Burns vs. Yubari, CHS scenario 158 version 2.08c

[Jim D Burns]

2 Mar. 42

Japanese subs sink two more of the crippled AK’s trying to get back to Townsville. No Japanese air attacks this turn, so they’ve managed to get out of range of the air threat, but there’s only a couple ships left now. The two undamaged sailboats will make port, but if the subs strike again next turn, it looks like the rest of the fleet is going to the bottom.

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Sub attack at 48,96

Japanese Ships
SS RO-63

Allied Ships
AK Matafele, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
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Sub attack at 49,98

Japanese Ships
SS I-16

Allied Ships
AK Balus, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
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A large Japanese air strike hits Soerabaja this turn and causes moderate damage to the base. A few more attacks like these and my field will be closed, forcing me to rebase back to Madioen.

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Day Air attack on Soerabaja , at 23,66

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 18
G3M Nell x 73
C5M Babs x 5
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 21
Ki-15 Babs x 2

Allied aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Martin 139: 4 destroyed


Allied ground losses:
27 casualties reported

Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 23

Aircraft Attacking:
15 x G3M Nell bombing at 12000 feet
<snip>
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In Burma I’ve rebased the AVG back to Mandalay in preparation of sending them to China once all their damaged planes are repaired. Hurricane IIb’s have taken over the task of defending Rangoon and the ground strikes, and they escort their first raid of the war against the construction battalion along the trail one hex from Taung Gyi.

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Day Air attack on 7th AF Construction Battalion, at 33,32


Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 9
Blenheim IV x 34
A-24 Dauntless x 13


No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
88 casualties reported

Aircraft Attacking:
13 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
<snip>
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Japan launches a deliberate attack at Singapore and again fails to take the base or reduce the forts. With the experience of the allied ground units now in the 68-76 range, I think a critical baseline has been crossed and Japan will not be able to storm Singapore, even though I’ve removed an entire brigade plus other units from the base now.



I mentioned to my opponent that my units are now fighting much better due to their increased experience and he will need to bring in a couple more regiments of engineers if he wishes to reduce the forts. Also my units are nearing or at 100% prep for the base now.

On New Guinea Japan takes both Salamaua and Buna today, thus consolidating his hold there. At Salamaua the remnants of the NGVR battalion are forced to retreat into the mountains to the southwest. Luckily I had managed to air lift out almost 2/3rds of the unit to Australia and only 6 disabled support squads now remain to die of starvation.

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Ground combat at Salamaua

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 1464 troops, 12 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 41

Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1

Japanese max assault: 42 - adjusted assault: 22

Allied max defense: 0 - adjusted defense: 1

Japanese assault odds: 22 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Salamaua base !!!



Defeated Allied Units Retreating!
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Ground combat at Buna

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 1340 troops, 10 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 37

Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 0

Japanese max assault: 38 - adjusted assault: 39

Allied max defense: 0 - adjusted defense: 1

Japanese assault odds: 39 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Buna base !!!
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The remnants of the units forced to retreat from Port Moresby have been busy marching towards Dobodura and are about 35-40 miles towards that base. I figured Japan would take Buna, so I sent them to the dot base instead in hopes I can air lift some of them out too before they vanish from starvation. Let’s hope he doesn’t garrison Dobodura too.

Jim

[Gen.Hoepner]

He should concentrate more bombers on Singapore now. With these odds he cannot hope to take Singapore...
Hey Jim...what about placing now the AVG and some bombers there at Singa? He will have to chose rather to close Sosarbaja or Singapore...cannot have both at the same time

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner

He should concentrate more bombers on Singapore now. With these odds he cannot hope to take Singapore...
Hey Jim...what about placing now the AVG and some bombers there at Singa? He will have to chose rather to close Sosarbaja or Singapore...cannot have both at the same time

I actually considered doing this with the AVG, but supplies at the base are orange now and will soon be in the red. It's very possible my adjusted AV will suffer a big hit for inadequate supplies and the base would unexpectedly fall, I didn’t want to risk my best pilots.

I may bring down some British Hurricanes and place them there for a turn or two, but his raids in the area are still pretty large. I'll have to time an ambush after several intense turns of air losses from my flak. Hopefully his fighters will then be fatigued and I'll get a good loss ratio.

I’ll stage some more Hurricane groups into Rangoon next turn and set them to rest for a few turns, after that, I’ll go for an ambush.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

3 Mar. 42

US sub SS Tambor arrives at Saipan and puts a torp into the side of a Japanese AK. Japanese ASW attempts fail to locate the sub and it slinks away to hunt for prey at other Japanese ports in the area.

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Sub attack near Saipan at 64,64

Japanese Ships
AK Ryujin Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
PG Kyo Maru #10
PG Kyo Maru #8

Allied Ships
SS Tambor
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Singapore and Madioen both get hit by Japanese air raids today. Damage to both bases is light, but 6 airbase supply hits on Madioen hurt. I don’t think I’ve seen more than 3 airbase supply hits scored at either Manila or Singapore yet, why is the bombing so effective at Madioen?

No way can Soerabaja produce enough supply to keep up with that kind of attrition. Looks like Java won’t be the new Manila after all.

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Day Air attack on Singapore , at 22,51

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 19
Ki-21-II Sally x 13
Ki-48-I Lily x 37
Ki-49 Helen x 14
Ki-15 Babs x 5

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-48-I Lily: 4 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 3 damaged


Allied ground losses:
55 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Airbase hits 5
Runway hits 12

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x Ki-48-I Lily bombing at 18000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on Madioen , at 22,65

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 17
G3M Nell x 77
C5M Babs x 3
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 21

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed, 7 damaged


Allied ground losses:
54 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 32

Aircraft Attacking:
20 x G3M Nell bombing at 12000 feet
<snip>
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Not much else to report this turn. I am becoming a bit concerned over a situation developing in China. For some reason my troops at Canton and Ichang have not pulled supplies for quite some time. Some troops at Ichang are almost completely out now.

There are no ZOC issues that would explain this, and Canton is along a road/rail net, so it isn’t cross country issues either. If these two attacks do not pull some supply soon, I’ll have to retreat.

For the first few months they have had no problem pulling supplies, but now they won’t pull any, even though there are more supplies at nearby bases then before. It also appears the two blocking forces east of Changsha have stopped as well, but they haven’t dropped enough yet for me to confirm this yet.

Jim

[Gen.Hoepner]

Sometimes troops in China do this...they do not get supplies for a while, then, all of a sudden, they get all they need...it's a kind of mistery to me.
However how many troops d'u have at Canton? If enough he should not be able to push you out anyway due to the urban defensive bonus...

[Jim D Burns]

4 Mar. 42

At Cairns the last crippled AK from my suicide task force is torpedoed and sunk by Japanese sub I-16. The two undamaged AK’s are now in port at Townsville and one crippled MSW remains at sea at Cairns. I’ve ordered 3 MSW from Townsville to patrol/do not retire in an ASW task force that will follow the crippled MSW to Sydney.

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Sub attack near Cairns at 48,102

Japanese Ships
SS I-16

Allied Ships
AK Bingera, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
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Japan bombs two KNIL rgts at Madioen in preparation for a ground attack this turn. Damage from the bombardments is significant and I was alarmed to see Japans adjusted AV almost equaled my own, and the allies again took heavier casualties than Japan.

It looks like the low experience of the Dutch troops is going to make a real difference on Java, I may not be able to hold out for very long after all if our AV’s keep moving towards each other. Thankfully no fort levels were reduced, else I think the end would be very close.

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Day Air attack on 2nd KNIL Regiment, at 22,65

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 17
G3M Nell x 24
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 2

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed, 5 damaged


Allied ground losses:
39 casualties reported

Aircraft Attacking:
12 x G3M Nell bombing at 12000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on 4th KNIL Regiment, at 22,65

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 41

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed, 8 damaged


Allied ground losses:
90 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Aircraft Attacking:
15 x G3M Nell bombing at 12000 feet
<snip>
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The remnants of the Dutch airforce made themselves felt this turn. After several turns of rest to help recover their morale, they finally launched some air strikes on Japanese naval units near Java. The morning strike hit a TK and later in the day another strike hit a PC.

A tiny 3 bomber strike at the other spotted task force missed the AK it attacked.



The first Japanese bombardment of Moulmein occurred this turn. A small flight of 13 Nell’s caused minor damage to the base. Given the number of escorts, I think this mission was an attempt to catch some CAP overflow fighters from Rangoon. Thankfully none were over the base, or all of them would have been lost I’m sure.

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Day Air attack on Moulmein , at 30,34

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 18
G3M Nell x 13
Ki-27 Nate x 31
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

No Japanese losses

Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 4

Aircraft Attacking:
9 x G3M Nell bombing at 13000 feet
<snip>
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Japan launched its first deliberate attack on the now isolated town of Wenchow. I’m happy with the results, it appears he’ll need more than just the 2 divisions he has there now to win the day. Of course we lost a fort level, so things may look a lot different once they’re completely gone.

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Ground combat at Wenchow

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 40362 troops, 182 guns, 12 vehicles, Assault Value = 935

Defending force 16174 troops, 71 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 470

Japanese max assault: 903 - adjusted assault: 357

Allied max defense: 488 - adjusted defense: 334

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

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 2


Japanese ground losses:
1086 casualties reported
Guns lost 13
Vehicles lost 3

Allied ground losses:
161 casualties reported
Guns lost 3
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Jim

[Jim D Burns]

5 Mar. 42

Another slow day in the war today. Both Singapore and Madioen get hit from the air today. Damage isn’t too bad and Japan loses 3 bombers over Singapore.

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Day Air attack on Singapore , at 22,51

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 14
Ki-21-II Sally x 16
Ki-48-I Lily x 34
Ki-49 Helen x 15
Ki-15 Babs x 5

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21-II Sally: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged
Ki-48-I Lily: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged


Allied ground losses:
10 casualties reported

Runway hits 9

Aircraft Attacking:
8 x Ki-48-I Lily bombing at 18000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on Madioen , at 22,65

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 14
G3M Nell x 21
G4M1 Betty x 20
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 3 damaged


Allied ground losses:
21 casualties reported

Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 20

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 11000 feet
<snip>
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At Manila Japan only bombed ground units today, so it looks like he’s gearing up for another attack in a turn or two.

On Borneo the heroic Dutch garrison at Bandjermasin is finally forced to retreat from the base. Both units retreat east and are immediately given orders to march back to the base.

Amazingly after all the fighting these two units did, they’re both only in the low 40’s for experience.

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Ground combat at Bandjermasin

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 1866 troops, 12 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 55

Defending force 1246 troops, 2 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 8

Japanese max assault: 51 - adjusted assault: 23

Allied max defense: 6 - adjusted defense: 10

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

Japanese forces CAPTURE Bandjermasin base !!!


Japanese ground losses:
39 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Allied ground losses:
8 casualties reported


Defeated Allied Units Retreating!
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SIGINT this turn reports the Japanese 53rd Division aboard an AK heading to Rabaul. With the 2nd Division and South Seas Det. recently taking Port Moresby, that’s three large combat units know known to be in the Solomon’s area.



If I had to guess I’d say Nomeua is the eventual target here. Lunga and Tulagi still need to be taken, but I don’t think two divisions are needed for that. My guess is he’ll leave the South Seas detachment at Port Moresby and bring the 2nd and 53rd Divisions to Nomeua.

Southwest Pacific recently got some long range lightning recon planes. I’ve just based them at Cooktown and started recon flights over New Guinea. Hopefully I’ll get a fuller picture of things in a few turns.

Jim

[Gen.Hoepner]

IMHO PM is a double hedge sword for Japan. If he doesn't go further in taking Oz (which i seriously doubt at this stage) he will be forced to keep a large air and land force at PM. And in the long run, when you'll have developed the eastern oz coastal bases and Thursday Island, he will have to face hordes of bombers&nbsp; at PM. His land units will be trapped there and so his air forces.
In this game the strategic value of PM is just to extend the defensive perimeter of Rabaul, but can cost a great price in terms of assets and, above all, will condamn Japan to a static defence, while till 43 the strenght of japan is the mobility.
&nbsp;
Jim, how do you judge the changes made in this CHS scenario in order to make CAP less efficient? I have to say that i haven't seen any real difference till now in my game...

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner

IMHO PM is a double hedge sword for Japan. If he doesn't go further in taking Oz (which i seriously doubt at this stage) he will be forced to keep a large air and land force at PM. And in the long run, when you'll have developed the eastern oz coastal bases and Thursday Island, he will have to face hordes of bombers  at PM. His land units will be trapped there and so his air forces.
In this game the strategic value of PM is just to extend the defensive perimeter of Rabaul, but can cost a great price in terms of assets and, above all, will condamn Japan to a static defence, while till 43 the strenght of japan is the mobility.

Jim, how do you judge the changes made in this CHS scenario in order to make CAP less efficient? I have to say that i haven't seen any real difference till now in my game...

I agree PM will be a problem for him in the long run. It is very hard for him to supply, and once I gain air superiority over the base, it’ll start costing him big time.

But Nomeua is a different kettle of fish. If he takes it (and I think he will), he makes getting supplies and troops into Australia very problematic. I’ll have to establish major air bases on NZ and keep a large garrison there to prevent its capture.

The Americal Division is still quite a ways off, so I think I’ll simply send it to NZ. I doubt it and the two tiny units I have on Nomeua now can stand up against 2 Japanese divisions with KB in support.

I am actually disappointed in the air to air part of the mod. It greatly favors Japanese fighters and makes allied fighters obsolete for most of the war. Nik got it wrong on maneuver ratings when he assumed they were not important. They dominate the mod and make any other stat changes he made insignificant.

All they do is decide if a plane gets to shoot in air to air or not. If you watch the air to air battles, you’ll see Japanese planes get about 8-12 shots at your planes for each shot your planes get to shoot. And the Claude’s and Nates are UBER weapons in this mod. They slaughtered my AVG in an even fight, the only time the AVG was able to shoot any down was when the Nates were fatigued from lots of flying. Fresh morale and fresh fatigue and the AVG couldn’t even scratch them.

As to the uber CAP, I doubt any tweaking of the stats can fix the underlying problem with the air to air engine in this game. Once the numbers of fighters get into the hundreds, everything is going to die no matter what you change.

I do love the AAA changes though, I just wish someone would give combat units their intrinsic AAA. It’s still too easy to shatter a combat formation with a single ground strike. I regularly see their disruption go from 5 up to 80+ after one air strike, and I’m sure the allied bombers are doing the same to the Japanese. Most brigades and divisions had some intrinsic AAA guns, they need to be added in to give combat units a chance to withstand ground strikes.

So in the end I give high marks to his AAA mod, but a failing grade in the air to air part of the mod. I may change my mind once we get into 43 and new air frames come online, but from what I can tell Japanese front line fighters will outmatch allied frontline fighters by 6-10 maneuver points for most of the game. The zero bonus was only 5 points at its highest, he basically gave the Japanese an uber bonus for the entire game.

Jim

[Gen.Hoepner]

Yes, what i found is that even if the bombers were given such a great more durability, the lack of mvr. is probably the real key of this A2A model system. I tested 24 P-40Bs of the 1st AVG (70 exp average) against a 27 a/c zero daitai (78 exp average) and the results were discouraging. You should expect maybe a little advantage for the zeros, due to the experience and the more mvr rating, but the result was 15 P40s shot down against only 1 zero....
However i agree: the AA fire is defenetly better, even if i still believe there should be given more power to jap AA units which are still almost useless

[Jim D Burns]

6 Mar. 42

3 Months have officially elapsed in game and it’s time to again look at the air to air losses. To date 251 allied fighters have been lost in air to air engagements. Japan has only lost 25 fighters in air to air engagements, fully a 10-1 kill ratio in Japan’s favor. While the majority of the allied fighters destroyed have been obsolete planes, most of the Japanese kills have been racked up by Nates and Oscars, very few zeroes have been used in air to air at this point.

Overall, Japan has lost 966 air frames to all causes compared to the allies 1042 air frames. That’s just a difference of 76 air frames, so total losses are very close, but over half of Japan’s losses are to flak and many of his op losses are due to planes returning to base and crashing after being damaged by flak. I expect his total losses to decline significantly as the last few allied strong points at Manila, Singapore and Java are reduced in the next month or so. Japan has been taking huge flak losses at these three locations.



Japan smashes Soerabaja from the sea and air this turn, destroying many planes on the ground and rendering the base inoperative. The shore bombardments have taken their toll and the CD guns have little effect anymore.

I’ve rebased the few remaining level bombers to Madioen, there are no more torpedo bombers. I’ll rebase the float plane groups to Australia if/when they recover some operable aircraft. Dutch air on Java is smashed, I doubt they’ll cause any more mischief, but I’ll leave what’s left there to die in hopes they get one more mission off eventually.

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Naval bombardment of Soerabaja, at 23,66 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!


Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
Do 24K-2: 1 destroyed
T.IVa: 2 destroyed
Martin 139: 4 destroyed

9 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 3
CA Atago
BB Yamashiro
BB Fuso


Allied ground losses:
3758 casualties reported
Guns lost 20

Airbase hits 13
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 52
Port supply hits 1
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Day Air attack on Soerabaja , at 23,66

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 14
G3M Nell x 23
G4M1 Betty x 18

Allied aircraft
no flights

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
F.K.51: 1 destroyed
Wirraway: 1 destroyed

Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 27

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 11000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on Soerabaja , at 23,66

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 71
C5M Babs x 5
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 17
Ki-15 Babs x 3

Allied aircraft
no flights

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
T.IVa: 1 destroyed
F.K.51: 1 destroyed

Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 43

Aircraft Attacking:
18 x G3M Nell bombing at 12000 feet
<snip>
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Two Japanese minelayers show up and start clearing the minefield at Wake. I’m hoping one or both will eventually hit some mines, as I’m sure there is at least 400+ mines still there from the 600 or so my DM task force laid about a week or two ago. It would be a bummer if the one AK that was hit a while back is all the mines were good for given the risk my DM’s took laying the field.

Wenchow falls and 18,000 Chinese are massacred in the streets. Having brought a 3rd division into the attack, the city had no chance, hopefully the two corps will rebuild fast once they reappear in Chunking.

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Ground combat at Wenchow

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 60385 troops, 258 guns, 14 vehicles, Assault Value = 1329

Defending force 15961 troops, 69 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 461

Japanese max assault: 1118 - adjusted assault: 795

Allied max defense: 468 - adjusted defense: 160

Japanese assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Wenchow base !!!


Japanese ground losses:
1233 casualties reported
Guns lost 13
Vehicles lost 3

Allied ground losses:
18137 casualties reported
Guns lost 34
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The only bright spot about this is the fact the base has a manpower 3 resource in the hex. That’s more precious resources Japan must feed to a non-production related asset each turn.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

7 Mar. 42

Very slow day today, other than routine bombardments, not a lot to report. To give an idea of how slow it is, I’ve attached the entire combat report. I normally would not do this, but I wanted the readers to see how little there was to talk about today.

Almost everything on the report is a routine daily event. The land combats at Boela are just from remnants from Amboina trying to take the base. They’ll be dead soon.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 03/07/42

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TF 140 encounters mine field at Wake Island (85,72)

Japanese Ships
MSW Shonan Maru #8
MSW Shonan Maru #7
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Day Air attack on Manila , at 43,52

Japanese aircraft
A5M4 Claude x 3
G4M1 Betty x 70
Ki-21-II Sally x 21
Ki-15 Babs x 4

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 3 damaged


Allied ground losses:
724 casualties reported
Guns lost 9
Vehicles lost 2

Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 36

Aircraft Attacking:
11 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 11000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on 4th USAAF Base Force, at 43,52

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 21
G4M1 Betty x 9
Ki-21-II Sally x 36
Ki-49 Helen x 10

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 4 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 1 damaged


Allied ground losses:
164 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Aircraft Attacking:
14 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 9000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on 47th Chinese Guer. Corps, at 50,34

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 30
Ki-30 Ann x 9

No Japanese losses


Allied ground losses:
16 casualties reported

Aircraft Attacking:
9 x Ki-30 Ann bombing at 2000 feet
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Day Air attack on 15th Chinese Guer. Corps, at 52,29

Japanese aircraft
Ki-51 Sonia x 18

No Japanese losses


Allied ground losses:
13 casualties reported

Aircraft Attacking:
10 x Ki-51 Sonia bombing at 2000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on Corregidor M Fortress, at 43,52

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 50
G4M1 Betty x 18
Ki-21-II Sally x 30
Ki-48-I Lily x 27
Ki-49 Helen x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 3 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 2 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 2 damaged
Ki-48-I Lily: 3 damaged


Allied ground losses:
253 casualties reported
Guns lost 9

Aircraft Attacking:
27 x Ki-48-I Lily bombing at 9000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on Manila , at 43,52

Japanese aircraft
C5M Babs x 1

No Japanese losses
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Ground combat at Manila

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 86041 troops, 518 guns, 3 vehicles, Assault Value = 2019

Defending force 61864 troops, 260 guns, 272 vehicles, Assault Value = 1334



Allied ground losses:
241 casualties reported
Guns lost 4
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Ground combat at Boela

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 1233 troops, 11 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 32

Defending force 575 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 7

Japanese max assault: 24 - adjusted assault: 8

Allied max defense: 4 - adjusted defense: 1

Japanese assault odds: 8 to 1



Allied ground losses:
52 casualties reported
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Ground combat at Singapore

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 74265 troops, 331 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1426

Defending force 61204 troops, 301 guns, 7 vehicles, Assault Value = 845



Allied ground losses:
382 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
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Ground combat at 35,85

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 17034 troops, 63 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 373

Defending force 180 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2



Allied ground losses:
27 casualties reported
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Ground combat at Madioen

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 1952 troops, 41 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1062

Defending force 34740 troops, 150 guns, 45 vehicles, Assault Value = 453



Allied ground losses:
27 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
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Ground combat at Boela

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 122 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 4

Defending force 1233 troops, 11 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 32

Allied max assault: 2 - adjusted assault: 0

Japanese max defense: 27 - adjusted defense: 13

Allied assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 0)



Allied ground losses:
16 casualties reported

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

8 Mar. 42

Two air battles over Rangoon wreak havoc among the fresh allied Hurricane groups recently brought into the theatre. The Hurricanes had 7 fresh 16 plane groups with high 95-99 morale for all the groups, and no fatigue. Out of the 112 available Hurricanes, 33 flew Cap and 32 escorted a bombing strike a few hexes southeast of Rangoon. The remaining 47 Hurricanes failed to fly today for some reason.

The first attack was a sweep by 30 Oscar’s against my defending 33 Hurricanes. While air to air losses to both sides in this first fight were similar (4 vs. 4), 2/3rds of the defending hurricanes were hit by the attackers, while my hurricanes actually scored very few hits on the Oscars in comparison. Again there were about 8-10 shots taken by the Oscars for every shot my planes got to take.

The next battle was the big killer for my Hurricanes. Another 13 Hurricanes were shot down in air to air while only shooting down 4 of the attacking Nates (combat report is FOW) in return. The attacking zeroes couldn’t even be touched by my fighters.

After the devastation of the air to air attack, another 13 Hurricanes were destroyed on the ground by the Japanese bombers. So in total 30 Hurricanes were lost in one day, that’s almost one month’s production lost in just one day.

The only air to air losses for the Japanese were the 4 Oscars and 4 Nates, all bomber losses were due to flak.

The fact that these weren’t even huge air battles leads me to believe nik mod is not going to do much for the allies in terms of massive losses. Japan obviously won’t suffer huge losses given the results we are seeing, but with almost 1 months production gone in one day allied replacement pools will dry up just like in the stock scenario, especially once the Mandalay and Imphal air battles get started, this little fight is just a prelude to what’s to come.

Man I was hoping I wouldn’t have to sit through this kind of devastation in this mod, but obviously there’s not a lot that can be done with the games air to air engine. By lopsiding the maneuver ratings so heavily in Japan’s favor, nik mod spares the Japanese massive attrition numbers, but the allies are just going to get chewed up even faster.

I think all air frames should have durability ratings quadrupled or something and just leave all other stats alone. Or maybe reduce maneuver ratings into the low teens so not many shots are even allowed to be taken in air to air fights.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Rangoon , at 29,33

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 30

Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 33

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb: 4 destroyed, 20 damaged
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Rangoon , at 29,33

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 25
G3M Nell x 25
Ki-27 Nate x 29
Ki-21-II Sally x 48
Ki-49 Helen x 24
Ki-46-II Dinah x 4

Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 29

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed, 6 damaged
Ki-27 Nate: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 1 destroyed, 15 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 1 destroyed, 10 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb: 19 destroyed
Blenheim IV: 1 destroyed


Allied ground losses:
65 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 39

Aircraft Attacking:
20 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 12000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here’s the allied strike southeast of Rangoon.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 4th Mixed Regiment, at 30,35


Allied aircraft
Lysander I x 3
Hurricane IIb x 32
Blenheim IV x 45
A-24 Dauntless x 18


Allied aircraft losses
A-24 Dauntless: 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
134 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Aircraft Attacking:
18 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
9 x Blenheim IV bombing at 6000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A couple tiny Dutch strikes are launched against Japanese AK ships unloading at Kragen, but no hits are scored.

Not much else happened this turn, it looks like we are entering a lull in the action while my opponent shifts forces for his next phase of expansion. I assume it will either be into the Pacific, or into Australia.

I should mention that it is possible the Zuikaku has sunk. My opponent let slip a possible clue in a recent email and I tried to dig deeper, but he wouldn’t confirm it as being sunk. Here’s a cut and paste of his clue, we were discussing a house rule for air stacking limits for CV hexes.

“I like the house rule about the carrier planes in the same hex. I was going to say that the full KB should be allowed to operate together, but seeing as it doesn’t exist anymore, then that isn’t a problem!”

Then I asked him:

Are you saying the Zuikaku is sunk?

And he replied:

“I’m not saying whether or not the Zuikaku is sunk, just trying to create a bit of confusion. One thing is that it isn’t running around with the rest of the KB at the moment. Its 60 days maximum before it shows up in the ships sunk screen isn’t it?”

So I think it is very possible the Zuikaku has gone down. At the time my opponent had told me the damage wasn’t that bad, but those raging fires from the screenshot looked pretty heavy to me. I bet they burned out of control and she went down.

If she has gone down, I’m kind of bummed. I wanted to fight a full blown CV battle against KB in this mod and see if the US could penetrate. Now KB is down what 80+ planes? It’ll be hard to gauge the effectiveness of the mod without a full KB.

Of course from a gamer’s point of view it’s a huge victory in early 42, so Huzzah! Assuming she’s gone of course, I’ll be closely watching the sunken ships lists for the next few months.

Jim

[Gen.Hoepner]

Jim, as i experienced in my game against Trollelite even in the Nik's version of CHS bombers won't get through the full KB's CAP.
In one strike against the full KB i've lost nearly 80 bombers in their 70s of exp, most of which were 4Es (so with a durability of 89 or 98). Those 266 zeros on CAP lost only 1 plane, even if the gun value of the 4Es should be enough to shoot down at least some of them.
Think the problem, as you said, is related to the mvr. values.
But for what concerns Hurricanes, their value of mvr. should be 32, right? so it's only 1 point less than the zero...so this really puzzles me.
What i've experimented is that the P-40s, even without the zero bonus, are no match for the zeros. Neither the AVG.
Surely this Mod is better than stock, but i think we're far from solving the A2A problem of this game...

[Yakface]

Another CHS player here - scn 157.  Got two games going, one with the old scn 157 (which has the high fighter durability problem) and one with the new version which identical to Jim's game except Soviet fleet.  I'm playinbg the Japanese in both.

Like both of you, it seems to me the changes have made the A6M2 and M3 and M3a far too good.  High pilot experience and exceptional manoeuvrability means that the Allied aircraft rarely lay a glove on them.  The earlier version had the zero (without bonus) at 39 and the newer 157 has got it at 41 (not sure where you are getting a value 1 higher than the Hurri Hoepner).

Part of the problem is the effect the mod has had on the speed of aircraft.  everything had the difference between the stock speeds and 350 halved.  The effect was to normalise speeds - anything below 350 went up (eg zero's, Oscars) and anything above came down (eg P38 and P40).  It used to be that speed was more important than manoeuvrability.  Now that speeds are much closer together experience and mvr are dominant (which strongly favour the Japanese at least early on). 

Mvr does not seem to come into the equation when fighting bombers (just fighters) and here the mod works better IMO.  There are a lot more results where a good portion of the aircraft turn back when faced by overwhelming fighter numbers.  This is because the increased durability and reduced GV requires far more hits on a bomber to desttroy it.  Each hit lowers bomber morale and once low enough they abort, so you get results like this:

Day Air attack on Wewak , at 54,84

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 70
A6M3a Zero x 47

Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 122

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 36 damaged
A6M3a Zero: 1 destroyed, 29 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-25C Mitchell: 35 destroyed, 52 damaged

Runway hits 8

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 6000 feet
4 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 6000 feet
4 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 6000 feet

In stock none of those bombers would be going home.  CHS seems to get a more sensible result to me.

On Flak - my experiences form the second of the two games (the one like Jims) is that it has become a monster.  At least for the Allies.  in 42 there are 4 places (Karachi, Tricomalea, Malir, Colombo) which I know that if I take helens and sallies to at 6000 ft I will lose 20% of the force just to AAA.  What's it going to be like in 43 with the proxy fuse.  I know that the Allies rule flak and always will, but it's a matter of degree and I think it has just gone a bit too far.  Think I'm going to recommend to Nik that Zero's mvr should be put back to what it was in the last version of scn 157 (39 for the M3 & M3a and 38 for the M2) and Allied flak should be toned down a little. 

[Gen.Hoepner]

Do not know guys...[&:]
Probably we're playing on different databases so ...[&:]
Here's a pic of the stats of some allied and japanese fighters....
As you can see while the zeros have the mvr on their side, the Hurris and the P-40Es have the durability, armour, gun value and speed....

I'm playing CHS 160, vr.2.08

[Jim D Burns]

Here's a side by side of the first 4-5 pages of the planes for the different players, sorted by maneuver ratings. As you can see Japan dominates the game. There's a 10 point difference between my Hurricane's and his Oscar's. The Zeroe's, Oscar's, Claude's and Nate's are better than all allied planes.

Hell the Dinah has a higher maneuver rating than most of my fighters right now.



I think CHS 160 is the experimental CHS version, not the nik mod version G.H., so we are definatley playing two different scenarios.

Jim

[Gen.Hoepner]

So CHS exp. is so different from the basic one? It would be interesting to make some tests on how the results work out...
The numbers on your screenshot seem really unbalanced...crazy i'd say

[Jim D Burns]

9 Mar. 42

At Balikpapan US sub SS S-38 locates and torpedoes a Japanese AK docked at the port. Although the AK was severely damaged from the first attack, the sub skipper decides to make a second attack and sends the stricken ship to the bottom. With only one more torpedo load left, I decide to send the skipper to port to rearm.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Balikpapan at 31,64

Japanese Ships
AK Sakae Maru, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS S-38
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Balikpapan at 31,64

Japanese Ships
AK Sakae Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS S-38
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Singapore Madioen and Manila all get hit by Japanese bombers today.

The allied heavies based at Dacca finally fly a ground attack mission against the Japanese construction battalion one hex from Taung Gyi. These bombers had been plotted to attack for over a week, I have no idea why they waited so long before flying the raid. Perhaps it is due to Dacca only being a size 5 airfield right now, I don’t know.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 7th AF Construction Battalion, at 33,32


Allied aircraft
B-17D Fortress x 19
B-17E Fortress x 30
LB-30 Liberator x 6


No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
110 casualties reported

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 15000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not much else to report today, quite turn overall.

Jim

[Gen.Hoepner]

It seems to me that the 4Es tend to fly only with the best conditions (supply,air HQ, AV support, AF => 5 and good weather).
Do not know if it's related with morale or other hidden skills, but it's something that every allied player experience