ORIGINAL: Xargun
China
Still clearing out Chinese units hiding in the jungles behind my rail lines. Slowly capturing bases and destroying units, but its taking time. Captured Wuchow and Tsiato. I am cautiously using airstrikes here as Mr Kane has caught me several times with under-escorted strikes with the AVG and ravaged them. The Nates I have in China just cannot stand up to the enemy fighters - even my few Tojo's can't seem to get an edge on them. So I am playing it safe with my bombers here until I have more Oscars to go around -- and China is delegated as a second-rate theater until I get my main objectives captures -- oil from the DEI.
I don't like the Tojos against AVG, because the wing is too small to gain a numbers advantage. A big wing of Oscar 1Cs is better suited. If you can catch one squadron of AVG with a big wing of 1Cs you will have 42 planes, give or take, to his 24, give or take. He is building up a cadre of elite pilots in AVG. Try to get some of them. An airwar over a contested hex with your units and his is your most likely route to killing some AVG pilots. You will probably only need 1 big squadron of 1Cs for the Singapore air war. The 1Bs and 1As can handle bomber escort. So get a big squadron of 1Cs to China with 70+ exp. pilots. One of your in-theatre squadrons upgrades to 1Cs without political points. Part of the general idea of destroying military assets that can be used against you later.
Manila FALLS !!!!! [:D] 17k Allied troops captured. The base is in great shape and I am already moving aviation support there. Manila will be my main airfield to support the assault on Clark and Bataan. The units at Manila took a couple days off to recover and are being moved into Clark as they regain full strength.
Soon the artillery and aerial attacks will begin on Clark.
Great news. Remember that you can clear out the mines around Bataan with the loss of about 10 AMcs. Do not base the AMcs at Manila though. They will pass through the straight and get destroyed by the coastal guns. Base the AMcs at Cabantuan so they can move into Bataan at night with orders to "return to base." Once the mines are cleared out, you can rearm BBs at Manila and pound Clark and Bataan. I like to use 2 groups of 2 BBs each. One rearms while the other bombards. This forces his coastal gun units and artillery to fire every turn. Combine this with a land bombardment, and air attacks, and those allied units will be out of supply by the middle of February. The BBS use a lot of supply themselves, however. So be sure to have it in abundance at Manila.
Port Moresby & Darwin
What is your opinions on these two ports ? They are not very useful to Japan, but to deny the Allies them is useful. I usually take Darwin and the nearby bases forcing the Allies to commit land and air forces to push me out. In the past a pair of divisions, some aviation support and a couple tank units have wrecked havoc up north and are not too large a force to be able to withdraw fairly quickly.
I have never taken Port Moresby and its not very useful to Japan. But it does seem useful for the Allies. Should I take it just to deny it to them? Or how do you guys use it offensively? Should I allow him to keep it and use bombers nearby to kill naval assets as he tries to support it?
I think Moresby is quite useful as it forces the allies to cross a dangerous stretch of water between Australia and New Guinea to begin any SoPac campaign. But how far you advance in SoPac and beyond the DEI, into Darwin, et al, really depends on your overall plan. If you want to invade Australia, then all of this is necessary. If not, secondary. I am guided by the idea that any advance beyond the DEI, Malaysia, and Burma is primarily for the purpose of provoking a major naval engagement. Therefore, my decision on how to proceed would be based upon where I think I am likely to provoke a fight and where that fight would be to my best advantage.
I guess I never noticed in the last game I played (2 yrs ago) but the Weather has been a killer for me. Probably 25-30% of all my planned air missions have been cancelled due to weather. I don't remember it being that bad before. Have they tweaked the weather equations?
Bad weather is your enemy now. It will be your friend later.
