Allied vs. Jap AI

[Yamato_Blitzer]

What do you plan to do after the Marianas are taken? Also be warned, i'm not sure how the AI plays with this in AE and maybe it was just my luck, but every time I played against the AI in stock witp it would fortify Saipan with 40+ units. The majority being full combat ID's and with lvl.9 forts. Ugh what a pain. Even with the majority of US ground and air forces being commited to the fight.

[Galahad78]

Ordered a hard copy and already downloading also! [:D]

Good luck with your house hunting [;)]

[jimh009]

ORIGINAL: Yamato_Blitzer

What do you plan to do after the Marianas are taken? Also be warned, i'm not sure how the AI plays with this in AE and maybe it was just my luck, but every time I played against the AI in stock witp it would fortify Saipan with 40+ units. The majority being full combat ID's and with lvl.9 forts. Ugh what a pain. Even with the majority of US ground and air forces being commited to the fight.

I'm hoping that the AI in this game isn't as stupid as in WiTP. The AI in stock WiTP did exactly what you said - it put "everything" on Saipan and left Guam/Tinian completely undefended. In stock, I would take Guam/Tinian and just ignore Saipan, letting everything there slowly starve. The game always ended on 1/1/44 anyways via auto-victory (the Japanese did themselves no favors by turning Saipan into a massive prison).

I still don't know what the AI has in the Marianas. I'm planning on encountering 700-800 AV per island, at a minimum. Guam or Tinian will likely be the first invasion spot - and I'll have 3 divisions going ashore, plus tanks, plus artillery - and at least two divisions in floating reserve. The goal is to simply get a beach head in the Marianas - which island you take first really doesn't matter. Once the beach head is established, and the Allies have land based air support (and assuming the AI hasn't packed 2000 AV on a particular island), the rest of the Marianas should fall relatively quickly and easily.

It's just cracking that "first nut" that is difficult since the Allies don't have any land based air for support.

After the Marianas, it will be simply expanding Allied control space around it. I'll likely follow the real-life Allied attack plans - it makes strategic sense (I have a graphic of attack plans in a previous post somewhere). The only difference is that instead of invading Northern New Guinea from the South (like McArthur did), I'll take a few bases in New Guinea after securing the two bases at Palau.

I plan to completely ignore the South Pacific for the rest of the game - the Japanese seemed to have abandoned it anyways. Rabaul, if intelligence is correct, is very weak. But for all the aircraft based at Truk, I'd be halfway tempting to take Rabaul. But since the game's attack focus has shifted, there's no point in wasting time/troops taking Rabaul as it provides the Allies with little benefit.

[jimh009]

ORIGINAL: Galahad78

Ordered a hard copy and already downloading also! [:D]

Good luck with your house hunting [;)]

Thanks. I put an offer in today. Now it's just a matter of waiting months and months to see if the bank approves the sale of the property (it's a short-sale).

Are you enjoying the game? Was the first turn as devastating for you as it was for me.

[Yamato_Blitzer]

just take ulithi first

Haha yea about the old AI and Saipan. I went to invade saipan once(the AI had 53 units on it, yea i still remember that number...its....seared into my brain) and I thought "well I have 3/4 of American ground forces here and some OZ ID's, along with 3/4 of my entire air strength, I should be able to wipe them out and "just take it"" I had all of my units plan for it 3 months ahead of time.....I land, make some initial success (it merely became a huge battle of attrition that I was slowly winning) I bombarded it daily from air and sea, even did round the clock naval bombardments, got the forts down to 0....kept attacking, had more than enough supplies, let my men rest when they needed, had good leaders etc etc...Still, it simply wasn't enough. I could have done it but it would have been within a ridiculous time frame. that island ain't one bit easy when its massively fortified. But simply bypassing it is obviously the best option. At the time I was simply overcome with "going in for the kill" and i was set on destroying them for the sake of destroying them. gained nothing, had my men cut down for nothing because I had adopted a 1916 western front mentality.

The battle for Tokyo was always quite brutal too. I remember the AI having between 115-125 units stationed at tokyo...Now I don't care how much naval and air support you have, that's gonna take a looong time. Indeed it did. 4 months of naval and air bombardments....send all of your units to Tokyo. Start artillery bombardment for 30 days, while still bombing and shelling with sea/air. Then begin the actual assaults, 2 months of continuous ground assaults and a staggering casualty list for the encircled Japanese garrison.

Haha anyways ill stop ranting.

[Galahad78]

ORIGINAL: jimh009
Are you enjoying the game? Was the first turn as devastating for you as it was for me.

Not yet, I'm waiting (hardly [:D]) to get my physical copy with the fantastic (I've read) manual to start. This game is so overwhelming that I'm afraid to enter it without a guide [:D]

I did try, however, a first turn with the Allies, and, well...4 BBs sunk at PH and 2 more heavily damaged, plus the Prince of Wales and Repulse sunk, so...it wasn't a good start [:D]

PD: Got it!!!! Very nice manual [&o], it reminds me Microprose's manuals from long, long ago...[:)]. Let's start kicking yellow a**** [:D]

[Yamato_Blitzer]

It isn't as overwhelming as it seems at first. But there are alot of details to remember.

[Chickenboy]

Why are you sending your Java-based SS back to Colombo to rearm? Have you moved all AS support out of Java? If not, the AS units at Soerbaja ought to be able to (with supply) rearm your subs. Don't send them to Colombo if you don't have to!

[jimh009]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Why are you sending your Java-based SS back to Colombo to rearm? Have you moved all AS support out of Java? If not, the AS units at Soerbaja ought to be able to (with supply) rearm your subs. Don't send them to Colombo if you don't have to!

Agreed...with one caveat. Don't keep them there to long, however, as you can't build unlimited AS's as you could in stock WiTP. AS's are valuable commodities, so you don't want to lose them unnecessarily. Once the Japanese are within Betty range of Java (Soerbaja in particular), it's time to start giving serious consideration to bugging them out to Colombo and/or Sydney. Similarily, if Japanese carriers are on the prowl, you want your AS's in a galaxy far, far away.

You should be safe through December, probably part of January. But by late January, any good Japanese player (even the AI), should have shut things down - making it iffy at best to keep valuable ships in/around Soerbaja.

[jimh009]

PS - Sorry for the "stoppage" in this AAR. I simply haven't had the time to play more than a few turns over the past few weeks. That annoying thing called life - although it's in a good way, at least.

The game I'm playing isn't over by a long shot. For me, the fun is just beginning - as I love the broad based Allied offensives of late 1943 and 1944. So many toys to play with!!

[jimh009]

ORIGINAL: Yamato_Blitzer

just take ulithi first

Haha yea about the old AI and Saipan. I went to invade saipan once(the AI had 53 units on it, yea i still remember that number...its....seared into my brain) and I thought "well I have 3/4 of American ground forces here and some OZ ID's, along with 3/4 of my entire air strength, I should be able to wipe them out and "just take it"" I had all of my units plan for it 3 months ahead of time.....I land, make some initial success (it merely became a huge battle of attrition that I was slowly winning) I bombarded it daily from air and sea, even did round the clock naval bombardments, got the forts down to 0....kept attacking, had more than enough supplies, let my men rest when they needed, had good leaders etc etc...Still, it simply wasn't enough. I could have done it but it would have been within a ridiculous time frame. that island ain't one bit easy when its massively fortified. But simply bypassing it is obviously the best option. At the time I was simply overcome with "going in for the kill" and i was set on destroying them for the sake of destroying them. gained nothing, had my men cut down for nothing because I had adopted a 1916 western front mentality.

The battle for Tokyo was always quite brutal too. I remember the AI having between 115-125 units stationed at tokyo...Now I don't care how much naval and air support you have, that's gonna take a looong time. Indeed it did. 4 months of naval and air bombardments....send all of your units to Tokyo. Start artillery bombardment for 30 days, while still bombing and shelling with sea/air. Then begin the actual assaults, 2 months of continuous ground assaults and a staggering casualty list for the encircled Japanese garrison.

Haha anyways ill stop ranting.

You know, I tried that once too. Once it was clear the game was going to end in an auto-victory on 1/1/44, I decided for the fun of it to invade Saipan in early December of 1943, just to see what happened.

It was UGLY. The japanese had enough supply there to seemingly last the war. Between the 100's if not 1000's of coastal defense guns there, the endless supply and the 2500 AV the japanese had packed on the island, the invasion was a disaster. When the game ended in auto-victory on 1/1/44, five divisions had been chewed up for damn little gain. Also lost a LOT of transports to the coastal defense guns.

In stock WiTP, there was one Japanese coastal defense unit that had a "bug." It has like 500+ defense guns, despite only having like a few hundred men in the unit! That unit more than anything probably wiped out my invasion force.

[jimh009]

ORIGINAL: Galahad78

ORIGINAL: jimh009
Are you enjoying the game? Was the first turn as devastating for you as it was for me.

Not yet, I'm waiting (hardly [:D]) to get my physical copy with the fantastic (I've read) manual to start. This game is so overwhelming that I'm afraid to enter it without a guide [:D]

I did try, however, a first turn with the Allies, and, well...4 BBs sunk at PH and 2 more heavily damaged, plus the Prince of Wales and Repulse sunk, so...it wasn't a good start [:D]

PD: Got it!!!! Very nice manual [&o], it reminds me Microprose's manuals from long, long ago...[:)]. Let's start kicking yellow a**** [:D]

It IS a nice manual, but I've yet to touch it! I guess I prefer the "punishment" of trial and error. Whenever I read a manual for a game, especially one like this that is so complex, I simply forget 99% of what I read. Just too much information packed into too little space. A handful of times I've opened up the PDF manual to get details about pesky questions I might have (such as why APD's where causing such an astounding loss of readiness along with determining which atolls are small/medium), but beyond that it's all been trial and error for me!

Of course, I knew WiTP stock inside and out, so it made the transition much easier. I shudder just thinking about starting AE without any background in WiTP whatsoever.

[Galahad78]

ORIGINAL: jimh009
It IS a nice manual, but I've yet to touch it! I guess I prefer the "punishment" of trial and error. Whenever I read a manual for a game, especially one like this that is so complex, I simply forget 99% of what I read. Just too much information packed into too little space. A handful of times I've opened up the PDF manual to get details about pesky questions I might have (such as why APD's where causing such an astounding loss of readiness along with determining which atolls are small/medium), but beyond that it's all been trial and error for me!

Of course, I knew WiTP stock inside and out, so it made the transition much easier. I shudder just thinking about starting AE without any background in WiTP whatsoever.

I do prefer it also, my most satisfaying games are always when I start figuring out how things work, making mistakes and learning from them. But in this case I do not even know how to load a vessel with troops, supplies or whatever, or even how to move it, for that case [:D] I'll let you know my progress [:D]

[Yamato_Blitzer]

Youll like this game then Galahad. It is by far the most rewarding game i've ever played in the aspects you mentioned above. The biggest reward is when you try something new and put it to the test and see the results. It is the most rewarding game i've ever played, but it's extremely time consuming (if you wanna keep a meaningful game afloat).

The manual is vast, but very nice and simple to use.

[Yamato_Blitzer]

I recall my final loss of ships totaled around 20. My ground casualties were too horrendous for me not to go into denial about them. I can't give an estimate.

That supply situation you speak of was the case in my game as well. I bombed and strafed them for endless months and bombarded it with all of my BB's and CA's for about 2 months before invading....Then, even after my troops were evacuated i kept behind some 200 fighter-bombers, 150 DB's, 100 LB's and several DD's and CL's to bomb it daily for months and months afterwards....I was already fighting for Tokyo when I went to the Jap side to see the damage after all those months and they still had white supply levels at 4x what the garrison needed. They must have started out with AT LEAST 10x what the garrison needed. Cause that was about a year straight of daily bombing and shelling, then that huge ground battle.

[freeboy]

please keep up the aar, greaat stuff for folks like me who are interested in this thread[8D]

[jimh009]

ORIGINAL: freeboy

please keep up the aar, greaat stuff for folks like me who are interested in this thread[8D]

Hi Freeboy,

I do plan to get on with this AAR again soon--this game is NOT abandoned. lol, it's just that pesky thing called life. I don't have the "massive block" of time available as I did this past summer...when I could play all day--and did! Right now my time is being split between finishing up my first novel (which takes up more time than AE does, believe it or not!), getting my web sites ready for Christmas (which is how I earn my living), and "house-hunting."

[jackyo123]

this is a GREAT aar. Best one Ive read that focuses on pure strategy.

[Yamato_Blitzer]

Why don't you just admit that the game is abandoned?[:'(]

[freeboy]

no worries, u motivated me to start several against ai as I tune up for real players... WOW the AE AI is so much better ! bravo