ALLIED ONLY: aztez (A) vs erstad (J) ...2nd ROUND

[aztez]

 crsutton: Thanks and appreciated. I'am trying to keep a turn per day cycle at the moment and we have advanced a bit slower.

This is mainly due the fact that day doesn't have enough hours so I just been very busy with RL stuff.

I can guarantee that this game will go into 1946's and yes Dave is still kicking my butt around the map in mid 1943! [8|]

Tomorrow night.. no work.. daughters with me.. so thus meaning an update is coming up.

The busy days don't last forever so as promised you can see the struggle all the way up to 1946's.

Almost midnight back here so heading to bed soon.

As said anyone wondering whether or not this game is abandoned / stopped... well no worries about that.

[LoBaron]

Great you keep going Aztez.
Did I mention that I think you must be crazy to play two GC´s and write two AARs parallel btw? [:'(]

[aztez]

LoBaron: Yeah, no worries. Grinding on so to speak.

Things are not going the allied way though! [:D]

I think you did mention that and it certainly takes time. Allthough the time of turn doing has declined a bit at least temporarily.

Anyway, nice to see you and expect an update on this AAR tonight.

[aztez]

Burma (may 24th - june 4th 1943)


The allied troops are ordered to withdraw and regroup.

Main action here is via air and allied 4E bombers have visited Myitkina and Schwebo in past few turns. In total we have scorthed 40-60 aircaft. Last turn we destroyed some 20 Sally's at Schwebo.

Dave has launched couple of sweep missions againts Chittagong. The planes used were Tony's and Tojo's. These raids were repulsed in 1,5:1 in favour of allied side.

Overall Dave is definately reinforcing Burma. In Rangoon +200 aircraft and 25 enemy units. Many bases have significant garrisons if recon is to be believed.

Few US bombers are due to India very shortly and I'am building up experience levels of allied medium bomberes too.
We really need to rethink how we can lift and destroy enemy occupation of burmerse territory.

[aztez]

China (may 24th - june 4th 1943)


The japanese are pushing really hard towards central chinese plains.

Personally I'am very suprised he has the ability to do this via northern route.

I'am shifting troop positions but not yet too concerned about the situation. I don't mind if he even enters Chungking.

In order to do some offensive maneuvers we have ordered +7500av chinese counterstrike near Kweiyang,
If we get good dice rolls who knows but not counting on this either.

Japanese also continue to use this front as an training ground for fighters and bombers.

Things are not looking good but than again this game was started out of the box and allied side suffered quite a lot here. Not to mention many wrong decisions early on.

[aztez]

Fiji (may 24th - june 4th 1943)


The allied invasion of Suva is currently D-day -3.

This invasion is covered by allied carriers and surface combat TF's. In total there will 100 000 men in shores here soon.

I have flown extensive recon missions here and he has 8000-10000 men at Suva.

Now you must keep in mind those intel reports posted earlier. I'am not convinced that he wohn't move his main fleet here. Actually somewhat expecting to see those here once the landings start.

Either way.. the invasion is ongoing. Few day back japanese launched lba strikes againts my carries. The end results +60 aircraft downed and we lost 20 fighters.

[LoBaron]

Wow, 5 subs sighted SE of Suva? Seems like he likes to get some cheap torp hits on the invasion or the CV´s.
For threat calculation I usually double the number of subs sighted to be on the safe side. More so if the only recon I got is from TF´s.
Be careful!

What exactly happened on the Burma front? Was it a counter? You said you failed to take Mytikina, did you just march the troops there or
was it a failed river crossing?

Keep going, youll get loads of end game experience out of this game as the map still looks pretty red. [:)]

[aztez]

LoBaron: Yeah. I think he has 5-10 submarines outside Fiji's. Last turn we most likely sunk 3-4 of those so his odds of torpedoing anything valuable decreased.

That is good rule and I think my recon flights most likely caused the effectives of those subs decrease. The submarines in overall are deadly with good dice rolls.

I had 3 spearheads ongoing towards Burma. The 1st one achieved their objective at Akyab.. the middle one was aimed at Schwebo and another heading towards Myitkina. The recon flights indicated around 10000 men at Myithkina BUT once we entered we encounterd 700av entreched japanese.

Thus he managed to win the ground warfare there and forced my troops to withdraw. I have had to postpone the advance in the middle since I could not let him have near 1000av threatening my flanks.

That to recap and now everything needs to be evaluated.

Thanks and yes the map is very much in red!

[aztez]

China (june 5th - 8th 1943)


I must admit that this theatre has grown my frustrations into new levels.

I know that things would most likely be much diffrent if this game had started with patch or two ago. Having said that no joy of that here.

The counterstrike we launched ended up in disaster. Well, to be honest the result was borked beyond words.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground combat at 75,50

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 204832 troops, 1019 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 7661

Defending force 104464 troops, 1116 guns, 303 vehicles, Assault Value = 3686

Allied adjusted assault: 1318

Japanese adjusted defense: 5308

Allied assault odds: 1 to 4

Combat modifiers
Defender:
Attacker: supply(-)

Japanese ground losses:
1950 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 222 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 145 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 19 disabled
Vehicles lost 21 (0 destroyed, 21 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
40332 casualties reported
Squads: 531 destroyed, 2226 disabled
Non Combat: 202 destroyed, 2435 disabled
Engineers: 14 destroyed, 134 disabled


Assaulting units:
25th Chinese/C Corps
14th Chinese Corps
28th Chinese Corps
26th Chinese/C Corps
91st Chinese Corps
38th New Chinese Division
94th Chinese Corps
36th Chinese Corps
3rd New Chinese/A Corps
71st Chinese/C Corps
2nd Prov Chinese/A Corps
8th Route Army
85th Chinese Corps
26th Chinese/B Corps
90th Chinese Corps
59th Chinese Corps
2nd Prov Chinese/C Corps
20th Chinese Corps
60th Chinese/B Corps
63rd Chinese/C Corps
19th Chinese Corps
86th Chinese Corps
79th Chinese/C Corps
63rd Chinese/B Corps
80th Chinese Corps
39th New Chinese Division
68th Chinese Corps
70th Chinese Corps
62nd Chinese/A Corps
3rd New Chinese/B Corps
9th Chinese Corps
16th Chinese Corps
53rd Chinese Corps
62nd Chinese/B Corps
4th Chinese Corps
10th Chinese Corps
74th Chinese Corps
2nd Chinese Corps
25th Chinese/A Corps
46th Chinese Corps
37th Chinese Corps
76th Chinese Corps
79th Chinese/B Corps
100th Chinese Corps
3rd New Chinese/C Corps
54th Chinese/B Corps
16th Construction Regiment
14th Construction Regiment
14th Chinese Base Force
7th War Area
8th Construction Regiment
4th War Area
57th AT Gun Regiment
19th Group Army
17th Chinese Base Force
10th Construction Regiment
16th Group Army
35th Group Army
1st Group Army
22nd Group Army
2nd War Area
5th Construction Regiment
30th Group Army
3rd War Area
9th War Area
32nd Group Army
18th Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
34th Division
104th Division
41st Division
110th Division
6th Division
37th Division
40th Division
10th Division
1st Mortar Battalion
12th Army
2nd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
21st Mortar Battalion
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
4th Mortar Battalion
51st Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
14th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment
5th RF Gun Battalion


..."censored words". In total we "killed" 2 squads of japanese infantry. I don't know whether laugh or cry but laughter is better. Ridicilious is key word here.

Now this means that we most likely will now be forced to withdraw towards inner china due to this assault and the japanese northern offensive.

Not happy with this "WAD" feature. We will grind on until the bitter end here though.

[aztez]

Fiji (june 5th - 8th 1943)


The invasion has begun without any increased enemy resistance.

Our battleships pretty much neutralized the airfield at Suva. Just to make sure of this I have ordered another round of bombardments next turn.

We have already landed +1000av worth of troops here so the base should fall next turn.

Allied carriers are in vicinity just in case Dave tries to do something with his navy.

All in all this operation is going on as planned.

[offenseman]

Jumpin Jack Flash!    That is not a result anyone would want to see.  Smash him elsewhere as I am confident you will do. 

[Heeward]

Ground combat at 75,50 Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 204832 troops, 1019 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 7661
Defending force 104464 troops, 1116 guns, 303 vehicles, Assault Value = 3686
Attacker: supply(-)

Lets See what we know:
Two to one in infantry Parity in number of guns no vehicles.
Attacking in Forest Rough - Significant Bonus to the Defender.
Attacker: supply(-) - That must really hurt!

Allied adjusted assault: 1318           17% of base AV OUCH!
Japanese adjusted defense: 5308   147% of base AV
Allied assault odds: 1 to 4

What we do not know:
What your pre-battle supply levels were? From the limited information we know it is poor - was it abysmal?
What was your leadership / chain of command like - You have elements of 46 different Corps there with 6 Group Armies and 5 War Areas 7 to 1 in the hex Group Army to Corps, and almost parity in War Areas. Seems low - Did you had other Group Armies in adjacent hexes?
What was your support level like? - good I assume since you had all the War Areas in the hex or should the War Areas been farther away since they have a reasonable command radius.
Average Experience levels of the combat troops?
Leadership Stats? How many of them were not suitable.
Does the amount of vehicles affect the number of destroyed versus disabled squads?
I also suspect the three construction regiments did nothing else other then consume supply, and while providing targets.

Would it be worth it to airlift shattered / untrained units out of china to reduce your supply burden?
From your map you have no knowledge of his forward garrison line - Another use for damaged fragments.

The results look like a extremely poorly executed human wave attack conducted by the French in Plan 17 or the opening hours of the Somme Offensive.

Japanese ground losses:
1950 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 222 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 145 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 19 disabled
Vehicles lost 21 (0 destroyed, 21 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
40332 casualties reported
Squads: 531 destroyed, 2226 disabled
Non Combat: 202 destroyed, 2435 disabled
Engineers: 14 destroyed, 134 disabled

Lastly Some times we offend the God of Luck - looks like in this case she actually spat at you.

[seydlitz_slith]

Looks like the Japanese used poison gas from an up wind position to defend against the attack.

[Athius]

Nah, they just deployed tactical nukes

[LoBaron]

Hm. I think the whole explanation comes down to
Attacker: supply(-)
 
Must have been out of ammo and attacking with bayonettes only... [;)]
 
Out of suply is a brutal negative modifier, even more when attacking.

[Sardaukar]

I think units fight with 25% of nominal AV if considered "out of supply".

[Rob Brennan UK]

Big Ouch , and i too think the supply - was the killer here, maybe along with some crummy die rolls [:(].

Maybe its best that the chinese just defend defend defend .. and never attack unless your about 10-1 in numbers , then it 'might' be a 2-1 adjusted.

one other question/comment/observation, were the chinese attackers under heavy air attack recently ? can really hurt a few units organisation even if few casualties are caused. Reason being is that by the end of the turn your not seeing the state the unit was in when it attacked but after its recieved supply and reduced its end turn damage levels. [&:]. also i believe that the 'top' units attacked by air will still be the 'top' units that start the attack going so will incurr horrible lossses due to added disruption over and above the average due to air attacks. OFC next combat the stacks randomised again so i cannot be sure of this.

Just my 2p

Rob

[veji1]

Chinese units should do only 2 things : Defend and run around... They should always try to sneak around jap positions and cut supply paths, annoy and bother basically. that's for the fun part. For the frontline dutys : defend, do just that until you have supply flowing around and US bombers paving the way...

[aztez]

offenseman: Yeah, that was my worst LCU battle result in either AE or witp. I'am moving ahead with other areas as suggested.

Heeward: Welcome and thanks. I will gie the answeres to your quesstions.

* The supply levels were poor but not abysmal. The base levels are low since the units are drawing them to use.
* The units leaders have been updated earlier. The command chain definately left something to desired for but than again only support do matter.
* The support levels were ok.
* These chinese have seen a lot of action and their experience levels were between 55-80 exp.
* The construction regiments did not assault they were just in the hex.

I was thinking about airlifting some troops out but Dave stated that his LCU rampage is now over. So, instead we will rest these troops for now.

I need to shuffle things up here and maybe we can get something going here a bit later.

Oh, Dave also revealed that those japanese divisions were +85 expirienced so that adds something.

Bad result overall though and not something I want to see happen again in AE. Fingers crossed that this will be so.

Appreciated the comments and views.

seydlitz: Good to see you back. Those guys propably used magic missiles too! [:D]

Athius: [:D]

LoBaron: As said the supply levels were not abysmal nor was it good. It was plain poor but they were not out of ammo though.

You just get an deduction of % when doing that.

How this penalty is actually given is also intresting since most of the troops had enough supplies to avoid this penalty. Other recieved this.

Sardaukar: That what I read from the manual too. Same kind of penalty is given through leaders so they are important too.

Rob: The good old die rolls! [:-]

That summary regarding 10:1 numbers is good. Allthough there are times when you need to abandon that rule. The whole idea there was help out the northern front with casualties in southern from We did so killing 2 squads of enemy infantry.

He has kept bombing my troops all over china. The casualty levels were not high on these and I think the biggest gain for him has been gaining valuable exp for his pilots.

Now we have an "peaceful" china for time being at least.

At least this campaign showed how the balance issues were not achieved from out of the box version. Now things are a bit diffrent with new patches and all.

veji1: Good points and valid with new patches also. I'am doing a lot better vs katsuragi in china as well as other areas.

Use the terrain and defend is the way to go and pick battles you are most likely to win.[:D]

[aztez]

China (june 9th - 22nd 1943)


Dave declared that his objectives here are now concluded.

"My China LCUs are done marauding, they're going to pull back to the bases I own until there's some kind of Allied offensive action related to China or Russia enters the war."

Before this he did achieve few victories up in the northern china. Each side lost few thousand men killed or wounded.

Overall this theatre has been one hell of an ride for me.

Now it is time rest and regroup these battered troops. Whether or not there is actually going to be somekind of an chinese offensive remains to be seen.

I know I need to open the road to Paoshan a bit later once Burma is dealt with. Other than that nothing major is planned here.