jwilkerson
Posts: 10525
Joined: 9/15/2002 From: Kansas Status: offline
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7-8 May 1942 War Summary Well, this turn marks the double milestone in the historical war, where the Americans had surrendered in the PI and the Battle of Coral Sea happened as well. I usually use this as the point to judge the success or failure of the Japanese expansion. And I usually do this simply by comparing the in game results to the historical results. Burma In Burma I would say we are pretty far behind - and probably irretreivably so. Both Akyab and Mytchina are still in enemy hands with new units piling up in those spots each turn. I think Akyab is now up to 30 units and Mytchina is holding at 26 units. We have the historical number of 4 Divisions in Burma but this would not be nearly enough force to take either Akyab or Mytchina in the game. In the air war in Burma, we are facing 100+ plane raids each turn, including B-17s and P-38s. Sumatra Here though we are behind, we are in the "mop up" phase - so direct negative effects are not felt. Of course the delays in the "mopping up" could be linked to failure to beat the historical timeline in other spots, such as Burma. We have about one division committed to finished up the occupation of Sumatra though with the large number of bases and dots we still have to capture, I would estimate this division will be busy for at least two months. Java Java itself is over, but there are a number of nearby bases that still need to be occupied, including Cocos and Christmas IO. Also, a few bases in Borneo still need to be occupied. I would estimate a month for one regiment to complete these tasks. Spice Islands, Celebes and Timor Nik is working quickly in this area but there are many bases and dots to capture. Also the allies seem to have deposited a fair number of small units around on these dots and bases, so we are actually running into some opposition. I would estimate another two months for roughly two regimental equivalents. Of course we also need to do a massive build up in this area as the Allied base at Darwin is already a power house. The B-17s seem to have gone elsewhere, but the B-26s have enough range to hit Timor and other nearby bases, so this area is the "front line" - and any Allied advance in this area would threaten the refineries at Balikpapan, so this is one of the most dangerous areas on the map. Philippines I am preparing to attack at Manilla-grad but this is just part of our major "behinded-ness" in the PI. Most of the bases and dots in the Central and Southern PI sill need to be captured. I would estimate two months for about a division equivalent. Nik is starting on this task now. As to the battle in Manilla-grad, I'll know more after the first attack. Best case I would say about a month for my army of 4 Division equivalents, worst case longer. Papua and Solomons Well we never really got established here - and given the air power present at Port Morseby I doubt we ever will. This area we will probably write off and use as a "buffer zone". If we can hold Rabaul through the end of 1942, we will call it a victory! We're still discussing our "fall back line". Marshalls and Gilberts This area is definitely a write off - we may even pull back a few useful units. Aleutians In hindsite we should have gone in here will more sooner - though there wasn't really any "more" to go in with! But we are considering an attack into the area now. Unfortunately it looks like Adak has been built into a power house base already. So any "adventure" up to Attu and/or Kiska might be short lived anyway. But still might be worth doing to create additional delay. China In the Nanyang area, we will try to beat up his one remaining big stack one more time, but otherwise, we've accomplished our objectives in this area. Then the focus will be to drive back the Chinese forces beseiging the "tri-city" area. And then we will shift focus to the SW area to try to drive the Chinese farther away from Haiphong which is a critical resource source. Summary of the Summary Our primary goal at this point is to try to establish a perimieter which prevents bombing of our refineries once July '43 rolls around. A key game house rule prohits city attacks until July '43. On that date, we would expect Allied 4EB to take out all refineries in range, so our goal, is to minimize the number of refineries in range. In particular those at Palembang, Balikpapan and Tarakan we desire to be out of range from Allied 4EB on that date. And the few in the home islands. Those in Burma of course are written off. Otherwise, protecting the general area of the Home Islands, the NRA and the SRA and the seaways between them are the priority. We need resources, oil and fuel to keep the means of production running for as long as possible. We are now in the "build up and prepare to delay" phase of the game.
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AE Project Lead New Game Project Lead
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