The Sun against the Eagle - WitP AE AAR - UCG v KyzBP

[undercovergeek]

Oh man - the Catalinas, laser guided bomb dropping bast**** they are

This turn there was an unhealthy amount of submarine action between port blair, australia and all the way to pearl - theres a lot of future diving wrecks for people to go see out there

Balikpapan/Borneo



Pearl

[undercovergeek]

Malaya - having gained an early advantage here its getting squandered waiting for the Imperial Guards to get on their frikking ships, and the 38th Div to arrive, so we're starting the march now and will try a shock attack on arrival - depending on the results we'll go again or wait for the other 2 divisions - its time this was over



Borneo - decisive sea battle this turn, the Prince of Wales goes down, and one more Dutch cruiser. We dont suffer a lot of damage, a cruiser and 2 destroyers will split off and head for the repair yards. Its almost time to invade Java, the last piece in the puzzle is the amount of bombers at Soerbaja - if i can contain them theyll set off - im going to land at the 3 eastern provinces between Soerbaja and Batavia, take them and then utilise the railways to move the troops. Im hoping to land at Kendari in the next turn or two, that only leaves Ambon as a decent airfield in enemy hands in the area



Out in the Pacific we're collecting infantry and base forces to start the island acquisition plan

[Barthheart]

32 shells and 4 torpedoes!  :o No wonder the PoW went down..... O0

[JasonPratt]

32 shells and 4 torpedoes!  :o No wonder the PoW went down..... O0

I was going to say the same thing; but since Bart already did...

Patrol Boats causing raid havoc in Vietnam?  O0


Also, love the map mod but I'd probably have to play the original map graphcs; for some reason I can 'see' them better.

[undercovergeek]

although its not an option in the game, it did seem like they went after the PoW first and were happy with that

[undercovergeek]

Malaya

Singapore falls at the first attempt, the whole front changes focus to the second part of the plan - Luzon/Manilla



Palembang/Sumatra



Burma/Rangoon



Celebes/Balikpapan



Manilla/Luzon



Pacific/Baker Island

[undercovergeek]

Malaya/Borneo/Sumatra



The exodus to Singapore continues. Further South we finally get to Oosthaven and kick out the Dutch - engineers and air support will be railed in from Palembang and we can start mowing s*** down in Java. Meanwhile the taxi TF starts loading the Oosthaven victors, ready to take then North for Sabang

Over on Brunei, for some reason i cant get the supplies off the ship to bolster the attack and we cant get a big enough victory to kill off the garrison, and further west in Kuching im waiting for heavier forces to land to ensure victory

Java



Its early but its looking ok for the Java attack - weve landed at Tjepoe, a bit short of supplies but some are on the way round from Banjoewangi on the Southern tip of Java, which is also just about to be invaded, and the other 3 invasion task forces are just short of their destinations. Theyre at the outer limit of the CAP from Balikpapan but they should be ok. All escorting combat ships are splitting off from the invasion forces and chasing down allied shipping pulling away from the west of Java, see what we can catch

Out to the east Kendari is ok, Ambon is a PITA but i dont have any spare forces to shut it down just yet

Mindanao



That frikking base right in the middle!! Its mountainous and impenetrable and takes so long to get there - right now the plan is to march in the forces coming from the North and try the attack again - Davao has a regiment that could get it done in a day but the march is endless - if the new plan fails ill ship the regiment to Cagayan in the north and march south, there are no roads in the southern area heading north

Pacific



..........and i always forget Guam, im sure theres Catalinas on there and someones spying on me - again forces are scarce and its on the list

Kido Butai



Small pickings so far, a destroyer and a freighter - shes going further south and further east

[undercovergeek]

Malaya



Sumatra



Java



Celebes



Pacific



Fiji

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I've downloaded the modded map.  Did the weather icons disappear for you once you downloaded this map?  I don't see weather on the map anymore.

[undercovergeek]

no i still have them - TBH ive never even noticed them until i read your post and saw one in a replay this afternoon

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I downloaded some weather .bmps from a different map mod and installed them over the existing ones and these seem to work.  Weird.

[undercovergeek]

glad its sorted  O0

Malaya



Sumatra



Java



The Celebes



Mindanao



Rabaul



Baker

[undercovergeek]

Still sampling with the AAR styles here so im going to go for a text only update and see if its not too hard to visualise whats going on

Malaya -

The sweep from the north is still waiting for the Thai Army divisions to get off the train and join the 112th regiment, then a short march across the neck of the peninsular and on into Alor Star, Georgetown and Taiping. The sweep from the south to support the 112th is routing troops at every available confrontation and is marching through the jungle in pursuit of Allied fragments and is heading for Alor Star.

Singapore is chock full of transport ships and war ships, huge tanker task forces are bringing in fuel and then sending fuel out to the far reaches of the new empire, fuel ships are heading to Balikpapan, Truk and soon Soerbaja. The Manilla invasion task forces have left, 3 big task forces divided into infantry, artillery and air support - infantry and artillery will land at Iba where the biggest port on the west of Luzon is, besides Manilla, and the air teams will land at Vigan where the biggest airfield is. I'm having a problem a problem with low flying strafing runs coming out of the Manilla area at the moment - they put 3 bombs in the Taiyo as she passed this turn. To combat this im reconning an airfield on the very northern edge of Luzon, if its empty ill land a small base force and some air support there so that i can have some Zeros within striking distance to CAP the incming invasions and try and sweep some of these P36s away.

Sumatra -

Across from the peninsular, in the south Oosthaven and Palembang are still providing air support over northern Java. In the North a glorious victory for the Empire, the combat task force rounds the head of Sabang and catches a number of large Allied support groups - everything is sunk, a lot of transport ships and some fuel ships. With the path swept clear the invasion force lands and preapres to attack - intel shows 10 enemy units but with half my number of troops and a tenth of the guns - i suspect engineers and air support troops - either way theyll be speaking Japanese next turn. The intention was to bounce the combat ships of Sabang and onto Port Blair where intel also shows a lot of enemy TFs, but such was the glut of targets here the ships are out of ammo, theyre on a quick jaunt south to Singapore for a reload and then theyll be back.

Borneo -

There are landings at Jessleton and Beaufort, finishing off enemy resistance in the North of the island, forces will now reembark and head east around the coast to Tarakan and other bases. Further south, Balikpapan is still struggling for supplies but the need for them is dwindling as aircraft leave to the expanded front - a good number have left to Bandjermasan on the west coast opposite Soerbaja to provide support, and with the fall of the major airfield on the east of Java, a lot have moved there too. Apart from the base force and a few engineers, forces are prepping to leave the base and move onto new conquests further south.

Celebes -

Minado is abandoned and Kendari becomes the new base for the area but there is little calling for air support as there are no enemy present. Forces here also prep to move on. The last of the unoccupied bases will soon fall and then Makassar will be left on its own and taken.

Mindanao -

Essentially, all resistance has been removed, small garrison forces man the bases and the main attacking force is waiting to be taken off the island and meet up with its parent division on Java.

To the south forces are en route to Ambon - destroyers here spend their days dodging repeated bombing runs from KyzBPs forces whilst refusing to engage the naval forces near the bases - problem should be resolved after it falls

Java -

All the outlying bases have been taken and Batavia and Soerbaja wait to be attacked, forces are boarding trains or prepping to and then the final assault both north and south should begin - im guessing theres a week left here. These six divisions will then meet up with essential air support and base forces and the attack of Northern Australia will begin. Smaller regiments and other forces will be used to mop up Timor and Flores on the way to Darwin.

Pacific -

Baker Island is turning out to be my KHAAAAAAAAANNNNN!!!!!!! moment - neither of us have strong enough forces to put off the other and we keep meeting at the island, clashing and retreating - 2 big cruiser forces are about 2 days out, CarDiv 2 is also present but got lost in bad weather this last turn, everyone will rendevous and the island should fall in 2 - 3 days - other forces have left to Palmyra. Canton looks to be fully manned and supported and will be a tough nut to crack - we'll tackle that after the other islands fall.

CarDiv 1 is almost at Truk for repairs and replenishment, as is the mini KB coming from the west.

At Rabaul is the 144th regiment and the 7th division, also en route is the 90th regiment - once all the ships are in place theyll leave for Port Moresby. Between the two is Lae, a small base that is receiving a base force this turn so that a few Zeros can provide CAP over the invading task force

Thats all for now

[bob48]

"I fell asleep waiting on MD to finish his turn, and look what happened when he was finally done!" 

ROFL

[undercovergeek]

When last we spoke, the invasion of Sabang at the top of Sumatra had just landed - after 2 poorly executed attacks by IJA troops it became apparent that they were suffering from disruption - the best solution being rest. KyzBP, it appears is not a man to let the troops rest and has subsequently bombarded the area twice whilst my troops catch a few rays on the beach - fortuitously these bombardments came in the absence of my much superior cruisers and destroyers as they were reloading at Singapore. My surface fleet returned with a vengeance this turn only to find the Allies gone, well not all, they left a rag tag fleet of support ships and auxiliaries - they sank without much effort. You can just see the Allied fleet passing Great Nicobar to the very north of the picture, i order a quick pursuit and we'll see if we can catch them, if not we head north east and see whats at Port Blair

The Peninsular itself is almost swept clean of Allies - those that remain are out of resistance and supplies - its a mopping up exercise. This turn all the construction engineers have been scooped up at Palembang, Singapore and Balikpapan and will head east to the Pacific to begin building fortresses on our soon to be acquired American bases.



South east things are progressing well. The Celebes is all but cleared of resistance, Makassar remains to be captured, and that force is loading on the other side of the coast. Kendari is the main hub here for naval searches and naval attacks except there are no targets - i suspect KyzBP has finally headed for Darwin/Northern Oz. There is a fleet of annoying PT boats thats hanging around the uncaptured island between Bima and Kendari that my planes wont engage, even at 100 ft - i have sent a Destroyer force to go deal with them - if that doesnt work, theyll soon be out of places to refuel their tiny tanks anyway.

Ambon finally fell this turn after a long campaign to dredge up enough forces from Malaya or Java to go actually do the job - there was little resistance but i feel we caught KyzBP unawares - about 20 planes were destroyed on the airfield and about 6 of his tin can destroyers were scuttled in the harbour. Admittedly a break out force came from the south, presumably Darwin to take on my plane dodging destroyers, who for a good 5 turns have avoided all attempts from the air to put dents in them, 3 have a few scars and fires to deal with - theyre heading home for repairs. The actual transport force that just got here was sunk, but it was empty of everything important and theres another one at Kendari to pick them up soon - i just need to make sure the sea lanes are clear

Everything in this picture will get back on board transport ships and slowly hop south through all the island chains and stop just north of Oz and wait..........



To the west, Java - 'the island of least resistance' - almost no fighting so far apart from nudging aside base forces and garrisons - everything that can and will move has been sent to Soerabaja in the south or Batavia in the north, getting there is just a matter of logistics, the divisions are moving into place. In the north combat engineers are moving down the road to meet up with 4th and 16th divisions before coordinating an attack with the 33rd Div and heading into Batavia, a similar story in the South - i will make one attack on Batavia first and see what the results are like - if we need a bigger hammer then divisions prepping for Soerabaja will head up the rails and finish Batavia first before moving en masse back down the island.



Things seem finally ready here - the 7th Div and 90th regiment with some air support are just about to leave to round the tip of the chain and attack Port Moresby. Its been difficult getting air cover down here and some small task forces have been at the mercy of some low level bombing from KyzBP out of Port Moresby, but a passing fragment of the KB coming into Truk for resupplies has lent its Zeroes to the operation and now things can move along. An attack on Oz cant be considered without owning this stretch of land and its important we get it done



The only thing that saved these 2 Allied TFs from our carriers was the weather - the morning attack was rained off and the second was at half strength - we damaged 1 of 4 big AP transport ships to the south and missed the one to the west altogether.

To the south, Fiji - i have just bought out 2 full strength units from Japan to transport down here and take these islands - they are notoriously hard to support and keep when the tide turns but i want as much Allied real estate as possible to ruffle KyzBPs feathers



More feather rustling - its safe to say Canton is pretty much armed to the teeth and under an umbrella of protection, im looking further east towards Palmyra and Christmas Island and then ill look at Johnston, maybe Midway - what i take now needs taking back, if i make it as hard as possible for KyzBP to do this then thats ok