Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Grfin Zeppelin]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

He has weekend Guard duty and has at least one turn waiting for him in his inbox.

He should tell his superiors that he is busy at home fighting the U.S. *nods*

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Gräfin Zeppelin

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

He has weekend Guard duty and has at least one turn waiting for him in his inbox.

He should tell his superiors that he is busy at home fighting the U.S. *nods*

[:D][:D][:D]

[ny59giants]

Actually, he is the Allies in our game. Its been hard for him to look at those green hexsides and LCUs in a positive manner. I think he is overwhelmed by the amount of supply and fuel he has at his disposal. [:D]

[Zorch]

ny59giants, is either of you doing an AAR?

[Icedawg]

Dang! I noticed that Mike was present on the forum (listed at the top of the main screen). Then I noticed that this thread had been moved from god knows how far back in the list to the front page and I got all psyched thinking that this EXCELLENT AAR had been updated.

But alas, no such luck. [:(]

[Zorch]

Sorry to get your hopes up.

I apologize in advance for this post moving the thread to the top of the list, too.

[Mike Solli]

Hi guys. I'm around, just uber busy. Been playing (including trying my hand - poorly - as the Allies against ny59giants) but no chance to update here. The 5 Apr 42 turn is in my inbox. I hope to get to it tonight. Lots of great things happening in RL. Some of you may recall my lack of work last fall, then going back to the Guard full time for a temporary position. In February, I got a job as a government contractor supporting the military. Very rewarding work, even though the pay was rather poor. It was suggested to me to apply for a government position, which I did. Against all odds, I got it! In a month, I'll start my training as a, make sure you're sitting down, demand planner. Yup, I'm going to program future supply needs for the military. [:D] Anyway, back to the game. I have a few turns written up. I'll post them then I'm off to the next turn.

[Grfin Zeppelin]

Welcome back [:)]

[Mike Solli]

27 Mar 42

Sub War

Nothing new to report.

5 Fleet

Today was an interesting day. Well, the BB bombardment TF did its thing today and pummeled the defenders, destroying 15 squads and disabling another 50. The shock attack met little resistance, wiping out the defenders. Here’s the result, which was sprinkled with FOW:

Ground combat at Dutch Harbor (171,50)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 6218 troops, 50 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 219

Defending force 2424 troops, 22 guns, 103 vehicles, Assault Value = 12

Japanese adjusted assault: 159

Allied adjusted defense: 5

Japanese assault odds: 31 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Dutch Harbor !!!

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

Japanese ground losses:
12 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
1437 casualties reported
Squads: 14 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 296 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 17 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 16 (16 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 150 (150 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 2


Assaulting units:
74th Infantry Regiment
65th Naval Guard Unit
67th Naval Guard Unit

Defending units:
103rd USN Base Force
2/250th Coastal Artillery Battalion

150 vehicles?! I wish! I’ll pull out the infantry regiment and one Naval Guard. I’m going to try and send an engineer company from Kwantung Army there to build some forts. I’d like to make Ted pay to retake this rock.

KB moved to a few hexes south of Dutch Harbor to ambush the TK TF spotted yesterday. What did they find? There was a small supply TF of an xAKL escorted by the PG Charleston. 21 Vals put down the xAKL and put 8x 250 kg bombs into the Charleston. The PG didn’t show up as sunk but I’m sure she did or soon will go down. So, what happened to this TK I was so hot to sink? At first I thought this supply convoy was the “TK TF” I spotted yesterday, but after I had a chance to check things out I discovered there is an Allied TF at Dutch Harbor! Unfortunately, I have no info at all on it but I suspect it’s the TK TF. I haven’t sent the turn yet so I need to decide what to do with KB and the 4x Kongos. The Kongos have moved toward Adak and KB is still sitting 3 hexes south of Dutch Harbor. My sub screen east of the Aleutians is showing no sign of any Allied ships. Gotta think about it some more.

4 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

SE Fleet

Ted still won’t come out and play over Pt. Moresby. I have decided to use one of my Betty daitai to assist the Lily sentai in bombing PM. I hate to do it, but this is an opportunity I won’t have for long. I need to accept the risk to my pilots and set PM back a bit (and hopefully kill some fighters on the ground).

Ted is now sending ~20 B-17s to visit Milne Bay daily. Today he went after the port, causing a little damage and sinking the one ACM in port. I had hoped to mine that base. I still may do it. We’ll see.

Speaking of mines, I’ve not mined many of my bases, nor have I mined many of Ted’s bases either. I need to spend some time reallocating my minelayers to start deploying mines. I have a lot of mines in my pool and a lot of spare ACMs just sitting around rusting (or rotting if they’re made of wood).

I still have a nice offensive force sitting doing nothing: Gds Bde, 90 Inf Reg and 144 Inf Reg (of 55 Division in Burma). Eventually, the 144 Reg will head to Burma to allow the 55 Division to combine. I’d like to use them offensively, but I’m not sure of the target yet. I have several potential targets in mind, but they all have pros and cons:

Pt. Moresby – Unlikely. Ted has ~30k troops there. This force does not have the strength to take it.

Luganville – Good possibility. I like this base. It’s pretty far out from the Solomons but it makes a nice OP to keep tabs on Allied shipping. If I take it, it will ultimately fall to the Allies.

Noumea – Unlikely. It’s very far and easy for the Allies to isolate. Whatever garrisons that island ultimately will be destroyed.

Cookville – This is tempting. It would get Ted’s attention. I couldn’t hold it long but I may get lucky and destroy some Allied aircraft on the ground. It would be a spoiling attack and nothing more.

Philippines

Just bombing. I still need another day or two of rest for my infantry before I perform another DA.

China

Sian is surrounded on 4 of 6 sides. I’ll continue to move forces around that base while my main assault force closes in on Sian.

Burma

No less than 5 sweeps and 2 bombing runs pummeled Akyab today. Total losses were as follows:

1 Zero shot down (+ 1 op loss)
1 Oscar shot down (+ 1 op loss)

2 P-40Es shot down
1 H81-A3 shot down + 1 destroyed on the ground
1 Vildebeest destroyed on the ground

In addition, airfield damage remains on Akyab and Chittagong.

I am moving forces to attempt to attack Imphal. That is the one airbase that Ted thinks is relatively safe. The other option is an air campaign against it but I still can’t put enough fighters over it to ensure success. Of the 5 divisions currently in Burma, 4 of them will close in on Imphal. The 55 Division (-) will guard the west flank, in the vicinity of Akyab. Some artillery (4 units I believe) are about to arrive at Rangoon from Singapore to support the attack on Imphal.

Over the past few days, Ted has been sweeping Warazup with 12 Hurricane IIbs at 15k ft. Not sure why. I’m considering sending a couple dozen Zeros at 20k ft to take them on.

I’ve been chasing around the 1 Burma Division since the fall of Rangoon. I finally caught it a hex NE of Prome in a SA (over the river) by the 33 Division and 2x artillery regiments. It got pummeled. Losses were 377(0) Japanese to 1592(104) Burmese. It retreated NW over the river to the road to Akyab. It was trashed in this attack and made combat ineffective. It would take me quite a while to move a unit there so I may let it go, possibly bombing is along the way. I’m not sure how many Burmese infantry squads Ted gets, but that unit would most likely suck them all up for a long time. Air bombardment is my best option right now because of all the disrupted squads in the division. I can kill more squads as it attempts to run. Ted has the option of running in move or combat mode. Neither one is a good option for him. If he goes in move mode, the air attacks will be more effective, killing more squads. If he goes in combat mode, he’ll be there for a long time, allowing my bombers to extract a heavy toll. Either way, the 1 Burma Division is going to be hurting.

Sumatra

The cleanup force in Sumatra consists of the 2 and 4 Divisions. The 2 Division is pushing the rabble up the east coast and the 4 Division is pushing the rabble up the center and west coast. I’d love to replace them with some tank regiments but they are all tied up at Batavia. As soon as Batavia falls, I’ll move them to Sumatra to speed things up.

I haven’t been mentioning the attacks in Sumatra because it’s basically elite Japanese infantry against Dutch remnants. For example, the 2 Division shock attacked (over a river) some rabble on the road north of Langsa and caused 199(16) casualties to 28(0) Japanese casualties. The defenders were pushed farther up the road. One was destroyed. Here’s a list of the defenders before the attack:

Van Aaran Garrison Battalion
Langsa Base Force
Medan Base Force

Java

My forces investing Batavia aren’t getting the supply they need to attack. I’ve allowed Soerabaja to hoard supply to make sure it keeps enough to keep repairing the infrastructure. Right now there is about 100k supply in Soerabaja. I turned off supply hoarding so some of that supply will move to the Batavia assault force. I need to kill off the Batavia defenders so I can move on with phase II (whatever that turns out to be).

SRA

Since Palembang was liberated (8 Mar), I started tracking the oil and fuel that has been shipped to the Home Islands. Here’s what has shipped:

Oil: 86,650 (100k needed per month)
Fuel: 132,800 (240k needed per month)

That’s over less than 19 days, so I figure I’ll easily hit my goals next month. I haven’t been tracking the resources. I figure I’m doing fine there.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: 46 JNAF AF Unit – Headed to SE Fleet

Ted sent me an interesting email the other day:

I'll be interested to see how long that PM meat grinder lasts. You've run through my P-40 pools easily but boy those Kittyhawks are really holding the line. Very surprising. You're not in Northern Oz....another surprise. And you're in the Aleutians, yet another surprise. What next ?

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Gräfin Zeppelin

Welcome back [:)]

Thanks GZ. It's good to have a few minutes to haunt these halls.

[Mike Solli]

28 Mar 12

Sub War

Nothing new to report.

5 Fleet

KB found that last TF. 9 Vals sank a YP. Wow, was that ever exciting. I don’t see anything else in the area so KB will retire back to Truk.

4 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

SE Fleet

A couple of sweeps and bombing raids netted 3x Kittyhawks for the loss of 4 Zeros and a Lily plus light damage to Pt. Moresby’s airfield. There just isn’t enough bomber force to matter and the fighters tend to come in by chutai as opposed to massed, so they can’t get local air superiority. I still have plenty of fighters and pilots, but every pilot loss still hurts.

I attempted to oppose the B-17s that make their daily raid against Milne Bay. Of an entire daitai, only 7 showed up to play, against 17 B-17s. They did little but damage a handful of bombers at a cost of 1 Zero.

China

Another attack against the 6 surrounded Chinese units. 592(104) Chinese vs. 34(0) Japanese.

Burma

The other air war is over Akyab. Several sweeps and bombing runs netted 2 P-40Es (and an additional op loss) vs an Oscar and Sally, but killed a Vildebeest and Swordfish on the ground and caused moderate damage against Akyab’s airfield.

SRA

Nothing new to report.

[Mike Solli]

29 Mar 42

Sub War

Nothing new to report.

5 Fleet

KB is heading south to Truk.

4 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

SE Fleet

Ted did not oppose me in the air today. My bombers didn’t fly either.

Philippines

Bataan DA – The 1:1 attack reduced the forts from 4 to 3 and caused 626(20) Allied to 523(15) Japanese casualties.

China

Nothing new to report.

Burma

No air attacks happened here either. Weather….

Java

Batavia fell today! The 5:1 attack killed 11 enemy units. Losses were 389(3) Japanese to 11366(1907) Dutch. The infrastructure was intact at Manpower 2(1), Resources 60(0), HI 20(1) and LI 80(0). I’m going to increase the HI. An AG and AVP were scuttled.

[Mike Solli]

You'll see that things are quieting down. I'm preparing for the invasion of N. Australia. 4x divisions will be the primary force. I'll give an OOB later. Off to do the next turn.

[Skyros]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Hi guys. I'm around, just uber busy. Been playing (including trying my hand - poorly - as the Allies against ny59giants) but no chance to update here. The 5 Apr 42 turn is in my inbox. I hope to get to it tonight. Lots of great things happening in RL. Some of you may recall my lack of work last fall, then going back to the Guard full time for a temporary position. In February, I got a job as a government contractor supporting the military. Very rewarding work, even though the pay was rather poor. It was suggested to me to apply for a government position, which I did. Against all odds, I got it! In a month, I'll start my training as a, make sure you're sitting down, demand planner. Yup, I'm going to program future supply needs for the military. [:D] Anyway, back to the game. I have a few turns written up. I'll post them then I'm off to the next turn.

Great news and welcome back!

[Kitakami]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Hi guys. I'm around, just uber busy. Been playing (including trying my hand - poorly - as the Allies against ny59giants) but no chance to update here. The 5 Apr 42 turn is in my inbox. I hope to get to it tonight. Lots of great things happening in RL. Some of you may recall my lack of work last fall, then going back to the Guard full time for a temporary position. In February, I got a job as a government contractor supporting the military. Very rewarding work, even though the pay was rather poor. It was suggested to me to apply for a government position, which I did. Against all odds, I got it! In a month, I'll start my training as a, make sure you're sitting down, demand planner. Yup, I'm going to program future supply needs for the military. [:D] Anyway, back to the game. I have a few turns written up. I'll post them then I'm off to the next turn.

Mike,

Congratulations! If your dedication to Japanese production in AE is any indication, you are definitely the man for the job!

[Icedawg]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

You'll see that things are quieting down. I'm preparing for the invasion of N. Australia. 4x divisions will be the primary force. I'll give an OOB later. Off to do the next turn.

Welcome back Mike.

Congratulations on the new job! But don't let it interfere with your primary job, the writing of this excellent AAR! [:D]

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Hi guys. I'm around, just uber busy. Been playing (including trying my hand - poorly - as the Allies against ny59giants) but no chance to update here. The 5 Apr 42 turn is in my inbox. I hope to get to it tonight. Lots of great things happening in RL. Some of you may recall my lack of work last fall, then going back to the Guard full time for a temporary position. In February, I got a job as a government contractor supporting the military. Very rewarding work, even though the pay was rather poor. It was suggested to me to apply for a government position, which I did. Against all odds, I got it! In a month, I'll start my training as a, make sure you're sitting down, demand planner. Yup, I'm going to program future supply needs for the military. [:D] Anyway, back to the game. I have a few turns written up. I'll post them then I'm off to the next turn.

Finally, my tax dollars will be spent on something useful. [:D][:D][:D]

[Cribtop]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Hi guys. I'm around, just uber busy. Been playing (including trying my hand - poorly - as the Allies against ny59giants) but no chance to update here. The 5 Apr 42 turn is in my inbox. I hope to get to it tonight. Lots of great things happening in RL. Some of you may recall my lack of work last fall, then going back to the Guard full time for a temporary position. In February, I got a job as a government contractor supporting the military. Very rewarding work, even though the pay was rather poor. It was suggested to me to apply for a government position, which I did. Against all odds, I got it! In a month, I'll start my training as a, make sure you're sitting down, demand planner. Yup, I'm going to program future supply needs for the military. [:D] Anyway, back to the game. I have a few turns written up. I'll post them then I'm off to the next turn.

As a former government employee, take it from me. When someone "suggests" you apply for the job, they usually wrote the description with you in mind.

Congrats! You could have short-circuited the interview process entirely by e-mailing your most recent save game plus a link to this AAR as reference material. [:D]

[Mike Solli]

You know, you guys are nuts! [:D]


30 Mar 12

Very quiet turn today, which is becoming the norm. There was some action in the air over Pt. Moresby and Akyab, as usual. Overall, I lost 2 Zeros and an Oscar vs. 6 enemy fighters. I’ll keep chipping away at Ted’s airframes.

The 12 Dutch PT boats are still running around. They caught a couple of xAKLs at Merak, sinking one and damaging the other. They got away and disappeared. There’s no place for them to go. They could pop up anywhere. We’ll see….

A para drop took Christmas Island, off Java. That will become a Mavis base to keep an eye out for sneaky enemy antics in that area.

Not much else to report other than receiving the 78 Sentai, a 36 plane Nate unit stationed in Mukden that will train more fighter pilots.

[Mike Solli]

31 Mar 12

This was my goal to complete Phase I. I achieved that goal, more or less. Here’s the update by region:

Aleutian Islands – Adak and Dutch Harbor taken, along with some of the small bases. In a week or so a bunch of Naval Guard units arrive. I’ll allocate 1-2 to clean up the rest of the chain. The Allies still control Unmak Island. I would like to take that base. I also need some IJN fighters and bombers there.

Central Pacific – I’ve taken the historical bases, and that’s fine for me. I’m still toying with Baker and Canton. Not sure yet – still weighing the pros and cons.

Solomons – I really wanted Pt. Moresby, but Ted did a great job of stopping me there. It may turn out to my benefit though. I’m bleeding him in US and Aussie fighter airframes there. He’s in no position to station any bombers there. He has ~30 B-17s stationed on the Aussie mainland and is using them to bomb Milne Bay daily. It’s preventing me from building an airbase there, but by allocating his B-17s there, they’re not doing any critical damage elsewhere. I’ll take it. Buna’s airfield is coming along. Soon I’ll have several airfields in that area and Milne Bay will be meaningless.

Philippines – He still has Bataan, which is tying up 14 Army and 5 Air Division (-). No big deal here. I expected this and really don’t expect Bataan to fall before the end of April. I would like to use 14 Army in the invasion of N. Australia, but I can live without it.

China – Steady plodding here. I am really happy with the number of Chinese units I’ve surrounded and destroyed. Upwards of 40 units in total have been destroyed.

Burma – Steady plodding here as well. Ted has a huge ground garrison in Akyab and Chittagong (~35-40k each), along with about 12-15k in Imphal. Burma is just about mine. There are a few remnants I’m pushing out. In the air, I’m taking out US and Brit fighter airframes at a nice rate. I have a steady bombing campaign of Akyab with 3x Sally Sentai. That’s preventing Ted from being able to escort his bombers and can’t bomb the Burmese oil fields any more. I still have ~133 of 300 oil fields pumping out that liquid gold. I have 5 infantry divisions and 2x tank regiments there, with another 2x tank regiments heading there soon. In June, I’ll form the 1 and 2 Tank Divisions (The Japanese Panzer Corps!).

SRA – This (obviously) is the key. I have all of the major bases (except Ambon). Invasion forces are enroute to Ambon as I type. Only Soerabaja was destroyed and 200k supply is currently there to build it back up. (I’ll talk logistics on 1 April.) With the fall of Batavia, the Java campaign is over (with the exception of the unit on the island off Soerabaja). Most of the dot hexes are mine and I continue to take the rest with small units. That’s a slow process, as you all know. I will take them all because Ted has had a nasty habit of dropping small units on them and building them up. Not nice.

Well, that’s about it. The turn was quiet other than the daily air attacks over Akyab and Pt. Moresby. Losses were 2x Oscars, 2x Zeros and 3 Betties (he caught a bombing raid) vs. 6 Allied fighters. I’m going to rest the Betties and then switch them to night bombing. We’ll see how that fares.

Note that I had 4 units withdraw:

Yamada (+ its det) – 27 Zeros from Burma
2x small FP units from Japan

Three of my air units increased in strength:

Kanoya Ku K-1: 26 to 36 Betties (22 Air Flotilla in Burma/Pt. Blair)
Sasebo Ku T-1: 4 to 6 floatplane trainers
Takao Ku K-1: 27 to 45 Betties (23 Air Flotilla in SE Fleet)

Reinforcements:

Genzan Ku S-1 – 27 Zeros (22 AF to Burma replacing the Yamada det)
Kisarazu Ku K-1 – 45 Nells – Trainers – I need them to help speed up TB training.
Yokohama Ku S-1 – 9 Rufes – Trainers – I may pull them out, possibly for Adak.
1 Ku S-1 – 27 Claudes (convert to Zeros) – 21 AF – Southern SRA (no IJN fighters currently there)
6 Ku S-1 – 45 Zeros (convert to Claudes) – Trainers
6 Ku T-1 – 6 Babs – Trainers
1x Std-C – in port until June and then convert to TK
CHa-31 - ASW