Gutted - Hartwig (Allied) vs Nemo (Japan)

[modrow]

Damian,

[:(]

Still thanks for the info... Yes, it is painful...

But sometimes, one can hand back a drop of his bitter medicine. You will be pleased to read about my successful PE-2 attack on him at some later point of time in this thread...

Hartwig

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

one or more short and probably mainly fact-oriented updates are to follow, we have friends coming in for the weekend who may be here any minute - thus I may have to shut down any minute. Still, I want to keep you informed on a development or two.

First of all, Nemo re inforces Exmouth. Curser intel suggests the presence of an additional unit now, there is a TF in the harbor and I one of my subs scored a hit:

[font="Courier New"]
Sub attack near Exmouth [Australia] at 11,86

Japanese Ships
AK Yamamichi Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire

Allied Ships
SS KVII

Japanese ground losses:
15 casualties reported
[/font]

continued in next post...

[modrow]

next, some dire news from the air war in India. Air war in India, you may ask ? Well, I have been trying keep my head down there for a while. I was using the time to try to concentrate and train fighters there (including some of the Chinese) and upgrading a unit or two, so that apart from the AVG's P40B I had some Spitfires and a few Kittyhawks available. The general idea was, of course, to hit Nemo when he comes in with just 20 or 30 Zekes with 120 planes.

Nemo has been using his bombers mainly to do a sweep/bomb combination for port attacks on Diamond Harbor for a few days. The turn before last turn, he changed the pattern to flatten Akyab once; thus he sent the sweep to Calcutta. I thought maybe he'll do that again, thus I tried to CAP the place heavily. Results were disappointing though. First, some of the CAP decided to fly over Diamond Harbor and got smashed by the escorts which protect the bombers:

[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on Diamond Harbour , at 28,23

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zeke x 38
Ki-32 Mary x 75
Ki-48-I Lily x 57
Ki-49 -I Helen x 3

Allied aircraft
Buffalo/F2A x 12
I-16 Type 4 x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zeke: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-32 Mary: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-48-I Lily: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-49 -I Helen: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo/F2A: 4 destroyed, 2 damaged
I-16 Type 4: 12 destroyed

Allied Ships
AK Honolulan, Bomb hits 11, on fire, heavy damage
AK Floridian, Bomb hits 10, on fire, heavy damage
AK Loch Ranza, Bomb hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
AK Jalarajan, Bomb hits 13, on fire, heavy damage
SC Aster, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage

Port hits 27
Port fuel hits 5
Port supply hits 4
[/font]

Nothing to be done against that. The real disappointment was this, however:

[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on Calcutta [India] , at 29,23

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zeke x 28

Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 25
Hurricane I x 3
Kittyhawk I x 9
Lancer x 16
Spitfire VB x 6
I-16 Type 4 x 7

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zeke: 4 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Tomahawk: 11 destroyed
Hurricane I: 1 destroyed
Kittyhawk I: 2 destroyed
Lancer: 11 destroyed
Spitfire VB: 1 destroyed
I-16 Type 4: 3 destroyed
[/font]

Wow. The odds are >2:1 in my favour, my pilots are rested - his aren't, AVG, Kittyhawks and Spitfires are high 60ies/low 70ies exp, there are spitfires in the skies - and still this is a one-sided affair [X(]. Gulp. [8|]Anyway, the units are trapped in India (unless I evac to China), got to get out of them what I can while I can. Still, I was disappointed about that result.

Ok, that's probably all I can post for now. Thanks for your interest

Hartwig

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

courtesy of the present traffic situation on German highways (our guests are stuck in traffic jams), here's another short post...

Inspired by Damian's AAR, I launched an unescorted Pe2-strike against Nemo's hornet nest of fighters in Manchuko, Hailar. 20 unescorted DB vs 116 fighters on CAP. Slaughter ? Yep. Lots of fighters lost, PE2s virtually unharmed.

[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on Hailar [Manchukuo] , at 63,22

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zeke x 83
Ki-44IIa Tojo x 6
Ki-109E Mike x 27

Allied aircraft
Pe-2 x 20

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zeke: 5 destroyed
Ki-109E Mike: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Pe-2: 1 destroyed

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 10
[/font]

A pity I don't have more Pe2 available in the theatre right now.

In addition, in view of the rules relating to application of planes which we are following now, the usability of the Stormovik (sp ?) DBs is going to be very limited very soon, thus I better start using those as well...

[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on IJA 8th Division, at 67,21

Allied aircraft
IL-2 Shturmovik x 33

Allied aircraft losses
IL-2 Shturmovik: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
38 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
[/font]

Interestingly, here my escorts which I had asked to come along stayed at home. I have the feeling that not only Japan is restricted in his air combat here. E.g., strike and sweep missions from Russia into Mongolia, which I had ordered before the rule amendment do not seem to occur, at least the ones I had ordered did not fly.

Ok, thanks for your interest

Hartwig

[modrow]

Damian,

ORIGINAL: n01487477

Does someone familiar with this Mod know whether Nippon is able to perform attack missions in Mongolia ?

I believe the answer is no Hartwig...

--Damian-- your fellow partner in pain [;)]

How about LRCAPping stuff in Mongolia a) from Mongolia or b) from Manchuko as Nippon. Does that work ? If so, I might still be allowed to beat Nemo's tank unit to pulp from the air while it is in Mongolia - the reason for not allowing ground attacks was the inability to protect the units.

Choybalsam (sp?) seems to be CAPped (that's why I tried to sweep it for a few turns, which did not work and then tried to
bomb it with tons of escorts, which did not work either... which may indicate that even if I am allowed to bomb him, I might not be able to...).

Thanks

Hartwig

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

I would like to add that during the last few days, Nemo and I had a bit of an e-mail exchange relating to my fruit flies (Sorong was taken, the garrisoned places held Jap AV and were not taken, I have two or three additional invasions at different places on the map which will take place in the next few days). He seems to feel they are a waste of assets, specifically AKs, which are not as plentyful as in stock in this mod and a shortage of which I feel already because many of the ones I have are not where I want them. He kept coming back three times to the topic and stressed also that there was no psychologically relevant effect to be achieved, because he was not very sensitive to that anyway.

I'd like to know about your view on this approach of mine. Its it just a waste of assets I will sorely miss ? I am aware that the mini invasions do not have much direct operational value; what they may achieve is make him react. E.g., potentially he may put more of his air assets in India, of which he may be short, to naval rather than ground attack. Also note that he did start a series on port attacks to destroy my shipping available for this type of op at Diamond Harbor.

Thus, what do you think about the course of action I have taken ? Bear in mind that starting more significant ops right now is beyond my capabilities (perhaps 80ish AV at Aden, where I have ships aplenty; 4 AK at the west coast, where I have 2 divisions; some shipping available at Australia, where I also have troops I may use, but where i am relatively short of supplies to support major ops). I am in process of trying to improve that situation, but that will take time; but for now it's either hunker down completely or do this type of stuff.

Thanks for your views, including any criticism.

Hartwig

[JeffroK]

Hartwig,

I'd continue with the Invasions just to....him off (annoy him intensely).

Will the failure of any of them be fatal to you?

[Alfred]

hartwig.modrow,
 
I don't have the time at present to go into details but I suspect that on balance your fruit fly operations constitute less than optimum use of current available assets.  From what you have posted to date it seems to me that there is a degree of wishful thinking on your part.
 
For example, why would Nemo react in accordance with your hopes?  Only if there is a strategic reason would he react, and that means therefore that you must establish what is important to him strategically.  In that context what is the value of Sorong?  Does it have a large airfield/port which can interdict Japanese SLOCs?  Can it be used by the Allies to interdict, in other words can the Allies get adequate supplies, aviation support, garrison, aircraft to Sorong to constitute a threat?  Can Sorong act as the springboard for an Allied offensive, and if so, is the area of critical importance to Japan?
 
Then there is the question as to who has sufficient assets over and above the minimum required to successfully complete their critical operations.  Can the Allies withstand the loss of these assets without impacting upon their capability to launch future operations?  Are the Allies causing disproportionate losses to the enemy?  I doubt so.
 
In short, these operations appear to merely be 1 move tactical thrusts not forming part of an overall strategic plan.  I know you think there is a strategy behind them, but if they can be effectively disregarded by your opponent, then it really isn't a strategy.
 
Alfred

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

thank you for your opinions and analysis. With respect to Alfred's statements, I think the summary (last 2 lines) can be used exactly to describe what my problem in drawing the borderline is.

The question (assuming that Nemo is really not susceptible to any psychological aspect of this, i.e. e.g. neither annoyed nor getting used to the assumption that any TF heading towards one of his ports is just a mini invasion, but assesses situations like a machine) is, whether it should read "if they can be effectively disregarded" or "if they are effectively disregarded".

I think in our game, the first is true, but the second is questionable (even though this may be a case of wishful thinking as well). The turn after I take Sorong, the next mini-invasion heading to Bolea is received by 2 units or fragments thereof at that base which according to my intel were not there to begin with and may have been airlifted in (unless they have been decimated notably by combat ops in the earlier course of the war). The turn after I land at Port Blair, Nemo sends a surface TF (the transport ship had moved along by that point of time, but I left an SC on station because I had assumed this reaction may occur and I wanted to know whether it does). And I seem to see a reduction of the bombers flying ground attack missions on relevant targets in India on turns after mini invasions have been detected, because he hunts them down. Question is, of course, whether this is worth the shipping space invested (which is lost mainly in India; the Sorong TF is e.g. still unharmed), which might partly be related to the question whether the reacting units are doing this instead of being idle (surface TF to Port Blair) or instead of doing something else they should be doing (air units in India on naval attack rather than providing ground support).

I should add that I try to make things look more correlated, specifically relating to the Sorong/Bolea thrust. As you know, I have started operating AC from Cebu and in the last turn (more significant due to the bigger AF) from Davao as well and started to run attacks which may be interpreted as trying to close down Kendari. If you look at all of this isolated, it is just as meaningless as the possession of Sorong. But if one of Sorong/Bolea would/could be brought to AF level 1 (which will probably not happen), not only bombers, as now, but also fighters could be moved there (=Davao), plus the flying boats, of which I have aplenty, could reinforce whatever is there directly. Quite some supply is in the region already anyway. I don't think this can be realized (thus it COULD be disregarded, the assets available for this don't match what would be needed), but I will do my best to maintain the impression that this is a plan I hope to push through, e.g. by bringing cursor intel's unit count at Sorong up by flying further fragments (of which I have, as pointed out previously, aplenty) in (again flying boat work).

Thanks for your look on things - always good to get a fresh view on the game and a different starting point for one's analysis. Any additional opinions or further comments are, of course, welcome !

Hartwig

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

whereas I got the results of the last turn for a few days already, I am still waiting for the game file to be able to extract pictures and (even more importantly) punch in new orders. Therefore, I am a bit hesitant to provide much of an update now, which could mainly consist of numbers and combat report fragments.

What I want to add at this point of time though is a bit of additional info relating to another important issue Alfred mentioned in his last post: The impact of the (especially AK/AP) losses on the ability to launch future ops.

Overall, I am short of shipping capacity, as may have become apparent from what I have been posting previously (and for those of you who are familiar with this mod maybe already from the loss of transports which had occurred when I took over this game). From this point of view, any additional ship lost is a problem. However, this view leads at least for now to the "hunker down in fortresses and prepare for the great operations next summer by waiting yet some more time till yet another asset is available"-German-eastern-front-in-winter-42/preparation of Kursk mentality which I have the feeling Nemo may be capable of pushing his opponents towards and against which his doctrinal backgroung has succeeded.

It may be the wrong approach, but at present I look at this differentiating between different theaters and phases rather than taking an overall view on things. According to the results of my attempts to estimate/calculate shipping needs in different theaters, I have a shipping surplus in those theaters where I have accepted the possibility of losses relating to mini invasion attempts (I did not lose all of them), and the majority of the ships I lost was based in Diamond Harbor, from where it was possible, but difficult to extract shipping (I saved an AR). Much of that surplus is on the move now to be available at places where it will be needed in a different phase of operations a few game months from now (and the transit may take a few game months as well), but I put some of it to use (or abuse) now. This is a gamble: There is no need for Nemo to react, but a) maybe he does and b) if he does not, maybe he gets used to not reacting in his OODA-cycle and a change of pace may disorient him. He may be too god to fall for it, of course, but I dont't play based on the assumption that he is perfect, even though he may seem so.

I would like to have more ships available for the first set of real ops in the NE of the map, but moving additional ships there from the west of the map would not leave much/enough time for operations before winter starts there; apart from that I believe I can do with the shipping capacity I have available for the first set of operations I have in mind now. This is a) one of the reasons why the West coast is presently as stripped of shipping as it is and b) one of the reasons that determined my first set of operations.

The thing I am most wary about now is the possibility that Nemo can continue to move along his planned script undisturbed. It is absolutely clear that the only certain way to prevent this is launching an operation which he cannot afford to ignore. The problem is that setting up such an operation takes a bit of time (we are still just about 10 turns into our game). Against a perfect player, what I am doing makes definitely no sense. But for now, in spite of all of Nemo's high qualities as an player, which I do acknowledge, I am not yet ready to assume that he is perfect...

Thanks for your interest

Hartwig

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

for the first time, I am actually really falling behind with this thread. After reminding Nemo that I still needed the game file, I found it on Sunday in my mailbox, did the turn yesterday evening and received a new one today. Thus, I'll give you only a few short views on the June 9 => June 10 turn, move on to doing the new turn and then discuss that one. At least that's the plan for now.

I hope to be back soon with the promised update

Hartwig

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

faster than I thought, here's a first installment:

The June 9=>June 10 turn showed much of the same - at least from my point of view. Nemo said he considered it to be a strange turn. He says he had bad luck with the pathfinding the ground combat model does, which made one of his divisions stray into Calcutta instead of going where it was supposed to be. There it got mauled a bit:

[font="Courier New"]
Ground combat at Calcutta [India]

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 12165 troops, 169 guns, 6 vehicles, Assault Value = 311
Defending force 27335 troops, 409 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 866

Japanese max assault: 354 - adjusted assault: 40
Allied max defense: 930 - adjusted defense: 2013
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 5)

Japanese ground losses:
3051 casualties reported
Guns lost 70

Allied ground losses:
34 casualties reported
Guns lost 2[/font]

I am actually not really happy about this event and am not even 100% sure whether it was as unscheduled as Nemo claims, because I believe that he could have seen that the move was going wrong last turn already. What really worries me is that the combination of level 5 forts and urban hex brings the AV of my fully supplied units only up by a factor of 2, meaning that a number of factors must bring me down massively.

Can morale be one of the relevant factors ? Many of my units have horrible morale values, I even got a morale 0 unit [:(] in India. Tried to move it to a quiet, well developed base and to provide my most inspiring leader, hoping to get back to a value of 1. So far, without success.

Other news relating to ground combat:

Nemo's shock-attack-teleport express towards Ulan Ude is (unfortunately) moving according to schedule.

Also, I add a bit of ground combat from the Aleutians, mainly because it may be interesting in view of next turn. As you know, I did a quick&dirty invasion attempt at Cold Harbor early in the game, where the fast transport TF I used retreated 1 Hex and thus avoided the CAP umbrella designed to protect it. Nemo has been bombarding first, tossing in a bit of ground attacks from the air then and started to launch deliberate attacks like this one next.

[font="Courier New"]
Ground combat at Cold Bay [Alaska]

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 8120 troops, 167 guns, 20 vehicles, Assault Value = 104
Defending force 787 troops, 30 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 31

Japanese max assault: 104 - adjusted assault: 48
Allied max defense: 24 - adjusted defense: 13
Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1

Japanese ground losses:
14 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Allied ground losses:
16 casualties reported
Guns lost 1[/font]

I can live with results like that [:)]. More about the developments here when I discuss the next turn.

Ok, that's all I will say about ground combat. Will talk about other elements in separate posts.

Hartwig

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

the next installment for June 09=> June 10. I realized that if I really go for the pure "separation by element", there is only one thing to report in the "water" section if one would not consider Air-to-surface operations (albeit that may make this element look extremely friendly). This is it:

[font="Courier New"]
Sub attack near Exmouth [Australia] at 11,86

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

Allied Ships
SS KVII

Japanese ground losses:
28 casualties reported
[/font]

I mentioned Nemo's reinforcements moving to Exmouth previously, now I know the unit (not a combat unit, have to look it up again to provide the identity - will add this info as an edit.), because the AK went down later. This is also the first naval loss Nemo had to accept since I took over, if I am not mistaken - a total increase in his AK losses of about 3% (which shows just how little he has lost so far). In any case, I think sending a sub to Exmouth was a reasonable thing to do and paid off already.

That's it for now - next we will look at the results of naval attacks.

Thanks for your interest

Hartwig

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

the last few lines relating to June 09 => June10, relating to air operations.

In Russia, I did the standard PE2-Attack. I like it [:D]. Also, bear in mind that you usually have to multiply the losses on the ground with a factor of 2. I really like it [:D][:D]
[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on Hailar [Manchukuo] , at 63,22

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zeke x 84
Ki-44IIa Tojo x 6
Ki-109E Mike x 28

Allied aircraft
Pe-2 x 22
R-12 x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zeke: 6 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-109E Mike: 2 destroyed

Airbase hits 2
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 10[/font]

But Nemo cleverly caught some of my soviet bombers trying to score HI hits in return:
[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on Anshan [Manchukuo] , at 58,31

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zeke x 15

Allied aircraft
SB-2M x 10

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
SB-2M: 4 destroyed[/font]

In India, my PE2s don't perform quite as well. Still not prone to receive losses, but no planes destroyed on the ground, even though big raids seem to fly out of Magwe on a regular basis:
[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on Magwe [Burma] , at 31,29

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zeke x 23

Allied aircraft
Pe-2 x 21

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Pe-2: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
11 casualties reported

Airbase hits 3
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 21
[/font]

Nemo sweeps empty Diamond Harbor, meets some stray CAP when sweeping Calcutta (3 P40B lost) and bombs Madras, Calcutta (for the first time in a while, he was busy port attacking the remaining ships at Diamond Harbor) and Karachi. Also, he sends his Angels to Delhi:

[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on Delhi [India] , at 29,10

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zeke x 16
Ki-264 Angel x 7

Allied aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-264 Angel: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
A-20B Boston: 1 destroyed
Blenheim IV: 1 destroyed


Allied ground losses:
3 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 7[/font].

On other fronts, I bombed Exmouth (as usual; also as usual I take B19 losses that at least equal Nemo's plane losses there). Still not sure whether it really does make sense to use B19 there.

Nemo's carriers continue to mop up stragglers, mainly east of NZ. Will try to post some more details relating to this carrier op which is a sweep of its own together with what happened last (i.e. the next) turn in that section of the map (not much different), hopefully I will manage to produce a picture with some additional info in it - but that will take time. This is where the ship losses induced really hurt and hit ships travelling towards the West Coast to allow me to move goodies from there more efficitently- Nemo used an interesting technique to really make it difficult to escape for ships travelling in the region, which I will try to illustrate more clearly in that future post. In addition, one AP and one AK are hit by the CVE TF in the vicinity of Addu.

An interesting side effect of the display of increased activity relating to the bases Sorong/Davao/Cebu Island is that I moved some medium bombers there, which seem to have found an assembly of ships which may indicate that a not-so-mini invasion is about to occur in the region. Not only that, they even planted two bombs in an AK. Nice bonus.

[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on TF, near Kendari [Celebes] at 33,71

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-I Oscar x 19

Allied aircraft
B-25D Mitchell x 11

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
B-25D Mitchell: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
CL Asaka Maru
AK Dainiti Maru

__________________________________________________

Day Air attack on TF, near Kendari [Celebes] at 33,71

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-I Oscar x 18

Allied aircraft
B-25D Mitchell x 7

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
B-25D Mitchell: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
AK Kosho Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CL Asaka Maru[/font]

Ok, I think those are the major events - note that this is not the full 27kb combat report, but what I consider to be the more relevant ops.

Thanks for your interest

Hartwig

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

this is an update of a somewhat different kind... As promised earlier, I want to show the course of Nemo's "operation broom" sweeping the wide blue seas west of NZ. My previous graphics were quite poor, which I blame partly on MS paint. Therefore, I checked out some of the tools Damian mentioned in his thread and am now experimenting with these. Most helpful is the one which allows to do multiple screenshots without intermediate processing (uosu); but I think also that the picture processing program he recommended is a step in the right direction. Of course, no program can compensate for my bad designing abilities...

This is an attempt to show you two thrilling sub attacks at Exmouth during the June 10 => June 11 turn by the sub which already sunk a ship last turn. I think this one will most likely sink as well, and there were still a few Japanese troops on it. Nice [8D]. The captain deserves a medal or two.

Thanks for your interest

Hartwig



P.S: A bit small (due to the size limit), is it not ? Maybe I should try to crop it a bit...

P.P.S: And, of course, thanks for the excellent recommendations, Damian.

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

once again, it's been a while since I last posted, but also, once again we used the time to get another turn done. Thus, I still have two turns to report, which I will try to do in the next few days - thus, once again, this is more or less a teaser/bump. Actually, I am more interested in summarizing a few operations, showing hot things developed in a given region in the course of a few turns, but that is of course the more demanding presentation. Let's see what I manage to do...

For now, I have an additional question or two. If I recall correctly, if there is a bombardment attack in a contested hex, it is necessary to use a base to which a valid supply line can be traced to move a unit out of town, otherwise movement orders are reset. What I would like to know is whether this works also for a fragment when the parent unit, which is at another base, cannot move to that target ? It seems to me some of the fragments I extracted from Kuysyshevka (sp?) in Russia keep resetting their orders ever since Skorovodino (sp?) is contested even though there are no bombardment attacks at Skorovodino, and I would like to know whether I can do something about it - airlifting everyone out would limit what I will be able to bring back to have it upgrade to corps in 44 even more severely.

Also, I would be interested whether there is a way to estimate how much soviet AV I will probably need to stop this Japanese tank unit

[font="Courier New"]
Ground combat at 57,15
Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 8110 troops, 32 guns, 481 vehicles, Assault Value = 228

Defending force 646 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 5

Japanese max assault: 386 - adjusted assault: 388

Allied max defense: 3 - adjusted defense: 1

Japanese assault odds: 388 to 1

Allied ground losses:
80 casualties reported

[/font]

in the hex SW of Ulan-Ude (is that wooded ?). Any ideas anyone (specifically, I hope for some input from Damian) ?

I really have come to respect the Japanese tank units in this mod.

Thanks for your input and interest

Hartwig

[n01487477]

Hartwig ...

press "1" on the keyboard and it gives you this ...

If I recall correctly, if there is a bombardment attack in a contested hex, it is necessary to use a base to which a valid supply line can be traced to move a unit out of town, otherwise movement orders are reset. What I would like to know is whether this works also for a fragment when the parent unit, which is at another base, cannot move to that target ?

If I understand you correctly, I believe so ...

Cheers
Damian

[modrow]

ORIGINAL: n01487477

Hartwig ...

press "1" on the keyboard and it gives you this ...

If I recall correctly, if there is a bombardment attack in a contested hex, it is necessary to use a base to which a valid supply line can be traced to move a unit out of town, otherwise movement orders are reset. What I would like to know is whether this works also for a fragment when the parent unit, which is at another base, cannot move to that target ?

If I understand you correctly, I believe so ...

Cheers
Damian

Damian,

thanks for the quick input... didn't know about that hotkey.

Any views on the AV issue ? Or a good link ? I know, I am unsaturable...

Btw, nice job against Nemo's CVs in your war. Unfortunately, this victory may be phyrric (does that word exist ?).

Thanks again

Hartwig

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

let me try to wrap up some of the things from the June 11 combat report...

You already know about the heroic acts of K XVII at Exmouth.

I won't go into detail of the standard ops (like bombing Exmouth), with the exception of my standard Pe-2 action at Hailar:

[font="Courier New"]Day Air attack on Hailar [Manchukuo] , at 63,22
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zeke x 78
Ki-44IIa Tojo x 6
Ki-109E Mike x 25

Allied aircraft
Pe-2 x 24
R-12 x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zeke: 6 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-109E Mike: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Pe-2: 1 destroyed

Airbase hits 7
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 20
[/font]

This really is something I should have started earlier. At the same time, as mentioned earlier in India it does not work comparably well, even though there is not much difference in the exp levels of the respective units. Anyway, this is the only place where I feel I am atriting at least a tiny bit. Got to change that !!!

Today's HI strike went against Beijing, and the combat report claims I killed another 4 HI points. Need to check in the strategic bombing interface for more accurate info...

Here's another thing I should have come up with earlier... training runs for my fighters against an empty base... If I had done that, maybe the recent results in the air over India would not have been as disappointing as they turned out to be.

[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on Schwebo [Burma] , at 34,28
Allied aircraft
I-16 Type 4 x 17

No Allied losses

Airbase hits 2

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x I-16 Type 4 bombing at 2000 feet
6 x I-16 Type 4 bombing at 2000 feet
8 x I-16 Type 4 bombing at 2000 feet
[/font]

Nemo keeps using his Angels against Delhi in small numbers.
[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on Delhi [India] , at 29,10

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zeke x 18
Ki-264 Angel x 7

No Japanese losses


Allied ground losses:
7 casualties reported

Runway hits 3[/font]

Don't think he gets much out of it, but maybe he wants to train them or I am just lucky so far. In any case, he surely did not wait for overwhelming numbers. Other than that, there were two sweeps over Diamond Harbor and bombing runs on Calcutta and Madras. Once again, Karachi is not hit - Nemo is using quite a number of planes on naval attack missions in India.

Speaking of naval attack missions: As you know, last turn my planes displaying activity in the Timor region discovered at least one surface TF and even hit something. Today, they scored some more hits:

[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on TF at 31,72

Allied aircraft
B-25D Mitchell x 6
Beaufort VII x 11
Hudson IV x 5
Kittyhawk I x 11

Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort VII: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
CL Asaka Maru, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AK Chile Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire[/font]

Also, the first of the new B17 units was put to some use in the Aleutians. Even though their exp is not too high right now, they scored a lucky hit. Of course, they are not enough to deliver a real punch right now.

[font="Courier New"]
Day Air attack on Umnak Island [AK] , at 101,37

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zeke x 24

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 9

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-109E Mike: 2 destroyed

Runway hits 2

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 32400 feet
3 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 32400 feet[/font]

The rest of my bombers in the theater took a day off, they needed some rest. In spite of this, look at this nice ground combat result - the GIs at Cold Bay are doing a good job (I guess partly because it is a mountain hex - if I was on the attack, things would not look nice either). Anyway, it's good to see Nemo wearing his troops there down. Not sure whether it is wise to attack there for him.

[font="Courier New"]
Ground combat at Cold Bay [Alaska]
Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 8114 troops, 165 guns, 20 vehicles, Assault Value = 105

Defending force 780 troops, 31 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 30

Japanese max assault: 105 - adjusted assault: 174

Allied max defense: 25 - adjusted defense: 136

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1


Japanese ground losses:
89 casualties reported
Guns lost 6

Allied ground losses:
13 casualties reported
Guns lost 1[/font]

I need a base up there which allows me to employ more of my fighters and get into some more of a war of atrition...

Ok, this is all I am going to say relating to that turn. As always, if there is some specific information you would like to get, just ask.

Thanks for your interest

Hartwig

[modrow]

Gentlemen,

for some time I have been promising to provide a bit more of an analysis relating to a given theatre developing over time. Finally, I will try to get this done for the developments in India. It is clear by now that I will not manage to reinforce Calcutta significantly; but maybe it is interesting if I present what I thought had to be done/what was my plan and what Nemo did to thwart (sp?) it in a most elegant way. Here's the starting situation (along with some input not available to me when we started). Thanks again for Damian's links to better freeware programs for working with the screenshots, I think this one is much nicer than the picture in the "India hexdance" post I uploaded earlier...



As you see, Nemo was right from the beginning in a position to close a retreat via Asansol at will. The 17 units @ Jamshedpur do comprise several Japanese divisions. The seemingly weak forces near Delhi also comprised at least one, I think two divisions to begin with. In addition, Nemo has a blocking force at his disposal, which controls the key position of Lucknow. I believe that the most relevant units he has there are listed now, but am still not sure about the exact force composition he had there. Last not least, there was a tank unit at Patna.

Continued in next post...