Singapore Challenge - erstad (J) versus Oleg Mastruko (A)

[erstad]

In the main forums, Oleg had expressed a high level of concern over the 1.6 river assault rule, contending that it made Singapore too difficult to take. ("Screwed by river assault rule" thread). Needless to say, much discussion ensued [:D]

As part of that discussion, Oleg threw out a challenge (something to the effect of "I defy anyone to take Singapore from me in PBEM", see the thread for exact wording). Being the data oriented guy I am, it seemed that rather than an endless debate one could simply accept the challenge, play it out, and see how things went. (sort of like some of the China/Russia/hirohito AARs). See "Singapore Challenge" thread in main forum for more discussion on that.

So, this is the AAR for that challenge. In this message, I'll describe the game setup. In the next, I'll describe some of my general approach. This is a private AAR; Oleg will not be reading this until the end. Don't pass along any info from here to any other forum. Likewise, should Oleg start an AAR, don't repeat any of his info here. Feel free to offer input, but make sure no input is based on any specific knowledge from Oleg (obviously, the stuff he's posted in the main forum threads is public domain and free for use)

Game settings:
Rising Sun scenario (#1) - basically subset of Scen 15 that runs from 12/7 through 3/something/42, and includes Burma, Malaya, DEI, PI, and whatever other parts of the world are needed to make a rectangle
Historical first turn
2 day turns
Surpise on
Player defined upgrades off
Allied damage control on
Auto sub ops off
Both sub doctrines off
Accept replacements on
Audo upgrades off

Basic rules

Japanese can use forces starting in Indochina and Taan for Malaya attack. Exception: One Daitai and one Chutai of zeros can transfer from Formosa to the Malay campaign; also, 6 escorts (PG, PC, MSW, APD) can be used from Formosa (IIRC, Taan starts with few or no escorts for its transports).
(We're still disussing 21 Div, 33 Div, and 35 Bde; they may or may not be usable)
Both sides stand down other air (e.g., formosa, Phillipines), and naval forces started in those locations or nearby basically return to a neutral base and stand down. For the Japanese, this includes the CVL task force. No ground combat in the PI.
Allies can use any ground or air forces in the DEI/Malaya (Ground and air forces in the Phillipines stay there. Ground forces in Burma remain there, but air can transfer from Burma/India to Malaya). The BF at Victoria Point has to stay put.

Points don't matter; if Singapore falls by the historical date, we'll call that a Japanese victory, and if not, an Allied victory. We'll play at least through the end of February; at that point, either of us can call off the game if we want.

[erstad]

OK, here's some of my initial thoughts and strategies. (I suppose tactics would be a more appropriate word, strategic options are limited). I'll also post some more specifics about given units/thrusts once we get the final ground rules resolved.

Note that historical first turn means 5 Div is landing an Songkia and another Div (18?) is landing at Khota Bharu. Those are the only landings in Malaya and Siam on turn 1.

The points don't matter (Any "Whose Line Is It Anyways" fans here?). This will influence gameplay.
- On Oleg's side, I assume he'll make every effort to reinforce singapore, regardless of losses. If he loses some ground combat troops en route to Malaya, it's no worse than if they didn't try. Thus, I need to be more diligent about keeping Malaya isolated than I would against an opponent that's also thinking about the long haul. Also, I would expect him to be very aggressive with the use of Force Z.
- On my side, I'll likewise take a higher level of risk to get my LCUs to Malaya. So, I'll probably take higher losses than I would normally consider acceptable. I also don't need to be as careful about protecting transports with non-critical cargo, e.g., a bunch of AKs with supply may not need all the LRCAP I would normally try to provide. Also, I can be very aggressive with my air; points don't matter and I don't need to preserve high quality pilots.
Net result is that we'll both be more "careless" with our forces than normal, which may roughly balance.

I'm guessing from Oleg's comments that he's going to aggressively try to get the Malaya LCUs into Singapore. Don't know if that means he's going to pull back right away, or try to pull back just before I retreat him, taking a risk of miscalculation. Either way, I'll probably commit only some of my forces until I see what's going on. The rest I'll park in Saigon for a while. (Saigon being non-malarial. ) I don't want my forces to all be fighting/moving down the Malay peninsula, accumulating fatigue, if Oleg has only a light screen and everything else is sitting in non-malarial Singapore. If I hit unexpected resistance, I may have to hustle, but at least I'll have rested troops going into the fray.

Obviously, air power will be key. I need to keep Singapore suppressed to keep him from building fort levels and to hit his support; and use massive quantities of ground support where required tactically. Losses almost don't matter, so I can use DBs more aggressive than I normally would and run level bombers at lower altitudes; however, I do need to keep in mind that the morale hits and damaged planes from doing so limits my ability to use those squadrons the next turn. Also, as previously noted, I need to keep Singapore heavily interdicted. Not as big an issue for airfield attacks, but I need to be careful with ground attacks since they are a primary.

Anyhow, those are my initial thoughts

Dave

[erstad]

Here's the detailed plan, such as it is

Imperial Div and 1 Tank are fully prepped for Alor Star. They'll move overland to Alor Star - take about a week to get there. The 5 Div will be unloading at Songkhia and will move into Alor Star to start bombarding. Probably won't attack until the other units get there unless Oleg pulls out of Alor Star. These are the primary troops that will be attacking down the west coast road. I won't reinforce them much unless Oleg is heavily defending along the peninsula, which I doubt. 15 Army HQ will prep for Johore Bharu and will also join the west attack force. That will also help recover disruption after I've taken a city.

18 Div will take Khota Bharu, and then Kuantan. I'm almost tempted to bypass Kuantan, but I think having an L4 airfield two hexes further south is worth it. (Johore Bharu is also L4, but probably won't fall till later). Might reinforce with a few small LCUs for Kuantan.

All other infantry will congregate at Saigon to await events. Baseline plan would be to insert them at Johore Bharu once taken. This leaves me with ~2000 AS of fresh troops, and ~1000 AS of fatigued, worn out troops for the main assault on Singapore. If I stall somewhere, I'll release some of the units early.

Baseforces: (only listing the interesting and mildly interesting ones, I'll find something for everyone to do)
119 IJNAF (Kompong Trach) transfers to Songkhia primarily for recon and CAP support
7th Av (rgt/Unit? I forget) (Kompong Trach) transfers to Khota Bharu when taken. KB is an L4 airbase
121 IJA (Pnomh Penh) moves to Kompong Trach to replace the departing BFs
22 Av unit (Saigon) moves to Songkhia, Alor Star when taken, and eventually Johore Bharu
122 IJA, 123 IJA (Siemrem Reap), and 124 IJA (Kratie) move to Songkhia, and cover the smaller airbases as I take them on the west coast road.
22 Av rgt (Saigon) moves to Kuantan once taken.

Other:
Need to move engineers to Khota Bharu immediately when taken as it will be heavily damaged from naval bombardment
3rd Air Div HQ will move to the Malay peninsula, not sure yet if it will go the west coast road or to Khota Bharu and then Kuantan, but either way it'll cover all my major airbases
Southern Area Army HQ will prep for and support the Singapore assault
Burma Area HQ will prep for Johore Bharu. Not sure I'll need the help, but why not? I don't think the command HQ bonuses will stack if I prepped for Singapore.
Of course, everything else preps for singapore except any units that start with useful other locations.
There is a div that starts fully prepped for Kuantan. If I get the sense that Oleg is going to make me pay for every kilometer, I might pull the 18th back to Saigon to rest and replace it with the prepped division. Two months isn't a lot of time to be doing much troop shuffling, though. I'm guessing that I'm not going to see a lot of resistance, though. If he tries to stand firm both at Kuantan and along the west coast, I have several options to try to cut off units, and I think he'll try to avoid that at all costs.

[erstad]

12/7-12/8/41

I didn't get a combat report because I forgot that for 1.6, the preferences are locked in at the previous Japanese turn, and I wasn't very careful about my settings when I did the start-and-save for the historical first turn.

But, if you've seen one historical first turn, you've seen them all. Nothing overly eventful occured. I'll be posting combat reports, or at least excerpts, from here on out. (look for a map too, but if I work on a map before getting my turn back to Feinder he'll (rightly) chide me about priorities [:-])

Only thing of note is that I only got one day of airstrikes on Singapore (recall these are two day turns), and it wasn't all that successful. So, Singapore only has about 1 point of airfield damage and most of the air intact. Nonetheless, most of my Nells/Bettys have switched to Naval only attack; both because I'm expecting Force Z to sortie and because I want them to recover morale. One unit will hit Singapore this turn, more to give my A6M2s a shot at his CAP than to cause any significant damage. Means I'll have to turn up the gain in later turns if I want to make sure no new fort levels are built and start attritioning his support.

Oleg is on vacation currently with only dial up access [X(] so things might be a little slow for a week.

[erstad]

Below are the 12/9-12/10 combat results, heavily edited. As typical for the early war in the DEI, there are lots of small raids. 3 Blenheims attack a TF and miss. 3 Hudsons attack a TF and miss. 3 Blenheims attack Jap BB’s and are hit by AA. I won’t include those unless something interesting happens, like a swordfish dropping a torpedo into one of my CA’s (ain’t gonna happen [:D]). Miscellaneous bomb hits on AK/AP/escorts do not count as interesting. I’m also not including anything that happens in the PI while the forces there disengage.

Khota Bharu falls on the first day. This is the biggest airstrip I’ll have in Malaya for a while, so I’ve flown in around 250 airplanes. As expected, the runway and service damage are near 100% (historical first turn has a naval bombardment, and then when the engineers from KB retreat my experience is they add another big chunk of damage). So, most of the air is stood down this turn; I’ve got some CAP and recon active. I also have some of the planes on naval attack; if something shows up for them to attack, I’ll take the op losses from the potholes on the runway, and if not, they won’t fly.

Minor surprise was that Force Z did not put in an appearance. I thought they might show up at Khota Bharu or even Songkhia. If Oleg waits to bring them out, I have more opportunity to ding them up while still in port, plus I can get Khota Bharu spun up as a Nell base with oodles of recon. On the other hand, until Force Z is dealt with, I need to guard against them appearing at any time, so maybe keeping them as a fleet in being is the right strategy. Two of the Japanese mine laying subs start just outside Singapore; I mined the Singapore harbor so perhaps there’ll be a nasty surprise the first time it sorties. My subs are also thick off the Malay coast; they may get a lucky hit in, and even if they don’t, if Force Z spends a lot of time in ASW attacks it’s more likely to be in a disadvantaged position when daylight comes.

Made one significant adjustment to my plan already. (No plan survives first contact with the enemy; mine sometimes don’t make it that far). My recon of Alor Star says there’s only one LCU left, which implies Oleg is already retreating them down the railroad. I don’t see any unit in (base directly SW of Alor Star), which might mean that’s pulled out too, although I didn’t have a recon on that so it might just be the DL dropped. I see two units in the empty hex NW of Johore Bharu, which is probably additional units retreating south. So, instead of having 2 divisions and 1 tank regiment fighting down the west road, I’m going to try with one division and the tank regiment. Imperial Guards Division is going to hunker down in Bangkok for now (Bangkok is non-malerial). If my recon is faulty, I’ve lost a turn; but I’m really thinking Oleg is bailing from the northern bases. I’ve got two recon units on Alor Star next turn which will give me high confidence in the answers (at least in terms of number of units)

Minor updates to force dispositions: Oleg and I settled on keeping Allied Burma troops out of the battle, and I don’t use 21 Div, 33 Div, and 35 Bde. I realized later that my planned use of the Burma Area Army HQ ran counter to the spirit of this, so I won’t be using that either; plus I’ll cordon off a few BFs, engineers, and a small infantry or two as non-Malaya forces. Also, I realized that there were no Patrol planes in my original proposed regions, and Oleg readily agreed I could bring a Mavis Chutai into play.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 12/09/41

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Khota Bharu

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 19378 troops, 255 guns, 17 vehicles

Defending force 5941 troops, 42 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 6 to 1 (fort level 4)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Khota Bharu base !!!



Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
Hudson I: 5 destroyed

Japanese ground losses:
466 casualties reported
Guns lost 10
Vehicles lost 2

Allied ground losses:
163 casualties reported
Guns lost 3

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 12/10/41


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Singapore , at 23,50

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 19
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 8 destroyed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Singapore , at 23,50

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 15
G3M Nell x 11

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 4 destroyed, 1 damaged

Runway hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
5 x G3M Nell bombing at 14000 feet
5 x G3M Nell bombing at 14000 feet

[erstad]

Very boring combat report, so I won't post it. I hit Kuantan with a naval bombardment, Oleg makes some night attacks against Khota Bharu, and I get in a few licks against Singapore.

Big news is that my recon is pretty much confirming that Oleg is emptying the northern part of the peninsula. 1 unit left in Alor Star, 1 in Georgetown, none in Taiping, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, or Kuantan. 2 in Johore Bharu, don't know if that means Oleg wants to delay me there or they're just en route to Singapore. So, several things...
- Shock attacking at Alor Star with 5 Div. There's still air at Alor Star, so I think Oleg left a BF, but even if it's a brigade I should do OK, especially if my ground support missions fly.
- Trying a paradrop into Kuantan, now empty, to see if I can take it before the units retreating from Khota Bharu get there. They need to go one road hex, and have been traveling for 2 days. But, they'll be heavily fatigued from being retreated, so I think I'll take it. He might take it back before I can reinforce (*) but at least it will take out all the fort levels. (*) In retrospect, I should have perhaps sent a naval guard or SNLF on transports towards Kuantan so if it falls I can reinforce before he gets there. But I can probably air tran something. Still want Kuantan as an L4 airfield, although if the west coast railway cities are largely vacated I might get Johore Bharu quickly enough that it's not as important - although I'll only want 200 airframes at JB, so a second airbase that's closer than Khota Bharu is still valuable.

Note that if I can blitz down the west coast, Oleg will have a larger number of fresher troops in Singapore (compared to trying to slow me as I go), but I'll have a much longer time to reduce Singapore by air attack. I think the net trade works to my advantage, but we'll see.

May have found Force Z. Soerbaja is showing 46 ships (no explicit recon). Singapore has only 2 left (2 squadrons reconning Singapore). Wonder if he's pulled Force Z back to Soerbaja. If so, I see two scenarios:
- He's retaining the big guys to break up a transport fleet later in the scenario. Perhaps he's guessing that I'm planning to land a bunch of fresh troops at Johore Bharu (one hex NW of Singapore) once I've cleared the west coast.
- He wants to transfer units in from DEI, and will use the Brits to escort and provide AA. (POW and Repulse can't be in a transport TF, but can be in a following surface force that will act as a torpedo magnet

Haven't seen any transports from India yet. Guessing if he started them out right away they'll show up in the next couple days. He might also try to time their arrival with some other troops from the DEI in hopes something will get through.

[Sharkosaurus rex]

There is a work-a-round that can place BBs in transport TF.
Create escort mission TF with AP, AK, and have a BB as part of the escort.
change TF mission to transport.
you now have a BB in a transport TF.
Your troop carrying APs now have BB protection.
This kind of swap and change is very gamey.
Hopefully your opponent doesn't use it.
He can of course still use the BB in the traditional follow SC TF.

[erstad]

Alor Star readily falls, only a base force there. Retreated to Georgetown, and 5 Div already arrived there (set to pursue). I'll shock attack again and should take Georgetown next turn.

Paradrop into Kuantan failed, Oleg's retreating units got there first. Worth a try. Wish I had tried it the previous turn, but recon still showed a unit there, wasn't sure it would be moving. I will try a paradrop to Mersing next turn. Recon shows it empty; could use a base next to Singapore (only L3, but can run recon and CAP from there).

I'm pretty sure Oleg's got the Brit fleet in Soerbaja now. Going to do a recon with a chutai of nells to verify; also make him worry just a bit about an airstrike; don't want him to think he can transfer all the air to Malaya. (Probably wouldn't do an airstrike anyway; it's extreme range for the Nells, the Brit AA will be very strong, and the potential payback doesn't justify it. But, "keep 'em guessing"

Oleg's definitely retreating most or all of everything into Kuantan.


AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 12/13/41

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Khota Bharu , at 24,45

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
Blenheim IF x 3
Hudson I x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Hudson I: 1 damaged

Aircraft Attacking:
11 x Hudson I bombing at 3000 feet
3 x Blenheim IF bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Singapore , at 23,50

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 21

Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 3
Buffalo I x 12

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Wirraway: 3 destroyed
Buffalo I: 6 destroyed


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Alor Star

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 18634 troops, 234 guns, 6 vehicles

Defending force 1085 troops, 10 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 4

Japanese assault odds: 97 to 1 (fort level 4)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Alor Star base !!!


Japanese ground losses:
9 casualties reported

Allied ground losses:
14 casualties reported


Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Kuantan

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 63 troops, 1 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 4580 troops, 35 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 4)


Japanese ground losses:
23 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 12/14/41


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Khota Bharu , at 24,45

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
Blenheim IF x 5
Blenheim IV x 3
Hudson I x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-48 Lily: 1 destroyed


Airbase hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Blenheim IV bombing at 3000 feet
8 x Hudson I bombing at 3000 feet
5 x Blenheim IF bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Singapore , at 23,50

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 21

Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 1
Buffalo I x 14

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Wirraway: 1 destroyed
Buffalo I: 7 destroyed


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Kuantan

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 83 troops, 1 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 4791 troops, 47 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 4)


Japanese ground losses:
30 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

[erstad]

Georgetown and Mersing fall, as predicted. Recon shows the Brit fleet in Singapore, also as predicted. Not sure if he intends to bring them back for an unexpected blow later, or intends to escort a transport fleet from Soerbaja. It's far enough away I should have a turn's warning, though. Still no sign of transports from India.

18 Div is heading for Kuantan. That'll give me my third L4+ base in Malaya, and will be the primary base for reducing Singapore since it's the closest. The others will still be used as I'll limit the planes on Kuantan to 200. Mersing can operate dive bombers; might use some to take Johore Bharu but otherwise need to save them for a coup-de-grace against Singapore since they'll take horrendous losses from AA at Sing.

Basically still on plan. 5 Div and 18 Div will clear the malay peninsula; BFs are moving into position appropraitely, and everything else has congregated in non-malarial Saigon for R&R (except the Imperial Guard, still in Bangkok)

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 12/15/41

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Khota Bharu , at 24,45

Japanese aircraft
Ki-27 Nate x 12

Allied aircraft
Blenheim IF x 5
Blenheim IV x 6
Hudson I x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-27 Nate: 1 damaged


Aircraft Attacking:
6 x Blenheim IV bombing at 3000 feet
3 x Hudson I bombing at 3000 feet
5 x Blenheim IF bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 2nd ISF Base Force, at 23,44

Japanese aircraft
Ki-51 Sonia x 22

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-51 Sonia: 1 destroyed, 6 damaged

Aircraft Attacking:
21 x Ki-51 Sonia bombing at 2000 feet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Georgetown

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 18536 troops, 229 guns, 6 vehicles

Defending force 2425 troops, 28 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 5 to 1 (fort level 5)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 0


Japanese ground losses:
132 casualties reported
Guns lost 7
Vehicles lost 1

Allied ground losses:
134 casualties reported
Guns lost 6


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Mersing

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 63 troops, 1 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 3)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Mersing base !!!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 12/16/41


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Khota Bharu , at 24,45

Japanese aircraft
Ki-27 Nate x 9

Allied aircraft
Blenheim IF x 5
Blenheim IV x 4
Hudson I x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 1 destroyed


Japanese ground losses:
6 casualties reported

Runway hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x Blenheim IV bombing at 3000 feet
8 x Hudson I bombing at 3000 feet
5 x Blenheim IF bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Georgetown , at 23,44

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22
Ki-48 Lily x 18

No Japanese losses

Aircraft Attacking:
9 x Ki-48 Lily bombing at 10000 feet
9 x Ki-48 Lily bombing at 10000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Singapore , at 23,50

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 27
Ki-15 Babs x 1

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 22

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-15 Babs: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 7 destroyed, 3 damaged

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Penang Fortress, at 23,44

Japanese aircraft
Ki-51 Sonia x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-51 Sonia: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged


Allied ground losses:
9 casualties reported

Aircraft Attacking:
17 x Ki-51 Sonia bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Singapore , at 23,50

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 19
Ki-21 Sally x 7
Ki-15 Babs x 1

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 3 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 3 destroyed

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 14000 feet
4 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 14000 feet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Georgetown

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 18338 troops, 217 guns, 4 vehicles

Defending force 2183 troops, 16 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 19 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Georgetown base !!!


Japanese ground losses:
11 casualties reported

Allied ground losses:
3123 casualties reported
Guns lost 12

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: Sharkosaurus rex

There is a work-a-round that can place BBs in transport TF.
Create escort mission TF with AP, AK, and have a BB as part of the escort.
change TF mission to transport.
you now have a BB in a transport TF.
Your troop carrying APs now have BB protection.
This kind of swap and change is very gamey.
Hopefully your opponent doesn't use it.
He can of course still use the BB in the traditional follow SC TF.

I can't see this being gamey at all. The fact that the game was designed to not allow BBs in Transport TFs does not mean this was not done historically. And given the rather "generous" CD fire rules, not allowing BBs in Transport TFs is what is questionable, not that a workaround can be used.

[erstad]

Haven't posted for a bit because things have been a little dull. It's now 12/29/41.

Oleg has emptied most of the northern bases (still see 5 units in Johore Bharu, don't know if he plans to stand there or they just haven't made it into Singapore yet), and I've just been moving down, taking bases. Next turn is my first attack against Johore Bharu, I'll post that.

A few tactical victories for Oleg. His torpedo bombers took out a CL that was escorting a minesweeping TF at Mersing, I wasn't careful enough with CAP. Probably lose a DD too. Also, he's snuck 2 single ship AP TFs into Singapore; I hit one while unloading but not the other one. I've got a Mavis squadron in Mersing now, maybe I'll get enough warning that my nav attack planes will actually attack before he gets to Singapore.

5 Div is in Johore Bharu, 18 Div is unloading at Kuala Lumpur (decided to sealift them around the peninsula), other infantry is mostly in Saigon drinking sake. My BBs are in port at Kuala Lumpur. Oh, did I mention I paradropped into Mersing? Gives me a nice base for recon and CAP, although if any more TFs sneak in without being spotted more than one or two hexes away, I'll wonder if I shouldn't have taken Jambi or even Toboali (think that starts empty).

Here's a screenshot. Note he's got a PT TF just outside Singapore. Got a couple fighter squadrons on low altitude naval attack to see if I can clear them out before they do any damage.

[Sharkosaurus rex]

As the Allies I have sent nearly all the units in Malaya to Singapore to recover from disablements and malaria. The Allies start with virtually all their forces with 50% disabled. And any units defeated on the northern beaches are even worse. A few turns in Singapore will repair the guns, but the infantry squads and support take a bit longer as there is more of them. Now you can put them back out on Johore Bharu. And then swap out the ones presently there. And then commit them depending on how the battle goes. Of course you don't want to be retreated out of JB. But you can gain many turns before your withdrawal- you only wanted to delay him. Another benefit of putting most of your forcing in Singapore early is that the Japs will bomb Singapore- giving the JB forces a chance to build up some forts (it starts at 5). Also if the Japs are stuck in JB they are still in the malaria zone. And if the Japs have taken some losses and disablements with fatigue too, it will take them longer to recover before ther crossing to Singapore And with the 1.6 shock attack river crossing-many Jap players will wait a bit longer than before. . When the Japs start to bomb JB, this gives Singapore some time to finish off any forts it has started. (And maybe a few planes could return to Singapore at this stage.) And another benefit of fighting in JB is that most Jap players will have set nearly all their forces with Singapore as their objective- so won't have any preparation points for the battles in JB. While in JB your forces are exposed to naval bombardments- but if you saved your torpedo bombers from not attacking in the Gulf of Siam they could get a few hits in the straits. Also the RN base unit has some mobile 6in CD units in Singapore and they can be moved to JB to at least reply to the Jap ships. Though I haven't don't it- there is a Dutch CD unit in Batavia (and Tarakan)- a determined Allied player could sneak them into Singapore-recover their malaria and moved them to JB as well- they could help a little as well.