Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

Couple of things: 1) I'd keep your crack pilots in the front line, but make sure they are set to a short range (like 0) so you don't lose any great pilots to a leaky CAP (not that that would necesarily happen in Karachi, but perhaps elsewhere); and 2) you don't actually need ships to move ground units between off-map bases. Thus, you could move your ground units to Cape Town from Panama or East Coast by strategic movement (I've done it from East Coast, although not confirmed from Panama). If I remember correctly, I even moved some Seabees to Aden before the Med was open (i.e. before May '43). Anyway, you could give it a try. The reason why I mention this is that it sounded like you thought you needed xAPs and xAKs to move troops off map.

Cheers,
CC

quote:

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

quote:

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Yes, if you have the VR replacement squadrons then by all means use them for torpedo training. It is painful to not use them in the front line but you gotta train or your will regret it later. In 1943 virtually all marine squadrons come with no planes or pilots. You have to fill them up out of your reserves and will need plenty for that reason. I am almost at January 44 and I still have a few marine and heavy bomber squadrons sitting in the states for want of planes.

And you need to start training patrol pilots on search and "low naval" bombing now as you will start to get lots of PBY liberators, venturas, coronados and navy mitchells in 43 and low naval is a must skill for them for shipping interdiction. You will need a lot of them. ASW is important but I find that it is better to train avengers and SBDs in that skill. ASW is not a priority as your ships become super sub killers eventually.

I would have to say my biggest shortage was navy fighter pilots and torpedo bomber pilots.

I see mate...thanks! i'll take a look right now!

But can i use the VR replacement squadrons (those who come with the CVEs) as active units? i mean what happens if i put one of those CVEs in CVTF? do they actually operate their planes or they are used only for replenishment pourposes?

thanks

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I'm already training them but the CVEs ability to be used as active platform will be nonetheless very useful

quote:

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

the most recent map of India

quote:

ORIGINAL: ADB123

Very interesting... this has turned into a lesson on how not to conquer India. What worked in China won't work here.

Do you guys have a house rule that prevents invasions of non-base hexes? Because it seems to me that the answer to Radar's problem here would be to land at that hex just to the left of the "800 Fighters" note and then march up the coast.

And if I were him I would be sending up top-notch DD ASW TFs on a daily basis to attrite your subs along the coast.

In any event, it appears that you have succeeded in holding India. Now as long as you don't throw away the rest of your forces in premature adventures in the Pacific you ought to be in a good position to start rolling in mid-1943.

Congrats!

quote:

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Probably overkill on built up bases in the Solomons, especially Kirakira and Rossell Island (maybe one but not the other) They are level 0 ports and consume more time supplying and moving troops off. Useful bases if you need them but you already have better. I find that it is just best to use fast transports and paras to grab the next Japanese dot base closer to Rabaul that can be built up. Snatch it with a small unit then fast transport engineers there and start building. This forces him to react and fight and gives you a change to grind him down a bit. The thing is, once you seize the next base forward and get an air unit there-even if he suppresses it, it focused his attention on that base and not on your rear bases-leaving them with more freedom to resupply and build up.

Definitely grab Munda right away. That poses a serious threat to him.

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

GreyJoy, if you haven't experienced carrier combat in AE/WitP/UV before, watch out for the Great Unpredictable But Always Occuring React Against Orders feature.  This is the single most frustrating aspect of this family of games, IMO.  No matter how hard you try, no matter how careful you are in selecting your carrier TF commanders, they can and will react against orders.  They can and will do crazy stuff in moving straight towards the worst possible peril, including leaving behind land-based LRCAP and reacting even when mission sorites are low or you're out of torpedoes.  I don't want to get into this at length here, because you may thoroughly know this already.  But if you don't, educate yourself.  Be prepared for carriers sailing into harm's way when you don't want them to and have done everything possible to prevent them from doing so.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Congrats are in order if rader's truly retiring.

But he may have decided to "sit on" your army at Karachi without trying to take the base.  IE, he can pin you down with perhaps 5,000 AV so that your troops are unable to move.  Under that scenario, he would advance with about 10,000 AV to Karachi, leave 5,000 there, and evacuate the balance for use elsewhere.

Or he might be truly pulling out now, while the getting is good.  See if you get enough info to determine which option he's pursuing.

Even now he has you pinned back.  It will take you time to organize the Indian army to advance.  You might consider movign a stout army forward towards Multan to see if he vigorously engages you with bombers.  If he doesn't, he's truly bugging out.  Then you can send even more troops out.  If he's retreating, you want to be nipping at his heels the best you can.

Look around the map at your various restricted CD units.  India, Australia and the good ol' USA have a bunch of them.  You can buy them relatively cheaply and then post them at critical forward bases that might be subject to counterinvasion.

If rader hasn't suffered alot of damage to his shipping he might be willing to engage in further amphibious operations.  But he's going to be leary of doing so as long as the Allied carriers are intact.  Also, the fact that he's lost the invasion bonus will prevent him from getting too bold.

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ORIGINAL: Smeulders

Congrats, this probably means the high water mark for the Japanese as he can't hope to bring a new big offensive going this late. You might still have a big fight ahead of you in India. In his other game Radar is still holding large parts of Russia, he might do the same here to keep the Commonwealth far away from his vitals. The troops in Cape Town and Aden will come in very useful if this scenario plays out.

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ORIGINAL: crsutton

Yes, it is getting to late for him to pull off any major operations now. It really becomes difficult for Japan as the year ends. You have your foot "stuck" in the Solomons door and I don't think he will be able to throw you out. Nor will he venture to OZ as your tanks forces are full of good tanks by now and can hurt him. If he does hit Oz, he won't go far.

Canoe is right. You preserved your carriers and that is a serious deterrent to any adventures he might have that require a fleet. Frankly, you will want to take India back but I would gladly take your position over his right now.

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ORIGINAL: witpqs

Good for you! I kinda figured there was no supply-reason for him to go around instead of straight on. If he is using the railway to move back to the Calcutta area then those units would move toward the east (IRL North) first before heading south (IRL East).

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ORIGINAL: Miller

Congratulations on weathering the storm. There was no way he could sustain those losses in the air any longer.

Its still a long, hard road back for you, but you have plenty of time.