Slowing down or stopping a Japanese Central Pacific strategy

[Nikademus]

The japanese were always hopeful of catching a CV TF with surface elements. Easier said than done. I think it highly unlikely overall. Given the size of the targets, I doubt KB would have much problem blasting the PH tank farm and AA would be less intensive around them vs the ships in the harbor.

The real question is would it acheive any signifigant addition to the delay time already imposed by the disablement of the battle fleet. Repairing the tank farm would take weeks to a couple of months but that breathing room was already pretty much guranteed.

[AirGriff]

The Japanese did always look for the showdown between a surface fleet and carrier TF, but it always eluded them. Take the Battle of Midway. Yamamato didn't scurry back home right after his carriers were sunk. He actually had the balls to move forward with his battle fleet and try and engage the carriers in a night battle (Don't forget that Yamamato wasn't entirely a CV convert yet--he really wanted to finish off the US battlefleet at Midway--why else was his flagship with the battlefleet?). Spruance was very concerned about this and was quite relieved to get the o.k. to cruise home to Pearl. Point being, both sides cared a great deal about such an engagement. Fact is, it never happened because, basically, it takes two to tango, and that rarely happened even between surface groups of uneven strength much less with carriers. I think WitP does a good job of reflecting all this, i.e., don't try it [:'(].

[AirGriff]

A little update of my ongoing battle for the HI. I seem to have made a critical mistake in sending my B-17's unescorted to hit Kona, where my opponent just landed and took. Now my bombers' morale is in the cellar. I should have broken up the bg's into sqdns and rotated them around. Now I have to wait for them to regain their composure. No air attacks for a while. Kona was such a lovely place, too.

[niceguy2005]

Airgriff, I couldn't agree more with your statement above about the difficulty of engaging CV TF on the surface. History speaks for itself in how rare such an engagement was.

Also, splitting you BG into squadrons is a great idea, but I wouldn't rest them all. If a juicy target exists they may still fly. I have been flying one group on Naval Attack with moral as low as 25-30. I still get enough in the air to score 1-4 hits per day, which takes its toll.

[von Beanie]

I'll admit to being the Jap evildoer that's trying to take the whole map from AirGriff in Spring, 1942. After playing the Allies a few times, I decided to try for myself what I feared that a Japanese opponent might do to me.

There's a few points not mentioned in this thread that are worth considering with regards to a central Pacific strategy.

1) Making an opposed landing without anything more than CV aircover is very risky if it doesn't succeed quickly. This is especially true for the Allied player when the Japanese Emily search planes are looking 24 hexes out to sea, aided by the submarine-based Glens. That's why I believe it is a smart Japanese strategy to try and create a forward defense on Johnston, Christmas and the other western outpost islands. For the Allied player to do a good recon just to see what's there will be very risky once all of the islands are taken and fortified.

2) You don't have to take Oahu to make the base there next to useless. Establishing bases on the other Hawaiian islands with long range search planes and part or all of the KB in hidden reserve makes resupplying the base a nightmare. And you can bombard it at will and endanger the 4E bombers (they're the only ones capable of reaching the islands from the mainland), resupplying the BBs daily at the other Hawaiian islands. Now that I have lots of Zeros operating from a Hawaiian airbase, I don't fear the Pearl Harbor air force at all. The situation becomes very similar to what almost always happens in the Phillippines in Jan, 1942. Other than the victory points, do you really care if you take Bataan? It's nearly impossible to resupply the place, and anything there can be blasted at will.

3) By the time the Allied player can gather enough strength to resupply Pearl and take back the central Pacific islands and Hawaii, it will be the latter half of 1942 or early 1943. If the war is being fought in the central Pacific at that time it is probably not going to result in an Allied victory. And if the Allied player gives up on Hawaii, operating out of the West Coast in any other direction is risky because it is only a 2 to 3 day sail from the big island of Hawaii once a decent convoy is sighted by the sub-based searchplanes.

In short, the Emily's and Glen's make all of the difference. If the Japanese player can establish a forward line of defense, guarded by an effective long-distance search, retaking the region will be very risky. In my opinion, it's a strategy well worth trying. And it makes for a very exciting game.

My next task will be finding a way to beat this strategy when someone does it to me. If the strategy is executed carefully, I don't think countering it is as easy as some here may think [:(]

[AirGriff]

Ah, I see I've flushed you out Mr. Bean. I keep telling these guys how you're cleaning house. I hope I haven't given myself away too much in this thread. Of course, I have to say more experienced players would probably have slowed you down considerably more. As frustrating as it's been for me, you are absolutely right in that your strategy makes for a very exciting, if short, game. [&o]