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It is widely accepted the Allied player in UV can choose any Japanese held island or base and bomb the port, quickly wiping out the supplies to starve the garrison allowing them an easy walkover invasion in the future.

If the Japanese player prepares early and uses all Japanese assets he can keep this from happening.

How?

By the time of November comes the Japanese have aquired around 100 barges. These barges are capable of delivering over 8,000 supplies every 2 turns.

By creating refueling bases for barges 8 spaces or less apart a Japanese player can create a shuttle service with his barges and keep Japanese bases under Allied bomber attack in supply and keep rotating his troops.

For example...

If Irau is under Allied bomber attack the Japanese player can place 25 barges to shuttle back and forth from Shortland to Munda Island. Then 25 back and forth, Munda to Lunga, and finally, 25 from Lunga to the base under attack...Irau.

What is the result of this?....2,000 supplies delivered to the garrison on Irau under bombing attack every 2 turns. You can easily keep your troops supplied.

You can create these barge shuttle systems anywhere under threat and not just to carry supplies and fuel but troops also.

How well does it work? Hmmm...in a recent game my opponent was hitting Irau with hundreds of bombers over and over. He claimed, ¨Don´t believe Ike´s propaganda. I am bombing the port daily.¨

He was convinced he was, or had, bombed me out of supply. But the reality was my supplies were actually growing while at the same time I was supporting a 13,000 man garrison. So it works quite well.

What are the weakness in this?

Allied submarines will attack barges on occasion with guns. They are not really very effective in this though as you can break your barge units up into very small TF´s of 1&2 barges and keep ASW air over your routes. So the Allied submarine will not be able to break a supply route of this type.

The P39 fighter/bomber will naval attack barges. Their range is very limited however.

PT boats and other warships will occasionally attack barges but not too often. It can put the interdicting ships at risk to be sunk.

Other than this, none that I have found.

Ahhh yes, the barge, if sunk scores no victory points and you always get more so this helps too.

Maybe someone can add more on the barge or this tactic helps someone else out.

The P39 has one use in UV. Killing barges.

If you can get them in range.

ORIGINAL: Ike99

It is widely accepted the Allied player in UV can choose any Japanese held island or base and bomb the port, quickly wiping out the supplies to starve the garrison allowing them an easy walkover invasion in the future.

If the Japanese player prepares early and uses all Japanese assets he can keep this from happening.

How?

By the time of November comes the Japanese have aquired around 100 barges. These barges are capable of delivering over 8,000 supplies every 2 turns.

By creating refueling bases for barges 8 spaces or less apart a Japanese player can create a shuttle service with his barges and keep Japanese bases under Allied bomber attack in supply and keep rotating his troops.

For example...

If Irau is under Allied bomber attack the Japanese player can place 25 barges to shuttle back and forth from Shortland to Munda Island. Then 25 back and forth, Munda to Lunga, and finally, 25 from Lunga to the base under attack...Irau.

What is the result of this?....2,000 supplies delivered to the garrison on Irau under bombing attack every 2 turns. You can easily keep your troops supplied.

You can create these barge shuttle systems anywhere under threat and not just to carry supplies and fuel but troops also.

How well does it work? Hmmm...in a recent game my opponent was hitting Irau with hundreds of bombers over and over. He claimed, ¨Don´t believe Ike´s propaganda. I am bombing the port daily.¨

He was convinced he was, or had, bombed me out of supply. But the reality was my supplies were actually growing while at the same time I was supporting a 13,000 man garrison. So it works quite well.

What are the weakness in this?

Allied submarines will attack barges on occasion with guns. They are not really very effective in this though as you can break your barge units up into very small TF´s of 1&2 barges and keep ASW air over your routes. So the Allied submarine will not be able to break a supply route of this type.

The P39 fighter/bomber will naval attack barges. Their range is very limited however.

PT boats and other warships will occasionally attack barges but not too often. It can put the interdicting ships at risk to be sunk.

Other than this, none that I have found.

Ahhh yes, the barge, if sunk scores no victory points and you always get more so this helps too.

Maybe someone can add more on the barge or this tactic helps someone else out.

So what happens if the allies shift the focus of their bombing campaign from Irau to Russell Island?

Not much, Irau is much more effective as the Allies need to take Irau to make an advance into the Solomons easier.

The only useful base in range would be (Nevea?) the one to the south of Irau. That puts the P-39s in range but usually only after they've unloaded the cargo. You can also stage pt-boats from there.

The barge supply line illustrates the rl problem in effectively isolating bases in the SwPac and SoPac campaign quite well. The only way to isolate Irau is to completely surround it by taking Lunga/Tulagi, which requires even more lcu/air/naval capability than directly assaulting it. Pretty accurate too, it wasn't until the Essexes started to come out that the Allies had the ability to do it irl.

ORIGINAL: tocaff

Not much, Irau is much more effective as the Allies need to take Irau to make an advance into the Solomons easier.

But according to Ike's illustration Irau is dependent on supplies coming in thru the string of bases further north.

If, for instance, the bombing campaign were to be turned onto those northern bases the effect would be felt more accutely at Irau than say Tulagi or the Russells. The reason being the supplies intended for Irau would now be diverted to repair and maintain the northern bases.

Meanwhile Irau's 13,000 man garrison is slowly eating into their supplies. Toss in the occasional SC TF bombardment, or a mini-air blitz to speed up the depletion, and soon Irau is in a world of hurt.

By bombing the Russells (for instance) I could use Tulagi or Lunga instead.  You can't close 3 bases at the same time because there are other areas of contention also.  Besides between the weather and morale from constantly flying the Allies have a bigger problem than the Japanese CAPs.  Barges to Irau will get through despite loses and dependiong on the size of the garrison enough supplies will arrive at Irau.

Based on this I believe through the experience of countless game that Irau must be bombed to help with the mandatory invasion.
 
This game is about keys for the locks.  The locks , well that's the Japanese defensive network.  The keys are PM in and Irau.  Take PM and a large chunk of the map will fall under the sway of Allied LBA and a land campaign for the rest of PNG, excepting GG, becomes a reality.  Take Irau and the Solomons will fall as they will be under constant attack by Allied LBA.

Allied LBA is the key to this game.  If you can cut off supplies to a base it's much easier to take.

ORIGINAL: tocaff

By bombing the Russells (for instance) I could use Tulagi or Lunga instead.  You can't close 3 bases at the same time because there are other areas of contention also.  Besides between the weather and morale from constantly flying the Allies have a bigger problem than the Japanese CAPs.  Barges to Irau will get through despite loses and dependiong on the size of the garrison enough supplies will arrive at Irau.

But unless I am missing something how are you also maintaining Tulagi, Lunga or the Russells?

According to Ike's strategy there are 3 25-barge TFs executing what is in effect a relay of supplies. In other words, the amount that is loaded onto TF#1 at Shortlands is the same amount unloaded by TF#3 at Irau. Otherwise why have 3 TFs of the same size?

Unless he is also running AK Tfs into these northern bases and didn't mention it (which would beg the question of why run barges from Shortlands in the first place if AKs are being sent directly to Tulagi) I don't see how all those bases can be maintained with the same amount of supplies.

Every link in the chain is going to peel off X number of supplies, so by the time TF#3 docks at Irau that 2000 points might only be 500. Now add damage from an air campaign at Tulagi and the 500 is now only 350, and so on.

My point is that the Japanese can change a link in the relay for the barge traffic very easily.

As long as each link is an established base, and its source of supply is being delivered in something other than barges, then yes.

So APs to Lunga and/or Tulagi are a viable option as long as Irau is held.  

Makes sense, but as I said you now no longer need to run barges from shortlands.

But according to Ike's illustration Irau is dependent on supplies coming in thru the string of bases further north.

Yes.

If, for instance, the bombing campaign were to be turned onto those northern bases the effect would be felt more accutely at Irau than say Tulagi or the Russells. The reason being the supplies intended for Irau would now be diverted to repair and maintain the northern bases.

If the bombing campaign shifts further north it is much, much farther for his bombers to fly. The result will be Allied bomber crews being more fatigued. Their morale will drop very fast. Their OPS losses will be much higher not to mention those that crash after being damaged with such a far return flight.

The first few days of this far range bombing will look great but this is a campaign. Play it out for just 10 days and see how many bombers the Allies are able to put in the air after just this short time and what their losses are.

In short it is not sustainable for any length of time and heavy bomber losses will be at an unacceptable level.

Meanwhile Irau's 13,000 man garrison is slowly eating into their supplies. Toss in the occasional SC TF bombardment...

Bombardment missions and minefields don´t mix very well. It is very easy for the Japanese player to have over 600 mines around Irau by the time the Allies can seriously begin to threaten it. More likely over 1,000. Again this is a campaign. With the simple system damage from just making the bombardment missions and the mine hit this tactic will be short lived.

As long as each link is an established base, and its source of supply is being delivered in something other than barges, then yes.

Every bases should be established by the time the Allies are ready to move over to the offensive. Bases further up the chain can have their supplies delivered by regular transport. It´s the tail end of the chain that is exposed to Allied land based airpower, especially those within 10 hexes where you will absolutely need to stress barge runs to and from.

Otherwise you´ll be bombed out of supplies very quickly, your combat units will rapidly lose their combat ability and the Allied invasion will be very easy.

I've found that once you've taken Irau, and it won't be easy because you can't afford to blink even after you hold it, the rapid build up and stationing of planes there to disrupt Japanese supply lines to Tulagi & Lunga works.  I find that taking Tulagi for it's port is more valuable than Lunga'a airfield. 

Think I'm crazy?

Consider that you can build Tulagi's port to a level 8 and it saves your ships that get hurt.  OK so you want forward airfields?

Take the Russells and station some Corsairs with SBDs and/or TBFs there and watch the IJN start to pull back to Rabul.  It's hard to sneak down the Slot from Rabul instead of Shortlands.  You still want to be further forward?

Take some other small airfield capable islands:  Vella, Munda, etc.  and put Shortands out of bounds to the IJN.  The Japanese will be swept from the skies by the Corsairs and P-38s afford escort to the bombers at long range.

The game can be won by a slow slugging campaign in PNG after the Allies take back PM and put recon and Brit fish carring bombers at Buna or Dobadura (respectively).  You do not need to take Lunga to win and all of the IJA troops there will wither uselessly on the vine.  Hell, you don't really need to ever threaten Rabul itself other than 4E bombers hurting it's airfield and port.  Force the IJN back to Truk and it's as good as useless.  Hold Lae & Fins for P-38s and they escort bombers to Rabul. 

Death from above is the name of this game.

Still don't believe me?  Ask the experts or try it.

ORIGINAL: Ike99


Every bases should be established by the time the Allies are ready to move over to the offensive. Bases further up the chain can have their supplies delivered by regular transport.

Here is where I lose you. Why bother running barges from Shortlands to Lunga if you're going to run AKs directly into Lunga?
I fully understand and agree with the need to run barges to Irau in this example - all gain no pain - but I don't quite see the advantage of the shuttle runs further north.

Ike is trying to avoid B-17 & 24 raids on his shipping as they can reach Lunga & Tulagi.  Set a few squadrons of 4E bombers to naval attack, sit back and let your recon spot the supply TFs and if the weather is OK the Japanese APs become targets.  Ike is very good at getting stuff done in UV while minimizing his risk.  Don't forget that the Zero is almost worthless against the B-17s in UV.  As a matter of fact the B-17 is a super weapon in UV, killing with it's bombs and MGs.

Understood, but the question remains, how do you deliver 2000 pts of supply to Irau if that same amount was loaded at Shortland and the convoys are making two stops along the way?
As far as I know you can't do ship-to-ship transfers in UV, only ship-base-ship, in which case the base gets a slice of the pie as well. No?
 
The only way I could see this working is if the shuttle run is staggered over time, so as to build up a buffer at each stop. IOW, run the Shortland - Munda leg for a few weeks to build up stocks, then add Munda - Lunga, wait a few weeks, then Lunga - Irau. Even then you'll need to temporarily suspend each leg after a while to restock.

I've never staged a 3 legged supply line manned only by barges.  I'd imagine the first leg would be done with the larger (100 cargo) barges and the other legs by the smaller (70 point) ones.  I've run Lunga and/or Tulagi to Irau and it works nicely.  I've always built large supply stocks at bases where I intend to fight or use as an area hub.

So basically if the allies can't mount airstrikes or naval attacks on a base you can keep in supply forever.....really?