Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

[larryfulkerson]

I moved the Nates one island north and then moved in some more Nells and found out that the new Nells can reach all the way to
some juicy targets in New Zealand. This is good. I need to hang on to Noumea. I'm going to need to move a full division to
Noumea just in case. I've moved some units to the PI and some to the mainland already so I'm out of shipping for this turn. But next
turn I'm moving south some more and maybe doing some probes on the Fiji island group. Theater recon doesn't show much from
this range. Maybe if I put some of those cruiser spotter planes within range of the islands we might see something there.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what Port Moresby looks like as a target now. There's a fighter-bomber unit and what I believe is a spotter plane unit in
addition to the land combat unit(s) there. Instead of doing an airfield strike to delete the fighter-bomber group there I'll use some
bombers to attack the Allied land unit at Lae and escort them with fighters so that when the Allied fighter-bombers come up to
intercept I'll shoot them down.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved a CA with a spotter plane within range of Brisbane to see if we can spot anything. I tried to make the spotter plane exactly 14
hexes away so that the Allied spotter plane won't be able to see me. Well, now wait a minute. The range of the Jake, my spotter plane,
is 14 hexes but his spotter plane is probably a Kingfisher with a different perhaps longer range. I'm not aware of the range of the
Kingfisher so it's possible I'm still within his range. D'oh. I'll have to look into that.

EDIT: The range of the OS2U Kingfisher is 12 hexes so I'm okie dokie so far.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved a Betty squadron to an island in the Celebes and it has the range to target inside OZ and can reach some Allied Hvy
Bombers. So in round two I'll have to pay them a visit.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of a one-dot attack on the airfield at Kumming. A two for one kill ratio........not as good as I was expecting.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the result of an ill-thought-out airfield air strike on Port Moresby. I think maybe the Japs lost this one.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of an assault near Bangkok. I gained the hex. But in order to take advantage of it I need more people on
the ground there.

[thomasharvey]

The ground battles seem to be going OK. The Japanese should conserve their Bettys and their Nells because they are powerful torpedo bombers. Once you engage the allied fleets you will want a lot more of them. They should not be used without fighter escort as they go down easy to enemy fighters.

The allies just play for time and try to hold as well as the allies did. It is very early of course so it remains to be seen if the Japanese are going to take Indonesia and Singapore. The allies could just wait until 1943 and then roll forward. However, it is great if they can inflict a "Midway" defeat on Japan when the Japanese get careless with all the easy victories.


One thing that is important for the Japanese player. Try not to have troops evaporated on the mainland of Asia. When they get replaced they are in Japan and have to get shipped back. There is very limited shipping so that needs to be avoided.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie......Marcin sent me some more moves and I've watched the playback and stuff. Here's the Hong Kong area now. So far
I've been able to form a light screen and it seems to be able to hold back the Chinese pretty good but I'm expecting some more
Chinese to show up soon. I'm going to need some more people yet. I'd like to clear the rail and repair it so I can get connected to
the northern part of China. For shipping troops back and forth as needed.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the far north Allied lineup in the Aleutian island chain. In WITP-AE there's an incentive to take the northern route because the
USA is at the end of the chain and the chain is needed for supply and the ferry range of aircraft considerations. But in this scenario
there's no goal at the end of the islands. It's just a chain of islands out in the middle of nowhere. I can't think of a reason to go
north and expend energy to take the islands. At least taking the Fiji islands will have a strategic purpose. If I had the northern islands
I could..........what? I think I'll just keep an eye on them and let sleeping dogs lay.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Manila area now. I'm doing mop-up and attacking in several directions and chasing down partisans in the north. I'm
going to fly in some more bombers yet before the combats are executed and I'm hoping to get Manila cleaned up by another five
turns or so in order to facilitate the taking of the Java area. The Celebes are calling me and if I had more shipping I could have
already have grabbed Miri and Palembang and some of the coastal parts along the eastern Malaya coast. I've been toying with the
idea of fighting the Chinese and forcing them back into India in six months or so. Probably isn't doable. So I've got to grab the bridge
over the river Kwai and fixing it and then I'll need to ship in some more people to take Rangoon and parts north.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Bangkok area now. I'm still stuck in the mountainous section of the isthmus leading into Malaya and even though I dropped
some paratroopers to give us this small advantage I'm thinking now that I should have aimed for a section of the country south of
the mountains. Live and learn. I'm hoping I can save those paratroopers because they could come in handy in India.

[Chattez]

By all means take Fiji; if you can interdict the line from the US (Hawaii?) to Australia,
it will be impossible for American planes to fly in to reinforce Australia; and ground forces will have to sail a long, long way through Japanese waters to get there.

IOW, cut Australia off from the USA, and Australia will have only its own resources to fall back on for defense; and that's not very much.

Moreover, the allies will then have to expend a lot of time retaking those islands to reopen the
route to Down Under.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Chattez
By all means take Fiji; if you can interdict the line from the US (Hawaii?) to Australia,
it will be impossible for American planes to fly in to reinforce Australia; and ground forces will have to sail a long, long way through Japanese waters to get there.

IOW, cut Australia off from the USA, and Australia will have only its own resources to fall back on for defense; and that's not very much.

Moreover, the allies will then have to expend a lot of time retaking those islands to reopen the
route to Down Under.

In WITP-AE it's possible to interdict the flow of transports that carry fuel, supplies, oil, and resources and when OZ gets cut off it
really goes more or less defenseless. But in this scenario that's not possible and the flow of supply is more or less guaranteed to
continue flowing and I'll have to use some other ploy to invade and subdue the continent.

I've lost only three DD's so far. That's a ship every other turn or so.

[larryfulkerson]

Note to Thomas Harvey:
There's a CA in T5 that appears on the map in a particularly tricky position. Near Pearl. And there's all kinds of ships there lurking
nearby ready to jump me and so on. I hesitate to head south with the CA because that's the way most of the Allied traffic is heading.
So maybe we should change the spawn spot to somewhere else, I'd suggest closer to Tokyo.

[larryfulkerson]

I just found this stack of Allied ships and planes by accident and I'm guessing one of the Mavis squadrons has the range to see this
far south. I have a Mavis unit near Saigon and evidently it sees this far or maybe it's a different unit, I'll have to look into that. At
any rate I need to re-position the Nells and Betty's to get some cross-hairs on this juicy target.

[larryfulkerson]

I was wondering what difference it might make to get some DD's and CL's out doing light screen duty in a picket line. I've seen
Marcin moving his fleet and he moves more than one ship at a time whereas I move my ships one at a time. I'm wondering if
I can take advantage of that somehow. I'll have to think about it.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved a patrol unit to .........somewhere in the Celebes, I don't remember the name of the base. The point is that it has the range
to spy on that stack of Allied ships and maybe Marcin will keep them inside the range arc and I can make them a target sometime
in the future. Maybe during combat round two if there is one.

[larryfulkerson]

I found a Claude group near Tokyo that is on rest status because I figure the odds that that unit will have to scramble are low and that
leaving it on rest status will cause the proficiency of the unit to creap slowly upward. That's my theory. Anybody know for sure?
In WITP-AE you can put your squadrons on "rest/training" to cause them to benefit. I'm hoping there's something like that in TOAW.
I vaguely remember something about planes being on rest status and proficiency in the same sentence but I may be thinking of a
different game and misremembering again.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the situation in the south Pacific and the way I see it I have two ways to branch off now, SE to the Levu twins or S to New
Zealand. I've recon'ed the ports in New Zealand and I'm seeing lots of troops. I'm thinking it might be quicker and easier to take
down the Levu twins one at a time or better yet both together. This will help isolate OZ from being rescued from Pearl. I've seen
Marcin shippiing a lot of troops toward OZ and they are moving about 100 hexes per turn so it'll be only a turn or two before they
get within range of the ports of OZ so I expect I should move a lot of heavy iron toward Noumea pretty quick now.

EDIT: Marcin has assured me that he's not reading this AAR but even if he is, it's still just a playtest.