My war against Gen.Hoepner

[Tom Hunter]

I begin to think that Hoepner handed you an opportunity when he lost so much stuff at Java.

He will not be able to organize a force powerful enough to hit back while you are working on Russia. That is a huge benefit.

For contrast look at my build up in New Caledonia. If we assume your invasion of Russia starts in May it will certainly take more than 30 days to finish the place off. If you look at my lunacy AAR you can see a lot of detail about the force that could come after Japan in the South Pacific.

Then you have the choice of responding there and weakening the Russian offensive or not responding and watching the Allies advance. But it will take Hoepner until August to reach the force levels I have in June, so you are pretty safe. Also his surface combat fleet is very weak right now which is another big bonus for you.

[hawker]

Tom,

He placed some 60 units on Jawa,big time mistake. He is weak in other places. I am bring to Jawa everything,21,5,18,imp.guards,38,4,56,guards div. from Japan,all regiments,all tank regiments,all eng.units. Jawa will be short work[;)].
I know he cant launch any offensive in south pacific for lets say 6 months. I have 2nd div. and SSD stationed in south pacific and many betty bombers.Recon planes (emilly) is in Rabaul,PM,and Lunga to give me early warning. I feel pretty safe,everything is going weel except China[:(]

[mc3744]

Judging from this game and from my game with GH, I'd say that GH is much better on the offensive.

Which is good right now. But watch out, never underestimate him.
I think he is a very good attacker, despite his defensive mistakes (or at least that's how I see them).

He has however lost a lot of assests, maybe some too many [;)]

[hawker]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 04/21/42

I beign bussy several days,now i will bring back to life this AAR.

JAWA

My troops has reach Medioen and start first deliberate attack.I manage to crush one fort,but only 0-1 ratio.I think Medioen should fall within 5 days.
Here is complete list of troops engaged in Jawa:

HQ:
-Southern area army
-25th army
-14th army
-5th air division
-23rd air flotilla
-22nd air flotilla
-21st air flotilla

INFANTRY:

-38th div.
-Imperial guards
-5th div.
-4th div.
-48th div.
-21st div.
-1st guards mixed bde
-18th div.
-16th div.
-4th mixed bde
-35th bde
-56th bde
-23rd mixed bde
-21st mixed bde
-4th mixed bde

ARMOUR:

-2,4,6,7,14 tank regiment

ENGINERS:

-four enginer regiments

ARTILLERY:

-eight artillery units

I have 500 LB and 300 fighters stationed in Batavia.
It is almost half a milion men in Jawa.
I bring all this troops there becouse i must take Jawa asap,liberate those divisions before attack on Russia. I will need perfect timing.
KB is sent to Japan,carriers will be repaired and upgraded,some aircraft will go on training missions. I pick Ise for Shokaku(14 sys)repair yard. Some destroyers will be upgraded also.

[Tom Hunter]

"I will need perfect timing. " -Hawker

Your right about that, there are certain similarities between this game and my Lunacy game with Mogami. One is that if the Japanese fall behind the Allies can catch up really quickly. I think that was a critical problem for Mogami, he needed to get troops onto New Caledonia quickly and Manila's long siege prevented that.

[hawker]

AAR for 22.04-28.04. 1942

DEI

Mighty Japanese troops crush another fort in Medioen (initially forts are at 7). He now have fort level of 4. Troops will rest one day and then deliberate again,In ten days all must be over.
Bombarders from Batavia regulary bombard his position every day.
Sumatra is conquered except one base. AF in Sabang almost reach level 4,then my bettys will be stationed there to take control of Bengal bay.
I did a great surprise attack on Koepang[:D]. He transfers bombers that he used in Jawa to Koepang and left there only one base force. Imperial command see the oportunity and transfers 3 para units to Celebes. All this is doing in great secrecy. I quicly gather 140 transports in Celebes and lunch attack on Koepang with paras. Action was succes and we take the base,more than 100 allied aircraft destroyed on field[:D].

Ground combat at Madioen

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 294928 troops, 2518 guns, 605 vehicles

Defending force 75057 troops, 645 guns, 453 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 4

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


Japanese ground losses:
5996 casualties reported
Guns lost 132
Vehicles lost 17

Allied ground losses:
3661 casualties reported
Guns lost 103
Vehicles lost 10


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA

I am stuck in Moulmein becouse lack of troops,that will be changed after Jawa.He has 30 units there[X(]. After Jawa i will sent some reinforcements only to maintain status quo. I just cant fight everywhere.

JAPAN

Home islands is oversupplied[8D]. KB is resting and repairing in Maizuru,Ise,Osaka,Tokio and Nagasaki.

RUSSIA

I gather 7000+APs for attack on Vladivostok. Less than two week and we launch "Operation Barbarossa"

I will soon post some maps with strategic evaluations.

[hawker]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/02/42

DEI

My land DS crush yet another fort at Medioen. Fort level is now 2,tomorrows deliberate attack will destroy Medioen. However,my air forces in Jawa will bombard place tommorow and then i will reassigned them to Russia. I want bombard Vladivostok 10.5 to pieces. All bombers along with fighters will be transfer to Russia.

Day Air attack on Madioen , at 22,65 (Storm over Medioen)

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 54
Ki-21 Sally x 237
Ki-48 Lily x 80
Ki-49 Helen x 52
Ki-46-II Dinah x 17

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 4 damaged
Ki-48 Lily: 6 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 1 damaged


Allied ground losses:
210 casualties reported
Guns lost 7

Airbase hits 26
Airbase supply hits 29
Runway hits 373
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Madioen

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 285073 troops, 2240 guns, 578 vehicles

Defending force 23969 troops, 127 guns, 106 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 2)


Japanese ground losses:
475 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Vehicles lost 6

Allied ground losses:
1233 casualties reported[:D]
Guns lost 37
Vehicles lost 11
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RUSSIA

Preparations for attack is almost complete. I gather 7000APs for initial attack along with PDU make Oscars(150). He cannot confront me in Russia,those units will fight untill Jawa units came.

JAPAN

150 zeros is already in Japan airfields ready to be sent in Russia. KB is repairing well,before the end of year i will have my CVs upgraded and ready for battle.
BB Yamato will be delivered in 17 days[;)].

Soon,i will post overall picture.

[hawker]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/07/42


After long hollidays we are back to game.

MALAYA-SUMATRA

Everything is quiet here.Brave Japanese soldiers crush last allied base in Sumatra.
Whole island is liberated.
Singapore is growing and will be turn to powerfull strongpoint.

JAWA

Battle for Jawa is close to end,after Medioen tommorow will fall last base before Soserbaya.
Half a milion Japanese soldiers is here. Every two days Soserbaya is bombarded by BB fleet under command of Raizo Tanaka.
Casulties is very high for allies,every turn of bombardment-6000 disabled men in Soserbaya and noumerous supply points.

CHINA

Complete mess!I will try to hold the ground while battle for Jawa finnish.

PACIFIC

Totally quiet,Japanese enginers building strongpoints here

RUSSIA

Two days before attack!!
10.5.1942 1500 planes will hit Vladivostok. First attack must be without mercy.
I manage to collect 8000+ APs on Russia border.

Soon,i will post ship losses.

[Tom Hunter]

Glad you two are back at it, always an interesting read.

[hawker]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/08/42

Today,Malang fall. Only strongpoint left is Soserbaya.
He has 65 units there,maybe someone will calculate how much VP for them[:D][:D][:D].

Ground combat at Malang

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 276552 troops, 2272 guns, 614 vehicles

Defending force 1857 troops, 8 guns, 1 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 3

Japanese assault odds: 11688 to 1 (fort level 3)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Malang base !!!



Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
TBD Devastator: 1 destroyed

Japanese ground losses:
6 casualties reported

Allied ground losses:
412 casualties reported
Guns lost 3
Vehicles lost 1


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SHIPS LOSSES

ALLIED

BB -1
CA -10
CL -10
CLAA -1
DD -32
AP/AK-49
TK/AO-5
SS -22
PT -21
PG -2
MSW -9
ML -1
AVD -2
AV -1
AS -2

JAPANESE

DD -7
AP/AK-17
TK/AO-6
SS -21
PG -2
MSW -26
ML -4

[hawker]

Disaster!!
Not becouse my mistake and not becouse GH good play.
Two days in the row not a single plain take off from Mutankiang to attack Vladivostok.Weather is very good and still this damn plains dont want to take off.
Attack is ruined completely,everything is depending on these planes.
Looks like i have to0 big opponent-GAME ENGINE and BUGS!!!.
I am furious,months of careful planning-all for nothing.
If planes start flying now,it doesnt matter anymore-ITS TOO LATE.

[pauk]

i guess that you have all requirements:

level size * 50 planes (no overloading with ac)
enough of supply
Air HQ present...

What you described happends to me also quite a often....

[hawker]

Hi Pauk,
Its little overloaded but i have 3x supply needed and two air brigade HQ

[hawker]

In Batavia I have 1000 planes and they are flying.

[Andy Mac]

I assume morale is high fatigue is low and that despite the weather forcast the AF wasnt closed by a freak tornado ?

I also assume you have sufficient fighters to escort your bombers and that the aircraft are ordered to a non ground attack mission i.e. AF attack ?

Andy

[hawker]

Ansy,
I have 300 fighters on escort,morale 99(last month these fighters only fly training missions)
Bombers are set to AF attack.
Weather is perfect.

[hawker]

Pardon on mistake of spelling your nick Andy.I am so furious,i didnt do spellcheck.

[invernomuto]

Ansy,
I have 300 fighters on escort,morale 99(last month these fighters only fly training missions)
Bombers are set to AF attack.
Weather is perfect.

It happens to me too. The planes simply refuse to take off for no reason. Supply is OK, weather is clear and all the requirements seems (at least to me) to be ok. But what really upset me is the fact that the game DO NOT tell why the planes do not take off. It would be sufficient a short message in the operation reports, like "air group XY does not take off from Batavia because of insufficent supply reqirements". Next turn I would try to fix the problem. The game instead tells noting and you have to guess where the problem is, losing precious time (time for japan is the most valuabel resource).

Bye

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: hawker

Disaster!!
Not becouse my mistake and not becouse GH good play.
Two days in the row not a single plain take off from Mutankiang to attack Vladivostok.Weather is very good and still this damn plains dont want to take off.
Attack is ruined completely,everything is depending on these planes.
Looks like i have to0 big opponent-GAME ENGINE and BUGS!!!.
I am furious,months of careful planning-all for nothing.
If planes start flying now,it doesnt matter anymore-ITS TOO LATE.

Fundamentally, NEVER count upon an LBA attack to be the "key" to some operation. The only time that you can count on LBA or any other air attacks is on the very first turn of a game because the weather is always set to "clear" on the first turn.

I think that next game I start I will insist on having "advanced weather effects" set to "off".

Take care -

Dave Baranyi

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: hawker

In Batavia I have 1000 planes and they are flying.

[8|]