Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball
I can't imagine the Western Allies would deliberately sacrifice any troops or ships to create a diversion. Does that mean it's gamey?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball
Does that mean it's gamey?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

I can't imagine the Western Allies would deliberately sacrifice any troops or ships to create a diversion. Does that mean it's gamey?

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ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

I can't imagine the Western Allies would deliberately sacrifice any troops or ships to create a diversion. Does that mean it's gamey?

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

In real life there were two differences ... (2) both sides tended to move in smaller concentrations that we do in the game.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I undertstand Bluebook's point and agree this wouldn't have happened in real war, but this isn't the real war and the Allies have far less knowledge about enemy carrier dispositions than they did in the real war.  If Q-Ball was getting Magic and other intel that the KB was stationed at point X, he might not have to employ this tactic (the same tactic I often use in my own PBEM games).  The game has a great and fun "Sig Int" feature, but it almost never provides information about the KB.  Instead you get lots of "heavy volume of radio traffic at Ponape" and "Paramushiro Fortress at Paramushiro"  intel.

In a way AE is a game of chess on a massive scale, and this (in my book) is a legitimate move.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Astarix

Q-Ball,

Actually you might not find supply in the Burma-India border to be as troublesome as you seem to suppose here. Now I have to preface this, by indicating that most of my experience is in playing against the AI and my son, so I don't have a lot of experience in PBEM. However, I've found that the Allies have certain advantages in this theatre that might not be obvious at first.

Mainly, you have to remember that India generates a large surplus of supply and you have the ability to literally "pour" millions of additional tons of supplies into India from Capetown and the Eastern U.S. via convoy. In my most advanced game against the AI, I'm into 1943 and supply has not been an issue in Burma for the allies. At this point in the game I am well advanced in my effort to liberate Burma from the clutches of the dastardly AI. I am conducting my counteroffensive exclusively via land.

Anyway, to cut to the point here, simply ship a large amount of supply to the ports at Karachi, Bombay and Cochin, then "draw" the supplies over to the Burmese border. If you look at the map the distance from the line of Ledo, Kohima, Imphal, Kalemyo and Akyab to the Burmese towns of Mitkiyna, Lashio, Mandalay and the Burmese Coast road along the Bay of Bengal, is not so significant that supplies won't move across. It does require that you hit one of these cities with such overwhelming force that you take it quickly as the combat in the Jungle and Jungle mt. can be particularly bloody, but once you have one of the cities, you can "draw" the supply across the border in sufficient quantity to keep an offensive going. The forces in India are more than sufficient to start and sustain an offensive in late '42, especially if you keep the AIF in India and use one of the British Divisions and the AIF as shock troops to dislodge the Japanese from your target. You should easily have more Armor and Artillary than your Japanese opponent, at least in terms of what they start with in this region and what arrives here, unless they have shipped huge amounts of those forces into the zone.

You also have the advantage in this theatre of a much larger and generally at least qualitatively equal air force. It also doesn't take much effort to ship in additional bombers from ConUS, you don't even need to put the planes on hulls, you can simply strategically redeploy them to Cape Town from the Eastern U.S. and they show up in 30-40 days. You should have a fairly large number of transports, the Chindit Brigades are Airborne and you will be getting a British Airborne Brigade in November or December that will build up to full strength fairly quickly.

Lastly, depending on how the war in China goes, you could probably assign the Chinese Corps that is garrisoning the Poashan/Kunming region to hit Lashio. Once that Corps gets exposed to the veritable Ocean of supplies that allies have, it fills out rather rapidly. At full strength its worth about 750AV all by itself.

The real problem with supply in Burma, is that Burma itself only generates enough supply to "maintain" the Burma Corps that starts the game there. But if you draw supplies in from India, you can pretty much do whatever you want. The rainy season obviously slows down movement and effects combat, but it doesn't generally tend to affect supply.

The key is getting a City inside Burma quickly enough.

Jason

quote:

ORIGINAL: crsutton

quote:

ORIGINAL: Astarix

Q-Ball,

Actually you might not find supply in the Burma-India border to be as troublesome as you seem to suppose here. Now I have to preface this, by indicating that most of my experience is in playing against the AI and my son, so I don't have a lot of experience in PBEM. However, I've found that the Allies have certain advantages in this theatre that might not be obvious at first.

Mainly, you have to remember that India generates a large surplus of supply and you have the ability to literally "pour" millions of additional tons of supplies into India from Capetown and the Eastern U.S. via convoy. In my most advanced game against the AI, I'm into 1943 and supply has not been an issue in Burma for the allies. At this point in the game I am well advanced in my effort to liberate Burma from the clutches of the dastardly AI. I am conducting my counteroffensive exclusively via land.

Anyway, to cut to the point here, simply ship a large amount of supply to the ports at Karachi, Bombay and Cochin, then "draw" the supplies over to the Burmese border. If you look at the map the distance from the line of Ledo, Kohima, Imphal, Kalemyo and Akyab to the Burmese towns of Mitkiyna, Lashio, Mandalay and the Burmese Coast road along the Bay of Bengal, is not so significant that supplies won't move across. It does require that you hit one of these cities with such overwhelming force that you take it quickly as the combat in the Jungle and Jungle mt. can be particularly bloody, but once you have one of the cities, you can "draw" the supply across the border in sufficient quantity to keep an offensive going. The forces in India are more than sufficient to start and sustain an offensive in late '42, especially if you keep the AIF in India and use one of the British Divisions and the AIF as shock troops to dislodge the Japanese from your target. You should easily have more Armor and Artillary than your Japanese opponent, at least in terms of what they start with in this region and what arrives here, unless they have shipped huge amounts of those forces into the zone.

You also have the advantage in this theatre of a much larger and generally at least qualitatively equal air force. It also doesn't take much effort to ship in additional bombers from ConUS, you don't even need to put the planes on hulls, you can simply strategically redeploy them to Cape Town from the Eastern U.S. and they show up in 30-40 days. You should have a fairly large number of transports, the Chindit Brigades are Airborne and you will be getting a British Airborne Brigade in November or December that will build up to full strength fairly quickly.

Lastly, depending on how the war in China goes, you could probably assign the Chinese Corps that is garrisoning the Poashan/Kunming region to hit Lashio. Once that Corps gets exposed to the veritable Ocean of supplies that allies have, it fills out rather rapidly. At full strength its worth about 750AV all by itself.

The real problem with supply in Burma, is that Burma itself only generates enough supply to "maintain" the Burma Corps that starts the game there. But if you draw supplies in from India, you can pretty much do whatever you want. The rainy season obviously slows down movement and effects combat, but it doesn't generally tend to affect supply.

The key is getting a City inside Burma quickly enough.

Jason

My understanding is that you are no longer able to do this post patch. Supply should flow from India to Burma at a much slower rate now. This campaign might be a good test. The only reason the Allies were able to conduct an offensive in North Burma was due to the air superiority and the ability to transport large amounts of supply in by air. They just did not have the transport to do it in 42-or 43.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Swenslim

To gain success in Burma you will have to gain air superiority over the battle field, without it he will trash and disrupt your slowly advancing troops with Sally's and Lily's

quote:

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

quote:

ORIGINAL: Swenslim

To gain success in Burma you will have to gain air superiority over the battle field, without it he will trash and disrupt your slowly advancing troops with Sally's and Lily's

This is true, but I think I hold the upper hand here. First, I almost certainly have more planes; I have transferred some USAAF fighter and bomber units here. If he does bring alot of airpower, that meets my strategic objective, which is to draw Japanese strength away from REPRISAL, which is my real offensive in 1942.

I think it will be me raining death on the Japanese troops, but we'll see.