Focus Pacific: down with the Wulf ( no durnedwolf please)

[BillBrown]

Off we go to the Aleutian Islands.

He took Umnak and I wonder if he will continue? dutch harbor has a little bit protecting it, but I really do not have much
in the way of Air or Naval assets to use up here. I will just have to let him have what he wants. I will take them back
later.

[BillBrown]

Last turn I was able to make a small raid on his DMSs clearing mines a Singapore.
Night Time Surface Combat, near Singapore at 50,84, Range 5,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DMS W-1, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
DMS W-2, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DMS W-3, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
DMS W-5, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
DMS W-6, Shell hits 19, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Marblehead
DD Barker
DD Bulmer
DD Paul Jones
DD Parrott
DD Stewart

Poor visibility due to Rain with 96% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Rain and 96% moonlight: 6,000 yards
Range closes to 7,000 yards...
Range closes to 5,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 5,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 5,000 yards
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-3 at 5,000 yards
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-5 at 5,000 yards
DD Parrott engages DMS W-5 at 5,000 yards
DD Paul Jones engages DMS W-2 at 5,000 yards
Range closes to 2,000 yards
Massive explosion on DMS W-5
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-5 at 2,000 yards
DD Stewart engages DMS W-2 at 2,000 yards
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-3 at 2,000 yards
DMS W-3 sunk by DD Paul Jones at 2,000 yards
DD Barker engages DMS W-2 at 2,000 yards
Isomura, C. orders Japanese TF to disengage
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-6 at 2,000 yards
DD Stewart engages DMS W-5 at 2,000 yards
DD Parrott engages DMS W-5 at 2,000 yards
DD Paul Jones engages DMS W-2 at 2,000 yards
DD Bulmer engages DMS W-1 at 2,000 yards
DD Barker engages DMS W-2 at 2,000 yards
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-6 at 2,000 yards
DMS W-2 sunk by DD Stewart at 2,000 yards
DMS W-1 sunk by CL Marblehead at 2,000 yards
DD Bulmer engages DMS W-6 at 2,000 yards
Massive explosion on DMS W-6
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-6 at 2,000 yards
DMS W-5 sunk by CL Marblehead at 2,000 yards
DD Parrott engages DMS W-6 at 2,000 yards
DD Paul Jones engages DMS W-6 at 2,000 yards
DD Barker engages DMS W-6 at 2,000 yards
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-6 at 2,000 yards
DD Barker engages DMS W-6 at 2,000 yards
Combat ends with last Japanese ship sunk...


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

Night Time Surface Combat, near Singapore at 50,84, Range 6,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DMS W-4, Shell hits 15, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Marblehead
DD Barker
DD Bulmer
DD Paul Jones
DD Parrott
DD Stewart

Reduced visibility due to Rain with 100% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Rain and 100% moonlight: 6,000 yards
Range closes to 8,000 yards...
Range closes to 6,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 6,000 yards
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-4 at 6,000 yards
DD Stewart engages DMS W-4 at 6,000 yards
DD Bulmer engages DMS W-4 at 6,000 yards
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-4 at 6,000 yards
DD Paul Jones engages DMS W-4 at 6,000 yards
DD Bulmer engages DMS W-4 at 6,000 yards
Range closes to 4,000 yards
DD Stewart engages DMS W-4 at 4,000 yards
Range closes to 2,000 yards
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-4 at 2,000 yards
DD Paul Jones engages DMS W-4 at 2,000 yards
Morioka H. orders Japanese TF to disengage
Range increases to 3,000 yards
Massive explosion on DMS W-4
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-4 at 3,000 yards
CL Marblehead engages DMS W-4 at 3,000 yards
DMS W-4 sunk by DD Paul Jones at 3,000 yards
Combat ends with last Japanese ship sunk...
------------------------------
The best part is all my ships got 5-12 night experience.
It is needed.

[BillBrown]

Now to Sumatra. He has taken tow bases in the North and is moving on Sabang.

I do have a bit of a surprise for him at Palembang.
One thing to note, there are NO British or Indian troops at Palembang, only Dutch.

[BBfanboy]

Looks like your Chinese troops had good field forts during that bombardment exchange, and the IJA did not.

Nice coup to whack those DMSs. Now he will have to rely on smaller, slower ships with less experienced crews. [&o]

[BillBrown]

I just did the March 1, 1942 turn and there is only 1 more month of invasion bonus left for him. He still has not
invaded in a lot of places I had expected. None on Java, Timor, Ceram, anywhere in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, etc.
To honest, he has not done much in the way of Amphibious invasions anywhere on the map other that the Aleutian Islands.
He has taken Kavieng and Rabaul, but nothing else in the area.

[BillBrown]

5 of them with 4, 2 with 3, 3 with 2 and 1 with a 1. All of the HQs have just 1. It also helps that the
Inf have from 49 to 53 experience and the moral is decent at 51 to 96.
Players do have to remember that bombardment attacks help the enemy gain experience.

[BillBrown]

The expected DA took place SE of Sian and it was about how I predicted.
Ground combat at 84,42 (near Sian)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 284530 troops, 2647 guns, 777 vehicles, Assault Value = 9510

Defending force 100597 troops, 503 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3250

Japanese adjusted assault: 4542

Allied adjusted defense: 6691

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
33153 casualties reported
Squads: 130 destroyed, 2283 disabled
Non Combat: 10 destroyed, 242 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 283 disabled
Vehicles lost 28 (1 destroyed, 27 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
3263 casualties reported
Squads: 137 destroyed, 426 disabled
Non Combat: 71 destroyed, 168 disabled
Engineers: 6 destroyed, 29 disabled
Guns lost 43 (1 destroyed, 42 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Assaulting units:
63rd Division
26th Division
40th Division
5th Infantry Brigade
8th Engineer Regiment
36th Division
17th Infantry Brigade
144th Division
12th Division
25th Division
23rd Division
4th Brigade
7th Ind.Mixed Brigade
123rd Division
14th Division
27th Division
15th Division
31st Infantry Brigade
3rd Division
13th Division
8th Recon Regiment
110th Division
302nd Division
39th Division
250th Division
1st Mortar Battalion
52nd Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment
6th Army
15th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
20th Army
4th Mortar Battalion
2nd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
North China Area Army
7th RF Gun Battalion
14th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
35th Const Engineer Regiment
51st Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
10th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
6th RF Gun Battalion
34th Const Engineer Regiment
8th Mountain Gun Regiment
3rd RF Gun Battalion
2nd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
36th Const Engineer Regiment

Defending units:
7th New Chinese Corps
85th Chinese Corps
12th Chinese Corps
48th Chinese Corps
13th Chinese Corps
15th Chinese Corps
2nd Chinese Cavalry Corps
96th Chinese Corps
40th Chinese Corps
8th Route Army
98th Chinese Corps
29th Chinese Corps
8th New Chinese Corps
1st War Area
Jingcha War Area
3rd Group Army
36th Group Army
24th Group Army
31st Group Army
39th Group Army
-------------------------------------
I have turned off replacements to all Chinese Infantry except those in this hex.
I get 35 squads per turn as replacements, I will see how many these units can take on.
I have 0 in the pool at this time. all units have supply, none are below required and
the mouseover shows 14519 supply in the hex. I think I can rebuild faster than he can
and I have a lot less disabled squads than he does. Might I be able to stop him?
----------------------------------------------
In bad news, I lost Clark field today.
Ground combat at Clark Field (79,76)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 100001 troops, 968 guns, 323 vehicles, Assault Value = 2637

Defending force 33595 troops, 696 guns, 891 vehicles, Assault Value = 392

Japanese adjusted assault: 2825

Allied adjusted defense: 628

Japanese assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Clark Field !!!

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

Japanese ground losses:
3661 casualties reported
Squads: 11 destroyed, 287 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 27 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 57 disabled
Guns lost 12 (1 destroyed, 11 disabled)
Vehicles lost 29 (5 destroyed, 24 disabled)
Units pursuing 1

Allied ground losses:
8288 casualties reported
Squads: 305 destroyed, 27 disabled
Non Combat: 714 destroyed, 47 disabled
Engineers: 144 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 183 (183 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 152 (151 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Units retreated 17
Units destroyed 1
Expected, but always sad.
-------------------------------

[BillBrown]

Here is a picture of Sian showing the amount of supply generated each day

[BillBrown]

Mar 2, 1942

At hex 84,42( 2 hexes SE of Sian ) I gained 8 new squads and 8 re-enabled squads.

This is kind of cool, Dutch PBYs went 16 hexes.
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Kota Bharu at 51,75

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid spotted at 27 NM, estimated altitude 4,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 16 minutes

Allied aircraft
PBY-5 Catalina x 12

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
xAK Hakonesan Maru
xAK Mikasa Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Kaiko Maru

Aircraft Attacking:
12 x PBY-5 Catalina launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 2 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo
---------------------------------------------
Not much else happened this turn.

[BBfanboy]

That is a very long distance torp attack! Did you have a great D/L on that TF beforehand?

[BillBrown]

I am not sure how good the DL was, but I do have a lot of PBYs and Dorniers available and are flying. I am sure I had some DL, just not sure how much.

Mar 3, 1942

Not much happening. At hex 84,42 my stack gained 24 more AV, +3 new squads and 21 re-enabled squads. Note that he is bombing the stack also, so I
am actually re-enabling more that I show since some are disabled between my readings.

[BillBrown]

Mar 4, 1942.

Another successful surface raid. CL Boise teamed up with 4 excellent French DDs
and caught two TFs off of Rabaul. My TF was spotted last turn and bombed to no effect
so I really did not expect to find much there, but I guess he thought I would retire.

Round 1 warmup:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Rabaul at 106,125, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
PB Chiyo Maru #4, Shell hits 32, and is sunk
PB Fukui Maru, Shell hits 25, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Boise
DD Kleber
DD Desaix
DD Le Casque
DD Le Hardi
----------------------------------------
Round 2 main event:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Rabaul at 106,125, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Karii, Shell hits 9, and is sunk
TK Akatsuki Maru, Shell hits 14, and is sunk
TK Hoyo Maru, Shell hits 9, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
TK Itukusima Maru, Shell hits 10, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
TK Nisshin Maru #2, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
TK San Clemente Maru, Shell hits 14, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
TK Tonan Maru #3, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
TK Okayama Maru, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
E Aotori, Shell hits 19, and is sunk
E Midoritori, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
E Kasshokutori, Shell hits 1, on fire
E Kurosakana, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
E Midorisakana, Shell hits 15, and is sunk
E Haiirosakana, Shell hits 8, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Boise, Shell hits 3
DD Kleber
DD Desaix
DD Le Casque
DD Le Hardi
--------------------------------------------------
I believe that TK Okayama Maru sank just after combat,
but it did not show up in the sunk ship list yet.
That has to hurt. 2 Tonan Whalers, and at least 2 Type-N TL class
Tankers( Cap 12,800 ) and 2 type-1 TL ( cap 11,600 )
----------------------------------------------------------------
CL Boise starts th e game with 38 night experience, she is up to 61 now,
she gained 12 last night.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At hex 82,42 I received 16 new squads and 8 more were re-enabled.
--------------------------------------------------------------
I have been putting up some fighters at Lashio off and on, the turn
before this I moved some in , but he did not bomb, maybe weather?
I should have stood down my fighters but I didn't. The air 2 air losses
were not bad, but I lost a number to write offs. But, in this mod I have
lots of airframes but am short on experienced pilots. Since I am defending
over my base, I did not lose many pilots. It looks like I lost 9 pilots and
23 airframes. It would appear he lost that many airframes or maybe a few less
but he should have lost more pilots than I did.
-------------------------------------------------------------

[Capt. Harlock]

Another successful surface raid. CL Boise teamed up with 4 excellent French DDs
and caught two TFs off of Rabaul. My TF was spotted last turn and bombed to no effect
so I really did not expect to find much there, but I guess he thought I would retire.

Round 1 warmup:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Rabaul at 106,125, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
PB Chiyo Maru #4, Shell hits 32, and is sunk
PB Fukui Maru, Shell hits 25, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Boise
DD Kleber
DD Desaix
DD Le Casque
DD Le Hardi
----------------------------------------
Round 2 main event:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Rabaul at 106,125, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Karii, Shell hits 9, and is sunk
TK Akatsuki Maru, Shell hits 14, and is sunk
TK Hoyo Maru, Shell hits 9, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
TK Itukusima Maru, Shell hits 10, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
TK Nisshin Maru #2, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
TK San Clemente Maru, Shell hits 14, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
TK Tonan Maru #3, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
TK Okayama Maru, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
E Aotori, Shell hits 19, and is sunk
E Midoritori, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
E Kasshokutori, Shell hits 1, on fire
E Kurosakana, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
E Midorisakana, Shell hits 15, and is sunk
E Haiirosakana, Shell hits 8, and is sunk

Excellent French DD's indeed. I don't think I've seen the annihilation of a Japanese TF in early '42 before. [X(]

[GetAssista]

Congratulations! Yet another justification for the already widespread JFBs' Boise-phobia [:)]

[Bif1961]

The Le Hardi class of French DDs have 7 torpedoes and if we assume all were fired, 28 total, that was a hit rate of 35-36%. That is good shooting TEX.

[BillBrown]

It has been 5 days since I posted last. We have not done any turns in that time. This was an accepted slow game, my opponent
works 4 ten hour days, Monday to Thursday. In addition he is preparing for shoulder surgery next week, so is doing a number
of jobs about the house. We sill get back into the game soon I am sure.

[BillBrown]

Mar 4, 1942. I guess if I make an entry here, he will send a turn. [:D]

Another turn without much happening. He took Pontianak today. Lots of aircraft
dropped bombs everywhere. Other than that, nothing to report.

[BillBrown]

March 7, 1942

Not a lot happening, but this is going to be a problem.

Ground combat at Nanning (72,55)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 70254 troops, 657 guns, 329 vehicles, Assault Value = 2251

Defending force 20974 troops, 121 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 609

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 3

Japanese adjusted assault: 1647

Allied adjusted defense: 445

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

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 3

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

Japanese ground losses:
1547 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 110 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 17 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 36 disabled

Allied ground losses:
1908 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 217 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 19 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 16 disabled

Assaulting units:
66th Infantry Regiment
20th Ind. Engineer Regiment
19th Ind. Engineer Regiment
245th Division
19th Ind.Mixed Brigade
104th Division
300th Division
301st Division
10th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
5th RF Gun Battalion
2nd RF Gun Battalion
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
2nd Mortar Battalion
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion

Defending units:
31st Chinese Corps
52nd Chinese Corps
64th Chinese Corps
35th Group Army
---------------------------------------
It does not look like I can hold him here.
the hexside to the East is blocked, that is where he came from
so my troops should retreat to the Northwest, if I can not get
them out before he retreats them.

[BillBrown]

March 8, 1942

Another turn with nothing happening. Not ground attacks, not Navel Attacks, but a bunch of air attacks.

[aaffins]

I've been considering starting a Focus Pacific game, so read through your AAR today. It seems your opponent's progress is fairly slow but you've also been able to keep him honest with several successful SCTF raids. What's your take on the overall balance of this version? It seems like if you had the Soviets active Japan would barely make any progress.