Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the PI looks like now. I'm still giving priority for shipping to the Rabaul area so it's iffy if the PI will
receive any more troops for a while. The mainland may require more boots on the ground from the home islands
and that means I'll have to use shipping for them. I got an email from Thomas reguarding the Pearl Strike and
I thought you guys might want to know how that went.......how many ships got sunk etc.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's my turn 1 losses so far ( I haven't started moving anybody yet ): I was surprised by the number of DD's sank. I had no idea
it was that many. I'm losing this war.

[Chattez]

Try and sucker the allied fleets into combat NOW. The Imperial fleet has nothing to
fear, so long as few allied land planes are involved; and perhaps not even then. And then try
for surface action later.

The American fleet can do nothing but run; and if it chooses to fight, it will be at a major
disadvantage in both the quality of its planes and ships, and in their number.

That situation will gradually change, so Japan should use the sharp sword now, while it still has the advantage.

Later, in 1944-45, the imperial fleet will be little better than moving targets for the allied land planes, which will
infest every island; and for the planes from the myriad of small and large new carriers that the allies will build.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Chattez
Try and sucker the allied fleets into combat NOW. The Imperial fleet has nothing to
fear, so long as few allied land planes are involved; and perhaps not even then. And then try
for surface action later.

The American fleet can do nothing but run; and if it chooses to fight, it will be at a major
disadvantage in both the quality of its planes and ships, and in their number.

That situation will gradually change, so Japan should use the sharp sword now, while it still has the advantage.

Later, in 1944-45, the imperial fleet will be little better than moving targets for the allied land planes, which will
infest every island; and for the planes from the myriad of small and large new carriers that the allies will build.

Sounds like good advice. Sounds like you're talking from experience.

[larryfulkerson]

I built a stack of CL's and DD's and drove over to Wake island and bumped into the CD gun battery on purpose. The Allied
battery was evaporated. Now I can bombard w/ the CL's and DD's. I'm going for the airfield first.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey Bob Cross: Thomas Harvey says:
"It is too bad the cruisers do not carry the float planes like the older game. The ships still say they can carry aircraft but they won't do it."
So my question is: how do you get ships to carry spotter planes?

[larryfulkerson]

These past two turns now I've assigned these four stacks to assault the port hex and the past two turns now they switched to
re-embark, zero'ed out their MP's and in effect have refused to assault the port hex. I'm going to move them over one hex and
just land them at a non-port hex if this keeps up. I'll have to keep this behavior in mind for the future.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what SW China looks like now. I had to ship in another division to move some partisans out of Hanoi just now. It's the
only thing I've moved in this image. As the Chinese from northern China start arriving on the front lines here I'm going to need
more boots on the ground to contain all of them.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the Manila area looks like now. I'm planning on driving north along the coastal road to grab the airfields and I'd like
to capture Manila itself because it's the Allied supply source. So I'm going to ship in some more people and make it happen.

[larryfulkerson]

After I had been pounding Wake island for most of last turn the little Marine garrison wasn't much of a contest when the 25th
INF Division came ashore. And the Wildcats that were here before aren't there now. I'm planning on moving a Mavis unit in
to Wake to do some Sea Interdiction. That ought to include Midway and Pearl in it's search arc. I'll post a pic.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's northern China now. I've broken most of the divisions down into brigades and regiments and that way is almost
adequate to contain the hordes. And I may be able to dispatch one or more of them with some well placed attacks.

[larryfulkerson]

I've got a 50-plane squadron of Nates at Wuchang which brings them in range of the AVG and theoreticly I could do an
airfield strike and maybe shot down one or two. Past experience has shown that the AVG, however, is an elete group of
aviators with proficiency in the high 80's to the mid-90's and here this Nate squadron is like in the 50's. The point is I
would lose more than the AVG would and that's not a good thing. I think I'll bring one of the Zero groups in here to tangle
with them.

[larryfulkerson]

I dropped some paratroopers where I thought I might be able to buy enough time to get the main-line forces in place in good
positions. I dropped the river Kwai bridge and the Allied unit on the west side of the river can't pass. I've got some backup
forces and some engineers arriving on station soon. In Malaya, I dropped the paratroopers in a small village and so far they are
holding back at least three regiments by themselves with the help of some aircraft flying CS missions nearby. I've flown in a lot of
air power and it's pulling it's share of the load.

[larryfulkerson]

I was checking out one of the paratrooper units and found it to be in pretty good shape considering. They have been holding out
for a whole turn now and I'm guessing that with all the CS they have available and the fact that they have almost all of each
equipment type and their readiness is still pretty high.......I'm betting I can count on them to hold another full turn.

[larryfulkerson]

I've captured Wake island so the next place to start looking for targets is Midway. This is what Midway looks like now.
Tom has moved in two more brigades on the ground and some planes, probably PBY's and I think I found out what
happened to the Wildcats that were at Wake when it fell. They are at Midway now. Probably. It's not so much of a
pushover any more. It's going to take some concentrated bombardments from BB's to subdue it.

[larryfulkerson]

As part of the build-up prior to beginning the Midway bombardments I've started moving ships to Midway and this BB was
intercepted and part of the combat results has revealed what's at Wake. PBY's, Kingfishers, and Wildcats and about 150
rifle squads of various kinds. I think maybe I have a division that can take this island.

[larryfulkerson]

I don't honestly remember what sank the Zuiho's aircraft carriers but the only thing left from that whole unit is one DD. So I've
parked it up near the bone-yard where all the wrecked ships congregate to await more replacements. My mind is blank reguarding
the sinking of the Zuiho and her escorts. Anybody remember?

EDIT: I seem to remember a sea interdiction incident that went horribly wrong near Leyte.

[larryfulkerson]

On one of my trips from Wake to Midway I ran into 3 Fletcher-class DD's and sank them with one CL. The Japs must have
some kind of secret weapon or something. Or superior torpedoes.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved a bomber unit that has Nells and Bettys to Tarawa and now the sea interdiction arc is really coming in handy. A pretty
good swatch of the Pacific is covered. I've got another long range bomber group at Guadacanal just in case any Allied ships
come to visit.

[larryfulkerson]

I've found the Zero squadron I want to use to tangle with the AVG. It's based at Soc Trang right now but I can move it if needed.
It's got the range to do an airfield attack on the AVG from where it is so it's on order. There may be another such unit nearby.