Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

[Chattez]

Good work! It's the Nells and the Bettys that you will have to fear the most.

If they start taking heavy losses, that will a) make the Japanese player exert
more caution in using them at long range;
resulting in b) safer oceans for the allies.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a pure airfield attack by my ships at Tarawa:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of a one-dot attack by all my ships except for the BB's that are doing an airfield attack:

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Tom, new turn. Here's what happens when you stir up a hornets nest. Thomas sailed his entire fleet it seems, to
an intercept position complete with carriers and everything. I can't compete with that and need to retire ASAP. Tom said something
about heavy losses from his bombers when he did an air strike yesterday. I've lost a BB and there's some damage to the others.
Not worth the bombardment I gave Tarawa. Maybe I'll just do airstrikes for a while from a nearby island.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the damage done to the other BB's in the stacks that were attacked.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Tom, new turn. Here's the tactical situation. There's lots of Jap planes in the immediate area around Tarawa and
there's no element of surprise any more and Thomas is probably expecting me to pursue his singlet ships by driving into the
face of his air power. Therefore I think I'll decline to chase the Jap ships.

[larryfulkerson]

Some of my ships were interdicted sailing from Ceylon to Perth and damaged so I've parked them at Perth to heal. I've been watching
some of my other damaged ships and they are slowly regaining their strength. About 1% of damage removed per turn. Like that.

[thomasharvey]

I can see a lot of movement of allied ships and troops all over the map but when the replay is over they usually are not visible. I am glad when the Bettys and Nells can get in there as that is the main weapon I have.

If the Allies can build up their carrier forces enough to defend against them I will be finished. Land bases can help defend the US fleet once things get going for the allies.

I am waiting for the right moment to suicide my surface fleet into a massive fight to the death before the allied air power makes that impossible. I can't imagine trying to sail into the American fleet against clouds of sea interdiction torpedo and dive bombers. Nothing would get through. And that would be realistic. It will be like the death ride of the Yamato.

[larryfulkerson]

The Arizona got hit by Betty's and it's about as damaged as it can get without sinking. It's movement rate is 1 hex per turn now so
I guess I'll leave it where it is for a while. Maybe Tom will target it again and the problem will go away when he strikes again.

[larryfulkerson]

I've had the 12th Bomb group flying CS out of Port Moresby for a while now and it's lost enough airplanes that the squadron is
almost combat ineffective. The problem is that I'm not making any B-18's any more and there's only 1 on hand so this squadron
is about as full as it's going to get. It's probably only good for CS in China now. Or sea intercept at Midway or someplace.

[larryfulkerson]

I tasked the Commonwealth ships to do an airfield attack on Tarawa and I'm not sure the damage done is worth all the danger
involved in sailing into harm's way. I haven't lost any ships yet but I haven't returned to my port yet either.

[thomasharvey]

The Japanese are on the march into the Aleutians! Attu and Kiska have been taken with the rest of the Islands targeted. Will the Allied fleets defend US soil? The search aircraft were wiped out by the Zeros carried with the fleet carriers in the area. Now Japanese search aircraft and fighters are based on one of the islands with more on the way including the Bettys....

[larryfulkerson]

Thomas has invaded the Aleutians and has captured a couple of the islands already. I'm pretty sure he's going to go for the rest
of the islands too. I think maybe I should interveen a little bit. I see the presence of at least one CV and numerous ships. I'd best
take the entire fleet up there.

[larryfulkerson]

My ships were out of position being near Tarawa, so I wasn't able to get any ships up to the Aleutians yet and Tom has
captured another island just now. Watching the replay just now I've seen how Tom is moving his entire fleet up there.
Now that they are out of place, all being up north, I could pull off an invasion of Tarawa without any interference this time.

[larryfulkerson]

Tom has started to move between north and south China. He's threatening to cut off all of north China from its supply. D'oh.
I'll see if I can't find a trooper or two to send that way.

[thomasharvey]

A massive sea battle took place in the Aleutian Island chain. In the replay I observed many US Ships hit by sea interdiction and evaporated. Then there was some surface action as the allied ships closed for battle sinking a full division of Japanese troops still at sea along with some of their escorting ships. Then on the Japanese turn allied planes on sea interdiction hit and sank a Japanese CV. The Japanese surface fleet closed in on the only ships visible which were the Royal Navy ships. All of them were sent to the bottom for the cost of 6 cruisers and some destroyers for the Japanese.

No other ships were visible. It will be up to the US Navy to continue the battle on the next turn.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the screengrab I took when Tom was bombarding all the Commonwealth ships that pounded his ships in my turn. I think
there's a problem in that all those units that were killed during the playback at some point are invisible for the duration of the
entire playback. Maybe I should say something to somebody.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the face of Burma and south China now. The Japs are creeping to the west from the right side of this image and I need
to get some troops over there to stop them.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Dutch Harbor area now. Tom tells me in an email that he didn't see any American ships only the British ones. So I can
now drive them to safety. I also want to get my last carrier up here to sink a BB or two somehow.

[larryfulkerson]

New turn.........This is what Dutch Harbor looks like now. Those two ships are just about all that's left of the fleet. Besides the
broken ones healing in a port somewhere. So I estimate about a dozen ships left. And the Japs have at least two dozen.
I'll have to back off and wait for some reinforcements.