ADavidB
Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001 From: Toronto, Canada Status: offline
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March 6, 1942 - Treespider commented on how this was a "quiet" turn for a change. Of course, "quiet" is quite relative; I replied that it was "no wonder" that it was quiet because he was "running out of bases to invade". Actually, he isn't; Japanese troops landed at Arawe and Sandakan this turn. His troops also captured Batavia quite easily. What Treespider was referring to, of course, was the relative quiet in the air war, particularly over Northern Australia and Timor. I'm being quiet because I am still pulling forces out of there. Things are going well and I ought to have everything repositioned the way that I want within a couple of turns. If Treespider wants to restart a Sweep/Bomb campaign he will be able to do so without any counter attacks for now. However, most of the Japanese LBA is still busy pounding Soerabaja and Manila on a daily basis. Both bases also received artillery bombardments today. I don't expect Soerabaja to last more than a couple more assaults. I have no idea what is keeping Manila going; it might last for a month, it might fall at the next assault. The situation in China is still fairly stable. Wuchow is the only Chinese base that is currently being besieged. I've caused Treespider to place a lot of Japanese troops in the countryside to block possible Chinese attacks on Japanese bases. This is great because it reduces Treespider's ability to accumulate massive forces in a single location. And this is all possible because I pulled those dozen or so good units out of the trap at Changsha before it closed. Treespider gained another base, but he missed out on removing a large portion of the Chinese forces from play. Things are also relatively quiet in Burma. I sent a B-17E group along with the AVG to bomb Mandalay from high altitude. The AVG and the CAP tangled and both sides lost a couple of planes, but the bombers did little damage. Since I have no reserve of P-40Bs I'm going to let Mandalay be for a while. All those Japanese troops in Burma are a nuisance at most at this time and I don't want to deplete my air defenses just in case Treespider does try an Indian "adventure". So I'll let Malaria do my work for me at this time. As is usual in this game, the region with the most critical situation, the South Pacific, was hit with severe thunderstorms everywhere this turn, so the Japanese TFs that were a half dozen hexes to the northwest of New Caledonia last turn totally disappeared this turn. A Japanese sub appeared in Noumea Harbor, but I don't believe that my air patrols made that big of a mistake last turn and mixed it up for a couple of big, slow TFs. What I suspect is happening is the same thing that Treespider did during his invasion of Port Moresby. He is sending an invasion TF that is being accompanied by a bombardment TF, a carrier TF and a replenishment TF. They are all travelling at "cruise" speed in order to minimize system damage and thus keep the Detection Levels as low as possible. This also provides a nicely hidden trap if the Allied player charges in with "guns a blazing". It also appears that Treespider has stood down all of his float planes to avoid inadvertently giving away his presence. (However, the Jake last turn already accomplished that.) So the sub in the Noumea hex is providing scouting instead. (I wonder where the Japanese Glen-carrying subs have gotten to; I haven't seen a Glen in many game-weeks.) What this has meant is that my "cockroach scatter" has worked so far, and my transports are slowly spreading out and away from Noumea. If this turns out to be a carrier raid instead of an actual invasion then Treespider may miss out on much of his chance by his approach. But I am fairly certain that this is a full-blown invasion; the fact that the Japanese carriers didn't go charging off to hit the transports is pretty much proof of that. So with this careful approach on the part of Treespider there won't be any opportunity for my CVs to get behind the KB in order to intercept any slow TFs. It will be interesting to see what Treespider does with this advance because he will now have a base that is very, very far from his main supply lines. And I don't normally move much in the way of forces between the Eastern Pacific and Australia anyway, so it's not like this will inconvenience me terribly. BTW - if you are wondering, I still only have the original base force in Noumea. I didn't bother to reinforce it because in early March 1942 I just don't have the forces necessary to set up a defense-in-depth in the region. And all I've had that base force do is build fortifications. Treespider will have to use his own troops to build up the air fields and port. The "big" news for the Allies this turn was that a Japanese barge hit a mine and sank at Lunga Harbor. I've still got the old Argonaut chugging along, laying nuisance mines here and there. It doesn't lay many, and it doesn't lay them too often, but it keeps chugging. Another piece of good news was that I was able to finally change my third and last squadron of P-26s to P-39s. Hey, call them "Aerocoffins" if you like, but they are still head-and-shoulders better than P-26s. And the port in Brisbane finally reached level 9, which means that I will be able to re-load mines there. I still need to mine the north-eastern Australian bases and it’s a long, long haul for a slow Dutch ML from Sydney to places like Townsville and back. So my major defensive regions are settling down "into the bunkers" and getting prepared. I am treating China, India, Australia, the Hawaiian Islands and Alaska as separate and self-sufficient regions. Other than some forces that I was able to extract out of the Philippines, Malaya or the DEI, India and Australia will have to depend upon their own reinforcements. I continue to move all CENPAC and SOPAC forces to the Hawaiian Islands and all NOPAC forces to Anchorage. I'm fascinated by those Japanese players in other AARs who plan to attack the Hawaiian Islands in the summer or fall of 1942. I feel that right now I'm within a couple of game-weeks of being able to stop almost any Japanese invasion attempt of the Hawaiian Islands, and things will only get more in my favor as time goes on. I am also emphasizing "quality over quantity", so I have sent the B-18 group back to the West Coast where it can await the arrival of B-17Gs or whatever it upgrades to in non-PDU games (since there will never be more than the 21 B-17Cs that are currently in the pool). I have six fully functional bases in the Hawaiian Islands now, with each of the minor bases having at least a CD unit, an Infantry unit, a Base Force, and an AA unit, along with a couple of EAB units helping to build up the bases more quickly. And I have six full Infantry divisions and two tank units in Pearl. So while things are not going well for the Allies, things are not going unexpectedly either, and my defensive strategy is coming into place. Dave Baranyi
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