LoBaron + Robbrennan vs Offenceman, allied secret AAR

[Rob Brennan UK]

Feb 23, 42.

Hello any readers who drop by, We are carrying on with our game in a new thread that will allow both of us to actually show screenshots and talk about upcoming ops etc. The joint AAR just wasn't very interesting to read.

I have a few mins just to open this thread up and post a taster from what was an interesting day ! .. more , hopefully much more, later.

[LoBaron]

Did not even have time to watch the replay yet. Looks like Akagi has new ways to vent air. Trough the hull. Cool. [:D]

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: LoBaron

Did not even have time to watch the replay yet. Looks like Akagi has new ways to vent air. Trough the hull. Cool. [:D]

More like venting water.

[LoBaron]

Doesn´t mean venting mean something goes out instead of in?
At loss with my English on this so I take your word for it. [:)]

Anyway doesn´t matter what vented in which direction. Nice hit Rob!!

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: LoBaron

Doesn´t mean venting mean something goes out instead of in?
At loss with my English on this so I take your word for it. [:)]

Anyway doesn´t matter what vented in which direction. Nice hit Rob!!

Correct.

But "venting" here could have have meant pumping out the unwanted seawater.[;)]

Alfred

[TheLoneGunman_MatrixForum]

Ouch! What a way to start a new thread! [;)]

[Rob Brennan UK]

Thanks all for the replies , I just had to start a thread with that screenshot as lonegunman stated [;)].

Righty Ho , back to business. Today its the turn of Malaya to be under the spotlight. From the start i decided to try a forward defence at kuala lumpur and sent up what i had in the way of enginers and AV to make the place (in a jungle too!) defenceible. also as a priority was getting the 2 Indian III corps divisions back together (easier said than done) but managed it 2 days beofre his first armoured attack on the defences (he bounced badly). Neither is in much of a state to help Singapore as you can see from the screenshot (this is the better of the 2).

Additionally I have been shipping men and heavy equipment out of singapore as fast as PP's allowed, beacause japan didnt have much in the way of anti shipping planes operating for weeks after the first turn or 2. The australian regiments are almost back in perth (after being sent initially to Cape town). theres still a small AP/AKL convoy getting out the last of the heavy AA and artillery to palambang where it rails south to be collected and shipped elsewhere.

this is all really in aid of the long term defensive plans for the DEI and northern australia. Of which i will be posting more in the future.

[Rob Brennan UK]

I just had to post this one too ! [:D]

If Japan wants to use the KB in the DEI then there might be a big price to pay if he wants to clobber Java or northern australia. All the DEI and the 2 british boats have new and very agressive commanders. This is showing itself but even with working torps its not guaranteed to work [;)]. Still there is the psycological effect (which is not inconsiderable).

I am also thinking of shoving into java/cocos/christmas island all the available commonwealth troops i can muster. There are currently quite a few regiments/divs training up in ceylon (i.e at 100 Prep ) and are rapidly improving thier exp from 20 to the mid 40's now. I think 50 is the cap so when they hit that i'll seriously consider re-prepping them and sending them south to form speedbumps on unexpected places to make his preperations take longer or else he incurrs a lot more losses.

anyhoo I am getting ahead of myself here and more on the future plans for the DEI later on.

TTFN





FYI it missed [:'(]

[Rob Brennan UK]

China AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Feb 27, 42

Todays its china's turn. Its all a bit of a mystery to me how china uses/stores/makes supply so i tend to ignore that and just go with my gut feelings here [;)]. That might not be the most clynical way to approach china but its working for now.From the start to now china has been very active with an abortive chinese offensive in south china coast region just seen off by massive japanese air.Consequently the attacking units were slaughtered trying to get back home by a large armoured column thats just hit a brick wall. Top tip for anyone using rail transport. You cannot rail out of contested hexes but you can rail IN , the troops even automatically change to combat mode too as a huge bonus.


Ground combat at Kukong (79,57)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 9185 troops, 11 guns, 1067 vehicles, Assault Value = 637

Defending force 50407 troops, 240 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1493

Japanese adjusted assault: 356

Allied adjusted defense: 1915

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 5 (fort level 3)

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

Japanese ground losses:
166 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled
Non Combat: 38 destroyed, 126 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Vehicles lost 218 (46 destroyed, 172 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
1647 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 207 disabled
Non Combat: 10 destroyed, 158 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled.

So all is well so far in china, massive japanese air attacks with huge oscar and nate escorts are just nstoppable unto now but the AVG (2 units) have been active in sniping down smaller raids and we bagged 10 sallies today to one P40 lost on landing.

Here is the situation for south/central china.

[Rob Brennan UK]

North china has seen succesful chinese victories as well as advanced raiders nabbing small unoccupied japanese bases. this all makes Japan spread out its troops. Powlow is hodling back a full japanese Divion. We did over extend a bit up north but its settled down now and a v small 1/3 div raider force has taken Mangan this turn.

[Rob Brennan UK]

March 1st is upon us.

Rather a quiet 2 days , Ambon continues to hold despite more japanese troops landing and the CD batteries seem to have zeroed in thier 6 inch guns with one Jap AK a floating bonfire at the end of the turn.

Pre-Invasion action off Ambon
Defensive Guns engage approaching landing force

20 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
xAK Kokai Maru, Shell hits 4, heavy fires
SC Ch 22
SC Ch 21
xAK Aso Maru

Japanese ground losses:
12 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Ground combat at Ambon (76,109)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 3803 troops, 32 guns, 17 vehicles, Assault Value = 171

Defending force 1131 troops, 14 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 33

Japanese adjusted assault: 15

Allied adjusted defense: 82

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 5 (fort level 1)

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

Japanese ground losses:
69 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 10 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Allied ground losses:
88 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 10 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Assaulting units:
Bandasan SNLF /1
146th Infantry Regiment
91st Nav Gd /1

Defending units:
Molukken Garrison Battalion
4th Coastal Gun Battalion

Methinks someone forgot to send enough supply. Thats soon rectified however so i doubt Ambon will last the week. Over in Timor Japan consolidates and has fighters patrolling the skies where some uneventful american 4E bombers did notinh for no loss a couple of days back. KB , or part of KB , was seen giving air cover near timor 2 dats ago and in anticipation I withdrew the heavies from darwin and tried to move up all the (expend by the 15march ) soon to go fighters and DB's not already in Java. This could well be his reason for delaying any attacks in the DEI/australia, if so then thats a lot more pilots for me and 2 weeks of digging for free[;).

Heres the rough plan for java, I have troops on every base (so its scatterd to heck and back for japanese recon) and also will stop any opportunistic para drops. Most men are in Batavia/Soerbaja , again for decoy purposes. While every able bodied defender is prepping for Madoein which being non coastal makes it a lot safer last stand than either of the 2 obvious choices. Also been digging away here from day 1 (with added engineers) and its almost upto level 4. Once Japan lands in enough force to take batavia or soerbaja , We'll just on the nearest train to Madoein. then fingers crossed he can use all his prepped 100% on empty targets while im sitting behind level 4 forts with 100k+ supply. To that end I'm shuttling over supply from Sumatra as there is a ton there thats begging to be used. Almost forgot to mention that when any unit gets to 100% prep for madoien, i rail it in and train it up to max 50 ish, then swop it for another so recon doesnt spot a spike in troop numbers.

heres the overall air losses so far , its been really really low and for the allies thats a big advantage early on in my opinion as japap can get a training system up and running a let easier than the allies with all our silly withdrawl dates etc [:D].

Bon voyage readers , If anything interesting happens i'll let you know !

[LoBaron]

Sorry for the lack of information from the US command, but, truly, Rob is the one whos fighting the war right now.

We do have a war on the west coast though and this is cargo and troops against cargo and troop capability.
A large convoy is slowly, very slowly, assembling on the west coast, target Newzealand.

It will contain troops, fighter aircraft, marine units and support, will have at least a partial command structure under the I Amphib Corps
and is expected to be the thorne in the side of any advance of the Japanese into either the south pac or australia.

I will update the AAR later with a map to show US plans to stem against the tide.

As for now Rob is doing nice attriting the men of the rising sun anyway. I enjoy watching the replays because there is nearly guaranteed
he will pull another small trap out of his sleeve.

Bataan is still holding. The supply is nearly gone and it is raided from air with wave after wave of IJA bombers. Still, the troops are still in
good order, and I am happy for every additional day the sieging amy is bound to this place instead of moving off to transport ships with
target "somewhere juicy".
That said Offensemans losses have been higher than average, most of all in tanks. I am estimating 230-250 tanks destroyed from the
beginning of hostilities and he is still losing vehicles at Bataan at a rate of 1-2 per day.

[Rob Brennan UK]

I think he's lost more than that in armour, given the kuala lumpur attack and iirc you did a nice armour ambush at a forward base in the PI. Only a few weeks ago game time but so much has happened since that my brain jettisons anything more than 4 weeks old game wise [;)]. Also he has lost a lot in his artilley attacks on bataan (no idea why), actually thinking on it , i suspect that the arty killed off mech support so your probably right on the numbers.

What a waste of a post [:D]. wonder if Tracker has the numbers ? I do have it loaded but not overly familiar with it yet ( and before i even think of playing japan in a PBEM i want to know tracker like the back of my hand).

Anyhoo ,, i do have a dilemma in china. Japan has been 'restricted' to only doing huge attacks with escorts in the 40-50 range but they are usually a bit scattered. He's attacking Kukong, the city in the woods in S chine just east of wuchow. anyhoo the dilemma. AVG ambushes have been relatively effective except when i hit his large attacks then its 1-1 on losses and that hurts the H41's badly. I now have all 3 AVG units in China and have swopped out the numpty pilots and stolen good ones with large bribes from the USA [;)]. so we have c. 22 P40s and 40 odd H41's in total. I also have 60 av support in kukong and 2 more corps railing down as i 'think' hes slipping in more men (bombarding this turn to check). so i can almost guarantee the AVG wont get overrun but no air HQ means that CAP even on a high % isn't great. So finally , do i just leave the AVG training or risk it to try and hurt his training program ? (the escorts have to be good pilots from previous experience) . Any adive/comments are welcome.

FYI we have an agreement that any non chinese AF in china has to have its own AV support. The AVG base force is miles away from the action so i cant send in a ton of hurricanes to ruin his day , Yet ! .. plans are afoot to fly in some commonwealth AV support once i have enough in India. The chinese AF is 90% training at 100% in Karachi with some doing/training naval search untill i get more catalianas. Training up in china costs supply afaik so best to do it in India. also swopping about with planes is a lot easier.

Well thats my ramblings for the day.

TTFN

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: Rob Brennan UK

... do i just leave the AVG training or risk it to try and hurt his training program ? (the escorts have to be good pilots from previous experience) . Any adive/comments are welcome...
TTFN

In deciding what to do with the AVG, I think you should take into account the following.

(1) The current AVG pilots are trained to a level that non combat training is quite slow. They need to be in combat to really improve their stats. Consequently if you really want to take the AVG offline to engage in training, you should replace the current pilots with rookies. The rookies will need the entire period before the AVG is withdrawn in 3-4 months to reach a good standard.

(2) As a result of (1), if you commit to training the AVG, you are basically losing use of the AVG prior to withdrawal.

(3) Chinese airframe replacements are quite low. In April you start to get Lancers and in July Vanguards. If you rely upon these aircraft solely to refit your Chinese fighter units, you are really looking at 1943 before you will be able to deploy your Chinese fighter units into combat. If you want to speed up their introduction to combat, you will have to cannibalise the H81s of the AVG to refit the Chinese.

(4) If you reequip the AVG fully with P40Es, you can fly them until they are withdrawn. At that point your reequipped Chinese (who would have been on 100% training in the intervening period) can be used on the frontline.

Personnally, I think there is a lot to be said for maintaining some Allied fighters active in China all the time. Doing so will interrupt the Japanese training program, and probably disrupt their planned use of obsolete aircraft for that real live training. Japan will also need to consume more supply in China to replace lost aircraft. Of course, you would still need to pick your air battles selectively.

Alfred

[LoBaron]

Thanks for the advice Alfred!
Looks very sound. I agree to let the AVG keep on fighting as long as possible, pulling back just gives the Japanese a green card to train and bomb
in China to their liking.

Just a comment: Currently I see the best way to keep the AVG well and fighting not to upgrade to P40E´s but to P40B.

The reason for this is: The performance of the B version is better, more similar to the H41´s, and it lets Rob use airframes I don´t need to upgrade to.
I will focus on the E versions which benefits Rob, because he gets the better airframes, while I have more of the E airframes which benefit from increased range with drop tanks
in case I want to escort medium bombers in an area of conflict that doesn´t exist yet. [;)]

[Alfred]

Yes, use of the P-40B is a viable option. I tend to not give them to the AVG because I use them to maintain the fighting strength of the American fighter units in the Philippines (it being easier to top up a unit with the existing model issued rather than upgrading to a different model). There is also a fighter squadron at Pearl Harbor which is equipped with the P-40B, which if you were to upgrade to another fighter model, you lose the entire P-70 Havoc night fighter stream.

I don't know your situation regarding the Philippines or the specific PH squadron, so you may have adequate numbers of P-40Bs in the pool. I usually don't.[:)]

Alfred

[LoBaron]

Phi--lipp--ines fighter...erm...units?

Such a thing does only exist in bleak memories. I disbanded the last about a week ago, consisting of about 3 P40E´s and 4-5 P40B´s.
Its March 5th now, so the IJA has total air supremacy.
The basese where whacked by both, IJA and IJN from day one and since KB did not attack Pearl but Manila casualties have been high from the
very start. I managed to get about 8-10 kills but after that the squads just served as Japanese training targets.

Good hint about the P-70 night fighters. Do you by chance know which unit that is?

[Alfred]

I see that your Filipino experience has seared itself into your memory. Is that the reason why you left your true love AE and went off to that floozie, Distant World?[:)]

The Pearl Harbor unit is the 18th FG/6th FS. It is equipped with the P-40B and you can upgrade to any of the usual American fighter models plus the P-70 Havoc night figther. As that night fighter is not produced until August, you need to keep P-40Bs in the pools to maintain the unit's strength up until you can upgrade to the night fighter.

Alfred

[LoBaron]

Left my true love? Never! Such a thing is not even imaginable. (I hope my girlfriend is reading this... [:D] )

TBH I am quite happy that Offenseman chose to attack Manila. My viewpoint on the Manila/Pearl discussion is very clear.
Not attacking Pearl is a mistake, a big one IMO. Theres absolutely nothing at Manila that justifies neglecting all those juicy BB´s, replenishment ships, PBY´s,
B17´s, P40´s and stuff sitting at PH.
Now I can use a load of old BB´s to act as flag for convoys. Perfect torpedo magnets, and if I was an AMC commander I´d take the alternative route if you
know what I mean...

But pssssst....dont tell anybody. [;)]

Thanks for the pointer to 18th/6th, will take a look at these guys.


PS: DW is a great game, it has huge potential and I am a 4x fan since I can remember. Worth a try if you are into the genre, its the best out there I think.
(I hope my girlfriend is NOT reading this... [:'(])

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: LoBaron

Left my true love? Never! Such a thing is not even imaginable. (I hope my girlfriend is reading this... [:D] )

TBH I am quite happy that Offenseman chose to attack Manila. My viewpoint on the Manila/Pearl discussion is very clear.
Not attacking Pearl is a mistake, a big one IMO. Theres absolutely nothing at Manila that justifies neglecting all those juicy BB´s, replenishment ships, PBY´s,
B17´s, P40´s and stuff sitting at PH.
Now I can use a load of old BB´s to act as flag for convoys. Perfect torpedo magnets, and if I was an AMC commander I´d take the alternative route if you
know what I mean...

But pssssst....dont tell anybody. [;)]

Thanks for the pointer to 18th/6th, will take a look at these guys.


PS: DW is a great game, it has huge potential and I am a 4x fan since I can remember. Worth a try if you are into the genre, its the best out there I think.
(I hope my girlfriend is NOT reading this... [:'(])

Yes I recall making a post on that discussion invoking Clausewitz. I don't think the point was widely taken as there seemed to be little commentary firmly rooted on Clauswitzian principles in that discussion. I have no doubt what Clauswitz would have chosen: Pearl Harbor always rather than Manila. Jomini I'm not so certain, but also probably Pearl Harbor. Moltke the Elder also would have gone for PH, but then he belongs to the German (oops Clausewitzian) School. Pretty certain that Zhukov (Tuchachevsky), Napoleon and Mahan would have gone for PH. Gamelin might have chosen Manila and I think that in itself would be quite revealing as to the merits of the two locations.

MOO2 and MOO3 somewhat burned me off the 4x genre. Now MOO1, that was a gem of a game.

Alfred