Amis vs Aussies - World Domination(no jrcar or Tony)

[jwilkerson]

6-7 March 1942

Java
Here is a screen shot showing me comming in from the (map) North West and Nik comming in from the (map) South East.

[jwilkerson]

8-9 March 1942


Overall this was one of the more exciting turns in a long while.

Java
The Allies counter-attacked both Nik's landing in the East as well as my IJA landing in the West.

Wave after wave of Allied Uber PTs attacked Nik's Task Forces off Java, scattering ships all about the Java sea. Nik also suffered many air sorties from Soerabaja. The British Wildebeast and Swordfish were rather effective. However, net/net, the 16th Army is ashore with substantial supply.

On my end, the 21st Brigade has flown in all flyable elements to Merek. The 124 Regiment is flying in as well. Two mountain Artillery units will land in the next wave. The bulk of my "fleete" will arrive this turn with the 21ID. Our Oscars will continue to cover the landings. The airbases are still incapable of handling the bomber force which remains back in Malaya.

China
After two days of intense attacks we managed to take Loyang. This continues the distruption of the Chinese forces in Central China.

In Southern China we also finally managed to take Chushien.

Both the Loyang and Chushien campaigns have been long running ones as readers of this AAR will note. Operations in these areas will continue as massive Chinese forces still exist in both areas and our main cities in Central China are still under seige.

Luzon
We finally managed to extract our Clark force and pull back to Lingayen. And except for rear guards, our central valley force is back at Aparri. The bulk of our Army will thus survive. The 77IR from Korea should embark next turn to continue our force build up in Luzon. We now have about 50% greater force than the Japanese had historically but clearly we need more. Allied firepower at Clark has been amazingly powerful. Doing to us in Luzon what we've been doing to the Chinese in Central and Southern China.

[jwilkerson]

10-11 March 1942

Java
Excitement continues as landings continue at both ends of Java. The Allies send all of their bombers against Nik, since he has no fighter cover. Only one AMc is sent to fight my two AMc and of course my two AMcS are routed!!! [:D] But otherwise my landings went in upmolested. We now have one full brigade (with supply) ashore as well as an artillery unit and part of a regiment. The 21ID will land next turn, but has arrived in the Merek Hex. Also, we will start some bombing with Sallys next turn.

Burma
We are moving forward despite our lack of air cover.

China
We sure disturbed the "ant hill" by taking Loyang. Chinese units are moving in all directions, though not sure why. We will focus on the big 22 unit stack to the East of Loyang. That is our target. Chinese attempts to disrupt our supply with numerous small units cannot be successful as we've already used to supply draw feature to pull in large amounts of supply and continue to open up the supply lines as fast as they are closed anyway. Also we are continuing to block Chinese supply lines as well.

Luzon
We will defend both Aparri and San Fernando. This will give us two axis of advance once we can bring in enough troops to switch back to the offensive. We are continuing to bring in additional troops from Korea, the home islands and China and will also start a rudimentary bombing campaign.

[jwilkerson]

12-13 March 1942

Java
Looks like Batavia is being abandoned. I only see one small unit in the town and one small unit on my beach-head at Merek. I will start to break out this turn. I think that is a strange defense. Building up the forts in the cities seems like a great idea to me, not sure what they are thinking, but they aren’t dumb, so they must be thinking something I’m missing!

Nik cleared them off the Mountain on the Eastern end of Java. Next he needs to try to get some air farce ashore.

Hokkaido
Another Carrier raid in the Kuriles. Not sure why my Betty’s, escorted by Nates and Claudes, with Vals in support, did not attack.

Luzon
Well my “Armies” are hunkered down in their bunkers at San Fernando and Aparri. We sucked all the supply out of the surrounding bases, so the Allies will spend more supply than they will get by capturing them. We are bringing in another regiment from Korea and another Artillery unit from the home islands for reinforcements. And we will try to start up some semblance of a bombing campaign with second line units, this turn.

Burma
Still don’t have nearly enough units to both attack and provide air cover and garrision all the towns. Our “offensive” is mostly bluff, but we still don’t see anything out in front of us. I guess he is “Sir Robining” in Burma. Akyab might as well be on the moon as far as our readiness to attack there.

China
We are on the move again. In the center we are moving to attack “the big stack” and in the South we will move to attack Wenchow, that city on the coast.

Australian Bight
Some of Nik's carriers caught a convoy moving through this area, sinking four AK.

[jwilkerson]

13 March 1942

Java
Here is a screen shot of Java. We have the 21st Infantry Division, the 21st Independent Mixed Brigade and a mortar unit and elements of the 124th Regiment, together with 4000+ supply at Merek. Also, we have our 2 BBs, and numerous cruisers and destroyers together with transports and escorts. The 21st Division is fully unloaded and we will start the "break out" this turn.

We sent in about 150 Sally sorties to hit Batavia over the previous two days, supported by about 60 Oscar sorties. Only 3 Beef-a-lows came up in opposition. Batavia seems to be virtually abandoned, surprisingly.

[jwilkerson]

13 March 1942

Burma
Our advance is pointed like an "arrowhead" at Mandalay. Meanwhile, Akyab seems to be building up far to the rear.

[jwilkerson]

13 March 1942

China
Our 1st and 12th Armies have begun to advance from Loyang to Chengchow which holds 22 enemy units. The bulk of these units have suffered recent defeats and should have low morale.

In the South, the 13th Army will begin to move from Chushien to Wenchow (on the Coast). This city can be a very tough nut to crack because it is self-supplying, but we will give it a shot and see if we can get lucky.

[jwilkerson]

14-15 March 1942

Java
Our attack at Merek destroyed the Dutch Battalion which had been sent to watch us. The 25 Army now advances on Batavia which appears to have one unit of about 100 men!?

Burma
We take three cities in Central Burma but still see no enemy units except at Akyab.

China
Our units continue to advance towards the next objectives: Chengchow in the Center and Wenchow in the South.

Luzon
Our air attack on Clark costs us 1xAnn but nets 5+ P40s.

Here is a pic of our air units supporting our attack at Merek.

[jwilkerson]

14 March 1942

Luzon
And here is a shot of our attack at Clark.

[jwilkerson]

16-17 March 1942

Java
At my (Batavia) end - not so much action. The 21st Division continues to walk towards Batavia, we launched a large air strike on Batavia air dromes, but no opposition.

At Nik's end a number of Allied air attacks, but no hits. About half of the air attacks expended themselves on Nik's "Baby Butai" to their fatal detriment.

Burma
We continue to advance against no opposition. Mandalay will be captured this turn, we see no enemy except at Akyab.

Luzon
We're still hunkered down in our bunkers at Aparri and San Fernando awaiting additional reinforcements. We swept Clark with Oscars this turn and shot down several P40s.

China
Our 1st and 12th Armies have arrived in Chengchow (SE of Loyang) we will bombard this turn.

Meanwhile the 14 units we beat up and Nanyang have returned to Nanyang. The 166ID together with 2 Artillery units and air support will attempt to defend.

In Southern China, our 13th Army has advanced to a point mid-way between Chushien and Wenchow, we face 4 units with 2 of our divisions and supporting elements, we will attack with air support.

Hokkaido and the "Northern Resource Area"
Our air farces continue to reorganize while we build up airbases.

Here is a pic of our air strike on Batavia

[jwilkerson]

18-19 March 1942

Java
21ID arrives in Batavia, look empty. Nik advancing on East end as well.

Burma
Hordes of Allied bombers attack our advanced forces in Central Burma. Mandalay falls, we cross the Irrawady!

Luzon
More supply arriving, another regiment and artillery unit arriving from Korea.

China
We attack at Chengchow, Chinese attack at Nanyang. Lots of casualties on both sides, more on Chinese side.

We advance on Wenchow in the South.

Niks Areas
Allied pinpricks in the Solomons and Kuriles, not sure what the reactions will be.

[jwilkerson]

20-21 March 1942

Kuriles
To the East of Paramushiro, I-121 has a good day. Yorktown is hit by two torpedos. One of the very few submarine successes we've had in the game to date, whereas our shipping has been mauled by the Allied submarines.

[jwilkerson]

20-21 March 1942

China
Very bloody day. At both Nanyang and Chengchow, we attacked the Chinese hordes, both sides took thousands of casualties, but both sides stood firm.

Luzon
Our reinforcements continue to arrive - our light bombing campaign against Clark continues.

Java
Nik is facing a huge telephone poll of 23 units on the Mountain SW of Soerabaja. In the West, I advancing past Batavia against no opposition.

Burma
Unescorted Blenhiems continue to attack our advancing troops, but our Oscars at the front begin to take a toll, 8 Blenhiem IV are lost this turn.

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson


Nik is facing a huge telephone poll of 23 units on the Mountain SW of Soerabaja. In the West, I am advancing past Batavia against no opposition.

Interesting choice by your opponents. The mountain hex gives a x3 modifier. Batavia, as light urban, has a only a x2 modifier but has a much larger airfield and probably a lot more supplies, and defending it denies you a good airbase and port and gives a chance of damaging the industrial centers there. It will be interesting to see how it works out.

[jwilkerson]

Yup.

When I played Rob (jrcar) in a test game, before release, I also camped out on this mountain, I was playing Allies in that game. Ultimately Rob had to go around me, and that will probably be the case in the current game.

Landing "at the ends" of Java has some advantages, but Allies have the ability to contain the landings with Mountain and urban terrain in both cases.

Also, NOT defending Batavia or Soerabaja gives a much better chance of damaging the facilities and resource centers. In fact, I'm sure that's why our opponents have decided NOT to defend either Batavia or Soerabaja, to ensure destruction of the resource centers. I'll admit I had not figured that out until a couple of turns ago, I kept wondering why Batavia was empty, on my end. Now I know!

[Smeulders]

Don't engineers damage resources in a base when it's captured ? Or are you referring to the damage done by partisans if a base is under it's garrison? 

[jwilkerson]

Yup, the under garrison damage is much more thorough and reliable than the engineer/random damage.

[jwilkerson]

22-23 March 1942

China
We take Chengchow, thus completing knocking out of the main central Chinese bases. Most of the units from all these actions survived, so they will be back to haunt us later, but knocking out all the AV has taken the edge off Chinese offensive potention for a while. Now we need to work to break the seige of our central bases, but we could not do that while huge armies were free to rampage!

Luzon
Our unloading of reinforcements and light bombing campaign against Clark, continues.

Java
IJA is advancing from the West, Nik is battling the mountain redoubt in the East.

Sydney
Nik puts in a surprise carrier raid at Sydney, catching numerous merchant ships in port.

Kuriles
The Allies continue to land in the Kuriles despite damage to the Yorktown last turn.

Burma
We continue to advance in the face of Allied "scorched earth" policies. Only at Akyab do we see enemy forces (9 units, 22K men).

[jwilkerson]

24-25 March 1942

North Pacific
Unbelievable, after successfully putting I-121 into Yorktown's hex a few days ago, here again Nik manages to put I-124 onto the path and perhaps "finish" the job with two more torpedo hits. That might not be enough, but it might be, I'd say 50/50. I guess we will find out eventually. But at the very least we've taken this ship out of the war for the bulk of 1942 and that matters the most. So now two USN CVs are either sunk or removed from 1942 and we've lost none (so far). This will give us a bit of an edge that will allow us to retain the initiative for a longer period of time than we would otherwise have been able to do.

Java
Nik's good luck with the submarines was not matched by his luck with his bold attempt to take Soerabaja by Coup de Main. The odds were 15 to 8, close but no cigar. Only one unit, the static base force was present, but Nik probably needed to wait a bit longer for his preparation points to increase. The Dutch unit might have been at 100 prep points and that would matter.

Otherwise, my units are advancing East from Batavia and we are switching our unloading operations from Merek to Batavia as we cleared the minefield this turn and continue repairs on the facilities. The 5th Division is now loading at Singapore and should be unloaded within a week. The IG Division will follow. The 25 Army HQ is unloaded and half the artillery are also unloaded. The 21st IMB is leading the advance to the East.

Burma
We continue to advance West of the Irrawady towards Swebo and to the North towards Lashio. We see no enemy troops except at Akyab. The 18 DIvision is prepping for Akyab and will begin the long walk out.

China
After a turn of rest our troops are starting to move out in pursuit of the Chinese hordes in the vicinity of Nanyang.

Our seige of Wenchow continues in the South.


...

Here is a pic of I-124 doing her work on Yorktown.

[jwilkerson]

Fleet Organization
As we approach the conditions for closing out that part of the war which is focused on the capture of the SRA, Nik and I are discussing the future. One topic is the organization of the naval combat forces. For purposes of this discussion we are really only discussing the DD, CL, CA, BB, CVE, CVL and CV.

I raised the example of the fleet organization I used in my game with Moses for consideration.

Roughly there were three combat "Fleets" - the Western, the South-Eastern and the Northern.

South-Eastern
This was usually the main fleet, which the bulk of the BB and CV. The mission of this fleet was to oppose the advance of the Americans from the Marshalls down to the Solomons and Eastern New Guinea.

Northern
This fleet operated in the Aleutians with the mission of opposing the advance of the Americans through the Aleutians to the Kuriles. This fleet usually had 2-4 CVE and 2-4 BB as well as supporting cruisers and destroyers. It takes a certain amount of strength of present a credible delaying force. I even deployed Yamato and Musashi up here briefly. By rotating some powerful ships through this theater I think I increased my opponent's variness, which is a good thing, because once you get into late 43, early 44, Japanese defense is a lot of "smoke and mirrors" with a bit of luck and a small bit of "punctuated equilibrium, whereby you actually charge into the enemy and try to inflict more damage than you take.

Western
The mission of the Western fleet was to protect the Gulf of Martaban and secondarily to support our bases in Northern Oz. As this was a WITP stock game, I had taken all four Northern Oz bases to postpone their use as a counter-attack platform. On those occasions when Moses would come North with an Army to kick me out, the Western Fleet would provide support.
The size of the Western fleet was, on average, similar to that of the Northern Fleet, 2-4 BB and 2-4 small carriers.

Summary
So the primary opponent is the Americans, who will be comming from some direction. This direction should be opposed by the "main fleet" most of the time. Other areas are side shows, but need some naval presence to prevent "easy" advances. The side shows should show some occasional "major" units to further restrain the enemy. But the main strength should mostly be concentrated against the main enemy thrust.
When I play Japanese, I use more of a French (late 18C) "Fleet in Being" strategy. By keeping a major, potent fleet afloat for as long as possible, I hold in front of the Allies at least the possibility that this fleet will intervene in their operations and thus slow them down by forcing them to concentrate more power and thus move more slowly.
The "triple threat" of Naval Air Striking force (the Betty/Nell/Frances escorted by long range zeros), the carrier threat and the surface threat, should be combined to provide the enemy with a "horns of a dilema" situation, requiring defense against all three threats. The Naval Striking Force (LBA) are actually the main threat, because that force can be more easily reconstituted. Once the CVs and BBs are sunk, they are gone forever. But it is possible to lose 100 "Franetties" and rebuild them one day.
[:)]