Where the eastern wind is blowing... AAR against Canoerebel

[Hortlund]

Good question I always tend to overlook support while on the offensive. Ill take a look next turn

[Hortlund]

Support is in the whites.

[Hortlund]

I have a question.

Right now I have 4th Div at Ambon and 56th Div at Balikpapan. I have 4 BB and the mini-KB together with 6-8 CAs and alot of DDs and CLs in the Ambon-Balikpapan region.

At the same time I am tied down at Clark, and I am about to become tied down at Singapore. The road to Singapore is cleared now and I could launch an attack there within 4-5 days.

At the same time, Palembang is secure and I have troops all over Java - not enough to capture the place, but enough to hold half the island and prevent any huge fortress-building.

I just realized that I have no real use for my surface fleet right now. I am not about to mount any new offensive operation. Im just going to build up airfields on Timor and grab a few dot-bases at Darwin and start building them up too. All of this can be done under protection of LBA.

I hate seeing Japanese assets not being used, especially at this time of the war. It feels like Im wasting time and resources.

So...any suggestions? Keep my ships in port or defending bases I already have, should I go looking for trouble? Should I move offensively with the two divisions?

[Hortlund]

I think Im going to pull two divisions from Malaya and use them to clear out Clark together with the two divisions from the eastern NEI. That means an additional 1200 AV at Clark, and that in turn means I should be able to do the next attack with 3k AV. I think that is the wise choise right now since I dont really plan to invade Australia or India. But this way I can clear the PI before February and then I can ship all the units to Singapore.

Instead of attacking Clark with 1500 AV and Singapore with 2000 AV, something that usually takes a long time and cost alot of troops, I will crush Clark with 3k and then crush Singapore with 4k.

[witpqs]

I think that's a good plan.

[KenchiSulla]

As you are free to move them around that seems like a good plan. It is nice to free those troops from the Philippines.

Why not keep the BBs and CAs in reserve? It is a long war, and if you have no real plan for their deployment it is probably more prudent to anchor them.

[SqzMyLemon]

I agree. Don't seek action for actions sake with your surface ships. And if you have troops free, why not use them to accomplish your immediate goals, rather than an invasion somewhere the enemy may or may not respond to. Why grab a piece of territory if it doesn't fit into your overall plan and risk losing assets over it?

I wrestled with this my whole PBEM, thinking I had to be doing something with my fleet when really...I didn't.

[CRations]

Regarding your warships:

You might redeploy your subs with search aircraft plus maybe some of your CVE/CVL and go after his supply convoys from America to Oz... If you don't want Oz then mess Canoerebel up by cutting off his supply line.

If you get in a few good attacks with a small BB task force he will probably invest heavily in convoy protection. [:D]

CR

[ny59giants]

Luzon - Enough Assault Value, but not enough supplies
Malaya - Enough supply, not enough Assault Value

Both Allied commanders of the logistics efforts should be fired or worse.....[:D]

[Historiker]

Both Allied commanders of the logistics efforts should be fired or worse.....

The empire takes care of that... [;)]

[Erkki]

post removed


wrong thread... damn login!

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

Something odd in the northpac by the way.

I landed an infantry batallion at Juneau. I figured it would make short work of the AV0 base force starting there. Amazingly enough, my AV was adjusted to 8, while his 1 was adjusted up to 10. [:@]

We try again tomorrow, but the reinforcements will land today. I dont want to have them floating around in case some odd SCTF appears. When the Fleet HQ and large baseforce lands, Canoe will know the game is up in the north.

Same at Cold Harbor, my infantry regiment with 120 AVs are having one hell of a time trying to pry the base from an AV10 baseforce. What ...is...happening. This is throwing off the timetables something fierce. I was planning to recombine the 2nd Division at Anchorage by now. Instead Im pinned down...

I find the lack of feedback why suddenly forces are downgraded to tremendously frustrating .... I have had 320 AV "adjusted" to 10 without explanation like disruption, disablement ...heck I can find some pattern in leaders (-) Morale (-) Supply (-) .but nothing but a line with "adjusted AV" one cannot discern a pattern.... even a message "randomly the game has assigned an adjusted value .." would be nice . at least I would have an understanding and some data .. [&:]

This works in reverse as well. PJH should be glad his opponent's AV was "only" upgraded as little as it was. I ran a thread not long ago descrying an incident when my opponent's AV of 2 was upgraded to 173!

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

I think Im going to pull two divisions from Malaya and use them to clear out Clark together with the two divisions from the eastern NEI. That means an additional 1200 AV at Clark, and that in turn means I should be able to do the next attack with 3k AV. I think that is the wise choise right now since I dont really plan to invade Australia or India. But this way I can clear the PI before February and then I can ship all the units to Singapore.

Instead of attacking Clark with 1500 AV and Singapore with 2000 AV, something that usually takes a long time and cost alot of troops, I will crush Clark with 3k and then crush Singapore with 4k.

What threat is the PI after the air force is destroyed and the troops sequestered in Clark/Bataan?

Singapore frees up so much for the Japanese, including sea passage through the straits to Medan, the Andamans and Burma. I see virtually nothing the PI gives once conquered other than freeing the troops there, and it will be easier later with less supply there and more of your troops at hand. Singapore can be a thorn if allowed to hold as it does have supply, a big port and field, and most importantly has close proximity to important areas like Palembang.

If you crush Singapore with 3k + then you have a bunch of troops free as by then you only will need 2k at Clark.

[adsoul64]

What about raiding West Australia and/or the triangle CapeTown - Mombasa - Diego Garcia? Just to keep him honest and to keep your own assets moving. Just like you I hate wasting time and space! On the other hand if your Navy does just vanish, he will be forced to stay honest as well.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

Its too late now, he is already holed up at Clark, cant really ask him to download a map-mod that causes them all to starve to death because of overstacking.

Supply is the key and even a losing attack burns a heck of a lot of the defenders supply. Sooner or later any defender that is cut off will start to crack. Once supply is gone disrupted units do not come back. But morale is key too and constant air attack erode morale. The Japanese player need only be a little patient in the PI. I would not worry so.

[witpqs]

PH,

Some of us are not reading CR's AAR so that we can post freely here. I saw something said to CR in an open thread that implied someone had invaded Juneau on him - is that you?

[Hortlund]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

PH,

Some of us are not reading CR's AAR so that we can post freely here. I saw something said to CR in an open thread that implied someone had invaded Juneau on him - is that you?

Yeah, I have taken Juneau and Anchorage is under siege.

[Saros]

Dopn't try and storm Clark Field it wont end out with the place falling any faster than it would if you just leave it to run out of supplies.

For example I tried it in my game with nearly 3900 AV to start with and all that happened is the fall date moved up to late feb and I had a whole lot of totally trashed divisions. 3X terrain is just ridiculous and gives the defender a massive advantage.


For example an attack in mid January. By the time I won Clark field the IJN AV was down to about 2500 and that was with far more troops than it looks like you are committing.

Ground combat at Clark Field (79,76)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 110903 troops, 1333 guns, 676 vehicles, Assault Value = 3606

Defending force 54316 troops, 940 guns, 921 vehicles, Assault Value = 1454

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 1

Japanese adjusted assault: 2112

Allied adjusted defense: 1780

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

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
8317 casualties reported
Squads: 48 destroyed, 435 disabled
Non Combat: 26 destroyed, 228 disabled
Engineers: 4 destroyed, 60 disabled
Vehicles lost 98 (18 destroyed, 80 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
2435 casualties reported
Squads: 85 destroyed, 186 disabled
Non Combat: 46 destroyed, 165 disabled
Engineers: 6 destroyed, 51 disabled
Vehicles lost 60 (8 destroyed, 52 disabled)

[princep01]

Just a thought, but aren't you attacking ina cold zomne in the dead of winter? I don't know the specific penalty for that, if any, but it would make a lot of sense if there was a major adjustment to his AV while in a relatively warm base, while your LYBs are dragging their butts thru 6 feet of snow and thus incurring a sizable decline in AV.

As to moving the "reseve BBs/CAs around and looking for trouble, I would reframe from it for a number of reasons. First, you are burning fuel...unless you have a real objective, that is NEVER a good idea. Second, losing a BB or CA is an irreplaceable loss. The Allies on the other hand can lose two of each and still come out ahead. So, again, without a specific objective in mind, this is a fools-errand.

Concentrating troops on Luzon to hasten the fall of Clark Field.....yeah, no objection here except a caveat.....you have to get them there by sea and that portion of the sea is full of subs right now. There is also the possibility of surface forces intervening. Sooooooo, I would not short that TF of escorts and maybe even a covering combat TF.[:)]

[AcePylut]

I believe that support squads are counted as 1/10'th of a normal squad - which would explain why a zero av had "some" assalt value.