Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Mike Solli]

Thanks Cribtop. I'll check it out.

It's just about too late for Ted to withdraw. Most of his forces out there are doomed.

[Cribtop]

That's music to my JFB ears, Mike.

[Mike Solli]

Ok guys, I can do screen shots now. Here's Burma. You can see the string of units crawling along.

[Mike Solli]

Here's China. The arrows show my current movements. If successful, ~30 enemy units will be surrounded.

Note the airfield symbol at Changsha. That's the AVG.

[Mike Solli]

Here's Malaya. The units moving south are headed to Singapore and the units heading north are (for the most part) headed to Burma.

[Skyros]

Interested to ask why you did not send a unit over the road to Taung Gyi? Even as a bluff it would force him to split his forces more or at least doubt his own plans.

Nice to have a new toy with the screen shots [;)]

[Mike Solli]

And finally, the Philippines. There are 3 Allied units and 2x Japanese tank regiments at Lucena. I'm attacking this turn to try to eliminate them.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Skyros

Interested to ask why you did not send a unit over the road to Taung Gyi? Even as a bluff it would force him to split his forces more or at least doubt his own plans.

Nice to have a new toy with the screen shots [;)]

You'll see that my initial invasion is 1 each infantry, cav and engineer regiment along with a couple artillery units. Not a lot. That road would take forever. It is a thought though. There's some armor arriving. Maybe a tank regiment. Good thought. Thanks.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

I think the Allies really have to abandon the north China plain, including Chengchow, Loyang and possibly Nanyang, from Day 1 lest they suffer defeat or encirclement.

This is traditionally one of my earliest IJA goals in China. Cut 'em off and liquidate 'em. Bag the lot of 'em as you work toward your earnest goal of 200 (or is it 400?) Chinese squads destroyed / month.

[Mike Solli]

It's >350 infantry squads a month.

[Mike Solli]

9 Jan 42

Sub War

Something is going on at San Francisco. Lots of radio traffic and Ted has several ASW TFs scouring the area. I'll see if I can get a sniff of what's moving over there.

5 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

4 Fleet

Nothing new to report.

SE Fleet

Successful landing at Lae. I'll take it tomorrow and the base force will also land tomorrow.

KB is moving out to Truk today. Hopefully, it will remain unspotted.

Philippines

I attacked Lucena today unsuccessfully with the two tank regiments. The two units I pushed there from Batangas were in bad shape but the PA division that had been sitting there all along was still healthy. Losses were 0 to 68(0) enemy. My tanks are fatigued so I'll sit for awhile. I may wait until the 16 Division arrives, but that'll be a while. It still has to load up in Mindanao and then take Cebu, which is garrisoned by a PA Division.

China

Lots of movement there. I attacked Tsiaotso with a division and 2x brigades against 4x Chinese Corps of varying strength and a HQ unsucessfully. Losses were 2479(6) for me and 369(2) for Ted. I have more troops heading there. I'll bombard a bit and try again when the troops arrive.

The AVG hit me again, downing 2 Oscars for no loss to them. The Oscars are no better than the Nates. Fortunately, I lost only one pilot WIA.

Burma

Nothing new to report.

Malaya

Nothing new to report.

Java

Ted remembered that I landed at Kaldjati last game and has (according to my intel) 15k troops there. I'm reconning other possible landing sites. He can't have that many troops in every port hex.

SRA

Landing at Makassar tomorrow supported by 4x BBs and MKB.

Other Stuff

Not a lot to mention here but there is a lot of movement in preparation for the next phase. My convoys are being set up to move fuel, oil and resources out of the SRA. A 51k oil TF just left Cam Ranh Bay for Japan. Miri is being emptied as fast as I can. A 50k+ TK TF will arrive in a couple of days at Balikpapan to pull oil out of there.

Once Makassar is taken, I'll set up the 21 Air Flotilla there instead of at Kendari, where I had initially planned on stationing them.

Ted is hiding his air force everywhere except for the AVG, which I don't have an answer for right now. I need my few available Zeros for the Java campaign. I'll just keep night bombing in the hopes that I'll get lucky and kill the occasional plane or pilot on the ground for now.

[Mike Solli]

Enemy forces at Bataan.

[Mike Solli]

Question for the group. Where do you like to let your subs hang out? The west coast and PH are obvious. I've got some off Sydney but they're just playing cat & mouse with some AMs. Once I capture Singapore, I'll station some off Ceylon and along the Indian coast. How about the Pacific. Where do the Allied like to set up ports? I've never had luck out there finding any.

Ted's subs disappeared south of Rabaul (with the exception of 1 that my ASWs ships won't engage). Wonder where they're headed next? Java?

[Grfin Zeppelin]

Fidji and the line islands might get results.

[Mike Solli]

I have some around Fiji/Samoa but no luck so far. Line Islands sounds good. I'll send a few there.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Question for the group. Where do you like to let your subs hang out? ... Where do the Allied like to set up ports? I've never had luck out there finding any.

One of the major uses for my subs is intel ... in other words they are used to answer your question: "Where do the Allied like to set up ports?". So I send subs out to get the answer, so they go to the 4 corners of the world. Especially the Glens.

[obvert]

Try Tahiti also. And an AMC or two patrolling the bottom of the map can't hurt if you're not afraid to lose it.

[Mike Solli]

Pax, I do too. To me subs are more an intel platform than an offensive platform. I like to see where the enemy ships are headed and if I can safely knock one off here and there, that much better. I'm aggressive with them if I know he has a crippled capital ship that I can catch. They're much easier to sink. Whenever I do an op with KB, I like to place subs between the AO and the nearest enemy base, just for that reason. I have 8 subs pretty much dedicated to KB.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Try Tahiti also. And an AMC or two patrolling the bottom of the map can't hurt if you're not afraid to lose it.

[:D] Early in the war, I'm afraid to lose anything. Just call me paranoid. Interesting idea though. I might just try something like that.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: obvert

Try Tahiti also. And an AMC or two patrolling the bottom of the map can't hurt if you're not afraid to lose it.

[:D] Early in the war, I'm afraid to lose anything. Just call me paranoid. Interesting idea though. I might just try something like that.

They're not too slow and they could help vector subs into the right areas.