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42 Objectives

1) China. The entire 25th army is going to transfer here. To save fuel and because of lack of troop transports, I’m going to have to rail them close to Saigon, march to Saigon and then rail up to the Chinese border. I have 3 divisions in Burma. 1 of them will start a eastern march along the Burma road. 2 will have to hold the line for a while.

2) Canada. Strategic bombing Seattle will have a marginal affect. Calgary and Edmonton will produce enough daily fuel to keep some type of operations going, but to get there requires commitment from turn 1, IMO. So Canada/Alaska is out.

3) Northern OZ. Units in Java will take Northern OZ.

4) India. Not happening. Garrisons costs have been increased like China. I was shocked to find out the Northern Chinese city of Hami has a garrison value of 100! I’m going to lose VP there for a week or two and had to buy out a garrison unit from Manchuko for it. Don’t want those type of surprises in India.

6) SoPac. I’m already committed here. Wish I had not have done this. The bases all require improvement. The fuel costs are high and it's reminding me of the Aleutians. Too much distance, too little support bases. I’m moving almost ALL of my air transport to this region to help offset fuel costs. Plus, I’ve got problems here. The Assault Divs (3 Naval Guards) aren’t as strong as I would like. 2 of them on Moresby (360 AV) haven’t been able to punch through the defenses at Moresby. The Maizuru Assault Div is mostly in the water around Suva after the allied SCTF raided from Shangri-la. The 65th Brigade on Suva will be on its own for a while and is currently outgunned. I have 4-5 Naval Guards if I include CenPac, not really enough. I don’t have any other infantry forces in this region. I’m going to transfer 1 division from Java in order to finish off Morseby. I’m debating on whether to transport the division via Truk, or along Horn Island and straight into Morseby. If I go Horn Island, the KB will be needed. But the KB can't be everywhere and I've got just as big a problem in the Aleutians.

7) CenPac. I’ve started operations here. Gilberts will be conquered, and then I’m going to have to amass all of them onto Suva.

8) Aleutians. Again these Assault Divs don’t have enough punching power. The 2nd China Assault Div plus some support is on its own for a while. Plus I found out that Dutch Harbor has CD guns(!), so I lost a couple of precious xAP and quite a few more are banged up and in route back to Japan. This deep strike was a bridge too far, like Suva. Too far away from air support and repair and too high in fuel cost. My mistake. I’m going to need to take surrounding bases and build them up and starve them out. I can’t afford anymore damaged/sunk troop transports there.

Observations

Comparing this mod to stock, I can see the differences. They've brought Japan back to reality. Yes, this particular mod improves Japanese firepower with more Carriers, but DBB and reduced fuel reserves has a huge impact. Stock is easier by comparison. Very well done.

Overall, I have victory disease. Too lax and the Allied SCTF ravaged one of my needed infantry units. Over confident in Aleutians and Suva, now both are on their own for a while. Losses are still overall quite light, so I'm not worried too much about anything except fuel, which tells me that these mods (DBB and RA) are spot on.

January 23th, 1942

The KB and mini-KB are retreating back to Truk for resupply and probably a bit of repair. CenPac continues. Adak will be invaded in a day in the Aleutians, then build it up and start the process of taking Dutch Harbor. Dutch remnants continue to hold out in Java but are losing daily. Noumea, Luganville and Tulagi are building up.

Singapore is getting ready to fall. I'm still taking quite a bit of disruption from each attack.

Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 58954 troops, 636 guns, 276 vehicles, Assault Value = 1624

Defending force 44556 troops, 521 guns, 364 vehicles, Assault Value = 557

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 1

Japanese adjusted assault: 1909

Allied adjusted defense: 715

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

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
3413 casualties reported
Squads: 11 destroyed, 247 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 26 disabled

Allied ground losses:
2314 casualties reported
Squads: 29 destroyed, 125 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 67 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 30 disabled
Guns lost 40 (16 destroyed, 24 disabled)
Vehicles lost 14 (2 destroyed, 12 disabled)

Assaulting units:
18th Division
5th Division
56th Division
4th Division
124th Infantry Regiment
25th Army
1st RF Gun Battalion
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
5th Mortar Battalion
15th Ind Engineer Regiment
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
Southern Army
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
34th Field AA Battalion
23rd Ind Engineer Regiment
53rd Const Co

Defending units:
11th Indian Division
2nd Gordons Battalion
22nd Australian Brigade
27th Australian Brigade
3rd Cavalry Regiment
2nd Malay Battalion
12th Indian Brigade
Singapore Fortress
2nd HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
AHQ Far East
111th RAF Adv Base Force
24th NZ Pioneer Coy
2nd ISF Base Force
Malayan Air Wing
22nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
1st HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
1st Indian Heavy AA Regiment
SSVF Brigade
Singapore Base Force
224 Group RAF
110th RAF Adv Base Force
112th RAF Adv Base Force
3rd Heavy AA Regiment
109th RAF Adv Base Force
Malaya Army
2/17 Dogra Battalion
272/273rd Bty 80th AT Gun Regiment
109th RN Base Force
223 Group RAF
5th Field Regiment

January 24th, 1942

From what I understand about this mod, china starts much stronger than stock. 100% TOE or close to as compared to 60% stock. He must be feeling confident in China. I'm playing a maneuver game here, which takes patience and not my virtue. He's got 13 units, 140k of troops 40 miles north of Nanyang. I have a single brigade in the hex, almost full strength. the 13th Army, 6th Div and a bunch of ARTY are in Nanyang.

He attacked! Very surprised on that.

Ground combat at 85,44 (near Nanyang)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 32550 troops, 160 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1015

Defending force 6706 troops, 38 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 207

Allied adjusted assault: 458

Japanese adjusted defense: 658

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2

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

Japanese ground losses:
248 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 20 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Allied ground losses:
592 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 56 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled

Assaulting units:
85th Chinese Corps
98th Chinese Corps
48th Chinese Corps
69th Chinese Corps
12th Chinese Corps
51st Chinese Corps
90th Chinese Corps
7th New Chinese Corps
3rd Group Army
15th Chinese Corps
1st War Area
39th Group Army

Defending units:
14th Ind.Mixed Brigade

The AVG keeps playing a move game. Kweillen last turn. Changsha this turn. I've got lots of high experience fighters in the area. My bombers are shifting to ground bombing the battle hex. They will continue to both help prevent further chinese attacks but also to pin down his forces. I'm expecting the AVG to show up in Sian soon again.

But notice where I'm moving. The reserve forces in Nanyang are moving northwest into the battle. I'm about 1-2 days from isolating that entire force. Isolation isn't easy in WITP. It's hexside control rather than hex control, which is more typical. This could open the entire north.

If anyone is still reading this, Japanese or Allies, I need help with the ground combat system.

1) I'm bombing airfields to prevent forts from being built. Yes?
2) Singapore and Manila are supply sources. Should I bomb out the resources or light industry? Is it worth it?
3) My divisions are getting hammered. I have good leadership. I'm making sure I'm not over-stacked. Made that mistake at Wenchow and lost 8k of troops. Is there a trick to setting some to reserve?
4) I have support in the hexes, engineer regiments for forts.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Singapore is still holding out at 1/30/42. He's built forts back up to 2. I can't seem to crack that nut.

Based on you comments, I'd assume the following are present or being followed if you could.
Corp HQ in range
Command HQ also in range
Good supply (Sometimes I've seen that happen at Singapore if I don't have clear lines or haven't landed enough nearby.)
Naval bombardments at Manila (if you own Bataan)

If all of that, then you are having a serious run of bad luck and should seek out any local deities to perform sacrifices in return for favorable "die" rolls.

Find more engineers and add in some armor?

I don't think anyone can say you aren't doing it right.... Sounds like you just need to be persistent until the die roll in your favor. Sometimes lady luck rains on your parade.

Yep, I have corp and command within range. Good supply. Not trying naval bombardments, so I'll switch to Bataan for Manila. Transfer of engineers and armor already happening to Singapore.

Thanks. I needed a sanity check.

After I posted, I started thinking about things you can't necessarily control. Perhaps your opponent has done something to move the die rolls more in their favor. While he has a limited ability to do that, it s possible that he has spent PP to replace key commanders or has flown in even more engineers to hasten repairs between battles. Doubtful, but possible that these things have also influenced your battles. As we know, there are no sure things in real battles that have been fought through the ages as well as in the digital domain.

One other thing, are you satisfied with your bombing hit rate? How high are you flying and are you getting consistently good results? Is flak and CAP throwing off your bombers?

ORIGINAL: vicberg

If anyone is still reading this, Japanese or Allies, I need help with the ground combat system.

1) I'm bombing airfields to prevent forts from being built. Yes? It's likely just the number of engineers plus them having what they need to work. With Singapore if the Allies get enough back there to defend it's fairly common to see fortifications reduced to 0 and back to 1 either that same turn or the next turn. So what do engineers need to work (answered as what factors affect them working)? Supply, morale, disruption, and I presume fatigue, experience, leadership. Some time back Michael specifically did some something (fix or adjustment I don't know) where the disruption (and I think morale) of engineers began having a noticeable effect on their work. For example, naval bombardment on an air base that also badly disrupts the engineers there makes them repair at a snails pace.
2) Singapore and Manila are supply sources. Should I bomb out the resources or light industry? Is it worth it? That's partly a 'how fast do you figure to take it' question, because if you bomb them you won't have them when you capture the place. I just don't know what to recommend.
3) My divisions are getting hammered. I have good leadership. I'm making sure I'm not over-stacked. Made that mistake at Wenchow and lost 8k of troops. Is there a trick to setting some to reserve? On attack, combat units seem to take it on the chin a lot more than in WITP. Some thoughts: Units that have lots of disabled squads/devices are more likely to suffer destroyed squads/devices, so rotate units off of attacking and even move them out to recover when necessary. Recovery is helped greatly by copious supply, in a friendly base, with no enemy, HQs of various levels present/in range, Experience and morale of the units, and leadership helps everything. Prevention/mitigation in the form of compromising the enemy troops is key. Do things to compromise their disruption, fatigue, morale, supply. Air and naval strikes, land bombardments, continuous attacks. Basically rotate your units but keep his defenders huffing and puffing. Think of it as a means of concentrating force.
4) I have support in the hexes, engineer regiments for forts. Have enough support so the Support need in the units is green. Forts not usually needed for offense, but if you are talking about defending, yes engineers do help to build forts even in non-base hexes.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Singapore is still holding out at 1/30/42. He's built forts back up to 2. I can't seem to crack that nut. If you can keep him from getting forts above 2 that isn't horrible. the real issue is to wear down his troops while preserving your to the degree you can. Air strikes do matter, Singapore is just a tough but with AA. Disruption is a key combat factor. Units which attack with high disruption get hammered. High disruption in this context means above low teens. I prefer single digits! Also, in this game shock attacks are very dangerous to the attacker. They should very rarely be ordered. With enough experience in deliberate attacks and how they flow you will get a sense for when shock attacks make sense. Keep the defenders harried, rest your troops until they are ready (make sure they have beans, bullets, and bandages) and then deliberate attack. In between attacks keep hitting them with the artillery, restrict that to the bigger guns if the smaller ones are getting trashed in artillery duels. Tanks are very helpful against fortifications, bring all you can. Sometimes - not sure about this situation - the tanks can make some progress with an attack on their own while the infantry is still resting. Aside from any progress they make, that keeps the defenders defending. And of course any attack causes the defenders to burn more supply.

There's no cap. My bombers are coming in at 18k. At that height about 30% are damaged from flak. I can go lower but planes losses will be higher.

Here's a sample. I have 8 Sentai of Sallies and 1 Lily attacking. I have a combo of Airfield and Ground.

Morning Air attack on Singapore , at 50,84

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 20,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-21-IIa Sally x 62

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21-IIa Sally: 12 damaged

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

Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 5

Aircraft Attacking:
24 x Ki-21-IIa Sally bombing from 18000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb
24 x Ki-21-IIa Sally bombing from 18000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb
14 x Ki-21-IIa Sally bombing from 18000 feet
Airfield Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb

This was my attack on 1/31. I mistakenly had my combat engineers on reserve, so don't think they made it into the battle. Armor is on the way to the area. What I found interesting about this is the 5th division, which is the best there, disruption jumped to 70 from 10 something. The rest have disruption around 20-30 right now. The 5th hasn't taken many losses either. Still almost full strength. I have an 80 leader with an 86 aggression commanding the 5th. That means either 1) he's really good and taking disruption rather than losses, or 2) he's wildly aggressive causing the massive disruption. I don't know.

Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 56782 troops, 637 guns, 275 vehicles, Assault Value = 1407

Defending force 44031 troops, 515 guns, 379 vehicles, Assault Value = 455

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 1

Japanese adjusted assault: 1092

Allied adjusted defense: 641

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

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
1141 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 238 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 27 disabled

Allied ground losses:
822 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 28 disabled
Non Combat: 30 destroyed, 75 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 17 disabled
Guns lost 30 (2 destroyed, 28 disabled)
Vehicles lost 66 (26 destroyed, 40 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Assaulting units:
56th Division
4th Division
15th Ind Engineer Regiment
5th Division
18th Division
23rd Ind Engineer Regiment
124th Infantry Regiment
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
Southern Army
34th Field AA Battalion
25th Army
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
1st RF Gun Battalion
5th Mortar Battalion
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
53rd Const Co

Defending units:
2nd Malay Battalion
3rd Cavalry Regiment
2nd Gordons Battalion
SSVF Brigade
11th Indian Division
22nd Australian Brigade
27th Australian Brigade
12th Indian Brigade
272/273rd Bty 80th AT Gun Regiment
1st Indian Heavy AA Regiment
22nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
Singapore Fortress
112th RAF Adv Base Force
109th RAF Adv Base Force
111th RAF Adv Base Force
3rd Heavy AA Regiment
110th RAF Adv Base Force
24th NZ Pioneer Coy
224 Group RAF
Malaya Army
1st HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
Singapore Base Force
AHQ Far East
2/17 Dogra Battalion
109th RN Base Force
2nd ISF Base Force
2nd HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
223 Group RAF
Malayan Air Wing
5th Field Regiment

24 x Ki-21-IIa Sally bombing from 18000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb
24 x Ki-21-IIa Sally bombing from 18000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb
14 x Ki-21-IIa Sally bombing from 18000 feet
Airfield Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb

It looks like most of your bombers are flying long range or suffering supply issues and only using 2 bombs. When you only carry 4 at normal range, this is a big difference. That is 96 extra bombs if you get those 48 planes to fly with a full load. This will make a difference.

I would put them all on airfield attack to eat supplies and keep the engineers busy. I also think you can go down to 13k feet and avoid the light flak. The stuff hitting you at 18K will still hit you but you might get better results. I could be wrong about the height so check your specific mod.

On the day of the next attack, switch them all to ground attack. Ground attacks are not very affective for the Japanese but it will cause some disruption. Having one unit on Ground Attack is not affective especially if he has a large number of units in the base. It will rotate the ones hit and most will shrug off the disruption over night.

I think you are suffering from bad dice and facing units which still have supplies. That being said I would absolutely not bomb the Resources, LI or HI at Singers. Bomb the airfield and eat the supplies that way. Make sure your bombers fly with a full load.

Just some thoughts.

Wa

You can bomb the ports too.

I definitely would drop down, eat a few losses, it shouldn't kill you, but figure out why you are only carrying half the bomb load!

Check your troops and rotate them, given the losses it seems Singers will fall shortly, especially if you can rotate troops in. Just keep grinding away, bomb & bombard every day, and attack when you get disruption and fatigue on your troops down.

You are very close to that magical 2-1 with 0 level forts.

If you can prevent forts from being built up there is only 1-2, maybe 3 more deliberate attacks needed I think.

CRAP

I didn't notice the 1/2 loads. I'm using the northern airfields in Malaya. I could have been using fields much closer but didn't notice. So many many details in this game.

Yeah, good catch!

February 3rd, 1942

Bill is out of town for 2 days, so I have some time to catch up with where things are at.

Central China
The maneuver game worked. Chinese are in full retreat. There's 6 division with supporting Arty, Combat Engineers and Armor. Multiple brigades, 3 of which received reinforcement brigades and will form up into divisions. The Chinese have left the low stacking defense hexes close to Nanyang and are in open ground (for the moment). I don't think he's going to stand his ground around Sian and he's going to retreat to the west. Hard to say with Bill. He's very unpredictable. If he stands, I'll attempt a second maneuver game and isolate around 200k of Chinese troops. His supply situation has to be fairly bad right now. Burma road was cut about 1 month ago.

Unfortunately, the 1st Army is at 1/2 strength. The remaining divisions and brigades are full strength.

Lower China

Wenchow is the typical tough nut. Daily shore bombardments are reducing it to rubble. I didn't want to commit 4 divisions and 3 brigades to this, but the division east of Wenchow were trashed when I ordered an attack and didn't realize I was overstacked. They are 1/2 or less strength. The 116th is full strength + 2 brigades. The 3rd brigade in Wenchow is 1/3 strength.

There's a standoff around Wuchang/Changsha. I don't have enough juice to mount an offensive yet.

Night Naval bombardment of Wenchow at 89,58

Japanese Ships
BB Mutsu
CL Jintsu
CL Kumano
CL Mogami
DD Isonami
DD Hibiki
DD Akatsuki
DD Samidare
DD Yudachi
DD Nowaki
DD Maikaze

Allied ground losses:
137 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Manpower hits 2
Resources hits 1
Fires 850
Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 16
Port hits 4
Port supply hits 1

Burma

No resistance at all by the Allies. I para-dropped on Lashio. Then attempted a para-drop on Kumming to see if could catch him by surprise. My recon on the Kumming wasn't very good and the majority of the 1st Raiding Regiment were wiped out. They are rebuilding now in Lashio. An Armored regiment sits just east of the city. He's moving Chinese troops towards the area. There were Brits in Kumming. So I'm guessing he's airlifted into the city.

There's not much in Burma yet, but I don't need much at the moment. I'm airlifting air engineer units from Thailand.

The Rest

Singapore is awaiting another day of rest before resuming the assault. Bombers transferred south for full bombing loads.

Luzon is doing airfield attacks out of Clark and not much else. I'll await a division from Java, then take Bataan and then start daily naval bombardments of Manila.

Mindanao is fully conquered except for one city in the middle. I'll starve it out.

Java is fully conquered. I'm transferring the 38th Div to Singapore along with combat engineers and armor regiments. Hopefully, they won't be needed. I'm transferring the 2nd division to Luzon. The remaining division in Java will be held in reserve.

SoPac is quiet. My carriers are repairing a bit. Then next target is Wake. Once Wake is taken, I need to shore up the Aleutians and then I'll continue with SoPac.

February 7th, 1942

Yes, they said it couldn't be done. They said "this guy can't manage the ground combat system for his life." They said many things. Who said this? I don't know, but I'm sure someone did. Perhaps it's my sub-conscious, but let's not go there.

Singapore fell.

Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 54948 troops, 637 guns, 275 vehicles, Assault Value = 1367

Defending force 42882 troops, 500 guns, 355 vehicles, Assault Value = 374

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 0

Japanese adjusted assault: 1638

Allied adjusted defense: 693

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

Japanese forces CAPTURE Singapore !!!

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

Japanese ground losses:
2894 casualties reported
Squads: 15 destroyed, 231 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 22 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 30 disabled
Guns lost 16 (1 destroyed, 15 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
40975 casualties reported
Squads: 552 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 3398 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 228 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 365 (365 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 440 (440 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 28

Assaulting units:
23rd Ind Engineer Regiment
18th Division
124th Infantry Regiment
4th Tank Regiment
4th Division
5th Division
56th Division
8th Tank Regiment
6th Tank Regiment
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
15th Ind Engineer Regiment
25th Army
Southern Army
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
5th Mortar Battalion
1st RF Gun Battalion
34th Field AA Battalion
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
53rd Const Co

Defending units:
2nd Gordons Battalion
22nd Australian Brigade
SSVF Brigade
27th Australian Brigade
3rd Cavalry Regiment
11th Indian Division
12th Indian Brigade
AHQ Far East
22nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
1st Indian Heavy AA Regiment
24th NZ Pioneer Coy
109th RAF Adv Base Force
110th RAF Adv Base Force
109th RN Base Force
224 Group RAF
Singapore Fortress
1st HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
Malaya Army
3rd Heavy AA Regiment
111th RAF Adv Base Force
Malayan Air Wing
2nd ISF Base Force
Singapore Base Force
2nd HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
112th RAF Adv Base Force
272/273rd Bty 80th AT Gun Regiment
223 Group RAF
5th Field Regiment

Central/Northern China

Looks like he's going to defend Sian. There's 160k worth of Chinese troops, so that works for me. I have 6 Divisions there now, plus 3 more coming/forming. In a week or two, they'll be ready. Rather than a head on assault, I have time to maneuver around again, both at Lanchow, where I don't know the troop quantity yet, and Sian. If he stays put, I'll be able to isolate both cities.

Urumchi is about to fall. 2 ARM regiments have gotten the upper hand there.