27 January 42'

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition >> After Action Reports >> 27 January 42'

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27 January 42' - 1/23/2010 9:36:09 PM

Smeulders

Posts: 1879
Joined: 8/9/2009
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27 January 42'

China
As expected China was the major battle area today.
First there is the situation around Loyang, 1800 AV, consisting off 2 divisions, 3 brigades and 2 regiments make short work off the 5 corpses holding open the hex. The casualties speak for themselves.

Japanese ground losses:
     2624 casualties reported
        Squads: 8 destroyed, 195 disabled
        Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 101 disabled
        Engineers: 0 destroyed, 21 disabled
     Vehicles lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
     13900 casualties reported
        Squads: 198 destroyed, 174 disabled
        Non Combat: 466 destroyed, 280 disabled
        Engineers: 18 destroyed, 33 disabled
     Guns lost 8 (5 destroyed, 3 disabled)
     Units retreated 5

In an interesting twist, he is now leaving Loyang alone and is marching this bunch down to Nanyang, together with another stack coming up from Sinyang. There is 1400 AV in the city, not nearly enough to hold, so I'm retreating here as well. A part of the forces will move Northwest to guard the trail leading West, another part will go North.

A huge army is also marching on Changsha, 1600 AV is just East of the city, another 2200 at the dot hex to the South. Troops are marching down from Ichang as fast as they can. Everything to the South of Changsha is being moved North. There should be enough in the city soon to hold off a direct attack, but there isn't nearly enough to also hold the bases to the West, another encirclement is looming. Map of the situation is coming next post.

In total, there is a minimum of about 6000 AV attacking across China.

One minor piece of good news though, at Kweiteh a corps beats two RGC divisions.

Malaya
Johore Bahru falls, the siege of Singapore will begin.

Burma
His forces are moving at Moulmein, and I'm abandoning all positions at Pegu and Rangoon. An airstrike came in over Pegu, but the AVG and Hurricanes made short work of the escorting Nates.

DEI

2 TF spotted that may be heading for the Makassar straight, SigInt gave Balikpapan as a target earlier.

Subs
KXII has a dud on a DD of Ternate
Searaven hits and sinks DD Fubuki in the East China Sea, a nice prize.

(in reply to Smeulders)

Post #: 91

Subs - 1/24/2010 12:54:02 PM

Smeulders

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Joined: 8/9/2009
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Those reading the AAR may have noticed that a couple of days ago I complained a bit about my subs not getting kills even when they managed to hit with a functioning torpedo, but yesterday I got a very enlightening mail from Lemon in this regard.

quote:

There�s karma for you, you miss all the escorts and transports yesterday and hit one of my favourite DD�s today. DD�s are like gold for me. Did you know of my 49 ship losses you�ve sank 31 by sub, sure, factor in your duds, but I don�t think you are doing that badly with them. That�s a pretty good percentage, so you�ll see why I tend to get riled when another ship is lost to a sub and the majority are escorted, or even hitting the escort themselves.

Now I'm keeping a tally of my sub kills/hits and according to that I've got 20 'confirmed' kills (ships on the sunk list) and 12 hits. This means that my subs are very near a perfect 100% kill/hit ratio. (31/32).

The total of 49 ships sunk also leads me to believe that CD guns have accounted for about 10 of his ships in the various landings, otherwise I can't have gotten to almost 50 ships sunk on his end, another interesting piece of information.

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Post #: 92

28-29 January 42' - 1/25/2010 8:04:41 PM

Smeulders

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28-29 January 42'

Burma
Another short air battle over Pegu on the 28th. The 29th sees a sweep at Rangoon pulling some AVG fighters, but only damage results. A small raid even targets Mandalay, no CAP but little effect as well. The retreat off the units from Pegu does seem slow.

Bismarck Sea
Vindicators fly from PM against landings at Lea and likely sink two transports. Leaky CAP from KB does little, but flak claims one of the dive bombers. Gasmata on New Britain falls.

Makassar Straight
The invasion of Balikpapan is underway, but it's not going down without a fight. Banshees fly from the airfield and sink an approaching transport. The turn reveals a slew of TFs in the straights, with multiple BB and CA thrown in. At the same time betties attack the Balikpapan airfields. Both the Dutch and American cruiser forces are nearby and will sortie into the straight to hopefully catch one of invasion convoys.

China
As promised, here is the map of China, with the situation around Loyang again thrown in for good measure. I'm retreating in the Loyang/Nanyang area, even though I have slightly more AV in the area, the quality of troops is too low however, and the open terrain and dispersed troops can't stand up to a good offensive. At Ichang the forces are all underway to the Changsha area, more reinforcements are coming in from the West.

Air attacks over Changsha hurt the sweeping Nate, the escorted bomber attack is more succesfull and at least manage to take down 1 of the AVG fighters. Total loses are around 10 for the Japanese.

Subs
The Makassar straight has been flooded with subs, but this resulted in only 1 attack by S-36, she sank an xAKL

(in reply to Smeulders)

Post #: 93

RE: Subs - 1/26/2010 7:53:25 PM

khyberbill

Posts: 1941
Joined: 9/11/2007
From: new milford, ct
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quote:

Now I'm keeping a tally of my sub kills/hits and according to that I've got 20 'confirmed' kills (ships on the sunk list) and 12 hits. This means that my subs are very near a perfect 100% kill/hit ratio. (31/32).

One torpedo hit will normally take care of a small warship or most any size merchant ship. At least mine sink fairly often!

_____________________________

"Its a dog eat dog world Sammy and I am wearing Milkbone underwear" -Norm.

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Post #: 94

30-31 January 42' - 1/27/2010 3:23:27 PM

Smeulders

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30-31 January 42'

DEI - Makassar Straight
The battle in Makassar Straight was a non-event. Banshees flying on the 30th were caught by LRCAP from mini-KB, only a few of them were lost to the CAP and Flak, but this was enough to keep them limited to only one bomb hit on a small transport. They have retired to Soerabaja and Makassar as Balikpapan and Samrinda will fall. The sorties of the Dutch and Americans during the night came up empty, they had retreated back out of the straights by daybreak, a good thing with Mini-KB in the area. CD guns may have claimaed one or two victims though.

SWPAC - Bismarck Sea
KB remains in the area and Lea falls, not much that I can do at the moment. Rabaul already seems up and running as an enemy air base.
SigInt reveals troops loading for the Shortlands.

PI
Supply is being burned at an enormous rate in Bataan, 1000 a day, so all bombardments and fort building has stopped for the time being. I have 1400 AV behind lvl 4 forts here, my opponent only has 1200 so at this rate supply will kill me before the enemy does. More enemies are probably coming up from the rear though, he had much more than this on Luzon.

On Mindanao the isolated base of Zamboanga is taken

China
The 48th corps again won against the same 2 RGC divisions, but that was the only good news in China.

East of Sinyang a retreating corps was caught by a large enemy army, the shock attack destroyed the corps and East of Loyang I had sent 2 corps out to delay any forces following me to Sian, unfortunately I forgot about a river and the small corps shock attacked about 1000 enemy AV. This was the message on the combat report 'Assault collapses, attacking force wiped out'.

My opponent does seem to hesitate about assaulting Changsha head on.

Burma
Not much action, Oscars claim an AVG fighter on leaking CAP over Prome, 80 miles from where they are supposed to be.

Subs
Busy days, much to the annoyance of my opponent.
On the 30th, the 016 sinks Tosei Maru in the Makassar Straight, 023 hits xAK Giyu Maru, which is finished off by KXII. Both KX and KXVII had a shot at a DD, but one missed and the other was a dud. As you can see, the Makassar straight was flooded by my subs, thanks SigInt. Cuttlefish also got a dud of Honshu

On the 31st the Americans got in on the action, Swordfish's crew worked tirelessly at reloading torpedo tubes, during one phase she attacked and hit Calcutta Maru, Heito Maru and Ikoma Maru, but only the last one got a working torpedo. Cuttlefish again attacks and sinks xAK Nitimei Maru and finally Seal attacks an xAKL on the surface and damages her.

(in reply to khyberbill)

Post #: 95

End of January - 1/27/2010 11:12:01 PM

Smeulders

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Shipping losses

Note that his xAK losses should be equal to mine according to his mail.

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Post #: 96

RE: End of January - 1/27/2010 11:17:57 PM

Smeulders

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Air losses

Interesting is the large difference in Ops losses, not quite sure what is the cause of this, though he's probably forced to use his squadrons a lot more than me.

Let the record show that you do not wish to be a Buffalo pilot

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Post #: 97

RE: End of January - 1/27/2010 11:20:24 PM

Smeulders

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Aircraft pools
Fighters

Level Bombers

On top of that there are still 35 SBD-3

EDIT ; It seems like these are a bit small to read, I'll try to make these screens larger for the end of February

< Message edited by Smeulders -- 1/27/2010 11:38:26 PM >

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Post #: 98

January - 1/27/2010 11:38:27 PM

Smeulders

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Theatre by theatre

Burma
The 3 coastal bases have been taken and the enemy has started it's advance on Pegu. There have been a few air battles, with the AVG keeping it's own with support from the RAF.

China
The breakout from the Wenchow area was successful. Our opponents has started offensives that have forced us to abandon the Loyan/Nanyang area. Changsha is also under attack, I've abandoned Ichang to bring up more forces for the battle.

Malaya
We lost some forces to an encirclement action, but at the moment significant forces are in Singapore and will hopefully hold out long enough, 15th of February doesn't seem to crazy.

PI
Not much battle on Luzon during this time, after a defeat at Clark my opponent is a bit more conservative here. He may already be taking out units for other targets and hoping that a lack of supply instead of attacks will do me in. He's taking out base by base on the other islands, not much I can do there.

DEI
Not too much happening, some forward bases were taken, now he's brought in some serious forces to take Balikpapan and force the Makassar Straight.

SW Pacific
The first forays into the Bismarck Sea.

South Pacific
Some more islands are taken in the Gilberts

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Post #: 99

1 February 42' - 1/28/2010 10:21:12 PM

Smeulders

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1 February 42'

A day for ground combat

DEI
Balikpapan and Samarinda fell.

China
In China an attack on Nanyang was held wonderfully by the Chinese, or at least with some luck. 1300-1500 in favour of the Chinese was reduced to only 1000-750, but the 1-1 attack ended in this:
Japanese ground losses:
     4752 casualties reported
        Squads: 186 destroyed, 168 disabled
        Non Combat: 130 destroyed, 190 disabled
        Engineers: 4 destroyed, 16 disabled
     Vehicles lost 13 (0 destroyed, 13 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
     1315 casualties reported
        Squads: 10 destroyed, 226 disabled
        Non Combat: 14 destroyed, 248 disabled
        Engineers: 0 destroyed, 17 disabled

A great victory for the Chinese

PI
Supply in Bataan is being burnt at improbable rates, some 1000 a day at the moment, without any bombardments or fort building. I'm hoping for a shock attack from him, but I may have to throw one myself if this keeps up.

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Post #: 100

2 February 42' - 1/29/2010 4:52:31 PM

Smeulders

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2 February 42'
Quite the calm day

Burma
Japanese advance troops take Pegu against no opposition, he has moved in with 1 division, 1 infantry, cavalry and engineer regiment. If he also want to protect his flank at Rangoon he doesn't really have the forces to attack Northwards. Of course, neither have I the forces to threaten that flank and he likely knows.

China
He finds the evacuation of Nanyang completed, one 100 AV corps holds to city to delay his pursuit for another day.
Over Changsha 2 oscars-c get shot down during a sweep. My opponent was slightly higher than I was 24000 feet against 20000, but he was outnumbered 10 to 6.

Solomons
Shortlands is taken, KB remains East of New Ireland, I hope he remains there, I've got units unloading at both Suva and Noumea at the moment and I'd rather let them finish than running for the hills.

As some extra info, what the convoys are doing at those bases.
Noumea now has half a regiment, the other half is unloading at Auckland to load on smaller ships for the next leg. 2 more regiments and support troops have just left the West Coast on an amphibious TF.
Suva is at 1 NZ bde and 1 Independent American regiment. Two other regiments are on the way, but still some time out, another will come as soon as it's bought out.
Pago Pago has one USMC and one army regiment, one other USMC regiment will leave the WC in a couple of days.

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Post #: 101

3 February 42' - 2/7/2010 9:22:33 PM

Smeulders

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3 February 42'

I've been away the last week, but the game has restarted again and there was some action.

Southwest Pacific
Devastators from Port Moresby raid some shipping at Lae, this move was clearly unexpected as no CAP was over the ships, 4 xAK are sunk.
At the same time my opponent is launching raids on the airfield at Port Moresby, zeroes sweep and Nell bomb.

Burma
A bombing raid attacks my units retreating North from Pegu, only 4 hurricanes are on LRCAP and 3 get shot down by the escorting Oscars, the plane losses hurt more than the bombing itself.

China
Lemon's forces break to rearguards at Nanyang and Loyang, while also routing 2 brigades in the mountains around Yenan. It looks like he's pursuing the retreating forces from Nanyang both in the direction of Sian and West.

DEI
KXII was reconing Balikpapan and was attacked by ASW DD for moderate damage. It didn't spot any large surface combatants in the harbour so the American cruiser TF will launch an attack into that harbour. I'm hoping mission speed will mean they'll move in at full speed to engage during the night as the manual says, otherwise they may be caught in dangerous waters during the day.

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Post #: 102

RE: 3 February 42' - 2/7/2010 10:47:37 PM

khyberbill

Posts: 1941
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From: new milford, ct
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quote:

only 4 hurricanes are on LRCAP

The hurricane will do well against the zero and oscar if it isnt overwhelmed by numbers.

_____________________________

"Its a dog eat dog world Sammy and I am wearing Milkbone underwear" -Norm.

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Post #: 103

RE: 3 February 42' - 2/8/2010 8:06:51 AM

Smeulders

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Bill: That's why there are a couple of squadrons in Burma already, there were 15 planes on a 50% LRCAP mission, so I would have expected more planes in the air, bad roll of the dice probably. To be sure I'm seriously bumping up the percentage though, squadrons will be rotated to keep fatigue down.

I've gotten the replay and the raid to Balikpapan was a nice victory,a bunch of xAK are sunk for some damage to my destroyers, waiting for the turn for more info though.

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Post #: 104

4-5 February 42' - 2/9/2010 4:09:20 PM

Smeulders

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4-5 February 42'

DEI
The American cruiser forces gets into combat for the first time on the 4th and is successful from the start. On entering Balikpapan harbour they find and sink 2 DMS and briefly engage an enemy convoy. A couple of xAK are damaged before it manages to flee. However, the convoy is encountered again when the Americans retreat and this time the carnage is nearly complete. 2 xAK and a PB are sunk, the remaining 4 xAK and xAP are very heavily damaged. The only survivor is the DD Inazuma, the little destroyer manages to do light damage to Houston and 3 Clemson class destroyers and takes moderate damage in return.

On Borneo Singkawang falls to an overland assault.

Burma
Rangoon is taken before the Japanese even enter it. Bombing raids against my retreating troops continue, but Hurricanes break these up and down an Oscar and 2 bombers. My opponent seems to have about 50 oscars in action around Burma, I've got more fighters waiting on the Indian border, but not enough fields and AV support in Burma to properly use them.

PI
Legaspi falls, leaving Bataan the only base remaining on Luzon. Puerto Princesa falls as well.

China

The 48th corps keeps up it's offensive against the RGC forces. In Kaifeng (top-right) an extra Division and Route Brigade reinforced the 2 divisions that have been routed twice now. This was to no avail, as on the 4th the 48th corps broke down the fortifications and routed the defenders on the 5th. The corps is now completely behind enemy lines and will be eliminated shortly, but in the meantime it has wrecked a number of non-rebuildable units and will force some good troops to turn around, so not a bad trade-off.

From Nanyang he seems to be driving straight for Sian, shouldn't be enough forces to seriously threaten the city though.

Around Changsha he's making the expected move of crossing the river to outflank the city. Some 1000 AV will be sent as quickly as possible to Henyang. I fear these reinforcements might arrive to late and I wonder how to proceed if he manages to cross properly. He still has a good deal of his forces in front of Changsha, so he'll be split up, but even so I wonder if I can get enough forces together to throw him back, without weakening Changsha enough for him to take it with the rest of his forces.

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Post #: 105

6 February 42' - 2/10/2010 1:11:21 PM

Smeulders

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6 February 42'

China
Again new moves in China, the tank regiment that was threatening the road Loyan-Sian has now moved and is on the road Sian-Yenan. At the same time he's moving forward there from the East. Irritating as there are some base forces and construction regiments now cut off as well and I fear those don't respawn. This is another city I should have abandoned a lot earlier.

DEI
A serious air campaign has started against Palembang, about 50 bombers, supported with zero sweeps and oscar escorts strike the abandoned airfields.

Solomons
Guadacanal is invaded, this may be the last in this batch of invasion as KB is seen retiring in the direction of Truk. The ANZAC Cruiser force has left Brisbane to raid invasion convoys around Lunga.

Subs
3 duds in the last two days, Tuna and Tarpon on xAKL's, KX on a CM near Balikpapan. My opponent let me know that he it was there to mine the Balikpapan harbour, luckily for me he was a day late.

Misc
POW has arrived in Cape Town and faces about 6 months worth of repairs.

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Post #: 106

7-8 February 42' - 2/13/2010 11:07:13 AM

Smeulders

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7-8 February 42'

DEI
Sweeps have started over Java, not many fighter units there that can stand up to the Zeroes, so I'm ceding the skies over Java unless he also starts bombing.

PI
A first shock attack on Bataan is held easily, the forts hold at level 4 and the Japanese take 5-1 casualties. This may be drawn out for a while.

SWPac
Unescorted raids come in over PM, but don't do much damage.

Sub Recon at Lunga attacks on the surface, so there probably aren't many Surface ships aroud. KB is North of New Britain so the ANZAC Cruisers remain on course for Lunga.

China
It may be due to bad recon, but the movement arrows for the flanking move around Changsha have disappeared, my troop movements seem to have scared him off.

Subs
021 sinks E Saga around Miri
Grayling gets a dud on an xAKL
S-34 was reconning Lunga when she attacked a medium sized xAK on the surface. She expended all her torpedoes in 3 separate salvoes, but the target was sunk.

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Post #: 107

9 February 42' - 2/14/2010 10:48:39 AM

Smeulders

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9 February 42'

Malaya
The final stages of the battle for Malaya have begun, about 2000 Japanese AV have entered Singapore, facing off against 900 Allied AV behind strong forts. The crossing didn't hurt my opponent much, except for a recon regiment that took serious casualties as it arrived 2 days early due to it not being set to follow an infantry formation.

PI
Not much happened here, but it's interesting to note that he has only 1500 AV to besiege my 1300 AV in Bataan. I do fear I'll run out of supplies long before I run out of troops.

SWPac
One of the provisional squadrons was sent to provide CAP over PM against the Nell raids, but this plan quickly turned bad. This time a little over 10 zero escorts were provided, but due to coordination problems they came in as a sweep before the Nells. Even though they had been training on A2A non-stop since their formation, they were still somewhat lacking in skill there and were torn apart by the zeroes. At the end of the day 11 were shot down and another 11 damaged for only 2 zeroes and 3 nells shot down. Luckily the first P40E squadrons are arriving from the West Coast, with at least decently skilled pilots.

Conversions
After the 2/42 upgrade the Wickes class destoyers can be converted to APD, a treatment that they will all get.

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Post #: 108

10-11 February 42' - 2/15/2010 10:23:15 PM

Smeulders

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10-11 February 42'

China
At Yenan a division + crosses the river to follow-up my retreat out of Yenan, this leads to an inconclusive shock attack. His tank unit that was moving up the road from Sian has turned tail though, using it to cut supply does seem a better choice than letting it fight on it's own.

Some 4000 AV is moving to Sian from various directions, they force back 2 roadblock corpses.

Some of my smaller units get eliminated in the region around Loyang.

New Guinea
A strike on PM seems imminent, on the 10th airstrikes were halted for a day, but they resumed on the 11th. In the meantime an enemy TF was sighted East of Milne Bay, but for some reason it didn't advance further, maybe bait for my DB ? On the 11th a largish TF is sighted near Lae, guarded by a nearby KB. PM is reinforced with part of a motor brigade, but if he is serious about taking it, he will.

Subs
Thresher gets a dud on an xAK in the Philippine Sea.

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Post #: 109

12-14 February 42' : Quite a shock - 2/18/2010 11:18:55 PM

Smeulders

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12-14 February 42'

Singapore
For those reading Lemon's AAR this isn't news, but Singapore fell in but 2 shock attacks. Japanese troops entered the city on the 9th, shock attacked on the 12th and 13th and the city fell, not even a week. On the first day the AV was 2200 versus 800, but despite the forts the Japanese AV was adjusted to 3000 to a 1000 !. This dropped the forts to level 1 and the next day the city fell.

Bataan
The other siege is going slightly better for me, despite my opponent slightly reinforcing his forces a shock attack was held on the 14th, with 1 to 2 odds even. Supply is getting critical though, slightly less than 7000 remaining, less than a week's worth.

China
Some movement here, he's cleaning up in the Loyang area and at the same time pushing hard on Sian, his spearhead is now only a hex away from the city.

New Guinea
Strong landings on Buna, with 2 infantry regiments, this seems like a whole lot, maybe he's contemplating an overland conquest of PM ?

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Post #: 110

15-16 February 42' - 2/20/2010 11:10:00 PM

Smeulders

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15-16 February 42'

Burma
Not a lot of action, but recon suddenly reveals 3 units using the Eastern route around Tongou to flank my defences. There is a single Burmese battalion there, so he's not going to bag a whole lot.

China
Before Sian a single corps counter-attacked against units that were put on pursuit when chasing a corps out of the previous hex. I guessed this wouldn't be a lot, but guessed wrong, on the 16th the Japanese attacked and routed the spent corps, he'll enter Sian soon enough.

Around Yenan he's trying to extract the tank regiment blocking the route to Sian, so my troops should be able to escape. He'll also have to spend some time clearing forces around Yenan.

DEI
Some cleanup in the Northwest corner of Borneo

Subs
Some bad luck for the sub service these days. First S-23 put a dud in a DD and missed another DD in a second attack of Buna. It seems like I'm getting a lot of duds with the S-boats as well. The second stroke of bad luck was Tautog failing an attack on an AS being moved to Rabaul. I'm guessing we'll start seeing at least some subs of the coast of Australia and NZ soon now.

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Post #: 111

The Malaya Campaign - 2/21/2010 12:11:51 AM

Smeulders

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A short review of the Malaya campaign, and I'm afraid I'll have to be pretty hard on myself on this one.

The first steps of the campaign where the landings on Kota Bahru, the invasion in the North and the landing at Kuantan. This last invasion really brought me into trouble from the start. I didn't dare retreat many forces in Strat mode out of fear from air attacks, but this meant a lot of my forces stayed in the North longer. Lemon then sent his forces straight through the jungle instead of along the path, meaning he cut the road further to the South, without losing much time because the route is shorter, if you take a look at my posts at the time you can see how differently I viewed this then.

When his troops cut the road at Kuala Lumpur I still had 2 brigades and various other smaller formations to the North. I held the city until one brigade had made it there, but before my troops managed to leave the city on their own they were kicked out. This hurt the 11th division that was holding the city a lot, by this point both of the Indian divisions had lost much of their combat power, which definitely shortened my defence later on in Singapore. This was the decisive stage of the campaign and too much of a forward defence (not really by choice, but because I underestimated the speed of advance from Kuantan) was the big mistake from my side in Malaya.

The last stage was of course the battle for Singapore itself, but my opponent brought enough troops and mine were weakened so Lemon broke my lines quickly in 2 days of real combat.

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Post #: 112

RE: The Malaya Campaign - 2/21/2010 3:21:43 AM

DanielAnsell

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Just caught up with the AAR. Good work on it, by the way.

Did you get any chance to evacuate cadres or units out of Malaya?

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Post #: 113

RE: The Malaya Campaign - 2/21/2010 7:36:13 PM

Smeulders

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Carry: Cadres of both the Indian divisions have arrived in India and both will be rebuilt. Evacuating them isn't too hard, you can use air units to lift fragments to Sumatra or even Java and then ship them from there. This will result in very small cadres that will take a lot of time to be rebuilt though.

< Message edited by Smeulders -- 2/21/2010 7:38:13 PM >

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Post #: 114

17-20 February 42' - 2/23/2010 10:30:16 PM

Smeulders

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17-20 February 42'

DEI
The fall of Singapore will mean a lot more movement in the DEI in the coming weeks and the start has been made. Bengkalis was invaded on the 20th, an air campaign against Palembang has begun and there are sightings that indicate mini KB is entering the DEI again.

My moves are mainly to shift my combat TFs slightly to the West, Batavia has become too dangerous to keep a combat TF stationed, so now the British and Dutch are stationed at Soerabaja and the Americans are moving towards Ambon/Darwin.

China
Mainly movement in the South of China, an offensive from Canton takes Wuchow and Kukong also falls, I had only left token forces in Wuchow and Kukong was empty. The Chinese do disappoint however, about 1000 AV was marching from Kukong to the Changsha region, only one regiment stood between them and the river (in an open hex), yet they fail to break through, a 10:1 advantage in raw AV means nothing !

Burma
He keeps moving ground forces forwards, Tongou will fall shortly, I don't really feel like fighting much, but retreat a bit slower, this will hopefully draw some reinforcements from Singapore.

Subs
The 19th is a good day for the Silent Service, Sargo put a torpedo in AO Shiretoko in the straight between Taiwan and the PI. Messages included oil cargo burning, so that's likely a kill. KXIV then made the day complete by torpedoing CL Kashii some 150 miles of the coast of Malaya, the Cruiser is claimed sunk.

Other attacks were made by Grayling and S-23, both shoot duds at xAKs.

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Post #: 115

21-22 February 42' - 3/4/2010 8:22:27 PM

Smeulders

Posts: 1879
Joined: 8/9/2009
Status: offline

21-22 February 42'

So we've been away for a while, first RL got in the way a bit and now that we were set to get underway again it's patch trouble. Lemon had updated to patch 3 beta, did his turn and sent it to me, but I hadn't downloaded the beta yet and now we're already at the official release. We're looking for ways to get the beta patch to me, otherwise Lemon will have to redo his turn.

DEI
Palembang was invaded, 2 infantry and a tank regiment are the main force, my ground forces aren't much more than the original garrison, so it won't hold out too long. The CD guns did do their share, the two xAK's that they got in their sights were thrashed pretty decently, but I'm surprised I'm not seeing any more. The port was mined as well, but that hasn't had any noticeable effect up till now. In other Sumatra news Bengkalis falls.

A small DD/TB TF came over to shell Kendari on the 22nd, but Banshees at the base sortied and seriously damaged/probably sunk TB Manzura.

Burma
Tongou in central Burma falls.

Subs
The Japanese subs show themselves, in the straight between Java and Sumatra the CM Rigel is sunk, the escorting destroyer put 3 DC's on target, damage is probably moderate, but not lethal. This straight was seriously guarded, the TF was attacked 3 times in 2 hexes while passing through.

KXI retaliates for the Dutch, sinking medium xAK Nojima Maru some 150 miles of Mersing.

(in reply to Smeulders)

Post #: 116

RE: 21-22 February 42' - 3/4/2010 9:20:31 PM

khyberbill

Posts: 1941
Joined: 9/11/2007
From: new milford, ct
Status: offline

quote:

the CM Rigel is sunk

That is too bad. I like using the Rigel for fast minelaying ops. You are not allowed to use her in our 2x3!!!

_____________________________

"Its a dog eat dog world Sammy and I am wearing Milkbone underwear" -Norm.

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Post #: 117

RE: 21-22 February 42' - 3/4/2010 9:29:14 PM

Smeulders

Posts: 1879
Joined: 8/9/2009
Status: offline

It was a bit sad, but she had laid her mines at Palembang already, now she was going to Australia to wait until her upgrade into an AR. Her sacrifice wasn't in vain though, now I at least know where the Japanese subs are hanging out, mostly in the combat zones it seems.

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Post #: 118

23 February 42' - 3/7/2010 11:19:55 PM

Smeulders

Posts: 1879
Joined: 8/9/2009
Status: offline

23 February 42'

I finally got the patch 3 beta and we can start playing again.

DEI
Further landings on Sumatra, this time in Tandjoengbalai, the most Southern of the bases on the railroad. I've dispatched Indomitable to a point Northwest of the island to see if it can get a strike in on one of these invasions.

Around Palembang the battle continues, but a shock attack destroys the fortifications and the base will likely fall quickly. In the meantime mini-KB has shown up between Palembang and Singapore.

The real KB is spotted as well, South of Mindanao, but retiring in the direction of Babeldaob, quite strange as I don't remember seeing KB entering the DEI.

And the final DEI news are some pretty decent air attacks on Ambon, they don't do too much damage though.

Burma
Leaking CAP isn't my friend. A hurricane leaks 3 hexes from Mandalay to just North of Tongou and is shot down by oscars escorting a raid. Tomorrow, 2 Hurri and 1 AVG squadron will fly LRCAP over the retreating unit to see if they can catch another strike.

Subs
I-10 attacks a DM escorting a convoy near Lord Howe Island, but the torpedoes miss and the escorts can't find the sub.

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Post #: 119

24 February 42' - 3/8/2010 8:19:48 PM

Smeulders

Posts: 1879
Joined: 8/9/2009
Status: offline

24 February 42'

DEI
Unsurprisingly, Palembang falls to shock attack in Northern Sumatra 3 infantry regiments and some supporting troops are ashore. Obviously Lemon is looking to make short work of the Sumatra campaign.

Burma
A nice victory for the RAF and USAAF over Burma today, a raid was caught with 2 escorting Oscars and 14 Anns shot down. The difference between 35k Hurricanes and 20k AVG planes was staggering though. No hurricanes were lost for 15 kills, the AVG 1 kill for one lost +3 operational losses.

PI
A deliberate attack on Bataan fails again, the forts hold at level 4. Worse is that supply has fallen from 2700 to 700 due to the fighting. I'll run out of supplies tomorrow or the day after that and from then on each attack will probably end in a Japanese victory. Lemon is quite frustrated that he doesn't seem to make any headway here, and I must say I've probably gotten lucky that no forts have been destroyed so far.

Subs
S-38 misses the CVL Ryujo off Palembang, quite unfortunate
KXI adds another scalp to it's list, the PB Kantori Maru off Mersing. With 3 confirmed and one probable it takes the lead in kills for Allied subs.

A question for the readers on this, what have Allied subs managed to accomplish in your games so far? Lemon seems to think them particularly strong and I wonder if mine is really an exceptional game in this regard, or par for the course. So far these are the Japanese losses due to subs.

25 xAK/xAKL
2 TK
1 AO
5 PB
4 DMS/E/APD
2 DD
1 CL

< Message edited by Smeulders -- 3/8/2010 8:20:07 PM >

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Post #: 120