Lessons for Newbie Maniacs

[Jeremy Pritchard]

HOW TO RUN IJN ROUTINE CONVOY

How do you save the Japanese convoy system? You don't, but you can postpone its death, as well as minimize losses to civilian and military shipping.

The Allies tend to send their worthless Destroyers (tenedos, clemson) to routine convoy bases to start escort duties. The question is, what do you do with the MANY older, yet less worhtless IJN Destroyers? The Kamikaze, Minekaze, Mustsuki and Wakatake are all individually better ships then the Tenedos/Clemson class. They have better AA, weapons, as well as can perform transport duties.

So, do you send these old DD's on convoy duty, or fleet duty?

From 1941-43 I tend to send them, as well as the Otori and Momi DE's and Harashima CD's on convoy duty. I leave them in Nagoya, along with all of the Katori CL's, most of the AP's, MCS, AO and TK (after the main offensive has finished). Whenever I need a purpose supply TF, all of the required escort vessels are there.

However, once you start getting the Type A/B and Type C/D escorts, the DD's and DE's start leaving the routine convoy system. Each group of 6x Type */* CD's equals about 2-2.5 DE in ASW capabilities. However, they tend to be sunk less by subs (it is harder to hit this class of ships by a submarine), and DD's and DE's start sinking like mad in 1943-46.

By this time you are probably lacking some fleet escort vessels, as the rest have been whittled away.

Individually, some of these 'obsolete' ships are pretty good...

*Kamikaze Class DD

Good AA, great speed (as fast as all fleet DD), good troop capacity. Best gunned old IJN DD.

Good Transport escort, and bombardment AA escort

*Minekaze Class DD

Generally weaker then the Kamikaze in all aspects, but still ok

Good Transport escort, and bombardment AA escort

*Mutsuki Class DD

Slightly slower then Kamikaze and Minekaze, similar gun weaponry, however, where the Mutsuki shines is in her torpedo and troop capacity. Equipped with the Long Lance torpedo, and 15 troop capacity, the Mutsuki is a hiddenly powerful ship.

Good surface combat escort, good transport/tokyo express escort

*Wakatake Class DD

The weakest of all of the IJN DD's in everything but speed (better then Minekaze, weaker then Kamikaze)

*Momi Class DE

Weaker then the Wakatake, especailly in speed, this class is better for nothing more then Transports and Cargo TF's (not routine cargo).

Put these along with Katori CL's, and your Cargo/Transport TF's will have rudamentary defense.

*Tachibana/Matsu DE

Very high AA and equal to the Mutsuki in Torpedo power, the Matsu/Tachibana class is a good 'jack of all trades' ship, except for its speed.

Put these in your slower fleet combat TF's or Transport TF's.

*Otori DE

These ships are very easy to overlook. They are extremely average in almost every respect. Average speed (30 kts), average weaponry (guns equal that of Kamikaze), good starting AA, and torpedo's that may not be as good as the Long Lance, but are much better then the Type 6 in the Otori equipped Type 89.

Put these in your fast Transport TF's, Tokyo Express (even though they have no capacity), and can even fill in for fleet combat duty.

Type A/B. Type C/D, Harishima Class CD's

These ships are poorly armed, poorly armoured, poor speed, and poor range. Use them for only routine convoy, and if needed, purpose Cargo TF's (never transport TF's!).

Stick them in Nagoya and forget about them.

[Jeremy Pritchard]

You make a base non-isolated by putting enough friendly LBA (fighters, perferably fighter-bomers and bombers) near that base.

Army TOE

Squads 254
Artillery 48
AFV 0

Division TOE

Squads 243
Artillery 48
AFV 18

Brigade TOE

Squads 108
Artillery 24
AFV 9

Regiment TOE

Squads 81
Artillery 12
AFV 9

Batallion TOE

Squads 36
Artillery 8
AFV 0

SBF TOE

Squads 81
Artillery 24
AFV 9

Engineer TOE

Squads 108
Artllery 0
AFV 0

[Jeremy Pritchard]

HOW TO RUN ALLIED CONVOY

Allied routine convoy system is fairly simple.

#1. Put all Clemson, Tenedos DD, and Grimsby DE on the West Coast/Calcutta (San Diego I believe?).

#2. When you get more and more Fletcher DD's, start putting your pre-war DD's on convoy duty instead of sitting around rusting.

That is pretty much that...

HOW TO RUN ALLIED PURPOSE CONVOY/TRANSPORT

Often overlooked, but VERY critical, is how to make Allied Transport and Cargo TF's. Ignoring defense, and sending off transports on their own will have you end up with a lot of sunk transports, LCU's and air groups.

Here are some ships you should keep on the West Coast for such duties...

Omaha CL's (weak AA, but at least they will put up something in defense!)

Pre-War BB's (any that survive Pearl Harbour, plus the arriving New Mexico BB's have high enough AA)

Any spare DD (including Clemson and Tenedos)

Dutch CL's make for excellent Convoy escorts.

The HMAS Adelaide also has high enough AA for convoy duty.

The HMS Danae and Caledon CL's are also little good for anything other then convoy duty.

Packing full your Transport/Cargo TF's with obsolete warships will intimidate enemy sub attacks and possibly distract some air strikes. Remember, the computer does not see a difference in ASW value when you compare a Tenedos to a Fletcher class DD.

[mogami]

Greetings, Sadly I to lack the required decade an a half of PacWar playing. I think I only began around 1995 (or was it 92?) But it was not in 87

[pasternakski]

Originally posted by Jeremy Pritchard


I guess I don't have it either, eh?

Yer a lot closer. And I realize that the very first version of PW saw the light of day in 1990, scant 13 years ago, a little short of a decade and a half.

I guess I'm just a little jaded to "how to's" in connection with this game after all this time. I can't even bring myself to write one. I just live it. So, my apologies, de Vada, rave on...

[Aussie]

Originally posted by MainiacJoe
In defense of deVada I had solicited this thread from him, he had offered to describe how he learned the game to me by e-mail and I suggested he post it instead becasue I had looked for a thread that gave a better tutorial than the manual.

Great idea, that is what these forums are all about. Any person should feel qualified to post advice about the game, whether they have been playing for a week, or every day since 1995 - or in some people's case - 1987.

We are all here for one reason - we love the game, and no one can reserve the right over others to advise on it, just because they have more posts in these forums.


Dan

[deVada]

I'm not sad anymore.

We all still learn and discover new options.

[Capt. Harlock]

Some excellent advice on Allied routine convoys, but one possibly critical problem: the West Coast Routine Convoy base where the DD's and DE's must start from is Los Angeles, NOT San Diego. (See p. 47 of the original manual.)

[Jeremy Pritchard]

Originally posted by Capt. Harlock
Some excellent advice on Allied routine convoys, but one possibly critical problem: the West Coast Routine Convoy base where the DD's and DE's must start from is Los Angeles, NOT San Diego. (See p. 47 of the original manual.)

I knew it was one of them, but also think that all MCS are automatically sent to Los Angeles if they are located in San Francisco and/or San Diego.

[Capt. Harlock]

Escort ships (DD's, DE's, etc.) must be in Nagoya for the Japanese, Calcutta or Los Angeles for the Allies, to be included in Routine Convoys. However, the manual is less clear about MCS and TK's, the ones that actually deliver the supplies. Supposedly, they can be drawn from any friendly port. From my own observation, it helps if the port is actually the HQ of the area that the computer is attempting to supply. Thus, for the Allies, it's a good idea to have a "stack" or two of MCS vessels in Sydney and Pearl Harbor, for example.

[MainiacJoe]

I've been thinking about how to set up my carrier task forces in the first turn. Here are my conclusions, which haven't faced a test by fire yet. I thought I'd get your feedback anyway before I get the AI's. I'm still in the process of going through my HQs one by one just to see what's there!

Halsey in command
Yorktown, Enterprise, Lexington
5 Brooklyn CLs
4 Porter DDs
4 Mahan DDs
2 Sims DDs

Notes:

1. Give Halsey enough flak protection and hopefully it will save the day if he sticks his neck out too far. You need him though to get the most out of a 3 CV TF.

2. Saratoga is on reserve, waiting to join Hornet as another TF or to replace a sunk or damaged CV. Having just one AC TF lets me concentrate my few capable escorts.

3. No CAs in the AC TF, they are a knot slower than the CVs and the CLs and have the exact same flak as the CLs (according to the pdf manual at least). This way you can have a strong SC TF in the South Pacific as well.

[MainiacJoe]

Bleah - never mind. Turns out the manual is obsolete when it comes to ship data. Porter DDs are only 31 knots, for instance.

[Ranger-75]

Hi,

The max speed of a TF is 30. Ships with a higher speed can still move at 30 with a few points of damage. Higher than 30 MIGHT confer an individual benefit in a battle situation, but not in TF movement.

The Allied routine convoy system will take MCS and tankers from ALL west coast ports, but will ONLY use escorts from LA.

Allied MCS in other pacific ports (not talking about India here) are NOT used with the RCS. Its a good ides to have piles of them at your main fleet hQss though for bringing up follow on supplies to an invasion. Also your Fleet Oliers (AOs) should be kept at fleet HQ. We're talking Pearl Harbour here & perhaps Nomeua early on, later CENPAC will move forward.

The SIZE of a LCU is 1 point per squad 5 per gun and 10 per tank. I think that's correct. So a 200 squad unit with 10 tanks and 10 guns will require 350 points of transport to load.

I almost NEVER use cargo TFs; they will not enter an enemy AZOC and you can't trust them to ever move fast enough.

To fake out IJN subs sitting around Pearl, send your warship reinfocecments from San Fran to Johnston. Their 30 knot speed will get them there in 1 turn.

The earlier advice on the Asiatic fleet is very good, run like hell right away. It is Important to set the TF destinations a point halfway like Borneo, Celebes, Timor, then the "home base" to Sorebaya or Darwin. Set Standoff to 1 or 2, so they don't actually go into port!! That way they get out of there in the quickest possible manner.

Only the Arizona was a "total loss" the Oakie was repariable, but the Navy decided "why bother".

Also NO cruisers were sunk in real life at Pearl, not always the case in the game.