Andy Mac v PZB ....The Allies Fight Back

[Andy Mac]

I have only got 3 Sqns of them and they are all Marine Sqns also the missions they have are restricted. Plus I do actually need 2 Sqns with the fleet  for night cap.
 
PZB is using night naval bombers so I tend to have 1 - 2 Sqns on night cap over the fleet at all times plus some Black Widows if in range of their base
 
So I have 1200 night fighting hellcats in pool and 72 aircraft able to deploy them.

[Sneer]

as far as i know you can fly night fighter in daylight at lrcap mission
so use it to max

[Andy Mac]

Aye you can but I really do need a night cap. 300 betties on night naval could cause a lot of grief so I do actually need to deploy some night fighter capability.
 
I would happily trade 1,000 night fighter variants for day fighter though !!! It wont happen so I just need to recognise the limitations and manage within them.
 
Wasile will be lvl 6 soon then I will move the Superforts in.
 
Tomini will be lvl 4 in a while between them I can use LBA to support any invasion.
 
The critical difference is that I can take more bases with relative speed to forward deploy P38's Spits and P47's 
 
My Carrier gps are all muddled up now and need to be resorted in a port as I re organised on the fly.

[Sneer]

all i can say
 PZB situation is japan player wet dream
 all forces concentrated against limited allied one
 it is probably most extreme variant of history seen in AARs and probably no game will follow - with people aware of possibility that they loose karachi and many of them restricting from such play it may not be repeated
 so your task is at least difficult
 i'd like to have such forces concentrated in my game as i see regularly in this game
 it takes quite a lot of time to plan how to hurt allies in late 43 unless they move too far 

[Andy Mac]

Actually Sneer I disagree that this is the best alterantive for the Japanese.
 
PZB IMO made a major mistake not securing Lunga/ Tarawa and PM.
 
Karachi and India was a fine achievement but the allied offensive out of the Pacific operates independently of this theatre Wobbly/AdavidB and Nomad held those forward bases allowing an advance under LBA air cover before effective carrier fighter arrived. (Assisited by the suicidal invasion of Java that tied down more forces and lost PZB time and Wobblies sinking of the 2 SOPAC IJN Carriers - it is only now that the full fruits of these sacrifices made by Wobbly become apparent)
 
Basically I think PZB screwed up and should have done a similar thing to what you have done went for Calcutta the South East Coast and perhaps Columbo but made sure he took those SOPAC islands before the allies made them impregnable.
 
By failing to do so he advanced the allied timetable in SWPAC by 6 - 9 months.
 
If his objective is delay this was a fundamental miscalculation. Yes he has stopped an allied offensive out of Burma but he has to commit the ground forces that could have dug in at Calcutta, Dimapur, Mandalay, Moulmien and Tavoy fighting a slow retreat behind lvl 9 forts each step of the way to guard the Indian coastal cities.
 
All its really gained him is some HI and avoided a drain on his pilot pool from that quarter.
 
I really believe India/ Australia etc is a mistake for the Japanese if they dont secure Lunga, PM, Baker Island and Tarawa in strength
 
Andy

[veji1]

hmmm interesting analysis... Food for thought if I ever reach this point in game...

[Speedysteve]

Andy makes some good points there IMO.
 
I have experienced a similar quandry in my game vs Faber. Basically with him taking PM, all the Solomans, Gilberts etc = no Allied base is within medium/fighter rage in the entire Pacific = I have to secure that first lodgment purely with CV air cover.

[Nomad]

Interesting Speedy. I too have a hard one coming up, my opponet took Nouema and PM in January 1942. I will have to advance under CV air only. I have lost 2 CVs sund and 2 severly damaged but sand 3 of his. More battles occuring now. It is Sept 1942, time to advance. [:D]

[Sneer]

i did not thought about cen pac islands - here i agree with you and i did my best to secure them in my game
i thought about industry situation - 30% more supply than any other player + force concentration ability


gilberts can't fall before end of 43 IMO
you can loose all buffer zone  - palmyra/baker/canton etc but not  gilberts/wake otherwise japan will have problems with timetable - pacific route is relatively short so each step should force allied to stop for a time and need max allied effort
in 43 canton/baker/palmyra/jonson/pago loose its importance for japan

[Wolfie1]

I really think Andy should be trying to kick him out of India - that should give a lot of delayed re-inforcements

[Sneer]

time . forces and delay to other operation are high and getting delayed reinforcements will not make this war shorter
only concetrated effort in cen pac and dei can do this
i agree with Andy that if india is left till now it should be as it is  without any further movement
maybe if he threaten malaya as he plans PZB will be forced to withdraw additional forces from india  - remember that with auto supply 3-4 japanese divisions that defend at Karachi are almost out of reach without really massive allied army and without karachi operation doesn't have ant sense

[Speedysteve]

Agreed Sneer

[HarryM]

Isn't Malaya also out of your LBA range? Same prob as Marianas?

[Sneer]

PZB can't guard heavily all areas - this is main concept i think 

[Andy Mac]

Aye sneer has it right.

The issue is not that I cannot win air superiority for a period of time. Its just that I cannot keep it for more than a week because I don't have the pool depth.

The Marianas would have taken a month minimum and probably a lot longer.

My new targets will be based on the premise that a single divison or corps can take them.

I am pretty certain that 3rd Corps (3 Divs plus armour) will get the job of securing Balikapan to Tarakan I am still debating the landing site.

5 Amphib Corps (4 Divs including 1 Marine Div) will probably hit 4 seperate isolated bases each one in turn secured by a division.

Reinforcement for this corps will be available from 11th Airborne Div.

5 Corps will get given the job of securing Eastern and North Borneo (Specific objectives still being evaluated)

[Andy Mac]

Sneer I agree with you India is very much a tertiary operation only to be considered if A. I get clear evidence he has stripped the subcontinent or B. A limited operation to take either Madras or Calcutta by 1 Corps purely to open another front where I can deploy some of my surplus air units and only after I secure Malaya and destoy Palembang.

(I am attracted by a limited attack on one of these cities in the long term or even any city because from there I can base a Marine Para Bn with a PBY and Dakota Sqn and cause absolute mayhem for little or no cost)

For absolute clarity I am not proposing going near to India until after I secure Malaya, West Borneo and perhaps even Formosa its more in the nature of a long range raid to reduce PZB's VP total

p.s. Karachi and Bombay auto supply is allies only Japanese dont get it

ORIGINAL: Sneer

time . forces and delay to other operation are high and getting delayed reinforcements will not make this war shorter
only concetrated effort in cen pac and dei can do this
i agree with Andy that if india is left till now it should be as it is  without any further movement
maybe if he threaten malaya as he plans PZB will be forced to withdraw additional forces from india  - remember that with auto supply 3-4 japanese divisions that defend at Karachi are almost out of reach without really massive allied army and without karachi operation doesn't have ant sense

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

Sneer I agree with you India is very much a tertiary operation only to be considered if A. I get clear evidence he has stripped the subcontinent or B. A limited operation to take either Madras or Calcutta by 1 Corps purely to open another front where I can deploy some of my surplus air units and only after I secure Malaya and destoy Palembang.

(I am attracted by a limited attack on one of these cities in the long term or even any city because from there I can base a Marine Para Bn with a PBY and Dakota Sqn and cause absolute mayhem for little or no cost)

For absolute clarity I am not proposing going near to India until after I secure Malaya, West Borneo and perhaps even Formosa its more in the nature of a long range raid to reduce PZB's VP total

p.s. Karachi and Bombay auto supply is allies only Japanese dont get it

ORIGINAL: Sneer

time . forces and delay to other operation are high and getting delayed reinforcements will not make this war shorter
only concetrated effort in cen pac and dei can do this
i agree with Andy that if india is left till now it should be as it is  without any further movement
maybe if he threaten malaya as he plans PZB will be forced to withdraw additional forces from india  - remember that with auto supply 3-4 japanese divisions that defend at Karachi are almost out of reach without really massive allied army and without karachi operation doesn't have ant sense

If PzB hasn´t moved out a lot of supply then he has 1000000+ supply in India. All the supply you lost and all those ressource centers producing supply.

[ny59giants]

I know it doesn't help you, but in CHS v2.06, they just increased the production of F6F's from 144 to 230 per month. [:(]
86 more per month would certainily have helped.

[ChezDaJez]

p.s. Karachi and Bombay auto supply is allies only Japanese dont get it

Hi Andy,

I assume PzB has control of Karachi. Has that totally cut off all UK replacements? And if so, does that also negate any Brit fleet withdrawals or do you still get charged PPs for not withdrawing?

Just curious, but would an operation to retake Karachi be an option instead of a Ceylon operation after Malaya has fallen? I realize that might be but it could become a self-supporting one if the operation were successful. Wouldn't that open up UK reinforcements again? Or do you not need the forces?

Just a thought as that would really cause PZB headaches with a third front openng in his rear.

Chez

[soeren01]

Hi Andy,

 in my opinion you need to open up more fronts. So you can use your superior number of aircraft better. Fan out so you can launch more air attacks. If he defends, you destroy his planes. If he does not defend, you can hurt his troops or ships. Try to bomb everything everywhere if you have the airpower. You could take Columbo and mount an air campaign agains India from there. This threat will also force him to keep grund troops in India for Columbo may be the jumping point for an invasion. You do not single out a target, the US should have enough forces at hand to do several things at once. Go for his industrie and his mercahnt ships and everything else that comes to mind.  Put everyone of your airfields to use. Swamp him with airpower.

Soeren