29000Kevin
Posts: 56
Joined: 9/26/2020 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101 January 21, 1943 Looks like the game is afoot. All of a sudden, large-scale Allied troop movements are detected all over India. I think Andy's offensive in the subcontinent is about to happen. I was seriously considering a strong defense but I won't be ready for that until the arrival of half a dozen more divisions from the Soviet front so it may very well be too late for that. Andy's airpower has continued to grow over the past weeks/months and it's looking daunting too. I don't relish a fight with his divisions in the open with that kind of air support. Now I am thinking of a gradual retreat into Burma and delaying action elsewhere. I'm lucky I have naval superiority as that should allow me some flexibility for sea withdrawals when necessary. I will leave a residual garrison in Calcutta and maybe Bombay to hold out for as long as possible. Meanwhile, Andy has also pulled back his motorized and mechanized Soviet units from the front in the north and I strongly suspect he will send them through Alma-Ata into China. I can't get enough supply up there for a strong stand so I will likely pull back there as well to more defensible lines. With 1943 here the high-water mark of the Japanese Empire's advance in this game is clearly over. It's been a fun ride, now for the grind. It has been obvious for the last few months that Andy was planning something big in India with the signs beginning signs of the Battle of the Arabian Sea, the Soviet Bomber squadrons incident, KB's first attack on a large Convoy, the destruction of the last USN fleet Carriers, the extremely limited amount of naval traffic in Australia, the huge mega Allied Convoys escaping via storms... by the way why did you not just attack the allied convoys with your Surface ships, did they all fail to intercept it or was it too dangerous or something and the 1000 planes spotted on a base incident... The pieces were their right in front of us, Andy has gone and placed all his eggs into one region. Unfortunately for you the Rainy season June - September is over. The best you can do now is destroy the Industry of India with a fighting retreat (for regions that have industry), use layered CAP to catch the Bombers, deploy the Tojo's to exterminate the Allied pools, send in your own bombers to punish his air bases without any cap, stockpile your supplies to Calcutta ASAP, make at stand at Calcutta, if the city gets surrounded turn it into a Stalingrad, make a defensive line in Burma and try to evacuate supplies and fuel to Ceylon. And get KB ready to CAP trap any unsuspecting Bombers. The Soviet Air force does exist but its threat is mostly minimal with the exception with the Battleships. However I will warn you that I'm no expert so its up to your discretion on what you plan to do for the future of this campaign. Heck you could do a full Air attack on the West Coast of America alongside a Battleship bombardment to damage Andy's Air factories and delay the arrival of late war planes and also destroy his old American BB's, I have seen the P-51H factory being bombed by the IJN Ise once before in a PBEM game where the Japan player launched a full scale invasion of the WC and failed to achieve the desired results. still it was bloody epic to watch it. Attacking their is not that wise unless we want to destroy the American Battleship fleet, catch some CVE and kill some precious Tankers and meanwhile waste a lot of Japanese fuel. Better yet you could attack Perl Harbour finally if he has moved the majority of his Air force to India or attack Australia again although not much can be accomplished, also LBA get progressively more dangerous in the South Pacific as 1943 ticks by so the risk might not be worth it. Attacking Perl Harbour could land us a nice list of ship kills with some Oilers but we will get more mission kills than actual kills if the Battleships distract the bombers. Australia doesn't seem that worth it since their ismnot much activities going on. The choices are limitness with KB, but focusing on the front where Andy has all his eggs is probably the right decision to call since the RN might climb out of its closet to conduct Bombardments.
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