Caging the Tiger~ Rader (J) vs. GreyJoy (A)

[obvert]

It's still so early you can virtually let him land anywhere, tangle with the forces you have in place, lure the fleet to stay and support, and then hit that hard. Once he's in , he will most likely feel the need to stay and try to keep any new acquisitions. As you already stated, the Marianas offer plenty of trouble for his resupply and covering ships. If it's the Bonins or Marcus, they are also isolated for him. You may not have LBA to hit him, but neither does he have the ability to quickly start up multiple bases. You can let him throw a bunch of stuff on an island in the middle of the Pacific, then pop back in with the KB and take it at your leisure.

I like this strategy. But, I also like keeping the THREAT of crossing the line in India without actually doing it. Even if you kept a mini KB over there to interdict supply routes, and a sub cordon, and kept good tabs on his main carrier fleet, (which now seems to be several thousand miles away from India), you can keep the pressure on, build some defenses, and possibly throw more at China to wipe that clean. If you have all of China, it's going to be tough for him to move through Burma, ever.

Hitting Karachi now will give him a lot, but he's had time to build defenses. It will hurt your forces more than his. Especially air, it seems.

[rader]

ORIGINAL: obvert

It's still so early you can virtually let him land anywhere, tangle with the forces you have in place, lure the fleet to stay and support, and then hit that hard. Once he's in , he will most likely feel the need to stay and try to keep any new acquisitions. As you already stated, the Marianas offer plenty of trouble for his resupply and covering ships. If it's the Bonins or Marcus, they are also isolated for him. You may not have LBA to hit him, but neither does he have the ability to quickly start up multiple bases. You can let him throw a bunch of stuff on an island in the middle of the Pacific, then pop back in with the KB and take it at your leisure.

My thoughts exactly [:'(]

[topeverest]

Rader,

Of course, please play the way you see fit.

-----------

My armchair XO comments...

Do not underestimate the difficulty of dislodging a determined allied foe off any island at this time of the war. Dare I cite Guadalcanal? I would not be interested in offering such a battle to the allies with the IJN a month or more from developing a counterstrike. With being so heavily engaged in India, do you have that 5+ division counterattack force handy? 30 Days is a LONNNG time to prepare if your opponent has thought through his invasion and your reaction. If you had KB and a stock of BB's in the HI, this could be a workable strategy (but still risky).

Your LBA cannot stop the invasion without perfect luck, wherever it may be.

I respectfully think that the Bonins are not the target. That is a very dangerous place (for the allies) to land without huge superiority. The airfields are small, and no good ports. Their supply line is too long, and they are in extended range of the HI. If your enemy lands there, you are saved. A logical enemy is going for one or more of the four main Mariana islands, and he probably will take Marcus as an entry point too.

Good luck Admiral

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: topeverest

I respectfully think that the Bonins are not the target. That is a very dangerous place (for the allies) to land without huge superiority. The airfields are small, and no good ports.

I forgot about that ... good point. Yeah, Mariana's are more likely ...

[rader]

ORIGINAL: topeverest

Do not underestimate the difficulty of dislodging a determined allied foe off any island at this time of the war. Dare I cite Guadalcanal? I would not be interested in offering such a battle to the allies with the IJN a month or more from developing a counterstrike. With being so heavily engaged in India, do you have that 5+ division counterattack force handy? 30 Days is a LONNNG time to prepare if your opponent has thought through his invasion and your reaction. If you had KB and a stock of BB's in the HI, this could be a workable strategy (but still risky).

Good luck Admiral

Ok, but he couldn't take more than a couple of the Marianas islands. And then he'd be stuck there while I bomb him from the remaining ones. An attritional battle for the Marianas is WAY different from Guadalcanal. The islands are so close that range isn't a factor and blockade would be total. Exactly the opposite of Guadalcanal. If the allies had landed at Guam in 1942, they would have lost the battle badly, even if they had taken the island.

I actually had this happen in an old WITP game when I was Japan. It took a couple months, but eventually all the allies that landed were wiped out. And he suffered bad shipping losses too. I say again, bring it on.

[rader]

Anyway, he seems pretty set on Marcus. Not much I can do about it without the KB around, but Marcus is about as well defended as I can make it, being the size of a postage stamp. I think it only has half a zip code.

[krupp_88mm]

if you had 6500 men there and he landed say 10,000 men there would be about one man every 18 feet (in every direction) on the island, and if you don't count the beach or tide zones it would be about one man every 14 feet (just enough room to lay down without being on top of someone else's feet

[topeverest]

Marcus is an odd choice, unsupportable, isolated, easily recaptured...

[topeverest]

So what happened?

[krupp_88mm]

waiting for OP, i like updates!

[PaxMondo]

rader told me that RL has greatly intruded. He hopes to back updating soon ...

[rader]

Yes very busy and the g/f was visiting this weekend. On top of that, I'm away all next week. It's all I can do to send back regular turns for my two ongoing games (and that takes priority).

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo


rader told me that RL has greatly intruded. He hopes to back updating soon ...

[rader]

October 25, 1942.

Had a bit of time after a busy week so I thought I'd update.

Well, we triggered the allied reinforcements over a month ago but I'd say it's unlikely we will take India. Allied air strength hasn't been destroyed as fast as we needed, and I'm sure some of those troops are now in India (maybe all). There are allied transports unloading every turn. We've launched DD raids and some have gone very well, others not so much. Although very slowly and at high cost, we are still grinding down the allied fighters, and I do predict that we can win the war in the air. However, Karachi must have so many troops now (150+ units between Karachi and Hyderabad), and most likely level 9 forts in both by now). The problem is that Karachi simply cannot be blockaded, even with the KB unless the Japanese have total command of the skies. Unfortunately, without command of the skies, the KB is pretty useless for the task. The way the map is designed, allied TFs are in the off-map movement box until the very turn they are protected by the blanket of allied fighers. Even the KB parked outside must decide to either tangle with the allied fighters (and potentially bombers), or allow their quarry to pass unharmed. If there was more 'real' sea between Aden and Karachi, the situation would be totally different.

However, I believe that we can grind away the allied fighers trhough the rest of 1942 and the first half of 1943. This is unlikely to give me Karachi, however. In fact, it would be suicidal to stay in India past mid-1943 once the Aden channel is open and the Essexes come online anyway. Thus, I plan to abandon all of India sometime in the summer of 1943. But it sure is nice having all the heavy industry, oil, and supply production in the meantime, and being this far in India keeps the allies pretty well at bay in the west. So not a bad trade for some extra divisions, I would say. I never intended an autovictory, so if holding india for over a year helps me stay alive into 1946, so much the better. Nevertheless, I will try for Karachi in any event because I've got a large army with nothing much else to do. You never know - if, once the allied fighters are destroyed, a tight blockade becomes feasible, maybe Karachi will fall. Stranger things have happened.

My main priority at the moment is building up a solid "do not cross" line for the allies to break against. I'm considering trying to counterattack an allied landing at Guadalcanal, but I remember how that turned out in RL, and what's the point? I don't want that place, too far from my defenses and supplies anyway. However, I'm massing reinforcements at Rabaul and building up Buka just in case I feel like trying to squash Lunga - probably not worth the risk [:(]

Last month we put a torpedo in the Saratoga, thus we project that we have carrier superiority (she's probably repairing in Pearl or the WC). Thus the KB is raiding the Pacific. So far we managed to bag a few small AKs and APs... nothing to write the emperor about, but it feels good to at least kill something [:'(]

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: rader

... The problem is that Karachi simply cannot be blockaded, even with the KB unless the Japanese have total command of the skies. Unfortunately, without command of the skies, the KB is pretty useless for the task. The way the map is designed, allied TFs are in the off-map movement box until the very turn they are protected by the blanket of allied fighers. Even the KB parked outside must decide to either tangle with the allied fighters (and potentially bombers), or allow their quarry to pass unharmed. If there was more 'real' sea between Aden and Karachi, the situation would be totally different...

Very interesting ... hadn't thought about this lack of space, but I can see your point now. Thanks for taking on the India invasion for all of us "arm chair" types!

[ny59giants]

Not giving away any intel, but from reading GJ's AAR, I have to ask what you are doing to get massive Tojo sweeps from a single base and why are your Helen ASW so effective?? I have a game in late Dec 42 and my Tojo fly as separate Sentai and not as a whole base.

What Beta are you using if you are playing with Beta patches?

[rader]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Not giving away any intel, but from reading GJ's AAR, I have to ask what you are doing to get massive Tojo sweeps from a single base and why are your Helen ASW so effective?? I have a game in late Dec 42 and my Tojo fly as separate Sentai and not as a whole base.

What Beta are you using if you are playing with Beta patches?

Tojo sweeps: I'm just putting them all in a level-9 airfield. No idea why they would or would not be coordinated. In fact, sometimes they aren't, but about 60% of the time they are. As far as I know, AF not being overstacked is the main factor in coordination. Maybe an air HQ or 3?

Helen ASW = 1000 ft, 70 ASW trained. I usually just set them to something like 40% ASW, 40% train, so they constantly improve.

We are using a pretty new one, from maybe a month ago?

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: rader

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Not giving away any intel, but from reading GJ's AAR, I have to ask what you are doing to get massive Tojo sweeps from a single base and why are your Helen ASW so effective?? I have a game in late Dec 42 and my Tojo fly as separate Sentai and not as a whole base.

What Beta are you using if you are playing with Beta patches?

Tojo sweeps: I'm just putting them all in a level-9 airfield. No idea why they would or would not be coordinated. In fact, sometimes they aren't, but about 60% of the time they are. As far as I know, AF not being overstacked is the main factor in coordination. Maybe an air HQ or 3?

Helen ASW = 1000 ft, 70 ASW trained. I usually just set them to something like 40% ASW, 40% train, so they constantly improve.

We are using a pretty new one, from maybe a month ago?

Lvl 9 AF for fighters makes all the difference. [8D]

[ny59giants]

Tojo sweeps: I'm just putting them all in a level-9 airfield. No idea why they would or would not be coordinated. In fact, sometimes they aren't, but about 60% of the time they are. As far as I know, AF not being overstacked is the main factor in coordination. Maybe an air HQ or 3?

Thanks!!

[obvert]

Any updates from your end?

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Any updates from your end?

Also interested. I have been following GreyJoy's AAR and just saw this one. Would be nice to see both sides of it -- especially if I can pick up some Jap Fanboy hints...

Xargun