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I should say that apart from the "Clarke incident" Tony and Rob have been a pleasure to play. Its been a lot of fun and the banter is entertaining. I probably have a touch of sour grapes about having my first half way successful operation turned on its head.
Regards
Andrew

Feb 6 and 7

Feb 6
At sea some sub action. We lose an unescorted AKL on auto convoy duty along the Canadian coast and launch two attacks for yet again no result - one off the New Guinea approach another south of Kendari. KB has dissappeared off the face of the planet. Must have gone south and I bet they come north for Fiji after hunting down there for a bit.

In the air the usual array of Japanese attacks spread over the board.

On the ground a number of mop up attacks. The Philippines is almost all controlled now. Timor is gone. They attack the Australian remnants north of Johore Baru but they hold another day. Not long now.

Feb 7
At sea. One of his subs gets a shot at a CV TF NE of Fiji. No damage and the CV is not reported in the combat report but we are living dangerously here. Its all about getting the Aircobra wing into Suva so we have an air defense when KB come visiting. The TF has arrived there and two days should see the planes all unloaded. Two squadrons are on AKV's so should be ready for action pretty fast. One of the Auckland escapee TF's has run out of fuel in the mid Pacific due east of Auckland. I left them on max speed too long and pay the penalty. The TF is headed back but will leave a trail of out of fuel small AP's and AKL's in its wake. A passive picket line maybe.

In the air, the Betty's vist Townsville for the first time. 11 Betty's score 17 hits. The ships are all rubbish lights and auxilliaries but I better get fighters there I guess. Another stupid error on my part.

Afternoon Air attack on Townsville , at 92,144

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 39 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 2 damaged

Allied Ships
AVP Merel, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CM Rigel, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Schouten, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
TK Angelina, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
AVP Fazant, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
AM Tanager, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AM Lithgow, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Patris, Bomb hits 2
PC Tydeman, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Mauban, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Port hits 2

One the ground, Lashio falls with no opposition and the brave Aussies north of JB hold again.

We get sigint that an SNLF raiding force his headed for Koumac on New Caledonia. If I was a bit more certain about KB's location I could do something about it. I am worried we are letting them get too far too fast without enough resistance and we need to start the attrition process. We will pay for it down the track otherise.

Regards
Andrew

Feb 8

At sea, KB re-emerges from the mist about 15 hexes due east of Auckland. That TF full of small Dutch AP's that has run out of fuel is about 5 hexes to its left and will probably now get annihilated. I scattered them in the hope a couple may survive. The good news is we know where he is and he isn't sure where I am, although he knows carriers are around the Fiji area I suspect after that sub contact. An intriguing little game of cat and mouse will now ensue as I try and steer various convoys around KB. The good news is I now have 80 Aircobras ready for action in Suva and they have air combat ratings of 60+ so if he does come there will at least be a decent fight. The convoy that landed the Aircobras is running without unloading supplies just in case KB makes a rapid transit north. Elsewhere we lose a sub that had been badly damaged in the earlier air raids on Darwin. t was moving to Sydney for repair and gets nailed by I-16 patrolling at Horn Island.

On the ground he lands at Luganville. We picked up sigint that he is headed to Koumac on New Caledonia as well. Surprising that he is staking territory this far out. Wonder if his plan is to cut Australia off from the US. Would certainly explain KB's pre-occupation with Australia and New Zealand. Not much we can do about it this early as we don't have the force capability.

Balikpapan falls to a ground assault. I was hoping the may last a couple of turns but he brought a decent size force to the table this time.

Assaulting units:
I./124th Infantry Battalion
III/81st Naval Guard Unit
Yokosuka 4th SNLF
16th Naval Guard Unit
2nd Sasebo SNLF Coy

In Thailand we had a little "Chindit raid" going on with an infantry battalion moving around his flank and cutting the rail line to Chiang Mai. An RTA (Thai army?) division has finally jumped on them and pushed them off the rail line. Was fun though.

Getting good intel over the last few turns. This turn we get sigint that the Guards Mixed Brigade is prepping for Midway and another unit for Ambon. Better beef up Midway before its too late. Wonder if two Marine defense units dug in are enough?

Regards
Andrew

Apologies for the delayed update, been a busy week.

Feb 9~12
We get one back.

Feb 9
At sea some sub action. We launch 3 attacks, 2 by USN subs which both fail, and 1 by a British sub which sinks a DMS just west of Victoria Point. KB then goes to town on all the little Dutch AP's and AKL's east of Auckland sinking 6 of them. The out of fuel AS however seems to have been left for dead behind the main scene of the action.

In the air, big Japanese raids go in on Palembang and on the hold outs at Bataan. We send the AVG to sweep Mandalay and lose 2 for 2 vs zeroes there.

On the ground Bataan falls to a massive shock attack. Looks like all the forces from the Clarke battle participated which is interesting.

Feb 10
Revenge of the nerds. We had received sig int that a Japanese SNLF was headed for Koumac, so I peeled a CL and 3 DD's off the convoy that landed the Aircobra's in Suva and sent them to Koumac to see if they could intercept. As luck would have it both forces arrived in Koumac at the same time and the following was the result.

Day Time Surface Combat, near Koumac at 113,156, Range 8,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CM Takashima, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
PB Sonan Maru #5, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
PB Sonan Maru #6, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Sugiyama Maru, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Hakusika Maru, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Concord
DD Benham
DD Ellet
DD Dunlap

Japanese ground losses:
325 casualties reported
Squads: 13 destroyed, 21 disabled
Non Combat: 9 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled



Reduced visibility due to Rain
Maximum visibility in Rain: 15,000 yards
Range closes to 21,000 yards...
Range closes to 16,000 yards...
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
Range closes to 8,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 8,000 yards
Japanese ships attempt to get underway
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 8,000 yards
CL Concord engages PB Sonan Maru #6 at 8,000 yards
CL Concord engages PB Sonan Maru #5 at 8,000 yards
DD Ellet engages PB Sonan Maru #5 at 8,000 yards
Range closes to 6,000 yards
CL Concord engages PB Sonan Maru #5 at 6,000 yards
PB Sonan Maru #6 sunk by DD Ellet at 6,000 yards
DD Benham engages xAK Sugiyama Maru at 6,000 yards
DD Ellet engages xAK Sugiyama Maru at 6,000 yards
PB Sonan Maru #5 sunk by CL Concord at 6,000 yards
xAK Sugiyama Maru sunk by DD Benham at 6,000 yards
Range closes to 4,000 yards
DD Benham engages CM Takashima at 4,000 yards
DD Benham engages xAK Hakusika Maru at 4,000 yards
Range closes to 2,000 yards
CL Concord engages CM Takashima at 2,000 yards
xAK Hakusika Maru sunk by DD Ellet at 2,000 yards
CM Takashima sunk by DD Ellet at 2,000 yards
Combat ends with last Japanese ship sunk...

It had been a long time between drinks. The last time we did anything good was the action off Borneo where we sank a BB and a CA, so this was a very nice morale booster

Elsewhere at sea we get 4 hits on a sub at Pago Pago which might slow it down a bit. KB finshes off the last of the AP's and again ignores the adrift AS. The big question now is does he head for Suva? I have 80 P-39's waiting for him if he does. I almost want him to come but am not sure.

In the air, more big raids on Palembang. He must be coming soon. Cebu, which I think is the last position in the Philippines now, also comes in for some attention. We send the B-17's in to Akyab with Blenheims and kill a few of the SNLF that landed there.

On the ground, the Japanese cross the river at Mandalay and attack Shwebo, but we hold for the moment. The position at Taung Gyi to the south of Mandalay falls.

Feb 11
At sea his mine sweeping efforts are really in full swing. He is clearing the big minefields we laid at Balikpapan and Rangoon. Some sub parry and thrust results in basically nothing. KB disappears from the recon grid. I had faced the Catalinas at Noumea north to try and pick up the Koumac force so he may have headed into the gap to north of New Zealand rather than towards Suva. I have another convoy ready to go in there but am holding it back under cover of the carrier TF's until I get a better feel for his intentions. Looks like he might be headed home but I am not sure.

In the air we try and hit Mandalay hard with B-17's escoprted by the AVG but everyone is at long range and we get handled pretty roughly by the CAP. Looks like we lost about a dozen "P-40's" for half a dozen zeroes and don't do much damage in the raid. May not do that again

On the ground Shwebo falls to a second attack - to a single infantry brigade (a bit embarrassing).

Feb 12
At sea, KB is reacquired north of Auckland but the report says they are headed north east towards Suva. Not sure what they are doing. It looks like they are headed north west towards home but I decide to play it safe and hold the convoys back, up the CAP level at Suva and see what they are planning. We get a nice result from the ASW patrol off Suva getting 3 hits and heavy damage on I-8. Not bad for mine sweepers.

On the ground a Japanese raiding force is moving up the New Guinea north coast converting bases there to japanese control. I move in behind them and retake Buna with the Lark Battalion which has retreated from Port Moresby over the Owen Stanleys and descended from the hills into Buna. He moves on to Salamua. This is just an entertaining side show of course.

I am home all day today, so now I have caught up, I will report on the situation in China and do a bit of a strategic over view this afternoon.

Regards
Andrew

Feb 13
A Sea KB is tracking north west away from Suva. I am surprised. It may be that he detected the fighters and decided to go and re-arm before coming back, or he may have more urgent business elsewhere. Not sure, but it allows to me get another marine regiment, CD guns, engineers and two USMC fighter squadron into the place. Starting to feel like I may be able to hold it now. Americal div has left San Francisco for Pearl Harbour initially so it will be in theatre in a month or so. The last surving Dutch mini AP from the Auckland massacre manages to get torpedoed by a sub as it comes into harbour.

In the air, Ambon takes a pasting and my B-17's decide to revisit Mandalay, even though I had meant to ground them. This time we kill an Oscar or 2 for the loss of 2 fighters. The AVG is weakened by this campaign so we need to rest up for the upcoming Japanese offensive.

On the ground Cebu is attacked and holds. Will fall next turn though I suspect. He comes ashore at Ambon.

A China summary is coming next.

North China

The main action has been on the road to Sian. After driving us out of Nanyang and Loyang he started to drive up the main road to Sian. We managed to get a decent force into the first rough terrain hex and have since built it up to around 1800AV. He has attacked there several times now and has taken reasonably heavy casualties so he seems to have paused. Two new attacks have now developed on the flank of the initial thrust. The southern one being the newest and potentially the most dangerous. We have 4 Corps moving up from the south to reinforce the single corps holding the road but he will get his attacks in first. If he pushes us back I think I can harass him from the rear enough that it will make progress here very hard for him.

He has also sent a few units around in the Gobi desert in the far north. I am not sure what he is trying achieve here but have moved a corps into Lanchow as protection in case this turns into a serious attack.

Have moved 3 fresh corps in from the central region toward Sian via the dirt road over the mountains. You can see two of them in transit on the map below. I think we have enough to hold and the terrain is good so we have a fair chance of bogging him down I hope.

South China
The battle is developing around Kukong and Wuchow with the Japanese thrusting along the yellow axis in the map below. We are resisting in the blue circled areas (Kukong itself and the hex north of Wuchow) and pumping in reinforcements along the blue axis. So far we have held multiple attacks at both locations and the situation seems to be under control. Reserves are at Kweilin and Changsha if he pushes forward.

Its still only Feb so we haven't given much thought to an counter offensive yet.

The Strategic Situation
Mid February 1942

The story thus far....
Our defense of Malaya and Singapore was pulled apart pretty quickly but we managed to harass them to the point we are not too far behind the original time line.
Our defense of the Philippines promised to be more successful until it all came crashing down with the collapse and surrender of the Clarke position. The PI is now almost all japanese controlled.
They have moved early and aggressively into Burma (made possible by the easy Malaya victory) and have seized everything upto Shwebo. The rest will follow quickly.
They have been very aggressive in the Pacific with KB off the Australian coast and down around New Zealand and they have seized Port Moresby, Luganville and have tried to land on New Caledonia.

Overall I think they will be pretty happy with the position they have achieved thus far. They are ahead of schedule and their casualties have been fairly light. On the ground the quick victories in Malaya and the Philippines meant their ground casualties were quite moderate and at sea they have only lost a BB and a CA sunk with a bunch of ships damaged in a minefield.

On the positive side they have not landed a killer blow on us yet. Pearl harbour was not successful for them. All 8 BB's were heavily damaged but none sank (subsequently we stupidly lost 2 trying to get the back to the US for repairs). The sea battles around the DEI were probably a draw. We lost the Repulse and all the Dutch light cruisers but bagged the above mentioned BB and CA in return and got the Prince of Wales out to Colombo. The two KB raids netted a few cruisers and a lot of merchant ships but they were mainly Dutch and Australian minor vessels that are useful but not really necessary for the future war effort. As a result we find ourselves reasonably intact. Our air training program is going well and we have plenty of 60+ air skill fighter pilots and 60+ ASW skill bomber pilots coming intoi the system. We are short of planes more than pilots at the moment.

Java and Sumatra are clearly next on the list and with all the forces freed up from Malaya and the Philippines they will have plenty of combat power to take the two islands out. Our job here is to fight, scratch and delay and try to drag things out for as long as possible.

Fiji and Auckland have developed into our Pacific stop line. Over the next month we will focus on building these two places up to the point we can stop a multi division landing. Noumea will be included if I think we can get there in enough strength but will be third on the list. The 7th Divison will head for Australia and protect the east coast but if he decides to go for Darwin I don't have much to stop him at this stage. They seem to be very aggressive in this area and it looks like cutting Australia off may be one of their key strategies. A Darwin invasion is a distinct possibility.

In India, Chittagong and a line due east is our main defensive position and we have reinforced Ceylon with the 6th Aust division which, with another 3 or 4 local brigades should make it a tough nut to crack. The speed of his advance in Burma may count against us here as our re-inforcement are only trickling in at this stage. If he decides to send 3 or 4 divisions in this direction and attack now it will be tough to fight him off.

Java and Sumatra should take them a month or maybe two to capture, so it will leave us in early April wondering where next for his ground strength. West to India / Ceylon or East to Australia / New Zealand. Meantime KB is going to be a nightmare to handle and I am guessing his next foray will be in my direction. The plan is continue to duck and weave and start the attrition process on his pilots as soon as we can.

Regards
Andrew

A couple of points for your consideration. Feel free to disregard if you disagree.

1. Your pilot training program is not tough enough. You seem to be satisfied having fighter pilots with air skill in the 60s. That is too low. Your benchmark should be to send fighter pilots into action with a minimum of:

50 experience
70 air skill
70 defence skill

For naval search/ASW pilots, you can get away with only having the relevant skills in the 60s if you have the commensurate bombing skill (depends on what altitude you run the search) at least in the 50s. You want to at least have a decent chance of actually hitting anything you discover. To reduce operational losses for these missions, it also helps to have 50+ experience and limit the search distance to 12 hexes.

2. Your contemplated Ceylon forces will only suffice for a single month of fighting if the enemy invades Ceylon. As you are concentrating 1500 AV on the Ledo - Imphal line, it strikes me you lack a mobile strategic reserve in India. I would rather have the Aussie div in India in reserve rather than waiting to be destroyed on Ceylon. Particularly as the odds are that the enemy will not approach your Assam position overland as that is too slow. If they are going for India, they will rely primarily on using their sea mobility.

Alfred

For fighter pilots, I agree with the 70 Air skill. The problem with 50 Exp and especially 70 Def skill is that it takes so long to train up to those levels that you will have a commensurately smaller pool of pilots. You will likely find yourself considering what to trade off.

Thanks for the input guys. Taking each in turn

I think you are right re 70 air skill, but I needed to get someone into the fight so I have effectively compromised to get people forward and inhibit KB's free reign. Will focus on getting the next wave to closer to 70 and feed them in to the forward squadrons using the request veteran feature as they become available. 70 def skill seems to take forever as my def skill levels seems to trail air skill by 5 or more. My rule of thumb thus far, has been getting to 60 air, then going to general training for a bit. From here on will try to get to 70 air then go to general training for a few weeks and then send forward.

Limiting search to 12 hexes works to reduce search plane op losses? Didn't know that. Have been setting to normal range or normal-1 rather then extended in the hope that might help. Do you think there is a measurable difference.

In Ceylon we have 6th Aus Div in Colombo with another Ind brigade on the way. Will total 600 AV dug in to level 4 when in position. We also have an Ind brigade in each of Trincomalee, Jaffna and Koggala. Each are 100 AV and all are digging into to at least level 3 and preferably 4. Thats 900 AV in Ceylon in total. In India we have a British and an Indian division in Calcutta with numerous sundry units totalling about 650AV. We also have about 500 AV in Chittagong . He is very aggressive with his paras so have an Indian brigade in Dacca and a 300 AV armoured reserve in Comilla with another 6 battalions scattered around Imphal, Kohima, Jorhat etc. Do you think thats not enough to hold Ceylon? How would you suggest changing those dispositions?

Cheers
Andrew

PS I forgot to mention we have a brigade in Port Blair with 18000 supply, that should be a nice distraction for him.

For pilot training, have a look at this thread:

tm.asp?m=2691966

Conducting General Training after Air Skill training is not the most efficient way to increase your Defense Skill.

The odds are extremely poor that you will spot anything beyond 12 hexes. Thus limiting yourself to 12 hexes improves your ontime station and reduces wear and tear on airframes and pilot.

Regarding Assault Values. Everyone, me included uses AV as a shorthand way to assess respective strengths. But it is quite misleading. Certainly at the end of the day, you need an adjusted AV of 2:1 (above the fortification level) to win control of a base. The adjusted AV is determined after taking into account the modifiers (terrain, forts, supply, leadership etc) but very significantly after the fire phase. The fire phase factors the quality of a unit and the values of the devices. Hence although both sides may start off combat with a similar unadjusted AV, if one side has far superior quality units involved, they could kill/disable a disproportionate amount of the other side's AV sufficient to result in a decisive change in the adjusted AV.

Most of your current Indian LCUs are very poor quality. That is why the AIF needs to be carefully positioned to stiffen up their on paper sizeable AV.

Alfred

Feb 14 through 17

A big weekend of turns so a thematic AAR this time. Its been pretty quiet with only a few highlights worth mentioning.

At sea we have traded blows. I lost a couple of merchant ships on the SFO to Hawaii run, but managed to put a torp into a CA near Balikpapan. My first subs have arrived off the Japanese coast so will see if they find anything. KB has retired for the moment so troops, planes, fuel and supplies are flowing into Suva and Auckland. Plenty of fuel and supplies but too few troops and planes. Just realized a Coastal gun group I carted all the way there withdraws in 12 days. arrggh.

In the air, usual litany of Japanese attacks. They pound Palembang with big raids. The troops there are in bad shape now. On the 17th we get a big B-17 attack in on Port Moresby. 40 heavies go in and get 40 airfield hits. We take 1 op loss and kill 2 zeroes.

On the ground the Japanese land at Palembang and blow the garrison out of the way first turn. I am hoping the oilfields are damaged but I suspect they are not. He counter lands at Buna and attacks but we hold for the moment. His attacks at Ambon are also unsuccessful. We also get hit by a surprisingly large attack on the dirt road west of our main Sian defensive position. As you can see below we are hit by around 4 divisions with 1500AV. They must be stripping the rest of China bare to mass this many guys in the one place. We are going to have to pull back and shorten our lines if we want to hold Sian in the face of this mass.

Ground combat at 83,45 (near Nanyang)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 45161 troops, 388 guns, 145 vehicles, Assault Value = 1581

Defending force 5585 troops, 35 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 167

Japanese adjusted assault: 1009

Allied adjusted defense: 199

Japanese assault odds: 5 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
305 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 21 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled


Allied ground losses:
2600 casualties reported
Squads: 38 destroyed, 55 disabled
Non Combat: 85 destroyed, 57 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 2 disabled
Units retreated 2


Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
116th Division
5th Armored Car Co
13th Ind.Mixed Brigade
41st Division
36th Division
17th/C Division

Defending units:
92nd Chinese Corps
2nd Group Army

Regards
Andrew

Feb 18 and 19

Feb 18

Nothing happens at sea. In the air, my B-17's at Townsville hit Port Moresby again for good effect. Looks like he has evacuated the fighters there. Will go for a ground attack on Buna next turn in support of the troops there. We laso put a big raid in on Akyab but meet 24 fighters over the field and lose heavily - 4 fighters and 2 bombers. The AVG is taking heavy losses now and will have to be rested. I am short of fighter airframes at the moment. Have a dozen P-39's and 20 P-400's in the pool and thats it.

On the ground, a Japanese para unit drops on Kohima. He is being very aggressive with his paras. The infantry battalion there holds and reinforcements from the armour reserve at Comilla are being sent to help. EWill pound him from the air too.

Ground combat at Kohima (61,39)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 206 troops, 1 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 15

Defending force 461 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 21

Japanese adjusted assault: 9

Allied adjusted defense: 124

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 13 (fort level 0)

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

Japanese ground losses:
27 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Allied ground losses:
5 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Assaulting units:
2nd Raiding Rgt /1

Defending units:
4th Assam Rifles Battalion

Elsewhere Ambon and Lae both fall and mopping up continues in Burma.

Feb 19

At sea, looks like KB has come out again. We detect a CV TF north of New Caledonia. My CV's are in Auckland refuelling so will have to be careful they don't get trapped. Hopefully he is coming to raid Suva which now has 100 fighters ready to rumble. My average air skill is about 65 so we should do OK I hope. Will be interesting. one of our subs of the west coast of Kyushu encounters an AKL and decides to machine gun it rather than torpedo it. At least they found a target.

In the air. Our bombers tasked to attack Buna go after Lae instead for reasons I don't follow. Anyway they pound the ground target there. Our planes in India don't fly so no attacks on Kohima.

On the ground the last base in the Phillipines falls.

Regards
Andrew

Feb 20-22

Feb 20
At sea. Off Suva an enemy sub goes beserk and puts a torp into a minelayer on ASW patrol and on an empty oiler fleeing Suva. The mine sweeper goes down but the oiler limps off. We also lose an AKL off the Canadian coast. KB Dissappears.

In the air. Frustration reigns. I have again ordered big raids on the enemy paras at Kohima and the Japanese forces at Buna. The Kohima bound strikes all go to Mandalay and I blunder straight into a nest of enemy Oscars and Zeroes. I lose 16 Blenheims and some more fighters as a result. Disastrous. Over at Buna same thing - the B-17s pound Lae into the mud instead of going where targeted. Same happened last turn and I don't understand why the aircraft won't raid the hex I target them. They seem to lose the target setting and behave as though no specific target was set i.e. pick their own.

On the ground. More mopping up. The first armoured reserve unit arrives at Dimapur and is ordered to Kohima.

Feb 21
At sea. A TF re-appears where KB was but with no carriers reported and its stationary on the edge of detection. Hhhmmmm. Maybe he is not coming to Suva. Very confusing, but my recon net is pretty good now and I shouldn't get caught by surprise. the CV's in Auckland go to sea as a precaution.

In the air. The B-17's in Calcutta ignore Kohima and go after Mandalay again. I lose 2 bombers and 3 fighters. I am ready to punch a wall. Same over in New Guinea. Ignore Buna, pound Lae. I also moved some Lysanders to Dimapur next to Kohima and order them to bomb but set their range to 1 so they can't wander off. They don't fly. Am I seeing a bug? I can't seem to hit a hex that has enemy and friendly forces. He can, but not me.

On the ground. He lands 3 hexes south of Medan on the east coast of Sumatra. In China he continues to drive up the road west of Sian. We move 4 corps into Ichang in China and order a shock attack. Our first counter attack. We have 10 corps in total ready to threaten his flank. Might take some pressure off Sian.

Feb 22
At sea. Curiuoser and curiouser. A big invasion force is moving down the west coast of New Caledonia. They plan to invade!! Thats why KB is hanging back as a cover force. These guys have bigger balls than me. Its Feb 42 and they are invading New Caledonia. Sigint is also picking up a division planning for an attack on Suva. Looks like they are headed this way and the plan must be to cut Australia off from the US. Suva is going to be a battelfield as I have to fight. More reinforcements are coming and I will have to think about building supporting bases around the area. Its just so early in the war and I have so little.

In the air. I am sulking and stand all my guys down. As I write this, I am wondering if their failure to attack the right targets is weather related.

On the ground. Buna holds again. The shock attack goes in at Ichang and gets 3-1. Forts are at 3 so the place holds. We lose 1400 but inflict 738 Japanese casualties. 2 of the 4 corps are rather badly disrupted so will wait a few days and go again. Another 4 corps are on the way, crossing the river to the west. Will try and co-ordinate assaults when they cross.

Overall
This was a significant turn. The invasion of New Caledonia and the sigint broadcasting an attack on Suva have given us a big insight into their strategy and its a very aggressive one. In the short term its going to be tough. It early and I don't have much available, but in a few months time as the reinforcements flow, it will be interesting. They are choosing to fight a long way from home and will have an exposed flank. Need to rethink force disposition now too. Bring the Aussies home I say.

Regards
Andrew

Feb 23 - 25

A summary rather than day by day account.

At sea. Not much action. KB materialises just off the Raoul Islands east of Auckland. They are dangerously close to my carrier TF's but I remain undetected and order a high speed sprint away from KB's area towards safety. The sprint works but chews up an enormous amount of fuel and leaves all the ships with sys damage of between 2 and 7. Rather annoying but 6 carriers vs 3 is not good odds. Again I am routing all the various inbound and outbound convoys around KB and so far so good. KB has been in this AO since late December and this is the 3rd foray into my zone. The first raid was a bit of a disaster for us with heavy losses, the second one we suffered some merchant losses but nothing too serious. It would be really nice to make this one a bust.

In the air, my frustration continues as I just cant get my planes to hit Japanese forces at either Kohima or Lae. I am really starting to wonder about this. Not much to report otherwise.

On the ground. The Japanese land unopposed a hex north of Noumea. His mopping up operations in Burma and Sumatra continue. Some success for the good guys. Our armour arrives in Kohima and we annhilate the raiding force with no losses to ourselves.

Ground combat at Kohima (61,39)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 2283 troops, 26 guns, 209 vehicles, Assault Value = 169
Defending force 151 troops, 1 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 9
Allied adjusted assault: 194
Japanese adjusted defense: 1

Allied assault odds: 194 to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
136 casualties reported
Squads: 18 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Assaulting units:
7th Hussars Regiment
4th Assam Rifles Battalion
2nd Royal Tank Regiment

Defending units:
2nd Raiding Rgt /1


In China we have a false start at Ichang when the troops reinforcing across the river arrive a turn earlier than expected and launch an unsuccessful shock attack by themselves but losses are not too bad and the next turn the whole force goes in, in a co-ordinated attack. 10 Corps on his left flank might force him to divert forces away from the Sian attack.

Ground combat at Ichang (83,48)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 69499 troops, 393 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2841
Defending force 5267 troops, 27 guns, 8 vehicles, Assault Value = 176
Allied adjusted assault: 3250
Japanese adjusted defense: 46

Allied assault odds: 70 to 1 (fort level 1)

Allied forces CAPTURE Ichang !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: disruption(-), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
4139 casualties reported
Squads: 139 destroyed, 43 disabled
Non Combat: 150 destroyed, 40 disabled
Engineers: 41 destroyed, 5 disabled
Guns lost 6 (6 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 5 (5 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 3

Allied ground losses:
998 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 109 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 75 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Units pursuing 1

Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
45th Chinese Corps
75th Chinese Corps
68th Chinese Corps
53rd Chinese Corps
2nd Chinese Corps
39th Chinese Corps
67th Chinese Corps
32nd Chinese Corps
59th Chinese Corps
94th Chinese Corps
26th Group Army
20th Group Army
33rd Group Army

Defending units:
11th RGC Temp. Division
13th RGC Temp. Division
2nd Ind. Engineer Regiment

Sigint is throwing up a number of reports of army units moving to Rabaul. I am moving subs to try and get a shot, but more and more it looks like the ground forces that were in the Philippines are headed there. A few turns back we also got one saying a division is planning an attack on Suva. Starting to wonder if he is planning a major thrust this way in strength. Within two to three weeks I will have 5 regiment size units (2 marine regiments, 2 army regiments from Pearl harbour and the 8th NZ Bde) plus coastal arty, marine defense units, 100 fighters, and maybe 40 marine dive bombers all in Suva. Will it be enough of he comes with 3 or 4 divisions? I really don't want to lose all that. Fight or flee?

Regards
Andrew

Screenshots please of your misbehaving bombers. There is probably a reasonably simple explanation as to why they are demonstrating so much "independence".

Remind me why exactly you must fight at Suva.[8|] Concrete analysis please, not just generalisations along the lines of, "to keep the sealanes to Australia open". If you really think up to 4 Japanese divisions are heading to Suva, your 5 regts there are not going to hold.

Alfred

Here is the situation. My B-17's are in Townsville and I ordered them to ground attack Buna last turn. Weather in Buna is overcast

This is a B-17 unit in Townsville. Last turn it was ordered to hit Buna. Reset itself to nil target and hit Lae instead.

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Remind me why exactly you must fight at Suva.[8|] Concrete analysis please, not just generalisations along the lines of, "to keep the sealanes to Australia open". If you really think up to 4 Japanese divisions are heading to Suva, your 5 regts there are not going to hold.

Alfred

So far I have done nothing but run and he is punishing my Sir Robin strategy by aggressively pursuing, getting way ahead of the historical advance time line and taking few casualties. At some point I have to fight. I have to start hurting him and inflicting losses.
Is Suva the right place or do that?
Do I pull back to Pago Pago and fight him there?
Do I just cede the board and run till mid 42 then try and counter from wherever I end up?

The only way I can hold is by hitting him at sea. You are correct in saying 5 regiments (even dug in to level 4) will not hold 3 or 4 well supplied divisions. The question is, can my coastal artillery, mines, land based air, CV's and surface naval forces influence the outcome enough to allow the land units to hold. I don't mind losses, as long as they are matched losses. Attrition is fine. I just don't want to lose the lot for no corresponding pain on his side. So is this the time and place to put up a fight?

Regards
Andrew