RE: January 23rd, 1943 (Full Version)

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BBfanboy -> RE: January 23rd, 1943 (5/6/2019 4:14:34 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: jwolf

Your defense and counterattack in India was superbly done IMHO. That was a great campaign for the Allied side.

I'm looking forward to the "fun" your carriers will enjoy after they deploy from Pearl.

+1

From your map, it looks like you should be able to isolate Ceylon and take it in a couple of months. The Columbo shipyard will be the biggest prize but clearing out his search bases will be great for you too.[:)]



Anachro -> RE: January 23rd, 1943 (5/6/2019 7:51:29 PM)

I think I can take Ceylon earlier than that. I have 2 divisions prepped + various smaller units (regiments, armor, etc.) sitting at port in India. Biggest worry is a mini-KB hiding at Diego Garcia or something (John has CVEs or some CVs in the Indian area). I have two CVLs currently at port in India, with CV Ranger and CVL Hermes on the way from Capetown. These will provide cover, amplified by air bases I've build up at India's southern tip. We will stick near the coasts for our landing (LRCAP) and use North Male as a naval recon base.



jwolf -> RE: January 23rd, 1943 (5/6/2019 8:22:23 PM)

Out of curiosity -- is Ceylon even defendable, or worth defending, for the Japanese at this point in your game? I'm wondering how much effort it's worth, strategically, for the Japanese side. Maybe they can defend it indefinitely with KB support, but that would leave the whole Pacific wide open.



Anachro -> RE: January 23rd, 1943 (5/6/2019 8:24:14 PM)

It is not worth defending and I don't think John is keeping a huge garrison there. Probably a regiment or two at most. I'd rather take it though than bypass it, as failing to do so would seriously complicate my LoC as I move towards Burma/DEI.



jwolf -> RE: January 23rd, 1943 (5/6/2019 10:27:16 PM)

Oh I absolutely agree it is very useful for the Allies, especially that nice shipyard. Just wondering what is the most likely perspective from the Japanese side.



Anachro -> RE: January 23rd, 1943 (5/6/2019 10:56:24 PM)

Perspective from Japanese side, especially with John's very long-range bombers (which I suspect he is using for nav search to see deep into my interior), is that it gives him good recon over any ships moving in the seas around Bombay and further south. It's very hard to surprise him as his deep recon capabilities mean all my ships get spotted from very far out. It also hampers any efforts by me to move on Burma, etc. by sea. This makes it valuable for him, but more as a roadblock than a serious barrier, as I have multiple locations I can land at, nearby large air bases that can provide LBA cover and conduct heavy bombing, and a shorter LoC for resupply and reinforcement.

What Japan can do is keep a KB or mini KB nearby in Diego Garcia or somewhere else that might be able to quickly pounce on a landing force. At the moment, my ability to have good recon anywhere south or west of Ceylon is very limited until I can get a floatplane base setup at North Male.



Anachro -> January 24th, 1943 (5/7/2019 12:54:32 AM)

January 24th, 1943

My subs take an xAP and an xAK down this turn and the xAP seems to be a decent one. At first, I thought it was an American ship from the name, but then saw the "maru." It sinks southeast of Haha-jima, heading perhaps to or from Marcus Island. The xAP Montevideo Mary is decently speedy at 17, with a troop capacity of 1700. Nice! I'm enjoying seeing my subs actually do something; now to see them sink a CV.

The real interesting thing is the intel on Ceylon. John has 10,000 men at Colombo and 5,000 men at Trincomalee, which seems more than were there in previous recon efforts. Interesting. He also has a level 3 airfield at Koggala with fighter wings.

[image]https://i.imgur.com/zrd9SVy.jpg[/image]



DOCUP -> RE: January 24th, 1943 (5/7/2019 1:18:47 AM)

Welcome back. Great job in India.



Anachro -> January 25th, 1943 (5/8/2019 2:49:46 PM)

@Docup Thanks!

January 25th, 1943

I begin the process of dismantling airfields on Ceylon, launching a strike with all my heavy bombers that hit Colombo unimpeded. There are a large number of hits on its airbase, airbase supply, and runway. We stay at 8,000 feet to avoid damage from air balloons. Trincomalee is showing 43 airfield damage, but looks to under repair as it was at 64 last turn based on recon. Meanwhile, we launch long range sweeps on Koggala where we knew John had some fighter wings. Unfortunately, John had a lot more in the past and we suffer more attrition than we would have liked from the action: our Wildcats suffer, but our Lightnings and Corsairs perform well.

It becomes apparent why, however. We had set Beaufighters to naval strike a couple turns ago as we saw a convoy leaving Rangoon apparently headed for Ceylon. Instead of hitting some convoy in the middle of the ocean, they head for Koggala where they find two valuable AOs (and TBs) that John's TBs seem to be covering. I can only thing John is trying to extract fuel from Ceylon, as much as he can. Unfortunately for him (and thankfully I had set sweeps on Koggala), his AO's both take hits and are shown to be suffering heavy fires (they must have fuel or oil in them). We also hear sinking sounds and a second Beaufighter strike finds no AOs, only TBs. I'll take it, despite the cost in fighters.

[image]https://i.imgur.com/4t5QYFY.png[/image]



Anachro -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/8/2019 2:56:55 PM)

The ships hit are two Shiretoko-class AOs, which are not John's best or fastest AO's, but it's always good to sink them. They have good endurance and can act as additional tankers.

[image]https://i.imgur.com/gaXMYQM.png[/image]

John starts with 12 Shiretoko-class AO's, 6 NTL class AO's, and 5 TL class AO's. He only gets 4 additional AOs over the course of the game. If the two above are sunk (and we heard sinking sounds so at least one), that would bring the total to 8 AO's, all Shiretoko's, sunk so far. That said, we haven't destroyed many TKs yet.



Anachro -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/8/2019 2:59:30 PM)

I'm fine with John taking notice of Ceylon and moving part or all of KB to India, btw. He has mentioned in the past weeks that he felt he might be in the wrong position for the real invasion. Then I can strike elsewhere.



BBfanboy -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/8/2019 3:00:39 PM)

Nice serendipity there. I think both those AOs are big ones, well worth the fighter losses.



Anachro -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/8/2019 4:17:08 PM)

Yes, I'm fine with it as long as they sink. Main goal, of course, is to impede John's ability to use LBA against any invasion of Ceylon as well as make it harder for his recon units to see into my interior. One thing I noticed just now that makes Ceylon very enticing is Colombo and Trincomalee alone take 1000 VPs away from Japan, in addition to the ~15-20k men there that might be destroyed in an invasion.



Anachro -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/8/2019 4:35:36 PM)

Can someone tell me, because I haven't looked into this, what's the normal range at which an air raid would be spotted by the Mk.1 eyeball vs. radar? Is 38-28 NM reasonable? This is less of a gripe and more an interest, plus I don't know if John modded in earlier radar for Japan in this mod or something.



BBfanboy -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/8/2019 5:35:44 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Anachro

Can someone tell me, because I haven't looked into this, what's the normal range at which an air raid would be spotted by the Mk.1 eyeball vs. radar? Is 38-28 NM reasonable? This is less of a gripe and more an interest, plus I don't know if John modded in earlier radar for Japan in this mod or something.

Mk1 EB is not modeled, but listening devices can detect somewhere between 15-30 NM IIRC. Weather is a factor, I'm sure. I am not sure if Coastwatcher reports and enemy bases on the route of the raiding aircraft are abstracted into D/L on the air raid and therefore greater range or chance of detection. I imagine it as being modeled similar to the way the seas within four hexes of an active air base are assumed to be searched by virtue of air traffic.



Anachro -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/8/2019 5:54:47 PM)

Interesting. Regarding the last turn, John let slip that he was running fuel into Ceylon, which is interesting to me. Not sure if that's attempted misdirection on his part, but if true, would imply he wants fuel there for naval ops as there is no other reason for it there that I can think of. KB coming?

quote:

Those boys were running some fuel in and I THOUGHT 150 fighters were enough to protect them for a day or two. NOT! Grrrr...



BBfanboy -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/8/2019 10:11:06 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Anachro

Interesting. Regarding the last turn, John let slip that he was running fuel into Ceylon, which is interesting to me. Not sure if that's attempted misdirection on his part, but if true, would imply he wants fuel there for naval ops as there is no other reason for it there that I can think of. KB coming?

quote:

Those boys were running some fuel in and I THOUGHT 150 fighters were enough to protect them for a day or two. NOT! Grrrr...


Given your control of India it makes no sense to offload fuel in Ceylon. If he wanted to refuel KB or SCTFs he could station AOs well south of Ceylon or just disband a couple of smaller tankers in a port and draw fuel from them there. Looks like misdirection to me - perhaps he has more TKs or AOs in the area trying to remove fuel from Ceylon ...



Canoerebel -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/8/2019 10:25:20 PM)

Shapiro: "Animal, them Nazis aint kosher."
Animal: "You can say that again."
Shapiro: "Animal, them Nazis aint kosher."
Animal: "I said, 'You can say that again.' That doesn't mean you have to repeat yourself!"

Anybody know the movie?

Yes, John is definitely disassembling there. I think BBfanboy is dead right. John wanted to remove the fuel in prep for evacuation. He's running a tissue thin deception. He oughta know better. :)



BBfanboy -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/8/2019 10:36:24 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Shapiro: "Animal, them Nazis aint kosher."
Animal: "You can say that again."
Shapiro: "Animal, them Nazis aint kosher."
Animal: "I said, 'You can say that again.' That doesn't mean you have to repeat yourself!"

Anybody know the movie?

Yes, John is definitely disassembling there. I think BBfanboy is dead right. John wanted to remove the fuel in prep for evacuation. He's running a tissue thin deception. He oughta know better. :)

Stalag 17

Price : Must you two always be last?

Animal : Oh, yeah? You try jumping in those trenches first. Everybody jumps in on top of you.

Shapiro : How do you think I got my hernia?

[coughs]



Anachro -> January 26th, 1943 (5/9/2019 1:48:12 PM)

January 26th, 1943

I conduct additional sweeps and further bombings on Ceylon, so now all three airfields there show decent damage and I'll divide my bombers to now swathe all three in bombs so he can't repair them one-by-one. The real interesting thing here is the significant forces that the island now appears to have, which is different from a few weeks ago. 15k men at Colombo, 18k at Koggala, and 7k at Trincomalee: 40k men in total between all three locations - that is a significant garrison (that I'd love to destroy)! I am now thinking of allocating additional forces for the landings and I have some questions for that. I'm well aware of the importance of preparation for the initial landings, so as to prevent damage and disablement. Will reinforcement landings in the same hex where a landing has already happened also suffer big penalties or is it like a river crossing hex that has already been assaulted? That is, can I land a 100% preppred division one day and then, say, a 50% prepped division the next day without a serious cost?

[image]https://i.imgur.com/djMuNQp.png[/image]

Here is John's email with the turn. Again, I find areas (in bold) that are questionable. Namely, I doubt the full fleet is in R&R. Lol.

quote:

When the Fleet is getting R&R I like to use my AOs add lift capacity to my fuel and oil hauling ability. Those guys weren’t too far away so I THOUGHT it would be an EASY and somewhat safe trip to Koggala. BIG MISTAKE!


Elsewhere in India, we noticed two turns ago that John has significant forces and ~130 fighters at Akyab. We thus have set the British division heading there tro retreat back. Furthermore, sigint implies John is sending another division there (maybe already partly there). I'm not sure what his plans are here, but if I successfully take Ceylon, this garrison can quickly be isolated and is at risk of great suffering from the air, sea, and land.

Chittagong will be in service soon enough and while at risk from bombardment, has a level 7 airfield.

[image]https://i.imgur.com/JWM1kSL.png[/image]



Anachro -> RE: January 26th, 1943 (5/9/2019 1:58:17 PM)

Forgot to mention we also sink a Lima-class xAK near Soerabaja, which is nice. 2-3 of my subs had numerous attacks in that area this turn, all misses until SS Shad plants 5 torpedoes (all hits) into the Kamoi Maru. In the last month, excluding ships I estimate still in service, Allied subs have sunk 11 xAKs, 4 xAKLs, 3 TKs (possibly a 4th), a YO, 2 large CMs. In addition, they caused heavy damage to a CL.



Canoerebel -> RE: January 26th, 1943 (5/9/2019 2:00:39 PM)

Each amphib assault (day one, day two, day three) is dependent on the prep % of the unit coming ashore, so you won't get any organic relief by landing the 50% prepped guy on day two (though if enemy defenses were battered on day one, then damaged incurred might be lower).

In my two games vs. John III and Obvert, I have found that you can land poorly prepared (or unprepared) units if you have a highly or fully prepped Amphib Force HQ. I haven't tested that fully, but I'm continuing to gather evidence. If that's true, a player could prep his three AF HQs for three targets and his ground units for any of a variety of other targets and still get some (a lot? all?) of the benefits when going in with an AF HQ at the HQ's targeted base. You don't have the AF HQs yet, but you might keep that in mind for later.



Lecivius -> RE: January 26th, 1943 (5/9/2019 2:18:23 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Anachro

until SS Shad plants 5 torpedoes (all hits) into the Kamoi Maru.




[image]local://upfiles/26061/E94E06DAAA2B413DA0EAC6FE5E05E0FB.jpg[/image]



Anachro -> RE: January 26th, 1943 (5/9/2019 2:37:18 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Each amphib assault (day one, day two, day three) is dependent on the prep % of the unit coming ashore, so you won't get any organic relief by landing the 50% prepped guy on day two (though if enemy defenses were battered on day one, then damaged incurred might be lower).


Well, I'll start conducting some ground bombing once airfields are out of commission. It could be I'm seeing a lot of support troops mixed in with combat units.



Anachro -> RE: January 26th, 1943 (5/9/2019 2:51:40 PM)

John has a LOT of divisions in forward defense on his periphery. Furthermore, he has made hardly any movement in China in months (I am currently planning an audacious retreat of bought-out 800AV potential Chinese divisions through Japanese occupied Burma). I'm starting to wonder if he is happy with his current position and is moving divisions out of China/Korea to his other fronts.



BBfanboy -> RE: January 26th, 1943 (5/9/2019 3:37:39 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Anachro

John has a LOT of divisions in forward defense on his periphery. Furthermore, he has made hardly any movement in China in months (I am currently planning an audacious retreat of bought-out 800AV potential Chinese divisions through Japanese occupied Burma). I'm starting to wonder if he is happy with his current position and is moving divisions out of China/Korea to his other fronts.


John does seem to have a habit of expanding far and then trying to build a hard shell defence which leaves little behind it. Once the egg cracks he cannot rebuild a line. Defence in depth calls for pulling back far enough that at least two viable lines of defence are built and a withdrawal plan is made to retrieve units when the outer line in breached. John does not seem to have withdrawal plans until it is too late.

BTW, I like your thinking about letting Akyab be reinforced so more troops can be isolated later. That one is hard to supply overland so he will have a tough time feeding all the troops and trying to build forts.



Bearcat2 -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/9/2019 5:52:08 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Anachro

Can someone tell me, because I haven't looked into this, what's the normal range at which an air raid would be spotted by the Mk.1 eyeball vs. radar? Is 38-28 NM reasonable? This is less of a gripe and more an interest, plus I don't know if John modded in earlier radar for Japan in this mod or something.




He can have radar capability by this point, range up to 44 miles. It doesn't appear that he has changed when radar appears.



Anachro -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/11/2019 2:35:18 PM)

Sorry guys, not much to report at the moment. I am continuing to bomb Ceylon. Ground bombing yesterday revealed that the 6th Guard ADU CD Battalion is at Colombo, which is one of the new CD units John has added to this scenario for Japan. I think he gets a bunch of them and someone said previously in this thread that they pack a nice little punch. Hopefully, I'll get more intel soon. Beyond that, there is heavy radio activity at Diego Garcia - is that where John is keeping any surface vessels/carriers he might use to react to a Ceylon invasion? Over the past month, all of his actions have pointed to a re-focus on the Indian theater, as he probably thinks that is where my main focus is. In other news, John now has 30,000 men at Akyab, so he put another whole division there. Fine by me.

Meanwhile, my various parts are shifting around to various locations.



GetAssista -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/11/2019 5:09:07 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Anachro
Sorry guys, not much to report at the moment. I am continuing to bomb Ceylon. Ground bombing yesterday revealed that the 6th Guard ADU CD Battalion is at Colombo, which is one of the new CD units John has added to this scenario for Japan. I think he gets a bunch of them and someone said previously in this thread that they pack a nice little punch. Hopefully, I'll get more intel soon.

Lets us hope it's not 46cm CD guns as leftovers from the mass production for the new BBs

quote:

ORIGINAL: Anachro
Meanwhile, my various parts are shifting around to various locations.

Try to not shift your parts too much in an excessively uncoordinated fashion - sprains and twists heal progressively worse with age [:D]



Anachro -> RE: January 25th, 1943 (5/11/2019 5:39:03 PM)

The composition of a Guard ADU CD Battalion. He gets 10 of these.

[image]https://i.imgur.com/WyrCGyR.png[/image]



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