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FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (6/18/2010 10:38:04 AM)
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The Third Decade of January Starts with Breakthroughs
One siege less to keep
Ambon finally fell on December 21, after two back-to-back deliberate attacks.
Ground combat at Ambon (76,109)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 5169 troops, 35 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 165
Defending force 3084 troops, 68 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 62
Japanese adjusted assault: 70
Allied adjusted defense: 22
Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 1)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Ambon !!!
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), preparation(-), fatigue(-)
morale(-), experience(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
127 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Allied ground losses:
4040 casualties reported
Squads: 114 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 118 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 10 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 74 (74 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 4
Assaulting units:
4th Infantry Regiment
1st Indpt SNLF Coy
Bandasan SNLF
3rd JNAF AF Unit
Defending units:
Manado Garrison Battalion
Molukken Garrison Battalion
4th Coastal Gun Battalion
Ambon Base Force
Assaulting troops, mainly 4th Regiment, that was rebuilt at Ambon, are at decent condition. Looks like massive battleship bombardment two days before did the trick, by knocking out Allied guns and causing disruption/fatigue.
Overall, the Ambon siege is a big screw-up for me. Besides losing a transport and having about a dozen ships damaged, it tied down my forces for nearly a month, costing Japanese both fuel for battleship TFs and operational tempo.
Last naval bombardments of Ambon (and elsewhere) were played under the latest beta patch. The combat routine is obviously changed in major ways. Ships clearly target CD units, if these are present, to the exclusion of anything else. Also, night bombardments seem to be much less effective.
Triumph of Betties
I don't know, why Yubari kept so many transports at Chittagong harbor, even after the detection level started to rise, but on the same December 21 Kanoya and Bihoro kokutais shown him the folly of his ways, once again demonstrating their prowess at sinking ships in port (the first time was their through elimination of Dutch auxilaries at Soerabaja Batavia).
Morning Air attack on Chittagong , at 55,41
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid spotted at 22 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 7
G4M1 Betty x 39
No Japanese losses
Allied Ships
xAK Steel Engineer, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Oregonian, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Texan, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
xAK Montanan, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Steel Traveler, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Talthibius, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AKE Robert Luckenbach, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Indianan, Bomb hits 1
xAK Montgomery City, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Paul Luckenbach, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
AMc Patna, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
Allied ground losses:
5 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Port hits 8
Port fuel hits 1
Aircraft Attacking:
24 x G4M1 Betty bombing from 10000 feet
Port Attack: 2 x 250 kg SAP Bomb, 4 x 60 kg GP Bomb
15 x G4M1 Betty bombing from 10000 feet
Port Attack: 2 x 250 kg SAP Bomb, 4 x 60 kg GP Bomb
Lots of sinking noises were heard during the replay after that. A small, but flawless victory. I sort of expected a LRCAP trap (no fighters were spotted on the Chittagong airfield), but neither the actual raid, not sweeps before it found anything. Geoff (yubari) noted in one of his e-mails, that the Allied aviation is badly attrited now. Indeed, there were no attempts to challenge Japanese in the air over Burma or DEI for at least a week now.
If anyone wonders, Betties were flying from Chiang Mai, now a level 4 airfield. I ordered some construction units to Chiang Mai on Day 1, although it still became an operational airbase only in early January.
Progress Elsewhere
The last attack at Singapore finally achieved 1:1 odds, caused greater squad casualties to Allies and reduced the forts to 1. Unfortunately, IJAAF takes grievous losses there, trying to keep the airfield damaged so that forts won't be rebuilt.
Japanese troops just reached Bataan, and a deliberate attack is ordered for the next turn.
The concentration at Tsiaotso is almost completed. One more turn and we'll attack with 4000 AV. I decided not to order my armor to pursue: they'll be stranded in the forest this way. I need to be able to transport everyone to other battlezones quickly.
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