Papua New Guinea 42 revised

[larryfulkerson]

One of my readers wanted me to playtest the Papua New Guinea 42 scenario and I thought I'd put some PO objectives and tracks
in there to bring it up to "today's" standards. You know, get it ready for the TOAW version 3.5 playtest whenever that occurs.

I started up the game and turned on the POAssist buttons and lo and behold there's some PO tracks and objectives already in the
game. So I guess while Steve Sill is working on the Sicily to Brenner Pass scenario I'll playtest this scenario for a while. Steve is
having to remove all the partisans and replace them w/ events. That sounds like it's going to take a while so maybe there's time to play
this thing some.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the game options that gives me the supply levels I want and everything else is self explainatory I suppose. These are the
game options I'm going to use.

[larryfulkerson]

I started to do a picture of where everybody is but it started looking busy so I stopped. Here's where some of the Jap stuff is and so on.

[larryfulkerson]

I was looking at the losses screen to get an idea of how many of what kind of equipment there is for the Allies and I see that we've already
got some losses. That's because the Allies move second and the Japs have already gotten some licks in. Also, I see where there
appears to be a one-time infusion of equipment to the game in turn 12. There's only 20 turns so it's a mid-game boost for the Allies.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Japanese equipment. There's not much to say about this stuff. It's unremarkable except for the infusion of some 5
tankettes in turn 12.

[larryfulkerson]

I've decided to play as the Allies first since that seems easiest, and this is a new scenario to me so I'm not sure what the Jap goals are
and where he's going to attack next. I'm aware that one of the Jap goals seems to be Port Moresby but I'm wondering what else he's
after. I was moving the engineers to an appearantly empty base and fond some partisans near the empty base. I wasn't expecting any
partisans and I'm guessing this means they could be anywhere on the island and I'll have to protect the bases I have.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a view of the Port Moresby area at the start. I'm not sure the defenders in the mountains can hold or not. There's like two
regiments there and one is already split into three parts. Maybe w/ a lot of CS they can hold their positions. We'll see. Fortunately,
I have a back up closer to the base. I hope I don't have to use the back up. There's a supply point as part of the back up group and
I'm guessing that I need to move it closer to the fighting.

[larryfulkerson]

I was moving some units to get a surround on the one partisan I found and discovered yet another partisan in the base hex itself. D'oh.
So now there's two of them to dispatch. Probably more nearby w/ my luck.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved some destroyers into range to pound the partisans. I'm not sure what good it'll do. We'll see I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the combat result of one of my DD's pounding the positions of the partisans from just offshore. Not much damage but at least
we now know the strength of the enemy unit. This looks like it might need some pounding by air AND DD's.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the combat result of one of my airstrikes against a Jap element. Not much damage done but we do know the strength of the
enemy unit now. The other unit is probably similar to this one. And they are both probably similar to the partisan unit(s). And another
thing: there was no interference from Jap air forces. No Zero's to fur-ball with. No Oscars either. I'm wondering if they aren't in range
or something. It's not like the Jap to not interfere in some way. Maybe it's bad weather. I'll check that out and get back to you. No
wait, it wouldn't be because of bad weather because MY planes flew. Hmmmmm.

[larryfulkerson]

And just look at the shape of my air fleet after the combat resolution. Lots of them are in reorg and aren't going to fly for a while.
Maybe I should drop back to doing just one-dot attacks.

[larryfulkerson]

OK. The partisans came out of the jungle and are in open combat now. These are hefty units, not ones to be pushed around. My
engineer unit was chased back to Gili Gili and it looks like THAT base is threatened now. Great.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the combat result of a B-17 raid on Lae. I wasn't supposed to lose any planes, that was the plan. Two out of 18 is about 1 out of
9 which is about 11% losses.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of an Jap airstrike. They were trying to sink the DD but missed.

[larryfulkerson]

It looks like the Jap Batallions are headed for Taupota now. I've moved in some arty to reinforce the place but I'm thinking it might need
some additional boots on the ground as well.

[larryfulkerson]

In the mountains above Port Moresby I've committed the reserve because the main force is worn out. The Japs have been attacking
nonstop and it's starting to show. I don't know how the Japs are faring but mine are wearing down. The roadblock may have to displace
backward soon. And I'd best start building a fall-back front line right now.

[larryfulkerson]

The Japs have cut off the flow of supply to Taupota and Wandala both so I'm going to have to evacuate both of them back to safety.
The Japs sunk my destroyer at Wandala by a land attack so there's no reason to hold Wandala now, especially now that it's out of
supply. The reason I have to evacuate is that I don't have the manpower to establish and defend an LOC to supply sources for both
of those bases so they can't be defended properly and to save lives we have to pull back.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the condition of the airplanes so far: I'm having problems keeping them active and flying. Maybe I should drop back to one-dot
attacks on everybody.

[larryfulkerson]

I captured Lae right under the noses of the Japs. They aren't going to like that very much. I'm not sure I have the strength to hold onto
it for very long.