ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
Yay internet!
Yeah. Others may disagree with me because it diverts forces from being available to defend western Australia, but I assign the utmost importance to Noumea. I was able to successfully defend it in one of my games, and in the other my opponent didn't even make it down to Ndeni. In my own game as Japan, I went for it just about right away.
Luganville and Efate do have nice Japanese multipliers, and are perfect examples of bases you need to take away from him if he builds them (I don't, at least not to something large - eventually you'll lose them as Japan). If you hold Noumea, you can force a battle here where the strategic considerations are in your favor. As you say, SOPAC is at the end of a very long SLOC for Japan. The nearest place that provides even a modicum of repair is Truk, and the nearest shipyard is where - Manila? Soerabaja, maybe? That's a long ways. You've got a nice medium-size shipyard at Sydney (and another one at Auckland), so only your Lexingtons and BBs have to go back to Hawaii for major repairs. Likewise, you should have large fuel stockpiles in Australia or New Zealand (or Noumea or Suva) while he has to haul everything from the SRA, or worse, from Japan itself.
In my Allied game, I sent reinforcements right away to Luganville and Efate (from Australia), figuring that the second wave would go to Noumea. I'm not sure if I would do it the same way again - maybe. Noumea isn't worth much to Japan if the Allies hold airfields at Luganville and Suva. For one thing, it's nearly impossible to get fighter support down there that early as airfields aren't built in the Solomons yet. If you can't transfer to Luganville, you may not be able to get the Zeroes to Noumea unless you bring them in by ship...
I've got lots of thoughts about SOPAC. I like playing there on each side, as I'm sure all of my opponents have figured out by now [;)]. It's a very interesting theater.
I would love to hold on to Noumea but its a nervous place to defend. All he has to do is bring down the KB, a couple of BBs and 2-4 IDs and could do nothing to stop him. My worry with that would be losing irreplaceable troops. He could do that quite late into the game if he wanted.
Same is true for Suva and New Caledonia as well. Do I put my defense up here and risk losing the troops. Or do pull back and invade later if he takes them? Invading later can´t be done with KB there though.
Tough call!
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