Rise of the Sheep! JocMeister(A) vs. Obvert(J)

[JocMeister]

Hehe, Lets keep him believing its 500 shall we?! [:D]

[JocMeister]

3rd-7th February -44

All quiet!

SOPAC

Erik has started the silly night bombings again. Not much I can do as my NF seems unable to do anything about it. Ah well. At least it costs him a bunch of Bettys each turn and so far he hasn´t hit anything.

27ID lands at Arawe. As soon as they recombine I will move for Cape Gloucester. Erik seems content to keep 12.000 men at Umboi. I will invade shortly. In a kind of "whoops moment" I accidently drained Townsville of supply. Wonder how long it will take to get some more flowing there. All the TFs that picked up units there filled up the excess space with supply. Took only 3 days to drain 380.000 supply. Thats a good indication of how much lifting I´m doing right now!

Burma

ZZZzzzZZZ. The deathstars continue to stare at each other. Doesn´t look like Erik has realized the danger yet! Troops continue to maneuver. Erik also tried to LRCAP his 2nd biggest stack that I have been bombing. Without a massive airfield to stage from he only managed to get about 120 fighters in the air. Most were shot down by a 75 plane P47 sweep. Some 90 planes are shot down for 12 own losses. [:)]

Our version of Burma is starting to remind me of China. Have I mentioned I will never ever play without stacking limits again?

CENTPAC

Assault ships are starting to arrive at PH. Ships are coming out from Refit. Abemama will be a tough nut with 12.000 troops there. Tarawa wont with only 3000. I´m considering skipping the Abemama landing and only take the dot islands around it and settle for Tarawa.

OZ

As the last time I was at Daly Water I cannot get supply to flow! [:@] I´m flying in as much as I can but it doesn´t look like anything are coming by land! If it doesn´t start flowing soon I will have to scrap the Darwin invasion and go by sea. That will add 3-4 months on the time table! Grrr! [:@]

[Cpt Sherwood]

I'll not tell if you don't. Another thing that gets over looked is that the USN gets 250 DEs which are great ASW hunters and escorts. That means you do not have to use DDs to escort your transport TFs and can put all those good DDs on the front line.

[ny59giants]

Our version of Burma is starting to remind me of China. Have I mentioned I will never ever play without stacking limits again?

Welcome to the "Dark Side" young Jedi. [;)]

[bigred]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Hey! No dirty talk in here! [;)]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
If it's any consolation, in 1945 I had over 1000 ships sititng at Manila I didn't have jobs for, so there's a lot of slack for inefficiency. (I like to say stuff like that to make the JFBs scream and drink. [:'(])

Haha, I like to drop lines to Erik like "Oh only 6 million supply and 3 million fuel left in OZ. Better send a convoy there to double it" He also hates the Fletchers something bad so when he sinks one (3 so far) I always write a countdown number. Last time it was "Ah, nice work! Now you only have 497 left to sink". I like to think that makes him despair a bit! [:D]

Anyone now the exact numbers of Fletcher arriving? I think it was Michael that said you get something like 500? So I have been using that number! [:D]

I think u get about 80 fletchers. i have lost 17 in my running gun battles w/ FatR, so use them wisely.

[Cpt Sherwood]

You get way more than 80. My number above was low. Tracker says you get
174 Fletchers, 52 Allen M. Sumners, and 39 Gearings.

[koniu]

ORIGINAL: Cpt Sherwood

You get way more than 80. My number above was low. Tracker says you get
174 Fletchers, 52 Allen M. Sumners, and 39 Gearings.

Those numbers make me sad, as probably any JFB [:(]

[JocMeister]

I think 174 Fletchers will do nicely![:D] Already wrecked a couple of CA and CLs for him. Not to mention how the Fletchers have chewed up his DDs like they were PBs!

Only lost three so far despite them seeing a lot of action. I think the armor saves them as many have taken a lot of damage but still made it back. I just noticed the Sumners lack armor and the Gearings only get 5/5/5 vs the Fletchers much better armor. I guess they were more aimed at being AA platforms?

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Anyone now the exact numbers of Fletcher arriving? I think it was Michael that said you get something like 500? So I have been using that number! [:D]

It's in Tracker for sure. Also the Summary tab has a wealth of good stats presented in different slices than the Ships tab.

Edit: too late.

[Cpt Sherwood]

The Gearings and Sumners have 6 main guns instead of 5. I think they needed to save some tonnage for that and more AA.
Note that the 5/38 gun will penetrate all of the IJN CL deck armor and some of the belt armor. The IJN CL's really are
just large DDs.

[JocMeister]

Burma Advice needed!

I did some bombardment attacks in Burma to test the opposition. Erik has diluted his main stack to reinforce the smaller stack in the east (see map).

I´m thinking it might be time to start doing some deliberate attacks at stack 1 and 2? Will Allied quality outweigh his defensive bonuses? I´m very fearful of impaling myself here. AE is unforgiving (especially the ground model) and one bad attack can cost me months. I´m not expecting to dislodge him and/or causing massive damage but rather to start wearing him down without making my own troops combat ineffective.

Another option could be to send the armor from stack 2 back to stack 1. I think I can shift them faster then Erik can shift troops

Stack 1

Ground combat at 56,49 (near Toungoo)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 2430 troops, 168 guns, 178 vehicles, Assault Value = 4152

Defending force 102043 troops, 1411 guns, 740 vehicles, Assault Value = 3257

Japanese ground losses:
54 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Allied ground losses:
Guns lost 23 (4 destroyed, 19 disabled)
Vehicles lost 14 (3 destroyed, 11 disabled)


Assaulting units:
17th Indian Division
18th British Division
41st Infantry Division
XV Corps Engineer Battalion
6th Australian Division
5th Indian Division
7th Infantry Division
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
27th Infantry Division
XXXIII Corps Engineer Battalion
2nd British Division
9th Australian Division
6th Medium Regiment
IV Indian Corps
XXXIII Indian Corps
20th Indian Heavy AA Regiment
2/13th Field Regiment
IV Corps RIASC Base Force
12th Indian Heavy AA Regiment
23rd AA Bde
XV Indian Corps
15th Indian Heavy AA Regiment
2/11th Field Regiment
14th Army
6th Mixed A/T Mtr Regiment
2nd Indian Heavy AA Regiment
X' Force
2/9th Field Regiment
16th Indian Heavy AA Regiment
XV Corps RIASC Base Force

Defending units:
55th Division
16th Division
33rd Division
2nd Guards Division
4th Division
38th Division
2nd Division
14th RF Gun (Pack) Battalion
28th Fld AA Gun Co
10th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
1st RF Gun Battalion
32nd Field AA Battalion
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
1st Art.Mortar Regiment
5th RF Gun Battalion
25th Army
5th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
39th Field AA Battalion
38th Field AA Battalion
70th Field AA Battalion
1st Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
10th RF Gun Battalion
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
68th Field AA Battalion
8th RF Gun Battalion
8th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
21st AA Regiment
17th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Mortar Battalion
10th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st Medium Field Artillery Regiment
51st Field AA Battalion
34th Field AA Battalion
15th Army

So its basically 6 Jap IDs against 8 Allied ones. He in the jungle and probably has 2 forts built for most units.

Stack 2

This intel is a bit old. He has more units in place now and I have an additional Indian ID. By the looks of it he has added some brigades, AA and Arty. Nothing that should effect the AV too much.

Ground combat at 57,49 (near Toungoo)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 71356 troops, 1079 guns, 1488 vehicles, Assault Value = 3285

Defending force 54232 troops, 647 guns, 786 vehicles, Assault Value = 1869

Japanese ground losses:
195 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 10 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 2 (1 destroyed, 1 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
107 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Vehicles lost 5 (5 destroyed, 0 disabled)


Assaulting units:
50th Tank Brigade
16th Chindit Brigade
255th Armoured Brigade
Provisionl Tank Brigade
150th RAC Regiment
11th (East African) Division
23rd Chindit Brigade
26th Indian Brigade
254th Armoured Brigade
20th Indian Division
1st New Chinese/A Corps
29th British Brigade
22nd (East African) Brigade
268th Motorised Brigade
14th Chindit Brigade
1st New Chinese/C Corps
III Indian Corps
8th Belfast Heavy Regiment

Defending units:
32nd Ind.Mixed Brigade
6th Division
31st Ind.Mixed Brigade
1st Tank Division
9th Division
33rd Ind.Mixed Brigade
40th Field AA Battalion
20th AA Regiment
8th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
2nd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
14th Mortar Battalion
2nd RF Gun Battalion
4th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
2nd Medium Mortar Battalion
69th Field AA Battalion
9th RF Gun Battalion

Note all the allied armor in this stack. The last attack I did here mauled his Tank Division badly but also cost me a British BDE. I have been bombing this stack on and off for a while now causing some 100-200 losses per occasion.

So, I have my finger on the trigger. Should I? Any advice here is welcome as I´m totally in the dark on what to expect. [&:] My only experience on the land war are from China and I think that is a different ballgame.

[JocMeister]

8th - 10th February -44

New Guinea

After a few days of calm Erik again make a try again. This time with the air force. He goes for the port at Milne Bay. My CAP shreds his sweeps to pieces but are just too outnumbered. He looses some 200 planes for the price of AE Lassen. While it stings a bit to loose her I´m sure Erik isn´t very happy with the exchange! I have another AE moving up from Townsville and 4 AKEs in place.

Umboi Island is about to fall and Cape Gloucester will follow shortly. This opens up the next line of targets. Erik doesn´t have nearly enough to stop me here. I will not wait for 100 prep this time but rather rely on speed. Manus will be the key for the whole area. In allied hands its secures the whole NG cost. I have been prepping for it since Milne Bay fell. 3 Divisions, 3 Tank battalions and 3 Engineers RGT will ensure swift capture. The rest of the coast have about an ID prepped for each base. Unless Erik can whip up 4-6 divisions he won´t stop me here for long.

Another 120 fighters and 180 DBs start unloading at Suva to fly the rest of the way.

Burma

I´m out of reserves. But I have no doubt Erik is too. If I manage to break through in the south around Prome there is a real danger for him to become completely cut off with most of the IJA. Its a long time away though. But I do feel confident he cannot stop a crossing here. I can choose 1 of 3 possible crossings and he won´t know which one I will take. With 3500 AV the losses in the actual crossing should be sustainable. 4Es will ofcourse lend a hand.

I ordered a bombardment of "Stack 2" this turn to see what he has. He now has 90.000 troops there! [X(] If he looks stronger here then at "Stack 1" I will shift all the armor to that stack instead. I should be able to move them there faster then he can shift from one stack to the other.

Any advice on the situation is much appreciated.

CENTPAC

Abemama still shows 15000 troops while Tarawa has 8000 and Makin only 98 AFVs. Hmm?

OZ

Daly Waters STILL hasn´t gotten any supplies. Sent the tanks out ahead.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Burma Advice needed!

So, I have my finger on the trigger. Should I? Any advice here is welcome as I´m totally in the dark on what to expect. [&:] My only experience on the land war are from China and I think that is a different ballgame.

I have not really studied how this situaiton came to be, but looking at the screenshot in a cursory way, why are you not developing the line of attack the coastal road offers? Why are you slugging it out in the jungle? By 1944 it's an air power and supplies story in Burma, and you have both. Ramree Island is a tremendous base to have and have developed. If you threaten or take Rangoon, or kill its supply dumps, the situation up north in the jungle resolves itself.

2 cents.

[BBfanboy]

Stack 1 has wayyyy too many guns opposing you. It would not be pretty to attack there unless you bomb him out of supply first.
Stack 2 is doable in a series of deliberate attacks. I don't know what fort levels they have built but at this stage in the war allied engineers are pretty good at demolishing them. His anti-armour will be weak unless he brought in a lot of A/T guns.

EDIT: scratch the above, just saw your second post about Burma updating stack 2's info. I agree with Moose that neither one should be tackled directly. That unit in the Japanese base in the north should take the base and march down to cut the road to China. That will help reduce the supply flow into Burma, and make him even more antsy about being cut off by your units headed for Rangoon/Moulmein.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

8th - 10th February -44

New Guinea

After a few days of calm Erik again make a try again. This time with the air force. He goes for the port at Milne Bay. My CAP shreds his sweeps to pieces but are just too outnumbered. He looses some 200 planes for the price of AE Lassen. While it stings a bit to loose her I´m sure Erik isn´t very happy with the exchange! I have another AE moving up from Townsville and 4 AKEs in place.

Umboi Island is about to fall and Cape Gloucester will follow shortly. This opens up the next line of targets. Erik doesn´t have nearly enough to stop me here. I will not wait for 100 prep this time but rather rely on speed. Manus will be the key for the whole area. In allied hands its secures the whole NG cost. I have been prepping for it since Milne Bay fell. 3 Divisions, 3 Tank battalions and 3 Engineers RGT will ensure swift capture. The rest of the coast have about an ID prepped for each base. Unless Erik can whip up 4-6 divisions he won´t stop me here for long.

Another 120 fighters and 180 DBs start unloading at Suva to fly the rest of the way.

Burma

I´m out of reserves. But I have no doubt Erik is too. If I manage to break through in the south around Prome there is a real danger for him to become completely cut off with most of the IJA. Its a long time away though. But I do feel confident he cannot stop a crossing here. I can choose 1 of 3 possible crossings and he won´t know which one I will take. With 3500 AV the losses in the actual crossing should be sustainable. 4Es will ofcourse lend a hand.

I ordered a bombardment of "Stack 2" this turn to see what he has. He now has 90.000 troops there! [X(] If he looks stronger here then at "Stack 1" I will shift all the armor to that stack instead. I should be able to move them there faster then he can shift from one stack to the other.

Any advice on the situation is much appreciated.

CENTPAC

Abemama still shows 15000 troops while Tarawa has 8000 and Makin only 98 AFVs. Hmm?

OZ

Daly Waters STILL hasn´t gotten any supplies. Sent the tanks out ahead.

Your advance up the NG coast may have no problem landing the troops with air cover from your CVs, but can you sustain them against air and sea attacks after the CVs go back to port. That last air attack on MB indicates you do not yet have the airfields shut and you cannot safely base a strong surface force in the area to intecept his bombardment TFs. I would not advance that far up the NG coast until I closed the airfields on New Britain and New Ireland.

Also, has he built up the airfields on the other side of NG enough to put a lot of bombers there for a turn or two?

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Burma Advice needed!

So, I have my finger on the trigger. Should I? Any advice here is welcome as I´m totally in the dark on what to expect. [&:] My only experience on the land war are from China and I think that is a different ballgame.

I have not really studied how this situaiton came to be, but looking at the screenshot in a cursory way, why are you not developing the line of attack the coastal road offers? Why are you slugging it out in the jungle? By 1944 it's an air power and supplies story in Burma, and you have both. Ramree Island is a tremendous base to have and have developed. If you threaten or take Rangoon, or kill its supply dumps, the situation up north in the jungle resolves itself.

2 cents.

You are certainly right. I just want to do...something! I think frustration is getting the better of me. [:(] I did order the attack on stack 2. It wasn´t good but it wasn´t a disaster either. At least this might show him that I am willing to attack so he keeps his troops in place instead of railing them south.

Ramree is maxed out and I have 180.000 supply there! I will keep frustration in check and wait for the 2 week it will take for the troops to arrive.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Stack 1 has wayyyy too many guns opposing you. It would not be pretty to attack there unless you bomb him out of supply first.
Stack 2 is doable in a series of deliberate attacks. I don't know what fort levels they have built but at this stage in the war allied engineers are pretty good at demolishing them. His anti-armour will be weak unless he brought in a lot of A/T guns.

EDIT: scratch the above, just saw your second post about Burma updating stack 2's info. I agree with Moose that neither one should be tackled directly. That unit in the Japanese base in the north should take the base and march down to cut the road to China. That will help reduce the supply flow into Burma, and make him even more antsy about being cut off by your units headed for Rangoon/Moulmein.

You were right. Luckily I didn´t attack stack 1. But I did attack stack 2... not the best result but not too bad either.

I´m stuck in the North as I only have two Chindit BDEs there. He has one BDE but its behind level 5-6 forts if I know Erik right. I´m going to try cutting the supply with the Chinese Corps in the center together with the air force and a BDE.

On the New Guinea front I have never had the CVs there. So far my LBA have been able to keep his bombers in check without much problem. He only have level 2-3 fields in NG so once Rabaul AF is neutralized he won´t be able to pose a major threat from the air unless he brings the KB here.

The smaller AFs I can easily close with 4Es. I´m thinking of doing something were risky here. Need to think it through.

[JocMeister]

11th-13th February -44

Some good news and some not so good news...

New Guinea

Umboi Island and Lae falls! Umboi was a lot easier then expected and troops have changed their prep. I didn´t need the massive numbers I though but one unsupported USMC division was enough! [:)] He "only" had level 4 forts in place. Maybe I´m moving faster then he can prepare for now. I will try and continue the swift advance.

25th US ID is making good progress towards Cape Gloucester and should arrive within 8 days. The 2nd USMC is swinging north towards Nadzab and Saidor, Garrison forces and BFs will arrive in a few turns.

38th US ID arrives at Brisbane and will rail North to Townsville. I closed the AF at Salamua in case Erik tries to fly out the Buna troops. They will certainly vanish mysteriously anyway (still don´t know how he does this! [:@]) but I don´t want to make it too easy.

He has unit at Long Island. I will wipe that out with 4Es and paradrop on it. Mines/PTs/CDs will be placed here to further secure from naval forays from Rabaul.

Burma

Ah... I decided against advice to try for the "2nd Stack" [8|]

Ground combat at 57,49 (near Toungoo)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 84664 troops, 1329 guns, 1957 vehicles, Assault Value = 3750

Defending force 67642 troops, 777 guns, 821 vehicles, Assault Value = 2383

Allied adjusted assault: 1739

Japanese adjusted defense: 4515

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
3432 casualties reported
Squads: 14 destroyed, 264 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 55 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 42 disabled
Guns lost 177 (18 destroyed, 159 disabled)
Vehicles lost 152 (43 destroyed, 109 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
3629 casualties reported
Squads: 49 destroyed, 938 disabled <-- Ouch! [:(]
Non Combat: 7 destroyed, 182 disabled
Engineers: 10 destroyed, 101 disabled
Guns lost 94 (26 destroyed, 68 disabled)
Vehicles lost 177 (9 destroyed, 168 disabled)

It does look a little bit worse then it is. The 2 parts of the Chinese Corps took a lot of the losses. But one armoured RGT took hell of a beating and an Indian ID lost about 100 AV to disablements. I think his Tank div is wrecked though. It was a stupid attack and I got off lightly so no complaints here.

CENTPAC

I decided to do two separate landings. First I will land on one of the dot bases next to Abemama. I will establish a sea plane base there and then start pounding Abemama. This time I have a little bit more naval power as 4 BBs will pound away instead of 1. 2 more BBs will join up in 14 days. I also decided to "convert" two more CVEs to strike role. It worked very well on Baker. [:)]

vs. The KB

I think there is prudent to expect KB intervention on this operation. Erik is certainly suffering from the restless leg syndrome and seems to have real problems staying inactive. I´m thinking he let me have Baker/Canton cheaply. But he will intervene at some point. Might be now or when I go for the Marshalls.

Despite having the Valhalla in drydock the CV/CVL fleet numbers 580 AC. Initially I will keep them all together with a TF of 12 CVEs adding 300 Hellcats for range 0 CAP in case Erik brings the KB. I´ve also upgraded the airgroups to Corsairs on the CVLs.

The CAP will be
136 Corsairs on the CVLs
160 Hellcats on the CVs
300 Hellcats on the CVEs

Totaling almost 600 Fighters. I hope that will be enough in case the KB comes visiting. I will keep the range of the strike AC fairly short. Perhaps only 5-7 hexes. If he comes I will have to rely on him striking first and then getting wrecked against the CAP. I can then in turn strike on day two against a weakened KB with most of its strike capabilities gone. I don´t have a clue what the KB can bring at this stage. He has lost 3 CVs and 3 CVEs but I´m guessing he has every CV Japan gets online now. Any guesstimates? [&:]

[House Stark]

Joc, unless things have changed radically in the new patches I wouldn't trust CAP to stop, or even severely blunt an incoming strike. And if you're playing stock, AA won't do a ton either. You can't let him get in an unanswered strike. Set all bombers and escorts to range 7 and keep moving so he can't 8-hex strike you. If he has all of Japan's carriers built and has only lost 3 he will have over 700 planes, perhaps over 850+ is he has several CVLs as well. That's plenty of escorts to get his bombers through.

[BBfanboy]

I'm not sure how many CVs Japan has by 1944, so I leave that to more knowledgable players.
I will mention that in my experience, range 0 is not the best for CAP interceptions. Look at it this way - if your TF is in the middle of the 40 nm hex, and his strike aircraft are approaching at 240 nm/hr, you have 1/12 of an hour or 5 minutes to intercept and engage before he is over your TF dropping bombs and torpedos. This is not enough time to push through the escorts and take down the bombers. At range 1, your CAP gets 10 additional minutes to engage before the enemy arrives.