Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
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You're facing a very capable opponent, so being behind due to the date and due to the oddities of your game put a lot of pressure on you. If memory serves, you've had some trouble with your carriers, but it hasn't been disastrous. In other words, I'm basing what I'm writing on the idea that you currently have carrier parity (+/- a few carriers) that will eventually (without further losses) work in your favor as you receive reinforcements. By late '44, you think you will be in a position to move strongly and possibly deeply. Swinging for a home run may work or may result in a strikeout. It's kind of all or nothing. If it's April '44 and I know my carrier situation won't allow me to move strongly for six months or so, I think I'd cast my eye around for something major and satisfying but not necessarily "home run." That's because I don't think Obvert is the kind of "pitcher" to throw a hanging curve. He isn't like to leave massive holes in his heartland. So a desperation invasion of Hokkaido or Korea or somewhere isn't likely to go well for you. In that case, you'll have invested six more months of game time so that you're ready to kill yourself or snap at anyone who enters your field of vision. :) I think I'd look cast around for something more likely to succeed, give me some hope, and put me in a better position to prosecute the war in '45. The first thing that comes to mind is Java. But there are lots of others. In the meantime, until you had all your forces available, work on sending subtle, probes in some far away directions that slowly, almost imperceptibly, lead your opponent to conclude your looking somewhere else. Perhaps you gradually increase your sub presence around Hokkaido and the Kuriles. You send a few more ships to the Aleutians...and then a few more...and then a few more. And you build up your bases...and then you start some long-range recon (later, not too long before your "mock" invasion date). Then a bunch of carriers and combat ships and TFs show up a week or two before D-Day. The appearances have built up very gradually, but steadily, over five or six months...and then the big invasion TF gets underway, making for the Kuriles...and suddenly 95% of your shipping shows up off southern Java or Sumatra or steams right past both and makes for Borneo. That's the way I think I'd do it. But there are probably many ways. If, on the other hand, you developed a strong sense that your opponent had gotten complacent, was defending forward too strongly, and had left some juicy piece of real estate vacant (Okinawa, Formosa, Korea, etc.), the you could try that. But you'd need to pour over months of SigInt reports to get a feel for what's available...and then be prepared for your opponent to realize his weakness at the last minute. Seeing reinforcements bound for your long-cherished invasion target is unsettling. It's a game. The challenge is immense. Much of the fun is in finding novel ways to solve a puzzle. The steady, straightforward, methodical advance works well, but dang everybody's done that. Where's the fun in mundane?
< Message edited by Canoerebel -- 12/5/2016 5:15:49 PM >
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