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ORIGINAL: Drakanel

I just finished reading all this AAR and I liked it a lot. I wanted to let you know that I will be following this from now on. It's a very entertaining read. I am a newbie and this game has a horrible learning curve, just reading this taught me a lot.

And I am very curious about your line, a few posts ago, about "fur-lined gloves". Possibilities... possibilities [8D]

Can I ask a question? How do you feel you are doing considering your position, your losses and the current date? I mean, since I'm completely inexperienced, I do not have a good idea of the flow of the game and so I have a hard time telling. Do you feel you are on a good timetable, or not? Do you feel your losses have been heavy, in line with what's expected, or relatively light? I'm quite curious

Glad to have you following along. It's been a really entertaining game and after my two PBEMs as the Japanese side, I've had a bit of a learning curve myself getting used to what the Allies are capable of in the early going.

Nick tested me a lot in the beginning and I think being inexperienced I tried to do too much to quickly at times, which in India didn't really pan out. I also took some risks with the ABDA fleets in the SRA early and those were largely ineffective and costly. I don't like to just turtle up, but I could have been wiser around Palembang particularly.

Aside from some risky use of the 4Es I think I've done well chipping away in the air. At sea it's been more difficult but i've not really committed much for a while and my losses aren't by any means unsustainable. In fact I've lost almost no invasion shipping and only a few modern combat ships. No CVs have been lost (yet, although some are moving into harms way right now! [X(]

As for my own timeline I'm slightly ahead in Cent Pac and about where I expected, surprisingly, for CBI. For So Pac/SW Pac I'm just a bit ahead but whether I stay that way depends a lot on his reaction in the next few weeks to current moves. I will launch some bigger moves in late autumn 43 and those will really determine more of the schedule, so fingers crossed.

I'll detail some of this soon, but have some other catching up to do first! [:)]

ORIGINAL: obvert
As for my own timeline I'm slightly ahead in Cent Pac and about where I expected, surprisingly, for CBI. For So Pac/SW Pac I'm just a bit ahead but whether I stay that way depends a lot on his reaction in the next few weeks to current moves. I will launch some bigger moves in late autumn 43 and those will really determine more of the schedule, so fingers crossed.

I'll detail some of this soon, but have some other catching up to do first! [:)]

Looking forward to it [8D]

[font="Times New Roman"]August 14, 1943[/font]

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[font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]SW/SO PAC: [/font]On the 14th the Japanese flew in troops to Hansa Bay and struck back against our paras that had invested the base. Part of the 53rd division from Kaveing is now here. This is good as he looks to be focused over here.

[font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]CHINA: [/font] The Japanese again pushed back the Army stuck in Central China and luckily only one unit actually surrendered. This means it’s possible the 8-10 Corps here will make it to the far West while only one more zombie unit will go to Chungking. I’ve still got the one hex outside of Chungking with an open hex side and I’m praying I can send arriving units there for at least a month more.

I continued to bomb Chengtu with the RAF Liberators, and Nick bombed Sian again. He’s showing movement on doe troops coming from the South into Chungking. I put all units in the city in combat mode readiness in case he does cross here. I’d like it to be painful and have the best chance of not lowering forts. There are about 3200AV worth in the city, and we’re 10k below the SL, leaving enough room for about 1/3 of the units that are actually arriving in the next month or so. I’m flying in a Brit AT gun unit but it’s only got 2pdrs.

[font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]OZ:[/font] Troops arrive in Carnarvon. I’ll let a few more enter next turn and then DA.

[font="Trebuchet MS"]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR August 14, 43
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Ground combat at 79,48 (near Chihkiang)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 9093 troops, 114 guns, 664 vehicles, Assault Value = 446

Defending force 23963 troops, 11 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 240

Japanese adjusted assault: 396

Allied adjusted defense: 63

Japanese assault odds: 6 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), morale(-), experience(-)
supply(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
116 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Allied ground losses:
6639 casualties reported
Squads: 328 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 488 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 2 (2 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 12

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
18th Tank Regiment
19th Tank Regiment
3rd Tank Regiment
2nd Tank Division

Defending units:
34th Chinese Corps
96th Chinese Corps
8th Chinese Corps
1st New Chinese Corps
86th Chinese Corps
76th Chinese Corps
28th Chinese Corps
54th Chinese Corps
4th Chinese Cavalry Corps
5th War Area
Y' Force
Central Reserve

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Ground combat at Hansa Bay (97,121)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 399 troops, 5 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 31

Defending force 1028 troops, 10 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 49

Allied adjusted assault: 0

Japanese adjusted defense: 17

Allied assault odds: 1 to 99 (fort level 0)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker: shock(+), leaders(-), supply(-)

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

Allied ground losses:
138 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 17 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Assaulting units:
1st Australian Para Bn /1

Defending units:
44th Naval Guard Unit
53rd Div /3
3rd Raiding Rgt /1
81st Nav Gd /1

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[font="Trebuchet MS"]So. Tomorrow is a big day. Two CV TFs, the CVEs all of the 4Es in the Pacific theatre and over 150 other LBA naval strike planes go for Rabaul! I'm launching from 7 hexes trying to hit airfields, the port, and mostly the BBs here with a combined CV and LBA strike.

At the same time four bases will be invaded, beginning to close in on Rabaul. Fingers crossed! [/font]

Good luck, I find that is mandatory to take either Manus or Rabaul (level seven ports) but not both. Allies really need one of those ports though.

Good luck. That's quite a number of assets you have invested in this operation! Let's hope some of those big exploding candies fly true

I predict great success, unless weather socks in a lot of your flights. With that number of assets, you can shut down anything.

You might not bag the surface assets, but Rabaul is going to get absolutely pounded.

Your invasion forces still might be at risk from other airbases, but... that's small potatoes.

The night phase begins with some good shooting by the Sunfish.

Then in the morning phase the fireworks kick off immediately. Nick's first strike is a winner, but with 8 CVE and 4 fleet CVs nearby the bleeding CAP and the dedicated LR CAP from the islands does great job of limiting strikes all day. They might have done better if bad weather didn't confuse things over the landing hex at Buna.

The escorts do well but suffer, and we eventually break into the Judys ...

... but around 35 make it through to strike the Buka invasion. This is almost all landing craft plus a few xAKL, so very low risk. Three DDs are here as well to defend against surface threats. A few LSTs are hit, one LCI and one LCT sunk.

The CAP hits em on the way out too, which is key for the afternoon, as most of the remaining escorts are destroyed plus a few more Judys.

After this a succession of strikes arrive, most completely unescorted. The Jills are crushed, none making it through to attack the shipping.

The Oscars manage to get a few of the Lily DBs through, which do get a few hits on LSTs, but the flak from all of the 40mm here really makes a difference in DBB.

The first strike for the Allies was from the CVEs, and it would have been a port strike if the very heavy CAP at Rabaul hadn't decimated the TBs on their way in. There are about 5 AKE and a few AO listed in port here, and if I could take them out it would really limit his surface naval efforts here. Too bad the sweeps ALL arrived late!

The P-47s here and a bunch of Hellcats are on LR CAP, but it took them a while to get to 10k to help out this strike. I set the 4E strikes higher, at 15k, just for this reason, but sadly, all strikes ended up in just about the worst possible order. Severe weather over Rabaul didn't help.

A few Hellcat sweeps wore the CAP down before the next wave arrived, TBs from Buin carrying TT, but the CAP was still too strong for such small packages. None made it through.

I knew the naval strikes would suffer in the morning, but if they could help weaken the CAP the 2Es and 4Es would fare better and the afternoon might hold some promise.

We lost more avengers than any other plane on the day, but this group did manage to break in for a few runs.

Unfortunately no hits here. I only realized later only about 1/3 of the assigned LBA groups flew. ALL groups from Kiriwina, the main strike force for naval LBA from 7 hexes, including three DB and three TB groups, were all grounded. [:(]

The CAP got cleared out nicely for the 4E strikes though, and they pounded the Rabaul fields, hitting a ton of transports, some 2E bombers, a variety of fighter groups replacement airframes and an assortment of strike groups too. The Boomerangs again show their versatility, escorting from Buna with their LR drop tanks. Very important at this stage of the war since only FB, Wildcats and P-38s have similar range of the non-sweep caliber fighter frames.

The Aussie pilots suffered on the day, but the strikes got through. [:)]

The P-39s have been really good in an escort role and held their own here even with 50 exp pilots.