Pacific at War 1941-1945 v.3.63 Don is Allies

[larryfulkerson]

This is the jump map for Pacific at War 1941-1945 v.3.63 and Don graciously volunteered to play the Allied side for us and I'm starting turn 1 now. This is the point where my forces are at their best and I'm thinking I outnumber the Allies so far so I'm going on the offensive until about mid-42 when I'll start building up my defenses and garrisoning all the smaller islands and move some naval planes out into the South Pacific to hold the American Navy at bay as long as I can. I'm not going to receive any more capital ships but Don is so I have to husband mine and be careful with them. And repair them when they accumulate some damage. I'll see what I can do to show you what shape the aircraft are in right now.

[larryfulkerson]

As you can see most of them are green but there's a significant number of them that are yellow and can't fly because they need rest. There's a large number of squadrons that have but a single plane in them. Those I'll fly to the home islands and let them rest in the brothels of Tokyo. The ones that are ready for combat I'm going to fly to better spots and get ready for all the invasions that are going to take place in the very near future.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some more info about the planes. How many I have on hand right now and how fast I'm making them and when I start to get the newer models. I'm wondering how the Kamakaze types enter the game....event or ???

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a small crowd of men from the 65th Independent Brigade moving to the port on Formosa where there are transports waiting to load them for the move to the Phillippines. It is thought that a landing can be made at Lingayen and if they can get ashore fast enough there will be enough daylight left to make some progress on the road south to Manila.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been studying the PI to see if I can find some fast way to take down Manila and Bataan so I can reuse the troops at Singapore. I'm assuming I'll need the troops at Singapore. I have a WITP-AE game going, in which I'm playing the Jap side, and I've already captured Manila and Singapore but didn't need any extra troops at Singapore so maybe I won't need to reuse them in this game either. I'd like to find a place where I can get a port and an airfield right off the bat. I can park a lot of ships near the port to backup my troops and the airfield can host a lot of my fighters who are the CAP for the ships and troops. I need to reduce the presence of the Allied aircraft on the islands but he's got two separate AA units at Manila to protect his planes and I hesitate to strike that particular hex from the air. The losses wouldn't be worth whatever hits I might accidently get. I've done a recon by cursor and have identified several ports that have an enemy unit in them but I think I need to drive some DD's around the island to see which ports are empty and capture them so that my troops might just walk ashore without having any drama. I need the PI for the drive on Davao, and the Celebes, and Java. And the faster I can conquer the DEI and the major oil spots the sooner I can make an attempt at Rangoon or Calcutta. Not to mention Rabaul and Port Moresby. I need bases for my planes to hold off the American Navy as long as possible.

[larryfulkerson]

I don't have a mission that I think this aircraft can do successfully. It's pitiful as a CS aircraft. INT would be a cruel joke. There's no dedicated recon mission but I can use this aircraft for that or as bait for American airstrikes on my airfields. I googled this aircraft and discovered that it was used as a light transport and for recon duties. I suppose I can use them for SEA INT, put them on one-dots, and let them be the first trip-wire for the presence of American ships nearby. I can't imagine what else they can do.

[larryfulkerson]

I drove the DD's south from Tinian down to Guam and found the southmost port empty, drove into it, captured it, and then flew some fighters to the airfield for a CAP for the DD's; that's when the American Marine unit appeared in the northern port; and I intend to float some INF into the empty port and attack northward to capture Guam itself. There's just a single Marine defense batallion there so it should be a pushover. I need to capture it to prevent any Allied aircraft from appearing in my backfield. I need to be able to float some LCU's from the home islands past here on their way to Rabaul and I don't want to get intercepted by some Allied planes. Besides, I want that base for my planes and ships. Guam is a good place to park some ships while they repair. Let me take that back. I just took a look at the map and it seems that the Allies have some bombers that can reach Guam so I'm thinking I'll need the shipyards to be further away yet, to be safe from Allied bombers. It wouldn't hurt to park some fighters in the same hex as the ships for a CAP as well.

[larryfulkerson]

I flew a squadron of Bettys out to Kwajalein and noticed that I could reach Wake and Port Moresby and the search arc extends for a significant part of the way toward Pearl. I've got them on SEA INT but I don't mind using them for CS at Wake later this turn. The Jap CV's are on their way to just north of Pearl and my theater recon is high enough to have sighted the American BB's at Pearl, so I don't have to sacrafice any of my smaller ships to expose the American TF's. The American ships are parked in port so I'll need to remember to make port attacks instead of the regular kind. I'll show you what I mean ( next post ).

[larryfulkerson]

Here's my study of Pearl and I'm thinking that one pass at the ships won't do it. I'm going to need more than one strike I think. Depending on how many American ships are left after the strike and what condition they are in, I'd like to make strikes until my planes are tired. I'm guessing that one strike will turn them all yellow. D'oh.

[StuccoFresco]

Seems a monumental effort, but after all WITP looks even more complex.

[larryfulkerson]

We've already had our first casualty. I was driving one of my subchasers around capturing ports and ran into an American DD squadron which promptly sank my subchaser. Now I have only 28 of them left. I'm going to have to find a different way of finding empty ports. I guess I need a ship with at least a 3-hex range....something like that.

[larryfulkerson]

I've made a first stab at making a landing in the Phillippines. I loaded the 65th Ind. Brigade, the Kanno Rgt and the Tanaka Rgt. into transports and assigned 2 CL's and a DD division for escorts and started moving south. I made sure to fly a lot of fighters to the southern tip of Formosa for a CAP over the movement. I found an empty port at Laoag and just walked ashore with the troops; the 65th Ind. Brigade moved south until contacting an unknown Phil. Division north of Lingayen with another PA division in the city itself. I moved the ships right offshore for support and I plan to attack later this turn. I flew some Claudes to Laoag for CAP and I plan to fly in some bombers for INT and / or CS and I'm going to float an AA unit to Laoag to deter any Allied airfield strikes. There's an Allied three-ship SCTF parked in Manila Bay as I recall, so I'll need to reduce Ft. Drum ( Corregador ) so I can have free passage into the bay. That calls for some BB's for the task.

[larryfulkerson]

I drove most of a division out to Wake, escorted by only a single DD squadron and when I arrived I found some CD guns at Wake and I don't have the firepower to overcome them and if the CD guns are there when the troops try to land they will be cut to ribbons. I'm going to need some more firepower for this task. I'll attack later this turn.

[larryfulkerson]

I dropped some paratroops just north of Singapore and moved adjacent and Allied Force Z appeared giving me another jucy target. I've flown some Betty's into this AO from the home islands so I can't attack with them until later in the turn. I'm planning on moving some largish ships into the Singapore waters to protect my paratroops. That and the CS from my planes will be all that's preventing the destructing of the paratroopers. I hope it's enough.

[larryfulkerson]

I drove 2 BB's with escorts south from the home islands to the mouth of Manila Bay and moved into range of Ft. Drum and I got some damage to my ships but Ft. Drum evaporated. I've got access to Manila now, but I have to defeat the American fleet in the Bay yet. I think there's a CA and 2 DD's lurking in there but I'm not sure. I'm going to see if I can't bombard the airfield with all the American planes parked there to see if I can't drive them into reorg and ground them. I have no idea what's in the Manila hex itself but there's surely something. Don wouldn't leave it empty would he? I've got 19K of sea transport left over from the 37K I started with. That's just about enough to land on the east coast of Malaya. Or Bangkok. Rangoon is too far away for any of the LCU's I have available for transport. I may have to land some more units in the PI to make the takedown faster.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved further into the Bay and the last American ship appeared: A DD group and I'm thinking I'll have to defeat that DD to get at the ports and airfields but I've moved so much that I'll have to attack later in the turn.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved 2 different BB's with escorts down to near Singapore and moved into the range of Force Z and discovered that there was more to Force Z besides that one BB I knew about. I'm going to have to do some air strikes to see if I can't whittle that group down a little bit before I attack with the ships again. I need to get rid of that American TF because it can help destroy my paratroopers. If I recall correctly there's some CD guns at Singapore itself and I don't remember it's range and I'll have to keep that bad boy in mind while I'm driving my ships around this area. I may have a CV that I can send down here to help out.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved a squadron of Emilies and Mavis's to Kavieng and it looks like I have the range to spy on New Caledonia and almost down to Sydney. I captured Makin and Tarawa and I need to move some fighters into that area. I've been moving some LCU's to the ports I captured in the smaller islands south of the Celebes and some of those places have airfields so I need to move some planes in there to help control the movement of Allied ships and floaters moving from Java to Oz. The idea is to cut off Oz from the west coast entirely. I'm not sure how far I would get if I invaded the north coast of Australia ( Oz ). Not enough ports on Australlia's north coast to furnish enough supply to make a Jap invasion worthwhile. I can't win a war of attrition so I need my attacks to be justified and only to accomplish a goal. I can't attack to just be attacking.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved a squadron of Betty's into the AO and my patrol range now almost reaches Sydney's port and airfield. I'm hoping this will allow me to monitor Allied traffic in and out of that port even though it doesn't quite reach far enough. I've got another two dozen aircraft to move somewhere yet.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved a Betty group close enough to Saigon that some Allied ships appeared at Ceylon SE of India. I scoped it out for defenders and I seem to not have enough recon for that yet. I can see some aircraft and some ships but the LCU's are still invisible. So I still have no idea how hard it would be to take this target down. Several divisions to make it quicker maybe.