Miller (J) vs Mr Kane (A)

[Miller]

16th-31st Dec 42

My troops at Lashio are pounded by B17s, B24s and B25s daily, usually preceded by large P40 sweeps . My CAP of mainly Oscars simply cannot cope with the numbers or make a dent in his bomber fleet, many ending up damaged on the ground and destroyed the next day. I lose about 50 on the ground before I pull them out. After a few deliberate attacks he takes the base on the 30th:

Ground combat at Lashio (62,46)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 57216 troops, 841 guns, 1670 vehicles, Assault Value = 2437

Defending force 16990 troops, 267 guns, 596 vehicles, Assault Value = 530

Allied adjusted assault: 2466

Japanese adjusted defense: 532

Allied assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 1)

Allied forces CAPTURE Lashio !!!

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 1 destroyed
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 1 destroyed

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

Japanese ground losses:
4306 casualties reported
Squads: 150 destroyed, 38 disabled
Non Combat: 368 destroyed, 63 disabled
Engineers: 71 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 158 (153 destroyed, 5 disabled)
Vehicles lost 468 (466 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Units retreated 5

Allied ground losses:
623 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 44 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 3 disabled
Guns lost 17 (1 destroyed, 16 disabled)
Vehicles lost 20 (5 destroyed, 15 disabled)

Assaulting units:
255th Armoured Brigade
50th Tank Brigade
22nd (East African) Brigade
18th British Division
45th Indian Brigade
254th Armoured Brigade
43rd Cavalry Regiment
42nd Cavalry Regiment
111th Chindit Brigade
3rd Carabiniers Regiment
9th Indian Division
11th Indian Division
150th RAC Regiment
5th Chinese Corps
21st Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
IV Indian Corps
25th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
8th Medium Regiment
III Indian Corps
85th British AT Gun Regiment
22nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment

Defending units:
33rd Division
2nd Tank Division
62nd JAAF AF Bn
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
26th Air Flotilla /2

Elsewhere in Burma it looks like he has US armoured units ready to move south. He has brought the kitchen sink and despite the fact I have 12 divs (well 10 if you consider the 2 divs badly damaged at Lashio) in Burma it looks like I'm going to be steamrollered all the way back to Thailand very soon. The only bright spot is that I manage to open an escape route for the two divisions that were trapped to the west of Chihkiang in China, although I'm still far from certain of getting them back to friendly lines...

[Miller]

PLANS/GOALS FOR 1943

Defend Burma as long as possible - He will probably kick me out by April

Hold the line in China - Should be possible as even with supply flowing in it will take time to build up his corps and I will be defending in good terrain.

Keep him out of range of my oilfields - No idea if this will be possible, I still have an untouched navy so it would take him a major effort to get him in 4E bomber range of Palembang and the Borneo oilfields from the south. Java is an obvious target for him to achieve this but I doubt he will try it until the KB is beaten.

Build up my Navy and AF as much as possible - CVs Unyru and Amagi should arrive in March along with Yamato and Musashi, CVs Taiho and Katsuragi in May and the last 3 Unyru CVs in August/September. All my CVs should have the Judy and M5 version of the Zero by April, but I doubt he will try and force a CV battle before then.

[Lowpe]

You need to get your AA out and about. Anywhere those tank divisions go they need their own AA regiment protecting it at a minimum.

Also, you need more AT rapid fire gun units to counter his tank heavy push (or artillery over 15cm) Several are air mobile..the rapidfire AT gun units that is.


As far as AA goes, even 20mm AA guns are good, even if they don't fire, because they act as damage soaks.

Night bombing runs: I have had half decent results using a a combination of AA, radar, and float planes or poor fighters set to a very low %CAP (10%) with the goal of the fighters just interfering with the bombing runs. I have even used Nates in this role, but the best I ever used was the Dinah fighter....its climb rate is abysmal allowing it to excel in this particular role.

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

You need to get your AA out and about. Anywhere those tank divisions go they need their own AA regiment protecting it at a minimum.

Also, you need more AT rapid fire gun units to counter his tank heavy push (or artillery over 15cm) Several are air mobile..the rapidfire AT gun units that is.


As far as AA goes, even 20mm AA guns are good, even if they don't fire, because they act as damage soaks.

Night bombing runs: I have had half decent results using a a combination of AA, radar, and float planes or poor fighters set to a very low %CAP (10%) with the goal of the fighters just interfering with the bombing runs. I have even used Nates in this role, but the best I ever used was the Dinah fighter....its climb rate is abysmal allowing it to excel in this particular role.

I've got some AA in Burma but its mostly the 75mm stuff that does very little. Will look to see what I can buy out of Manchuria and Korea, I think there are some 100mm gun AA units there from memory. I have 4 or 5 of the AT gun units you mention in Burma but they are spread out at different locations. Night bombing is annoying but as long as I don't overstack my planes the losses are usually minimal.

[Miller]

1st-31st Jan 43

Strange goings on in Burma this month. After kicking me out of Lashio he sends the bulk of his troops after my retreating units, but only after a delay of a few days which gives my defeated units a chance to meet up with a tank divsion and another inf div two hexes NE of Taung Gyi. He attacks this stack but can only manage 1:2 odds. He then decides to leave a blocking force there and sends the bulk of his troops north west back towards Mandalay. I'm assuming he will send them down one of the rail tracks towards Toungoo or more likely Prome, but they seem to have been sitting at Mandalay for a long time, is he having supply problems?

Meanwhile over in China good news as I successfully rescue the two good cut off divs west of Chihkiang as well as the one I had given up along time ago south east of Ankang, air supply kept that div alive despite it being isolated for 10 months[&o] Whilst central and north east China is still stalemated I'm pushing in the west at Tuyun, it appears he is virtually out of supply in China now, how long that stays that way is unknown. Does he have to take all of Burma to get a full supply line back into China or just Lashio?

Elsewhere nothing to report other than in PNG where he takes an abandoned Lae with the Aussie 1st Div. I'm unsure whether to bother holding onto Rabual or just pulling out what I have there apart from a small SNLF unit.

[Miller]

1st-10th Feb 43

Looks like his main thrust in Burma is coming down the track with clear terrain from the north towards Prome, which has 3 forts but is a clear hex. 15 units according to recon with over 1000 AFVs[X(] I'm scrambling what I can towards Prome, hopefully I can have at least 1000AV there by the time if (when) he shock attacks across the river. I'm pulling everything in northern Burma back towards Taung Gyi, with 4 forts and being a x3 terrain hex I cannot see him trying anything there. I will have to be careful not to be cut off but there are plenty of escape routes at the moment, so no panic yet.

Over in China I pay for my complacency. Having not seen a fighter there in several months I have been lax in escorting my bombers and a 200 plane CAP trap over Tuyun downs 80 2E a/c[:@] However considering the numbers it could have been much worse. Plenty of replacement a/c in the pools but not many decent army bomber pilots.

Down in PNG he take Marauke on the western side, his division kicks out my SNLF with ease. I send a surface combat TF of old crap in to try and get among his transports but but they meet 3 Aussie CAs instead. CA Australia takes a torp but I lose the CL Yubari, my largest warship loss to date.

All my CVs have upgraded to the M5 Zero now and most are in the process of getting the Judy dive bomber. No sign of his CVs since they were sighted off Tarawa in December. I doubt he will want any sort of CV battle until his Hellcats arrive, so that will be May/June at the earliest.

[adarbrauner]

Ouch...

I'd fear of a "diversion" in Burma while he may be planning something more appetizing; for example in the SRA;

reason for that that he should know you se his movements and could react accordingly turning Burma in a quagmire and a slow very slow campaign.

Have you planned for the defense of these, and of Philippines and Marianas (not to speak about the Kurilis and Hokkaido)?

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: adarbrauner

Ouch...

I'd fear of a "diversion" in Burma while he may be planning something more appetizing; for example in the SRA;

reason for that that he should know you se his movements and could react accordingly turning Burma in a quagmire and a slow very slow campaign.

Have you planned for the defense of these, and of Philippines and Marianas (not to speak about the Kurilis and Hokkaido)?

You may be right. The Kuriles and Hokkaido are reasonably well defended. I have little in the PI and Marianas but I think it's too early for him to try anything there, especially as he does not know where my CVs are. However with Kane you cannot rule anything out, he could landing at Tokyo in a weeks time[:D]

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Miller

I've got some AA in Burma but its mostly the 75mm stuff that does very little.

Don't use the metric of destroyed planes to measure AA effectiveness. It reduces hits, it inflicts damage on planes slowing tempo or eventually causing op losses, it acts as a damage soak absorbing attacks that would have targeted other units.

Any serious defensive ground position needs at least one AA regiment. I stacked two plus several other smaller AA units in Burma to hold clear terrain despite not having air superiority in 1943.

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Miller

I've got some AA in Burma but its mostly the 75mm stuff that does very little.

Don't use the metric of destroyed planes to measure AA effectiveness. It reduces hits, it inflicts damage on planes slowing tempo or eventually causing op losses, it acts as a damage soak absorbing attacks that would have targeted other units.

Any serious defensive ground position needs at least one AA regiment. I stacked two plus several other smaller AA units in Burma to hold clear terrain despite not having air superiority in 1943.

OK, will look around and see what I can scrape up from other areas.

[Miller]

11th-20th Feb 43

Looks like he has changed his mind again in Burma. I manage to get a few decent days in the air, his bombers come in before his sweepers and I down 20 Blenheims attacking my troop stacks one day and about the same number of B25s a few days later. He is winning the fighter vs fighter combat by 2:1 but its over my bases so most of pilots live to fight another day and I'm cranking out 200 Oscars a month so no shortage of them either. I manage to bomb his stack in the process of moving across the river into Prome for several days running and this seems to have unnerved him enough to halt them for the time being as disrupted troops crossing a river is a very bad idea.

Looks like supply is finally making it into China as my bombers are facing flak over Tuyun and a deliberate attack fails despite it having no forts. Probably the end of the road for any further gains here, but I doubt he will be able to consider any counter offensive until 44 at the earliest. Quiet everywhere else.

[Miller]

21st-28th Feb 43

Nothing really to report, just waiting for his next move in Burma after he aborts his attack on Prome. Flak everywhere in China so he must now be getting a decent amount of supply supply through from Burma.

Can anyone recommend an easy and free to use program that will allow a noob like me to post up screenshots?

[Lowpe]

There are a ton..., I like old fashioned MS Paint....many others from kid friendly to professional.

Lots of threads on this...do a quick search on the forum. Lots of great posts on step by step posting images.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Miller
Can anyone recommend an easy and free to use program that will allow a noob like me to post up screenshots?

Standard Windows Paint is enough (I suspect other operation systems also have some basic graphics editor in the bundle).
The most simple case is you just doing a screenshot from the game (with whatever keyboard shortcut, usually involving PrtScr key), pasting it into Paint instance, saving as jpeg and uploading this file as picture to the forum message.

But you can do so much more to make you AAR visually more interesting. All you need is several instances of Paint running. Then you are doing screenshots from the game, pasting them into a free instance of Paint:
- either as a main map for your story where you can add things and draw colored circles and arrows using Paint's brush
- or to select a rectangle (TF, base, LCU/airgroup/ship screen or some other piece of picture), copy and paste this rectangle into your main map picture in another instance of Paint

[Mike McCreery]

I downloaded paint 3d recently. Free software. I like the line feature as you can turn the lines into arrows with 4 adjustment points. Really great for sea battles or showing long term movement on a map.

Otherwise I am rocking a copy of Microsoft Image composer from the 90's. I guess you could call me a late adopter of technology ;]

[witpqs]

I use paint.net (getpaint.net) to markup screen captures. I use Greenshot (http://getgreenshot.org/) to take screen captures.

[Miller]

1st-31st Mar 43

Burma: He's shifted the majority of his ground units into Taung Gyi and is pounding it daily with his bombers supported my massive fighter sweeps and any interference by my Oscars is useless and I'm losing between 5:1 and 10:1 in a2a combat, even with 70/70 exp pilots. On the ground however my troops are holding up well:

Ground combat at Taung Gyi (59,48)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 90916 troops, 1293 guns, 2551 vehicles, Assault Value = 3700

Defending force 46021 troops, 541 guns, 630 vehicles, Assault Value = 1481

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Allied adjusted assault: 2439

Japanese adjusted defense: 5326

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 2)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
2583 casualties reported
Squads: 12 destroyed, 214 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 22 disabled
Vehicles lost 19 (1 destroyed, 18 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
2813 casualties reported
Squads: 12 destroyed, 489 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 141 disabled
Engineers: 4 destroyed, 63 disabled
Guns lost 39 (4 destroyed, 35 disabled)
Vehicles lost 177 (9 destroyed, 168 disabled)

Assaulting units:
11th Indian Division
3rd Carabiniers Regiment
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
22nd (East African) Brigade
50th Tank Brigade
7th Indian Division
254th Armoured Brigade
150th RAC Regiment
3rd Cavalry Regiment
39th Indian Division
9th Indian Division
17th Indian Division
7th Australian Division
255th Armoured Brigade
42nd Cavalry Regiment
9th Australian Division
24th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
IV Indian Corps
III Indian Corps
35th Light AA Regiment
25th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
43rd Cavalry Engineer Regiment
8th Medium Regiment
21st Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
I Australian Corps
23rd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
77th Heavy AA Regiment
85th British AT Gun Regiment
29th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
22nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment

Defending units:
14th Division
2nd Division
55th Division
2nd Tank Division
16th Army
15th Army
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
17th Medium Field Artillery Regiment


I have bought the 3rd tank div out of China and that has just reached Rangoon and is busy unloading. That means I now have 13 divs in Burma, it won't be getting any more.


China: Pretty much a backwater at the moment. I'm just going to dig in for the time being.

PNG/SOPAC: He is now sweeping Rabual with P38s and Corsairs, but my Zeros there are doing fairly well as he is only getting 2:1 in kills whilst most of my pilots survive. I have all but abandoned Shortland Is, as I did Buna and Lae previously. I made a mistake by building them up in the first place, although I'm sure his engineers would've soon have them up to speed anyway.

Economy: I have almost 4M supply and 6.5M fuel in the bank and just under 1M HI. I am looking to turn off quite a few a/c and engine production soon to try and boost the HI as it is way too low for this stage of the game.

[adarbrauner]

ORIGINAL: Miller

1st-31st Mar 43

Burma: He's shifted the majority of his ground units into Taung Gyi and is pounding it daily with his bombers supported my massive fighter sweeps and any interference by my Oscars is useless and I'm losing between 5:1 and 10:1 in a2a combat, even with 70/70 exp pilots. On the ground however my troops are holding up well:

Ground combat at Taung Gyi (59,48)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 90916 troops, 1293 guns, 2551 vehicles, Assault Value = 3700

Defending force 46021 troops, 541 guns, 630 vehicles, Assault Value = 1481

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Allied adjusted assault: 2439

Japanese adjusted defense: 5326

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 2)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
2583 casualties reported
Squads: 12 destroyed, 214 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 22 disabled
Vehicles lost 19 (1 destroyed, 18 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
2813 casualties reported
Squads: 12 destroyed, 489 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 141 disabled
Engineers: 4 destroyed, 63 disabled
Guns lost 39 (4 destroyed, 35 disabled)
Vehicles lost 177 (9 destroyed, 168 disabled)

Assaulting units:
11th Indian Division
3rd Carabiniers Regiment
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
22nd (East African) Brigade
50th Tank Brigade
7th Indian Division
254th Armoured Brigade
150th RAC Regiment
3rd Cavalry Regiment
39th Indian Division
9th Indian Division
17th Indian Division
7th Australian Division
255th Armoured Brigade
42nd Cavalry Regiment
9th Australian Division
24th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
IV Indian Corps
III Indian Corps
35th Light AA Regiment
25th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
43rd Cavalry Engineer Regiment
8th Medium Regiment
21st Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
I Australian Corps
23rd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
77th Heavy AA Regiment
85th British AT Gun Regiment
29th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
22nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment

Defending units:
14th Division
2nd Division
55th Division
2nd Tank Division
16th Army
15th Army
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
17th Medium Field Artillery Regiment


I have bought the 3rd tank div out of China and that has just reached Rangoon and is busy unloading. That means I now have 13 divs in Burma, it won't be getting any more.


China: Pretty much a backwater at the moment. I'm just going to dig in for the time being.

PNG/SOPAC: He is now sweeping Rabual with P38s and Corsairs, but my Zeros there are doing fairly well as he is only getting 2:1 in kills whilst most of my pilots survive. I have all but abandoned Shortland Is, as I did Buna and Lae previously. I made a mistake by building them up in the first place, although I'm sure his engineers would've soon have them up to speed anyway.

Economy: I have almost 4M supply and 6.5M fuel in the bank and just under 1M HI. I am looking to turn off quite a few a/c and engine production soon to try and boost the HI as it is way too low for this stage of the game.

13 is a lot!!

[Miller]

1st-15th April 43

A period of missed opportunity. The Allies launch a major amphib operation in the Marshalls and take Kwajalien and Roi Namur. If my CVs were based at Truk I would have probably been able to force a CV battle but alas they were based at Manila and therefore too far away to intervene. With only subs in the area to attack his ships they do a decent job, putting 2 torps into CV Enterprise, CA New Orleans and CL Santa Fe, however in every case it was probably one short of sinking them. No a/c losses reported on the ground so they will all survive[:@] His ships are retreating back to PH now, this was probably my last chance of a CV battle in my favour so I'm rather pissed my CVs were not in position to attack.

Elsewhere south of Shortland Is I send a CA force to attack ships spotted at Vella lavella that he is building up, they meet a modern US CL fleet and we exchange one DD lost and a few ships damaged.

In Burma I retreat from Taung Gyi as I cannot get any supply into the hex, I time it well as he deliberate attacks just as all my units move out. They are getting supply now, and sitting in JR terrain I doubt he will follow and will look elsewhere to try and make a breakthrough. I had expected to have been pushed back towards Rangoon by now so I'm happy with my performance in this area if nowhere else.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Miller

1st-15th April 43


In Burma I retreat from Taung Gyi as I cannot get any supply into the hex, I time it well as he deliberate attacks just as all my units move out. They are getting supply now, and sitting in JR terrain I doubt he will follow and will look elsewhere to try and make a breakthrough. I had expected to have been pushed back towards Rangoon by now so I'm happy with my performance in this area if nowhere else.

Always easier to keep troops supplied in the field in Burma...

13 Divisions in Burma area is not too many, often times there are 20+[;)].