ORIGINAL: Macclan5
Well good luck and hit-em-hard as they say.
Its curious he is offering an invasion force (or misdirection feint) in Western Australia AND prepping for Lae (and dug in to fight supply and attrition in Burma).
I guess two divisions AND a tank brigade in Perth is considered more than a feint but...its troop levels he can sacrifice for an extended 1945 defense. Given the distances to organize a counter attack in Oz... it takes time.. and that could be his primary goal. Cut rail heads - cut supply lines via Perth....
He is clearly not going to surrender the initiative and dig in everywhere.
Nuisance 'roll the dice' landings to disrupt your SLOC or bog down advances 'prima face' appear to be apart of the strategy.
It's clear to me the Japanese adventure in Western Australia is being undertaken for a number of reasons:
1. Delay and push back my start line for any Java invasion based out of Australia.
2. Destroy Allied static and other forces caught in the net.
3. Garner strategic VP's destroying resource and industry centres.
This is exploiting the weak position my predecessor left in Australia. As I've mentioned numerous times, the bulk of the Australian forces were committed to a landward drive from Tennant Creek to Darwin, or fully committed in New Guinea. It took over a month for me to redeploy the units from Tennant Creek to a base with a rail line for redeployment. It turns out I didn't have enough time to shore up my position before the Japanese struck. I had plenty of air units, but not enough aviation support to go around, especially considering the number of aircraft committed to New Guinea and Northeast Australia. I just didn't have the troops or time to secure the west. I also had to protect the bases in the northeast from attack. Had Erik used his paratroops here early, he could have possibly wiped out huge numbers of aircraft at airbases with only a few base forces in defence.
I believe this is the last instance where I pay for my predecessor's dispositions. Had Australia been secured as it should have been, a Japanese offensive against Australia at this date could have been snuffed out pretty quickly. Instead, I either fight back and delay my offensive, or I just bend over and take the pain. I'm getting really tired of having had to bend over and take it so far. This sucks to give up free points, but at least the Rabaul offensive is mine and hopefully the turning point in the game where I can create my own path, rather than constantly in damage control for a situation not of my own making.
