jwilkerson
Posts: 10525
Joined: 9/15/2002 From: Kansas Status: offline
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As to the "die line" - I'm not sure there is one. Our mission is to delay as much as possible. This means keep the Allies away from the means of production and the raw materials necessary for same as long as we can. Also, to keep the defense viable for as long as possible - we will have to balance loss of distance (between the Allies and the critical bases) and loss of material (ships, planes, land units). In the West our "lines" run roughly along the Thai-Burma border. One major Allied axis of advance is in Burma - though they seem to be moving slowly right now - probably redeploying their airbases forward from India into Burma before making the next lunge. - we still hold Andaman and we are trying to take the last Allied base on Sumatra at Sabang. We hold Malaya and Java except for a few "dot" islands. Bornea, Celebes, Spice Islands are also all ours except for a couple of dots. The line in the Banda Sea is dynamic as this is one axis of advance the Allies are currently pursuing. We hold Timor and Ceram and the Western tip of New Guinea as well as a few other islands in the area. New Guinea, the Bismarcks, the Solomons are really Allied at this point, though we do still hold a few out posts. The Marshalls and Gilberts are still outposts - though they are essentially evacuated. The Carolines will not be built up - though I'm not sure what Nik's plans for Chuuk are. Nik is building up in the Palaus and Marianas. I don't think this is a "die" line - but we will try to delay a bit here. We are heavily building up in the Kuriles - again - I don't think any place is a die line - but the closer the base is to the means of production the harder we will fight to deny it. From a naval deployment perspective - I (the IJA player) have a "Western Fleet" with 2 escort carriers, 2 OBBs, 6 CA and assorted CL and DD. Nik currently has KB divided into two halves, with half near the Home Islands and half in the Palau's. Thus he is essentially defending both ends of his "line". In the air - we have been unable to contest the skies when faced by unescorted B-17s/B-24s unless we mass high firepower fighters. I have a total of seven Zero Chutai and 3 Rufe Chutai and I also have 1 Nick Chutai. This enables me to augment the defense of a few bases - but leaves the majority of bases open to attack by unescorted bombers. In the past weeks we have seen more and more P-38s reaching the front. They are now essentially Ubiquitous - present in numbers in the Solomons, Eastern New Guinea, Western New Guinea, the Banda Sea and Burma. We just produced (31 Aug - 1 Sept) three of our new Tojos. It remains to be seen whether these planes will be able to improve the defense of our bases versus unescorted 4EB. We will be able to deploy about 6 Chutai by Early October.
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AE Project Lead New Game Project Lead
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