ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth
....He is probably not thinking points so much as which factories are most important to his current plans. You two are playing different games me thinks. As for the KB? How do you know they are not down there for a picnic? Why would today be any different?
We probably are literally playing different games. I'm working for the 2:1 auto victory (while also allowing for John to decide to continue the game). John has made it clear in the past that he doesn't play for aut vic. That position makes more sense from an early game standpoint than late in the game. If 2:1 auto vic in 1945 isn't the end game, what is? Do the Allies have to drop two nukes? Occupy Tokyo? Destroy the fleet to some subjective degree? Something else entirely?
Assuming John wishes to continue after 2:1, here's how I see things playing out:
1. The Allies will achieve 2:1 sometime in early 1945 - probably February or March. If so, to me that will be a decisive Allied victory. My "grading" takes into account the nature of the mod, the house rules, and the ability to close on Japan and batter her industry.
2. Over the coming months, leading up to 2:1 and thereafter, the Allied military strategy will be:
a) Heavy and sustained strategic bombing of Japanese industry from China and Formosa;
b) Major campaign to destroy enemy army in China and to eventually take all major cities in the lower half, including Shanghai, Canton, Hong Kong and Changsha;
c) Offensive operations in the DEI and vicinity to take major bases including Kendari, Balikpapan, Singapore, Palembang and probably all or most of Java;
d) Look for a chance to eventually neutralize or isolate the enemy fleet, especially carriers;
e) Avoid any risky operations that would allow John to combine KB and LBA in a massed strike;
f) I have units prepping for Korea and Bihoro, Hokkaido. I'll pull the trigger only if everything has gone so well that there's nothing left to do...and if John's defenses are so battered that he's basically defenseless.
John may spend the next six months keeping KB out of harm's way, out on the fringes accomplishing little of importance and doing little to materially impede the Allied air campaign and campaign in China; I suppose if KB is largely intact at 2:1 and afterwards, even while Japan is a smoldering heap of ruins, he'll claim that as a victory.
In that case, I'll just laugh. By any reasonable measure, a Japanese player has to use his assets as cleverly as possible to keep the Allies at bay as long as possible. John's weird Reverse Sir Robin strategy has failed to do that and he's paying the cost now. I haven't tried to chase down KB because the heart of the war is Japan and her industry.
"Rats set fire to Mr. Cooper’s store in Fort Valley. No damage done." Columbus (Ga) Enquirer-Sun, October 2, 1880.
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