War has come to the Pacific, and it's up to me to put down the tyrannical Japanese Empire. The war has been roaring for several weeks now and there has been a relatively small break in fighting since New Year's Eve has arrived. I have a fun surprise for him on New Year's day however...
Tone and I have already had a short 'testing match' before we agreed to a restart due to some issues with the mod we were using. My short analysis is that he is a careful, methodical, and logistical opponent who does his best to consolidate and protect his forces. I believe that he is not a big risk-taker and will try to seek decisive battle with my forces on his own terms. For him this mindset gives him certain advantages and disadvantages, and I plan to exploit the disadvantages.
Strategic Thoughts
For the first few months of the war I have/will be using deception more than firepower to slow down his advance. In our last game I was pursuing a fortress Java strategy and I think he picked up on the hints of what my strategy was. For this game I have been following the same expected pattern of a Java buildup and I think he might be taking the bait. I've also been slightly aggressive with my naval forces to keep him constantly guessing as to when I'll strike him next-- so far this appears to have slowed him down since he has been using heavier escorts and has not been fanning out into my territories as fast as he should.
Of course Fortress Java is not my strategy anymore. I've put my crosshairs onto an early buildup of Burma and the South Pacific. From these two arenas I'll launch my counterattack once the Japanese offensive runs out of steam.
The War's History
Pearl Harbor was raided, the Philippines is under siege, the Japanese army is rolling down the Malaya peninsula, a Japanese army is approaching the Burma border and the empty Solomons are being occupied by the marauding sons of the emperor. The soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allies are as furious as hornets and will fight a total war to crush the Dragonfly.
On land the losses have been relatively light since the best our soldiers' can do is fall back, consolidate, and dig in until the superior Japanese army bangs at their doors. In Malaya the Japanese are 1-2 weeks away from the outskirts of Singapore. In the Philippines the battle of Clark Field is beginning, Manila has been abandoned, and brave US and Filipino soldiers in the mountains of Malabay have engaged in an intense fight for the last week. In Burma a large Allied army is gathering at the border and is going to meet the Japanese advance head on.
In the air war the allies have lost over 400 aircraft and the Japanese have a 2-1 kill ratio with the ever fearful Zero dominating the skies. At Singapore drones of my Buffalo fighters were shot down as I desperately kept a CAP over my transports evacuating troops. In the Philippines the P-40 has been mauled badly but continues to make it's presence known. The PBYs of the Philippines are heroes after taking an attacking stance against Japanese shipping and warships-- the pilots have reported one heavy cruiser torpedoed, one light cruiser heavily damaged and expected to sink, one destroyer confirmed sunk, and one transport confirmed sunk.
Air Losses
The Buffalo. A pretty plane but not much good at fighting.
My Witptracker has been acting funky so I'll post a full sunk ships sit rep later. At sea the Allies have lost 53 ships and 17 ships are moderately to heavily damaged. The Japanese have a confirmed 20 ships sunk with at least a dozen ships damaged. The highlights:
At the Pearl Harbor attack one of my submarine captains won the medal of honor for putting a torpedo into the Kido Butai's mothership Akagi. I predict Akagi to be in the repair yard for maybe two more months which opens up windows of opportunity against a weakened Japanese carrier force. In the Pearl Harbor air strike I lost two battleships and one heavy cruiser. The other six battleships were badly damaged and most of the other ships at Pearl got off scot-free or sustained only minor damage.
Off the north coast of the Philippines a strengthened Force Z attacked the Japanese amphibious landings but ran into a major IJN battleship task force. The battleship Prince of Wales and light cruiser Dragon were lost but not after a heavy duel with the IJN battleship Yamashiro which also put her at the bottom.
Photo of Prince of Whales before the Japanese attacks
Near Saigon dutch submarines put a torpedo into both the escort carrier Hosho and light cruiser Kashii. Both ships should be out of action for quite some time.
As mentioned before the PBYs based in the Philippines have also torpedoed the heavy cruiser Maya, sunk the destroyer Natsugumo and put two torpedoes and one bomb into the light cruiser Oi. The latter is expected to sink unless a miracle occurs.
Off of Australia I made the unfortunate decision to send two heavy cruisers unescorted down the Australian coast towards Sydney. A Japanese submarine ambushed and sank the heavy cruiser Penascola who already had damage after a battle against an IJN amphibious landing around the Marshall Islands.
Now the war road is ahead, and a long road it will be.
