Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000 From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku Status: offline
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18 Jan 42 Quiet day today, but preparations for future ops continue. Ted seems to be concentrating subs one hex NW of Rabaul. That's a good place for him since all my convoys from Truk pass through that hex. Unfortunately for him, his subs rarely hit anything and when they do, they're pretty much always duds. I have an ASW TF with DDs and PBs sitting in that hex and it finally paid off. I landed a DC on a sub there. Hopefully, he'll go away. Ambon The SNLF that's there is going to try to attack tomorrow. I don't expect to take the place, but it's worth a shot. Ted has the initial forces there, an infantry battalion, a CD unit and a base force. The SNLF will have bombardment support from a CA TF protecting them. There are additional forces (a couple more SNLFs) and garrison forces headed there. Once taken, the 22 Air Flotilla is prepared to fly in and shut down any ability for Ted to move surface forces in that area. Note that there's nothing visible there right now. SE Fleet The 4 Div is 1.5 days out from Pt. Moresby. Ted's garrison there is toast. I have a base force prepared to land there. It's currently on transports just leaving Rabaul. It'll remain a couple days sail from Pt. Moresby and won't land until Pt. Moresby is secured. The little SNLF companies are now headed for specific bases I want to deny to Ted. These include Lunga, Tulagi and the dot hex at the tip of New Guinea (can't remember the name). Java The Java invasion force is gathering at Cam Ranh Bay. I plan on invading the base to the SE of Batavia called Kalidjati, which was garrisoned at the beginning of the war with a base force. I don't know what's there now. I chose this base because it has a level 4 airfield and I can easily cut the island in half. I plan on cutting the island in half and then moving toward the northern half. I want to secure the northern potential air bases from Ted to secure the southern flank of the Palembang operation. Once Singapore is invested, the northern flank of the Palembang invasion will be secure and I can figure out when to do that invasion. Anyway, I have the 38 Div (and all the artillery and other support units from the Hong Kong operation) and the 21 Independent Brigade, along with 2 tank regiments. There are 2 air support battalions going in with the first wave. As soon as I push out the enemy, I'll be able to to send in an Oscar and Zero unit (18 Zeros and 30 Oscars) for air cover. Then, I'll load up Billiton with bombers for air support. In the second wave will be 2 base forces (eventually for Batavia and Soerabaja). This will allow me to move more aircraft onto the Java mainland. The 4 Division will land after they are finished securing Pt. Moresby. KB is headed south from Takao toward Babeldaob to refuel. Then they will head south toward the Thursday island gap to escort the 4 Division north to Java. In the unexpected event that the Java invasion force is more successful than expected, the 4 Division may be diverted to another target in the SRA. We'll see Other Thoughts Yesterday, I spent the day at a meeting and had a lot of time to ponder the game. It just so happened that the notebook I grabbed to take notes had the notes I made when I first got the game. I had some time to review them and make some adjustments based on my limited experience from this PBEM. I thought about the Japanese economy (surprise, surprise) and decided on changing some of the resource TFs. China/Manchuria/Korea used more oil than than they produce. There is only one refinery in that region, at Pt. Arthur, of 120 points. In theory, you can let the surplus oil in the region be used up slowly by that refinery. It'll take close to 2 years for that to happen though. I propose a middle ground option. Pt. Arthur seems to accumulate most of the oil and resources from the region. Next time I start a game, I plan on using about 20 Yusen N cargos (enough for 2 full TFs) escorted by the 6 E Momis (3 per TF). That would allow the TFs to suck out the resources and a modest amount of oil for Honshu. Eventually (~2 years) the HI/LI in C/M/H will run short of fuel, but that can be replenished from the SRA. It's a shorter distance from the SRA to China than to Japan. What do you guys think?
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