How do you rapidly ramp up supplies if you are playing as Japan?

[ny59giants]

I'm a novice with regards to the Japanese economy, but with the aid of WitPTracker, I was able to bring John 3rd's economy from the brink. I'm using this same wondeful utiliity to play Japan for the first time in a PBEM using Nemo's Empire Ablaze. Which, IMO, has so many choices that you can hang yourself with poor decision making in regards to multiple areas of the economy. [X(][:(]

Thus, my first rule is to shut down all r&d factories that are over 6 months out to start. There is a discussion on John's AAR about them not using supplies, but I rather be safe than sorry. All repairs take 1000 supply per damaged/disabled factory. So, a A6M2 Zero factory at say Gumma with (50)x 5 will cost 50,000 supply over 50 days to repair. If there are more factories being repaired - other Airframes, Armament, Vehicles, Engines, and HI, then this one base could eat up 2k to 4k per turn ( or more) and the base doesn't have enough generated to pay for it. Thus, it will probably try to get it from Tokyo every third day when the AI moves "stuff" around.

If your going to expand HI, I would look for bases that have less than 30 HI at game start. As a novice, I opened up my game/mod and made a list of each base in Japan that was able to expand HI, naval, merchant, armament, vehicles, how many airframes needed to have repairs (current and r&d), and engines. Then, go through each base and expand what can from existing to max (right them down). That way you have a list/resource of knowing what can be done where as the game progresses. Most of the low HI values are in the north at start.

WitPTracker helps me to track things daily (i.e. - which bases are below the magical 10k to facilitate repairs), the number of days I have in reserve Oil and Resources per region along with other useful things to keep an eye on. I don't think I would jumped into the deep end of the swimming pool (Empire's Ablaze) with only one swimming lesson (John's game) without it. [;)]

[Bogo Mil]

The picture is great, but it has a small error: Any new industry costs 100 supllies, 10 HI points and 10 manpower points (not one)

[haleyjo_68]

What is the WitPTracker and where can I get a copy of it?  Also, when I am bringing oil and resources to Japan, does it matter which port it gets dropped off at?

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: haleyjo_68

What is the WitPTracker and where can I get a copy of it?  Also, when I am bringing oil and resources to Japan, does it matter which port it gets dropped off at?

Check here:

tm.asp?m=1774229

It doesn't matter where you drop off oil or resources but keep an eye at Sasebo and Osaka. Sometimes they may not move and if you exceed the max (999,999), the rest get offloaded into the ether.

[AW1Steve]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: haleyjo_68

What is the WitPTracker and where can I get a copy of it?  Also, when I am bringing oil and resources to Japan, does it matter which port it gets dropped off at?

Check here:

tm.asp?m=1774229

It doesn't matter where you drop off oil or resources but keep an eye at Sasebo and Osaka. Sometimes they may not move and if you exceed the max (999,999), the rest get offloaded into the ether.

Thanks again! I'll figure this out sooner or later! Thanks to you it'll be sooner! [&o][&o][&o]

[Feltan]

Question of definitions.

Does "expanding a factory" include changing production of engine or aircraft type? When I have done so, the results that are shown are very similar to when one expands engine or aircraft production -- a certain number of factories are shown damaged.

Regards,
Feltan

[Bogo Mil]

If you convert from one type to another, usually all factories become damaged. Sometimes 1/3 of them disappear completely and the remaining 2/3 are damaged. The conversion itself is for free, but of course you have to pay 1000 supplies for every factory to repair.

If you expand a factory complex, it's size is doubled, but all new factories are damaged, too. The expansion itself is not for free: It costs 100 supplies, 10 manpower points and 10 HI points for each new factory in addition to the 1000 supplies you'll need to repair them.

[Feltan]

Thanks.

That explains some things. All that free advice to swith to Nakajima engines en masse actually costs a ton!

Regards,
Feltan

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: Feltan

Thanks.

That explains some things. All that free advice to swith to Nakajima engines en masse actually costs a ton!

Regards,
Feltan

You need more Naka engines, but there is one way to ramp it up more gradually; produce more SALLYS. Helen uses the Naka engine, Sally uses Mitsu. There is very little actual difference between them, so converting all to Helens will burn through your Naka engines much faster without much gain.

There is good advice here, but I think you really should do only a couple things as Japan to "ramp up your supplies". Building more HI plants is not a great idea, it makes it worse in the short-term, and long-term you don't need all the HI points, and you can't feed enough Oil/resources anyway while still stockpiling for '45. In general:

1. TURN OFF BASE BUILDS: This is the best. Turn off all base building, fort building early unless you really need it.
2. LIMIT FACTORY EXPANSION: Don't do alot of factory upgrades early. Make more Naka engines, and start thinking about Tony/Tojo, but you can put that off until 2/42. Be conservative here initially.
2. REPAIR RESOURCES FIRST: I like this, repair captured resources first. At Palembang, for example, once the Resources are repaired, that base can "self-supply" enough to fix the Oil, and generate more supplies.

That's about it other than making sure your HI is "fed". But the key really is to use less, and usually where you burn too much is in industrial expansion and unnecessary base builds.

[Mynok]

Yes, repairing resources first is excellent policy.