Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

[larryfulkerson]

This is what Malaya and Sumatra look like now. I'm still mixing mopping-up with assaulting attacks. The northern end of
Sumatra is my next short term goal.

[larryfulkerson]

I found a bunch of Allied ships on the West side of India. This is another reason I need to advance into Burma and India, my Nells
can almost reach them as it is. Just a bit more range or just a bit closer to the ships and I can start bombarding.

[larryfulkerson]

I found a Betty / Nell unit that could be moved into a better position and then had the range to do an airstrike on those Allied
ships found above and got two of the CV's and some of the DD's. And the planes that were riding on the CV's. Now another
stike is in order to get the rest of the ships. But I made a three-dot attack and the readiness might not be there for another
strike.

[thomasharvey]

Disaster to lose the last carriers I have in the Pacific. Now I have zero. I have lost a total of 8 now.

The next carrier will not arrive for another 20 turns. I will have to set up better defenses to protect the balance of the fleets. I have plenty of BBs but they are useless in the era of the bomber. Billy Mitchell was right!

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of my losses so far:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the face of Malaya now. I'm having trouble cutting the Allies off from their supply but the fighting continues. The supply
level seems okie dokie but my units are slow re-gaining their supply level(s). I think I may need another HQ unit present.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the T23 face of northern China. I'm trying to get a mop-up operation started but my targets keep backing out to safety.
I can't quite get a surround going. But fighting continues.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's Malaya now. I'm slowing down in my attacking because of the low supply situation. But the advance continues. I don't
expect any quick take down here.

[larryfulkerson]

And my first assault on Port Moresby goes pretty well. Some Allied engineers evaporated. That's a good sign.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what northern China looks like now. Actually I guess that's Mongolia, north of northern China. Anyway, I'm finally beginning
to bring this episode to a close. I'm clearing out north of the river and I'm going to dispatch some units to do the trek to the west
and south and the rest of them I guess I'll send east and south.

[larryfulkerson]

The Allies are leaping across the river and streaming into my front lines. I don't have a reserve so this is a serious breech and
could spell trouble.

[larryfulkerson]

Um........I'm not sure I've found a bug......it may be a feature. Let me tell you what I'm seeing and you decide. My Japanese
troops aren't recovering very much supply from one turn to the next and I'm wondering if the supply stockpile value is at fault.
I'm not seeing much supply on the ground and I'm wondering if there's some kind of supply dip that comes with Storms. I
think we're in the middle of Storms.

[larryfulkerson]

The south China advance is stalled. I'm not getting anywhere very fast. When I break the divisions down into Brigades the
resulting brigades don't have enough combat power to be perswasive. Best that happens is that they hold their own.

[larryfulkerson]

And another thing: The advance in the Pillippines has stalled. There's just isn't enough supply to boost the readiness high
enough to attack.

[larryfulkerson]

In a previous turn the Allies came streaming across the river from Burma and I've only just now put the stopper in
the bottle. The Allies have the firepower to break my cordon however, so I'm still holding my breath.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's Tom's reply via email:

The supply is intentionally set low for everyone until the allies get better later. But for the Japanese it does not get better. The Chinese have permanent low supply, almost none, due to the long Burma road and flying in supply. Further, the jungle and other terrain make it very difficult to get any supply very far. The dirt and mud roads nearly everywhere are poor for supply and the forces involved have limited supply ability when off a good supply location.

In the historical taking of Singapore, the Japanese had very poor supply and were lucky the British surrendered as they were in worse shape than the British who surrendered.

In the last scenario when I was the Japanese I brought in all the engineers into Malaya to repair the rail line down to Singapore before I started the attack. I also let the units sit for several turns as the supply improved as the rail line got closer. The Japanese take a while to repair rails but they get the job done. They are very good at setting up a crossing over a major river. The supply that way is nil due to terrain.

The rails in China can give the Japanese a big advantage in supply if you have an offensive from your rail heads. Once you go into the bush your supply is nearly gone. That is true for all sides. On islands it does not matter since the islands are very small.

The Japanese supply was very poor and got worse as time went on. The allies improve over time but not in China. The Chinese are really limited to holding, not attacking.

This is at least my approach to the subject. Time works against the Japanese. Once you go on to the defensive and just dig in, eventually all the defenders rest up and are ready on the islands. In all other areas you had better get the rails fixed and get your units close to it if they need supply. Long offensives are not something the Japanese can supply. You can get a little more supply if you do not move units by rail, sea or air in a given turn. In Malaya there is no rail for the Japanese and no supply point either. You either take Singapore quickly if the Allies do not defend it or you build the rail lines down to it. Singapore is a long way away from a supply source without repaired rail lines.

The other thing- what does sea interdiction due to supply? Anything? Or does it reduce supply some how like normal interdiction. There has been a lot of allied sea interdiction so far.

[larryfulkerson]

The other thing- what does sea interdiction due to supply? Anything? Or does it reduce supply some how like normal interdiction. There has been a lot of allied sea interdiction so far.

That's a good question. I'm not sure myself. We'll have to conduct some tests or something.

EDIT: Here's northern China now. I've cleared it out and now I'm racing to get into the rear areas of the Chinese army.

[larryfulkerson]

The Allies have gotten some engineers onto the river to ferry across troops that are threatening to outflank all my guys and
get into my rear areas. There's not much in the way of Japanese troops to prevent it too. This looks like another front has
opened up. Tom is going to make some hay out of this.

[larryfulkerson]

Singapore is still a problem. My guys are too tired to attack and the ships are too worn out to bombard and the Allies
are still holding out. At least the railroad is built all the way down to Singapore.

[larryfulkerson]

There's another setback in northern China. Allied partisans have busted the bridge over the river so there's no easy way
to get into northern China now. I'm going to have to get some engineers up there post haste and repair that bridge. I
should have planned for that ahead of time.