Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
|
5/5/42 and 5/6/42 China: Changsha fell. This is truly a sea change, for my entire MLR hinged on this key base. I knew my garrison was a bit tuckered (a recent bombing attack left my biggest unit 77% disrupted, though other units were at 0%), but I didn't think a collapse was imminent. Since everything hinged on Changsha, the fall leaves all kinds of units out of position with poor lines of retreat. IE, this is a mess! Nearly my entire MLR is untenable, including Chengte and Kweilin. I'll watch to see which way or ways John moves, try to slow him down, try to extricate as many of my "hey, I'm stuck out here" units as possible, and continue to configure a secondary line. There's much fighting left to do, but make no mistake this was bad news. (I also think it's the first time I've lost Changsha in any WitP or AE game, so kudos to John.) Burma: IJ bombers visited the vanguard Indian brigade established on the line of key jungle hexes. I wish I'd had a few more weeks to surreptiously establish this line, but okay. It's possible that John will see the danger here and begin feeding in more troops, which may take some heat off elsewhere. Bottom line, though, is that he's probably too late to sieze the main hexes I'm shooting for. India: The Allied position in India is almost beyond worrying about now. Pretty soon, I can begin "buying" Indian divisions and feeding them forward into the Upper Burma jungles. (The Allies still have a very thorough "defense in depth" from Chittagong through to Calcutta to Viz and all the interior bases to keep open the LOC to Bombay and Karachi.) The Allies have accumulated 1,800 political poitns towards the effort of buying restricted units. Before I spend PP wholesale, though, I want to see how supply works for my units in the Burmese jungles. India is flush with supply, so I'm hoping the trickle effect will work. If it does, the Allies go all out in Burma. If it doesn't, then it'll be more of an attritional war. Australia: The little IJ army (400 or 600 AV?) is a hex from Geraldton. This army lacks armor, which is a fatal flaw, though I realize it may be acting merely as a feint while an amphibious assault targets Esperance or Albany or the like. But I just can't see it. The Allies have grown stout in Oz. I think it would take a six-division offensive to make me perspire. And even then I'd be gambling with house money, because the Perth theater is important, but not vital. Pacific: Lots of IJ activity around the Santa Cruz islands. Two Marine regiments arrived, one at SD and one at East Coast. Since 8th Marines is at Akutan Island in the Aleutians, 2nd Marines just in at SD is likely to prep for an Aluetians target. 5th Marines at East Coast will prep for Tarawa and move down to San Diego. 7th Marines at Seattle is nearly 100% prepped for Adak. I'll have to make a call: do I really foresee a move on the Aluetians before winter? If not, I need to move 7th down to SD and have her prep for Tarawa.
|