Kane and Unable ;] - Game over 1945.

[Lowpe]

how long will it take you to rebuild your CV squadrons?

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

how long will it take you to rebuild your CV squadrons?

My navy bomber pools are really deep.

[Mike McCreery]

I am stuck on a strategic issue.

Wondering if I should just stop messing around at this point and switch all efforts to go for the Kurile islands and start bombing Japan directly. Or continue in an effort to cut off and destroy his army one island at a time.

Would it be better to go after the oil or after the home islands?

[pontiouspilot]

Very interesting exchange.....strategically I say gonads...go for the gonads!!

[Bif1961]

Looks like he had 90 KB aircraft in ground loses so that is 2-3 carriers worth, not counting those tramped onboard carriers that will sink later, so it appears you sank 4-6 carriers and damaged 4-6 others. He will be crawling back to his shipyards for weeks, times to bring in the subs and start picking off the cripples.

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Looks like he had 90 KB aircraft in ground loses so that is 2-3 carriers worth, not counting those tramped onboard carriers that will sink later, so it appears you sank 4-6 carriers and damaged 4-6 others. He will be crawling back to his shipyards for weeks, times to bring in the subs and start picking off the cripples.

He got away in good order. The slowest ship floating was able to move at least 6 hexes the next turn, they all made it to Ambon and beyond. MrKane has a way of destroying sub groups that get too close to his carrier fleet or ports.

[Mike McCreery]

David and Goliath...

I sent 10 destroyers into the maw of Ambon harbor. I knew there was at least one battleship there. There was a fairly long inconclusive fight with the Nagato, a light cruiser and 4 destroyers resulting in 1 hit on the Nagato and significant damage to 1 or 2 of his destroyers.

The Nagato commander decided that retreat was the better part of valor and decided to skip town.

It didnt work out well for him... He took 3 torpedoes from the subs that were trying to trap the KB refugees.

[Mike McCreery]

January 18, 1944

Ruteng is one of the primary Japanese bases north of Darwin. MrKane set this base up early in the war. A few weeks ago I planned on assaulting it by taking Endeh and landing forces to move north.

After the KB debacle, I executed this manuver and now a division plus tanks are doing just that.

This is the last developed base until Soerbaja and that base is only a lvl 4 airfield.

The destruction of part of the KB has torn the game open wide. MrKane has asked for a few days to consider his strategy.

Plans are to keep swinging west and hopefully put troops on Java and also interdict Balikpapan.

[Mike McCreery]

On January 17th, I bombarded Ruteng with 2 heavy cruiser groups. It annoyed his aircraft but did not seem to do significant damage.

[Mike McCreery]

January 18

A group of battleships goes in and bombards the airfield at Ruteng destroying 40+ aircraft.

Later in the afternoon a full strike of over 500 torpedo and dive bombers attack the airfield and port destroying another 50+ airplanes and doing major damage to all 3 AKE's in port.

[Mike McCreery]

January 18, 1944

Another attack goes in on Lautem. This is the 2nd attack and MrKane's forts have been reduced to 2. Casualties are very high as well. I have been doing quite well against ground forces lately. Likely because I am not facing any armor units, they are all in Burma waiting for my 3rd attempt at an assault.

[Bif1961]

Ruteng must be a size 100 AF (sic), or he grossly over stocked it making his planes sitting ducks for your well executed attacks by air and sea.

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Ruteng must be a size 100 AF (sic), or he grossly over stocked it making his planes sitting ducks for your well executed attacks by air and sea.

Ruteng is a level 7 airfield allowing him 350 space. MrKane likes to highly concentrate his forces on well developed bases rather than distribute them all over the place.

[Mike McCreery]

Strategic Map.

MrKane never bothered to clean up the dot hexes as part of his advance so any base north of Ambon that is green is unmanned.

This is going to help me significantly during advancement.

[Bif1961]

I wager he had 500+ aircraft on Ruteng, making them over stocked and easier targets for you coordinated attacks.

[GetAssista]

Oh, those green dots... I remember many occurencies from other AARs of sneaky airsupport flying in and then PB search being conducted right under the enemy nose

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

I wager he had 500+ aircraft on Ruteng, making them over stocked and easier targets for you coordinated attacks.

MrKane is a very precise player. A mouseover from the 17th before the bombardments shows about 320 planes with an additional 80 specials, probably search aircraft. I am guessing he had it filled up right to the brim. The 90+ support units I disabled probably included a few points of AV.

[njp72]

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

January 18

A group of battleships goes in and bombards the airfield at Ruteng destroying 40+ aircraft.

Later in the afternoon a full strike of over 500 torpedo and dive bombers attack the airfield and port destroying another 50+ airplanes and doing major damage to all 3 AKE's in port.

You are starting to really hand out the punishment now

Looking at the scoreboard the only real difference was the start bombing, no doubt in Oz during the early days.

It is amazing how quickly the initiative/ momentum can shift in this game, especially in 44.

[Mike McCreery]

Too true old friend, too true :]

It appears that Makassar is undefended and that Balikpapan has one very small unit. These items may change, particularly Balikpapan due to incomplete information. However, I plan on landing forces on Makassar in 2 turns and targeting Balikpapan with surface and/or carrier forces within a few turns.

[Mike McCreery]

Soemba has about 500 troops and Bima has an SNLF of AV 20-30. Troops are enroute to both of those islands. Air combat is going in at memboro so the amphibious troops can land without losing prep. Air forces are also dropping on Salajar.

In 2 turns I think an australian brigade is going to land at Makassar with a bunch of support troops, costal AA and engineers. I will have some serious AA enroute within 3 days from Darwin, I want to put the NewZealand beasties there.

There are sigint messages telling me that part or all of th 53rd ID is heading to Soerbaja by ship.

The Allied carriers are positioning next to Makassar 1 hex to the southwest preparing to attack either Balikpapan, soerbaja or both.