Focus Pacific-GP's Scenario 78

[btd64]

ORIGINAL: BillBrown

That is good, I still do not understand the French leader problem.

I'm working on figuring it out....GP

[Cavalry Corp]

Okay here is some news

We have just restarted the game 2 day turns and play by email. I am Japan.

We have allowed only one house rule (as recommended) which is to play political points for leaving borders.

we have first turn rules of only one port strike with CV but land-based can also attack ports. However we have assumed the allies have some indication something is up and can give full orders to air units and ships at sea.

Japan lost around 170 aircraft on the first two days while the allies lost nearly 400.

Japan has targeted Pearl Harbour and Manila obviously as primary targets. It is yet to be seen how bad the damage was but it's not as bad on Manila as I hoped.

Will keep you posted

Found one error - there are several Japanese a units targeting Russia on the first turn. Luckily I found most of them but not all but they did not fly anyway. It would be nice if the Japanese industry had enough supply on all its bases for the first turn. Something I overlooked and needed to correct on the second turn.

[btd64]

Thank you Michael. I'm in Florida right now on a much needed vacation. I'll check this out when I get home. On the bright side the Japanese won't attack the Russian as they're not active....GP

[Cavalry Corp]

OK noted have a good break... thanks for the update.

[btd64]

Bill Brown fixed the french pilot/leader problem for me. Thank you Bill. I will post updated files as soon as I can....GP

[Cavalry Corp]

Game seems to be running well now we are in mid Jan 42 - still seems unlikely anytime soon to take Singapore or Manila - but if that's the reality we have to live with it and come up with other plans.

One thing I cannot get my head round is ok PI have more units - ok I can accept that but the exp is low say 35 but these units still fend off exp 80+ Jap Divisions.

[Dili]

Maybe too much firepower?

[Bearcat2]

IJN CA's Banda, Adatara, Asahi start the game in their 44' configuration with the advanced radar; is that by design?

[btd64]

ORIGINAL: Bearcat2

IJN CA's Banda, Adatara, Asahi start the game in their 44' configuration with the advanced radar; is that by design?

Nope, I will add to the list. Good catch....GP

[btd64]

ORIGINAL: cavalry

Game seems to be running well now we are in mid Jan 42 - still seems unlikely anytime soon to take Singapore or Manila - but if that's the reality we have to live with it and come up with other plans.

One thing I cannot get my head round is ok PI have more units - ok I can accept that but the exp is low say 35 but these units still fend off exp 80+ Jap Divisions.

I will take another look. Thanks Michael....GP

[Cavalry Corp]

Now in Feb 42 - game feels better but... The allied Land units are very powerful is that by design-they may have low morale etc but the AV values are huge as I said before, this includes in China. In China I believe a stalemate will soon appear - no way can we take on the huge units that said we are causing quite a lot of damage with our air. We will soon see some big battles (outside of China)and I will try and advise you. we have left and by passed Singapore ( that's impossible with about 120,000 allied troops) and at Manila still not there the allies have only just voluntarily left clark field. In the air the Zero is the only reasonable Jap plane other are useless or getting shredded. The allied 4E are starting to appear and nothing can really stop them - did you reduce them much? It would be nice to have a reasonable Jap fighter in early 42. The P38 and Skyrocket are about now but I assume you reduced pilot qualities etc as they do not seem as deadly yet as in the previous game.

I can send you a turn when you like.

[btd64]

Thanks Michael. I have printed out your report and will add it to the list of things to check. Right now I'm tied up with another project. As soon as I get some free time, I will dive into these things....GP

[Cavalry Corp]

OK that's good. I will also let you know how the major ground assaults go. The first challenge is trying to capture Nourema (is that how you spell it). We are also going to have to soon face Manila. However we have bypassed Singapore that is going to be impossible. Especially as it generates its own supply. Though to be honest the Allied player has stuffed it full of units probably around 40.

[btd64]

BUMP for a new player....GP

[Cavalry Corp]

We are now in March 1942.

It is a summary.

The mod has been significantly modified from the previous version and the allies have been dumbed down somewhat. However Singapore still generates its own supply against my advice and I cannot see an easy way to take it at all. The Allied air force in terms of replacements has been reduced and the pilot quality also reduced but the allies still have superior planes to those of the Japanese. What the Japanese need is a heavy fighter to defend against the four engine bombers and an early arrival of some of their more advanced fighters. On the basis of the opening of the scenario it feels like Japan could in fact be on the defensive but you have a huge Navy.

Manila and Singapore are pretty much impossible to take by March 42 because of the high value of the allied units. The Japanese land units are just not capable of taking heavily fortified and defended positions. That said Manila is under siege and bombardment and I think will fall in a month or so. I have bypassed Singapore.

The Japanese navy is outstandingly impressive and can sweep anything from its path but the Allied navy is also pumped up as well. The new naval units make the game very interesting indeed. The Japanese carriers have also been upgraded somewhat and have larger plane capacities which makes them quite deadly.

In the central pacific I have taken midway and advanced almost as far as Fiji in the south. The allies are not really capable of stopping you from doing this. I think so far the allies have lost one CV which is the Ark Royal and CVL . I have lost one CVL and I think to CVE's if you are interested in those kind of tallies.

In China the Chinese Air Force is also pumped up somewhat and the high value of their combat units makes them fairly impossible to drive them back. However the Japanese air. It is capable of inflicting heavy casualties on the Chinese land units. However apart from in the far north I have not really managed to drive them back at all.

However in the DEI it's possible for the allies to put up a very strong defence because some of the bases make supply and they have more land units than the stock game. The Allied air force although reduced from the previous version is still very strong and there is no way to stop the four engine bombers. This means once you take an oil base it can be obliterated by B-17. That said the Japanese air force has the best and most experienced pilots I have ever seen in a mod but they are dying fairly fast because the planes are no good except for the zero and even that cannot stand up to the best Allied planes it seems. Though as I said before the Allied air force has been reduced in terms of its quality and replacement availability. Maybe we are yet to see that take effect.

As I said we are just in March 42 and maybe it's a bit early to say. My allied opponent feels under a lot of pressure he tells me. Last time we had to abandon the game in May 42 because the allies were pretty much on the open offensive against me. As I said earlier the Allied forces have been dumbed down somewhat and we will see what happens. I hope this is of some value.

[BillBrown]

My opponent was able to take Singapore on Feb 22, 1942. He did a good job in getting a large number of Infantry Divisions across the river.

As far as China, you have 18,000+ AV in Manchuria. The soviets are inactive, so you have about 10,000 AV you can buy out if needed. That
should be enough to crush China.

[Cavalry Corp]

Dear all

Thank you for the note about Singapore, I suppose it shows it can be done I assume you are running the latest version? Did you put the extra allied troops in there like the 18th division.

On the subject of the AV value in Manchuria. The new scenario has the political points substantially reduced from what I see. So far I have only been able to buy out around two or three divisions and spent a lot of points getting the support troops like engineers.

[BillBrown]

The Japanese start with 5000 PPs and get 100 per turn. Seems like a lot.

the original had 1600 to start and 90 per turn.

This was his first crossing. I did not bring any additional troops
I did change the leaders of the 9th and 11th Indian divisions

Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 82020 troops, 707 guns, 323 vehicles, Assault Value = 2737

Defending force 70978 troops, 779 guns, 848 vehicles, Assault Value = 1316

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 5

Japanese adjusted assault: 3182

Allied adjusted defense: 2173

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 5)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 5

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

Japanese ground losses:
5316 casualties reported
Squads: 56 destroyed, 577 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 126 disabled
Engineers: 9 destroyed, 70 disabled
Guns lost 97 (3 destroyed, 94 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1011 casualties reported
Squads: 21 destroyed, 146 disabled
Non Combat: 37 destroyed, 95 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 46 disabled
Guns lost 48 (2 destroyed, 46 disabled)
Vehicles lost 38 (3 destroyed, 35 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Assaulting units:
41st Guard Division
56th Division
6th Guards Division
4th Guards Division
Imperial Guards Division
7th Guards Division

Defending units:
1st Hyderabad Battalion
3rd Cavalry Regiment
2nd Loyal Battalion
11th Indian Division
1st Manchester Battalion
27th Australian Brigade
1st Malay Battalion
2nd Gordons Battalion
2/17 Dogra Battalion
SSVF Brigade
2nd Malay Battalion
9th Indian Division
109th RAF Base Force
2nd HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
113th RAF Base Force
22nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
3rd HK&S Light AA Regiment
24th NZ Pioneer Coy
223 Group RAF
Malayan Air Wing
1st ISF Base Force
Singapore Base Force
112th RAF Base Force
Malaya Army
224 Group RAF
2nd ISF Base Force
1st Indian Heavy AA Regiment
111th RAF Base Force
AHQ Far East
Singapore Fortress
1st HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
110th RAF Base Force
3rd Heavy AA Regiment
III Indian Corps
109th RN Base Force

[Cavalry Corp]

Thank you for sharing this. In my game the Allied defenders of Singapore are around 140,000 troops at the moment.

Sorry about the issue with the political points I may not have noticed that. Seems like there is less to me but that must be my imagination.

[paradigmblue]

Thanks for keeping this going Patton.