Rumble in the Southwest witpqs-A vs Andav-J 2011-11-29 to 2017-02-08

[Macclan5]

Ser Witpqs and Andav

Thank you both.

This AAR has played a significant and important part in my love of this game (new to me in 2015).

If you will miss the daily turn in your life - I assure you many of us will as well.. and miss your observations and analyzing your tactics.

I am no where close to High School age but this is rather informative [8D]


ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY [8D]

Page 4


1942 February 06 - 2/11/2012 9:23:24 PM

The Empire captured:
Munda
Taliaboe

The Allies captured:


There were Imperial amphibious operations at:
Pare Pare
Lihir
Epi

There were Allied amphibious operations at:


In the DEI several Imperial SCTFs took out many small combatants around Batavia and elsewhere on the Java Sea side of Java. CL Tama was seen by locals to hit a mine at Batavia - let's hope that's accurate. Allied subs were active again in the Java Sea:

quote:


xAK Lisbon Maru, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Somedono Maru, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
(a few squads went down with this one)

Allied air forces were on the attack too. Several times the KB's CAP was penetrated, although the bombers doing so were badly mauled, further attrited by flak, and missed on their attack runs. SCTFs were attacked without connecting, as with the troop ships. Allied air losses on the day were severe.
Imperial convoys are standing off Semarang but have yet to begin landing.

Force Fiji, sailing from Wellington with 2 x CL and 1 x DD, and Force Tasman, sailing from Sydney with 2 x CA, 1 x CL, and 1 x DD are both moving toward position to bombard Noumea. DD Stuart, the escort for Force Tasman, executed an ASW attack against I-17 near Newcastle and evaded 6 torpedoes. Her protectees were too far away to be spotted. Hopefully her presence is too little to betray the mission.

[witpqs]

[:)]

[witpqs]

You guys were bursting with questions a while back, noting what you would like to ask Walter. Now is your chance!

[jwolf]

OK here goes: was Korea still in decent shape for supply? Ditto with whatever part of Manchuria witpqs hadn't taken yet. Maybe the last Imperial fanatics could have held out there.

[Lowpe]

Great job, both of you! We know that Andav really won. In your heart of hearts, you know that too![:)]

The rocket artillery Japan gets, only three units, pack quite the punch against soft targets and are some of my most favorite Japanese units in the game. Pity they made an appearance only so late in the game.

Really, well done! Sigh.

[Andav]

was Korea still in decent shape for supply? Ditto with whatever part of Manchuria witpqs hadn't taken yet. Maybe the last Imperial fanatics could have held out there.

Supplies everywhere were poor at the very best.

I had basically pulled everything back to Korea which could move. The Russian front only had the units which where static left to defend.

I had about 10K AF holed up in Korea. The Chinese where pushing with air support through clear terrain so the Russians would have been just brutal. I had a second line setup in better terrain but it seemed like there was always at least one clear hex which would eventually get the Allied Air Hammer followed by the Chinese numbers anvil.

For a time I was flying air units out to Keji ( or whatever Seoul) to rebuild. This probably ate a lot of supplies.

Edit: for spelling and such.

Wa

[SqzMyLemon]

Congratulations to you both. Well played.

An excellent AAR witpqs. Thank you for all the time and effort put in to document your PBEM.

[witpqs]

Admiral Wa,

What were the timing issues in Burma prior to the Allied invasion of Pegu? Were there triggers you were looking for to pull forces back? Or was there already a timetable for withdrawal?

[Rafid]

@Andav:

Are there any particular moves/decisions, that cost a lot of supplies and you regret? Did a lot get stranded in any cut off base(s)?
Also the usual question to any Imperial late game player: Could you give a few observations/recommendations on running the industy?

Thank you!

[jwolf]

running the industry

I read this as ruining the industry at first. [:D]

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Rafid

@Andav:

Are there any particular moves/decisions, that cost a lot of supplies and you regret? Did a lot get stranded in any cut off base(s)?
Also the usual question to any Imperial late game player: Could you give a few observations/recommendations on running the industy?

Thank you!

Garrison Cam Ranh Bay!!!![:D][:D][:D]

[Andav]

Garrison Cam Ranh Bay!!!!

+1!!!!!! I think my original comment to witpqs was something like, "I would like to say you caught me with my pants down but that would imply I was actually wearing pants!"

The challenge is you only have so many forces and you have so many places to cover you just have to pick and choose. This was obviously one major oversight on my part. Pegu was the first. I did not realize it was a coastal hex. CRB was the second. Both of these put major Allied armies behind my lines and destroyed large parts of my armies. Truk was the third place I should have been better prepared. Canoerebel is showing the Allies really do not have to attack strongly held bases.

In Burma, I felt like I was putting up a decent defense and the lines where holding. I felt I needed to keep the Allies out of Rangoon for as long as possible so a general withdrawal was not really planned. There were several divisions which I did not want to sacrifice which ended up getting caught by Pegu. In hind sight, the invasions from north of Australia should have triggered a withdrawal to help prevent CRB. The problem is where do you fall back to?

During most of the game, I did not do very well at a fallback defense. It is very tricky because you have to leave enough to hold the Allies or their tanks will track you down very quickly even in jungles. I think I did a much better job near Vinh/Hanoi and into China but finding defensible terrain is tough. The Allies will move through clear terrain very quickly. You have to look for anything which is not open terrain. Defending open terrain is pointless. There is a LOT of clear terrain.

I also did not do a very good job with my late war airplane research. I felt I got to Tojo and Frank fairly efficiently but I did not really work hard on the 44 and 45 models. By the time I had SAM and such, the Allies were too strong. While I would like to say I was playing a historical game, it was really just limited planning on my part. While it is awesome to have factories with multiples of 30 and 500 engines to get the bonus, if you burn all your supplies building these, it is pointless. As the Japanese, you really have to manage supply in the HI from day 1. I did not understand this until too late. While others have demonstrated this, I did not really "read and comprehend".

I will post some screen shoots of the end of the game. Things have just been very busy lately.

Wa

[mind_messing]

Congrats, well done on getting so far!

I've been jumping in and out for a while.

Q: for witpqs - what factors do you thing prolonged the timeframe of your invasions? In other words, what kept you from rapidly advancing?

Q: for Andav - what was your industry and aircraft pools like?

[Andav]

Q: for Andav - what was your industry and aircraft pools like?

I had plenty of HI banked. Aircraft pools were not great. I will post some screen shots soon. Work has been stupid busy. On Saturday, we had a new cria (baby alpaca) born on the farm. I spent most of the day watching her in between other chores. She is the little white one. Her mom is in the back. The little black one was born early about three weeks ago. Our goofy llama Trigger is photo bombing on the far right.


Wa

[BBfanboy]

Baby alpacas look super cute! May they live long and help you prosper!

My thanks for your determined defence of the HI. Few games get to that stage and even when the outcome was certain you showed that the Japanese still had some teeth and claws. Very entertaining and educational for others who may get to battle on Honshu.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

Congrats, well done on getting so far!

I've been jumping in and out for a while.

Q: for witpqs - what factors do you thing prolonged the timeframe of your invasions? In other words, what kept you from rapidly advancing?

Q: for Andav - what was your industry and aircraft pools like?

I guess the answer would depend on "when?". Sometimes LCU preparation, sometimes ship availability, sometimes other factors.

Truk was opportunistic. I only went there because a carrier battle had put enough Imperial carriers into the yard (or elsewhere [:'(]) That I knew I would have sea/air control long enough. But it was a learning experience on how to prosecute an amphibious operation against a strongly held target. It took longer than if I were better schooled to begin with. That slowed down the train that came after. If not for that carrier battle I might have skipped Truk (which I guess is standard) but it sure was nice to have that naval base. the operation helped to demonstrate the importance of naval bombardment in the game.

The general notion with my invasions was 'prepare to stay'. Even if I got my butt kicked I should be able to take and hold the objective. That might have affected the tempo of operations somewhat. I also wanted to change the axis of invasion so while the Empire was reinforcing one area a different area was invaded.

I suppose when looking at my invasions, it would be best to look at the large vectors because I adopted a technique of gaining sea and air control of an area, then cleaning up the smaller pieces. This allowed me to be preparing for the next large vector.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Andav

Q: for Andav - what was your industry and aircraft pools like?

I had plenty of HI banked. Aircraft pools were not great. I will post some screen shots soon. Work has been stupid busy. On Saturday, we had a new cria (baby alpaca) born on the farm. I spent most of the day watching her in between other chores. She is the little white one. Her mom is in the back. The little black one was born early about three weeks ago. Our goofy llama Trigger is photo bombing on the far right.


Wa

Texas looks almost exactly like Arizona. The sky is above and the ground below; the rest is different. You've got hay bales while I've got tumbleweeds! [:D]

[Andav]

As promised, some screen shots of the end of the Empire.

First, witpqs and I played 1328 turns over 5 years. Yeah us! Even in the end, I was averaging about 45 minutes a turn to adjust things. Other then my Advanced Squad Leader kit, I do not think there is a cheaper cost per hour of entertainment. I really did have a lot of fun playing this game. My inbox has been very empty lately. Here is the final score screen. To call it a major victory is an understatment.


Wa

[Andav]

Here is the end of the IJN. Everything else was sunk



Wa

[jwolf]

That's an impressive -- or depressing?? -- list showing how thoroughly the IJN was destroyed! [X(]