Has Anyone Taken Port Moresby Yet?

[mark24]

That is, playing as the Japanese!!

If so, when & how?

Mark

[mariovalleemtl]

Yes, early in the game with ALL the fleet at the same time. It also help is the USN did not the same

[Rob Roberson]

I have as the Japanese in a PBEM, I control Luginville too ...but my opponent is about to open a can of whoop *** on me.

[Chiteng]

Send all your subs to sink the transports at PM.

Wait around till you get all 10 CV and CVL
Usually two months.

In the meantime take all the little islands with fast Trans.
just take them and then fast tran the LCU back out again.

As soon as you have all 10 CV and CVL
escort a convoy to Buna and land EVERYTHING there. plus lots of supply. Put ALL your carrier Fighters on LR Cap.
PM will try to attack and you will blow him out of the sky.

In the meantime:
DOnt bomb PM from rabual UNLESS you use the carrier fighters to escort. You simply dont have enough escorts.
Save up all your Bombers. Usually after 4-5 groups plus
CV fighters you can start bombing the PM airfield.
You wont do much but usually you kill more planes than you lose.
Plus his ENG will have to repair it.


As soon as you have say 30k men at Buna, simply march them all to PM. Make sure they all arrive at the same time.

In the meantime on turn ONE
fast Tran the sasebo units(there are three) from Rabual
to Gili Gili and take it.
There is NOTHING the USA can do to stop you.
make sure you Fast tran supply to it also.

Now sink the Transports that it always sends to gili gili
it wont try again. I usuallay use a Four CA TG of
Aoba Furataka Kinugasa etc.

Once you have Gili you can stage nightly bombardment missions
to PM

The AI will send ineffective two CV task groups to stop you.
Sink them and keep bombarding. Eventually after sinking about 100 transports the AI will stop. Now simply starve them for a week and then take the place.

[zed]

I never thought one could march that far without becoming seriously disrupted. Are they in any condition to fight when they arrive? ALso, can you get supply to trace from BUNA to PM?

[Chiteng]

I assume so, since i have done it many times

[HannoMeier]

I am currently in an excellent PBEM match (scenario#17) with Dan Stafford as the Allies in mid July game time. The next days will decide if I could make a significant invasion on PM.

Both sides have committed nearly all operational forces in that area. Japan lost 3CV + 1CVL so far, the Allies 3CV. Near PM are sighted so far: Allies 2CV, Japan 1CV + 2CVL. In addition we have our Surface forces in the area.

In my opinion, an attack on PM against a human player is possible in July the earliest. You really need your initially superior surface fleet (esp. the BB's) as the Japanese player to shut down the PM airbase via bombardment missions. Air bombardment alone does not produce sufficient results in my opinion.

Best Regards,

Hanno

[ATENTOKO]

In my opinion, an attack on PM against a human player is possible in July the earliest. You really need your initially superior surface fleet (esp. the BB's) as the Japanese player to shut down the PM airbase via bombardment missions. Air bombardment alone does not produce sufficient results in my opinion.

HELLO FRIENDS,
SO YOU THING HANNO THAT I CAN DO THE SAME AT LUGANVILLE?
NOW I´M AT LUGAN... WITH THE 2 & 28 JAP.DIV. 4-CV´S AT 2 ´TF´S WITH BB´S. ONE WEEK OF POUNDERING VIA BOMBARDMENT AND AIR STRIKES SO WE WILL SEE.

THAKS FOE ALL

[Tuomas Seijavuori]

I'm not sure if you guys are talking about #17 only, but here goes:

I won scenario #12 by first sinking Lexington and Yorktown near Gili Gili, when they challenged my 2xCV+CVL group (that's all one gets in #12) one week into the scenario. My opponent later told me hardly any carrier air groups survived either. I then bombed his surface fleet to PM harbour pretty bad from Rabaul. Vals from Shokaku helped too. I had 144 Rgt with the carrier group and just before I was able to land in PM, my opponent surrendered. He thought he couldn't stop me from taking it and was so pissed about his poor luck in the carrier engagement that he decided to close SOPAC theatre altogether and concentrate building up the new fleet for the next couple of years...

A historically realistic decision, in my opinion. Had Moresby been lost, things would have looked grim indeed for the Allies. Now I know it's not a catastrophe myself, because I took PM back from the Japanese in another game and was able to turn the tide after that. But the psychological effect of losing PM so early is huge.

Edit: added a screenshot:

[EricLarsen]

I took PM as the Japs against the AI in scenario 17 by being patient and bombing, bombing, bombing, and bombarding, bombarding, bombarding. I waited until the whole 18th Army showed up and then had all my transports in Truk so that I could transport 3 or 4 divisions with support troops to PM in one fell swoop. I used tankers to refuel the invasion tf's around Rabaul. I used my carrier tf's to sit on PM and bomb it while using the CAP to intercept Allied C-47's bringing in supplies and troops. I used most of the BB's and CA's there to bombard PM regularly and to attack transport tf's that got through the sub screen. I used all the subs to keep Allied transports away from PM. I even got Dobadura built up to level 9 and sent 250+ avaition support there so that the bombers wouldn't have to go far for their bombing runs. The key is to keep the airfield and port basically 100% damaged, especially the port so that the fortification level is zero. When I landed I waited until all troops were unloaded and then attacked deliberately and took PM right off. Then the next turn I attacked again and wiped out the Allied force. I used long-range CAP to also keep the Allied transports down. The main thing is lots of preparation and lots of patience. Trying to take PM too early like the IJN tried to do won't work even against the AI as it is rather proficient at reinforcing the place.
Eric Larsen

[thantis]

In the Coral Sea scenario #1 I have found that if you load every combat unit you have - at both Rabaul & Truk (I usually send the Shortlands Is. groups after Lunga & Talugi) and send them immediately to Port Moresby, you have a chance a taking the base right off.

Unfortunately, the ability to get your troops to the beaches is dependent on how the carrier battle goes. If you can either sink or drive off the US carriers (hopefully far enough away so that the surviving aircraft can't land at PM), you can get your two convoys to PM & take the base with a Shock Attack.

The allies try to run supplies & extra troops from Brisbane, but if you can keep your carriers around until you land (hitting the allied convoys that attempt to resupply), you have a better than even chance to take the base before the end of the scenario.

If you lose your carriers - or even have one or two heavily damaged (and depending on how many carriers the US still has) it almost becomes suicidal - as the AI seems to detach any survivoring cruisers for a run at PM to hit your convoys. You do learn how dependent the whole operation was on the carriers.

I'd be interested to see if a Japanese player could take PM right off the bat & hold/develop/supply it as a major airfield. If you wait, the allies only get stronger & then you have the Solomons & Lunga to worry about.

[Luskan]

Love the way Toumas showed Lexington and Yorktown on his map (as empty ocean) but still labelled them