The Hive - Cruft PBEM (Japan, Scen 2 Beta + Stacking Limits)

[koniu]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Those golden boys are pretty necessary on the KB if you plan to use it. All of the late CVs are pretty well stocked up, and they can handle even going up against better airframes the Allies are flying if kept together.

+1

A6M5 against F6F can fight equal fight when pilots are 80+ XP ones.
F4U is different story but still A6M5 with elite pilots can buy You enough time to get trough CAP with bombers. Also having good pilots in CAP abowe own fleet will have huge impact in CAP efficiency.

[Captain Cruft]

I have no intention of flying the CV planes into any significant CAP.

[Captain Cruft]

23 Mar 1944

Balikpapan and Bandjermasin fall. He has troops at Johore Baru and on the coast adjacent to Batavia.

The last few tankers are loading up at Palembang. It's amazing that he has not launched any sort of attack on this shipping.

[Captain Cruft]

28 Mar 1944

The Aussies have arrived at Batavia and launched an attack. Quite pleasing results.

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Ground combat at Batavia (49,98)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 32464 troops, 566 guns, 807 vehicles, Assault Value = 1662

Defending force 19486 troops, 175 guns, 181 vehicles, Assault Value = 530

Allied adjusted assault: 865

Japanese adjusted defense: 3263

Allied assault odds: 1 to 3 (fort level 7)

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

Japanese ground losses:
543 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 62 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 35 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled
Guns lost 35 (5 destroyed, 30 disabled)
Vehicles lost 8 (1 destroyed, 7 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
579 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 79 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 9 disabled
Guns lost 15 (3 destroyed, 12 disabled)
Vehicles lost 52 (1 destroyed, 51 disabled)

Assaulting units:
762nd Tank Battalion
5th Australian Division
34th Combat Engineer Regiment
93rd Infantry Division
763rd Tank Battalion
27th Infantry Division
II Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
193rd Tank Battalion
4th Armoured Brigade
II Australian
223rd Field Artillery Battalion
98th Field Artillery Battalion
205th Field Artillery Battalion

Defending units:
56th Division
16th Army
10th RF Gun Battalion
12th Base Force

[Captain Cruft]

29 Mar 1944

There are now 4 divisions at Batavia, two Aussie and two US Army. He just did an ineffectual bombardment attack this turn.

I now have 6,600 aircraft on the map, and the Fleet should be completely built out by the end of July.

[Captain Cruft]

01 Apr 1944

Four divisions have crossed the river and arrived at Singapore. This is the sort of casualty rate I need to be inflicting.

Allied DDs have started raiding at Palembang. I have sent some fast Es to try and prevent too much tanker sinkage, and will see if I might liberate a few more tons of fuel before it becomes completely impossible. He has also started bombing the Oil at Miri with 4Es, which is fine.

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Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 56867 troops, 1084 guns, 1513 vehicles, Assault Value = 1986

Defending force 21696 troops, 391 guns, 203 vehicles, Assault Value = 548

Allied adjusted assault: 2035

Japanese adjusted defense: 6903

Allied assault odds: 1 to 3 (fort level 8)

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

Japanese ground losses:
685 casualties reported
Squads: 17 destroyed, 15 disabled
Non Combat: 8 destroyed, 72 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 3 disabled
Guns lost 44 (8 destroyed, 36 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
4514 casualties reported
Squads: 184 destroyed, 311 disabled
Non Combat: 53 destroyed, 203 disabled
Engineers: 31 destroyed, 38 disabled
Guns lost 101 (49 destroyed, 52 disabled)
Vehicles lost 219 (66 destroyed, 153 disabled)

Assaulting units:
268th Motorised Brigade
7th Australian Division
11th (East African) Division
255th Indian Tank Brigade
25th Indian Division
2nd British Division
Southeast Asia
14th Army
8th Medium Regiment

Defending units:
8th Malay Militia Regiment
18th Division
9th Malay Militia Regiment
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
3rd Mortar Battalion
34th Field AA Battalion
21th JNAF AF Unit
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
20th AA Regiment
50th JNAF AF Unit
25th Army
23rd AA Regiment
1st RF Gun Battalion
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
92nd JAAF AF Bn /1
94th JAAF AF Bn /1

[Captain Cruft]

O/T - Modding the WitE/WitW engine for the War in Asia

As readers may have guessed, I have been spending a lot of time playing WitE recently, hence the relatively sparse AAR updates. The actual game has been progressing just fine though.

This latest Grigsby engine really is the best yet IMO. As an operational/strategic land war engine it is already very good and could be sans pareil. From a software viewpoint it is much better structured than previous efforts and for the first time features an in-game editor rather than the usual external one. Importantly it looks like 2by3 and Matrix are going to invest in the platorm long-term rather than doing the usual "abandoning it to volunteers" thing which they are fond of. The plan is eventually to produce a "War in Europe" uber-monster game covering the entire European theatre on a truly vast map (at 10 miles per hex) and doing land, air and naval properly.

That is a long way off, and definitely a non-trivial undertaking, however if and when it arrives it seems to me that this engine would be eminently suitable for making a WitP 2 game.

Therefore to jump the gun a a bit what I am thinking of doing is investigating if there is any scope for doing Pacific/Asia scenarios using the existing WitE engine. This would just be for the land war at this point since the air game is sub-optimal and the naval game basically non-existent. Ideas would be Manchuria 45 or perhaps Luzon 41 or even at a push Olympic/Coronet. AE gives a basis for the OOB and deployments and the definition of ground units in both games is very similar.

The critical path is to see if I can work out the structure of the map data file (PWHEX equivalent). If I can then it's game on.

To put it simply, this is a chance to do "WitP at 10 miles per hex". As such it cannot be ignored.

[Captain Cruft]

03 Apr 1944

Batavia falls. He brought 5 divisions ...

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Ground combat at Batavia (49,98)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 61744 troops, 1092 guns, 1848 vehicles, Assault Value = 2593

Defending force 14670 troops, 151 guns, 156 vehicles, Assault Value = 134

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 3

Allied adjusted assault: 3399

Japanese adjusted defense: 129

Allied assault odds: 26 to 1 (fort level 3)

Allied forces CAPTURE Batavia !!!

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

Japanese ground losses:
5477 casualties reported
Squads: 104 destroyed, 7 disabled
Non Combat: 115 destroyed, 148 disabled
Engineers: 52 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 62 (59 destroyed, 3 disabled)
Vehicles lost 98 (97 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
504 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 47 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 22 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Guns lost 15 (1 destroyed, 14 disabled)
Vehicles lost 11 (1 destroyed, 10 disabled)

Assaulting units:
5th Australian Division
II Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
1st USMC Amphb Tank Battalion
4th Armoured Brigade
6th Australian Division
762nd Tank Battalion
763rd Tank Battalion
193rd Tank Battalion
93rd Infantry Division
34th Combat Engineer Regiment
27th Infantry Division
766th Tank Battalion
9th Australian Division
98th Field Artillery Battalion
223rd Field Artillery Battalion
II Australian
205th Field Artillery Battalion

Defending units:
56th Division
16th Army
12th Base Force

[Captain Cruft]

Time for some data ...

Score

[Captain Cruft]

Industry

[Captain Cruft]

Indochina

[Captain Cruft]

Singapore/Palembang

[Captain Cruft]

Mindanao etc.

[Captain Cruft]

Shipbuilding

I have been able to turn off 150 Naval Shipyards and still keep everything on track.

[Captain Cruft]

I have started a thread in the WitE Mods and Scenarios forum for my idea above. This is the last time I will mention it here.

WitP-AE at 10 miles per hex would be 900 x 800 hexes or so.

tm.asp?m=3428568

[Captain Cruft]

05 Apr 1944

Japan has 6,916 aircraft on the map.

[Captain Cruft]

14 Apr 1944

Singapore is besieged and Palembang is now out on a limb, it's only possible use being as a sub base.

Brunei has been pummeled into oblivion by 4Es. There are now no Japanese aircraft or ships in residence and oil production has been completely shut down.

Much more interestingly, the long-awaited Chinese awakening has finally arrived. I am trying to bomb them a bit.

[Captain Cruft]

15 Apr 1944

Singapore falls.

He finally swept Samah today for the first time, which is where I have the cream of the IJN fighter pilots equipped with Jacks and Georges. He sent his best, P-47D2s and Spitfire VIIIs. We actually won on the numbers, which is just brilliant from my point of view. There are shedloads of Type 2 radars at the base, that might have helped.

Even more pleasingly, Oscars out of Kiungshan on Escort mission shot down a fair number of P-40s which were CAPing his troops advancing on Nanning. I would guess these planes might be from the Chinese air force. Getting 7 - 1 on an Escort flight is just superb.

[Captain Cruft]

My opponent has commented that "it was not a good day in the air". Quite right.

I am slightly surprised that no-one has commented on those results. They really astonished me, particularly the Oscars kicking butt on Escort.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

My opponent has commented that "it was not a good day in the air". Quite right.

I am slightly surprised that no-one has commented on those results. They really astonished me, particularly the Oscars kicking butt on Escort.

Just getting it to it. It's hard to comment without knowing what your settings were, how much CAP you had up vs the attacking strikes and how many there were in succession. I've had some results on a few days like those, but not many.

As for the escorts I've only seen that with the KB pilots. How good are your Oscar pilots? Also, did the AI send them as only escorts or did they sweep ahead of the bombers as some high exp pilots do occasionally in my game, even if they are set to escort?