Racing the Sunrise: RA 4.0--Japanese Side

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Watching with interest, John. Good luck. Like Dan, I think that Oz is takeable, but, to quote Band of Brothers, speed is the key.

How about Sir Brian Horrocks of 30th Corps "speed is the VITAL factor!"

[John 3rd]

As an additional issue/concern I have is this landing MUST be made BEFORE the April 1st deadline. If I have to have my troops PLAN for the Invasion then Allied intelligence will certainly pick-up on it and then the game is up. How can I land prior to the 1st?

I DON'T KNOW!

This will be interesting...

[Cribtop]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Watching with interest, John. Good luck. Like Dan, I think that Oz is takeable, but, to quote Band of Brothers, speed is the key.

How about Sir Brian Horrocks of 30th Corps "speed is the VITAL factor!"

Yeah, but he LOST (loved the book and movie though). I was trying to send out some of that special clean cut Captain Winters mojo. [:D]

[John 3rd]

How do I get to Australia by April 1st? Thoughts:

1. In thinking on the problem perhaps the real thought here is to simply land enough troops in the Philippines to force a retreat into Bataan and then pullout all but a minimum of troops to hold there. One of the biggest problems I harp on Allied players is that they Sir Robin or immediately begin RUNNING away before seeing how serious an attack is. If Lew immediately falls back to Clark and Bataan I ought to force a retreat by a 3 division attack. Once this occurs I pull out two ID and transport them to Noumea for the big landing.

2. Malaya currently has 5-6 ID assigned to it. Perhaps I follow the same strategy. "Ride like Hell" down the west side and crossover to Singers as quickly as possible while withdrawing an Inf Div at the last moment to gear up for finishing Java and then landing at Geraldton. Finishing Java liberates the 4th Inf Div for use at that point. Already have the 33rd Inf Div assigned to Australia. This will make three Inf Div attacking the western side. If I toss in a Brigade or two then this should provide enough concern for Lew to move troops up. The landing at Geraldton is the key to forcing that.

3. I should have time to buyout 2 Inf Div from China/Manchuria and ship them (high speed APs) to Noumea. I'd now have 4 ID--at a minimum--in Noumea.

4. There will be two Brigades available after I capture Noumea (South Seas and Imperial Guards) and they can be used to land at Cairns to draw troops north.

Thinking:
1. Land in NW Australia by January 1st.
2. Land in Geraldton and Cairns by Feb 1st
3. Smash into Sydney by mid-March

This could be a plan. Course George Armstrong Custer ALSO had a plan. That didn't work out tooooo well. well...actually it worked out GREAT for Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse!

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Watching with interest, John. Good luck. Like Dan, I think that Oz is takeable, but, to quote Band of Brothers, speed is the key.

How about Sir Brian Horrocks of 30th Corps "speed is the VITAL factor!"

Yeah, but he LOST (loved the book and movie though). I was trying to send out some of that special clean cut Captain Winters mojo. [:D]

Cribtop: I TRULY appreciate the good Spirit there! What a man and leader he was. Sad to say 'was' now...

[Cribtop]

Thanks, John. Winters was the man. In my application for Wife of the Year award, I have to nominate my redhead for buying the BoB DVDs, watching them with me and liking it so much that she now regularly watches real war movies with me, AND throwing in a picture of the Market-Garden jump with Wild Bill Guarnere's autograph.

As for your plans, I'd say "soft Luzon" is essential. The idea of a "soft Singapore" is unusual, but probably fits the bill given the need to land with the bonus. You are not kidding when you claim to be aggressive. [:D]

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Thanks, John. Winters was the man. In my application for Wife of the Year award, I have to nominate my redhead for buying the BoB DVDs, watching them with me and liking it so much that she now regularly watches real war movies with me, AND throwing in a picture of the Market-Garden jump with Wild Bill Guarnere's autograph.

As for your plans, I'd say "soft Luzon" is essential. The idea of a "soft Singapore" is unusual, but probably fits the bill given the need to land with the bonus. You are not kidding when you claim to be aggressive. [:D]

My wife, the ever-lovely Paula, loves the Band of Brothers DVDs. We've probably gone through them at least twice and perhaps three times. We've The Pacific and I've watched it. Sorry to say it didn't connect with me like BoB. Still fascinating but not as riveting. Sounds like your redhead is a classy dame who knows what her man likes!

Pulling troops from Singapore could be dangerous but it might be needed to achieve the goal.

(While typing the BoB opening music just started: LOVELY!)

To do all this lifting, I will have to immediately convert a number of AK into transports. This will raise the capacity but also raise the stakes on protecting them.

Still keep coming back to fuel...and real concerns there...

[ny59giants]

Fuel - stockpile at Soerabaja (maybe Broome once built up) and either Rabaul or Noumea.

How many troops will be going to Burma?? He will get those "Emergency Reinforcements" once you land on either side of Sydney. They will take about a month to get from Aden to the India/Burma front, but will not need PP to be bought out and if Lew continues to be aggressive try to hit you hard here while you are in Australia. This will require a balancing act to ensure you can "hold until relieved." A quote form the movie, "The Longest Day" from the commander of the 6th British Airborne. [;)]

[pws1225]

Newb question for you here (coming out of your April 1 deadline for Australia): I'm in my first PBEM game as Japan and have up through March '42 not prepped any units for their targets out of fear that SigInt will give away my planned targets. Now that I'm into April, prep is vital, but exposes by plans to my adversary through SigInt intercept. How do you balance gaining proper preparation with masking the Allies ability of picking up on your intended targets? Am I giving Allied SigInt too much credit?

[John 3rd]

Hey Michael. Wondered where you've been today?

Burma is a major concern. There is--precisely--ONE Inf Div heading there. Won't be enough. Maybe a can 'fake' a strong invasion there if needed...

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: pws1225

Newb question for you here (coming out of your April 1 deadline for Australia): I'm in my first PBEM game as Japan and have up through March '42 not prepped any units for their targets out of fear that SigInt will give away my planned targets. Now that I'm into April, prep is vital, but exposes by plans to my adversary through SigInt intercept. How do you balance gaining proper preparation with masking the Allies ability of picking up on your intended targets? Am I giving Allied SigInt too much credit?

Great question. If you KNOW there will be resistance then you had better prep. I did this in my 3.0 Game last year and it caused my invasions to be spread out by a period of about 6 weeks. Since I was down in the area then it wasn't that big of a surprise, however, you do run the risk for the opponent finding out. An excellent way of dealing with this is to FLOOD intell with units prepping for all sorts of phony locations to make your opponent wonder just what is real and what is not.

[AcePylut]

ORIGINAL: pws1225

Newb question for you here (coming out of your April 1 deadline for Australia): I'm in my first PBEM game as Japan and have up through March '42 not prepped any units for their targets out of fear that SigInt will give away my planned targets. Now that I'm into April, prep is vital, but exposes by plans to my adversary through SigInt intercept. How do you balance gaining proper preparation with masking the Allies ability of picking up on your intended targets? Am I giving Allied SigInt too much credit?

Flood their sigint. Set large number of static units stuck in places (like Manchuria) for long times to "plan" for faraway places.

[John 3rd]

We're ON. MichaelM fixed the file so it is PBEM. THANK YOU!

File sent to Lew and we are now STARTED...

[pws1225]

Excellent!

[FatR]

Good luck to you John. I don't think anyone has attempted a total conquest of Australia in AE so far, so it'll be interesting to watch this campaign unfold.

On houserules - this comment might be too late, I prefer not to HR fighter altitude. Interplay of MVR bands mostly reflect RL dynamics between various planes pretty well, just absolute numbers are off. Well, the major exception is that B-29s are not particularly hard to intercept, but those are B-29s we're talking about. Unless commanded incompetently, they will kick Jap ass anyway.

Also, A6M4 should be non-carrier-capable anyway, unless you've changed them since I last saw the scenario files. Neither A6M3b. A6M3 was such IRL.

[John 3rd]

The Bombs and Torps have fallen and war is commenced. It was a rather lackluster turn. Nothing terrible and nothing to write home about. Will do the full description later tonight.

[seille]

Good luck with your plans, John. Can´t await to see how the australian adventure works [:)]

[John 3rd]

...I FINALLY found a Presidential Candidate I can vote for!

[John 3rd]

Just played out Dec 8th and found the USS Pensacola. The Chokai and 2 DDs got a chance to some target practice. So much for the Americans getting an extra CA in the DEI!

Just to note that my weekends are generally devoted to work and family so I Post very little on Sat-Sun. Will have the time to get back on for a full, detailed description of Dec 7th and the 8th tomorrow morning...

[traskott]

Suscribed !!!