The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Canoerebel]

7/27/44

DEI: Here there be KB, or a goodly portion of it.

[Lowpe]

Allied troops move so darn fast on the road network in China...make sure you take advantage of it. By grabbing key road networks you can further cause supply loss as the Japanese attempt to force supplies to everywhere. Kind of what you are doing near LangSon I suspect -- why else not put a unit in the jungle south to completely cut supply line to Vietnam? Unless you don't have any more units there.

Can you account for the Japanese Tank Divisions still?

Foochow is a devilishly tricky base to defend as it is impossible (?) to have a KB strike the landings and not the deathstar. Taking Foochow will really open up a lot of Japan's secrets -- plane r&d and shipping and troop concentrations.

We don't know what Japan's Manchuko garrison is like...is there movement there? Is the line against the Soviets held in strength or abandoned back to the static forts?

The question, and I don't know the answer, is how much of Japan's Army is protecting the Kuriles/Marianas, SRA, Manchuko and Indochina?

As a JFB, I would look at this attack most likely as the Allies going big to supply up China a few months early, and would think this is the major vector of attack allowing me to strip Kuriles/Marianas pretty heavily -- IF I hadn't already done that with the battle of Luzon.

How John takes it, with the KB off Oz in three separate task forces, is beyond me.[;)]

Where are the shore bombardments....Formosa's runways should all be smoking ruins with about 500-1000 planes I guess.[:)]

Watch the troop and plane levels on Formosa carefully...static to increase and he has plentiful supplies there...reduction and he realizes it is a POW camp or low on supplies. If he has a a couple of hundred thousand supply there it could be painful for you in the long run when you aren't careful.

[MakeeLearn]

Good thinking with the Airborne operation. Link up to them, secure your west flank and it looks like you might be able to roll up the east coast.

[Canoerebel]

7/28/44

Peep Show: Conceived and planned nine months ago, involving three units prepping for Foochow (93rd Div., 8th Army HQ, and VII Amphibious HQ), the operation succeeds in its first effort to take what was really it's only target.

Now the rest of the army, including armor and infantry prepping mainly for Formosa bases, will come ashore and spread out. Two objectives: (1) threaten Tsinkiang and Amoy, and (2) try to create dismay and disarray for the enemy in China, and for John as he tries to get a handle on what's going on.

[Canoerebel]

7/28/44

DEI: KB is divided into four elements, spread from Singers to near Timor. I believe John will consolidate his carrier TFs and strike somewhere soon.

[witpqs]

Woah - he is way far south while you are way far north!

[Encircled]

Again using "Shermans march to the sea", John is like Hood, if Hood had decided to march to Nashville via Texas, Arizona and Arkansas.

Is it possible for him to be any further out of position?

I know that he's going for VPs or cutting supply lines, but the Allies are ashore in CHINA! IN STRENGTH!

[Lowpe]

Even with home port set to Foochow...the local commanders may opt to avoid combat by sending them to the closest decent sized port...depending upon the threat settings if Foochow is threatened with strong surface fleets or aerial threats. Direct absolute might overcome this.

[JohnDillworth]

Is it possible for him to be any further out of position?

I don't believe John thinks he is out of position. Don't want to speak for CR but the assumption for a year was that eventually the Allies would do something Japan would HAVE to react to with the KB. There is a fair chance the KB is never going to engage and the keys will be turned over during the surrender in Tokyo bay

[Canoerebel]

John is playing to maximize his Victory Points. That's what he should be doing, because that's at the heart of the game. He's doing what I'm doing - playing the game, playing the opponent, and realizing this is no simulation.

Some players do consider AE a simulation (and it could be, to a degree, with opponents who mutually assented to play it that way). But not here. This is a Three Dimensional Chess on Steroids.

At times in the past, John has prided himself on playing "historically" - carrier divisions and all that - sniffing dismissively while the Allies use a Death Star. The absence of a Banzai mentality and the Bushido Code ethic, even while the Allies moved through Luzon and around Formosa, reveal the truth: this is a game. And it's great fun.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

John is playing to maximize his Victory Points.

Is he? I can think of at least three other reasons why the KB is in the SRA.

Do I gather from your posts that Formosa is losing her fighters?

[Canoerebel]

There are lots of reasons KB can be of good use in the DEI, no doubt. But this is no simulation, and John is indeed working hard on the Victory Point angle of the game (I suspect at the urging in tutelage of his readers).

In the war, the Allies don't move on Luzon or Formosa without triggering a banzai attack.

He's playing the game the way it was meant to be played. The VP's are there to give Japan a fighting chance. And it's working as designed in this game.

Speaking of which, the Allies are now within 100 points of Japan. There's a chance I'll pull ahead by the end of the month.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
...
Do I gather from your posts that Formosa is losing her fighters?

That seems to be so early on, but surely he's only committed a fraction of what he has available to the contest.

Based on three or four days of returns, however, I'm a bit optimistic that the Allies can win the air war over Formosa over the coming weeks and months. Foochow and any other bases should help in that regard. And Orchid Island is growing slowly, as about 1.26 (John hasn't targeted it lately given all the other things going on).

[MakeeLearn]

...playing "historically"...

He is playing a "historically what if". The Bushido Code was perverted from "courage in the face of death" into "anxious to die". Misguided officers that misused a tradition. Historically what if.... The Emperor and influential others could have clarified "The Way of the Warrior".

[Canoerebel]

Yup, that's a big part of the game. It's a lot of "what ifs."

[Canoerebel]

7/29/44

Peep Show: No enemy interference today, as many more troops land. The combat units are spreading out. The engineers are making great progress on the airfield.

Tough fighter clashes over Formosa today, though only modest numbers involved, with the Allies coming out slightly ahead. The numbers themselves don't seem to be encouraging, yet I still feel pretty good about the situation overall. John will have a hard time prevailing if Formosa is surrounded by big Allied airfields in close proximity, and if his airfields are subject to bombardment by powerful TFs. We're just beginning the campaign, but I'm encouraged at this early date.

[DW]

How much time do you think you have before you're forced to move supply forward again and what are your plans (routing and such) for when the time comes?

[Canoerebel]

I have enough supply in the Philippines to maintain the current pace of operations for at least another month. I probably have enough to serve in the Foochow sector for longer than that, because I don't expect to initiate a bombing campaign from that airfield until it's a level 7, 8, or 9.

I have supply pre-position all over the place, so that I can bring it in from a variety of directions. I do have a specific plan that I hope to implement to maximize what will come in (in terms of supply, fuel and reinforcements) and what will go out (mainly xAKs and xAPs needed back at Pearl and the West Coast to handle logistics going forward).

At the moment, I'm weighted far too heavily forward. Too much of the merchant marine is in the combat zone. I'll address that once Peep Show is complete, and that might only be a week or so from now.

All of this is somewhat dependent on the location(s) of John's carrier TFs. But I plan to use my carriers no matter what, so it's unlikely that he'll commit his in opposition. He's more likely to take the opportunity to move into the Formosa waters while DS is away, bombarding bases and doing whatever he can to cause trouble.

[Canoerebel]

I think John's going to have to commit KB if he really wants a shot at saving Formosa. If KB continues it's far-flung adventures, I should be able to pound Formosa into submission. It'll take awhile, but I think the result will be essentially inevitable.

John's done nothing to impede or slow Peep Show. Consequently, I'm way ahead of schedule on things I've been way ahead of schedule on. With the additional supply and reinforcements inbound, plus the units already in theater completing their prep percentages, the Formosa invasion will definitely take place within a month.

[Lowpe]

I still think you should have trashed his runways with ships...a few AKEs at Foochow, supply well spent.

But you have done incredibly well, so I figure you know best.[;)]