Just gotta say; I'm enjoying this thread immensely.

Wanted this game forever.

For Wake Island -

Operation Buttercup?

http://www.withoutatraceroute.com/wp...lm-300x240.jpg

Edit: Egan, could he be massing his troops for a mass attack on one area, say Wake or Singers? Could that mean he's stripped other fronts of their units.. perhaps this gives you an opportunity to counter attack

Hmm, good idea. Egan should definitely go with Operation Facepalm!

As TorpX pointed out, if Moresby fell, which if memory serves me correct was the whole reason the Battle of the Coral Sea played out the way it did... shouldn't you be at least a little concerned?

It's not uncommon for Port Moresby to fall early in this game as Japanese players can often push more aggressively than their historical counterparts in some areas by sacrificing speed in others. Note that Singapore, Manila and most of the Dutch East Indies hasn't fallen yet. Even with this chokepoint lost you can still route convoys well enough south to keep the vital US to Australia supply line open. It does isolate Darwin and Northern Australia a great deal though. As the Allies you pretty much have to cede the Solomons once Rabaul falls anyway due to the aerial threat. All the remaining bases and anchorages there are very primitive at this point and would need months of investment with engineers to build up. Engineers you often don't have yet, or are still in the convoy pipeline.

I've been out celebrating Good Friday by eating oysters and drinking a very fine Muscadet and some gin and tonics. Things may go a bit slower today!

Torplexed is 100% spot on. It is received wisdom in WiTP circles that there is virtually nothing an Allied player can do to stop the Japanese taking Moresby much earlier than normal should they wish to. Am I concerned by it? Yes I am, but I am also realistic.

I have 4 whole divisions in Australia and most of another one. This sounds like a lot but there are two major reason I do not commit them to the defence of either Rabaul or Moresby: I can't afford the Politicial points and for the first year/18 months, those Australian division are largely composed of militia quality troops. Considering those soldiers were supposed to defend Australia properly in real life, rather than anywhere overseas - shortsighted policy or otherwise, I don't know enough to comment - various people do not think they should be used in-game in such ashistorical situations. I don't hold with that. If the Japanese can invade Moresby in January I don't see why I shouldn't use them If can can afford to change their command. Which I can't.

So, why didn't I? Well, I had actually started to move the best part of a brigade into Moresby before it was invaded. It wasn't enough. Even if I had moved a whole Australian division into the port it wouldn't have done more than held off the inevitable for maybe another week and I would have ended up losing a whole div. These troops, although militia quality at the start, upgrade into fearsome formations later in the game. As far as I'm concerned they are every bit the equal of US army, British or Indian divisions and better than any unit the Japanese have. I won't throw them away on unwinnable battles.

I had several cruisers I could have sent north to deal with the Japanese shipping, but the first notification I had that they were even there was when the landings had started. All that would have happened is that they would have been sunk by the KB.

Coral Sea was indeed about the Japanese attempt to take Moresby but there were two vital differences: the presence of US carriers and the fact that the Japanese did not keep the Kido Butai together. This evened things out. It also happened 5 months later. In five more months I will have 6 carriers (5 US, 1 RN,) available, plus a lot more troops and engineers.

We are not even two months into the war, remember. It won't be won or lost at Rabaul, or Wake, or even Singapore or the Philippines. I expect to lose all of them at some point (well, maybe not Wake,) and I expect to lose all of Burma, the DEI and perhaps even Northern Oz as well. Is there a line in the sand? yes there is but he isn't anywhere near that yet.

I don't think he's massing troops for Wake. The atoll can't support them anyway. The entire battle for that rock has a certain 'Carry On' film vibe to it so I'll keep operation Facepalm, I think. :haha:

I still think Oz is on the cards for an invasion. He could be thinking of going for Pearl but I don't think he will. India is another way for the Japanese to go for Autovictoy but I don't think he would be confident of it. I've seen some very, very skilled veteran players crash and burn there even though the consensus is that it can be done.

I know he's prepping troops for Shortlands on Buganville so I expect a major push into the Solomons pretty soon. The PI is still strong but the supply situation will start becoming critical in the next few weeks. Singers will hold out for a while yet.

Right, I've got a turn to play. Back in a bit.

23rd Jan 42

PNG

Landings at Buna at the other end of the Kokoda trail from Port Moresby. Not unexpected, of course.

DEI

Kendari falls, but not before Dutch Sub KIX slams two torpedoes into a troop carrying xAK. Dutch subs lead the way in tonnage so far. I think that's three light cruisers and several marus they've sunk.

Singers

A big bombing raid is ambushed by the Kiwi Hurricanes I moved in. Although none of the Sallies are shot down, 8 of them are damaged. The three units I want to move out should be finished packing their stuff for 'Strategic movement' tomorrow.

CenPac

The Supply ship is unloading at Wake. Again, none of the dive bombers wanted to fly and I'm unsure why. I'll have to look at this closely. As I had 'Ground Attack' set as secondary missions for all three squads I'm wondering whether the three commanders are hedging their bets. The weather has been dreadful too but not bad enough to scrub several missions.

The reinforcement convoy should arrive just after tomorrow (one hex out from making it next turn.) This is turning out to be an interesting affair.

Japanese troop numbers

Although these figures are subject to FOW, spotter error and failure to take into account differences between combat units and rear echelon support troops I think these make interesting reading re intentions: Moresby, 18160 troops present; Rabaul, 13100; Kendari, 4600; Ambon, 2540.

This is, I suppose, what we might expect and is consistent with Juha's strategy so far. An interesting correlation - and one that explains my Submarine fleets relative lack of action - is that the amount of convoys I've seen coming and going from the Home Islands have been quite low. This should be obvious because he doesn't yet have any of the really big producers in the DEI. Palembang, Soerabaja and Balikpapen are the three big oil producers in the game and the fact he hasn't even reconned them yet is a little worrying.

There is a simple domino effect that is quite often seen: To take India or Burma you need Sumatra. To take Sumatra you need Singapore....All of which are still mine.

Shipping news

Battleships New Mexico and Mississippi arrived in San Fransisco today, Idaho arrives tomorrow.

Good question. I know that Juha is aware his Pearl Harbour attack didn't achieve much because he hinted as much in an Email, but I don't know whether he thinks he sank anything at all.

One of the things about Fog of War in the game is how it affects confirmation of ships sinking. You can put three torpedoes into a battleship, and on the next turn the same ship might appear in the 'sunk ship' list, but until it's both on that list, and you have had a confirmation message about sinking it you can not be sure it has. I've seen it take over 18 months for a confirmation message to come through. You just can't be certain. Sometimes, however, a sinking is accompanied by breaking up noises. If you hear that you can usually
take it that the target went down.

I haven't heard from Happy Times in a couple of days. I know he was having connection problems so it's probably either that or enjoying the Easter weekend.

I managed to get WiTP Tracker working today for the first time ever. For those of you that aren't familiar with it, Tracker is a third party program that loads up turns and gives you a much more detailed break down of virtually everything that happens in your game. It's primary use is for helping you get the best out of the Japanese economy; it will tell you things like exactly how much of a shortfall in oil, of example, a base has each day, or tell you how many days your fuel stockpile will last for at current usage. It can help sort out what units upgrade to what and when, whether a task force has been detected or not, pretty much all the stuff in the game that can be a pain to find out. I never had much use for it before being a mainly Allied player, but loading up a turn from my occasional Japan v AI game has convinced me of it's worth. It is fantastic. For those of you thinking about playing as the Japanese I can't recommend it highly enough.

I know Juha couldn't get it to work either but hopefully we'll be able to sort it out for him. Not that he needs any more help..:DL

My Japanese game is worryingly fun. My Subs are like finely tuned weapons of instant death bringing destruction to the Pacific. I sank the Enterprise last night, though, and I still feel terrible about it. I don't think I'm cut out to be a Japanese Fanboi.

Who needs Xwings
 

You may not have Xwings but you do get the Vildebeeste and Stringbag use them wisely

(I find them the most potent early war allied aircraft in a lot of ways especially if a Japanese player is to aggressive)

Welcome aboard! Are you the same Andy Mac of Matrix fame who wrote WitPAE's AI scripts?:D

Welcome Andy.

Yes, I've found the Vildebeasts to be a godsend in the past. At them moment I have three squads of them in the DEI so I imagine I'll get some good use of out of them when Juha really begins to expand into the region. I have only one Stringbag left, I think, in the area. Their numbers took a beating due to some murderous CAP a while ago.

I've found some of the early war aircraft to be useful. The Dutch bombers, in particular, put the wind up emperor Happy Times on a couple of occasions, especially when he moved on Singkawen and eastern Borneo.

Speaking of Happy Times, I've still not heard anything from him. I hope he's not used the last three days to plot the mother of all turns. :wah: