Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

[Mike Solli]

3 Apr 43

China

Bombing and bombarding. I'm beginning to attack here and there. My. infantry and artillery is still moving into position but I have armor attacking here and there. The 2 tank divisions and 2 tank regiments are pushing NE out of the Chungking plateau driving the one Chinese Corps ahead of it. It's leading the way toward Sian with the bulk of the infantry and all the artillery following a couple hexes behind.

To the south, 4 infantry divisions are heading toward Changteh to meet up with some more infantry to take that base. They're still about 260 miles out, so it'll be awhile.

So what is the plan after the CHI mop-up? You're still early in '43 so no reason to cede the initiative yet, right?

I don't want to cede the initiative. I'd love to have him reacting to me. My initial thought is Ceylon and possibly India. It may be a pipe dream though. I want to allocate 4 elite divisions from China to the Marianas and another 3-4 to the Philippines. I know he'll go one way or the other. My gut tells me it'll be the Philippines because of his air power. The problem for him is that I have a LOT of airfields leading up to the Philippines and I'll have a LOT of Franks, Georges, Tojos and Nicks that he has to burn through. The IJAAF fighter pilot pool is looking really good.

The Marianas would prevent his land-based fighters from participating for the most part, making him rely on his Death Star fighters to cover everything. His land-based bombers would probably take a beating.

I'm working toward getting all four of the Marianas islands to fort level 7. (Saipan is done.) Each would have a division, a brigade and artillery and CD, along with some tanks too. I'm hoping to have a HQ in each hex as well. That is all tough to do with a max stacking of 35,000.

[Mike Solli]

4 Apr 43

xAKs Knish Maru and Tokuhei Maru, both Std-B, converting to TKs

How are your TK losses? I've really never had to convert much to TK, so just wondering.

Losses are light:

3 Manzyu class, 7950 capacity, all to subs
1 Type-1 TS, 1250 capacity, to a sub
1 Type-1 TL, 11,600 capacity, accident, it blew up

I am building a dozen Std-B xAKs and converting them to TKs for a couple reasons. I like the 14 kt. speed and its small size allows it to get into smaller ports. The Std-B TKs are going to be used to move fuel near the front lines and to "front line" bases such as the Aleutians and from Truk to Kwajalein and Rabaul. A couple will be used to haul fuel/oil from Rangoon, where it tends to accumulate (I think).

[Mike Solli]

5 Apr 43 - Another really quiet day today.

Reinforcement
SC CHa-2, shallow hex ASW

With all the recent SC's arriving, you should have a good handle on your ASW to/from the HI along the CHI coast ... with FP ASW/NavSearch ... or not?

Definitely. I've increased Jake production to 60 and am covering the Chinese coast with air search/ASW along with more naval ASW. The CHa- class is freeing up Ch- class to cover the necessary deep water hexes. More Etorofus are coming soon too.

[PaxMondo]

...In all, there are ~100 Chinese units scattered around the map. ....

Not only is that a fair amount of VP's for you, but most importantly a lot of exp. Be sure to have most/all of your units involved when you kill a bunch ... they will have an opportunity to get some exp ... especially those hard to exp units like AA, Anti-Tnk, and Arty.

Get yourself an 80 exp arty unit and watch what happens Amazing is the only word for it. I've never actually done it in a game (best I've done I think was 74 exp), but I made one for a test bed ... Whoo-Hoo!!!

[PaxMondo]

I don't want to cede the initiative. I'd love to have him reacting to me. My initial thought is Ceylon and possibly India. It may be a pipe dream though. I want to allocate 4 elite divisions from China to the Marianas and another 3-4 to the Philippines. I know he'll go one way or the other. My gut tells me it'll be the Philippines because of his air power. The problem for him is that I have a LOT of airfields leading up to the Philippines and I'll have a LOT of Franks, Georges, Tojos and Nicks that he has to burn through. The IJAAF fighter pilot pool is looking really good.

The Marianas would prevent his land-based fighters from participating for the most part, making him rely on his Death Star fighters to cover everything. His land-based bombers would probably take a beating.

I'm working toward getting all four of the Marianas islands to fort level 7. (Saipan is done.) Each would have a division, a brigade and artillery and CD, along with some tanks too. I'm hoping to have a HQ in each hex as well. That is all tough to do with a max stacking of 35,000.

I'm a big fan of India. Taking the Calcutta area is just so much in terms of supply/resources/fuel. Even if you only hold it for 6 months.

I would necessarily commit all my elite ID's to defense yet. One is each theatre, sure, but the rest just average. You will want some of those elite ones for your excursion to make it happen quicker.

Tojos/Nicks at this point are good for secondary fields to take on unescorted bombers and night fighting roles until you get Randy. Neither can handle his fighters now, Frank/George for that role. Keep building them like crazy. On defense you will lose a lot more planes than pilots ... don't want to run short of good fighters.

Marianas: don't forget AA Bn's ...

DeathStar fighters ... over 400 F6F's ... that's about 12 - 18 air groups for you ...