Pacific At War Karl Japs Larry Allies

[larryfulkerson]

T82, Manila
I moved some additional troops to the PI to lend a hand to the takedown and I have an optimistic attitude about the chances of eventually being able to clear out the south-of-Manila areas and to be able to push north and eventually overrun Manila.

[larryfulkerson]

T86, Manila
This is what is going on in the PI right now. I'm creeping up on Manila but the supply levels are making that problematic. I'm thinking of making some landings on the north coast to keep the Japs from shipping some reinforcements into the AO and prevent the Jap defenders from getting away before I can kill them.

[larryfulkerson]

T87, Rangoon
This is what is going on in Burma and the supply levels are too low for continuous operations but I can save up for the occasional attack. I've got one scheduled toward the coast. The air war is still hot as you can see from the air losses meter. I've got my fighters as far forward as I can get them with the bombers fairly close behind.

Manila Situation
I've got the PI in range of my aircraft and I'm supporting the fighting going on just south of Manila and I've got about two dozen ships bombarding every once in a while. I've got about a dozen ships in drydock getting repaired and there are approx two dozen damaged ships that I have in active service still. I'll have to do a survey of my fleet to see what's left and what condition they are in.

[larryfulkerson]

T87, Carriers Situation
Here's the lowdown on the carriers. I seem to have 7 of them left and 7 of them have been sunk. D'oh.

[larryfulkerson]

T87, Ships Condition
Here's the survey of the fleet and you can see that there's only 3 BB's left with some bite and a couple that need to be repaired yet. Since doing this survey I've learned that I have some DD's that have bite too. I need to find those guys and combine them with the CV groups. I started looking up the condition of the ship but soon found it a collosal tedium.

[larryfulkerson]

T88, Manila
I've made a little progress in the PI and I've got several attacks scheduled and hopefully there will be a little more progress. I need to capture some more airfields and ports. EDIT: I executed the attacks and there was no more progress made.

[larryfulkerson]

T92, Rangoon
The fighting in Burma continues for yet another turn. It's been going on for about 2 months game time and there's no end in sight. The Indians and British cooperated to gain a hex and the Allies have moved an engineer unit into the hex. I'm sure they will follow up with at least one LCU to the same hex to protect the engineers. I haven't moved everybody yet so there's still a chance that there will be a unit to do just that. If not the engineers may be in for a bad time. I received my first P-38 ( late ) with 58 hexes for a range and I'm moving it to Canton Island as we speak. It should be on Mandanao in a turn or two. All the aircraft are green except for one bomber unit that is resting in Java.

Speaking of Java, I've been eyeballing Sumatra and Malaya and wondering how much trouble it would cause the Japs if I advanced that way as well. They would have to move some troops from somewhere to defend Singapore and that would prevent at least those troops from leaving the continent and making the fortress at Okinawa even more formidable. I've scopped out the two islands just west of Truk and saw some CD guns and two LCU's per island. Plus all the LBA that will fit on the island's airfield(s). I'm due to get the CV Intrepid next turn and I'm wondering if it can defend itself out near places like Truk. Probably not. But two CV's might do the trick. I believe I have several to choose from. Three CV's are parked west of Manila out in the middle of nowhere and I'm using them to interdict any floating traffic leaving Saigon or Haiphong or Hong Kong or the west half of the PI. They are doing a bang up job of it too. No Japanese traffic has survived the attempt to make the transit as memory serves.

[larryfulkerson]

Fighter Aircraft Status
I've indicated the strongest of the fighters in the image and I notice that the 24th Fighter Group near the bottom of the list has a strength of '8' which is the highest strength of them all. There are several worth '7' and three or four worth '6' but none of them are Naval fighters. The strongest Naval fighter is worth '5' and there are only three or four of them. I need to move the best fighter groups onto the carriers and move the weaker fighter squadrons to other areas to make way for the better squadrons to be moved to the front. All the aircraft are green except for one B-25 unit that's resting in the southern Celebes....it's red and needs some time to recoup it's losses and gain some supply before it can be used again.

[larryfulkerson]

T94, Naval Aircraft To Withdraw
I have discover to my horror that I'm going to lose the services of 6 of my best Naval Carrier-based aircraft. I need to find out if I have enough Naval aircraft besides those 6 that I can completely replace those of the 6 that are currently based on a carrier that are due to disappear in T98. I took another look at the Expected Reinforcements dialog and noticed that there are aircraft withdrawing but that there are also aircraft that enter the game that turn as well. It looks like they are due to appear on or near a carrier I'm guessing. I'll have to remember to check out the results of those complex events in T98.

[larryfulkerson]

T94, Manila
Here's what's going on near Manila right now. I'm considering conducting landings in the north of the PI so that I can accellerate the take down of the Island. I'm on the verge of capturing Manila itself but I've already captured enough ports and airfields that the supply situation has changed to my advantage in a significant way. If I can manage to capture Manila itself I believe that the Japs will be out of supply everywhere on the entire island. Which will help the take down to a large degree. I've decided to go for Formosa after I clear this island and then from Formosa to try to clear Okinawa which will end the war. It's September 1943 so I'm thinking that there will be time to win before the end of August of '45.

[larryfulkerson]

T96, Strategic Situation
This is the jump map and it shows where the hot spots are: Rangoon, Sumatra, Vietnam, the PI, and China. Karl flew a lot of his LBA on the easternmost islands to Formosa, SW China, and Okinawa. So I'm wondering what my chances of capturing those islands are now. I've got troops at Pearl that I could possibly use to assault. For instance Midway and Wake would be places I need to grab someday. I've got some fully-rested troops in the Gilbert chain that I could use on Kwajalene, Eniwetok, and Truk. These would all be in addition to where the fighting is already going on. I'm close to owning Manila. I need about double the sea cap that I have so I can move a lot more of my troops. They are starting to pile up at Pearl. I'm due to get CV Group 4 next turn so I'll have some air cover for any assaults that take place near Johnson Island looking west. I've started making B-29's [ 8 per turn, 24 already on-hand ] and I'll have some assigned to the game when the 4th Bomb Group arrives in T120. I'd like to own Tinian by then so I can start bombing the Japanese homelands with my new 118 hex range bombers. There are some 10 strategic targets in the home islands that I'd like to destroy because that will effect the Jap reinforcement rate. The news feed says there's less than 100 turns left.

[larryfulkerson]

T98, Manila
This is what's going on in the PI right now. I'm on the verge of capturing Manila and I've been marching up the west coastal road and it won't be long before I have cleared the entire island. I'm guessing about 10 more turns or so. And then it's on to Formosa.

[larryfulkerson]

T101, San Diego
It's turn 101 and I'm now receiving the BB Virginia R which is untried ( and overextended, which is curious ) and now I need to convey it to Java to help out the takedown of Sumatra. Also, I intend to use it at Singapore against the CD gun unit(s) there. If there is one or more there. I could use it to help the takedown of Okinawa as well, although I think I may have to quell Formosa first before trying to capture Okinawa because of all the LBA that Karl could amass on Formosa. I feel like I'm on the brink of clearing the PI which is a good thing because there's only 93 turns remaining in the game.

[larryfulkerson]

T103, Manila
Here's what's happening in the PI right now. Karl keeps replacing his wounded units in Manila with fresh ones and that makes the takedown take a lot longer to accomplish. I'm using my ships and bombers and I'm causing Jap losses but he seems to have an inexaustable supply of fresh units. This may take a while longer than I was counting on. Every time I move a ship I get intercepted and losses are involved. I have enough CAP to shoot down the Jap intercepters and my losses are light when I move a ship. The Japs are losing a lot of planes to my CAP.

[larryfulkerson]

T111, Manila
The takedown of Manila is taking a LOT longer than I had thought it would take. But I've cleared out the rest of the island. I need to start giving some thought to taking down Formosa next. I attempted an amphibious assault two turns ago but it went nowhere and an entire stack of LCU's was eliminated during the Jap turn. It was a disaster. I'm going to gather together all the carriers I have left and try another amphibious attack. Karl has been rotating his units at Manila to provide fresh defenders each turn so I'm having to reduce all his LCU's a few at a time and he is still in supply which makes it harder yet. I'm running out of time and I'm not at all sure that there's enough time left to takedown Okinawa after I deal with Formosa.

[larryfulkerson]

P-47's are filling up the squadrons
I started getting the P-47 back in T93 and my squadrons are filled up with them now. As you can see they are far superior to anything the Japs have. Maybe I can start winning the air war now. The air losses meter says that I've lost 7 aircraft ( and this is just the beginning of the turn ) and the Japs have lost 26. So the air war is still going on and there have been losses each turn so I know it's hot and busy. I'm still in the process of clearing the PI and bombarding Jap planes near the coast on Formosa but there's only just over 70 turns left in the game so I need to get on the stick if I'm going to be successful in taking down Okinawa.

[larryfulkerson]

T115, Manila
I finally got the PI cleared of enemy units. Now to concentrate on Formosa. And after Formosa there's just Okinawa.

[larryfulkerson]

T119, Manila
I made some landings on Formosa and actually pushed inland making a good footprint for follow up in later turns. I've moved all my carriers into this AO for their CAP and so many of my DD's have sunk that I have only about 1/2 of them left, maybe 20 of them. I have only 2 BB's left and I'm down to my last 3 carriers. I've started making my attacks with a three-dot setting because I feel like I'm running out of time in this game. I need to step up the ferosity.

[larryfulkerson]

T120, Ellis Island
I received my first shipment of B-29's this turn. I flew them from Pearl to Ellis Island as the first step of moving to Formosa. I think I can reach Tokyo from there.....if so I'm going to start the strategic bombing of his industrial base. But on the other hand the B-29 would be fabulous to do CS with. Maybe I should try that to see what results I get.

[larryfulkerson]

I received Karl's T120 turn last night and I just got up from my nap and it's 11:32 already, on Friday. I was watching the playback and the thought occured to me that you guys might like to watch Karl's playback as well. So I zipped up his file and attached it to this post. My password is "password" without the quotes. Enjoy.