RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please.

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (Full Version)

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bklooste -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/8/2010 1:51:22 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: FatR February 8: The Day of Choice I'm strongly inclined to start preparing for the initial stages of the Hawaian Operation (let's call it Operation HI thereafter), namely the invasion of Midway, followed by a move to inner islands, immediately. If anyone has any comments on this, I'd like to hear them. Im all for taking these early and attrioning him in Hawaii. Taking Midway and Johnson with Divisonal sized units will tip him off that something major is up try to use "just enough" or take the Hawaii island very soon after so he doesnt have time to reinforce . For Hawaii you will want mainly IJAAF units which may need to come from China making that theater more difficult.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/8/2010 11:30:45 PM)
Air Battle of Kwajalein On the morning of February 10, my useless searchplanes finally spotted what they saw as entire US end-war fast carrier fleet time-travelled to 1942, parked right next to Maloelap (see the map below). Well, judging by the composition of enemy strikes, they were wrong, and only 4 initial USN carriers came to visit Mandates, probably accompanied by a large surface force. I had no planes on Naval Attack and that was for the better, considering the enemy might. Unfortunately, there were a fast Type-N TL class TK and a slow AO unloading at Kwajalein. Their destroyer escorts drew the lion's share of incoming divebombers to themselves (only DD Kuretake was moderately damaged by a single bomb hit while dodging their attacks), but enough bombers remained to sink both tankers, a large Ansyu PB and an AMc. CL Tatsuta, upgrading at pierside, was damaged as well during the port attack. Chitose Ku handled the attackers roughly, and is credited with 14 kills in exchange for 5 Zeros and 3 wounded pilots, but was unable to stop the endless waves of American planes. Overall Americans are reported to have lost 8 carrier fighters and 18 divebombers (mostly SBD-3s) during the day - distressingly, none of them to flak. At other time, I would have called this a stinging tactical defeat. At the moment, I'm glad to see Allies losing some of their crack carrier pilots as well. KB-2 is currently at Truk, but Ryujo and Taiyo are repairing at the pierside. Taiyo doesn't have a fighter airgroup anymore, as well. I'm not inclined to confront the entire USN carrier force with only 2 true CVs anyway, even under LBA cover. Particularly because some of KB-2 DD escorts are now sailing with damaged Chiyoda to Home Islands. I've flown the Ryujo fighter group, as well as Tainan Ku elements from Truk and Rabaul to Kwajalein. If the enemy carrier planes impale theselves on CAP (over 70 Zeros) on the next day, I might rethink my stance. KB-1 which just reloaded planes at Kendari, will also move to Truk immediately, in case Yubari plans something greater than a raid. Just this turn one of my subs took an unsuccesful shot at large convoy, full of APs and escorted by at least one CL, leaving Pearl, and the possibility of a suicide invasion cannot be discounted in any case. To contest possible surface bombardment, 9 old DDs present at Kwajalein were formed into an SCTF. I did not include any of the two CLs available in it, as those are much more vulnerable to enemy air and are very unlikely to do anything to modern USN cruisers. Destroyers at least can dodge their shots. Also, midget sub TFs were promptly formed for Kwajalein and Roi-Namur. [image]local://upfiles/33131/1F99B8D227994F4096E8BE0E04F771D6.jpg[/image]

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/9/2010 2:14:11 PM)
Naval Battle of Kwajalein During the night of 11th USN cruisers attempted to bombard Kwajalein. I expected an attack on Roi-Namur more, as the latter doesn't have a CD unit. So, my DDs were patrolling at Roi-Namur. However, coast defenses succeeded at preventing serious damage. On the morning, my force of old DD caught with enemy and bravely attacked: Day Time Surface Combat, near Kwajalein Island at 132,115, Range 20,000 Yards Day Time Surface Combat, near Kwajalein Island at 132,115, Range 20,000 Yards Japanese Ships DD Mutsuki DD Kisaragi, Shell hits 2, on fire DD Yayoi DD Mochizuki DD Oite DD Hayate DD Asanagi DD Yunagi, Shell hits 3, on fire DD Asagao DD Fuyo Allied Ships CA Indianapolis CA Louisville, on fire (that's from the duel with shore batteries) CA New Orleans, Shell hits 3 CA Minneapolis, Shell hits 2 DD Gridley, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage DD Maury DD Benham, Shell hits 1 DD Ellet, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions: 30,000 yards CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 20,000 yards There were sinking sounds later during the turn, so at least one of American DDs went down, likely Gridley. Yunagi and Kisaragi are only moderately damaged, but will need voyage to a shipyard. Allied carriers launched no further air attacks during the turn. My subs launched torpedoes at the American warships three times, but scored no hits. Other Fronts In China Yubari pulled out his forces on Central Plains in time. But we managed to crush a Chinese corps at Foochow. AVG does not attempt to oppose bombing of Changsha anymore, and continues to lose planes on the ground. At Loemadjang we smashed Dutch regiments and will move out on the current turn.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/10/2010 12:17:07 PM)
Updating plans for China Well, alas and unfortunately, my attempt at blitzkrieg in the north has failed (I believe it would have been successful against stock Chinese forces, except maybe if the Allied player started evacuating Central Plains on December 7th). Looks like Sian alone can resupply the Chinese roadblock force at the moment and odds during the last assault were so bad, that I doubt even the most methodic air bombardment, combined with thorough recon of enemy troops, can fix them. Fortunately, Yubari did not launch an immediate couterattack. Maybe Chinese forces were out of supply. By now, I think, his chance is lost, as my troops, slowly retreating at combat mode, pulled enough supply and partially recovered their disruption. This means that 4/5ths of my lost AV will be recovered fairly soon. This means, that Japanese will be able to keep the initiative still, using their superior mobility (both due to railroads in their rear and to air interdiction of Chinese movements). Unfortunately, this initiative is stiffled by the presence of Chinese forces in the central China, where they hold Sinyang and sit in positions against Hankow and Wuchang. In combination with 6500+ AV up at Sian, this creates too much of a treat to radically redeploy my northern army, which is necessary if we're to take Sian, which is still is my main target. But Sinyang, unlike Sian, is quite vulnerable to encirclement. And I believe that Chinese supply situation there already should be quite bad. Therefore, before launching another strategic offensive to the North, I believe, I should and can remove this thorn. This is not likely to be a fast victory, though, because I need to leave enough force behind to stop likely Chinese counterattacks from the north. In the southern China, a major Chinese force races to relieve Pucheng before my reinforcements arrive. Exactly as planned, say I! While my attempt to take Pucheng on cheap has failed, I noticed, that Japanese aviation was quite effective in merely rough terrain, at least with good recon. Effective enough to cause disruption that was noted in the combat report in just one day. Therefore Pucheng is a far better place to fight the decisive battle for Southern China than Chuhsien or Wenchow, positioned at the forest. As we just retook Foochow as soon will have a line of communications from the coast, my forces aren't going to be cut off. Also, it is a city hex, so even without my armor sitting on the roads in Chinese rear (which it does, to also serve as a tripwire for any new offensives), Chinese should be supply-starved there. If we win at Pucheng, then weakly-held Chuhsien and Wenchow will be overtaken soon enough. While initially I launched offensive actions in southern China merely to prevent Chinese for doing whatever they want (i.e., eliminating my scattered garrizons), at the moment this battle became much more strategically important. By winning it, Japanese will destroy alot of Chinese AV, thus contributing to the long-term goal of attriting their army, and free a significant amount of infantry, including garrizons at places like Hangchow (that will become deep rear, suited to garrizoning with Chinese puppet troops) for operations elsewhere.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/13/2010 11:34:12 AM)
Punishment from the Heavens for Evil Surface Raiders On February 13th Yubari tried to sent CL Phoenix and some DDs to raid Kurile waters. Unfortunately for him, someone on Allied side had blundered, and the raiding taskforce ended it its movement for 14th one hex from Paramushiro, where I, after the previous northern waters raid, placed a small units of Mabels, as well as Mavises on sea attack. Japanese planes sortied and Mabels hit Phoenix with 2 250-kg bombs, causing heavy fires. I didn't really hope that she will go down just from that, unless my planes manage another attack on the next day, which they didn't, but sinking noises and Seagulls recorded as destroyed on ground verified, that we can scratch one modern CL from USN list. In all likelyhood, the Allied TF tried to run for the hills at full speed and this aggravated the damage taken from the air attack. Amusingly, the intelligence reported that the ship sunk was CL Leander. This is the first major USN loss outside of Pearl Harbor, and a quite timely one. These "light" 15x152 USN crusers are among the best Allied surface units in 1942. The less of them we'll meet around Hawaii, the better. Also, I'm noticing that Yubari, perhaps, uses moving TF full speed too much. While this was, as far as he told me, the factor that allowed for his surprise raids, my subs spotted his warships sailing in damaged state a few times, and in the naval battle of Kwajalein even Aliied ships undamaged by shore batteries were smoking. This probably contributed to the likely loss of two modern USN DDs there. The Battle of Pucheng Continues The Chinese horde tried to unseat my besieging forces on February 15, but while aviation failed to cause truly major damage to Chinese due to bad weather, my reinforcements arrived in time to repel the attack. Singapore Disappointment and Japanese Movements Allied managed to rebuid the forts there to 3 and even with 40th Brigade the new Japanese assault ended in serious defeat. I'm hauling the artillery park of 14th Army to Mersing, to provide some necessary punsh for the Yamashita's army. Thankfully, we don't need to resolve this siege quicky anymore. Meanwhile, 21st Division and 65th Brigade approach weakly-defended western end of Java, elements of 16th Division are preparing to reunite at Cagayan, and 38th plus 48th Divisions just have loaded for Truk, which will serve as the jump-off point for their move to Hawaii. Some fast transports and escorts are returning from DEI to Tokyo, to pick up a regiment released from Manchukuo for Midway (its preparation level is nearly 80). Combined Fleet is at Truk, but will need at least a week, more likely 10 days, to repair accumulated system damage on the key ships.

LoBaron -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/14/2010 12:39:47 PM)
How could I miss this AAR? Great presentation, very good thoughts, and really a good read! I like the monthly hero unit award. [;)] Keep that up please. Good luck in your war!

LoBaron -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/14/2010 12:43:23 PM)
Btw: You got one significant point about altitude bands (like to leave that out of another post....^^) Its not the band where performance is best for the plane but the band where the performance delta is most favourable that counts.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/14/2010 3:08:41 PM)
Aircraft/Engines Production Plans It's not the end of the month yet, but let's outline my long-term air production plans now, so I'll have a reference for myself. My current aircraft production looks like this: [image]local://upfiles/33131/ABF00E66C4B64BDABAD3B6B2AA5855EF.jpg[/image] If I had a chance to redo everyhing, I would have kept Ki-30 as IJAAF's light bomber (better range, plus strictly superior bombload - a single 250-kg GP bomb has better effect and accuracy than four 50-kg GP bombs combined, never mind penetration), and produced some Ki-21-Ic to alleviate the demand for Mitshubishi Ha-32 engine. While building Mitshubishi Ha-5s instead of Ha-31s (the stock of the latter is enough to sustain Ki-46-II production until it is replaced with Ki-46-III, and the only other plane I produce that uses Ha-31 is Ki-51). But what's done is done.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/14/2010 3:11:32 PM)
And Engines Production: Do note, that I'm ramping up the production of Nakajima Ha-34s already. [image]local://upfiles/33131/75C2EB3B399B433886D6F946FF334B9D.jpg[/image]

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/14/2010 3:59:25 PM)
Land Bomber Program As you can see from above, Mitshubishi Ha-32 remains and will remain a bottleneck. I'm alternating between producting Emilies and Betties, and make the latter at the moment to prepare for imminent losses at Hawaii. Thankfully, neither of these types suffered heavy losses past the first week of the war, because I'm cautions with my naval aviation - unlike IJAAF pilots, who only have high GrdB skill (and it is easy to improve in the process of bombing the enemy at the moment), Navy pilots have at least NavB, NavT and GrdB at decent levels, and therefore they are far more valuably. Returning to the production plans, I do not intend to increase Ha-32s production to fully keep up with the demand, as this will put an undue strain to my economy when I will be forced to reconvert plants later. Instead, I plan to convert the smallest Sally plant (24/month) to Ki-49-Ia when the latter becomes available. While it is somewhat worse than Ki-21-IIa, for bombing Chinese it will do just fine, and will need a stock of them for ASW purposes later in the war, when they get MAD (the only IJAAF level bombers to get any detection devices). That will leave me with 350 Ha-32s per month and 364 required per month, so if I just shut off the small 6/month secondary facility for Emilies (or convert it to make Babses for the time being, if losses in IJN recon units will become too high), the production of engines will be able to keep up). When Ki-49-IIa becomes available, I'll convert one of 36/month Sally facilities to it, thus allowing the engines to stockpile for the production of mid-war plane types, that use Ha-32, such as E15K and N1K1. Late in the war the massive Ha-32 factory potential will be useful as well, fueling production of Betty and Francis modifications that appear in 1944, as well as Jills. The third and final Sally facility will be converted to either Ki-49 or Ki-67-Ia (T), if the latter is sufficiently advanced, sometime in late 1943-early 1944, unless my opponent manages to muster enough airforce in China before that to make a concept of "China bomber" obsolete. I do not intend to ever repurpose my existing Ha-32 facilities (as a result, the production of Yasukuni - IJN's Ki-67 - will get the axe). The production of Ki-49s (I'll shot for around 100/month once IIa model becomes available) will be fueled by their own huge Nakajima Ha-34 plant. I won't ever need to convert it, so one enormous factory will suffice. And I don't intend to convert it because I plan to use Ki-49-IIa and IIb throughout the entire war. Compared to Ki-67 they have less range, less guns and less speed, but better payload and better service rating. Ability to carry 4 250-kg bombs instead of 3 might matter quite a lot, considering, that the bombload on these planes in cut in half when flying skipbombing missions and that, AFAIK, the game allows you to make the attack roll against an enemy ship once per bomb. I'll build Ki-67-Ia(T), though, because I have a dream of the fleet of torpedo-carrying IJAAF planes. It has great stats compared to Betties or early Francises, too. In fact, I'm investing a lot into researching this plane. In this mod Ia(T) just upgrades to IIa without losing the ability to use torpedos, so I won't need to forbid its factories from upgrading. Ki-51 will remain in production for the entire war at 40/month, to serve as an advanced trainer for IJAAF, if nothing else. Navy will build its usual single-engine carrier planes. The only major foreseeable problem there lies in the fact that B6N1 uses really rare Nakajima Ha-44 engine. I'll probably convert a few small engine research plants to it temporarily, so that they can be easily reconverted to whatever is needed later. One small (15-20/month) plant will be left to produce Ha-44s after B6N1 is phased out, in hope that Japan survives long enough to deploy Ki-94-II.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/14/2010 6:19:23 PM)
Fighter Program OK, now for the hard part. In a stock game, it is actually the easy part. Basically just build lots and lots of Nakajima Ha-35 and start expanding production of Najajima Ha-45 somewhere in late 1943. Reluctant Admiral mod, however, adds one historical correction (Tojo now uses Nakajima Ha-34) and several major changes to Zero model line that can make Nakajima Ha-35 completely obsolete by late 1943, instead of late 1945, in favor of Mitsubishi Ha-33. IJAAF fighter program still remains relatively uncomplicated, since, as mentioned above, Nakajima Ha-34 will be one of my main engine types anyway. I'm putting major effort into advancing Tojo and will probably build it in parallel with Frank until late 1944 at the very least. Considering likely economic difficulties at that point, probably for the entire war. Part of Oscar production will be switched to Tojo when the latter is available, as well as my Nate plant. I tentatively aim for 70 Oscars and 100 Tojos per month at that point. Frank is aslo a focus of serious research effort. Ki-84b has a better service rating in this mod, and I want it to be the defining end-war IJAAF fighter. As about Army fighter-bombers, I plan to make Ki-45 KAIa instead of the latter Ki-45 versions until Ki-102 fighter-bomber arrives. KAIb and KAIc just suck because of their low-accuracy main cannons. I'll build a few KAIc just to upgrade 27th Sentai to them. Now for the main conundrum. I'm about to reach production of 290 Ha-35 engines per month. Even with Ki-48 out of picture, and A6M3 not building (I was mistaken earlier - Yokosuka Ku T-3 requires A6M3b to upgrade from its floatplanes, so there isn't much reason to build A6M3) this stil isn't nearly enough, considering that Rufe and Nick arrive soon and I want at least 30 per month of both (current consumption is 270/month). With availability of Ki-44 the demand will be reduced by about 60/month, J1N1-C will add about 20/month, but then, in 1943, the production will take a huge hit (at least 130/140 month), if I try to keep my forces full of top-notch planes, as Kate, Rufe and Ha-35-using Zero fighter will become obsolete. The latter will be replaced by A6M8 with its Mitsubishi Ha-33 engine. Further complicating things, A7M2 will be available in late 1944, and it will require a new engine (Mitsubishi Ha-43) again. Unlike the situation with Mitsubishi Ha-32, practically no decent late-war planes use Ha-35. Except for A6M7, which sucks, but has no competitors for the Navy's best fighter-bomber spot. There is that suicide box Ki-115, but it is available very late. The remaining production of Ki-43s (for training and escort purposes) won't be able to consume much of the produced engines. And with huge plants that make Ha-35s, conversions will be not only exceedingly costly, but slow. After considering all this, I decided on the following: 1)I'll expand Nakajima Ha-35 production to 310/month (subject to further expansion in case of massive losses). With the existing surplus, this should enable us to provide everything, except A6M3b, with engines until the availability of Tojo alleviates the burden. And accumulation of suprlus of other airframes might allow us to produce A6M3b intermittently as well. But we don't need that many of them at this point, they are useable only to a limited number of airgroups. 2)I'll NOT upgrade the main Zero plant to A6M8 and I'll NOT switch Nakajima Ha-35 production to Mitshubishi Ha-33. I'll keep A6M5b and redirect my research effort towards bringing A7M2 into production even earlier. The reason for this is purely economical. I don't believe Japan can afford switching the main engine consumed by IJN fighters twice per war. With superior versions of Ha-35 Zero available early, and, hopefully, Allied fleet smashed hard in 1942, I believe the Empire will be able to hold on until A7M production kicks in. Eventually, the big 200/month plant will be converted to Mitsubishi Ha-43, and the smaller plant will keep producing engines for A6M7 and Ki-115. Moreover, J1N1-S will be used as the Navy's primary night fighter instead of P1Y2-S. It is mostly inferior, but it uses Ha-35, instead of Mitshubishi Ha-32, which will be intensively used by IJNAF's twin-engined bombers, torpedo bombers and float fighters. 3)I'm already building up a reserve of Mitshubishi Ha-33 engines. The production will be further expanded in the future. A third Zero plant, specifically for A6M8, and with modest production, will be eventually added. As Mitshubishi Ha-33 powers land-based interceptor versions of Zero, some of the late-war Fleet kamikaze planes, plus the final version of Oscar also uses it in this mod, it is not likely to become utterly obsolete even if A6M8 is phased out entirely and Ki-100 is never produced (althouh if the state of Japanese economy allows it at all, I'd prefer to try and build some Ki-100 instead of Ki-43, if only to check if MVR boost given to it in this mod, managed to make this plane decent).

John 3rd -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/15/2010 1:17:30 AM)
Hey Sir. Thanks for the detailed discussion on the plane types and engines. We've just restarted our campaign with RA, 2b and am debating the choices before me as the war starts. With you and BK the chief developers in aircraft and alternatives for RA, I am very interested in your thoughts!

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/15/2010 2:52:15 AM)
You might want to disregard my ramblings, I'm overtly cautious with my production here[:)]. Actually, upgrading factories seems to be rather cheap. But disruptions of production still are a major concern. This is probably a more important reason to minimize the number of major production changes.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/15/2010 9:43:15 AM)
While I'm waiting for another turn from Geoff, I want to add, that another principle of my air program, which is implicit, but not stated directly, in the plans above, is avoiding overbuilding early in the war. I wouldn't have been making as many planes as I do if not for huge losses (primarily of IJAAF bombers), and I am, as you can see, not afraid to shut down facilies, if I have enough planes in the pool. While I can easily increase the production by a few hundred planes more, I prefer to delay new investments in aircraft industry to the point when later-generations planes, particularly ones whose advanced modifications will serve me until the end or, at least, until very late in the war, such as Tojo and Helen, become available.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/16/2010 10:56:22 PM)
Western Java Invaded On the map below is the situation on February 20th. Kalidjati was taken by an airborne assault (2nd Raiding Regiment), with a squadron of Dutch bombers destroyed on the ground in the process. Yubari is pulling troops towards mountain bases, but I doubt he has AV to hold anything except Malang for any amount of time, simply because nearly all Dutch infantry is in Malang (where it repelled my initial assault with 5:1 odds, so I might consider pulling a part of my forces from there and leaving only a regiment to besiege the Dutch). Allied forces put little and futile resistance on the sea (losing 2 PT boats and having a sub or two damaged) and none in the air. In term of ships, losses during the invasion of Java so far are limited to one short-legged AP (to a sub attack). My biggest mistake of this campaign was not adding 4th Tank Regiment from Philippines to the invasion. True, Japanese tanks are very weak, but they should have been sufficient for routing base forces. [image]local://upfiles/33131/C8C37C0ACB564F938F66CDEA9E153D0E.jpg[/image] ...In the meantime, dozens of warships, subs transports and LCUs are converging on Truk. We'll start loading the Midway invasion in 3-4 days, as soon as some fast AKs and xAPs will return to Tokyo from DEI. While at the moment I have plenty of slow 3-hex xAKs modified for carrying troops, nearly all of my fast transports are busy somewhere.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/16/2010 11:14:22 PM)
The Battle of Pucheng Oh, the buffed China is such a black hole in this mod. Primarily for my aviation. On February 20, goddamn AVG made its return, challenging my planes in the skies over Pucheng, which I bombed every day for nearly a week, except for 19th, when planes did not fly due to thunderstorms. Seeing poor results on 18th in such bad weather, also I stood down some airgroups for 19th and forgot to reissue them orders for 20th, which contributed to the ensuing Japanese defeat. We got 6-8 fighters in exchange for 3 (notably, some of the enemies flew H-81s instead of P-40Es again), but almost 15 bombers were shot down, most of them IJN planes with their precious pilots. I cannot use them this way, and in fact I needed these units to go back to training anyway (they are mostly newly arrived units of 9th Air Fleet, with pilots not quite up to stuff - fresh Nell units have no experience in NavSearch, as is typical for Netty kokutais, and so on). So, seeing as the weather seems to be clearing, I ordered another, hopefully the final 250-plane raid on Pucheng and a deliberate attack. We have only a little bit over 2000 AV against approximately 4200, in mildly rough terrain and with level 1 Chinese forts, but the Chinese army should be without supply, as all roads connecting to Pucheng have my units sitting on them for several days now (see the map below). Yubari tried to sally forth from Chuhsien and cut my own supply line, but the rearguard brigade allowed Japanese to keep the control of the hexsides and therefore the road. [image]local://upfiles/33131/A0A0A6C854BA45C3AE60EC79877904B5.jpg[/image] In other news, the northern army made it safely to Nanyang. One of its divisions is very much trashed and has only about 50 AV due to massive disablement, the rest need a bit of R&R as well.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/17/2010 1:39:05 PM)
Battle of Pucheng: Outcome at the Moment Well, not really a satisfying one it was: Ground combat at Pucheng (86,57) Japanese Deliberate attack Attacking force 58730 troops, 553 guns, 206 vehicles, Assault Value = 2041 Defending force 135182 troops, 760 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 4344 Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 0 Japanese adjusted assault: 1242 Allied adjusted defense: 1379 Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 0) Combat modifiers Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), preparation(-), experience(-), supply(-) Attacker: Japanese ground losses: 3176 casualties reported Squads: 10 destroyed, 281 disabled Non Combat: 12 destroyed, 387 disabled Engineers: 1 destroyed, 49 disabled Allied ground losses: 1579 casualties reported Squads: 2 destroyed, 161 disabled Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 98 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled Assaulting units: 15th Division 1st Ind.Mixed Brigade 39th Division 17th Division 22nd Division 56th Infantry Brigade 138th Infantry Regiment 13th Army RGC Army 4th Mortar Battalion Defending units: 58th Chinese/B Corps 58th Chinese/A Corps 74th Chinese Corps 44th Chinese Corps 70th Chinese Corps 72nd Chinese Corps 86th Chinese/B Corps 86th Chinese/A Corps 86th Chinese/C Corps 50th Chinese Corps 78th Chinese Corps 49th Chinese Corps 26th Chinese Corps 58th Chinese/C Corps 23rd Group Army 3rd War Area 30th Group Army Considering all the modifiers, stacked against the Chinese, this was quite underwelming. Aviation took out about 70 squads more in Pucheng on this turn, but the result remain ufavorable. Japanese AV dropped by almost 500. Unless Yubari remains really passive, he'll be able to break my blockade before I can starve and grind down his troops. The only bright spot in China is the fact that Japan currently produces 29 infantry squads/day, and China only 6-7. Also, I hope their huge army will exhaust their supply in the near future. But my own supply situation is not particularly good. In fact, reserves at Home Islands are dropping steadily. I'm going to reorient my shipping towards hauling supply to China from Formosa (where Japanese have a 130+ k of supply stockpiled at the moment), and them maybe Luzon as well. This should also save some fuel.

LoBaron -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/17/2010 1:54:44 PM)
FatR just an idea (and please also treat it with a grain of salt because my overall picture of the situation neccesarily is bad): If you are at least somehow able to keep up the pressure at Pucheng. If possible attack. supply(-) means only that some of the units are already affected by the supply level, it doesn�t tell you if they are out of supply in general. This could mean that currently only 1 unit up to now has less than required supply. What makes this so dangerous to your opponent that you can repair disabled squads and keep up combat operations. The longer he also has to do both the faster his supply level will drop. If you continue to attack (if possible) you will overwhelm him sooner than you think. He wont be able to bring his disabled squads back to combat readiness as you are able to.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/17/2010 2:40:26 PM)
I plan to continue. In fact, I have no choice but to continue pounding Pucheng - should Japanese give up there, it will be impossible to defend against the threats that Chinese can create from their central position. My troops are about to reopen the line of communications with Foochow on the coast, so even if Yubari sallies forth from Chuhsien with everything and cuts the road to Shangai area, my besieging army will be able to get supply. I'm afraid, though, that Chinese have far more uncommitted AV than I do, and my aviation can't be everywhere to slow down their movements. If Yubari merely moves more troops to Chuhsien, I'll just cut them off again, but a strong drive against Amoy or/and Nanchang can be very problematic to defend against. At the moment just one Chinese unit attempts to move past Nanchang, only a tank regiment blocks it for the moment, but IJAAF bomber force will dance on its head on the next turn, so I doubt it will be able to successfully attack. But a massive attack, particularly against both targets, can be very problematic. I'm pondering moving half of the 500 AV present from the stand-off at Canton, where our position is pretty secure, if my esteemed opponents attempts another move towards the coast.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/19/2010 4:19:57 PM)
Recent News Cagayan fell on February 23 after I brought the entire 16th Division there. This Mindanao adventure was incredibly costly as far as operational tempo is concerned. On Java Japanese troops took Batavia without a fight. Enemy still concentrates in mountain base hexes. Unfortunately, Japanese stil will not be able to cleansweep Java entirely in February, simply due to the constraints of troop movement. This, alongside with my big mistake of Singapore, where I allowed British to rebuild their forts, because aircraft losses mounted too heavily, makes a large landing on Oahu before the expiration of the amphibious bonus virtually impossible. I clearly need to readjust my strategic plans, although I'm going for surrounding islands anyway. Two echelons of Midway invasion force (the second carries the garrizon units) had sailed from Tokyo. The Combined Fleet had sailed from Truk on 25th, with 5 CVs, 1 CVL, 9 BBs, 6 CAs and a whole lot of DDs. KB-2 with Soryu, Kirishima, 2 CAs and the rest of Japanese CVLs and CVEs is ordered to sail on 26th. It'll hang to the northwest of Kwajalein, to move into position should USN gives battle at Midway and pursue stragglers. I placed Ryujo instead of Soryu into the main KB force because it carriers more Zeros and better pilots. I've concentrated quite a lot of subs at Kwajalein and now they are moving out - Glen carriers will form a picked line of the both sides of French Frigate Shoals, while shorter-legged subs will patrol around Oahu. In China there are currently 3 points of interest, marked on the map below. In the zone 1, 2 Chinese corps pushed a newly-raised brigade from the road to Pucheng, now it retreats to Nanyang to recover as a part of the city's garrizon. In the zone 2, 2 brigades and one tank regiment, heavily supported by aviation, caught a Chinese corps in open terrain and routed it on 24th, at practically no cost, bringing the number of Chinese squads destroyed in February to over 480 (not alot, compared to our earlier victories, but at least far higher than their replacement rate and about twice as high as Japanese infantry casualties). In the zone 3, Chinese are evacuating Sinyang. Maybe Yubari intends to assault Hankow with all his might, but as Hankow has over 800 AV, heavy urban terrain and level 5 forts that are about to reach level 6, I very much doubt his army will be able to do so, particularly after running the gauntlet of massed Japanese air raids on the way. Maybe he just want to retreat before his force is cut off and defeated. Still good news, as I won't need to exhaust my forces battling his large army at the forested terrain at Sinyang. If I'm lucky, Japanese will even be able to catch his rearguard in the open. Thankfully, my main force at Nanyang was ordered to move even before Chinese started their maneuver. [image]local://upfiles/33131/390AC7518509456AADA5CF3A940797DD.jpg[/image]

Yakface -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/19/2010 4:42:47 PM)
Hi FatR. Was just readin your AAR (nice work BTW) and I had a thought: quote: ORIGINAL: FatR My troops are about to reopen the line of communications with Foochow on the coast Did one of your units march from Foochow to Pucheng? I don't know which hexside you entered the Pucheng hex from originally, but unless a unit crossed the hexside from which you are trying to draw supplies, you will not be able to supply across it.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/19/2010 5:26:19 PM)
Originally my forces entered Pucheng by the road from the northwest. Now a regiment from the coast marched there from Foochow and changed the hexside ownership, so supplies continue flowing.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/20/2010 12:53:57 PM)
On Artillery At the moment, Japanese forces are storming the fortifications of Singapore once again, taking horrible, disproportional, crippling casualties in the process. Singapore is bloody difficult to take with the nerfed artillery, and in the future games I'll either plan the Mersing invasion better or leave Singapore for last. Anyway, now I have a bit data that allows us to gauge the effects of artillery during the assaults, as we had two attacks against level 3 forts in the same place, that differed mostly in the number of ART units that supported the assault: February 13th: Ground combat at Singapore (50,84) Japanese Deliberate attack Attacking force 66851 troops, 753 guns, 239 vehicles, Assault Value = 2134 Defending force 35303 troops, 531 guns, 441 vehicles, Assault Value = 794 Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2 Japanese adjusted assault: 1738 Allied adjusted defense: 1981 Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 2) Combat modifiers Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), morale(-), experience(-) Attacker: Japanese ground losses: 2414 casualties reported Squads: 111 destroyed, 144 disabled Non Combat: 133 destroyed, 184 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 18 disabled Guns lost 17 (3 destroyed, 14 disabled) Allied ground losses: 1305 casualties reported Squads: 22 destroyed, 43 disabled Non Combat: 52 destroyed, 136 disabled Engineers: 3 destroyed, 20 disabled Vehicles lost 63 (11 destroyed, 52 disabled) Assaulting units: 113th Infantry Regiment 4th Division 33rd Division 40th Brigade 5th Division 148th Infantry Regiment 56th Recon Regiment 56th Engineer Regiment 18th Division 41st Infantry Regiment Southern Army 1st RF Gun Battalion 92nd JAAF AF Bn 25th Army 3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment 18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment 3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment 56th Field Artillery Regiment 96th JAAF AF Bn February 26th: Ground combat at Singapore (50,84) Japanese Deliberate attack Attacking force 70562 troops, 946 guns, 435 vehicles, Assault Value = 2219 Defending force 35571 troops, 527 guns, 424 vehicles, Assault Value = 822 Japanese adjusted assault: 2534 Allied adjusted defense: 1549 Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 3) Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 2 Combat modifiers Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), experience(-) Attacker: Japanese ground losses: 4817 casualties reported Squads: 12 destroyed, 328 disabled Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 380 disabled Engineers: 2 destroyed, 47 disabled Vehicles lost 73 (1 destroyed, 72 disabled) Allied ground losses: 1977 casualties reported Squads: 23 destroyed, 44 disabled Non Combat: 29 destroyed, 237 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled Vehicles lost 46 (2 destroyed, 44 disabled) Units destroyed 1 Assaulting units: 40th Brigade 5th Division 56th Engineer Regiment 56th Recon Regiment 33rd Division 18th Division 4th Division 148th Infantry Regiment 41st Infantry Regiment Southern Army 10th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment 56th Field Artillery Regiment 3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion 25th Army 8th Medium Field Artillery Regiment 9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion 20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion 1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment 2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion 15th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion 92nd JAAF AF Bn 2nd Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion 1st Medium Field Artillery Regiment 18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment 3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment 3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment 1st RF Gun Battalion 2nd Mortar Battalion 96th JAAF AF Bn Judging by these combat results: 1)Artillery does not mitigate one's own casualties at all. In fact, because everything fires at everything, the enemy seems to take more shots at you and inflicts worse damage. Although it is certain that Allied troops had more experience the second time, the difference is too great to be explained just by that. 2)The impact of artillery on enemy casualties seems to be minimal. It is possible that higher Allied losses during the second assault were due to sheer luck. 3)Artillery significantly influences the modified AV.

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/23/2010 11:18:12 AM)
I was somewhat busy, so my monthly update reflects the situation on March 3rd. Anyway, as this is the day just before first Japanese shells start falling on Midway, it will also serve as a good boundary date as well. The Victory Screen At The Moment Except for February 21, when Japanese lost over 500 VPs for some reason I failed to find, the point gap continued to increase. [image]local://upfiles/33131/1CB29492336945D09635F062A71388F0.jpg[/image]

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/23/2010 12:11:14 PM)
The Pacific Combined Fleet approaches Midway. No signs of surface USN units presence so far. Only Catalinas are spotted on the airfield. I wanted to use just CAs to bombard the island before the landing, but the old BB TF mananed to burn most of its fuel somewhere, so it'll bombard and retreat towards Wake to reload fuel and shells at Kwajalein. Two squadrons of Kates will support the landing with the rest remaining on naval attack. Behind the lines, amphibious TFs for Hilo, Lahaina and Johnston are loading and moving to Kwajalein. I planned to take Johnston with 40th Brigade, but it is still tied in Singapore, so I'll storm the island with 16th Regiment, probably after the main landing at Hawaii, so it can be bombarded and bombed to my heart's content. The main landing itself will happen immediately after Midway, unless the carrier battle happens at Midway and its curse will fall upon IJN again. Or if Yubari decides to hold back totally, in which case it might be wise to temporarily unload troops at Kwajalein and waint until newly-arrived Junyo and repaired Chitose rejoin the fleet. [image]local://upfiles/33131/63F46B6FAF1A425E8A78CDCE9A83EE29.jpg[/image]

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/23/2010 12:18:28 PM)
DEI Java is about to be finished. Only in Malang Dutch have enough AV to resist at all and their forces in the wester part of the island, which retreated to Tjilatjap rather than contest Japanese advance from Batavia might be cut off before reaching it. Imperial Guards brigade now moves to Samarinda to take it and Balikpapan. In bad news, Singapore still holds. I've discovered that bombing at 25k feet allows Japanese bombers to fly above the flak and still hit the airfield good enough to keep it damaged (because flak does not screw their accuracy), but alas, I should have experimented with altitude setting much earlier. Because I didn't Singapore took the role of Bataan in this game. [image]local://upfiles/33131/5E00D1D11D634A1EBBE86D013907134E.jpg[/image]

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/23/2010 12:20:53 PM)
Burma British decided to cut their losses and retreat to India. A wise move, unfortunately. Not much else to say. [image]local://upfiles/33131/86F4485F9EC9413388EA0286C8CFE4A4.jpg[/image]

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/23/2010 12:25:21 PM)
China Another new attack at Pucheng failed disastrously, causing 1.5k Chinese casualties to over 9k Japanese, even though odds were pretty close. Looks like Allies are retreating in central China. They troops seem to be heading out of Hankow. I'll do my best to intercept them. Hopefully, with the help of aviation we'll be able to catch at least some units in open terrain. [image]local://upfiles/33131/64B0E0A5215A43EB89CE4D41A9CE4C15.jpg[/image]

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/23/2010 12:40:33 PM)
Detailed Air Losses Still very heavy. In China it is simply impossible to provide fighters for every airfield from which my bombers fly, and very active bombing campaign obviously leads to high operational losses. But at least Allied losses are pretty heavy too, and, unlike Japanese, they lose more fighters than bombers (particularly in the air), simply because Allied bombers do not fly nearly as much. Japanese fighter losses aren't very high and most of them are operational losses. [image]local://upfiles/33131/168A7A4886B24E6EBC4399CB686A93B7.jpg[/image]

FatR -> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please. (7/23/2010 12:59:54 PM)
Pilot Losses and Pilot Situation The total number of losses is horrible. However, as you can see looking at the list of best pilots, my fighter aviation is far from overloaded. There are no extreme individual scores and very little losses among top pilots, which indicates the safe degree of air superiority. Also it should be noted, that while around January the pilot situation temporarily deteriorated, by now we might be better off than at the beginning of the war (except for KB squadrons, as uber-elite pilots from there are practically irreplaceable - but I didn't lose many so far). The lion's share of the pilot losses are IJAAF's bomber pilots, and these train their main relevant skill simply by flying missions. While we're at it, a few notes about training. I try to fill both frontline and training squadrons with pilots to the maximum, so that very fatigued pilots can be rotated out of of combat without grounding any planes. This also creates a reserve of pilots in the frontline units. I try to train unrestricted fighter units whenever the situation allows such luxury. Fighters I train in Air skill and Strafing (the latter mostly to raise their Defense further), Army bombers in GrdB only, GrdB + LowN or ASW + LowN. For Navy, I train divebomber crews on NavB and ASW, torpedo bomber, Netty and patrol crews on NavT, NavS and, if the time allows, NavB/GrdB. Short-legged seaplanes are trained on ASW + LowN. I have quite a number of squadrons training for ASW duties and only two actually flying ASW patrols. With their current planes they hardly have a hope of actually sinking anything, so better use the easy times to make them hardcore subhuntes. And their LowN skill will make all those small 4-12 planes squadrons potentially useful at repelling Allied invasions later in the game as well. [image]local://upfiles/33131/C72930A37AAB4108AFB63FD6BA6A1FB0.jpg[/image]

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