ChezDaJez
Posts: 3436
Joined: 11/12/2004
From: Chehalis, WA
Status: offline
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quote:
1. Q-Ball's AAR has extensive commentary on how to achieve an auto victory (and not just by doing India). The principles hold equally for Australia.
2. You don't seem to be factoring in harvesting strategic VPs (see Q-Ball AAR) for Japan.
3. Invading New Zealand before making the big move on Australia is a mistake because:
(a) you don't need it to cut off Australia from West Coast
(b) still leaves CapeTown-Perth/Adelaide SLOC completely open
(c) imposes a delay on Japanese operations against Australia
(d) triggers significant Allied reinforcements which can be deployed decisively to stymie Japanese operations against Sumatra, Java or Burma - IOW the Allied player does not have to waste time getting those reinforcements all the way to NZ but can move them to far more decisive theatres far closer to their arrival location
(e) if you invade NZ you must capture both the North and South Islands in order to minimise your deployment - even then the garrison requirements of 260 Ass Val (other wise you don't get the full VP value) is a noticeable drain on your Australian schwerpunkt
4. Landing in Perth is not the way to cut the Trans Australia railway. To cut the rail line you either land at Esperance and drive north to capture Kalgoorlie, or capture Port Augusta. Both those locations are above the Line Of Death and therefore do not trigger the emergency Australian reinforcements.
5. Landing at Port Kembla has several downsides:
(a) it triggers the emergency Australian reinforcements - again just like NZ, these reinforcements can be gainfully employed elsewhere but unlike NZ, there are sufficient Australian forces present to impose a stubborn Allied defence which gains sufficient time for the reinforcements to actually be transferred to Australia.
(b) Port Kembla is very close to major Allied reserves which can quickly join the defence
(c) there are several close by mutually supporting airbases which you will have difficulty in closing down
6. Overall you are dissipating your Australian operations into too many separate, non mutually supportive, operations
7. You have absolutely no grounds for believing your opponent will move troops away from Sydney/Melbourne to meet any Japanese landing elsewhere - in his game against Q-Ball he relied upon the Indian Line Of Death, why would he not do the same in Australia, particularly as landing at Port Kembla guarantees him receiving a high boost in reinforcements
8. I don't believe you have properly calculated how long and with what forces, the capture of the SRA will need. Very noticeable is your complete oversight of Java and almost only a passing reference to Sumatra in your opening remarks. You need both Australia and the SRA for auto victory calculations (directly in accumulating VPs and maintaining a strong economy).
9. In his game against Q-Ball, your opponent almost from day 1 started evacuating his Malaya forces out via Port Blair. Your early move on Sabang/Port Blair will cut off this route but in fact will encourage him to take the southern escape route via Palembang/Oosthaven/Batavia.
10. The net result of points 3, 8 and 9 above is that you have an extremely optimistic timetable for your Australian invasion.
Hi Alfred,
I have never tried an invasion of Australia or NZ so I welcome your comments. You have some very valid points so I'll try to justify my thoughts. I am open to changing my course of action if that's what I need to do.
1. I am trying to avoid reading any AAR that Canoerebel is a player in, or an opponent of. I have read the first 3-5 pages of Q-Ball's AAR vs Canoerebel before I was selected as Canoerebel's opponent. Call it old fashioned or just plain stupid but I really feel it detracts from my enjoyment of the game if I know what he has done in previous games.
2. I do understand harvesting VPs. That is my normal style of play. I tend to expand only to what I feel is defensible and then wait out the inevitable counter attack. As I am normally a historical type player, I have never played counted on auto victory in the past. So this is all new ground. Advice on how to achieve it without giving away Canoerebel's typical strategy is most welcome.
3. The reason for invading NZ is simple. Without NZ, he will have a much harder time mounting an attack against the east coast of OZ. His build up would be limited to Suva and nearby bases. I do not intend to garrison NZ completely. Most of the invasion troops will be pulled once my major objectives are taken. I understand I will not gain full VPs by not garrisoning but that is not the objective. The objective is to deny him the use of NZ as a staging base. This will give the added benefit that any base not garrisoned will be damaged/destroyed by partisan attack. He wil have to repair them before he can use them.
With a decent size air contingent and the major ports fortified, Dan will have to commit a sizeable force to retake it and that buys me time. Now he can go through New Caledonia and cut off NZ but I consider the NZ forces to be lost anyways. Best case sceanrio is that I can evacuate some forces back to OZ. Coming through New Caledonia brings him closer to my bases in the Solomons and leaves himself open to air attack from three sides (N, S, W).
4. The purpose of landing in Perth is simply to deny him the use of the base and to gain the use of a sizeable airfield to cut the SLOC from India to Oz. A side benefit is that once Cunderdin and Kalgoorlie falls, he he can no longer use rail movement to bring his troops close enough to Perth to mount a counter attack in a timely manner. Any invasion from the sea to any of the coastal bases near Perth is a doable operation for him. But it creates a very long SLOC that he must keep open and it is highly susceptible to interdiction by my submarines and carrier forces.
5. Any move on Sydney exposes my troops to the concerns you expressed. But Sydney is the key to the entire land mass IMO. Port Kemblee is the best port to attack as it contains no CD units to tear up my invasion fleet. I have so far identified 5 inf divisions that will participate in the attack on Sydney. I also have identified several recon and armor units that will move to cut lines of advance to Sydney. I do not have time to march down a coast road any great distance to get to Sydney. To do so allows him to consolidate his defences. Landing in the heart of them will disrupt that consolidation. His air forces in OZ are weak.
6. I agree with you here but understand that Sydney is the main goal. The area around Sydney represents the majority of Aussie supply production. If he loses that, he will not be able to mount any offensives without bringing in external supply. All other Japanese actions in OZ are designed to prevent supply from coming in easily.
7. Absolutely true. I doubt that he will move any substantial forces to counter my landings in OZ. But if he moves even just one unit, that is one unit less to face at Sydney. The general timeline is this... land at Perth and Darwin initially. Then somewhere along the north coast while the fight for NZ is going on. In the meantime, my Sydney invasion force with 3 divs onboard and suporting troops will gather in the Coral Sea. Once the primary NZ objectives are met, the inf divs there will reload onto transports and head west. I anticipate that the NZ operation may take as long as a month. That gives the Perth and Darwin forces time to do what they need to do.
8. I have not overlooked Java. Java will be invaded after Singapore falls using my Malaya troops. Borneo and the PI will be mopped up after Java falls. This is close to my standard pattern. Cutting off Perth and Darwin and securing Sabang/Port Blair before landing on Java will help reduce his evacuation options assuming he doesn't Sir Robin from the start. If he does, those forces are likely headed for Darwin or towards Ceylon. If Darwin, then my invasion there will be put on hold as I will not have enough troops to take the place. But Darwin is of miniscule importance at this stage.
And yes, my timetable is probably overly optimistic. that's one of the reasons I do not want to say "On Feb 1st, I will land at Sydney, et al" I plan to remain flexible and change plans on the fly if forced to.
I do appreciate this type of exchange as it confirms or questions my thoughts. Again I have never attempted to invade Australia before. I most definitely need to prep my units as far in advance as possible. I do intend to prep some restricted units in Japan and Manchuria for bases in India to give a false impression that those areas may be targets. I have zero intention of using them or invading India.
Please keep the advice coming but please, please avoid giving away Canoerebel's past strategies.
Thanks,
Chez
_____________________________
Ret Navy AWCS (1972-1998)
VP-5, Jacksonville, Fl 1973-78
ASW Ops Center, Rota, Spain 1978-81
VP-40, Mt View, Ca 1981-87
Patrol Wing 10, Mt View, CA 1987-90
ASW Ops Center, Adak, Ak 1990-92
NRD Seattle 1992-96
VP-46, Whidbey Isl, Wa 1996-98
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