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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/23/2021 8:52:45 PM

EUBanana

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And the impulse comes to an end.

The weather improves... a lil. But lawd. Germany has been pretty boned here, just as things looked like they might turn for the better. Snow at least allows better prep as the supply situation is better, means they should be able to move some stuff into proper position, but then, same applies to the USSR...

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/23/2021 9:14:27 PM

EUBanana

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The US goes for an air action, to use their strategic bombers they spent so much on.

They do need to do a naval and a land ideally too, (or a combined will probably do) to load an HQ to the UK and move things along in Libya,so time is getting tight.

Got a hard time thinking of things for the Commonwealth to do. So they do a combined. It's inefficient but as stuff turns up as every option comes along i'm sure I'll think of thinigs.

USSR/China land of course.

CW gets to ponder naval moves. It's all pretty minor. One thing i notice is they need supply on the coast of Australia to move up units, but there's nothing organised down there right nowand I think they are out of oil or something in Aus.

In the end they load an INF in Greece, weakening it a bit, into an AMPH in Italian Coast. And move a TRN from Gibraltar to Liverpool to even out where the TRNs are.

No combat at Italian Coast again.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/23/2021 9:19:46 PM

EUBanana

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Massive strategic bombing of Germany. All in daylight.

"Our bombers shall block out the sun."

"Then we shall fight in the shade.".

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/23/2021 9:23:13 PM

EUBanana

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Germany has 3 fighters in defence. It's not bloodless for the Allies. Of course anything shot down loses the pilot as well but the US has plenty of those.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/23/2021 9:25:37 PM

EUBanana

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Looks like even with American high defence bombers, fighter escort will be required to bomb in daytime.

Or trickling the bombers in over a full turn to overwhelm the fighters may be.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/23/2021 9:27:31 PM

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The territorials in an aligned minor country belong to that minor country, and are supplied from that countries capital. Thus Libyan territorials are supplied from Tripoli, so one is never going to put an Italian controlled Tripolitan territorial out of supply.

What is the garrison ratio between Italian and Allied units in Italy? Remember that units in ZOCs do not count. If it is close, the Italians should see if they could get units into Italy or out of ZOCs to stave off surrender; similarly the Allies should be trying to get units into Italy, not in ZOCs. If the Allies are winning by a lot, the Italians should try and get Italian units out of Italy, because the ones in Italy will go away when Italy surrenders, while the ones outside of Italy won't.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/23/2021 9:27:41 PM

EUBanana

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The oldest German fighter does not survive the impulse, though. Nor its pilot.

Actually more damage than the bombing would do, it seems to me.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/23/2021 9:30:12 PM

EUBanana

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This is the only actual hit, all rolls below 6. Germany did very well in the air war this turn...

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/23/2021 9:36:01 PM

EUBanana

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Courtenay
What is the garrison ratio between Italian and Allied units in Italy?

Hmm. Where even is that in the UI? I'm not seeing that anywhere.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/23/2021 11:04:29 PM

Courtenay

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quote:

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

quote:

ORIGINAL: Courtenay
What is the garrison ratio between Italian and Allied units in Italy?

Hmm. Where even is that in the UI? I'm not seeing that anywhere.

To the best of my knowledge, it isn't displayed anywhere. You have to count. 1 for most units, land and air. 0 for naval units, including CVPs. 0.5 for divisions. 2 for HQ-A, ARM, MECH, MTN and SS (except divisions). Units in ZOCs don't count. Neither do disrupted units, but reorganization happens before conquest, so you should be able to organize everything.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/24/2021 9:14:16 PM

cfinch

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o points / chits come in handy for US (and others of course) to do an air but move some naval or land etc

and hopefully my idea is working (I can't tell yet) of RU moving into their supply and reinforcements and away from GEs

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/24/2021 9:48:17 PM

EUBanana

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Courtenay
To the best of my knowledge, it isn't displayed anywhere. You have to count. 1 for most units, land and air. 0 for naval units, including CVPs. 0.5 for divisions. 2 for HQ-A, ARM, MECH, MTN and SS (except divisions). Units in ZOCs don't count. Neither do disrupted units, but reorganization happens before conquest, so you should be able to organize everything.

Play WiF... by hand?.

Hehe. Well, that will require some work. Assuming things like AA guns and antitank are half, looks like...

Axis has 26.5 total
Allies have 23.5, 24.5 total if Sardinia counts

This is counting all the naval bombers active in the Italian Coast should they land somewhere they count. Probably slightly wrong but the Axis seem to have a slight lead. 2 more corps that can come in from Libya soon.

However out of ZOC the Allies have almost nothing as they dont have any depth, and the Italians are deployed back to stop any more amphibious assaults. The Allies have Wavell, an ENG, and an INF, and the aircraft, which is about another 7-8 maybe which could theoretically not land right on the front. Seems they have a disadvantage given that tiny pocket by Rome which can hardly avoid ZOC, while the Italians in theory could I guess have a thin front line of MNTs on mountain hexes ( 3 german and 1 italian MNT in Italy atm) which would be pretty tough and the rest un-zocced.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/24/2021 10:26:09 PM

EUBanana

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quote:

ORIGINAL: cfinch
and hopefully my idea is working (I can't tell yet) of RU moving into their supply and reinforcements and away from GEs

Slow WiF day today as I went out, but the Russians are in the process of pulling out. And it will free up a lot of units I think.

The only wrinkle is as its late-ish in the turn now on impulse #7, abandoning the disrupted artillery seems a bit premature. So the lines at Smolensk/Mogilev/Gomel havn't moved yet, which is where much of the benefit will come from. They will retreat to around Bryansk and hopefully those forest hexes will become strongpoints.

In the north there's disorged Koniev but he has a ready Katyusha next to him, a red AA gun with him, and Il-2 next to him to intervene so I don't think it likely the Germans will just be able to walk right through him.

Only Guderian is on the Gomal-Smolensk-Moscow line too, it's a bit long for one commander. Hence those OoS units nearer Gomel. The German position is not ideal.

Don't think it'll be till tomorrow (probably) that I sit down and finish the turn before it'll become that clear though. Feels like summer '43 is going to be the now or never point though, for Germany and Russia. I mean surely Germany can't go on into 1944, at which point the Allies will be in France as well as Italy.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 9:58:26 AM

EUBanana

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Aside from rearranging the eastern front as above, the Allies do a few tiny little things.

A couple of strat bombers unload from TRNs to Gibraltar with the US's air move, they can fly the rest of the way themselves. These are not the best, a B17B and B24D, but they do have at least a couple of tactical factors.

The CW do similarly tiny rebasing stuff. Rain in Italy has mired Wavell yet again, uits literally taking him a month to walk 3 hexes as I don't want to waste oil.

China I noticed a problem in the south (finally) in that the Chinese are doing quite well around the Canton area but have no HQ and have reached the limit of their HQ-less supply lines, which is quite annoying. Earlier Japanese attacks in the game cornered Chiang in the central interior, and Stillwell is up at Chengchow. If Chiang could teleport himself to Nanning then they could possibly draw in some Japanese reinforcements, as it is, it's probably going to be complete stasis in southern China for ... the rest of the war?

Can an ATR transport Chiang? Could get a C47 or something.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 10:17:36 AM

Centuur

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Sardinia is not a part of Italy, so anything there doesn't count for the garrison value.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 10:29:20 AM

EUBanana

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So, over to the Axis again. It'll be a quiet impulse I think with the bad weather. Also the end of the turn draws near. The Allies would like another naval action from the US to set up next turns activities. Also mental note, need to be way more careful with 'stay at sea' for the Allies now they are using TRNs to support supply lines, convoy points you can forget about but TRNs require management...

Anyway.

Mar/April 43, Axis #10.

Italy takes a combined as they only ever got lots of tiny things to do now, not move vast armies about the map.

Germany obviously can, and takes a land, as the Eastern Front is being readjusted right now by the USSR and they need to therefore react. No chit though, as its snowing. Its odd as its so late in the turn and so many units are not disorganised, after a busy winter its been a very, very quiet Spring.

Japans thing right now is to move troops out of Malaya and put them somewhere useful, like the Philippines. But at the same time they want to move troops around, Hata in China, the guys on the Philippines themselves... they definitely would like another impulse. Also I put a Japanese TRN on the west coast of Malaya earlier to get troops out quickly, not anticipating that the CW would be able to put a carrier fleet in the Bay of Bengal that, given the oil shortage, the IJN can't just bat away at will. So I need to extricate that. Probably will be reliant on a lucky intercept roll, unfortunately, but I can't leave it there, eventually it'll just get bombed or something.

So they go for a naval.

To try and help extricate that transport, the Nell at Singora patrols the Indian Ocean.

Hiryu sails from Canton to the China Sea. Hiryu has no fighters after a bit of reorganisation of the carrier air at Canton, and there's reinforcements to load onto it.

A 'who dares, wins' approach is adopted in the Bay of Bengal as you can see... I wonder if the Nell shoulda gone in the 0 box or something.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 10:40:24 AM

EUBanana

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Well it wasn't far off 50/50 so quite a risk but the Imperial Guard sail out of there right under the Royal Navy's nose, and end up in the China Sea, ready to debark to the PI. Nice.

The IJN has a lot of cruisers lying around... and would like to use them... but can't. ugh. They are getting a SYNTH this year (Sep/Oct), I shoulda built two. Upshot is the South China Sea only has cruisers in the 1 box thanks to the Thai Navy which I forgot about.

Also the carrier air on the main fleet at Truk is looking a bit... old. 4 carriers with 2 points of fighters on them. That doesn't seem the ideal force to fight the USN in 1944.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 10:48:16 AM

EUBanana

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The Pacific is big. Very big. And the Americans STILL are not able to cover ever convoy point they got. (Its why I started building American cruisers. I didn't think they would need any. Now the Pacific War has been going in earnest for almost a year, I think they do.) It doesn't help that their navies in the Coral Sea and the Solomons are totally disorged.

A couple of Japanese cruisers slink out of Rabaul right past those fleets to go surface raiding for convoys. One in the New Zealand Sea, and one in Polynesia. The US does have spare CPs in theatre but veen if they dont actually run out its all additional annoyances and wasted turns from the US to try and fix everything.

End result is, there's actually a fair bit of potential fleet action this impulse.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 11:11:38 AM

EUBanana

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And a flurry of dice rolls later, not a single naval engagement anywhere, aside from the Bay of Bengal, where the British find the Nell, and think, nah, no point risking losing fighters so far from the UK, so, 'avoid combat'.

As we're reaching the 'use em or forever hold your peace' a fair few German bombers brave the snow on the Eastern Front to bomb the enemy. 5 air strikes, not single hit anywhere, so thats easy to document. Porbably about half of the German's strength in bombers used.

Rundstedt and a MECH and a MOT-div are railed to Dnepropetrovsk.

A Ju-88 rebases after bombing to near Sevastapol, lets see if this loose end can be tied up.

Italy sends a CAV to Leghorn, as its a clear hex it might be tempting to attack, now its less tempting.

Those two German MNTs inch south in Italy, the rain even slows them down. :( its a hex a turn basically. The ideal would be for 3 German MNTs to cover the south, and release a lot of the Italian INF/CAV for further north, as a single 8 factor MNT on a mountain hex the CW will have serious problems with.

Von Bock actually moves up to Pskov finally, as the various reinforcements up there are starting to make an appearance. I can see a few opportunities for attacks (purple circles) - Pskov, Vatutin holding the line, and a single MECH SW of Bryansk, but I'll have to see the odds with the snow to see how doable any of those are. But I've tried to set things up as optimally as possible for the attack phase.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 11:20:30 AM

EUBanana

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As suspected Pskov is not doable, die roll of +0.9. I dont think using winterized units (which are present) will turn that into a win.

Neither is Vatutin.

But the MECH at Bryansk is looking at +10, which is more like it.

Zhukov tries to help, because why not? it's late in the turn, and he's in position, and a bad roll with that nice German ARM committed might be a big deal. The Germans go for an Assault precisely to use up the sacrificial MIL if necessary.

In the end it doesn't really matter, the Germans nose forward through the MECH.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 11:30:10 AM

EUBanana

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Pondering some HQ reorgs... maybe Manstein could get some ENG into action for another impulse, which might be relevant...

Decided against.

Good move. On a 1, the turn ends.

Yugoslavia gets a 3-3 partisan in Split.

And there's another wave of Russian partisans on the southern end of the front.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 12:07:28 PM

EUBanana

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Oil situation was quite easy going in that turn. Japan managed to reorganise a greater bulk of their fleet than before, most of the main units, so should have some freedom to act.

The CW got on top of their oil situation which was surprisingly bad.

Lots more staying at sea than usual helped I think.

Germany barely used any, so their stockpiles grow. What they did use was the stuff foolishly dumped within strat bomber range...

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 1:09:12 PM

EUBanana

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So... buying stuff.

Germany has 38 BPs.
3 Pilots, never have enough
1 SUB repair (they are good subs)
2 LND-3
ARM
MECH
Inf HQ (Model)
MOT
MOT-div
ENG

Still all about the east...

Italy has 14 BPs
2 pilots
2 NAV-3s
Inf-Div
1 naval repair

Japan has 15 BPs
Pilot x2
NAV-3 x2
INF
MIL

China has 7
ATR
INF
Cav-div

CW has 36
2 MOT
2 ARM
Antitank-5
2 pilots
ATR
1 cruiser (mostly to keep the gearing up)
2 naval construction (transports)

US has 54
1 naval construction
4 CV
6 CV-air 2
5 pilots
INF-HQ
1 ARM
1 SUB

USSR has 33
ARM-HQ
2 MOT
1 ARM
3 pilot
LND-2
FTR-2
CAV-div

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 1:23:18 PM

EUBanana

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The US Army is starting to really appear, with a couple of white print ARMs on the east coast, and an arm-HQ. Won't be long before they are eying up western Europe.

The USSR just had another 3 fighters arrive, so I think the Luftwaffe won't have it quite all their own way in future. 5 and 6 factor too, so generally pretty good.

The CW got all sorts this turn. 2 CVs got tooled up with air (there always seems to be far more CVs than carrier air in this game...), and as the European Theatre doesn't really need them that means ultimately now 3 CVs in the far east I think. Also their army is coming along, Monty, two MOTs, and Indian paratroopers.

After plonking down all those fighters and reinforcements the Eastern Front looks a lot more solid... just in time. But the Allies really want to win the initiative so the Germans can't pour through that break in the line, or try to.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 1:34:07 PM

EUBanana

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May/June 1943 begins.

The Allies win initiative. The Axis want a reroll.

The Allies win initiative again. The fourth summer of the war properly begins...

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 3:50:33 PM

EUBanana

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So, US/CW naval, rest land.

US puts some air cover up in the Coral Sea in the 2 box.
CW does boring convoy covering stuff.

Formidable and Implacable leave Liverpool en route to the Far East via the Med. QE2 leaves Malta and heads for South Africa, as there are reinforcements arriving next turn there. 4 King George V's and 2 Illustriouses and a transport go to the 3 box of Italian Coast for general supply / blockade / bomardment duties. Repulse/Anson go to the 4 box of Eastern Med for the same purpose (Tripoli...).

CW transports an American INF from Gibraltar to Eastern Med, should mean 2 American + 1 CW INF tp hit Tripoli with. CW transports in Liverpool ferry an ARM + ANtitank to Gibraltar, who then get ferried to Italian Coast. Allied sealift is getting quite capable...

An Aussie transport goes to the Tasman Sea. This has been quite quiet here, as the Japanese quietly withdrew from Australia, but the Australians didnt move up because of lack of supply, and they didn't attempt to put down supply in the Tasman Sea because it would just get attacked. Now, the USN will dispute the Coral Sea so hopefully this is now safer.

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RE: Solitaire game starting late '42 - 7/25/2021 4:39:15 PM

EUBanana

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It's kinda hard to explain the unfolding Pacific War this turn... and it doesn't help that no screenshot sums it up.

Basically. With the IJN ready at Truk, and the USN mostly at Hawaii and trying to attack, we got a problem in that the IJN is closer to the bases it wants to defend than the US is, so it will be in a higher sea box, AND have more LBA. On average, anyway. Made worse is the US lack of NAVs in the theatre, while the Japanese are kinda ready now, with fighters and bombers at Truk, Rabaul, and Kwajalein.

Additionally, a small IJN BB force cruises the Solomons, and I have that react in the face of the enemy option on, so the Solomons is harder to use for the USN.

CV force seems to be I guess roughly parity between the two sides.

So all other things being equal, the closer to Truk, the harder the time the USN has of it. Eg, a Decisive Battle in the Marianas right now would mean a Reisen, a Nell and a Kate from Truk, a Nell from Kwajalein, and the entire Combined FLeet, vs whatever the USN can bring ( 4 CV, basically ), and a P38 and a Catalina from Eniwetok. That doesnt' exactly seem good odds, especially as with some rebasing next impulse the Japanese could bring even more, there'll be Jills in Iwo Jima next impulse for example.

And I guess you really don't want to lose bigly because CVs take a long time to build. (Though as its 1943, its not so bad. Essexes start arriving in Sept/Oct).

A Decisive Battle in the Marianas is even worse for the USN. As those BBs are on patrol there, the USN would be in even lower boxes, and be exposed to attack from Rabaul as well... even more LBA, even more battleships.

The Coral Sea looks a bit better as its two sea zones from Truk. Also the USN had ships there already, having cleared it out last turn, so the 'in the face of the enemy' works for them not the Japanese. Also there is only Rabaul to deal with far as LBA is concerned, and LBA of their own in the form of Aussie Beauforts and and the two fighters on Efate.

So bottom line. Coral Sea is where the next invasion will come from. The objective will be to get more LBA facing the Solomons. The old BBs in the South Pacific move into the Coral Sea. Supply lines are well covered with cruisers. 2 CAs move to the Marianas 3 box - why, not to cause battle, but to impede Japanese movement, though sinking the TRN there would be nice. CL Marblehead is a sacrificial lamb and goes to the Bismarck Sea to try and slow the Japanese down at least one impulse.

American LBA is essentially moving east to west across the map, this turn sees LBA move from Midway to the NZ Coast, a P38 and a Dauntless. Not yet unloaded but the idea is that we'll be able to project a lot more power into the Solomons. There's also B17s starting to inch down the island chains with rebase actions. Either way it looks like in the Coral Sea the naval and air power is tilted slightly in the US's favour, at least not tilted against it enough to not risk it. I assume so long as the Japanese are bloodied all is well, it's just beign waxed by lots of Nells where there is a problem.

Well whatever, we're going for it anyway. Coral Sea it is. We got a MAR and INF div to actually do the landing.

There's some preamble but essentially the IJN is going to have to come to the USN not the other way around.