Air supply

[Stvitus2002]

Is there a way to prevent an opponent from flying supplies to isolated forces? I have surrounded 4 japanese divisions(with
supporting units) at Mytikyina. I control the base & every hex
around it(letter A ZOC), except the hex due east from Mytikyina,
which i guess is a neutral hex(red border, no ZOC letter). I've got 3 fighter squadrons at 80% cap, overhead at all times. The japs have been isolated for 3.5 months. I have them under bombardment every day from 4 artillery regiments, i have attacked them, on average, twice a month with the equivalent of 5.5 divisions + 3 supporting tank brigades,including 2 HQ's.
My losses have been running at a 4 to 1 rate(deliberate attack).
Highest odds in my favor have been 7 to 1. Can't figure out
how the japs have survived this long without an overland supply route. There can't possibly be enough coconuts & banannas in this part of the Burmese jungle to sustain them this long.
I'm assuming the AI is supplying them from the air. All of my troops can't be blind, if they are using air supply shouldn't i be able to see it? [:@]







Joe D.

[Halsey]

You won't see aerial resupply misions flown.
Fly a LRCAP over the hex to see if they catch any transports flying there.

Watch the message text, as you won't see an air to air combat display if transports are intercepted.

[Charles2222]

Now everybody sing with me:

I 'm all out of supply, I'm so lost without you
I know you were right, air-transporting for so long
I 'm all out of supply, what am I without you
I can't be too late to say that I was so wrong

[Stvitus2002]

Now everybody sing with me:

I 'm all out of supply, I'm so lost without you
I know you were right, air-transporting for so long
I 'm all out of supply, what am I without you
I can't be too late to say that I was so wrong

UGGHHHHHH[:@].... must... find... my....AR-15.....






Joe D.

[Charles2222]

The music could be worse, much worse:

http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/21099/

[DJAndrews]

I'm not sure why you're now winning the ground combat if you're attacking with the reported 7-1 odds, but I have seen this happen at lesser (3-1) odds when you are attacking with units that don't have combat engineers against a fortified position.

As for supply you'll wait a long time before a unit dies of attrition. First all the hex supply has to run out. Then all the internal unit supply has to be consumed. Then each infantry squad and gun has to be disabled and finally each squad and gun has to be eliminated. At a rate of 50-100 supply points and 1-2 squads per turn, it takes forever. I'm playing the Japanese in a game that is in July of 1942 and allied units that fled into the jungle in the first week of the war are still "living off the land" and showing no sign of giving up.

[Stvitus2002]

I'm not sure why you're now winning the ground combat if you're attacking with the reported 7-1 odds, but I have seen this happen at lesser (3-1) odds when you are attacking with units that don't have combat engineers against a fortified position.

The 7-1 odds attack was the best so far. I have had several 2-1,3-1,attacks, with a couple of 1-1 thrown in.

I know what you mean about 'living off the land'. In my current
game, Java fell in 7/42. A year later there are still remnants of a Dutch base force that have 'gone native' & refuse to die.
The situation at Mytikyina is a little different:most of the IJA
15th army is cut off & has been for some time. Recon flights put the # of troops of between 78000 and 104000. The frustrating thing is that my spitfire pilots seem unable to do anything about a group of flimsy transport aircraft. They must spend their day sitting around drinking tea while the TOPSY pilots laugh at them.





Joe D.

[moses]

What level are you playing at? On the very hard level I don't believe that supplies are critical to the AI.

[Stvitus2002]

What level are you playing at? On the very hard level I don't believe that supplies are critical to the AI

Even.









Joe D.

[rtrapasso]

You can pound these guys for weeks before they give in and banzai charge... At least in my experience. And this is with much better odds (20-40 to 1 odds).

[Stvitus2002]

I'm sending in reinforcments. 23rd Indian Div. is moving up.
Should take 2 weeks or so for them to claw their way thru the jungle. That will leave me thin in the rest of the SEA area, incase something else happens. Then again...my opponent is just the AI[:D].




Joe D.

[Bradley7735]

You can't destroy Japanese LCU's unless they have all devices disabled. You need to keep up your deliberate attacks. Don't pause as long as you're getting good odds. The odds will increase each turn. Once you get to somewhere in the 600-1 odds, you'll start to destroy units.

Just watch your combat units closely. Don't continue to attack with the ones that are severely disrupted.

It also helps to put all your level bombers on ground attack. You'll take fewer losses and the Japanese units will take more.

You can kill them, it just takes a long long time.

(too bad allied soldiers are wusses. Not like the super human japanese soldiers.)

EDIT: The AI might not be air suppling them. Japanese units will never die (playing vs the AI) due to supply shortages. You must kill them with combat.

[Stvitus2002]

You can't destroy Japanese LCU's unless they have all devices disabled. You need to keep up your deliberate attacks. Don't pause as long as you're getting good odds. The odds will increase each turn. Once you get to somewhere in the 600-1 odds, you'll start to destroy units.

Just watch your combat units closely. Don't continue to attack with the ones that are severely disrupted.

I can't attack every turn. Mytakyina is at the end of a LONG jungle supply line. Air supply
helps, but it's difficult to build up a supply reserve. Several of my units have been shredded.
26 Indian Div. is down to assault strength 96. No Indian squads are left in the pool.

I've had to ground most of the british air units to keep from running out of pilots, only
10 brits are left in the pilot pool. I thought lack of pilots was a Japanese problem. What few US air units i have in SEA are committed to suppresing airfields at Madalay & Rangoon. Not that i'm complaining.... the war will go on.





Joe D.

[Tullius]

It´s a long way but i have done it in Rabaul as Allied.

In July i started my bombing campaign (7 BG form PM, Lunga, Gili Gili). At the start of August the airfield was destroyed. The next weeks i bombed the habor to 100% damage and sunk most of the transport vessels. The Ai was very stubborn and tried to supply his units (ca. 30 units) so some TF were sunk (Rabaul was for the AI a big funeral).

In September my troops left Gasmata to go to Rabaul and in November the battle of Rabaul started. At that moment i had a Long Range Cap over Rabaul (planes from Gasmata, CV) and it seems they killed every day some supply planes. My pilots had kills after the airattack phase. So that the most japanese units had 0 supplies since 10/42 but they were still alive and could defend itself. The combat results were not good as they should be. At the end (11/42) i decided to rest my troops (Malaria Zone, my own supply situation, fatigue of your own troops etc), send new to Rabaul (at the end 6 divisions) and the mix of superiority of mens and enough supplies showed success. Deliberate Attacks started with 3:1, later 6:1, 14:1, 26:1 and at the end 60:1. I needed six weeks to finish the ground combat. All japanese units were destroyed at the end of December 1942.

[Bradley7735]

Yeah, it's tough. You'd have a better supply situation if you did an amphibious invasion near Rangoon. Supply will run from Rangoon to Mykitnyia better than from Imphal.

At least you're seeing the same issues that the Brits had in the real war. Overland through Burma isn't easy.

If you can't deliberate attack each turn, bombard. Bombarding helps in the long run. You'll keep up the Japs disruption and disable some more squads.

Shipping massive amounts of supply to Chandpur will help a bit at Mykitnyia. It doesn't move overland very well, but the more you have in the Chandpur/Dacca area, the more you'll get at Mykitnyia. You can also try to march your SE ASIA HQ to Mykitnyia as well. It'll try to accumulate supply.

[Stvitus2002]

It´s a long way but i have done it in Rabaul as Allied.

Yeah, that's my current target in the South Pac. . I've finally
got enough CV's available to cover an invasion. 3.5 Divisions will
go ashore in the first wave. We will see what happens.






Joe D.

[Stvitus2002]

Yeah, it's tough. You'd have a better supply situation if you did an amphibious invasion near Rangoon. Supply will run from Rangoon to Mykitnyia better than from Imphal.

I did consider landing at Rangoon,recon show 90000 troops there.
Not sure how many of these are front line troops. Until i neutralize the Jap CV's, an end around is not in the cards.







Joe D.

[Tullius]

If possible try to capture Gasmata. The base can be built up to airport and port size of 4. Here i stored supplies and used the airbase for some VMF sqadrons and Dakotas. And you need a base to replenish you CV`s.

The AI will fight hard and stubborn. Even when Rabaul is a lost case he will send transporter from Truk and tries air attacks. Some weeks the following happend: at frist 20-30 Zeros and 100 Bettys every day. As i had 50-70 fighters on LRC they could not do any damage. My fighters shoot down the Zeros and some Bettys, so the next day from truk came only 20 Zeros and 80 Bettys and at the end 80- 120 Bettys. A week later he had Zeros again (these were better - perhaps an experienced unit but he lost they all again).

In these fights he lost all Zeros but only 20% of his Betties as the most Betties turn back when one of their datei was lost. These attacks were a complete failure for Orange but only because i had 50 - 70 fighter in the skies and i rotated my fighter groups.

And it is important to have some BG in Lunga, Gili Gili or PM. They can not only bomb Rabaul but naval targets, too. In my game the ended the service of two japanese CV.

[doktorblood]

I've found that running a a couple of ground attack airstrikes every day helps quite a bit in eliminating subborn defenders. They don't have to be big strikes, a squadron or 2 will do.

[Zecke]

The AI dont need supplies, fuel, it takes what he needs where it is, for example, if the AI TFs are run out of fuel, takes water from the see and run away more faster than the fuel[:D], if the troops are running out, at you said before take Cooconuts, grass, whatever functions ok with the AI, the AI dont need supplies and fuel to keep on going with the WAR.