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The biggest issue with getting supply in is the annoying CD guns. PTs can be dealt with.

This is definitely going to take longer, but as CB says, he's committed a mess of troops to this, he's on a long, long tether, the end result will be their destruction, sooner or later.

Best way to knock out CDs seems to be bombard, so we will continue to do that regularly until they quiet down. Unfortunately, some of those 'CDs' are 155mm long toms and will be much more difficult to shut down.

Eesh...almost two months since an update? Sorry about that, folks.

Here's the summary of where things are on April 16, 1942-about three weeks (game time) after last update:

China:
About 2500 AV moved on Sian from the E and SE. Their crossing of the river was problematic and the following shock attack came off poorly. Heavy casualties and disruption impacted the coordination of the attack. Even though the shock attack came off at 1:1, it was insufficient to lower forts (at 4) or push the Chinese horde out.

In the intervening time, supply has been restored and disruption (slowly) recovered. The near future will see some probing attacks. Additional AV are being moved around the blocking force of Chinese in the forested hex due South of the city and badly disrupted units are being rotated out for garrison elsewhere in China while they recover.

Nothing else particularly active in China right now.

Burma:
(Image attached)

Rangoon and Moulmein have been reinforced with several infantry regiments and artillery. These have been pushed forward to invest Mandalay, where most troops in Burma have holed up. A number of armored units are seeking to flank the Mandalay hex by swinging around to the N of Magwe, eventually sweeping East. Lashio falls by parachute assault, thereby rupturing the Burma road.

As of April 16, the Allies appear to be bugging out of Mandalay. I'm ordering a shock attack tomorrow for the troops in Mandalay to take advantage of A. The sizeable number of armored units present and B. The negative combat modifier for troops in 'move'. I believe that the armored recon west of Schwebo and the presence of troops in Mandalay is disabling 'strat' movement from the area. So he'll either have to slog it out on foot now or die in place.

IMO, they waited too long to move. Any number of Allied players have commented on the deathtrap that is Burma. Mandalay is a poor place to have to exfiltrate under fire-particularly with inferior troops.

Phillipines:

Bataan falls on April 4, 1942, a few days ahead of schedule. [8D] Most IJ forces have been ordered back to Manila for R&R.

Ground combat at Bataan (78,77)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 25721 troops, 341 guns, 253 vehicles, Assault Value = 821

Defending force 17439 troops, 538 guns, 300 vehicles, Assault Value = 533

Japanese adjusted assault: 960

Allied adjusted defense: 335

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

Japanese forces CAPTURE Bataan !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), supply(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
1537 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 68 disabled
Non Combat: 10 destroyed, 86 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 31 disabled
Vehicles lost 19 (1 destroyed, 18 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
19244 casualties reported
Squads: 965 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1405 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 289 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 597 (597 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 438 (438 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 24


Assaulting units:
33rd Division
48th Division
3rd Ind. Engineer Regiment
7th Tank Regiment
1st Medium Field Artillery Regiment
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
8th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
14th Army
2nd Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion

Defending units:
192nd Tank Battalion
194th Tank Battalion
45th PS Infantry Regimental Combat Team
14th PS Engineer Regiment
57th PS Infantry Regimental Combat Team
31st Infantry Regiment
21st PA Infantry Division
31st PA Infantry Division
4th Marine Regiment
Manila Bay Defenses
26th PS Cavalry Regiment
2nd PA Constabulary Division
803rd Engineer Aviation Battalion
301st PA Field Artillery Regiment
Provisional GMC Grp
200th & 515th Coast AA Regiment
301st Construction Battalion
1st PI Base Force
201st PA Construction Battalion
202nd PA Construction Battalion
Far East USAAF
I Philippine Corps
88th PS Field Artillery Regiment
Clark Field USAAF Base Force /1


Bataan is being swept by minesweepers, albeit with slow progress towards opening up Manila Bay.

The only remaining sizeable Allied stronghold is at Cagayan on Mindanao. Thieving Allied dogs have been holed up here since the beginning of hostilities, it seems. LBA at Davao have been making daily runs against these troops for at least 1.5 months now, routinely scoring 100+ casualties per bombing run.

Fresh from Manchuria, and with a very bad attitude, the 14th Infantry Division-accompanied by the 146th IR and engineer support have been unloaded at Butuan and travelled by road into Cagayan. The 8th tank regiment has moved into position to the West of Cagayan to block the road out. There will be no retreat from Cagayan for the 21,000 Allied dogs still present. Realizing the futility of his resistance, the Allied dog is likely conducting submarine fragment evacuation from the pocket.

Elsewhere, good progress by intrepid bands of SNLF at capturing myriad small bases. Cebu will be on the 'world tour' of the SNLF soon and will likely close out this chapter as front-line operations move beyond Phillipine waters.

The brass ring-N. Australia and Darwin-is garnering most of the attention these days.  Fierce and bloody fighting here.  We'll return to this AAR after a brief commercial break.

Where was I...ah, yes-Northern Australia. Here's the screen shot:

Quite a different view in just a few weeks of game time.

The unit on the dot hex N. of Katherine (Fenton) is the 3rd SNLF Para "regiment". That dropped four days ago to capture the undefended hex. The Martian and I were eyeing this site hungrily for some time now, hoping that our opponents would overlook its strategic importance. When the two armored recon units (about 35-50 AV apiece) were nearing Katherine, the time seemed right. LOS from Daly and the rest of Australia through Darwin appears to be cut in three places.

Since the supply rules for Northern Australia are still borkulated-whole armies can be resupplied over long, dusty trails with apparent ease-we'll play along. We've embraced the cloudcuckooland supply movement situation in N. Australia, and can dispense with any IRL logistic planning / concerns and just revert to brute force in this theatre.

Reinforcement / relief forces have been landed at Wyndham. A flanking force consisting of three Imperial Japanese Army infantry divisions (38th, 20th and Imperial Guards) are moving east along the Wyndham-Katherine track. In support are the 64th naval guard unit, 4x heavy artillery battalions, the 2nd mortar battalion and 20th independent mountain gun battalion. All told, 1333 assault value with some appreciable artillery support. ETA Katherine: 3-4 weeks.

Our opponents attempted to interfere with the Wyndham reinforcement by unescorted LBA DBs based out of Katherine. A large number of these attackers were slaughtered by Oscars at Wyndham. When an Allied armored unit left Darwin for Fenton (it's in the hex attacking the SNLF paras), it was targeted by most of the IJA LBA bombers in Timor. The Allies had moved fighters back into Darwin now that the field has been repaired and a large number of Sallys and Lillys (unescorted) went down in flames.

At Darwin, the IJA 4th and 21st IDs are still holding on. The 65th BDE, mauled in earlier Allied attacks, is actually regaining strength as its disabled units recover. All units have supply, but are in the red (save one of the IDs-it's in surplus). The Allies are no longer deliberately attacking, but have been attempting bombardment most turns. Typically, the Allies have been suffering more casualties than inflicting. Both sides are wearing themselves down, but there's still ~800 IJA assault points defending at Darwin.

A number of attempts to supply Darwin by sea proved quite costly both in terms of transport and combatant losses. I'll let Mynok go into more detail on the situation at sea. By mutual consent, efforts to resupply Darwin by sea have been postponed indefinitely.

We'll see how the Wyndham excursion and broken Allied LOS up to Darwin impact events at Darwin. I don't see any way that Katherine can hold against the incoming forces. Either the Allies move some of their badly damaged divisions south out of Darwin or we'll cut 'em off permanently and bag the lot.

To make matters worse, if they vacate Darwin-or draw down forces significantly-after Katherine falls the IJA forces at Darwin can capture Darwin without much trouble, thus potentially leaving the Allied force with no friendly bases North of Daly and the entirety of their N. Australia army on the road, unsupplied.

They have a little bit of time to decide how to play it, but they're extremely extended now on the tenuous end of a rotting branch. If we make it to Katherine before they make up their mind, we'll have 'em in a bit of a tight spot.

Major update soon to come........much has changed for the better (for us) at Darwin and a huge carrier battle has extended our air dominance for at least another year.

Alright, so here's the IJAA-related update in the last month and a half of game time.

China: Sian fell in mid-May. Heavy Chinese casualties resulted from the retreat, but they held with distinction for at least two months. IJA efforts are currently focused on a large stack of Chinese units immediately south of Sian on the road. After these rabble are removed, Changsa's investment will follow.

Burma: Burma's defense crumbles at last. Allied rabble are dismembered or flee. A number of units earmarked for the Ceylon operation will rail to Rangoon for near-term deployment in accordance with their preparatory goals.

DEI: Landings underway on Western bases in Sumatra. Mostly undefended. These will secure Sumatra in its entirety. The last two months has seen widespread consolidation of DEI bases by IJNAF SNLF units and IJAA IRs.

Cotabato's defenders were routed, pushed into the mountains and liquidated in situ. Some 25,000 Allied troops were so bagged.

The only major holdout in the Philippines / DEI area is Cebu. A major assault force consisting of the prepped 48th ID, 146 IR, 7th Tank rgt., 1st and 8th medium FA and 9th heavy FA are currently enroute from Davao.

A number of units prepped for Ceylon and SE India are gathering at Batavia for the pending offensive.

Australia: Most of the land battle is here, as it has been for several months. We tried for some time to get supplies in to Darwin, but were rebuffed with heavy naval losses. After noting (with some frustration) that our Allied opponents were able to take advantage of the trackless N. Australia desert and ship in unrealistic copious supply across the trails, we elected to follow suit. Wyndham became our main supply hub and we were able to unload 3 IDs, several IRs and multiple other smaller armored and SNLF units.

These units trekked across the Australian outback and invested Katherine. Simultaneously, an SNLF para unit captured Fenton. We managed to move an armored unit into Darwin, thus freeing up that SW hexside for movement. Our beseiged Darwin assault force extracted themselves from the beach and marched inland. After drawing replacements and supplies at Fenton and Katherine, they've returned to Darwin. Darwin II: This time, it's PERSONAL!

My goal is to liquidate the 70,000 troops (many / most are support troops) at Darwin. This is a considerable body of Allied arms that would be quite a body blow.

(see map)

IJAAF air losses: Modest IJAAF air losses overall. Still maintaining substantial local and regional air superiority over the Allies. B17 raids have continued to break through, but our defensive efforts are claiming more and more B17s now (see chart)

IJN: I'll let my Martian colleague update the readers on these efforts.

Australia map:

ORIGINAL: Mynok


Major update soon to come........much has changed for the better (for us) at Darwin and a huge carrier battle has extended our air dominance for at least another year.

Looking forward to seeing it Mynok. [:)]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

My goal is to liquidate the 70,000 troops (many / most are support troops) at Darwin. This is a considerable body of Allied arms that would be quite a body blow.

Wow. big mistake on their behalf , good job capitalizing. [&o]

Air losses today and cumulative

Ouch. How many pilots did the US Navy lose. That's gotta hurt.

Bruce,

I'd guess that they lost 'em all. No nearby bases to recover. No nearby carriers to receive a diverted group. Where else are they going to go?

ORIGINAL: SuluSea

Wow. big mistake on their behalf , good job capitalizing. [&o]

Well, we haven't done it yet. We'll see how it comes off.

ORIGINAL: BrucePowers

Ouch. How many pilots did the US Navy lose. That's gotta hurt.

I don't want to steal Mynok's thunder. This is a fun turn to AAR about and I'll let him answer the questions re: the IJN turn. I'll just say that it was at least a marginally good one. [;)]

[:D]

I'll update tomorrow night. Seeing those IJN air losses gives me some pause but the return on that investment was certainly worth it. I'll have to expedite TB and DB pilot training for sure now.

We certainly got the most devastating naval air victory so far in the game. That includes the smashing of mini-Kb done very nicely by the Allies some months ago. We more than avenged those dead warriors.

Here are the ending locations.

You can see what is left of the surface forces there at Wake. Many of those 'BBs' are CAs and heavily damaged ones too.

KB came directly from the northwest to where it lies now. We miraculously missed a rather extensive cordon of subs laid to the west and then had the good fortune of coming in under a big storm.

Let me know if you want to see any replay pictures and I'll try to get some for you.

I want to see some replay pictures! And the posted Combat Report too! [8D]

ETA: And the summary of hits to which ships.