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One last thought: if you had gone in with a SCTF, were there any mines around Columbo?

Insano. Good point, the loss of AVG is being felt here and eleswhere. Note how at Imphal we only see one group partially stocked with H81s. They still appear to be operating at 1/3 strength due to lack of airframes. We plan to leave the Vals on nav attack, just too many losses from flak even if glide bombing. However, all Kates will go port. At this point CF has had two days to pull in more fighters though. Of course we'll sweep but we missed on the first day with no CAP.

Capt H there are indeed mines in the Colombo hex, so it's a no sail zone.

Quick report. Bottom line, we pulled everything into a defensive nav attack and successfully hid MKB for a turn. Next replay will see our last shot at Colombo, but we are full strength for the effort. I'm relieved that nothing came after the CVs in their low Ops condition!

May 29, 1942

Subs

Trusty duds on an SC in an ASW TF near Sabang that then DCs the sub without a hit.

4th Fleet

An enemy TF is spotted well East of Mili headed West. 2 DDs are reported but we imagine there will be more. Our Netties are put on high alert for tomorrow. Unlike Baker, if CF moves on the Marshalls directly he'll get a hot reception. We send a PB in the area toward the TF to try to sniff out whether enemy CVs are present.

SE Fleet

Reinforcements load for Tulagi, Milne Bay and Merauke. The latter will be built as a major bastion. Two full AOs arrive at Truk to serve as an emergency reserve until more fuel arrives in about 10 days.

14th Army

How do you withdraw a ground unit? We have a little one up for withdrawal in a few days that is currently at Cagayan. If I need to haul it somewhere else I want to get started.

16th Army

Taliaboe and Dobo fall. Pare Pare occupied. We are about to attack Port Hedland.

Fuel and Oil are really moving out of Borneo now. This has allowed a special convoy with 60K fuel to sail for Truk to solve the fuel crunch there.

25th Army

A huge convoy approaches Batavia to load troops finished with the Java campaign.

We spot a few PTs at Soerabaja and send an LCTF to deal with them.

MKB spends a nervous day with low Ops, hiding from subs, planes and surface threats. We're relieved that nothing untoward occurs. A few Vildebeest attack and miss a DD TF posted near Colombo to harass the British fleet if it had sortied. We do send one Zero unit to sweep Colombo and they decimate the Hurricanes with losses of 5:1. Tomorrow MKB swings to a point south of Colombo to launch a full bore port attack with all Kates.

We invade Tandjoenpinang with a big Naval Guard. Many squads are disabled due to low prep but more than enough remain to take the base tomorrow.

15th Army

We pull off a lovely co-ordinated sweep of 122 Oscars at Chittagong, but something weird happens and only a few actually engage the large Hurricane CAP. Similar to PzB's carrier battle with Andy our planes slip through for no good reason after a short fight. They were spotted 37 minutes out so you would think the Hurris had time to come out and play. This sets up a problem as the Tojo Chutai then sweeps into a hornet's nest of unengaged Hurricanes and suffers three losses. Total for the day at Colombo and Chittagong is 11:11, but it should have been better.

China

Our armored car unit is now moving quietly to try to encircle the big Wuchang stack. Not sure CF has noticed yet.

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

14th Army

How do you withdraw a ground unit? We have a little one up for withdrawal in a few days that is currently at Cagayan. If I need to haul it somewhere else I want to get started.

It'll just go *poof* on it's appointed day, if I remember correctly. Are you talking about 1/33 Inf Reg? I think that's the one.

That's the one. Thanks for the info.

I made the mistake in my game of using it in an attack either at Clark Field or Bataan where it got trashed. All that was left was a gun and a support squad. I didn't waste supply rebuilding it. Remember, you'll get all the parts in your pool. Next game I plan on using it to take dot hexes until it vanishes into the ether.

That's what I did with it.

I think that's the best use that that small, disposable asset.

I'm thinking that it might be just the force to take Guam initially....

Nah, the Bataan Island SNLF is the one to use for Guam. It gets a warp move so you can land on turn 1, and split off the IJNAF (I think) engineer force, that can take Bataan Island all by itself.

Been awhile since I checked in Crib, exciting AAR.

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

Nah, the Bataan Island SNLF is the one to use for Guam. It gets a warp move so you can land on turn 1, and split off the IJNAF (I think) engineer force, that can take Bataan Island all by itself.

I'm thinking of using that one to take Adak.

Neither Guam nor Adak seems an ideal place to send that tf. Guam can be taken later on, and Adak is a cold useless rock.

Where should it go then? I don't know. Before I read this I usually just combined that tf with the bigger one and sent it off to Luzon. So thanks, that is a useful tip, and one I will definitely use to send that tf somewhere interesting.

I just like to get Guam out of the way early, but I agree, Adak makes good use of the 1st turn move.

Cribtop, sorry for the hijack....

I like Adak just because of my opponent's tendencies. He always takes that place early and causes a pain in my north side. I'm just thinking of a way to cause a pain in his north side. It's also a decent base to hold that he has to expend resources on to take back.

Now back to our regularly scheduled AAR (and it's a wonderful one, by the way)....

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Cribtop, sorry for the hijack....

I like Adak just because of my opponent's tendencies. He always takes that place early and causes a pain in my north side. I'm just thinking of a way to cause a pain in his north side. It's also a decent base to hold that he has to expend resources on to take back.

Now back to our regularly scheduled AAR (and it's a wonderful one, by the way)....

I'm with Mike ... like to take Adak early. You can make it $$$$ to take back and it provides a serious trip wire for any Northern vacation by the allies. They can't go to the Kuriles without Adak ....

When you look at a particular base like Adak, the question comes to the value of it to your opponent while it may have little value for you. Once an Allied player can build it up to size 7 port, then you can reload all your subs torpedoes. Even before, it can take in some fuel and be a lot closer to Japan than Pearl or Midway for those fleet subs. I have mine at size 5 for now.

No worries, on any hijack, gents. For the record I like to take Adak early too. In this game I used another unit for that purpose. The 1/33rd was a DBCL warrior in 14th Army AO and then transitioned into an exhausted garrison unit for pesky Mindanao. I took Guam with the historically allocated 144th Regt. Not because that is a great idea, per se, but because I was shifting everything I could to 16th Army AO to ensure quick isolation of Java and capture of Darwin. 144th basically took Guam because it was on the way to Rabaul. I've now shifted 144th Regt to Burma and will re-combine 55th Division in a few days.

PS - as for the AAR, I'm going to update it this afternoon. Let's just say last night's replay took so long I couldn't send orders out! Chaos everywhere!

ooh that sounds promising, Banzai?!

Sounds like Cirbtop went to that seminar last week and came back knowing how to employ literary foreshadowing devices!