Banzais Don't Make Victories - Anachro (A) vs John 3rd (J) BTS 5.7

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

B29 arrives this month, so at the moment 0 are in the pool. Sigint shows John is reinforcing Singapore with another division.

Don't you get squadrons a head of time? I think I have been hit by b29s as early as December of 1943. Mods vary of course.

[Anachro]

I just checked and apparently I had 12 B-29 squadrons appear in Aden in the last few weeks which I didn't notice. Wallah! I have 7x12: 84 B-29s. I'll bring them up once I secure lower Burma and have good air support and supply at Rangoon. This is my first time playing really into mid-1944.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

I just checked and apparently I had 12 B-29 squadrons appear in Aden in the last few weeks which I didn't notice. Wallah! I have 7x12: 84 B-29s. I'll bring them up once I secure lower Burma and have good air support and supply at Rangoon. This is my first time playing really into mid-1944.

Maybe you should keep an eye on the intelligence report for reinforcements as well as the Operations Report. [;)]

[Anachro]

What is the optimal use for B29s? How well would they do in unescorted strikes against targets with Franks and Georges for CAP defense? My B24s and such have been treated roughly unless I also have air supremacy. How effective are B29s in night strikes? I'd love to know how others would suggest to use them and set up their air missions?

[Lowpe]

Sort all your air squadrons by mission, and then find any that have a 40% training and double check to make sure you didn't miss them when they arrived.

[Anachro]

All I have right now are the wings in Aden, but more are on the way.

[CV10]

I'm not sure what your HRs involving 4Es are, but Canoerebel used B-29s in one of his recent AAR games to port strike Japanese bases with large concentrations of shipping. It made forward operations for his opponent incredibly dangerous, and I'm pretty sure that he bagged at least one carrier through this.

[Bif1961]

The prewar concept of "the bomber must get through," was flawed and proven not to be true. So to answer your question when unescorted bombers faced a CAP made up of planes with cannons, the bombers got slaughtered. The B-29s can drop mines into ports at night and channels. That is one use early when you don't have a lot of bombers. Also bombing bases without fighters will force him to thin out his front line fighters to cover deeper bases within B-29 range. Those base attacks can be port, airfield , troops and out strategic day or night. One reason the Americans captured Iwo Jima was to provide a base to fly P-51 escorts out of to protect the B-29 missions. Also to have a midway point base for damaged B-29s to land on and not turn into an operational lose.

[Anachro]

April 1st, 1944

Rangoon doesn't fall, but we get a nice 2-1 attack with forts falling to 1. Should be soon, I'll probably try a shock attack this turn to finish it off, esp as some units seem to have finally moved to the north of Rangoon in escape (I'll attack those thise turn with my 150AV in tanks there). Interestingly, John tries a shock attack to remove my paras at Toungoo and comes off much worse; and a bombardment at Moulmein sees a high number of Japanese casualties. The only bad news is in placing my carriers just south of Moulmein, they were just in the range of Bangkok based on my settings and my CVs launched nav strikes agaisnt a well CAP'd Bangkok. We probably sink a number of xAPs with troops on them, but we lose ~150 A/C in the process.

[RangerJoe]

You were not expecting a naval strike but his land units have taken some damage. That will take a little time and supplies to heal.

[Anachro]

Reading the tea leaves, I remember from CR's game with John that he mentioned John tends to slow things down when he is not happy with how things are going: things suddenly come up, he's very busy with real life, school for the kids, etc. Well, John said that things will be slowing down in terms of turn exchanges as school is starting soon, so there's that.

Based on the exchanges the past week, I'm pretty sure John was surprised by my landing at Pegu, but also believed that was all the forces to be committed and probably felt confident in holding or at least having time for an orderly retreat. I quickly landed 4 additional divisions at Rangoon and sped up the time table significantly. The 50k at Rangoon and the 40k north of Rangoon in jungles of the Burmese-Indian border are in great danger.

Anyways, given that things will slow down, I will be taking more time on these turns as I seriously need to re-organize things for future invasions.

[RangerJoe]

One reason for slowing down is a player might need to decide what to do after contemplating each possibility that come to him, then to issue the necessary orders. Not to mention:

[Anachro]

April 2nd, 1944 - Fall of Rangoon

Sorry, miscounted again. This turn is actually the 2nd of April, with the previous being the first, and with it Rangoon finally falls. Better yet, we see victories across the board and while we don't destroy the garrison at Rangoon, it is severely mauled and forced to flee to a base from which we can probably cut it off and destroy it for good. Moreover, John's 40k troops on the Indian border are in real trouble. All in all, a nice day on the land front in Burma. We should begin proper attacks on Moulmein soon enough and will, of course, be bringing in all types of base units to turn Rangoon into a major airbase. John did us a favor and maxed out the airfield to 8(7). The port needs to be built up, currently only at 4(6). Pegu will also be built up to to max out its airfield.

To cut off the 40k at Bassein, we will run LRCAP over the base to hit any air transports and send our fast tanks currently north of Rangoon further north to the rail junction between Bassein and Prome. Not even sure we need to devote forces from Rangoon to investing Moulmein and can probably use them solely for mopping up the Burmese interior and cutting off as many IJA troops as possible.

[Bif1961]

Looks like you unhinged his route of possible escape in Burma and now he has to figure out can he open it back up again or have to do a long march through the jungle back to Thailand out of supply and suffering the ravages of illness and your air strikes. It would be common for such a reversal of fortune to take time to decide on the course of future operations. Does he rush in with all the IJN and try to fight it out to save his troops in danger of being cutoff in Northern Burma or rush reinforcements to Thailand to build a defensive line north of Bangkok and work his way north to building a jungle route using the broken trail and then rail system through Chang Mai. As you state you could use this respite to straighten out and attend to some neglected areas so it is hard churning out 2-4 turns a day and things sometimes fall through the cracks that really needed addressing earlier. One thing a good commander has to do is get inside the opponents operational planning cycle and upset it so he has to change major plans he has had in place. That is what the Blitzkrieg did to the Allies prewar plans with dealing with a German invasion through the low countries. The allies never got their balance back and were always reacting behind the moves of their opponent. You have seized the initiative, now make him dance to your tune.

[Anachro]

As mentioned before, lots of nice little bases to develop for the air war. Rangoon is at 8(7) and can actually be developed even further to a level 9 airfield. Pegu is currently at 2(7), but can be developed. Moulmein has also been nicely developed to 7(7). Going even further down (and thus even deeper into the Japanese interior with long-range heavy bombers), Mergui is at 2(7) and can be developed. Victoria Point is at 7(6) and in easy range for landings. John has does a bit of development work for me already here. Stretching it even further, Sabang is at 7(7), Georgetown at 8(7), etc.

I plan to reinforce Little Andaman and take Trinkat or the little dots near it to help seal off the Andaman Sea.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Looks like you unhinged his route of possible escape in Burma and now he has to figure out can he open it back up again or have to do a long march through the jungle back to Thailand out of supply and suffering the ravages of illness and your air strikes. It would be common for such a reversal of fortune to take time to decide on the course of future operations. Does he rush in with all the IJN and try to fight it out to save his troops in danger of being cutoff in Northern Burma or rush reinforcements to Thailand to build a defensive line north of Bangkok and work his way north to building a jungle route using the broken trail and then rail system through Chang Mai. As you state you could use this respite to straighten out and attend to some neglected areas so it is hard churning out 2-4 turns a day and things sometimes fall through the cracks that really needed addressing earlier. One thing a good commander has to do is get inside the opponents operational planning cycle and upset it so he has to change major plans he has had in place. That is what the Blitzkrieg did to the Allies prewar plans with dealing with a German invasion through the low countries. The allies never got their balance back and were always reacting behind the moves of their opponent. You have seized the initiative, now make him dance to your tune.

Looks like the IJ units in the north can still get to the Burma road and retreat to China if they go via Myitkyna and south from there.

[Anachro]

Nothing to report except I have this in my latest sigint:

11/4th Brigade is planning for an attack on Midway Island.
8/4th Brigade is planning for an attack on Midway Island.

Midway has level 4 forts, a full army regiment, and a CD unit, but we'll be setting up more mines at it and subs around it just in case. Moreover, again, it is very close to Pearl and relief and my numerous CVEs, CV/CVLs, and surface ships there.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

Nothing to report except I have this in my latest sigint:

11/4th Brigade is planning for an attack on Midway Island.
8/4th Brigade is planning for an attack on Midway Island.

Midway has level 4 forts, a full army regiment, and a CD unit, but we'll be setting up more mines at it and subs around it just in case. Moreover, again, it is very close to Pearl and relief and my numerous CVEs, CV/CVLs, and surface ships there.

It looks like the unit is loaded on transports.

[Anachro]

Yup, that didn't escape my attention, nor the sudden surveillance of Midway and the stationing of 5-6 subs just south of it on the path to Pearl. Hm...

[RangerJoe]

Station the CVs about 300 miles north of Midway, ready to move to launch aircraft. Call it "Point Luck!" [:D]