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ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

One thing also .. build up Alice Springs and start marching toward Darwin building up bases using transport planes does eventually work.
In the end supplies will propagate toward Darwin and in significant amounts once the bases in between are built ..

Moving a command HQ to the base after the rail head...Daly Waters, I believe, will also help to pull more supply from the rail head.

What I found was that not enough supplies would propagate at first to support the engineers and the upgrade work until the base expanded ... and I had to fly supplies in from Alice Springs
Then advance to Tennant Creek wash rinse repeat .. now the first time I tried this I had to support combat units too because the IJ were not so keen on my plan to overland to Darwin [8D]

12/10/43

Big Tent: Death Star moves into the Atafura Sea (east of Darwin) without incident. John has a bunch of subs nearby, guarding the route to Merauke. And his NavSearch picked up the carriers today. He probably believes Merauke is the immediate target, so hopefully his subs (at least a percentage) will be out of position. I'd like my ASW to get a crack at them in shallow water for a few days before Death Star steams right into their lair.

I look at the map and wonder if what has seemed like a relatively simple part of the entire operation is actually complicated and fraught with risk. I don't think John will employ KB against Death Star, but there's a chance he could. So I'll steer a bit closer to Merauke than to Darwin, on the belief that Merauke's airfield has been shut down by 4EB. My hunch is KB is in Solomon Sea. John could commit from there, especially since he worked hard to shut down Portland Roads airfield. Interesting, no?

But I think I worry more about the return trip. By then, John will have had time to configure his forces as best he can. If KB is in the Java Sea instead of the Solomon Sea, the return journey might be tough.

The plan continues to invade Merauke on the return trip from Normanton.

Dobo easily fell today to the combined Canadian/Marines shock attack. So that little irritation is removed.

Sorong goes to level 3 port and level 5 airfield. I left a BB TF in that region to dissuade John from getting too frisky. The strongest deterrent will be his fear of getting his ships damaged, thus leaving them in range of Allied strike aircraft.

My fears of a raid on Townsville's shipping didn't materialize. The airfield now has more than 225 fighters, which I think is sufficient to exact a heavy enough toll on any future raid to make it a fair trade.

CV Intrepid arrived today. It'll make for Pearl, where there are six other carriers waiting.

Regarding the input on Australia, Alice Springs is already a size 7 airfield and Tennant Creek is size 3.

I'm more and more convinced that John has been gauging the possibility of KB passing through the Torres Straits and then hitting the airfields (Cooktown and Portland Roads) that posed the greatest threat to him. The hit on PR shut down my NavSearch for a couple of turns, leaving a hole there. I'm mulling over weather I need to slow down a bit to get some up-to-date reports before steaming further that way. On the other hand, I think Death Star is stronger than KB by a meaningful margin...but that's only an educated guess.

Or, he may be configuring a strike from just outside the Torres Strait at six or seven or eight hexes east of Merauke, planning to savage the invasion fleet.

I don't see John entering the Gulf of Carpentaria. A loss there and he'd have the unpleasant option of steaming east through the straits and all the way around Milne Bay...or west through Death Star. He might get that crazy, but I doubt it.

So, do I steam ahead, trusting to what I have...or do I turn around, return to Dobo, take on parts of the units there, and invade vacant Saumlauki, Babar, etc. while the way seems open?

Hmmm.

Continue with your planned moves.

I'm giving play by play of the thinking process on the assumption it might be of some interest.

At the moment, I'm leaning towards backing away from the Gulf of Carpentaria. I'm concerned that John has had too much time to cobble together a bushwhack. Proceeding to Normanton will put me in a cul-de-sac. If I back off now it will throw John's timing off entirely, since the other operation would involve a series of invasion of vacant targets near Timor. By the end of that op, I would have time to better evaluate where KB is and what John's thinking, while also beefing up countermeasures in NE Oz.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Regarding the input on Australia, Alice Springs is already a size 7 airfield and Tennant Creek is size 3.

Remember that building forts will also help draw supply.

Time to do some back filling and take some of these key bases in the rear.

Gents: How do you get supply to flow from Rangoon to Kunming or other points east, beyond the 500 per day from the Burma Road being open? I'm playing an Andy Mac Nasty Ironman scenario and stumbled on 12 million supply in Rangoon (classic Andy AI overkill, I know[:)]). After a few months of the Burma Road being open there are still some red exclamation marks (meaning low supply, not low garrison) in central China.

CR: Good luck. No advice to offer other than you know your opponent better than anyone and your gut has been pretty accurate. And good to know an unprepped Marine division won't get fully disabled upon landing.

Cheers,
CC

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Time to do some back filling and take some of these key bases in the rear.

I'm not sure what you mean by "rear" since Big Tent is a 360 degree operation. "Rear" is in every direction. So is "front."

But if you're referring to the bases like Merauke and Horn Island, let me introduce you to "Third Ring," the successor to "Big Tent." But that's been no secret for the past three months of game time.

My spidey senses have been tingling, leading to much thought, many plans, many changes of mind. The map shows the three routes chosen, why the first two were rejected and the third one finally selected.

If my spidey sense are correct, KB is in the Solomon Sea or vicinity and John was configuring a way to attack at or near the Torres Strait. If I've guessed wrong - if KB is in the Philippine Sea or Java Sea - then this sudden change in direction may bring about an engagement. The only reason I'm not welcoming or seeking an engagement at the moment is there are still important defensive matters to attend to, primarily Ambon an the taking of Saumlaki and Babar. I think those are the final two offensive missions of Big Tent.

Regarding my use of 2nd Marine Division when it was totally unprepared for Dobo, my thinking was that the division couldn't land at a heavily defended base without preparation, and using it to seize unoccupied bases seemed like a waste of firepower. So Dobo was the perfect medium - not strong enough to threaten the unit but strong enough to need a good push.

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

Gents: How do you get supply to flow from Rangoon to Kunming or other points east, beyond the 500 per day from the Burma Road being open? I'm playing an Andy Mac Nasty Ironman scenario and stumbled on 12 million supply in Rangoon (classic Andy AI overkill, I know[:)]). After a few months of the Burma Road being open there are still some red exclamation marks (meaning low supply, not low garrison) in central China.

CR: Good luck. No advice to offer other than you know your opponent better than anyone and your gut has been pretty accurate. And good to know an unprepped Marine division won't get fully disabled upon landing.

Cheers,
CC

Commander Cody - the under-strength Chinese units will use up every bit of supply just trying to fill out - for many moons. If you can build up the bases along the Burma road route more supply will flow. I am not sure if Ironman Nasty includes any changes to lessen supply flow for the human player.

John has been reacting to your moves with KB - staying within striking distance with a full speed sprint, but not willing to close and take up the battle. Thus I think you are correct that he headed to the Solomon Sea area when he saw you start to move DS and loads of transports south.

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

One thing also .. build up Alice Springs and start marching toward Darwin building up bases using transport planes does eventually work.
In the end supplies will propagate toward Darwin and in significant amounts once the bases in between are built ..

Moving a command HQ to the base after the rail head...Daly Waters, I believe, will also help to pull more supply from the rail head.

What I found was that not enough supplies would propagate at first to support the engineers and the upgrade work until the base expanded ... and I had to fly supplies in from Alice Springs
Then advance to Tennant Creek wash rinse repeat .. now the first time I tried this I had to support combat units too because the IJ were not so keen on my plan to overland to Darwin [8D]

It was Tennant Creek that I meant to put a command HQ in to pull more supply from the railhead at Alice Springs. Once supply arrives in abundance due to the increased pull afforded by the command HQ, move the HQ out and the base will release the excess supply. Hopefully forward toward Daly Waters and not backward to Alice Springs.

It is certainly worth the experiment with several command HQs available in Oz to choose from.

One of the risks going into the Gulf would if you try and replenish the carriers (torps and sorties) at Normanton you're at risk of an 8 hex strike from Cooktown. Plus the relatively predictable exit path moving back out would give most people pause.

Still if you're not going now- when and where will you exit the combat area?

Death Star is 100% on sorties and torps and won't be replenishing at Normanton. But John won't be able to stand KB close to NE Oz. The Allied airfields are too big and have too many bombers. The only reason that didn't reassure me in this instance was that John had shut down Portland Roads and I'd had a gap of several days in NavSearch, creating a brief window where I was uncertain about security in the region. I don't think that will be the case in the future, because Allied fighter squadrons continue to arrive in Oz.

The highest priority right now is to make Big Tent as self-sufficient and secure as possible before Death Star does leave. But Death Star doesn't necessarily have to leave for months. There is sufficient fuel in the DEI to handle things for a long time to come.

What I hope is going to happen is this: (1) secure Ambon; (2) occupy Saumlaki and Babar; (3) distribute remaining shipboard supply and fuel to the major Big Tent ports (supply limits are increasing as the bases build, but at this point each base is at or above its max); (3) Death Star and empty merchants make the run to Normanton to pick up reinforcements and Merauke invasion; (4) invasion of Merauke; (5) refuel and replenish all fighting ships; (6) select a couple of good combat TFs to remain behind in Big Tent AOO to provide security; (7) Death Star and all ships not staying in Big Tent make the final egress movement towards Oz, picking up en route the Horn Island invasion force; (8) Horn Island invasion and ships enter the Coral Sea; (9) replenish or top off in Oz; (10) Port Moresby invasion; (11) pick up troops for invasions to take place en route to Pearl.

Man, that's a lot left to do! Probably going to take at least six weeks.

I'm not afraid of a Death Star vs. KB clash, but the higher priority is to provide protection to Big Tent until max self-sufficiency and security is attained.

12/11/43

Big Tent: No sign of KB nor of an ambush awaiting in the Merauke area. Were my spidey senses wrong? I don't think so - I do think KB is in the Solomons region - but now we're off on another adventure in a different direction.

The Ambon reinforcement effort is underway, with the landings to take place day after tomorrow. No untoward events today, other than an IJ sub damaging an empty xAP at Dobo (a USN sub evened the score by sinking an xAK in the Java Sea).

While the Ambon op is underway, I'm pulling a couple of small detachments from dot hexes to invade/occupy Saumlaki and Babar, on the belief that both are vacant.

More fighters arrived in Oz, with Townsville now having about 250. Cooktown has about 60. As more arrive over the next few days, I'll provide some security to Portland Roads. NavSearch is back up and not showing any evidence of KB.

Hmmm. What's John up to? He's gathered his wits. He's working different angles. He's planning. He'll engage the Allies soon - and Ambon may be the locus.

CR, I would like to say once again how much I appreciate the time that you spend on this AAR. I thoroughly enjoy reading about your thought processes and your musings. I am in late Feb 1943 in my first campaign game of AE. Reading this AAR, and also the input from your readers, has helped me considerably in learning how to play this magnificent game.

Thanks, Dave, for the nice words. I really enjoy doing the AAR, as is probably evident from the frequency and length of my posts. I'm not sure I'd enjoy it as much if there were zero readers. It's enough knowing that you guys are here and getting pleasure or information. (And you're right - the game is magnificent.)