eskuche (Allies) no sveint v1.0 (Done)

[eskuche]

Hi all,
Let's get the AAR trains rolling! I am a longtime gamer, short time wargamer. Have a decent number of War in the East games under my belt, but this is my first Warplan game series. My opponent has graciously allowed me to demonstrate his take on the IJA/N, while I will contribute my (typically American) bumbling around until I've exhausted all of the wrong options. I am a very technically minded player and expect to poke at all the mechanics and hopefully discover some bugs to close up. I won't use mechanics I consider gamey and will check in with my opponent.

Since we are all still cutting our teeth on this game, please feel free to criticize or suggest lines of play. Semper fidelis!

[eskuche]

Opening moves:

Pearl Harbor loses just Nevada! And NoLa CA. California BB is bottomed. Quite a big win for the States compared to historical. Should we attempt a counterattack?
On the other hand, we have quite a more optimized opening than the AI. Starting counterclockwise from China:
1. Many China Japanese troops are kept on rail to decrease oil usage.
2. HK falls, but the road connecting southern China to Indochina is not harassed further.
3. Thailand also sees protected rail and an advance to Rangoon by the Thai army.
4. One of the Malay garrisons shatters. I am able to get both to go away, here, so good news. They are screening Singapore quite well.
5. The Repulse is gone! Five air strikes make this relatively costly in terms of fuel for the Japanese, however.
6. Batavia falls, along with the linchpin supply points for Singapore. Does anyone know how long it takes for Japanese to repair oil? Is the 30 oil point immediately active? The Medan garrison in NW Sumatra has just disappeared with no battle log. What's going on there? Edit: DEI surrendered.
7. LARK force on Rabaul is overrun, and there is a landing at Jayapura on Papua.
8. Guam, Wake, and the Gilberts are taken.
9. Air: Flying Tigers take a beating, and the DEI fighters are routed to redeployment, losing half their strength.

[eskuche]

Economic Analysis (make sure to send convoys before spending production, as the limit is 25% of current, not start-of-turn amount):
(major caveat that my knowledge of the Pacific theatre is quite low).

What do we do with our production? IMHO, the best way to approach this problem is to look at deployments. Transports take 6 months to build. UK gets 4 x 10 in March-June 1942. US gets 60 in that time period. Thus, for the first 8-10 turns, there will be only naval action to start offensives. For the defensive, however, we have immediate concerns in 1. the Philippines, 2. India, 3. Midway/Canton Islands, 4. South Pacific.

Who else can move? The British ships will probably be stuck at Sri Lanka for quite a while. British oil income is only 4 with the DEI gone. Americans have the USAFFE in the Philippines at 5/20 strength. With the DEI surrendered, this group is probably doomed. The best it can hope for is some chip damage on planes. The NZ group on Fiji can actually island-hop its way to safety or efficacy are New Caledonia or Port Moresby, with protection. NZ has no oil, and this is a hefty 3-oiler. This suggests that the US should be sending oil to NZ to make use of this air group. It will also take about 100 production to fully repair. Australia also has neither production nor oil. It needs 200-250 production to fully repair its infantry, though only the Port Moresby garrison matters the most. RAF will take about 100 to repair and can be useful as well.

Currently, UK has 61 + 64/turn production, 6 + 4 (minus naval activity) oil; 71 convoys. US has 294 + 369 production, 16 + 20 (minus naval activity) oil; 43 convoys. These data together suggest that the US needs many more convoys to fulfill its full export capability, and the UK has plenty of extraneous convoys, which ideally could be used to perhaps soak up attacks on US convoys. US, India, and China are also at 99% manpower. They should be reinforcing or making at least half a division a turn (20-25 production cost) to not go over the stockpile. Phew. How to break this down?

---------------
China's 62 production covers its replacements, so we're fine there. India's 55 production does likewise, so we're good. India is missing ~70 strength so needs 300 production to cover that. Unfortunately, their (and China's) morale are pretty poor, so I'm unsure we want to spend overage in production to give them new units.

Australia is the closest to offering actual military support in early '42 besides America, so I think most of our convoy efforts will go to them for now, barring the oil usage needed elsewhere.

[eskuche]

UK
Bay of Bengal navy converges at Colombo port. Prince of Wales and DD escape Singapore to Derby. Repulse will try to repair one pip and escape. Tonga garrison priority replacements.
Advancements: anti-tank, maxed interceptors, naval air, large warships, carrier, long range subs.

India
Ungarrison most things, defend Rangoon. SOP.

China
1. Japan looks like they are making an offensive towards Xi'an (sorry, we will be using the proper pinyin [8D] ). Mao shifts down from the mountains a bit to cover. Xue Yue of the 9th war zone mans the defense himself to stop the monstrous Japanese 1st army. Subordinates hold the river Wei, though this requires splitting.
2. Zhu Shaoliang's 1st/8th war zone makes a diversionary puncture through Japanese lines at the Yangzi. These brave men will force either relocation of the Japanese air there and/or retreat or his lines to counter the threat. We don't care about the area between the Yangzi and the Jinsha rivers because it's a supply dead zone for Japan.
3. Similarly, we force the engagement by marching on Fuzhou.
4. HK Japanese forces need fall back.
5. With the dedication to India, we can afford to pressure Haifeng.

[eskuche]

Philippines
Not much to do besides block with the bad divisions. USAFFE can't get it so bombs ships to no avail.

Misc. Islands
Nothing to do but priority reinforce and sit tight. Australia moves some guys to the north of the continent.

USA
West coast to garrison and replacements off (planes too!). 1st Army HQ onto rail to decrease upkeep. I opt to not do the Pearl Harbor counterattack. Damaged DD/BB are returned to SF to recuperate.
1. Skipjack harasses Rabaul supply convoy and possibly beachhead supply ship incoming.
2. Convoy protection.
3. Two DD and one sub to Australia to protect SW of the continent.
4. 3x merchant marine built.

Advancements: assault, escort fighters, strat bombing, naval air, large warships, carriers, long range subs

Japanese losses: 6 infantry, 6 air, 2 CV ~ 200 production.
Estimated oil use: Kido Butai 28, air ops 23, non-rail units 5, 17 ships in South China Sea ~25 > total ~ 76
Estimated oil income: 52
Net: 160 - 25 = 120 with stuff I probably missed

[eskuche]

It looks like my opponent is bent on saving as much as oil as possible by stretching China and Indochina thin. If this pattern continues I will probably push harder in India and, somehow, China, to force reallocation of troops there. I am nervous about the 10-stack fleet NE of Singapore.

America and UK can't do anything yet. The latter is out of manpower so will rely on the navy to effect change. America doesn't get boats similarly, and men take only two months to train, so I will consider building either more boats or more convoys until then.

[eskuche]

No major disasters. Yet.

i (inset). a unit marching down New Guinea with not much I can do about it.
ii. strategically placed sub nabs an SNLF but fails to do anything about it.
iii. 3 ships, probably two destroyers, but also transports (boarded last turn?). I fear a move on Port Moresby by February, with nothing I can do.
1. A cavalry spearheading this attack. Penetration is possible, but ZOC rules should stop too much.
2. Unit was herded and destroyed. I guess it is not in fact too hard to get a unit to shatter (see Philippines below). Will have to be more careful.
3. Forced reallocation toward Fuzhou lets me delay a bit longer here.
4. Haifeng is not being reinforced. Perhaps we can make a play here. Especially since air is gone, we can attempt a sub shooting down supplies.
5. Massive Burma offensive is being prepared. Hopefully the lone division can hold across the river with hold mode. Reinforcements are on the way, but no rail makes this difficult.
5b. 3 air divisions here. Perhaps 1st IAF should retreat.
6. Singapore inexorably awaits its fate.
7. As expected, claiming the rest of Borneo. I wanted a sub here, but it was in range of land air.
8. And, finally, the Philippines. Herding by the 12th Army just destroys the Luzon force Looks like as long as the opponent is able to move around in one turn, it can surround and destroy. Not sure I like this mechanic where no waiting of isolation is necessary.

Where is the Japanese fleet? Philippines has only 3 + 3, probably motorboats and destroyers. The Kido Butai and the 10-strong South China Sea fleet is missing. Perhaps a strike at retreating UK assets in Australia?

[incbob]

Okay.
What program do you use to edit your pictures. I am jealous. I might try some of this for my AAR, but hate picture editing.
Keep up the good work.

[eskuche]

Adobe illustrator! Use it in my other life to make figures. Very flexible.

[gwgardner]

I'll be reading this with interest, thanks for posting.

I don't understand the comment about the CV loss.

Japanese losses: 6 infantry, 6 air, 2 CV ~ 200 production.

[eskuche]

ORIGINAL: gwgardner

I'll be reading this with interest, thanks for posting.

I don't understand the comment about the CV loss.

Japanese losses: 6 infantry, 6 air, 2 CV ~ 200 production.

Replacement costs in terms of production, including the cheaper reinforcements (vs. making it outright) modifier.

[eskuche]

Not much to update.
1. Naval dispersal in Solomons to counter any lazy landing of troops. Destroyer move was an accident.
2. Australia mans its northern shore but is unable to move troops for at least 6 or so turns, when the UK transports kick in.
3. Burma defense can't go any faster...
4. Bought 1 naval air tac group with US funds.

[eskuche]

Bad tidings for the near year!

4 SNLF divisions accost Indian ports, although Columbo itself is kept intact. Burma isn't quite destined for doom, as there are other rail lines, but this force in the rear will be hard to dislodge. 9 ships, including 3 CVL/2 BB at Columbo will probably not be able to be contested by the UK navy. In the future, probably should keep one or two Indian garrisons back, as they can't exactly all fight in Burma. The only good (?) news is that this is a major amount of landing craft gone.
Singapore holds for now.

[eskuche]

East:
Port Moresby is getting way more attention, with a ground attack airgroup arriving as well. There is opportunity to intercept it.
Ambushers get mixed results. 27th DD nabs a torpedo boat and evades counter-attack, luckily, while Skipjack again does jack and takes a blow for it.
MacArthur is raging at high command and gives up Manilla with a 4:1 ratio in his favor. What? The Philippine army quits in disgust, and the nation surrenders.
Darwin in Australia is raided by not just air as historical but by an entire division. Up to 50 landing craft used this turn.\
Edit: unknown ships at Rabaul, a size 8 port, with nothing else seen, suggests it might be the Kido Butai.

[eskuche]

Turn end:
Indian divisions are rushed back frantically. Rangoon will be have to be given up.
American sub assets are distributed to try to counter any Japanese attack or further landings on New Guinea or Australia. Not much else to do but sit tight.

[EwaldvonKleist]

I enjoy the AAR. Japan very aggressive in India!

[eskuche]

The Japanese offensives continue unabated.
1. From left to right, a large fleet spotted off the coast of Singapore. With only 4 ships in Rabaul with no capitals, this is likely the Kido Butai. Their presence here suggests...convoy protection, or perhaps a strike at Australian assets. Either way, they are burning lots of oil, so we're happy.
2. Singapore falls.
3. Another naval landing in India at Bombay, losing us 10 production. Bad move here on part. I knew there were two units stacked at Mangalore port next turn. We will have to continue to patch up the defenses, but Indian units are too weak to take out any urban Japanese unit. Ceylon remains blockaded, and the UK will have to evacuate soon.
4. The initial western fleet docks at Calcutta. Way too many capital ships to be able to contest.
5. A Japanese commander falls in action, while Rangoon holds.
6. An entire Indian division disappears. I really do not like the surrender mechanics in this game so far. There is no ZOC on divisions, so as long as you have enough MP to move around them, just one unit can shatter another one...

[eskuche]

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist
I enjoy the AAR. Japan very aggressive in India!

Welcome to the Pacific theatre, generalfeldmarschall! We hope you enjoy your (possibly short) stay. Thanks for training the Chinese a few years back. [;)]

[eskuche]

The only missing ships of the 44-strong Japanese fleet may be in an uncharacterized stack also NE of Singapore. This means that the Pacific itself is open for game.
The sub blockade of New Caledonia, comprising 80% of the Japanese UW fleet, is mauled in a series of attacks: two airstrikes from the Kiwis, incorrect orders to engage enemy ships and thus engaging the Australian fleet, and the subsequent attack.
Tarawa and friends are blockaded by single destroyers.
Production shown. Outside of replacements, USA builds 1 x oiler and 2 x landing craft (3 month leadup, to coincide with transports arrival). American has enough fuel stockpiled to engage in a very short naval offensive depending on the Japanese response. The fleet at Rabaul is too weak to effect a good response to either threat I've placed, and driving the western fleets all the way back to the Pacific will be, well, costly.