11 December, 1942
8 divisions ashore in Arakan. We should have about thirty by Christmastime. The 13th Armored Corps, which failed to take Chittagong before reinforcements arrived, is ashore. Its commander, Rocha Beleza, gained the Jungle Rat trait: his troops now move and fight better in the jungle. That's going to be useful.
16 December, 1942
Christmas was a bit optimistic. A new offensive into Prome will begin as soon as Squires' corps arrives. We really need to get across the river before they can dig in. That gives us an easy route into Rangoon and Mandalay, and after that we'll have Bassein encircled.
21 December, 1942
Heavy fighting in Prome begins.
Steele's armored corps and Goble's corps are en route to our beachhead, another nine divisions. Supply problems are beginning to impact our troops. Capturing Bassein is our highest priority.
27th December, 1942
The 1st Armored Corps and the 19th Corps are now en route to our beachhead, for six more divisions.
3 January, 1943
Happy New Year. Steele's armored corps, supported by Goble's corps, launches an attack on Bassein.
7 January, 1943
Bassein has nearly fallen. Beleza's Jungle Rats have moved up to support the flagging attack on Prome.
14 January, 1943
Bassein falls. The attack on Prome is called off. We'll hold our positions and move to encircle it.
26 January, 1943
After a brief pause to let our units reorganize, Steele's and Goble's corps attack Rangoon, supported by Gomes from Arakan.
29 January, 1943
Rangoon's 13 Indochinese divisions are disorganized and low-strength. Night strikes from tactical bombers reduce their organization. I expect Rangoon to fall within the week.
6 February, 1943
Rangoon falls. The 1st Armored Corps and Beleza's Jungle Rats attack Mandalay, supported by Squires' corps. Red arrows are attacks planned or in progress. Blue arrows are completed operations.
10 February, 1943
Gomes' corps joins in the attack on Mandalay. We now have 23 divisions attacking Mandalay.
14 February, 1943
Armored units at Mandalay achieve a breakthrough!
16 February, 1943
Attacking units at Mandalay lure counterattacking defenders into an ambush!
18 February, 1943
Reinforcements at Mandalay required me to step up the tactical bombing campaign. Our bomber wings are now hammering the Indochinese day and night.
19 February, 1943
Steele's corps attacks Toungoo. If this attack succeeds and our attack on Mandalay doesn't falter, we'll be able to eliminate six Indochinese divisions in Prome.
27 February, 1943
Indochinese in Prome are escaping. It may be wise to push further northeast into Lashio to cut off the northwestern part of the country.
1 March, 1943
Mandalay falls, but it is a hollow victory: all the Indochinese forces in Prome have escaped our pocket. We are suffering fairly heavy losses of equipment, particularly after the daytime bombing campaign in Mandalay, but the Indochinese are losing far more manpower. We actually have a slight surplus for the first time in almost two years; reinforcing our armored divisions and air wings is IC-intensive but not difficult from a manpower standpoint.
This is the first time I've paid such close attention to my commanders. It's kind of cool. I have a couple of guys increasing rapidly in skill (Beleza, Steele) and now a field marshal and a general (Squires, Morshead) who are actually almost as capable. Actually, a word on commanders now: you have a pool of them to draw from. They can die in combat. They each have a skill and an amount of experience, which is gained from being in combat. Whenever experience hits 100, it is reset and skill is incremented. The skill of a commander gives his troops bonuses in combat.
The rank of a commander determines how many divisions he can command without penalty: Major Generals can command one, Lt. Generals three, Generals nine, and Field Marshals twelve. HQ units double those limits. You can promote a commander, provided his skill is greater than 0; the act of promoting reduces his skill by 1.
And now for a question: where next? Do we rush on to Lashio to cut off the northwest? Do we hold our positions here and make landings elsewhere in Indochina? The latter was, of course, the original plan, but another mechanic has gotten in the way. Transport Capacity, a single number representing your national ability to move supplies and the like around, is determined by your Industrial Capacity multiplied by 1.5. Currently we're slightly over the limit, so our forces are reduced slightly in Effective Supply Efficiency. This is problematic; ESE is a direct percentage modifier on a unit's combat effectiveness, and white it can be increased by liberal use of the Offensive button (which frontloads a unit with supplies and fuel for a month), liberal use of the Offensive button is very expensive in terms of supplies: our pre-invasion stockpile of 20,000 is down to 4,000 now. Without it, successful amphibious assaults are very difficult. Opinions?
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6 (60%)
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Topic: Arsenal of Democracy LP (1 October, 1944: Vperyod!) (Read 95992 times)