Islands of Destiny: RA 5.0 Japanese Side

[ny59giants]

Armament - turn OFF ALL factories as you have 187,210 stockpiled. You may never use that up. Plus, the savings will allow build up of your HI which is low, IMO.

[John 3rd]

Most of it IS turned off. Will go through and make sure ALL of it is! Probably do the same thing with vehicle production.

[ny59giants]

Admiral,

Your economy is going to suffer in '44 and by '45 may crash. It looks good in supply (4M), armament (187K), and vehicles (14k). Turn those two OFF. You don't have enough of a stockpile in HI (370k), fuel (1.3M), and oil (650k). You need to finds ways to increase those three in the comings days. You may need to turn off a few Naval Shipyards once the 3 CVs come out in a few days. You will need paper, pen, and calculator to see what your daily HI, fuel, and oil stockpile is occurring or not. For HI, I would aim for 2500 to 3000 surplus per day. I see oil and fuel being the end for you once Dan is able to cut off access to Palembang and other DEI sources. Plan accordingly, sir!! [:-]

Semi-Retired Economics Minister Benoit

[John 3rd]

Good Day All.

I have never been one to hold back on personal things so I feel like I should let you guys know that I am heading for a prostrate biopsy in early-December. I left my game with Dan months ago because I was burning out and didn't feel 'right' personally. My feelings have proved themselves to be correct. Starting in July we have watched my PSA and waited on developments. Had a Doctor's App't today and we have decided to move forward with doing a a biopsy. Cannot speak strongly enough for ALL MEN over 40 to do their regular PSA and, at 50, add the delightfulness of a colonoscopy. Be safe guys.

My Doctor feels pretty good that we are either at the very early stages of things or have nothing to worry about. My PSA has been trending lower or holding stable with slight reductions since July. On the bright side this will provide answers and then a course of action.

Just wanted throw that out there...

Good thoughts all!
John

[crsutton]

I hate getting old. Good luck.

[pws1225]

Good luck, John.

[BillBrown]

Getting old is hard. I have had 3 colonoscopies. They suck.
Good luck on the biopsy.

[John 3rd]

Thank you guys.

Just wanted to get this out in case I have to do treatment that takes me away from the Forum/Game.

[John 3rd]

January 14, 1944

What is the point? Mid-January 1944 and my opponent has this...

[John 3rd]

Simple question: HOW do you deal with those numbers?

I have just gotten the reinforcement of 4 CV and Akagi is available tomorrow. This raises my TOTAL CV-Based Air component to around 1,100 aircraft.

[AcePylut]

Sun Tzu, Chapter 6 has the answers you need.

[AcePylut]

Chapter 6, Verse 1-2: “Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted. Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him”
Verse 3: “By holding out advantages to him, he can cause the enemy to approach of his own accord; or, by inflicting damage, he can make it impossible for the enemy to draw near.”
Verse 4: “If the enemy is taking his ease, he can harass him, if well supplied with food, he can starve him out; if quietly encamped, he can force him to move”
Verse 5: “Appear at points which the enemy must hasten to defend; march swiftly to places where you are not expected”
Verse 6: An army may march great distances without distress, if it marches through country where the enemy is not.
Verse 7-8: “You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended. You can ensure the safety of your defense if you only hold positions that cannot be attacked”
Verse 8 “Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.”
Verse 9: “O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible;”
Verse 10: You may advance and be absolutely irresistible, if you make for the enemy's weak points; you may retire and be safe from pursuit if your movements are more rapid than those of the enemy.
Verse 11: If we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need do is attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve.
Verse 12: If we do not wish to fight, we can prevent the enemy from engaging us even though the lines of our encampment be merely traced out on the ground. All we need do is to throw something odd and unaccountable in his way.
Verse 13: By discovering the enemy's dispositions and remaining invisible ourselves, we can keep our forces concentrated, while the enemy's must be divided.
Verse 14-15: We can form a single united body, while the enemy must split up into fractions. Hence there will be a whole pitted against separate parts of a whole, which means that we shall be many to the enemy's few. And if we are able thus to attack an inferior force with a superior one, our opponents will be in dire straits.
Verse 16: The spot where we intend to fight must not be made known; for then the enemy will have to prepare against a possible attack at several different points; and his forces being thus distributed in many directions, the numbers we shall have to face at any given point will be proportionately few
Verse 17: For should the enemy strengthen his van, he will weaken his rear; should he strengthen his rear, he will weaken his van; should he strengthen his left, he will weaken his right; should he strengthen his right, he will weaken his left. If he sends reinforcements everywhere, he will everywhere be weak.
Verse 18: Numerical weakness comes from having to prepare against possible attacks; numerical strength, from compelling our adversary to make these preparations against us.
Verse 19: “Knowing the place and the time of the coming battle, we may concentrate from the greatest distances in order to fight”
Verse 20: But if neither time nor place be known, then the left wing will be impotent to succor the right, the right equally impotent to succor the left, the van unable to relieve the rear, or the rear to support the van. How much more so if the furthest portions of the army are anything under a hundred LI apart, and even the nearest are separated by several LI!
Verse 21-22: Though according to my estimate the soldiers of Yueh exceed our own in number, that shall advantage them nothing in the matter of victory. I say then that victory can be achieved. Though the enemy be stronger in numbers, we may prevent him from fighting. Scheme so as to discover his plans and the likelihood of their success.
Verse 23: Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity.
Verse 24: Carefully compare the opposing army with your own, so that you may know where strength is superabundant and where it is deficient.
Verse 25: In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them; conceal your dispositions, and you will be safe from the prying of the subtlest spies, from the machinations of the wisest brains.
Verse 26: How victory may be produced for them out of the enemy's own tactics—that is what the multitude cannot comprehend
Verse 27: All men can see the tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved
Verse 28: Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.
Verse 29: Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards.
Verse 30: So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.
Verse 31: Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.
Verse 32: Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.
Verse 33: He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.
Verse 34: Begin each email with "Banzai" in all capital letters.
Verse 35: The five elements (water, fire, wood, metal, earth) are not always equally predominant; the four seasons make way for each other in turn. There are short days and long; the moon has its periods of waning and waxing.

[jwolf]

I'll bet verse 34 has the secret key to a Japanese victory. [;)]

Edit to clarify for later readers: there was no 34 in the original list.

[AcePylut]

LOL. Fixed

[John 3rd]

Still no Verse 34. Am going to thoroughly examine this wisdom some and do serious thinking...

[John 3rd]

Was talking with Michael and he said something about some people using a HR to limit the number of aircraft in a single hex (above a TF). Cannot do anything about this presently but am curious if anyone has ever done this or seen it used?

[AcePylut]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Still no Verse 34. Am going to thoroughly examine this wisdom some and do serious thinking...

That's because I can't count. Verse 35 was mis-labelled and should Verse 34... but by not counting properly, I couldn't let such an opportunity pass without injecting my own special brand of humor.

[AcePylut]

Remember, “winning” in WITPAE means having a higher VP than Canoe, not by having more carriers than him. As you know you are getting weaker by the day, and he is getting stronger by the day, “winning” doesn’t really mean defeating him in one decisive battle… but slowing down his advance to make “winning the VP total” an impossibility.

I can’t remember you getting this far in a WITP match. You have to throw out everything you know and “start again”. Try to pretend that someone else was playing this match, couldn’t finish it, and now you’re picking it up from scratch. What would you to do delay the enemy as much as possible? You know at this point you can’t stop him should he decide to go somewhere, so you need to make him work for something twice as hard as he expected. Delay, delay, delay. Work from that point of view. In other words - what happened yesterday can’t be changed, what happens in the future is in your hands. Can’t fret about those CVE’s lost by Wake – they are never coming back and mulling over them helps you not at all. Like poker – never ever think of how many chips you threw in the pot when making a decision to fold. Don’t go chasing those chips because you have some belief they are “yours”, as more often than not, it leads to those chips and more being “lost”.

You are going to lose ships. Bases. Airplanes. men. Tanks. Etc. That's inevitable. What you need to do is make sure that what you lose serves a greater purpose. You need to make sure that when you do lose a few 'cardboard' counters, you've gained something much more valuable... time.

It's all a race to the end right now... you need to slow his advance to the point where he runs out of time, for he needs to advance faster than time allows. Time - that is your most valuable commodity. Not men. Not ships. Not Planes. Not anything else.

[Capt. Harlock]

Simple question: HOW do you deal with those numbers?

He's still using F4F-3's?? Maybe a few sweeps with first-string fighters might help.

[John 3rd]

Looks like Verse 30 equates to the Confederate saying of 'hit them where they ain't!' This will be the plan then.

I have Infantry flooding into all bases that could reach Lvl-8/Lvl-9 AF in the DEI. No more freebies for the Southern Paddling Kid.

Have got 100,000 Fuel at Truk and another 125,000 in my AOs. This will give me operational capability for the Fleet. Am waiting for my new construction to finish some assignments in the Home Islands and then they will travel to Truk and join up.

Just took out Satawal. Truk has been getting reconned continously and I looked around only to find Satawal operating as a seaplane base. It got plastered by BCs Kongo and Hiei and then 50% of an Infantry Regiment from Truk landed and crushed the New Caledonia Detachment and a large US BF. Scratch nearly 1,500 Allied troops and 9 PBMs.

The game escalates--RIGHT? One player reacts to the other and so on...

On AcePylut's note of 'start again' I have come up with one idea. After looking at those numbers defending the Allied TF, I have decided to go on a serious re-sizing binge for Fighter, DB, and TB Daitai. Normally I limit myself to 36 or 48. The gloves are off. I just re-sized a number of units to 63 planes. If he is going to place EVERYTHING in one hex and be unassailable then this is a counter to that. Doubt if it shall work but I am going to try.