BBfanboy
Posts: 18046
Joined: 8/4/2010 From: Winnipeg, MB Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: Canoerebel 3/10/44 SigInt: Reports of an IJA division as Foochow. No hole there. Another report of a bunch of troops at a base I'm looking at carefully. At first I thought, "Dang it! Erik is prepared there too!" The more I think about it, the more my thoughts shift to, "Hmmm." There are no stacking limits here. That makes picking the wrong base bad news. I'd hate to land at Jakarta only to find 518,000 soldiers there. But the Allies can land 518,000 troops in a hex too. And possibly use the "non-base invasion" tactic (if it's permitted by House Rule, and I think it is) to isolated bases from immediate reinforcement by rail. I'd rather find key bases that have no garrisons. That's always fun. But it's not likely to happen in this game. Not against Erik. Not if he has a division at Foochow. But what if I get SigInt that there are 35,000 troops in a key hex - enough for Erik to feel like he has that base properly defended....but not enough to withstand an invasion of 125,000 troops 100% prepped with plenty of bombardment TFs to back them up. The Allies have to take one base somewhere and can then land an army of 500,000 (or more) to deal with a Hokkaido or Formosa or Luzon etc. That's a big order. That's tough. That's dangerous. But the Allies should have a decided carrier advantage and a merchant marine possibly capable of carrying 1,000,000 men and enough supply to handle matters for six months or longer. Those are the thoughts running through my mind. Big stakes. Big challenges. Difficult to achieve surprise. Perhaps hard to get a foothold. But not beyond possibility. I haven't done the math yet, but would you invade Hokkaido with 1,000,000 men? Would you take on 300,000 with 1 million? I tried the landings at non-base hexes a few times and each time casualties were ~ 50%. Your prep for a nearby base does not help with a non-base landing. I think paratroops by air drop or sub transport are a better way to cut rail lines. Or use Raiders from APDs to land at the non-base hex. You can secure it against enemy interference but you can't stop the surf from wrecking your Higgins boats in a major landing. Hokkaido- yes to 1,000,000 vs 300K, but only if I had lots of other units to poke at the empire elsewhere. I don't like the idea of all the eggs in one basket.
_____________________________
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
|