The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Canoerebel]

9/9/44

Escaping the Ambush: 32nd Division and the "rescuing" tank battalion clear the ambush hex and entered a hex controlled (except west hexside) by 93rd USA Division. This little army is now safe and will make Amoy in a few days.

John put a lot of hope and effort into creating this ambush and thought he had it set right.

[Canoerebel]

9/9/44

Peep Show II & SEAC

[MakeeLearn]

From a VP standpoint it makes sense to attend to the DEI even while attending to China and/or Korea and while ramping up strategic bombing.

Not trying to make you give up the secret recipe, just wanting to know more about the cooking. If John has been "tending the garden" I would guess that a invasion of Japan will be costly to the Allies, and getting every low hanging VP first would be prudent. The strategic bombing will be interesting to watch in terms of VPs and the actually impact on both sides.

[paullus99]

If he's trying to pull troops off of the beaches there, you should have more than enough surface combatants to pull his teeth pretty well.

And if John moves forward to the Coast, he's going to get clobbered - but he has the overarching fetish to be killing something every turn - so I would even expect that he's going to attack the Kiwi's too.

[Canoerebel]

9/9/44

KB Division & DEI: John is committing a KB division to countermeasures at Darwin? Two USN subs clashed with his carrier TF today, to no effect.

Sometime ago, I commented that John doesn't fight where I expect him to fight (Luzon/China/Formosa) and fights where I don't expect him to fight.

Darwin is a superb example of the latter. Nothing that happens here - the Japanese overwhelming the little Allied units or the Allies somehow standing firm - matters in the least. This is and has been a sideshow for a year. Eventually I'll bring the assets needed to attend to this sector of the LOC properly. Until then, every enemy carrier committed here isn't fighting someplace significant.

I understand John's thinking - Darwin is manageable and relatively low risk; and he's working the VP angle hard. But militarily this is a chasing of chimera.

[BBfanboy]

I'm not sure why you feel Darwin is John's most likely target. From the map, it appears he could be trying to take back part of the DEI to close your LOC. Ambon and the base NW of it are right next to KB, and he may be bringing up troops from OZ for the job? Isn't there also a contested hex on an island just west of Ambon?
If he loaded up his CVs with fighters he would be looking to try and remove your air threat from Boela by getting them to attack or even just suck in the fighter CAP.

[Canoerebel]

The give and take, ebb and flow, of things I'm seeing - including during combat replays - suggests Darwin is the target.

Places like Ambon, Boela, Sorong, and Moratai would be targets of value to him, but the first four are too strongly held - he has zero chance of taking them. He would have a chance at Morotai, but even that would be tough.

There are smaller islands lightly held, but there are a zillion of them, so taking one or two is not going to help him in any material way.

I've always fretted over Boela's susceptibility to bombardment followed by massed air strike. But he's going to by shy about that - the base has mines, subs, a few combat TFs and 400 fighters. He can crack the safe but he could also get nipped badly in doing so.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

9/9/44

BB Ise: The day dawned with USN sub Sterlet putting three TT into Ise. The BB didn't show heavy damage - heck, she's not even blowing smoke - so I'd guess modere- to moderately-heavy damage - 40s to 60s.

Allied sub scores have been exceedingly rare the past four to six months, so this one was worth noting.

Ise has been participating in the Japanese counterinvasion of Vinh and bombardments of Haiphong.

It is 4 to six months in the repair yard, at this stage that is a big help.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

9/9/44

Escaping the Ambush: 32nd Division and the "rescuing" tank battalion clear the ambush hex and entered a hex controlled (except west hexside) by 93rd USA Division. This little army is now safe and will make Amoy in a few days.

John put a lot of hope and effort into creating this ambush and thought he had it set right.

You may not know this, but the Allies always get 1 free day of movement with no movement ticks showing up. It makes your mobile troops really dangerous because they can often move before Japan spots the danger.

[CaptBeefheart]

Lowpe, you're just full of useful information. I bow in your general direction, Sir. [&o]

Cheers,
CC

[palioboy2]

Is that true foe the whole war Lowpe? Or just after a certain point?

[Reg]

Its because the allies enter their orders after Japan.

JFBs are always moaning about it.

[Itdepends]

It is my suspiscion that the free movement you are referring to is now useable by both sides. I would have expected it to have been fixed at the same time that the bug that allowed the allied player to spot planes relocated to empty base hexes immediately after the japanese order phaes was fixed.

[MakeeLearn]

Would not movement detection depend on DL or is it a bug as Itdepends mentions?

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn



Would not movement detection depend on DL or is it a bug as Itdepends mentions?

LCU movement can be detected without the normal recon or bombing that is required to raise D/L. It is somewhat random, but I think it simulates scouts or informants from the local population providing info on what they have seen.
You can definitely raise the probability of good info on movement direction by having recon, bombing or LCU contact with the enemy.

[Encircled]

Remember how hard it is for Chinese units to detect Japanese units movement arrows as well

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Encircled

Remember how hard it is for Chinese units to detect Japanese units movement arrows as well

Troop quality and leadership are factors as well. Terrain too. Also, I think if you have surplus recon and set them to patrol with no target there is a chance that they will spot random units. The Chinese have to just assume that there is a Japanese unit moving at all time. Sucks but there you have it...

[Canoerebel]

John's gone missing.

Yesterday morning, he sent an email that included this note: "Your turn will come back sometime today.  No idea as to exactly when but it will come."

No turn came. He was on the forum a few times during the day, but didn't send the turn nor an update.

I emailed him late last night to let him know a turn hadn't come, in case he'd tried to send it or thought he'd sent it. No reply.

I don't know what's become of the lad.

[witpqs]

He's probably declared independence. [:'(]

[Canoerebel]

He knows I don't celebrate Independence Day. Today is the 164th anniversary of the fall of Vicksburg and the commencement of the Confederate withdrawal from Gettysburg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvxyNmOK4ck