Turn 1

Turn 2

Turn 3

Turn 4

Turn 5

Turn 6

Turn 7

Turn 8

Turn 1

IJN Report: The first turn was very hard on the British -- with the Prince of Wales and Repulse sunk in air raids while Hermes was sunk by an I-Boat.  Pearl Harbor was also a Japanese victory -- with Maryland, West Viginia, Tennessee, Nevada, Oklahoma, San Fransisco, and New Orleans sunk.  Among the survivors, Arizona was crippled while Pennsylvania took 3 damage and California took 4 damage.  The 5th AF was downed in Indonesia but the 7th survived the Pearl raids.

The USN fleet has its average numbers at this point.  However, sink the survivors were all BB, the USN will be slightly stronger than usual on the surface if it can get those BB repaired before they're sunk.

No CV groups arrive in the Pacific -- meaning that there's very low threat to Indonesia next turn.

Turn 2

USN Comments: I've never thrown 3 LBA into Indonesia before, but I thought if ever there was a time to do it, it would be this game. With only the Turn 2 British CVs that could threaten Indo, I felt I needed to up the Ante there a little bit.

We'll see if I ever contemplate doing something like this again.

I have to admit my first thought when I saw your raider move was to hit SPO and Marshalls with 2 CVs each, throw Surface into CPO and the Aleutians, and throw a Suicide CV into the Coral Sea, but I did the math and with about a 30% failure rate of stopping your Coral Sea NLF (and thus 30% chance to lose the game); I didn't like that math.

I'm gonna toss a few ideas around tonight, and get my move out tomorrow or Monday. (I was ready, but I started to have second thoughts) I'm glad I don't have to do this on a clock.

USN Comments: After much deliberation and trepidation, here is my Turn 2 Raider move. This ended up being the third different version I came up with. The first I already detailed, the next had a CV in the SPO instead of the Aleutians, but I decided that was too risky.

USN Comments: The important thing for me with New Hebrides was also to deny you the ability to patrol the Hawaiian Islands on Turn 3. Whether you were going to have 1 LBA (or 3 if you had decided to run) was only part of it for me.

You're right; the advantage I gained in Indonesia may have been handed back to you in the Surface Carnage that was the Coral Sea.

Turn 3

Turn 4

Turn 5

Turn 6

Turn 7

USN Comment: My CV's finish the job they started in Round 1; shooting down your last LBA.

I felt like I was going to be an underdog, no matter which zone I went for, but I felt I had to decontrol one of the two.  I decided on the Japanese Islands because I would at least have a Surface advantage.  After your first round I thought for sure I was done.

IJN Comment: Well, that one in six chance for a pure night in the Japanese Islands really did me in. I thought I had it won after the first day action showed up... now you're a solid favorite on the last turn.

I think that had to be the poorest return for 6 LBA and 5 CV I think I've ever gotten. But I did learn one lesson. At one point in my raider move, I had a bunch of surface ships in the Japanese Islands too. They wouldn't have won the area for me, but they'd certainly have denied you the flag.

I also thought about sending a trio into the Hawaiians -- which I should have done just to draw your own resources away from the two key areas. Ah well, live and learn...

I think I'd have no chance at all now if you'd managed to flag Bay of Bengal, Marianas Islands, and the Aleutian Islands.

Turn 8

USN Comments: USN lucks out on the preference rolls (winning 5 of 5) after a poor move. To your comment about ignoring Indo; I somehow got it in my head that if I ignored Indo and something catastrophic happened somewhere else I would somehow lose... Which obviously only makes it more likely that something bad might happen.

Marianas is a Day
CPO is a Day
Japanese Islands is a Day
Indian Ocean is a Day
Bay of Bengal is a Night
Indonesia is a Day

IJN Comments: Charlie wins every area except Indonesia and wins the game by 2.5.  My best shot elsewhere came in the Bay of Bengal -- but a first round night action spoiled that slim chance.

USN Comments: Turn 7 really turned the game around for me, if we fought that turn 7 battle 100 times; USN forces flagging Japanese Islands would be the least likely outcome.

Thank you for an excellent game; good luck to you as well in your remaining matches.