The rail line on the east coast of Malaya makes the Anvil very hard to get in place in time from Kuantan. If your units are not in contact with him in the North, he can switch to strategic mode and easily beat you south to concentrate at Kuala Lumpur.
Not to worry though. If you use mass and combined arms your superior troops will shift him where ever he choses to fight.
The war is progressing along nicely, we've reached Christmas Day in 1941 and so far things seem to be going alright for Imperial forces. China, I'm struggling a bit until I get my assault forces in place. The allies have been very quiet of late, no surface fleet movements, not a whiff of the Carrier TF's, no bombing of bases, but constant sub activity. I think Smeulders is sitting back conserving his forces and waiting, I have no inclination of any objectives he may have at this time other than conserving his forces. I will continue to take bases, but if I continue to find no resistance in areas he'll concede, I may turn to some that he'll have to fight for, or a KB raid to just see what I can find. An early invasion of Midway once the Philippines falls may rattle the cage a little.
My anti-submarine efforts have been dismal to say the least so far, the allied subs get a shot in first and are tending to hit their targets, escorting vessels seldom have launched depth charge attacks in return, and if they do, they are ineffective. I've been taking hits and or losing roughly a ship a day to submarine attack lately, and the most susceptible so far have been my PB's! I lost my first Tanker on the 24th, a small one, but that first one lost...still sucks! My subs are finding targets hard to find, but when they do they are making them count. No big troops ships have been hit from the mainland yet, I'm not sure of his routing, and perhaps I'm not in the shipping lanes, however subs lurking around bases have no sightings either.
Here are screenshots updating the most active theatres of operation:
Malaya:
Attachments
Malaya.jpg (185.27 KiB) Viewed 361 times
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
SS Triton sank the xAKL Kitahuku Maru off the coast of Toyohara in a surface attack inflicting 34 hits with 1 torpedo hit thrown in for good measure, however the tranpsort did inflict 3 hits on the submarine causing a fire. the convoy was unescorted. The days of unescorted convoys in home waters are at an end for the Japanese.
Burma: Allied troops at Pegu were bombed by Lily's with 1 being shot down by H81-A3 CAP.
Malaya: Troops continue to march down the peninsula towards Singapore. Japanese units from Kuantan may reach Kuala Lumpur just in time to cut off some Allied units heading South to Singapore. Sweep missions over Singapore airfield resulted in the downing of 3 Buffalo's to the loss of 1 Oscar. Poor results overall, 22 Buffalo's were on CAP initially.
Philippines: Here things are going well for Imperial forces.
Luzon: Air attack by 25 Betty's resulted in ground losses to the Allies at Cabanatuan prior to a ground assault, 2 Betty's were lost to CAP of 2 P40E's. The following Shock Attack by Imperial forces resulted in Allied losses of 5742 troops, forcing a retreat, to the loss of 296 Japanese casualties. Cabanatuan falls to Imperial forces. A Shock Attack on Lingayen results in further Allied losses of 2865 compared with 118 casualties to Japan. Lingayen falls to Imperial might. Manila and Clark Field are the next two objectives, the Allies's failure to mass here in time will result in their quick capture. I want the entire Philippines campaign wrapped up by the end of January.
Mindanao: Mandalay is attacked with a Deliberate Attack, my armour units causes 220 Allied casualties to the loss of 2 AFV's. Troops at Cagayan are consolidating for the drive to Davao, however one Allied ground unit has foolishly moved into the beachhead, it will be dealt with next turn.
The Celebes: Sidate is captured with a Shock Attack inflicting losses of 620 troops to Japan's 57.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
Does anyone fully understand the pilot maintenance changes in the new patch? I'm trying to assign pilots to TRACOM and the various reserves by removing some experienced pilots from squadrons to replace them with inexperienced pilots to train them up in combat. I've heard that you can also dedicate certain squadrons to designated "Training Squadrons" somehow. What I've been doing now is just filling out squadrons in Japan with pilots and assigning them to 70% training, 30% rest. I've read the patch addendum regarding pilots, but feel I'm missing something.
For example, I've put 2 80+ experience pilots into TRACOM, what exactly are they doing? Are they training pilots in my pools? group reserve? general reserve? How do I add pilots to the general reserve and not the group reserve?
I want to get various experienced pilots into my reserves so when I adjust individual squadrons I have a good mix to choose from, right now I have nothing but rookie pilots in the general reserve. Am I looking at this the wrong way?
Also, what is the purpose of putting a pilot into a 180 day rotation?
Thanks in advance, any help or clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
The Training Squadrons have been removed from the official patch 2. The pilots that go into TRACOM can accelerate the pilots who are being trained up. Basically some small fraction of them can graduate in less than 12 months but their experience will not be higher.
I want to start a game as japanese and i am thinking about aicraft production...
as for kates and some other aicrafts I think that is not neccesary to upgrade theirs numbers to the level wich I see on the screenshots, personally I prefer to upgrade factories in steps after previously upgraded factories are repaired...
to upgrade production of Zeroes and oscars I want to switch Ki-56 Thalia factory to zeroes and one of Ki-27 nate factory (the one producing 10pcs) to oscars...
don´t know yet which another factory I can switch to these planes...maybe the one which producing sonias after making some reserve...
as for engines I am thinking about changing kotobuki factory to Ha-35 engine...and switching one or maybe two factories which producing aichi Ha-60 to something needed now...
ORIGINAL: hmota
...and switching one or maybe two factories which producing aichi Ha-60 to something needed now...
The only concern with that is that you'll need them about Apr 43 for the Judy. If you spend the supply to switch them now, you're going to have to spend more supply to switch something back later.
Edit: I recommend switching the Ida to something more.......useful.
ORIGINAL: hmota
...and switching one or maybe two factories which producing aichi Ha-60 to something needed now...
The only concern with that is that you'll need them about Apr 43 for the Judy. If you spend the supply to switch them now, you're going to have to spend more supply to switch something back later.
Edit: I recommend switching the Ida to something more.......useful.
yes but there is 3 factories which produce Ha-60 (80+40+5), I think that it will not hurt to switch at least 5pcs factory to another type... if there will be more demand of Ha-60 so than I expand 40pcs factory...
Edit: I recommend switching the Ida to something more.......useful.
...I like that idea...there comes two grous, 12 planes each in 70 days and another in Feb 44...and there is 31 a/c in the pool and another will come after upgrading groups to Sallys and Helens...and there is 332 pcs of Hitachi(Early) engines in the pool, maybe another engine factory to switch to something else...
..and in adition another plane from my point avaiable for changing production is Sonia...
I'm just learning the Japanese side of the game too, but I have to disagree with you on the production figures you think to be too high for certain aircraft, Kate's in particular. first off we are playing with PDU off, so I don't have the flexibility of upgrades typical for most Japanese players and learning that not everything can be upgraded to what I'd like.
In this PBEM I took almost no air losses at Pearl Harbour, and KB has had no engagements worthy of note since, and you can see that my pools are almost empty in terms of Zero's, Kate's, Val's, and Betty's...this is all with minimal combat losses. Daily flights of Oscars and Zeros to gain air superiority will attrition away your reserve as well. My pools are mostly being drained by upgrading and filling up unit sizes, what's going to happen when I start losing large numbers of aircraft to combat operations? Upgrading air units is a priority for me, you may like to fly around with Claudes, Nate's and Jean's, but I, for one, do not. [;)] Air power will be key for Japan and I want to make sure production can handle the losses I'm about to start taking from further combat operations.
You might as well upgrade now when times are good, they will get better in the short term with new conquests, but there will be the day that I'll be glad I have enough planes in the pools to weather the huge losses I'll be taking. If you don't take a long term view now, you'll get caught with your pants down later. And from what I've seen with changing factory production to newer models, the factories actually get smaller and you produce less planes after switching their production. I'd rather invest in larger factories now producing 100+ planes and still produce say 50+ planes after I switch production, than have a 40+ factory later, upgrade it and produce 20+planes. Of course I'm still figuring this out and don't know the long term effects yet. Just look at anything in history though, if you are not constantly upgrading and investing in new techology early, there comes the day when your enemy outclasses you, because you dropped the ball on utilizing a long term approach, and the production isn't there anymore because your factories are now a pile of rubble. It's happened to great wannabe Empire's throughout history.
That being said, good luck...the dialogue between players trying out the Japanese side is a great way to get better from discussions just like this one. time will tell though.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
I did notice though that I'm still producing Nate's, I had thought I'd changed that! [:D] In hindsight after posting this, I guess I still need to produce some...sigh. [:(]
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
I agree with your point of view about numbers that should be produced, only thing i do diferently is that i expand factories gradualy in steps instead in turn one to so high numbers...don´t know what is better way
with the nates you have two factories 10 and 35 pcs...so you may change one or another...personally I think it will be beter to change the smaller one and left the second to produce nates until their engine pool will be empty, then swith it too...
