Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

I would add to Obvert's post that if you retain a Navy and air force you can, at the right times, use a mobile reserve to reinforce a base that can hold for a week or two on its own. This will change the odds to the point where you force Q to unexpectedly need three divisions instead of two, if you catch my meaning.

+1

You might also think about the small unoccupied and dot bases as well, even to deny easy capture with small SNLF. It's so easy for them to get a base up and running from nothing I've found lately. If you can slow him in the area south of New Britain it would really give you time to get the rest set. There are just so many dots to go after there. I just noticed on a previous map that both Treasury and Feni Island were open.

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

I would add to Obvert's post that if you retain a Navy and air force you can, at the right times, use a mobile reserve to reinforce a base that can hold for a week or two on its own. This will change the odds to the point where you force Q to unexpectedly need three divisions instead of two, if you catch my meaning.

Perfectly agree Crib. That's the idea. But consider that Brad is a smart fox....

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

I would add to Obvert's post that if you retain a Navy and air force you can, at the right times, use a mobile reserve to reinforce a base that can hold for a week or two on its own. This will change the odds to the point where you force Q to unexpectedly need three divisions instead of two, if you catch my meaning.

Perfectly agree Crib. That's the idea. But consider that Brad is a smart fox....

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

I would add to Obvert's post that if you retain a Navy and air force you can, at the right times, use a mobile reserve to reinforce a base that can hold for a week or two on its own. This will change the odds to the point where you force Q to unexpectedly need three divisions instead of two, if you catch my meaning.

+1

You might also think about the small unoccupied and dot bases as well, even to deny easy capture with small SNLF. It's so easy for them to get a base up and running from nothing I've found lately. If you can slow him in the area south of New Britain it would really give you time to get the rest set. There are just so many dots to go after there. I just noticed on a previous map that both Treasury and Feni Island were open.

i know Erik, but there are too many dot bases to be defended and not enough troops. Also, without forts, he would destroy the SNLF unit within few turns using his LBAs. Once they are on the move, it's almost impossible to stop them in SOPAC/SWPAC. Better, imho, to slow him down where i can and force him to proceed slowly...well, slowly for Brad's habits.... and use that gained time to prepare a defence in a better position. The Carolines are ideal for this pourpose. and Northern NG too. Less dot bases and lots of atolls[;)]

ORIGINAL: 1EyedJacks

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

I would add to Obvert's post that if you retain a Navy and air force you can, at the right times, use a mobile reserve to reinforce a base that can hold for a week or two on its own. This will change the odds to the point where you force Q to unexpectedly need three divisions instead of two, if you catch my meaning.

Perfectly agree Crib. That's the idea. But consider that Brad is a smart fox....

precisely[:)]

Greyjoy,
 
Regarding dot bases, would it be possible to maintain a rapid reaction force or two with pre-positioned shipping to respond to any deep dot-base incursions like what happened in the DEI a while back.  It wouldn't need to be big enough to kick out a division or brigade dot base invasion, probably more like able to handle a regiment or a raider unit plus an engineer force. 
 
The goal would be to keep Brad honest on the mini-landings-to-functioning-airbase-in-days type of attacks.  Even if all you achieve in the end is that he starts having to attack dot bases with divisions (with the delay to reload again), that's seems like a win to me.  Landing/supporting bigger forces might leave him more open to interdicting invasion TFs, too or at least make him expose APA/AKA ships.  And if the counterinvading force can walk out to a nearby base on the same landmass (or quick barge out to somewhere nearby), so much the better for you.
 
Mike

ORIGINAL: Panther Bait

Greyjoy,

Regarding dot bases, would it be possible to maintain a rapid reaction force or two with pre-positioned shipping to respond to any deep dot-base incursions like what happened in the DEI a while back.  It wouldn't need to be big enough to kick out a division or brigade dot base invasion, probably more like able to handle a regiment or a raider unit plus an engineer force. 

The goal would be to keep Brad honest on the mini-landings-to-functioning-airbase-in-days type of attacks.  Even if all you achieve in the end is that he starts having to attack dot bases with divisions (with the delay to reload again), that's seems like a win to me.  Landing/supporting bigger forces might leave him more open to interdicting invasion TFs, too or at least make him expose APA/AKA ships.  And if the counterinvading force can walk out to a nearby base on the same landmass (or quick barge out to somewhere nearby), so much the better for you.

Mike

Well, it is possible but the real purpose for the Allies to seize a dot base it to build an advance airbase and place a thorn in the side of the Japanese. This means that they usually are taken with a strong infantry unit and then backed up with a marine defense unit or similar. As 1943 progresses, the Allies are much more able to support this type of incursion because they get so many good amphibious type ships while it becomes very difficult for Japan to counter invade due to the lack of the bonus and decent amphibious ships. Japanese have fast transport but these ships lack the ability to get decent heavy equipment ashore for support. So given a few days to land and set up, it gets pretty hard to eject the Allies. I think this pretty much is a good reflection of the reality for Japan as the war progressed.

It is not the Allied carriers that win the war. It is their engineers...[;)]

It is one of the big differences with WITP, in AE with the bigger map there is lots more dot bases in the whole Burma/DEI/NG/Solomons area that make it a lot harder for the japanese to defend. Stacking limits might marginally help, as well as more land units available thanks to the victory in China, but then the supply consumption of all those garrisons becomes untenable... Tough.

 Jun 21, 43

Ok guys, this is the turning point. Unfortunately all my strategies and efforts weren't enough.
 
SOLOMONS:
 
The enemies landed at Vella La Vella using LCIs and LSTs... some 80 Dive Bombers, escorted by Zeros and OScars took off from Rabaul.... 74 of them never got back...and, as usual, we sunk ONLY 5 empy LCIs... 50 precious pilots gone for nothing...
 
Enemy CVs spotted near Brisbane... they are coming.
 
 
DEI:
 
here's the real problem.
Brad played with me. 60 days of daily CAP Traps with empty ships near Saumlaki.... but this time it was for real. Brad used again LSTs, Barges and LCIs (all expendable) to land in a single night the 22nd Marine Rgt, a regiment of the 25th US Division, 2 full Engineer units, a base force and a Marine Parachute regiment... more than 400 AVs at Molu, one hex north of Saumlaki.... this is bad... and this time there's nothing i can do. It was the only "dot" base i left ungarrisoned... i hoped it was too "far away" from his bases...MISTAKE. Now in a couple of turns he'll have a level 1 AF...and then all will be over. The whole southern DEI lost.
Don't know if this time it's wise to try to counterinvade... i only have 3 brigades in reserve...clearly not enough to dislodge 400 1943 allied AVs...
What should i do?
 
I'll be out of order for 3 days for job reasons....

One is sure. Yo can`t give up in DEI.There You have to fight to last men. You can afford lose Salomons, Marshals, Gilberts but not DEI. You need to try to keep him as long as passable away from oil wells
BANZAI!!

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

 Jun 21, 43

Ok guys, this is the turning point. Unfortunately all my strategies and efforts weren't enough.

SOLOMONS:

The enemies landed at Vella La Vella using LCIs and LSTs... some 80 Dive Bombers, escorted by Zeros and OScars took off from Rabaul.... 74 of them never got back...and, as usual, we sunk ONLY 5 empy LCIs... 50 precious pilots gone for nothing...

Enemy CVs spotted near Brisbane... they are coming.


DEI:

here's the real problem.
Brad played with me. 60 days of daily CAP Traps with empty ships near Saumlaki.... but this time it was for real. Brad used again LSTs, Barges and LCIs (all expendable) to land in a single night the 22nd Marine Rgt, a regiment of the 25th US Division, 2 full Engineer units, a base force and a Marine Parachute regiment... more than 400 AVs at Molu, one hex north of Saumlaki.... this is bad... and this time there's nothing i can do. It was the only "dot" base i left ungarrisoned... i hoped it was too "far away" from his bases...MISTAKE. Now in a couple of turns he'll have a level 1 AF...and then all will be over. The whole southern DEI lost.
Don't know if this time it's wise to try to counterinvade... i only have 3 brigades in reserve...clearly not enough to dislodge 400 1943 allied AVs...
What should i do?

I'll be out of order for 3 days for job reasons....

Ouch! That kind of quickness is the difficulty, especially after all of his prep. This is like anywhere else though. He's got to maintain the base as well. You can bombard, bomb, interdict supply routes or even bring in the KB to cover a counter invasion after you've knocked the supply down. Maybe one base in the DEI 7-8 hexes from his closest isn't sustainable with the right attention paid to it.

Unless he starts hitting additional bases in sequence - he can shuttle around a lot of troops in those small, expendable little ships, for very little risk. All he needs to do is take another base or two & all of a sudden, interdiction becomes a much more difficult affair....not to mention, the KB can't be in two places at once (in force), which means focus on the DEI will open up opportunities elsewhere he is sure to take advantage of....this is the very definition of putting your opponent "on the horns of a dilemma."

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Well, i think if you were right before, saying Brad would be more honest after the the Terapo raid, now that effect has been even amplified. we showed him we can still fight and win a surface engagement. A Brookling Class CL, a Cleveland Cladd CL, 1 CA and 2 small CLs...not bad, not bad

My DDs performed particularly well, keeping honest his own DDs (superior to mines) and allowing our CAs to do most of the job

[&o]

Thx Jeff, nice to have you here[:)]

Thank you, sir. I was actually trying to bold face the Brookling class CAs and Cleveland Cladd CLs you mentioned. I am in the first half of 42' as Allies, when will my Brookling class CAs show up? [:)]

Jeff, I think you must mean the Baltimore Class CAs. The Brooklyn class were CLs, including Boise, Nashville, Honolulu, Helena, Phoenix and others that you get early on. Try looking up Baltimore or Boston in your arriving ships list in the Intel Report screen to find the arrival dates.

22-23 June 1943

Well, while the allies have now breached my southern DEI perimeter, we tried to counter...i know i cannot push him out of Molu now...simply too many forces have now estabilished here. Have to face the truth: from now on it will simply be a downhill slope for me.

However, we sent the KB to Babar... full speed. Again surprised achieved...but again weather isn't on my part. He had not less than 5 BBs and 10 CA/CLs at sea south of Saumlaki.... and guess what? None of them got targetted[:(]. We did bag 3 CVEs, an Omaha class CL and some 5 old DDs.... not much[:(]...and we lost some 200 planes with 110 crack pilots....

Then, the next day, i sent my fast BBs to interdict his retreat path to Darwin... again the BBs were slowed down by waves of PTs and single DD TFs...nothing achieved...but at least i didn't lose any major ship this time.

In the Solomons the americans have already conquered Ontong Java and Vella La Vella... Rabaul is in real danger now.

Brad is clearly a top player. He managed to avoid any landing against a defended target and yet he keeps on advancing... this is the way to play. Japan simply cannot defend every dot base and the allies just need to grab a couple of them and use their engineers to build it up... then, once an AF is estabilished, it's simply a matter of time

Sorry but job is really demanding in these days. Turns and the AAR will suffer

Don't be too hard on yourself, you are playing with a hand tied in your back in this mod as the jap player. Your performance is already pretty awesome ! Sure it is downhill from here, just try to make it slow !

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

22-23 June 1943

Well, while the allies have now breached my southern DEI perimeter, we tried to counter...i know i cannot push him out of Molu now...simply too many forces have now estabilished here. Have to face the truth: from now on it will simply be a downhill slope for me.

However, we sent the KB to Babar... full speed. Again surprised achieved...but again weather isn't on my part. He had not less than 5 BBs and 10 CA/CLs at sea south of Saumlaki.... and guess what? None of them got targetted[:(]. We did bag 3 CVEs, an Omaha class CL and some 5 old DDs.... not much[:(]...and we lost some 200 planes with 110 crack pilots....

Then, the next day, i sent my fast BBs to interdict his retreat path to Darwin... again the BBs were slowed down by waves of PTs and single DD TFs...nothing achieved...but at least i didn't lose any major ship this time.

In the Solomons the americans have already conquered Ontong Java and Vella La Vella... Rabaul is in real danger now.

Brad is clearly a top player. He managed to avoid any landing against a defended target and yet he keeps on advancing... this is the way to play. Japan simply cannot defend every dot base and the allies just need to grab a couple of them and use their engineers to build it up... then, once an AF is estabilished, it's simply a matter of time

Sorry but job is really demanding in these days. Turns and the AAR will suffer

Yeah, this is the best Allied move. Take the dot bases and keep leaping over built up Japanese bases. The LST was made for this type of operation. The only problem for the Allies is the need for decent forward ports. They really need level 7 or larger ports to support the advance in the Pacific. These bases are the ones that Japan needs to defend to the bitter end. Singapore and Manila are very key bases for the Allies to take. They really need some shipyards-especially for ships on the SE Asian front. Colombo is just not big enough.

Hi folks,
 
   sorry for this prolongued delay but life is really hitting me in these days.
 
I've been overwhelmed by work. Lots of cases of high responsabilities all over my shoulders in the last weeks and i couldn't even find the time to sleep, forget about gaming.
In fact i can't sleep no more in these days. My dreams are crowded by harsh judges and by aggressive counterparts...[:(]
Moreover my Grandmother passed by last tuesday and we've been pretty busy with funeral and family fights around the succession (when relatives become snakes).
 
I managed to play only a couple of turns in the last 10 days...depressing[:o]
 
BTW, we reached June 26th and the allies have already estabilished a level 1 AF at Moa (1 hex north of Saumlaki). We tried to sweep it with 100 N1K1s but we faced Corsairs and Spits and we ended up losing 50 planes against 30... moreover my bombers tried to attack the waves of PTs that now are present there...being slaughtered by his CAP... Don't know how should i counter this move now. Mines and PTs are already present there in force and with all those engineers i won't be able to shut down that AF with the Helens (consider that the 250kg GP bomb effect has been halved in this mod). In few days he will have SDBs based there... really a problem.
 
In the meanwhile we tried to send the last fast transports, while the KB was in place, to the bases now officially cut off... lost 1 CLs and 3 DDs in the efforts and one more CAs has been torpedoed getting back to Kendari...
 
In the SOPAC the allies are now at Vella La Vella and Rabaul is no more a safe base. He could easily sweep it with waves of PTs and DDs... We are trying to save what we can but hopes are really few.
 
Damn... the more i think of it there more i realize my empire is already crumbling down... how is that possible? You know what? I think it has been a huge mistake to have abbandoned northern Oz so easily... but i didn't have enough troops nor supplies to keep that Huge perimeter... but still once Brad got his feet at Darwin the whole war changed dramatically

Sorry to hear about your Grandmother! [:(]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Sorry to hear about your Grandmother! [:(]

Thank you Joc. Happens... she was 94 so she had a long life.
Death sucks, obviously, but we all have to face it. It sucks a lot more when relatives start to fight for what is left[:@]