RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A)

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 12/23/2010 10:17:20 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Cutting the Road to SRA: First Steps

Bigred pulled back most of the Chinese troops that were blocking my Southern China Army around Kukong. As a result, on 11-12th July Japanese forces managed to rout his roadblocks with fairly light losses (the map below shows the situation on evening of 11th). I will test Chinese defences at Kukong. Against a determined opposition it won't be possible to take, as Chinese can bring reinforcements by the railroad, but I suspect that Bigred might not want to commit. He seems to be wasting his AV by spreading forces around to form pseudo-frontlines. This, I believe, is largely meaningless in AE. Without motorized troops and with Japanese aviation ruling the air, he has little chance of cutting any of my major stacks off.

In the north, Chinese seem to be abandoning Sian for real. I'm willing to let garrizon go and be satisfied with the rout of the 1900+ AV stack blocking the highway south of the city. Not only I feel no confidence in the ability of my troops to rout the main body of the garrizon after a river crossing shock attack, I don't want to damage oil and industry.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by FatR -- 12/24/2010 1:42:09 PM >

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Post #: 361

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 12/26/2010 7:35:40 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

July 12-15, 1942

Not much sensational news. Kukong fell easily. I ponder whether I should push through the open terrain across the southern coast to Canton, or to secure Pingsiang in the north first, to protect my flank and defeat scattered Chinese troops there. The first attack on the road to Sian failed, but odds were quite close, and Chinese took heavier infantry losses, so I believe the next one will push them out of the forest.

Strategic Bombing: Does not work quite as well as I expected. 70 bombers attacking industry are likely to get only about 2 hits against weak flak and none against strong barrage. Manpower is easily hit, but fires do not seem to cause much, if any, damage to anyting else.
On the bright side, my bombing campaign pulled a significant number of Allied fighters into Bengalia and allowed me to inflict some tactical defeats on them. On the next turn I plan to concentrate the vast majority of my fighter force against Andamans and try to defeat Allied CAP decisively, in preparation for the invasion of Trinkat.

Gathering Forces: Speaking of the invasion, the selected ground forces (4th Brigade and ImpGuards Brigade, two regiments and a bunch of support units) are in place in Georgetown. What I'm waiting for is assault shipping. I want to use only AKs and low-capacity xAPs (and my sole remaining LSD) to unload everything in two turns at most. What worries me, I still haven't got enough intel on enemy garrizon, despite a relatively successful naval bombardment on 14th.

< Message edited by FatR -- 12/26/2010 7:42:53 PM >

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Post #: 362

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 12/27/2010 2:36:57 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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July 16-17, 1942

China: The roadblock before Sian was overrun. Bigred pulled out only a part of the garrizon from Sian, the rest now likely doesn't have a prayer. I'll fire some intelligence shells before attacking, though.

Trinkat: Speaking of the intelligence shells, 17th Indian Division was confirmed on Trinkat. It should be a decent unit now. I have two brigades and three regiments semi-prepared for Trinkat, but still not enough assault shipping to land all of them. As CD fire seems weak, I'll try to land troops in two waves, using a mass of surface ships, including Nagato, as amphibious escorts. I don't want to delay things, as while my shorter-legged planes cannot reach Andamans, Bigred sneaks more supply there with expendable xAKLs.

Air war: On 17th Japanese inflicted a sought defeat on Allied CAP over Little Andaman, with overall air lossed for the turn of 30 to 50. A few more battles like this and Allied aviation will be scrapping for spare planes.

Sub war: Up to half-dozen of Allied subs were destroyed since Bigred took over, by mines at Merak and Lahaina, and bombing at Pearl. One loss, however, probably wasn't his mistake - SS Nautilus was found in one of the empty Philippine bases, apparently in no condition to leave, and sunk by bombers.

< Message edited by FatR -- 12/27/2010 8:37:10 PM >

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 363

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/1/2011 9:09:55 PM

FatR

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Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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July 18-20, 1942: Trinkat Revisited

Amphibious Woes: While my SCTFs scored some cheap kills against Allied small fry, and I haven't lost any ships or planes during the landing at Trinkat, the results made me pessimistic about the perspectives of future Japanese amphibious attacks, particularly at Pearl Harbor. The amphibious force consisted of AKs and small xAPs, and had Nagato, 3 CAs, 3 CLs and a metric ton of DDs embedded directly into it. Allies had no dedicated CD units at Trinkat. The place was naval bombarded pretty hard on previous turns. Despite this, the ATF suffered 5 fire phases before unloading troops completely, and in 3 of them coastal defences were able to engage the transports. Even assuming that with only AKs and xAKLs in an ATF the landing will be done within 3 fire phases, this does not bode well for an assault on a place with actual coast defences (that also can deal with my warships). As a result, I'm thinking again, whether I really want Oahu that much. More on that later.

In good news, Trinkat seems to be garrizoned by a gaggle of fragments. I believe we can take it without a second landing.

Artillery Star Destroyer: The bombardments attack in the open field at Sian produced quite satisfying results:

Ground combat at Sian (83,41)
Japanese Bombardment attack
Attacking force 7161 troops, 398 guns, 594 vehicles, Assault Value = 2990
Defending force 123381 troops, 828 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3718

Allied ground losses:
562 casualties reported
Squads: 15 destroyed, 23 disabled
Non Combat: 10 destroyed, 18 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Assaulting units:
8th Ind.Mixed Brigade
34th Division
1st Mobile Infantry Regiment
10th Division
14th Division
1st Division
11th Tank Regiment
32nd Division
59th Infantry Brigade
1st Recon Battalion
4th Ind.Mixed Brigade
26th Recon Regiment
4th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
8th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
10th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
13th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
1st Mobile Field Artillery Regiment
52nd Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
Tonei Hvy Gun Regiment
12th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
3rd Army
4th Army
7th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
1st Army
11th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
3rd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
5th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
9th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
7th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
51st Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
6th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
Botanko Hvy Gun Regiment
1st Mobile AA Battalion
5th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
4th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
11th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
12th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion

Defending units:
61st Chinese Corps
91st Chinese Corps
23rd Chinese Corps
93rd Chinese Corps
9th Chinese Corps
96th Chinese Corps
92nd Chinese Corps
80th Chinese Corps
15th Chinese Corps
40th Chinese Corps
22nd Chinese Corps
3rd Chinese Corps
11th Chinese Corps
27th Chinese Corps
2nd Chinese Cavalry Corps
Jingcha War Area
15th Chinese Base Force
7th Construction Regiment
10th Chinese Base Force
18th Group Army
12th Chinese Base Force
4th Group Army
14th Group Army
4th Construction Regiment

The number of tubes needed for this (pale) imitation of the artillery Death Stars of old is ridiculous, but I think the results, for once, are worth keeping it up for a week or two.

4E Sneak Attack: On July 18th Bigred tried to hit Lahaina and Georgetown with B-17s. The Lahaina attack was fairly big and almost unimpeded, but thankfully my battleships in the harbor absorbed 90% of the blow, taking 9 500-lb. bombs each for rather pitiful damage. The uselessness of non-penetrating bomb hits is amazing, as you can see below... In the end, no Japanese ship was sunk (an AV, an AK and a CM got damaged).

Attachment (1)

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 364

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/2/2011 6:26:10 PM

FatR

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Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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July 21-22, 1942: Shadow of Solomons

Trinkat: The battle heated up over these two days. On 21th one of the British units attacked accidentally and was cut down. On 22th I tried a shock attack combined with a paradrop by 2nd Raiding Regiment. My AV still ended up way short, and failed to drop level 3 forts, but thankfully only a few Japanese squads were destroyed (in fact, enemy permanently lost more). Looks like sending the second wave still will be necessary. I'm afraid to think what sort of resistance I might meet at Port Blair, if the small garrizon of Trinkat gives me so much trouble. Also, 11 of my transport planes ended up decorating the landscape due to flack fire. British flak is just insane.

Supply Problem: There is not enough of it in Malaya-Burma! Many bases are in the red, and this really holds back my air attacks during the last week. I didn't expect to face such serious shortage in absence of major ground fighting. Convoys are heading from Home Islands to rectify this, but they'll take some time...

Hawaii: Long story short, I decided to abandon the plan of assaulting Oahu. More on my reasoning and on my plans for troops stationed there later.

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 365

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/2/2011 6:54:01 PM

ny59giants

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Check both Palembang and Balikpapan for supply. Since they both have large Refineries, they should have a good amount of supply built up unless you have been pulling it out on a regular basis.

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/5/2011 9:55:35 PM

FatR

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Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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You were absolutely right! I was so busy trying to pull fuel and oil out of Palembang, that I totally overlooked over 100k of supplies pooling there! With that, hopefully, the ghost of starvation will be banished. At the moment, supply levels are so low, I cannot even reload my battleships after all the bombardments.

Sigh. A note for myself: Palembang should be sucked dry before the amphibious bonus ends and taskforces start taking several days to load. I allowed fuel, oil and resources to pool there, because I feared sub and air interdiction, but probably I should have accepted the risk.

< Message edited by FatR -- 1/5/2011 10:40:16 PM >

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Post #: 367

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/5/2011 10:39:51 PM

FatR

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From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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Hawaii Conundrum

One thing to note first: since the last patch effectiveness of American AAA over Oahu increased greatly. Outright losses still are few as my planes fly from 1-2 hexes away, but every raid 1/3-1/2 of attacking planes get damaged and the number of hits decreased greatly. I cannot keep the airfield shut down with 4 groups of Sallies anymore. Industry attacks also were practically fruitless. Maybe I should try a sustained firebombing campaign over several days.

This of course, is a strong argument for storming Pearl. With the Oahu airfield capable of reactivating at any moment, Allies will be able to retake Hawaii in early-to-mid 1943 at the latest even after losing nearly all of their carriers.

So, Pearl is a high-priority target and I'm willing to sacrifice a lot to take it. Unfortunately, looks like sacrifices are goind to be much too high. I already noted my negative experiences at Trinkat (one xAP went down there, after all - burned out on the way back). For that matter, Lahaina was a horrible bloodbath with over 20 transports lost. Oahu promises to be far worse. Particularly because I'm not likely to be able to load everything needed to take PH in a single amphibious TF again. I fear, that probable shipping losses will impact my ability to haul stuff around the Empire in the long term. I still have reserves of both merchants and troop transports at the moment, but not as much as I would've liked, particularly in regards of xAKs.

Moreover, this makes me unsure of whether I can unload enough troops at Oahu to actually take the island. Judging by what the Lahaina garrizon was like and comparing the observed number of units, I suspect at least level 6 forts and over 1000 AV. With superior Allied firepower, this force might be nigh-impossible to dislodge.

Of course, things might change if the defenders run out of beans and bullets. Here I, alas, have an unfair advantage - when I visited Yubari's AAR after he decided to quit, I noticed, that he was quite confident about Allies' supply situation at Oahu. Still, the perspective of starving out the defenders, eventually, makes me reluctant to order a total evacuation of Hawaii right away.

And I contemplated such order. Thing is, at the moment the Hawaian operation, albeit totally indirectly, already has fulfilled its most important purpose. The Allied carrier fleet is on the bottom. It would have been really nice to finish things by storming Oahu and bagging its defenders, but - unless my air raids can drain enemy's supplies within a reasonable time, possibility which I have no way of confirming - sacrifices and effort necessary seem to great and success uncertain.

So, I've opted for gradual dismantling of my assault force at Hawaii, with an eye towards creating a more compact "traditional" Pacific perimeter through Marshalls/Gilbers. I'm still not sure where to employ the mass of infantry freed thusly, while not tying it down for an extended campaign, in case PH runs out of supplies after all. A strong move against eastern Aleutians and conquest of Line Islands (necessary in any case, if I don't want to evacuate Hawaii, as at the moment Allies can rather easily cut off air evacuation and airgroup retreat from there by seizing Midway and Johnston simultaneously, so I need to push my airsearch coverage farther from latter) seem to be the most simple options. Northern Australia might be more strategically promising in the long term, though.

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 368

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/6/2011 12:06:58 AM

pat.casey

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It'd be quite interesting to watch a legitimate, full blooded attempt to storm pearl, but that's a separate question from whether it'd be wise.
I'd almost be tempted to keep a save game and try it out "later" just to see what it would look like.

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Post #: 369

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/6/2011 12:33:06 AM

FatR

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Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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Based on my experiences here, I believe that the only good way to completely take Hawaii against a decent opponent is a December 1941 invasion of outlying islands, and then assault on Oahu once SRA is secured. Defensive power of real American troops is just too great, and the air/sea part was on the brink of disaster at least once. I made some operational mistakes in my campaign as well, primarily spending too much time on Midway and Johnston, in hope that my opponent will do something stupid, but looks like Yubari got forewarned by SigInt, so this wasn't the main reason why I met such strong resistances.

(in reply to pat.casey)

Post #: 370

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/6/2011 10:05:41 AM

janh

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Almost agree with your assessment, FatR. Losses at Lahiana suggest that Oahu could be even a bloodier fight. Yet you do not know what forces are actually left there, do you? Isolation and starvation would be the course of choice followed by a concentrated single effort to storm it, but you would need to enhance your LBA and start a sustained bombing effort. I think the latter is well worth it since the LBA won't be of much value elsewhere in CentPac right now, and the airframe replacement rates in AE allow you to stage a war of attrition as well. Until BigRed will be able to muster sufficient CV air to take on any CentPac OPS, you will surely have 6-12 months of time to bomb Pearl to dust.

To give up on Pearl at this stage seems to early to me, and would unnecessarily cede to the possibility to BigRed to focus more on hurting you rather than covering his endangered spots. Also, you have already invested alot in Hawaii, and the question is whether the ration between adding some more sacrifice and gaining much more should be worth it? I think yes, since it would effectively preclude any CentPac Invasions for a long long time, and even protect KB in that fashion. However, rebasing your assault force to other defensive posts wouldn't be detrimental as long as they are kept in sufficiently large formations to pull them back together quickly for an invasion if the opportunity arose.

In the meantime, what is your thinking about the Adamans? Isolate? Retake as long as they seems still "comparably" weak? You could even detach the assault forces from Hawaii for this task, built one big Schwerpunkt and let the LBA handle Pearl while dealing with the Adamans once and for long/all?

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 371

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/6/2011 11:34:13 AM

FatR

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Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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Well, that's why I'm not opting for a complete evacuation yet. I'll also try to paradrop a fragment on Oahu to gauge defenders' AV. However, I cannot just let my best troops sit and do nothing while I wait for the results of the bombing campaign. Southern Army HQ and combat engineers are particularly needed in Andamans.

Speaking of Andamans, this battle is far more vital. I can give up Hawaii without immediate consequences, but at Andamans I'm not only can't make even one more step back, I must push Allies from their positions. Trinkat, in particular, allows 4Es to reach Singapore.

As about my plans for Andamans, I want to seize Trinkat as a Tojo/DB/TB base and to establish an air blockade after that. Unfortunately lack of supplies impeded my air superiority campaign over Andamans, but even before that, Lightnings and Hurricanes IIc were putting a good fight against my fighters. Unfortunately, Hayabusas can't really deal with Lightnings due to weak armaments, and IJN don't have pilot reserves to throw its squadrons into the grinder repeatedly.

After the blockade takes effect, and my troops are fully prepared, I will counterinvade Port Blair.

(in reply to janh)

Post #: 372

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/6/2011 1:00:09 PM

Canoerebel

Posts: 21100
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From: Northwestern Georgia, USA
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FatR, good luck. I'm hoping you continue with Hawaii as it would be very interesting.

Just a note - using para-fragment drops as a means to learn force composition is considered gamey by many players. I strongly believe that it is.

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 373

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/6/2011 2:03:03 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Well, an alternative to the fragment drop is to launch some ground attack missions. These are ought to spot at least divisions.

Meanwhile, Bigred launched a large resupply operation at Andamans, which collided with my landing of second wave on Trinkat on the last day. This resulted in more air and naval combat.

July 23-25: Attrition at Andamans

July 25, Naval Battle of Sabang:

Day Time Surface Combat, near Sabang at 44,68, Range 26,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
CL Yahagi, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Sakawa, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Kagero, Shell hits 1
DD Oyashio
DD Amatsukaze
DD Minazuki
DD Fumizuki
DD Namikaze

Allied Ships
CA Chicago, Shell hits 7, heavy fires
CL Glasgow, Shell hits 2
DD Henley, Shell hits 4, heavy fires
DD Patterson, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Cummings
DD Cassin

Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions: 30,000 yards
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 26,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 26,000 yards

In the night this Allied TF bombarded Sabang, causing moderate damage. However, on the morning it was intercepted by Adm. Nishimura's cruisers, that were previously ordered to move towards Trinkat and form a part of surface cover for the impending landing. Japanese got rather lucky, with first hits on Chicago and Henley causing massive damage, that allowed them to pound these ships further. All torpedoes were wasted from long distances, though.

Later in the day Vals from Sabang found Chicago and Henley, detached from the main force, and left them in sinking condition.

Unfortunately, with many of my ships unable to reload ammy, and CA Atago damaged by a Dutch sub several days earlier, moderate damage suffered by Yahagi and Sakawa leaves me dangerously short on surface combatants at the moment.

Air action: Bigred launched a nightbombing campaign all across the region, with mixed results. He scored best a bit before, on 22th, but after that I mostly managed to foil his raids.

Allies also bombed Japanese troops on Trinkat, without much results. However, on 25th their raid resulted in combat with leaking demi-KB CAP, in which Japanese scored only about 1:1 against Hurricanes and lost several carrier pilots.

Merchant hunting: Bigred employs sacrificial xAKs without cover widely in his attempt to resupply Andamans. Over these three days my subs at Andamans got at least two and possibly three small xAKs, and a fourth was sunk at Trinkat by Sallies. Unfortunately, Allies have so many of them, that such losses are practically meaningless.

Assault on Sian: Ended up worse than I hoped. Will rest my troops for a couple of days before retrying.

Ground combat at Sian (83,41)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 92770 troops, 1124 guns, 1257 vehicles, Assault Value = 3096
Defending force 120639 troops, 812 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3555
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2
Japanese adjusted assault: 1377
Allied adjusted defense: 657
Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 2

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

Japanese ground losses:
6775 casualties reported
Squads: 17 destroyed, 614 disabled
Non Combat: 17 destroyed, 411 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 33 disabled
Vehicles lost 112 (12 destroyed, 100 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
4795 casualties reported
Squads: 31 destroyed, 436 disabled
Non Combat: 38 destroyed, 358 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled

Assaulting units:
59th Infantry Brigade
8th Ind.Mixed Brigade
34th Division
1st Division
10th Division
1st Recon Battalion
1st Mobile Infantry Regiment
4th Ind.Mixed Brigade
14th Division
32nd Division
11th Tank Regiment
26th Recon Regiment
13th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
7th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
12th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment
3rd Army
Tonei Hvy Gun Regiment
1st Mobile Field Artillery Regiment
51st Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
1st Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
7th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
4th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
52nd Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
10th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
11th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
5th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
3rd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
8th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
1st Mobile AA Battalion
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
9th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st Army
4th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
5th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
6th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
Botanko Hvy Gun Regiment
11th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
4th Army
12th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion

Defending units:
92nd Chinese Corps
80th Chinese Corps
96th Chinese Corps
61st Chinese Corps
91st Chinese Corps
15th Chinese Corps
23rd Chinese Corps
3rd Chinese Corps
93rd Chinese Corps
40th Chinese Corps
22nd Chinese Corps
9th Chinese Corps
11th Chinese Corps
27th Chinese Corps
2nd Chinese Cavalry Corps
Jingcha War Area
10th Chinese Base Force
18th Group Army
4th Group Army
14th Group Army
7th Construction Regiment
12th Chinese Base Force
15th Chinese Base Force
4th Construction Regiment

I wonder how Allies manage to get the leader bonus so often. Particularly in China.

(in reply to Canoerebel)

Post #: 374

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/6/2011 3:18:30 PM

FatR

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From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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I should note, that changes to the Aganos in this mod turn them into excellent cruisers, significantly better than any Allied light cruisers (Brooklyns/Helenas/Clevelands are light only by designation, so they don't count) and comparable with older British heavies (Exeter/Hawkins/Frobisher classes). Japanese 155mm guns are a surprisingly huge upgrade from 150mm ones in AE, due to having more than twice the penetration and better everything else as well. In today's battle one of them penetrated Chicago's belt armor from 15k. New-and-improved Aganos pack 8 of them, instead of 6, too. They are a really nice addition to the Combined Fleet.

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 375

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/6/2011 4:48:12 PM

FatR

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From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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July 26: Revenge from Underwater

O21 torpedoed CL Sakawa, retreating after the battle. The ship was in near-sinking condition, but this happened close enough from Georgetown to auto-disband there.

S-39 put a single torpedo into Hiryu. She's not in danger barring furher attacks, thankfully.

Mine own sub attacks weren't nearly as successful and resulted in nothing but one crippled sub (not Allied one, alas).

Allied aviation also launched some stinging raids in different corners of the Pacific.

In good news, the second echelon successfully unloaded on Trinkat in a single turn, after just 3 fire phases. No ships are significantly damaged, although troops still suffered considerable disablement and fatigue, and will need some rest before attacking. Still, AKs clearly make a difference.

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 376

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/6/2011 10:17:11 PM

DTurtle

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

FatR, good luck.� I'm hoping you continue with Hawaii as it would be very interesting.

Just a note - using para-fragment drops as a means to learn force composition is considered gamey by many players.� I strongly believe that it is.

Didn't Bigred say that he wanted this to be as much of a "no rules" game as possible? In that case it should be quite acceptable.

(in reply to Canoerebel)

Post #: 377

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/6/2011 10:30:08 PM

Alfred

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DTurtle

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

FatR, good luck.� I'm hoping you continue with Hawaii as it would be very interesting.

Just a note - using para-fragment drops as a means to learn force composition is considered gamey by many players.� I strongly believe that it is.

Didn't Bigred say that he wanted this to be as much of a "no rules" game as possible? In that case it should be quite acceptable.

Depends.

There is a big difference between playing a "no rules" game within historical real world parameters, and one where game mechanics/bugs are exploited where no counter is available.

Alfred

(in reply to DTurtle)

Post #: 378

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/7/2011 9:05:11 AM

janh

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I was under the impression that BigRed considers this a�"no-rules whatsoever" game?� I think a "super-ranger" drop is thus legitimate.

(in reply to Alfred)

Post #: 379

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/7/2011 12:42:35 PM

FatR

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Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

So did I. I'll see if he's OK with engine exploits. So far Allies haven't tried anything more outlandish than suicide transports.

(in reply to janh)

Post #: 380

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/8/2011 2:12:25 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

July 27-29: Breakthrough

Trinkat Falls: On 29th.

Ground combat at Trinkat (44,64)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 27470 troops, 261 guns, 30 vehicles, Assault Value = 804
Defending force 8209 troops, 186 guns, 175 vehicles, Assault Value = 142
Japanese adjusted assault: 538
Allied adjusted defense: 85
Japanese assault odds: 6 to 1 (fort level 3)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Trinkat !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), disruption(-), preparation(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
530 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 40 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled

Allied ground losses:
6699 casualties reported
Squads: 150 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 734 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 72 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 264 (264 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 175 (175 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 9

Assaulting units:
124th Infantry Regiment
78th Infantry Regiment
4th Brigade
4th Infantry Regiment
Ichiki Det.
Guards Mixed Brigade
2nd Raiding Regiment
1st Sasebo SNLF Coy
31st Special Base Force
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
31st Field AA Battalion
35th Fld AA Gun Co
91st JAAF AF Bn

Defending units:
1st Marine Raider Battalion
2/1 AIF Pioneer Battalion
17th Indian Div /1
RAF 221 Group Wing /1
RAF 221 Group Base Force
24th Indian Construction Battalion
1st RM Heavy AA Regiment
255th USN Base Force
1st ISF Base Force /3

Naval bombardments by CAs on two previous days proved to be effective at disrupting the Allied defenfers. Bigred tried to counter by nighttime anti-shipping attacks, but Beauforts and Banshees failed to hit anything. Ground attack against my troops were a bit more effective, but LRCAP and flak units on Trinkat managed to hinder them enough. Meanwhile, Vals flying from Sabang sank DM Preble, DMS Hopkins and AMc Chandali during these days.

It's unlikely that any of the Allied units are permanently gone... but at least British/Commonwealth ones will take long time to recover from losses.

Sian Falls: On the same day.

Ground combat at Sian (83,41)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 87939 troops, 1124 guns, 1257 vehicles, Assault Value = 2772
Defending force 113589 troops, 800 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3059
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 1
Japanese adjusted assault: 1184
Allied adjusted defense: 232
Japanese assault odds: 5 to 1 (fort level 1)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Sian !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(+), disruption(-), preparation(-), experience(-)
supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
4711 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 289 disabled
Non Combat: 11 destroyed, 272 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 24 disabled
Vehicles lost 148 (10 destroyed, 138 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
43959 casualties reported
Squads: 1796 destroyed, 76 disabled
Non Combat: 1411 destroyed, 85 disabled
Engineers: 164 destroyed, 3 disabled
Guns lost 95 (95 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 24

Looks like the previous assault drained the last of Chinese supplies. Damage to the facilities was pretty bad, but at least they are out of Chinese hands now. I'll repair oil wells and heavy industry in Sian, the rest will be left as it is.

I considered the possibility of pushing farther north from Sian and decided against it. Allies should have over 7000 AV there, and Bigred is unlikely to completely spread them out. Pushing them out of mountains will be too hard. Instead, the offensive action will switch to the southern theatre.

Happy Days Revisited: My subs are successfully preying on unprotected Allied shipping around Andamans, sinking two more small xAKs in three days. Others got a DD around Koggala and an AM near San Franciso.

In a bit of bad news though, AV Kamoi, that was set on fire by Liberators at Tulagi several days ago, finally sank, despite the presence of naval support in the port...

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 381

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/9/2011 7:59:59 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

July 30-31 and the montly report

These days saw a new burst of air combat in Burma-Andamans theatre. My fighters swept Ledo to knock out the defending squadrons and Little Andaman (to pull off the heat from the defenders of Trinkat, mostly failure, Oscars are outclassed by Hurricanes and long range worked against me). Allied aviation swept Trinkat. On the first day a bunch of Airacobras at 100 ft. were about the only attacking fighters, but they suddenly butchered the defenders. On the second day several squadrons swept and most of them were defeated, except Lightnings. LRCAP worked weirdly - Zero squadrons from Sabang appeared in battle normally, but Oscar squadrons hardly flew and suffered enormous fatigue and morale drop.

On 31th Allied divebombers tried to hit my warships around Trinkat and sank a CM. The guarding SCTF dodged the harm. Also, an afternoon raid came without escort against regenerated CAP and was butchered. You can see the results on the intelligence screen for the beginning of August:

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(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 382

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/10/2011 8:59:46 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Burma Theatre.

An element of an Indian Division just seized Katha. Whatever, not like I ever intended to defend there. A more intensive recon is in order, to ascertain enemy movements.
Chinese movement on Ledo is a new development. I haven't yet checked what Bigred has there.

I've put key data about bases on the map. As you can see, Allies built up several airfields, but, unlike mine, they are not mutually supporting.

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(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 383

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/10/2011 9:25:50 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Andamans Theatre

Impressive number of subs on both sides. I just lost another small CM and a To'su PB to sub attacks. With a DMS ramming a mine at Trinkat and being practically doomed, this was not a very good beginning of a month.

On the good side, Allies failed to launch a decisive air assault against Trinkat at my critical moment, when most airgroups were too fatigued and/or understrength to help. So, looks like Japanese LBA will be able to protect the airfield. I'm airlifting engineers in, and a reinforcement convoy with various support units now approaches the island.

Allied force on Great Nicobar is only a token garrizon. I can take it out at any time. Which is likely going to be some time in August.

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< Message edited by FatR -- 1/10/2011 9:27:13 PM >

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 384

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 12:21:09 AM

FatR

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Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

China

I neglected reporting on it lately, so I took pains to represent the great July march of Southern China Army and hexes where Chinese forces were fought and defeated. Their overall losses there exceed 3000 squads. My own forces are in good shape, the main group's active strength still exceeds 2000 AV. I pretty much moved it from hex to hex and drove spread-out Chinese forces before them. As outflanking without roads is not possible, there wasn't much they could do against this. Aviation helped to blast the way for ground assaults as well and it seems Chinese troops are running out of supply at the moment (the last attack on Pingsiang, where they had a semi-decent force still caused noticeable losses for Japanese, though, but, as usual for victories, few of my squads were destroyed).

The only disappointing thing about this campaign is that the success was due to my opponent's mistakes and inexperience, rather than to any strategic planning of my own.

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(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 385

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 12:43:36 AM

ny59giants

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Joined: 1/10/2005
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quote:

I'm airlifting engineers in, and a reinforcement convoy with various support units now approaches the island.

If you haven't recombined them, the Port Support units would be a good choice to air lift in. The have engineers and naval support. I think John changed their commands so you wouldn't have to spend double PPs to switch commands for the port support and SNLF unit.

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 386

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 9:51:09 AM

FatR

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From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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Port units seem to have the same problem in stock. Anyway, I rebuilt them into base forces and that was a waste of points. These BFs do not meaningfully interfere with naval bombardments.

(in reply to ny59giants)

Post #: 387

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 9:56:24 AM

FatR

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Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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Eastern DEI/Australia.

Allies moved a motorised regiment to Port Hedland. Their first attack attempt failed, but caused no damage to the attackers. I'm going to help the defenders with some aviation, no need to let the base be taken by a token force.

Koepang/Roti remains the only highly developed Japanese strongpoint in the region. I plan on moving there some Army bombers from China, to launch harassing attacks against Darwin.

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(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 388

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 10:03:20 AM

FatR

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Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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Solomons

Both sides continue to develop bases. No serious attempts by Allied to move forward so far, as the relatively powerful concentration of Japanese aircraft discourages them. My ships once visited Luganville, but were detected prematurely and everything save for an ACM managed to escape. Also, a lone Allied transport tried to slip between Solomons and Gilberts, with unclear purpose. It was chased down and sunk.

As about things to do, I need to risk a convoy to Horn Island, and to garrizon Ontong Java.

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(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 389

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 1/11/2011 10:07:29 AM

FatR

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Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
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Large Strategic Map

I need to do something with all these unoccupied bases and dot hexes in my rear...

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(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 390

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