Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
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When I stepped in effective March 1, 1944, the first decision made was to re-orient the Allies. Joseph had a massive concentration in SWPac, around Rabaul and Milne Bay and vicinity. It seemed the Allies were pretty far behind and needed to close with the Home Islands. So the Allies invaded Sikhalin Island (successfully, but it was a close thing!) in June. I thought that put the Allied air force in position to efficiently take the war to the northern Home Islands. In the real war, that would've been the case. In a game against a newbie, that would've been the case. But in a game against a player like Erik it wasn't even close. For about a half year, I tried everything I could think of: daylight bombing, nighttime bombing, various altitudes, various targets, naked or escorted, many targets or just one, my orders or commander discretion (only a few of those missions tried), sweeps high or low or mixed or middle, etc. There were some successes but by and large I learned that Erik had the kinds of fighters, the kinds of pilots, and the quantity of flak to make the endeavors prohibitively expensive. Allied bomber and fighter losses were high and the pools were far to slim by early '45 to keep on doing what I was doing. Even the P-47N couldn't handle what he had! When it became clear the Allies weren't in a position to double the score in the first half of 1945, I decided it was better to proceed with things that were efficient and to (mostly) stand down the things that were inefficient until I could change the paradigm. There was still a lot of fighting going on, but mostly it was to keep Erik on his toes while putting the Allies into position to efficiently score points. The Allies managed to take SE Asia and to land in China, so there were some gains. But time passed and it seemed like the Allied lead was only creeping along. Yet, I think in the end the Allies will achieve victory more quickly than if I'd try to go toe-to-toe with Erik, battering my way to victory. Recent carrier sweeps vs. Nagasaki combined with LBA, plus the quick fall of Luzon, were the kinds of successes I was working for. With the Russians active, with the Allies ashore in strength in China and about to add to that number significantly, with Singapore possibly in order, and with DS soon to be available for full-time offensive duty around the Home Island, I think the Allied lead will increase steadily now.
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