Pacific Recap (April 1942 - June 1944)
I thought that this AAR needs an update. The game has been ongoing and we have now reached summer of 1944.
I don't have the combat replays or such available so this recap will be from top of my head.
A lot of stuff has happened since April 1942. I guess the proper way is to go through theatre by theatre.
DEI / Java
The fortress Java defense paid off nicely. We did put up one hell of an fight there and delayed enemy advance in other areas.
This is already well documended in this AAR so need to go into further details.
China
As you can expect his has been bloody mess from day 1.
We fought big battles in Southern in China. The main axel of that massive advance was at Kweilin and Liuchow.
Both sides delivered severe blows to one another and after the dust settled in Japanese were able to capture those bases on the railroad.
However due to severe losses inflicted that offensive was halted and no breakthrough was made.
This hard fought episode was done late 1942 and early 1943's.
I felt a bit too confident after that one and neglected recon in central China.
My opponent seized the opportunity and out maneuvered my Chinese forces garrisoning Changsha.
The central China collapsed but we were able maneuvere most of our forces out before they became encircled.
Enemy forces captured Chihkiang and Changhteh. After those bases fell both sides dug into defensive positions.
It remains that way up to the date.
In Northern China there were couple of smaller advances but it became pretty obvious soon enough that no side is going to get advantage here.
All in all very action packed start. It has remained much more peaceful for an year or so now.
Burma
I think that the "fortress Java" gambit helped me here and gave me more time to get organized.
As expected Japanese forces seized Rangoon area eventually and started moving further up north.
We started solid defensive / guerilla warfare and the frontline has now been at Schwebo were both sides have large amount of units on the other sides of that river.
I think he has around 80-100 in total in Burma. Main forces are at Mandalay, The hex west of Mandalay and Magwe.
Rangoon area seems to hold substantial reinforments if needed.
Our bombers have been bombing enemy troops daily and this has led into massive air to air battles around this region.
I think in past two months both sides have lost 1000-2000 planes here. Hard to say due to FOW.
We also made strategical bombings againts Magwe oilfields and happy to say that those are now burning up.
If recon is correct there is only 50 oil prodution intact... and that is soon vaporized in total.
How will this end... well I do have plans here. Need to be smart about it though since I think he has brought extra forces here from China.
Aleutians
Japanese made no attempt in Northern Pacific. I think this was due to bigger problems in the south.
I have fortified this region so he is more than welcome to try late offensive here.
Oz / Australia
Pretty much the same. The other fights kept him busy so he "could not" start offensive here.
The Oz is now secured so I doubt he will make another run at it unless he feels complelely kamikaze.
CenPac and Southern Pacific
We left this AAR with that detailed carrier clash. Eventhough it definately was an allied victory it was not the decisive one as you will soon hear.
FOW is very intresting and annoying little feature. I think my opponent will agree on that one fact.
After that carrier clash both sides disengaged from the battle. I was feeling victorious since the sunk list seemed nice indeed.
Japanese forces did advance into Rabaul, Lae and Guadacanal but were unable to seize Port Moresby.
Both sides exchanged punches and it became an stalemate.
I'am not 100% certain of the timetable when our 2nd carrier clash happened. It was either in late 1942 or early 1943.
I did spot his carriers south of Truk and decieded to duke it out with them. The carriers from the 1st battle were repaired and few added.
As you can expect not everything went as planned. I was suprised to see way more firepower than initially expected thus FOW had been wrong.
I got short end of that encounter and Japanese forces were feeling victorius by sinking some US carriers in Southern Pacific.
This put our naval operations onhold for an 1 year. I was able to grab Solomons and New Britain (Rabaul and Gasmata captured early 1944) by summer and late 1943's via LBA cover.
In early 1944's before Rabaul fell our recon planes spotted Japanese carriers heading towards Solomons.
This was a bit unexpected allthough I know his submarines and recon planes had spotted few juicy targets in this region.
I was more than prepared for it and we had big duel with LBA aircraft and KB. It was an draw but we did torpedo couple of his Battleships which ventured a bit too far.
Pretty much right after this episode the Invasion of Marshall Islands begun. I knew his carriers were at Truk after that earlier clash.
The invasion at Marshalls went ahead nicely. All of the bases were secured with carrier and LBA cover. (I had seized Tarawa and Mili earlier)
His carriers sailed out from Truk towards Marshalls and I dashed towards them. This was our 3rd carrier clash at the game and this time we fared better off.
Our planes got couple of very nice hits and we took some damage as well. Again FOW in place so hard to say what was actually sunk but I did spot quite few CV's at Truk after this battle.
Those ships were obviously pumping water out of their hulls. My opponent stated that his intel screen had quite a few of the US carriers reported sunk and he was suprise to see them in action.
The frontline in this sector is currently Madang - Rabaul - Kavieng - Eniwetok axel.
Japanese did not make an push towards Christmas Islands, Canton Island or Fiji's. After that 1st carrier clash was repaired it was pretty much too late for him to do so.
I will post a few pics from the game and keep this updated more regularly until we reach the end of the war.
