Notes from a Small Island

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: crsutton
I never could understand why the Japanese players love Burma so much. It is a trap waiting to happen.

Say what? Everyone I know hates Burma with a passion.

Obvert lost 20 divisions there against Jocke to a flanking invasion. Methinks he won't make the same mistake twice, but you never know.

[Andav]

Pegu <twitch>

Wa

[John 3rd]

Go get 'em Dan. Be fiendish...

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth
How do your pools look? As you know bomber pools need lists of TLC. Search arcs?

I'll look at this more closely when I get the next turn.

Air losses for both sides have been relatively light, at least compared to my game with John III. Yet...for some reason, the fighter pools and B-24J pools are not particularly impressive. There are something like 650 Hellcats in the pools, which is good. The PBY pools are immense, which is a luxury I've never before known. I bow to my predecessors for this.

This game I'm more prepared to deal with the sudden P-47D25 production halt and the gap of several months before other good fighters kick in.

Ultimately, the real question is how will the Allies close on Japan to begin strategic bombing. The carrier situation is probably the key to answering that question.....that and how Obvert crafts his defenses.

I don't have the benefit of reading the flow of SigInt and map info to help me gauge where Erik has concentrated his defenses. Getting a grasp on this is important.

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Yet...for some reason, the fighter pools and B-24J pools are not particularly impressive.

I can't recall off the top of my head the circumstances for that. My best guess would be that they were low when I picked the game up, or as a result of my beating my head up against the low CAP settings Erik uses. I reached a point where I was much more discerning when I'd commit bombers or sweeps. Just for future thought, I had 550+ P47D25s and 300+ B-24Js in the pools when I ended the game.

Once I learned to use my battleships to bombard those forward concentrations of Japanese fighters they didn't seem so daunting.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: crsutton
I never could understand why the Japanese players love Burma so much. It is a trap waiting to happen.

Say what? Everyone I know hates Burma with a passion.

Obvert lost 20 divisions there against Jocke to a flanking invasion. Methinks he won't make the same mistake twice, but you never know.

Allied players hate it too.

Players hate it! One weird trick!

[Canoerebel]

3/3/44

The Weirdest Looking Division Ever....or I'm Just Out of Step with the Times: What the heck is going on with 1st Australian Division? Did Admiral Fletcher get ahold of it and try to change it into ranger unit of some kind?

[Canoerebel]

3/3/44

Second Australian Division: Madness!

[Canoerebel]

3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th Australian Divisions look normal. Most of them still have '42 squads, including three fighting in the Burma jungles. I think I'll bring them to Akyab or vicinity to upgrade.

[SqzMyLemon]

Regarding 1st and 2nd Australian Divisions.

I figured it was a glitch from not upgrading the data base. I never mentioned them to Erik though so I just lived with it. When updating the database came up I left it up to Erik to decide. He never mentioned it again so I figured he didn't want to lose his Super E's.

I didn't notice the TOE's in Burma until after I decided to attack there after all. You will have to withdraw any units you want to upgrade from the theatre, nothing happened for me until much later after the Irrawaddy Valley was expanded. Especially your armour units. Get those Sherman tanks.

Please let me know if my comments are not welcome (or considered inappropriate) as well. I won't go into any detail over what happened beyond the point you have picked up the game as I don't believe that is fair, but if you are curious as to any anomalies perhaps I can clear them up.

I'm curious to see which new direction you choose to go so I'll be hanging around initially, then it's off to my much needed sabbatical from the game. [8D]

[Canoerebel]

18th UK Division is beautifully entire....and still has '41 squads and is in the jungle. It can't fight that way. But it sure is nice to see the division intact (a player taking over my game with John III would weep at the condition of 18th Div., which was ruined in Sumatra).

5th Indian Division is in the jungles of Burma. This isn't right. In my game vs. John III, 5th Indian moved from India to Capetown to East Coast to Prince Rupert....prepped 100% for Amchitka....sat for months waiting for the chance....diverted to Big Tent in the DEI (taking Morotai, if memory serves). It has since served key roles in Luzon and in taking Foochow, China. For the rest of my AE career, I'll always think of 5th Indian as an expeditionary army.

[Canoerebel]

3/4/44

Points Screen: This tells the tale of a war fought at a different pace and in a different way than the war waged between me an John III.

The belligerents in this game maintain some separation and apparently go long spells without coming to grips. The result is a lower overall score...which has good and bad points for both sides.

That style of play isn't necessarily worse or better than the way John and I play; it's just different. In the John III game, we started fighting with knives in the spring of '42 and never stopped. That definitely has its drawbacks.

So it'll be fun to play into 1944 with lots of ships and men, the ability to transport infinite amounts of fuel and supply (apparently), and probably healthy aircraft pools, though I haven't looked into that carefully yet.

[Canoerebel]

3/4/44

SEAC: Knife fight in the jungle on unequal terms. Massive enemy air force and army here....very far forward for '44. Good. Let 'em stay right here for months to come. For now, this will be an attention-holding theater.

The road to victory does not lead through Burma or Thailand or Malaya or Java or Sumatra....not at this late date. So let's fight way back in Burma for as long as possible...until one day the time is ripe, the enemy is leaning too far forward, and the hook comes.

Eventually the Allies will move into China, but that takes supply, so that won't be soon.

[Canoerebel]

3/3/44

18th UK Div.: My experience has been that the biggest infantry division, well led, with high experience and morale, cannot fight with '41 squads and devices. They are toothless giants. Time to get some dental work.

[Canoerebel]

3/3/44

Major General George Inglis: This is the guy to bring 18th Division up to par.

[Canoerebel]

3/3/44

Western Australia: Western Oz is Japanese territory. Erik is prepared to fight for the DEI, so I'm probably not going to cooperate. Darwin seems weakly defended but supplying that base can be a beast until the Allies also take Timor, Taberfane, etc. I'd rather do other things.

[Canoerebel]

3/3/44

SWPac: This is the seat of the war. This is where Joseph planned to take the war to the enemy. And he was well prepared.

The question: build on his efforts or tear down in favor of a different strategy? I'm weighing a number of options, including some hybrids.

[Canoerebel]

3/3/44

Marshalls and Gilberts: I suspect weakly defended; I suspect Erik won't fight hard this far forward; but I'm going to test him here. I want the bases to clean up my LOC a bit...but also to set the table for a very important move coming in a few months.

[Canoerebel]

3/3/44

Midway, Wake, Marcus: Very helpful to have Wake and Midway; Marcus is where Historiker came to grief. Marcus will probably play a big role in things to come.

[Canoerebel]

3/3/44

NoPac: I don't know if Erik ever did anything up here, if he has anything up here now, or if Historiker/Jospeh planned things up here. It looks pretty quiet. I'm going to watch SigInt to see what might develop. But Erik is probably familiar with my NoPac past and will probably take precautions.