Need Help witp pbem game (No Gaspy)

[Rapunzel]

My Opponent (Japan) and I have a fierce battle about noumea. The first attack about 1 game month ago i could repulse. Intel picked up information, that my opponent has reinforced Koumac with at least 2 divs and 1 unit of combat engineers.



This is my Noumea garrison. Like you see there are several high quality troops witch I do not like to lose.







Problems:

a) My Opponent has at my best guess about 2000-2500 av on the island.
b) I can not supress both airfields. The close one to Noumea is not operational now.
c) If he built up Koumac (lvl 7 airfield possible) and bases bettys there I have servere difficulties to resupply Noumea. He seems to have hordes of engineers at both bases.


Possible actions:

a) further reinforce Noumea ( 1 have one more us divs 5 days out and about 5 arty units 15 days away)
b) Evacuate the quality troops as fast as possible....

What would you advise me?

[Graymane]

Not sure, depends on what your other areas look like. What does NG/Solomons look like? Burma?, Central Pacific? etc. Where are your carriers? You are almost at the point where your carrier planes can do some damage. You might not be able to beat KB, but I bet you could hurt it with some LRCAP from land based fighters to help out. Concentrate your forces and make him pay. KB can't hang there forever. Start doing naval bombardments on those bases and eat up his supplies. I'd have to check the map, but I think B-17s from Oz could hit Koumac.

If it is just too much in that area, you need to concentrate your forces and hammer him somewhere else, like the central pacific. If that draws the KB, you can the either reinforce or evac.

[Rapunzel]

Well the Japanese have conquered everything japan historical did. Only Timor is missing. PM is still in my hands too. My CVs are at pearl getting upgrades. These will be ready in about 10 days. Than I will have 7 CV (2 brit) ready for aktion. I am still low on escorts at the moment (upgrades takes much longer). The problem is, that I have very few transports on PH left for further invasions. Everything is concentrated around Noumea. Burma is under full controll of japan. My troops are massed in India. I guess there are massive supply problems If i try to invade through the trails... .

I tried to brake the kb cap with my Noumea airforce and failed badly. The stacking limit limits me quite much (low plane bomber groups). My taktik is now to sweep koumac to shoot down leaking carrier cap. Last turn I lost 8 to his 7 planes.

[Caliban]

Rapunzel---

'HOLD FAST"!

Caliban

[Lecivius]

Is Suva built up to lvl 6 so you can operate B17's?  They can hit from that range.

[khyberbill]

I agree. You have good armor and artillery there to hammer any further attacks. Koumac is at the end of a long supply chain for him, concentrate your subs there to ward off KB and sink transports. You might even mine the harbor. Keep bombing the port/airfield at Koumac, if he is repairing that damage he isnt building forts or airfields. Reduce your excess capacity of a/c in Noumea to surrounding airfields and then cycle them in and out to rest. Consider building up Efate. I would get more supply into Noumea and perhaps more armor/artillery the next time KB leaves to refuel.

Start pushing back in India. Use your Indian troops to take land and the Brits and Aussies to hold it, the Indians get enough replacements. Flesh them out in Calcutta and start attacking. Attacks will consume his supply. If you decide against building up Efate then consider an advance in SRA using Timor.

You have an interesting challenge with lots of options.

[Graymane]

You also might want to think about a surface group action against KB. If it is that close, you can run out and hit it at night and be back before day. Air TF are not invincible and if you have a fast surface TF, cruisers, BB, etc, you can hurt it.