china, singapore and bataan

[lostsm]

hi

i tried a full campaign as the japanese recently and i found myself in a couple of tough spots (granted this is my first time really playing the main scenario)

china:

i moved a large portion of my south army troops into china (maybe a bad move), thinking I could overrun the mainland real quick. what i found was tons of chinese troops moving to my front line, and finding myself only able to dislodge them from one hex to another. air support didn't really help... bombing runs causes a few casualties, and there's not much room for the navy of course.

i made it to the point where i have half of burma, and i could of maybe moved a large portion of the burma army into the chinese rear, but it's really bad country and looked like it would take forever to get my troops anywhere.

of course i know china was like this historically, but shouldnt i be able to win there if i commit enough assets? i searched a while these forums for info and I came across mentioning of a 'death star'? I'm guessing that's a large amount of troops that completely encircles the enemy right? how many units is enough to do that?


singapore/bataan:

these two bases really hampered my invasion of the DEI. even though both bases are completely encircled, I can only attack with a main force that occupies the same hex.. and it's really tough to do any massive damage. i support the attacks with air raids, but just like china, the ground attacks don't do much damage.

on both bases I did a naval bombardment only to find my BBs really hurt bad. theres mines out there! [;)] (oh and lots of coastal guns apparently).

having a large force in china, I didn't think I could afford pulling troops out of malaysia and the philippines to conduct landings on the DEI. at both bataan and singapore, troop levels between myself and the allies are pretty much equal.

would it be safe to assume that i can pull some out to attack elsewhere. i'm afraid if I start taking out the good units that I'll find myself loosing my little gains that i've made so far.

of course in the game it's only mid feb 42, and compared to history the whole singapore/philippines thing isn't so bad, but those two bases just seem really hard to crack. i guess i'm a little impatient, as i'm used to killing the bad guys real quick when their encircled, but not so much here.

and it's not like the AI can effectively supply these bases. maybe singapore with air transports from sumatra or borneo, but no way can any cargo ships get in or out, so not sure why they haven't starved off yet; they've both been blockaded for a month++ now, with singapore having to supply 25 units and bataan 34.

anyhow, I might just restart the scenario and apply the stuff i've learned from my mistakes, but any tips or pointers would be much appreciated, especially how to use airforce against groud more effectively and of course a solution for china

thanks !

[anarchyintheuk]

Air support doesn't cause all that much in the way of casualties but it does in the form of disruption. A disrupted unit fights at a fraction of its normal av. Bombing airfields and ports removes supply. When a unit is out of supply the effects on its av is dramatic.

The land death star is pretty much what it sounds like. Put as many divs/bgdes into a hex as you can and start rolling over the opposition. Try to keep your flanks clear.

Singapore is more important than Bataan; although Bataan is more likely starving. Imho its weasily but you can also leave Bataan as a training base for your airforce.

Learning to overcome your mistakes is the best part, why restart?

[lostsm]

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk
Learning to overcome your mistakes is the best part, why restart?

sure its gamey but it does let me overcome my mistakes. besides i really didnt know what i was doing. i still barely have a grasp on industry/aircraft rd and production, or even the entire shipping of resources. if and when i start over, it's going to be so i can consolidate the most i can as fast as possible, which i think is very important for japan

[anarchyintheuk]

True, its harder to overcome your mistakes on the Japanese side.

Just a suggestion . . . there are several threads on industry, I'd read them all.

Unlike the rl Japanese, one thing you won't have to worry about is the amount of shipping you have. You can afford to be somewhat wasteful and inefficient when it comes to collecting resources/oil and shipping supplies.

[Barb]

Usually japan use their China Expeditionary Army forces from Manchukuo to roll out the northern china, then southern. No need for additional troops from Southern Area.
If you have 3+ divisions at Singapore and 2+ at Bataan you are close to history. For knocking out these fortreses look out for Siege in "Must Read Threads" - But basically what you need is:
1. Airfield/Port Strikes to kill his supplies repairing damage, supply hits and to keep his engineers occupied.
2. Air-Ground attack before Deliberate attacking - for few days, from more airfields with different ranges - the more strikes you put onto target more troops could be affected (as you always hit the "strongest" after few strikes the unit effectivenes fade away and another unit becomes strongest)
3. Bring in Combat Engineers - the more the better - they will knock out fortifications
4. Bring in Artillery - the more the better - while your units will be resting after attack enemy units will be under fire
5. Bring in Support squads - the more the better - support squads are "repairing" disrupted squads
6. Plan - have your units planned for a targer - it will adjust their AV

[fabertong]

I assume you are playing against the AI....if you are considering a re-start.......I'd suggest not to.......keep playing and learn from early mistakes......even with a very poor start you will beat the AI........and reaching a later stage see more of what to do with the economy etc......my very first game when I bought witp....on day one........I made loads of mistakes....lost carriers....took ages to take the PI....etc.....and still auto-vic'd Jan. 1943......and learned more by playing on....than constant 30-40 day re-starts.......

[lostsm]

yes i am playing the AI, and i get it about not restarting... but oh well, i did eventually do that.

it was afterall my first real game, and the biggest mistake, i think, that i did, was on the first turn i barely moved any troops except the ones already with orders. I had some APs loading up, but these took a few days to load up and sail out, instead of being insta loaded on turn one

so needless to say, in my current game against the AI, the first turn took a long time to set up, but at least I properly loaded and used my transports and i have a lot more conquests and mini fronts now instead of just china, malaya and the PI

[anarchyintheuk]

Trust the penguin.

[Balou]

ORIGINAL: Barb

5. Bring in Support squads - the more the better - support squads are "repairing" disrupted squads

Help ! Doesn't each LCU has its own support squads ? Thanks for additional comments.

[stuman]

ORIGINAL: Balou

ORIGINAL: Barb

5. Bring in Support squads - the more the better - support squads are "repairing" disrupted squads

Help ! Doesn't each LCU has its own support squads ? Thanks for additional comments.

Yes, but you will notice that often the internal support troops are not enough. HQ units help a lot.

[Balou]

Let`s assume I have more support at a base than required - most of combat engineers have more 'support points' than they would need. Meanwhile I know about the benefits of specific headquarters (Air, Naval etc.) but my point is: can help from a HQ be quantified in some way ? Are 2 Army HQ better than just one apart from a surplus of support points ?