A Road Less Travelled

[Quixote]

February 12th, 1942 *




(*An historic day for Japan)

[Cap Mandrake]

It must be very satisfying to be the Head of Diego Garcia!

Sure, Singers is nice but Diego Garica is sublime this time of year before the sand fleas hatch,

[Quixote]

February 11-17, 1942

India - Along with conquest of Addu Atoll, Madras was taken by the Imperial Guards in an amphibious operation on February 14th. Further east, the Allied remnants from Calcutta and Diamond Harbor are completely wiped out by bombers and tanks, and Dacca is captured on the 17th. Near Bombay, Cannonfodder finally got a unit to Goa to probe the Japanese base there. As there were only 50 or so Japanese troops left at the base, Goa was predictably recaptured.

Burma - Meiktila and Magwe are taken. Oil facilities at Magwe are completely intact.

Sumatra - Cannonfodder had turtled up at Sabang, which at AF1 wasn't a threat offensively, but was a great place to base Allied search planes to spot what was heading into and out of the IO. Since it was about time for the IJN carriers to leave the IO, and since I didn't want Cannonfodder to see them doing it, Sabang was taken on the 11th. Most of the Japanese CVs began transitting the Straits towards Singapore the following day. Kaga and one CVL were left behind. They were sent to Columbo to be spotted (already done), and to keep him guessing.

Java - Nothing exciting, but the march north (west) continues. Semerang and Djakarta are now Japanese.

South Pacific - Cannonfodder ran another one or two surface/bombardment groups into the Efate/Luganville/Noumea triangle. No surface combat took place, and the lone bombardment (at Efate) was largely ineffective.

It must be very satisfying to be the Head of Diego Garcia!

Sure, Singers is nice but Diego Garica is sublime this time of year before the sand fleas hatch

Diego Garcia - Sunny and warm [:)]. (and very few sand fleas...)

[zuluhour]

Quixote, Have you ever heard of SP (as in a sch. in Md.)

[Quixote]

ORIGINAL: zuluhour

Quixote, Have you ever heard of SP (as in a sch. in Md.)

If by sch. you mean school, then I assume you're talking about St. Paul's? If so, then sure I've heard of it. I knew one or two girls who went there back in the day (though for me "back in the day" is now getting to be a long while back...)

[zuluhour]

'78. Your avatar was our year book cover in like '76 or so.[;)]

[Quixote]

ORIGINAL: zuluhour

'78. Your avatar was our year book cover in like '76 or so.[;)]

I've always liked that sketch. (And you have a terrific memory if you still remember what was on the cover of a yearbook back in the 70's. I frequently forget what I had for breakfast by noon...)

[Quixote]

February 18-26, 1942

China - Japanese troops are one hex from Hami up north with no resistance left in sight. In mid and south China, the reorganization is almost done. Round 2 should start in 3 or 4 more turns.

Phillipines - The first attack at Clark went off at 1-1 (not bad), but failed to reduce the forts (only level one, but they stayed at level one despite ample combat engineers. ) Two or three more turns and we'll try again.

India - More very modest expansion. No blitzkrieg here. I don't really plan to take much more in India (and nothing else with a garrison requirement), but I don't want it to look like I've stopped expanding quite yet. I do plan to invest all of northern Burma from the Calcutta side, though.

Indian Ocean - Just to keep Cannonfodder honest, the Kaga paid a visit to Karachi (came close to paying a visit, anyway.) The Japanese CV TF got within 17 hexes before spotting a convoy outbound from Karachi to Aden. At that point a fair number of Allied xAPs found their way to the bottom of the sea, and Kaga showed up spotted. Would have been nice to have hit the convoy on its way in, but the overall result wasn't bad, and this should make him more hesitant up there going forward.

[zuluhour]

Still reading both and I must say you guys went to the cool school of AAR graphics. Kudos. Easy, easy to follow and fun. Interesting IJ garrison requirements, I saved for future. It also made me sand box the Australian requirements as that is of pressing concern to me.[;)]

ps. In regards to my memory, it seems there are very detailed portions and vast gaps.[:D]

[Quixote]

ps. In regards to my memory, it seems there are very detailed portions and vast gaps. [:D]

It's too early in the morning in Maryland to be drinking and laughing out loud, but I'm doing both at the moment.[:'(]

[Quixote]

March 1-6, 1942

Phillipines - Clark falls with the usual massive Allied casualties on March 5th. Down to just Bataan now. IJA troops started the march to Bataan on the 7th.

India - Two or three more small bases taken, one towards Delhi, the rest towards the oil at Ledo.

South Pacific - Japan has been heavily reinforcing the Efate/Luganville/New Caledonia triangle this week. While he never actually spotted them, I'm guessing Cannonfodder still knows that a good part of the KB is present since every one of his (many) subs in the area were spotted by dive and torpedo bombers over two or three turns.

Java - The Dutch are down to the five western-most bases. Japan now owns two thirds of the island.

China - Reorganization for Phase Two completed on March 3rd, and the troops started rolling again the next day. It's still too early to count chickens perhaps, but both new offensives look to have caught Cannonfodder at least somewhat by surprise. See below.

[pontiouspilot]

I have been following both AARs....I'm trying to figure how I would as Allies cope with this!

I take it from your comments above you are not going after Karachi or bombay. Why stop, from your perspective?

[Quixote]

I take it from your comments above you are not going after Karachi or bombay. Why stop, from your perspective ?

You are correct. I don't plan to take (or try to take) either Bombay or Karachi. It may still be possible to take one of them at this point, but not both. Without both though, I don't think it's worth the investment. Taking just one right now (Bombay) would be expensive and time consuming, and even if I succeeded I might not be able to hold it until autovictory in 1943. Unless you commit to parking the KB in the Indian Ocean for the rest of the year, you can't prevent Allied buildup from getting through (and if the KB did stay here, how long do you think Japan would hold places like Noumea, Luganville, Wake, etc?) With the position I have now, I can still reinforce Madras and Calcutta without interference from the Allied navy (lots of torpedo-carrying Netties on Ceylon make sure of this.) Any fighting will take place over my bases, not his, so pilot losses should work in my favor. Tojos should be flying by the time he tries pushing, so I don't think there's any way he can get even local air superiority over me in 1942 here. Without any Allied air or naval support, I don't think he can take either city back. In this situation, he almost has to clear out Ceylon first. It's my goal to make that a very expensive thing to do. As for why I'm not taking the rest of India, that's simple. If I took it, I'd have to garrison it.[:(] Look at the garrison requirements not just for the picture I posted above but for the whole country, and you'll see what I mean.

[pontiouspilot]

I agree. I do think MKB is enough to keep buildup well checked. I take an MKB to be as good as the Brit carriers available until '43.

[zuluhour]

Quixote, your a monster.[;)]

[Quixote]

I agree. I do think MKB is enough to keep buildup well checked. I take an MKB to be as good as the Brit carriers available until '43.

I haven't seen an Allied carrier yet this game, Brit or otherwise. For all I know he could be operating them all together in the Central Pacific, or have the Brits pulled back to Capetown. If they were all at Capetown right now, that could interesting, but you're right - I don't really have to worry much about the Brits by themselves quite yet.

Quixote, your a monster.[;)]

Rawr. [:)]

[Quixote]

March 7-10, 1942

India - Cannonfodder seems resigned to Japan grabbing anything they want here right now except for major cityies, so not much is being defended. He did move in hordes of Blenheims to bomb and harass the lead elements, though, and they've been busy the last couple of days. I'm going to cap an advance along a rail line in northern India next turn, since he's been sending the bombers in without escort thus far.

China - The reorganization seems to have worked nicely. Both new offensives appear to have taken Cannonfodder by surprise. Realizing that his forces were likely to be trapped there, Cannonfodder began pulling out of the Changsha area on March 8th. Changsha is now an open city.

[Quixote]

March 7-10, 1942

South Pacific - Cannonfodder hadn't tried a bombardment or a surface raid down here in two or three weeks. On March 8th, he changed that by sending a detroyer squadron into Luganville. His TF was spotted approaching, so Japan cleared out everything but the covering force and waited. Got an even better result than I expected. Ashigara will need a little yard time, but otherwise a clean sweep.

[zuluhour]

Bad Cannonfodder [:D]

I've had good success at night thus far in my current game. Only losing one contest due to a direct hit to a magazine on the Australia in the opening salvo. The Long Lance really came through for you here. If the IJN fires a dozen I usually see one hit. That result would hit me hard as I really crave destroyers for all kind of duties throughout 1942. Ramble ramble...

[Quixote]

March 11-16, 1942

India - I overextended a bit, and Cannonfodder made me pay for it. The Japanese regiment that captured Benares had been repeatedly bombed by Blenheims (my LRCAP did succeed in shooting down a bunch of Blenheims, but not before they disrupted the heck out of that regiment), then he sent in a Brit armor unit to cross-river shock. Japan was sent packing with its mangled regiment, and Benares retaken by the Allies. Even if I don't plan to hold any of this area, I'll still have to commit a bit more in the way of air and ground here to prevent this from happening again. Good play by him.

South Pacific - Having noticed a lot of activity and multiple Allied TFs at Norfolk Island, the KB decided to pay a visit. The Allies lost a few more cruisers and destroyers, but nothing essential. (Cannonfodder seems to be taking it in stride. Zuluhour may be crushed by the news, though. [:'(]) I was hoping for troops, or one of the old BBs from Pearl, but no dice.

China - The entire Changsha pocket is now Japanese, and the rout continues westward from the pocket. Cannonfodder was forced to pull back the large stack blocking the Ichang-Changsha road, so Japanese forces are advancing along this axis now, too. In the mountains by Sian, the single Japanese division left to block in the mountains held against an attack by 3000+AV worth of Chinese troops. (He did pull off a 1-1 though, so I may reinforce just a bit.)