Return of the Sheep! - JocMeister(A) vs. MrKane(J)

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]28th August 42[/font]
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More quiet.

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SOPAC/OZ
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Maneuvering around Brisbane with a tank force. Not really expecting anything more then to annoy Tom a little. A couple of VPs at least...

Ground combat at 95,157 (near Maryborough)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 4795 troops, 6 guns, 477 vehicles, Assault Value = 293

Defending force 4887 troops, 61 guns, 26 vehicles, Assault Value = 139

Allied adjusted assault: 139

Japanese adjusted defense: 191

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), op mode(-), fatigue(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
353 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 27 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 18 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 32 (23 destroyed, 9 disabled)
Vehicles lost 16 (2 destroyed, 14 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
81 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 10 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Vehicles lost 42 (1 destroyed, 41 disabled)

Assaulting units:
2/11th Armoured Car Regiment
2/8th Armoured Regiment
2/6th Armoured Regiment
754th Tank Battalion
2/5th Armoured Regiment
2/4th Armoured Regiment
2/10th Armoured Regiment

Defending units:
21st Ind.Mixed Brigade
4th RF Gun Battalion

Bombers are back at mainland OZ resting and taking replacement. Will need at least 10-15 days before I can move them back to Suva as supply dropped down under 30k.

Also found a new SCTF at Brisbane. The remnants of the Noumea strike. I´ll keep my eyes on Brisbane to see if he disbands anything in the harbor.

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Burma
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Another big sweep hit Calcutta. No allied planes rose to the sky. Not too worried about him bombing the AF. If I lack AA in OZ its the opposite in India...

Morning Air attack on Calcutta , at 52,37

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 33 NM, estimated altitude 35,190 feet.
Estimated time to target is 9 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 27
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 42

No Japanese losses

Aircraft Attacking:
42 x Ki-45 KAIa Nick sweeping at 31190 feet *

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China
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Slaughter continues...

[Lokasenna]

I'd bet almost anything that the new TF at Brisbane is made up of damaged ships from Noumea.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I'd bet almost anything that the new TF at Brisbane is made up of damaged ships from Noumea.

I would too. They got there fast, so probably not much engine damage. And Brisbane is a shipyard=10, so it can take most/all of the IJN CLs. The question for me would be why he went there when he knows you have major 4E assets nearby. Can he protect the yard? Or are they so hurt he had little choice?

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]A small nugget[/font]
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I have a habit of checking the strategic map before I end the turn. I select to view only Japanese TFs. Sometimes it really pays off...found a small red dot in the middle of nowhere. This is what I found...

[Spidery]

I have a habit of checking the strategic map before I end the turn. I select to view only Japanese TFs. Sometimes it really pays off...found a small red dot in the middle of nowhere. This is what I found...

Shokaku and Zuikaku heading to Japan to get radar fitted? Can you get a sub in the way?

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Spidery
Shokaku and Zuikaku heading to Japan to get radar fitted? Can you get a sub in the way?

That was my thought too! [:)]

Only have one sub close by as can be seen in the screen. Set it to full speed on intercept course. Not even going to bother keeping my fingers crossed though...[:D]

[offenseman]

Brilliant find! Those heading home and the cruiser force trashed for a while is the news you have needed! At the least you will see a huge slowdown of his tempo. Is the USN CV fleet anywhere close? I envision a big sweep over Brisbane by the USN followed by 4e and CV aviation on Brisbane's port to smash those cruisers even more. Send the CVs at full speed if you have to.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: offenseman

Brilliant find! Those heading home and the cruiser force trashed for a while is the news you have needed! At the least you will see a huge slowdown of his tempo. Is the USN CV fleet anywhere close? I envision a big sweep over Brisbane by the USN followed by 4e and CV aviation on Brisbane's port to smash those cruisers even more. Send the CVs at full speed if you have to.

Sadly they left the South Pacific over a month ago together with the rest of the navy. Was no point in having them there with the entire IJN on station. Might come to regret that relocation! [X(]

[offenseman]

If the 'kakus are heading to the HI you have plenty of time to deal with things before they can return. Brisbane is near the end of a LONG fuel chain for him which makes his KB and BB usage problematic. The cruiser force is probably not usable in the next two weeks, at least. This is an opportunity! Send them CVs to the area at flank speed if you have to and follow up with AOs if NZ has no gas.

Also consider a 4e strike and/or Bombardment on Brisbane's port. Port damage will slow things down as well. While losing a bunch of 4e would not be so great, this is a rare opportunity.

Be aggressive in this case and pounce on this! [:)]

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: offenseman

Brilliant find! Those heading home and the cruiser force trashed for a while is the news you have needed! At the least you will see a huge slowdown of his tempo. Is the USN CV fleet anywhere close? I envision a big sweep over Brisbane by the USN followed by 4e and CV aviation on Brisbane's port to smash those cruisers even more. Send the CVs at full speed if you have to.

Agree... Still, knowing that what appears to be 2 CVs heading to get their upgrades means you can fight the rest of KB on roughly even terms, which opens up your options for raiding for VPs, IMO... not necessarily to Japan, but his forward bases, such as the Solomons or Brisbane or even somewhere else.

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I'd bet almost anything that the new TF at Brisbane is made up of damaged ships from Noumea.

I would too. They got there fast, so probably not much engine damage. And Brisbane is a shipyard=10, so it can take most/all of the IJN CLs. The question for me would be why he went there when he knows you have major 4E assets nearby. Can he protect the yard? Or are they so hurt he had little choice?

I'd guess that he put them there due to having better fighter protection (right?), and to be able to protect the ships from bombardments and such with an SCTF in hex. Also Brisbane has a bigger port (7+, right?), so can fix up to 5 points of major damage without even entering the yard. And then there's the yard to fix the DDs, and he only has to expand it a few points to fix the CAs. I'd only do this if major damage were under 10 or so, or really under 7-8, but that's a pretty reasonable damage result for bombs that bounced off of armor.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: offenseman

If the 'kakus are heading to the HI you have plenty of time to deal with things before they can return. Brisbane is near the end of a LONG fuel chain for him which makes his KB and BB usage problematic. The cruiser force is probably not usable in the next two weeks, at least. This is an opportunity! Send them CVs to the area at flank speed if you have to and follow up with AOs if NZ has no gas.

Also consider a 4e strike and/or Bombardment on Brisbane's port. Port damage will slow things down as well. While losing a bunch of 4e would not be so great, this is a rare opportunity.

Be aggressive in this case and pounce on this! [:)]

I hadn't thought about this, but it's definitely true. Putting damage on Brisbane's port will be a huge PITA for him.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna


'd guess that he put them there due to having better fighter protection (right?), and to be able to protect the ships from bombardments and such with an SCTF in hex. Also Brisbane has a bigger port (7+, right?), so can fix up to 5 points of major damage without even entering the yard. And then there's the yard to fix the DDs, and he only has to expand it a few points to fix the CAs. I'd only do this if major damage were under 10 or so, or really under 7-8, but that's a pretty reasonable damage result for bombs that bounced off of armor.

It starts as a 5(4).

Allies can't expand yards, Japan-Boi. [:)]

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna


'd guess that he put them there due to having better fighter protection (right?), and to be able to protect the ships from bombardments and such with an SCTF in hex. Also Brisbane has a bigger port (7+, right?), so can fix up to 5 points of major damage without even entering the yard. And then there's the yard to fix the DDs, and he only has to expand it a few points to fix the CAs. I'd only do this if major damage were under 10 or so, or really under 7-8, but that's a pretty reasonable damage result for bombs that bounced off of armor.

It starts as a 5(4).

Allies can't expand yards, Japan-Boi. [:)]

But MrKane can expand it while it's in his hands... I would do so by a couple of points if it meant I could repair a couple of ships right there, triage-style.

[Bullwinkle58]

Diabolical.

I have to learn how to play Japan.

I did a test on Singers. How do you get it to expand a point at a time? It wanted to jump by 50 a push I think. I tried Soerbaja and it was less per push, maybe 10?

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Diabolical.

I have to learn how to play Japan.

I did a test on Singers. How do you get it to expand a point at a time? It wanted to jump by 50 a push I think. I tried Soerbaja and it was less per push, maybe 10?

You have to go into the 'J' hotkey screen. The Allies have that screen too, but I can see why you'd never want to open it. It's where I do ALL of my industry management.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Diabolical.

I have to learn how to play Japan.

I did a test on Singers. How do you get it to expand a point at a time? It wanted to jump by 50 a push I think. I tried Soerbaja and it was less per push, maybe 10?

You have to go into the 'J' hotkey screen. The Allies have that screen too, but I can see why you'd never want to open it. It's where I do ALL of my industry management.

Huh. Never seen that so far as I can recall. I'll take a look.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
From 10,000 with thunderstorms? 10% sounds good to me.

Not complaining but in my experience port attacks for some reason are conducted by laser guided bombs. 30% hit rate wouldn´t have surprised me one bit! [:)]

Not laser guided bombs, just static ships, or as we like to call them, sitting ducks!

EDIT: PS - look at the bombing accuracy for your level bombers you used. Then look at the bombing accuracy for a dive bomber squadron ...

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Indian Ocean venture[/font]
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I´ve seen via SIGINT that Tom has reinforced the area heavily. It actually started almost simultaneously with the planned relocation to IO. There are now significant number of Japanese troops in the area. Besides the listed divisions there are numerous AA and construction units backed up by air and army HQs.

This of course have a major impact on Allied operations in the theater. More on that in a post later today.

[Sangeli]

Well I'm guessing offensive operations are off in Sumatra. But those reinforcements should prove useful in countering a Japanese attack.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Sangeli

Well I'm guessing offensive operations are off in Sumatra. But those reinforcements should prove useful in countering a Japanese attack.

Yes, obviously that OP is cancelled. [:D] But I see a bunch of other potential targets. Burma for instance is still lightly held and a big allied push here might not push Tom out but cause him a lot of headaches.

Don´t want to bog down the armor in the jungles though.