The Unwanted War - Xargun (J) vs AsuRob (A)

[chaos45]

You sure Bataan is that weak T1? I thought the 4th Marine Regiment starts in Bataan no? Which is one of the best best units the US has in the philipines.

[Xargun]

You sure Bataan is that weak T1? I thought the 4th Marine Regiment starts in Bataan no? Which is one of the best best units the US has in the philipines.

In the RA mod the 4th Marine Rgt starts in Subic Bay. I'm at work so all I have is the scenario editor to check and according to the Bataan entry in the database, it only has 2 units that start the game there - Manila Bay Defenses and Bataan USN Base Force. On 12/21/41 the 301st PA FA Rgt appears, and then 2 units in early Jan 42.

Manila Bay Defenses is a bunch of CD guns, some mobile 155mm, some AA and support only. No Ground troops.
Bataan USN Base Force is a ton of support squads, some AA, a sound detector and Garrison x2 - which has no attack values. So the 1st Raiding Rgt should be able to capture that on turn 1.

Xargun

[chaos45]

Ahh in the mod maybe its starts elsewhere---probably why in the normal scenarios it's at Bataan to prevent a quick T1 Japanese grab against 2 effectively non-combat units.

[Xargun]

Allied Variant Point Spending:

Rob did not organize his like I did, and it was a bit messy - had to go back and forth to get exacts from him. He doesn't use Excel - where I love it and use it a lot for this game.

Here are his highlights...

Economy: Added repair yards at Sydney, Noumea and Colombo, added 200k supply, added 100k fuel, added light industry, added some HI

Bases: Increase base potentials on a bunch of S Pacific Islands, increased forts at S Pacific islands, increase AF/Port at various bases

Other: +50 PPs/Turn, +2000 PPs at start, Purchase leaders and increase a bunch of skills

Air: Increase Pilot XP, Add extra Dutch pilots, add 4 new Air units, cancelled withdraw of 10 Patrol Sqds, released 10 patrol Sqns from Perm Restricted, added 50 PBY-4s, added 50 PBY-5s, added 50 F-4 Recon, Accelerate air radar, added some resize of patrol units in 42

Land: Added 3 Marine Divisions in 42, added 2 French Divs in 42, added 1 Aus Div in 42, added 3 Marine Bde in 42, added 2 French Bdes in 42, added 2 Aus Bdes in 42, added 1 Dutch Bde in 42, Added some new Engineers and Base Forces, Released 7 perm restricted units, added a ton of AV support to various units, added a ton of Nav Support to various units, added Engs to various units.

Naval: Added new ships of DD size and lower


Overall most of Rob's purchases I am not worried about. He expanded the islands in the S Pacific which makes me think he is either trying to protect against me pushing to far south, or he plans on doing a Solomon's Campaign this time around.

I was surprised he didn't add any AC factories or increase the arrival dates of some AC as well.

Xargun

[chaos45]

thats a ton of additional allied ground units guess he thinks 4 new air units and some buy outs is all he needs.....i would be worried about all those ground units just getting pulverized by Japanese Air in the first year.

[RangerJoe]

I wouldn't think that the Allies needed to add LI or HI. I would have added oil to Australia which would help to keep the existing HI working.

Unless it is a mod, the only place that I would add supplies would be China.

Instead of increasing pilot XP and the number of aircraft in lump sums, I would have added aircraft factories since a player would receive those potentially for the entire game, especially for the PBYs. A size 25 factory of PBYs would be nice. In fact, a factory for the P-43s which I would then have upgrade to the P-47 would be a fantastic deal! Especially if the P-47 production would be continuous with no pause in the game. Adding a F4U factory would be a great addition if the added aircraft squadrons were US Navy or US Naval Infantry air units. The smaller air units could be supersized on aircraft carriers. Initially, they could be additional training units until enough Corsairs were produced.

[Xargun]

thats a ton of additional allied ground units guess he thinks 4 new air units and some buy outs is all he needs.....i would be worried about all those ground units just getting pulverized by Japanese Air in the first year.

Yeah those units will arriving between July to December 1942. The same time as my 15 Brigades Would be great to catch them at sea I have no real idea what he is planning - unless he is just going to let them sit at home until mid-late 1943 when he gets CV parity.

Xargun

[Xargun]

Unless it is a mod, the only place that I would add supplies would be China.

He did put some in China, but he spread it out over a bunch a islands.

Instead of increasing pilot XP and the number of aircraft in lump sums, I would have added aircraft factories since a player would receive those potentially for the entire game, especially for the PBYs. A size 25 factory of PBYs would be nice. In fact, a factory for the P-43s which I would then have upgrade to the P-47 would be a fantastic deal! Especially if the P-47 production would be continuous with no pause in the game. Adding a F4U factory would be a great addition if the added aircraft squadrons were US Navy or US Naval Infantry air units. The smaller air units could be supersized on aircraft carriers. Initially, they could be additional training units until enough Corsairs were produced.

Yeah - I was surprised he didn't expand his aircraft production. I figured he would spend a chunk of points there and advancing certain models. Oh well, we will see how his choices play out.

Xargun

[PaxMondo]

... Oh well, we will see how his choices play out.
Xargun

Agree with most of your observations, but most importantly this one ....

All I can add is that a couple of his choices were similar to what AndyMac did in his Ironman, but most were not. AndyMac went much more along the lines of what you and RJ suggested and I can tell you that those ideas really work to be-devil the IJ player ...

[Xargun]

YEAH !! I have officially started entering orders for Turn 1. 90% of my planning work is done. Now I just need to transfer the plan from paper into the game.

Xargun

[PaxMondo]

Good Luck! I both dread and enjoy this part of the game ... SO many movements ....

[RangerJoe]

Good Luck! I both dread and enjoy this part of the game ... SO many movements ....

As long as they ain't from your bowel as the turn plays out!

[PaxMondo]

As long as they ain't from your bowel as the turn plays out!

RJ, you're killing me, just killing me!!!

[Xargun]

Sorry I've been afk for a while. Work got crazy for a week and then my pc decided to die. I haven't built one from scratch in a long time and wow are the prices a lot higher... I am back up and running and hope to finish turn 1 and get it sent over to Rob today or tomorrow.

Xargun

[Xargun]

Ok here we go !!! Turn 1 was sent to Rob, he entered a few orders and sent it back. Turn has been run and here we go. Not sure what format to put these in nut here goes. Let me know if you like this format or have better suggestions.

Turn 1: December 7th, 1941

Burma

Paratroopers from the 1st Raiding Rgt landed at Lashio taking the base and cutting the Burma Road.


Malaya
Fighter sweep the air over Georgetown and Kota Bharu killing 1 Blenheim IF

Airfield strikes:
Kota Bharu: 28 runway hits, 11 Hudson Is damaged, 4 Vildebeest IIIs damaged, 1 Hudson destroyed, 1 Vildebeest destroyed.

Port Strikes:
Georgetown: We struck the port with a total of 48 Sallies and 55 Lilly
Allied Ships
xAP Kelantan, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
AMc Medusa, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Wing Sang, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
HDML Panji, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAP Hong Siang, Bomb hits 11, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Demosthenes, Bomb hits 10, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Nam Yong, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Raub, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
HDML Pahalwan, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
HDML Pennigat, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
HDML Panglima, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk


TFs attacked:
Force Z: We attacked Force Z with a total of 22 Betties, 45 Kates and 35 Vals
Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 7, on fire, heavy damage (2 torp hits failed to penetrate armor)
BC Repulse, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 7, and is sunk
DD Vampire, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
DD Express, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage

Invasions:
Troops came ashore at Kuantan, Kota Bharu and Mersing.


Borneo

Invasions:
Troops came ashore at Miri, Brunei and Singkawang


Philippines
Fighter sweep the air over Clark, Iba and Manila

Airfield strikes:

Clark AF: 27 runway hits, 27 B-17Ds damaged, 5 O-47As damaged, 10 P-40Bs damaged. We lost 1 Betty to flak.
Iba AF: 72 runway hits, 63 P-40Es damaged, 2 P40Es destroyed.
Manila: 17 runways hits, 11 P-40Es damaged, 7 PBY-4s damaged, 1 SOC-1 Seagull damaged, 1 SOC-1 Seagull destroyed.

Port Strikes:

Cebu: We struck the port with a total of 9 G3M2 Nell, 50 Vals
Allied Ships
SS Pickerel, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
SS Porpoise, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
SS Perch, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
SS Pike, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
xAKL Surigao, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
SS Tarpon, Bomb hits 1
SS Permit, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage
xAP Legaspi, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk

Manila: We struck the port with a total of 140 Kates, 50 Vals
Allied Ships
xAK Tantalus, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
SS Sculpin, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage
xAKL Compagnia Filipinas, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
SS Sailfish, Bomb hits 1
AV Langley, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
SS S-38, Bomb hits 1
SS S-37, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
SS Stingray, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
xAP President Madison, Bomb hits 1
SS Searaven, Bomb hits 1
TK Mindanao, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
AO Pecos, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
AVD Childs, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Cape Fairweather, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAKL Dos Hermanos, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
SS Spearfish, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
ARD YFD-1 Dewey, Bomb hits 1
PG Tulsa, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Capillo, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
SS Sargo, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
PT Q-111, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
SS Salmon, Bomb hits 1
AM Lark, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAKL Palawan, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires

Invasions:
1 CL and 6 DDs bombarded Iba inflicting 152 casualties and another 19 runway hits.
Troops came ashore at San Fernando, Lingayen, Iba and Aparri.


Sumatra:

TFs attacked:
Near Palembang: We attacked the CL TFs with a total of 25 Kates and 35 Vals
Allied Ships
CL Durban, Bomb hits 10, and is sunk
CL Dragon, Bomb hits 1, on fire


China:
We bombed exposed Chinese troops inflicting 85+136 casualties.

Port Strikes:
Hong Kong: We struck the port with a total of 16 Sally, 8 Vals, 12 Lily and 24 Sonia
Allied Ships
xAK Ming Sang, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Hanyang, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Kanchow, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Fatshan, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Jade, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Hai Lee, Bomb hits 2, on fire
xAK Nanning, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
xAKL Yat Shing, Bomb hits 1


Other
Most subs have been recalled from the area, but we have left a few in the area to try to pick off some ships and to get some nav search.

Our midgets attempted to penetrate Pearl. Only a single one made it into the harbor, but unfortunately before we could line up a nice fat BB the DM Montgomery found us and sunk the sub.

Troops came ashore at Guam
Paratroopers from the 1st Para Assault Division landed at Ternate and Sorong taking both bases and destroying the Do-24K units there.

Enemy bombers attacked multiple IJN TFs off the coast of Malaya, but only managed to land 2 500lb bombs on a single xAK killing 97 IJA troops - I expect it to sink next turn (hopefully we can unload the troops before then). We shot down a lot of RAF planes with CAP: 2 Blenheim IVs, 7 Buffalos, 3 Hudson Is, 6 Vildebeest IIIs

Intelligence Screen Losses:

Allied Aircraft: 39 lost A2A, 8 lost on the ground, 12 lost to ops
Japanese Aircraft: 4 lost A2A, 7 lost to flak, 5 lost to ops

Allied Ships Sunk: 12 ships for 490 pts
IJN Ships Sunk: 4 ships for 13 pts (All were midget subs)


Xargun

[PaxMondo]

... and then my pc decided to die. I haven't built one from scratch in a long time and wow are the prices a lot higher...
Xargun

I know, discovered that nasty fact last year ....

[PaxMondo]

Let me know if you like this format or have better suggestions.

Format is fine, but be sure to add game date ... I'm already lost!

[Xargun]

Let me know if you like this format or have better suggestions.

Format is fine, but be sure to add game date ... I'm already lost!

Turn 1, Dec 7th, 1941

[PaxMondo]

Turn 1, Dec 7th, 1941

See how I am? Lost. Totally lost!!!

[PaxMondo]

Turn 1: December 7th, 1941

Amazing results.
Force Z no longer exists, POW can't survive 5 torps ...
I never knew about subs at Cebu ... but total carnage of the USN SS fleet in the Far East.
4 LZ's on Luzon! creative! wow!!

BANZAI!!!!