The Power of Inexperience / GreyJoy(A)-Rader(J)

[ny59giants]

You have been losing the battle of attrition for months now. Now that you have made a stand in the Solomons, he has used the tried and true method of bringing overwhelming force to bear. You don't have the numbers to stand toe to toe and slug it out. The Tojo is the super fighter at this point in time. He has most of his Zero in the Solomons area due to their range. I see he is still using the obsolete Oscar models, so all is not well in Rader land. [:D] The captured industry in India is allowing him to produce extra planes and still build up his Heavy Industry reserves.

While you may want to use your CV right now, you truly need to be patient and wait for the Hellcat to come out so you can replace the useless Wildcats. The tide will turn, but you cannot be on the receiving end of "Whack a Mole." [:D] Right now where ever you put up a fight he will come and do this. Don't be surprised if you lose Luganville in the next few months. He will capture Port Moresby, load up those troops and head SE.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: ADB123


BTW - What did you hope to accomplish by throwing away those divebombers in Lunga? Why are YOU splitting up your forces and attacking an overwhelmingly superior opponent piecemeal?

I only moved 1 single 18 SDBs marine unit at Lunga cause i wanted to ambush his SCTFs that were coming too close to Lunga...was a calculated risk imho...and in fact they did attack the CL-TF...even a single penetrating hit with a 1000lb bomb should have made the effort worth...
And ADB i don't think i'm attacking piecemeal. I've sent to the Solomons more than 2000 AVs...Should be enough in a normal world! i mean 2000 AVs is probably more than the allies have thrown against the Japs during the whole Guadalcanal campaign... If 2000 are not enough, well, nothing will be enough...

Now you want to attack Tarawa? Why in God's Name do you want to have your forces trapped in yet another undefendable single point base? Aren't you satisfied with the troops that you have let be trapped in PM and the eastern Solomons?

I'm just trying to think what should i do now....should be a sound strategy to attack somewhere else when he's fully committed in another theatre...and i say SHOULD...

....Everything is undefendable safe Oz probably at this stage... I didn't let my troops trapped in PM...not on pourpose at least... i don't want to defend my strategical view beyond any reason...also because facts prove every day that i'm wrong 90% of the times...but shouldn't be enough to attack PM with 600 AVs when he had everything in India? And jump in the Solomons at the same time so to divide his possible counter efforts? To me, these ideas seemed right and sound....facts showed me that i was wrong but on paper the whole plan sounded pretty fair and reasonable to me...
So am i really so guilty? Don't think so...

BTW II - I see that you still have your PTs in a few large PT TFs. Remember what I said about multiple 2-ship TFs. If you had done that your opponent would have run out of ammo and operational points before he could bombard. And it appears that you still aren't putting good skippers as your PT skippers. Otherwise some of those PTs would have fired.?

The skippers were good, believe me. The best i could find. Not a single torpedo fired.
Well, there were 3 TFs, one big and two smaller...The multiple 2-ship TF is considered gamey in many threads i read in the past... thought that this was a decent middle-solution...

I'll give another prediction - the next place that Radar will attack In Force will be the New Hebrides..

Should i abbandon everything so? For how long can he hope to have a so remarkable supremacy!? i mean...i've been fighting for 14 months now...and i did fought! I hope sooner or later this attitude will be rewarded by the Gods of War...

BTW III - You are whining about your bad luck, but you did have some very good "blind luck" here because your CVs are upgrading. You would have lost them if you threw them against your opponent in the Solomons.

Now - one last suggestion: give up on your "win it all with a home run" plans, start building up your own invincible massed positions and start to plan a "steam roller" of your own for the 3rd quarter of 1943. Given your situation, my suggestion would be to hit the DEI from northwestern Oz.

BTW IV - Withdraw or Disband your air units in the Solomons so that you don't waste more.

Save for that single marine SDB unit i have already moved back all my Cactus Force. I'm trying to build up a decent bombing air force at Ndani...hopefully i'll be able to use my 4Es against Russell Island as soon as it becomes Japanese...

Don't know...i feel a late 1943/1944 campaign from Western Oz to DEI will have the same outcome...facing 2/3000 enemy planes, with hell of troops to be faced and an intact KB...like the one Andy did against PzB... at least here in the Solomons it's Rader that has to counterinvade...i'd really like to attrit him stayin on the defensive side...and, at the same time, using this commitment of his to attack somewhere else...that's why i was always thinking of Tarawa...

However my Seabees are strategic moving from Sydney to Perth right in these days...so we'll soon start to build up Western Oz

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

You have been losing the battle of attrition for months now. Now that you have made a stand in the Solomons, he has used the tried and true method of bringing overwhelming force to bear. You don't have the numbers to stand toe to toe and slug it out. The Tojo is the super fighter at this point in time. He has most of his Zero in the Solomons area due to their range. I see he is still using the obsolete Oscar models, so all is not well in Rader land. [:D] The captured industry in India is allowing him to produce extra planes and still build up his Heavy Industry reserves.

While you may want to use your CV right now, you truly need to be patient and wait for the Hellcat to come out so you can replace the useless Wildcats. The tide will turn, but you cannot be on the receiving end of "Whack a Mole." [:D] Right now where ever you put up a fight he will come and do this. Don't be surprised if you lose Luganville in the next few months. He will capture Port Moresby, load up those troops and head SE.

Lungaville!?[X(]...but where does he find the supplies and fuel needed for these HUGE movements!? despite all my efforts i'm always short of fuel in SOPAC...and i DID follow your suggestion since December 1941...but every single damned ship needs fuel and it gets consumed faster than what is brought in line by the slow TKs and AKs....

But what should i do!? Abbandon everything (Lunga, Tulagi, Ndani, Lungaville, Efate etc etc)?? Even if i whish i don't have the means in terms of ships, fuel,transport planes etc to evacuate all those troops....

I hava exactly 100,000 men in the Solomons, 80,000 at Ndani, 80,000 at Lungaville, 20,000 at Efate, 25,000 at Noumea...50,000 at Suva...how am i supposed to move out those men in front of the whole japanese Combined Army!?

depressed[:(]

[GreyJoy]

Tide will turn you say...it's 1943...and things seem even darker than 1942...
 
Seriously...i haven't found another AAR where the allies take so many beatings...for sure i'm worse than most of you guys...but if i have to be completely honest i don't think (save for China and early India) i made so huge mistakes in terms of strategy...i even managed to save my CVs!!!![:)]

[ADB123]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: ADB123


BTW - What did you hope to accomplish by throwing away those divebombers in Lunga? Why are YOU splitting up your forces and attacking an overwhelmingly superior opponent piecemeal?

I only moved 1 single 18 SDBs marine unit at Lunga cause i wanted to ambush his SCTFs that were coming too close to Lunga...was a calculated risk imho...and in fact they did attack the CL-TF...even a single penetrating hit with a 1000lb bomb should have made the effort worth...
And ADB i don't think i'm attacking piecemeal. I've sent to the Solomons more than 2000 AVs...Should be enough in a normal world! i mean 2000 AVs is probably more than the allies have thrown against the Japs during the whole Guadalcanal campaign... If 2000 are not enough, well, nothing will be enough...

Stop counting "AVs" and start looking at the overall situation. Total number of "AVs" is meaningless if your troops have no supplies, they are disrupted by constant attack, and if the opponent can bring in good troops. That's why having troops caught in bases like PM is so bad.

And get that "normal world" garbage out of your head. That's a waste of time. Play the Game!

Now you want to attack Tarawa? Why in God's Name do you want to have your forces trapped in yet another undefendable single point base? Aren't you satisfied with the troops that you have let be trapped in PM and the eastern Solomons?

I'm just trying to think what should i do now....should be a sound strategy to attack somewhere else when he's fully committed in another theatre...and i say SHOULD...

"Should"???? Okay, tell me when the US invaded Tarawa? Was it in 1942 or early 1943? No, and why not - the Japanese had no working CV fleet after July 42?

So what makes it such a good idea to do it early in your situation when you've LOST have of the Pacific Theater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

....Everything is undefendable safe Oz probably at this stage... I didn't let my troops trapped in PM...not on pourpose at least... i don't want to defend my strategical view beyond any reason...also because facts prove every day that i'm wrong 90% of the times...but shouldn't be enough to attack PM with 600 AVs when he had everything in India? And jump in the Solomons at the same time so to divide his possible counter efforts? To me, these ideas seemed right and sound....facts showed me that i was wrong but on paper the whole plan sounded pretty fair and reasonable to me...
So am i really so guilty? Don't think so...

Why should you be able to attack ANYWHERE at a time when your opponent has such a huge advantage over you? You are very guilty of not playing that Game that is in front of you.

BTW II - I see that you still have your PTs in a few large PT TFs. Remember what I said about multiple 2-ship TFs. If you had done that your opponent would have run out of ammo and operational points before he could bombard. And it appears that you still aren't putting good skippers as your PT skippers. Otherwise some of those PTs would have fired.?

The skippers were good, believe me. The best i could find. Not a single torpedo fired.
Well, there were 3 TFs, one big and two smaller...The multiple 2-ship TF is considered gamey in many threads i read in the past... thought that this was a decent middle-solution...

Gamey???????????? When did the US EVER use "fleets" of multiple PTs in WW II. They used ones and twos to interdict, harass and scout. If you want to play this "historically" you ought to have all of your PTs in single-ship TFs.

I'll give another prediction - the next place that Radar will attack In Force will be the New Hebrides..

Should i abbandon everything so? For how long can he hope to have a so remarkable supremacy!? i mean...i've been fighting for 14 months now...and i did fought! I hope sooner or later this attitude will be rewarded by the Gods of War...

Uh, the "gods of war" aren't playing this game, you are. You've played badly and stubbornly and continued to throw away your forces in attacks when they were outnumbered, and pulled out your forces when they were superior.

If you keep on throwing away your forces piecemeal you will make Radar's dream come true, because you will never be able to achieve material superiority. At the rate you are going Radar will never lose supremacy, UNLESS YOU CHANGE YOUR APPROACH.

BTW III - You are whining about your bad luck, but you did have some very good "blind luck" here because your CVs are upgrading. You would have lost them if you threw them against your opponent in the Solomons.

Now - one last suggestion: give up on your "win it all with a home run" plans, start building up your own invincible massed positions and start to plan a "steam roller" of your own for the 3rd quarter of 1943. Given your situation, my suggestion would be to hit the DEI from northwestern Oz.

BTW IV - Withdraw or Disband your air units in the Solomons so that you don't waste more.

Save for that single marine SDB unit i have already moved back all my Cactus Force. I'm trying to build up a decent bombing air force at Ndani...hopefully i'll be able to use my 4Es against Russell Island as soon as it becomes Japanese...

Bombing force? What are you going to do when the KB and the JP BBs come in to blast your Air Fields to nanoparticles? NY59Giants is most likely right - the New Hebrides is likely next.

I would pull totally out of the New Hebrides and back into New Zealand, build up from there, and wait for Hellcats and Thunderbolts.

Don't know...i feel a late 1943/1944 campaign from Western Oz to DEI will have the same outcome...facing 2/3000 enemy planes, with hell of troops to be faced and an intact KB...like the one Andy did against PzB... at least here in the Solomons it's Rader that has to counterinvade...i'd really like to attrit him stayin on the defensive side...and, at the same time, using this commitment of his to attack somewhere else...that's why i was always thinking of Tarawa...

If you keep on throwing away your forces on hopeless and useless invasions now you won't have anything to attack with in late 43/early 44

However my Seabees are strategic moving from Sydney to Perth right in these days...so we'll soon start to build up Western Oz

Send more than just engineers - Radar will be back as soon as you build up the bases for him.

[ADB123]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

You have been losing the battle of attrition for months now. Now that you have made a stand in the Solomons, he has used the tried and true method of bringing overwhelming force to bear. You don't have the numbers to stand toe to toe and slug it out. The Tojo is the super fighter at this point in time. He has most of his Zero in the Solomons area due to their range. I see he is still using the obsolete Oscar models, so all is not well in Rader land. [:D] The captured industry in India is allowing him to produce extra planes and still build up his Heavy Industry reserves.

While you may want to use your CV right now, you truly need to be patient and wait for the Hellcat to come out so you can replace the useless Wildcats. The tide will turn, but you cannot be on the receiving end of "Whack a Mole." [:D] Right now where ever you put up a fight he will come and do this. Don't be surprised if you lose Luganville in the next few months. He will capture Port Moresby, load up those troops and head SE.

Lungaville!?[X(]...but where does he find the supplies and fuel needed for these HUGE movements!? despite all my efforts i'm always short of fuel in SOPAC...and i DID follow your suggestion since December 1941...but every single damned ship needs fuel and it gets consumed faster than what is brought in line by the slow TKs and AKs....

His conquered territories produce lots of supplies and fuel. And he has tons of ships because you haven't been sinking them. And he has been moving supplies and fuel constantly because your aren't interdicting his Supply Train.

You chose to move your forces forward before you moved your supplies and fuel. Now you are paying the price. You can do one or the other, but not both. You chose poorly young jedi... [:D]

But what should i do!? Abbandon everything (Lunga, Tulagi, Ndani, Lungaville, Efate etc etc)?? Even if i whish i don't have the means in terms of ships, fuel,transport planes etc to evacuate all those troops....

Huh? Where did the ships go that you used to bring your troops there?

I hava exactly 100,000 men in the Solomons, 80,000 at Ndani, 80,000 at Lungaville, 20,000 at Efate, 25,000 at Noumea...50,000 at Suva...how am i supposed to move out those men in front of the whole japanese Combined Army!?

Ugh - that's a fine mess you've gotten yourself into Ollie...

You have two choices, attempt to bring in ships to pull out your troops, or attempt to bring in supplies and sacrifice these troops for time. Without seeing your actual situation I can't judge which is the better choice.

depressed[:(]

Hey, look at the bright side, if this were "history", you probably would have been put in front of a firing squad by now... [:D][;)]

[ny59giants]

Please list your supply and fuel at bases from Pearl to Luganville (just the top 5 or 6). I have 2 Transport TF going between San Fran and Pearl using 25 Transmarine Cargo xAKs with escorts. That's 80k in supply each trip and I now have over 500,000 in supply at Pearl in mid-March 42. I need about 20 more trips to get over 2 million by end of '42.

You should have some supply and fuel hubs somewhere across the South Pacific. Where are they?? A Transport TF coming back from Oz/NZ should stop off to refuel, but have the 'Do Not Refuel' option set. Once at this South Pacific hub, switch the home port and destination to San Fran (add in any way points that may increase distance). Next, change the fuel option (see top of page 107 in Manual) to 'Minimal Refuel.' This will give you just enough fuel to get back to San Fran plus 10%. You don't want to take more fuel back to San Fran than you need.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Please list your supply and fuel at bases from Pearl to Luganville (just the top 5 or 6). I have 2 Transport TF going between San Fran and Pearl using 25 Transmarine Cargo xAKs with escorts. That's 80k in supply each trip and I now have over 500,000 in supply at Pearl in mid-March 42. I need about 20 more trips to get over 2 million by end of '42.

You should have some supply and fuel hubs somewhere across the South Pacific. Where are they?? A Transport TF coming back from Oz/NZ should stop off to refuel, but have the 'Do Not Refuel' option set. Once at this South Pacific hub, switch the home port and destination to San Fran (add in any way points that may increase distance). Next, change the fuel option (see top of page 107 in Manual) to 'Minimal Refuel.' This will give you just enough fuel to get back to San Fran plus 10%. You don't want to take more fuel back to San Fran than you need.

At PH i have 700,000 supplies and 500,000 fuel (loading up a replenishment TF for the CVs of 190,000 fuel right now)
At Christmas i have 450,000 supplies and 270k fuel
At Pago P. i have 100k supplies and 120k fuel
At Suva i have 300k supplies and 22k fuel (and here is the bottleneck...Suva and the Sopac operations have been a constant draining pipe in our chain for what concerns fuel)
At Noumea i have 80k supplies and 30k fuel
At Lungaville i have 100k supplies and 10k fuel
At Ndani i have 150k supplies and 10k fuel
At Lunga i have 110k supplies and no fuel
At Tulagi i have 10k supplies and no fuel
At Tessafaronga 4k supplies and no fuel

I have 2 Big 80k fuel TF moving from CT to Perth, and a constant Flow from WC to PH and Christmas and from here to Suva and Pago.
The fact is that the constant use of shippings during the last 5 months from Suva (bringing in troops and moving them towards the Solomons front) has sucked up all my fuel reserves in the area...more than what i could be able to spare.
Every 2 weeks a convoy of 50k fuel arrives at Suva...during a couple of days it vanishes...cause all my ships there need fuel and they're always thirsty...

[PaxMondo]

Breaking my silence here, not sure that I should.  Oh well.  It's early Saturday and I haven't had my coffee yet.  Poor decision can happen.  [;)]

As ADB and ny59 are attempting to point out, and many others do so in other threads: this game (and war) is won or lost by logistics.  It does no good to have 2000AV in a location that you cannot supply, and re-supply as required. 

As the allies you have unlimited sources of both supply and fuel.  However, when the game starts your transports are not well aligned with these locations.  You need to move them so that they are.  If you are short of either supply or fuel at this point in the game, then your biggest mistake to date in the game is that you failed to get your supply train in place.

Forget all other aspects of the game.  250/month  P-51H's are not going to help you at all if you do not have your supply lines set up and working.  Sit down, look at your supply sources.  Now determine where and how much supply per month you need.  Then for each of the locations calculate how many xAK's and TK's and DD/DE's you need.  Get those ships where they need to be and running with supplies.

Oh, and plan out multiple routes.  Any good IJ player, and rader is good, will be looking to find and interdict those SLOC's.  You need to be able to shift them at will.

Once you get your train figured out, step back and do the exact same analysis for the IJ.  Then figure out how you can interdict them and what assets that will require.   Determine if the assets required can be lost for the what gain might be had.

Please stop whining.  [:-]  And anytime you see rader doing something you can't do, don't assume he is using a "gamey" tactic.  Rader seems to be a very good and honorable opponent. Any suggestion of him using a gamey tactic reflects poorly on you without a lot of evidence. If something comes up, simply ask here, and post enough game information so that we can see your issue.  I can't respond to specifics as I am reading raders' AAR, but there are plenty of others here who can, and have, post their thoughts.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo


Please stop whining.  [:-]  And anytime you see rader doing something you can't do, don't assume he is using a "gamey" tactic.  Rader seems to be a very good and honorable opponent. Any suggestion of him using a gamey tactic reflects poorly on you without a lot of evidence. If something comes up, simply ask here, and post enough game information so that we can see your issue.  I can't respond to specifics as I am reading raders' AAR, but there are plenty of others here who can, and have, post their thoughts.

I never, never, NEVER said or implied Rader uses any gamey tactic! Never!
Rader is more than an honourable opponent. He's always been kind with me and, many times, he had given me suggestions and kind words to raise my morale.

So i don't really understand your words.

I truly believe he's better than me and he has simply outplayed me since day one. I probably was too arrogant to think to be able to stand against him given my inexperience.

However i strongly and firmly - if anyone here is reading through the lines that i'm implying that Rader isn't playing fairly - that i DO BELIEVE Rader has done everything right, being me the one who didn't get good enough.

Saying that Japan outnumbers me isn't saying he's doing anything gamey. That MUST be clear and clarified if wasn't bright enough

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo


Please stop whining.  [:-]  And anytime you see rader doing something you can't do, don't assume he is using a "gamey" tactic.  Rader seems to be a very good and honorable opponent. Any suggestion of him using a gamey tactic reflects poorly on you without a lot of evidence. If something comes up, simply ask here, and post enough game information so that we can see your issue.  I can't respond to specifics as I am reading raders' AAR, but there are plenty of others here who can, and have, post their thoughts.

I never, never, NEVER said or implied Rader uses any gamey tactic! Never!
Rader is more than an honourable opponent. He's always been kind with me and, many times, he had given me suggestions and kind words to raise my morale.

So i don't really understand your words.

I truly believe he's better than me and he has simply outplayed me since day one. I probably was too arrogant to think to be able to stand against him given my inexperience.

However i strongly and firmly - if anyone here is reading through the lines that i'm implying that Rader isn't playing fairly - that i DO BELIEVE Rader has done everything right, being me the one who didn't get good enough.

Saying that Japan outnumbers me isn't saying he's doing anything gamey. That MUST be clear and clarified if wasn't bright enough

My apologies. It had seemed that you were (to me). Good to see that I was mistaken.

Keep soldiering on. It a good AAR to read. Let me get back to my coffee.

Good Luck!

[GreyJoy]

Ok...a brief news... 5 big units are reported on Marus moving to Tulagi.... 3 Divisions and 2 Mixed Bdes.... guys...we have no time to evacuate anything...even if we want to... we're doomed. I'll lose 6 Marines regiments, Tons of base forces, Engineers, Tanks, AA units.... 100,000 men...Like the whole 6th Armee at Stalingrad...I really didn't think something like that could happen...I thought that after India and China the japanese tide was stopped...that its capabilities were already too stretched...oh boy i was wrong...

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo


Please stop whining.  [:-]  And anytime you see rader doing something you can't do, don't assume he is using a "gamey" tactic.  Rader seems to be a very good and honorable opponent. Any suggestion of him using a gamey tactic reflects poorly on you without a lot of evidence. If something comes up, simply ask here, and post enough game information so that we can see your issue.  I can't respond to specifics as I am reading raders' AAR, but there are plenty of others here who can, and have, post their thoughts.

I never, never, NEVER said or implied Rader uses any gamey tactic! Never!
Rader is more than an honourable opponent. He's always been kind with me and, many times, he had given me suggestions and kind words to raise my morale.

So i don't really understand your words.

I truly believe he's better than me and he has simply outplayed me since day one. I probably was too arrogant to think to be able to stand against him given my inexperience.

However i strongly and firmly - if anyone here is reading through the lines that i'm implying that Rader isn't playing fairly - that i DO BELIEVE Rader has done everything right, being me the one who didn't get good enough.

Saying that Japan outnumbers me isn't saying he's doing anything gamey. That MUST be clear and clarified if wasn't bright enough

My apologies. It had seemed that you were (to me). Good to see that I was mistaken.

Keep soldiering on. It a good AAR to read. Let me get back to my coffee.

Good Luck!

Yes, sorry if i've been so rude mate, but these are sensitive subjects you know...when in games somebody arises even the doubt that the opponent is not acting fairly the "atmosphere" of fair play is at risk of being broken... so that's why i needed to be so direct and to use so harsh words.

No need to apologise. I just wanted to clarify [:)]

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: ADB123



Stop counting "AVs" and start looking at the overall situation. Total number of "AVs" is meaningless if your troops have no supplies, they are disrupted by constant attack, and if the opponent can bring in good troops. That's why having troops caught in bases like PM is so bad.

And get that "normal world" garbage out of your head. That's a waste of time. Play the Game!

"Should"???? Okay, tell me when the US invaded Tarawa? Was it in 1942 or early 1943? No, and why not - the Japanese had no working CV fleet after July 42?

So what makes it such a good idea to do it early in your situation when you've LOST have of the Pacific Theater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why should you be able to attack ANYWHERE at a time when your opponent has such a huge advantage over you? You are very guilty of not playing that Game that is in front of you.

Gamey???????????? When did the US EVER use "fleets" of multiple PTs in WW II. They used ones and twos to interdict, harass and scout. If you want to play this "historically" you ought to have all of your PTs in single-ship TFs.

Uh, the "gods of war" aren't playing this game, you are. You've played badly and stubbornly and continued to throw away your forces in attacks when they were outnumbered, and pulled out your forces when they were superior.

If you keep on throwing away your forces piecemeal you will make Radar's dream come true, because you will never be able to achieve material superiority. At the rate you are going Radar will never lose supremacy, UNLESS YOU CHANGE YOUR APPROACH.

Bombing force? What are you going to do when the KB and the JP BBs come in to blast your Air Fields to nanoparticles? NY59Giants is most likely right - the New Hebrides is likely next.

I would pull totally out of the New Hebrides and back into New Zealand, build up from there, and wait for Hellcats and Thunderbolts.
If you keep on throwing away your forces on hopeless and useless invasions now you won't have anything to attack with in late 43/early 44


Send more than just engineers - Radar will be back as soon as you build up the bases for him.

ADB...facts proved you were right. The Solomons are lost. He will get Russell Island next turn, base some 200 fighters there and cover the Tulagi invasion. At the same time he'll bomb Lunga back to stoneage till i'll have no supplies left, then he will invade.

Unfortunately there's no time to evacuate. So i'll have to face the loss of 2 Marine Divisions, plus some 4 regiments. I'll have to wait well untill 1944 before i'll be able to have enough LCUs to do anything in Western Oz or wherever else.

I will have to reorganize all my forces. I'll try to evacuate what i can using catalinas and C-47. Then i'll move (if i manage to) everything back to Suva and from there we'll see (Oz maybe.

However i'll probably won't be able to save the Santa Cruz Isles from the destruction...so i'll lose something more than that.

I'm probably not in the right mood right now to have a objective view of the overall situation...but i do feel now that the only wise thing that i should have done was to stay in the trench for the whole 1942/1943 and only attack in 1944 with overwhelming forces in a single point...but, imho, that would not had been a fun game. Nor for me and neither for Rader.

Despite my very low morale ....i'm having fun playing this match!

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: ADB123


Huh? Where did the ships go that you used to bring your troops there?

it took me months to move all those units there...i don't have all those ships at hand right now


Ugh - that's a fine mess you've gotten yourself into Ollie...

You have two choices, attempt to bring in ships to pull out your troops, or attempt to bring in supplies and sacrifice these troops for time. Without seeing your actual situation I can't judge which is the better choice.

Think i'll try the second for The Solomons...don't have any other choice...


Hey, look at the bright side, if this were "history", you probably would have been put in front of a firing squad by now... [:D][;)]

LOL...yes, that's for sure[:D][:D][:D]

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

Breaking my silence here, not sure that I should.  Oh well.  It's early Saturday and I haven't had my coffee yet.  Poor decision can happen.  [;)]

As ADB and ny59 are attempting to point out, and many others do so in other threads: this game (and war) is won or lost by logistics.  It does no good to have 2000AV in a location that you cannot supply, and re-supply as required. 

As the allies you have unlimited sources of both supply and fuel.  However, when the game starts your transports are not well aligned with these locations.  You need to move them so that they are.  If you are short of either supply or fuel at this point in the game, then your biggest mistake to date in the game is that you failed to get your supply train in place.

Forget all other aspects of the game.  250/month  P-51H's are not going to help you at all if you do not have your supply lines set up and working.  Sit down, look at your supply sources.  Now determine where and how much supply per month you need.  Then for each of the locations calculate how many xAK's and TK's and DD/DE's you need.  Get those ships where they need to be and running with supplies.

Sincerly now...i really thought 2000 AVs with 150k supplies were enough to consider the Solomons unconquerable by Japan.
I had the Cactus Air Force there with a strenght of 200 fighters and 200 bombers, plenty of patrol planes, mines, subs to fill those waters and a secure communication line between Suva-Lungaville-Ndani and Lunga.
To be honest i thought this was enough to consider the Solomons campaign not a "risky business".
And always to be honest i think many many frequent readers here said the same in the past months.
I do remember many people suggesting, during the summer 42 that i had to be more aggressive in the Pacific, while the KB and his divisions were in India. "Go for the Mariannas" "Advance in the DEI"... I doubt in any other place i could have been in a better position than the one i'm actually in in the Solomons, with 3 mutual supporting base, supplies, base forces, forts and prepped troops.... well, that's not enough. How many supplies should have i brought with me at Lunga? 300k? For sure that would have been better...but decisive? Don't think so...

The fact is that the only right thing would had been to wait. To be patient. But i bet that very few of us would not have tried to exploit the absence of all his divisions and KB from the pacific. i believe most of us would have done the same (i mean not the same tactically...i for sure didn't do the best...i mean the stretgical idea of trying to get into a better position while he was "away").
Problem is that i cannot defend my air space. That's the problem. The real one. I cannot even defend NE Oz (Cairns and Cooktown). He can counterinvade only because i'm harmless against his bombers and fighters. Karachi was saved only because he didn't manage to get the complete controll of the air space...but that cost me all my reserves in terms of fighters...i cannot stand another "Karachi"...
But, just for the pleasure of talking, go back and read what we all say about the pacific theatre when the battle for India was ongoing...say between may and August 1942...

[ny59giants]

I know how you can feel that things will not change, but you have had two huge areas overrun. First it was China and then it was India. He has gained extra economic assets that any JFB would drool over. [:D] He is able to use his PPs to buy out all those idle units in China and send them to the Solomons area. You are playing Scenario 2 which gives him even more toys and extra supply/fuel at start. Resign yourself to the fact that this game will go into 46. You have played one year and have over three to go.

I would check to ensure your Russian air units are training up and harvest pilots. He may head there if things go well in South Pacific. As a side note, can you post a screenshot of China and what is happening there, if anything??

Thanks GJ!!

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

I know how you can feel that things will not change, but you have had two huge areas overrun. First it was China and then it was India. He has gained extra economic assets that any JFB would drool over. [:D] He is able to use his PPs to buy out all those idle units in China and send them to the Solomons area. You are playing Scenario 2 which gives him even more toys and extra supply/fuel at start. Resign yourself to the fact that this game will go into 46. You have played one year and have over three to go.

I would check to ensure your Russian air units are training up and harvest pilots. He may head there if things go well in South Pacific. As a side note, can you post a screenshot of China and what is happening there, if anything??

Thanks GJ!!

China? There's nothing in china...the only city i hold if Chungking were like a million chinese units are being POWed with 0 supplies since March 1942. 10 Strong Jap units are laying the siege without attacking...simply keeping me there harmless... every single other base in China (even those up up north close to Russia) are japanese

[ADB123]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: ADB123


Huh? Where did the ships go that you used to bring your troops there?

it took me months to move all those units there...i don't have all those ships at hand right now


Ugh - that's a fine mess you've gotten yourself into Ollie...

You have two choices, attempt to bring in ships to pull out your troops, or attempt to bring in supplies and sacrifice these troops for time. Without seeing your actual situation I can't judge which is the better choice.

Think i'll try the second for The Solomons...don't have any other choice...


Hey, look at the bright side, if this were "history", you probably would have been put in front of a firing squad by now... [:D][;)]

LOL...yes, that's for sure[:D][:D][:D]

I'm not speaking of the Solomons. There are no Solomons. There never have been any Solomons. Never say the Word Solomons...

Radar has 4 months until you are able to field your first 4 Hellcat-equipped CVs. He knows that. He knows that two of your CVs are out of commission.

Radar can use this time to isolate the Solomons (oops, I used that "word"... [;)] ) and go on to overwhelm your forces in the New Hebrides. If he does that he can then rest and wait for you to try to move forward with severely weakened land forces, regardless of the condition of your naval forces.

So your biggest danger is that you will get your land forces trapped in Luganville, Ndeni, Noumea and the other bases in that region that you have built up. Given your incredibly massive losses in aircraft, your absolutely best move at this time is to "Dunkirk" your forces in the New Hebrides down to New Zealand and dig in.

NZ has the same advantage as Oz - it has railroad lines. It is also a very, VERY long way from the Japanese lines.

BTW - so are the New Hebrides and New Caledonia. Radar can capture them, but he can't garrison them well because he can't get enough Supplies and Fuel down that far.

So what you need to do is to start to send as many transports as you have towards the far south Pacific. Make certain that they are escorted. If you are sending them from the West Coast, take the southernmost route. (If you are sending them from the West Coast, send them with supplies and fuel.)

Start sending Fuel TFs from LA to Cape Town - send 1 per week - anything that will hold fuel. Send back to LA any transport at CT that can hold fuel.

Start sending Supply TFs from CT to Southern Oz - again send 1 per week. Send BIG TFs, but not too big.

If you have anything less than 1.5M tons of supply and .5M tons of fuel at Sydney, you don't have enough.

Make certain that you have at least 500K tons of supplies and fuel (each) in NZ - split between the islands.

You are now waging a Logistics War - fight it with the aggressivenss that you have attempted to fight a "shooting" war.

[Graymane]

GreyJoy, you've gotten a lot of very, very good advice on this thread. People are still willing and able to help you. You need to work on evaluating the outcomes of your decisions. If I were you, I'd take this opportunity to re-read your entire AAR objectively. Most pointedly, look at your planning, what people said about your planning (whether you should even do it or not), what the predictions were and then objectively evaluate the outcome. For example, look at what happened in China, India and the SW Pac so far. Why did you make the plans you did? What advice were you given? How did things turn out?

When people feel under a great deal of stress, one of the things they often do is avoid the main problem. In this case, the main problem is strategic focus. I see a lot of focus on operations and tactics. Frankly, without a strategic focus, it is like playing a game of cards while the Titanic sinks. So try to change the terms of the game. Use it as a learning opportunity.

Let me leave you with a few things Sun Tzu said in Art of War about planning:

Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.

Sun Tzu said: Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.