Nomonhan Redux: Seydlitz (Japan) vs. MBatch729 (Allies)

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 59 Feb 03, 1942

Pretty low key turn compared to many. Only interesting thing was that my artillery came back online at Voroshilov and began pounding back at the Soviets while my aircraft continued to hit both his ground units and the airbase in an attempt to reduce his supply stocks. I also continued to pound Vladivostok by day and night.

Here are the results of the bombardment attacks.

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Ground combat at Voroshilov (112,45)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 44987 troops, 707 guns, 584 vehicles, Assault Value = 2333

Defending force 87366 troops, 1763 guns, 1176 vehicles, Assault Value = 2423

Japanese ground losses:
107 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 2 (0 destroyed, 2 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
2672 casualties reported
Squads: 19 destroyed, 38 disabled
Non Combat: 211 destroyed, 106 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 11 disabled
Guns lost 124 (65 destroyed, 59 disabled)
Vehicles lost 217 (124 destroyed, 93 disabled)

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Ground combat at Voroshilov (112,45)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 73667 troops, 1554 guns, 1015 vehicles, Assault Value = 2274

Defending force 109023 troops, 1186 guns, 1282 vehicles, Assault Value = 2328

Japanese ground losses:
677 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 10 disabled
Non Combat: 52 destroyed, 92 disabled
Engineers: 6 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 49 (25 destroyed, 24 disabled)
Vehicles lost 111 (48 destroyed, 63 disabled)



One second thought, one other thing did happen... a stack of chinese units kicked my single unit out of Ichang in China. No biggie, I'll take it back later.

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Ground combat at Ichang (83,48)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 50863 troops, 273 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1503

Defending force 2702 troops, 12 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 81

Allied adjusted assault: 889

Japanese adjusted defense: 19

Allied assault odds: 46 to 1 (fort level 2)

Allied forces CAPTURE Ichang !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(+), leaders(-)
Attacker: shock(+), supply(-)

Japanese ground losses:
1233 casualties reported
Squads: 18 destroyed, 37 disabled
Non Combat: 18 destroyed, 47 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 3 (3 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 1


Allied ground losses:
165 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 11 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled


Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:...
67th Chinese Corps...
45th Chinese Corps...
32nd Chinese Corps...
2nd Chinese Corps...
68th Chinese Corps...
75th Chinese Corps...
26th Group Army...
...
Defending units:...
13th RGC Temp. Division... (RGC stand for Royal Garbage Collection Division as all these units are crappy. At least they are better than the Tax Police Division)

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 60 04 Feb 1942

This turn started out with a night sub attack as I-158 put two fish into a tanker off Makassar, sinking the ship. Proof that my subs are still out there lying in wait. His tanker wasn't even escorted.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Feb 04, 42
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Madjene at 65,104

Japanese Ships
SS I-158

Allied Ships
TK Manatawny, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage



SS I-158 launches 8 torpedoes...

[offenseman]

ORIGINAL: seydlitz


13th RGC Temp. Division... (RGC stand for Royal Garbage Collection Division as all these units are crappy. At least they are better than the Tax Police Division)

The name Tax Police gives me the willies.

[seydlitz_slith]

I continued to pound both Vladivostok and Voroshilov all turn. Either he is not flying anything at Vlad during the day or I have shut his runways down. I am putting bombers over the city in daylight after bombing it at night and I am not encountering fighter resistance. It just says "no flights" for the soviets. I am destroying aircraft on the ground in just about every strike. For next turn, I am shifting more bombers to daylight, but still leaving some at night. Hopefully I can quickly rack up the damage to the airfield. I have even shifted some of the Sallies from Voroshilov to Vlad to increase the airfield damage. I also am hitting his port and light industry. Other than killing his aircraft, I want to diminish his supplies as fast as possible in both hexes while still harrassing his troops. I think that this will be the best strategy to pursue given the huge numbers of troops in the Voroshilov hex. I will try to isolate this whole cluster by landing the Luzon forces at Olga in about 14 turns. The transports have already arrived in Manila and we are just waiting on the troops to march there from Bataan.

[seydlitz_slith]

Here is this turns round of bombardment attacks at Voroshilov.
Note that our bombardment AV now seems about equal.

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Ground combat at Voroshilov (112,45)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 44339 troops, 703 guns, 574 vehicles, Assault Value = 2345

Defending force 84490 troops, 1674 guns, 1101 vehicles, Assault Value = 2324

Japanese ground losses:
110 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
2008 casualties reported
Squads: 26 destroyed, 50 disabled
Non Combat: 121 destroyed, 129 disabled
Engineers: 8 destroyed, 8 disabled
Guns lost 98 (56 destroyed, 42 disabled)
Vehicles lost 174 (108 destroyed, 66 disabled)


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

Ground combat at Voroshilov (112,45)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 72303 troops, 1516 guns, 976 vehicles, Assault Value = 2214

Defending force 108484 troops, 1171 guns, 1266 vehicles, Assault Value = 2340

Japanese ground losses:
901 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 60 destroyed, 149 disabled
Engineers: 6 destroyed, 10 disabled
Guns lost 92 (63 destroyed, 29 disabled)
Vehicles lost 154 (37 destroyed, 117 disabled)


I lost a few guns this time, but it seems that I am making progress.


Also, during this turn I succeeded in capturing Kuching in Borneo.

[seydlitz_slith]

Last thing for this turn is a view of Kure Harbor showing the ISE in the shipyard. This should help you understand how long it is taking to repair the damage. In this case it is about 40+ days to repair the damage to the hull. Right now, 3 battleships are in dock there recovering form battle damage.

[offenseman]

Why does this remind me so much of Leningrad...  If I were him, I'd be doing everything possible to keep Vladivostok fighting. I'd run subs in, whatever I had to do just to delay you. Time is your enemy here. I wonder if he has grounded his air force to avoid using supplies.

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: offenseman

Why does this remind me so much of Leningrad...  If I were him, I'd be doing everything possible to keep Vladivostok fighting. I'd run subs in, whatever I had to do just to delay you. Time is your enemy here. I wonder if he has grounded his air force to avoid using supplies.

I am still encountering 15-20 fighters in the air over Vlad at night, but as you can imagine, single engine day fighters trying to make night intercepts without radar or radio direction tend to do little. My Nells seems to do as much damage to them as they do to us...which isn't much.

I know that he is keeping ships in port both in Vlad and at Singapore even though I bomb them nightly. This turn I will bomb Vlad port by day.

I think that his runway is down otherwise he would have flown all of his bombers out to other airfields. I would imagine that he would have used them against my forces at Okha or against the border fort west of Kotou. He is pounding me heavily in the far north east of Shilka where I have a stack of units out of range of protective aircover. I can see no reason why he hasn't flown more planes in to help up there other than his runway is closed at Vlad.

Of course, supply may be an issue for his whole southern front. I have had a Soviet infantry unit sitting in the siberian rail hex a few hexes north of Birbodazhan for about 20 turns now. This breaks his rail supply from the north and since the supply path must detour through at least 3 hexes of woods+rough, I am sure that little or no supply is getting through from that way. It may be that he burned his remaining excess supply there in airstrikes on Kotou. I don't know but I can hope.

My lead armor units also entered the Spasny airfield hex (two hexes NE of Voroshilov) this turn. This will stop him from tracing supply through that hex, further isolating his entire southern group. In about 4 turns the rest of my troops will arrive and I will take the hex from him (I hope).

Either way, I think that I am fighting more AV at Voroshilov than the entire Chinese Army. It will take a while to whittle them down, but if I can beat this pile then I should be able to make significant progress.

[erstad]

ORIGINAL: seydlitz
Either way, I think that I am fighting more AV at Voroshilov than the entire Chinese Army.

Um, not quite. Not even close. There's only about 2300AV at Voroshilov.

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: erstad

ORIGINAL: seydlitz
Either way, I think that I am fighting more AV at Voroshilov than the entire Chinese Army.

Um, not quite. Not even close. There's only about 2300AV at Voroshilov.

Yeah, but unlike the Chinese, these guys are trained, have good equipments, supplies, and know how to use them.
It certainly feels like a stronger force.

[maybee]

Great post.

I'm interested in learning your plan in Java. How does your progress compare to other players who do not choose to activate the Russian?

How effective is your air cover over Java. Do you think allies can run transport, may be even reinforcement to Java?

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: maybee

Great post.

I'm interested in learning your plan in Java. How does your progress compare to other players who do not choose to activate the Russian?

How effective is your air cover over Java. Do you think allies can run transport, may be even reinforcement to Java?

Welcome maybee!

Even if I was not fighting Russia, I think that you would find that I am a conservative player in many ways. This will of course put me behind many players who have conquered half the known world by the end of March. That is ok. In fact, I normally don't try to grab much more than Japan traditionally captured during the war.

I haven't given too much thought to Java yet except to keep subs near it to catch shipping transiting the area. But since you have asked, here are my early thoughts....

1. I may or may not have the Southern Army forces that were used to take Luzon. I am planning to send them up north to help seal off the Vladivostok area and get some movement on that front.

2. The main striking force will be the troops used in Malaya, although Singapore is not yet captured. I figure that I will be done in Malaya by early March.

3. I may well go after Java before finishing off Borneo. That would take my opponent off guard and would also mean that any forces that he has moved up to Balikpapan will be trapped there. Often they fight there then fall back to Java and fight again.

4. I may even forego Palembang until after I get Java. I still have almost a year's worth of crude oil, and again by mixing up the schedule a bit from the conventional plan I may catch some forces out of position and trapped.

4. I am also giving a little bit of consideration to a south coast landing on Java since the good north coast landing points are always defended and mined. I will make that decision closer in.

5. Right now I have no aircover or even reach to Java, so he can bring in what he wants with worries only about subs. That doesn't bother me right now. When I get ready to go, I will use the KB to provide the tactical air support that I need.

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 61 5 Feb 1942

I started the turn off with a night surface attack by one of my subs. I doubt that I sank the target, but I definitely chewed it up quite a bit.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Feb 05, 42
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Submarine attack near Serasan at 56,86

Japanese Ships
SS I-165

Allied Ships
xAKL Shinai, Shell hits 14, heavy fires, heavy damage



xAKL Shinai is sighted by SS I-165...
SS I-165 attacking on the surface...
SS I-165 low on gun ammo, Shibata V. breaks off surface engagement and submerges...

[seydlitz_slith]

It is nearly over for him on Mindanao and Luzon. In both places his last unit is surrounded and being attacked. In a couple of turns both islands will be mine.

Most of the action was on the Russian front again. Aircraft losses were less than 20 for both sides. He had aircraft flying strikes in only two places....up north near Shilka and off Ominato at one of my returning convoys. It looks like I have maintained enough runway damage at Vladivostok to keep his planes grounded. In both Vlad and Voroshilov I have the airfield damage up around 50% and I am continuing to pound strikes home daily. Next turn the KB will join in on strikes in the region by hitting all of the other base hexes nearby.

[seydlitz_slith]

I am continuing to show reports of my bombs killing soviet aircraft on the ground. In addition, my bombing of Vladivostok port resulted in my getting 5 hits on sub CH-108, sinking it.

Meanwhile, at Spassk-Dalniy, my three spearhead armor units arrived and made a shock attack to see what was there.
The results were much better than anticipated. I will be repeating next turn with the addition of KB airstrikes in the hopes that I can win here. This is a critical hex if I am to cut off his supply back to Birbodazhan.

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Ground combat at Spassk-Dalniy (114,44)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 3240 troops, 0 guns, 309 vehicles, Assault Value = 174

Defending force 8465 troops, 86 guns, 29 vehicles, Assault Value = 144

Japanese adjusted assault: 214

Allied adjusted defense: 55

Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 0

Combat modifiers
Defender:
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
Vehicles lost 61 (8 destroyed, 53 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
1546 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 32 disabled
Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 115 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 17 disabled
Vehicles lost 2 (0 destroyed, 2 disabled)


Assaulting units:...
3rd Tank Regiment...
5th Tank Regiment...
9th Tank Regiment...
...
Defending units:...
202nd Airborne Brigade...
1st Red Banner Army...
4th/152nd PVO AA Battalion...
32nd VVS Base Force...

[seydlitz_slith]

Up north, I have some interesting developments. I may have to pull back and defend if I can not immediately make headway. Reinforcements showing up is not what I wanted to see here.

[LoBaron]

wow seydlitz! Good you are putting so much pressure on the Vladivostock front, it looks
like you desparately need to free up the forces to advance in the north again.
Is he still .on par in the Air or did you at least cut his numbers?

[modrow]

Seydlitz,

ORIGINAL: seydlitz

Last thing for this turn is a view of Kure Harbor showing the ISE in the shipyard. This should help you understand how long it is taking to repair the damage. In this case it is about 40+ days to repair the damage to the hull. Right now, 3 battleships are in dock there recovering form battle damage.

Have you tried what the predicted time turns into when modifying the priority to "critical" ? I have a damaged BB at Pearl where the change from normal to high hardly affects the predicted result, but when I move on to critical the predicted period of time is reduced by about a factor of 3.

Hartwig

[ny59giants]

I've been following this AAR from afar, but I have some quick questions??

How have you allocated your limited number of Air HQs??

Have you considered moving troops from China to Russia?? I believe there are some units that are not assigned to the Chinese command. Do you have a HR that would prevent you from doing so?? Russia is more important than China right now.

What programs are you using to capture all those screenshots?? What program do you use to modify your screenshots??

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: LoBaron

wow seydlitz! Good you are putting so much pressure on the Vladivostock front, it looks
like you desparately need to free up the forces to advance in the north again.
Is he still .on par in the Air or did you at least cut his numbers?

He is no longer contesting my air missions. This could be a function of my bombing the runways, but he has defintely tried to move his air operations to places where I don't have fighters in the air. I know that he still has a lot of planes, it's just that he is not able to use them now. This could mean that he has exhausted his pools.

The north is dangerous. The thing that I have going for me is that there are a lot of hexes to cover to reach my cities. If I can hold the road I am secure as he won't be able to easily hold supply. Of course, he isplaying that same game with me right now.