Pacific At War ( with programmed PO )

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T1 round 1 and the Japs have made their first turn moves and now it's my turn. The Japs have landed in the Phillippines, captured Manila, captured Bangkock, captured several bases in Borneo including Miri, and are now threatening Singapore and Legaspi. Thomas Harvey is the designer of "Pacific At War" and this is the version of that scenario that has a programmed PO and I thought I'd try it out and see how the AI does. The strike at Pearl Harbour saw the sinking of three BB's: the Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T1 round 1 and the Japs have been busy in the Rabaul area and have captured every base in this image except for Port Moresby. I don't have all that much defending PM: one Australian infantry unit in reorg, one American engineer unit, and one Australian PBY unit in reorg with 6 of 36 aircraft. As for available ships there are two DD units, both in reorg, just offshore near Perth.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T3 round 1 and the Japs have forced their way across a couple of important bridges which unfortunately are intact and the bridges defender, the 22nd Indian Infantry Brigade, is doomed. The Japs dropped some paratroopers on an airfield just north of the Rangoon port and has effectively trapped my defenders and now they cannot escape their positions because the Allied side hasn't received any naval movement capability yet. I'm beginning to wonder if they ever will.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T3 round 1 and I finally got around to reading the scenario briefing and found the answer to my missing sea cap. and it seems that there's no sea cap for anyone for the first 11 turns and then only the Allied player gets any sea cap. at all.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T3 round 1 and the Chinese are trying to prevent the Japs from repairing all the rail between Bangkock and Tiensin in northern China. A lot of Chinese infantry units are moving south from Kweiyang headed to Yungning and they are most welcome because the Japs are pushing the Chinese units backward slowly and the Chinese defenders are getting worn out.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T3 round 1 and the Communist Chinese ( hereinafter to be known as Chicoms ) are retreating into the mountains blowing all the bridges behind them effectively giving up the extreme north of China to the Japs. I was planning on using the airfields up here to bomb the Japanese home islands so I'm going to eventually gain back all this territory somehow.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T3 round 1 and now that the Jap aircraft units are tired and worn down quite a bit I thought it was time to employ all 3 CV's that I own and do a carrier strike of my own. I'm using a 3-dot attack because I can replace my aircraft easier than the Japs can and I really really want to do away with those Jap CV's.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T3 round 1 and last turn I flew the 5th Bomb Group ( B-17's ) from Pearl out to Christmas island and this turn I had enough MP's to make it to Port Moresby. The range of the early B-17 is 70 hexes and that is enough to bring Truk in range. The B-17 isn't all that effective against ships so I'll concentrate on the airfields and the ground troops. I wish there was a night mission to use to avoid all the Jap fighters based there.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T3 round 2 and this is the results of the carrier strike I did on the Jap TF. It seems that I've sunk 3 Jap CV's; the Kaga, the Zuikaku and the Soryu. And all the aircraft that were based on those carriers are now gone. I lost quite a few Dauntless aircraft but not a single Devastator and I'm wondering why. I looked up the parameters of the Dauntless and it turns out that their range is only 19 and therefore didn't take part in the strike. I wish I had known that before the strike because I would have parked the CV's in a closer spot.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T4 round 1 and my partisans have been busy blowing bridges in the Hanoi area and there's a couple more near the harbor at Haiphong. The southernmost partisan has a bridge at Nahn Dinh and then he's going to move down the rail converting it to the Allied side as it moves. Elmer will most likely wake up to the fact that his rail is being torn up and will dispatch someone to make me move off the rail for the safety of the mountains.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T4 round 1 and I sailed all my surface TF's out to Tarawa to start the softening up needed before an assault can hit the beach. I can't move any LCU's via sea until T12 but I can start destroying Jap planes at all the islands I want to invade. My goal is to capture some real estate that I can launch some Jap home islands attacks as soon as possible. If I can grab an island close enough I can start using my B-17's and B-24's.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T4 round 2 and this is the result of the bombardment of the airfield at Tarawa. I didn't destroy as many Jap aircraft as I had hoped. Another strike is in order.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T5 round 1 and this is the situation in the Hanoi area and it seems that we're in a standstill as the Chinese finally have enough units to hold the Japs back. At least temporarily. With all the broken bridges the supply, to the group of Jap units on the west side of this image, may be cut off, at least partially.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T5 round 1 and this is the situation in Burma and the Japs have pushed the Chinese 19th Army unit backward off the rail and into the jungle. I was careful to drop the bridges near Mandalay to delay the Japs as long as possible. I suspect that the Japs are headed to Daca.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T5 round 1 and I had a lot of Commonwealth ships parked at Ceylon including a CV and an assortment of capital and minor ships and I thought I'd throw them all together and attack something. Just offshore of Borneo there's a small group of Jap ships: 1 DD and 8 Subchasers and I think I might be able to dispatch all of them.

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[rhinobones]

I looked up the parameters of the Dauntless and it turns out that their range is only 19 and therefore didn't take part in the strike. I wish I had known that before the strike because I would have parked the CV's in a closer spot.
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Remember the earlier versions of TOAW where the Dauntless squadron would have attempted to make the attack, then ditched after maxing out their range? That change is on my short list for "Best" update.

Regards

[larryfulkerson]

I looked up the parameters of the Dauntless and it turns out that their range is only 19 and therefore didn't take part in the strike. I wish I had known that before the strike because I would have parked the CV's in a closer spot.

Remember the earlier versions of TOAW where the Dauntless squadron would have attempted to make the attack, then ditched after maxing out their range? That change is on my short list for "Best" update.

I DO remember that era. Scenario designers had to be careful not to mix aircraft types. If the ranges of the two types were radically different then the shorter range aircraft type were typically lost to a man when flown further than their range would allow while the longer range aircraft did the strike on their own. It was a constant agravation.

It's now T7 round 1 and this is what's happening in northern China in the Wuchang area. The Chicoms are holding their own in this fight over some river crossings. The idea here is to prevent the Japs from using the rail lines and capture all the ports possible to facilitate the movement of troops to this AO. Note that the game rules prevent the Chicoms from taking part in any attacks made by the Nationalist Chinese and vice versa. It must be remembered that the two different groups were actually enemies and only have this temporary truce because of their need to first defeat their common enemy: the Japs.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T7 round 1 and CVE Hermes got intercepted several times by Bettys and Nells and received some severe damage from about 5 or 6 airstrikes. It's now parked in Borneo to be repaired and it's probably going to take the rest of the game to be healed enough to take further part in the fight. Or it could be sunk by the Japs by all the Jap bombers in Saigon or the Phillippines.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T7 round 1 and I moved two squadrons of P-40s and a squadron of B-17s to Port Moresby. Actually the bombers are bait to get the Japs to do airfield attacks because I usually lose less than the Japs do and I can build a lot more B-17s where these came from. Same goes for the fighters.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T7 round 1 and this is the situation in the SW Pacific AO. I've moved aircraft out to the islands in the chain over to Australia and I'm reducing the number of active Jap aircraft at Tarawa prior to my invasion in T12.

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