Matrix Games Forums

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 01/23/42


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Ground combat at Vladivostok

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 310376 troops, 2549 guns, 223 vehicles

Defending force 110419 troops, 825 guns, 279 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 2


Japanese ground losses:
2775 casualties reported
Guns lost 143
Vehicles lost 19

Allied ground losses:
6219 casualties reported
Guns lost 169
Vehicles lost 14


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Ground combat at Blagoveshchensk

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 149790 troops, 1577 guns, 36 vehicles

Defending force 105220 troops, 1030 guns, 314 vehicles



Allied ground losses:
255 casualties reported
Guns lost 16


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Ground combat at 61,20

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 12783 troops, 101 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 4416 troops, 45 guns, 0 vehicles


Japanese ground losses:
5 casualties reported

Allied ground losses:
15 casualties reported
Guns lost 1


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Ground combat at Iman

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 19598 troops, 220 guns, 2 vehicles

Defending force 15091 troops, 136 guns, 161 vehicles



Allied ground losses:
9 casualties reported


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Ground combat at Blagoveshchensk

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 90836 troops, 968 guns, 283 vehicles

Defending force 170786 troops, 1582 guns, 180 vehicles


Japanese ground losses:
735 casualties reported
Guns lost 26
Vehicles lost 1


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Ground combat at Iman

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 10413 troops, 125 guns, 160 vehicles

Defending force 28975 troops, 245 guns, 146 vehicles


Japanese ground losses:
45 casualties reported
Guns lost 3


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Ground combat at Vladivostok

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 82264 troops, 520 guns, 116 vehicles

Defending force 307208 troops, 2343 guns, 205 vehicles


Japanese ground losses:
37 casualties reported
Guns lost 1


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Ground combat at 61,20

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 4395 troops, 43 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 12774 troops, 100 guns, 0 vehicles

Now Japan is finally winning and Vladastok will fall in less than a week. After that a long battle remains.

After a long battle the secret to making progress finally is found. All engineers must be concetrated at one location so that even with 0 to 1 odds it is possible to reduce the fortifications. The battles will be bloody but it beats letting the russian pound you with constant bombardment. I recommend the following.

1. The main attack should come at Blagoveshchensk. This is the only place where a decisive result can occur. If you win at Vladastok the Russians can do a fighting retreat and all you have at the end of the day is a large russian army sitting on the road to Siberia. (BTW Siberia gets daily so they won't stave.) Taking out Blagoveshchensk gives the possiblity of cutting off and destroying the russian after a brutal battle.

2. Victory requires air superiority. All results obtain in this AAR were done with air power turned off after the first few days. I did this because it is very hard to do the air war head to head solitare since the weaker side has to be tricky and hit the enemy at weak points and its hard to trick myself. Unless Japan moves a bunch of air into Russia the results of this AAR should be considered scewed in favor of JAPAN.

3. So I believe russia can possibly be defeated if Japan brings in maybe four zero squadrens and attacks as in point one above with the engineers instead of the method I tried in the AAR. The Russian should repond by sending everything to Blagoveshchensk even if it means Vladastok will fall.

4. This will have to be tested and I don't know when or if I will have time. In any event its not going to be a two month battle. Even if B can be taken there is still a long road ahead. I would guess even in the best case if the strategy works we're talking 4 months.

5. So 10 divisions lost for 4 months and probably several more since many will be worn down and will not be able to charge straight into China with much effect. Probably several hundred zero's shot down over russia. And don't forget about russian bombers hitting targets in Japan. The plan is not impossible but it looks difficult and very dangerous.

6. If it goes wrong and B is not taken Japan is looking at early defeat. Before I started launching attacks with a large stack of engineers it looked like it was going to be constant attrition forever and the JAP forces were wearing down.

My plan was to concentrate at Blash (sp) and cut the Russians off to the south. About 8 armor regiments and 6 Mongol divisions were going to slash north and take all the northern Russian bases.

I have 10 divisions and 4 Engineer Reg going to Blash and take it. About 10 divisions to head for Vlad and the rest to pin the Russian forces at the northern base.

I am massing 4-6 Zero units in Manchuria, every army land bomber I can lay my hands on also.

I have turned on the Russian replacements. Also they are building forts up. I want them as full strength as I can get them before I launch my attack. Then we will see how much damage they do to the Japanese.

But I agree with you, the Japanese will have to mass their forces to punch through. I also lean to the 2-4 months to beat them and another 4-6 months to rebuild those units that were used. Once I start the attack on Russia, I am going to see if the Chinese can punch through the Japanese lines. I am building forts in all Japanese held bases in China.

Thats the way to go except put every engr regt you have at the attack at B. There are three russian divisions in the north which should stop the mongal divisions. Russians should protect the road to siberia at all costs.

I don't think China can punch through. They should just move into hexes with Japan and bombard. Nothing like a war of attrition with the Chinese. A thousand casualties a day starts to add up after a couple months. If the chinese can place troops on a resourse location they stop it from producing. No need to take it.

ORIGINAL: 2ndACR

That is one of Hirohito's theories shot to pieces, literaly. I was wondering how the IJA air force would fare against LaGG-3, Yak-1 and MIG's. Nates are useless a/c. I have not yet reached all my attack positions yet and am also waiting to bring in IJN air units.

I am going to use at least 3 Zero units and all Army bomber units. I am not going to do a sea assualt though.

Its not my fault you can't run an air campaign. where are the zeros you were supposed to bring in and why isn't the home islands air force in manchuko or flying from bases in northern japan? Where are the air forces from china?

Hirohito

This is not my AAR, huckleberry. I am not posting in mine, because my attack has not begun yet. Once it does, I will be posting in mine.

ORIGINAL: dtravel

Can't say I'm surprised the Japanese are having such problems. After all, the USSR spanked them pretty thoroughly not that many years earlier. As I recall, that was a big factor in why Imperial Japan went after the DEI.

Are the russians in vladisvostok cut off from supplies? ARe the russians in B cut off from supplies? Why are you attacking B? Just encircle it.

How many divisions are in the V area? Did you move the armored units from the home islands? How many engineers are you using to reduce the fortifications?


You don't attack everywhere at once, isolate the russians from each other, encircle them then bring up superior forces on one pocket and smash it. You need all the armor you can get your hands on and engineers with high assault factors. If the base doesn't have HI or oil production or resources you want to save bomb it with everything you can put in the air. DOn't attack anything if you haven't cut it off from resupply/reinforcement first.

Hirohito

ORIGINAL: WiTP_Dude

Doesn't look like it is as simple as some have suggested. Not too surprised, obviously.

I never said it was "simple". Do you actually read my posts? I said it took a lot of planning and preparation and you had to have your forces positioned to cut the russians off from supply and you had to use PP to bring the armor and air force from the home islands. Also you didnt use enough SRA troops, you need all 12 divisions, not 5. If you don't have your forces prepositioned to take undefended bases and lightly defended bases quickly and you don't cut the russians off and surround them and you dont send enough troops, then I dont know what will happen. I don't run campaigns without lots of preparation.

Hirohito

ORIGINAL: moses

After a long battle the secret to making progress finally is found. All engineers must be concetrated at one location so that even with 0 to 1 odds it is possible to reduce the fortifications. The battles will be bloody but it beats letting the russian pound you with constant bombardment. I recommend the following.

1. The main attack should come at Blagoveshchensk. This is the only place where a decisive result can occur. If you win at Vladastok the Russians can do a fighting retreat and all you have at the end of the day is a large russian army sitting on the road to Siberia. (BTW Siberia gets daily so they won't stave.) Taking out Blagoveshchensk gives the possiblity of cutting off and destroying the russian after a brutal battle.

2. Victory requires air superiority. All results obtain in this AAR were done with air power turned off after the first few days. I did this because it is very hard to do the air war head to head solitare since the weaker side has to be tricky and hit the enemy at weak points and its hard to trick myself. Unless Japan moves a bunch of air into Russia the results of this AAR should be considered scewed in favor of JAPAN.

3. So I believe russia can possibly be defeated if Japan brings in maybe four zero squadrens and attacks as in point one above with the engineers instead of the method I tried in the AAR. The Russian should repond by sending everything to Blagoveshchensk even if it means Vladastok will fall.

4. This will have to be tested and I don't know when or if I will have time. In any event its not going to be a two month battle. Even if B can be taken there is still a long road ahead. I would guess even in the best case if the strategy works we're talking 4 months.

5. So 10 divisions lost for 4 months and probably several more since many will be worn down and will not be able to charge straight into China with much effect. Probably several hundred zero's shot down over russia. And don't forget about russian bombers hitting targets in Japan. The plan is not impossible but it looks difficult and very dangerous.

6. If it goes wrong and B is not taken Japan is looking at early defeat. Before I started launching attacks with a large stack of engineers it looked like it was going to be constant attrition forever and the JAP forces were wearing down.

You have to cut V off before you attack it. B, too. Why weren't you using engineers from the beginning? I always do that. Again, you don't actually read my posts or you wouldn't have made all these mistakes.

Oh, I get it. You are deliberately running a screwed up campaign so thatyou can scream "SEEE, Hirohito doesn't play witp". When I get my computerat the end of the month I'll show you how to run thiscampaign.

Hirohito

ORIGINAL: moses

After a long battle the secret to making progress finally is found. All engineers must be concetrated at one location so that even with 0 to 1 odds it is possible to reduce the fortifications. The battles will be bloody but it beats letting the russian pound you with constant bombardment. I recommend the following.

1. The main attack should come at Blagoveshchensk. This is the only place where a decisive result can occur. If you win at Vladastok the Russians can do a fighting retreat and all you have at the end of the day is a large russian army sitting on the road to Siberia. (BTW Siberia gets daily so they won't stave.) Taking out Blagoveshchensk gives the possiblity of cutting off and destroying the russian after a brutal battle.

2. Victory requires air superiority. All results obtain in this AAR were done with air power turned off after the first few days. I did this because it is very hard to do the air war head to head solitare since the weaker side has to be tricky and hit the enemy at weak points and its hard to trick myself. Unless Japan moves a bunch of air into Russia the results of this AAR should be considered scewed in favor of JAPAN.

3. So I believe russia can possibly be defeated if Japan brings in maybe four zero squadrens and attacks as in point one above with the engineers instead of the method I tried in the AAR. The Russian should repond by sending everything to Blagoveshchensk even if it means Vladastok will fall.

4. This will have to be tested and I don't know when or if I will have time. In any event its not going to be a two month battle. Even if B can be taken there is still a long road ahead. I would guess even in the best case if the strategy works we're talking 4 months.

5. So 10 divisions lost for 4 months and probably several more since many will be worn down and will not be able to charge straight into China with much effect. Probably several hundred zero's shot down over russia. And don't forget about russian bombers hitting targets in Japan. The plan is not impossible but it looks difficult and very dangerous.

6. If it goes wrong and B is not taken Japan is looking at early defeat. Before I started launching attacks with a large stack of engineers it looked like it was going to be constant attrition forever and the JAP forces were wearing down.

You can't let the russian troops support each other. You have to cut them off from each other. What are your troops in mongolia doing? And the troops on the other side of B where the trans siberian railroad is running east/west? you have cavalry, use it. The russians only bring up reinforcements if you let them.

Hirohito

Why must everything be so emotional??

I ran the AAR because I thought it would work. If you read my posts in your earlier thread I was actually quite supportive of your idea after some initial skepticism.

Now I'm not stupid. I spent many years as an army staff officer, got a masters degree and studied military history for many years. Of couse mistakes were made in my AAR. Thats why I did it to see what works. Now just listen a bit.

1.) I turned air off after the first couple turns. Its difficult to model air strategy when playing solitare. It became clear that more aircraft were neded early on and once that was established I turned it off. It had little effect on the AAR I did.

2.) I attacked in two locations. One attack at B. and one at V.
I did so because it looked at first that both would succeed easily and I wanted to move as fast as possible.

3.) Now look at the map. There is no good way to surround either location. V can only be surrounded if you want to do it by sea. This did not seem a good idea. I guess B can be surrounded from the north but this would take over a month and the russian would have lots of time to respond.

4.) The russian forces an Imam can reinforce B or V very quickly. (within 7 days) and there is little Japan can do about it. You can attack at Imam I suppose but this is the worst option as it is a mountain hex. When you cross the river to attack either B or V your forces become disrupted. You have to either attack disrupted or bombard for a few days before attacking. In either event the positions can be rienforced before you can take them.

Perhaps there is some way to finess this and win without a long hard slog but I don't see it.