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Capt Henry_MatrixForum -> Critique Sought (CVN please d/n read) (9/15/2006 5:24:02 AM)
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CVN65 and I are in mid-June of a Stock 15 PBEM. I've been slapped around for the obligatory six months and am starting to look at hitting back. I've not had much success weakening the Japanese carrier force, none have been sunk. Shoho did try some recon of Colombo and took several 500 pounders for her pains, I think she's repairing at Singapore. Hiryu took one torpedo and a 250lb bomb off Darwin and is repairing somewhere. A fair number of IJN carrier pilots have been shot down by flak and allied fighters. I probably haven't been aggressive enough with my air assets, but I do believe I have at least a 1:1 A2A ratio against Japanese fighters in general and the Zero in the specific as CVN has used Zeroes a lot on long range escort missions. There are five P-40Bs in the pool and about 38 Es. I've lost everything between Australia and Mandalay, with Port Moresby falling at the end of May. CVN had five divisions plus over 30 supporting formations in the Port Moresby assault and it took him about two/three weeks to defeat the one division I had stationed there. I have one division at most threatened Australian bases with very good aviation support along northern and eastern Aus. Noumea is building up fairly well with two full divisions, several base forces and brigades in place. All three airfields are at least level four and Noumea will soon be a level 9 port so minelayers are on the way to take advantage of that. Luganville and Efate are also building up and have some defenses in place, but not as good as Noumea. The carriers are in a moderately safe place as I did some early raiding with them but lost track of the KB and didn't really want to run into that. I'm probably six to eight weeks from Avengers and have decided that it's not worth trying to do something with the carriers in the time I have left before they get torpedo planes that might actually do something.
While I'm sure there are a lot of things to improve on here, the theater I'm actually looking at is SEAC. I have about 1000 assault points currently holding Mandalay and it's 9 forts (BR Burma Corps is leading) with the balance of SEAC forces back in India. The Imperial Guards Division and the 55th Division are at Mandalay with a lower assault value than my troops. A mixed brigade and (i think) two SNLF are at Pagan. I've been trying to get a handle on Rangoon but haven't found out more than that there are five units in Rangoon. Very few Japanese air assets are currently in theater. There is at least one squadron of Oscars at Rangoon and that's all the non-recon aircraft I've found. On my side, Mandalay is a level five airfield with lots of support and Akyab is approaching level four. I have no aircraft based at Akyab as all two-engine bombers in the theater have been conducting ground attacks on the enemy at Mandalay or standing by with torpedoes in case any targets show up. I have the three large four-engine bombers formations which have been bombing Rangoon as their morale and aircraft repairs allow. The Diamond Harbor, Calcutta, Chadpur, Dacca aifields are all built up.
Interestingly, bombing and recon efforts have suggested the Moulmein is devoid of Japanese troops and that Tavoy may be in the same condition. Intel is based on several weeks of bombing a month or two ago and then occassional raids since. For about two weeks of game time I've been thinking about an amphibious assault on Moulmein. The plan would start by moving air assets up to Akyab and Mandalay so that the two engine bombers could more easily assist my Liberators and Forts in bombing Rangoon. I would send over 3,000 assault points in three groups, a small Moulmein assault force combat loaded in small APs, Indian IV Corps (950AV) in a second force, and Indian III Corps (1900AV) in the third force. The 224 RAF Group, Base Force, and Aviation Group would also be transported. All Royal Navy surface forces would provide be organized into Bombardment groups and four RN carriers (at least two Seafire equipped) would cover the attack. The III and IV Corps would be one or two days behind the Moulmein assault force hoping to use port facilities to unload once Moulmein falls. As soon as the aviation support unloads, three or four squadrons of Spitfires with an equal number of Hurricane squadrons could base out of Moulmein to cover the ground forces. Additional fighter squadrons would be available to relieve fatigued units. I also have the AVG with two P-40B squadrons and one P-36 squadron available.
If Moulmein doesn't fall to the initial assault, I can evaluate if I want to land the main forces or run for home. If Moulmein does fall, small blocking forces would move on Tavoy and Rahaeng. Another, slightly larger blocking force would move on Pagan/Mandalay although BR Burma Corps will advance if a movement is made from Mandalay. III Corps would lay siege to Rangoon until it falls. If all this actually works, I can look at moving forward or sending IV Corps further south to establish a defensive position, send BR Burma Corps to Rangoon to rest and rebuild, and send III Corps back to India to provide some security there as I would be leaving India pretty bare while this offensive was moving.
Finally, the op would not go until most of the KB shows up on some other front. To haul all those troops, I have about 120,000 AP capacity points and 700,000 AK capacity points. I've got over 600,000 supply and 450,000 fuel at Diamond Harbor and have more on the way. It would likely be six more weeks before I could go unless I went without Seafires and with fewers Spitfires available for Moulmein.
The major risk I see is my opponent going behind me at India. Given his style of play so far, I think it's a risk I'm willing to take. What are the other unintelligent or overly optimistic parts of this idea?
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