geofflambert
Posts: 14863
Joined: 12/23/2010 From: St. Louis Status: offline
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Moo, you're right about nothing coming against handily. I'm referring to Port Moresby, Noumea, Tulagi and Espiritu Santo in particular. I usually try to reinforce Rabaul but vontiger is teaching me that that's impossible against a human who has some idea of what they should be doing. It's a real setback if you lose PM. Tulagi, Espiritu Santo and Noumea are real good places to base Catalinas or Hudsons for searching, so you need to scrounge up some RAAF base forces to send there. Many of them are sitting around in useless places doing nothing, so just RR them to Sydney, say, and when you're ready expend the PPs to release them and ship them out. The Aussie infantry units for the most part are 1/2 strength, but send them anyway to garrison. Those little armoured units are nice to send to and maybe some of those MG bns. The RAAF units will not only service the float planes, but their engineers can help you fortify, which is very important, and they give a small amount of extra support too. At Espiritu Santo and Noumea you can also use AVPs or AVDs to service the float planes, but they won't help you fortify. In Australia I'd just RR everything that isn't necessary where it is to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane (maybe even Townsville) to be available to put on ships and send somewhere where you need them. Make sure to garrison and begin fortifying Cairns and Townsville especially, though. Now about the Japanese CVs and subs, they will always be having difficulties with fueling and staying in an area (Karachi, or Pago Pago eg.) and it will be some time before he can do anything near Karachi. I don't know what Colombo traffic you refer to but stop it, there's no need for traffic there. Also put the Naval base force there on ships and send it to Karachi. They will have nothing to do at Colombo and if you base any ships there they will be sunk. Also, putting them at Karachi will help greatly with unloading troops, fuel and supplies. Just do it. Now if he splits his CVs up, he is making a mistake and you need to try and capitalize. You have three very good carriers with very good air crews and you will soon have a fourth. A couple of these won't have a full complement of aircraft but there will be carrier capable sqdns available. Fill up your carriers and don't worry about going over the limit by a few planes (up to 15% of capacity). Divide sqdns up if you need to, also put carrier capable sqdns on if there are no carrier trained ones available and put them on 50% training (general) and by the time you might have a battle they will be ready. Again, if he divides his forces, you take your 4 carriers out and go hunting. If he's way down south trying to interdict your supply lines, he will not have any land based support (Bettys and Nells) so just go in and whack him. One thing more, about your ships trying to escape Singapore and DEI, just send them to Perth and then decide what to do with them. They will not be interfered with going there. Load the TKs and xAKs with fuel though, Australia needs it. On that subject, India needs fuel but the TKs and xAKs you will have in theater can move more than they need from Abadan to Karachi. Send the Dutch TKs to LA or SF, there will be an endless supply of fuel there and the distance to Sydney is not that great. Don't forget Aukland in your considerations, it's a real important base for you.
< Message edited by geofflambert -- 5/27/2012 12:39:35 AM >
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