My game moves very slowly. I take a great deal of time over each turn (I average an hour and a quarter on a turn). So bear with me if my reports don't rush through the years rapidly. Anyway, on to the report.
It is week 37, 1941. Since my last report, here are the changes and status:
1. Australia. I have taken every city in Australia except Normanton (should fall to my original Australian invasion fleet in about 3 turns), Alice Springs (my armor, the five surviving units of the six I originally landed, is resting and refitting after taking Winton, then it will go after Alice Springs), and Perth (my new invasion fleet departed from Java, took Darwin and has moved down the west coast and has only Perth left to take - this fleet has no Marines, using Infantry to invade, and only 1 Shokaku-class carrier, though it does also have an Escort carrier and a BBC2 with several heavy cruisers). The Melbourne-Canberra-Sydney are has done well at producing workers and city improvements and I am starting the process now of converting Australia, over time, into a major air-sea producing power. These 2 fleets will gather in the East Indies when they are done in Australia and, when combined, will head to southern Africa to spearhead our drive up the African west coast. The combined fleets will have (when combined with other ships on the way from various directions) 6 Shokakus, 1 Yamato, one old BB, 2 BBC2s, 8 heavy cruisers, an Escort carrier, and an assortment of light cruisers, DDs and AA cruisers, with 2 transports, which carry 2 Japanese Marines, 3 ANZAC Infantry, 3 Heavy Artillery, and a Marine unit produced in New Caledonia - the bombing strength of the combined fleet will be 20 squadrons of Kates and they will have 12 squadrons of the new Ki-84 fighters for air cover. The Australian air force will stage to the Middle East. I thought it would be early 1942 before I had taken all of Australia, but I now expect to be done inside of 5 turns. This fleet had 4 Japanese Marines with it - clearly more than are now needed, so as we passed Cooktown, where I placed an airport, I dropped 2 units off, lifted one to Karachi, and will lift the other the next turn - they will then load on transports at Suez once we've taken it for operations in the Med.
2. South Africa. I have taken three British cities in south africa - including Praetoria and Johannesburg. I have pounded Kimberley down to a pop of 1. I'm now pounding Cape Town. I just landed 4 new units of tanks here and will begin the offensive south to take Kimberley. The Birts did counterattack aggressively and in reasonably large numbers, but with SA Infantry, regular Infantry and individual Tank Brigades. They attempted to bomb me on 2 separate turns but my zeros intercepted and shot down every bomber squadron they used (15 of them over the 2 turns) and my Bettys found their fighters and destroyed them on the ground before they could be used to intercept me (7 squadrons - not sure what they were except British fighters). The fleet that was down here has deployed to the Red Sea (it now has 4 old BBs, 5 Shokakus - with a sixth en route, and one Yamato with a large number of heavy and light cruisers, etc.). I had stationed half a dozen Otsu subs at the exit to intercept enemy ships. A Brit light cruiser came out and I sank it, then we spotted 2 British BBs, the Resolution and Revenge - and I sent my fleet north to get them. We arrived, sank both, then intervened in the air by pounding the Brit ground forces that were attacking Italian East Africa - they lost Mogadishu, but their remaining 2 cities are still firmly in their hands due to our timely intervention. This fleet will now move north, ravaging Brit holdings all the way to Suez and sinking everything it can find. It has 10 squadrons of the new Ki-84 fighters and AA cruisers, so I'm hoping the Brits will throw a bunch of bombers at us (we can take a LOT of pounding before we are at any risk and we should intercept and shoot down a lot of enemy aircraft before that ever happens). Meanwhile, I had stationed another squadron of 8 Otsus off South Africa to give me warning if any Brit ships approached - they spotted a squadron of 5 Portueguese DDs coming and sank them all. I have about 2 dozen Otsus at various points en route, half to south africa, half to the Red Sea for when we take Suez and break into the Med (my fleet won't take it because though it has a transport, I left the Marines in South Africa to fight on the ground (due to my small ground force there - which I am building up with relays of transports - I have 6 infantry and 6 tank units en route) but when we take it from the middle east, the 2 air-deployed Marines from Australia will join this fleet at Suez for operations in the Med.
3. Middle East. Persia is out of the game. We have also taken Kuweit, Baghdad and Kirkuk and will take Damascus next turn, then Jerusalem within 2 or 3 turns thereafter. This Army and air force is very large and grows every turn as I deploy newly constructed units in from China and Manchuria. There are well over 250 units here - a lot of heavy artillery and flak, 70 each of infantry and tanks, and about 70 squadrons of air (when I deployed the new Ki-84s to the fleets, I moved the zeros into these groups). Both the Brits and French counterattacked aggressively and heavily with lots of ground and British air. They have been roundly defeated in each case. I expect this force to move on, take Suez, then fan out and take all of Africa, driving France and Belgium out of the game and further cutting into British production and resource capabilities (they will be helped in this by the force coming north from South Africa). It will also link up with the fleet and take all of the allied-held islands in the Med and hopefully sink a bunch of British and French ships. When done, this campaign should have eliminated France and Belgium, reduced Portuegal to Lissabon, crippled the British fleet and driven them entirely out of the Med and Africa.
4. North America. We have taken all of Alaska, and Whitehorse from the Canadians. Prince Rupert is next on the target list and has been brought under bombardment by my invasion fleet's 12 Kate squadrons (only 4 Shokakus here, 2 more en route). The Canadians intervened with air, but my zeros destroyed their bombers, then my bombers destroyed their fighters on the ground in Whitehorse. I am ferrying over convoys of transports loaded with infantry, armor and workers. I need to rapidly get a road network built south to the other in-land Canadian cities and my infantry will have to move through the mountains and take those cities, supported by Bettys. The coastal cities will fall to the fleet. It still carrys 20 infantry, six heavy artillery, 4 flak and 15 tank units to put on shore and 2 new marine units are also en route to joint his fleet. One advantage up here is that the borders of cities are so extensive, the enemy has a difficult time counterattacking - especially since I totally control the air - at the moment anyway. There are about 70 squadrons of ground based air up here, in addition to my fleet air units. I'm dreading the appearance of B17s. I expect that they may actually swing the balance the other way, if they appear in large enough numbers.
5. Panama. Finally finished off all of the American units. They attempted to leave when I attacked Alask/Canada, but my bombers red-lined them and they stayed in place to heal up - helpfully right on the coast, 2 spaces from Panama, which allowed me to transport a pair of marine units each turn (I have 4 here) over to destroy them and over about 10 turns, I attritted them out of existence - about 20 or so marine and paratrooper units. I also have 4 Canadian units, and a British Commando unit in similar condition on Yucatan - I'll finish them next. Once that is done, I'll be able to deploy the ground forces out from Panama and take Cuba and Puerto Rico. My original battle fleet is still here - soon it will have an additional 2 shokakus. I'm also setting up a pair of escort carriers about halfway between Hawaii and Panama, so I can stage over Kates and Ki-84s to join my Bettys and my fleet air units. I'm tempted to aim for Miami with this force in time (I'm also ferrying over tank and artillery and flak units) but I'm hesitant. All of my advantages would disappear once I was on the American mainland out in that exposed spot. AI would be able to concentrate air and ground forces in overwhelming numbers faster than I could. My Fleet should be able to protect the islands though. I also have about 20 Otsus en route to Panama to head into the Carib. and Atlantic. I have 1 Otsu and 4 subs in the Carib now, and I had 4 Otsus in the mid-Atlantic, but after nothing happened over a lot of turns, I moved them down to Gibralter - en route the British BB Barham ran over one and wiped it out - so I have 3 down there, watching the entrance to the Med (once they got down near southern England and Spain they saw lots of German u-boats running around).
6. RRs. They are now complete all the way into the Middle East. It takes a tank unit less than 1 turn to get from Pusan to Baghdad. This is hugely important and my workers will continue to follow the army extending the RR, and normal roads, behind them and into north africa. I have connected all of south-east asia and northern India to my main line and have only to finish northern China (the border cities with the Soviets), the Malaysian Peninsula (which will take forever due to the jungles), southern India and some internal mountain cities in China - then to the Persian cities I bypassed, etc. The pace of this has increased as I continue to produce lots of workers, especially in India, about 1/3 of whom join the RR crews and the rest work on improvements in India to make the cities more productive. By the end of the year, India will join China, south east asia and Manchuria as major unit producers.
7. Technology. I'm at land 1943. I should be in the 1944 tech section before the end of 1941.
8. Victory Conditions. My alliance is now in second place with about 6000 VPs. The US alliance is still in first with about 9600. As to the domination stuff, I have 46% of the pop, and 26% of the terrain. I think this is the category at which the game will end if the Allies don't stop me and drive me back, the Russians don't attack, and if no one gets the nukes before I get 60% in each category (not letting Japan develop nukes is just wrong). I won't attack Russia until I have all of Africa, Turkey, the Balkans (if any are left by then), Portugual and Spain so I expect the domination category will come into play at some point.
Regards,
Kelly Whiting
this is so frustrating at times because I just wasted 300 gold making peace
