A little background: I started playing the game about a year ago against the AI. After finishing that game, I looked for a PBEM opponent. I found an opponent, and we started a game last November. This opponent was not very aggressive: Singapore held out until late April (28th I think), and he had just started a second invasion of Java in July and ran into resistance. He felt the game was over at this point. I searched for another opponent to take over, as I really did not want to start back in December again and do the allied dark times again. Lowpe picked up the game, and has proven to be a worthy and much more aggressive opponent. What looked like an allied victory romp has turned into one disaster after another. Lowpe has an AAR he started when he took over. You can read it at tm.asp?m=3549450.
In an effort to catch up, in my next few posts, I'll detail the state of what I feel are the major theaters in this war. I'll start with a general overview here.
There are currently 3 theaters that are absorbing most of my time: NORPAC, Marshalls/Gilberts, and Burma. Java was also very active, but is dying down. In the north, I invaded Onnekotan-jima in August in an attempt to open another front for him to worry about. Initially it was successful, but now I'm considering this a failed invasion. I'll post more details in a follow on post, but much of the last months fighting were up here. I can't get air superiority or naval superiority to reinforce or even evacuate the island at this point. I'll leave a few forces in place to take advantage of a mistake if he makes one, but at this point I'm mentally cutting my losses.
Way back (I can't even remember when), I forced a sizable force onto Tabiteuea in the southern Gilberts (lost 2 old BBs doing it). I since spread out and built up and have size 5 airfields at Tabiteuea, Nonouti, and Tarawa. Makin Island was recently taken and just went to size 2 AF. Where the Kurils are a failure, I think the Gilberts are a success and plan to reinforce success over the next month or 2.
SOPAC has been a back water. I haven't devoted much in the way of resources here, and I don't think he has either. He owns the Solomons down to Lunga - and I have bases at Espiritu Santo, Noumea, and Port Moresby. I keep seeing hits that he is planning an attack at Noumea, but I think they are Kwantung Army formations (and Noumea seems to be a bit of a logistical stretch at this point). He could have bought them out, but my guess is he is trying to throw me off.
In the DEI I still hold Ambon, but can't really do anything with it. I also still hold Tjilatjap and Batavia on Java, but Batavia - but his forces can overrun me at will here. I recently evacuated the 6th and 7th Aussie divisions from Tjilatjap, and hope to attempt another run in the next few weeks.
China is a train wreck, and I just hope not to lose there. He is slowly pushing to Chungking. My strategy (if you can call it that), is to slow him down and wait for supplies.
Burma is controlled by him, except for Rangoon. It is here that I plan to focus on in the coming months. I've built large bases at Akyab, Cox's Bazar, Chittagong, Dimapur, Imphal and Calcutta. A recent air offensive has pushed his planes out of the Irrawaddy valley, and (for now) I have uncontested air supremacy. I've been moving US army forces into the region, and hope to start a general offensive in early December when the bulk of US combat power is in place.
The logistical war is not shaping up as I hoped. I have sent the bulk of my submarines to try to interdict his oil shipments back to the home islands. However, to date, I can't seem to find his supply routes. More on this war later.
As for the air war, I think he has to be hurting. I don't have anything to compare to, and I don't know how accurate tracker is (with FoW and all), but it seems like a lot. For what it's worth, the tracker loses I see each day seem to map up with what it looks like in the movies - and the movies seem to show my losses accurately (compared to the combat reports).
