Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

[larryfulkerson]

I captured Saigon in T23 or so and here it is a couple of turns later and I STILL own it. My partisan is down to 15% supply and 33%
proficiency so I'm guessing that one more good push will kill the unit but I'm marveling that it's still in Allied hands for so long.

[thomasharvey]

My Army aircraft have taken substantial losses so far. The screen shot gives the inventory so far on that. The naval aircraft continue to buildup for use later.

The front is now in Burma and China. The allies beat me to the punch there and now I am behind schedule. In order to stay with the historical events I must take all of Burma including Rangoon.

That looks like I have gone about as far as I can. However, I have the Japanese fighting spirit to continue with the next Banzai!

[larryfulkerson]

Thomas has dropped some paratroops in Burma that threatens to seal off the surround on my troops there and I don't have
the units to break out yet. I'll have to see if I can rearrange something somehow to fight my way out of that. Also, here's
how the air war is going right now. The Japs are flying a lot of INT missions and I know that because of the airstrikes that
hit my moving units.

[larryfulkerson]

I pressed 'A' to bring up the list of all the aircraft I have and started going through the list reassigning missions etc. for them and
then I came to the 5th NZ squadron that doesn't seem to be listed in it's formation anywhere. But the game seems to be working
perfectly fine. Go figure. This problem has been fixed in the 3.6.0.173 version so don't worry.

EDIT: It turns out that I hadn't scrolled ALL the way down.

[larryfulkerson]

Thomas has stripped the Southwest Pacific of his warplanes leaving some spotter planes there for me for target practice.
The 488th NZ squadron has been getting lots of practice and now they have a pretty respectable proficiency. Too bad
they are in early model planes. In WITP-AE I would disband that squadron and put the pilots in better planes. The rule of
thumb is the best squads get the best weapons. That makes for the maximum combat power. I've got some P-39's flying
in China but they are doing CS missions and not AS because they are lousy fighters and I don't want to get them killed
unnessasarily. I'm losing enough pilots to the regular missions.

[larryfulkerson]

Thomas did some more paratroop drops and cut some of my units off from the supply lines. D'oh. I'm going to have to see if I
can't find an engineer to get those guys across the river somehow.

EDIT: I just wondered out loud how in the world the Jap paratroopers got through all my AS missions. Maybe the Jap AS missions
were a part of that.

[thomasharvey]

Here is the case in Burma. The allies are trying to wall me off but it has not worked so far. The major rivers are causing the allies problems since his engineers are out of position. The allies need to get the engineers on the river to provide supply and a way to pull back. My focus is to attack the allied engineer units to prevent their ability to move on to the river. Even if only by air raids, if the allied engineer units lose supply status or losses, they can't move on to the river. That is the theory anyway.

Soon the attack will go forward to liquidate the allied units cut off. In addition to destroying them, if they are cut off, no losses are salvaged into the replacement pool.

With heavy losses the allies will be forced out of Burma and back into India.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Thomas, new turn. This is how Burma looks before any Allied stuff moves.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves, new turn. Thomas has introduced some Armour into the equation. He used them to isolate Rangoon and now it's
surrounded and under seige. I'm seeing some ships of war off shore and I'm wondering if I ought to bring up the ships I have at
Ceylon to Rangoon and engage the Japs. Worse case: I lose some ships.

[thomasharvey]

The screenshot shows Rangoon about to be taken. It is isolated and reduced to just one regiment. The last attack was a full exchange of equal Japanese for all the allied troops lost plus several DDs. Some allied units are out of supply south of Mandalay.

It is still a Japanese victory and it is good it was not another Bataan with endless attacks and losses.

Next comes the mop up and then a decision on what to do next. Rangoon was the main objective and then go defensive. However, the Japanese dragon may still be hungry.

[thomasharvey]

screen shot of Rangoon.

[thomasharvey]

Rangoon

[larryfulkerson]

As you can see the Allied units around Mandalay are without supplies. They will have to try to fight their way out of this.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the supply situation in south China now. I would evacuate north China but they are tying up lots of Jap units. I'd rather they
do that than have those Jap troops in Burma or somewhere. South China has been relatively quiet and that's fine with me. I'm
planning on leaving the Chinese where they are for the long term even if the supply level goes to zero because those troops are
so low in proficiency that they are good only for artillery fodder. I'm trying not to attack with them for any reason because of that. I
don't want to just get them killed but they are good for placeholding when you have enough of them in a stack only when the
attackers are lame.

[larryfulkerson]

The Secretary of Defense has put in an order for some low-observable bombers that can go a long range and are fast. And black.
The Skunk Works put in a bid that would build some F-117's for that requirement. They will be ready in late 1970.

EDIT: Yes, I know the equipment display says 1983 but Area 51 had them way way before that my friend.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves, new turn.......Thomas has captured Chittagong ! So now I guess all the stuff in Burma is out of supply and I'll have to
pull back the troops at Mandalay and try to get between India and the Japs.

[larryfulkerson]

I was wrong on the supply issue. It seems that the northern road is still working and supply is still flowing and so far so good. It's them
darn BB's that the Japs have that's making the difference here. Wish I had some here just about now.

[larryfulkerson]

Thomas has invaded at Calcutta !! Okay, this is just about the last straw.........I'm bringing up my BB's to duke it out.

[thomasharvey]

The massive running sea battles in the Indian Ocean resulted in the destruction of most ships involved including all types other than carriers. Mostly surface action this time which has forced the Imperial Navy to withdraw with only half its fleet remaining and they are mostly damaged.

Calcutta was evacuated and left to the Allies. The Burma front is now frozen in place with neither side able to advance.

Once the ships are repaired more battles may resume with a new Allied navy by then.

[larryfulkerson]

A lot has happened since last post. I captured Wake island and moved some fighters and a naval bomb group there for air cover and
I drove the Yorktown II and the Essex carriers with their fighters and bomb groups to the Wake area and now we're having an air-to-air
carrier against carrier fightout and it looks like I lost one and the Japs lost 4 so maybe I won. Definately maybe.