[Egan]

I suppose playing with a good opponent is the best learning experience you can get.

Good opponent? I'll make him take that back!

Err....


OK, let's get down to business. First up a map of the immediate area of operations.




Situation
Despite all the real estate in Imperial hands, Japan's position is not too strong. Troops are scattered through the Solomons with the biggest concentrations of infantry at Lunga (About 80 AV), Shortlands (120 AV), and on the Kokoda trail east of Port Moresby. Tulagi is very much understrength with most of the troops present being engineers. Likewise, Rabaul has no great infantry power either but that doesn't matter for the time being.

Air power is also lacking. I have a wing of Betties at Rabaul with a couple of squadrons of Zeros for available for their defence. I also have a detachment of Zeros at Lae. That is pretty much the extent of it, and that isn't good.

Even worse, I have no carriers available and won't for nearly two weeks. Although I have several cruisers on map, escorts are non existent - I have a solitary destroyer. The good news is there are a number of Patrol boats available for tasking and a few subs so I won't be completely toothless.

My numbers will increase over the next few weeks but it will be a while before I am in a position to challenge any early Allied aggression too much.

CCIP will be aiming to take Guadalcanal and Tulagi as soon as possible followed by a move up the Slot towards Shortlands, which will put him in range of Rabaul. It will be interesting to see how much attention he pays to Moresby. If it wasn't for the victory points value it would be a lot less strategically important in this scenario than it would be in the full campaign.

Aims and Plans

Simple enough on paper: defend the Solomon islands and Rabaul from Allied attack and take Port Moresby. I don't have to do everything at once, thankfully, but if I linger too long I will allow CCIP to consolidate his early gains and put my position at risk.

Thoughts.

Following the battle for the Coral sea and the Midway fiasco I don't have anything as useful as the full Kido Butai available for use. I will get my hands on the Shokaku and the Zuikaku in 12 days with the Hiyo and Junyo before the end of the year. I will also receive several light and escort carriers too so things look bright enough on that front. Better news is that I will start to receive a number of destroyers, cruisers and battleships within the next few days and once I do I will be aiming to seriously impede CCIP's movements in both the Coral Sea and the Slot. The heart beat of any amphibious operation are the supply ships. Kill them and I kill his offensives.

I will use subs to strike at his big capital ships and force him to expend energy of securing his supply routes. I also hope to use Betties to knock out some of his troop ships before they reach the beach-head. Once I have the manpower I will move onto counter attacks but it will be a while before I can do that. In the meantime I will try to build up the airfield and fortification at Shortlands, using it as a forward base to launch fighter sweeps and bombing raids. Like wise for Buna on PNG. I need to take out any aircraft he tries to move into Moresby. I do not know what he gets in the way of big bombers but I do not want any B-17s using that as a jumping off point for neutralizing Rabaul. Once I have a few more subs I will picket the approaches to Moresby. The one real advantage I have at this time of the war is that my torpedoes work.

My ability to hit his shipping is mitigated slightly by the presence of Australian ship yards at Sydney. Although not huge they allow him to fix up less serious damage without having to send them off map. I don't have that luxury and any serious damage my ships take will pretty much remove them from the battle as they will have to head to Japan. As soon as I have the numbers, subs will be sent to patrol the Australian coast. Hopefully, if I damage any of his ships, I can finish them off before they get to port. Noumea, also, will be watched.

I will also have to watch that he doesn't manage to close off Truk with his own subs. This is my main entry point for Aircraft, manpower and shipping so it is vitally important I don't let him get the upper hand in local waters.

First Turn

I've spent supplies at Rabaul to arm my Betties with torpedoes and ordered them to naval strikes. The Zeros have been set to escort and given drop tanks. Search aircraft at Tulagi have been ordered to patrol east and south in the hope of intercepting his invasion force when it starts moving. All other Search aircraft have been mostly set to ASW around Rabaul and Truk.

CCIP should have Enterprise, Saratoga (I think,) and Wasp available to him at game start and I imagine he also has several battleships, cruisers and lots of destroyers. There is little I can do to halt any invasion of Guadalcanal in the first week and my best bet will probably be to pull back to the Northwest of the island once he gets his troops attacking. From there I can fight for time as I bring in reinforcements. Hopefully the Betties can do some damage but, considering how lightweight they actually are, I'll have to be careful with how often I use them; they are likely to end up quite depleted once his Wildcats and P-40s get into them.

Subs have been tasked with patrol zones around Guadalcanal and Tulagi. Hopefully they'll get in amongst the carriers and get lucky. All available Patrol Boats have been tasked with ASW patrols around Rabaul and Truk, I won't bother with anything more offensive until my ships start arriving. Cruisers without escorts won't live long in sub infested waters. He will have a number of S class boats and they do have torps that work.



Krauter, SF = Shock Force. CCIP and myself have been playing a bunch of PBEM games over the last few months. He's pretty good. Our last game was...well, let's not talk about that....


OK, first turn went yesterday and caught our boy off-guard. I'm away to London for a few days on Wednesday (RAF Hendon! Hurray!) but I'm hoping we'll get a couple of turns in before then.

Right, I'm off to get shot down yet again in Rise of Flight. I bought a set of rudder pedals thinking it would help but all that's happened is my knee hurts and I'm even worse at flying. Who knew?