The Italian Job (2) - Comments from the Allies

[mc3744]

May 22nd, 1942

INDIA-BURMA
Total air supremacy has been achieved … so far.
Oil and resource bombings have started and the pilots training is back to daylight.
I’m airlifting the 222 RAF (270 AS) to Akyab, engineers are on their way too.
Minesweeping operations have started from DH.
Subs, additional MSW’s, ML’s and AS are en route to DH and Chandpur.

CHINA
Thousands of Japanese planes [X(] are bombing my units, just about everywhere.
Supplies are to a minimum in each base. The situation looks grim.
Reinforcements to Chungking are almost there. The main problem, however, will be the surrounding Japanese units. No doubt those (28) LCU’s will not all go for Chungking and with the bizarre game ZOC rules it may be difficult, if not impossible to disentangle.
Chinese can play defence, but they can’t attack. I can keep a hex, I cannot clear it.
I’m trying to think a back-up plan, but none come to mind.

AUSTRALIA
The closer I get the better the recon.
The Japanese are spread out, they are afraid I’ll be playing their game, which I will.
My guess is that those are small units, Naval Garrisons or, at worst, Rgt’s and split Divisions. No way he can have so many forces there.
In the picture you can see the actual force disposition.
I have one more division (5) hexes away.
Here’s the plan.
(2) Div + (2) Bde + (1) Tank + (1) HQ will engage Daly’s forces. Aim: keep them engaged without being pushed back.
(3) Div + (3) Bde + (2) Tank + (1) HQ will split in two encircling groups.
(1) Bde plus the incoming Div will take care of clearing enemy units trying to break the encirclement or to cut my supply lines.
Any suggestion will be highly appreciated!

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Operation Freedom

[Kereguelen]

India/China:
Seems that he has withdrawn his planes from Burma. No wonder that you see lots of Japanese planes in China now. Chungking: His approaching forces should not have enough supplies coming along (even if his China Command HQ marches together with his troops). This should slow them down somewhat. If you manage to put some blocking forces in the hexes that he'll use for encirclement, even one Chinese corps should be enough to throw any Japanese flanking troops back. But you'll have to improve your supply situation somehow, use every available plane to transport supplies to China, even British bombers (trains them nearly as well as bombing Rangoon). China is much more important than Burma (the main use of Burma is to get supplies to China, if he invades India he'll come over the sea). If you somehow manage to rout this 28 LCU stack, these troops will need a long time to recover. It all depends on supplies...

Australia:
I would not count on encountering only weak forces as flank-guards near Daly. Japan has some tank units under Southern Area command. If they're not in Burma or the PI, they'll be in Australia. But your 5 divisons are a strong force and should be enough to get the upper hand. But who guards Brisbane, Sydney and Townsvile now? As soon as he'll become aware of your strength at Daly these locations will become endangered.

K

[mc3744]

Hi Ker,

Thanks for the inputs! [:)]

CHINA
The idea of using bombers to supply China is good indeed! The medium ones are not good anyway for city attack.
The exp is not a problem most of the bomber crews are already 75+ exp.
I'm not sure my Chinese unit can fight back the incoming Japs, but I'll give it a try.

AUSTRALIA
His tank Rgt cannot stop a full division, I know he has at least (3), but I'm more worried by his divisions. And I have tanks too.
The East Coast is not as strong as I wished, but I still have there (3) divisions, (6) Bde, plus ART, CD, ENG and hundreds of planes he'd have to get through.
He is heavily engaged in China, Australia and PI. Not enough troops to come to Eastern Australia.
Once he gets rid of Manila, then it'll be a problem. I don't know why he doesn't try to attack. They wouldn't last a week.

[Bliztk]

Given the WitP land movement mechanics, it`s better only to outflank him at Daly using only a very strong flank, send a "fake" manouver for the other side.

He will not be able to react to your movements in time for a redeployment

[mc3744]

ORIGINAL: Bliztk

Given the WitP land movement mechanics, it`s better only to outflank him at Daly using only a very strong flank, send a "fake" manouver for the other side.

He will not be able to react to your movements in time for a redeployment

Hey Bliztk, [:)]

It's a good idea, the thing is that I don't want only to outflank him, I actually need to surround him.
Either he runs for it before the encirclement or remains trapped. Once/if he is trapped he has to stay so, hence I need to be able to keep the net on both sides.

[mc3744]

Quick update.

The situation in China is deteriorating too quickly. [:-]
All the Japanese Air force is there.
Not one base is now fully supplied.
I've decided something needs to be done, something drastic.

I'm going to counter-attack in Burma. I know very well that it's too early, but I must draw some of his assets back to that theater, I can't reconquer Burma, but I can force him to commit more troops and planes ... or loose it.
Several units have just received the new movement orders.
If necessary I'll engage the RN too. China is collapsing.

[Bliztk]

If I`m correct if you make the Japanese retreat and pursue they will retreat towards Darwin

So if you get a pinning force in the other flank and another in Daly you will be behind Daly after you expel the Japanese from one flank.

A unit cannot move from enemy ZoC to enemy ZoC thus he has to retire towards the nearest supply source not Daly Waters, so he should go north towards Darwin.

[mc3744]

Hi Bliztk,

I need to clear both flank.
Unless I own every hex around Daly he can escape selecting Darwin as destination.
That's why I need to be strong on both flanks.
He is concentrating more troops on the sides. But that allows me to send in Daly a smaller force.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

[String]

Actually, I'd suggest routing him and pushing him back to Darwin. Yes he will be able to save his units (or atleast fragments) but you will more or less destroy them anyway. Surrounding and killing them off will take a lot of time, perhaps long enough for the japs to bring in reinforcements.

[mc3744]

Hi String,

I wish I could kick him out of Daly, but I'm not strong enough.
I have slightly more men than he does. Report tells me some 70-100k Japs.
I have a bit more than 100k. Better units probably (all INF and ARM, with good exp) but not enough to face him in a fortified base.
That's why I want to go around Daly. I need to get him pinned down in Daly with half of my force. The rest will go for Darwin, where he'll probably have no more than 10-20k men.
If this works, he is cut out of supplies and I can slowly finish him off.
If it doesn't ... I'll have to retreat, regroup and come back with more troops. And possibly he'll have won the game [:(]

PI will also play a major role. If he finishs off Manila and brings those units to Australia I'm toast.
I have to go for it real fast.

[mc3744]

May 27th, 1942

INDIA-BURMA
The Japanese have lost all the interest for this theater.
I'm moving the attacking units into position. I must force him to bring more troops in.

CHINA [:(]
From bad to worse.
A Japanese attack between Canton and Wuchow had my forces (5 divisions and 2 HQ) retreat towards Pakhoi and not Wuchow.
They were already moving vs. Wuchow, but the AI - in all its wisdom - sent them across a river to retreat!!!! [:@]
Now Wuchow is defended only by (4) divisions.
Ichang is now encircled, albeit by only one unit and since it has been at zero supplies for the last two months I see little difference.
Overall it's looking really bad.

DEI
He has eventually started to attack Manila. Fortifications are falling. It will fall in one week tops.

PACIFIC [:(]
The usual Death Star (I found a CAP of 133 Zero's![X(]) is coming to take Christmas Is.. I started to build it up a couple of weeks ago. I thought he was satisfied with CENPAC, obviously he is not. Everytime it's a D-Day. [8|]
Once again little I can do. In the picture the units there. Not much, some 10k men, but it feels bad anyway.
Maybe the 1.500 mines will hit something.
The Fiji Bn in Suva is holding [;)], not for long but he wasn't expecting it.

STRATEGIC OVERVIEW
I'm loosing the war, plain and simple.

[String]

You still have 6 months to reverse the situation, more than enough.

[Tom Hunter]

Never title your posts with something like losing the war, Hoepner can read the title, in fact it's impossible for him to miss when he checks the board, and he can see your moral is suffering.

Go read an AAR the Allies are winning for some inspiration.

I'm going crazy waiting for a combat replay, Revenge and Royal Sovereign should plow into multiple Japanese transport TFs off Kuantan today, but so far nothing has come back.

[jwilkerson]

Changing title [:D]

[anarchyintheuk]

With the exception of China situation and the big question of what Hoepner decides to do with those PI divisions I would think things look pretty good: no serious naval losses (altho my memory may be off in that regard), no more than usual lcu losses, no catastrophic air losses, Burma/India in great shape, the potential to turn northern Australia into a graveyard and p-38s aren't that far away.

[BPRE]

And you should hear the complaints from Hoepner in some of his posts. Take alook at Dude vs Zeta Hirohito style if you want to see how things can change.

Keep on fighting
BPRE

[mc3744]

Hey? Thanks for the support! [&o] [&o]

The morale is indeed low right now. [:(]

Ok. let me take the chance for a brief overview.

AIR LOSSES
1.900 : 2.600 in my favor. This is obviously the best part.
Especially because it gets better every day.

NAVAL LOSSES
144 : 52 in his favor.
Main assets I lost: (1) BB + (1) CA + (6) CL
This is average, nobody lost much.

GROUND LOSSES
10.000 : 250 in his favor. [:-]
This is where I'm loosing badly. I lost (2) full US divisions in CENPAC. Unbelievable!

BASES
Northern Australia! First time I loose it.
I don't need to read AAR's where the Allies are doing all right. [:@] I'm doing all right in all my other games but this one!
I mean: Australia!!! Has any of you ever lost it? [:(]

China, if I loose Chungking it's 4.000 PPs gone, I'm going to loose to auto victory. No matter what. The game will go on, but morally it'll be a total defeat.
If he gets most of China he will be playing defence and I can forget recovering the points.
There's one theater only where I'm doing all right: India-Burma. It's not enough.

I'm not giving up, no way. But it's a difficult time.

[kaiser73]

First of all, get moral high.

You are not doing bad.
Burma looks good.
Northern Australia is useless. You didn't lose Australia. You lost some useless bases that with Andrews map is almost impossible to defend. And in Australia you have chance to damage him.
You saved your CV and held Noumea.

Except China you doing well. But let's be honest: china is hard to defend if Japan concentrate on it. and usually it's up to good will of the Japanese player.

how are you on points?

[mc3744]

Kaiser, you are being to benign with me [:)]
I've made some bad mistakes in CENPAC and in Timor. Had I moved the Dutch units to Darwin and not to Timor the situation now would be totally different.

May 29th, 1942

INDIA-BURMA
No news. I started bombing the oil in Rangoon.
Very soon there won’t be any more oil or resources in Burma.
I’ll then switch to hitting his bases and troops to prepare for the attack.

CHINA
Chungking is now at 1500 AV and more units will be there soon. Hence I think it is no longer in immediate danger. The flanks are also – lightly – protected.
The supplies airlifted from India are helping a bit.
It’s a very unstable situation, it could crumble any time or it could hold long enough to cause him some problems in Burma.

AUSTRALIA
(1) hex from Daly. The Day is coming.
Never knew Central Australia was so rainy. It must be a swamp. Two nights out of three my bombers cannot take off due to the bad weather! [X(]
Aviation Rgt’s are unloading in Townsville and Sidney. That’s to make sure I can fly the hundreds planes I have, should he ever decide to make another surprise.

CENPAC
Some interesting news here.
It seems that after (2) MSW’s and (1) PC sank trying to clear the mines at Christmas (thanks to the good guys of the CD Marine Defence Bn [&o]) he is withdrawing. Or at least waiting for reinforcements. [:D]
Maybe he is eventually stretched thin. I’m moving in a RCT from SF, it’ll take a week or so, but I could make it.
Probably he no longer has several divisions available for CENPAC, hence good fortifications, coastal guns, mines and a few good soldiers can do the job.
I’m also unloading in Bora Bora a US Rgt. With the CD and ENG already there they can make sure that he cannot take it with little effort.
Basically it’s the same in Fiji. The Defence Bn with fortifications at (5) – almost (6) - is holding a Japanese Bde off. And we are talking of a pitiful force. [8D]

One ‘lost’ tanker TF showed up nearby Tarawa! I must have missed them. I’ve split the TF, one TK has been sunk already. I could loose another (9). [:(]

VP SITUATION
As you can see in the picture he is at 18.000, I’m at 5.900.
However Suva will be a +675 for him, Manila a -1.200 for me and a plus for him of approx. 70k men lost.
Therefore in a few days the VPs will be around 19.000 – 4.700.
China will become critical.

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[String]

How much transports do you have transporting supplies to China? Are there any more to spare from other parts of the map? I'd also try sending a single AK to Pakhoi loaded with supplies around Java or somewhere, where he probably won't have many planes on naval search. Chances are that it'll make it through, and if it won't .. well.. it will give our good mate Tojo something to think about