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Attack at Dili... - 11/3/2005 6:42:52 PM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		June 28 -

This turn featured the resumption of widespread action despite continued generally bad weather everywhere. First off, one of my S-boats put two torpedoes into a Japanese AP in the Invasion Fleet at Dili. But that won't stop Tophat; he obviously wants Dili badly and sent his big 5-BB bombardment TF back into action for the first time in quite a while. They hammered Dili badly and destroyed all of the supplies there. There are several other TFs standing off a ways off from Dili; I suspect that at least one of them is a carrier TF because none of my Australian bombers flew to try to hit any of the TFs or the troops that are already on the ground in Dili. There is also a CS in one of those TFs. That suggests strongly the presence of heavy LR CAP over the invasion fleet.

In China the weather washed out my planned big Brit air attack but allowed a couple of other smaller attacks. The Chinese IL-4cs got over Canton but were met by a strong CAP consisting of a few Tojos and lots of Nates. I didn't lose any bombers but they got shot up badly and they didn't hit the target. Tophat also sent that large, strong group of Oscars over Hengchow again. This time my more experienced Brit Mohawk squadron gave as well as they got, but there were still too many Japanese fighters on the sweep for a single squadron to handle. I may need to bring in a couple of squadrons of Hurricanes just to defend Hengchow.

Tophat finally changed his strategy at Soerabaja. He sent his Japanese Army bombers in at 16,000 feet and targeted the air fields. Using this approach his planes avoided a lot of flak damage and caused a fair amount of damage to the field which required supply to fix. The damage was all fixed by "daylight", but if Tophat keeps this up he may well be able to attrite my supply significantly. Unfortunately, I can't tell my engineers not to rebuild the air fields. Maybe this is why Tophat predicted that Soerabaja would last for only another 10 days. I think that my supply will hold out longer than that, but we will see.

My B-17s flew over Baker today and performed as I had hoped:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Baker Island, at 94, 92

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 12

Allied aircraft
PB2Y Coronado x 3
B-17E Fortress x 27

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
PB2Y Coronado: 1 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
28 casualties reported

Airbase hits 3
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 17
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This group of bombers needs to build up experience so Baker is as good a target as any. I'll rest up these bombers again this turn. Also in news about Baker Island, that transport TF that I spotted last turn to the Northwest of Baker now appears to be heading back to home port, if my Intel is any good. Was it a Fast Transport TF that dumped its load and fled, or a regular transport TF that was "scared off" by the bombers? Or is it a bait to see if I send my carriers back? In any event, my small combat TF will cruise into Baker this evening to see if there are any targets-of-opportunity, so I'll have a better idea of what is going on tomorrow.

BTW - another of the damaged ships from the Baker Invasion TF sank in the Marshalls today.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 331
Air Wars All Over... - 11/4/2005 1:07:56 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		June 29 -

This was certainly a chippy turn, with lots of air action all over and some naval action too. First off, Tophat automatically occupied some "dot" somewhere called "Roti Island". Hmmm, its supper time and that is making me hungry. <g>

The big bombardment TF came back to Dili and hammered my troops again. Next, the scout planes from the TF found the S-boat that torpedoed the AP in the invasion force last turn and hit it. So I've got to send that sub home for repairs. But my B-17s flew out of Darwin and surprisingly enough did a lot of damage to Tophat's invasion troops. Then my Hudsons flew a naval attack against a CS that is in the invasion TF, but they didn't get any hits.

At the same time Tophat's Japanese Army bombers went after Soerabaja at 16K feet again, doing about the same amount of damage as the last time. But this time the AA seems to have found the correct range and damaged or destroyed a number of Japanese bombers too.

The bulk of the air action was in China. Tophat did a sweep of Hengchow with his "super-Oscars" but I didn't have any fighters on CAP, so that was a waste for him. Then Tophat did a much more productive sweep as Oscars and Zeros hit Homan. I had Chinese Biplanes on patrol which held their own against the Oscars, but they were wiped out by the Zeros. So I am now retiring those Biplanes to the "far boonies" until I get P-40Ns in 1943. (It's just too bad that I can't give them some of my P-39s that are collecting dust.)

But my Wellingtons had a good run at Wuhan that sort of made up for the debacle at Homan:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Wuhan, at 48, 35

Japanese aircraft
Ki-27 Nate x 3
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 9

Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 56

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-27 Nate: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 5 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 1 destroyed
A6M3 Zero: 3 destroyed
Ki-15 Babs: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
127 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Airbase hits 9
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 27
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've decided to up-the-ante in China so I'm starting to move a couple of my better Hurricane squadrons into range. Its funny how I didn't intend to get "sucked into" an escalating war in China a little while ago, but here I go…

The final bit of action was at little, middle-of-nowhere Nanomea Atoll where I have an AVD and a Catalina squadron. Two turns ago a Japanese sub showed up and parked itself at the atoll. So last turn I set that AVD to ASW combat, sent it out one hex, and let it return on its own. This turn the AVD attacked the sub twice, hitting it with a depth charge on the second try.

With all that is going on, it is nice to realize that July is upon us, and with it the ability to start to change the Dutch planes to something more useful and plentiful, there are upgrades for the Yorktown-class carriers, and this is the beginning of something very "dear to my heart" - the arrival of Avengers.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 332
Combat at Dili... - 11/4/2005 5:08:18 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		June 30 -

This was yet another chippy turn with action scattered all over the map. Nothing "massive" is happening but everything does add up as Tophat attempts to push the boundaries of his conquests while I attempt to push back. The only thing that I'm sort of giving up on at this time is my British night fighters - I'm just going to stand them down for a couple of weeks. Maybe if their morale goes up they will find the target once in a while.

Otherwise, as far as action goes, there was all sorts. One of my subs that was cruising along the north shore of PNG found and put a torpedo into a Japanese AP that had some troops in it. But a few hundred miles away to the west of PNG a group of Japanese APDs ran over and sank a Dutch sub. More Japanese subs appeared in the waters between Canton Island and Palmyra too - I'll have to do something about them.

There were more air battles in China. That big Oscar group did a sweep of Hengchow again, but I didn't have any planes in the air so it was for naught as far as the Japanese go. But a big Oscar/Zero sweep over Homan turned quite bloody. My Mohawks hammered the Oscars hard, but the Zeros blasted my Mohawks out of the air. Then a Daitai of Zeros came in escorting a group of Sallys. Again the Zeros blasted my Mohawks but fortunately the Sallys didn't hit anything. But then another smaller sweep of Oscars and Zeros came in and my remaining Mohawks handled them easily. Obviously Tophat has a couple of really good Zero Daitais in China amongst a number of ordinary ones. BTW - my bombers at Sian flew and hammered Tophat's troops at Homan hard, despite all the other fighting in the air over Homan.

One thing that Tophat has changed in China is the location of his air units - he has moved them back in an attempt to get them out of reach of my bombers in China. But my bombers have pretty "long legs" and I will be sending all of them after that base with the good Daitai next turn. BTW - Tophat's land attacks in China are not doing so well, particularly at Kungchang where for the last two turns his bombardment attacks have caused no Chinese casualties at all.

Elsewhere, the daily air raid on Soerabaja caused the Dutch forces no measurable damage while causing about half of the Japanese bombers to be hit by flak. And at Dili Tophat now has LR CAP in place that intercepted and shot down some of the transport planes that I was using to try to drop off supplies. So I am stopping the flights to Dili and focusing on flying supplies to Lautem instead. Also, next turn I am sending that B-17 group to Dili again to attack the Japanese ground forces. The B-17s ought to help to "take care of" the LR CAP too. But all that air activity aside, the oddest thing was that when Tophat's ground troops tried a deliberate attack at the end of the turn they failed to cause much in the way of casualties at all and only got a 0:1 result.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 333
July 1 (Avengers...) - 11/4/2005 11:57:06 PM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 1 -

This was another hard fought turn with both sides taking casualties but neither side getting an overall edge in the fighting. We both continue to manoeuvre to try to get local superiority in forces but the fighting is spread out over such a wide area that it is very difficult to do. This confirms to me that my early strategy of husbanding my forces is now paying off since I can meet Tophat's advances everywhere, but I am still concerned about the potential for a Japanese breakthrough if I slip up at any of the Fronts.

In the DEI Tophat sent a cruiser TF to bombard Dili this turn while he rests and re-supplies his battleship TF. The attack did cause some damage, but nothing particularly critical. A group of Bettys then flew in to bomb the Dutch troops. Then my B-17s flew out of Darwin and blew past the Zeros on LR CAP at Dili, inflicting reasonable casualties on the invading Japanese SNLF unit. The sum result of these preliminary actions was quite satisfying; the deliberate attack by the SNLF unit on Dili was a complete failure, with no casualties to the Dutch and substantial casualties to the attackers. Tophat will have to bring greater forces to bear at Dili.

There was action in Java too as one of my remaining Dutch subs torpedoed an AP carrying fresh troop to Kragen, causing serious damage and casualties. But the escorts in the Japanese TF hit the sub with a couple of depth charges, causing severe damage in return. It is a good thing that Soerabaja is so close; I will try to get the sub there and see if I can repair the flooding damage before Tophat decides to bomb the port.

In Soerabaja itself Tophat sent in one air attack against the airfields again and another air attack against the Dutch ground troops. Neither caused a lot of damage or casualties and in both cases the AA hit the attackers hard, but this new strategy is paying off for Tophat as he is starting to regularly reduce the supply level at Soerabaja by a small amount every day. Tophat also used his full attacking force to do an artillery bombardment of Soerabaja this turn instead of just using the dedicated artillery units. However, with around 42K of supplies still available and a slow but steady replacement every day the Dutch ought to be able to continue to fight at near full strength for some time yet.

In the South Pacific my B-17s out of Canton Island blew past the Zeros on CAP, shooting down one and causing a little damage to the air field without suffering too much damage themselves. So this attack was effective in giving my bomber pilots experience even if the overall result wasn't great. With any luck I will give Tophat and the defenders at Baker Island a much bigger surprise soon enough.

In China both sides continue to spar and give each other the occasional solid blow without landing any knockouts. My Wellingtons hit Kaifeng hard but suffered a fair number of casualties in exchange:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Kaifeng, at 51, 32

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 12
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 14

Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 78

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 3 destroyed, 5 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 6 destroyed, 13 damaged

Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 16
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m sending the Wellingtons out again this turn to hit Wuhan; I'm hoping that this will catch Tophat with his CAP down because I don't usually fly big bombing missions two days in a row. My Chinese bombers also did their regular good job of bombing the Japanese troops that are besieging Kungchang and Homan. At this point the attackers at Kungchang no longer have the capability to cause any casualties during their daily bombardment attacks.

But at the same time Tophat sent a well-escorted big bombing raid over Hengchow and caused a fair amount of damage to the airfield there. This was followed up by another big fighter sweep, so it looks as if Tophat has decided to challenge me now at Hengchow. I will need to build up a serious response force there to be able to take on the consolidated Japanese air forces. Right now I am trying to avoid feeding my better units piecemeal into a meat grinder. I've got plenty of units in India but for the most part they aren't trained well enough to send into battle with the good Japanese units that Tophat is using in Coastal China. So I am trying to bring my units in slowly and let them build experience against the Japanese ground troops in Northeastern China first before committing them to the air battles in the South.

And no, I haven't committed the AVG to China yet. I still have them sitting back, enjoying curry and beer in India. They are my trump cards that keep Tophat from attempting any "adventuring" in the Bay of Bengal. If Tophat sees the AVG pop-up in China he will know that the balance of air power has shifted in India. He will also be tempted to throw everything he can at the AVG in an attempt to wear it down. So I need to find the right combination of alternate forces to maintain an acceptable balance in China.

And this being the First of the Month, I received plenty of news; and this time quite good news. First off, there was no British withdrawal; therefore I continue to have substantial naval forces in India that can challenge anything but a total assault by the complete Combined Fleet. Next, my Yorktown-class carriers received their July upgrades which not only brought additional AA capability but also brought the larger, 36 plane fighter squadrons to all of my CVs. Add to this the appearance of Avengers in the air replacement pool and it won't be long before the US carriers are no longer "98 pound weaklings" in the Pacific.

So the July 1 statistics are in the following chart. I'm quite pleased that the victory point ratio is at a quite respectable 2.30 to 1. That's thanks to the continued survival of the Dutch forces at Soerabaja as well as to the fact that the Japanese air losses remain over 20% higher than the Allied air losses.

Dave Baranyi







Attachment (1)

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 334
RE: July 1 (Avengers...) - 11/5/2005 12:22:29 AM   
PzB74


Posts: 5076
Joined: 10/3/2000
From: No(r)way
Status: offline 		Looks like you're doing well Dave

From my point of view the most exciting period playing the Allies is when the Japanese are rampant!
Guess you know the feeling - India is close to falling - is there anything you can do to stop them, is it possible that the war can really be lost!?
It takes either very aggressive play by the Japanese or a string of mistakes from the Allied player to get into such a situation. In your case it seems
like it's up to Tophat to provide the suspense <G>

Anyway, nice to read your AAR! I'm in mid July in my own Allied pbem game...and Mike Hall is really rampant

_____________________________



"The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without"
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 335
RE: July 1 (Avengers...) - 11/5/2005 2:05:34 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: PzB

Looks like you're doing well Dave

From my point of view the most exciting period playing the Allies is when the Japanese are rampant!
Guess you know the feeling - India is close to falling - is there anything you can do to stop them, is it possible that the war can really be lost!?
It takes either very aggressive play by the Japanese or a string of mistakes from the Allied player to get into such a situation. In your case it seems
like it's up to Tophat to provide the suspense <G>

Anyway, nice to read your AAR! I'm in mid July in my own Allied pbem game...and Mike Hall is really rampant


The "suspense" for me is knowing that I am within a couple of months of being able to turn the game around in a big way in a number of places; KB or no KB. But that depends upon my being able to keep Tophat tied up with my minor forces while I gather and position my major forces for some serious offensives.

Tophat is playing a lot like you did - he brings in very strong forces and makes certain that he can maintain the balance of power in his favor where he wants it. The big difference is that I have been able to gather my forces where I want and build them up so that they present a viable threat if Tophat overextends.

The temptation is there for me to do something about the DEI. But seeing how Wobbly overextended makes me continue with my overall plan rather than straying from it.

So we shall see what happens.

Thanks for the comments -

Dave

(in reply to PzB74)
Post #: 336
RE: July 1 (Avengers...) - 11/5/2005 2:59:18 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 2 -

This turn started out well then became quite tough. First off, a couple of Japanese APs that I hit before finally sank; one in Koepang Harbor and one in that TF that is still off of Dili. From there on things went progressively the wrong direction.

Tophat is committing better and better planes and pilots to the battle fronts so my earlier days of getting victories using what are frankly second string aircraft and pilots are pretty much over. So, for example, my Wellingtons hit Kaifeng and did okay against the Oscars on CAP, but the Zeros hit the Wellingtons hard:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Kaifeng, at 51, 32

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 13
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 9

Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 50

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed, 6 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 8 destroyed, 6 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
27 casualties reported

Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 27
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It didn't help that I left one of my better Wellington squadrons set to attack Wuhan and it went in alone:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Wuhan, at 48, 35

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 12
Ki-27 Nate x 5
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 11

Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 1 damaged
Ki-27 Nate: 1 destroyed
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged

Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fundamentally here, I got away with murder. So I've sat down all of my Wellingtons to let them rest and get replacements. I also sent the Chinese IL-4cs against the airfield at Hong Kong again and they did okay, but nothing really important.

However, Tophat sent a big attack at Hengchow with lots of good Oscars, Zeros and Sallys and did a lot of damage. It was a very good thing that I didn't have any of my weakened fighter units there. Oddly enough, the Chinese had all the airfield damage fixed by "morning". Of course, this all cost plenty of supply points and Tophat is determined to run me out of supply in China.

Even my attack on Baker Island didn't go that well. It appears that Tophat put in some fresh Zeros and while the B-17s held their own, they did take a lot of damage and they didn't get any hits on the air base. I'm going to have to do something different there.

The Allied air attack that worked the best was the B-17 raid on the invasion troops at Dili where the bombers caused a load of casualties for the Japanese. Then the Hudsons flew in against that CS again but they still couldn't find the range. And finally, one of my subs that was between Wake and the Marshalls had a clean shot at a Japanese AP but missed.

Against all that Tophat almost "casually" captured Lombok. I may be delaying Tophat in some places but I haven't really stopped his overall plans in any serious manner.

One strange happenstance occurred this turn. The level of supplies at Soerabaja went from 42K down to 22K! Neither the air nor the artillery attacks did any particularly special damage, so I'm not sure what happened. Also, the assault strength stayed the same. I've seen this sort of thing happen at Soerabaja in other games but in those cases the supplies moved to other bases like Batavia. I sure hope that the supplies didn't move this time because the Japanese control Batavia!

Oh well, I guess it is just another of the "mysteries" of the game.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 337
RE: July 1 (Avengers...) - 11/5/2005 3:24:22 AM   
BLurking


Posts: 199
Joined: 3/24/2005
From: Frisco, TX
Status: offline 		Check the CD batteries, they may have upgraded - and I don't believe that effects the assault value.
Maybe.
Heck, who knows?

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 338
RE: July 1 (Avengers...) - 11/5/2005 3:47:54 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: BLurking

Check the CD batteries, they may have upgraded - and I don't believe that effects the assault value.
Maybe.
Heck, who knows?


I thought that too, but a number of the CD units had already upgraded to 150mm guns, so it didn't seem to be the case. But maybe all of the base forces upgraded their guns. It sure would be nice if those 150 mm guns would fire on Tophat's troops since he doesn't seem to want to bring any ships into port...

Thanks for the comments -

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to BLurking)
Post #: 339
The USN Strikes... - 11/5/2005 5:19:56 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 3 -

There were surprisingly few air attacks this turn. Between the weather and the need for both sides to rest and repair their air units, few planes got into the air. I forgot to stand down my Chinese IL-4cs so they hit Hong Kong again causing a bit of damage. Likewise, Tophat's bombers hit Hengchow again but caused much less damage than in the previous turn. But most of the action was at sea for a change.

Tophat got very aggressive with his ASW for the first time in a while, chasing after one of my S-boats three times near Dili without hitting it, and sinking another sub to the East of Truk. Tophat's cruisers also came in to bombard Dili again. But the big news from the Allied point of view was that CENPAC surface forces finally got into action with a nice surprise bombardment of Baker Island:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naval bombardment of Baker Island, at 94, 92

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
DD Clark
DD Balch
DD Phelps
DD Selfridge
DD Porter
CA Pensacola
CA Chicago
CA Louisville
CA Chester
BB North Carolina

Japanese ground losses:
481 casualties reported
Guns lost 14

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 8
Port supply hits 5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was a bit disappointed that the bombardment only hit one plane and didn't cause more damage to the air base, but still it is a very nice change of pace from being so often on the receiving end of bombardments. This also sends a number of messages to Tophat about my increasing capabilities. I'll refuel this TF at Canton Island then send it down to Pago-Pago where I intend to begin to set up a major center for future operations into the "belly" of the Japanese Central Pacific islands.

And in the ground war, Tophat only did artillery bombardments this turn. But he has more ground troops on the way to Soerabaja, so I can expect another attempt to breach the defenses there to happen in the near future.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 340
150mm - 11/5/2005 4:12:57 PM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 4 -

Tophat sent the following comment along with this turn; "Ahh, that's why I didn't want to sail in there!" I wondered what he meant until the combat replay started and revealed the following right off the bat:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naval bombardment of Soerabaja, at 22, 65 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

72 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
CL Oi
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 1
BB Ise
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 6
BB Fuso
BB Nagato, Shell hits 7

Allied Ships
SS KXIII, hits 1, heavy damage

Allied ground losses:
406 casualties reported
Guns lost 3

Port hits 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So those 150mm CD guns finally got a chance to fire. It's a good thing for Tophat that he decided to keep his DDs out of the action. Poor KXIII isn't a lucky sub - it may never get out of Soerabaja Harbor.

Realistically, those CD gun hits only served to make Tophat a bit more wary but didn't do any serious damage. And when you add the air strike this turn and the artillery bombardment Tophat succeeded in cutting my supplies in half again to just over 10K. I'm still in the "black", but not for long at this pace. With Tophat's new, "improved" strategy at Soerabaja the Dutch won't last that much longer. Now I'm back to being glad of my original strategy to not to try to reinforce Java.

Both sides traded air strikes at Dili. My B-17s blew past the Zeros on LR CAP to hit Tophat's invasion troops; then Tophat's Bettys flew in unopposed to hit my Dutch regiment. It appears that Tophat is preparing to bring more troops to Dili soon.

In China the weather grounded all of my bombers but Tophat was able to get off another strong air strike against Hengchow. Surprisingly the air strike wasn't very effective this time. But the rain was a blessing in disguise for me because I took the time to look over my air units and found out that a couple of my Brit Wellington units were down badly in morale. So I flew them back to India and set the rest to a low level of naval search to rest them up.

My fighters in India are now all pretty much rested up too, but I am faced with a problem of "numbers" at this time. Tophat can readily bring around a hundred good fighters to an attack of his choosing against any of a number of important targets. While I can mass nearly as many planes in one place, I don't know where that place may be and that also means that my other priorities aren't protected. And the fact of the matter is that most of my air units just don't have as good experience as Tophat's crack units.

So I am pulling back a bit and letting Tophat control the air over Southern China for now. I will maintain my control over Northern China and use that to allow me to send my air units on attacks against Tophat's troops in the North. This way I can start to close the experience gap.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 341
Avangers on board... - 11/5/2005 9:24:56 PM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 5 -

This was a fairly quiet turn. I didn't have a lot of bombers set to missions and Tophat seems to have been affected by the ever present hemispheric rain. It's actually been several game days since any of the nine map areas were clear. But never-the-less there was some action.

The Japanese cruisers hit Dili again. They are doing small amounts of damage, but I am flying supplies into Lautem daily, so the supplies keep on trickling to Dili. So this means that when Tophat tried another deliberate attack with his invasion force he once again got to see this result:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Dili

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 537 troops, 2 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 1920 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese ground losses:
36 casualties reported

Allied ground losses:
7 casualties reported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've set my B-17s to hit those troops in Dili again next turn. Dili is turning into a lesson in why you should always send in an "overkill" force against any defenders in this game.

In China my Chinese bombers hit Tophat's troops in Northeastern China, causing his troops at Kungchang to be unable to score any hits with their artillery attack again. Tophat's bombers and fighters hit Hengchow again, but his bombers are getting fewer strikes against my troops and I am refusing to bother to put any CAP over Hengchow, so this is simply wasting supplies for the Japanese.

Speaking of supplies, as I have been pulling back to India the worn-out Chinese fighters and the British bombers with poor morale the supply situation in Allied China has started to improve significantly. I would love to start a regular air supply campaign to China, but all my bases in Eastern India are under thunderstorms every day, day in, day out, week in, week out, etc. , so that isn't possible. But I've got hundreds of thousands of units of supplies in the coastal bases so those supplies slowly work their way inland.

Tophat's bombers hit Soerabaja again but caused little damage. The supply level stayed constant again and my troops are back up to their usual assault levels. I wonder if Tophat will send in the BBs again?

In the Eastern Pacific Tophat has started to send his subs back into Hawaiian waters. I presume that he wants some idea of what I am up to in that region. I've got DDs scattered all over the place so I just send them out to see if I can make the Japanese subs use up fuel.

And in other news that "warms my heart", I was finally able to do my first conversion of Devastators to Avengers. It will be so "sweet" to finally have a full set of "teeth" in my carriers.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 342
Burning issue... - 11/6/2005 1:05:16 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 6 -

I just sent the July 7th turn to Tophat and told him that I am going to take a break from the Game for the evening. I almost let a fire happen because I forgot a pan on the stove upstairs. So, obviously now my Wife and I are going out to dinner. (We are equally to blame - she forgot about the pan too because she is in her study on the second floor, working on her computer. We both need a break!)

Anyway, as far as this turn goes. Tophat started to land some troops at Raba, so he continues to pick up all the little "bits and pieces" that don't have troops in them in the DEI. My B-17s flew against the troops in Dili, but Tophat put a lot of Zeros on LR CAP and caused some losses. But my B-17s still blew past, causing some losses amongst the Zeros too, and did manage to hit the troops on the ground. But it is obvious that Tophat is starting to get the upper hand as far as fighter air power is concerned.

Tophat also sent a ton of planes against Hengchow. I thought about trying to bomb one of his air bases in China, but without being able to provide any escorts I will now just lose a lot of bombers. Instead I am continuing to bomb the Japanese troops up North where Tophat isn't trying to interfere with me.

The biggest concern this turn was the appearance of Judys and Jakes off of the Marshalls, about half way along the "diagonal" between Kwajalein and Baker Island. My sub picket line did its job of giving me advanced warning. What I don’t know is if Tophat is just waiting around in case I try another naval attack on Baker, or if he is going "hunting". Just in case, I've started to re-route my TFs in the region and put all of my planes in the Central Pacific on full alert. That combat TF with the North Carolina is already in port in Pago-Pago. I'll leave them disbanded for now.

In any event, I'll find out tomorrow what Tophat is up too. Now to get changed and go get something to eat.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 343
Massive attacks... - 11/6/2005 5:39:21 PM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 7 -

This is the sort of turn that leaves me in a bad mood. Tophat is doing everything right, and there isn't a thing I can do about it. Tophat has now organized his forces so that he is bringing overwhelming strength to specific targets and is attacking from multiple locations. This means that I cannot stop his attacks at the target bases nor bring sufficient force to his bases to shut down the attacks. And Tophat is focusing his efforts where I am most vulnerable to these tactics, China and Java. Essentially, both Tophat and I have withdrawn our weakest units and replaced them with our best, but Tophat's best are more numerous, flying better planes and are better trained than my best.

In China Tophat is now sending in crack units in his best aircraft in sufficient numbers so that the British air units which were able to fight him to a standstill earlier are now being decimated without being able to stop the attacks. I am trying one last effort to disrupt one of his major air bases and have brought new planes into the key base at Homan, but unless the weather is totally on my side I expect that this will not be successful and I will have to pull back and leave Southern China totally to Japanese control.

In Java I haven't been trying to combat Tophat in the air, but up until now the AA in my ground forces and Tophat's former strategy of focusing his attacks on ground troops has allowed me to fight him to a stand still. But Tophat's current strategy of attacking the Airfields in Soerabaja, combined with a massive air attack this turn on the Port in Soerabaja has effectively wiped out my reserves of supplies. This means for the first time that I have un-repaired damage to the base, and the supply level in Soerabaja is now in the "pink". A few more attacks like the one this turn and I won't have anything left to shoot with and Tophat can then focus on wearing down my troops.

In other areas, Tophat continued to bomb the defenders at Dili and as well sent his cruisers in again. I am trying a sneak attack on the Port in Kendari in the hopes that Tophat has his CAP off providing LR CAP to his ships and troops at Dili. This has a low probability of success, but it is better than sending my B-17s unescorted against the couple of crack Daitais that are flying over Dili. Tophat's troops also captured Raba this turn.

I've also been spotting more Japanese subs in the waters around Hawaii and as well, for the first time a Japanese sub was spotted to the west of Ceylon. I've sent three ASW TFs after that sub off of Ceylon; I don't have any TFs traveling in that area at the moment, but I don't want my movements tracked nor any general spying or nuisance raids.

Finally, my subs that are on picket duty between Baker Island and the Gilberts were buzzed by Kates and Vals this turn, so Tophat's CVs are obviously moving southwards. Unfortunately, my air patrols haven't spotted the TFs yet so I can't tell where they are going and how fast. I am still moving TFs well out of the way and keeping an eye on the situation.

So while all I can do at the Fronts is seethe and grind my teeth, I am continuing with my build-up plans in the Rear areas. I have exchanged all of the Dutch patrol planes for Catalinas and all of the Dutch bombers for Mitchells. Unfortunately, the Dutch fighters only upgrade to each other until P-40Ns come out in 1943, so I am stuck with what I already have. But given the abysmal experience levels of the Dutch pilots, I wouldn't really want to put them into battle right now anyway, regardless of the planes that they are flying.

I have also upgraded the AVG to P-40Es since I had close to a hundred P-40Es in reserve and continue to receive them at forty per month. I only had seven P-40Bs in reserve before this, so this will allow me to fill-up the new air group of P-40Bs that is arriving in India in a week.

In other news, one of my surviving battleships from the Pearl Harbor attack has finally gotten down to a system damage of 10. Considering that I've had this ship in various West Coast ports, with and without ARs, and usually without any other damaged ships in port with it, all this time, that isn't too great a repair record. I wonder how many months it will take for it to get down to level 3 system damage so that it can receive its April upgrade? BTW - the other remaining Pearl Harbor survivors are still sitting with system damage in the teens or twenties.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 344
RE: Massive attacks... - 11/6/2005 6:32:12 PM   
Ron Saueracker


Posts: 12121
Joined: 1/28/2002
From: Ottawa, Canada OR Zakynthos Island, Greece
Status: offline 		David. Heyho!

Can you post screenies and any reports which involve the new ASW routines? I'm curious as hell.

Thanks, Ron.

_____________________________





Yammas from The Apo-Tiki Lounge. Future site of WITP AE benders! And then the s--t hit the fan

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 345
RE: Massive attacks... - 11/6/2005 6:44:28 PM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Ron Saueracker

David. Heyho!

Can you post screenies and any reports which involve the new ASW routines? I'm curious as hell.

Thanks, Ron.


Ron - We are playing at v1.602. The new ASW routines came into being in one of the V-1.7x upgrades. Tophat and I have agreed not to upgrade to any 1.7x version until a final version comes out and has been used for several weeks by other folks. We don't want to risk all the time and effort that we have put into this game.

Because we agreed at the beginning that we would limit dedicated ASW TFs to a maximum of four ships, not including CVEs, our ASW has been fairly realistic as far as I can tell. I generally only send out one or two ships in an ASW TF anyway - I like to cover an area in order to improve my odds. (Tophat tends to move his subs around like jackrabbits in an open field so it is pretty hard to find them from turn-to-turn.)

If there are any ASW/sub encounters next turn I'll post them so you can see how things are going for us at the moment.

Thanks for the interest -

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to Ron Saueracker)
Post #: 346
Super Zeros... - 11/7/2005 4:06:43 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 8 -

As I suspected, my Wellingtons had a tough time over Wuhan. There were fair losses on both sides, but I really can't stand those sorts of results repeatedly:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Wuhan, at 48, 35

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 16
Ki-27 Nate x 7
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 15

Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 68

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 2 destroyed, 7 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-15 Babs: 3 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 9 destroyed, 20 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
22 casualties reported

Airbase hits 10
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 27
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am going to rest up my Wellingtons again, and then use them against the Japanese troops that are besieging my bases. Speaking of which, Tophat used a different tactic this time - he set one of his ace Zero Daitais on LR CAP over Homan, causing my bombers and escorts to have to fight their way in to attack his troops. So while each attack did cause some casualties to the Japanese troops, there were also plenty of Allied air casualties. But I am trying again this turn because air units on LR CAP do get more tired than otherwise, so maybe I will be able to wear down that ace unit a bit.

The other main action continued to be in the Timor area. My Hudsons did a successful naval attack for a change, hitting a Japanese destroyer at Dili, causing a fire and heavy damage. Tophat didn't have any LR CAP around this time. Tophat also started to land troops at Kai Island. I have a small Dutch base force there, but I don't expect them to last long.

My B-17s at Darwin were rained out, but the recon flights flew over Kendari anyway, alerting Tophat that I have some interest in that base. This will probably mean that Tophat will up the CAP over Kendari, so instead I re-targeted the B-17s after those troops at Kai. This way the B-17s ought to get some CAP-free practice. I also brought another Brit Hudson group to Northern Australia in the hopes that it might go after the ships at Kai.

In the East-Central Pacific my picket subs continued to be pestered by carrier planes between the Gilberts and Baker Island. So Tophat seems content to sail around in the hopes of catching me doing something dumb. That's fine by me. I'll just do the occasional long-range bombing attack on Baker and let it be for now.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 347
ASW... - 11/7/2005 4:09:52 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Ron Saueracker

David. Heyho!

Can you post screenies and any reports which involve the new ASW routines? I'm curious as hell.

Thanks, Ron.


Ron - as usual, my ASW didn't find any of Tophat's subs, but his ASW did find one of my subs:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASW attack at 61,90

Japanese Ships
PG Takunan Maru #10
DD Urakaze
DD Shiranuhi
DD Akigumo

Allied Ships
SS Sailfish, hits 2, on fire

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave Baranyi


(in reply to Ron Saueracker)
Post #: 348
The Sky Dark with Bombers... - 11/7/2005 5:39:04 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 9 -

Tophat thinks that he is "being cute" now that things are going well for him. For example when he sent me this turn he commented that things were "quiet in China". Yeah, sure. Tophat whacked Hengchow with over 100 heavily escorted bombers this turn and still had plenty of planes left to try to sweep Kweilin. Fortunately my CAP at Kweilin was reasonably up to the task and held up acceptably against the Japanese fighters. I've moved more fighters into Kweilin to see what I can do next turn. At the same some a few of my bombers flew to hit the Japanese besiegers of Homan, but my Chinese bombers were rained out again.

Tophat has gotten really busy in the DEI. He is moving more troops in for the siege of Soerabaja and has finally gotten around to invade Malang. I was wondering if he would leave that as an escape path for my troops in Soerabaja, but since there was no supply in Malang I didn't pay much attention to it. Tophat also landed troops at Waingapu. Surprisingly enough Tophat's troops at Kai Island didn't capture the base on the first attack:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Kai Island

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 832 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 590 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

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

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I expect that the base ought to fall at the next attack. BTW - Tophat surprised me at Kai because he actually had some LR CAP in place. Never-the-less my bombers got through with light damage and were able to hit some of the invading troops.

In the Central Pacific, one of my picket subs was spotted by a Jake this time, but there were no spottings by carrier planes. I'm guessing that the Japanese carriers went back to base, but in theory they could have gone beyond my picket line, although I would be really surprised if a carrier TF could get into the main patrol area of my planes and not show up somewhere.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 349
RE: The Sky Dark with Bombers... - 11/7/2005 11:34:23 PM   
anarchyintheuk

 

Posts: 3921
Joined: 5/5/2004
From: Dallas
Status: offline 		I tend to be protective of my aircraft, all of them except transports. If you have loads of them in the pools and china needs supply, who cares if you fly them in poor weather. They won't suffer too many op losses.

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 350
RE: The Sky Dark with Bombers... - 11/7/2005 11:57:42 PM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

I tend to be protective of my aircraft, all of them except transports. If you have loads of them in the pools and china needs supply, who cares if you fly them in poor weather. They won't suffer too many op losses.


The problem isn't the loss or lack of transports in India/China, it is the daily thunderstorms that close my airbases for months on end. The transports just won't fly, so they don't get damaged. (Nothing else will fly either.)

Now, I "rationalize" the rainy weather as being some sort of "monsoon" sort of thing when it keeps the air bases closed in India for half a year. But when it does the same thing in San Diego and LA, I have some real doubts about the programming...

Thanks for the comments -

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to anarchyintheuk)
Post #: 351
China under attack... - 11/7/2005 11:59:15 PM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 10 -

Tophat was very active again on the land and in the air. New Japanese troops started to land at Dili and Tophat's troops captured Malang, Waingapu and Kai Island. Tophat also attempted a deliberate attack on Homan that succeeded in lowering the fortification by one but was still quite costly for the Japanese forces:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Homan

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 204201 troops, 2155 guns, 196 vehicles

Defending force 105124 troops, 314 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 7

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 7)

Japanese ground losses:
6819 casualties reported
Guns lost 196
Vehicles lost 13

Allied ground losses:
1448 casualties reported
Guns lost 53
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There were some equally costly air battles over Homan in which my fighters were able to stand up to Tophat's fighters and cause some significant losses to Tophat's bombers.

My Chinese bombers flew this turn but had problems with Japanese CAP and didn't do that well, other than the IL-4cs which hit a PG in Hong Kong Harbour, setting it on fire.

My attempt to fly in supplies to Dili also ran into difficulties with Japanese LR CAP intercepting some of the transports. In the end however, the overall Japanese air losses for the turn were higher than the total Allied air losses, so I'll consider that a small victory.

On and under the waves my subs in the Baker Island area were buzzed by carrier planes again. As long as the Japanese carriers stay up there in that region I'm happy to let them be for now. Anyway, my second carrier air group of Devastators upgraded to Avengers today.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 352
RE: China under attack... - 11/8/2005 6:10:16 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 11 -

As far as this turn went, I came out in third place, Tophat came out in second, and the rain was the hands down winner. I should change my bombers into submarines, because it doesn't appear that they will ever fly again, and all this rain must have raised the sea level around the Pacific Rim by at least 100 feet so far…

The only big action this turn was Tophat sweeping Homan with three successive Zero sweeps. My Brit fighters were able to shoot down 9 Zeros, but at a cost of 24 Mohawks and Hurricanes. I stood down those fighters and pulled the undamaged ones out for R&O. I'm hoping that Tophat sends those sweeps in again rather than his bombers, which is likely because he sent 70 or so bombers against Hengchow again this turn. At the same time, 2 Hudsons took off to try to attack a transport at Kai Island, out of a dozen or more bomber units that I set to attack at various locations on the map this turn.

In other "watery" actions, a surface combat TF attacked one of my subs that was north of Baker Island, followed by attacks from two different carrier TFs. The carrier planes then attacked and hit another of my subs that was sitting a ways to the north.

So at this time there isn't a lot that I can do, other than to stick with my plan, wait for decent fighters, and pray for the occasional sunny break.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 353
Give and take... - 11/8/2005 11:10:15 PM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 12 -

This was a day of give and take. I would have liked to have given more "grief" to Tophat, but I'll "take" what I got…

For the first time since early in the Game I sent a sub into the waters off of Japan proper and sure enough this turn Tophat sent a dedicated ASW TF after my sub. But the ASW ships need practice and couldn't find my sub. Now I'll move the sub so that I avoid giving those ships "too much" practice.

Tophat is continuing his big bombing campaigns. Over a hundred bombers hit both Hengchow in China and Soerabaja in Java. But the damage was acceptable in both cases; mainly supply destruction. I've got more supply in China, and I can't do anything about Java, so there isn't much point in worrying. However, I did target the main Japanese bomber base in China for next turn - we'll see if my Brit bombers get lucky.

Some of my Chinese bombers finally flew this turn and hit the Japanese troops at Homan. I also pulled more of my fighters out of Homan; I want to rebuild them back where I have more supplies and where they can get replacements directly. If Tophat bombs Homan, so be it - I don't intend to try to stop multi-Daitai sweeps with a few weakened squadrons. I'll let the Japanese planes suffer operational damage again.

My B-17s in Darwin had a good run at Kai Island, blowing past the Zeros on CAP and causing solid damage. In contrast, my B-17s in Canton got hammered by the Zeros on CAP over Baker Island and accomplished nothing. I expect that Tophat will bring better Zeros to Kai Island too, so I'll just keep an eye out for other opportunities to strike at my advantage. BTW - my Hudsons also fought through the CAP over Kai Island and hit an AP sitting at the port. However, another Hudson attack on the ships at Dili ran into too much CAP and couldn't get through.

What was particularly interesting was that the last unit to escape the fall of Koepang finally made it to Dili in time to stop another land attack:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Dili

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 1925 troops, 36 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 1999 troops, 1 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese ground losses:
40 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Allied ground losses:
29 casualties reported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tophat now has two combat units in Dili but no engineers. I've got two weakened Dutch combat units and two weakened Dutch base force units. Since Tophat is keeping LR CAP over Dili all the time now, I am flying supplies into Lautem and allowing them to work their way over to Dili.

In other news about the Gilberts/Baker Island region - my subs didn't report any more attacks by carrier planes, so it appears that Tophat has sent his combat and carrier TFs back to Kwajalein for refuelling. Also in the Marshalls, another Japanese AP sank at sea. I'm guessing that it was one more casualty of the Baker Island invasion.

The big upcoming news for me is the imminent arrival of the Wasp, along with a number of other combat ships, planes and ground troops. And during the upcoming Game-month I will be receiving a ton of support ships which will eventually allow me to project offensive force beyond my current major bases. So I will be getting more active starting in August 1942, although I've essentially scrapped the idea of an assault on the Gilberts in the Fall of 1942 because of the loss of Baker Island. But I've got other plans in the works.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 354
Battleships at Soerabaja... - 11/9/2005 4:27:15 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 13 -

It looks like Tophat has finally decided to capture Soerabaja once and for all and attacked it with everything he had. First there came another bombardment TF:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naval bombardment of Soerabaja, at 22, 65 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

60 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
CL Oi, Shell hits 5
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 4
BB Ise, Shell hits 6
BB Yamashiro
BB Fuso
BB Nagato

Allied ground losses:
335 casualties reported
Guns lost 5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wonder why he left the Oi in that TF? Next came some air attacks:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Soerabaja, at 22, 65

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 15
Ki-21 Sally x 66
Ki-49 Helen x 24
Ki-46-II Dinah x 6

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 1 destroyed, 6 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 5 damaged

Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported

Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 10

Plus

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 2 damaged

(With no damage to the base from this attack)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then came the ground attack:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Soerabaja

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 159453 troops, 1571 guns, 77 vehicles

Defending force 48672 troops, 318 guns, 43 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 8

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 8)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 8

Japanese ground losses:
1741 casualties reported
Guns lost 21
Vehicles lost 2

Allied ground losses:
1653 casualties reported
Guns lost 76
Vehicles lost 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Supply is now in the "red" in Soerabaja and assault value is down about 15% from the previous turn. I've turned off reinforcements for the troops - the end is near and there isn't much that I can do to drag it out much longer.

In China Tophat sent several big fighters sweeps of Homan, followed by a big bomber air raid. I had my remaining fighters in Homan grounded so I only lost one plane on the ground. But even without friendly CAP the damage wasn't too bad; however supplies are falling off quickly in Homan too.

A few things worked for me this turn, although my main bomber attack didn't fly against Tophat's bomber base. For one, my Chinese bombers attacked Tophat's troops at Homan. Then, one of my remaining Dutch subs put a torpedo into a Japanese AK that was unloading at Dili, despite the presence of 6 MSWs and a PG in that TF. Otherwise there wasn't a lot to cheer about for the Allies.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 355
More Battleships at Soerabaja... - 11/9/2005 6:55:46 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 14 -

This turn predominantly favored Tophat, but my forces did get a few successes. The night period of the turn saw yet more Japanese troops get landed at Dili and the cruiser bombardment TF come back to hit the Dutch again. But what surprised me was that the battleship TF came back into Soerabaja to bombard again:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naval bombardment of Soerabaja, at 22, 65 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

39 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 1
BB Ise, Shell hits 4
BB Yamashiro
BB Fuso
BB Nagato, Shell hits 2

Allied ground losses:
187 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Vehicles lost 1

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 1
Port supply hits 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Dutch are doing the best that they can in their "one last futile act of defiance". They even weathered a couple more aerial bombardments, although the amount of flak is going down.

In China Tophat once again sent a couple of strong sweeps over Homan followed by a big aerial bombardment. However, there wasn't a lot of damage and I got the rest of my planes out afterwards. My Wellingtons had a good strike and found the CAP down at Nanchang:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Nanchang, at 49, 37

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 62

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 5 destroyed

Japanese ground losses:
45 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 25
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately, Tophat wasn't basing his bombers at Nanchang, so that nice attack didn't really accomplish much in the end.

My B-17s had a nice, easy attack on Kai Island since Tophat had pulled his LR CAP back:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Kai Island, at 39, 78

Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 3
B-17E Fortress x 35

No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
44 casualties reported

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 18
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That B-17 group is building up experience nicely.

At the end of the turn Tophat only tried artillery attacks on my besieged troops in China and Java. So while things weren't great in the turn, they could have been much worse.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 356
Dili Dallies no more... - 11/9/2005 11:49:23 PM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 15 -

Rain interfered with air operations on both sides again today but allowed naval and land operations to continue. Tophat started to land troops at Lautem on Timor, which cut off my troops in Dili. Thus, when Tophat's new combat troops in Dili attacked and overwhelmed the defenders, the Dutch troops surrendered. Lautem is much more lightly defended so it should take Tophat so long to capture it.

The rain didn't hinder some of my Hudsons from trying to hit the transports that were unloading troops at Lautem, but the pilots missed their targets, including a nice, "juicy" CS. I have set my B-17s to hit the Japanese ground troops at Lautem this coming turn, both for more practice as well as the chance of shooting at some more LR CAP zeros.

In China my Chinese bombers raided the Japanese troops at Homan again but didn't cause much damage. Most of Tophat's Chinese air bases were socked-in, so the only planes that flew hit Hengchow. I'm sending my Wellingtons out again next turn, weather permitting, in an attempt to find some bombers on the ground in Wuhan. I've slowly pulled back my Brit fighters in China so there are no fighters left in the front line Chinese cities. There is no point in letting Tophat get "cheap" air victories by overwhelming my planes with crack Daitais.

Tophat also sent bombers in against Soerabaja again and did the usual artillery bombardment, although the battleships stayed away this turn. The supply situation has stabilized in the "pink" at Soerabaja and I still have the bulk of my larger CD guns, so another naval bombardment TF will still likely be "greeted" with return fire. The AA units in Soerabaja are hurting a bit, but were still able to damage a number of Japanese bombers.

Below, I've attached a summary of the air losses to-date. A comparison of the total losses gives one of the most encouraging signs to me that my strategy has been reasonably successful; Tophat is now almost 400 air losses in front of me. If you examine the Allied air losses in this table you will see a "history" of where I have contested regions against Tophat. The Mohawk losses being the most recent series of air battles in China, the P-40Bs being the losses of the first couple of days of battle in the Game, the Brewsters and Demons coming from the defense of the DEI, and the I-16c/I-153c losses coming from the first phase of the air war in China. In each case, other than in the initial attacks of the game, my air units were able to stand up to the original Japanese air units until Tophat brought crack Zero units in and out-classed my aircraft and pilots.

Dave Baranyi







Attachment (1)

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 357
RE: Dili Dallies no more... - 11/10/2005 12:34:00 AM   
SJD

 

Posts: 4
Joined: 10/7/2005
Status: offline 		Really enjoy reading your posts each and every day.

As someone relatively new, why are the Japanese operational loses so much greater than yours, in some cases 30 - 70 % of total loses while yours seem reasonable and what you would expect.

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 358
RE: Dili Dallies no more... - 11/10/2005 1:44:48 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: SJD

Really enjoy reading your posts each and every day.

As someone relatively new, why are the Japanese operational loses so much greater than yours, in some cases 30 - 70 % of total loses while yours seem reasonable and what you would expect.


Tophat is flying his bombers almost every day and getting them tired. The more fatigue that your pilots have, the more often they will become victims of operational losses. He is also flying his planes farther, particularly the Zeros on Long Range CAP. LR CAP puts even more wear-and-tear on his fighters than normal combat. In addition, Tophat is also flying against a fair amount of AA - AA may not shoot down a plane directly, but if a plane is damaged by AA it may still crash on the flight home.

I try to rest my bombers for several days in-between each mission. I pull them back from the front if they build up much fatigue or if their morale goes down a lot. I also chose my air squadron and group leaders carefully, matching bomber pilots to bombers and fighter pilots to fighters, and try to get a good balance of general leadership characteristics. The Program always assigns leaders based upon whoever has the greatest "aggressiveness", and I find that it is better to have a good balance in a air unit leader.

So it's always a trade-off that you have to make with your planes. Because my planes aren't as good as the Japanese planes, and my pilots are generally also not as good as the Japanese pilots I try very hard to maximize positive factors such as Leadership and Morale, and minimize negative factors such as Damage and Fatigue in my air units. This helps me get better results and keep all losses, including Operational losses, to a minimum.

Thanks for the comments - I'm glad that you enjoy my reports.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to SJD)
Post #: 359
Zeros vs the RAF... - 11/10/2005 4:12:58 AM   
ADavidB


Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline 		July 16 -

Tophat and I keep on trading small blows in various locations with me trying to hold my own and not give up too much, too fast. But there is little I can do about the overall momentum that Tophat has at this time, in both the small and bigger things. For example, another "no name" base, Memboro, was automatically occupied by the Japanese today. I've lost track of all the bases that Tophat has captured, but if I wanted to I could go to the spreadsheet that I use to track SIGINT and other strategic information and search on "occupied" and "captured" and see how many turn up. But I'd rather do a search on "recaptured" sometime in the future. <g>

In action this turn, my Wellingtons all flew and hit Kaifeng. There wasn't a much CAP there, but the Brits still didn't do a lot of damage. It appears that Tophat moved his bombers again. My IL-4cs also hit Canton, but ran into a lot of mixed CAP and didn't do well either. However, both raids force Tophat to stay a bit "honest" with his air units, although he now has so many fighter units in China that he can attack and defend simultaneously in multiple places.

A few of Tophat's bombers did fly and hit Hengchow, doing a little damage, but in contrast Tophat sent out three full Daitais of Zeros on Sweeps after my fighters at Sian. Tophat was quite pleased with the final results; 22 Mohawks and Hurricanes were shot down for a loss of 10 Zeros. But when you think about it - considering that those were full-sized, crack Daitais and my three squadrons were understrength and not aces by any means, that wasn't such a bad result for my guys at all. Never-the-less, I am still gradually pulling the weaker Brit fighter squadrons out of China and pulling all planes back from the Chinese front line bases. I want Tophat to have to fly further to attack my planes.

In what remains of the "Unoccupied DEI" Tophat sent hordes of bombers against Soerabaja again, achieving some results but also sustaining damage to his bombers. Tophat also landed more troops at Lautem. My B-17s didn't fly after Tophat's troops in Lautem, but my Hudsons did fly after the Japanese invasion TF, hitting one MSW hard, although the Hudsons had to fight through some tough LR CAP.

In the Central Pacific Tophat has placed a couple of picket subs of his own between Canton and Baker Islands. I'm sending B-17s after Baker again just to keep Tophat on his toes. In the meanwhile I have my next major operation underway.

Dave Baranyi

(in reply to ADavidB)
Post #: 360
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