Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002
From: Northwestern Georgia, USA
Status: offline
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It's been a long, busy, tiring week at work. I got home last night and promptly fell asleep in a chair. Then I woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn't fall back asleep. So here I am with some random information about the game:
1. Rangoon and Pegu will fall within a day or two. And they have to. Ramree Island is down to 6k supply. The level 7 airfield has been a hub activity since June 1942. For most of that time it had 50k to 60k supply, but that's evaporated since the Allied air campaign recommenced on January 2, 1944. Once Rangoon and Pegu are taken, Ramree's importance should fade away.
2. I have amphibious TFs loading troops at two Philippine Islands. Most of the fighting troops are aboard ship, but - as sometimes happens - there is no button to "cancel loading." I want the ships to get underway now, with what they have. Usually there are ways around this particular issue, like clicking "unload" and then "cancel unload." But you also have to go into the loading screen and manually click "stop load." All of this is uncertain and subject to failure and highly exasperating to the anxious commander.
3. Allied air transport carried little cadres to a just auto-flipped island off Manila (to prevent it flipping back to Japan) and to Vientiane in Vietnam (or Laos, as Commander Cody points out). Given a bit of time, I'll garrison and build the Philippine island, but I don't expect to hold Vientiane. It just serves as a trigger if enemy troops approach.
4. I used a bomber squadron at Akyab to try to set missions in the non-base hexes leading to and from newly taken Luangpbragang (the AI won't let you target and empty hex, so if the squadron does accept the mission you know an enemy unit is present in the hex). None of the hexes on the various roads leading to the base accepted the targeting mission, so at the moment it doesn't seem like John is moving on this new listening post.
5. Confirmation came today that a ninth IJN DD sank during that tough naval battle of April 11. I think the final tally should be ten.
6. Death Star is in the Philippines. Every turn there are a zillion enemy merchant TFs not too far away - Miri or Palau or Balikpapan or Aparri. I could go hunting but I can't afford to chase zephyrs. Those TFs could scatter and prove difficult to pin down. Even then they may be nearly worthless. But the real problem is the opportunity cost. My supply line is very long and very narrow. Fuel comes from Oz via the Torres Strait and the DEI and the Philippine Sea (and originates in Africa or Hawaii). Thus far John hasn't managed to interdict any supply convoys. He's tried with subs and he threw bombers into the fray from New Guinea once, scoring no hits and losing a lot of aircraft to CAP. But he's monitoring things and eventually I think he'll throw in a DD TF from the Timor region. I have to conserve fuel very carefully. If I run low it'll become a crisis.
7. John has had KB positioned at Truk or the Carolines ever since Fun House got underway. Some of the time I've known it's exact position, but for a long time I had no idea. The lack of knowledge prevented me from moving forward in another leap into what I knew was open, undefended territory. So John's strategy has gained him that. The trade off is that he's left the Philippines (and points south) largely unprotected.
8. We've also engaged, mostly unknowingly, in a big game of chicken. I believe John posted KB in the Carolines because he expected me to move on Marcus Island. I, in turn, had a big TF - lots of naval ships and lots of merchants carrying reinforcements - ready to move from Hawaii directly to the Philippines. During that long interval when I didn't know KB's location, I feared moving those ships forward into the unknown. When KB showed up off Sorong I nearly had enough time to move in strength, but the window closed before I could get the ships where they needed to go. Now I'm weighing whether it'll be better to simply reroute the TFs down to the Coral Sea and then through the DEI. That decision hasn't been made yet.
9. I forgot to mention that today's Allied attack at Tacloban (Leyte) didn't do well. Two very experienced and strong Aussie RCT got 1:2 odds on 110 AV of 56th IJA Div. I suspect this might've had more to do with dice rolls than anything else, because my guys are stronger and in much better shape than John's guys. I'll stand mine down for a day or two while combat ships and dive bombers focus on 56th Div.
10. John hasn't used his kamikazes yet. And, from his recent post on the main AE page, I know he has Sams now. That's one reason I targeted Manila's airfield. He has several big airfields on Mindanao that are dangerous. Death Star will be moving to the south or southwest, away from all his airfields, and will be campaigning in a region with only small enemy fields. Mindanao is rather isolated now, so he should have some trouble with dwindling supply stores. Eventually that should render Mindanao weak.
8.
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RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent - 
But Lee was awfully aggressive on the defense, and I don't think the comparison holds. And if that is Sidney Albert, I don't think that comparison holds either but is better than Lee. Longstreet definitely holds though. Ole Pete. 
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