Nomonhan Redux: Seydlitz (Japan) vs. MBatch729 (Allies)

[seydlitz_slith]

Ships sunk summary:

[seydlitz_slith]

I have continued to pound Voroshilov from the air and with ground bombardment. Since my units had recovered from their disruption and fatigue, I tried a shock attack. I was able to knock his forts down, but like a boxer in the 15th round, my forces are again too disrupted and fatigued to follow it up next turn. Once again I am back to reserve mode with the ground troops.

My transports have arrived at Rashin, so it will not be too long before I have fresh troops on the scene to carry the day.

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Ground combat at Voroshilov (112,45)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 81787 troops, 833 guns, 395 vehicles, Assault Value = 2381

Defending force 53107 troops, 1485 guns, 183 vehicles, Assault Value = 1314

Japanese adjusted assault: 1334

Allied adjusted defense: 597

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

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 0

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

Japanese ground losses:
6085 casualties reported
Squads: 82 destroyed, 166 disabled
Non Combat: 24 destroyed, 213 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 26 disabled
Guns lost 5 (2 destroyed, 3 disabled)
Vehicles lost 36 (5 destroyed, 31 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
4834 casualties reported
Squads: 136 destroyed, 59 disabled
Non Combat: 327 destroyed, 127 disabled
Engineers: 18 destroyed, 37 disabled
Guns lost 70 (33 destroyed, 37 disabled)
Vehicles lost 100 (90 destroyed, 10 disabled)


I have weakened him from about 4800 AV down to 1100 AV since this whole thing started. Here was his bombardment attack back:

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Ground combat at Voroshilov (112,45)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 46182 troops, 1373 guns, 103 vehicles, Assault Value = 1192

Defending force 92841 troops, 840 guns, 654 vehicles, Assault Value = 2116

Japanese ground losses:
2250 casualties reported
Squads: 67 destroyed, 45 disabled
Non Combat: 59 destroyed, 64 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 8 disabled
Guns lost 22 (6 destroyed, 16 disabled)
Vehicles lost 37 (13 destroyed, 24 disabled)

[Rob Brennan UK]

Welcome back !

Japanese ground losses:
6085 casualties reported
Squads: 82 destroyed, 166 disabled
Non Combat: 24 destroyed, 213 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 26 disabled
Guns lost 5 (2 destroyed, 3 disabled)
Vehicles lost 36 (5 destroyed, 31 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
4834 casualties reported
Squads: 136 destroyed, 59 disabled
Non Combat: 327 destroyed, 127 disabled
Engineers: 18 destroyed, 37 disabled
Guns lost 70 (33 destroyed, 37 disabled)
Vehicles lost 100 (90 destroyed, 10 disabled)

Goven the number of destroyed allied units i would say your plans on track and you will eventually get this hex and any remaining soviet troops will be so battered as to be combat ineffective in vladivostok.

1 or 2 more shocks and its yours bar some miracle for the USSR. Great going as that is a sizeable proportion of the southern soviet forces there. Fingers crossed he's left on accept replacements for them too [;)]. but i doubt he's that naive a player. We can still hope though.

Nice sub ace too , whats his stats out of curiosity ? not seen any japanese subs do 3 attacks in one turn. The TK's a valuable target too , allies have a dire shortage of fuel haulers in 42.

Have fun

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: Rob Brennan UK

Welcome back !


Nice sub ace too , whats his stats out of curiosity ? not seen any japanese subs do 3 attacks in one turn. The TK's a valuable target too , allies have a dire shortage of fuel haulers in 42.

Have fun

I can't pull up his complete stats since the sub is at sea. There must be a good naval skill and very high agression. Right now the only things I can see are his leadership (60) and inspiration (51). Rest assured there is some stat that makes this guy a performer. If I was a Japanese player I would write this leader down and make sure that he was in a very capable sub then send him in harms way. There are very few good Japanese sub officers.

[Ghertz]

It has been a week since the last dispatch.  Is the game continuing?

[TheElf]

Any changes in your Nate groups?

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: Ghertz

It has been a week since the last dispatch.  Is the game continuing?

Yes, the game is continuing. I have been under the weather lately (winter cold) and just haven't had the energy to post. Very little has happened event wise, so you haven't missed anything. I will try to catch things up posting wise on the next turn.

[seydlitz_slith]

Not much. There has been only one combat lately involving Nates, and they did ok (shot down a bomber or two).

ORIGINAL: TheElf

Any changes in your Nate groups?

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 86 2 March 1942

In the naval arena, one of my submarines was depth charged in the Bass Straits off Melbourne. She is retiring to Yokohoma for repairs with 27 flt damage. Little does he know, but there are still two other subs patrolling in the area.

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ASW attack near King Island at 80,172

Japanese Ships
SS I-20, hits 8

Allied Ships
DD Stuart



I-20 bottoming out .......
DD Stuart fails to find sub, continues to search......
DD Stuart attacking submerged sub .......
DD Stuart fails to find sub, continues to search......
DD Stuart fails to find sub, continues to search......
DD Stuart fails to find sub, continues to search......
Escort abandons search for sub...


Off the west coast of Borneo, I-155 got a solid four hits on a transport, sinking her.

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Submarine attack near Pontianak at 55,90

Japanese Ships
SS I-155

Allied Ships
xAP Kedah, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage



xAP Kedah is sighted by SS I-155...
SS I-155 attacking on the surface...

[seydlitz_slith]

As you can see from the map in the previous post, I have taken all of Malaya except for Singapore. It will be a bit before I attempt Singapore because I want to wear it down some. I am thin on forces here since I elected to divert some of the Luzon invasion forces to the Russian front after we mopped up Luzon. Accordingly, you are not seeing any sort of blitzkreig in the south, and certainly nothing on the scal of what Erstad has done in his game with Aztez.

In China, I am pretty much holding at the historical boundaries that Japan held in early 1942 with the exception of Changsha, which I hold. I may do more there later, but I am not playing for a victory point win. I actually prefer to play a game closer to historical so the current boundaries suit me just fine.

In the SRA, I am of course behind the timeline since Singapore fell ion February 15, 1942 in real life. Of course, I finished the Luzon campaign much earlier than really happened, so that is a reasonable offset. In real life Bataan fell on April 9th and Corregidor on May 6th. In fact, at this point in time, MacArthur was still in command until Wainwright took over on March 12th.

Looking at the history books, The Japanese landed at Palembang on Feb 14, Balikpapan on Jan 24, and Bandjarmasin on Feb 10. Since it is March I am behind in these areas but I will get to them.

I do hold the north coast of New Guinea as well as Manus, Rabaul, Shortland, and Tulagi. I have not attempted to move any farther south at this time. Instead, I am building up Manus into a large base and will build the bases on the north coast of New Guinea. Since I am not playing for a VP win I may not extend my perimeter much farther to the south. I am already building up Saipan, Guam, and Tinian. My strategy may hinge on not having large forces committed far away from Japan. If I defend along the current perimeter with interlocking bases then I do not risk having large garrisons cut off and starved. I am open to opinions here, but judging by what I learned in WITP, I think that I may be able to conduct a better defence with a shorter perimeter.

On the Russian front, the situation is becoming mixed. We are still stalemated at Voroshilov and both sides are pretty much exhausted. He has mounted an effort from the east to reopen supply lines along the rail line. I have landed a large contingent of southern army troops fresh from the Luzon campaign at the port of Rashin. They will attempt to hack through his western border front and link up with the Voroshilov troops from the west. This will take two or three weeks as these border forces are nearly impossible to destroy.

Here is the map for this area:

[seydlitz_slith]

On the Mongolian front, I have retreated back to my borders for the time being, and he has pushed forces forward. However, he has no idea that I have strong forces mustering at Kalgan that will counterstrike in a couple of weeks. I am trying to hold this surprise until my forces at Rashin break through the border fort. I want him to feel stressed in several places at once.

[seydlitz_slith]

The KB is currently back at Kure reprovisioning after expending all sorties (for the second time) over several days striking Russian ground forces at Mishin and Voroshilov. Losses to AAA were not bad, but I am short of Vals due to the issue that I had with the factory. The factory never expanded production, and after Erstad's note I rechecked it. I found that it no longer even showed an expansion (no idea what happened here) and the supplies had drawn down to under 10,000 in the hex. I fixed these issues and it is now starting to expand. I will be short a few Vals on the carriers, but this isn't critical. I can get Vals by disbanding a few of the land based units. Kates are ok even though I am not building the B5N2 version. I am building Mabels, and I have already converted the Shokaku and Zuikaku units to Mabels from Kates. My other pools are all ok and building slowly. The constant use of my air units over Russia has cost a few aircraft but is doing a good job of slowly building experience.

Here are my aircraft pools:

[seydlitz_slith]

fighter pool

[seydlitz_slith]

I am still making Nates since I have engines left. They are still useful in China, on training missions, and later as Kamikazes. No point in converting the factories to Oscars yet as the airframe production would outstrip the engine production. I will most likely end Nate production in late March, but I have not yet decided what I want to use the factory for. I am leaning towards retooling it for Tony production.

Here are my aircraft losses in the game to date:

[seydlitz_slith]

Allied losses:

[seydlitz_slith]

More allied losses:

[seydlitz_slith]

Here is my pilot pool:

[seydlitz_slith]

Here are my top aces. Note that I have had 743 pilots KIA so far after three months of fighting.

[seydlitz_slith]

Here are the ship arrivals planned for the next month:

[seydlitz_slith]

Musashi has now progressed to a mid-september completion date. Right on schedule.