Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T55 front lines. I'm still attacking trying to shove the Chinese back into India and it's not working out really well.
Thomas made some incursions across the river but I contained them. So far. And I've closed out north China as a field of
conflict. I've got about 5 or 6 tired divisions in the pool but they are so far not combat ready. They are my strategic
reserve I guess. The aircraft units are being worn down and they are all less than authorized numbers except for a couple
of exceptions. I've split up the fleet and I need to get it back together somewhere around PI. The war goes on.

[larryfulkerson]

Thomas landed at Palembang and captured it. Now I've got to land somebody behind him and take it away from him.

[larryfulkerson]

I saw some Allied ships near Palembang and I just happened to have some ships near Saigon so I drove down there and landed
adjacent to the Allied stack and even though I lost some ships I sank the Allied ships.

[larryfulkerson]

I got a division as reinforcements and I thought I'd have to fight my way ashore so I took the whole thing and invaded
Cebu and there was nobody home so I just drove into the port and everybody got off the boat. The coffee maker
was still warm.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T58 front lines. Thomas took Borneo back through some really good moves. Java is impregnable now. The Celebes
looks like it's the next battleground. I've got some Inf divisions that are going through their refit after re-spawning and they are
almost ready for use somewhere.

[larryfulkerson]

Take a look at Corregidor now. It finally looks like it's invadable. I'm going to take the division at Cebu to take Corregidor and replace
the division at Cebu with a regiment from Tokyo. He can finish his refit at Cebu. He's almost combat ready anyway.

Thomas tells me via an email that he tried to do a commando raid into Manila but miscalculated by not counting on the 6 BB's sitting
in the harbor. He ran into them and was slaughtered he says. I feel his pain.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's my strategic reserve. I've got three divisions going through refit at Nagoya and they will be combat ready in another couple
of turns. They are at 37% readiness as we speak. I haven't decided where to put them yet so for now I'll leave 'em there.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of my assault of Corregidor. It didn't go off without a hitch. I had some planes and 6 BB's participating and
they weren't listed in the combat results screen so I'm wondering what in the world has happened.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of my losses so far. I've circled the losses for MG guns because I'm wondering what in the world is happening to them
that there's so many losses. They are way past resonable.

[larryfulkerson]

Thomas did another one of those commando raids from Corregidor and a band of valiant Marines died. So this morning all I had to
do was walk ashore and change the locks. The lights were still on.

[thomasharvey]

The MG losses for the Japanese seem in line with the losses of the rifle squads. It is about 1MG per squad which is the equipment for the Japanese division. The difference is the MGs do not get replaced as fast as the rifle squads. The US made more MGs in ONE MONTH than the Japanese made in the entire war. So the limitations of Japanese industry is evident here.

We also need to pick up the pace on combat as the pools of replacements of nearly all equipment on both sides is too high. That will change once the Americans get some substantial aircraft assigned to the fronts. It is too costly to try and engage the Japanese without strong air cover.

I do have a general question of TOAW on this subject. With aircraft, sometimes the replacement pool is filled with plenty of aircraft of a given type but then will not replace an air unit of that type. It is just left eliminated and the equipment continues to build up. With the equipment in the replacement pools there should be NO Japanese or Allied aircraft still eliminated in this current scenario but there are. There is plenty of equipment to replace them. The problem gets worse if units are not replaced because less combat occurs to use them up and the pools bulge even more with additional unused equipment. Ground units do not seem to do that but air units do. At least that is my impression. Am I alone in this view? Anyone see similar results?

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: thomasharvey
The MG losses for the Japanese seem in line with the losses of the rifle squads. It is about 1MG per squad which is the equipment for the Japanese division. The difference is the MGs do not get replaced as fast as the rifle squads. The US made more MGs in ONE MONTH than the Japanese made in the entire war. So the limitations of Japanese industry is evident here.

We also need to pick up the pace on combat as the pools of replacements of nearly all equipment on both sides is too high. That will change once the Americans get some substantial aircraft assigned to the fronts. It is too costly to try and engage the Japanese without strong air cover.

I do have a general question of TOAW on this subject. With aircraft, sometimes the replacement pool is filled with plenty of aircraft of a given type but then will not replace an air unit of that type. It is just left eliminated and the equipment continues to build up. With the equipment in the replacement pools there should be NO Japanese or Allied aircraft still eliminated in this current scenario but there are. There is plenty of equipment to replace them. The problem gets worse if units are not replaced because less combat occurs to use them up and the pools bulge even more with additional unused equipment. Ground units do not seem to do that but air units do. At least that is my impression. Am I alone in this view? Anyone see similar results?

Um........I admit that I haven't been monitoring the replacement equipment pools all that closely. I'll keep an eye out. Say, one way
to fix part of this problem is to boost the replacement priority for some of the problematic equipment types.

Here's the Burma situation now. Thomas has been pushing his British and Indian units and now they have almost linked up Burma
with Malaya. My Malaya troops are out of supply and are forced to withdraw if they can. The situation is fluid.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the inventory for T61 alongside the inventory for T1 and I can see what you're talking about. Especially the horse teams.
I'm going to start training them for the calvary if they don't start being distributed out to the field units pretty soon. This image is
illuminating.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the face of Burma now. Thomas is really pushing the Brits and is pushing and shoving and has trapped some of my units.
They are out of supply and are doomed. Doomed I tell ya. It looks like Burma and Malaya are soon to be linked together. Thomas
says he's using up all the reinforcements he has in the pools before the new stuff starts to come out.

[larryfulkerson]

So far Thomas and I have been doing about 5 or 6 moves each per day. That's not too bad for two retired dudes.

[larryfulkerson]

Thomas invaded at Saigon. Complete surprise and this is a game changer. The Japs don't have a strategic reserve anymore and
there's no units available to do anything about it. I can at least sacrifice the fleet by thrusting them against the Allied ships.

[larryfulkerson]

I had some ships at Manila that were loitering around wasting their time so I thrust them at the Allied ships and the Allied planes sank
most of them before they got close to the area. And then I had some ships at Truk that weren't doing anything so I drove them over
here and actually got most of them adjacent to an Allied stack. This is the results of the meeting engagement.

[larryfulkerson]

I flew some Betty's into the AO from the SouthWest Pacific and did an airstrike and this is the results. I sank the CVE present.

[larryfulkerson]

Thomas has captured Bangkok and with it went all the supply for all my troops in Burma. I'm going to have to withdraw, that's obvious,
but it doesn't seem all that likely that I'll be able to restore the supply so it looks like it's curtains for all those troops. D'oh.

[larryfulkerson]

I was looking at the expected reinforcements just now and I noticed one due to spawn in a deep water hex and I'm wondering
if it will or not.