How should I treat political points early on as the allies?

[TommyBoy84]

Should I conserve them and try not to switch commands of too many units and such, or should I spend every point I can to move units to where they are better used?

I'm in the first few turns of a PBEM as the allies, and I'm still at only a few hundred PP's. Should I spend those to try and move certain air and ground units to unrestricted commands, or should I just save them, and perhaps use them to prevent british ship withdrawals, or just hoard them for when I really need them?

[DuckofTindalos]

You should definitely spend them to keep your British DD's in theatre. Forget about the big ships, the RN gets plenty of those.

[Miller]

Many players use them to get base forces out of the DEI/PI areas. Austrailia is very low on aviation support units early in the game.

[Barb]

DDs cost you 2x 300 PPs. This is the minimum you should have on the end of each month to "buy" those destroyers.
Every other PP you could spend somewhere. For first months "buy" Base forces units from restricted commands (ABDA, USAFFE) and save them.

[pob]

First post but long time viewer.
 
I've just had a Homer Simpson Doh moment. I've been religiously withdrawing the Capital Ships with the DD escort, it hadn't even crossed my mind I could just withdraw the Capital ship and leave the DD in theatre, as need the DDs and therefore don't mind using the PP for this. It's 8/42 in my PBM game and I've probably lost 16 DDs that I didn't need to.  

[Barb]

pob:

And your RN ships are sitting in the port because of no escorts for them? Or are your 3 RN CVs running around with only 2 DDs as escorts? If I were your oponent I would think about major submarine campaign against RN [:D]

[pob]

Fortunately my opponent hasn't been too active in the Indian Ocean so far, and I seem to be getting good rests from the various support vessels MSW etc. on ASW sweeps. I have just enough DDs left to provide ASW cover for my CVs, although for obvious reasons they don't sortie too far from the coast, and I've been using the BBs and CLAA for AA cover. Although I would struggle to put together a Air and Surface TF simultaneously.
 
I'm thinking of moving the CVs to SouthPAC to cover the supply runs from the US.

[Feltan]

QQ: If you decide not to withdraw the Brit DD's, is the PP cost a one time deal or do you get hit every month until you comply?

I have been laboring under the assumption it was the latter, and I think someone is going to burst my bubble here.

Regards,
Feltan

[Yamato hugger]

Its a 1 time charge.

[RevRick]

ORIGINAL: Yamato hugger

Its a 1 time charge.

But, next turn you can bet your sweet candy loving donkey that the Admiralty will want two more DDs, which means 600 more PP to not have your tin can locker raided..

[bradfordkay]

Yeah, but they'll do that whether or not you send the ones they ask for this month. I just expect to pay a 600PP penalty every month... 

[JeffroK]

Its worth sending back a couple of RN DD's, look at their stats and pick the weakest.

Saving 2 DD is about the equivalent of getting an Aussie Bde into PM or Milne Bay or mobilizing RAAF & RNZAF aircraft.

As always in WITP, there's usually more than one correct answer.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: JeffK

Its worth sending back a couple of RN DD's, look at their stats and pick the weakest.

Saving 2 DD is about the equivalent of getting an Aussie Bde into PM or Milne Bay or mobilizing RAAF & RNZAF aircraft.

As always in WITP, there's usually more than one correct answer.

Yes...if you have some dinged up that will take months to repair.

[jcjordan]

One thing to also remember is that you'll get these ships back at some point, you can also go negative PP by not withdrawing anything when you don't have enough points but you can't change any units command till you have enough points. So you might want to save enough PP during the month to save what units you want to save then when the new month rolls around not withdraw any ships & let the penalty take place as well. There are many ways to approach & no real right answer but it'd be based more on how well things are going for you & your strategy.
 
&nbsp;Normally I'll send back any moderately (<50) damaged ships so as to free up the repair points on map. It probably is best if you're going to send some ships back to keep as many DD's as possible on map just sending the cap ships back w/ my exception being any RN CV/CVLs (I'll pay to keep them regardless). I'll also move Dutch/RAN DD's to supplement the RN in the Indian theater & US DDs to do the same for the RAN in Oz. I also do try to save some of the Dutch regiments along w/ as many base forces as possible as the Allied player is short of base forces until mid/late 42. My strategy as Allied is to turtle up a bit at some key ports to fight a bit of attrition as well as slow things down a bit since I know I'll only get stronger in late 42 & the IJ won't.

[spence]

I spend my PPs to move US Base Forces (largest ones first) to OZ. I let the P40s and B-17s get beat up pretty badly before spending PPs to move them out of the Philippines (depends on bases etc but if they're smaller they're fewer PPs).

Once I've got my large BFs (over 30 aviation support points) back to OZ I move the P-40s and B-17s. Then I pull the aviation engineer battalion out of the PI and move it to somewhere I'd like to have a base (send lots of supply there too). After that I guess I'd try to get the P-35s and P-26s out of the PI and to OZ. After that I start to think about moving an infantry division from the US to somewhere.

Don't waste PPs saving UK DDs from withdrawal. Most of them are pretty useless as flak platforms anyways and you can move US DDs over that way fast enough so they won't want for escorts. Using PPs to keep UK carriers around is another matter though.

[Yamato hugger]

Well this much I can pretty much guarantee: The Brit will have to withdraw more DDs than he has, so somewhere along the line you WILL have to spend PPs for them.

[RevRick]

To which the congregation replied... AMEN! White Hall will suck away everything resembling an escort vessel. Probably has something to do with that chunk of water called the North Atlantic.

[wwengr]

Don't waste your PP's saving British Destroyers early in the war, unless you have run out of S' Class destroyers to withdraw. There are 5 at start (three are in Hong Kong and two in Singapore). The S' Class Destroyers are a little better than target drones. They have relatively short legs (low endurance) and poor ASW.

Move your S' Class DD's out of harms way immediately (for that matter, do that with all of the ships near Japanese land based aircraft) and move them to Karachi. They can best serve you by withdrawing. If you have PP's available, it is worth saving the Electra Class Destroyers. Long legs and great ASW, but only if you have enough PP's after taking care of higher priorities (read below)

Use your PP's first to selectively improve the leadership of select units in the PI and DEI so they will put up a better fight.

Use your PP's to withdraw Air Units from the PI and DEI (USAFFE and ABDA). You can do this efficiently by waiting until the units are relatively depleted from Combat. When there are only a few aircraft, it costs only a few PP to change their HQ.

[This may be gamey: say you have multiple air units of one type in a restricted HQ, you can change the command of one, then disband the other into it and you get two for the price of one. Example: Two Dutch Patrol Squadrons equipped with 3 Catalina I aircraft are located in Batavia and Amboina; GVT-16 and GVT-17. If you change HQ for both squadrons it costs 24 PP's. If you change GVT-16, then transfer GVT-17 to Batavia and disband it into GVT-16, it only costs 12 PP. GVT-17 will appear in Sydney assigned to SWPAC 90 days later as soon as 8 Catalina I's are available in the replacement pool.]

Also use your PP's to withdraw Base forces from the PI and DEI. You can wait until they are fairly beat up from combat before changing HQ. It will cost less PP's and the units can rebuild from the replacement pool. After the base forces, save engineers, armor and artillery. If you can afford it, save the US Army RCT's. Do not waste PP's saving the Phillipine units. Their replacement rate is low and the leaders are no good. Don't waste your time saving many Dutch Infantry Units. The Dutch squads are weak, never upgrade, and have a very low replacement rate.

One DEI Strategy that many consider worth pursuing is Fortress Java or Fortress Timor. You can spend PP to evacuate Dutch Units to Java and dig in for a big fight. It will cause the Japanes player to divert resources to take the fortress. From either place you can threaten the DEI resource areas, so he must take it.

Also, use PP's to move good units off of the West Coast.

[bradfordkay]

I found one other "gamey" (?) ploy in the evacuation of the PI concerning the expenditure of PPs: when you change the HQ to which the Asiatic Fleet HQ unit is attached, you get all the units attached to it for free (a couple of VP squadrons and an AA unit - maybe the 4th Marines?).&nbsp;

[rockmedic109]

If the First Sea Lord {Computer withdrawal} wants more ships from the Eastern Fleet, I send them.&nbsp; He's higher up the chain of command;&nbsp; He needs the ships to deal with Germany and would not be asking if he didn't need them;&nbsp; The war is fought with a Germany First focus;&nbsp; The Japanese cannot win the war anyway {What are they going to do.....occupy London?};&nbsp; And I am playing the AI and sending everything back that is requested is in my list of House Rules.