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The only reason I can think of for him to move the Burma troops to Georgetown (rather than the other side of the peninsula for evacuation) is to move them over to Sumatra. GT can be isolated easily so making a stand there doesn't make much sense. By now he has to fear your air interdiction around Singapore if he runs convoys of troops through the strait of Malacca. I figure he had ships stranded in the IO and is just using them to move troops to Sumatra to make a longer speed bump.

He must also know that if he cedes Burma you will race to cut off Indo-China at Hanoi/Haiphong/Lang Son. He might be evacuating his best units by land over to China. I think it is too early to cede that much territory, but I don't know where he plans to make his stand. Should be a rip-roaring clash when you both butt heads again!

ORIGINAL: jwolf

Those are a lot of valuable eggs in Soerabaja's basket. I presume it is secure from enemy air or naval attack.

400+ LBA fighters, 250+ flak, and many hundreds of carrier fighters (mainly on CVs, which are halved in a base hex, but also a handful of CVEs that didn't need to upgrade).

He's running the fastest shuttle possible - transports from Rangoon to Georgetown. The ships then return to Rangoon while the troops move a single hex via good road to the railroad, then disperse where needed (Malaya, Thailand, Indochina, China).

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

The only reason I can think of for him to move the Burma troops to Georgetown (rather than the other side of the peninsula for evacuation) is to move them over to Sumatra. GT can be isolated easily so making a stand there doesn't make much sense. By now he has to fear your air interdiction around Singapore if he runs convoys of troops through the strait of Malacca. I figure he had ships stranded in the IO and is just using them to move troops to Sumatra to make a longer speed bump.

He must also know that if he cedes Burma you will race to cut off Indo-China at Hanoi/Haiphong/Lang Son. He might be evacuating his best units by land over to China. I think it is too early to cede that much territory, but I don't know where he plans to make his stand. Should be a rip-roaring clash when you both butt heads again!

9/14/44

DEI: With all my carrier eggs in the Soerabaja basket, Dave ordered a large nighttime raid by Peggys. Allied night fighters performed poorly but the flak was ferocious. No plane survived to drop, and it doesn't appear that Dave got intel as to what was in port. I'm not sure he knows where my carriers are, because he hasn't had any recon or nav search operating. But he may've guessed.

Allied op vs. Ambon should succeed in the next few days. Kendari and Palembang are close to siege-initiating stages. Kendari shouldn't take too long but Palembang may be prolonged.

Another USN CV arrived at Soerabaja. Upgrades are roughly 10-15 days from completion. The remaining time must be profitably used to organize expeditionary forces and get ships, supplies and fuel to the proper ports of embarkation.

Big things will be underway by late September and through the balance of the year.

Looks like Dave remembered his Shakespeare: " The villainy you teach me I will execute," though in this case, he did not better the instruction.

Yes, he did.

It was a good idea but I'm glad the Allied flak handled things. I don't think he'll try another nighttime raid. There's a chance - possibly 33% - that he might decide to try a massed daytime raid of carrier air and LBA. It might work. It surely would be costly to him, and there's a chance it would accomplish little, but who knows?

The arrangement suits me, though. The CVEs are mostly disbanded and protected by AA. The fleet carriers are in TFs and protected by LBA and their own fighters (halved). If he does strike it's likely he'd lose far more than he would gain. Or so I think.

Soerabaja's flak was augmented by your fleet. IIRC, ships in TFs contribute their AA to the hex at half strength.

At Palembang, if those two IJA divisions were flown in they will lack all their heavy weapons. They will be much softer than usual.

All those ships at Kendari look like an evacuation.

As always… thank you for your AAR.

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Soerabaja's flak was augmented by your fleet. IIRC, ships in TFs contribute their AA to the hex at half strength.

At Palembang, if those two IJA divisions were flown in they will lack all their heavy weapons. They will be much softer than usual.

All those ships at Kendari look like an evacuation.

Ships in port you mean? Not in TFs?

If I recall correctly only the strike package is halved for CVs in a base hex. The CAP is not.

Java looks very pretty now. [8D] Congratulations on that successful campaign.

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Soerabaja's flak was augmented by your fleet. IIRC, ships in TFs contribute their AA to the hex at half strength.

At Palembang, if those two IJA divisions were flown in they will lack all their heavy weapons. They will be much softer than usual.

All those ships at Kendari look like an evacuation.

Ships in port you mean? Not in TFs?

You may be right about that. I can't recall for sure which was the case. Will check later.

Mark Twain warned us to never get into an argument with an idiot. The same applies to AE rules - don't discuss them with me, 'cause I have no clue and will drag you down to my level and beat you with (in)experience.

But I thought the carrier-in-a-base-hex rule applied to "flight ops" in general, including fighters.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

But I thought the carrier-in-a-base-hex rule applied to "flight ops" in general, including fighters.

I think it does apply to fighters.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Mark Twain warned us to never get into an argument with an idiot. The same applies to AE rules - don't discuss them with me, 'cause I have no clue and will drag you down to my level and beat you with (in)experience.

But I thought the carrier-in-a-base-hex rule applied to "flight ops" in general, including fighters.

The comment I made was on AA, aka Flak values. Nothing to do with fighters. I looked in the manual and there is nothing in the index about flak or anti-aircraft and I couldn't find anything about the subject under ports or Naval (Chapter 6). It may have been one of those things that Alfred posted about way back when. At any rate, I am certain I saw something saying ships in port contribute part of their AA value to defend the base.

Hey, we're even. My comment wasn't directed at your comment. It was directed at Tarkalak's comment.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Hey, we're even. My comment wasn't directed at your comment. It was directed at Tarkalak's comment.

[:'(]
I confess I was venting somewhat after another frustrating attempt to find something in the manual. It may well be there, but without a good index entry I am pretty hopeless at searching now. Too easy for my old eyes and brain to skip over stuff. [8|]

I'm bad about not knowing the rules exactly, not looking them up, and asking for input from the Peanut Gallery. I do that on the assumption that folks know and can answer, or that if they don't they enjoy looking it up. I don't expect folks to go to trouble doing things I could be doing for myself.

For the most part, though, I deal with my ignorances and uncertainties in ways I find efficient. With regard to the question whether combat ships contribute CAP to a base, I always base my planning on the worst case scenario. So, if I'm unsure whether fighters contribute CAP, I'll allow for them not to. Here, I had Soerabaja's defenses against air attack situated to my liking. If additional rules or assets added more, great. But my planning was based on the floor rather than the possibility of an unknown ceiling.

I suspect not knowing rules would be intolerable for some players. I prefer to play the game based upon what I know, what I'm pretty sure about, and to make allowances for what I'm uncertain about. That allows me to flip turns and to also move ahead with real life.

Or so I say.

9/15/44 to 9/22/44

DEI: The down-time for the big CVE upgrade is winding down - less than a week left. In the interim, the ground war is going well - Ambon fell, the opening attack at Kendari was encouraging, and the opening attack at Palembang will take place tomorrow. Lots of fresh ships are up. The army and air force is sorted and prepped. Supplies are in good shape. The fuel situation is more iffy but steps have been taken to make it work.

The Allied plan is set. The opening targets will be Samarinda/Balikpapan. Immediately thereafter, a much bigger operation will get under way.

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Hey, we're even. My comment wasn't directed at your comment. It was directed at Tarkalak's comment.

[:'(]
I confess I was venting somewhat after another frustrating attempt to find something in the manual. It may well be there, but without a good index entry I am pretty hopeless at searching now. Too easy for my old eyes and brain to skip over stuff. [8|]

When you install the game, there is a manual subfolder that has the manual in it. You can search it electronically, much
easier than the written manual.