String vs. Andy Mac - Futile attempts at world domination

[String]

12/14/1941

Pacific: Guam finally falls

PI: Our sweep of 27 A6M2 and Ki-43's finds 17 P35's and 7 P40's above Manila. A few are shot down, we lose 1 A6M2. Following airfield attacks are ineffective.

DEI: Our CL squadron sinks another AK near Tarakan. Betties from Manado fail to hit DD's fleeing from Manila. Another, this time unescorted, air attack on Singkawang sees a few Hudsons shot down

Our planes from Singkawang attack Batavia harbour and sink three auxiliary minesweepers.

China: Hong Kong falls. A few Chinese units are routed here and there.

[Takeshi]

Looking forward to see how your strategy plays out. I'm reading Andy's side also so I don't feel free to comment. Good luck.

Tak

[String]

Thankyou Takeshi, I hope you'll enjoy the AAR as it continues

12/15/1941

Pacific: No action whatsoever

PI: The usual air attacks on Luzon, our Betties sank an AKL in Manila harbour, likely bringing in more supplies.

DEI: The hunt for the fleeing ships from Manila continues. Our CL squadron stumbles upon an AP and the TF commander overreacts, launching a long lance attack. The poor old troop transpor took two torpedoes and sank.

Battleships Nagato and Fuso, escorting a convoy, stumble upon allied destroyers. In the running battle DD Pope and DD Peary are sunk and DD John D. Ford is damaged. In return DD Yudaichi is hit with several shells and is forced to return to Saigon for repairs. AS Holland is sunk by a submarine later in the Makassar straits.

Our Betties from Manado attack and sink CL Java at Balikpapan.

CA Chokai, leading five destroyers, sinks the five dutch torpedo boats that attacked our landing at Singkawang a few days ago. They had been holed up at a base east of Singkawang, apparently out of fuel.

Malaya: Today the first attack on Singapore goes in. Over 75 bombers, escorted by about 60 fighters, bomb the Singapore airfield. 6 of the 15 Buffaloes on cap are shot down and some damage is inflicted on the AF. Enemy flak is heavy and 2 bombers are lost with several damaged.

Burma: Victoria Point is captured.

China: A chinese corps, that moved to block the supply route to Ichang was routed today. Kweiteh was also captured.

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: String
The plan is as follows. To gather up all of the units in a large convoy, move down under the cover of Baby-KB and take Kendari, Ambon and Lautem in a row, by that time KB should be back from the pacific, to cover the final move of the 38th division with the 66th inf regiment on Darwin. I should be able to gather atleast four battleships for bombardment support, which, along with a port strike from KB, should be able to suppress the CD there.

In a swift blow the threat to my southern flank would be eliminated.

BTW, I'm NOT reading Andy's side - so I do feel free to comment ...

Your Darwin plan might work - but two things you might consider adding to the plan ...

01 - Ad Hoc force additions - having two full Divisions would make me feel much more comfortable were I doing this - with a HQ to boot. So at least try to think about what other forces can be added to the attack as you get closer - maybe a spare SNLF here - or a Naval Guard unit there ...

02 - Paras - tossing in some paras during your first real attack might make as much difference as another division. You could base them out of Lautern if you can build it up to a level-2.

If I had it to do over again, I'd definitely hit Darwin. One of our goals was to reduce the ability of Darwin to be an Allied powerhouse - hence we removed the Great Northern Railway (that did not exist). But adding in the supply draw buttons gave a net result that Darwin is at least as powerful as it was in stock, so taking it out is probably required - but it has to be done early - Allied players might be rushing everything they have there. But they can't rush everything everywhere!!! [:D]

[String]

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

ORIGINAL: String
The plan is as follows. To gather up all of the units in a large convoy, move down under the cover of Baby-KB and take Kendari, Ambon and Lautem in a row, by that time KB should be back from the pacific, to cover the final move of the 38th division with the 66th inf regiment on Darwin. I should be able to gather atleast four battleships for bombardment support, which, along with a port strike from KB, should be able to suppress the CD there.

In a swift blow the threat to my southern flank would be eliminated.

BTW, I'm NOT reading Andy's side - so I do feel free to comment ...

Your Darwin plan might work - but two things you might consider adding to the plan ...

01 - Ad Hoc force additions - having two full Divisions would make me feel much more comfortable were I doing this - with a HQ to boot. So at least try to think about what other forces can be added to the attack as you get closer - maybe a spare SNLF here - or a Naval Guard unit there ...

02 - Paras - tossing in some paras during your first real attack might make as much difference as another division. You could base them out of Lautern if you can build it up to a level-2.

If I had it to do over again, I'd definitely hit Darwin. One of our goals was to reduce the ability of Darwin to be an Allied powerhouse - hence we removed the Great Northern Railway (that did not exist). But adding in the supply draw buttons gave a net result that Darwin is at least as powerful as it was in stock, so taking it out is probably required - but it has to be done early - Allied players might be rushing everything they have there. But they can't rush everything everywhere!!! [:D]

Hm yes, I've had the same dilemmas myself. I've already added a tank unit and will probably add the forces originally designated for Davao.

[String]

12/16/1941

Pacific: No action

PI: Usual air attacks on Luzon. The allied airforce seems to be breaking. Our troops enter San Fernando and push out the philippine troops there, inflicting heavy losses in the process.

DEI: Slaughter of the fleeing ships continues. Three heavy cruisers from the Manado cover group also arrived in the area. The heavy cruisers, along with the light cruiser squadrons and carrier planes from the newly arrived light carriers, sink and damage a total of 15 transport ships and sink DD John D. Ford.

Betties from Singkawang attack and sink three auxiliary minesweepers at Bandejamarasin.

Our troops capture Sambas

Malaya: Another air attack on Singapore, Andy seems to be evacuating the air assets there.

China: Several Chinese units pushed back all over the map.

An interesting tidbid:

CL Tama collides with DD Numakaze at 68 , 93

Tama is almost totally undamaged but Numakaze has 70 major flotation.. :S

[String]

12/17/1941

The whole day was an excellent one for the IJN submarine arm. It started in the..

Pacific:: .. where I-7 torpedoed CL Phoenix. It had already been damaged in the PH attack so hopes are high that she will sink.

Meanwhile in southern pacific a BB TF consisting of battleships Mutsu, Yamashiro, light cruiser Kitakami and three destroyers sails into Rabaul harbour and sinks the old australian light cruiser Adelaide there. At the same time our troops begin to land at Kavieng. There is a major screwup and an SNLF unit that was supposed to invade Rabaul ends up at Kavieng. This means 2-3 days of delays.

We capture Sidate and Beaufort, routing troops that had retreated from Manado and Brunei/Miri respectively.

PI: Usual air attacks

DEI: Our ships continue to sink enemy shipping that was fleeing Manila. 2 PG's, 1 AVD, 1 AK, 2 AKL's, 1 AVP, 1 AO and 1 TK are sunk or heavily damaged today.

Our bombers from Manado attack shipping at Ambon and sink or damage several AP's there. Apparently they've been bringing in reinforcements there, 6 units are detected there, most likely the independent batallions from Darwin.

Our subs also continue to score in DEI. I-153 puts two fish into CA Houston 40 miles out of Batavia. Houston recieved a torpedo on the 8th of december near Tawi-Tawi and was reported sunk, the hit then produced likely very light damage. However those two hits most likely put her into sinking condition. The captain of I-156 hits AK Bennevis with 4 torpedoes and obliterates the poor ship.

Malaya: Another air attack on Singapore. 2 Buffaloes meet us in the skies above.
We capture Alor Star. There is just the 3rd SSVF Battalion there which offers no significant resistance. It appears that Andy is retreating headlong towards Singapore. I can't blame him.

China: No action.

Burma: Our Ki-43b fighters get separated from the bombers they are escorting and mingle with the AVG in the skies above Rangoon. Later in the afternoon the bombers arrive and luckily no fighters remain up in the sky. CL Ceres is hit by a G4M1 bomber with a 60kg bomb for no real damage.

CL Ceres means that Andy has routed the Indian brigades at sea to Rangoon.

[String]

12/18/1941

The submarine successes continue

Pacific: Our forces capture Kavieng. Our ships at Rabaul are attacked by SBU2 Vindicators, apparently they've been transported there by american carriers. Covering Zeroes manage to shoot down a few. In return they hit BB Yamashiro with a 1000lb bomb. No significant damage

We capture Kavieng and the SNLF unit there begins loading for Rabaul.

Andy seems to be moving damaged ships out and CA New Orleans is hit by two torpedoes from I-17. Hopefully she'll sink.

PI: Usual air raids on allied positions. 21st Inf. Division has almost finished landing at Vigan. Vigan also expands to level 4 airfield today.

DEI: Our planes torpedo and sink 3 AP's at Ambon. Our invasion convoy heading towards Ambon is attacked by allied planes but no bombs hit.

North of Singkawang dutch subs hit and sink an AK carrying elements of the 2nd Engineering rgt.

We capture Morotai and Talaud-eilanden

China: Another few chinese units routed. We are slowly clearing our rear from enemy forces.

[String]

12/19/1941

Pacific: Our troops continue landing at Rabaul. I was wrong about Yamashiro btw, the 1000lb bomb took out her first main turret.

PI: The usual air attacks

DEI: Our troops start landing at Kuching. CD fire is moderate, scoring a few light hits on our freighters.

Our Battleships, Nagato and Fuso, covering the Ambon invasion convoy, sail into Ambon harbour and sink three australian minesweepers there. Nagato then manages to hit a mine, causing some flotation damage.

Malaya: We continue our air offensive on Signapore. No allied resistance in the air

Burma: We send large fighter sweeps over Rangoon, and score well vs. the AVG there.

China: A giant chinese army, consisting of 12 corps, shock attacks but fails at Ichang.

[String]

12/20/1942


Pacific: Landings continue at Rabaul

PI: Usual air attacks. It's becoming apparent that Andy is moving his forces into Bataan. The PI air force has dissapeared, probably moving into central/southern PI for a last stand.

DEI: I was mildly surprised when CL Boise and Marblehead, accompanied by 8 destroyers, attacked our invasion convoy at Ambon in daylight. Nagato and Fuso performed well, sinking both CL's, but Nagato recieved a torpedo and is out of the war for quite a while now.

Day Time Surface Combat, near Ambon at 76,109, Range 14,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, Shell hits 15, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Fuso, Shell hits 4
DD Shiratsuyu, Shell hits 1
DD Samidare, Shell hits 2
DD Mikazuki
DD Yakaze, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
CL Marblehead, Shell hits 9, and is sunk
CL Boise, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
DD Barker, Shell hits 12, and is sunk
DD Bulmer, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Edsall
DD John D. Edwards
DD Paul Jones, Shell hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Parrott, Shell hits 2, on fire <- sunk later in the afternoon by our planes
DD Whipple, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Stewart, Shell hits 5, and is sunk


It's become apparent that Ambon landings need reinforcements. I've decided to detach an SNLF unit from the Kendari invasion and sent it there.

In other news we capture Jesselton and Kuching today.

Burma: It rains, no action

China: No battles.

[String]

12/21/1941

Pacific: I-26 and I-23 score hits on two tankers off San Francisco. Atleast one of them should sink.

Rabaul falls.


PI: Air attacks, and nothing more

DEI: CD fire damages a few freighters off Ambon. Our attack there gets 1 to 2 odds. The reinforcements are 1 day away.

Singapore: Air assault continues

Burma: Sweeps above Rangoon, our fighters again outperform the opposing forces

China: No major action.

[String]

12/22/1941

Pacific: No major action

PI: Usual air attacks. We capture Puerto Princesa and Camiguin.

DEI: Reinforcements land at Ambon. CD fire there manages to sink 2 AKL's and a PB. Allied air attacks on our TF's fail and fighters from our light carriers shoot down several enemy bombers.

Our troops start landing at Kendari

We capture Kudat

Malaya: Air offensive vs. Singapore continues, no resistance in the air.

Burma: Sweeps above Rangoon continue, enemy forces show signs of weakening


----------------

Darwin invasion forces are slowly assembling. If we're lucky we'll land on the first days of 1942.

[String]

12/23/1941

Another frustrating day at ambon

Pacific: No significant action

PI: We attacked Bataan instead of Manila today. We also captured Lingayen.

DEI: Despite reinforcements we failed to take Ambon. I'll load the SNLF units from Kendari tomorrow and finalise the matter once and for all.

Vildebeests from Tarakan attack and sink one and damage another merchant off Kudat. Time to shut that base down. I already have invasion troops on the way.

Malaya: We detected enemy aircraft at Sabang yesterday, as the number of fighters in Rangoon decreased significantly I assumed Andy was moving fighters from there to DEI. I was right. Our planes attacked Medan airfield today, instead of Singapore, and were greeted by P-40B's in the skies above. We shot down a few of them and inflicted some damage on the airfield.

Burma: Usual sweeps above Rangoon.

China: Our slow advance, aiming to clear out chinese troops from southern china, continues

[String]

I couldn't be bothered to write daily updates, so here's one that coveres the period from 12/24/1941 to 01/02/1942.

• Blue line: Situation at the start of the war
  Red line: Current frontline
  Yellow line: Planned perimiter in northern australia
  White arrows: ongoing or planned major offensives in the near future.
  Yellow airfield symbols: Major Japanese airfields.

Pacific: After taking Rabaul we also landed at and captured Nauru island. We have reinforced Rabaul and it's now a fully operational airbase, capable of supporting torpedo operations. During the past two days we've conducted raids on Port Moresby. No enemy air resistance yet and it appears that there are no reinforcements there yet.

4th Infantry division has loaded on Truk and is now moving to Rabaul, when KB is freed from the operations around northern australia we will invade Port Moresby. This should happen in about a week.


PI: The enemy has retreated to Bataan and vacated Manila and apparently the rest of Luzon. An infantry regiment is moving in to garrison Manila and a recon rgt is moving south to capture the rest of the island. We have a few small units hopping around, capturing small islands and bases. Palawan has been secured so far.

DEI: Ambon finally fell on the 29th. Our forces had been gathering between Ambon and Manado for some time now and Ambon fell just in time for us to start moving. Troops have now loaded from Ambon and Kendari for Koepang.

Malaya: Georgtown and Taiping have fallen, our armored spearheads are closing in on Kuala Lumpur.

Brunei: We've taken Tavoy and Port Blair by para assault to prevent fighter transfers between India and DEI. Over Rangoon the AVG seems to be wrecked, no significant resistance has been offered in the air there for some time.

Northern Australia: KB lunged south and attacked Darwin on the 30th. It attacked and sank several large troop transports and CL Tromp, unloading troops and supplies there. Recon has detected 10 units there with about 27000 men. Despite this unwelcome news we will continue with our invasion plans. All the carriers are in the area, and the KB has conducted three attacks on the port so far. There were a few buffaloes in the air on the first two days but they have been wiped out by now. A squadron of 3 CL's swept the harbour and sank a few PT's there. They will stay there for tonight to keep the harbour clear as the first bombardment group goes in.

For combat support and bombardment we have a total of 7 battleships: Mutsu, Yamashiro, Fuso, Ise, Hyuga, Kirishima and Hiei. In addition 4 heavy cruisers and 4 light cruisers will provide direct fire support for the landings and will try and supress the CD guns at Darwin.

The invasion forces themselves consist of 38th Infantry Division (~400 AV), three infantry regiments( a total of about ~360 AV), an SNLF unit (~60 AV), 2 armour regiments (a total of about ~120 AV), an artillery unit and several base and support units. Hopefully this, along with aerial and naval bombardments will be sufficient to take Darwin. We can bring in about 150 AV worth of SNLF units from Ambon for reinforcements.

Once the enemy troops are routed the going will be easy. While Darwin is assaulted we shall start moving SNLF units to take the other northern australian bases, which should be quite lightly defended.

China: Slow advances here and there, I'm generally just bashing the chinese units about and trying to retake the rail line running from north to south.

[String]

01/05/1942

Northern Australia: After three days of bombardment the invasion fleet finally went in. 99% of the troops unloaded in one day and we suffered only light losses from CD. All the troops except the 38th Inf. Div. landed almost undisrupted, but the 38th, for some reason had disruption in the 90's. Gotta rest a few days before attacking. We have landed 1132 AV in total vs. the 494 AV of the allies. It appears that the british (I think it is..) 18th Division, has been sent as reinforcements there. Hopefully we should route them.

[String]

01/07/1942

Northern Australia: Our troops have fully landed and are preparing to attack. New allied units detected just south of Darwin. I hope I'm not too late.

Southern Pacific: PM Invasion convoy is on the way. We should start landing in a few days.

[String]

01/08/1942

Darwin falls. Exceedingly painful results for the allies. I plan to pursue and devastate those units. When the thoroughly wrecked Darwin airfield gets repaired I'll transfer in about 120 sallies who will add to the devastation.

Ground combat at Darwin (76,124)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 32759 troops, 294 guns, 337 vehicles, Assault Value = 1130

Defending force 13156 troops, 195 guns, 36 vehicles, Assault Value = 507

Japanese adjusted assault: 600

Allied adjusted defense: 117

Japanese assault odds: 5 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Darwin !!!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
No Allied losses

Combat modifiers
Defender: disruption(-), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: disruption(-)

Japanese ground losses:
321 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 27 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 50 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Vehicles lost 60 (5 destroyed, 55 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
9388 casualties reported
Squads: 223 destroyed, 150 disabled
Non Combat: 410 destroyed, 157 disabled
Engineers: 110 destroyed, 5 disabled
Guns lost 119 (117 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Vehicles lost 38 (36 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Units retreated 9
Units destroyed 4


Assaulting units:
6th Tank Regiment
8th Tank Regiment
20th Ind. Engineer Regiment
24th Infantry Regiment
16th Infantry Regiment
146th Infantry Regiment
38th Division
Sasebo 3rd SNLF
2nd Field Artillery Regiment
1st Base Force
5th Naval Construction Battalion
6th Naval Construction Battalion
48th JAAF AF Bn

Defending units:
53rd British Brigade
251st Recce Battalion
55th British Brigade
Sparrow Battalion
54th British Bde /1
Emery Point Fortress
Timor Garrison Bn /1
7th Mil. District
Kendari Base Force
2nd RAN Base Force
24th NZ Pioneer Coy /3
Darwin RAAF Base Force
Koepang Base Force /1


In addition we shall begin landings at PM tomorrow. After Singapore falls we shall start the final assault on Java/Sumatra.

[String]

01/11/1942

I might have gone a bit overboard with artillery at Bataan. I have currently:

• 8x 320mm mortars
• 4x 300mm guns
• 17x 280mm guns
• 16x 240mm guns
• 94x 150mm guns
• 27x 100mm guns
• 70x 75mm guns
• 33x 81mm mortars

in artillery units there, in addition there are:

• 86x 70mm guns
• 92x 75mm guns

attached to various units there.

Allies suffered 1k casualties in a bombardment there today.

[String]

Hello again. Sorry for the lack of updates. We've been churning through the turns but I haven't had the free time to write proper updates. I feel that the previous chronicle style without explaining the larger context to the readers is not very good, thus I decided to do reports less frequently but more elaborately.

Expect a map to be added sometime in the future.

01/09/1942 - 01/31/1942

General developments so far:

Pacific:

We landed at Port Moresby on the 9th and took it on the 12th. This enables us to control the Torres straits that lead from the pacific to northern australia. I have, currently, decided to leave the whole 4th division there to garrison it and I'm transferring in large numbers of AA units extracted from Manchuria, preparing for any allied bombing campaigns from northern australia. My plans so far is not to use the PM airfield to base my torpedo bombers from, instead I will use either Buna, Lae or both from the other side of the Stanley mountains to protect PM from an early invasion. Setting them up will take a bit of time though. Currently my torpedo bombers (G4M1 & G3M2's) are based at Rabaul, which will also do in a pinch.

We also advanced down the Solomons chain and captured Shortlands and Tulagi, with the surrounding bases such as Lunga (Guadalcanal) and we're occupying empty enemy bases in the whole PNG area. No opposition so far.

We also took Nauru and Ocean Island. Nauru has a large amount of resources (phosphates) that will be most welcome. Getting them out with the tiny port that the island has will be a major logistical challenge.
Ocean Island will serve as a patrol plane base.

The only other major event took place took place on the 27-28th January. Right after we had landed at Darwin I moved the Kido Butai back to Truk, replenished its aircraft and pilots there and then decided to raid the allied communications to Australia. Suva, the administrative centre of Fiji islands on the island of Viti Levu, is usually chosen by the allies as one of the main bases in southern pacific due to its large airfield, port and the NZ forces garrisoning it at the start of the game.

So I decided to raid there. The place is rather open from the north as it's hard to cover with naval search further out. As a result the allies were caught totally off guard when our carriers arrived in position 200 miles west of Suva on the morning of 27th. A large convoy was detected offshore there and all ships were sunk. 18 large and 2 smaller transports, 5 tankers and 7 escort ships of various and pretty good types were sunk there. The 5 large tankers will hopefully hurt him especially as fuel and troop (sadly no AP's were there) capacity is a bit of a bottleneck for the allies early on.

What followed during the night and the next day probably hurt him even more. My opponent had probably left his aircraft at suva on training orders as no attacks were launched on my ships nor any opposition offered in air during the 27th. There were a LOT of aircraft there though, packed into that small level 2 airfield. So I ordered my large escorts (2 battleships and 2 heavy cruisers) to charge in and bombard the Suva airfield and port during the night. Also, port and airfield attacks were ordered from the carriers for the 28th. The results were devastating, the night bombardments shut down the airfield and together with the daytime air attacks a total of 109 aircraft were destroyed in the air and on the ground.

Our only loss was DD Yukikaze that collided with CV Hiryu and was heavily damaged, she is limping towards Truk right now. Hiryu was undamaged.

North Australia:

After defeating the enemy troops at Darwin we began to pursue them. In the process we have driven the enemy about 300 miles south and have totally destroyed one and mauled two other brigades of the 18th UK division in addition to the several smaller units there. Daily air attacks from our newly captured Darwin airfield have also taken their toll. Our troops also landed at and captured several other northern australian bases that were lightly defended, such as Broome and Derby. Our plan is to chase the enemy all the way down to Tennant Creek, and occupy it, 2/3 of the way to Alice Springs. Our main defensive line however will be at Daily Waters, which is at the end of the rail line from Darwin to south. We will build a large airfield there, so when the allies start their inevitable counterattack across the desert we can bomb the snot out of them.

I have to consider further strategic options, but invading western australia, and Perth in particular, is not out of the question. This, together with another push east of Australia, taking Noumea and New Zealand, can isolate Australia from the rest of the world. Invading NZ will however promt the early return of NZ units from north africa and will provide additional units to the allies. This will also require a major commitment of IJN resources and will limit our options elsewhere, to speak nothing of a huge stress on our logistics.

Philippines:

We have been captured the whole Luzon and have been taking various empty bases on other islands in the Philippines after the allies retreated to Bataan. We still haven't shown any interest in Mindanao. and we will probably leave it for last in our conquest in the SRA

It was totally unexptected but we managed to capture Bataan on the 28th. I had expected it to last for another month atleast. As a result we now have over 1300 AV worth of troops free along with a large army bomber force. Luckily I had concentrated transport capacity at Palau and Saigon just a few days previous and thus this surprise won't prove to be much of a delay. Plans are already being drawn up to use them in DEI, and I will talk about them in the next chapter.

DEI:

In the Dutch East Indies we haven't done much after we invaded Darwin as there just aren't too many free units. Despite that we have still advanced on, capturing Makassar, Tarakan , Balikpapan and Samarinda, drawin the noose ever tighter around Java. We have also finished the capture of Timor and several small flotillas are sailing around occupying empty enemy bases.

We have also conducted air attacks on Java and Palembang every few days, mostly with navy bombers from Singkawang. As a result I believe that we have hit the dutch airforce hard.

The "Baby KB", the escort and light carriers of the IJN, have been sailing around south of Java and have sunk several merchants trying to escape and evacuate the area.

As a result of Bataan being captured we now suddenly have large amount of troops and planes available. I can note happily that the invasion of Bandjermasin was already being planned at that time and we should be landing tomorrow. Bandjermasin is important because it is level 3 airfield on the southern coast of Borneo and is in army bomber range of almost all of Java and will provide us with air superiority over the Java sea and the island as well, which, ofcourse, is essential for an invasion.

I have decided to use the bulk of the troops freed at Bataan to invade Java. The exact invasion location is still open and will be decided after my recon flights provide further information, but it'll probably be on the eastern end of the island. In addition to the troops at Bataan we will also land about 400 AV worth of armour from Manchuria and other areas. This is equivalent to a whole armoured division and the allies should have nothing to counter this.

My main worry is that my enemy will fly in aircraft from his carriers when I'm landing and will use them to hit my troops and shipping there. As a result the KB is being tasked with assisting the invasion after they return from Suva.

The invasion of Sumatra and Palembang will start after we have captured Singapore.

Malaya:

We have captured all of Malaya by now and our troops are gathering across the straits at Johore at the moment. I will start the crossing into Singapore soon. I'm behind schedule here but there's little I can do at this point in time.

Burma:

We have about a divisions worth of troops converging on Rangoon at the moment. The enemy seems to be evacuating towards north. We took Moulmein on the 30th. Our forces here are currently quite weak and I need to be vary of a counterattack so I'll proceed carefully

China:

We have been pushing the chinese back steadily in several areas, although we're a bit stuck in the southeast. It's slow going and my opponent seems to be quite passive. The only major success for them was the capture of Ichang by superior chinese forces.

[String]

My other long term strategic plans.

1) Invade Ceylon: This will provide additional flank security for SRA and Sumatra in particular and will distract allies from Burma. Also, large LCU's and possibly some planes might be bagged. If I go for the atolls southwest of Ceylon I could severely disrupt the traffic between Aden and Australia as well.

Pro's: Easily doable, nice and realistic. Doesn't require too much in terms of garrisons. Might come unexpected after the Darwin invasion
Con's: Requires continual air presence. Can become isolated, trapping LCU's there.

2) Invade Western Australia and Noumea/New Zealand on the other side: This will isolate the remaining Australian territories and will provide even further security for southern SRA. Destroying the on map NZ army and routing anything in western Australia is a bonus

Pro's: If I manage to do that it will eliminate the threat on my southern flank. Also some resources and industries can be captured.

Con's: Might be above my capabilities, in terms of LCU's. Will require massive garrison forces, or will be useless. Needs to be done fast, or the allies reinforce the area. Will be a logical move after Darwin invasion, and thus might be predictable.

PS. I might just set a Kwantung division or two to prep for Auckland and/or Perth if I go with another plan.

3) Generic extension of the perimiter in the pacific: Invading the usual allied platforms of Suva, Noumea and Pago Pago will probably bag a lot of LCU's and will perhaps draw out enemy carriers. Also places like Midway and Canton would be on the list. This should probably be done in a cartwheel fashion, where all the invasions are prepped simultaneously and the KB and other supporting ships sail from one end of the theatre to another, supporting the invasions as they arrive at the next target.

Pro's: Probably the least LCU intensive. Will provide security in the pacific.

Con's: Having a carrier battle in enemy LBA range is bad. Has been done a million times. Easy to make mistakes and bring too few LCU's. Requires a massive amount of fuel and the only real "forward base" is Truk. Will also extend supply lines and when the allies attack along a single axis the other bases will be left isolated.

4) Northern approach: Invade Aleutians and Alaska.

Pro's: Will provide security for Home islands. Close to home bases.

Con's: It's cold in the north, won't achieve much strategically, close to west coast as well, enemy LBA cover.

I might just take a few islands to keep an eye out in conjunction with other plans.

5) A combination of two or more of the plans:

Pro's: Unexpected, can achieve a lot

Con's: Dividing forces is bad. Can become stuck on ALL fronts.

6) Take the rest of what's historical and then dig in.

Pro's: Can provide a wicked defensive perimiter

Con's: Leaves the allies alone to prepare for an offensive for a long period, and is boring.