Kane and Unable ;] - Game over 1945.

[decourcy2]

It is so rare to see a game go this far, good job you two.
If I may ask, when did you feel you had control over the war? Mid '43? Beginning '44?

And it would be cool to capture Yamato-san at the end of the war, can put it in a museum.

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: decourcy2

It is so rare to see a game go this far, good job you two.
If I may ask, when did you feel you had control over the war? Mid '43? Beginning '44?

And it would be cool to capture Yamato-san at the end of the war, can put it in a museum.

This is the 3rd game I have taken this far consecutively. Your next buddy!!

I dont have control over this war. MrKane still has a functioning KB and could use it at any time. He also has quite a few troops isolated that could be liberated including 2800AV at Manila. I have 2200AV there getting bombarded every turn.

China is going well but I am concerned about 145 ships at Singapore filled to the brim with fuel. Need to do something about those.

He just killed another 30+ superfortresses at Shikuka and did over 250 hits on those planes so they are out for at least a month. He had the Yamato get hit along with another battleship and several cruisers took mine and/or torpedo hits in return for the bombardment.

This war might go to the end. I am not sure.

[Mike McCreery]

Java

MrKane is stubbornly holding on in 2 locations in Java. I have been bombarding Bandoeng for months but the AV is maintained with no readiness loss so I am positive he is flying at least some supply in. Madioen has been sitting for a while and I am going to take it out now. The last attack showed supply issues.

[Mike McCreery]

The China front has blown open since Hong Kong fell at the beginning of the month. For some reason that I cannot figure out, MrKane moved the large stack of units out of Canton. This includes the 1st tank division and another divison which have been beaten down to 200AV each.

Leaving them in place would have prevented me access to the city and strat movement. I forgot that Marines are too dumb to drive down a road so they have to move on foot anyway. MrKane is moving the stack northeast now across the river into open terrain. I will block with 3 marine divisions while another stays to anchor the city and act as garrision and the remaining 2 marine units will drive northeast to Kukong to relieve 2 divisions that can strat move. MrKanes other 2 tank divisions are at Kukong and risk being surrounded if he does not move out of that city rather quickly.

Within 2 weeks there will be serious forces up near Changsha.

Formosa has 2, maybe 3 divisions on it so it is not particularly dangerous in terms of land combat value. Troops are prepping for the shores of the island.

[PaxMondo]

I have to admit some surprise that Mr Kane ceded HK as he did. With Formosa, he should have been able to mount a defense. Either he was caught completely off guard or his economy is bad shape ...

Only a few ID's on Formosa ... again, I am surprised. I consider Formosa within my inner sphere, I don't like the allies that close. But this is early 45 now ... so maybe he is contracting his defense tight to increase his ability to resist? Not sure yet ....

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

I have to admit some surprise that Mr Kane ceded HK as he did. With Formosa, he should have been able to mount a defense. Either he was caught completely off guard or his economy is bad shape ...

Only a few ID's on Formosa ... again, I am surprised. I consider Formosa within my inner sphere, I don't like the allies that close. But this is early 45 now ... so maybe he is contracting his defense tight to increase his ability to resist? Not sure yet ....

Without naval superiority, or parity, Formosa falls fast. With the Sakhalin threat, I guess he got caught having to chose priorities.

And with Amoy under threat, what is the point to investing a lot into Formosa?

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

I have to admit some surprise that Mr Kane ceded HK as he did. With Formosa, he should have been able to mount a defense. Either he was caught completely off guard or his economy is bad shape ...

Only a few ID's on Formosa ... again, I am surprised. I consider Formosa within my inner sphere, I don't like the allies that close. But this is early 45 now ... so maybe he is contracting his defense tight to increase his ability to resist? Not sure yet ....

Hong Kong was a surprise to him. I dont think he expected me to attack directly. I did so with 8 prepped divisions so I dont blame him for that. I just dont think he can get those troops away from Canton so believe it was a mistake.

MrKane has now started the stack moving northwest along the river instead of making a NE river crossing. He also started moving his tank divisions out of Kukong.

One of his set pieces was Manila. There are over 125,000 troops there with nearly 1500 tanks. He is bombarding me every turn so supply is not an issue there. If he does not get those troops moved within 2 months they will be stuck there permanently.

My main goal was to liberate China but as things are moving along and we are almost into March the operation might be more just to corral as much of the Japanese army into a pocket in preparation for the Soviets in August.

My bomber pools are a mess and need time to heal. So the first objective right now is to sail down to Singapore and try to sink 150 ships full of fuel. It will probably be painful.

[PaxMondo]

I would agree, with HK fallen, PI is a penal colony unless.

[Mike McCreery]

China Late March 1945

MrKane shows very little signs of supply issues in combat but his movements indicate that there are issues. The war goes well in this area.

Wenchow is lightly garrisoned and should be attacked by a division within the next week. There are sufficient forces in the ring around Chungking to prevent easy liberation of the Chinese. It is an objective but not a primary one.

Now that the east coast of Japan has been taken it is time to move to Formosa. There are approximately 100K troops on the island. My carrier and battle groups are resting up after taking out the shipping at Singapore. Now that I can guarantee no significant troop movements in this area I will move the group to Hong Kong in about a week.

The Japanese 1st tank division is still moving northeast near Wuchow. Not sure whether they can ever get back to the front lines. The 2nd and 3rd tank divisions are in Changsha.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Wargmr
Now that the east coast of Japan has been taken it is time to move to Formosa.

Umm, with east coast of Japan it would be time to move to winning the game [:)]

[BBfanboy]

You have the East Coast of Japan? Hokkaido? Honshu? (Sakhalin doesn't count!).
Pictures or it didn't happen! [:)]

[Mike McCreery]

If it wasnt for my critics, I would feel ignored

East coast of China...

East and west coasts of Japan are not out of the question!!

[Mike McCreery]

I'm not dead yet!!

The game took a pause for a while and recently resumed. Strategically since the taking of Hong Kong I have been rolling east along the Chinese coast. I am having no luck in the interior and am not sure how long it might take to break out Chungking and/or if it should be a priority.

Troops will enter Hangchow from the southwest tomorrow and 2 regiments are heading into Ningpo which appears to be defended with one small unit of 1500-2000 men. The hex northwest of Hangchow was just captured giving me access to the plains.

Amoy and Swatow are working on lvl 8 airfields and will help to suppress Formosa. The island has one lvl 8 airfield, a lvl 6,4, and 3. It is not really developed. Even better, Shanghai only has a lvl 4 airfield with Nanking having a lvl 3.

Over the next 6 weeks I want to extend into the plains, cut off Shanghai and see how much progress I can make on taking down Hangchow. I brought a lot of naval engineer battalions with me to increase the size of wenchow and Shaohing. I want to start strat bombing from this area escorted by fighters.

[Mike McCreery]

Score wise I am still not doing that well. If anything the Japanese have been increasing their lead a bit lately due to some nasty air battles.

Not sure if I will win this one but I am going to have fun trying!!

[BBfanboy]

The Chinese units will need plenty of supply to convert to 1945 squads and fill out their TOE a lot more before their morale gets decent. Once you do that, they can be a juggernaut unto themselves and start pushing the Japanese around in many places. Refer to Canoerebel's AAR to see how it developed in China.

[Mike McCreery]

Mid April 1945

The Allies make a break out by taking Wuhu near Shanghai. Now forces are free to move north and east to cut the rail lines for the area.

[Mike McCreery]

The railway to Shanghai has been cut in 2 locations. The 2nd tank division just showed up at the dot base at Pengpu. MrKane sent his bombers and severely trashed 2 regiments of tanks I had there. I retaliated with most of my 4EB but at 10K with the distance they had to travel they really did very little damage. His 1st tank division has been trapped between the lines for months since they retreated from Canton.

I want to clear out most of the small bases before focusing on Shanghai.

Meanwhile my bombardment fleets under cover of my carriers just sortied to Formosa to begin to reduce the island air power.

[Mike McCreery]

MrKane has done an amazing job of keeping bases re-supplied for months beyond what I would have normally expected. An air strike just emerged from Bandoeng which has been isolated from supply for many months and without any sea contact.

Miri is still operational along with all the other bases.

[Mike McCreery]

One of the few weak links right now appears to be Saigon. I bombarded it the last 2 turns and watched the AV drop from 1330 to 1328 and then 1322.

There are only about 700AV holding garrison there but they might be able to knock the stack down if it is out of supply.

Northern Sumatra finally succumbed to allied attacks and now those troops will be moved to Malaya by barge.

[Mike McCreery]

I am not good at the air game and compared to MrKane I completely suck at it. Here is an average day of an ambush and a few sweeps leaving me short on the score side.

Hopefully his exertion of so many sorties is eventually going to help me on the supply side but I dont see ever having an air advantage.

My goal is to put up a large base at Shaohing and just try to bash the west coast of japan with large contingents of bombers with fighter support. I am within 12 hexes of the closest base. Hopefully by June the bombing can start.