Matrix Games Forums

Double Post

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

To Vlad or not to Vlad?

I am still debating with myself what to do next with regards to the Vladivostok pocket. I definitely intend to tighten the perimeter around the pocket, taking basically all the territory/bases except Voroshilov and Vladivostok as an initial step. But then what? Is it worth the casualties/supplies to seize this territory given the fact that Andy can teleport his units out when it starts looking bad for him? Is it even worth the effort to try to reduce the supplies in the pocket? Should I just leave this as a large POW camp of sorts for the next few years? What would you do?

It can be done, but it’s bloody. It was already bloody when I did it in my test scenario in early ‘42, and in your case you might have to face more troops than I had moved to Vlad, and better troops (less disabled squads, Rifle ‘43 squads if he decides to upgrade the units - it would cost supply, but if you’re determined to attack, it’s worth it, unless he’s very short on it). As you activated them a bit early, and without moving to isolate Vladivostok quickly, Andy might have more troops concentrated, but given the disband, situation may have evolved. Do you have good intel about his forces there ? AV, number of divisions... ?

Shore bombardment may be dangerous, but this is where Yamato and Musashi (if you’ve built them) may be useful. Vlad’s fortress is solid, but I think those two might take the counter fire, at long range. The other classes, not so much.

So, I’d wait a few more months to fully assault the pocket. Tighten the loose, increase their supply consumption.


And talk to him about the teleport.

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101




Pax, the Soviet Air Force will be a minimal threat until 1945 - their starting force has been largely thrashed and they don't start getting replacement aircraft in serious numbers until December 1944. Soviet ground units on the other hand, especially in infantry and artillery, will be a very serious threat and in large numbers in just a few months time as he rebuilds his divisions and organizes himself. This threat progressively grows over the next few years and explodes in mid-1945.

Basically, assuming I am able to choose my defensive positions, it is far better to deal with the primary Soviet threat in the narrow blocking positions in the mountains than to extend myself in the vulnerable plains next to his offmap entry points. There really is not much advantage in taking this advance much further.

Well, if you take Abakan and Krasnovarsk, his only entry point is Wasu. That would be lousy for him as his supply is not going to flow to support too many units. He cannot move east as there are no roads, he has to move south for a LONG way before he actually gets to a rail line . You know how hard it is to get oil to flow from Urumchi, it can be done, but it take effort. Imagine the effort to get 10K supply/day to travel even longer on the same road?

IOW: you will have taken SOV out of the game for all intents and purposes ... you won't have to fight the '45 SOV or the 44 or the 43. They will be stuck in Mongolia... [:D]

You mean to tell me that the Soviet player cannot march his units across into the map like he can in the Wasu area? Wow, I didn't realize that. If that's the case then yes, I totally agree, taking Abakan and Krasnovarsk would indeed be very advantageous. Don't think I can make it there though given how many forces he pulled out and disbanded from the pocket that will be coming into the line in the next months.

Divisions disbanded will come back in six months, but as shells, they’ll still require to be filled up. Same with destroyed divisions, but earlier.

It also costs supply to rebuild a division, from memory around 20-30k, and time (4-6 months at best). At the moment, he also probably can’t rebuild more than a dozen destroyed divisions (plus the disbanded divisions), given the replacement rate of 400 during ‘42, and possibly less if he used the replacements to cover some losses already.

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

To Vlad or not to Vlad?

I am still debating with myself what to do next with regards to the Vladivostok pocket. I definitely intend to tighten the perimeter around the pocket, taking basically all the territory/bases except Voroshilov and Vladivostok as an initial step. But then what? Is it worth the casualties/supplies to seize this territory given the fact that Andy can teleport his units out when it starts looking bad for him? Is it even worth the effort to try to reduce the supplies in the pocket? Should I just leave this as a large POW camp of sorts for the next few years? What would you do?

It can be done, but it’s bloody. It was already bloody when I did it in my test scenario in early ‘42, and in your case you might have to face more troops than I had moved to Vlad, and better troops (less disabled squads, Rifle ‘43 squads if he decides to upgrade the units - it would cost supply, but if you’re determined to attack, it’s worth it, unless he’s very short on it). As you activated them a bit early, and without moving to isolate Vladivostok quickly, Andy might have more troops concentrated, but given the disband, situation may have evolved. Do you have good intel about his forces there ? AV, number of divisions... ?

Shore bombardment may be dangerous, but this is where Yamato and Musashi (if you’ve built them) may be useful. Vlad’s fortress is solid, but I think those two might take the counter fire, at long range. The other classes, not so much.

So, I’d wait a few more months to fully assault the pocket. Tighten the loose, increase their supply consumption.


And talk to him about the teleport.

I really have no idea at this point how many divisions or AV he has in the pocket because I am not sure how much he has disbanded. Going by pre-invasion Soviet OOB and subtracting all the divisions I have already encountered, he should have something like 10 infantry divisions in the pocket. How many of these he has disbanded is therefore the question.

I have both the Yamato and the Musashi in service. The Yamato has already done stellar work in the Aleutians and recently in Sakhalin and the Musashi was just recently commissioned.

Operation Furnace

I had a chat with Andy and he made it clear that he has no intention of disbanding any more units from the Vladivostok pocket. This means that the Japanese effort to take Vladivostok, which I have dubbed Operation Furnace, is going forward.

My intention at this stage is to take Vladivostok in about a years time. This is no blitz like Siberian Winter but rather a steady and deliberate grind against entrenched forces with, inevitably, heavy Japanese casualties. A key part of this effort is the erosion of the pocket's supply which should make a huge difference in the outcome. This component of the operation will now intensify and as the Japanese offensive in the north concludes will be joined by ground operations which will hopefully conclude with the eventual storming of the key bases of Voroshilov and Vladivostok.

In terms of eroding the pocket's supply, I will use light bombers to eat into his stockpiles through the use of flak, medium bombers to target his industry and airfields for supply hits, naval bombardment against Vladivostok itself, and progressively more intensive ground operations to ramp up his consumption. Banzai!

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

Operation Furnace

I had a chat with Andy and he made it clear that he has no intention of disbanding any more units from the Vladivostok pocket. This means that the Japanese effort to take Vladivostok, which I have dubbed Operation Furnace, is going forward.

My intention at this stage is to take Vladivostok in about a years time. This is no blitz like Siberian Winter but rather a steady and deliberate grind against entrenched forces with, inevitably, heavy Japanese casualties. A key part of this effort is the erosion of the pocket's supply which should make a huge difference in the outcome. This component of the operation will now intensify and as the Japanese offensive in the north concludes will be joined by ground operations which will hopefully conclude with the eventual storming of the key bases of Voroshilov and Vladivostok.

In terms of eroding the pocket's supply, I will use light bombers to eat into his stockpiles through the use of flak, medium bombers to target his industry and airfields for supply hits, naval bombardment against Vladivostok itself, and progressively more intensive ground operations to ramp up his consumption. Banzai!

Well the siege of Vladivostok shall begin its going to be bloody and brutal and be the Soviet Union's equivalent of the Battle of Stalingrad, which is still ongoing as of December 1942.

You should also be carful to note if Andy is using planes to evacuate partial parts of the Soviet Armies trapped in their, although the last time we saw Andy sending Transport planes was in the Ceylon campaign but it was a reinforcements and all that did was send the Allies onto a free ride to a Japanese POW camp *shivers*.

ORIGINAL: 29000Kevin
Well the siege of Vladivostok shall begin its going to be bloody and brutal and be the Soviet Union's equivalent of the Battle of Stalingrad, which is still ongoing as of December 1942.

But first it's going to be tedious and repetitive. For like a year [:D]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101




Pax, the Soviet Air Force will be a minimal threat until 1945 - their starting force has been largely thrashed and they don't start getting replacement aircraft in serious numbers until December 1944. Soviet ground units on the other hand, especially in infantry and artillery, will be a very serious threat and in large numbers in just a few months time as he rebuilds his divisions and organizes himself. This threat progressively grows over the next few years and explodes in mid-1945.

Basically, assuming I am able to choose my defensive positions, it is far better to deal with the primary Soviet threat in the narrow blocking positions in the mountains than to extend myself in the vulnerable plains next to his offmap entry points. There really is not much advantage in taking this advance much further.

Well, if you take Abakan and Krasnovarsk, his only entry point is Wasu. That would be lousy for him as his supply is not going to flow to support too many units. He cannot move east as there are no roads, he has to move south for a LONG way before he actually gets to a rail line . You know how hard it is to get oil to flow from Urumchi, it can be done, but it take effort. Imagine the effort to get 10K supply/day to travel even longer on the same road?

IOW: you will have taken SOV out of the game for all intents and purposes ... you won't have to fight the '45 SOV or the 44 or the 43. They will be stuck in Mongolia... [:D]

You mean to tell me that the Soviet player cannot march his units across into the map like he can in the Wasu area? Wow, I didn't realize that. If that's the case then yes, I totally agree, taking Abakan and Krasnovarsk would indeed be very advantageous. Don't think I can make it there though given how many forces he pulled out and disbanded from the pocket that will be coming into the line in the next months.

He can march any where, but look at the roads ... not much supply is going to move. So, no matter what he / where he goes, until he gets Abakan or Krasnovarsk liberated, he is going to be fighting with NO air force AND a supply shortage ... IJ can win those fights.

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

ORIGINAL: 29000Kevin
Well the siege of Vladivostok shall begin its going to be bloody and brutal and be the Soviet Union's equivalent of the Battle of Stalingrad, which is still ongoing as of December 1942.

But first it's going to be tedious and repetitive. For like a year [:D]

Maybe, but maybe not. Supply shortage negates the huge firepower advantage that SOV has, so then it is just AV and IJ can match/beat the AV numbers. If he drops forts each attack, then 15 or so attacks (max) and it should be done once supply is low. This is like CK only less AV ... I think totally doable once the firepower is negated.

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

ORIGINAL: 29000Kevin
Well the siege of Vladivostok shall begin its going to be bloody and brutal and be the Soviet Union's equivalent of the Battle of Stalingrad, which is still ongoing as of December 1942.

But first it's going to be tedious and repetitive. For like a year [:D]

Maybe, but maybe not. Supply shortage negates the huge firepower advantage that SOV has, so then it is just AV and IJ can match/beat the AV numbers. If he drops forts each attack, then 15 or so attacks (max) and it should be done once supply is low. This is like CK only less AV ... I think totally doable once the firepower is negated.

If it gives any sense of comparison, in my test, it took roughly 5 months for over 20 IJA divisions, with numerous supporting tanks & artillery, and bombers, with a December ‘41 start. For the Soviet, there were roughly 3000 AV and 300k supplies in Voroshilov/Vladivostok.
Roughly an attack per week, massive casualties at first, but supplies dropped fast, and casualties were less severe once the lack of supply showed (and with reduced forts).

Off course, it was the starting ‘41 Rifle squads, with partly disabled units. Voroshilov might have higher forts in your game, and there might be more Soviet AV (supplies, is the Intel at 1 trillion yen). Your units might be of higher XP too, overall, given your use of them earlier.

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: GetAssista



But first it's going to be tedious and repetitive. For like a year [:D]

Maybe, but maybe not. Supply shortage negates the huge firepower advantage that SOV has, so then it is just AV and IJ can match/beat the AV numbers. If he drops forts each attack, then 15 or so attacks (max) and it should be done once supply is low. This is like CK only less AV ... I think totally doable once the firepower is negated.

If it gives any sense of comparison, in my test, it took roughly 5 months for over 20 IJA divisions, with numerous supporting tanks & artillery, and bombers, with a December ‘41 start. For the Soviet, there were roughly 3000 AV and 300k supplies in Voroshilov/Vladivostok.
Roughly an attack per week, massive casualties at first, but supplies dropped fast, and casualties were less severe once the lack of supply showed (and with reduced forts).

Off course, it was the starting ‘41 Rifle squads, with partly disabled units. Voroshilov might have higher forts in your game, and there might be more Soviet AV (supplies, is the Intel at 1 trillion yen). Your units might be of higher XP too, overall, given your use of them earlier.

May i ask have you used naval bombardements ? Battleship bombardements usually vaporize supplies real fast. Desertwolf could use Yamato and Nagato sisters at max range untill coastal guns are destroyed or disabled and then bring in smaller gun battleships. Park some AKE's at Rashin and start daily battleship bombardements imo but you gotta sacrifice some ships to mines first so big guns dont hit them

ORIGINAL: Evoken

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo



Maybe, but maybe not. Supply shortage negates the huge firepower advantage that SOV has, so then it is just AV and IJ can match/beat the AV numbers. If he drops forts each attack, then 15 or so attacks (max) and it should be done once supply is low. This is like CK only less AV ... I think totally doable once the firepower is negated.

If it gives any sense of comparison, in my test, it took roughly 5 months for over 20 IJA divisions, with numerous supporting tanks & artillery, and bombers, with a December ‘41 start. For the Soviet, there were roughly 3000 AV and 300k supplies in Voroshilov/Vladivostok.
Roughly an attack per week, massive casualties at first, but supplies dropped fast, and casualties were less severe once the lack of supply showed (and with reduced forts).

Off course, it was the starting ‘41 Rifle squads, with partly disabled units. Voroshilov might have higher forts in your game, and there might be more Soviet AV (supplies, is the Intel at 1 trillion yen). Your units might be of higher XP too, overall, given your use of them earlier.

May i ask have you used naval bombardements ? Battleship bombardements usually vaporize supplies real fast. Desertwolf could use Yamato and Nagato sisters at max range untill coastal guns are destroyed or disabled and then bring in smaller gun battleships. Park some AKE's at Rashin and start daily battleship bombardements imo but you gotta sacrifice some ships to mines first so big guns dont hit them

Yeah, I did, but without Yamato and Musashi. I first used the IJN to take Sakhalin and all the ports, though. I mostly used the Ise & Hyuga classes at Vlad, figuring they would have a lesser impact if they were damaged than the Kongos. This limited somewhat the results.

When I dared come closer than max range, I usually got some hefty damage. No penetrating hits, probably too far for that, but the Sys dmg accumulating from a couple bombardments was enough to send the ships to the RSY for two weeks. Otherwise, the very occasional mine hits was annoying.

Bear in mind the premise was different. DesertWolf has finished the conquest of the SRA, so he may afford more damage to his battleships, while my test was to see how long it’d take, without completely wasting the IJN and 12 main assault divisions, and how much the Allies could improve their situation (without going all-in on the build-up).

ÉDIT: I also don’t pretend to have played perfectly. I did not change a lot of leaders, I churned out turns quite fast. A more careful and detail-oriented manner might have changed a month, probably.
From the Soviet side, I started moving troops back from Voroshilov to Vladivostok when forts were down to 3, gradually, starting the day after a big attack. When I saw a move icon from the Japanese side, I launched another shock attack, to see if it could win the day and provoke a rout, but all it did was destroy a lot of already disabled squads.[8|]

ORIGINAL: 29000Kevin

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

Operation Furnace

I had a chat with Andy and he made it clear that he has no intention of disbanding any more units from the Vladivostok pocket. This means that the Japanese effort to take Vladivostok, which I have dubbed Operation Furnace, is going forward.

My intention at this stage is to take Vladivostok in about a years time. This is no blitz like Siberian Winter but rather a steady and deliberate grind against entrenched forces with, inevitably, heavy Japanese casualties. A key part of this effort is the erosion of the pocket's supply which should make a huge difference in the outcome. This component of the operation will now intensify and as the Japanese offensive in the north concludes will be joined by ground operations which will hopefully conclude with the eventual storming of the key bases of Voroshilov and Vladivostok.

In terms of eroding the pocket's supply, I will use light bombers to eat into his stockpiles through the use of flak, medium bombers to target his industry and airfields for supply hits, naval bombardment against Vladivostok itself, and progressively more intensive ground operations to ramp up his consumption. Banzai!

Well the siege of Vladivostok shall begin its going to be bloody and brutal and be the Soviet Union's equivalent of the Battle of Stalingrad, which is still ongoing as of December 1942.

You should also be carful to note if Andy is using planes to evacuate partial parts of the Soviet Armies trapped in their, although the last time we saw Andy sending Transport planes was in the Ceylon campaign but it was a reinforcements and all that did was send the Allies onto a free ride to a Japanese POW camp *shivers*.

Ah Operation Morning Mist - the invasion of Ceylon - you are brining back some happy memories haha.

Air transport is no longer an option for Andy. Even the closest Soviet base to the pocket is too far away to transport forces out or in by air.

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo



Well, if you take Abakan and Krasnovarsk, his only entry point is Wasu. That would be lousy for him as his supply is not going to flow to support too many units. He cannot move east as there are no roads, he has to move south for a LONG way before he actually gets to a rail line . You know how hard it is to get oil to flow from Urumchi, it can be done, but it take effort. Imagine the effort to get 10K supply/day to travel even longer on the same road?

IOW: you will have taken SOV out of the game for all intents and purposes ... you won't have to fight the '45 SOV or the 44 or the 43. They will be stuck in Mongolia... [:D]

You mean to tell me that the Soviet player cannot march his units across into the map like he can in the Wasu area? Wow, I didn't realize that. If that's the case then yes, I totally agree, taking Abakan and Krasnovarsk would indeed be very advantageous. Don't think I can make it there though given how many forces he pulled out and disbanded from the pocket that will be coming into the line in the next months.

He can march any where, but look at the roads ... not much supply is going to move. So, no matter what he / where he goes, until he gets Abakan or Krasnovarsk liberated, he is going to be fighting with NO air force AND a supply shortage ... IJ can win those fights.

Not to belabor this Pax, but just for my own edification: If he can march across from the offmap bases to the Krasnovarsk area, won't he be getting supplies easily through the rail? Or does supply flow along the rail only work when you possess a base at the end point?

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: GetAssista



But first it's going to be tedious and repetitive. For like a year [:D]

Maybe, but maybe not. Supply shortage negates the huge firepower advantage that SOV has, so then it is just AV and IJ can match/beat the AV numbers. If he drops forts each attack, then 15 or so attacks (max) and it should be done once supply is low. This is like CK only less AV ... I think totally doable once the firepower is negated.

If it gives any sense of comparison, in my test, it took roughly 5 months for over 20 IJA divisions, with numerous supporting tanks & artillery, and bombers, with a December ‘41 start. For the Soviet, there were roughly 3000 AV and 300k supplies in Voroshilov/Vladivostok.
Roughly an attack per week, massive casualties at first, but supplies dropped fast, and casualties were less severe once the lack of supply showed (and with reduced forts).

Off course, it was the starting ‘41 Rifle squads, with partly disabled units. Voroshilov might have higher forts in your game, and there might be more Soviet AV (supplies, is the Intel at 1 trillion yen). Your units might be of higher XP too, overall, given your use of them earlier.

I plan to allocate about 25 divisions to Operation Furnace with supporting armor, artillery, and air support so somewhat similar to what you had. I think he will have way more AV and excellent forts at Voroshilov though. Very likely much more supply too so it's going to be tricky. I plan to allocate more than double the time that you did it in though so we shall see. Human players can also be quite tricky so maybe Andy will throw me some curve balls that the AI didn't in your game as well.

December 19-25, 1942

Not too much to update on as the past game week has been relatively less intense.

In India Andy has pulled out the Commonwealth fighter squadrons from Karachi but beefed up its CAP with American squadrons. The P-40K also made its debut and its already proving quite superior to the E version. I resumed my sweeps once more and the previous 3 to 1 kill ratio in my favor has dropped to 2 to 1. The only aircraft I have that can reach Karachi at normal range (with drop tanks) is the A6M3a so this is clearly not a sustainable situation since Andy will get progressively better fighters and I will not have any fighters with similar range in my arsenal going forward.

In the Soviet Union the Japanese are now in the mountains and I am pushing forward to meet Andy who has halted his retreating army and started digging in. I think I will test his defenses with an attack but in the tough terrain my hopes are not very high - it's worth a try though. Unfortunately air support is not really an option as he packed his army with AA guns and when I tried to bomb it the losses were just too heavy.

The first steps of Operation Furnace are taking shape. Air bombing has increased but weather is proving a bit problematic with numerous canceled sorties. I flooded the Vladivostok approaches with ASW craft to clear away his pesky submarines which he has brought back from offensive operations to defensive ones. He should still have about half his Soviet submarines operational. I will also bring up some ASW air closer to Vladivostok to do some damage as it's proving one of my best anti-submarine assets. Once the sub threat is gone I can begin the naval bombardment part of the operation.

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
Well, if you take Abakan and Krasnovarsk, his only entry point is Wasu. That would be lousy for him as his supply is not going to flow to support too many units. He cannot move east as there are no roads, he has to move south for a LONG way before he actually gets to a rail line . You know how hard it is to get oil to flow from Urumchi, it can be done, but it take effort. Imagine the effort to get 10K supply/day to travel even longer on the same road?

IOW: you will have taken SOV out of the game for all intents and purposes ... you won't have to fight the '45 SOV or the 44 or the 43. They will be stuck in Mongolia... [:D]

You mean to tell me that the Soviet player cannot march his units across into the map like he can in the Wasu area? Wow, I didn't realize that. If that's the case then yes, I totally agree, taking Abakan and Krasnovarsk would indeed be very advantageous. Don't think I can make it there though given how many forces he pulled out and disbanded from the pocket that will be coming into the line in the next months.

Since this is a gray area few players ever trodden (myself included) I went and did a test to clear things up. I activated Soviets in Stock 1 from turn 1 as well as put mobile units in all Soviet offmap bases.

Soviets can march freely from whatever off-map bases using whatever corridor. So no, capturing Abakan and Krasnoyarsk does not remove entry points for later push from off-map

Screenshot shows IDs marching on foot to Krasnoyarsk and Abakan starting from SU:

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
Well, if you take Abakan and Krasnovarsk, his only entry point is Wasu. That would be lousy for him as his supply is not going to flow to support too many units. He cannot move east as there are no roads, he has to move south for a LONG way before he actually gets to a rail line . You know how hard it is to get oil to flow from Urumchi, it can be done, but it take effort. Imagine the effort to get 10K supply/day to travel even longer on the same road?

IOW: you will have taken SOV out of the game for all intents and purposes ... you won't have to fight the '45 SOV or the 44 or the 43. They will be stuck in Mongolia... [:D]

You mean to tell me that the Soviet player cannot march his units across into the map like he can in the Wasu area? Wow, I didn't realize that. If that's the case then yes, I totally agree, taking Abakan and Krasnovarsk would indeed be very advantageous. Don't think I can make it there though given how many forces he pulled out and disbanded from the pocket that will be coming into the line in the next months.

Since this is a gray area few players ever trodden (myself included) I went and did a test to clear things up. I activated Soviets in Stock 1 from turn 1 as well as put mobile units in all Soviet offmap bases.

Soviets can march freely from whatever off-map bases using whatever corridor. So no, capturing Abakan and Krasnoyarsk does not remove entry points for later push from off-map

Screenshot shows IDs marching on foot to Krasnoyarsk and Abakan starting from SU:

I was thinking I should test this myself so I am glad you already did it and shared the results. My assumption is that supplies would flow freely down the rail to the units without actually needing to have control of a base at the end of the line on the map. If that is indeed the case, then I go back to my original assessment which is that there is little benefit to pushing all the way to the map's edge.

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101
I was thinking I should test this myself so I am glad you already did it and shared the results. My assumption is that supplies would flow freely down the rail to the units without actually needing to have control of a base at the end of the line on the map. If that is indeed the case, then I go back to my original assessment which is that there is little benefit to pushing all the way to the map's edge.

Yes, supplies can flow freely from off-map bases to on-map units. I dealt with it a lot in my AI games conquering US, and I don't think SOV is any different

December 26-28, 1942

I finally caught up to Andy's Soviet army in the north and I have ordered a deliberate attack for next turn. I don't have high hopes, but fingers crossed nonetheless. I just hope his massed artillery doesn't crater my army.

In other news, check out what I found tucked away in the northeastern corner of India. Sneaky sneaky Andy..... hiding his massed bombers like this only further confirms to me that he is planning something big for this theater.