Pointers for Allies

[Remenents]

Looking for any kind of pointers/hints/tips for the Allies starting off Dec. 8, the scenario after Pearl. I am finding it etremely difficult, if not impossible, to transport the men, supplies, oil, and aircraft I need to the front line (Midway, Australia area ect..). Everytime I try to, the troops/aircraft either will not show up on the load menu, or by the time my support arrives in the area, it is over run with enemy planes/ships. I am not looking for the perfect strategy, just some pointers. I am fairly new to this game (play WitP regular a bit and Pac War Matrix, but this is a whole new ballgame it seems). Anything would be helpful.

P.S. Yes, I have read the manual like 5 times lol.

[rubisco]

The main reason that troops don't show up in the load menu has to do with their operations mode. To load on transport TFs, they must be in Strategic mode and to load on amphibious TFs, they must be in combat mode. If you're transporting land units to friendly bases with port size 3 or less, then use amphibious TFs to transport them. The other reason that assets don't show up in the load menu is that units assigned to restricted HQs can't be loaded onto transports. You must pay political points to change their HQ first.

[rubisco]

This is my take on the Allied strategic situation in the Pacific.

The key to early Allied strategy in the Pacific is to form a series of strong points on islands from the West Coast to Australia. Note that some islands and atolls have limits on the number of troops that can be stationed there. In particular, Baker, Canton and Johnston only have small troops capacities, so they can't be held in force. This makes them very vulnerable and as such will only really serve as trip-wires. Better to find islands that have unlimited troop capacities to fortify. Christmas Island, Pago Pago, Suva and then Noumea will give you a chain of bases that can hold unlimited troops. So, start at Chritmas Island. Send some engineers and infantry there. Once you feel that is secure enough against any reasonable Japanese assault, move on to Pago Pago and develop that, then Suva, and finally Noumea. The six months or so that will take you to accomplish will give you a chain of islands that can shelter ships and act as ASW platforms to protect your supply line down to Australia and the South Pacific. Then you can start to think about offensive operations from these bases.

[Grollub]

You can find some pointers in this thread http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=2220841

[vlcz]

WITPAE Manual A few tips (or disorganized ideas…) by a not so experienced player..

I understand you re playing vs jap AI, most those advises would not work against a human (specially a veteran one)

-    Put every land unit that appears in US and does not belong to a (R) HQ in strat mode, and rail them to SF.

-    You do NOT need land troops in Australia., ship units over there (and does not belong to a (R) HQ)  to Port Moresby. Build over there maximum airfield and entrench, port only to level 1-2.

- Send most (65+%) Australian-NZ merchant fleet with more than 11k endurance to SF/LA.

- Take care of your initial TKs and AO (specially the last), use them escorted and in 1-3 groups.

- Don't steal fuel from Australia (Sydney/brisbane) in big quantities

Start  making convoys… I give you an example as MAR42, building noumea as main base..

    Type of ships    number ó´ships    Escort?    Origin    Target   
Fuel(barrels)    xAK    6    No    Abadan    Aden   
Fuel    Tk    2        Abadan    Bombay   
Fuel(barrels)    xAK    12    No    Abadan    Colombo   
Troops    xAP xAK    4    no    Aden    Karachi   
Supply    xAKL    1    no    Auckland    Suva   
Supply    xAK    10    no    Cabo    Colombo   
Supply    xAK    4    no    Colombo    Aden   
Supply    xAK    20+        Colombo    Local   
Fuel    Tk    2+        Colombo    Perth   
Supply    xAKL    1        Noumea    Local    Luganville, lunga
Supply    xAK    1    Yes    Pearl Harbour    Central pacific isles    Canton/Christmas
Fuel    Tk    1    Yes    Pearl Harbour    Central pacific isles + cercanas + locales    Canton/Christmas/palmyra,jhonston
Supply    xAK    1        Pearl Harbour    Cercanas    Johnston, midway,palmyra
Supply    xAKL    1    no    Pearl Harbour    Local    Hawai area ports
Fuel    Tk    2    Yes    Pearl Harbour    Noumea   
Supply    xAK    6    Yes    Pearl Harbour    Noumea   
Supply    xAKL    2    Yes    Perth    Darwin   
Fuel    Tk    2+    Yes    Perth    Sydney   
Fuel    Tk (-)    1        Soerabaja    Darwin   
Fuel    Tk    2        Soerabaja    Perth   
Supply    xAKL    1        Suva    Locales    Tahiti, etc
Supply    xAK    2    Yes    Sydney    Auckland   
Supply    xAKL    1        Sydney    Locales    Efate, moresby,cocktown
Fuel    Tk    1        Sydney    Noumea   
Supply    xAk    3        Sydney    Noumea   
Fuel    Tk    3    Yes    WC    Noumea   
Supply    xAk    8    Yes    WC    Noumea   
Troops    xAP xAK        Yes    WC    Noumea   
Supply                WC    Pago Pago   
Fuel    Tk            WC    Pearl Harbour   
Fuel(barrels)    xAK            WC    Pearl Harbour   
Recursos    xAK    4        WC    Pearl Harbour
Supply    xAK    12+        WC    Pearl Harbour
Troops    xAP xAK        Yes    WC    Pearl Harbour
Supply    xAKL    2        WC    Dutch Harbour


Most those convoys can (and should) be computer controlled CS:. The ones with long ways near battle area (Ie WC to noum/OZ) are better done manually, and remember setting a Waypoint for them (At least 5-6 hexes SE of canton)

- Put all air unit not in front bases in 70% general train

Malaya
-    Evacuate your Singapore ait units to java before jap cuts your transfer route, as soon as you begin to be ion the losing side of air combats there
-    Move all Malaya forces to Singapore (remember put them in MOVE mode and COMBAT when they arrive there, also set Singapore as objective for all of them
Burma
-    take your option NOW, reinforce Rangoon and make a stand or (better imho) run for the hills (the frontier) asap.

DEI.
   Defend only Java. No land reinforcements really needed vs the AI. It can be defended by air units and a cautious use of the Royal Navy. Cautios means here staying whit them South of java at all times and moving only to smash (hopely unescorted) landing

[Remenents]

Awesome. Some of those I have implemented, some I havent, but will give them a try. Thanks

My strategy so far has been:
evacuate all air units from singapore and malaya peninsula and put them into Java.

Using Australia, I have been sending convoy after convoy from Sydney to P. Moresby to strngthen it.

From Pearl, convoys of supplies/fuel/troops/aircraft to Midway.

Going to make a Stand in Batavia/Saorbaja (cant spell that base lol).

Also, in P. Moresby, once it is stocked up, was going to start to bring aircray/supplies/troops to Guadalcanal. That will give me 2 bases around that area for helping with defence.

I just recieved the Yorktown, so was gonna send a couple CVs south to Australia and some support ships (CAs ect...) with some Supply ships and make a stand there. With 1 or 2 CVs and supports, I was thinking of trying to attempt to get Wake back, and maybe even have a surprise raid or 2 on Marcus, possibly even making some landings.

[vlcz]

Hope it helps!, I forgot to say that many of the convoys may (and must) be multiple, the number of ships is what I used in each of them, as an example

Fuel    Tk    2    Yes    Pearl Harbour    Noumea

I run really at least 3 of this type , when creating more than 1 convoy of a type allow sufficient time between them , so they do not use port facilities at the same time

P.D. (It seems I forgot this whole convoy line indeed)

[rockmedic109]

With the new AI, you will need to escort your convoys.  You will not have enough to escort everything at first.  Escort all your larger convoys and tankers {my precious}.  The smaller loactions will have to do with single ship convoys and would be better with the smaller xAK. 
 
You might want to put a battlalion or two on Palmyra.  Johnston is not as much of a problem because you can bomb it from Pearl.  Palmyra can interfere with SLOC to Christmas and Christmas  is not built up enough to bomb Palmyra into the stone age.
 
Putting a pair of DDs and an old CL {if it can be spared} at Canton, Pago, Christmas etc might be a good idea as well.  I've seen IJN transports show up at Canton while an escorted troop convoy was unloading;  they spotted the two DDs and left and did not return {at least not before the beta patch came out and I restarted}. 

[vlcz]

On escorts....

Any KV, PG with endurance 4000+ makes a viable candidate for an escort, you will need anyway to divert DD to this task, mostly the older, be carefull when it comes the refitting date for them.

On the positive part only ONE escort vessel makes the most of the difference as subs will have to sumerge and avoid combat after first rounds , so only important (i.e multiple land units) convoys need more than one escort.

You got PLENTY of xAKL for little trips, and quite a lot of xAK too so will not miss a couple of dozens, those are the candidates to go alone in the blue in contested areas.

It a good custom creating one/two ASW TF and put them in patrol 1/2 hexes in front of important/more used ports, cople them with 1/2 air units in 50% ASW. For me SF ,LA,Pearl, Sydney and Noumea/brisbane are the ones that must be protected ths way at all costs.

[John Lansford]

I found that if you move transport air units to PM, you can air evac the smallish British land units wholesale from the bases NE of New Guinea.  Once they're at PM, you can turn on replacements and fill them out.  I built up the SoPac bases first and now am working on the CentPac ones.  I figured the SoPac ones needed the men first since it takes so long to get down there.
 
I've got a huge garrison at PM now in mid 1/42, mostly Aussie LCU's, a couple of base forces from the US, artillery battalions and the evacuated infantry companies from Lae, Rabaul, etc.  I managed to sneak a couple of xAP's to Gasmata and evacuated the Lark Battalion as well. 
 
The AI landed the 11th Infantry Division at Koumac but my RN cruiser force at Noumea destroyed both the landing and supply TF's, so they're just sitting there and haven't even taken the base yet.  A landing at Luganville is being retaken by a NZ infantry battalion, and I retook Canton when I noticed the AI had put an air HQ with engineers there.  That infantry regiment is now headed to Noumea to beef up the defenses there.  The AI holds Baker but it's unoccupied, and has made no move towards the islands south of Tarawa yet.  I may put a base force on one of them or station a AVD there to get some search capability in the area.
 
PagoPago and Suva are my main "first stop" bases for troops from the WC and Pearl.  Smaller ships take LCU's and planes from those two to Noumea and provide a resupply base for TF's going to Australia.  Christmas and Palmyra have decent garrisons now.  I sent a resupply TF to Midway but an AI DD showed up to crash the party.  My escorts of two DMS's shot it up but had to withdraw; next time I'm sending a CL+2 DD's as escort.
 
The AI's main push appears to be in the islands north of Darwin; Ambon, Kendari, Balikpapan and Macassar have all fallen recently, and their airbases mean my ABDA surface fleet won't be able to hang around much longer around Java.  They're going to hit the TF's at Kendari and head south for Darwin, and then Sydney for some long overdue time in a shipyard.  I've been stripping Surabaya and Tjilitjap of fuel for weeks now, looks like that's about to come to an end too.  I'll leave all my PT boats and planes in Java for now, I've got about 2/3 of them still and can rearm them for a while at Surabaya.

[vlcz]

ORIGINAL: John Lansford

I found that if you move transport air units to PM, you can air evac the smallish British land units wholesale from the bases NE of New Guinea.  Once they're at PM, you can turn on replacements and fill them out.  I built up the SoPac bases first and now am working on the CentPac ones.  I figured the SoPac ones needed the men first since it takes so long to get down there.

I've got a huge garrison at PM now in mid 1/42, mostly Aussie LCU's, a couple of base forces from the US, artillery battalions and the evacuated infantry companies from Lae, Rabaul, etc.  I managed to sneak a couple of xAP's to Gasmata and evacuated the Lark Battalion as well. 

The AI landed the 11th Infantry Division at Koumac but my RN cruiser force at Noumea destroyed both the landing and supply TF's, so they're just sitting there and haven't even taken the base yet.  A landing at Luganville is being retaken by a NZ infantry battalion, and I retook Canton when I noticed the AI had put an air HQ with engineers there.  That infantry regiment is now headed to Noumea to beef up the defenses there.  The AI holds Baker but it's unoccupied, and has made no move towards the islands south of Tarawa yet.  I may put a base force on one of them or station a AVD there to get some search capability in the area.

PagoPago and Suva are my main "first stop" bases for troops from the WC and Pearl.  Smaller ships take LCU's and planes from those two to Noumea and provide a resupply base for TF's going to Australia.  Christmas and Palmyra have decent garrisons now.  I sent a resupply TF to Midway but an AI DD showed up to crash the party.  My escorts of two DMS's shot it up but had to withdraw; next time I'm sending a CL+2 DD's as escort.

The AI's main push appears to be in the islands north of Darwin; Ambon, Kendari, Balikpapan and Macassar have all fallen recently, and their airbases mean my ABDA surface fleet won't be able to hang around much longer around Java.  They're going to hit the TF's at Kendari and head south for Darwin, and then Sydney for some long overdue time in a shipyard.  I've been stripping Surabaya and Tjilitjap of fuel for weeks now, looks like that's about to come to an end too.  I'll leave all my PT boats and planes in Java for now, I've got about 2/3 of them still and can rearm them for a while at Surabaya.

In my own game I almost replied your movemments, but taking account the IA main defects of not escorting his landing forces and normaly retiring form an opossed landing if surface forces are present (so MUCH gamey that I will restart with "house limiting rules" after the patch comes [:(]) I have been able to "be there first" so I control Lunga and luganville (with such forces as to be suicidal against a human player but quite sure against AI)and Canton -here the KB comes to destroy usually, but sacrifice of a DD and a pair of xAKs each month is not a big deal I think-. Java is also untouched except its western tip (MAY/42).

[John Lansford]

In my first CG I retook Canton from the AI and then put a CD unit and some infantry (NZ Battalion) there as a garrison.  The AI came again and landed 13,000 men on Canton and took the island back.  I figure if they want it that bad they can keep it as long as they don't try and put any air assets on it.
 
In both my CG's the AI dropped off a division at Koumac and left it there.  In my current game the base is still Free French even though the division's been there for nearly a week!