New Guy Fights the Jap AI

[larryfulkerson]

I finally gave in and took the plunge to purchase War Plan Pacific yesterday and fired it up and moved some units around and watched the AI do it's thing and realized how much I didn't know about this game yet and read the manual ( skimmed is more like it ) and now feel like I'm ready to tackle an AAR about how a new guy would handle the Allied side. I thought I'd choose to fight it this way:

[larryfulkerson]

I'm a computer geek in my heart and I was curious as to how much memory this bad boy was taking up both before and after loading the scenario and these are the numbers I got. I plan on watching how much memory it takes as the game progresses just to watch how much it increases, if it does, as the various save files get created.

[larryfulkerson]

After I chose the scenario the game engine went immediately into the Jap combat phase and at the time I wasn't aware that cntl-F9 would pause the proceedings and it went to the end and produced this first turn report. I can't tell yet if I'm loosing or winning.

[larryfulkerson]

Last night late I decided that it might be a good idea to read ALL the manuals for the game and I came across this info from the scenario design PDF. Now I know how to pause the combat phase to capture some pictures as it happens.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a report on the TF that just arrived at Pearl. Two CV's, four BB's, two CA's,
five DD's and a sub are present at Pearl now. There's three ships bottomed but the rest
of them are good to go. I don't want to lose my CV's this early in the game so I think
for now that I'll just hide them here in port until the KB goes away. Leaving them in
port allows the use of the island's fighters as additional CAP. I'm not sure if I can
use the CV's planes to attack the Japs while parked at port but I'd rather not lose a lot
of good pilots and planes to a lost cause so I'll forget about attacking until the odds
are a lot better.

I'm due to receive two additional CV's on 23Dec41 and I feel like I can afford to loiter
at Pearl until then. That group of reinforcements will make the odds better should I get
into a knife fight so they are certainly welcome.

I was disappointed to see 0 Iron at Pearl because that means I may have to have some shipped
in. I'll have to look into that to make sure whether or not can function without some Iron
present. At least the supply level is high at Pearl.

I made some changes to the Hawaiian Air Force Group to make it a little more in line with the
use I'm going to put it to. I notice that it's not very effective as a combat unit and I'll
need to look into that to see what I can do to improve it ASAP. I notice that there's no HQ
unit present at Pearl and I need to look into the possibility to get one there [ although,
first, I need to see if that would help anything at all. My guess is that it would somehow.
A holdover from my WITP-AE days.

[CrackingShow]

Effectiveness is more like morale, or fatigue. It goes down when moving/fighting, and up at the start of the turn. It increases more quickly in high supply and near a HQ.

[kennonlightfoot]

The CV's in Pearl will interdict and defend against an air attack but you don't want to be caught that way. A player might repeat the Pearl Harbor raid with KB for another round but now supported by oilers. I don't think the AI however will ever do that.

[larryfulkerson]

I thank the both of you gentlemen for your contributions. Greatly appreciated I assure you.

ORIGINAL: CrackingShow
Effectiveness is more like morale, or fatigue. It goes down when moving/fighting, and up at
the start of the turn. It increases more quickly in high supply and near a HQ.

Thank you muchly for the prescient and timely info. Now I owe you a favor. Is there anyone
who you think needs to be disappeared? I mean besides the obvious standouts politically?

ORIGINAL: kennonlightfoot
The CV's in Pearl will interdict and defend against an air attack but you don't want to be
caught that way. A player might repeat the Pearl Harbor raid with [the] KB for another round but now supported by oilers. I don't think the AI however will ever do that.

I quite frankly admit that I hadn't thought of that. So it might be a good idea for me to
evacuate the fleet to the south for now. To save them to fight another day. When the odds
are better.

I just did a fresh bowl of Granny Skunk and all of a sudden this game is a LOT more interesting.

[larryfulkerson]

I renamed USAAFE as Gen. MacArthur so I can find him easier in a list and was going to try to fly him to Australia
but I don't see a way to embark him in a transport of some kind. Maybe I need to look at a different panel to do that.

[larryfulkerson]

I found a list of hot keys in the PDF and I want to post it here so I can refer to it
during my game. Yes, I have Google Chrome Canary going in the background so I can
post stuff to my AAR as it happens in my game in real time. I mostly post stuff as
soon as it happens IRL.

[CrackingShow]

You have to wait until transports arrive from the deploy queue as the Allies. They start arriving from March onwards. See the deploy tab for details.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: CrackingShow
You have to wait until transports arrive from the deploy queue as the Allies. They start arriving from March onwards. See the deploy tab for details.

Thank you very muchly for this tidbit of info. I'll wait. Meanwhile I'll check out the deploy tab.

[Remington700]

Larry,

Great to see you on the forums. I look forward to following your AAR. As usual, you always have an oddball snapshot to throw into the mix. Reminds me of my TOAW days.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey there Mike: Thanks for your post. I'll see if I can't make this AAR interesting for you guys. I haven't turned my
back on TOAW and I have three games ongoing ( D21 vs AI, B41 vs AI, and WITP-AE vs AI ). I'm looking into the programming
language Unity to see if I can't write something to help the War Plan Pacific world. Something like Tracker for WITP-AE.
Wish me luck.

[larryfulkerson]

There were two submarines at Manila and I moved them to one of the Jap trade routes to see what difference they might make. They are both in Raider mode.

[larryfulkerson]

There's no New Zealand HQ unit and I'm wondering if I should build one. Probably
later in the game. I'm not sure it's needed now. On the Production panel ( bottom )
We see that NZ isn't producing very much and if I did purchase an HQ unit it wouldn't
be ready until April '42. I should probably keep NZ out of the war for a while to
let them build up a stockpile to buy things with.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the British situation. They have 52 stockpiled and only 2 combat
LCU's in the field. They will eventually need more than that. And there
are some Merchant Marines that need to be given a task. And one Air
transport that needs to be employed somewhere to do something. I'm wondering
if 5 is sufficient for the reinforcement/upgrade category. I notice that
the UK doesn't have any air assets. They will eventually need at least
one bomber unit and one fighter unit. So I'm thinking I should buy one
of each for the UK.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the US units. There are very few aircraft units, a handful of LCU's and a
lot of ships. Also, there's some MM and escorts that need a task. I have enough
in the stockpile to purchase some more aircraft or some supply oilers or some landing
ships or some supply trucks. I'll have to think about that some more. I'd
especially like to get some supply trucks for the Chinese units.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been backing away from the Japs in China, moving to the west. I particularly
want to get out of the low supply areas. Give those areas to the Japs and let them
fight for some supply. I see a need for some supply trucks.

[kennonlightfoot]

There are very few aircraft units, a handful of LCU's and a
lot of ships. Also, there's some MM and escorts that need a task.

Haven't seen the abbreviation "LCU", what are you considering as one?

US has all the capital ships they need or can afford already in the reinforcement queue.
But at start they need to get things they are missing into the build as quickly as possible.

Those are Landing Craft to give you some threat capability of Axis ignores his rear.
Oilers so you can keep your fleet at sea.
Infantry division for garrisoning all those islands you own and shoring up Australia.

Then the longer term stuff:
You will need more Transports, Merchants and Escorts.
Marines to start taking some islands back.
And expand the submarine fleet to shut the Japanese Oil down. Probably cheaper than trying to retake oil fields.

And, finally you have to build your Air Force and decide what kind it ought to be.