Rob vs. 2ndACR .. Divine intervention needed NIK mod 5.2

[Nikademus]

Looks like your defense lines are starting to gell. Be interesting to see what Scot does or if he even chooses to expand farther.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Heres the div ive been evacuating from the PI. as you can see most has already left..

[Rob Brennan UK]

BURMA

Front line pretty obvious .. highlighted are the bombers
based out of chandpur .. lots of allied fighters in various
places and 72 new P40E railed to calcutta today too.

With chandpur and dacca now max size 4 .. no 4E heavies here
just mediums .. B's chosen for thier AA defences, some bomber
groups are tipping 80 exp now ..

i dont as a rule abuse the bomber 'supply' training method .. max is about 70 i go to. then its combat ops unless a lot of
newbies arrive due to heavy losses.

Fortunately my bombers here have been relatively unscathed
and some pilots are really good ..

average hit on Pagan etc . is 200+ casualties a go . the FK51's
operating out of mandalay help a lot too.

Also mandalay almost size 6 .. i hope to make this a massive
fighter base to attrit japanese opeations in burma.

For now though its empty ( bar the recons).

I noticed that the wee base NW of diamond harbour is unefended (paras mainly a threat). Indian tank brigade divided and 1/2 moving here as a guard . All other bases should be para proof
at least long enough for the main force to arrive.

[Rob Brennan UK]

India

Weak defence on ceylon .. im well aware of it .

however i'd rather have the good troops on the mainland just in case , rather than trapped on an island .. Tricomalee gets a small brigade for defence .

Madras has 120k supply now .. mainly for re-constructing the troops from malysia . some smaller units ( ie very depleted indian brigades sent to the smaller coastal bases where engineers are pre preparing forts ..

this helps in 2 ways .. some coastal defence .. and they wont draw replacements as supply will be too low , allowing the better indian units to get the new recruits.

Always have one DIV in krachi .. just in case

and 7th armoured is in bangalore as a 'fire bridage' unit
in case of invasion.

[Rob Brennan UK]

China


Stalemate .. basically

Massive forces in Changsha .. for both sides . japan bombards daily with artillery , chinese dig in .. c 20 losses a day .. negligable . same with the woods SE of wuuchow.

the chinese are slowly gaining experiance , with most units in combat at anywhere between 60-70 .. better than start values.

discovered a wee trick to stop hoarding supply in chungking too, some one posted the idea of moving out the troops from chungking to a road hex next door .. this didnt work very well . so i moved out China command HQ .. sent chang-kai-sheck on holiday for a week or 3 .. supply plummeted and the outlying bases, noyably homan went into the green for the 1st time .. when chungking slipped below 20k . chang came back.

Nanning as you can see is cut off finally .. here the chinese bombard daily .. not much losses but all experience . another corps due to arrive tomorrow with 100% TOE artillery, the worst off one here will retreat back to wuuchow for more guns.

Doubt i can take it untill he runs out of supply, but im in no hurry . and i am hopeing that this will divert yet another division into china.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Finally points

My aircraft losses are too high for my liking ..

but to make up for that , the shipping points look excellent given the date.

its also 50/50 whether resolution will survive in derby harbour . that will boost japans numbers a bit .

Allied ops losses are high too. i'm guessing a lot of than was messing about in the DEI earlier in the war.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Last of all

aircraft losses by max dead.

hurricane losses way too high .. mostly the result of the chinese expedition earlier .. in hindsight it was a waste of airframes even if the pilots did well.

[Rob Brennan UK]

ORIGINAL: Nikademus

Looks like your defense lines are starting to gell. Be interesting to see what Scot does or if he even chooses to expand farther.

Oh he'll expand i think , japan really can't afford not to take timor/new guinea, south pacific is a low threat area i think .. noumea will be a one tough cookie if he comes here, esp with a much improved luganville.

IF i can hold a better than historic perimiter i'll be very very pleased againse someone of 2ndACR's skill and reputation.

He'e mentioned the alueutins a few times before .. if he come here fine .. even if he takes the lot i dont really care ( bar anchorage).

Eventually i want a 3 way route to hit japan with america ..

PM ---> new guinea route , islolate Rabaul .. ignore the solomons

Timor ---> up the island chain under LBA all the way to Bali .. then hammer the resources the bornea and java ..

S Pacific.. baker is -----> marshalls ----> gilberts .. as historical (ish)..

threaten from the north and possible british landing in sumatra .. and he's got the entire map to defend .. no quiet areas for japan to rest will be my policy .. he'll have to spread out to cover the lot , that means i can do more with less , so multiple fronts might be a possibility.

[Nikademus]

nice. Ironically your Burma defense looks exactly like mine with speedy, complete with the Flank defense of Mandalay. I'm starting to think he may not even attempt to crack the line though I think its a mistake in the long run due to the reach from Mandalay. Elsewhere, despite the earlier version issues, we are at much the same point game-wise. Same Q's....will he go for New G. (have not detected any Japanese moves yet from Rabaul) He's currently investing Timor, which i declined to defend. Nice to see at least the disablements from landing will slow him down a little in terms of re-using those units. (I prefer Oz as a defensive platform myself) I may have messed up his time-table a little with my suprise raid on Truk but I'm starting to get wind of new maneuvers.

Any mod comments/suggestions/thoughts?

[Rob Brennan UK]

mod comments ..

1) i really like the A2A model .. seems much more realistic than stock, it;s possibly a little too easy for allied 2E medium bombers to get through CAP due to thier improved durability , however increased AA counters that vs land bases with many bombers getting damaged. against TF's especially CV's .. tad too easy for beauforts to get through imo ..

2) AA upgrading .. much much better .. with the reduced AA for the PI and the DEI , can no longer make flak cities early on, big improvement over the last incarnation.

yet to see CV-CV combat .. so can't comment on that ..

Overall thanks for making it .. it has improved the game immesurably imo . and given the number of people using your mod you should feel proud your baby has been so well recieved.

I'd like to see RHS or CHS implement the A2A and flak improvemnets although i have never played either yet i love the AB map .. and the differing OOB looks very interesting.

I'm definatly not upto doing a truk suprise raid like yours yet though [;)]

Although .. humm .. maybe a soerbaja one .. no its too well bettied (is that a word ? [:D]) for now ..

[Nikademus]

SRA - thats good to hear.

i really like the A2A model .. seems much more realistic than stock, it;s possibly a little too easy for allied 2E medium bombers to get through CAP dur to thier improved durability , however increased AA counters that vs land bases with many bombers getting damaged. against TF's especially CV's .. tad too easy for beauforts to get through imo ..

Been looking at them. My own opinion is that the bomber losses for both sides A2A are the more accurate (Planes, particularily 2E and 2E+ just didn't get splashed as much is often given the impression in wargames) The fighter losses still tend to be on the high side but at least are more within reach of the average results i've seen from books like Shores, Lundstrom, Frank, Neillands + a couple others. I have an idea on that. We'll see. large fighter sweeps continue to be a pain to watch.

Here's hoping we see some CV action soon. (once you have TBF it will be even more interesting)

Btw.....Andrew has converted the mod for his map on his page so that is an option for you in the future.

I'm definatly not upto doing a truk suprise raid like yours yet though

Yeah well, can't blame you. That was a bit balsy. The out of sync we had prior to 1.8 showed me just how badly it could have gone. (3 CV's torped......1 sunk) Fortunately the 'real' die rolls went my way and my CV's combed the wakes with 1 exception (Yorktown hit but only minor damage)

I'm almost wishing i had been around Soerbaja....more juicy targets....though he might have had KB nearby. The Kendari raid was aborted after being snooped, similar to the aborted Rabaul raid in RL....(i'm bold....but i ain't stupid) Besides which i'd tipped my hand foolishly by reconing the base while enroute so he'd moved the real targets to safety.

Still....Beats hiding. Hiding is boring. Guess i've got a little of the King in me....(and i'm not talking Burger King either) [:D]

[Rob Brennan UK]

"Still....Beats hiding. Hiding is boring. Guess i've got a little of the King in me....(and i'm not talking Burger King either) "

I just hope its not Elvis either ! [:D][:D][:D][:D]

With this wee hiatus i've been reading nemos AAR .. any jap fanboy should have a look. he's sent me a turn to review and wow .. glad im not fighting him . as its his 2nd only game .. very very impressed.

Still its not all going his way, still needs to get to grips with the 'rules' on some minor issues, when he does .. his AAR might well rival PzB's imo.

So Andrew has done his map for your mod .. excellent .. I might have a try on that next, although i agree with you on the burma map changes .. the rest looks sooooo purdy and i can stop hitting the 3 key for terrain info ..

[ctangus]

Hi Rob,

Well done on the surface action - that's a trade I'd take too.

I'm starting a Nik Mod game on AB's map (I just sent the Dec 8th turn - it'll be bloody!)

Anyway, I wanted to offer an alternate view than you & Nik have regarding Burma on that map. I agree that if the Japanese player brings just the 2 Burma Area army Divs & supporting troops, it's possible to hold as the allies somewhere in Burma. (Well, throw in a little luck, too - I don't consider it a sure thing by any means.)

However: IRL, the Japanese committed 4 Divs to Burma by Feb or March (I forget). I can't see holding against that. Also, on AB's map, combat starts there closer to the historical time frame. The trails that slow the Japanese down early will slow the allies down later.

With all that said, in the game I'm starting I also agreed no Chinese to Burma or India until after Rangoon falls or is bypassed, to make it more playable. Again IRL Chaing Kai Shek didn't agree to send his troops to Burma until Rangoon fell. An alternate house rule could be no replacements or fort building in the area until a certain point, as Nik's right - the Brits were very unprepared.

Keep doing well!

[aztez]

Always nice when you get enemy BB confirmed sunk [:D]. You can afford to loose some of your navy but he can't so that was an allied victory.

Btw I like your plans for forthcoming offensives (all three of them are good) and I would say that keeping him busy in all parts of the pacific is the key for success.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Thanks for the kind word chaps ..

BB Resolution might even survive ! .. made it to Derby but badly flooded and no AR's in port ( not unsuprisingly) . fingers crossed though. even IF she survives it will be a long long trip to the USA for repairs and out for at least a year imo.

OR I might send her to Karichi as the next BB for Churchill to repair on my behalf [;)]

[Rob Brennan UK]

Okey Dokey , scotty has returned and the game continues :-

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 07/22/42

there has been a succesiion of really annoying subs off of noumea recently ..
there is one less now

ASW attack at 71,113

Japanese Ships
SS I-6, hits 16, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
DD Buchanan
DD Blue
DD Patterson
DD Brooks
DMS Zane
DMS Trevor
DMS Boggs


I really like the 1.8 ( and beta) changes to the ASW model .. far fafr harder to sink
the buggers .. although with 4 direct hits I-6 sank with all hands .

Also in news in the noumea area ... ML Olgalga <sp> . is plying here .. 1000 mines at luganville
and im now filling up the northern hexes of noumea island .. she's a great ML (500 a pop)
and even operating singlely she'll blanket the area in a few weeks ..

Allied command also a few (3) subs operating near the home islands of japan , more so to
keep him honest on ASW escorts than anything else. however the torpedo duds are
starting to get annoying , this is the latest in a series of failed attacks

Sub attack at 64,48

Japanese Ships
AP Akashisan Maru

Allied Ships
SS Trout

Dawn broke and Lautern saw a very very heavy and low level (10k) japanese air raid, the
AA gunners were waiting and ready ( 100% Prep) .. downed many enemy a/c and they missed
teh runway badly ..

Day Air attack on Lautem , at 33,78

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 24
A6M3 Zero x 21
Ki-49 Helen x 188

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-49 Helen: 11 destroyed, 67 damaged OUCH


Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported

Airbase hits 3
Runway hits 14

Despite the casualties at 6 ! .. the AA unit is 1/2 damaged with several guns needing repair.

As a result of this i expect the japs to stand down for a few days ,, and i have a nice sneaky
plan once more .. because 2 BB's identified North of Koepang .. humm .. Force Z reassembled
and sent to koepang .. with some P39's from derby .. BUT the carriers sent north 180 miles NW
of koepang to attack when he withdraws .. no sign of japanese CV's and im sure mine havnt
been detected as yesterday LR cap for the AK's failed due to weather and 2 AK's and one DD
hit at Koepang with no escorts flown ..

see piccie for details

[Rob Brennan UK]

also here is a view of the damaged units in derby harbour

[Rob Brennan UK]

My predicton came true ..

BB combat at Koepang.

Both sides detected each other but the japanese opened with a LL torp attack
that fortunately failed to hit anything.

Less good news is the 2 combats .. POW failed to show up for the 1st round and
only made a brief appearance in the second, as the flagship this is a bit odd.
I'll put it down to some unknown malfunction rather than gripe about it.

heres what happened .. the british CA's took a bad beating. the Japanese CA's
performed very well. One side not is the DD Mcall. was suprised and badly hit
by the japanese DD Harakaze, she rallied however and hit back hard. the poor thing
was then under the guns of the kirishima ! .. escaped again to hit the same DD.

Most other Allied ships were a disapointment .. esp the POW and Repulse.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 07/23/42

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Pagan , at 31,31


Allied aircraft
Beaufighter VIF x 9


No Allied losses

Aircraft Attacking:
9 x Beaufighter VIF bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Koepang at 28,77


Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
OS2U-3 Kingfisher: 5 destroyed

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei
BB Kirishima
BB Nagato, Shell hits 3
BB Yamato, Shell hits 1
CA Tone, Shell hits 2
CA Chikuma
CA Takao
CA Atago, Shell hits 4
DD Harukaze, Shell hits 8, on fire, heavy damage
DD Matsukaze
DD Hatakaze
DD Hayate, Shell hits 2, on fire

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales
BC Repulse, Shell hits 5, on fire
CA Pensacola, Shell hits 2
CA Salt Lake City, Shell hits 18, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CA Dorsetshire, Shell hits 2
CA Devonshire, Shell hits 13, Torpedo hits 2, on fire
CL Tromp, Shell hits 1
CL Mauritius
DD McCall, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Maury
DD Dunlap, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Alden
DD Barker

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Koepang at 28,77

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei
BB Kirishima, Shell hits 1
BB Nagato
BB Yamato, Shell hits 5
CA Tone, Shell hits 1
CA Chikuma, Shell hits 1
CA Takao, Shell hits 4
CA Atago, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD Harukaze, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Matsukaze
DD Hatakaze
DD Hayate, on fire

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Shell hits 1
BC Repulse, on fire
CA Pensacola
CA Dorsetshire, Shell hits 3, on fire
CA Devonshire, on fire, heavy damage
CL Tromp, Shell hits 2, on fire
CL Mauritius
DD McCall, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Maury
DD Dunlap, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Alden
DD Barker

[Rob Brennan UK]

A picture speaks a thousand words

[Rob Brennan UK]

Day Air attack on TF at 32,74

Day Air attack on TF at 31,75


Allied aircraft
Brewster 339D x 4
Martin 139 x 2
Beaufort V-IX x 23
P-39D Airacobra x 7


Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort V-IX: 3 destroyed, 8 damaged

Japanese Ships
CA Atago, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage


later flights found no target, assumed sunk ..

Lots of subs between the BB's and home port only 3 hexes away. even though i imagine
the battleline is burning and leaking furiously.

Allied CV's will not persue .. don't want to tempt fate with a lareg land based
strike . and will cover the AP's ordered to Koepang with the 2ndUSMC.

Elsewehere.. only one major raid in burma warrants attention

Day Air attack on Pagan , at 31,31

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 11
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 15

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 12
Hurricane IIb x 11
Wellington III x 79
B-26B Marauder x 48

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 3 destroyed, 6 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 5 destroyed, 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 2 destroyed, 4 damaged
Hurricane IIb: 3 destroyed, 5 damaged
Wellington III: 21 damaged
B-26B Marauder: 4 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
10 casualties reported

Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 26

The hurricanes performed well out of imphal a/f .. but the wellies took a battering
only one died to AA fire, the rest made it home safely if a bit holed.

All in All a rather good day for the Allies ..