Groundhog Day! - No NJP

[Crackaces]

Your bagging of an AO has to slow down operations ...until fuel can be brought to the KB ..

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

Your bagging of an AO has to slow down operations ...until fuel can be brought to the KB ..

He could move oil from Balikpapan or Palembang and store it in or around Perth if he needed to. Then he could just run AO's from there.

I am not sure where the KB is however. If he wants to use it to cover the dark side of Australia, who am I to complain??

[Mike McCreery]

Several unescorted strikes wandered over Sydney. On the downside, he now knows I have managed to get P-40E's onto the mainland.

[Mike McCreery]

Subs havent done that great in this game. Most likely because NJP escorts almost all naval groups and has very good ASW in most locations. However, sometimes I get lucky!!

[Mike McCreery]

The captain of S-45 doesnt want to be shown up so he puts a torp into another transport.

[Mike McCreery]

And a third!!

These look like big juicy troop transports as well. Wonder if NJP was running supplies with them or if he planned on picking up troops from the base. There were no causalities so I am guessing the ships were not bringing reinforcements to the island.

[Mike McCreery]

After letting 3 ships get hit without reprisal, I wouldnt want to be the commander of the DD Oite right now....

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

After letting 3 ships get hit without reprisal, I wouldnt want to be the commander of the DD Oite right now....

[:D]
I'm sure they can find him a nice posting in Paramushiro Jima - Port Safety Officer maybe?

[Mike McCreery]

K-Gun fanboy baby!!

[Mike McCreery]

Australia June 1942

NJP continues to reinforce his position in Australia. Supplies are holding steady at over 1/2 million. He is not attacking with any troops to run me down. I expect a surprise attack at some point.

[Mike McCreery]

June 4, 1942

Singapore falls. The score is looking pretty grim for the Allies at this point.

If he manages to take Manila which is a no-brainer he will be over 4-1 by my calculation.

[Mike McCreery]

NJP again suggests that June & July will be busy months.

3DD's show up west of the line islands and a cruiser is spotted northwest.

We shall see what he has planned. I have forces on almost all of the line islands and am not going to run from this coming series of battles unless he has overwhelming forces.

[Mike McCreery]

June 14, 1942

Japanese ships continue to build up at Canton Island. Whether that is an attack preparation or just defense is not clear. Otherwise the map is quiet. If NJP has a huge surprise attack planned nothing is showing up on it yet. He has taken up defensive positions in India and I am just not having it. Time to start rolling around in the mud.

The Japanese are staked out at Tezpur in India and Rajshashi and Rangpur appear to be empty. I am moving 1000AV+ east to start messing with his forces. Also I have forces heading to both Rajshashi and Rangpur.

My goal ultimately is to cut the ledo rail line and deprive him of this oil. Also to pull forces from other areas and start dividing his concentration.

[BBfanboy]

I wonder if that comment was psy-ops to make you cautious while he reinforces his forward bases. He obviously knows you are getting the power to hit back.

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

I wonder if that comment was psy-ops to make you cautious while he reinforces his forward bases. He obviously knows you are getting the power to hit back.

He made the statement back when the game first started and has hinted at it ever since. One of the possible associated statements was that he felt like a python that had swallowed a cow (Singapore) and was digesting and it set his plans back a bit.

You are correct however. He is losing the ability to control the seas. And he has done a miserable job with the islands in the pacific. Tabituea is still Allied along with the Ellis islands and most of the dot bases in and around anything of worth in the pacific. He has lost his amphibious bonus so anything he goes after now must be planned in advance or I get bonus points for him killing troops at the beaches.

If he is going to go after Australia he is not strat bombing any cities or other areas. In fact I am starting to wonder if Australia is a ruse or he has changed plans.

There are over 1K troops on the move in India, there are 2K at Calcutta, 1K at Madras and there will be more on the way. I will be threatening Dacca within the next month. In the southeast pacific I am reinforcing and all the way along the south pacific I am building an air and naval bridge to Australia.

Sooner rather than later I will be able to force him to deploy the KB to face off against me and then he has to choose. Then I start taking him apart like last game.

The issue is whether he can throw that surprise punch between now and December and still grab the VP win. Both Melborne and Sydney are worth 2500 VP so it certainly is possible. By taking Manila he would be within 4-1 range but I hope to make serious progress in the next 6 month and eliminate the VP win for Japan.

I am planning some surprises for Australia.

[Mike McCreery]

Why my spider senses are tingling...

NJP is doing things differently in this game either as a surprise hook or maybe just trying to improve his game play.

I have not seen almost any of his battleships nor cruisers this game. There is one or more at Canton but they have not been used to bombard nor patrol. That is why I suspect some sort of large attack somewhere. He would need most or all of them intact for something like a grab at Pearl Harbor.

He has been real thorough in Australia to capture every base. I am now wondering if that is to simply reduce my visibility so I dont know that the bulk of his forces are not there. However, a tactic like this would be useless once discovered and thus NJP would lose at least 1500 VP's by me taking back Adelaide and Brisbane so it had better be something worth a greater value.

If Australia has never been his goal then the reason to attack with such vigor might be to cause me to move troops to that area away from a possible other target.

Right now many of my ships are in the yards for upgrades. This month over 450 ships could go in and already I have only 178 to go. I like keeping things as tight as possible as a flak upgrade might mean the difference between the life or death of a ship.

Really there is at least a month to 6 weeks before I can do any significant naval operations so I continue to spread out and gain strength.

[Mike McCreery]

A tour of the islands - June 14, 1942

Christmas Island...

[Mike McCreery]

Pearl Harbor

[Mike McCreery]

Hilo

I was concerned that he might make an attack on the Hawaiian islands so I built them up. If one comes now I have multiple airfields and good troop concentrations around them.

[Mike McCreery]

Kodiak...

Let him try ;]