The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Canoerebel]

I've stepped out in the game: accepting major surface action in Assam in summer '42; invasion Sumatra; invasion Big Tent; offering carrier combat in the Bay of Bengal in late '42; seeking and achieving carrier combat in CenPac in September '43, etc.

How many times have I lulled John into complacency in the game only to bite him in the butt?

[MakeeLearn]

It is next to impossible to gain a fight if the enemy wishes to avoid one. There's no way John wants to chance Mini KB against Death Star, so the only way a carrier battle happens is if he makes a colossal blunder.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I've stepped out in the game: accepting major surface action in Assam in summer '42; invasion Sumatra; invasion Big Tent; offering carrier combat in the Bay of Bengal in late '42; seeking and achieving carrier combat in CenPac in September '43, etc.

How many times have I lulled John into complacency in the game only to bite him in the butt?

You have done a flank speed run attack? Sorry then, my memory of your game is of course very incomplete, plus I think I missed the 43 fight.

[Canoerebel]

I don't think any of the actions I referred to involved flank speed Death Star operations, at least to any significant extent. I may have done so at some point in the game, but I honestly don't recall.

I've done it in the past - in other games - under what I considered the right circumstances. And I'd do it at the end of a long LOC, but only under limited circumstances.

[Canoerebel]

Trying to figure out when it's "safe" to bring the fleet from Legaspi to Manila.

Does anybody know the answer to this question?

[Lowpe]

I see, said the blind man!

I meant to specifically mean a flank speed deathstar attack, a bolt out of the blue! If I make a flank speed attack, I am definitely stepping outside of my comfort zone to do one![:D]

Boy, that is a really horrible sentence. Sorry to have inflicted it on you.[:D]

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Trying to figure out when it's "safe" to bring the fleet from Legaspi to Manila.

Does anybody know the answer to this question?

I have never seen that unit before to my knowledge. It doesn't show up in my scen 2 game.

I always thought cd guns could fire, even if the base changes hands, but I have never actually seen it. Usually the guns are disrupted/destroyed by losing the base. Usually destroyed.

[Canoerebel]

I think these coastal gun units are Reluctant Admiral creations. John thinks a lot of them, I believe, but they have done little if any in the game; possibly because I have attacked the targets he expected me to attack: Lunga, Rabaul, Truk, Ponape, Kusaei, Saipan, Tinian, etc.

By the way, I hooted when I read your self-analysis of your sentence. I do the same thing too frequently for words (ha ha).

[Canoerebel]

7/18/44

Battle of Bataan: This key base falls on a 2:1 attack. Still 35k enemy troops there. I'm leaving two divisions to deal with those, while two others and the combat engineers make for Manila.

I ended up with four divisions involved in the reduction of Clark Field and this base. One of those has 66% percent disablements; one has about 45% disablements; the other two 25% or less. That's considerable wear and tear.

The least two damaged are slated for some of the opening beachheads for Peep Show, so the wear and tear is a concern.

But Luzon is almost ready to serve as a magnificent base for future Allied operations: big shipyard, big port, big airfields, all in proximity to the enemy heartland.

[Canoerebel]

7/18/44

Battle of Laoag: This base falls, leaving another beleaguered pocket of Japanese troops. 1st Cav. Div. will take care of this pocket, which shouldn't take long.

[Canoerebel]

7/18/44

SEAC: Allied army easily takes Ayuthia against tattered remnants of Japanese army. John doesn't seem to be preparing a stand at Bangkok, though he may surprise me. What about Saigon, Cam Ranh Bay, etc?

[Canoerebel]

7/18/44

Fun House and Peep Show: See map for details.

[Canoerebel]

7/18/44

Mini KB: Steams to Balikpapan to refuel. I think Lowpe expected this, but I didn't. She'd been there not too long ago, so my thinking was that John was making a run for the Pacific.

Balikpapan is not within flank speed strike range of Legaspi, which John undoubtedly calculated carefully.

Where Mini KB goes from here is key. On spectrum of my comfort with Peep Show: I'll proceed without questions against KB and LBA; I'll have a higher level of worry if John augments KB with either of the Mini KBs.

He still has time to consolidate, but that window is now days rather than weeks.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Trying to figure out when it's "safe" to bring the fleet from Legaspi to Manila.

Does anybody know the answer to this question?

I have never seen that unit before to my knowledge. It doesn't show up in my scen 2 game.

I always thought cd guns could fire, even if the base changes hands, but I have never actually seen it. Usually the guns are disrupted/destroyed by losing the base. Usually destroyed.

I have some Japanese units isolated on a peninsula with no base and have been bombarding them. There is one Coastal Gun unit with them and it sometimes shoots back, but ineffectively. No hits yet. I have been knocking out guns and my ships show as firing at the CD unit, so I am guessing it is disrupted.
And if the Bataan units are out of supply, they are not going to fire when they are ejected from the base. There may be a "dry fire" where they go through the motions.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

7/18/44

SEAC: Allied army easily takes Ayuthia against tattered remnants of Japanese army. John doesn't seem to be preparing a stand at Bangkok, though he may surprise me. What about Saigon, Cam Ranh Bay, etc?

Bangkok is somewhat isolated because the Japanese control both sides of the bay leading up to it - no shipping in supply there. Getting supply overland from Tavoy (nearest place) is not sufficient to maintain an big air base or heavy ground ops. You may be able to airlift in some supply once you have Bangkok.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

7/18/44

Mini KB: Steams to Balikpapan to refuel. I think Lowpe expected this, but I didn't.

Good, I am glad I didn't say anymore than I did then.[:)] When I typed out the post originally I did have it in, and then edited it out feeling that it was too much information & you seemed to have a slightly different take on what those ships were up to. They still might be up to continuing on around Borneo or to Davao or back to Java area.

I suspect the mini enhanced KB will be there tomorrow too. I didn't count hexes because you could have moved the deathstar SW to Cebu area and disbanded during the night movement, and made a full speed run today to put you well within striking distance of Balikpapen.

Do you know the fighter count at Balikpapen? I am curious.

[Canoerebel]

John's best vector of egress for Mini KB will be through the Makassar Strait. That, plus the fact that he'd already fueled relatively recently, led me to believe that's what might be happening. If I had sent Death Star steaming, I'd have been wasting fuel, because my analysis was off the mark.

John usually posts about 70 fighters at Balikpapan; he probably has more there right now.

I have only one recon squadron operating in the DEI, cycling between a number of bases including that one. All the rest is working Formosa and the islands to the NE. I need that information...both for my purposes and to lead John to certain conclusions, I hope. Once Peep Show is underway, I'll recommit some recon squadrons to the DEI.

[Canoerebel]

John never used Bangkok as a major base; I don't expect to either. As you noted, supply will be an issue. But the city was important for two reasons: (1) John could've stood firm here by bringing in enough supply and fighters to give me fits, fighting as I am with tuckered-out units at the end of a lengthy LOC; and (2) this further segments John's overland supply line to China.

I keep thinking that the Allied interdiction of the IJ supply line up the SEA coastline must be a big deal, but John has totally ignored it as if it wasn't. Either he has supply and fuel out the wazoo stockpiled in Japan or he's not paying attention to this.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

John's best vector of egress for Mini KB will be through the Makassar Strait. That, plus the fact that he'd already fueled relatively recently, led me to believe that's what might be happening. If I had sent Death Star steaming, I'd have been wasting fuel, because my analysis was off the mark.

Lesson: don't trust the peanut gallery![:)]

[Canoerebel]

7/19/44

In and around the South China Sea: See map for details.