Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T7 and this is all that's left of the Phillippine Army. The Dutch are decimated also. The Chinese are still in the fight and
the Australians are ready for action. Thomas tells me he's going to go over to the defensive soon so I'm going to have to get my
ships and planes refit and filled up and get everything moving. I may have to make a multi-prong attack plan in order to keep
Tom guessing where the main blow is going to fall next. The obvious move is to take Wake island back. That's a given. But then
what? Maybe an attack on the mainland itself from Attu and Dutch Harbor.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the face of south China. The Chinese are doing their best to hold back the Japs and so far it's working pretty good. There
is still a lot of fighting going on, pushing and shoving and light probes. I'm not attacking at all because the proficiency of my
Chinese troops is in the mid-20's and the Japs are probably about 70 or so. Not good for attacking.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a zoomed out view of north China. This front is relatively stable and there's not a great deal of fighting going on. Tom is
rounding up my partisans and destroying them but I've taken pretty good care of his railroads. Also dropped a bridge or two.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the face of Burma now. Lots of pushing and shoving going on. Especially fighting over the bridge near Rangoon.

[larryfulkerson]

I beefed up Java a little bit by flying in some fighters and spotter planes. And some medium bombers. We're just about as ready
as we can get here.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a zoomed out view showing all the Jap conquests. It looks like Java might be next.

[Chattez]

Japan needs to take Mindanao.

Make sure you don't overload Java; because if Japan bypasses it, it can end up becoming the biggest
self-supporting POW camp in Asia...

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Chattez
Japan needs to take Mindanao.

Make sure you don't overload Java; because if Japan bypasses it, it can end up becoming the biggest
self-supporting POW camp in Asia...

I'm pretty sure Thomas isn't going to bypass Java. He's pretty detail oriented.

Here's how Singapore looks now. It was assaulted last night and again this morning and they are holding
up relatively well. It may last one more turn or so and then fold.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of an Allied air strike. I'm shooting down more Nates than P-40's I'm losing.

[larryfulkerson]

New turn. New moves. This is the face of China now. And Burma. And part of India. Etc.

[thomasharvey]

I like the sea interdiction feature as it allows a defense of the Empire with taking a few bases. If enemy ships want to enter the defensive zone they will be attacked. Then a massive counter strike will follow once the targets are identified. I look forward to going on to the defensive as it is costly doing all these attacks. At some point the attacks will fail due to allied resistance.

Java will be taken at some point to secure the southern flank. It might be a POW cage for Japanese troops because sea interdiction may cut them off some day.

In fact, it may be possible to cut off a lot of Japanese forces by the allies. For that reason maybe a house rule should be added to indicate units are not allowed to disband unless they are in Japan or India. That way there is no free ride out of a "sea pocket." They are still in supply but also cut off.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: thomasharvey
I like the sea interdiction feature as it allows a defense of the Empire with taking a few bases. If enemy ships want to enter the defensive zone they will be attacked. Then a massive counter strike will follow once the targets are identified. I look forward to going on to the defensive as it is costly doing all these attacks. At some point the attacks will fail due to allied resistance.

I like it too. I've been moving a lot of spotter planes to Java just to see if they really can spot and it turns out they can. And the
spotting costs planes but causes no damage to the Japs. D'oh.

ORIGINAL: thomasharvey
Java will be taken at some point to secure the southern flank. It might be a POW cage for Japanese troops because sea interdiction may cut them off some day.

Sounds good.

ORIGINAL: thomasharvey
In fact, it may be possible to cut off a lot of Japanese forces by the allies. For that reason maybe a house rule should be added to indicate units are not allowed to disband unless they are in Japan or India. That way there is no free ride out of a "sea pocket." They are still in supply but also cut off.

No disband unless in Japan or India, got it. I agree. Cool house rule.

[larryfulkerson]

I found a situation in south China where all my troops are at least 50% ready and have at least that much supply where they fill all
the requirements for me to apply some force somewhere. So I thought I'd try this one attack just to see if the flanking situation
helps like it's supposed to. I'll give you guys a full report. Lots of aircraft are directly assigned to this one.

[thomasharvey]

The float planes were designed to spot only with no firepower to really attack what they spot. They may get shot down but they spot the enemy. They all get replacements so they should continue in their mission for the entire war.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a close-up on the Burma situation now. I'm forming a line between the rivers and moving troops to Rangoon to hold back
the river crossers. All in all I think maybe the situation is stable for the immediate future. Maybe a couple of turns.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: thomasharvey
The float planes were designed to spot only with no firepower to really attack what they spot. They may get shot down but they spot the enemy. They all get replacements so they should continue in their mission for the entire war.

Yeah, I thought I'd better take a look at that and here's what I found:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's how Singapore fare's now. The Allied defender there is just about out of ammo so to speak. I think maybe one more
determined attack by the Japs will do it. Tom tells me via email that his Singapore assaults are very costly affairs. I believe it.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Rabaul area now and I see some Jap ships starting to sniff around and I'm watching closely to see if I can find some way
to make hay with his moves. Not yet. I gotta see the correct opening and not just a bait and switch ploy by Tom. He's crafty.

[larryfulkerson]

To better keep an eye on those two Jap ships near Rabaul I moved a PBY unit to Port Moresby. The search arc covers them
nicely. He may have some more ships near there too.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's Java now. I've moved in some fresh spotter planes to replace the worn out ones that were here and I've flown in three
P-40 squadrons to try to dissuade those Jap paratroopers parked just to the north. What could happen is that those paratroopers
split up into three of them and then they drop individually on Java's airfields and then the Japs flood in with aircraft and meanwhile
invasions are going on at at least one port to gain a foothold and voila.......they get ashore a lot easier.