This is another unholy mess, partly due to historical considerations, partly my own stupidity. In the latter category was was inglorious death of the Moulmein garrison, which died because I did not expect Faber to move so fast up the road from Raheng. Before I knew it, he had cut the road where it splits towards Moulmein and Rangoon and that was all she wrote. Immediately after that, I ordered all my Rangoon units out to Mandalay, leaving copious amounts of fuel and supplies for Faber to ingest. To quote Terminus "Silly cartoon character...".
On the bright side, both the Rangoon and the Tang Gui units executed a sucessfull retreat to Mandalay. However, given the state of Mandalay's defenses, I decided it was not wise to make a fight of it there. The infantry was sent marching again, and is now in the area of Mytkyna moving to Ledo. The only units left at Mandalay are 4 BFs and an air HQ which are keeping the planes flying. As for the planes, they are as follows:
3rd FS with 21 P-40Bs (PI refugees)
232 Squadron with 16 Huris (freshly arrived)
34 Squadron with 15 Blen IVs
60 and 62 Squadron with 12 and 16 Blen Is respectively (They cant quite reach Rangoon, which is what I'm bombing, but I hope to give Faber's infantry a good plastering once they get in range).
84 Squadron with 14 Wellington IIIs (at least half of which is always in the shop. I dont know what hurts them more, Faber's AA or the rough landings, the poor babies [8|]).
The only other planes in Burma are the two Dutch transport squadrons at Ledo. I'm keeping them there until I can upgrade them to something a bit more rangy so they can reach China.
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"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
India is, slowly but surely, gearing up for war. My biggest personal concerns in the area are the air assets. The current disposition is as follows:
DACCA:
AVG. Remember when I was very pissed of round post 51 or so? Now I can tell you the reason why. Faber had just started bombing Singers, which he hadn't done for the first few days of the war. His escorts tore the Buffalos to ribbons, so I decided to bring a littl help down and transferred the entire AVG to Singers. Airfield damage was in the mid 50s at that time. The same turn they transfer in, Faber hits Singers with a massive strike and closes the airfield. No CAP at all. Half of the AVG gets destroyed on the ground. [:@] A few days later, when airfield damage got below 100, I managed to transfew what was left of the Tigers out. This constituted about 25 planes and 50 pilots (how does that happen anyway? Do they sit in each other's laps? Gamey? Sure, but at least its gamey for both sides, so its fair.) Nowadays, the AVG is at 54 P-40Bs. At the rate they are produced, I'll get P-47s before I can fill the unit out again.
605 Squadron. Fresh from England. Was supposed to arrive with Huri's, but since I raided the stock to supply 2 Aussie squadrons, they came in with Mohawk IVs.
CALCUTA:
21 Squadron with 16 Huris. Freshly arrived.
453 RAAF. Converted to Huris a few turns ago.
34th FS (From the PI) with 24 Mohawks
W Flight. Still in Whirraways.
MADRAS:
GVT 1 with 3 Do24s
205 Squadron with 6 Catalina Is
TRINCOMALEE:
67 Squadron with 16 Buffalos
27 Squadron with 12 Blenheim IFs. These will be converting to Huris as soon as the British conversion block goes down. I never did see much point in night bombing, besides the bugs it causes (which may or may not have been squashed in the latest patches).
COLUMBO:
273 Squadron with 12 Vildebeests. Great planes, game-wise, but usless unless Faber decides to come to point blank range.
PANAJI:
24th FG. The only unit to make any sort of a decent showing in the PI. Their tally stands at 29 kills, which, I beleive, is the most of any Allied unit so far. Unfortunately, when I evacuated them from the PI, the best pilot, Lt. Gies, with 5 kills, got left behind. [:@] He will now spend the war in a POW cage, instead of making mince meat out of Zeros and Oscars. Fortunetely, the second best pilot at the time, Lt. Moore, with 4 kills, sucessfully made it to India. The group now stands at 50 P-40E. I expect to have it filled out completely in a month, unless I am forced to commit them top action.
KARACHI:
243 and 488 Squadrons with 16 Buffalos apeice. Both are Singaport survivors, I believe.
135 Squadron in Huris.
4th AACU, now at 11 Swordfish.
DELHI:
6th FS from the PI with 24 Mohawks.
My naval assets are nothing to write home about, partly because I did not bother to evacuate anything major from ABDA.
I now have:
CVL Hermes at Columbo (and no, she's not coming out until late '44).
BB Revenge, CAs Cornwall and Exeter, CLs Enterprise, Glasgow, and Dauntless, CLAAs Capetown, Ceres and Columbo at Trincomalee
the damaged Mauritus, at 24 sys, repairing at Columbo
and 5 DDs in the same place.
The CA Dorsetshire, CLAA Caledon and the DD Paladin are at Karachi.
The only ML to escape the DEI slaughter, Pro Patria, is busy laying mines around Ceylon.
My land assets are pretty pitiful. Aside from the understrength Indian units I started with, I have received only the 18th UK ID. It, and the armored units that start in Karachi, are moving overland to Asansol, where I will disburse them further.
In short, the best metaphor for india right now is a whorehouse. Faber can have anything he wants, as long as he's willing to pay the token sum. If he does try anything , I'm pretty certain I can give him a bloody nose. But past that, I am limited by my resources.
"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
I have to admit honestly that I never bothered much with China against the AI, so this entire theater is a bit of a mystery to me. Because of that, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Faber did some sort of and endaround and captured the entire place.
As it is, the war started with Faber moving on Hong Kong. That fell within an expected time frame. Since then, he has made two moves, one on Yenen, and the other on Inchang.
Yenen seems to be holding steady. I broght south the group of units thats starts on the road north of it, as well as several units from Chungking.
Inchang was holding steady until two turns ago when its entrenchment strarted falling line the price of Enron stock.
At the moment, I am pondering a rather importaint question. The way Faber will move up from Inchang pretty much guarantees that he will cut me in two. My dillema is wether or not to retreat from Northern China, leaving him Lanchow, Kungchang, Yenen, Sian and Homan, or to keep my troops there and make him work for it. I doubt that I will be able to hold him for long by throwing up roadblocks. I'm not powerful enough. So I should be moving soon.
Other than that, there is not much to say here. There is a bomber unit flying shuttle missions from Kweilen. Doesnt do anything, but maybe they'll get experience. Earlier in the war he was bombing Changsha and cut up a few of my fighter units. Since then, he's abandoned that enterprise and switched to Yenen and Inchang.
At Inchang I have a fighter unit that had been nickel and diming his raids, but with little outward effect. A bit more on that later.
I dont have a lot of interest in this theater, frankly, so I doubt that I will ever do much with it. I will, of course, try to run a worthy defence, but other than that, I dont forsee any major offensives. I am also not a fan of basing LBA or Indochina fighter units here, as I consider that very gamey. I also dont see any way of getting enough supplies here from India to make any major impact. If anyone knows of a way, let me know.
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"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
A bit about upcoming reinforcements. I will keep this updated in the AAR, so let's begin with +4 days.
AIR
In the next 2 days, I should get the 7 RAAF Squadron in Brisbane, flying Beau V-IXs. I dont remember what HQ they come in with, but if theyre mobile, theyre going to the DEI.
I will also get a squadron of Lysanders, the 28th, at Hyderabad. (Woo-hoo [8|])
In 4 days I will also get another FG of Aircobras, the 35th. Thats going on a boat as soon as they get here, bound for the SWPac.
SHIPS
The HMS Nestor arrives in Karachi tomorow.
A day after that, I get the Hammann in SF and the O24 at Soerabaja (can nevr have enough of those).
In 3 days, I get the DDs Anderson and Packenham in SF and Karachi respectively.
In 4 day, the Royal Sovereign comes in, so the Revenge wont feel so lonely.
In these four days I will also receive 20 AKs, 21 TKs and an AP. All this in Frisco IIRC. I would really like more APs, as the AP rule is in effect and I am fast running out of lifing capacity.
LCUs
In 2 days, the 225 RAF arrives in Karachi and the 51st BF in SF.
In 4 days, the 221 RAF BF in Karachi.
"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
I will not post the Ships Sunk because it long and depressing and it never fits in one screenie. Suffice it to say that its a very distinguished list, headed by 9 of my BBs, 1 BC, a CA and 8 CLs. (Silly cartoon character, I hear him saying).
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"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
And finally, the Best Pilots list. A sad note is that of the top 24th FG pilots, Gies, K. Young and Sheppard are still in the PI. [:@]
I am also not posting this out of sheer interest. If you look at the best pilot you will note an interesting problem. While its always cool to see a Chinese pilot with that many kills, it seems that my Chinese friend has never flown a mission. Interesting, no?
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"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
Thanks for the comprehensive strategic picture. A lot of things make sense now!
Which map are you using? What do the coloured dots by some of the bases mean?
It's Subchaser's conversion of the stock map. The dots represent various facilities and resources in the area, i.e. shipyards, oil, resources, etc...
Very true. Sorry I didnt respond, GBL. I saw your post but figgured I'd answer it after I was done with the maps. But my internet quit.
I think the Subchaser map is the best one out there, not only because on the very handy symbols, but because he clarified the terrain to a good extent.
"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
Great Admiral FUBARUZUKI has some advice to share with you.....
Open your ears and rejoice:
Do not forget the Ability of the allies to move troops by air. This is very helpful in Malaya DEI. You have plenty of transports actually. ALL your patrol aircraft ARE transports. You can move several thousand troops a day. This can be useful to evacuate bypassed or isolated units.
This can also allow you to save some troops from Singapore before the end. You can evacuate base forces without ill effects to your combat capacity. This will also save you supplies.you can also take some brigades out to help defend India. The two Australian brigadescome to mind. You can make an airbridge from Northern Sumatra to Ceylon using PBY........
You can also fly in some Chinese divisions. Chinese have plenty of replacements with no use for then in China due to lack of supply...
Remember,dead heroes are just dead while living cowards may fight an other day. You have to balance between gaining some time and losing troops. Running away is not the best solution, neither is fighting to the death. You have to make your troops last as long as possible. You may delay the Penguins a few day more by standing to the last in a place but these troopswon't delay them anymore after that.......
Air transport is definitely an idea, and I would use it in many other situations, but not Singapore. The reason is I think its gamey. Consider this. Faber is putting in enough effort to have kept the Singers airfield at 100 damage for some thing like 4 days now. Would you expect something as big and lumbering as a Catalina to make it through all that?
As long as I'm there, I think that sub transport is unrealistic too. But at least I can argue my way out of that. I think its entirely plausible that I would be able to use subs to evacuate the personel of a unit and leave all the equipment. However, since the game gives me no such option, I assume that a sub can carry an entire artillery peice and move on.
"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
Leaving Northern China because you lost Ichang will be a very bad idea. In fact Sining, Lanchow and Kungchang are one of your main supply production area and may well supply themselves better than the rest of China. And you have a lot of troops having 100% prep for homan and Yenen that will fight better there than elsewhere.
And any unit destroyed in this area will be recreated in Chungking so I won't retreat. But I will prepare the defence of Chungking. Bring back as much troops as you can from SW China (the Indochina border not the Wuchow - Kweilin area).
If your opponent is moving north from Ichang and then west to Chungking, my best advice would be to let him advance and then attack his rear with troops coming from Sian and Homan.
1/9/42
Wow. I just got some very dishartning news. It seems that the IJA 2nd ID is already aboard ship and set to sail for Batavia. I thought the little flightless Napoleon would wait a little longer. I am scrambling all my transports and moving them out. Too bad that Faber will get a lot of fuel when Batavia falls. I was looking around for some more bombers to send to Batavia, and there are none. At Soerabaja there are 3 units, one with 1 plane and 2 with 2. Not much help there and I dont want to have them destroyed completely. The Aussie Beau unit wont get there for a few more days yet.
Bad news also travels in bunches. I have lost another level of forts at Johore, now down to 3 and 86%. Seems that the end will come sooner that I expected. It cost him 1500 guys to do it, but he's bringing those forts down fast. Fabers bombers plastered Johore today. I think its that, coupled with unit fatigue thats killing me.
A Japanese unit has been spotted at Tang Gui so my Mandalay bombers have been redirected to ground attack it. The Blen Is will get in on the action too. It looks like I'll have to clear Mandalay out next turn or the one after. I hope to do it cleanly, not leaving any damaged planes.
A bit of good news, hard as it is to come by these days. Seems I was right about that transport TF in the PNG. It started unloading at Gasmata today. But not before my Hudsons planted 2 bombs apeice into 2 APs. If he keeps this up, he'll be out of working APs by Christmas.
In other news...
The Snapper missed the "heavily damaged" Shiratsuyu and the Truant missed a fat, juicy AP. Both of these were East of Malaya.
The 7th BG hit Lautem with 14 planes. There are 35 effectives in the group, but 14 fly. Damned crybabies. [:@] On the plus side, that cost Faber 2 guns and 80 people. I dont know how Faber feels about it, but I'm pretty certain that the 2nd Kure SNLF isnt happy about being there.
Meanwhile, Faber's bombers from Jolo hit Cagayan, destroying a Catalina. In return, my 17s hit Jolo and detroyed a Betty and an Oscar. This in itself is not very important, but what makes me note it is that either my guys are getting good at this or that place is just chock full of aircraft (why would it be, its a backwater?).
Other than that, a few fruitless attacks by the DAF on his battleships at Palembang and the usual air raids in China, thats all.
Batavia is my primary focus for tomorow. If he lands, everything that can move is leaving. Hopefully, I will have a turn when my bombers can get a good whack at his transports. But I'm not holding my breath.
"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
Leaving Northern China because you lost Ichang will be a very bad idea. In fact Sining, Lanchow and Kungchang are one of your main supply production area and may well supply themselves better than the rest of China. And you have a lot of troops having 100% prep for homan and Yenen that will fight better there than elsewhere.
And any unit destroyed in this area will be recreated in Chungking so I won't retreat. But I will prepare the defence of Chungking. Bring back as much troops as you can from SW China (the Indochina border not the Wuchow - Kweilin area).
If your opponent is moving north from Ichang and then west to Chungking, my best advice would be to let him advance and then attack his rear with troops coming from Sian and Homan.
Thank you for the advice. I think that is what I will do. My other consideration what that I wouldnt make it out before he closed the road. So thats two strikes against the idea.
"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
1/10/42
My intel services are amazing! Today I found out that Combined Fleet HQ is located in Kure. Tom Cruise and the rest of the MI: Beautiful People Assasination Squad have been placed on immediate alert status. Sire hope that Japanese intel isnt good enough to tell them that the President of the US is located in Washington.
I sortied all the remaining trasports out of Java today. The transports I moved from Batavia yesterday got hit by Nells, badly hurting 3 of them and sinking the USS Barker, which was damaged during Force Z's last action. The only ship left in the DEI is a damaged Dutch sub at Soerabaja that will be departing for Darwin as soon as its flotation damage is fixed.
The Hyuga and Yamashiro paid Kagayuan a visit today. I'm talking this as a strong suggestion to leave. The 17C and VP-101, which has been reduced to 3 operational aircraft, have transferred to India.
5th BG has completed assembly and was transferred to Darwin to relieve the flagging 7th, which at 35 effectives put up only 10 for the strike on Lautem. After a brief rest, the 7th will be moving on to Soerabaja.
The PM Hudsons caught Faber's transport TF again, this time empty, and put 2 more bombs into an already damaged AP and 2 more into a PG. At the same time, the SNLF he landed at Gasmata has taken the place.
Johore has withsood yet another assault today. For a loss of 425 of my men, I am reported to have killed over a 1700 penguins, destroyed almost 50 guns and 2 vehicles. Fort level stands at 3.
As expected, Faber took Tang Gui with a full division today. Unfortunately, Mandalay was under heavy cloud cover and the strike did not fly. By my calculations, I have 3 days to clear out before the division gets to Mandalay. I have sent the Air HQ and 2 of the BFs marching already, leaving 2 more to clean up the damaged aircraft prior to leaving.
In China I am taking Adm. Laurent's advice and will keep the Northern Group in place, with one amendment. I am retreating from Homan to Sian. This will allow me to block Faber from easy access to the north. Meanwhile, troops are coming up to Chunking from Kunming and Yunan.
The USS Gato arived in PH today, and after taking on provisions will be on her way to the coast of Japan.
The 225th AV has arived in Karachi and was given its orders for an overland march to Dacca. I can really use the a/c support there.
"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
Yesterday my Catalinas flying out of PM spotted a force of Japanese cruisers seeming on its way to round the tip of New Guinea at Gili Gili. The pilots of a Hudson strike later identified these ships as the Aoba, Kinugasa and Kako. This presents me with an interesting dilemma. I do know that these are the same ships that bombarded Rabaul prior to the landing there. There do not seem to be any escorts with the CAs. I have reason to believe that these are the only heavy units Faber has in the area.
Now, then, the question I am now faced with. What is Faber up to? This could be a major thrust aimed at capturing Port Moresby. I have not seen his light carriers in quite a while, since they got done striking at the shipping escaping the PI. It would not be outside the realm of possibility that these units are now covering an invasion force headed for PM. These cruisers could simply be a recon in force, aimed to probe my defenses and see what sort of response he can draw from my LBA, either before he commits to an invasion attempt or to draw the LBA off the transports. In a worst case scenario, he has brought the entire or some part of the KB down as well as I have lost sight of it north of the Hawaiian Islands some time ago.
On the other hand, an invasion seems rather unlikely. For one, I have to wonder where he would get the necessary forces from. The only major force in the area so far, the South Seas Detachment, has just participated in the taking of Rabaul and is surely in no shape to be thrown at Moresby. It is not outside the realm of possibility that Faber has brought another significant force in from somewhere else, but that also seems rather unlikely. He has just completed additional landings on Luzon and something also seems to be in the offing for Mindanao. That would seem to account for the forces on Yap (was it?). The myriad of NLFs that start the war on Truk would probably be too light to capture PM. Faber has a lot of forces engaged in the DEI, Malaya and Burma. Unless he's borrowed a Home Defense unit I fail to see where a sufficiently powerful force would come from. Another thought is that while I did lose sight of the KB, I dont think that it has had sufficient time to travel from north of Hawaii to the South Pacific. At least 4 BB/BCs are in the DEI, two more around Mindanao and 2 more with the KB (I doubt he changed its composition on turn 1). Finally, given this force disposition, the possibility of my carriers being in the South Pacific has certainly occurred to Faber. I seriously doubt that he would commit himself to a full on lunge at PM without adequate cover.
Because of the above considerations, I have come to the conclusion that this cruiser force is either a) a rather rash probe on Faber's part or b) a cold blooded reconnaissance in force which he is aware might lead to the loss of all 3 ships. I am leaning towards the latter. Based on this, and within my force constraints, I have taken the following actions.
1) TF 5 will move north at full speed but will remain significantly south of the Japanese force.
2) All available bomber forces have been sent to reinforce PM. The current airstength of PM is:
2/6, 2, 6, 13, and 14 RAAF squadrons combining for 30 operational Hudsons plus several more in repair. 7 RAAF squadron with 16 Beaus, 4 Whirraways and the VP.
3) TF 4, consisting of The Indianapolis (flag), Louisville, Pensacola, Canberra, Marblehead and 6 DDs will move from Derby to the area west of PM.
The battle plan as I currently envision it. IJN cruisers will take at least 2 days to reach PM. During that time they will be attacked by the PM air. While I dont have much hope for the Hudsons causing any serious damage, it is possible that the Beauforts will be able to land at least one torpedo. By this juncture, TF 5 will arrive at its designated position south of PNG. The Japanese CAs will be caught between it and the PNG coast. In the event that there is an invasion force following the cruisers, that force will then be rounding Gili Gili, in perfect position to be attacked by my carriers. In case there are carriers accompanying this force, it will also become apparent by then. One of the plus sides to this disposition is that I expect to be able to disengage my carriers should an overwhelming carrier force be spotted.
In the next 3-4 days one of the following will occur:
1) If the cruisers are indeed alone, I will corner them south of PM, close to TBD range and either sink or seriously damage all 3 ships.
2) If there is an unsupported or lightly supported invasion force, I will catch it in the area of Gili Gili and damage it/drive it off.
3) If there is a heavily supported invasion, I will disengage my carriers and will be forced to let Faber have PM.
There is also a fourth possibility, that this force is headed for Gili Gili. While I think this is highly unlikely, I will not engage it with my carriers and thus avoid betraying their presence to the enemy. He can have Gili if he wants to. All he will accomplish by taking it is to give my OZ based LBA a bombing target for the future. Ultimately, he will not be able to keep it supplied even in the near future.
TF 4 will be held back west of PM as a last ditch reserve in the event that a lightly supported force presses on past my carriers or in some other case in which I will be able to use it without risk of completely losing it.
"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
