Focus Pacific Redux: OneEyedJacks(J) vs paradigmblue(A)

[ny59giants]

Mike is high up in IT Dept at college in California. Since school just started again, he gets busy for some time. Been there with him over game pace.

Get his cell number so you can exchange quick text messages. It worked well for me.

[paradigmblue]

Thanks ny59giants, I appreciate it.

He's turned around a few more turns, but I'm only getting 1 a day (which is fine on weekdays, but less than I like to flip on weekends).

I have some exciting (to me) things going on in this game right now, so I get impatient with the pace of things.

It's early May of 42 now, and I'm now executing a plan to re-take Malaya.

1) I've been quietly funneling vast amounts of men and material into Singapore, to the tune of 5,000 AV and 200,000 supplies. Two turns ago, this mass surged forward, beginning its slog northward through the Malayan peninsula.

2) To set the stage for this advance, however, I've been putting pressure on Moulmein. I've surrounded his troops - 2 divisions - south of Myitkyina, and have bypassed that pocket with the rest of my forces, and now I have 3 divisions ready to hit Moulmein. I've been reconning his forces in southern Malaya diligently, and this push has had its intended effect, as Jacks has pulled troops out of southern Malaya to help shore up his defenses here, opening up opportunity for my forces in the south.

I have shepherded by P-38 pools carefully, allowing me to let them loose in this theater. The bulk of the Japanese air force is dedicated to a brutal battle of attrition over the Soviet Union (which threatens to wipe out the Soviet Air-Force completely), but that serves my purposes here, allowing me to wrest air superiority from Jacks in this theater into my hands.

3) To ensure that Jacks doesn't bring in reinforcements from Bangkok and French Indochina, I also will be cutting the rail line in two spots. Large amphibious TFs were loaded at Aden and staged at Columbo, waiting for the pieces to be put in place. I now have armor on amphibious TFs that will be hitting Malaya in two spots - Alor Star and Victoria point. Armor landing in both those spots will race overland to cut the rail lines. Follow up TFs are also loaded with large amount of troops to hold these points. If all goes well, once my forces are in place, I will have created two pockets - one north of Singapore and south of Alor Star, and one south of Pegu and north of Victoria Point. A third amphibious TF will help complete the Northern pocket by landing south of Tavoy and cutting off the road access from Bangkok.

To support these landings, I have invested heavily at Port Blair and have created bases for LRCAP in the Andaman Islands. Two carrier TFs will provide close-in air cover, with the north handled by French Light Carriers flying Dewoitine 790s and the south handled by four British fleet carriers flying Martletts. Each will be supplemented by significant land based air. Singapore is now home to 150 4EBs, which will pave the way for the southern thrust, while 15 squadrons of assorted Mitchells, Marauders and Blenheims will fly from Rabaul, Pegu and other Burma bases.

A third wave of amphibious landings will go in after the first two, landing engineers and aviation support. I have crack hurricane squadrons and the bulk of the AVG waiting in the wings, and they'll be flying CAP over my beachheads as soon as the first base force lands. To prevent reinforcements by sea, I've transferred army dive-bomber groups and British Torpedo bomber groups to this theater - again, waiting in the wings for now, but once my base forces go in, I'll be able to fly in 90 dive bombers and 60 torpedo bombers to make any of Jacks reinforcement TFs think twice.

4) As a distraction from all of this, a few turns ago I landed the Marine Raider Battalion on Marcus Island, taking it. I'm hoping that Jacks will move the KB in that direction for a few turns before spotting my herd of amphibious TFs bearing down on Malaya. Thankfully for me, the KB was last spotted off the coast of the Soviet Union, helping to suppress my airfields there.


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Long term, if I manage to re-capture Malaya, I'm going to have a great springboard ready for China, where I've launched a major counter-offensive, kicking Jacks almost entirely off the E-W rail line. I have a total of 10,000 AV dedicated to my Malaya operation (scraping the bottom of the barrel here), which will threaten French Indochina from the West, while my forces in Western China, which have just decisively pushed Jacks out of Naning, will move to put pressure on Hanoi and Haiphong.

D Day is within the week. Wish me luck.