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Canoerebel -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (7/13/2017 2:38:20 PM)
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Over the past few months, John's enthusiasm has ebbed and flowed with the changing tides of fortune in the game.
The last really good moment he had was sinking four small carriers near Luganville perhaps about 10 weeks ago. Prior to that it was his counterinvasion of Celebes in late winter. In both cases, I contended that his successes were outweighed by the costs incurred, an argument I think was confirmed. For instance, when KB was in SoPac sinking those carriers, Death Star was handling the invasion of Coastal China. The absence of KB made my job easier and probably resulted in far less points lost than would've been the case had John contested the China expedition.
Going back to before China, on the occasion that Death Star first approached Formosa, John alerted me via email that I'd regret coming any further. Since then, DS has circumnavigated Formosa many times without Japan doing anything about it.
More recently, when our House Rule prohibiting night bombing expired on August 15, 1944, John wrote that "now the gloves come off." But nothing happened.
He got pretty excited about his counteroffensive in coastal China. Turn-flipping increased for the first time since the Celebes operation. He would email requesting turns as he was "interested in seeing developments." He referred to his overall strategy as an "Operation Market Garden." He thought he had a decent part of the Allied army bottled up and in a position to be destroyed. None of that happened.
He has conserved Victory Points by keeping KB out of harm's way, and he's kept me honest in utilizing my LOC to resupply Luzon and points forward....at cost of barely opposing Allied advances from the DEI to Luzon to China to Formosa. I don't think conserving VPs is a viable strategy if it just postpones the risking of those assets until a time when the circumstances are less favorable. That's probably what's happening here.
John still has a stout navy, army and air force. But he's surrendered too much valuable ground without putting up reasonable resistance. I'm within range for a sustained strategic bombing campaign and no longer distracted by more pressing needs for my 4EB. From now on, I'll focus on the air war while cleaning up important areas in the rear.
What will be most interesting is to see how and when John uses his carriers.
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