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Guards Mixed Brigade - This unit will eventually form the basis for a division when the other components arrive in early '43. If you check the "Unit Organization" button now, you can click on the other LCUs and change what they prep for. Some players forget that you can start the later reinforcements prepping for future objectives now. It effects some of your reinforcements coming in soon. Just a reminder. [;)]

After Balikpapan, but before invading Java you will probably want to take Makassar. To speed up this conquest, make sure you take both Pare Pare and Watampone first so his LCUs at Makassar have no valid retreat route and you don't have to waste time chasing them down. Use a Fast Transport TF or two to speed up your conquest in the SRA rather than wait for your transports when all you want to land is a SNLF.

As always, good advice, Michael. I never knew that I could prep reinforcements before they arrive. Thanks!

I am aware that the Gds Bde is part of the 1 Gds Div. That division will most likely become the reserve division based at Truk, depending on the situation by early 43, of course.

20 Dec 41

Sub War

The I-25 played cat and mouse with several Allied ASW TFs off the US west coast throughout the day for no damage on either side. Time to move her a little bit.

5 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

4 Fleet

The construction battalion allocated to Wake is about a day out. Finally…

SE Fleet

The Rabaul Invasion force has set sail from Truk. It contains the Guards Brigade, 144 Infantry Regiment and Maizuru 1 SNLF. It is escorted by KB and a surface TF of 2 BBs, Kitakami and Oi, and 4 DDs. The 4 Aobas were to accompany this as well but 2 were beat up by 1000 lbers from the Wake Vindicators and need to repair sys damage before heading to Japan for complete repairs and the others are in Truk eliminating the small amount of sys damage they have.

I bought the 90 Infantry Regiment out of Manchuoko, which is loading on xAPs for the trek to Truk. It’ll catch up with the Rabaul Invasion force in time for the Pt. Moresby Invasion. Now I’m saving my PPs for the 20 Division, from Korea, which I’ll buy out piecemeal as the PPs accumulate. The 20 Division is destined for the SRA and will be assigned to the Southern Area Army, where it will assist in the liberation of the SRA. Then it becomes a reserve division, most likely for the SRA. I hope to have a couple of infantry regiments (at least) in the initial Java invasion force.

Hong Kong

Minesweepers should clear the mines out of Hong Kong harbor tomorrow. Then the 38 Division will load and head to Malaya and the artillery will load and head to the Philippines. There is a nice pile of supply there and the resource centers, HI and shipyard are all repairing nicely.

China

A successful attack occurred on a Chinese Corps to the NW of Hwainan. Japanese losses were 151(1) to 1721(157) Chinese casualties.

Burma

The 1 Raiding regiment will be complete at Bangkok tomorrow. I will then para drop them on Pt. Blair and fly in AS, engineers, infantry and supply. Every transport aircraft in that theater will participate in this operation. Elements of the 3 Air Division will support the operation.

Philippines

All that is left of the Philippine air force are a few fighters who refuse to come up and play. The 5 Air Division is taking over air operations in this theater. The 23 Air Flotilla is almost entirely at Truk and the 21 Air Flotilla is preparing to move SW to support operations in that area.

I attacked Clark Field in a DA getting (barely) 1:1 odds. Losses were 1494(14) Japanese to 341(11) Allied casualties. Fortunately, the fort level is 0 and the bombing should keep it that way. Most of the damage was to small units and the tank brigade. I’ve withdrawn them to repair them and send them on to new missions. They had no business being there. I will bombard for a while until the artillery from Hong Kong arrives. Then I’ll bombard some more and eventually push the Allied forces to Bataan. Remember, the only infantry units I have here are the 48 Division and 65 Brigade. Once I have Clark Field, I’ll keep the Allies contained in Bataan until more forces are freed up elsewhere to take them out.

I am landing the 2 Tank Regiment at Aparri tomorrow who will move to Tuegegaro to take out the remaining Allied infantry battalion in the north. That’ll leave 3 units festering in the southern peninsula. I believe they are the 41 and 51 PA Divisions and an AS unit.

Borneo

Brunei and Miri are repairing their oil damage. The 21 IMB and 2x SNLFs will land at Singkawang tomorrow. Then the 21 IMB and 1x SNLF will leapfrog to Tobali, and will be joined by the 22 Air Flotilla HQ and some construction troops.

The 21 Division will land at Tarakan in a couple of days, escorted by the 4 BB TF and the Hosho/Zuiho TF. Then they will leapfrog to Balikpapan and Samarinda. Base Forces (and engineers if needed) are following to backfill them at each location.

Mindanao

The 4 BB TF ran into a couple more xAKLs and sank them in a couple of shots just NW of Zamboanga.

Cotabato is being squeezed by 16 Division from the west and 246 Inf Reg & two tank regiments from the east. Then they’ll move south to clear out the rest of the Island. Then I’ll set up Davao as a hub for stuff from southern Borneo and the southern SRA, as well as a safe harbor for the IJN surface forces.

Malaya

Kuantan fell today to an 8:1 DA. I took 102(0) casualties to 739(209) Brit/Indian casualties. The 22 Indian Bde and a base force were trashed and the AA regiment was destroyed.

Further south, a tank regiment successfully cut Singapore from the rest of Malaya. Some 8-12 British units are isolated from Singapore. That’s not as many as I had hoped, but better than nothing.

The IG Division and 2x tank regiments are isolating Georgetown (and 3 units there) and will reduce them in the next few days.

The 18 Division (Kuantan) is moving west to secure the base on the eastern north-south rail line.

The 5 Division is moving south from Mersing to Johore Bharu (chasing the Aussie and Gurkha bdes). They will secure Johore Bharu and await the rest of the 25 Army.

56 Division (-1 regiment) will begin landing at Mersing in a day or two. They will move west to the western north-south rail line and move north to secure it and keep British forces from heading south.

The 2 Division is a couple days out. I’m still debating where to send it. There are 3 possibilities. I can send it to Mersing to reinforce 5 Division. Or, I can send it to Singora and have it move down the eastern rail line to secure Kota Bharu, which is still garrisoned by an Indian brigade (which is bombed daily and most likely in bad shape). The third alternative is to land it directly on Kota Bharu. That will save some time but cause more disruption to the 2 Division. What do you guys think?

Finally, there is the 38 Division. It’s destined for Malaya as well. It’ll be several days before the minefields are cleared and it’s loaded and shipped to Malaya. I suspect that it’ll go to Mersing then Johore Bharu to prepare for the attack on Singapore.

I will send in to Singapore the IG, 2, 5, 18 and 38 Divisions. The 56 Division will head to Burma. It’s missing one regiment and cannot combine. The small components will be badly damaged in an attack on Singapore. I figure 5 divisions (plus artillery and several independent engineer regiments) will do the trick at Singapore.

The RAF is down to 36 Buffalos (max) and a handful of bombers. I moved 8 Tojos, 18 Zeros and 12 Oscar Ics to Kuantan for fighter cover. There is quite a bit of damage to the port and airfield there, so they may not fly tomorrow. We’ll see what happens. There are about 200 engineers and about a dozen engineer vehicles at Kuantan so I hope they do a lot of repairs tomorrow.

Something I am considering is landing 2 Division at Mersing and then, when 38 Division lands, send the 2, 5 and 38 Divisions (along with artillery) into Singapore to start the siege. When the IG and 18 Divisions complete securing the remainder of Malaya they can join them and start the DA. Sound like a plan?

Other Stuff

I received an AMC today. I like those ships. Fast, nice guns and lots of troop and cargo capacity. Wish their durability was higher though….

My supply increased today. I believe there are two reasons for this. First, supply started unloading at Miri and second, my infrastructure increases are mainly complete for now. I have 2 A6M2 and 3 Oscar Ic factories that will be increasing for the next 3 weeks or so and 6 vehicle factories that will increase for 4 more days. Other than that, there are only a few factories (mainly engine) that are still increasing. I will not do any new expansion for the rest of the month and then look at things in January to see what has to happen. One major expansion (Ha-34 for the Helen) needs to begin in Jan 42. That’s +150 but only on 1 factory so it’s 1k supply a day for 5 months. There’s also Miri’s 150 oil repairs, but 110k of that required supply is already there on ships. I’m offloading it slowly so I don’t exceed the maximum supply and cause spoilage.

I vote land on Kota Bharu. Invasion bonus plus weak enemy opposition should equal acceptable DIS. As long as you bring enough supply along the unit will probably not need too long to get patched up and speed is always key at this stage of the game.

Yeah, you're probably right, Cribtop. I've been bombing that poor Indian brigade there since the beginning of the war and it's also been hit by a few naval bombardments for good measure. It's got to be hurting.

Ted claims he's having problems sending the turn. I think he's afraid to send it. [:D]

Siege Warfare - whatever you decide to use to take Singapore, make sure go across and then reinforce ONLY with full divisions. Any component part will suffer huge losses in any negative combat results. Been there, done that !! [X(][:D] At least two, preferably three, full divisions should go across and suffer the losses from the shock attack.

Sumatra - I like to use at least three tank units to push up the west coast after Palembang falls.

I was planning on sending 3 divisions across to Singapore initially. I wanted to send artillery with them. Do you recommend the artillery go later when the other 2 divisions arrive or should I just wait until the other two arrive as well?

Good idea about the armor in Sumatra.

You can order the artillery to follow by a few days. You just want to get across in good order and give those troops time to recover from disruption. If you go across with artillery, just have everybody set to "follow' one division.

FYI - Remember to double check the leaders of any divisions you have rebuilt. Don't want a lousy colonel leading the troops. I hope you have had the Southern Command HQ prepping for Singapore since Dec 7th. [;)] I would be moving it over to Malaya soon.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

You can order the artillery to follow by a few days. You just want to get across in good order and give those troops time to recover from disruption. If you go across with artillery, just have everybody set to "follow' one division.

FYI - Remember to double check the leaders of any divisions you have rebuilt. Don't want a lousy colonel leading the troops. I hope you have had the Southern Command HQ prepping for Singapore since Dec 7th. [;)] I would be moving it over to Malaya soon.

The Southern HQ will also get the supply moving where you put it.

Is it better to move across in pieces? I've always thought it better to wait for everyone to be there, then go as a full army, trying to get the best possible combat results for adjusted AV. This time I went over with 7 Div and 3500 AV and got a 1 to 1, resulting in the total AV dropping only to 3000 or so. I also find tanks get ruined going over the cause way and I just sent those to Burma.

---------------------------------------

18 Jan 42

Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 103418 troops, 1182 guns, 437 vehicles, Assault Value = 3518

Defending force 36473 troops, 428 guns, 260 vehicles, Assault Value = 884

Japanese adjusted assault: 2348

Allied adjusted defense: 1303

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

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 2

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

Japanese ground losses:
7694 casualties reported
Squads: 15 destroyed, 324 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 80 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 89 disabled
Guns lost 61 (5 destroyed, 56 disabled)
Vehicles lost 12 (2 destroyed, 10 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
4938 casualties reported
Squads: 87 destroyed, 264 disabled
Non Combat: 74 destroyed, 346 disabled
Engineers: 16 destroyed, 67 disabled
Guns lost 105 (27 destroyed, 78 disabled)
Vehicles lost 46 (7 destroyed, 39 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I was planning on sending 3 divisions across to Singapore initially. I wanted to send artillery with them. Do you recommend the artillery go later when the other 2 divisions arrive or should I just wait until the other two arrive as well?

Good idea about the armor in Sumatra.

It goes without saying (but I'm saying it for the noobs reading this thread) that the troops should be set to 'combat' for the final leg of the walk into Singapore. Make sure that they're not in 'move' or else you'll suffer significantly.

Crossing the causeway in "Move" mode sure can turn nasty if you have an alert Allied player who picks up on it [:@]

While we are on this subject of crossing a river, I thought the current engine is that the FIRST unit that crosses the river do a shock and once hexside control is gained, subsequent units do not do SA? If a group of units crosses the river together, then the engine determines a "fastest" unit and have it shock attack.

Or have this feature of the shock attack been reverted to where it was again?

awaw <== permanently confused by the changes

My understanding is as follows:

- Crossing a river hexside into a hex with enemy units will cause an increase in disruption of the moving units. If they are set to "Move" operations mode, this disruption will be even higher.
- If it is the first friendly unit to cross the river hexside, it will automatically shock attack;
- Any additional friendly units crossing the river hexside after the first friendly unit crossed needs to meet a threshold of strength, i.e. there is a check that there is a certain strength of friendly units already in the hex compared to the enemy units in the hex; if this threshold is not met, the subsequent friendly units crossing into the hex also automatically shock attack;
- Only once the threshold of strength is met do additional units crossing into the enemy-occupied hex via the river hexside not automatically shock attack.

I am not sure what this threshold is, but from experience I believe it to be around 1:1.

All units that cross in the same turn shock attack. If units cross later, I thought there was a factor based on the proportion AV of enemy to friendly units in the hex that determined a shock or not, but I can't remember if this is true and what that proportion is.

Correct.

Which is why ny59giants is correct, it is best to cross the river hexside into Singapore with as much AV at the same time, but to use full divisions to prevent component units being eliminated in that first costly shock attack.

If you cross with three healthy divisions - 1200 or so AV - you will likely only have the initial shock attack since you'll then have sufficient forces in the hex to prevent additional units crossing over from shock attacking.

While the three divisions recover their disruption and losses from the shock attack, other units (e.g. artillery and HQ units) can move into the hex.

When  LCU/s move into a hex the raw AVs in the destination hex are compared, if less than, equal (or 1/3 AV threshold has not previously been met )  and if the hexside is enemy controlled then those unit/s must shock attack.

The best alternative is to arrive with as much AV as you can muster-- see from the manual-

[font=calibri]The Attack Odds are used to determine if a base changes hands, as well as retreat or destruction of the defenders in a successful assault. If the assault fails (attacker fails to get odds of 1:1 or better), the attacker will suffer effects to their morale, fatigue, and disruption. These effects will be worse for shock attacks.[/font]

Sulu Sea's got it for the follow-up forces: 1/3 previous AV value.

Quick question for the group: why bother moving in HQ units? All of them have a range of at least '1', right? Why not park it on the hex outside Singapore and-at least- avoid any disruption of supply to those units?

I did park them at Johore. Worked just fine.

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I was planning on sending 3 divisions across to Singapore initially. I wanted to send artillery with them. Do you recommend the artillery go later when the other 2 divisions arrive or should I just wait until the other two arrive as well?

Good idea about the armor in Sumatra.

I did things a little differently at Singapore in my second PBEM. I sent the first wave of three divisions and some artillery in combat mode to initiate the shock attack, then I set the supporting armour, artillery and second wave of individual Rgt.'s to follow up in three days. It allowed my initial wave to recover and a large force of 600 AV to cross over completely undisrupted. Singapore fell easily after two more deliberate attacks, but I benefited from a forward Allied defence that allowed a succesful Mersing gambit and reduced number of defenders at Singapore. The key though was getting a large undisrupted secondary force across after the initial shock attack.

Thanks guys. I still have several days at least before I'll even begin movement into Singapore.