Notes from a Small Island

[RangerJoe]

That is a very big difference! [X(]

[palioboy2]

I know the redo is annoying but I think both the peanut gallery and yourself would have been disappointed if you rolled through a large chunk of China while Obverts troops marched around China trying to get back to a railhead and not being able to join the fight for weeks or more.

Good of you for offering and I'm glad you both decided to forge ahead.

[Canoerebel]

5/12/45

TNNBT: The Allies take Tungchow, their first conquest in China. Erik didn't offer any opposition.

Tomorrow is going to be key. He'll know I'm going to land a ton of troops there, so a significant part of The Herd will be a few hexes from DS. This might be the time he pounces, especially with massed air attacks....but I think the set-up isn't optimal for him. DS might soak off nearly ever enemy air attack due to its position between most enemy airfields and Tungchow. So I'll sweat it but I'm fairly optimistic.

I'm going to land most engineers and base forces and about 1/3rd of the infantry. I'll hold the rest back so that I don't have all my eggs in one basket.

Reinforcing landings will also take place up the river.

No sign of KB. My guess is its in the South China SEa, from which it can pounce on RN DS or return quickly to TNNBT.

[Canoerebel]

5/13/45

TNNBT: No enemy interference today as Allied armor takes a small base two hexes NW of Tungchow, and as massed disembarkation of troops at Tungchow. The same thing will take place tomorrow. If tomorrow goes well, 90% of the army will be ashore.

Tungchow airfield went to 2.37 in one day and a lot more engineers ashore, so the pace should increase considerably.

I'm surprised Erik hasn't yet employed massed sweeps using his elite Ki-83s. That'll come soon and it'll pose a real threat. But his nearest airfields (Nanking and Shanghai) are subject to bombardment, so that may limit his ability a bit. Tomorrow, minesweepers will chekc out Shanghai and a solo DD will bombard to see what's up.

SEAC: Allied army is organizing for move west - armor is sprinting forward, paratroops are dropping (to modest effect) while many big infantry units are switching to Strat mode. The hope is that the armor/paratroops can seize bases to allow the infantry to rail forward. If Erik turns to make stands that becomes an issue, but I don't think he will short of Indochina.

Down at Georgetown, lots more troops come ashore under CAP by 225 LBA fighters. This is no real race, due to the road system, but the Japanese territory has been fragmented, making it difficult for Erik to move units. He can pull out detachments by sea or air, but getting the big ones to Singapore will be tough for him.

Overall, the May Offensive (East China Sea and SEAC) is off to a rousing start. It's hard to believe that about five turns ago I was leaning towards diverting to the tertiary objectives.

[Canoerebel]

5/14/45

Erik is not the kind of player to startle or get a case of the yips. He's too experienced and too good. To the extent possible, however, I do want him to feel like the Allies are closing in on all sides. That was kind of the objective for this new turn, and things went pretty well.

Strategic Bombing: Allied 4EB engage in massed nighttime Manpower raid on Sapporo, seeking to eliminate the remaining industry. Total fires set 250k.

Smaller daytime raid targeted industry at Harbin inflicted modest damage.

The turn opened with an Allied DD sweeping mines at Shanghai and hitting one of them, and a USN sub sinking an xAK near Iriomote.

[Canoerebel]

5/14/45

Nanking: Trial bombardment by solo DD inflicts measurable damage to enemy airfield. Hey, if one DD is capable of this, what would a real TF do? Erik will be cautious about using this airfield.

My test bombardment of Shanghai didn't work, since the solo DD hit a mine. I'll try again after more minesweeping. Shanghai is the elephant in the room - Level 7 airfield. (But I was awfully glad it wasn't a Level 9 when I began planning TNNBT.)

[Canoerebel]

5/14/45

Philippine Sea: A pair of USN DDs on patrol in the heart of the Philippine Sea find the replenishment TF that a sub reported near Iwo two days back.

These DDs were part of a big CL/DD force that left Midway a week ago and took station north of Marcus, testing detection and waiting for prey. It look like Erik got some detection yesterday, so I detached the CLs and a couple of DDs and sent them back to safer waters. These two DDs came forward, set to patrol and react five hexes.

[Canoerebel]

5/14/45

Bridge over the Yangtze: Erik sends fighters to sweep the hex where Allied troops severed the railroad to Shanghai. This is a good outcome because usually fighters on LRCAP perform poorly.

Erik has almost entirely stood down his air force. The debacle of his big attack about six turns back, combined with a bunch of smaller but equally futile sorties, apparently persuaded him to stand down, think through things, and come up wit a better way to approach the air war. Death Star makes things hard on him. His mighty air force (in terms of numbers and quality) and his massive network of airfields make things tough on me.

[adarbrauner]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

5/14/45

Philippine Sea: A pair of USN DDs on patrol in the heart of the Philippine Sea find the replenishment TF that a sub reported near Iwo two days back.

These DDs were part of a big CL/DD force that left Midway a week ago and took station north of Marcus, testing detection and waiting for prey. It look like Erik got some detection yesterday, so I detached the CLs and a couple of DDs and sent them back to safer waters. These two DDs came forward, set to patrol and react five hexes.

Oooouch!!

[RangerJoe]

A very nice DD action, that could slow down the KB and/or tie it to a refueling port.

If you bombard again at Shanghai, maybe include some DMS and/or stay further away from the base. Did the DD survive the mine?

Since you severed the railroad to Shanghai, I doubt if he would put air units there or any bases without the railway exit. It would leave them vulnerable to bombardments and the closing of the airfields.

[JohnDillworth]

Good catch on the replenishment task force. A couple of DD's will handle pretty much anything he can spare for escort duty these days. Does he have other large convoys trying to skirt the new order?

[Canoerebel]

Yes, he has multiple convoys moving to and from the Home Islands and the DEI. My subs have claimed a few. Largely, though, he's using this window to attend to the still-open LOC. I can't spare much to shut it down right now - too many other missions of far greater importance, by my reckoning. But I'll do what I can until I feel free to do more.

An a sub put a TT into an AO near Iwo about two turns back. If KB was counting on that replenishment TF, its diminished considerly. He has lots of refueling stations in the DEI and Philippines, but Allied subs are fanning out now and covering many of them.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

A very nice DD action, that could slow down the KB and/or tie it to a refueling port.

If you bombard again at Shanghai, maybe include some DMS and/or stay further away from the base. Did the DD survive the mine?

Since you severed the railroad to Shanghai, I doubt if he would put air units there or any bases without the railway exit. It would leave them vulnerable to bombardments and the closing of the airfields.

The DD did survive the mine.

I've had several small minesweeping TFs working Shanghai, including YMS and AM, without incident. IE, they haven't had trouble with shore guns. So I think Shanghai will be vulnerable to to bombardment attacks soon.

[adarbrauner]

Regarding the railway interruptions/disruptions, I'll try to keep short what I've been retaining so far;

you CR accomplished a memorial feat in exposing all the badness in the railway system in game , which is that I can simply board 10-15 divisions or more, on one day notice, and convoy them, all together, hundreds of miles afar;

this is realistically nuts, or worst; impossible to be done even today;

luckily you exposed that and from now on every JFB (mainly) knows he cannot rely on this EXPLOITATION of the mechanics but make allowance for any contingency plan to protect the railway lines and not to rely on absurd mass rail transportation;

to the forumites (Obvert himself included, in his AAR) who argued that after 2-3 (sic) years a healthy Japan would have developed the Chinese, as best example, railway facilities and capabilities to such a level:

game's industrial model is not perfect, but still very good in this that Japan's industrial resources are like a blanket you cannot draw to one edge without uncovering the other, so if you produce trains you don't do airplanes, ships and guns;

moreover, sincerely, the upgrade and development of Chinese railway system (talking about thousands of miles) within the war timeframe, up or better barely close to the levels required by such pretenses by us JFBs, is historically an endeavor probably unreachable not even by the US even if it dedicated to it most of its resources;


I'd like to run a test; strat moving ALL of Manchurian army in one turn to the other end of China; If, as I suspect, every unit can be transported limited only by the kind of railway, and regardless of how many other units are employing the same railway, so here we are...

In War in the East this issue has been approached, in a way that a nation can benefit from a limited train capacity (calculated on the base of a number of realistic factors), and every unit rail moved detracting from it (according to its "weight" and distance run);

In War in the West they went a step further, I think, in creating a pool of train carriages and locomotives (I think), that could be targeted by the enemy;

some say the result of a railway interrupted by the enemy on the units moving through that track (passing to Move mode in the middle of nothing) is a bug that unjustly penalizes the player;

other say it's WAD, or at least a design compromise;

other say they practically don't care whether is WAD or a bug, it's a blessing by itself; from now on on the Japanese player the duty to be very careful how he protects and plan for the use of his internal railways, and of the AFB to do the maximum he can to sabotage and disrupt it;


well done CR;

[RangerJoe]

Not to mention the different gauges of the railways are not modeled in the game. To do that, it would have to have a pause at the places where the disparate gauges meet. You would also have to model the passenger cars, the freight cars and the flat bed cars as well. It does take awhile to load vehicles on a train and you also may not want them combat loaded in case of accidents. Especially with any electric trains and loaded tanks with antennas flying to ground out the overhead wires . . .

[Canoerebel]

Thanks for your thoughts on that issue, Adar. A very complicated game with some surprises after all these years.

[Canoerebel]

5/14/45

TNNBT: A very busy but quiet day. The Allies have landed 90% of the army now (all but two divisions prepped for Chefoo that will probably land at Tungchow instead).

Erik is being very quiet. He's doing the Iwo Jima defense. Let the enemy land, let them get exposed, and then counterattack. But getting this army ashore had promised to be a massively complicated, messy, costly op. I'm very thankful it didn't turn out that way. My units are shaking out and preparing to engage now. The army is strong, experienced, well lead, well supplied and ready to find the enemy armies.

[RangerJoe]

Even if he has more AV in his units, they have less firepower. You also probably have more armor. The only advantage that he might have is artillery units with bigger guns. I see a lot of points to be harvested - both by bombing his units and sweeping any CAP aside, then destroying the units. But then again, he does not have much of a choice unless he gives up territory. I think that he is trying to buy time until his Southern Army can extricate itself from the danger that it is in.

[adarbrauner]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Not to mention the different gauges of the railways are not modeled in the game. To do that, it would have to have a pause at the places where the disparate gauges meet. You would also have to model the passenger cars, the freight cars and the flat bed cars as well. It does take awhile to load vehicles on a train and you also may not want them combat loaded in case of accidents. Especially with any electric trains and loaded tanks with antennas flying to ground out the overhead wires . . .

A model of an electric train like those used in China 1942.



Loading could be simulated as well.

gauges, what the Chinese and Japanese Gauges, small, large who knows!?

[JeffroK]

A problem with all this talk about cutting the rail with your paras, is that the bridge didnt exist until 1968 and the train carriages were ferried "car by car"