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John 3rd -> RE: The Shattered Sword: John 3rd vs. Anachro--BTS (9/13/2018 6:14:47 PM)
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April 12, 1942
Global Overview
The war continues forward in a semi-agreeable manner. I've become used to me opponent's bold-as-HELL usage of his warships and have begun to anticipate his moves. This is a good thing. As we know, all opponents have playing styles and understanding them is the first step to BEATING them.
HOT SPOTS
1. Aleutians--I moved into the Aleutians in a pretty big way. WE captured everything from Adak west and were in the process of attacking Umnak when the entire Allied CV Force arrived. Considering the entire strike elements of the Imperial Fleet are in the IO, there wasn't much I could do. Only vessels of note up there were Yamato, Junyo, 2 CVE and a Command Cruiser. I had a sense that something was happening so pulled the warships back just in time to avoid the Carriers. Though they waylaid a TF of AKs, nothing terrible occurred.
Sean looks for targets of opportunity and I realized he would come back up north if I continued to make trouble. We kept a lot of movement going on up there to seel this. In doing so, I might create an opportunity elsewhere. With this in mind I ordered Junyo and the 2 CVE south to Kwajalein and then Lunga for operations to the south.
Sure enough, as units began rescuing the 7th ID and Imperial Guards Brigade at Umnak, I picked up the return of the Allied Fleet. Got enough time to retire to Adak and get under 100+ Fighters. Managed to pull about 50% of those two valuable units and his CV came up for nothing. They retired on the 11th...
Will use a Fast TF to lift more troops off. Japan is done with any offensive work in the Aleutians for a while...
2. Coral Sea--The Allies have several STF here and have been moving troops around to Luganville. If the Aleutians didn't have much, then the Coral Sea had little-to-nothing. A force of 8 DDs was it. My opponent figured this out fairly quickly and took advantage. He took advantage until the Junyo TF arrived. While only having 100 planes, this small TF (Junyo, 2 CVE, 3 CL, and 12 DDs) managed to cause some serious damage to the Luganville TFs. Over three days, the TF sank 6 AP, 4 AK, 2 DDs and damaged 8-10 more ships. NICE!
The Junyo TF will soon be reinforced by 3 CVL, 2 CAV, with 10 escorts. Detached from the IO Fleet, this strong unit carries over 150 planes and is fully repaired. The TF stopped at Singapore for ten days and repaired everything. Currently the unit hasn't been spotted and it is approaching Merauke on the south side of New Guinea.
3. China--HUGE events here, after taking the northern resource and oil centers, I planned to rest the troops some before the next offensive. While doing this I noticed a move occurring where Chinese units were moving north to form a new defensive line below the freshly captured Sian and up to the Himalayas. This weakening of the line was really noticed along the Industrial Centers around Changsha.
Very quickly, two Japanese IDs punched through the railine coming up from Kweilin. Four IDs moved up from the south to threaten the base SE of Shaoyang. IN a surprising move, Sean began a head long retreat out of the area. Japan took Changsha without a fight. BANZAI! Didn't want to wreck units attacking that urban center and Sean quite obligingly simply let me have it.
A large stack of 12-14 Chinese units still held Shaoyang and so we moved to take care of them. Nearly 200 IJA bombers began hitting the Chinese as six IDs moved in. On April 12th, they were hit with a 17-1 assault and the Chinese retreated north into the trees. For a cost of 2,000 Japanese, over 27,000 Chinese were killed/captured. NICE!
There is another stack south of Sian surrounded and about to be forced to surrender as well. Troops here are from six Corps, six HQ, and a couple of smaller units. Got to simply keep killing Chinese troops!
4. India--Ceylon fell after an 18 days campaign. Over 45,000 Allied troops including two Indian Divisions and 2 Aussie Brigades surrendered. Have now crushed the 10,000 troops at Diego Garcia, North Male, and Addu Atoll. The Supply line is severed going east-west to Australia.
Currently have six ID and six Tank Brigades in India. Have taken Cocanada, Viza, and Cuttack. Am threatening Raipur and moving north. LOTS of Allied aircraft are active (200+ Fighters and 150+ Bombers) and I am planning to begin a massive aerial fight to attrit these forces.
The Kido Butai is comprised of 6 CV, 3 CVL, 4 Kongos, 2 CC, and about 30 other ships. They just repaired and refuelled at the very nice base of Colombo and are going hunting in the Western IO. My opponent just bombarded Diego with 3 SLOW 'R' Class BBs and I want to CRUSH them. Going hunting...
5. Leftovers--In a span of four days all but one holdout in the DEI fell. Manila yielded 77,000 POWs, then Ambon fell (5,000 POWs), and lastly Macassar (7,000 POWs). All that is left for resistance is Batavia where the entire Javan fighting force withdrew into. Two Japanese ID be-seige this target and it will fall when two IDs from Manila arrive.
That is the overall state-of-the-state.
Reader Thoughts?
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