General Patton vs. larryfulkerson Focus Pacific #75

[larryfulkerson]

At Aparri I've formed a sort of land-TF and they are marching to the next city along the road to Mainila. The next city is code named
TugYourGarden and is garrisoned by one unit and that's not much compared to the mob that's headed it's way. This shouldn't take
long. I'm not trying to move the unit out of the hex so much as trying to destroy the unit in place. Should I bombard a lot first or just
do a shock attack and maybe that will kill it?

[larryfulkerson]

Brian had a boat-load of ships at Manila and Hong Kong and he's timed the release of them so that they would all move roughly at the
same time same rate in different areas of the map in at least six different groups and I'm trying to chase them down with several small
SCTF's. A lot of them have a good chance of getting away. I'll have to chase them to Balikpapan or further.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Global page of the Industry tab of Tracker and from what I can see it all looks pretty good. I'm optimistic.

[larryfulkerson]

I went through the aircraft and made a list of what I'm building and then matched those airframes with the engine for it
and made a list of those then cancelled the production of rare airplanes ( Topsy) and cancelled production for that
engine ( Ha-5 ) and so now I'm making engines for just those planes I'm making. I'm concentrating on Zero's and Betty's.

[ny59giants]

Transport planes:

IJA: Topsy I to Topsy II to Helen

IJN: Tina to Mavis to Tabby to Emily

You kept the Thalia vs the Topsy. Why??

[ny59giants]

Air Production (Part 1):

I don't have more than ONE factory producing an airframe except for the two Oscar models and Liz (I'll change one over eventually). Here are mine as of early Feb 42.

[ny59giants]

Air Production (Part 2)

R&D - I would focus on what to build in '42 and '43 first and foremost. The big thing is getting next generation fighters ASAP. Except for the Helen in Apr '42, the only R&D that has more than one factory right now are fighters. They are size 30 unless they start out larger. Tojo has 4 x 30 and George has 3 x 30.

[ny59giants]

Free Divisions - Next assignment is to break down what you are doing with your four Army - 14th, 15th, 16th, and 25th. For me ....

14th Army: Luzon
65 Bde, 48th ID, 16th ID, 20th ID

15th Army: Burma
33rd ID, 55th ID

16th Army: Sumatra
2nd ID, 38th ID

25th Army:
Imp Gds ID - Java
5th ID - Singapore
56th ID - Mindanao
18th ID - Balikpapan

Southern Army:
4th ID & 21st ID - Java

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Transport planes:

IJA: Topsy I to Topsy II to Helen

IJN: Tina to Mavis to Tabby to Emily

You kept the Thalia vs the Topsy. Why??

I kept the Thalia instead of the Topsy because I don't know the Jap planes all that well and guessed at the right one to produce and
obviously guessed wrong. I can change it back, change the Thalia to a Topsy.

[larryfulkerson]

I don't have more than ONE factory producing an airframe except for the two Oscar models and Liz (I'll change one over eventually).

Is there a problem with more than one factory producing the same plane? I can see using just one factory to produce all the planes
of that type if you have lots of different types you're producing, but I was trying to concentrate on the Zero and the Betty and only
produce something else because it's already being produced and changing it would cost supply. I'm playing this game by the seat
of my pants making all kinds of mistakes but I'm learning. Thanks to your help I'm going to try to give Brian a good game.

[larryfulkerson]

R&D - I would focus on what to build in '42 and '43 first and foremost. The big thing is getting next generation fighters ASAP. Except for the Helen in Apr '42, the only R&D that has more than one factory right now are fighters. They are size 30 unless they start out larger.

That makes sense. Sounds good. I'll fix what I'm doing so as to comply with this policy

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Free Divisions - Next assignment is to break down what you are doing with your four Army - 14th, 15th, 16th, and 25th. For me ....

14th Army: Luzon
65 Bde, 48th ID, 16th ID, 20th ID

15th Army: Burma
33rd ID, 55th ID

16th Army: Sumatra
2nd ID, 38th ID

25th Army:
Imp Gds ID - Java
5th ID - Singapore
56th ID - Mindanao
18th ID - Balikpapan

Southern Army:
4th ID & 21st ID - Java

Sounds like you are all organized and are executing a plan for all those places. I'm not in the habit of having that degree of prior
planning and it sounds like I need to get into the habit of planning better than I do. I have no idea where those divisions are and
what they are doing. I'm mostly trying to flow like water into the areas of least resistance and use what divisions are nearby and
handy. I've been playing too much TOAW and have made some bad habits. I'll take a look around and make a list of what
mine are doing and post it like you have above.

[ny59giants]

Remember, I'm post capture of Singapore. You should have 25th Army divisions and the two Southern Command divisions going for either Malaya, Palembang, and/or Java.

[larryfulkerson]

I captured Miri but the oil center and the refinery are both badly damaged. It's going to take a while and cost a lot to repair those bad
boys. And the port is damaged too.

Lots of small groups of Allied ships are still making their way south and I'm intercepting what I can causing lots of little fender bender
collisions everywhere and it seems the Jap ships have something the Allied ships don't, judging from the unbalanced character if the
naval battles. The Japs have a higher skill level or something. The naval battles seem to always favor the Japs. I'm not complaining
just wondering out loud.

[larryfulkerson]

I've made landings at Kavieng and Rabaul. The Rabaul toehold is in doubt but more Jap troops are on their way and will arrive in a
couple of days. I finally thought enough to include some engineers in the landing party at Kaiveng and they are going to put those
supplies to good use expanding the port and airfield. I'd like to get the airfield in operation first to provide some top cover for the battle
at Rabaul. The Allied air strikes I expect from Port Moresby hasn't happened yet but I'll bet Brian is scrambling to find some air power
he can use at Port Moresby. While the airfield at Kaiveng is being expanded I think I'll move a carrier group within range to provide some
LRCAP at the very least. And Brian has two ships there at Rabaul and that could be a threat to my transports. Good thing I sent a CL
as part of the escort.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Industry tab, Global page with the figures for this turn. I was delighted to find out that the RES level is on the rise. Now to do
that with the oil as well. I've been going to Port Arthur for most of my oil. Also, there's a tanker at Miri already loading oil into it's tanks
and it's going to carry it to CRB and from there the oil will be loaded into the holds of another ship and moved to Hong Kong or the
Pescadores and then another ship will carry it to the home islands. The hub and spoke method of logistics.

[ny59giants]

Naval Shipyard - restart building anything due in '42. Start small expansion so we can be at 1800 by beginning of Feb '42. May need to go above that then.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Naval Shipyard - restart building anything due in '42. Start small expansion so we can be at 1800 by beginning of Feb '42. May need to go above that then.

Will do. I've got some Nav ships that I don't particularly care to produce ( the RO subs, etc. ) and everything besides the undesirables
are being built. I especially wanted to turn on the CV's, even those in the late game period. And I've got a 187 point cushion so that I
can turn down the Nav Yard factories a bit. And the Merch shipyards have the same little cushion. All's well.

[larryfulkerson]

I've discovered a tiny problem in the supply movement phase. For some reason the supply isn't getting out into the hinterland. Some
of my bases are suffering and I need to start flying some supplies to those places. There's about four of them that are really low and
I'm not sure I have that many supply transports handy nearby but I'll look around, see if I can't find some bombers or something to fly
supplies to those folks.

[larryfulkerson]

I sorted on TR to find all my transports and moved them as necessary to reach the low-supply areas and I found some other bases that
needed supply too so I'm putting them all to work. I find I don't get much utility from the Thalia. I really like the Tina for it's range.