byron13
Posts: 1589
Joined: 7/27/2001 Status: offline
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Well, for RaverDave's benefit: So, I have selected the "Debacle in the West" and "U-Boat Terror" variants in which it is presumed that Britain did not manage Dunkirk and North Africa went poorly, resulting in a serious draw down of British land, sea, and air forces in India. I think the U-Boat terror is going to delay reinforcements from the Atlantic. Quite startling how weak India is. Other than a light cruiser force with destroyers in Columbo, the Prince of Wales and Repulse is all there is for the navy. I don't know what the historical land deployment was in India, but what I have now looks terribly weak. The first week went quickly. I consolidated the U.S. Fleet around Pearl and am cleaning up that mess. I hadn't realized it, but the Japanese apparently did go after the oil storage depots there because I only have 10k gallons of fuel there! I've loaded up a bunch of tankers in California to fix that problem. The Philippines have been hit heavily by air power and, though the P-40s have been holding there own, they are being attrited rapidly. I'm down to 38 serviceable a/c. The B-17s have made a couple of runs at shipping but havent' hit anything. As for production, I nixed the F4U because, according to game stats, the Hellcat is about as capable, and the manufacturing screen indicates that pushing R&D from the F4U will accelerate introduction of the Hellcat by four months. That's quite a reward, so I went that way. Sorry if others disagree, but then you can do your own AAR and do something different! I just watched the Japanese second week move. It's obvious now that it's taking advantage of the weakened British position and is doing an "India First" strategy. An invasion fleet just steamed by the Philippines escorted by two unidentified CVL's. The B-17s and A20s lit out after them with a piddly escort. The P-40s gave as good as they got, and I only lost three bombers. The B-17s were, once again, worthless, and even from 12,000 the crews could hear the Japanese laughing. The A-20s did better as I put them on the skip-bombing routine, and one of the groups had an experience rating of 76. They managed a total of five hits with 500 lbs. bombs, and one transport turned turtle. But they cruised on by with no other losses. I may have missed a heavy escort force: I didn't see anything, but I can't believe that the force I saw is going to try and make it by Singapore alone. The land forces in Indo-China also started moving south, so India and Singapore better watch out! Too bad I didn't have any subs in the area. I'll post some to get the Japanese on the return home. Production is humming along smoothly. With no fuel oil at Pearl, I've got nothing to move to threatened areas, and I've tasked my available transports to haul additional rubber from Indonesia while it's still available. Then I . . . Huh? :eek: What? Another dream??? Ah, sleep is such a wonderful things these days with visions of fleets and armies dancing before my eyes. :p The world is mine to conquer. Now, if they'd only get WitP out as well! Hey, need any beta testers to do some gaming while I'm actually awake? Ah, yes, Mike. The old "buy this game so the next one will be better" routine. Okay, I'll buy three copies of UV.:D
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