Tale of the Sheep! - JocMeister (A) vs. Lowpe (J)

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

good night bombardment results. Are you using the BB flat planes to spot at night?

Yepp. [:)]

[JocMeister]

Sorry guys. No turn or replay yet.

[HansBolter]

I wrong about Westrailia being able to convert to an LSI(L) in 1/43.

Its the Canadian AMCs that have to wait till 1/43 for conversions.

The Aussie ones can convert in 9/42.

the LSI is the commonwealth equivalent of the APA.

These are very valuable ships that you should convert and get out of raider duty.

[JocMeister]

Got the turn....

But no replay and no CR....

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Got the turn....

But no replay and no CR....

Ha! Well, at least you can load Tracker to see what happened [:D]

[JocMeister]

Finally got the replay. Working on the turn right now. I´ll try and get an update up later today. Not much happened. More action next turn though!

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Paper/SOPAC[/font]
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Fleet is now in position for the landing tomorrow morning. Americal and 27th ID will land and I expect them to very quickly overcome the small garrison. The will be followed up by the 1st Australian landing at Milne in 2-3 days. Only 1600 defenders are in place and will quickly be thrown out.

I´m lighter in terms of air cover then I would wish. But with PMs airfield closed I expect the range from Rabaul to aid me. 50 Wildkittens will provide CAP from CVEs while Sara stand off 2 hexes out. 50 P38s from Portland Roads will also provide LRCAP. A CL and CA TF will provide a tempting target for any Japanese bombers. If they come I hope they will go for the CVEs and/or Cruisers.

Further down south a major reshuffle of BFs are taking place. The allies are abandoning many locations which was the frontline not too long ago and moving troops and BFs forward. 1st Marines and 3rd Australian prepares for the attack into the Solomons.

Two huge convoys make it to Auckland and start unloading 380k fuel, 1,2 million supply and 120k troops. Some of the cargoships will remain in theater to aid in the troop shuffle.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Andamans[/font]
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This is a supply and reinforcement operation. The entire fleet is here though in case Jeff decides to try and interfere. We did sink a Japanese SSN last turn which was very nice.

Submarine attack near Trincomalee at 37,54

Japanese Ships
SS I-32, hits 18, and is sunk

Allied Ships
PC Jumna
DE Starling
KV Thyme
PC Haideri

SS I-32 is sighted by escort
DE Starling fails to find sub, continues to search...
KV Thyme fails to find sub and abandons search
DE Starling attacking submerged sub ....
SS I-32 forced to surface!
DE Starling firing on surfaced sub ....
KV Thyme firing on surfaced sub ....
PC Haideri firing on surfaced sub ....
DE Starling firing on surfaced sub ....
Sub slips beneath the waves

Starting to get second thought about Pencil II. Not the OP in itself but rather the time frame. Doing massive landing with only 2 CVs for air cover makes me feel really uncomfortable. More on that later...

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Pencil II[/font]
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Giving it some more thought I pretty much decided to postpone the OP for at least 4 months. It will still be on semi standby but the support troops will head back to the frontline for now.

There are several reasons I decided against the OP.

- Its outside allied LBA.
- I have only 2 CVs available for CAP.
- I have to unload from xAPs/xAPs which will take several days to unload.
- There are several big Japanese air fields within striking range of the landing. These are also outside allied LBA.

I need to do several things to make Pencil II viable.

- I need to move Sara and the CVEs to the OI.
- Sara needs to refit. Several months overdue and 6 FLT damage from a TT in June.
- Hellcats.
- P38s will have to be moved to the OI.
- AP/AKs will have to refit to APA/AKAs.

All these things are easily done. But I need time for them to happen. Hellcats and APA/AKAs are 2 months away. I don´t have any P38 squadrons in the OI. They will have to be moved from the WC. The SOPAC fleet will have to transit to the OI. Probably via CT to let Sara refit.

This puts us roughly in June. While I don´t like it I´m already ahead of schedule.

[ny59giants]

For any reinforcement or invasion make sure that you have a LCU or two with Naval Support. This is especially important when unloading from non-APA/AKAs and AP/AKs. Its easy to overlook when planning for invasions and I've had to reshuffle and quickly prep those units to ensure a swifter unloading.

Send a few Wildcat groups to India, if you haven't already.

Edit - Just ran my turn and identified the "Base Maint Eng Bn" and "Boat & Shore Bn" as the two you want with invasion TFs as they have Naval Support and Shore Parties.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

For any reinforcement or invasion make sure that you have a LCU or two with Naval Support. This is especially important when unloading from non-APA/AKAs and AP/AKs. Its easy to overlook when planning for invasions and I've had to reshuffle and quickly prep those units to ensure a swifter unloading.

Send a few Wildcat groups to India, if you haven't already.

Edit - Just ran my turn and identified the "Base Maint Eng Bn" and "Boat & Shore Bn" as the two you want with invasion TFs as they have Naval Support and Shore Parties.

Yep, they started arriving about a month ago. But in my eternal wisdom I decided to send them all to SOPAC.... [8|]

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Paper[/font]
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Troops begin unloading...so far uninterrupted.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Paper[/font]
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A well escorted strike show up in the AM phase. Will the CAP be enough?

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Paper[/font]
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Cap performs very well! But 3 Betties make it through and go for Prince William!

Luckily AA is strong and the Betties all miss! [&o]

Morning Air attack on TF, near Port Moresby at 98,130

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid detected at 79 NM, estimated altitude 27,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 27 minutes

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 13
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 37

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 10
F4F-4 Wildcat x 38

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 6 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 8 destroyed

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
CVE Prince William

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 45cm Type 91 Torp

No Japanese counter bombardment which probably means they are out of supply after the BB bombardment. Hopefully PM will be liberated tomorrow!

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]LA[/font]
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This time the troops were fully rested and recovered. Time to come up with something else.

Ground combat at Los Angeles (225,76)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 109021 troops, 2056 guns, 4755 vehicles, Assault Value = 3698

Defending force 76626 troops, 1093 guns, 1260 vehicles, Assault Value = 1893

Allied adjusted assault: 1760

Japanese adjusted defense: 8185

Allied assault odds: 1 to 4

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

Japanese ground losses:
1291 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 115 disabled
Non Combat: 27 destroyed, 43 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 21 disabled
Guns lost 87 (7 destroyed, 80 disabled)
Vehicles lost 101 (51 destroyed, 50 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
5644 casualties reported
Squads: 81 destroyed, 606 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 124 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 46 disabled
Guns lost 144 (9 destroyed, 135 disabled)
Vehicles lost 217 (12 destroyed, 205 disabled)

[crsutton]

Just got caught up PM is a great base to have. Level 9 airfields are the Allies best hope. However in my experience. Milne Bay is even more critical and is the leaping point for retaking NG and reducing Rabaul.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Just got caught up PM is a great base to have. Level 9 airfields are the Allies best hope. However in my experience. Milne Bay is even more critical and is the leaping point for retaking NG and reducing Rabaul.

Milne landing in 2-3 turns. [:)]

[poodlebrain]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

[font="Verdana"]LA[/font]
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This time the troops were fully rested and recovered. Time to come up with something else.

Ground combat at Los Angeles (225,76)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 109021 troops, 2056 guns, 4755 vehicles, Assault Value = 3698

Defending force 76626 troops, 1093 guns, 1260 vehicles, Assault Value = 1893

Allied adjusted assault: 1760

Japanese adjusted defense: 8185

Allied assault odds: 1 to 4

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

Japanese ground losses:
1291 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 115 disabled
Non Combat: 27 destroyed, 43 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 21 disabled
Guns lost 87 (7 destroyed, 80 disabled)
Vehicles lost 101 (51 destroyed, 50 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
5644 casualties reported
Squads: 81 destroyed, 606 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 124 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 46 disabled
Guns lost 144 (9 destroyed, 135 disabled)
Vehicles lost 217 (12 destroyed, 205 disabled)

Until you see supply(-) in the combat results you will not have any real success attacking. You are experienced enough as a player to know how to make that happen.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: poodlebrain
Until you see supply(-) in the combat results you will not have any real success attacking. You are experienced enough as a player to know how to make that happen.

It was going pretty well until he reinforced with yet another division. Ah well. The whole idea of attacking at LA was to force him to move troops from SD to LA. He started with 3 divisions in LA and now he has 7 or 8. So I guess that was successful.

Don´t think I have enough bombers to really start hurting his supply though. Ground bombardments will have to do that.

Time to start flanking I think. I´ll leave 3-4 divisions at LA and start moving around. Basically that will force him out of LA eventually. He can´t defend LA and the clear hex east of LA.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]PM[/font]
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Troops are ashore in good order. Everything unloaded including 8k supply. That will be enough for now. Time to pull back the Amphibs.