WW2 Grand Strategy Question SEA BASING - Pacific At War PO Version

[larryfulkerson]

I sailed that single DD to near Iwo Jima and decided to quit pushing my luck and park it there. There's not enough room to push it into the hex however, so I need to figure out a way to create some room. Maybe I can fly that HQ unit to somewhere else. I need to make some room for a squadron of fighters ASAP.

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[larryfulkerson]

I just now flew the Enterprise 3rd Fleet Fighter Group out to Wake island from Pearl. Notice that it has only 36 MP's left. They are Wildcats and share that hex with a PBY group and an average skill P-40 group so they could be said to be needed there at Wake although I'd rather eventually push it out to Iwo Jima. Which reminds me, there's no room for it yet. I've got too few MP's left in all the Marine units at IWO so I'll have to schedule any moves for next turn. I'd like to finish all the combat(s) that are going on near Rabaul and Java and Timor etc. and concentrate on pushing near Iwo Jima to somewhere as appropriate for the next move.

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[larryfulkerson]

I've discovered just now that the only fighters that live at Marcus are P-39's. Which isn't the best there is to say the least. They would be ideal for areas where there's no contest for the air. Or at least in areas where there's no local contest. Like A-10's in Ukraine.

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[larryfulkerson]

Whatever is present at Guam it's invisible and I'm curious about what is in each of two empty hexes so I thought I'd run one of the Marine Raider Battalions out there and do a min. losses attack just to get a list of what's there. If you survive do the other empty hex. If you can even move after the first attack.

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[larryfulkerson]

Everything you see here is within range of my B-24's based at Iwo Jima. And I was looking for a good target and according to the rules the black planes are good targets. I spy 2 such planes, one at Tokyo and one at Osaka. And the height of the stack says Osaka is the better target. I'm dying to know if the Japs can strike my base somehow. Do they have the range to hit me from the Home Islands?

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[larryfulkerson]

I just want to document the before and the after of this first strike on Osaka at min. losses just to see how much LBA is there defending. They may have Zero's stashed on Tinian or the Phillippines or at Guam or etc. There are dozens of places for a squadron of fighters.

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[larryfulkerson]

I lost almost half my planes just to find out that it's savage to try to bomb the Home Islands because of the presence of the death star of fighter groups. I'll not do that again really soon.

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[larryfulkerson]

I lost too much of my equipment and troops to do a recon on that island and that specific port. It probably won't survive the Jap turn.

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[larryfulkerson]

I got too little for so much loss. Just CL Katori and DE Momi-Watatake and some damage on CA Myoko. Oh, and some paint was scratched on BB Nagato. Great.

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[larryfulkerson]

Now that's more like it. 2 BB's, 3 CA's, and a CL. And I didn't loose a lot. I think I may have just won the war.

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[larryfulkerson]

The good news is that I found a squadron of P-40's to move up to Iwo Jima but the bad new is that my B-24's are still resting from last turns results. I lost a boat load of aircraft and I learned how severe the LBA is closer to Japan.

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[larryfulkerson]

I attacked this hex just to get some idea what's in the hex at Tarawa and notice that I have captured Makin Island. I completely ran over the Jap defenders in my first attack in a miracle. It ran completely according to plan because I'm a stable genius, that I will tell you. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

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[larryfulkerson]

I lost a boat load of aircraft but I sunk a lot of ships while doing it. Survivors include CA Mogami 2 CL Nagara/Kuma/Sendai class ships, and CA Moyoko, and CA Takao, and CL Katori. I sank everything else: BB Nagato, DD Yugumo, BB Kongo, DD Kamikaze-Mutsuki and DE Momi-Watakake. Not too bad.

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[larryfulkerson]

Last turn I moved a lot of patrol aircraft to places where I found an open port with an airfield and their search areas tended to overlap so I discovered a stack of ships near the southern coast of Borneo and upon a careful search I discovered that the longest range of the group was 2 and I just happened to have a range 3 BB handy, USS North Carolina I think, and there were only 3 ships that survived my strike. Next turn I believe the rest of them will sink as well. How many more ships does Elmer have? I think I may have sunk most of the Jap fleet.

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[larryfulkerson]

I just noticed that the Jap HQ units don't seem to have any support squads or for that matter I don't see any command squads. I wonder what difference it would make if I did a mod that included those things for the Jap. I would be curious to try the Jap side with that particular mod.

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[larryfulkerson]

Just as I prophesized that the rest of the Jap stack would disappear in the next turn and it did. By the way the recent reports of an approaching "Rapture" being advertised on the web isn't going to happen. Just so you know.

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[larryfulkerson]

I believe I got the wrong end of a muddy stick this time. The Jap attack has gutted my aircraft unit. I seem to have gotten in a few good licks but still....

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[larryfulkerson]

Iwo Jima got attacked and over 800+ Jap planes filled the sky and destroyed every aircraft I had parked there. And I had an AA unit present too. Lot of good it did. I'm going to need a lot more AA units.

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[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in the world. Or at least this part of it. There's a lot of moving parts and there's a lot going on. I've been attacked at Iwo Jima already by Jap aircraft so I moved all the AA units I own up there to prevent high losses and it's working so far. I'm wondering where to go from here because there's a death star's worth of Jap LBA to go through to bomb the Home Islands so I hesitate to do that. I suppose I'll run my ships up to the Jap bases and do a hell of a lot of airfield attacks to get rid of the resistance to my ground assaults.

You know what....I think It's About Time I posted a saved game file for you guys. Find it here below.

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[larryfulkerson]

The Japs attacked me by air at least a dozen times last turn so I thought I'd send another, a fourth AA unit to Iwo Jima. They usually lose more than is typical for the usual air attack and now with a fourth AA unit they will risk losing even more. I hope.

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