Best Two Out of Three

Post descriptions of your brilliant victories and unfortunate defeats here.

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John B.
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RE: Best Two Out of Three

Post by John B. »

Hey BBFanboy! What better way to spend a blizzard than playing WITPAE. But, they actually made Scott show up to work today! God bless the US postal service. [8|]

O/T 1. Everyone has lots and lots of supply. I have 2 million tons at Sydney, 500K at Espirity Santo, 50K plus at each of the aleutian islands. 800K at Chittagong, 800K at Calcutta, 2 million at Madras. It's crazy how much supply I have. I keep shipping it everywhere I can but it builds up faster than I can use it. And fuel as well. Sydney has 1 million+ India is awash, so other than for china right now I'm winning the logistics game. I'm expanding facilities where I can but if you have ideas on what else I can be spending it on I'm all ears. Everyone is producing 100% because there are no fuel shortages so all Austrialian and Indian industry is churning out the stuff as well.

OT 2. You might be right about that. I do have air control over Chittagong but he could blitz his way in there. Of course, he'd run into 100+ flak if he did and he's tried that before, but I don't have much CAP. He has a surface TF lurking around Rangoon. But, running into and enemy base hex almost always takes place at night so I get a one turn warning when I see a TF hanging out. I have 5-6 CA and several DD CL in Chittagong as well.
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RE: Best Two Out of Three

Post by BBfanboy »

Re: the supply, I was thinking whatever you have hauling from WC to PH could go and haul to Burma/India so when you take Rangoon and Toungoo you can pump a lot more to China (if you still have Chungking).

BTW, nice job in clearing Burma. It seems in every AAR I read lately that once the allies get the upper hand in Burma the Japanese positions collapse pretty quickly. I think the armour is the key because it is nearly invulnerable to IJA 43 anti-armour equipment and it can move fast over the central Burma plains.
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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Not to worry, there are a series of convoys heading from the east coast to India with supplies as well as mining supply points from the oil fields, India, and S. Africa.

The odd thing about Burma was that when Scott tried to come out into India he had a very short supply tether. All of my Burmese combat groups either on the road near Ramree or in the jungle near Mitykana (sp?) had plenty of supply. 3 turns out of 4 they would be at max supply, dip into the red for one turn, and then be resupplied. I wonder if the supply flow is different coming out of india or, if you have millions of supply points some with always get through.

His mini subs just sank two DDs (including the Fletcher) at Lunga. [:@] At least they did not hit the BBs!
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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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Supply is distributed each turn from points of concentration to points of demand (shortfall), following a complex algorithm that factors in rail, roads, terrain and even water (two ports facing each other with only one hex of water in between will transfer a small amount of supply and resources by fishing boat and dugout canoes). Having a massive amount of supply in the system means more will flow along each path until demands are met. After that, it tends to concentrate where there are lots of troops, high level bases and Command or National HQs.
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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BBFanboy, these Helen losses are dedicated to you. [&o] After I read your note I beefed up the CAP over Chittagong and, sure enough, along came waves of Helen's the raid was reported as 50 or so so these are huge losses for no loss of my own. Phew, a batch of LST had just arrived from the states (and they take a loooongggg time to get there) and there are lot's of training squadrons down there so I dodged a bullet and put a bit of a crimp into his airforce.

P-47s land at Karachi on the next turn and then we'll see who has fun with his 234 fighters at Rangoon! [:D]

Just moving stuff around otherwise. Looks like he has pulled back from one of his forward hexes in China. I suspect that Scott is a bit short of supply he shut down one of his two death star artillery bombardments there.

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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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Rangoon has fallen and the Burma road is open once again. It's mid-1943 so I suspect that China is now saved. In fact, I can see that it is sucking supply out of Burma at a record rate. I think that Scott will be able to get most of his troops out by way of Pegu. He has a head start and my divisions are bone tired. A lot of them are a 50% fatigue and below 80 morale. So, I suspect a couple of months of rest and refit are in order. I also need that time got get airfields set and a regular supply chain running down the coast to rangoon from India to plow victuals into China. China also needs time to rest up and rebuild its armys but in a few months, assuming that the supplies continue to flow, I plan to use them to keep the pressure on Scott. I don't think I"ll retake much of China, but any supply point spent there is one less than he has for elsewhere.

At the same time, I've invaded Tulagi and put a marine division ashore. Scott had several midget subs there. The use of the past tense is appropriate. :-) One of them died when it was forced to the surface and was hit by a 14 inch shell.[X(]

With Burma back now comes the slog against the inner empire. Scott is tenacious and aggressive so I need to be careful and not overreach. And, I can just hear the sound of a million shovels digging on a multitude of islands between here and Tokyo.

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RE: Best Two Out of Three

Post by Capt. Harlock »

The use of the past tense is appropriate. :-) One of them died when it was forced to the surface and was hit by a 14 inch shell.

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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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[:D] If my exertminator shows up with a 14 inch gun I'm outta here!!
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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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We're just starting 7/1/43 and the first six months of 1943 have been good the the silent service. Below is the spread sheet I've been keeping and as you can see, for all of 1941/42 allied subs had torpedo explosions on 69 AKs, but in the first six months of 1943 they have explosions on 84 AKs or 15 more than the previous 13 month period. Same goes for TKs 41/42 saw 8 explosions first six of 43 saw 23. For AOs the numbers are 5 and 5 and for SCs they're 7 and 16. You can see the other results but not as dramatic as these increases. If you're like me and count an explosion as a kill for these merchant ships this means almost 500,000 tons have gone down during this time period (using my no doubt over optimistic average tonnage per kill and assuming that they all sank). These numbers would have been higher but we're still in a higher dud rate until September 1943.

Not much in terms of Merchant ships for Scott, but his subs have done well against my war ships. In the past three weeks he has sank a CA, put a torpedo into the Essex, the Yorktown and the Long Island, and a torpedo into the CL Helena. So far I"ve been lucky on the CV hits as they've caused about 39 flotation damage and that's about it.

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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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During this time the allies have lost 3 subs. In 41/42 they lost two so the loss rate is up, but so far very manageable.
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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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A dramatic series of events has been taking place around Rangoon. I liberated Burma about a month ago and I have 435 engineer squads turning it into a level 9 airbase. In fact, it will go from level 8 to level 9 in under a week. It's good to be the allies. :-) In the meantime, Scott has been putting clouds of fighters up and drove away my first foray with P-47s. I rested up and I'm back for more. I've stopped using P-40Ks on sweeps (too many losses) but I'm also tossing in P-38 Hs. The initial results have been positive. But, Scott wants to keep shelling Rangoon to cause losses. Thus the navel fight below. We missed each other the first day (wound up one hex apart) but in the day light of the second day we had a running battle. Looks like Scott got the worst of it but nothing dramatic. But, hold on, a special bulletin is crossing my desk. An unprecedented second naval battle took place AFTER the land phase.

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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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In the second round my TF annihilated the IJN TF. The CA kept fights but by the end of the day almost all of his ships went down or are, at the very least, cripples. The assessment of my ships showed that no one was in the red zone for anything and only one ship was on fire with a fire level of 1. The Allies rule the day time as we never got close enough for a deadly long lance surprise attack. In fact, there were no torpedo hits at all on either side.

For a quick round up, China has a new lease on life. Everyone is supplied and I even built an airbase up one more level. I think that I'll invade Eniwetok to get a decent port closer to Saipan which is the real objective before the end of the year. In the south pacific, we continue to hit at each other but Tulagi is safely mine and he has about 20,000 troops stuck on Guadalcanal. I can't figure out how to get him out of northern Australia so that continues to be a stalemate, but it gives my australians something to do while tying down some of his planes and fighters.

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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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I don't recall ever before seeing a naval battle after the land battles. Even the ones just after the air combat but before the Land Battle step are rare.
I hope it is not a synch bug, but the your ships "not in the red zone for anything" makes me think it doesn't add up.
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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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BBfanboy,

I was a bit worried about a sync problem and went back to check. The second round took place in between the air phase and the land phase not after the land phase so I misspoke about that. The two battles also took place in hex 54 54 (the estuary hex south of Rangoon). It makes me suspect that neither TF left given the relatively inconclusive nature of the first battle especially if the TF commanders were high aggression. Here is my battle damage report, the only unpictured ship is the undamaged CA Astoria. I hope it's good shooting and not a sync problem.

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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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Good stuff! When you said "not in the red zone for anything" I was thinking fuel and ammo, not damage! [8|] Not being low on ammo after all that shooting would be a miracle ... or a synch bug!
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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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Oh sorry, I should have been more clear. All but four of my ships have empty ammo lockers for their main batteries. 3 of the 4 remaining shot off 50% and the last captain has some 'splaning to do. :-)
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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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Maybe the one with most of his ammo left was tail-end-Charlie and by the time he got to shooting position all that was left was smoking flotsam! [:)]

EDIT: Meant to mention to get replenished ASAP - there is still one CL and DD missing from the original IJN TF.
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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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Good advice! The ships with no shells (sort of like a horse with no name I suppose "I've been through a battle on a ship with no shells" [:D]) are at flank speed heading for Chittagong. From there they will fan out for repairs. My four ships with 50% shells have formed an impromptu TF to try and pick off the stragglers. They will head back to Rangoon which, at level 7 should be enough to restock them.

I'm not sure about the cowardly captain's excuse. He not only never shot (despite at least ten total rounds of combat) but he also collided with the Nashville in the middle of the fight. I suspect that there is a YMS at Nome where he can ride out the war.
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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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John B: I suspect that there is a YMS at Nome where he can ride out the war.

I was looking at a detailed list of US auxiliary ships a few days ago and at the bottom were two vessels designated YSR - "Sludge Removal Barge" . Perfect place to put penitent captains!



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RE: Best Two Out of Three

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I hope it's good shooting and not a sync problem.

It seems reasonable to me: you had five effective CA's against one. (Nashville is a CA in everything but gun bore.)
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