Tale of the Sheep! - JocMeister (A) vs. Lowpe (J)

[JeffroK]

M3 Stuart, the type saw combat at Gona/Buna as an assault tank, while they were very useful, it was decided to convert these units to the Matilda II.

[JeffroK]

M3 Lee, most of the M3 that arrived in OZ were M3 Grant diesels.
None saw combat.

[JeffroK]

Churchill Flamethrower.
A small number (3?) arrived for trials, post war we purchased 52 for a Tank Battalion,

[JeffroK]

M4 Sherman, again a small number received for trials on Bouganville.

[JeffroK]

Back to the war!!!!!

[JocMeister]

Awesome! Thanks for the pics! [&o]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]July 9th 1942[/font]
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Two pretty quiet turns.

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NORPAC
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Heheheh. Jeff finally goes for Seattle with every available bomber he has... The AA BDE springs into action with its 72 3.7cm AA guns shooting down 17 bombers.

Don´t think he will try that again...

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Luzon
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Last defenders at Bataan surrenders. There are no longer any allied troops left in the PI. -400 VPs. Ouch.

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China
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Another attack by the Japanese Panzer Armee.

Ground combat at 74,52 (near Tuyun)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 38771 troops, 496 guns, 1225 vehicles, Assault Value = 1514

Defending force 46718 troops, 155 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1283

Japanese adjusted assault: 987

Allied adjusted defense: 2125

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2

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

Japanese ground losses:
1049 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 90 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 45 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 10 disabled
Vehicles lost 147 (4 destroyed, 143 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
2020 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 105 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 41 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled
Guns lost 11 (2 destroyed, 9 disabled)

Assaulting units:
9th Tank Regiment
6th Tank Regiment
104th Division
5th Tank Regiment
33rd Division
10th Tank Regiment
7th Ind.Tank Brigade
7th Tank Regiment
11th Tank Regiment
Guards Tank Division
11th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
4th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
Botanko Hvy Gun Regiment
22nd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
9th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
21st Mortar Battalion
23rd Army
Tonei Hvy Gun Regiment

Defending units:
28th Chinese Corps
11th Chinese Corps
31st Chinese Corps
10th Chinese Corps
99th Chinese Corps
4th War Area
9th Group Army

Amazingly we hold and the troops are in good condition.

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India
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Its hard being patient right now. 6 more days before I launch my offensive. Jeff has reached Lucknow where I have a surprise waiting for him...hopefully he attacks without bombarding first. [:)]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]KB Spotted![/font]
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As I predicted (although a lot later then I expected) KB shows up. There are nothing currently in danger here. I have a CA TF that was covering the Luganville landing that was spotted east of Noumea. They will turn towards Suva instead.

Big question is if KB is covering an invasion or just doing some raiding. If the first I´m as ready as I can be. If the second he won´t find anything valuable.

What I do have though is about 50 subs that have been waiting for just this occasion. Will be a lot of clicks the coming turns...

[koniu]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

What I do have though is about 50 subs that have been waiting for just this occasion. Will be a lot of clicks the coming turns...

During my game agings Docup nothing afraid me more that KB attacked by sub. Every time i see CV as target my heart is stooping.
I can accept lose of carrier in air attack or even against surface ships but from sub it don`t feel right. It is not glorious death, not proper samurai end from enemy not proud enough to give open fight[:D]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: koniu
During my game agings Docup nothing afraid me more that KB attacked by sub. Every time i see CV as target my heart is stooping.
I can accept lose of carrier in air attack or even against surface ships but from sub it don`t feel right. It is not glorious death, not proper samurai end from enemy not proud enough to give open fight[:D]

I know that feeling! I think most of my fleet CVs took torps against Erik.

I think Lowpe shares that fear too because when my subs swarmed the KB at the WC (one missing a 6 TT spread) he quickly turned back. [:D] I have 22 subs that just left Noumea on an intercept course! Another 12 left Sydney and and recalled every sub in SOPAC towards Noumea.

Fingers crossed! I think I earn a hit or two after my game with Tom. Had 8 hits (all duds) against Kaga in just a couple of months.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]India[/font]
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The appearance of KB down in the deep south couldn´t have come at a better time. This releases a lot of the Navy in the IO from escort duty. Force Z and some CAs move down towards Colombo. Lets see if I can do something about this:

3/25th/B Division is loaded on xAK Kinjosan Maru moving to Rangoon.

2nd British ID is 4 days from Karachi and the 2nd Marines started loading at CT. Feeling really good about India right now.

32nd ID have unloaded from the trains at Calcutta. Lets kick the Japanese out of India shall we... [:)]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]NORPAC[/font]
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Amazingly Jeff goes again for Seattle on the 8th losing another 15 planes to flak. He then rests for a day going for Tacoma losing another 4 planes for no hits. A good couple of days.

And I got a gift from the Government that will be quite useful in the coming weeks. 36 P38s will be really useful when the time comes to close Coal Harbor.

Having the KB showing up deep in SOPAC also released a huge amount of fighters and AA from the south. Tomorrow 320 fighters will be on CAP duty around the Seattle area. All AA is also moving back to the North.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]SOPAC[/font]
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Lets see what the KB is up to. I think he is going to try raiding or possibly even try to get some cheap strat points. It will be a lot tougher down here then on the WC since I can concentrate in a smaller area. I have 350 fighter (well trained) which can also be reinforced with the newly resized squadrons from York and Sara. Wasps fighters can also jump in via NZ if needed. AA is plentiful although not as heavy as on the WC. I can also pull another 100 Fighters from Townesville and another 50 from NZ (not fully trained yet).

Sydney and Melbourne harbors are evacuated. Some will go to NZ and some will head for ports in southern OZ. Only thing really valuable here are the APs. With no surprise the can easily get away in time.

I have a huge convoy arriving Auckland in a couple of days. Its in the deep south covered by the Wasp/NC TF on flank cover 10 hexes to the North. A bit worryingly the TF got a level 1 DL 2 turns ago. So Jeff knows something big is down there. He doesn´t know if its moving in or out though. They should be able to unload long before the KB gets down there though.

In preparation of a possible invasion I have had Rigel and Prince Van Oranje sitting fully loaded at Noumea. They now laid down 150 mines in the harbor before heading out towards Suva. I also just reinforced Noumea with one US tank battalion and 2 arty units. I was in the process of getting 2 OZ armored RGT there to but they wern´t ready in time. That is a shame as some 100 Grant would have been welcomed.

The 27th US ID relocates to Brisbane. They are the slated reinforcements for Noumea. Forts at Noumea are 5.71 but rising quickly thanks to some added engineers.

I´m as ready as I can be. Lets see what Jeff wants to do here and if its the full KB. If this is just a raid its a mistake letting me know where it is.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Air war[/font]
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Much to the disgust of Steve ([:'(]) this is my favorite part of the game. Who needs ships eh? [;)]

I´ve done incredibly well in this game and Japanese losses have been very, very high so far. I´m just 23 planes shy from reaching my goal for 42 and that is still 6 months away. I´ve lost around 300-500 more planes then I usually do but in exchange I have destroyed almost twice as many Japanese planes as normal. Its not going to change anything economically for the Japanese but VP wise it will add up.

Much of those losses comes from the repeated LBA attacks on PH in the beginning. The air losses from that OP alone ate up ALL the VP gain from PH counting allied base, plane and ship losses. So the only net gain from the PH OP was the 1600 VPs from the destroyed LCUs. And that in turn was by a big margin eaten up by the Japanese ship losses (which I´m still getting confirmation on sinking from).

Then we have the added losses from the strat bombing campaign. There is a lot of Japanese bombers shot down both by AA and the occasional CAP. I havn´t done the math (nor do I plan on doing so) but I think unless Jeff pull something out of the hat soon the start bombing campaign will at best have been a draw. Most likely though it will have cost him more VPs then he has gained. 2078VP/4= 520 planes lost. I bet he lost more then that but I´m not going to count. [:D]

So the new goal for 42 will be another 1000 planes destoyed. It will be tough since I doubt there will be much more strategic bombing which means less AA kills (500 planes shot down by AA so far compared to 950 in Air to Air). But we will try. The VPs are needed!

[Rio Bravo]

Joc-

I don't have much experience in the war, but I have thought from the outset that Steve made a huge mistake attacking the West Coast. He took his fight to far away from home and right into the U. S. power-base. Not much bang for the buck. A tactic I believe he will sorely regret implementing.

Best Regards,

-Terry

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

[font="Verdana"]KB Spotted![/font]
______________________________________________________________________________

As I predicted (although a lot later then I expected) KB shows up. There are nothing currently in danger here. I have a CA TF that was covering the Luganville landing that was spotted east of Noumea. They will turn towards Suva instead.

Big question is if KB is covering an invasion or just doing some raiding. If the first I´m as ready as I can be. If the second he won´t find anything valuable.

What I do have though is about 50 subs that have been waiting for just this occasion. Will be a lot of clicks the coming turns...

Why do you think this is the KB?

[witpqs]

Which AA unit is that with 72 guns?

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Rio Bravo

Joc-

I don't have much experience in the war, but I have thought from the outset that Steve made a huge mistake attacking the West Coast. He took his fight to far away from home and right into the U. S. power-base. Not much bang for the buck. A tactic I believe he will sorely regret implementing.

Best Regards,

-Terry

Jeff kind on inherited the idea from Nick (Olorin the original Japanese player). Not sure how far it was set in motion when Jeff took it over. It might have been irreversible by the time Jeff took over. Not sure! [:)]

Its also new ground to break which makes things 10x more interesting for both sides. So it might have been a lot of "fun factor" thrown in. [:)]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
Why do you think this is the KB?

Number of fighters/bomber + the fact the Jeff knows I have CVs down here. He ran into them just over a month ago. Thanks to a lucky sub he got out with his BB/CA TF before losing anything. [:@]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: witpqs
Which AA unit is that with 72 guns?

This one! [:)] Starts in Ceylon but I sent it to NORPAC as soon as Jeff landed at Coal Harbor. You get two more in NZ during the war.