Rise of the Sheep! JocMeister(A) vs. Obvert(J)

[Lokasenna]

Pay attention to the combat animation. If it says anything about fuel storage explosion or ammo storage explosion, it could mean the ship is in trouble from just the one torpedo hit - particularly if there was a Critical Damage message also associated.

And then there's "magazine explodes"...

[JocMeister]

Never seen a magazine explode so far. But I think it was GJ that sunk the Yamamoto with a single TT with a little help of that? [:D]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]13th-14th December -44[/font]
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Not much happening.

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Luzon
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The barge shuttle is in full swing. Acting on a hunch I set 50 P47 on LRCAP at 40k.


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DEI
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The wrecked OZ ID land unopposed at Endeh. The place is empty! I divide up the division to snatch the surrounding bases.

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Thailand
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Eriks bombers didn´t fly. Probably weather related. I did manage to cut the rail from Bangkok. I have only 2 small recon units and a motorized BDE. But they will hide in the woods and see what comes looking.

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Strategic bombing
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Tokyo is still burning. Fires are down to 116 now. But we got 1324 VPs during 3 days of fires. A pretty good haul I would say! Mostly HI but a little LI and 50 engine factories burned down. [:)]

[Crackaces]

I just want to get a thought on incendiaries . .. are you loading incendiaries on your B-29's?? I do a 2/3 bombs 1/3 incendiaries but smarter people than I can provide the optimum bomb load and configuration ..

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

I just want to get a thought on incendiaries . .. are you loading incendiaries on your B-29's?? I do a 2/3 bombs 1/3 incendiaries but smarter people than I can provide the optimum bomb load and configuration ..

What? You can choose loadout? [X(]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]DEI[/font]
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No morning turn from Erik so it gives me a chance to update on some other theatres.

Here is how the DEI currently looks. Erik has completely abandoned the area. Still I have to move slowly covering each landing as he can quickly jump planes in a strike. While it may look overkill to send in divisions to take empty bases they are prepped for it and I might as well use them. Situations like this really highlight how crude the prep system really is. Can´t say I can come up with anything better though. [:)]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Formosa[/font]
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I have been heavily reconning Formosa for the last couple of days. The result of this is seen in the screenshot. Erik has heavily reinforced it with 150.000 men. This was the deciding factor for me.

We go to Formosa! [&o] The opportunity to kill 150.000 men in the clear terrain on Formosa is simply too good to pass up. While 150.000 men may sound like a lot keep in mind Erik is basically out of divisions. I went through Intel Monkey and so far I only picked up small units and Garrison forces. I havn´t an ETA on this yet but I have to secure Northern Luzon and bring the entire Fleet in. Add to that about 3 months of prepp we are looking at March possible April if I can secure Luzon.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]KB Spotted![/font]
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Say the devils name and he will show himself! I´m pretty sure this is the full deal. Parts of my CV force is sitting under the CAP at Cotabato while the rest do refits at Sarmi. Erik hadn´t reconned Cotabato for weeks so I thought I could hide them there for a while. Unfortunately he started recon again just a few days ago.

So now I know where he is and he knows where part of my CVs are. I hope to confuse him a bit as my CVs will retire towards Sarmi to join with the rest of the CVs in 2-3 days. At the same time a big CVE TF will transit the pacific and another CVE TF containing 2 heavy CVs will transit within sight of the DEI.

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

I just want to get a thought on incendiaries . .. are you loading incendiaries on your B-29's?? I do a 2/3 bombs 1/3 incendiaries but smarter people than I can provide the optimum bomb load and configuration ..

What? You can choose loadout? [X(]

Well I thought so for city attacks on manpower ... but I just opened the Downfall scenario and tried to sandbox the city attack/manpower attack operation and I could not change loadout .. so I must have been hallucinating .. please ignore my lack of lucidity .. [8D] Unless somebody else remembers this detail ...

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

I just want to get a thought on incendiaries . .. are you loading incendiaries on your B-29's?? I do a 2/3 bombs 1/3 incendiaries but smarter people than I can provide the optimum bomb load and configuration ..

What? You can choose loadout? [X(]

Well I thought so for city attacks on manpower ... but I just opened the Downfall scenario and tried to sandbox the city attack/manpower attack operation and I could not change loadout .. so I must have been hallucinating .. please ignore my lack of lucidity .. [8D] Unless somebody else remembers this detail ...

A little heavy on the brewski perhaps? [:D]

You scared the heck out of me. Thought I missed something huge! [X(]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]15th December -44[/font]
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An interesting turn with the only action in Thailand!

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Thailand
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Erik abandoned Ayuthia. Turns out I hedged my bets and sent a small force there. [:'(] So now its firmly in allied hands and the assault on Bangkok will commence shortly. Will be very interesting to see what Erik does here. The risk of being surrounded is now big. He sent some troops out into the open. Looks like 2 NavGuard units or something. Not enough to open the rail again.

My motorized BDE will get into the woods long before he can get there. He did hit the BDE from the air this turn but results were poor.

Morning Air attack on 268th Motorised Brigade, at 57,63 , near Bangkok

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 24 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes

Japanese aircraft
B7A2 Grace x 32
D4Y1 Judy x 34
D4Y4 Judy x 23

Japanese aircraft losses
B7A2 Grace: 1 destroyed by flak
D4Y1 Judy: 2 damaged

Allied ground losses:
119 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 9 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Vehicles lost 11 (1 destroyed, 10 disabled)
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Morning Air attack on 268th Motorised Brigade, at 57,63 , near Bangkok

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 24 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-67-Ia (T) Peggy x 12
Ki-100-I Tony x 91

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-100-I Tony: 3 damaged

Allied ground losses:
123 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 15 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Vehicles lost 30 (1 destroyed, 29 disabled)

This is a motorized BDE. No tanks so all the disabled Vehicles are motorized support. [:)] Erik also tried to hit my troops already in the woods. Despite four bombings not single loss and disruption point added. Power of trees apparently. No wonder I have problems with the 4Es on his superstack.

Tomorrow I will try and repay the kindness on his troops in the open. If all goes well 500 4Es will smack the two units in the open tomorrow and they will be no more. I sent in the RAF Thunderbolts in advance. If I´m lucky Erik hasn´t even bothered to LRCAP. If I´m not it will be bloody tomorrow. Luckily the Brits seems to get all the P47s I desperately need for the USAAF. I have almost 200 in the british pools... [8|]

The fantastic news of this is of course that I can now rail down from the north and into central Thailand! [&o]

As can be seen in this screen the kettle is closing around Bangkok. Will he stay and fight or try to flee? Once he loses Bangkok the airsupport is gone as he hasnt built up anything else. Open hexes within 4E range...not good for troops.

[JocMeister]

So, Whats the prefered drinking tonight? I´m drinking an Imperial IPA called Napa Smith Hopageddon. Its american and pretty fantastic.
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/napa-smith ... pa/161866/

To complement that I´m having an Ardbeg special edition scotch called "Ardbog". [&o]
http://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/ar ... eg-whisky/

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]16th December -44[/font]
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Again only action is in Thailand.

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Thailand
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Some time things work just perfectly. Today was such a day. No LRCAP. [:)] Erik hits my troops both in the open and in the forest for very little to tell for it.

Then it my turn...turns out it was two mixed BDEs and not NavGuards as I thought. 36th and 37th. I havn´t check but considering the low number of guns (76) they are of the later arriving sort without much equipment and crap EXP so its very unlikely they would have been able to open the rail anyway.

Japanese ground losses:
1282 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 132 disabled
Non Combat: 17 destroyed, 183 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 4 disabled

Japanese ground losses:
495 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 33 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 30 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 10 (1 destroyed, 9 disabled)

Japanese ground losses:
135 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 10 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Japanese ground losses:
296 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 16 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 24 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Japanese ground losses:
297 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 24 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 14 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Japanese ground losses:
102 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Japanese ground losses:
169 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 10 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled

Japanese ground losses:
182 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 15 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled

Japanese ground losses:
67 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 2 (1 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Japanese ground losses:
92 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 9 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)

Japanese ground losses:
93 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Japanese ground losses:
128 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 2 (1 destroyed, 1 disabled)

and it goes on and on and on....

They turned back towards Bangkok after that! [:'(] I think Erik is in a bit of a pickle here. If he abandons Bangkok he will lose aircover and have to cross the open hexes. If he stays he will be surrounded. Trying to lift them out by sea will provoke a CV battle that I doubt he wants at this point. If he does have a ace up his sleeve he will have to show it very shortly. Tomorrow he will have 3000 allied AV in Bangkok and a full American Corp on his right flank to cut him off.


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Pacific
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The fleet is moving into the pacific covering some 15 TFs carrying everything from supply to troops and aircraft. The CVE fleet provides cover. 1400 AC. Bad boys, bad boys...[8D]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]17th December -44[/font]
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A very productive turn. I got a lot of boring behind the scenes stuff done.

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Soviet Union
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Another pilot training rotation. But this time I let about half the squadrons switch from training to CAP to start building EXP. I will rotate them back to the pool once EXP reaches 70. I spent a good amount of time looking at the Soviet air force. It will be a defensive air force in the war I think. The planes simply arn´t good enough and the numbers are too low.

I also set most of the airfields to start expanding now. I want to make Erik very aware that activation isn´t that far off. Soon he will start seeing the AFs expanding throughout Manchuria. That should be unpleasant for him! [:)]

The soviet ground troops. Wow. There are some crazy formations available when the Soviet activates. The 6th Guards Tank army is simply stunning to look at. I can´t imagine something standing in its way for very long. [X(]

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Luzon
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The barge train continues. I´m soon done here. Two or three more days and then all the fragments will be shipped in. I also started a small offensive air OP here. I wan´t Erik to pile up even more in Manila.

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Thailand
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Troops enter Bangkok. I ordered a bombardment tomorrow to check the opposition. In the meantime a US Corps is only 2 days from the rail and the closure of the Bangkok kettle. Erik has missed the chance to withdraw now. Mistake or intentionally? No idea. If Bangkok looks too tough I will just isolate it for now while moving for Indochina.

Also noticed something very weird. Looks like Erik has stopped the movement of his superstack? Why would he do that? [&:] It has showed no sign of movement for 3 days now. Is he going to try an counter attack in 3x defensive terrain? Unlikely. Hmm...

I also got away almost unscaved from another mistake. I was slightly drunk last night when doing the turn. So when I switched the bombers back to the superstack I must have pressed "Set all B24Js at this base" instead of "Set all level bombers at this base".

Morning Air attack on 5th Garrison Unit , at 56,63 , near Bangkok

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
J2M3 Jack x 11
J2M5 Jack x 11
N1K1-J George x 22
N1K2-J George x 6
Ki-84a Frank x 51
Ki-84r Frank x 22

Allied aircraft
Liberator B.VI x 27
Liberator GR.VI x 3
B-17E Fortress x 3
B-24D Liberator x 5
B-25D1 Mitchell x 12
B-25H Mitchell x 30
B-25J1 Mitchell x 3
B-25J11 Mitchell x 3
PBJ-1D Mitchell x 21

Japanese aircraft losses
N1K1-J George: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Liberator B.VI: 9 damaged
Liberator GR.VI: 1 damaged
B-25H Mitchell: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
PBJ-1D Mitchell: 3 destroyed


Japanese ground losses:
711 casualties reported
Squads: 33 destroyed, 53 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 5 (4 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Again I´m lucky as Erik has his planes way too high up! [&o]

S-305 Hikotai with N1K1-J George (12 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(3 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
12 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 15000

S-315 Hikotai with J2M5 Jack (11 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
11 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 31000

25th Sentai with Ki-84a Frank (14 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
14 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 31000

47th Sentai with Ki-84r Frank (13 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
13 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 38270

S-316 Hikotai with N1K2-J George (6 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
6 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 20000

He is going to figure this out eventually though. I have to stop making mistakes like this.

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KB
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Still hanging around Formosa with the Battlefleet.

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DEI
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I´m going to try something risky here. Fingers crossed...


Attached a screen of the 6th Guards tank army. Its just crazy. [X(] 3000 AV and almost a thousand heavy tanks. Boom? Does the Jap Manchuria army even have the hardware to stop this?

[JocMeister]

EDIT: Wrong post

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Airlosses 17th December -44[/font]
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As can be seen in the screenshot I got away relatively unharmed. A sweep over Eriks superstack caught some of his LRCAP.

Aces lost
1 Ace KIA (7 kills)

Aces gained
1 new double ace
3 new aces

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Luzon assault[/font]
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Here is the troop disposition for the coming assault on Manila and northern Luzon. I estimate Japanese resistance to about 3000 AV. But numbers isn´t everything. The Japanese troops on Luzon are mainly the usual hodgepodge of small units without much staying power. This is augmented by by a few proper brigades.

Luzon is not completely without good combat formations though.

Japanese major combat units on Luzon
-1st Tank division
-4th Tank division
-102nd Infantry division
-56th Infantry division
-6th Infantry division

The 6th ID was crushed at the Cotabato landing but should have recovered to full strength by now. The Japanese forces are predicted to lack heavy artillery (stuck in Thailand) and dedicated AT weapons.

I feel confident that the allied units tasked for the liberation is enough for a relatively swift capture. If needed another 6000 AV can be landed. This is rather not do as I have other plans for those troops.

Manila will be surrounded and left to rot in favor of securing Northern Luzon that is the main goal. Manila would just be a nice bonus. Erik seems to oblige by piling most of what he has there. [:)]

[JocMeister]

Anyone knows where I can find the TOE of the Japanese Tank divisions?

EDIT: Found them in the editor. For fun I threw up a Tank division against 2 US Tanks BTLs. Wasn't much left of the Jap Tank division after the first assault. This was in clear terrain and no forts though.

I´m going to go through my tank BTLs and make sure they are all upgraded to Shermans so none are still stuck with light tanks.

Speaking of Tanks...I just noticed that the US ID get 27x Pershings and 27 CS Tanks in their next TOE upgrade. Thats going to add hell of a punch to them! [&o]

[JocMeister]

Question on hexside control and rivercrossings!

How the heck do I isolate Bangkok? It has 4 sides which are rivercrossings. Do I have to wreck 4 units to close the hexside? If I have understood things correctly the 1/3rd AV rule doesn´t apply here as they are crossing from a "new" hexside.

Erik has 2000 AV in Bangkok and I´m not too keen on having 8000 in place just to surround the base without closing the hexsides.

Ideas/help/suggestions are welcome! [:)]

[KenchiSulla]

If you want to close the hexsides you'll have to cross the river (and shock on each hexside). There is no other way to isolate a hex completely if it is already occupied by enemy forces.