The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Canoerebel]

Strategic map with analysis.

[Canoerebel]

Intelligence display.

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By the end there is virtually nothing to play for but point and pride for the Japanese side. I used to play thinking the game was simply about winning strategic campaigns and tactical battles, but in the end, where for the Japanese 90% of the engagements are won by the Allies, VPs offer a way to measure success.

After having played late once it will never be too early to start thinking of VPs as a driving factor in game. [:)]

[Canoerebel]

I've never played Japan, but I can understand using points as a legitimate measure of success or failure.

The Allied player eventually has to mold strategy towards victory points too. In an indirect way, that's what I've been doing all along.

But to this point, and for some time yet to come, I'm willing to trade victory points (the troops on Celebes, the value of xAP and 4EB, etc.) for ground. It's still too early to let points directly guide operational and strategic planning.

If points were my chief objective, I'd be more focused on making progress towards Rabaul and Port Moresby; Batavia, Soerabaja and Singapore. But the driving force has been to take the high ground ( Assam, Sumatra, Aleutians, Marshalls, DEI, Luzon), force John to commit his combat ships, and chew at them. That forumula worked, sometimes expensively and sometimes cheaply, until John simply stopped committing his navy in recent months.

The victory points come easier when the Kaigun collapses.

[Canoerebel]

I should add: The Kaigun hasn't collapsed yet. It's leaning, I'm trying to find ways to push it, and John's holding back so that he doesn't lose ships fruitlessly.

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I've never played Japan, but I can understand using points as a legitimate measure of success or failure.

The Allied player eventually has to mold strategy towards victory points too. In an indirect way, that's what I've been doing all along.

But to this point, and for some time yet to come, I'm willing to trade victory points (the troops on Celebes, the value of xAP and 4EB, etc.) for ground. It's still too early to let points directly guide operational and strategic planning.

If points were my chief objective, I'd be more focused on making progress towards Rabaul and Port Moresby; Batavia, Soerabaja and Singapore. But the driving force has been to take the high ground ( Assam, Sumatra, Aleutians, Marshalls, DEI, Luzon), force John to commit his combat ships, and chew at them. That forumula worked, sometimes expensively and sometimes cheaply, until John simply stopped committing his navy in recent months.

The victory points come easier when the Kaigun collapses.

Actually, if you were really focused on VPs, you'd forget about the Kaigun, and you'd concentrate on getting in range of the HI with your B-29 beasts!

Nothing adds VPs faster than bombing the HI, hitting all of those stranded merchies in port, and torching the training groups on the ground in the overstocked airfields of Honshu.

You're obsessed with the his navy almost as much as he is! (Or maybe because he is) [:D]

[Canoerebel]

Well, that's an incomplete understanding of what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and why knowing my opponent made doing it the surest route to victory.

[MakeeLearn]

[Chorus]
Ooh, it makes me wonder...


Why now you don't focus on the Home Islands, air, sea and ground wise. Strike at the heart.

But the driving force has been to take the high ground ( Assam, Sumatra, Aleutians, Marshalls, DEI, Luzon), force John to commit his combat ships, and chew at them. That forumula worked, sometimes expensively and sometimes cheaply, until John simply stopped committing his navy in recent months.

You have a long since thought-out plan to call the tune of Japan's defeat, it seems. And it has played out very well.

[Bif1961]

Skippin the Solomons and NG is a new way to victory. It is still May 1944, so points will be coming much faster as his empire is cut in two and he has a decision to to finally come to the last major naval battle.

[Canoerebel]

5/20/44

Fun House: The Australians take Tacloban, meaning Leyte is Allied territory. It'll take a few more days to extinguish the remnant of 56th Div.

7th Australian Div. came into the PI with the most recent group of ships (the convoy that saw CV Sumatra torpedoed and CVE Chenango sunk). 7th Div. took Baybay and then split. 7th/A took Beaufort, West Borneo, and 7th/B and 7th/C took Tacloban. I'm not sure yet where they go after they wrap things up there.

Lots of ships and TFs rendezvoused today at and near Talaud-eilanden. Tomorrow ships begin scattering, with cripples and empties bound for the DEI and eventually the Pacific, and reinforcing and resupply ships inbound to the PI.

Burma: I think an enemy carrier TF is SW of Rangoon. The Allied army commences its march on Moulmein tomorrow. With 900 AV 100% prepped, perhaps it has a chance even if John doesn't withdraw his army.

[Canoerebel]

The core of the Allied army at 100% prep moving on Moulmein.

There are two 100%-prepped HQ units with the stack, both of them "small" (1 hex radius).

Southeast Asia HQ (command HQ, radius 9) under Lord Mountbatten is at Rangoon, 100% prepped for Rangoon. Does that have a positive influence on matters at Moulmein?

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Well, that's an incomplete understanding of what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and why knowing my opponent made doing it the surest route to victory.

Just speaking from some experience with the Japanese side here. It's up to you how you play, of course, and I know you want to beat John in a way that hurts him the most. [;)]

Getting in strat bombing range is simply what will hurt the generic Japanese position the most. By default you'll also then have the opportunity to engage the KB at will because there will be no pace to hide.

[ny59giants]

Southeast Asia HQ (command HQ, radius 9) under Lord Mountbatten is at Rangoon, 100% prepped for Rangoon. Does that have a positive influence on matters at Moulmein?

Nope!

But you should have your Command HQs paired off with Corp/Army HQs across the board. If you think it is going to take you some time to capture Moulmein, then it may pay off to change it.

[Canoerebel]

My focus is on the Japanese navy because that makes everything else easier - the choking off of supply/fuel, the taking of big airfields from which to strategic bomb the Home Islands, logistics to maintain things, isolating and later taking important bases, and the elimination of the space in which the balance of John's ships can hide. IE, doing so puts the horse before the cart, where it belongs.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

My focus is on the Japanese navy because that makes everything else easier - the choking off of supply/fuel, the taking of big airfields from which to strategic bomb the Home Islands, logistics to maintain things, isolating and later taking important bases, and the elimination of the space in which the balance of John's ships can hide. IE, doing so puts the horse before the cart, where it belongs.

I don't dispute that eliminating the IJN will make your job easier. I don't quite understand how you can focus on the Japanese Navy if the Japanese Navy choses not to show up.

You comment often about how your initiatives and operations may "draw out" the KB. They might, but if they don't the primary goal can still be eliminating the possibility for Japan to resist. The operations in fact might look exactly as they do now. Invade the PI, set up big level 9 fields, choke the South China Sea by taking bases closer and closer to his shipping lanes.

You'd simply then have a goal you can completely control rather than one that's dependent on your opponent to play as you predict he will.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

My focus is on the Japanese navy because that makes everything else easier - the choking off of supply/fuel, the taking of big airfields from which to strategic bomb the Home Islands, logistics to maintain things, isolating and later taking important bases, and the elimination of the space in which the balance of John's ships can hide. IE, doing so puts the horse before the cart, where it belongs.

I don't dispute that eliminating the IJN will make your job easier. I don't quite understand how you can focus on the Japanese Navy if the Japanese Navy choses not to show up.

+1

similar to the IJ player stating his goal is to annihilate the USN in '42 ... ok, but the USN has to agree to play for this strategy to work.

[Canoerebel]

Creating situations in which there was high pressure on John to commit his navy was the way I accomplished that. When he declined to respond, though, I just proceeded with the plan.

Since January 1, 1944, John has only committed his navy three times. (The first time, Yamato and Mutsu blundered into range of Death Star; the second he lost ten DDs in the Philippines; the third, he committed KB and bombardment TFs far from Death Star.) Basically, in five months there have only been the highly valued clashes twice. But the objective of destroying his navy doesn't get in the way of pursuing other goals, like taking key bases, building infrastructure, destroying ground units, attending to logistics, and getting ready for the next big clash, whatever it happens to be and wherever it happens to take place.

Destroying the IJN was the highest priority but not the only one.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

+1

similar to the IJ player stating his goal is to annihilate the USN in '42 ... ok, but the USN has to agree to play for this strategy to work.

Not when you know your opponent as well as I know John. We've played so many times over 14 years that we know each other pretty well.

If I was playing somebody I didn't know well (meaning: anybody else), I wouldn't have known enough to utilize this specific strategy from the beginning of the game.

I've said all these things before, and laid them out in detail. But readers who pop in now and then may miss them and fail to understand the context in which things are said. And I write so much that I'm reluctant to keep repeating these things over and over because I'm already taxing the patience of many readers.

But those who do manage to keep up and read regularly know why I've done what I've done.

You can't set out to destroy the IJN because your opponent may not cooperate? You can if you play John III.

[paullus99]

I believe John doesn't really care about the final endgame, so much as he gets a distinct pleasure from sinking Allied ships (particularly carriers) and killing Allied troops.

He is completely invested in this act - though I find it surprising that he hasn't attempted some kind of grand battle in the Philippines....he really must have gotten his teeth pulled at Wake & the subsequent trimming of his DDs (and other support ships).

Based on what I know about this mod, he's probably got as many carriers as he's going to get - he doesn't get any more capital ships of any substantial size, and he's a few months away from losing all access to fuel from the DEI (based on current projections of CRs movements).

CR, on the other hand, is going to continue to get stronger, in ships, carriers, men and planes - and he's thoroughly entrenched along John's supply lines to the South. In fact, if CR could launch two simultaneous large offensives (say hitting Formosa & the Bonins or another two, somewhat separate targets), John would be completely unable to respond in any effective manner.

Of course, as CR as shown, the logistics require a substantial amount of time to prepare...but the longer John waits to engage, the worse off he's going to be when the hammer falls.

[T Rav]

In regards to Paullus' comment, I couldn't agree more: There is nothing so great as having the Hammer when it is time for the the Hammer to fall. Go CR!