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TommyBoy84 -> Early Allied Strategy (No ColCathcart please) (9/21/2011 12:15:38 PM)
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ColCathcart and I are just entering Feb. 1942 in our WITP (non-AE) PBEM, CHS scenario 159 (experimental A2A mod).
Mostly due to my inexperience in playing against humans, he's steamrolled me for the most part so far. He took Singapore on January 10th, and has virtually cut-off northern Australia by taking Amboina, Kendari, Makassar, and others in the area. I still hold most of Java, from which I've been running sub patrols and light LB attacks against lightly defended airbases and shipping. My B-17's have taken significant losses, so I transferred them to India, where I'm just about to a level 5 AF at Rangoon, which he's nowhere close to yet.
Thanks to having arrivals set to +/-60 day variability, I got the Yorktown and one of the British CV's early, so I have 6 CV's as of the end of January 1942, 4 currently anchored at PH, and 2 Brit CV's at Columbo. One small advantage I also have, that I'm looking to exploit, is that I pretty reliably have the vast majority his CV's accounted for near the north and east coasts of Australia, pummeling the ships I was trying to evac from the PI and DEI. I have multiple sightings and a good detection level on at least 8 IJN CV/CVL's total in the area, and have sightings of at least a couple more in nearby ports.
Since all his carriers seem to be tied up in the SRA theater, and I'm antsy to at least give him a pinprick, I'm considering a couple ideas for raids in the central Pacific. What would you suggest as potential targets?
I've thought of sending two single CV TF's, one to find and hit shipping in the gap between Wake/Marcus/Sapian/Truk/Kwajelien, and one to make a pre-emptive airstrike at Marcus to try and reduce his ability to spot the anti-shipping CVTF behind it. What do you guys think? Would I be able to patrol the area without being constantly detected for at least a few days, or is there sufficient long-range coverage that I'd be sunk after a day or two?
If nothing else, I want to launch a raid on Marcus (he also controls Wake, which I'd bypass far to the north) to distract him from the SRA and hopefully get him to divert some of his forces in the area to guard against further raids farther north. I figure this will give my forces in the SRA more time to build forts, etc. He's admitted I've slowed him down in the SRA since he took Singapore, mostly because I've kept many of the forces there in place rather than following Sir Robin. Not sure if he was trying to mislead me or not, but he said he's about a month behind where he was hoping to be.
So, I'll cut myself off here by asking: What do you think of my two proposed pinprick raids.... trying to kill at least a bit of shipping in the central pacific gap and/or a raid against Marcus? OR, what are some other targets you suggest for early war allied raids?
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