Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

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ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Yes Micheal, but even if he'd manage to load 30,000 men in a single night and move his ships 4 hexes north of Darwin, how can he hope to unload them in a single turn? Cause he knows he has just one turn to unload in those waters...then my BBs would arrive...

No, i think this is a feint.

Oct 21, 1943

everything's quiet. His "amphib" TFs are still lingering there...south of Selroe..., while my KB departed from Singapore.

Ok, now let's be serious: if i'm right and that is a feint, what's his pourpose? where are his REAL CVs?... i think he's attracting my attention there (SOUTHERN DEI) in order to keep me focused there and strike somewhere else... but where???? NOPAC? Mariannas? Far from the DEI...that's for sure... but with all those APAs in the SOPAC....mmmm....

Do you REALLY think that he would engage in a significant amphibious assault without air cover at this stage of the game? If there's a massive amphibious TF with 30,000 troops on it, he'd have to be mad to not have his a/c carriers in immediate support. Don't overthink this one, mate.

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ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Soon we'll have the KI-84r online...just few more months... and the N1K2 did, once again, a very good job, far better than the KI-84a...don't know why

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ORIGINAL: obvert

Good moves with the defensive fighters in oil and industry bases. I had the same and got a good haul of B-29s on their first raid that likely is still keeping pools low.

Those upper Burma bases are probably going to be tough for him to supply, but your game is different a well because the Chinese mountains are still in Allied hands.

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ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Most of Brad's losses came from his Hurricane IIc which have been around for over a year. Next month he gets the Spitfire VIII (20/mo for Aussie & 32/mo for Brits). You know first hand how good they are. Too bad there are not more of them.

Where is Waldo?? Or in your case, where are his CVs?? Don't forget that the F4U-1A Corsair (78/mo), which is "CV capable" just came on line in October. Add in it is around this time that some CV get upgrades and he had all that damage to repair. I'm only just starting July and the Zeros of any model is outclassed. Facing both the Hellcat and Corsair is not going to be pretty in the losses you get. Since June, the Allies get two to four American carriers in various sizes and those pilots need some time to train up. Shear numbers will be the way to go and then there is the 'magic' 8 hex attack distance.

FYI - Not until March '44 will you see any significant fighter model come in after the Corsair and spitfire.

Glen equipped I-boats: I would train the pilots up in Recon (besides NavS) and set them in Patrol Zones to run within 3 hexes of a base and set to stay for one day on leg one. The second leg would have them go back out at least 7 to 8 hexes to hopefully remove or lower their DL. I would be visiting Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Aukland, and Perth with two Glen I-boats. Maybe some place else to see if you can find his CVs.

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ORIGINAL: GreyJoy
Oh, thanks Micheal, that really helped my morale!!!

I know i'll be on the receiving end from now on...I know the zero is outclassed...and I know he's gonna hit me harder and harder... but do I have any choices? NO, just fight and die...and that's what we'll do!

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ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

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ORIGINAL: GreyJoy
Oh, thanks Micheal, that really helped my morale!!!

I know i'll be on the receiving end from now on...I know the zero is outclassed...and I know he's gonna hit me harder and harder... but do I have any choices? NO, just fight and die...and that's what we'll do!

Don't take it so hard, GreyJoy. While you may be up against increasing quality airframes, you can still out produce them in quantity. I'd rather have 200 Ki-84r than 50 P-47s / month too. Sure, the A6M line is dated, but what's up with your A7s? N1K2-J? Shinden? You're not exactly standing still here.

Also, historically, Japanese airframes, pilots and ships began to be outclassed as the war went on historically. Exact your measure of vengeance on land! What are your defensive preparations looking like on Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa for example? A few more "victories" like these and the Allies would've been bled out. Make it so.

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Now I'm waiting to see his CVs... Micheal, I cannot afford to disperse too much my glen equipped subs. I need them to lead the wolfpacks and I need my packs to remain in the most threatened areas. The only thing I can do is to maximize my efforts in nav search...hope to spot them in time.

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ORIGINAL: obvert

You are WAY ahead of my dates for these planes. I guess this is scen 2 equivalent so they already arrive earlier, but those planes should really change the balance for you. Especially the Peggy (T) if you can find enough support to fly them.

How are your coastal and NW Sumatra defenses in case of moves behind your lines?

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ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

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ORIGINAL: obvert

You are WAY ahead of my dates for these planes. I guess this is scen 2 equivalent so they already arrive earlier, but those planes should really change the balance for you. Especially the Peggy (T) if you can find enough support to fly them.

How are your coastal and NW Sumatra defenses in case of moves behind your lines?

Thai coast is defended by 3 divisions, with 3 different heavy artilley BNs and 3 naval bases (those with DP guns). That's the best i can do for the moment. If he plans to land here he will have to pass through the Adamans. I have 5 forts everywhere there, with enough firepower to hold him back at least for some days if he lands.
Air HQs are based at Port Blair, Rangoon, Bankok and Sebang. If he comes, he will have to fight agains a lot of LBA... not doable imho, as long as he's not able to advance in Burma and be able to reach my backwater bases to shut down my AFs. Not anywhere in the near future imho.

I've diveded the defence for Sumatra following this principle: defend a base every two. The idea is to deny him to conquer 2 mutual supporting bases at once. Sebang and Padang and Benkoleng have 500 AVs each, with 5 forts. Benkoleng has also an air HQ. On the islands i have defended one base every 2 of them. If he comes here, he won't be able to conquer more than a single base and this should let me to keep him under control (like at Molu) for some time.

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My R&D phisolophy has been the following: invest heavily in mid-term planes and completely abbandon the Jet program and every plane that comes later than 1944 (except for KI-83, Shidens and SAM. These three have only 3x30 R&D factories each...so not that much). To do this, i've had to make hard choices: i have denied myself the production of 3 CVs (one was a Tahio class), 1 CVL and 4 CVEs... to save HI!... This also because this is a scenario 2 mod, but with the economy of scenario 1...so very little HI production and much less supplies (refineries don't produce supplies here)...so i couldn't have both a huge navy and a huge R&D program. I chose for the latter, but with some exceptions... the war won't be won in 1945...so why bother with all those fancy a/c? better to have superior aircrafts sooner and then outproduce the allies and fight them with numbers rather than with quality.
IMHO it's better to have 100 N1K2 in 1943 than 50 Shidens in 1945

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What would you do if you were in his shoes?

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ORIGINAL: obvert

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What would you do if you were in his shoes?

Get to the oil. Move on S DEI with small forces (LST/DD), take dot bases, at least 4-5 of them, and build to support Molu and his stranded division. While that occupied your time I would hit the islands off of Sumatra with massive forces supported by the US and Brit fleets, taking three at least, plus maybe Padang. He would have a 3 day window to go in before you could get the KB there. In the meantime I would be prepping for the Marianas.

This little area would be my goal. Tough, but worthy of the effort with five mutually supporting bases and a hard road to get any troops in to support.

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I think the deepest Q-Ball has played was in his game vs. Cuttlefish a few years back. That went into late '43 or '44 if I remember correctly. He massively invaded Timor in October '42 (that's pretty darn early) after orchestrating a feint in the Gilberts that Cuttles went for. He then expanded quickly through the Ceram Sea and there was a critical carrier battle for Japan where things got off to a messy start (pesky PT boats created problems) and ended very badly for Cuttles. From that point forward, Q-Ball was able to push deeply into the DEI and the outcome of the game was clear.

I played against Q-Ball (he was Japan) a few years ago. Previously, he gave me "advice and counsel" in my first PBEM match vs. John III in old WitP. So I feel like I've known him well and long. I have a great deal of respect for his ability (as I know GJ does). His weak point is that he can sometimes lose interest in the game or parts of the game (he doesn't like the ground war in China). But when he's engaged, he's very, very tough.

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ORIGINAL: JeffK

GJ,

Looking at the map there are a number of Green dots in the Central Philippines and Nth Borneo.

Dont leave him any easy occupations which may jump your lines (they are a bit too far to the rear at the moment but.....)