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At the final stages, but have some questions regarding reinforcements to Singapore.

As with Japan, have echeloned the 18th Div into its Brigades, Recce Bn and Arty units. Scenario begins after arrival of 45th Indian Brgade, so she's at Singers, good to go. Have taken a small liberty with 2/4th Aus MG Bn and added her and the replacements (from convoy S-2) into the 22nd and 27th Aus brigades 10 days early (easier to do that than have a MG Bn and a 'dink' transport TF floating around, especially since there are no Allied replacements/reinforcements in the scenario). Now here's el problemo.

1) 53rd Brigade Group of 18th Div arrived Singers (ex Durban) Jan 13. That's 53rd Brigade, 135th Hertfordshire Yeomanry FA Regt, 85th AT, and 6th Hy and 35th Lt AA Regts, in Convoy DN-1. Given that this is a short map scenario, and these are significant reinforcements, there's only two ways to do this.
1-a) Organize and place the TF at Batavia; organize and place the units at Batavia with "Unit To Load" orders; Give the TF a "magic move" to one hex beyond Batavia and with destination Singers at turn start. That will put everything in motion for a relatively historical arrival time. OR
1-b) Go ahead and put the units in Singers 5 days early. I'm thinking that I prefer this one, for a number of reasons, but am open to other thoughts (read the other el problemo's first, though)

2) The remainder of 18th Div, and the 44th Indian Brigade took another two weeks to show up. And they used almost the same damn ships, humping hard from Bombay and Durban (BM-10, BM-11, DN-2, BM-12). It's not very reasonable to keep those very high value ships in game, so what to do with the rest of 18th Div and the rump of 11th Indian?

Since this is a short map scenario, there is no Durban or Bombay, but fortunately, everything was routed through Sunda Straight so reinforcements can show up at Batavia without doing too much violence to reality, but I really don't want to have West Point, Wakefield, Empress of Japan, Empress of Australia, Empress of Asia and Devonshire so exposed. What to do, what to do?

My thought is, what stopped the Japs from intercepting them? They didn't know that they were coming or they had nothing that could prevent it? My concern would be, the "player" will know these ships are coming and were I playing I would more than likely risk ships to try to stop these reinforcements. Could it be done that they simply show up at Singapore on their required date?

Could you expand the small map far enough west to include Christmas Island (IO)?? Make this base their point of entry.

ORIGINAL: oldman45

My thought is, what stopped the Japs from intercepting them? They didn't know that they were coming or they had nothing that could prevent it? My concern would be, the "player" will know these ships are coming and were I playing I would more than likely risk ships to try to stop these reinforcements. Could it be done that they simply show up at Singapore on their required date?

The 125th Antitank Regiment was local boys--the memorial is in my home church. Apparently, the route through the Sunda Strait to Singapore was far enough away from Japanese operating bases to be relatively safe until near Singapore. In the harbour at Singapore, the heavy AA kept the Japanese bombers at a distance, but outside the harbour was a different story. When the Empress of Asia was bombed and sank, the soldiers on board were pointed towards Singapore (12 miles distant) and encouraged to swim. (story) Eventually small boats came and rescued them.

ORIGINAL: oldman45
My thought is, what stopped the Japs from intercepting them? They didn't know that they were coming or they had nothing that could prevent it? My concern would be, the "player" will know these ships are coming and were I playing I would more than likely risk ships to try to stop these reinforcements. Could it be done that they simply show up at Singapore on their required date?

Well, that would be one solution, and would follow history. But this is a dig-deep, grainy scenario so, perhaps giving a player the opportunity to creatively redeploy certain units is a good thing. My mind moves in the direction of placing the 53rd Brigade Group at Singers, but allowing the remainder to wander at the will of the player. The Scen start is Jan 8, but there's some vagaries here and there.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Could you expand the small map far enough west to include Christmas Island (IO)?? Make this base their point of entry.

Nope. Point of entry stuff is either "on-map" or "off-map". There's no "off-map" stuff in the scen. Everything that was freighted to the DEI went through Sunda, so having Batavia as point of entry isn't so bad.

I see your point John, and it might not be a bad idea to have the rest show up on ships. For the sake of playability, perhaps a little variation on the arrival time?

ORIGINAL: ny59giants
Could you expand the small map far enough west to include Christmas Island (IO)?? Make this base their point of entry.

ORIGINAL: JWE
Nope. Point of entry stuff is either "on-map" or "off-map". There's no "off-map" stuff in the scen. Everything that was freighted to the DEI went through Sunda, so having Batavia as point of entry isn't so bad.

Woah Nellie, did I screw that up. Tweaked again and lo and behold, I can get Diego Garcia and the entry box for Cape Town in. So that takes care of the reinforcements and convoys BM-10, 11, 12 and DN-2. I know the BM convoys were from Bombay, so I'll have them load and magic move to a spot on the proper course track on the right day. Woof !

That also answers the concern about replacements; I can set everything Allied up with No-Build, and just dump some "convoys" into Cape Town with men and equipment Devices that go into the pools, to represent the 'drafts' for 9 and 11 Indian Divisions and the pieces of parts for B/3rd Hussars and the weapons for some of the AA Regts. Woof, woof !

That also gives a safe place to reire the high value ships like West Point, Wakefield, etc.. and somewhere to park the CLs and DDs that were doing escort duty and thereby lets them into the game. Woof, woof, woof !

Thank you for nudging me off the dime, ny59giants.