ZonkerHarris
Posts: 83
Joined: 11/10/2004 From: Walden Puddle Status: offline
|
Like Dave said, the real world has been in the way (a business trip cost me almost an entire week of valuable WITP time) but we're still slugging it out. Port Moresby turned out to be empty (as my recon showed over the last couple of game months), so it fell without a fight. The Aussie cruiser TF that attempted to intervene lost (by my intel, and assuming I'm remembering this correctly) CAs Australia and Canberra, along with an elderly USN DD. CL Hobart was also reported torpedoed, but probably made port. I may have hit another DD, maybe not. The attacks on this force involved only Zeros and Kates, and I also believe that only Kates were spotted both here and near Noumea. With my Vals remaining unseen, it is probably unclear to Dave whether any of my fleet CVs were present at either of these locations or if these were just an element or elements of KB Jr. In Burma, my Zeros appear to be getting a grip on things, as the last P-40 sweep yielded results in my favor -- 7 Tomahawks reported destroyed against none of my planes. The B-17s have been less active recently here, too. I've pulled back from the Burma Road for now, content to let the Chinese have their 500 supply points per day. Near Timor I've spotted the USS Lexington, which emerged unscathed from an attack by a Daitai's worth of Bettys. This serves as a useful reminder to me that we're not in UV-land anymore. I've known for a while that the Betty isn't as effective in WITP, but I think I've still been influenced by UV experiences, where an Allied player didn't dare send his CVs within Betty range of Rabaul if he wanted to get them back. (Or at least not without pasting Rabaul with heavy bombers for a few days in advance.) More happily in this region, my Zeros bagged a couple of F4Fs without loss to themselves, and I've laid siege to Batavia, home of the last significant Allied forces in the DEI. I did postpone the invasion of the western end of Timor, but I've plenty of time to come back while the "correlation of forces" (as the Soviets used to put it) remains in my favor. The other useful lesson I've learned over the past few turns is that Dave's air recon is as bad as mine -- I was annoyed when his CVs managed to get close to Hokkaido or Kwajalein without detection, but now that I've been able to do much the same off North Australia and Noumea, I can take heart from the fact that this particular sword cuts both ways. Setting aside the question of which CV division(s) was/were spotted in SoPac recently, I'm confident that Dave's forces haven't even sniffed a fair number of my CVs in recent weeks. And given what I know about Dave's dispositions thanks to the Timor engagements and the sinking of the Enterprise, I can be confident of having local superiority when they do show themselves. Sadly, these good times won't last, but early 1942 is Japan's moment in this war, so I've got to make the most of it.
_____________________________
"All right you primitive screwheads, listen up. See this? This is my boomstick!"
|