Pacific at War 1941-1945 v.3.63 Don is Allies

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like around Bangkok right now. I drove an independent brigade north toward Rangoon and it soon ran into that same Indian unit as last turn, and obviously it has moved south and has blocked the road quite effectively so I'll have to march some people up there and relieve that brigade. I've got some engineers poised to move into the bottleneck area and convert the roads to friendly control and see if there's any hindrence to passage south on the west side of the mountains. As soon as I capture any new airfields I feel the need to base some planes there for a local CAP if nothing else. Ideally, some bombers for support would be good. I can restrict their range to dedicate them to this operation and set them to three dots.

[larryfulkerson]

Last turn I captured Johnson Island and just now I flew an Emily squadron there and all of a sudden Pearl is under survailence. I can identify ship types and LCU types and aircraft types and it looks like he's got all the PBY's in the world stationed here. I see at least one Allied carrier to the east of Pearl and a DD group and a group that includes at least one "heavy naval" ship unit in it and I don't think I have enough available troops to steal an island away from him. I'd like to build a large naval base at Midway first before trying to tackle Pearl. I don't have any AO's in this game so I don't have a way to refuel my ships while they are underway so they will have to RTB frequently to refuel and perhaps fix some light damage. I'll need a port for that. Midway is the closest. I've already got Wake so I'm guessing that if I use the carriers and BB's et. al. that I could probably push over Midway in the next 5 turns or so.

[larryfulkerson]

Part 21: The Air War On Japan: Crusade In The Pacific: WWII
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmdt669nkdk

[larryfulkerson]

Here's one of the things I'm worried about in T3. I have a medium size garrison at Johnson island and some fighters and a long-range patrol bomber unit and it's not that far from Pearl so it wouldn't cost much for Don to do one of his raids and use his forces to take over the island. I'm thinking of moving one of my carrier groups into the AO or at least closer to Johnson Island to imply some support for the island and it's occupants. I don't know what's at Midway yet. I need to run some DD's up there to take a look around. I may be able to take Midway without too much trouble.

Don has mobilized his forces at Dutch Harbor and moved some infantry escorted by some light naval forces and took Kiska away from me. So now I have no representation in the far north. I'll have to station a small naval group in the home islands to guard against Allied raids from Alaska.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Singapore area now. As you can plainly see the supply levels are too low for operations and the chances of my taking down Singapore in that situation is slim to none I'm thinking....even with support from the ships just offshore. I wish TOAW had a "supply" mission for the aircraft so that I could just fly some supplies to my units. There's no good solution for this situation and it's obvious that the way to fix this is to succeed in the north around Bangkok and repair the rail all the way down here. That's going to take the better part of two months game time.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the PI right now. I've shipped in a lot of people and I'm chasing down some partisans and making a limited attack on a small Allied stack in Manila with support from some BB's and assorted escorts. I'm going to bring in more ships to increase the bombardment pressure on Manila because I'm in a sortof a hurry because the American side is getting lots of reinforcements and Don is probabily moving them closer to the action. It's been several days since I watched the combat replay and I don't remember seeing anything floating west out of Pearl. I want to get a carrier group together with some escorts and float about a division's worth of troops over to Midway and see if I can grab it before Don turns it into a fortress. I need another division or two in northern China to deal with the Communists and I'd like to finish clearing out all the islands in the Celebes area so that I have friendly terrain all the way down to Java.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like just north of Hanoi right now. The lines are fairly stable and neither of us has the firepower to move the other's units. I might have to bring in some BB's to support the troops.

[larryfulkerson]

It's been a while since anyone has posted in this AAR and it's not abandoned, just me being lazy. I've saved the file and I have plans to get back to this game sometime today.

[Zovs]

Success at Midway for the Allies. Looks like I sunk a Jap division trying to assault the Island. Some minor successes elsewhere, but it's a dark December still for the Allies.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in south China right now. I'm trying to push up to the river near the Ledo road but I'm running into resistance and I'm going to need more troops to make this work.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd run my carrier group out to near Peal and attack the one known Allied CV. As I was approaching Johnson Island some Allied heavy bombers interdicted my TF but I had 103 Zeros aboard and they didn't get any hits on anybody and I got to shoot down a few of them. As you can see in the image I have sailed within strike range and have assigned all my aircraft to do three-dot attacks on the Yorktown. And as I was sailing to the spot the carriers are in right now, I got interdicted by the Yorktown's aircraft and got two of my carriers damaged and as a result I'll have to breakoff the mission and retreat but before I leave I'll launch my strike and hope for some good hits. If he has operational aircraft after this strike I may be in trouble because it wouldn't take much to sink two of my carriers.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of the Yorktown strike: It looks like all the ships in the hex are sunk and all the planes that the Allies had on the CV are gone to the bottom of the ocean. I declare this a successful strike. I'm thinking the attacking planes are yellow now and need some rest so we're pulling out at this time.

[StuccoFresco]

Nice.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what China looks like now. Not much change since the beginning of the game. The supply level is lower the further away from the coast you go. I'm on the verge of giving up trying to capture the railroad. I actually only need the railroad to move troops north or south as circumstances change and it's only important because Singapore is still a problem and I'll need to move the troops from the Singapore battle to northern China eventually to deal with the Communists.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been running into these HQ units that have a range on the unit display but if you look under the hood you find that there's no arty of any kind in the unit. So I've been adjusting the range to reflect that fact. It's less confusing that way when I'm in a hurry to find a nearby handy arty unit. Yeah, I tend to play fast. My first guess isn't always my best one but in a scenario the size of D21 et. al. it hardly ever makes a difference if I guess wrong.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the Bangkok area looks like right now. I've run some engineers up to the major bridge over the river Quai and cut the supply LOC to the Indian regiment and I'm hoping that the lack of supply will weaken the Allied unit enough for me to push it out of the way.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the view of Singapore right now. Don has turned it into a fortress and the supply situation for the Japs is poor and I'm having to save up enough supply to move or attack. This takedown is taking a lot longer than I had planned. I have enough troops there for the takedown but the supply situation is a hinderence. I think I need more ships to bombard the Allies.

[larryfulkerson]

Have I showed you the situation at Manila yet? I've got some small calibur ships near Bataan to keep the Marine units there from sailing away and attacks are scheduled on the Allied forces at Manila. I have plans to repair the railroad leadng to Legaspi. I have no idea how long it will take to clear out the island but I hope it won't be prolonged much longer.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in Java. I'm trying to reduce Batavia and I have plans to clear out the rest of the island over the next several turns. I need the ports and airfields for a defense of the DEI in future turns.

[StuccoFresco]

How are supplies in the small and big islands?