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sabang and padang fall. bad weather in the Marhsalls continues. no air missions over Roi Nameur

Chinese forces break through near Changsha and are driving south to create a consolidated breakthrough.

three sub attacks this turn. 2 tankers gone - one of the big boys. And an odd sighting and 3 holes in a CL named Tojo, but the picture was that of a yamato class bb. Be interesting to find out if it was in fact a bb...

Just a note on allied late war air power.

total LBA 21,000
total HB 3,700

total naval based air 6,400

Here is an update where the battle lines are drawn.

The main allied fleets are operating around Sumatra, eastern DEI (currently at Darwin) and Marshalls

Lots of action these last three days, and prob should have posted each individually. Russians do para drops in the east and ruskies take Arshbaan, Fuchin, and Lopei. Chinese launch major attack and take Pingsiang 82.54. Chinese are pushing towards Indochina looking to rip up empire troops in echelon in the area. ALl bases in Sumatra are in allied hands except sibolga.

Invasion of Roi Namur occurs this turn, as does what I hope will be the final assault on hailer 107.30 in Manchukuo. British forces are moving to create a superbase in Oosthavan, because the port and airfield have sps of 6. Moving all engineers on island to there.

Subs - lots of combat here.
Sunk enemy CL Tojo off Bonins with 4 torps
2 fish into CA Ogaki near Guam (don't think it is sunk but shows as sunk)
3 TK
3 AK
1 E boat
allies lost 4 soviet subs all near tshushima. That was pretty dumb of me to keep them there too long.

Airfield attacks
Tarawa, Roi Namur, ternate, Ambon

Ground attacks
Sabang, padang, and oosthavan all captured.

Here is that china attack. It started in Changsha and has chewed up two hexes. I have about 5K assault and he has a few hundred. I am trying to echelon destroy as many hexes as possible and then potentially push for the coast, but I am not necessarily tied to that. Right now I am just happy to have broken the stalemate.

Russians have paratroops, wait, what![:(] They should be drinking in Berlin!

Love the endgame, even if it is butt-ugly for Japan.[:D]

I should take a moment to describe the inadequacy of the Russian fighters. Here is a recent conversion I made
That is a pretty 'good' upgrade, but seriously. With that gun value, it's hard to hit the side of a barn!

3 battalions and 1 whole division. If you game gets that far, I would assign at least battalions to rear bases, or they will be taken.

But on the bright side, the empire air force in 45 is vastly superior,

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Russians have paratroops, wait, what![:(] They should be drinking in Berlin!

Love the endgame, even if it is butt-ugly for Japan.[:D]

I also just finished getting rid of the IL series of bombers ... look at these differences.

Here is that combat at AArshan a two turns ago.

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Ground combat at Arshaan (105,33)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 195108 troops, 4571 guns, 5144 vehicles, Assault Value = 7341

Defending force 15866 troops, 160 guns, 121 vehicles, Assault Value = 366

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Allied adjusted assault: 4851

Japanese adjusted defense: 757

Allied assault odds: 6 to 1 (fort level 2)

Allied forces CAPTURE Arshaan !!!

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

Japanese ground losses:
4087 casualties reported
Squads: 256 destroyed, 143 disabled
Non Combat: 200 destroyed, 53 disabled
Engineers: 45 destroyed, 3 disabled
Guns lost 55 (41 destroyed, 14 disabled)
Vehicles lost 168 (168 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 2
Units destroyed 1

Allied ground losses:
1096 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 204 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 31 disabled
Vehicles lost 11 (1 destroyed, 10 disabled)

Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
228th Rifle Division
358th Rifle Division
22nd Engr-Sapper Bde
9th Guards Mechanized Corps
262nd Rifle Division
19th Guards Rifle Division
6th Mongolian Cavalry Division
124th Rifle Division
3rd Guards Mechanized Corps
221st Rifle Division
7th Guards Mechanized Corps
8th Engr-Sapper Bde
1197th SU Regiment
5th Guards Tank Corps
91st Guards Rifle Division
17th Guards Rifle Division
927th SU Regiment
192nd Rifle Division
735th SU Regiment
7th Mongolian Cavalry Division
3rd Gd.Breakthrough Artillery Division
6th Guards Tank Army
6th Gd.Breakthrough Artillery Division
202nd Lt.Artillery Brigade
14th AA Division
39th Army
30th AA Division
610th AT Gun Regiment

Defending units:
9th Ind.Tank Brigade
96th Division
73rd Ind.Mixed Brigade
Arshaan Fortress
4th Manchukuo Cav Brigade
34th Const Engineer Regiment

Armor 3! For some reason I thought it was Armor 2. Can you strafe with the IL.... I guess a strafing attack would half the bomb load. Pity...

Trust me the airframe is a loser, even in 1941.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Armor 3! For some reason I thought it was Armor 2. Can you strafe with the IL.... I guess a strafing attack would half the bomb load. Pity...

ORIGINAL: topeverest

Trust me the airframe is a loser, even in 1941.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Armor 3! For some reason I thought it was Armor 2. Can you strafe with the IL.... I guess a strafing attack would half the bomb load. Pity...

The IL-2 is useful as a trainer for bomber crews, but so many are available I can't get enough pilots for them. I have 100+ in the pools and have scrounged the poorer pilots from front-line squadrons to go into the training squadrons but still cannot use them all. [:(].

On the land war: Arshaan is a significant base but sort of the end of the line with only a dirt road leading south and no rail line. Hope you can get Hailar - the real key junction in the area.

This stuff is great! Keep it coming please.[&o]

Pax Mondo advocated using 3 Tank divisions for Japan against the Soviets and you might be able to hold them at the north Korea line. Well, against the AI, that is.[:)]

Empire launched largely successful strikes in Russia. MY bombers separated from their fighter protection and went into the buzz saw. Considering that, the losses were far lower than I feared. I lost 66 soviet bombers of all types. separately empire had some difficulty coordinating some long range attacks, and I bagged 27 of his in return. All in all, I think is typical A2A behavior in the long run.

Hailar falls in Russia. That one is important, because I need the rail line to push supply deeper into Manchukuo. Also won two hexes near mishan as I expand the eastern pincer.

Roi Namur invasion occurs. enemy highly disrupted. Knocked fort down three leves to 3. Should take it this turn.

regarding overall Russian strategy, I am pursuing a strategic pincer concentrating / meeting at Harbin. There are massive constraints where I can move the hulk of an army (500K+ troops). I must stay on supply lines / railroads.

From the west side, there is only one bona fide approach vector, and that is from Hailar and down that railroad to Harbin with a stop at tsithar 109.36. from a secondary western approach, I am pushing from aarshan down to taonan 107.38. No other avenue will support more than a division or two of troops, and I don't have much of a air supply transport capacity.

The western attack is open terrain without mountains or many rivers to contend with. This is where I expect more ground to be covered in the advance.

strategically, in the east, I had to mass troop to get past his initial border at mishan. from there I split my force and went both road directions from mishan. this past turn, I took both of those hexes...BUT interestingly enough, the coastal forts were not destroyed when the attack forced the other units to retreat. Odd to be sure.

My opponent has not given up the offensive. he pushed a single unit across the soviet border and empire invades Russia
I am dumping my entire air force on that hex and reconning the general area to determine if it is a general advance. I wouldn't put it past him!
I am diverting an entire army to project Vladivostok, as I don't yet have a good view of his intentions

Here is the successful capture combat. Note that the fort is not destroyed.

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Ground combat at Hailar (107,30)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 39409 troops, 425 guns, 2802 vehicles, Assault Value = 2017

Defending force 14348 troops, 220 guns, 8 vehicles, Assault Value = 256

Allied adjusted assault: 1353

Japanese adjusted defense: 121

Allied assault odds: 11 to 1 (fort level 5)

Allied forces CAPTURE Hailar !!!

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-36 Ida: 2 destroyed
Ki-46-III Dinah: 5 destroyed

Combat modifiers
Defender: forts(+), op mode(-), disruption(-), preparation(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
5096 casualties reported
Squads: 217 destroyed, 32 disabled
Non Combat: 94 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 111 destroyed, 10 disabled
Guns lost 70 (68 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Vehicles lost 6 (6 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 1

Allied ground losses:
194 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 41 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 21 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 54 (2 destroyed, 52 disabled)

Assaulting units:
33rd Tank Battalion
1012th SU Regiment
1019th SU Regiment
82nd Tank Battalion
111th Tank Division
7th Mongolian Motor Brigade
61st Tank Division
94th Rifle Division
70th Tank Battalion
73rd Tank Brigade
205th Tank Brigade
206th Tank Brigade
74th Tank Brigade
8th Gd.Motorcycle Regiment
3rd Mongolian Tank Regiment

Defending units:
160th Division
79th Division
8th Border Defense Fortress
35th Const Engineer Regiment

EDIT: Your subsequent post about Hailar (rather than the forts bracketing Mishan that I thought you were referring to) seems to suggest the fort retreated with the other units. I have seen this result too, although the fort sometimes has to abandon its biggest guns to retreat. In my game I currently have some "static" base forces and a fort on the run.

Japan starts the game with a fair number of units at Mutankiang ready to go wherever needed. As the date for Soviet activation approached he may have moved some down near Yenki to make a spoiling attack on Vladivostok. i.e. he likely has more units following that one.