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

[JocMeister]

Wow, thats really nice Michael! [:)]

[Cpt Sherwood]

Michael, why don't you have them filled up? Or is that an old screen picture?

[JocMeister]

Speaking of AA in the main forum reminded me I forgot to show something! [:D] I have two of them on Luzon guarding 2 of the AFs. I really, really hope Erik tries something so I can see what these things can do!

[ny59giants]

Japanese aircraft are toast if they try to bomb below 10k with that flak. [:D]

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: witpqs

I don't have anywhere near that many! Never been hurting for them after I got through the initial 'caught flat-footed' phase at the beginning of the game, though.

Many of the arriving fighter squadrons come with 50/50/50 pilots so it only take 2-3 weeks to train them up so thats a big reason the pools havn´t dropped that much. Its going to be the planes that is the limit and not the pilots. So I really messed up my training program. I think most likely 600-800 pilots would be enough in the pool if they are well trained. I think I have around that number of 70/70/70 pilots in the pool. I´m never going to use the 50/70/70 pilots I have so they would have been a lot better used as bomber pilots.

Lesson learned!

Then you can pull those 50/70/70 pilots into bomber training groups and they should train up pretty quickly in ground bombing.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Speaking of AA in the main forum reminded me I forgot to show something! [:D] I have two of them on Luzon guarding 2 of the AFs. I really, really hope Erik tries something so I can see what these things can do!

Now that's just showing off! [:)]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Speaking of AA in the main forum reminded me I forgot to show something! [:D] I have two of them on Luzon guarding 2 of the AFs. I really, really hope Erik tries something so I can see what these things can do!

Now that's just showing off! [:)]

A little bit perhaps! [;)]

If you havn´t bought out those huge AA BDEs make sure you do! There are three of them. One in Colombo and two in NZ. They cost like 3 PPs when they arrive and fill out to that! [:)]

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Speaking of AA in the main forum reminded me I forgot to show something! [:D] I have two of them on Luzon guarding 2 of the AFs. I really, really hope Erik tries something so I can see what these things can do!

Now that's just showing off! [:)]

A little bit perhaps! [;)]

If you havn´t bought out those huge AA BDEs make sure you do! There are three of them. One in Colombo and two in NZ. They cost like 3 PPs when they arrive and fill out to that! [:)]

Shame on you for giving him ideas! Those things look nasty. Like, diseased. I don't want any part of them.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58




Now that's just showing off! [:)]

A little bit perhaps! [;)]

If you havn´t bought out those huge AA BDEs make sure you do! There are three of them. One in Colombo and two in NZ. They cost like 3 PPs when they arrive and fill out to that! [:)]

Shame on you for giving him ideas! Those things look nasty. Like, diseased. I don't want any part of them.

96 40mm emplacements going off at once. Ear-plugs please . . .

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Battle of Siam Gulf[/font]
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So, Erik did leave Bangkok. I did not expect him to drop the troops off on the west coast of Thailand though. I guess he didn´t have much choice. He has already unloaded a big chunk of troops (20k at Kompong and 8k at the other base). So we move in the CVs and try to sink as much as possible while they are at sea.

Here is a screen of the situation. Erik is feeling a bit rough tonight so he asked me to hold on to the turn until tomorrow. So I havn´t sent it back yet. If I have missed anything obvious or you see something I didn´t think of let me know because I can still fix it! [:D]

[Bullwinkle58]

The obvious question is where do they go?

He could march to Saigon and re-board ships, but you have sea control, and he probably doesn't want them to end up on an island anywhere. If not, they should stay on land.

So they move to the nearest railhead? Probably. And they need to run the loop around south and to the north. If you can get over to the eastern side of Indo-China with some fast units you can cut the RR around north of Hue and he's got a nice little problem again.

[ny59giants]

I have to concur here. You need to get over and cut him off from escaping through Vietnam.

[JocMeister]

I havn´t gotten the AAR up for it. But the river crossing meant to cut the rail south of Vinh failed pretty badly. My armor got a 1:1 in the crossing but took pretty heavy damage in the process. [:(] The infantry are still 2 weeks behind so if Erik has learned the lesson from Bangkok he will rail everything out any day now.

This is one of the reasons I´m doing whatever I can to wreck as many troops as possible still on the ships. I do have a 3 ID US corps just 4 days from the landing site. So if I can kill enough troops on the ships I should be able to deal with the rest using the Corps. I let the troops rest this turn (45 FAT) to see what tomorrow brings. Have to be careful so I don´t get cut off by some of the 80k troops at Saigon.

I will secure Bangkok tomorrow though. Thats a level 9 AF easily within range of the clear hexes his troops has to transit. Clear hexes = Japanese bad dream.

[JocMeister]

Ouff, Now the turn is away. I really don´t want that 3000 AV to escape and set up a new MLR in China. If Erik pulls this off its a brilliant move. Then again. The only difference between brilliance and stupidity is if you succeed or not. If it doesn´t work out he has given away 3000 AV and Bangkok. He might have given away the airspace over Luzon too in the process...

This turn will decide if it was brilliant or stupid! But damn its a nice move. Hats off to him. [&o]

[Powloon]

Looks like your opponent is defending the river line into Vietnam. Have you any forces near Udon as the hex to the north east is in clear terrain which might be a good way to avoid a pianfull river crossing and cut the rail line out of Indo-China?

I would question why you are sending your subs into the teeth of his ASW force why not deploy them as a barrier from Cam Rahn Bay south (deep water hexes) to intercept (hopefully) any move by KB west towards you and intercept any merchants trying to flee east. From what I have read on the forum subs perform better if operating under there own air search do you have any patrol planes flying over the South China Sea?

It has been very informative to see how you basically have used manouver to force your opponent from a potential strongpoint at Bangkok and with it I think the rest of Indo-China will not be far behind.

Anyway good luck!!

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Powloon

Looks like your opponent is defending the river line into Vietnam. Have you any forces near Udon as the hex to the north east is in clear terrain which might be a good way to avoid a pianfull river crossing and cut the rail line out of Indo-China?

I would question why you are sending your subs into the teeth of his ASW force why not deploy them as a barrier from Cam Rahn Bay south (deep water hexes) to intercept (hopefully) any move by KB west towards you and intercept any merchants trying to flee east. From what I have read on the forum subs perform better if operating under there own air search do you have any patrol planes flying over the South China Sea?

It has been very informative to see how you basically have used manouver to force your opponent from a potential strongpoint at Bangkok and with it I think the rest of Indo-China will not be far behind.

Anyway good luck!!

The area that the KB will transit are already under ASW air from IndoChina. If I place the subs there I´m going to lose 2-5 per day. So I might as well go straight for KB hoping to get a lucky shot in. At least they are moving. They will all get slammed with a 10/10 DL tomorrow when ASW from the PI and Indochina will see them.

I have troops around Ubon. But not enough. They main allied force is further to the North around Udon Thani. That advance he simply cannot stop as its 6000 AV. But the problem is I won´t get there in time. The armor raised ahead to force the crossing but failed. The infantry simply moves too slow. Only the armor had any hope to cut the line really. So the forces at Saigon will get away. My only hope now is to stop the Bangkok forces!

Its exiting but I´m a bit disappointed in myself. I made a couple of mistakes. I should have moved earlier and not waited for the main army. If I had done that the infantry would only have been 2-3 days out instead of 2 weeks!

Next time perhaps! [:)]

[Powloon]

One more newbie thought I promise [:)] Is it possible to air drop mines outside of base hexes? If so would it be worth mining the coastal hexes between Saigon and Cam Rahn Bay and possibly between Lombong Trach and Saigon as it is my guess when he moves his ships he will be using the Coastal movement setting?

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]6th Jan -45[/font]
______________________________________________________________________________

While the main show has already been shown there were some other stuff happening.

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Luzon
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Troops are recovering faster than anticipated. Might only need a week to recover instead of two. The raw AV before the attack was 5885:3399. Its now 5089:2955 So its went from 1,73 to 1,72 after the first attack against level 7 forts. Thats actually a fantastic result. [X(]

Might just keep going here.

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Indochina
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Well, sadly the armoured river crossing failed. Very disappointed by this as I was pretty sure of success. [:(]

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Ground combat at 64,60 (near Vinh)

Allied Shock attack (River crossing)

Attacking force 9350 troops, 54 guns, 950 vehicles, Assault Value = 690

Defending force 11822 troops, 31 guns, 204 vehicles, Assault Value = 463

Allied adjusted assault: 396

Japanese adjusted defense: 381

Allied assault odds: 1 to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
516 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 14 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 27 destroyed, 4 disabled
Vehicles lost 19 (7 destroyed, 12 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
819 casualties reported
Squads: 44 destroyed, 47 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 19 disabled
Engineers: 6 destroyed, 3 disabled
Guns lost 20 (10 destroyed, 10 disabled)
Vehicles lost 79 (22 destroyed, 57 disabled)

Assaulting units:
255th Indian Tank Brigade
254th Armoured Brigade
50th Tank Brigade
18th Cavalry Regiment

Defending units:
27th Electric Engineer Regiment
13th Ind.Infantry Brigade
12th Tank Regiment
65th Brigade
176th JAAF AF Bn /3

Absolutely no chance of any additional attacks for a while. The troops lack support and are in the 60-90! [X(] disruption range. Fatigue is also really bad. So they are burnt for now.

As I said earlier this will let Eriks forces at Saigon get away. I must hang around a bit longer though or his Bangkok troops will be cut off again. But my Infantry is simply too far away. Frustrating!

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Thailand
------------------------
Lots of preparing for the battle here. For once I planned ahead and flew in AS as soon as I captured any base. But I didn´t get too much in. 250 AS in total I think. So many planes are flying long distance from Tavoy.

I also flew in every available VRF group to Thailand from Mindanao/Luzon. If things go badly tomorrow I should be able to replenish most if not all the losses. I also flew in all squadrons from the lost CVs. So I basically can switch out 6 entire deckloads of CV planes tomorrow if needed.

A very strong Indian division that just entered stat mode will be ready to move down towards Saigon as soon as the Bangkok hex is opened.

Bangkok will be secured tomorrow. Thats a blessing as a level 9 AF might prove invaluable in the coming days when Eriks troops try for Saigon. He might have been better off leaving 1000 AV at Bangkok just to deny me the AF for a couple of days more.

Ground combat at Bangkok (56,62)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 2987 troops, 38 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2760

Defending force 744 troops, 3 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1

Assaulting units:
1st New Chinese Corps
5th Chinese Corps
16th Chindit Brigade
6th Chinese Corps

Defending units:
11th Shipping Engineer Regiment

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South China Sea
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The trap is almost set for the KB and the BB fleet. If Erik moves in to the South China sea will move NW with the CVEs and try and cut him off from the retreat. I´m confident both fleets can deal with the KB independently. If he does move in any ship damaged will be a lost one. I don´t think he will do that though. He is going to wait until he can fly from multiple level 9 AFs with everything he got. In the current situation all bases he can fly from are also susceptible to naval bombardments. But Erik has done some crazy stuff before that I completely ruled out so I´ll wait and see. [:)]

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Strat Bombing
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We went for Tokyo again. Complete disaster as there were Thunderstorm and not one bomb dropped on Target. [:(] This is impossible to foresee as we play with "Advanced weather OFF". So I will just have to live with it. Only positive was that I "only" lost 13 B29s. [:(] Thats a week worth of replacement and another 13 top notch pilots lost for nothing. Crap. [:(]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Powloon

One more newbie thought I promise [:)] Is it possible to air drop mines outside of base hexes? If so would it be worth mining the coastal hexes between Saigon and Cam Rahn Bay and possibly between Lombong Trach and Saigon as it is my guess when he moves his ships he will be using the Coastal movement setting?

I don´t mind any thought. On the contrary! [:)]

Thats actually a good idea if it could be done. But aerial mining is done via the "city attack" menu so it can only be done against bases. [:)]

[JocMeister]

Aarrgh. Erik was going to send the replay back instantly. Been 45 minutes now. Don´t know if that is good or bad!

*pacing*