Matrix Games Forums

February 2nd, 1942

Malaya/Indochina
Blen IV's attack our tank unit north of Moulmein.

DEI
At Sabang, the SS Trusty hits and sinks a ships with some of the 56th Div troops on board. Another day and this TF wouldn't have been sitting there. Of well - I guess all the US torpedoes can't be duds. Only one squad is lost though. A pair of Catalina's all the way from Rangoon also attack this TF, but they both miss.

[center]
A working torpedo hits a loaded transport[/center]

At Semarang, the arrival of another part of the 143rd Bn helps us defeat the Dutch here also. Three units (1,800 troops) surrender and Semarang is back in our hands for good this time.

On the southern tip of Java, before our tanks could attack, Banjoewangi is occupied. Presumably the locals saw us coming. Nearby, the 65th Brigade puts and end to Dutch resistance on this end of the island at Loemadjang. The base is captures easily (6:1) and five Dutch units (2,400 troops) surrender.

On Sumatra, the 2nd Raiders paradrop into Sawahloento and capture the unoccupied base. They will gather supplies here and march west to Padang.

Pacific
Three B-17's hit PM.

Unoccupied Biak is capture by the 7th SNLF Coy, and the 8th SNLF Coy captures Saumlaki.

Submarines
RO-34 is spotted by escorts near Darwin, but gets away.

February 3rd, 1942

Malaya/Indochina
Seven Blenheims IV's hit Bangkok today. Our Oscars shoot one of them up, but otherwise they get through and damage one squad on the ground.

Our Ceylon forces is just south of Port Blair. Tomorrow it will sail past Port Blair and if spotted, it will be clear the target is India or Ceylon. Hopefully we won't be spotted.

DEI
At Sabang, our subchasers don't find a sub, but they do find mines. They clear a few and don't hit any yet. Some minesweepers are dispatched from Georgetown to clean the waters up.

At Saumlaki, our small xAK that was providing fuel for our barge TF is attacked on the surface by S-41. Although the transport takes three hits, it also hits the sub twice forcing it to retreat. The transport is still seaworthy and will continue on for another landing or two before going back to Ambon for repairs.

[center]
Fighting off a sub attack[/center]

The 1st Raiders on Sumatra push some Dutch remnants farther south. Southwest of Sabang, now that retreat routes are cut, the 4th Tank Regiment has been attacking some remnants there as well. Casualties are low so far, but eventually the tanks will wear down the remnant troops.

Philippines
Today's Sally attack on Clark destroys an O-47A and damages two more.

Pacific
Saidor, which is near Madang on PNG, is occupied today.

Only two B-17's at Port Moresby today. Our Nells and Betties return the favor on PM with 2 supply hits and a disabled squad.


China
Our troops north of Kukong keep the enemy on the run with a 2:1 win netting us 1,171 enemy casualties.

About time that you need to be LRCapping and ASWing your TF's ....

Yea, yea. That TF was parked away from the main armada which had the ASW and CAP. I forgot to issue orders to it so it sat one turn longer than intended. Occasionally human error creeps into my game...

Oh, and the sub attack above was on a barge TF. I didn't want to send anything valueable too close to Darwin. It was a small AK that got shot.

February 4th, 1942

Malaya/Indochina
3x Catalina's from Rangoon manage to find our fleet. The 56x Zeros on CAP take care of them, but the enemy knows we aren't just heading for Burma or Port Blair at this point. For distraction I have ordered two Recon mission from Mavis-es at Port Blair over Vizagapatnam and Diamond Harbor. It might keep him guessing for another turn... or not.

[center]
The enemy knows we are coming now[/center]

Blenheim IV's attack Mergui today. Some training Nates and patrolling Oscar's show up from Bangkok and manage to shoot down one of bombers, as well as damaging nearly all the rest.

DEI
At Batavia, 3x Demons and 26x 139WH's attack. Our lightly gunned Oscars (A model) disrupt the attack a bit and bring down three of the bombers. Casualties are light.

To test the airspace over Palembang we fly a Zero sweep. We find one Buffalo and shoot it down. Since Batavia and Palembang both seem pretty weak on enemy airpower now, these Zeros will head to Sabang and from there jump to our carriers to replace some Vals that we will sent back to Port Blair. The LRCAP is more important than the offensive strike power for this mission.

On Celebes, the 15th Naval Guard unit captures Madjene and will now march east to take another base.

Pacific
Troops begin unloading at Lae.

Bettys/Nells hit Port Moresby.

China
In the hex immediately southeast of Sian, our first main force clears the way to Sian itself. We have a unit north of Sian that is attempting to get in behind the base so that when we move in and attack Sian, the defenders will retreat into the jungle and be out of action from the rapidly moving front.

On a less happy note, the Chinese counter attack at Kweilin and gain 1:1 odds. Our disruption has climbed and I'm not sure if we can take another attack. Thankfully there is another part of this division at Wuchang, so I am not super worried about getting pushed back very far.

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

Occasionally human error creeps into my game...

Oh No! Not the dreaded "HE did it!" [:D][:D][:D]

HE is always forgetting to do things in my games. [;)]

Haha - Yes, that damned 'HE' (who shall remain nameless...).

Yes, for the protection of the innocent!  [:D]

February 5th, 1942

Malaya/Indochina
In the Bay of Bengal, our invasion force sails due west hoping to avoid the Catalinas from Rangoon. This works to some extent as our ships have no DL and are not reported seen. However, enemy subs do see our Vals and our TFs that are still near Port Blair. However, no mention from my opponent in email as to where he thinks I'm going. This could be just radio silence, or he could be confused because it looks like my ships just sat still. Tomorrow our ships will be within air range of Ceylon. The carriers will stay at 8 hexes to avoid Hurricanes with drop tanks flying from Columbo or Trincomalee. A fair amount of Zeros will LRCAP the transports and battleships as they close on the base.

As seen in the picture below, we have additional ASW assets on the way. These are destroyers that just came out of refit a day or two after the fleet sailed. Also, the 56th Division and a pure supply TF of 20,000 supplies are straggling. They will meetup with KB tomorrow and then I may hold them back as a reserve force. If not needed at Ceylon, we might land the 56th Div at Akyab or Cox's Bazaar while his air power is potentially away at Ceylon.

[center]
The situation near Ceylon[/center]

Farther south from the exciting action, we resume attacks at Kuantan and get 1:1 against fort level 1. Forts go down and we will probably continue the attacks. Another regiment is en route, but if the base goes down early that unit can just turn around.

Another Barge TF carrying some of the 55th Cavalry captures the island south of Singapore called Tandjoengpinang. We destroy 2x DO-24K-1s in the process. They will load up and head to the next island to the southwest.

DEI
Our minesweepers arrive at Sabang and clear away the sub laid enemy mines.

Seeing that Palembang has no CAP, we send in some Nells to hit the airstrip and maybe shut down any recon missions. We do moderate damage to the base and damage a Do-24K-1.

On Celebes, Gorontalo is our freebie today. It is not entirely free as we had unloaded troops here that were to take the base today anyway.

At Batavia, the Dutch air force attacks our troops again. Our Oscar A's do a bit better today and take down 1x Demon, 2x B-339D and 7x 139WH-3. The planes that get through do light damage to our troops. Our troops do a bombardment attack so we get a look at the defenders. About 24,000 Dutch troops defend the base. We have a couple more large Brigades on the way, so we will wait until they arrive before making our first assault.

Nearby at Bandoeng, the 21st Ind Mix Bge chases off the Mobiele Eenheid Bn of the Dutch.

We unload the Yokosuka 2nd SNLF onto Pamekasan and find out the base is occupied with a decent garrison. A Nav Gd unit will be sent here in a couple days to provide enough power to seize the island base.

Recon had shown a cruiser sitting at Derby so we ordered a large Betty port attack with Zeros on escort from Koepang to hit Derby. Unfortunately the escorts stayed home and our 50x Bettys had to go up against 20x P-40E Warhawks on their own. When all was said and done, we lost 20 Bettys (19 AA, 1 flak) but managed to hit CL Durban and a couple AMs. We'll try a sweep tomorrow to see if we can weaken the P-40E force in case we want to try another attack soon.

CL Durban, Bomb hits 10, on fire, heavy damage
AM Colac, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
AM Warrnambool, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage

We also capture Babar today with the southern barge force. Barges are nice for the small SNLF Coys. They can sail right under the enemies nose. And if they do get smacked, no big loss.

Pacific
In the here-to-fore quiet Southeastern Pacific, the 82nd Nav Gd unloads and captures Baker Island. Not planning much here at the moment, but this will be a nice float plane base in the future.

Nells and Bettys again hit the PM airbase and 4x B-17's hit our troops for no casualties.

At Lae, our two small units are not able to defeat the C and D Coy/NG Rifles. We will let them rest a couple days and try again. There are only 300 enemy troops so it should be that hard for 1,000 of our troops to take the base.

Farther up the coast we capture Sarmi today.

China
Far to the north, we continue to chase enemy troops away from Paotow. Our two Regiments will likely make the long march west to provide an additional attack direction on the northern remote Chinese bases.

At Kweilin, as feared the Chinese break our siege and send our units retreating. Thankfully we still inflicted almost as many casualties as we lost even with the retreat.

February 6th, 1942

Malaya/Indochina
As our invasion force closes in there is plenty of bad weather - probably a good thing for us. However, ten Swordfish manage to completely evade our CAP of 37 Zeros and put a torpedo into each of two of our transports hauling the 2nd Division. The xAP Hakozaki sinks. The xAP Kokuryu is iffy, so we have attached an empty xAK to it to act as a lifeboat.

Kates from the KB find a small enemy transport and quickly sink the ship. Certainly a quieter reception than I expected - it probably won't last. Tomorrow our amphib TFs and their battleship covering fleets go in to land. We do have an IJNAF support unit in the initial wave so that Oscars can hop in from Port Blair to provide CAP after the beachhead is established. Also, as seen in the picture below, the 12th Base Force is also en route to provide additional support first at Koggala and then at Columbo if and when we capture it.

[center]
Naval air skirmishes


Ceylon invasion situation overview[/center]

At Kuantan we again get 1:1 odds, but casualties are looking promising.

DEI
Nells hit the airbase at Palembang again today for light to moderate damage.

Our Zero sweep of Derby does well. Although outnumbered 15x Zeros to 29x P-40Es, we manage to down 11 of the P-40s for the loss of only 2 Zeros. It appears all shipping has fled though, so we probably won't be launching another port attack for now.

The Dutch troops at Pamekasan sensing weakness try a shock attack against our SNLF force. Thankfully our samurai are able to hold, winning the battle at 1:2 odds.

We also capture Alor today.

Pacific
The half free base of Aitape is occupied today after our troops were unloaded there yesterday.

At Luganville, the KV Dawson manages to depth charge one of our mini-subs which is more than the little boat can take. Its C-class carrier will head to Truk to pick up another brave midget.

Five B-17D's hit our troops at Port Moresby, destroying one squad of infantry. Our Nells/Bettys also hit the enemy base. Our reinforcing convoy to PM will be ready to sail tomorrow or the next day.

China
In an attempt to slow down any pursuing Chinese at Kweilin, we send in some Sonias and Anns on ground attack. Thankfully we sent 21x Oscar C's with them as escorts because the AVG 3rd Squad was in attendance over the base. Our 21x Oscars weren't enough to keep the 12x H81-A3's off our fragile bombers, but it would have been worse otherwise I'm sure. We do manage to shoot down three of the enemy planes, but we lose 8x Oscars, 9x Sonia and 4x Ann. I'm not too worried about the losses as the bomber pilots were low experience anyway and we have plenty of single engine bomber frames. 30 of our bombers do get through and inflict light casualties. After the combat, it doesn't appear any of the enemy troops there are marching anyway.

Near Chuhsien we force the stack from Pucheng into Chuhsien and our other troops will now march on Chuhsien so we can destroy this stack of enemy troops.

North of Kukong, on the road to Hengyang, we again bounce an enemy Chinese Corps farther up the road.

Submarines
Enemy mine sweepers clear our sub laid mines at Diamond Harbor.

Here's me hoping for an update....

Hi temagic!

Hopefully soon - it's been a busy week with school plays and concerts before the holiday break. I am still 3 or 4 days behind the game so I have ample material to post with updates on those evenings that I have the free time.

February 7th, 1942

Ceylon/India
Our troop convoy reaches the beaches without incident and begins unloading while it is still dark and continue to unload all day long. An expected amount of casualties occur given the number of troops offloading (six divisions & a support unit). They find light opposition and therefore half of our troops - three divisions - will be on reserve/pursue tomorrow to jump start our 'run through the jungle'. The other three divisions will take the opposite route to Colombo so that enemy bombers will have to split their attacks if they want to slow our movement.

There are several air actions in the area throughout the day also.

At Koggala our ships are attacked in the AM by 7x Vildebeest III's and 12x Hurricane IIa. 22x Zero on CAP tangle with the Hurri's but the torpedo planes get through. Flak is heavy from the battleships and thankfully no torpedoes hit their mark.

Later in the day, another attack by 5x Vildebeest and 6x Hurricane has less luck. 1x Vildebeest gets through and it misses. Through both attacks six Vildebeest and five Hurricanes are shot down for the loss of no Zeros.

The IJN gets a couple targets today. Kates & Vals pounce on the CL Caledon which is completely unCAPed. After two attack runs, 7 bomb hits and one torpedo, the ship is sunk. A handful of Kates also find an xAKL and sink it easily with four torpedo hits.

Meanwhile, the SS Truant finds the damaged xAP Hakozaki and hits with two torpedoes sinking the ship. Thankfully, our xAK had merged with the TF in the night and all the troops on the xAP are rescued. They will head to Sabang, unload and return with a better protected small TF.

At Koggala, empties are organized and sent home, KB and surface cover will stay on station one more day to ensure the unloading of the last few troops and supplies.

[center]
Action near Ceylon[/center]

Malaya/Indochina
The attack on Kuantan is again very close to getting 2:1 with adj values of 48:27.

DEI
Nells find an AMc at Batavia and sink the ship with a single 250kg bomb hit.

At Padang our 2nd Raiders try an assault and are soundly repelled (1:12). We will need to wait for a bit heavier support before taking this base.

Philippines
In a bit of a surprise at Clark Field today the enemy launches a Shock attack. We easily repel the attack (1:5) and inflict nearly 4,000 enemy casualties.

Pacific
Dagua, between Aitape and Wewak is occupied for free today.

Our next big wave of PM troops sets sail tonight from PM. Most of the ships won't get far since they fueled up, but it is a start. Our carriers will sail with them, but probably not past Milne Bay. These transports are reasonably fast and should get to PM within three days.

The routine B-17D bombing at PM occurs today. Five of the big planes are on hand this time. Our Bettys and Nells return the favor of course.

China
Some nice victories here today. At Sian, our flanking unit gets behind Sian just in time for our attack there. We capture Sian with 11:1 odds and send four Chinese units into the jungle to the southwest (less 2500 casualties) - a much better destination than up the road to join their fellows.

Farther north, the 110th Division manages to take Kungchang from a single small Chinese Corp. Along with 700 enemy casualties we destroy three I-16-III's on the ground. This division will now split and go north and south to continue disruption of the enemy's retreat towards Kienko.

[center]
Sian and Kungchang both captured[/center]

Submarines
Although our mines are cleared from Diamond Harbor, we catch another victim at Chittagong where a small xAKL hits a mine and we hear sinking sounds.

February 8th, 1942

Ceylon/India
Unloading of troops finishes up but supply unloading continues all day long. Again we are left alone for the most part aside from some air attacks. O19 fires some torpedoes but they misses. We get a lot of ASW attacks on the enemy sub, and some glancing hits, but probably not enough to sink her. Also, our DMS's find some mines at Koggala today and clear some.

The first air attack consists of 8x Hurricane IIa and 12 Swordfish. Our CAP of 15 Zeros nails several Hurris, but most of the Swordfish get through. Thankfully all miss. Next up was 8x Hurri IIb and 12x Hudson IIIa. Again the enemy fighters go down, and the bombers get through - but again they miss their targets.

In the afternoon the enemy planes return, but our Zeros are ready for them. 10x Hurricane IIb and 11x Swordfish attack. The Hurris go down again, but this time we get to the biplanes and not one makes it to the target. 9x Hudsons attack again as well, one is shot down and the rest miss.

The tally at the end of it all is 3 Zeros down (1 A2A, 2 Ops), compared to 5x Hurrican IIa, 12x Hurricane IIb, 12x Swordfish and 1x Hudson IIIa.

On the ground our troops have an easy victory (548:1) and three divisions give chase to the northwest. They move a healthy 21 miles on this first day - easily saving three or four days at the standard move rates. The enemy takes 1,500 casualties and the 1/3 Ceylon BF is destroyed while the 9/8th Punjab Bn runs for Colombo.

We have AV support at Koggala so an Oscar unit jumps in from the coast and will provide on the spot CAP while our fleet heads east to perhaps drop the 56th Division at Akyab.

[center]
Action at Ceylon[/center]

Malaya/Indochina
Good news here as Kuantan is captured with a 4:1 attack. This means our en route unit can turn around and head back to somewhere more useful. 3,500 Commonwealth troops are captured and the last bit of British force is removed from the peninsula.

DEI
Our tank regiment in the northern jungle of Sumatra forces the surrender of one of the Dutch units in the stack of three. Hopefully the other two will follow shortly.

At Pamekasan, off the coast of Soerabaja, the additional SNLF unit we deliver is enough to capture the base with 4:1 odds against forts level 2. 3,200 Dutch troops of the Barisan KNIL Regiment surrender.

North of Timor, our island hoppers capture Loewoek.

Pacific
New Hanover is added to Empire for little effort today.

Bettys and Nells continue hitting PM. 5x B-17D's attack as well.

Our troop convoy to PM is halfway to Milne Bay. Tomorrow we will gamble a bit and put most of our Zeros on LRCAP over PM to see if we can catch some B-17s. As of yet the troop convoy is not sighted, so hopefully they will be okay with minimal CAP.

At Lae, our two small units manage to overpower the C & D NG Rifle Coys and take the base at 16:1. Now the slog through the jungle to take the last of this trio of bases.

Farther up the coast we also capture Hollandia.

In the Gilberts, we split up an xAK convoy of supplies yesterday and one xAK that was sent to Jaluit on its own is shot up and hit with multiple torpedos, one of which detonates, by SS Thresher. 2,000 supplies go down with the ship.

Hi all! Finally back to getting some updates up. Not many turns got traded over the holidays so I'm only a few days behind the war. Some quiet days ahead, but the 9th was certainly not one of them.

February 9th, 1942

Ceylon/India
Our DMS's at Koggala clear away 30 mines from the port, while Allied AMc's clear out our sub laid mines at Chittagong. Our escorts also chase off SS Trusty at Koggala. SS Trusty comes back in the daytime and our newly upgraded DD Murasame and Harusame pound Trusty with a couple hits from the shiny new Mod-2 DCs. No sinking is evident, but hopefully Trusty will need some time to get fixed - and Colombo isn't going to be a viable repair yard for the Allies much longer!

[center]
New DCs get some hits[/center]

DEI
Bettys at Timor find some xAKL's heading southeast to Derby or Darwin perhaps, but clearly cutting into our search arc. Two are hit and sunk and a third is missed.

In northern Sumatra, our tank unit eliminates one Dutch unit and forces the surrender of the other clearing up the remnants in this area. This tank will now head back up to Sabang to get transported to India.

Our island hoppers capture Pantar today north of Timor.

Philippines
Almost 200 enemy casualties from the artillery barrage at Clark Field today. 3rd Yokosuka SNLF (paratroops) is leaving to get ready for action in Burma.

Pacific
Our troops capture Wewak before the land combat phase.

At Milne Bay, SS Cuttlefish is discovered by escorts of our troop convoy and a couple hits are scored with DC's one of which reported damaged the enemy sub's forward tubes. Unfortunately, S-18 finds the same convoy and manages to put two torpedoes into the slow light cruiser Kashima. Never good to lose a cruiser, but at least it was a slow one. S-34 also takes a shot of the convoy but duds against CL Katori - another slow CL. Definitely a tough run to get to PM. Almost there though.

Our gamble with our carrier planes pays off as 5x B-17D head to PM today and we have 49 Zeros on CAP. We manage to bring down two of the big planes before they drop their bombs, and of the three that drop, only one manages to make it home. 4x B-17's killed with no Zero's lost. Our bombers also pay a visit to PM, but thankfully no enemy CAP is around.

[center]
Some big bombers go down in flames[/center]

In the afternoon, S-34 again attacks our convoy but misses a DD. SS-18 finishes off CL Kashima with another torpedo. This is our first lost warship that is larger than a DD in this war. As mention above, at least it is just an 18kt light cruiser.

[center]
First capital ship loss of the war [/center]

February 10th, 1942

Ceylon/India
Another enemy sub, SS Truant, is attacked heavily at Koggala. A couple solid hits again, but no debris.

The enemy airplanes are back today. A Hurricane sweep hits our Oscars but the IJA does well dropping several Hurricanes with no losses. After that a raid of 7x Swordfish and 8x Hurricanes comes in and our Oscars do well against the Hurricanes by fail to intercept the Swordfish. Thankfully our transport's flak is enough to bring one down and cause the rest to miss.

DEI
On Java the 21st Ind Mixed Bge captures Buitenzorg and heads on north to finish removing the retreat possibilities for the Dutch at Batavia.

Pacific
Near Baker, Howland Island is investigated, deemed empty of Allied troops, and occupied.

Our big and hopefully final wave of reinforcements for Port Moresby goes in today under cover of several destroyers and cruisers. The landing is relatively smooth although one xAK takes a 6" shell hit. Allied bombardment attack reveals we are sitting about 3:1 in terms of troops and unadjusted AV.

China
A straggling Chinese construction unit is kicked off the road to Kienko northwest of Sian. The situation is developing such that we may be able to isolate a large (150k, black circle below) Chinese army northwest of the road to Kienko with our first 3-4 Divisions that are there now. Then our follow on force, which is just clearing Nanyang now, and is about 5-6 divisions, maybe be able to walk to Kienko where recon currently shows only a light force. If we can get Kienko, we will have access to the Chungking valley very early. Still a bit early to think it could happen, but you just never know.

South of Kungchang, our 110th/B unit runs into 3 solids Chinese corps and will not be able to go any farther. They may even get kicked back to Kungchang, but hopefully the mountain defensive bonus will keep us safe.

[center]
Northern China[/center]

Submarines
Two survivors of yesterdays Betty raid from Timor are caught by RO-34 north of Derby. The first xAKL is hit by a torpedo and sunk and the second xAKL is hammered on the surface until RO-34 runs out of ammo. It will like sink as well.

Near Milne Bay, SS-23 finds RO-67 on the surface and connects with two non-dud torpedos. The little RO boat goes under quickly.

February 11th, 1942

Ceylon/India
5x Hurricane IIb's sweep Koggala again and our Oscars take a couple down and lose none of their own.

[center]
Oscars do well again[/center]

Pacific
Our big (and hopefully final) wave of reinforcements finished unloading at Port Moresby. Some damage is taken from enemy shore guns and one xAK sinks. CL Katori hits a mine, but damage is reasonable. Along with the landing, we heavily shell the defenders one more time for good measure, causing about 300 casualties. Nells and Betties from Rabaul also pay a visit. Finally 3 B-17D's hit our troops but do no damage.

The Direct Assault at Port Moresby does well - 1:1 odds and forts are dropped from 2 to 1. Finally we have some progress here!

In the Solomons, Russell Island is occupied and on the north side of New Guinea, Vanimo is captured.

Carrier based F2A-3 Buffalos are spotted sweeping over Baker Island, so at least one carrier is around that area.

China
Our 13th Tank launches an assault and runs into 61,000 Chinese troops giving it odds of 1:1364. Two tanks are destroyed and thirty disabled. Hopefully the enemy will not attack tomorrow.

Submarines
Our Midget at Suva takes a shot at a destroyer but misses. It will load up with mama and head back to base to rearm.

February 12th, 1942

DEI
SS Tarpon hits one of our xAK's with a shell, but then decides to submerge due to damage. Given that we didn't hit the sub, it must be damage from a prior encounter.

We try a DA at Batavia and get 1:3 odds, although we take forts down to level 2 and inflict more casualties than we take. We still have a large brigade en route so I'm not too worried here.

Our traveling Nav Guard unit captures Lomblen today.

Pacific
Oklahoma, Nevada, West Virginia and Maryland put some shells onto Baker Island, and later in the day some carrier planes drop some ordinance as well. Damage is relatively light.

[center]
Enemy carrier planes in the Pacific[/center]

We put some Zero's over Port Moresby from Akagi and Kaga and manage to shoot down the two B-17D's that attempt to bomb our troops. Our Bettys and Nells are able to hit the enemy without interference though.

We DA Port Moresby again and today get 2:1 odds and take forts to zero. Hopefully this means the fall of PM is imminent.

China
We try a DA at Lanchow, but only get 1:2 odds against forts 2. Since we outnumbered 3:1, we'll have to be content to sit here and tie up a couple Chinese units until reinforcements arrive.

My kids had me playing 'World of Tanks' for a few weeks, so the AAR fell by the wayside. Thankfully the game has been progress all the while. I'll try to get the caught up over the next couple weeks as things are still interesting to say the least.

February 13th, 1942

India/Burma
At Chittagong, while covering our landing force, the offensive part of the KB finds a bunch of small ships at Chittagong and sinks all of them. Two xAKL and six AMc are sunk by our Kates and Vals.

Unfortunately, a bit farther south, some Mabels go chasing enemy ships and find the AVG 2nd Squad. 3 of the Mabels are shot down.

Our units attack the 1/3 Ceylon BF en route to Colombo and destroy the unit outright. Onwards!

DEI
Bettys and Zeros from Timor find some enemy ships at Derby and mangage to sink the xAKL Surigao. A DMS, xAP and xAKL get away unscathed.

Our 1st Raider paras continue their march on Sumatra, bouncing a couple enemy units towards Sibolga.

At Balikpapan, local refugee units are returned to the jungle by the 124th Inf Reg that was on hand.

Pacific
We occupy Thousand Ships Bay today.

At PM, one of our AK's is sunk as it continued to unload supplies. Thankfully, the supplies are put to good use as the ground forces finally triumph today and capture Port Moresby. Ten enemy units are bounced into the jungle and 4,000 enemy casualties are reported. The base is in rough shape but we have a ton of engineers on hand to get it in good shape. We will also use Buna to provide CAP from the almost certain to come B-17s. Several of these enemy units were bought out from Australia, so hopefully the PP's spent here mean less resistance somewhere else.

Japanese ground losses:
638 casualties reported
Squads: 23 destroyed, 25 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 26 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 8 disabled
Guns lost 10 (7 destroyed, 3 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
3961 casualties reported
Squads: 191 destroyed, 23 disabled
Non Combat: 297 destroyed, 20 disabled
Engineers: 53 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 151 (128 destroyed, 23 disabled)
Vehicles lost 153 (153 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 10

[center]
Victory at Port Moresby![/center]

Next up we will run some units to capture Horn Island and the other bases on this side of PNG. Then think about next steps - probably an attack on Noumea then Luganville.

China
A couple Armor recon units probe defenses at Ankang but are repulsed.

February 14th, 1942

India/Burma
The 56th Division successfully unloads at Cox's Bazar today and should capture the base tomorrow.

DEI
Our island hoppers are unloaded at Larantoeka in the Flores Islands.

Some B-17's show up at Ambon today and miss our TB's. We'll have to see if they are going to regular visitors or not. If so, we'll need to have a welcoming committee.

Pacific
Today we occupy Tulagi, a support unit was already en route so this is a convenient free capture.

SNLF Coy unloaded at Rambutyo in the Admiralty Islands.

China
Some worrisome events in China today. First our 40th Division attacks some Chinese north of Hankow and finds some stronger resistance than expected and only get 1:2 odds. To make matters worse, the Chinese counterattack and get 1:1 odds. The 40th is definitely in trouble and it looks like there are more Chinese coming. I'll get some brigades on the train to Hankow to prevent a real breakout, and use some air attacks to hopefully slow the enemy, but there is a chance of some trouble here. Our reinforcement are way down at Chusien so hopefully that base will fall quickly so they can get on the march. Losing the center of the front would not be a good thing.

Also a concern is an enemy the push on our left flank as well. At Liuchow the Chinese have followed the 104th Division to the base and are trying to capture the base. A break through here would be slower moving so I'm less worried, but at the worst Hong Kong would be threatened here. The assault on Liuchow was 1:1 odds and forts went down to level 1. I can only hope the Chinese don't have the supply to do back to back assaults. Air attacks from Haiphong to Nanyang are being ordered up to try and disrupt the enemy offensive ability. Some reinforcements are on the way here as well, but the trails are a slow march.

Up north, on the long trail through the desert our two brigades cross the river and bounce the Chinese unit they are pursuing.

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Enemy pushes in the black squares[/center]