Spanking Lowpe (NJP72 vs Lowpe (A))

[Lowpe]

Combined operations....the 1st Marine Raider Btln will take yet another base, while those hardworking Aussie paras take Soc Trang...giving our troops convoys three ports to chose from in the Gulf of Siam with some nice air bases.

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Those xAPs formed up in a convoy suggest he is trying to evacuate Singers and the BB TF you attacked was meant to clear the way. You will run low on ammo before you can finish all those rats in the trap!

You think?....there is only about 10-15k of troops in Singers....I am waiting for the thundering herd to make a break for Saigon/Cam Ranh Bay. Everyday that goes by now, our land based air gets stronger to interdict such a venture...plus the Deathstar is in the middle of the China Sea ready to pounce. My guess is he has written off those ships except for the warships which can make an 18 hex full speed run.

Groote invasion leaves today...plan on building that base up to 5 runways to help.

[RangerJoe]

I guess then that it would be terrible if subs laid mines on the expected escape route along with a bunch of 2 DD surface combat TFs patrolling with appropriate orders. Along with night naval air search.

[Lowpe]

Travelling, and I messed up sending my finished turn to Japan...so game will resume on Monday.

Sorry everybody.

[RangerJoe]

Travelling, and I messed up sending my finished turn to Japan...so game will resume on Monday.

Sorry everybody.

Shhh . . . it happens!

[Lowpe]

Aug 17, 1943

Allied navy lands troops at Kompong...quite a few units are landing there with more on the way: tanks, infantry divisions, support, CD guns, amphibious tractors, etc, etc.

Have the replay only:

Two carrier fighter sweeps of Saigon inflict quite a bit of damage:

Morning Air attack on Saigon , at 60,71

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 41,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 17 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 21
A6M5c Zero x 29
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 18
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 5
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 6
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 24
Ki-84a Frank x 32

Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 29

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 1 destroyed
A6M5c Zero: 8 destroyed
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 3 destroyed
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 1 destroyed
Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 3 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 1 destroyed

Aircraft Attacking:
10 x F6F-3 Hellcat sweeping at 38000 feet


Morning Air attack on Saigon , at 60,71

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid detected at 28 NM, estimated altitude 41,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 19
A6M5c Zero x 13
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 11
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 4
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 4
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 15
Ki-84a Frank x 32

Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 28

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 3 destroyed
A6M5c Zero: 1 destroyed
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 1 destroyed
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 1 destroyed
Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 1 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 3 destroyed

[Lowpe]

Send a poor sub into Saigon, to recover downed pilots...and found their minefield:

TF 496 encounters mine field at Saigon (60,71)

Allied Ships
SS Pickerel, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

That was our second encounter....multiple minefields present.

[Lowpe]

While a lot of units are prepping for Hainan, Batan Islands, Formosa, Okinawa, and China bases....they are landing in strength to take Indochina, Vietnam, and lower Thailand while the British is marching from Tavoy. The clicks continue on our march east...

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Japan will bounce our handful of squads out of Mersing....but it was a distraction, or at best an opportunity.

[Lowpe]

Air losses for the day....tomorrow we will have land based fighters flying from Kompong a size 4 runway soon to be size 7+.

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[BBfanboy]

Wow! August 1943 and he has lost control of the South China Sea. Things are not looking good for the Emperor!
Kudos on the clarity of your strategic plans - and the endurance of your click finger!

[Lowpe]

Aug 18, 1943

The Towers Group breaks off from the Deathstar west of Soc Trang to catch IJN shipping dithering in the Straits of Malacca....

While Groot Natoena is invaded....and unloading continues at Kompong...American tanks speeding to the east!

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[Lowpe]

The damaged battleship spotted at Haiphong....another IJA attack at Chungking.

Pincering Thailand and Indochina!

So we have holding actions at Quinhon and Vinh... and the Burma Front. Many IJA Divisions in Burma.

Singers to Bangkok railway cut at Singora...at some point Japan will run low on supplies if not already there (especially in Burma).

Chinese forces moving south on Haiphong...

Commonwealth forces expanding in three directions from Tavoy....

American forces moving out from Kompong...

How can Japan answer?

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[Lowpe]

Kudos on the clarity of your strategic plans - and the endurance of your click finger!

Thanks , it has come together nicely since our major counter offensive began. We should isolate everything in the SRA and Burma and be able to move east towards Ningpo...

I am amazed at how AFBs are able to crank out turns in a half hour...

[CaptBeefheart]

Looking good. Is Saigon strongly held? That's a nice size 10 yard for your destroyers and cruisers.

Do you have a sense of how big and where the KB is? Your nav search must be giving you a lot of confidence to operate in the South China Sea.

EDIT: Toward the end those turns can take a long time, especially when creating invasion fleets. I don't play with replay and by 1945 I may even skip the combat report unless I see something unexpected in aircraft or ship losses.

Cheers,
CB

[Lowpe]

Looking good. Is Saigon strongly held? That's a nice size 10 yard for your destroyers and cruisers.

Do you have a sense of how big and where the KB is? Your nav search must be giving you a lot of confidence to operate in the South China Sea.

EDIT: Toward the end those turns can take a long time, especially when creating invasion fleets. I don't play with replay and by 1945 I may even skip the combat report unless I see something unexpected in aircraft or ship losses.

Cheers,
CB

I tried giving up the replay, especially with sync bugs, but then I don't think Tracker updated correctly with intel/ops reports which I like....especially the ops reports. But I can't open the ops/combat reports in an editor which I use for the AAR.

KB has lost a CS, CVE and a fleet Carrier.

Saigon and Cam Ranh Bay....

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[Lowpe]

Aug 20, 1943

IJA forces in complete panic in Burma and Thailand. Continue to maneuver around creating pockets, cutting roads, I wonder what the Japanese strategy here is?

Hopefully taking Prome will allow some of the huge stockpile of supplies move out of Ramree Island. I would like to use those forward bases for our plentiful Vengeance dive bomber squadrons. Today was the first day Allied air power savaged a unit in the open, and Japan is moving more troops to the clear hex...Supply has to be atrocious for Japan here although there are still hundreds of Japanese planes at Cam Ranh Bay and Saigon.

Notice the supply malus on the Burmese Militia.

In a day or two the 16th LRP will be able to paradrop somewhere from Tavoy as they will be fully assembled.

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[Lowpe]

The conquests should accelerate quickly now....

Perhaps the greatest difficulty the AFB faces, is not cracking the Japanese perimeter....but exploiting it. Superior intel usually points the direction...but being able to follow up the breakthrough and take bases is priority number one at this stage of the game. Japan is absolutely horrible in counter attacking...especially with all the tank divisions at Chungking and most of their infantry bypassed.

7-8 Divisions will make quick work of Vietnam while our engineers build size 9 and 10 runways to dominate the South China Sea from. While prep builds for the next invasion targets.

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[Lowpe]

Holding to Chungking will depend upon holding for the next attack...till some reinforcements can come in. 1300 AV over the next two weeks....will it come in time?

I thought for sure our move in Vietnam would rob the Chungking attack of forces but Japan still has 60+ units present.

You can see our pesky defense...where we are cutting roads....

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[Lowpe]

What is the reasoning for Prome not having a supply max limiter?

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[Lowpe]

Japan is in a pickle....

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[RangerJoe]

Prome is clear terrain with both a railroad and grey roads coming in.

The Japanese strategy in Burma is summed up here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3mgapAcVdU