Why does Hakodate default to a Soviet Command?

[niceguy2005]

ORIGINAL: treespider
One or two good bombardments by a BB fleet will shut the level two airfield down...then sustainment Airfield Bombardment by aircraft will keep it closed.

Wonder what is defending Pearl or Alaska at the moment?

Torpedo bombers, PT boats and subs will help with that problem.

[treespider]

ORIGINAL: niceguy2005

ORIGINAL: treespider
One or two good bombardments by a BB fleet will shut the level two airfield down...then sustainment Airfield Bombardment by aircraft will keep it closed.

Wonder what is defending Pearl or Alaska at the moment?

Torpedo bombers, PT boats and subs will help with that problem.

Which problem Pearl or keeping the base at Hokkaido free of Bombardments?

If at Hokkaido the PT boats can be killed by CL/4DD TFs. Torpedo Bombers can be dealt with by LRCAP over the Bombardment TF. After one or two bombardments the torpedo bombers are grounded. Lay on a few Lilly Sentais on ASW and the subs can be suppressed as well...

[niceguy2005]

ORIGINAL: treespider

ORIGINAL: niceguy2005

ORIGINAL: treespider
One or two good bombardments by a BB fleet will shut the level two airfield down...then sustainment Airfield Bombardment by aircraft will keep it closed.

Wonder what is defending Pearl or Alaska at the moment?

Torpedo bombers, PT boats and subs will help with that problem.

Which problem Pearl or keeping the base at Hokkaido free of Bombardments?

If at Hokkaido the PT boats can be killed by CL/4DD TFs. Torpedo Bombers can be dealt with by LRCAP over the Bombardment TF. After one or two bombardments the torpedo bombers are grounded. Lay on a few Lilly Sentais on ASW and the subs can be suppressed as well...

Yes, I was referring to Hokkaido. All the counter measures you mentioned would be effective, but the allies win in such a scenario by forcing large scale operations in Northern Japan and using cheap assets (subs, PTs and planes) to do it.

Like I said, gutsy move but it has promise.

A counter attack on PH or Alaska would be an equally gutsy move by Japan. That is a long way away for Japan to deploy force and if Japan fails to dislodge the allies from Hokkaido in the process it losses the war. The allied move almost forces Japan to stop and deal with the threat before doing anything else.

[bradfordkay]

It seems to me that a strong blockade coupled with fighter sweeps, naval and aerial bombardments should shut down this cheeky move (it can't be a threat if it has no supplies). It has had the effect of slowing the invasion of the SRA, so no matter what, it will have served its purpose - but at what cost? If those LCUs are lost, that will be a nice chunk of VP for the Japanese player.

[treespider]

Likewise the SRA invasion should be coming to a close shortly (it is March of 1942) ...unless the Japanese player tried a "cheeky" move himself.

All of those forces coming clear knowing the Allied reserve is bottled up in Hokkaido...Pearl looks tempting in late April or Early May.

[niceguy2005]

From the posts, it appears that the SRA has not yet be conquered and in fact a spirited defence of the regioin could mean it taking unitl April or May under good conditions.

[Monter_Trismegistos]

How much Heavy Industry, Resource Centers and Oilfields have you captured? How strong are they damaged?

[seydlitz_slith]

Let me see if I can answer most of the questions and or concerns.
First off, I already have units advancing on the other cities in Hokkaido. In particular, there is at least one major inland city on the island. As part of the invaision planning, I had a portion of my ground units train up for each city on the island. This will allow me to spread my air assets somewhat to prevent the bombardment nuke from hitting. On the flip side, Ominato is a tempting target for me to bombard. He has around 400 planes stacked there trying ot chip away at my toehold.

Battleships......
I lost Colorado and Mississippi. Nothing else. He has lost Yamashiro, and Fuso is docked in Ominato in what I think is a "in danger from sinking" condition.
His four Kongos are down south around Singapore. I know because they bombarded Rangoon three days ago.
That leaves only the two Nagatos and the two Hyugas unlocated. My guess would be that they are down around Truk as he has been working on bombing Port Moresby.

I was able to move the airgroups from both sunk carriers as well as two damaged carriers to the island to supplement the LBA. Whether permitting, It could be quite dangerous for his battleships to bombard....at least until he gets the first good bobmbardment in. Hopefully his battleships will not arrive until I have captured at least one more base on the island.

Pearl Harbor...
If he wants it, let him come. It is far from defenseless. I did not pull any ground units from there. Instead, the bulk of the forces used were all of the forces that start or arrive in the west coast. (I did leave some defenses there, but I took some select units for the invaison).

Resources....
Hakodate had HI,manpower,resources, an engine plant, and a repair ship yard. I would not be a bit surprised to see these generate some supply for me. Even better, I have cut his supply line to the oil in northern Hokkaido, as well as to other resources and engine plants. In addition, his 100 oil on Japan's main island, and appearantly has no air defenses. Can you say strategic bombing by B-18s, B-26, and A-20s? I certainly can.

This will be helped out by the fact that he has not taken southern Celebes, Western New Guinea, Amboina, Balikpapan, or Tarakan yet. He also has not taken Java or Palembang. He might be hurting for oil sooner than he realises. I believe he is about to land in Java, but right now the threat level looks manageable.

Rangoon:
Is still mine. Last turn my Hurricanes, Buffaloes, and AVG shot down over 50 zeroes there when he tried sweeps for the second consecutive day. Tired pilots tend to die a lot, and from experience I know that two consecutive days of missions for the zeroes flying out of Bangkok meant they were fighting with about 35-40 fatigue. Plus, since he was already short of pilots, some of the units might have been greener than you would expect. With 50 more zeroes going down on that front, Japanese naval aviation is going to be replacing every loss, everywhere, with green pilots. That will give me additional opportunities throughout the coming year. It also increases the chances of getting through the cap on his remaining carriers in any future battles.

At this point, my biggest curse (and also a blessing in some ways) is that the weather is crappy, making air ops inconsistent.

The seabees should have Hakodate up to lvl 3 airfield by this turn, and I just flew two more squadrons of fortresses in from the states.

Again, I don't know yet what the long term outcoome will be, but if nothing else, I am forcing a fierce fight on my terms at a point in the war where the allies are usually being beat piecemeal. All that I have to do is enough damage to keep him from having the strength to get an autovictory before the might of the allies arrive to sweep the Pacific. I think that I am on that path.

[ctangus]

ORIGINAL: seydlitz

Shouldn't a location default at least to the nationality of the country that took the hex?
Along with that, what happens if I leave the hex under Soviet control. Would a Japanese attack on the hex bring Russia into the War? Will my US units draw supply from Soviet stockpiles? Will the presence of allied units in Soviet territory allow those units to continue to freely move around in other Soviet controlled territory?

1. Yes it should, but from my experience it's hard-coded depending on the location.

2. Don't know. Maybe.

3. Yes (I'm pretty sure). I've seen Chinese units draw supply from Soviet bases. I don't know why US units wouldn't as well.

4. Again I don't know. I'd suggest testing it with a unit you could afford to lose.

I should add - that's a darn b@llsy move. It would be interesting to hear how this turns out.

[seydlitz_slith]

One more thing,
this is my first PBEM as the allies. I have been playing PBEMs as Japan since WITP came out. I have a good understanding of smoke and mirrors, and in some ways, this is like living some of the imagined nightmares from the other side of the coin.

In fact, His homeland units on the main island will not be able to board transports and sail to Hokkaido to fight there. The restricted command prevents you from putting them on transports. He will have to spend command points to change them to non-restricted in order to use sea transport. Since everyone knows that a high AV division takes 3-4000 command points to change, I expect that he will have to pull southern area army units back in from the front if he wants to throw significant force at me.

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: seydlitz

One more thing,
this is my first PBEM as the allies. I have been playing PBEMs as Japan since WITP came out. I have a good understanding of smoke and mirrors, and in some ways, this is like living some of the imagined nightmares from the other side of the coin.

In fact, His homeland units on the main island will not be able to board transports and sail to Hokkaido to fight there. The restricted command prevents you from putting them on transports. He will have to spend command points to change them to non-restricted in order to use sea transport. Since everyone knows that a high AV division takes 3-4000 command points to change, I expect that he will have to pull southern area army units back in from the front if he wants to throw significant force at me.

You don't have to sail to Hokkaido, you can march there...

[seydlitz_slith]

Are you certain?  As Japan I have not been able to march units across the strait.

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: seydlitz

Are you certain?  As Japan I have not been able to march units across the strait.

I'm using v1.804, stock scenario 15 and stock map, and I was able to march an engineering unit across. It took a half dozen turns because it didn't move fast, but it did get across.

[bradfordkay]

I believe that LCUs can only cross single hex straits by land connection if both ports are friendly. In this case, with Hokkaido being in allied hands, I don't think that the Japanese troops can cross without seapower. Am I mistaken in this belief?

[seydlitz_slith]

If he can march across, it will be interesting.  We are using AB extended map, so I do not know if the PWhex file is different or not.

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: seydlitz

Shouldn't a location default at least to the nationality of the country that took the hex?
Along with that, what happens if I leave the hex under Soviet control. Would a Japanese attack on the hex bring Russia into the War? Will my US units draw supply from Soviet stockpiles? Will the presence of allied units in Soviet territory allow those units to continue to freely move around in other Soviet controlled territory?

ORIGINAL: ctangus
1. Yes it should, but from my experience it's hard-coded depending on the location.

I've just been thinking about it and I'm wondering if the base goes to control of the nearest top level headquarters? The nearest top level headquarters to Northern Japan would be the Soviet Far East HQ. If the North Pacific HQ was sent to be near the invasion point, say on Attu, maybe the bases captured would be US North Pacific command?

I haven't tested it, I'm just speculating.

Bill

[goodboyladdie]

This is very funny. I think this should be required reading for every JFB who has ever invaded India. I would never have thought of doing this (and would probably still not as I always have a rule that B-17s need at least a level 4 field). If you can get supplies and more airfields you could cut Japan off from oil with 4E and starve him at the same time he is trying to starve you. If you have replacements on and have enough supply the game engine will be automatically sneaking in new fighters/2E/troops!

[michaelm75au]

If I remember, base control on conquest is determined by the location of the base rather than the HQ of the units conquering the base.
[font="times new roman"][font="times new roman"] v1.30[/font]
1)       When a base is captured, the command under which the base is placed is determined by geography and not the command of the capturing units.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
 

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: seydlitz

If he can march across, it will be interesting.  We are using AB extended map, so I do not know if the PWhex file is different or not.

Keep in mind that if he can march to Hokkaido, the Allied player can march in the other direction. [;)]

[tsimmonds]

Guys, I wouldn't get too excited about the oil. IJ still has 2,000,000-3,000,000 points lying around at this time. There won't be a pinch there for some months yet. What will hurt is damaging the factories (particularly HI) and the resource centers.