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

[JocMeister]

This is what happened.

Ground combat at Katha (61,43)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 11898 troops, 195 guns, 122 vehicles, Assault Value = 747

Defending force 14149 troops, 226 guns, 199 vehicles, Assault Value = 374

Allied adjusted assault: 186

Japanese adjusted defense: 263

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

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

[witpqs]

Are you saying the unit was leaving Katha or entering Katha?

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Are you saying the unit was leaving Katha or entering Katha?

It was leaving Katha for 61:44 together with the rest of the troops. Instead of switching hex and shock attacking at 61:44 they all shock attacked at Katha. [&:]

[witpqs]

I have never seen anything like that! [:(]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

I have never seen anything like that! [:(]

Me neither. [X(]

Waiting for the actual turn file to see how it looks after the attack. My guess is everything is reset.

[JocMeister]

Jeff ended the turn so I could look at the units...I´m even more "WTF" now. They didn´t even cross?!

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Are you saying the unit was leaving Katha or entering Katha?

It was leaving Katha for 61:44 together with the rest of the troops. Instead of switching hex and shock attacking at 61:44 they all shock attacked at Katha. [&:]

...did something else move into Katha? What does Tracker say?

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Jeff ended the turn so I could look at the units...I´m even more "WTF" now. They didn´t even cross?!

This really looks to me like something else crossed into Katha and triggered a shock attack, although the forces already in the hex participating in the attack is new to me.

And they wouldn't cross - they would only move 2 miles per turn in that direction from Katha when in Combat mode, which is exactly what happened here.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
This really looks to me like something else crossed into Katha and triggered a shock attack, although the forces already in the hex participating in the attack is new to me.

And they wouldn't cross - they would only move 2 miles per turn in that direction from Katha when in Combat mode, which is exactly what happened here.

This is what I thought too. But all units show 45 miles traveled after the attack. So no units actually crossed over the river. We found a probable culprit though. "Follow" command. I have had so many weird bugs relating when using follow command so it wouldnt surprise me if this was somehow tied to that.

I seldom (or never) use the follow command but in this example I have been forced to. The units move at a different pace. Sometimes 2, sometimes 3 and sometimes even 4 miles. I had to use the follow command to make sure they were all moving at the same pace...

What I did was I cancelled the follow command and set each unit individually. They all crossed and did a normal shock attack at the correct hex this time.

Jeff has very generously offered to rerun the turn to sort it out. [&o] I have a mid turn save so I hope I can replicate everything I did.

[JocMeister]

A bit of speculation on my part but here is what I think may have happened. Might get confirmation on it this turn.

5 units move in a stack. All set to follow unit 1.

Unit 1 cross over to hex 61:44. One of the other units though fail a morale check for movement and don´t have enough movement to cross over to the next hex. This "pulls" unit 1 back to Katha. The movement across the river has flipped unit 1 to "shock attack". The code doesn´t realize though that the crossing was cancelled though and a shock attack takes place at Katha with only Unit 1.

Can´t really find any other explanation for it.

[Lokasenna]

That explanation doesn't make any sense to me. As in, I don't see how that could be the case.

Did you have a unit across the river from Katha that was moving into Katha? Your screenshots from the day before covered up that area on the map.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

That explanation doesn't make any sense to me. As in, I don't see how that could be the case.

Did you have a unit across the river from Katha that was moving into Katha? Your screenshots from the day before covered up that area on the map.

Nope. No other units besides the 5 at Katha anywhere near Katha or 61:44.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Burma[/font]
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Things are slowly moving forward here. Not having much luck with the dice lately though. My cut off divisions shock across the river at Katha but fail to dislodge the defenders. In our tests to sort out the bug they absolutely wrecked the defenders forcing a bloody retreat. Add to the disastrous roll at Magwe and I feel a bit bummed out. Ce la guerre I guess...

At least the units are moving. I think the can break free on their own but more forces are moving to free them. Here is the results from the crossing.

Ground combat at 61,44 (near Katha)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 26938 troops, 426 guns, 232 vehicles, Assault Value = 753

Defending force 13275 troops, 163 guns, 144 vehicles, Assault Value = 440

Allied adjusted assault: 241

Japanese adjusted defense: 389

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2

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

Japanese ground losses:
918 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 61 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 5 disabled

Allied ground losses:
1849 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 193 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 55 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 22 disabled
Guns lost 53 (4 destroyed, 49 disabled)
Vehicles lost 12 (1 destroyed, 11 disabled)

Assaulting units:
6th Australian Division
32nd Infantry Division
77th LRP Brigade

Defending units:
17th Indpt Guards Regiment
112th Infantry Regiment
41st Infantry Regiment
3rd Tank/A Division
53rd Field AA Battalion

My forces are slowly arriving on the plains. Support troops (BFs, AA and HQs) are starting to land at Ramree. Still undecided on where to move after the latest debacle. I´ll probably take the fresh forces and move down towards Prome. This will secure my southern flank as well as cutting off supply for Jeff. The battered forces from Magwe will take up rear guard around Ramree and make sure Jeff doesn´t do anything bold. Thoughts?

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Rabaul[/font]
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Jeff is putting up a fight here and is even reinforcing Rabaul further. More troops arrive and he has started bombing from the air while BB/CA are bombarding from the sea. His fun is soon over though. The fleet has replenished, the 27th ID and 100 tanks have just finished loading at Townsville. This while allied artillery is wrecking havoc on the defenders.

Ground combat at Rabaul (106,125)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 2323 troops, 174 guns, 101 vehicles, Assault Value = 578

Defending force 32776 troops, 371 guns, 34 vehicles, Assault Value = 666

Japanese ground losses:
197 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 12 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

They will meet up and join with the minesweepers before going in. Once Rabul is secured we will start focusing on the lower SRA.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Burma[/font]
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Air force is finally done with troop and naval support. Now we are free to go after the IJAAF. Their main weakness is poor logistics. Only Magwe at level 7 and one more level 5 base in central Burma.

Set a small trap for Jeff here yesterday and he instantly took the bait. I started sweeping only with Hurricanes (400+) in the pool. Jeff instantly put up a LRCAP with about 200 Franks. Lost about 30 Hurricanes for 15 Franks which is pretty okay.

Today the real deal starts with a direct assault on Magwe. Jeffs Franks are probably either resting or suffer from FAT in the 20 range.

500 P47s, Corsairs, P38s and Hellcats will sweep. 200 P40Ks will provide escort. 350 bombers will hopefully close Magwe tomorrow.

Fingers crossed!

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Aircraft pools[/font]
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As can be seen here pools are overflowing! [X(]

[Bif1961]

How are you bomber pools, but lucking good for fighters.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Magwe[/font]
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Not the best of starts but it all work out in the end. The attack is postponed for a day as weather shuts down Magwe. On the second day only Chittagong is open while Akyab where my strongest fighters are is closed by weather.

And to make things worse Magwe is blanketed by "heavy cloud". Things work out anyway luckily. First sweep:

Morning Air attack on Magwe , at 57,47

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 11 NM, estimated altitude 33,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 30
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 72
Ki-61-Ia Tony x 73
Ki-84a Frank x 73

Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 1 destroyed
Ki-61-Ia Tony: 2 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 4 destroyed

Still a pretty decent CAP up but we kind of quickly wear it down. I "only" had 2 squadrons of P47s at Chittagong but they do pack a punch.

Morning Air attack on Magwe , at 57,47

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 25 NM, estimated altitude 32,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 18
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 36
Ki-61-Ia Tony x 25
Ki-84a Frank x 44

Allied aircraft
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 24

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 4 destroyed
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 2 destroyed
Ki-61-Ia Tony: 1 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-47D2 Thunderbolt: 1 destroyed

Then comes the bombers.

Morning Air attack on Magwe , at 57,47

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 77 NM, estimated altitude 9,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 28 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 6
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 9
Ki-61-Ia Tony x 6
Ki-84a Frank x 15

Allied aircraft
Liberator II x 15
B-17E Fortress x 3
B-17F Fortress x 12
B-24D Liberator x 15
B-24D1 Liberator x 6
B-25C Mitchell x 6
B-25H Mitchell x 10

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 2 damaged
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 1 destroyed on ground
Ki-84a Frank: 15 damaged
Ki-84a Frank: 8 destroyed on ground

Allied aircraft losses
Liberator II: 1 destroyed, 10 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 1 damaged
B-17F Fortress: 6 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 3 damaged
B-24D1 Liberator: 2 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 1 destroyed
B-25H Mitchell: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged
B-25H Mitchell: 1 destroyed by flak

Japanese ground losses:
16 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Airbase hits 59
Airbase supply hits 8
Runway hits 86

This is followed by more smaller attacks. I´m pretty certain Magwe is closed but we will bomb tomorrow again just to make sure. I don´t have the turn so I don´t know the losses yet but I would guess we came out on top with about 2-1. Possibly even 3-1. Luckily my Hellcats went in first which are also the planes with the weakest pilots and most plentiful pools. I predict they took pretty big losses but it can easily be replaced.

Having my main sweeping force still intact for tomorrow will be a boon for sure! Time to chase the IJAAF from Burma.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Magwe[/font]
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Here are the guys that never participated. So tomorrow I have 300 fresh top of the line fighters available. Will be interesting to see what Jeff does. He has Rangoon (Level 7) and Mandalay (level 5) still open. He also have lots of level 2 and 3 airfields in Burma so he could possibly mount a semi effective defense trying to get Magwe operational again.

I don´t think there is much hope for Magwe but I guess Jeff has to try. Without it I think IJAAFs part in the Burma campaign is over.

[JocMeister]

[font="Verdana"]Bomber pools[/font]
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As with the fighter pools the bomber pools are also overflowing! [&o]