Canuck's Revenge - ADavidB vs PzB (Wobbly's game continued)

[Grotius]

In the most recent patch, the devs said they tweaked the code to make Ground Attack missions fly more often. In my game against Cap_and_Gown, I've flown three Ground Attack missions on successive days in Malaya. I dunno, I've heard that airfield attacks target primarily support personnel, whereas Ground attacks target infantry, so I'm experimenting with it a bit more than usual.

Personally, I think Airfield attacks are a bit over-powered, but that's a different kettle of fish.

[ADavidB]

You'll have to wait a while to see what I'm up to, because PzB has a sudden case of Real Life catching up with Game Life. [;)]

Dave Baranyi

(Wondering where his other PBEM opponents have gone to - Norway maybe? [:D])

[frank1970]

ORIGINAL: ADavidB

ORIGINAL: Frank

I only read Wobblies and your AARs. I think Wobbly stated PzB caught a very large amount of supplies in Bombay.

Sorry about that. Thanks again for your comments.

Dave

No problem!

[ADavidB]

August 30 brought more air action on the part of my forces but surprisingly little action on PzB's part. My planes in Karachi flew unopposed against Malir again, with lesser results than last time, but still causing sizable casualties. What was particularly interesting was that PzB's combat TF from Bombay was continuing to the northwest. I bet he thinks that I am trying to hide TFs in the corner of the map. What he probably doesn't realize is that the TFs he spotted the last few turns were returning to Karachi, not leaving it.

PzB didn't try to unload any troops either, so I have no idea why his sub went to that hex just above Karachi. That's probably okay - this way he has no idea of what forces I have behind Karachi. And I am still spreading out my non-combat troops to the north and east. The other very interesting thing is that PzB still hasn't actually moved into Karachi proper - his 32 units are still in Malir. That's okay, I'll just keep on bombing them. I wouldn't be surprised, however, to have my troops that are slowly moving eastwards north of the Indus finally meet some Japanese troops who are trying to sneak westwards. (I certainly would try that.)

Elsewhere I am still moving long range bombers around and bombing everything within range of northern Australia. And with B-24s, that's a long way. PzB tried another "shock" attack on my troops in Lautem and lost more of his guys for his trouble. I'm sending a bombardment TF in just for the fun of it - I may disrupt his troops more, and I may even catch another FT trying to sneak in.

The South and Central Pacific Theaters are quiet as I move forces around and rest my bombers. I'll hit PzB's bases at my leisure - right now I'm hoping to "lull" him into moving some TFs into range of my bombers. I'm also still building bases - it's nice to start to get lots of good engineering units.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

PzB won the first "luck of the draw" in August 31 as his invasion TFs to the west of Karachi got cloud coverage and thus exemption from any air attacks. He is coming in with what appear to be a couple of combat TFs and a transport TF. I now have five combat TFs in Karachi and will find out if my "fire ship" strategy helps at all. What I have done is form a couple of dozen small (but not single ship) transport TFs in the Karachi hex. If the game AI does what it often does, it will send PzB's incoming combat TFs against my "soft and slow" transport TFs first, thus wasting the ammo of PzB's combat TFs as well as preparation points. Thus my combat TFs may get an advantage this way. In addition, any air attacks may well also target the transport TFs first. (It's only too bad that I didn't have any TKs or AOs around - the AI loves to send planes after them.)

PzB also started to make his move on land. He moved an armor unit to the hex two hexes due east of Karachi. (He can get there directly from Malir.) Fortunately I already have a unit in that hex, as well as on the other five sides of it. If my units due east of Malir hadn't bogged down in the useless movement rules they could have re-entered Malir and prevented this move, but that's life with the current movement system. I've got other units already on the move to that hex, so with any luck PzB will start to suffer from the same movement-rule problems that have been plaguing me. In the meanwhile PzB still hasn't sent any troops directly to Karachi.

Elsewhere, things were quiet other than PzB hammering the airfields at Colombo. I don't have any fighters there so I can't do anything about it, but I've already moved most of my long range bombers out and he didn't hit the airfields hard enough to keep me from moving more of them out. Once those Wellingtons and Blenheims rest up in China they will be able to start to make life miserable for PzB there too.

Otherwise I am sticking to plan and continuing to build up my positions and forces. I've just now gotten a nice, large air support unit to Lunga, so once they unload I'll be able to start some serious air offenses in that region. I need to move more similar units to the west too.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

My usual email has been conspiring to keep me from seeing the September 1 turn. Maybe it just can't stand so much bloodshed! [:D]

PzB's long awaited offensive on Karachi started by sea. He decided that he had to wipe out my naval forces before sending in his ground troops so that I wouldn't use my ships to bombard his troops. I was actually very wary of doing that because I found in games against the AI that the ground troops could (quite unrealistically) fire their guns back at my bombarding ships. Well that's a moot point now.

My "fire ship" strategy didn't work out - PzB's combat TFs hit my combat TFs first. But surprisingly, some of my transport TFs did get hits on the opposing combat TFs. So that has encouraged me enough to do it again. In any event, PzB lost some ships, had a bunch damaged, and used up the ammo in the rest, so this first round of attackers are limping home.

My air force didn't end up doing a lot - they did get some hits against a few of the retreating ships, but not a lot. PzB sent in a sweep of fighters on Karachi which probably "distracted" things:

Day Air attack on Karachi , at 21,3

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 47
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

Allied aircraft
Fulmar x 5
F4F-4 Wildcat x 8
Wirraway x 5
Mohawk IV x 11
Hurricane II x 23
Spitfire Vb x 21
Kittyhawk I x 13
P-40E Warhawk x 13

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 70 destroyed, 5 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 5 destroyed, 2 damaged
Wirraway: 6 destroyed, 1 damaged
Mohawk IV: 8 destroyed, 2 damaged
Hurricane II: 11 destroyed, 2 damaged
Spitfire Vb: 17 destroyed, 4 damaged
Kittyhawk I: 15 destroyed, 4 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged

That was an expensive sweep for him, considering that I will lose those planes when I lose Karachi. I hope that he tries it again.

So I now have two good battle groups, one battle group full of cripples and a bunch of "fire ship" TFs left in Karachi. PzB still has a bunch of TFs just outside of bomber range, including a carrier TF to provide CAP on the waiting ships. It will be interesting to see what he sends in this time.

In the meanwhile, my bombardment fleet at Lautem caught and mauled another of PzB's fast transport TFs:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Lautem at 33,78

Japanese Ships
DD Hatsushima, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Kamikaze, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
DD Asanagi
DD Okikaze, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Shiokaze
DD Nokaze, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Kuri, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Kuretake, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Manazuru, Shell hits 1, on fire

Allied Ships
BB Colorado, Shell hits 4
BB Idaho, Shell hits 3
DD Monssen
DD Sims, Shell hits 2
DD O'Brien

Japanese ground losses:
252 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Once again my BBs have only trivial damage and my LBA did get some nice hits on the survivors.

PzB is starting to bomb Java again, but he still isn't stopping me from using it as a way-station to move B-24s to Oz. And my B-24s and B-17s did get to hit Kendari and Ambonia again. He's not flying anything from there.

In the rest of the Pacific my ships, planes and troops continue to rest up, build strength and enjoy ever strengthening bases. They all enjoy seeing PzB's fleets taking damage off of India and the DEI...[;)]

Dave Baranyi

[Andy Mac]

May be a bit self sacrificial but may be worth rotating a B17/B24 gp into Karachi.

Just to give you some real punch

He has to have CV's out there somewhere but his zeros are going to murder your TB and DB and any light LB's you have having een 1 gp of 17's or 24's to assist could be usefull (especailly if they drop a 1,000 lber on a Jap CV).

I hope you are watching the range on your LBA at Karachi very carefully each turn you really really dont want unescorted strikes if he has 70+ zeroes to spare on Sweeps.

Do you have any US AK's left in Karachi to allow you to put some PT boats into the water ?

Andy

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

May be a bit self sacrificial but may be worth rotating a B17/B24 gp into Karachi.

Just to give you some real punch

He has to have CV's out there somewhere but his zeros are going to murder your TB and DB and any light LB's you have having een 1 gp of 17's or 24's to assist could be usefull (especailly if they drop a 1,000 lber on a Jap CV).

I hope you are watching the range on your LBA at Karachi very carefully each turn you really really dont want unescorted strikes if he has 70+ zeroes to spare on Sweeps.

Do you have any US AK's left in Karachi to allow you to put some PT boats into the water ?

Andy

His Zeros flew in from Ahmadabad, not from the carriers. He is keeping his carriers to provide local CAP to the group of TFs that he has sitting around 6 hexes off shore. I was surprised that he didn't use his carrier planes too. My guess is that he has only committed a couple of carriers. But he had so many cripples going from Karachi to Bombay that my LBA didn't bother going after his carriers.

That's just as well, because I want to hurt his surface fleet. He lost a bunch of DDs and a couple of cruisers and most of the rest of what he sent in was hit pretty hard cumulatively. I found it funny as h*e*l*l that my transports fought hard and got hits. Look at this round for example:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Karachi at 21,3

Japanese Ships
CA Tone, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CA Chikuma
CL Naka
CL Natori
DD Akizuki, on fire
DD Yugumo
DD Hatsukaze
DD Hayashio
DD Urakaze, on fire
DD Hamakaze, on fire
DD Nowaki
DD Hatsuharu, on fire, heavy damage
DD Wakaba
DD Uzuki

Allied Ships
AK Soochow, Shell hits 7, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
AK Beatrice, Shell hits 31, and is sunk
AK Ban Ho Guan, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk

The Tone eventually was hit by a couple of bombs from planes as it limped away and sank. Transport TFs do fight back.

BTW - there were no US AKs at Karachi, so I couldn't create PTs. But I'll have some in the DEI soon, to add to PzB's woes there. [:D]

BTW II - I really don't like to use heavy bombers on anti-ship attacks. They are my absolutely best (and essentially only) weapon that I can use to keep a Japanese player from harassing my ships with LBA. Right now I have freedom of movement between Oz and Timor because I've closed down PzB's air bases within range. That to me is worth much more than taking that very small chance of getting a good hit on his CVs. I'll take care of his CVs at my leisure with a combination of my LBA and my CVs - don't forget, I've got Avengers now so things are no longer totally in the Japanese favor.

All-in-all, as I mentioned in the past, PzB has taken the path that I wanted him to take. He is taking heavy casualties for his attack just for the sake of trying to limit his land casualties and because he hasn't wanted to take air casualties. He could have closed down the Karachi airfields - he has enough planes and a half dozen air bases within range - with only one field I couldn't fought off all of them. He could have then come in with his carriers to finish off my ships, and sent in the bombardment groups later to finish off my troops. Instead he has chosen a route that allows me to cause him more damage than I should have been able to do. He will regret losing those DDs and cruisers, and the damage to all the others in only a couple of months - particularly when the restrictions on Allied subs stop. He needs light ships to protect his CVs and to try to stop my ever strengthening surface forces. What I have been doing at Lautem is only a preview of what I'll be able to do anywhere soon. And I can do that right now at every other place that is important to me.

Thanks for the comments -

Dave Baranyi

[wobbly]

ORIGINAL: ADavidB

He will regret losing those DDs and cruisers, and the damage to all the others in only a couple of months - particularly when the restrictions on Allied subs stop.

I am afraid you will have to battle with subs that don't attack unfortunately. At least, on the rare occasion when they do, they might actually hit!

[ADavidB]

Well, as of September 2, it looks as if PzB has sent everything plus the "kitchen sink" at Karachi. Another big surface combat TF came in, this time with BBs. It worked its way through my combat TFs, and took a fair amount of damage against the last of the Dutch ships. Another smaller DD-based force came in and got whacked by my BB TF which had simply "traded" DDs when it ran into the Japanese BB force.

It also appears that PzB has more of his carriers in that offshore force than I first thought. Around 140 Zeros showed up as CAP as a couple of my biplanes tried to go in. For some reason this turn my tac bombers didn't go after any of PzB's cripples as they limped south - there was probably too much cloud.

PzB also moved 30 of his combat units into Karachi. Since it appears that there is one more combat TF sitting off shore I won't change my BB TF into a bombardment TF - I want all the surface combat ability that I can get. So I have left one BB-lead Brit surface combat TF with undamaged ships, one small SC TF with moderately damaged ships and one SC TF with heavily-damaged ships, along with a couple of remaining transport TFs. (This turn the transport TFs once again contributed to the damaging of PzB's light combat ships and the sinking of a DD.)

In the meanwhile, my carrier TF in northern Oz caught the remnants of PzB's fast transport TF and sank three more DDs.

Also, my freshly transplanted Wellingtons, Blenheims and Hudsons in China took their first cracks at PzB's transports in southern China near Haifong, hitting a number of them. I've now moved the Chinese fighters in to cover the bases where I've put in these long-legged bombers. If PzB sends some bomber he will get another surprise. I've also got these bombers on "port attack" as the alternate setting, just to keep things "moving" in that area.

So it will be interesting to see what sort of land offensive PzB can mount. How strong are those 30 units? I have eight times the fighting power in Karachi than I had in Malir, but lord knows what that really means. For example, I've got fragments on the road between Ahmadabad and Malir that have been isolated and attacked for weeks and are still withstanding ridiculous odds:

Ground combat at 23, 8

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 22200 troops, 109 guns, 144 vehicles

Defending force 1852 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 197 to 1

Japanese ground losses:
31 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Allied ground losses:
69 casualties reported

Gawd knows why these troops don't retreat when other troops retreat at 2:1. There is open terrain with no "J" marks behind them. I certainly hope that Mog and Frag have been right in their hints that land movement/combat will be fixed up.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

I am afraid you will have to battle with subs that don't attack unfortunately. At least, on the rare occasion when they do, they might actually hit!

I believe that the Allied sub doctrine turns "off" automatically on January 1, 1943, along with the original Allied sub limitation. If not, this will turn into an even stranger game later on.

I wonder if we will be able to reset the sub doctrines once we upgrade to v 1.5?

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

Well, as far as September 3, 1942 went, afterwards my pilots were all singing (anachronistically), "We're so sorry, Uncle Albert, but we didn't do a bloody thing all day…"

PzB sent his fleets back to Bombay to refuel, regroup and re-think their plans. In the meanwhile my planes at Karachi decided to test out the massed strength of the KB and achieved nothing but a fair number of losses. It's too bad, because there had been plenty of "softer" targets to go after. But what was even more irritating was that the rest of my air forces across the map took a "beer day" too. Oh well, they've have less of an excuse tomorrow.

So I've set my good combat TF in Karachi harbor to "bombard" and disbanded the rest of the folks for now. We'll see if my bombardment TF gets creamed by all of PzB's troop's guns as used to happen against the AI. (It will serve me right if it does, since I've had it happen in the past.)

In other action PzB has send a couple of subs to the Gilberts. I suspect that they will lay mines. Okay, I'll send minesweepers in. It's better to have his subs spreading a handful of mines around then putting torpedoes into my BBs and carriers. And he is still trying to supply/reinforce Timor. I'll have to discourage him some more. I wonder how many troops he really has in Ambonia or Kendari?...

Dave Baranyi

[toraq]

Considering that the KB is around Karachi, wouldn´t be a perfect moment to
1) strike elsewhere?
2) Reinforce Java?
3) Evacuate Java?

Is there any plan to make good use of this event?

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: toraq

Considering that the KB is around Karachi, wouldn´t be a perfect moment to
1) strike elsewhere?
2) Reinforce Java?
3) Evacuate Java?

Is there any plan to make good use of this event?

1) I have been striking elsewhere - I just don't have enough combat troops to attack his positions. So instead I've been striking where he isn't and setting up a strong series of mutually supporting bases.

2) I have lots of troops in Java. Probably too many. If I had more troops available elsewhere I would invade undefended or lightly defended areas of the DEI to set up a stronger perimeter.

3) I don't have the air power to defend any evacuation TFs. He can mass hundreds of Zeros and bombers at any point in and around Java. I'm not going to waste my carriers trying to fight that off.

What I am doing is making use of the respite that PzB has given me? Well, I'm moving troops across the ocean, moving ships so that I can move troops, supplies and fuel, and setting up areas that I can defend well. It all takes time.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

I forgot about PzB's persistence and probably paid for it a bit on September 4. As with his naval actions around Timor, PzB showed at Karachi that he will go right back in again regardless of cost. So while I had expected to get another turn while PzB refuelled and rearmed his combat fleets, PzB instead went back in and finally took out most of the remaining RN ships. The Valiant lived up to its name and actually survived multiple attacks while sinking a number of cruisers and destroyers. Never-the-less, things probably wouldn't have been much different if I had all of the ships in task forces because PzB just had too many ships to throw at me. But my airfields are still okay and my air forces are still trying to attack. Fortunately for PzB his naval forces are still enjoying lots of clouds and rain.

I would expect that the next time PzB sends in his bombardment TFs he will get some decent hits on Karachi. Fortunately, since I have unlimited supply, my shore guns ought to continue to fire back. (This will be a good test of that "theory".) I've also started to disband smaller air groups - this way I'll get them back in 90 days. I guess that I'll get back the orphans some time in the future too (is it 90 days or six months?).

In the meanwhile, as a sign of his renewed confidence, PzB sent some very big air attacks at Java including Zero sweeps and attacks by 120+ IJA bombers. He has also sent a replenishment fleet back to Java, but my depleted air force there wasn't able to break through the air cover and do much.

I'm still keeping PzB's airfields in Timor and vicinity suppressed by my LBA, but it is getting harder because I just don't have enough air support troops there to keep a lot of my bombers maintained. So only about half of my LBA can fly at any one time. I am finally getting some more air support units on the "long sail" to Oz, but it will be quite a while before they get there. As a bonus, my surface ships also caught more of his ships trying to supply his bases at Timor.

I use Pearl Harbor as a staging ground for troops. This allows me flexibility in response as well as choice of ships to be used. It has only been within the past couple of game weeks that I finally got troops in numbers from the West Coast to Hawaii, but I'm getting closer to having a functional transport cycle going so things will get better as new troops arrive in the future. I'm still in the disadvantageous position, however, of having to send troops from the West Coast to Hawaii via AK instead of AP because I still don't have enough APs in the eastern Pacific. But considering that I'm just approaching the two month mark I'm pleased with my progress. Another month and I'll have my forces where I want them and in good shape and good supply. That ought to be in time for what will likely be the Battle of Java.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

The story on September 5 was all Karachi again, as PzB sent in more combat TFs and finished off the last of the British ships. The Valiant did get off a few shots before being overwhelmed. The bombardment TFs then went in against light counterfire. Unfortunately there isn't a good CD there. A number of planes were damaged, but otherwise damage was light.

During the daytime Karachi was also attacked by naval air, with the land-based fighters causing a number of casualties. The Allied air counterattack wasn't that effectual but did sink a PG that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. PzB did another land bombardment and promised a deliberate attack next turn.

It will be interesting to see how things turn out from the land attack. I have more and better troops than I did in Malir, but ground combat is always such a mystery in this game that I wouldn't be surprised if the Allied ground forces folded quite quickly.

Elsewhere, I continue to manoeuvre my forces into the positions that I want. It will still be several weeks before I am able to bring substantial forces to the Australian theatre, so it would be very helpful if my troops in Karachi could hold out for a while, but I'm not betting on it. PzB is in a hurry to start to return IJA divisions back to the DEI and Pacific so he intends to steamroller my troops as quickly as possible. I wonder what he will do when he realizes that I now have troops spread over a dozen or more hexes going north from Karachi and the Indus and still moving east. If he wants to surround my forces he will have a longer time to do it than in the past. And if he makes a mistake I may be able to retake a base or two in the East again.

Here is where the land movement rules are a real killer. For example, I will move a unit with level 5 fatigue off road one hex in non-malarial territory. Fatigue starts to go up rapidly and movement slows down. By the time the unit has moved 2 hexes, fatigue is over 60 and movement is down to a crawl. That's not at all realistic - that is purely idiotic. There is no intelligent justification for such rules. Sure, I can rest my troops for a few days and fatigue will start to reduce, but it reduces much more slowly than it rose. And let's face reality - armies were trained in those days to do long marches over open terrain for weeks on end, and they didn't peter out and move at a mile-per-day after the first few days. The current model ignores the reality of 4,000 years of war.

BTW - to take a further step onto a soap box - I haven't bought GG's W@W and I don't intend to at this time because GG, Mike and gang haven't earned my trust nor my money. WitP has been a frustrating experience because it has such potential and yet it is so badly flawed. If some of the bad design concepts in WitP are eventually improved, I will then reconsider W@W, but not before. So sorry Gary, Mike and gang - your decisions on WitP are costing you money - and don't think it isn't that way for more folks too.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

September 6 saw PzB give his ships a rest and instead saw him use his IJA air to attack Karachi:

Day Air attack on Karachi , at 21,3

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 68
Ki-21 Sally x 82

Allied aircraft
Fulmar x 2
F4F-4 Wildcat x 2
Wirraway x 5
Mohawk IV x 12
Hurricane II x 34
Spitfire Vb x 31
Kittyhawk I x 12
P-40E Warhawk x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 155 destroyed, 4 damaged
Ki-21 Sally: 38 destroyed, 8 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Fulmar: 5 destroyed, 4 damaged
F4F-4 Wildcat: 1 damaged
Wirraway: 12 destroyed, 1 damaged
Mohawk IV: 26 destroyed, 14 damaged
Hurricane II: 25 destroyed, 16 damaged
Spitfire Vb: 36 destroyed, 4 damaged
Kittyhawk I: 22 destroyed, 3 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 18 destroyed, 6 damaged
Blenheim IF: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged
Beaufort V-IX: 1 destroyed


Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported

Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 32

Even with FOW that was an expensive day for him. Of course where he is missing out is that he isn't using all of his bases to overwhelm me. At the end of all that, with all the supplies and engineers at Karachi I ended up with no airfield damage and plenty of planes left. If he had hit me with two or three more equivalent attacks he would have closed me down. PzB is too cautious about his air power - he may as well use it now before I get good planes in 1943 and 1944.

The one effect PzB did have was that he effectively blunted my ability to do serious damage on the retreating task forces. I'm tired of losing lots of planes for trivial results, so this turn I'm turning my bombers on to attacking Ahmadabad.

In the main event, he tried his first deliberate attack at Karachi:

Ground combat at Karachi

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 229537 troops, 1688 guns, 229 vehicles

Defending force 95254 troops, 695 guns, 481 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 8

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 8)

Japanese ground losses:
8396 casualties reported
Guns lost 141
Vehicles lost 14

Allied ground losses:
1113 casualties reported
Guns lost 86
Vehicles lost 23

I can live with that. Soon I'll also get a fairly tough US combat engineering group. Now, given my druthers I would love to be able to chose to have it go elsewhere, but I'm not too unhappy about it ending up in Karachi. Combat strength will go up and fortification repair will increase.

Elsewhere, things continue to be reasonably quiet, although I am working on changing the balance of power in Timor. I need another week or so of being "left alone". I may also see if I can quickly raid PzB's supply convoy in Java - maybe I can catch it on the way home.

BTW - PzB's subs did lay some mines in Tarawa. Cool, I've got plenty of minesweepers around. I'll sweep those mines long before his sub gets back to port for another load of mines.

BTW II - I've also got more troops moving west. And more ships are on the way to where my troops are sitting, so things continue to go well as far as the logistics part of my game goes.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

Here's a list of the top ten aircraft lost in our game as of September 6, 1942:

A6M2 Zero -------- 1245
P-40E Warhawk --- 645
Ki-21 Sally ---------- 444
Hurricane II -------- 432
G4M1 Betty -------- 320
G3M Nell ------------ 317
Beaufort V-IX ------ 296
F4F-4 Wildcat ------ 291
SBD Dauntless ----- 276
Kittyhawk I --------- 263


Three quarters of those Zero losses have been air-to-air.

Dave Baranyi

[ADavidB]

The siege of Karachi continues to be the big news. AS of September 7 PzB's air attacks are starting to break the back of my air defense:

Day Air attack on Karachi , at 21,3

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 35

Allied aircraft
Mohawk IV x 7
Hurricane II x 24
Spitfire Vb x 29
Kittyhawk I x 6
P-40E Warhawk x 4

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 52 destroyed

Day Air attack on Karachi , at 21,3

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 21
Ki-21 Sally x 66
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

Allied aircraft
Mohawk IV x 5
Hurricane II x 12
Spitfire Vb x 17
Kittyhawk I x 5
P-40E Warhawk x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 20 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-21 Sally: 23 destroyed, 29 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Mohawk IV: 8 destroyed, 1 damaged
Hurricane II: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
Spitfire Vb: 7 destroyed, 6 damaged
Kittyhawk I: 8 destroyed, 2 damaged

Allied ground losses:
28 casualties reported

Airbase hits 2
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 21

My air force there is no longer able to interdict Ahmadabad, let alone do anything against the KB offshore.

BTW - to give an idea of the amount or air power that PzB has, look at what he is simultaneously doing in Java:

Day Air attack on Tjilitjap , at 19,62

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 17
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 9

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Tomahawk: 2 destroyed

Day Air attack on Tjilitjap , at 19,62

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 25
A6M3 Zero x 12
Ki-21 Sally x 162
Ki-49 Helen x 17

Allied aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 2 destroyed, 9 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
A-20B Boston: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged
Beaufort V-IX: 5 destroyed, 2 damaged
P-40B Tomahawk: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied ground losses:
49 casualties reported

Airbase hits 10
Airbase supply hits 11
Runway hits 82

So those folks who like to whine about the strength of the Allied LBA ought to take note - as you can see, a good Japanese player can attack with overwhelming force in multiple locations. (And I'm not bothering to show what what he is also doing in China.)

PzB's ground attack at Karachi did better this time:

Ground combat at Karachi

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 227810 troops, 1522 guns, 210 vehicles

Defending force 97105 troops, 612 guns, 487 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 7

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 7)

Japanese ground losses:
4706 casualties reported
Guns lost 88
Vehicles lost 3

Allied ground losses:
3054 casualties reported
Guns lost 66
Vehicles lost 17

Afterwards I checked and found out that I had forgotten to put the engineers back on "build fortifications". I had assumed that they would do so automatically as the fortifications were lowered. Oh well, they are on the job now.

As an added bonus for PzB, the AI sent another AK into Karachi Harbor this turn. There are times where the programming in this game just leaves me "speechless"...

So PzB now figures that he can take Karachi in another week or so, and I see nothing in what is happening to suggest otherwise. Since the survivors of Malir are not recovering their fatigue in any reasonable period of time while sitting on the road to the north of Karachi, I'll probably move them off into the countryside. This way PzB will also have to waste time with the movement rules in order to chase them.

BTW - speaking of stragglers - one of my Chinese straggler groups in far northeastern China finally found a base that was unoccupied:

Ground combat at Jehol

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 9377 troops, 67 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 33 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied forces CAPTURE Jehol base !!!

This base did go over to the Chinese, not the Russians. It will be interesting to see if any of my other stragglers can reach there before PzB sends some troops over to chase me out.

Dave Baranyi

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When you feel that your air ops in Karachi are going to be shut down then disband all possible groups. Or withdraw, that way you can keep some of the pilots i think