports shot down an SP from his CVL. Go figure. I don't actually care about the Solomons at this point, I have Lunga and PM, that's all I need. But if "some activity" keeps some of his assets (a CVL, a Mari-Bmbr, and a Med-Bmbr, certainly qualifies) fixated in theater, then it's worth it.

[Feinder]

July 9th, 1944

National Morale and Strategic Map

National Morale - Nothing but the usual to report here. I'm kinda expectant/giggly that, if I read the scripts right, Japan loses 3500 NM when I capture Davao.

Enemy ships and LBA plotted on the Strategic Map. We have really good intel for now. All CVs and 5 of 6 CVLs have confirmed spots, and all of his remaining capital ships, and LBA. And I'm "pretty sure" that his last CVL is hanging out with his CV up by Okinawa.

So how does this impact my plans...

I expect Davao/Mindanao to fall next turn, some clean-up vs that Garrison in the west, but whatever.
Next turn also launches against Balikpapan. Again, I think I can take him out.

By end of next turn, move of my CVs will be back in action, with repair and upgrades to Nav-Atk(3). Sweet. So...

You can do the math, and see that most of his fleet is east of Philippines; strung out from Rabaul to Okinawa and ports in between.

He's got 1x CV, and 3x CVLs west of Philippines, hunting my Subs.

His fleet is/will essentially split 25% on the west, and 75% on the east.

If I my next move is Manila, he'll be able to use both his West and Eastern Fleets.

However, if I focus on Java/Batavia, I only face his West (25%) Fleet. He'd either have to bring his Eastern Fleet thru Celebes and my LBA there, also leaving him him exposed with no ports to hide in. Seems like a terrible idea. Which means that, to support Java and his Western Fleet, he'll have to move north thru Philippines/Manila and into S China Sea, which is quite the hike and would spread him out even more.

So basically I'll use Celebes, Davao, and even the land-mass of Borneo itself, as a block against his Eastern Fleet.

Which means, I need to draw-up some details on how, where, and with what I intend to invade Java with...

[Feinder]

July 9th, 1944

Admin Stuff

Research, Production, Losses, and Economy

Research - Nothing new spent on Research. But you can see we're close on Fighter(4) and Range(4).

Production - Bombers are good. I bought a Strat-Bmbr and a Med-Bmbr.

Losses - Chinese Inf-Corps lost in China. Killed Garrison at Davao.

Economy - I forgot to record the Japanese income. So I had to just use the same value from last turn.

[Elessar2]

Hi Elessar,

I think I found a minor map bug. Shouldn't that path be impassable?

The straits there are exactly 2 km wide; with some rubber boats an entire division can likely get across in a few hours. This series has consistently allowed land units to cross such straits when the distance is small (the vanilla map has several which are quite a bit wider note).

[Feinder]

Oh ok. Well, we both thought it was an island, and agreed to not cross it. So we'll keep to our agreement, and not cross. But good to know. Thanks!

[Feinder]

Another map bug/question(?). The port that appears to attach to Balikpapan, and would seem correct to allow for the convoy. However, having captured Balikpapan, the control of the port did not flip to me. It appears to be attached to Samarinda.

[Feinder]

July 27th, 1944

India

Fairly quiet. I continue to reform my line along the India/Burma mountain range, and some units pulled back for replacements. You can see the RCAF squadron starting it's journey to China.

[Feinder]

July 27th, 1944

China

Another quiet one. No LBA strikes from Japan. Just some spoiling artillery fire at Changsha.

First squadron of Chinese fighters have finally been re-equipped and deployed forward against his LBA (will be supplemented by RCAF squadron upon arrival). More Chinese fighters taking replacements in the rear.

Comm-Chi Inf-Corps moves back into Yenen, and begins digging in.

[Feinder]

July 27th, 1944

Celebes Sea

Liberation of Mindanao is mostly complete. Just a remaining IJA Garrison holding out in the NorthWest of the island.

Meanwhile, invasion at Balikpapan commences. Preceded by a heavy naval bombardment, combined forces of USA Army and Marines land and secure the capital, destroying the SNLF-Div occupiers. The supplemental AAA-Div and IJA Inf-Div should fall in short order, as they are cut off. (ref exception as comment above about the port not flipping to Allied control).

Noted appearance by an IJN CV in North Boreo, and a CVL in South Borneo (not shown).

Next shot is wider-view, showing forces in theater.