PAW 1941-45 me (Axis) vs warspite1 (Allies)

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the condition of the aircraft units currently. Some of them are red
from all the attacking they did last turn and they are going to need some
rest and refit before they will be ready to go out again. It's too bad we
don't have a "training" mission for the aircraft to slowly increase their
proficiency because some of these pilots need some training. Some of the
airplanes the Japs are flying are obsolete already.

EDIT: I've reviewed page 3 and I think it's safe for warspite1 to look it over now.

[larryfulkerson]

I was driving my subchaser around converting ports, some of them will let me
enter the port and convert it to my friendly side, and I ran into an Allied
DD and got some minor damage. I need to get one of my CVL's to drive over
there and sink that DD group. I don't want to move the subchaser until the
DD is gone or I'll suffer more damage yet.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in northern China looking south. I'm trying to grab
the railroad hexes to repair the rail and get a working way to get from northern
China to Singapore and Bangkok. It's going to take a while and I'll have to
keep fighting to keep it open but I need it for the supply flow.

My main idea is to cut off the Ledo and Burma roads to stop the flow of
supply into China from India. The flying of supply over the hump is almost
certainly abstracted in this game but in WITP-AE you actually have to fly a
mission called "supply" from somewhere with bou cou supply to a destination,
with an airfield and ground staff, that needs supply. The player can control
where the supply goes. In TOAW you just have to keep the LOC open. It's
a lot easier but you can't control who gets the supply globally.

I'm looking hard at India and I'm wondering what kinds of benefits would come
from assaulting Calcutta. I'll have to study that terrain and the movement
avenues to see if it's feesable at all. I'd almost have to grab Rangoon first.
So maybe I should take a look at Rangoon.

[larryfulkerson]

I discovered a partisan near where I landed in the PI up north and I've got
a couple of units working his case. I don't have enough units to surround
him so I'm guessing he's going to retreat SW into the mountains but he might
not. I need to extinguish him to prevent disasters later when I own the
island.

[larryfulkerson]

One of my recon patrols sighted a partisan in the Hanoi general area and so
I guess I need to drive some infantry over there to help out. I need to
extinguish the partisan or else he might be able to cause some damage to my
rails or blow one of my bridges or some other mayhem.

[larryfulkerson]

I have some aircraft near Port Moresby so I'm guessing what I see in the
group composition box is what's really at PM so if it's really only a single
regiment guarding PM then I think I'll take a division down there and see
if I can't grab that port.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm counting on the fact that the Allied side has a shortage of LCU's currently
and that if I leave a port empty it'll probably be empty next turn too so I
sailed some units from Salamua to Port Moresby and spread out and left the
Australians and Americans in one hex which I assume is the supply point, which
means I need to defeat the garrison fairly quickly now. I've got several
divisions in Tokyo that would love to participate in the war I don't know if
I can get them here in one turn.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the supply situation on the PI and that's why I need to get Manila
taken down quickly. Either that or rotate the divisions to replace the
tired one with a fresh one.

[larryfulkerson]

I had three LCU's at Wake that were in fairly good shape and Midway was
within range so I thought I'd take a couple of the LCU's and do an
amphibious assault on Midway to see if I can take it away from the Marines
garrisoned there. There was a squadron of Wildcats there as I approached
but when the INF started attacking the planes flew away. VMF-211 I think.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the northern Malaya area and we see the Japs trying to push their
way south to Singapore. It wouldn't work to just amphibious assault the
port of Singapore directly because there's CD guns there and it's a
fortress when attacking from the sea. I almost have to attack overland.

[larryfulkerson]

I was moving units and detected quite by accident, an Allied supply point and
what looks like the birth of a partisan or a regular enemy unit. I need to
send a recon unit in there and see what's going on.

[larryfulkerson]

I was moving units and came to the South Seas Fleet HQ unit and noticed that it's got bou cou AA guns and I just happen to need some airfield defense in the south pacific just now so I flew this bad boy from Tokyo to Kavieng ( near Rabaul ). That's the supply point for the island and I'd like to hold onto it if possible. There's also an airfield in that hex and the HQ unit can provide the AA guns for them. Also, I needed a place to repair damaged ships and Kaiveng is convient.

If I was playing WITP-AE I would have moved it to Rabaul but this map is different and the configuration is wrong for what I want to do with Rabaul.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's one of my two paratrooper units trapped in the middle of Malaya with not much hope of a rescue. I was planning on landing some people by sea near their position but higher priorities soaked up all the sea cap. They will have to wait a day longer than they would have. They are in relatively good shape and that's because I've got bou cou CS planes across the channel near Saigon, which reminds me that I need to rotate the tired planes in Saigon and replace them with fresh ones. I'd like to be able to use that paratrooper unit again sometime in the future and only if it survives is that possible.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm moving the units still and I've come to the BB Nagato and it's yellow and can't shoot this turn according to the red green yellow rule so I thought I'd send it to the shipyards to get it repaired back up to 100%, which should take only a couple of weeks I guess. In WITP-AE I would have to send it to Hong Kong because of the caliber of the big guns only large shipyards above a certain level would suffice and I like to do realistic moves if I can so I sent the Nagato to Hong Kong to refit.

[larryfulkerson]

I've arrived at a group that was bombarding Manila and is now red and can't
shoot so I thought I'd send them to Cam Ranh Bay for a refit / rearm / refuel.
They will probably take a few weeks to feel better again. At least a new
paint job comes with the package sold by the shipyard master. If they devote
the entire shipyard staff to do the job they could probably paint the ship
in a week or so.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the particulars about the assault on Midway. There's two Emily
squadrons in range but I didn't want to involve them because they are
prescious, well, at least somewhat valuable.

[larryfulkerson]

I've got a squadron at Salamua that's flying Bettys and Nells and they can reach a little past Brisbane and they have a wicked good anti-ship value ( 240 ) and there's enough of them to almost shut down the ports between Port Moresby and Brisbane inclusive. Not that Rob is going to sail his ships anywhere near Brisbane anytime soon. I'd rather not do airfield strikes with them. I'm saving the planes that have a good anti-ship value for the later war period when I'm really going to need it.

[larryfulkerson]

I've just discovered quite by accident that there's some smaller islands near the Celebes that don't have any supply at all. That's really unhandy. I'll have to move those folks before too long and they just got there. I'll have to remember to save some sea cap to move the non-supply-island folks.

EDIT: maybe they are solid blue instead of having a number in them because I just captured them.

[larryfulkerson]

I googled VMF-211 and found a really interesting article from the Marine Corps. I had guessed earlier that this squadron was the one at Wake when it was attacked and I was right. Rob may have to follow this MAG-13 as it migrates during the war.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what it looks like on 14Dec41 just before I end my turn.