Climb Mt. Niitaka - Xargun vs Mr Kane

[Xargun]

A quick look at the SW Pacific. Not much going on here, but I have a division moving here from Japan to land and eventually take Port Moresby.

[Xargun]

A finally a look at China. I have finally taken Wenchow and am encircling the forces from there and will wipe them out. My plans are to wipe out as much as I can so they all respawn in Chunking and hopefully overload the stacking limits.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Update time...

First up my Aircraft R&D.. The A6M5c Zero is going strong with the first month being removed on the next turn. With 5 R&D Factories and the engine bonus I expect the A6M5c to be in production in 6 months - end of September. My other Aircraft R&D are working fine, although I still have some changing of factories to do.

The Intel screen is below showing the overall war status. The Air War has been very quiet. It is showing the allies doing a lot of sorties but other than recon flights I don't see any allied planes anywhere. Does the sorties include training ?

It does my heart good to see 150+ allied planes destroyed on the ground. Your air-to-air losses are imbalanced (the wrong way) for this point in the war. It is going to make it tougher going forward as he undoubtedly has developed several squadrons of elite pilots. The AVG in China caught you off-guard, and in my opinion, is the best move for the allies. I am not sure why allied players complain about units getting trashed in the central Chinese plain and China collapsing immediately while they have AVG fighting over Singapore or Burma.

AVG will be withdrawn in a few months. I would try to trap them or get them into a lopsided engagement over a contested hex that contains your units and his to kill some of these pilots. He is probably cycling pilots through these squadrons. All of these AVG veterans will haunt you in the months to come as they are dispersed throughout allied fighter squadrons.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Aurorus
It does my heart good to see 150+ allied planes destroyed on the ground. Your air-to-air losses are imbalanced (the wrong way) for this point in the war. It is going to make it tougher going forward as he undoubtedly has developed several squadrons of elite pilots. The AVG in China caught you off-guard, and in my opinion, is the best move for the allies. I am not sure why allied players complain about units getting trashed in the central Chinese plain and China collapsing immediately while they have AVG fighting over Singapore or Burma.

Yeah the Allied cap traps have been fairly rare (thankfully) and 2/3rd of my losses are either Ops or Flak. Once Clark Field and Singapore falls my Flak losses will drop for a while until the war heats up again - but then I'll have the Helen with armor so that will help. Majority of my flak losses lately have been over Clark Field; bombing allied troops there.

ORIGINAL: Aurorus
AVG will be withdrawn in a few months. I would try to trap them or get them into a lopsided engagement over a contested hex that contains your units and his to kill some of these pilots. He is probably cycling pilots through these squadrons. All of these AVG veterans will haunt you in the months to come as they are dispersed throughout allied fighter squadrons.

I would love to fight them - but I can't find any allied aircraft anywhere. An allied search plane dies every turn (either ops or my CAP) but other than that I can't find them. I've started to randomly bomb airfields in Burma / India trying to find them.

[Xargun]

Quick update: Singapore forts are down. Hopefully next assault will capture the town. I'm wasting too much time taking Singapore and Clark... but the losses have been horrific.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Quick update: Singapore forts are down. Hopefully next assault will capture the town. I'm wasting too much time taking Singapore and Clark... but the losses have been horrific.

Failed to take Singapore but achieved 1 to 1 odds for the first time - knocked forts back down to 0. A couple days rest before the next attempt.

Attacks at Clark knocked forts down a level. Giving the troops here a couple days rest and exchanged mauled units for some-what fresh units from Manila.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Quick update: Singapore forts are down. Hopefully next assault will capture the town. I'm wasting too much time taking Singapore and Clark... but the losses have been horrific.

Failed to take Singapore but achieved 1 to 1 odds for the first time - knocked forts back down to 0. A couple days rest before the next attempt.

Attacks at Clark knocked forts down a level. Giving the troops here a couple days rest and exchanged mauled units for some-what fresh units from Manila.

As long as the casualties are disabled and not destroyed, it is not too much to worry about. It just slows you down for a month or so as the disabled squads come back online. As long as you are not eating up precious supply and industry replacing destroyed squads, all is good. If he is not defending Burma, then it will not affect you much in the long run. You just need enough fresh units to take Java. 3 or 4 divisions with support will be enough to get Java going. I doubt that he will move Australian units into support Java. That is a death trap if the allies try to reinforce the position there.

[Xargun]

I am back from vacation and the game is on again.

Singapore has fallen !! -- 32 enemy units and over 59,000 men captured at Singapore.

I am now proceeding to clear the enemy minefield and ship in supplies so the LCUs can recover faster and then the push into Java and Burma will be aided by an influx of troops.


Allied CV spotted near Batavia !!

I am struggling to move men and supplies across from Oosthaven to Merak to support the drive on Batavia when at least 1 allied CV showed up on the southern side of the island, sinking the 2 xAKLs I have shuttling men from Oosthaven to Merak. My Nates flying CAP were swatted aside by the escorting Wildcats. Only 17 SBDs were used in the attack along with two groups of Wildcats. I wonder if he loaded American planes on the British Carriers? Are there any penalties for doing such ? Not sure if I should bring some CVs over to support the crossing or not - as I have a feeling that as soon as I bring them he will strike elsewhere.

I have pulled out all tankers at Palembang on the off chance he continues north along the southwest edge of Java and comes within range of Palembang hoping to bag some Tankers.


Night-time bombing of Soerbaja reports a single 250kg bomb hit on the CL Dragon in port there.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

I am back from vacation and the game is on again.

Singapore has fallen !! -- 32 enemy units and over 59,000 men captured at Singapore.

I am now proceeding to clear the enemy minefield and ship in supplies so the LCUs can recover faster and then the push into Java and Burma will be aided by an influx of troops.


Allied CV spotted near Batavia !!

I am struggling to move men and supplies across from Oosthaven to Merak to support the drive on Batavia when at least 1 allied CV showed up on the southern side of the island, sinking the 2 xAKLs I have shuttling men from Oosthaven to Merak. My Nates flying CAP were swatted aside by the escorting Wildcats. Only 17 SBDs were used in the attack along with two groups of Wildcats. I wonder if he loaded American planes on the British Carriers? Are there any penalties for doing such ? Not sure if I should bring some CVs over to support the crossing or not - as I have a feeling that as soon as I bring them he will strike elsewhere.

I have pulled out all tankers at Palembang on the off chance he continues north along the southwest edge of Java and comes within range of Palembang hoping to bag some Tankers.


Night-time bombing of Soerbaja reports a single 250kg bomb hit on the CL Dragon in port there.

The only penalty is that he puts the U.S. premium naval aviation under British command (which generally does not have very good air ratings).

[BillBrown]

I put a marine squadron on to supplement the Naval fighters.

[witpqs]

Both players have god-like ability to coordinate between services and allies.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Not sure if I should bring some CVs over to support the crossing or not - as I have a feeling that as soon as I bring them he will strike elsewhere.

I don't move CV's nearly as often as I move CAG's and Nettie groups ...

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Not sure if I should bring some CVs over to support the crossing or not - as I have a feeling that as soon as I bring them he will strike elsewhere.

I don't move CV's nearly as often as I move CAG's and Nettie groups ...

yeah - I am trying to not be too reactive to his feints... Looking back I have made a dozen (or more) mistakes this game already but am still going strong. Learning lots. My previous opponents were laid back and didn't do a whole lot until mid-late 42... Mr Kane is not giving me anything -- except Burma so far... so I'm being careful there. He's been fighting everywhere else on the ground and sea so I'm surprised at the lack of fighting in Burma.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Not sure if I should bring some CVs over to support the crossing or not - as I have a feeling that as soon as I bring them he will strike elsewhere.

I don't move CV's nearly as often as I move CAG's and Nettie groups ...

yeah - I am trying to not be too reactive to his feints... Looking back I have made a dozen (or more) mistakes this game already but am still going strong. Learning lots. My previous opponents were laid back and didn't do a whole lot until mid-late 42... Mr Kane is not giving me anything -- except Burma so far... so I'm being careful there. He's been fighting everywhere else on the ground and sea so I'm surprised at the lack of fighting in Burma.

In my experience, if I find myself reacting more than anticipating, I feel that I am being outplayed. I try to study the tendencies of opponent and think of ways to exploit his tendencies by anticipating his moves. At the same time, I try to think of my tendencies, and then vary them. I learned all of this playing poker (semi-professionally) for many years. I do not play poker any more (religion), but I still always think like a poker player.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun
... so I'm surprised at the lack of fighting in Burma.

Then I would speculate, he's not yet ready ....

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Xargun
... so I'm surprised at the lack of fighting in Burma.

Then I would speculate, he's not yet ready ....

Pax is probably right. If he is not fighting at all in Burma, he must be trying to save the Indian pools, which can only mean one thing; he intends to make Burma a major line of advance later.

[PaxMondo]

Possibly, but that isn't what hinders me as the allies in '42 Burma ... its supply and support. Takes me a good 6 months to get enough of both to be able to conduct offensive ops in India/Burma. Now I'm a bit conservative, and I don't play the allies that much. I'm sure better players can do it quicker ... still, it does take some time to get enough supply out of West Coast ... and by support I mean US units (LCU's and Air groups)

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

Possibly, but that isn't what hinders me as the allies in '42 Burma ... its supply and support. Takes me a good 6 months to get enough of both to be able to conduct offensive ops in India/Burma. Now I'm a bit conservative, and I don't play the allies that much. I'm sure better players can do it quicker ... still, it does take some time to get enough supply out of West Coast ... and by support I mean US units (LCU's and Air groups)

Gotcha. My recon show he is building up the normal air bases in northern Burma and India. He also has roughly a division of troops at Akyab (not sure how he is supplying them there) and the base north of Cox's Bazaar - Chittagong??

Have seen very little air activity in Burma but I'm guessing he is flying transports from Ledo into China as Ledo is expanding.

[Xargun]

Burma


Burma is mine with the capture or Katha via Air Assault this turn. I have been in a slight holding pattern waiting for reinforcements - which just finished arriving this turn. I will be going to Lashio via rail for the incursion into western China and (hopefully) the capturing of the 3 Chinese bases (Paoshan, Tsyung (??), and Kunming).

Recon have spotted 10,000+ men at Chittagong and Akyab, as well as roughly 1000 at Cox's Bazaar and 500 at Ramree island.

[Xargun]

Java Sea

All of Sumatra is mine except for the islands off the western coast - I am planning on taking those with a small unit just to avoid the allies using them without my knowledge.

Barges and a couple PBs are moving men and supplies from Oosthaven to Merak for the assault on Java. Batavia is close to falling and once the regiment arrives from Merak it should fall - the 8 units there are surrounded and will surrender.

Once Batavia falls I can ship in major reinforcements from Singapore (need a decent port) and push south for Soerbaja. My subs have been active in this area for a while catching a couple CLs with Torpedoes.

An I-boat nearly caught the Lady Lex in the Makassar Strait, but missed with all 6 torpedoes [:@]