Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: jwolf

quote:

... Chinese army will move on Changsha and attempt to link up with the western Allies somewhere between Changsha and Hangchow, thus completing a great encirclement. This will take another ten days or so.

Ten days seems wildly optimistic. I don't think you could do that even without any Japanese army at all. With light fighting, maybe 3 weeks. Longer if there is stiff resistance at a key base such as Changsha or Nanchang/Kiukiang. That's my take, anyway. But I certainly agree that this theater is going really well for you. It's great to see the Chinese army successfully at work (though they have had some severe losses in failed attacks, too).

BTW I really like your maps with the color coded annotations. Great work.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I was speaking of "closing the gap" between Changsha and Hangchow so that John doesn't have an open road of egress. It'll take longer to reduce major redoubts - Hangchow and Changsha should fall into that category.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 12082 troops, 94 guns, 32 vehicles, Assault Value = 437

Defending force 23231 troops, 417 guns, 662 vehicles, Assault Value = 738

Japanese adjusted assault: 10

Allied adjusted defense: 1211

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 121

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

11/16/44

Self-Destruction: You know that Japanese division sitting astride the main road in rough terrain that I was going to have to deal with? John ordered a shock attack in hopes that his troops would face just the two small armored units. But two US Army divisions arrived at just that moment. This is how a fresh and strong enemy division becomes battered:

Ground combat at 84,59 (near Foochow)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 12082 troops, 94 guns, 32 vehicles, Assault Value = 437

Defending force 23231 troops, 417 guns, 662 vehicles, Assault Value = 738

Japanese adjusted assault: 10

Allied adjusted defense: 1211

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 121

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), op mode(-)
Attacker: shock(+), leaders(+), leaders(-), disruption(-)

Japanese ground losses:
4202 casualties reported
Squads: 27 destroyed, 378 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 23 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 33 disabled
Guns lost 8 (1 destroyed, 7 disabled)
Vehicles lost 12 (1 destroyed, 11 disabled)

Assaulting units:
35th Division

Defending units:
44th Tank Battalion
706th Tank Battalion
33rd Infantry Division
7th Infantry Division


The Allied units will probably shock attack tomorrow.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

There's a lot behind that shock attack - the give and take of the game, the taking of risks, the rewards or penalties, the ebb and flow. Here he took a calculated risk that he probably couldn't afford to take and it stung him.

In recent days, John has downed a fair bit of Allied dive bombers, his fighters and/or weather have blunted my strategic bombing, and today a beat up IJA 2nd Div. shock attacked a destroyed a US Army tank battalion. All of those were good things for him.

Yesterday, my two "naked" armored units found themselves in the same hex with 35th Division. He probably knew other Allied units were inbound for the adjacent hex, but he decided to gamble that they wouldn't arrive the very next turn. He lost the gamble and trashed his division. With that many disablements, the Allied shock attack tomorrow should really pulverize 35th Div.

If you go way back through the game, you'll find many instances in which John attacked - deliberate sometimes, shock other times - when he shouldn't have. He's done it recently in coastal China; he did it early in China and Singapore.

John should be using his units to distract or slow the Allied advance but here he neutered a strong unit that was in a great position to serve as a roadblock.

quote:

ORIGINAL: paullus99

He destroyed a division on the off chance that he could damage a couple of battalions - that's not a fair trade in any game.....

quote:

I am not sure if John is this deceitful, but you can use waypoints and select Hong Kong as your final destination, and not go anywhere near there.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Gräfin Zeppelin

Looks like China is showing some cracks.

quote:

ORIGINAL: witpqs

quote:

ORIGINAL: paullus99

He destroyed a division on the off chance that he could damage a couple of battalions - that's not a fair trade in any game.....

I'm thinking about the comparison of what he might get for losing the division one way versus what he might get for losing the division the other way, given that he will lose the division either way.

quote:


He destroyed a division on the off chance that he could damage a couple of battali