Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

[larryfulkerson]

Yeah, what he said. Here's the aftermath of the sea battle last night. I haven't moved anybody yet so there's still time to get out
of Dodge. Notice the huge number of Allied aircraft. I think Thomas has flown every aircraft within range to this AO. I'm wondering
if it's possible to move my ships w/o getting them sunk. I'd best check the aircraft on the carriers first to get some air power going
before I start moving any boats.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the face of Burma and south China now. There's an immense amount of pushing and shoving going on and there's been some
evaporations take place already. I'm pushing my people too hard I guess. Corregidor is still a problem

[larryfulkerson]

I moved a couple of BB's from Luzon to Bataan and once they arrived within range of Ft. Drum, the guns of Ft. Drum shot one
round at the ships and the ships shot back and sank Ft. Drum. Now to reduce the other units there.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the situation with my ships. I've lost a bunch of ships and planes and I'm having to re-think my sea warfare policy. I'm kinda
adverse to surface action now.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Port Moresby situation now. I've given up trying to put a naval blockade around PM because I've lost all my ships so far
that have tried that. My air power isn't protecting my ships adequately so no blockade. I've given up trying to take PM because it
would be so costly. And I don't have any spare divisions just laying around ready to go.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a view of the face of the war on the mainland. Well, some of it. I'm trying to defeat the Chinese which may be a fools errand
but I think it's worth the try. It's tying up a lot of my combat troops though and I don't have a reserve yet either. That might be the
next thing I need to assemble. Re-spawned units are starting to pile up near Tokyo. All of them are very low on supply and are
cherry red in health. I'm letting them rest before thrusting them back into combat real soon.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a close up of north China now. I'm trying to wrap up the Communists and destroy them so I can use the troops on some
mop up operations down south.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's three or four or five divisions that are awaiting transport. Probably need another five or six turns to get their health back first.

[larryfulkerson]

I did this image just for me, to illustrate the differences in three different bomber models. I think the Helen is the best bomber of the
three shown. But then on the other hand maybe the shorter range bomber had a bigger bomb load. So to judge the best I would
need more data. But in our game we just judge on the amount of force projected how far I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's another picture I did just for me to get a better idea what planes were where. I've got a spotter plane that needs to be moved
so another fighter squadron can be brought in because the Allied airfield near Pontianak has three fighter units on it and that's a lot
for just two Jap squadrons to handle depending on the skill level(s) of the individual units. The other end of Sumatra has a similar
problem.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I was going to say something about that naval bomb group at Singapore. That means no ships within about 20
hexes of him. I don't need to lose another ship for no good reason. I need to knock out that bomb group from the air this time.

[larryfulkerson]

I've found a tiny problem. I'm going through the OOB moving units and now I've gotten to a CA that just happens to be within range
of the Enterprise BG and so I can't move my CA without it being interdicted, probably, so the next best thing is to bring in some
fighter groups to Bangkok and hope they will protect the ship. In the ideal wargame you could assign the fighters to do CAP over the
ships but this is the best we can do in TOAW so far.

[larryfulkerson]

There's three British fighter squadrons at Pontianak and I've got three fighter squadrons at Palembang and I want to use mine to
attack his without excess losses. I've found that when I target an airfield attack within range of my fighters that my fighters usually
respond and join in the furball. I'll try it again now by targeting the spotter plane on the Pontianak airfield and see in the groups
at Palembang join in. And since the spotter plane doesn't really attack ( it's got no offensive value, or rather it's zero ) it usually
doesn't get hurt at all. Although sometimes I lose both planes of the unit. Oh well.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of the attack ordered above. I think the Japs were terribly outnumbered and the aircraft models used by the Japs
were slightly inferior. Had I known how many British fighters were there I'm not sure I would have ordered the attack. Now that I know
that I'm wondering if I should continue to take them on outnumbered this way.

EDIT: I've decided to move the Nates and Oscars back to China and bring in three Zero squadrons to take on the British.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of an airstrike on the Enterprise BG near Singapore. I think maybe it was a wash in numbers but it was more
important that I get those ship killers. Because there's a ship in their sights and they are still a threat.

[thomasharvey]

Sea interdiction and strikes with naval aircraft are deadly to ships moving near them. The naval aircraft can stage within their range before the strike so they can hit ships in a very large area. I have some naval aircraft moving around away from their carriers to interdict any Japanese ships out in the open within range of land bases. As the Japanese player you have to assume an allied naval bomber can strike from any allied base at any time.

As for the allies, the Japanese not only have their naval bombers but they also have the Bettys and Nells with even greater range. That is why I keep my ships well in the rear for fear of slaughter from the skies. The last naval battle resulted from the Japanese coming south right into the teeth of my airfields catching me by surprise. That denied them the use of their land planes which spared me total destruction.

At some point the allies have to take the offensive to the Japanese and come out in the open with the navy and ground troops landing. That is still at least 50 to 75 turns away due to the need for better fighters. It is a long war and patience is required.

[larryfulkerson]

Instead of capturing a lot of island bases down to and including Fiji I pursued a China first policy which
has turned out to be a disaster. The Allies aren't slowed down even a little in their build up of OZ. And
there are Allied troops showing up in Java from the west coast. Already. This is going to be a long war.

[larryfulkerson]

At least one formation of the Manchurian Garrison has awaken. It used to be in reserve and now it's ready for orders. I'm wondering
why they came out of garrison mode. I have no idea what happened to get that to happen. What should I do with them now?

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the condition of the combat aircraft. I've left off the spotter aircraft because there's so many of them and they don't really
effect the national defense posture much. I see several greens, a lot of yellows, and the occasional orange one and no red ones.
That tells me that I'm pushing them just about right. The occasonal orange one happens with the random bad die roll of combat.
Seldom, in other words. That's a good thing. I like to see at least one green one however since that means at least one of them
is sufficiently rested. How deeply yellow the unit is is a concern. Some of the yellow ones need to rest and some of the yellow
ones are still above 50% and can still fly. I'm using 50% as the cut-off for active duty and less than 50% means rest and refit.
I used to use 60% but that left too many green ones. 50% seems to be just about right.

EDIT: I just added my new wish to the development board's wishlist. It's that I'm thinking it would be cool to be able to sort the
location or range column into ascending or descending order. And some HTML like links to go to the unit display for the unit.

[larryfulkerson]

I for one would really like a clarification of the Naval Supply Rules. In this situation I have two separate TF's and one of them is
parked just outside the anchorage at Luzon and one is on the high seas still. Which one has the better supply boost? I'm
leaning toward the one nearest the port but that's just my common sense bias and I can't quote a rule in this instance. Anybody
know for sure?

[thomasharvey]

I have no idea about supply at sea. Ground units appear to be in supply when embarked regardless of where they are. I assume the same is true for ships. Maybe being in a port would give better supply but I don't see evidence of that other than now ships are repaired in a port.