Back and Better Than Ever Vettim 89(A) vs Greasylake(J)

[BBfanboy]

vettim89: AMPH units were seen unloading at Moulmein but when I opened the turn - no Japanese units - odd.

Only time I have seen that sort of thing is when my amphib landing aborted (enemy strength or damage to amphibs) and reloaded the troops still alive during the same turn.

[vettim89]

Big Turn

What I will call KB drifted west and sank a TK at Addu atoll. No a lot of other ships at sea in that area. Hate losing the TK but it could have been worse.

I-9 puts multiple torpedoes into CV Indomitable NW of Bombay. Float is at 75 as she makes for Bombay. This one will be close. No matter what I do his subs keep terrorizing my ships at sea.

Troops actually land at Moulmein this turn

Tjepoe falls on Java

I thought I would send the RAN to see what was up at PM. Multiple rounds of battle occurred. Was hoping for better results that this

Cruisers at PM.jpg (289.07 KiB) Viewed 48 times

Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Moresby at 98,130, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Yura, Shell hits 2
CL Tama, Shell hits 9, heavy fires
CL Kiso, Shell hits 2
CL Oi, Shell hits 5, heavy fires
DD Kuroshio, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Urakaze, Shell hits 1
DD Shigure
DD Yamakaze

Allied Ships
CA Australia, Shell hits 9, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Canberra, Shell hits 4
CL Perth, Shell hits 2
CL Adelaide, Shell hits 6, on fire
DD Isis
DD Hatfield, Shell hits 3

then

Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Moresby at 98,130, Range 10,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Isuzu, Shell hits 2
DD Nenohi
DD Sazanami, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
CA Australia, Shell hits 9, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Adelaide, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Isis, Shell hits 4, on fire

Then

Day Time Surface Combat, near Port Moresby at 97,131, Range 23,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Yura, Shell hits 12, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Kiso, Shell hits 1
DD Kuroshio, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Urakaze

Allied Ships
CA Canberra, Shell hits 1
CL Perth, Shell hits 2
DD Hatfield, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage

Then Nells form Rabaul descended on the remnants

Morning Air attack on TF, near Port Moresby at 98,130

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 13 NM, estimated altitude 19,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes

Japanese aircraft
G3M2 Nell x 25

Allied aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M2 Nell: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Walrus II: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
DD Isis, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CL Adelaide, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CA Australia, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

S-42 applies the final blow in this day long running battle

Submarine attack near Port Moresby at 97,131

Japanese Ships
CL Yura, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS S-42

IT was a risk but I just couldn't give up PM without some sort of a fight. Canberra and Perth are retiring towards Syndney

[RangerJoe]

Fly night naval search, fly day naval search, fly ASW at 100 feet or 1000 feet, and have multiple highly skilled good ASW vessels with good captains along with a good TF leader. Hope for good weather!

[vettim89]

A rather slow turn after a pretty exciting day

Moulmein falls. Only a placeholder unit was holding it so no biggin. The retreat towards Prome continues.

Flooding holds on Indomitable. Still creeping towards Bombay. Unfortunately her 22k displacement means she will eventually have to go to Cape Town for repairs

An ASW TF engaged an I-boat near Cochin and manage one hit.

B-17s hit PM and rip up some stragglers. B-26s try but fail to hit some merchies at PM. Once Cooktown reaches a level 2 AB, A-24s there can reach PM. Maybe they can do some more damage.

Morning Air attack on Port Moresby , at 98,130

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid spotted at 30 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 9 minutes

Allied aircraft
B-17D Fortress x 6
B-17E Fortress x 7

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
PB Chitose Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Kuroshio, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Nichiryo Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire

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

Runway hits 1

[vettim89]

And the invasion bonus has officially ended.

Not much going on this turn.

Larry continues to push towards Sian. I have another 500+ AV that will arrive in this hex next turn. The presence of the tanks is a concern because I have read in other AARs that Chinese tend to melt when assaulted by AFVs

Ground combat at 87,41 (near Tsiaotso)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 36949 troops, 378 guns, 393 vehicles, Assault Value = 1233

Defending force 13535 troops, 96 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 489

Japanese adjusted assault: 864

Allied adjusted defense: 637

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
525 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 56 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled
Vehicles lost 23 (2 destroyed, 21 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1485 casualties reported
Squads: 24 destroyed, 139 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 10 disabled
Guns lost 13 (2 destroyed, 11 disabled)

Assaulting units:
5th Armored Car Co
15th Tank Regiment
37th Division
41st Division
12th Tank Regiment
8th Ind.Mixed Brigade
2nd Ind.Mixed Brigade
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
20th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
7th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st Army
12th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion

Defending units:
34th Regional Army Corps
33rd Regional Army Corps
43rd Regional Army Corps
8th Group Army

And in the area of absurdity, KB drifts further west only to bag a single TK south of Diego Garcia. We have a house rule about not camping off map exit areas and this is coming close to that. I will raise the issue if he doesn't pull back soon. Somewhere out there there has to be a juicy RPL TF. Beyond my NavSearch range