I decided to keep the fancy schmancy toned down, and not attempt any of the crazy tactics that have spawned recently. I decided to place a single sub in the bering strait, less to stop an attack but rather to see if anyone was gonna move through. I also added 2x3 subs to the pacific and moved them under Mexico for later. The rest of my forces rallied in a loose half-moon facing the icelandic opening.
Even before I had my assets in place, the first fighters came my way any I decided on a general withdrawal to an even bigger half-moon. When about 20 seconds later the first rail of fighters descended upon the area where my carriers had just been, I knew I was in for a ride. We soon settled into a "routine" where Samurai would use a lot of the Atlantic and withdraw as far back as a huge half moon stretching from his coast to Spain (or so I guessed). Yet, whenever I would try to pin him down and rail him with fighters, he would slip away fast enough. This got me so frustrated that I decided to scare him back and then try to rush through the gap and take control of the other side; from there take control of the Atlantic. The second I stupidly decided to make the move, I got squashed by a sixpack of subs that ravaged my advancing battleships. In one strike I lost a good 35% of my Navy.
From then on I realized I was only gonna win this if I mixed it up, so I flipped open my silos after laying a fighter screen across Europe and Africa. Aiming for West/East Coast I targeted the big five (West - LA/SF : East NYC/Chicago/Washington), but also mixed in a few other East coast targets. By looking at the trajectory of his AA fire I was able to determine that he had 2 silos near the West coast and 4 spread silos on the East. This was my first glimpse of hope.
Following my launch, which catapulted me into a decent 100/-40 lead, I decided to play a little attrition with his forces in the Atlantic but he wasn't up to it. I had placed my airfields as far west as possible, allowing me fort a comfortable fighter reload. This is a risky move but if you can keep control of the incoming ordonance, its great since you can maintain a constant fighter flow in the sky. Unfortunately, he was doing the same from NA so we weren't really going anywhere.
He then proceeded to launch some subs from the Indian Ocean, but only did minimal damage. Two follow-up strikes from bomber waves caused some damage but my constant air-patrol made sure that the waves were expensive endeavours, costing him his entire air wing every time.
Knowing he would stay defensive if I kept sending fighters twoards him, I loaded my remaining 7 carriers (1x4, 1x3) with the bombers I had left and headed above North America. I sprayed the fighters into the continent and managed to spook two battleships near Hudson Bay, which luckily took off, and discover some of his assets. I quickly followed up the fighters with a wave of 14 bombers, killing two silos and an airfield and then withdrawing the 1x4 to reload it with fighters and resume the defense of Iceland in expectation of a response-rush.
I was feeling pretty good at that time, being at a Naval disadvantage in terms of numbers, but having gotten my nukes in the air and having 6 subs waiting near Mexico. Yeah right, Mexico. I hadn't looked at them in a while, and when I turned to them two were still alive and under submarine fire. I surfaced them asap but it was too late - 30 nukes lost. I cringed and realized that I couldn't throw my remaining bombers (on the 1x3 above NA) into the attrition battle, but had to keep em for the endgame.
To make a very long story short, after a lot of cat and mouse he started rushing me and send his bombers, I managed to kill most and when the victory timer hit I felt pretty good. He flipped his silos a little late but I managed to send in all my bombers and launch nukes from the single sub that had been closing the Bering strait, ending up with a bigger margin than expected. The result in no way reflects the intensity of this game as Ace can surely testify
gg Samurai!
cara
