Spanking Lowpe (NJP72 vs Lowpe (A))

[Lowpe]

Jan 4th, 1943

Night Naval bombardment of Kusaie Island at 125,118

Japanese Ships
BB Yamato
BB Mutsu
DD Yomogi
DD Wakatake
DD Hokaze
DD Kikuzuki

He brought out the big stick!

I wonder where she goes to rearm ... Truk or Marshalls? My subs are gathering!

[Lowpe]

Those Jap tanks in China are on a lo-ong dirt road as their single supply line. This is one example of why I am a firm proponent of "cockroach Chinese" doctrine, parking and moving regiments from small divisions on a hard terrain near the roads. They become a supply line threat, and it is a hassle to clear them out

I have done a fair bit of that...but not to your levels.

I will post a picture with the next turn...but I think I might take two conquered Chinese bases back over the next few days....maybe even three with troops behind the enemy lines.

[Lowpe]

I have been expecting some naval fireworks around Akyab, there are patrolling British and American warships there...but it seems Japan's fast transport fleets are just inching closer up the coast gradually. And now there is full recon on Cox and Chittagong...

The 4th Division is knocked down to c30 AV after todays attack...we rested the General Lee tanks as they took most of the damage the previous attack...plus we were short on supply for todays attack. But disruption almost 20 in an Indian Division, the others much better. We continue cycling units into deliberate attacks until the 4th Division surrenders.

Japan is fighting in the open on the Magwe plains....kind of hard to understand really. Two more days and we should be able to take Shwebo, gain another hex east of Akyab (if lucky, I will destroy three IJA artillery units and one Engineer unit).

Ramree paradrop scheduled for today.


Ground combat at 55,46 (near Akyab)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 27999 troops, 395 guns, 606 vehicles, Assault Value = 1104

Defending force 10743 troops, 104 guns, 14 vehicles, Assault Value = 168

Allied adjusted assault: 189

Japanese adjusted defense: 101

Allied assault odds: 1 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), disruption(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
927 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 100 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 4 (2 destroyed, 2 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
155 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 21 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 10 disabled

Assaulting units:
26th Indian Division
26th Indian Brigade
11th Indian Division
255th Armoured Brigade
3rd Cavalry Regiment
150th RAC Regiment
18th British/A Division
IV Indian Corps
XXXIII Indian Corps
95th Heavy AA Regiment

Defending units:
4th Division

[Lowpe]

Just two simple flawed tests, but I am not doing n=100 and additional math.

Just down and dirty, does LRCAP actually shoot down planes in the target hex, in this case over a base at range 3.

No noises during the replay, but you do get the intercept transports line in the lower left....

Interesting I didn't get any of the training Sonias or Bettys flying navsearch, range 1.

Interpret any way you want.

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[Lowpe]

Jan 6th, 1943

There was close to 1000 Japanese Victory Points here....should clean this area up and be able to start shipping supplies to Broome...

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[Lowpe]

One tank battalion and one regiment to take Noumea...plus ship bombardments, and now there is a squadron of divebombers working over the Japanese.

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[Lowpe]

Moving forward...starting to reinforce Buin...had LRCAP over the fast transports, but the bombers decided for the AP instead...good decision.

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[Lowpe]

Kusaie Island...provoked a slightly bigger land response...

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[Lowpe]

Burma...

Bad day in the air...those divebombers went down in flames! Good thing pools are robust for them.

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[Lowpe]

China...sure am glad Japan sent 2 tank divisions and 3 tank regiments down the long lonely road into the western mountains....

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[Encircled]

Only guessing, but I think he thinks they can do more good in Burma and that is the best way of getting there, plus it cuts off China

Do you think you can stop them getting to the supply road?

[Lowpe]

This is what we have blocking the 2 IJA Tank Divisions and 3 Tank Regiments...most likely the Japanese will go off road into the mountains and so that is roughly ten days per mountain hex...I have more on the way and hopefully will get Kunming up and running soon (HI).

There is a chance the British 6#er AT guns make their first appearance in this fight...they are marching to Paoshan.

I will get some recon on those tanks to see their direction.

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[Lowpe]

Jan 7, 1943

At Akyab during 0% moonlight...our Navies clash. Lots of sub action prior and the IJN hits on our Light Cruisers bounce off the armor, while our one hit does penetrate...

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[Lowpe]

Task Force Ceres retires after the one clash, they were set to low threat...and you will remember that I have been experimenting with very low aggression Captains/Commanders for warships. Mustin, Sims class, has the very timid Commander Craven....The Mustin also has the 40mm upgrades, although it was a 5incher that hit the IJN from her.

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[Lowpe]

Next up is a heavy cruiser....interesting she is worth only 39 VP....

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[Lowpe]

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No fear...for Kitakama is doomed...but it does take quite a lot of S class torpedoes to put her down for good!

[Lowpe]

An Obvert angle...using two subs in the same task force...which is very good at hunting large warships (anecdotally).

The classic move is to have 2 subs but 3 commanders all high NavSkill, I like to have low aggression skippers but high aggression task force commander. I didn't do it here as I wanted to see what would happen with low aggression commander because I have so many subs patrolling this hex.

Interesting to me that S40 was spotted by escorts in the very first attack of the night...

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Oh, that is two IJN battleships steaming north off the coast towards Akyab...

[Lowpe]

Japan evacuating Perth...took two more bases today and routed some small units.

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[BBfanboy]

b.jpg

No fear...for Kitakama is doomed...but it does take quite a lot of S class torpedoes to put her down for good!

A good example of the one-two punch of 2-sub TFs! Even if the first one misses, the increase in DL often gives the second sub a shot.

[Capt. Harlock]

Next up is a heavy cruiser....interesting she is worth only 39 VP....

IIRC Kitakami is one of the pair of IJN "torpedo cruisers", with few guns but bristling with Long Lance tubes. Devonshire is a lucky ship to have closed to 1,000 yards, and dodged all the torpedoes!