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

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

I have some really big transport capable of lifting 10000. Thats the biggest I have seem. How do I check what is needed for the 40mm M1 Bofors?

LOL - I was editing my post as you were posting your reply - I don't know how you check if it will fit as the editor does not have enough info. If there is some background "dimension check" the only way to find out would be to try various aircraft and see what works, or have someone who really knows this game respond! [:)]
If the gun is in a port, I would consider using an APD to lift it. APDs can take about 30 tons, as I recall.

[JocMeister]

Its in China... [:(]

I´ll try a post in the war room! But thank you anyway! [:)]

[JocMeister]

I was up at 5 this morning to watch the replay. I hate this game sometimes! [:)]

I had ordered another attack at PM and was very anxious about it. Turns out I was right to be...no forts dropped this time either. Is it because I´m not shock attacking or just bad luck?

Ground combat at Port Moresby (98,130)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 22105 troops, 442 guns, 476 vehicles, Assault Value = 947

Defending force 23113 troops, 207 guns, 73 vehicles, Assault Value = 806

Allied adjusted assault: 373

Japanese adjusted defense: 1043

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 5)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), fatigue(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1011 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 69 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 15 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled
Guns lost 15 (1 destroyed, 14 disabled)
Vehicles lost 4 (1 destroyed, 3 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
1916 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 236 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 46 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 15 disabled
Guns lost 47 (3 destroyed, 44 disabled)
Vehicles lost 85 (8 destroyed, 77 disabled)


Assaulting units:
1st Marine Division
754th Tank Battalion
25th Infantry Division
102nd Combat Engineer Regiment
1st USMC Tank Battalion
I US Amphib Corps /1

Defending units:
14th Garrison Unit
47th Engr Rgt /1
6th Garrison Unit
22nd Division
91st Infantry Rgt /1
30th Fld AA Gun Co
16th AA Regiment
31st Fld AA Gun Co
22nd JNAF AF Unit
6th Shipping Engr Rgt /1

One of the tank battalion are trashed and will probably have to be withdrawn. Only positive thing is that Eriks adjusted assault has went from 2600 to 1050 in just a week despite flying in 3 more RGT.

What next?

Some questions
If I reinforce using troops not prepped for PM what kind of disablements would I be looking at? Would they be combat ineffective for weeks and weeks after the landing?
Would it help to bring the Command HQ to PM?
Should I switch to bombardement attacks for a while or will that stop recovery of my troops?
Any other ideas?

Off to work...

[BBfanboy]

I'm often up that early - not because I want to be![:(] Seems I need to have a bathroom break around then and often cannot get back to sleep - so I hit the game or the forum until the newspaper arrives.
Re: the assault/forts: Level 5 forts are very tough - probably using concrete at that level. With the terrain advantage as well, you won't have much success until your assault gets about a 4:1 on him. Drain his supplies and raise his fatigue with bombing and bombardment, and Deliberate Attack when your troops are clear of most fatigue/disruption. I think a shock attack against that kind of fortification would be disasterous. SA is for a weakened enemy with little fortification and poor supply, or on the move and not in forts.

EDIT: Also be aware that the track over the mountains from Buna can move a lot more supply and troops than most jungle hexes - it operates similar to a first class road! Some have made house rules against either player using this excessively, since it was a very difficult path IRL and should be difficult in the game.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

I'm often up that early - not because I want to be![:(] Seems I need to have a bathroom break around then and often cannot get back to sleep - so I hit the game or the forum until the newspaper arrives.
Re: the assault/forts: Level 5 forts are very tough - probably using concrete at that level. With the terrain advantage as well, you won't have much success until your assault gets about a 4:1 on him. Drain his supplies and raise his fatigue with bombing and bombardment, and Deliberate Attack when your troops are clear of most fatigue/disruption. I think a shock attack against that kind of fortification would be disasterous. SA is for a weakened enemy with little fortification and poor supply, or on the move and not in forts.

EDIT: Also be aware that the track over the mountains from Buna can move a lot more supply and troops than most jungle hexes - it operates similar to a first class road! Some have made house rules against either player using this excessively, since it was a very difficult path IRL and should be difficult in the game.

I have pretty much the same problem...but the baby girl instead of the bathroom break. And minus the quiet forum and game time... But I still love every second of it! [:)]

Thank you for the warning on shock attacking! Won´t do that! I don´t think Erik will hesitate to pump supply into Buna if that can feed PM. Not unless I ask him not to. But since I´m about to move some 500.000 men into Burma via the jungle I don´t think I should bring that up? [;)]

[JocMeister]

3-8th September -43

Port Moresby

To sum it up I have bombed the crap out of it for the last 5 days. My troops had rested up and I thought I would be good to go. As seen in the combat report two posts up it didn´t go very well. So now I will have to rest for another week before going again. Contrary to my belief I quiet easily wrestled almost complete air superiority over PM. I struggled the first two days using LRCAP with the P38s. Gave that up and set in my "go to guys" and their Corsairs on sweep. They just killed everything he had over PM. Zeroes, Jacks, Tojos and Georges. Tojos have actually caused me the biggest problems so far.

Erik has flown in a lot of troops but despite that I lowered his AV with almost 1500 in just over a week. Thats going in the right direction. I´m going to rest my bombers for a few days. I can easily keep the sweeps up using some of the 500(!) fighters I have at Portland Roads. This is going to be a drawn out affair. First I was annoyed by his reinforcing but I come to realise this is working in my favor. I can fight his troops within range of 3 level 9 airfields and 1 level 8. I will never get such a good opportunity to fight his troops again. I have complete control of the area around PM.

The plan for the coming week
I will continue to try and dominate the airspace above PM. I will not let the AF heal up. I don´t want to give him the advantage of CAP. I have three divisions in reserve. This will start moving into position. I will lift them one by one using massive amount of APA/AKAs to ensure I can unload by night and get back before sunup.

I will invade Terapo using the 1st Cavalry. He has only 3000 troops there and using bombardments by sea and 500 bombers from the air should ensure I can capture the base quickly. I can also LRCAP from Horn Island only 6 hexes away. ETA for this is unknown. I need to scramble up some engineers from SOPAC. That will take a while.

CENTPAC
Erik spotted my invasion fleet last turn. Only a ASW TF that got a 2/2 though so I don´t think he reacted on this. This turn he REALLY saw them though. My CVE TF got a 9/9 DL. I have no clue where the KB is so this is taking a huge calculated risk. I spotted some CVs two turns ago north of Darwin so if he is in the neighborhood its not the full KB. I actually have some 700 AC with me. All except 18 are Hellcats. If he shows up I might bleed him badly. He might also decide its not worth to risk the KB outside own LBA and for something as low value as Canton Island. I´ll just have to wait and see what he does. If he goes for my transports and I take out a huge chunk of his AC I might risk my CVs in a battle. I thought I would be more worried about this than I am. But I have nothing vital in the TFs except the CVs. CENTPAC is irrelevant at this stage anyway. Worst case I loose some CVEs, APs and some cruisers and DDs.

BURMA

Still waiting. Had some issues transferring out two bought out chinese corps. Apparently the 40mm bofors gun arn´t transportable by air. So I had a huge fragment of a corps in India lacking two bofors guns in China. I have no clue what happened but this turn the fragment had changed place so the fragment part is now in China. Sweet! I can now take replacements! Thats another 3000 AV in Burma in 3-4 months. Mowhaha! [:D]

OZ

Troops started moving for Exmouth.

SOPAC
Started shifting troops to OZ. Need engineers for PM. Should have done this a long time ago. Stupid. Three more days and I will have another 4 fast BBs ready close to PM. Sweet![:)]

I hope I can post a map of the PM area later tonight but the daughter is not having a good day! [:(]

[BBfanboy]

I read somewhere that when you are transferring parts of a unit, once the fragment gains half the support troops, it becomes the main unit and the remainder becomes the fragment.

Re: the Canton Island convoy you are not concerned about, aren't your ships loaded with troops? I know you have lots of shipping now but unrestricted troops are always in demand!

[ny59giants]

Port Moresby - Winning the battle requires you slow down his reinforcement efforts. Thus, some air units need to be LRCAP over PM to shoot down transport planes (not many, but some). Second, is prevent them from coming in by sea. Is he trying to or do you suspect he will try?? Third, prevent supplies from getting there and destroy any there. As a part-time Japanese player that is playing Scenario 2, I'm always juggling supply needs at various bases even with the extra economic assets. So, they need to come from Buna (across the Stanley Mtns), shipping, and/or transport planes. Destroy his supplies by bombing the AF and occasion Bombardment (BB) TF to directly hit the base and hit his AF at Buna. If you suspect him trying to send in a SC TF to hit any reinforcement efforts at PM, try to send your own SC TF two or three hexes south of PM to intervene while your transports unload at night.

Terapo sounds like a good idea to give him multiple places to be concerned about.

Mines - Any possibility of mining Milne Bay and the other sea approach that is to the SE of that base??

[JocMeister]

No time for an update tonight.

Canton Island invasion was turned around after some movement fubar. No idea what happened but they only moved 2 hexes and the BB TF 1!?

Michael,

I´m seeing things a little bit different than you. That worries me! [:D]

I´m actually happy with his reinforcing. He is stripping the rest of the SOPAC area bringing his troops to me without their heavy equipment. As I see it this could very well be his Stalingrad in the area. I´m going to try and cut him off at PM and bag 30.000 combat troops! Thats probably a quarter of what he has in the whole SOPAC region. I´m actually not stopping him flying in troops on purpose.

I´m going to bring in the Milne Bay divisions together with two of the three divisions in the strategic reserve. Thats four divisions in total. I´m also going to bring in 2 more engineer regiments and 4 more tank battalions. Oh, and 6 arty units! That should be enough to deal with PM, Milne and Buna and then start moving east towards Rabaul.

I have another 4 BB arriving shortly to make sure I have complete control of the sea around PM. That will bring the total up to 7BBs, 6 CAs 6 CLs.

Please, please tell me if I´m being an idiot again!

[ny59giants]

Please, please tell me if I´m being an idiot again!

I usually don't get down into the tactical advice on the aspects of somebody else's game. I just want you to be aware of various things that can be easily overlooked and they can have dire consequences. If you feel its OK for him to bring in more troops, that is your judgement and you have a better feel of your game and your opponent than I do.

Good Luck!!

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Please, please tell me if I´m being an idiot again!

I usually don't get down into the tactical advice on the aspects of somebody else's game. I just want you to be aware of various things that can be easily overlooked and they can have dire consequences. If you feel its OK for him to bring in more troops, that is your judgement and you have a better feel of your game and your opponent than I do.

Good Luck!!

Haha, are you telling me to use MY judgement? Have you already forgotten what my turn looked like? [;)]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Please, please tell me if I´m being an idiot again!

I usually don't get down into the tactical advice on the aspects of somebody else's game. I just want you to be aware of various things that can be easily overlooked and they can have dire consequences. If you feel its OK for him to bring in more troops, that is your judgement and you have a better feel of your game and your opponent than I do.

Good Luck!!

Haha, are you telling me to use MY judgement? Have you already forgotten what my turn looked like? [;)]

[:D]
Seems to me he is saying - "Don't get me connected with your failures - you wear that yourself!" [;)]
Anyway - I have no street cred to risk, so I will volunteer that I think you have a nice, Stalin-like strategy going and I hope you have contracted a clean-up company to clean up the goo after you squash his units.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Seems to me he is saying - "Don't get me connected with your failures - you wear that yourself!" [;)]
Anyway - I have no street cred to risk, so I will volunteer that I think you have a nice, Stalin-like strategy going and I hope you have contracted a clean-up company to clean up the goo after you squash his units.

Haha, Thank you for the confidence boost! I ordered a DA at Terapo this turn. Fingers crossed. I REALLY need that base. I will try and do a proper update tomorrow but here is the short version:

He has 81 AV. 1 SNLF, 1 road construction unit and parts of a Navguard unit.

I have 380 AV with the best leader I could find. Only the 1st Cavalry. No tanks, no engineers no nothing.

I ordered all bombers to attack the troops tomorrow. Some 200 2Es and 300 4Es. I hope they can tip the balance...Not feeling very optimistic after PM.

Very, very important turn. If I have to bring in extra troops this can take a month.

[BBfanboy]

Forts might be the fly in the ointment, because you have no engineers to bring them down. However, IF all those bombers fly the SNLF should be heavily disrupted. Good luck.

[JocMeister]

Oh, how this little bundle of poo, puke and scream eat away at the small amount of spare time I get. I was just able to send Erik the turn. Four hours after I got home! [>:]

No time for any updates today either I´m afraid. But the Terapo attack went way better then expected! [:)]

Tomorrow I´ll be home all day studying. I hope that will give me time to a proper update with some maps and stuff!

Ground combat at Terapo (96,127)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 8769 troops, 106 guns, 167 vehicles, Assault Value = 389

Defending force 2104 troops, 22 guns, 4 vehicles, Assault Value = 72

Allied adjusted assault: 191

Japanese adjusted defense: 41

Allied assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 4)

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 3

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(-), disruption(-), fatigue(-)
experience(-)
Attacker: leaders(+), leaders(-)

Japanese ground losses:
617 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 40 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 6 disabled
Guns lost 13 (1 destroyed, 12 disabled)
Vehicles lost 2 (1 destroyed, 1 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
19 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled


Assaulting units:
1st Cavalry (Spec) Cavalry Division

Defending units:
Maizuru 1st SNLF
I/84th Naval Guard Unit
51st Road Const Co

[BBfanboy]

I see that unit did have some engineers and they managed to drop the forts a level - very good! LRCAP if you can to prevent air transport - I see he has a partial Naval Guard unit there already that may have been air lifted.

[JocMeister]

Yeah! Not many but they seemed to do the job! With some luck I can take the base next turn. Then it will be a matter of piling on so many engineers I can expand the base and keep the AF open. Should be doable! I think I can actually put a thousand engineers in the base if needed...[:D]

[JocMeister]

Updated to the latest BETA after Erik had an epiphany that this had to be done immediately because of the recon thing. No idea what triggered this but it instantly brought the game to a screeching halt.

Either I missed something and the double aviation support was removed for large airfields or its yet another bug. I´m not getting double AS obviosly. Right now i´m about 400 AS short in India which is a disaster with my offensive looming.

So if its a bug we wait for a fix. If its not I´m going to ask Erik that we revert back to the official until I can shuffle around the AS needed. These technical issues are really tiresome. I have so little spare time these days and spending them solving stuff like this is just tiresome. I knew it was a bad idea updating. Last time I will update to a BETA.

[JocMeister]

I just sent Erik an email more or less asking to go back to the official patch. The BETA is making me feel really uncomfortable and I´m constantly worrying I´m doing everything in vain. Last time we had to go back something like 5 turns. That 10 hours of spare time invested in vain. I´m not willing to pay that price with the current situation at home.

When Erik asked me to upgrade in the middle of the biggest allied commitment yet I was wary but I said okay because he really thought it was important all of the sudden. I´m starting to regret I agreed to that. I should have asked him to wait until things settled down a bit.

If he feels adamant about the upgrade I will have to consider playing on or asking to put the game on hold for a while to let all the constant issues and bugs in the BETA to become ironed out.

Waiting for Eriks response.

[JocMeister]

We reverted back to the official patch. I´m very thankful and relieved Erik immediately redid the turn using the official patch without hesitation. At times like this I´m really thankful I have been blessed with such honorable opponent for my first PBEM!

So when you read this in a year or two Erik. Thank you! [:)]