Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, Docup(A)-Koniu(J)

[koniu]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: koniu
Only because most of allied player when find them selfs in situation Docup was late `43 early `44 just threw in the towel. Docup decide to continue game and here he deserve respect

I didn´t throw in the towel. [:)]

But I never suffered any big setbacks after 43 that Docup has though. I probably would have given up if I did. [X(]

As i say "most of allied players"[8D]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: koniu
As i say "most of allied players"[8D]

[:D]

[koniu]

Now about other stuff

In Thailand i have some units that where defending Saigon. I want to rebuild them in Japan but first they need to die. I have ordered therm to recapture Saigon.
Last turn they cross river and shock attack city. Loses where heavy, attack fail and units retreat back behind river, but somehow they manage to stole over 2000 tons of supplies from Allied magazines

Allies capture last base on Vietnam cost line between Saigon and Hue. They how now control rail lane between those places

Ground combat at Saigon (60,71)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 1382 troops, 11 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 18

Defending force 98440 troops, 1839 guns, 1701 vehicles, Assault Value = 3612

Japanese adjusted assault: 0

Allied adjusted defense: 3161

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

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

Japanese ground losses:
1976 casualties reported
Squads: 18 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 172 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 4 (4 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Assaulting units:
105th Ind.Mixed Brigade
60th JNAF AF Unit
16th JNAF AF Unit
4th JAAF AF Bn
15th JAAF AF Bn
50th Field AA Battalion
18th JAAF Base Force
122nd AA Regiment
115th AA Regiment
3rd Ind. Engineer Regiment
26th JNAF AF Unit
93rd JAAF AF Bn

Defending units:
3rd New Chinese/A Corps
18th British/A Division
98th Indian Brigade
27th Infantry/C Division
27th Infantry/B Division
11th PAVO Regiment
28th (East African) Brigade
7th Indian/A Division
27th Infantry/A Division
3rd New Chinese/C Corps
93rd Infantry Division
7th Indian/B Division
18th British/B Division
46th Indian Brigade
18th British/C Division
3rd New Chinese/B Corps
5th USMC Tank Battalion
9th Australian Division
7th Indian/C Division
134th Medium Regiment
611th Coast AA Regiment
85th British AT Gun Regiment
30th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
20th Indian Heavy AA Regiment
134th (East Ang) Regiment
12th Indian Heavy AA Regiment
6th Medium Regiment
4th West African AA Regiment

[koniu]

17 April 1945

DS show up two hexes East of Ketoi-jima. At lest 700 planes confirmed. It looks strictly defensive plane balance 550 fighters and 150 bombers

Today was day of LBA attacks. Planes from Hokkaido finish 3 damaged CVE and couple DE.

At night Japanese CAs TF enter Shimushiri-jima sinking two DD, couple DE and cargo ships.

Allies deliberate Ketoi-jima. It is looking bad. 3-4 attacks like that and base will fall. I am loading fresh ID on ships but it will be at lest week before they land on Ketoi-jima and only if allies retreat DS from area

[PaxMondo]

Send small SCTF's and subs ... he's setting a CAP trap, make him pay. E's, DD's, MTB's, etc and subs amoungst his CV/CVE's will use up all his action pts. when he runs out, he's defenseless.

[koniu]

18 April 1944

CV Amagi eat TT. Medium damage. 33 flood, 20 engine, no sys and fire. 3 months+ of repairs in big dry dock.
Reinforcement still loading on ships.

Allied DS move East far of Ketoi-jima. What have left are PT boats and few cargo ships.
Allied bomber mine Ketoi-jima.

[Sangeli]

ORIGINAL: koniu
18 April 1944

Easy to forget it's actually 1945 when things are going so well for you!

[koniu]

ORIGINAL: Sangeli

ORIGINAL: koniu
18 April 1944

Easy to forget it's actually 1945 when things are going so well for you!

[koniu]

19 April 1945

Allies again deliberate at Ketoi-jima. Japanese AV down to 100[:(]
I think i will lose base. Still need 5 days to transfer reinforcements I will try tomorrow airlift some boys but this will be not enough to hold.

CV Amagi survive day and tomorrow will enter port. Will need to pump water out first and them move to dry dock in central Japan

Because of probable lose of Ketoi-jima i prepping all places with industry and major ports to air battle. All those places have maxed AF but i am moving additional air support and AAA for all those places. Everything north of Tokyo need to be ready to fight against bombers. Hokkaido and Ominato area will be in fighter range.

I lost big tanker near Philippines. I need to adjust trough what areas they move.

[Sangeli]

ORIGINAL: koniu
Because of probable lose of Ketoi-jima i prepping all places with industry and major ports to air battle. All those places have maxed AF but i am moving additional air support and AAA for all those places. Everything north of Tokyo need to be ready to fight against bombers. Hokkaido and Ominato area will be in fighter range.

Well I would think that if Ketoi-jima is the only base in Allied hands you should be able to keep it suppressed until the Allies make further moves. That being said, I think you can pretty much bank on the Allies putting their main effort into this campaign. I would seriously consider pulling units back from places like the Philippines and the Marianas because I don't think the Allies will go there.

[koniu]

20-23 April 1945

Ketoi-jima fall. I was one day day to late to land full ID on island to reinforce base. Instead i land those troops on Uruppu-jima
I am sending BB TFs to area to bombard Ketoi-jima but there is risk from subs at lest 40 is operating in area.

Last turn Ki-83 start sweeping Ketoi-jima. 19 Ki-83 lost for 21 enemy planes. Base is only lvl 3 AF. I believe i can brake that 170 planes enemy CAP

Allies sweep Hanoi. 16 P-47 shot down for 34 Jap planes


And now time for [:D] [:D]

[PaxMondo]

[koniu]

24 April 1945

Another day of battle above Ketoi-jima
Today Jap sweeps was meet by 160 enemy fighters.

Loses of today.
Japan 43 fighters
Allies 75 fighters

Few more days and maybe i will be able to send bombers above island

One of sweeps
Morning Air attack on Ketoi-jima , at 134,50

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 29 NM, estimated altitude 45,530 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-83 x 51

Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 31
Corsair IV x 18
P-47D25 Thunderbolt x 21
F4U-1A Corsair x 7
F6F-3 Hellcat x 20
F6F-5 Hellcat x 31

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-83: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Corsair II: 1 destroyed
Corsair IV: 1 destroyed
P-47D25 Thunderbolt: 1 destroyed
F4U-1A Corsair: 2 destroyed
F6F-3 Hellcat: 2 destroyed
F6F-5 Hellcat: 3 destroyed

Aircraft Attacking:
38 x Ki-83 sweeping at 41530 feet *

[koniu]

25 April 1945

Japanese fighters again sweep Ketoi-jima.First time in war we meet P-47N. P-51 also where present. After long battle both sides losing ~30 planes.

P-47N is beast. hard to kill even for Ki-83. But he have weakness It climb like barn. So usually is out of combat. P-51D is also dangerous but is in range of Ki-83 and Ki-84r.

[koniu]

26 April 1945

4xKongo TF bombard Ketoi-jima. They damage heavily AF and destroy over 30 enemy planes even more damaged. Sadly i lost DD from mine
At day more Japanese sweeps and this time bombers. No CAP. 20 more planes destroyed on ground.

It is easy to close AF lvl 3 but it is also easy to repair it. It looks AF is open after repair phase. But i believe ~100 enemy fighters can be damaged on AF.

I will continue sweeps tomorrow. Bombers will fallow.

Near Miri i lost 5 huge tankers full of fuel. I forgot to give them order to move close to Borneo coastline and they where attacked by planes from Vietnam AF. Lucky from tomorrow i will have CVE escort for them.

[koniu]

27 April 1945

Another day of intensive combat above Ketoi-jima.
Ki-83 sweep again, this time allied CAP fly. Japanese bomber fly without escort.
DS show up near Ketoi-jima. Bombers from enemy carriers attack cargo ships in Onnekotan-jima taking heavy loses from Japanese CAP but sinking few cargo ships in return (lucky they unload supplies)

At end of day loses are
Japan 40 fighters, 65 bombers
Allies 100 fighters, 15 bombers.

[PaxMondo]

[koniu]

28 April 1945

Another bloody day
I send DB on night attack against enemy fleet. 30 never come back. What i learn. At lest 4 Fleet Carriers and 4 CVL present

Docup divert LCAP from DS over Ketoi-jima. That is good news. Today report show 21 groups CAP above island. 16 of them give massage like this "(5 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)" So they must fly from carriers. I see this as opportunity to engage His carriers. One two more days like that and his pilots going to be fatigued, morale will be low and disorganized.

Today i send Ki-84r, J7W1 and only few Ki-83 to sweep. Ki-84r start to have trouble with allied planes. At end of day 81(45 Franks) Japanese fighters lost. Allies lost 87 fighters. Half of that F4U-1D from carriers

I am going to continue sweeps. But with this tempo in 2-3 weeks i will be out of Ki-83 reserves. But from good news in last 4 days i destroy 2 week replacements of F4U and week replacements of P-47

Few combat reports

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on Ketoi-jima , at 134,50

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 18 NM, estimated altitude 33,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes

Japanese aircraft
J7W1 Shinden x 32

Allied aircraft
P-47D25 Thunderbolt x 25
P-51D Mustang x 20
F4U-1A Corsair x 11 LCAP
F4U-1D Corsair x 83 LCAP
F6F-5 Hellcat x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
J7W1 Shinden: 7 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1D Corsair: 3 destroyed
F6F-5 Hellcat: 2 destroyed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on Ketoi-jima , at 134,50

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 36 NM, estimated altitude 45,530 feet.
Estimated time to target is 8 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-83 x 44

Allied aircraft
P-47D25 Thunderbolt x 24
P-51D Mustang x 18
F4U-1A Corsair x 7 LCAP
F4U-1D Corsair x 59 LCAP
F6F-5 Hellcat x 17

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-83: 4 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-47D25 Thunderbolt: 3 destroyed
P-51D Mustang: 3 destroyed
F4U-1D Corsair: 2 destroyed
F6F-5 Hellcat: 5 destroyed

[PaxMondo]

Nice.

[Sangeli]

I do not think you can afford to give him two days of sweeps here. If you do then Docup will likely withdraw without issue before your KB can engage (unless you are cutting off his retreat). I'd go after him ASAP. Every time you miss a decisive engagement gives the Allies an opportunity to bring more firepower to the battlefield in the next possible battle.