Alien Invasion: Oh, the Humanity!

[bobogoboom]

yeah he is probobly just leaving his other guys in canton to protect against an attack by you and just waiting for you to run out of supplies in hk. i would recommend not bombarding it will make your supplies last longer.

[USSAmerica]

Thanks, bobo.  Yep, my HK boys are already on 1/2 rations, and hunkered down to hold on as long as possible.  No attacking planned.  The way I see it, Mynok will end up with Hong Kong in his grubby little Martian hands.  Every day I hold out is a day he doesn't get to make use of the HI and resource production there.  [;)]

[USSAmerica]

[font="times new roman"]12/19 – 12/22, 1941[/font]
[font="times new roman"]Well, I’m not having much luck keeping up with the AAR this week.  I’m going to summarize the major events of the last 4 turns.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]My CV’s have arrived back at Pearl, along with the Yorktown.  All 3 TF’s have shuffled their escorts to give each at least 3000 AA points.  Sara is also about half way to Pearl from Panama.  I’m also almost finished loading the 25th USA Div onto transports for shipment to Midway.  I’ll have the NoPac HQ loaded up and following them close behind.  I intend to make Midway a fortress.  My 3 CV’s and a strong SC TF will escort the troops to Midway.  It’s a good thing, too, as the KB has made an encore appearance.  They blasted Wake I on the 20th and again on the 21st, just before more troops landed behind a strong bombardment from CA’s.  Mynok didn’t play around this time trying to take Wake.  I hope he tries the same thing in a few weeks at Midway.  As strong as he comes, I can’t believe he would be prepared to face a full strength Division, along with a RCT from Alaska, and bunches of engineers and planes.  [;)][/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Mynok held off pulling his mini KB south of Davao back for replenishment, so my CA/CL/DD TF at Tarakan stayed there and watched Jolo fall.  He has now pulled the CVL’s away toward Palau, but has 3 BB’s and escorts guarding the shipping at Jolo.  I don’t like my odds with cruisers against battlewagons.  My window of opportunity will not last long in this area.  As soon as Jolo is expanded to a size 4 AF, the Nells and Betty’s will own the area with their torpedoes.  I’ve already stopped bringing any ships into Tarakan, and am emptying the port of ships as they fill with cargo.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Aliens are massing both north and south of Manila, but they have not attempted to invade the city again yet.  It won’t be long.  I’ve gathered most of my Mk 14 carrying subs in the region to a spot a few hexes out from Manila, so I can slip in to grab fragments when my LCUs start getting ground down.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Mynok moved a relatively weak ground unit into the hex with my 5 corps holding force outside Hangchow.  I took the opportunity to force another unit to retreat and ordered a shock attack.  Unfortunately, a second, much stronger unit finished moving into the hex before the attack took place.  I didn’t sign up for a fair fight!  [8|][:D]  We ended up being about even strength and I took 950 casualties to his 650.  His guys are still there with me.  I only need to hold here for a few more days, and then I can start marching this rearguard toward Nanchang and the exit from the pocket.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]In the SRA, it’s time for Mynok to get a little payback for the butcher’s bill at Kuching.  He has moved some Nells into the base and they are hitting my AK’s all over the Java/Sumatra/Singapore area with torpedoes.  I’ve moved some additional fighters to Palembang to fly CAP and so far have moved 7 squadrons of B17’s and LB30’s to Batavia.  After two days of hitting the airfield at Kuching, I’ve done about 10 points of damage to the runway each day.  My damage is not near what it could be because Batavia is still a size 4 airfield.  I’m working to expand it, but don’t have enough engineers there to make it go very fast.  He’s still flying out of Kuching, and I’m hitting him again today.  I could really use 2 or 3 days of T’storms in the area to give my 4E boys a chance to rest and repair damaged planes.  I have considered basing my 4E’s out of Singapore to be able to carry a full load of bombs, but I don’t want to eat up all the supply I’ve been squirreling away there for the siege.  The stockpile at Singapore is about 65k currently, with another 3k unloading.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]I’m still running resources, supply, and oil out of Rangoon up to Calcutta, while I can.  The oil in particular is useful at Calcutta, but mostly this is just to keep it from collecting and waiting for Mynok to capture the base and load up his ships.  I’ve already had to abandon gobs and gobs of oil at Brunei, and am leaving Tarakan for a few years in the next day or so.  It hurts me to watch the oil stockpile build up there without being able to risk grabbing it.  LOL[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Now, it’s time for the bad news.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]I’ve discovered that the 18th British Div should have arrived 3 days ago, but it’s not there, and it’s not on the reinforcement list.  Just like the 2nd USMC Para Bn at game start, they are gone into the ether.  After some discussion with Mynok, we’ve determined that having Very Variable Reinforcements turned on at game start has moved these two guys, and an unknown number of other units, to an arrival date BEFORE 12/7/41.  They are gone.  Not having the 18th is quite a blow to my fighting strength.  I don’t have any idea what other LCU, ship, or airgroup reinforcements might also be gone.  All I can do is keep moving forward, and base all future plans on what’s actually listed in the reinforcement list.  Knowing Mynok will have to contend with this as well helps a bit, but I think he has a lot less reinforcements scheduled to arrive in the first 45 days that could have been randomly moved before 12/7/41.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]There’s no crying in war.  Once again into the breach!  [8D][/font]

[USSAmerica]

I didn't get my 12/24 turn finished up until this morning.  I have the 12/23 results and may get an update written up today, but likely tomorrow. 
 
Meeting the enemy for dinner and beer tonight.  [8D]

[USSAmerica]

[font="times new roman"]12/23/41[/font]
[font="times new roman"]Sub action:  [/font]
[font="times new roman"]I-121 hit 5 times from 2 ASW groups off Toboali.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]I-162 found and sank an AK 1 hex SW of Toboali with 1 torp.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]AVD Ballard found I-19 8 hexes E of Pearl, and ate a torp for her trouble.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"]I-123 slipped into the Singapore hex (I think to lay mines) and put a fish into one of my MSW’s operating there.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Snapper was sunk by 10 hits from a group of 4 APD’s and a PG at Legaspi.  APD’s are bad for subs! [:-][/font]
[font="times new roman"]Trusty took two minor DC hits near Kuching.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Brunei and Davao were both hit with large bombardments today, with invasion troops landing at both places.  Both bases will be flying the Alien flag tomorrow.  BB’s Buso and Yamashiro were present at Davao.  I had several scattered air attacks try to hit these two bombardment TF’s, with no luck unless you count a Hudson bouncing a bomb off of Takao’s armor.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Mynok didn’t fare a whole lot better with his naval attacks.  His only hit was a Nell from Kuching sinking a torpedo into ML Kung Wo at Toboali, on it’s way to Palembang.  He did find and make several air attacks on my CA/CL TF at Tarakan, but only with bombs from his Nells at Jolo, and no hits.  Time for these guys to beat feet back to Balikpapan or Java.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]My 4E’s hit Kuching again, but the base shows only 9 damage to the runway after the combat.  The engineers he has there are keeping up with the damage I can do.  I don’t think I’ll be able to close this place down from the level 4 AF at Batavia.  It’s time to consider evacuating the rest of my shipping from the Singapore/Palembang/North Java Sea areas.    My 4E squadrons will soon head back to India where they will eventually start working over all the resources and oil in Burma.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]At Pearl, my first supply convoy will arrive from the WC tomorrow.  A couple of the ships will remain loaded and join the transport convoy that is finishing up loading the 25th Div for Midway.  [/font]
 

[Yava]

I see that a lot of effort is being put to keep Midway really secured. But is it worth it? [;)]

[BrucePowers]

ORIGINAL: Yava

I see that a lot of effort is being put to keep Midway really secured. But is it worth it? [;)]

This is just my opinion. No, it isn't. But I am in the middle of reading Shattered Sword.

[USSAmerica]

Good question, Yava.  Midway is more of a hope for me than anything else right now.  I'm making it strong enough that if and when Mynok comes for it, he will get thrown back into the sea.  It's a place that I can fight, and actually hurt the Aliens a bit, unless the entire KB is present.  Even if Mynok brings his big toys that carry planes, I think I could wait them out, until he runs low on sorties, and then try to get in a good hit on his naval forces in the area with my 4 (as of now) carriers. 
 
I need a place where I can get Mynok to fight on my terms.  Having a full strength army division on the ground there, along with 2 or more RCT's, when Mynok would expect no more than 1 or 2 RCT/Bdes, would allow me to hold my ships back out of harms way if the KB comes along.  I can fight at sea if I choose or not, without much fear of losing the island. 
 
If Mynok never comes over to play, I will have a strong forward base to launch a Central Pacific drive in the future.  [:)]

[John 3rd]

Hey Sir!  Thought I would jump into your AAR for a change!
 
The only way I look at taking Midway is to do it within the first month of the campaign.  To do this, I usually keep ships around the island so the Allies cannot reinforce it.  If anything slips through then I forget about making a grab for it. 
 
Do you think Mynok works the same way?
 
Don't know where one could FIT an entire Inf Div on those two little islands! 

[witpqs]

Tunnels and snorkels. [X(]

[John 3rd]

Maybe High Rise Fortifications!
 

[BrucePowers]

Floating barges?[:)]

[John 3rd]

The Japanese have taken all the Foster's breweries in my campaign.  Can we 'export' some to all those poor troops sitting at Midway???  [8D]

[USSAmerica]

Man, less than 3 weeks into my war, and my tactics are already being ridiculed.  [8|][:'(][;)][:D]
 
I don't know where they will all sleep, but I think importing lots of Fosters would be a nice morale booster.  John, I don't know if any of your ships should approach Midway.  It might not be safe as they look very similar to Alien ships.  Blahblah Maru this, and Lalalala Maru that.  [:D]
 
Contact Mandrake and see if arrangements can be made with Milo for transport of the goods.  The color of war is green, after all.  [8D]

[USSAmerica]

[font="times new roman"]12/24/41[/font]
[font="times new roman"]Quick turn summary:[/font]
[font="times new roman"]A Dutch sub put 1 torp into CL Jintsu near Kuching.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]34 x 4E’s from Batavia hit Kuching, destroying 4 Nell’s and 1 Claude.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Mynok launched a Shock attack 1 hex E of Hangchow.  [/font]
Ground combat at 50,39
Japanese Shock attack
 
Attacking force 32482 troops, 134 guns, 4 vehicles, Assault Value = 694
Defending force 39604 troops, 157 guns, 3 vehicles, Assault Value = 1104
 
Japanese max assault: 1364 - adjusted assault: 69
Allied max defense: 1149 - adjusted defense: 736
 
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1
 
Japanese ground losses:
4161 casualties reported [8D]
Guns lost 24
Vehicles lost 2
 
Allied ground losses:
146 casualties reported
Guns lost 3
[font="times new roman"]I’m not sure what prompted this attack, but I like the results.  It looks like Mynok caught a bad die roll with his base AV, but I still would have eaten his lunch.  I think he has seriously underestimated the strength of the Chinese in the region.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Mynok chased 2 of my guerrillas off of road hexes E of Hankow.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]HK forts drop to 2 in a Deliberate attack.  Not long now.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]Brunei is “captured.”  More like occupied, as the base was deserted.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]A shock attack dropped the forts at Kuala Lumpur from 2 to 0.  The next attack here should force my defenders out.  I only have 2 Indian Bdes here, but several engineer units are hoping to do some good demolition work as they are forced out of the base.[/font]

[USSAmerica]

[font="times new roman"]12/25/41[/font]
[font="times new roman"]Christmas Day was not a fun one for the crew of I-156.  A hodge podge ASW TF of 2 SC’s, 1 PG, and 2 MSW’s hit her 4 times for breakfast, and 2 more times for dinner, with fire and heavy damage reported at Muntok, just outside Palembang.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]I got a good roll and put 56 4E’s over Kuching today.  Killed another Nell and another Claude, but more importantly, scored 36 runway hits.  I think the “mouse over intel” indicated the runway damage was around 35 now.  Maybe I can manage go put this airfield out of action for a while.  I had 9 planes damaged in the attack, but I don’t think I’ve lost more than 1 or 2 bombers, if that many.  Mynok is still getting his Nell’s to launch torpedoes from here, in groups of 3, but no hits in several days.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]I held my SC TF at Tarakan 1 day too long, trying to act as a rear guard for the last of the AK’s to get out of town.  A large, long range Nell attack from somewhere in Indochina came after them.  3 Dutch Demon’s fought valiantly to disrupt the attack.  Only 4 Nell’s damaged (probably from TF flak) but only 1 of the 46 attackers managed to hit my ships from 15,000 feet.  DD Piet Hein was the unlucky one.  If she is not hit again, she will make it to port at Balikpapan, where I have an AD to help with emergency repairs.  She detached from the rest of the SC TF so as to not slow them down.  The rest headed back to Balikpapan as well.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Today’s deliberate attack at Hong Kong saw the engineers blast a path through another layer of defenses.  My forts there are down to 1, and Mynok just missed getting a 3-1 result.  Looks like the last night I’ll own Hong Kong.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Mynok also easily took Davao from the Philippine unit defending the place. [/font]

[USSAmerica]

[font="times new roman"]12/26/41[/font]
[font="times new roman"]Mynok sent more than a nuisance raid on Singapore today.  50 Oscar’s and 80 Sally’s brought a little bit of pain.  I only got 11 Buffalos and Hurricanes into the air to defend.  I downed 1 Oscar and damaged another, while managing to down 5 Sally’s and damaging 29 more.  In return, I lost 6 Buff’s, 2 ‘Canes, 1 P40B on the ground and also a Catalina on the ground.  9 airbase hits and 16 runway hits were enough to prevent work on the fortification expansion by my engineers who had to clean up the mess.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]The first big air raid at Manila in a good while saw 46 Nell’s and 26 Betty’s attacking.  I think the ground attack here will start soon.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Mynok has several transport convoys heading West from Saigon toward the Mersing area.  They are escorted by what appears to be 6-8 CA’s and company.  I’m positioning several subs in their path, and my Swordfish from Singapore tried to hit them today.  They have some LR Cap of Claude’s and Oscar’s.  25 total dove on my Swordfish.  The good news is, 1 Oscar was damaged.  [:)]  The bad news is I was attacking at extended range, so the one Swordfish that got through missed with a bomb from 10700 feet.  [:D]  The worse news is that I lost 3 and had 5 Swordfish damaged for no return.  [8|][/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]The big question is where are these Aliens going?  Several AP’s are spotted along with a bunch of AK’s, so I suspect they may be aiming for Palembang.  There are no Alien CV’s known to be in the area, and I haven’t spotted any BB’s in this group yet.  I have the PoW TF, reinforced with Revenge, stationed at Batavia.  If he moves on Palembang, I’m going to attack.  [8D][/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]My 4E’s didn’t fly from Batavia today against Kuching.  I guess the fatigue and morale are adding up.  The mouse still reports 32 runway damage at Kuching, so I didn’t lose much ground to Mynok’s engineers.  After the day of rest, my 4E flyboys are much less fatigued, but still not very enthusiastic about attacking Kuching today.  They are ordered in, anyway.  [:'(][/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]The almost daily Alien bombardment attack on my troops at Nanchang was as ineffective as ever today.  29 ground casualties.  I think these attacks are boosting my experience more than they are causing disruption and eating my supply.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]A 5-1 Shock attack result saw the fall of Hong Kong and the surrender of over 15000 troops.  Undefended Miri was also captured today.  [/font]

[John 3rd]

I see that I need to make special contacts between Milo and your people!  Will email Mandrake and see what he has to say about all this...
 

[USSAmerica]

[font="times new roman"]12/27/41[/font]
[font="times new roman"]Today started with I-122 hitting SC Auricula with 2 torps, 1Hex SW of Singapore.  The SC later sank.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]5 DD’s put 5 good hits on I-162 1 hex SW of Toboali.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]32 Oscar’s and 62 Sally’s came to Singapore for a visit today.  I got one of each, but they took out 11 AC on the ground and in the air, as well as keeping the runway at 9 damage.  Forts stay at 5 +38%.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Then, it was my turn to pay another daily visit to Kuching.  Mynok prepared a welcoming committee of 19 Zero’s for my boys.  My  75 4E’s downed one of them, and damaged 12 others, to go with 1 Nell and 1 Babs destroyed on the ground.  Runway damaged reported by “Agent Mouse”  is up to 40 there.  The cost was 8 bombers lost to the Zero’s and any flak.  Agent Mouse reports 11 fighters, 22 Aux, and only 3 bombers at the base, so I’m keeping the place suppressed, if not yet closed down.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]The Alien invasion fleets approaching the Singapore area are 1 hex W of Mersing.  This looks more and more like their destination.  Mynok knows I’ve evacuated the base, so he expects to easily capture it and reinforce his troops for the siege of Singapore.  I have a handful of PT’s, 3 subs, and my planes at Singapore ready to deal out some pain.  The bad news is that I have identified at least BB’s Ise and Hyuga with these ships, so I am not going to try to hit them with my Batavia based Eastern Fleet.  I will pass up this “fair fight” and look for another place where I can be the bully.  [:'(][/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Bataan fell to the Aliens today, as it was only lightly held, and most of Mynok’s troops targeting Manila have moved into the city limits.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Mynok Shock Attacked again today at Kuala Lumpur and captured the base.  My engineers did their job well, as “Agent Mouse” is reporting 100% damage to the port facilities and 580 out of 600 resource points damaged.  [8D]  It will cost him a good bit and take a loooong time to repair this damage.  At the cost of building my forts at Singapore quicker, keeping several engineer units here was well worth it.  [&o][/font]

[USSAmerica]

[font="times new roman"]12/28/41[/font]
[font="times new roman"]9 DD’s and a CL engaged my PT’s at Mersing.  Over two rounds, they took out 3 of the 5 PT’s for only one shell hit on a DD.  Troops are landing at undefended Mersing.  CVE Taiyo is escorting the TF’s here.  I didn’t realize it until the 12/31 turn, but my fighters at Singapore were set on Sweep missions instead of Escort to keep most of them home flying CAP.  On 12/31 I changed this, so I hope to start seeing more planes launch Naval attacks.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]32 Oscar’s attacked Singapore today, killing 1 Wirraway and 1 P-40B.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Today’s 4E attack on Kuching saw 55 bombers engaged by 10 Zero’s.  11 bombers damaged for 1 Zero destroyed and 5 damaged.  9 Runway hits.  [/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]My Blenheim I’s and IV’s at Singapore have been hitting the advancing 2nd Tank Regiment for a few days.  I’m just hoping to wear them down a little bit while I gain experience for my bombers.  [/font]