Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Lowpe

End of September, 1942


Main action in the Aleutians...

The last day goes out with a bang...Sitkin again....however, the 4E beasties take a toll night bombing, shooting down the fighters and not so much damage on the ground.

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I am beginning to think the fastest route to Chungking from the south is thru LangSon to Nanning and then up north, and not thru Canton, like I went this game. The LangSon route is main roads all the way, although the Haiphong port is a bit smallish. I have built up LangSon to size 9 runways, as it is not a malaria swamp, on railroads to Saigon, and can provide air support to Hainan. In the early game, Helens & Sallys can fly to strike China very easily, and be home for sake in comfort.

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ORIGINAL: mind_messing

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I am beginning to think the fastest route to Chungking from the south is thru LangSon to Nanning and then up north, and not thru Canton, like I went this game. The LangSon route is main roads all the way, although the Haiphong port is a bit smallish. I have built up LangSon to size 9 runways, as it is not a malaria swamp, on railroads to Saigon, and can provide air support to Hainan. In the early game, Helens & Sallys can fly to strike China very easily, and be home for sake in comfort.

That's an interesting vector - there's not a great many Chinese units deployed in the area and the roads are pretty good. The only issue I see is that it's hard to get a large number of units deployed along this vector early in the war, given that most of the CEA is bogged down further east. Kweiyang seems to be the key hex for defending Chungking from the south, as after that the road network opens up so much that it's difficult for the Chinese to defend forward.

quote:

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

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I am beginning to think the fastest route to Chungking from the south is thru LangSon to Nanning and then up north, and not thru Canton, like I went this game. The LangSon route is main roads all the way, although the Haiphong port is a bit smallish. I have built up LangSon to size 9 runways, as it is not a malaria swamp, on railroads to Saigon, and can provide air support to Hainan. In the early game, Helens & Sallys can fly to strike China very easily, and be home for sake in comfort.

That's an interesting vector - there's not a great many Chinese units deployed in the area and the roads are pretty good. The only issue I see is that it's hard to get a large number of units deployed along this vector early in the war, given that most of the CEA is bogged down further east. Kweiyang seems to be the key hex for defending Chungking from the south, as after that the road network opens up so much that it's difficult for the Chinese to defend forward.

I wouldn't beat yourself up, however, you've investing Chungking and the rest of China is going to collapse in short order.

Onwards to Burma!

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ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

quote:

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

quote:

I am beginning to think the fastest route to Chungking from the south is thru LangSon to Nanning and then up north, and not thru Canton, like I went this game. The LangSon route is main roads all the way, although the Haiphong port is a bit smallish. I have built up LangSon to size 9 runways, as it is not a malaria swamp, on railroads to Saigon, and can provide air support to Hainan. In the early game, Helens & Sallys can fly to strike China very easily, and be home for sake in comfort.

That's an interesting vector - there's not a great many Chinese units deployed in the area and the roads are pretty good. The only issue I see is that it's hard to get a large number of units deployed along this vector early in the war, given that most of the CEA is bogged down further east. Kweiyang seems to be the key hex for defending Chungking from the south, as after that the road network opens up so much that it's difficult for the Chinese to defend forward.

I wouldn't beat yourself up, however, you've investing Chungking and the rest of China is going to collapse in short order.

Onwards to Burma!

It really depends on if/where your opponent defends. I've "defended" four times now, and attacked towards it twice.

The fastest route has been from the south, even though it takes slightly longer to get your units into place. I'm pretty sure I've told people for years that Sian is a sideshow that should only be used to tie up some Chinese while your main thrust occurs elsewhere (and of course, a Chinese defender can take advantage of this area as well in a rope-a-dope). The yellow roads just take too damn long and don't let you use your best advantage over the Chinese (even in alternate scenarios where they get more AT): tanks.

Stick to the grey roads. There are 2, or really 2-plus, options here: Kweiyang or Changteh-Chihkiang, both of which converge afterwards and allow you 2 options for approaching Chungking.

Anything else is just wasting time.



Certain areas of coastal China are also more defensible than it may otherwise appear, due to the relative force dispositions at game start and also somewhat dependent on where the main concentration(s) of IJA forces is/are. Lang Son/Nanning can fall into this bucket.

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ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

What a meat grinder at Chunking.

Lots of bloody noses for the Allies elsewhere.

Very good work.

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ORIGINAL: Lowpe

An interesting case study here, in Luzon.

The Allies like to park a sub right in Manila harbor...so I transferred an excellent (skill 70 ASW) Lilly squadron and set them to ASW at 80% 0 range. They can spot the sub, but don't attack, and I noticed the altitude was set at 5k. Now, several years back I ran some very unscientific tests to check if altitude had any bearing on the number of attacks generated, and then I concluded that it didn't seem to.

But, I lowered them down this turn to 2k.

Also in the hex is a squadron of three 15knot SC, pretty good for Japan at this point in the game, and today I swapped two commanders out.

Will be curious to see if they can nail this sub.

Morning detection:

Ki-48-Ib Lily reports submarine at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports oil slick at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports object under water at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports object near surface at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports periscope wake at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports shape below surface at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports shadow in water at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports suspected submarine at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports conning tower at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports possible submarine at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports periscope at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports possible submarine at 79, 77 near Manila

Ki-48-Ib Lily from 208th Sentai attacking a O19 Class class SS at 125,48 (I put this here, to show that I do get attacks)

Afternoon reports

Ki-48-Ib Lily reports shadow in water at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports turbulence in water at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports shadow in water at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports turbulence in water at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports possible submarine at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports possible submarine at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports shadow in water at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports object near surface at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports object under water at 79, 77 near Manila
Ki-48-Ib Lily reports submarine wake at 79, 77 near Manila

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ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Load tracker with maps, select maps, filter for sub sightings. A great, great tool. Those are turn numbers where enemy subs were spotted.

I have posted this image several times before in my AARs...