Fortress Java

[BossGnome]

Hi,

I was wondering what people's initial strategies were as the allies in attempting to slow Japanese expansion into the DEI. It seems to be that a strategy of turning Java into a fortress would be the most effective in buying valuable time and tying Japanese troops on the island; the PI are essentially indefensible; as they can too easily be cut off from the air early on; same goes with Malaya, but Java is far enough away from the inital fighting that it can rather easily be reinforced with divisions from both india and Australia before any large Japanese forces can get there. Historically, I know the allies did not have much success with this strategy, but I was just wondering how this went down in PBEM. Do players prefer moving the initial mobile allied troops to other places, such as Rabaul, or northern australia? Or even Malaya? What has your experience been like in defending against initial japanese assaults?

[Pascal_slith]

Tried the Fortress Java idea by evacuating troops from Malaysia to beef up the Dutch there. It slows the Japanese down but you lose it in the end. I've actually had better luck holding Timor (Koepang and Dili). Closer to a major, easily defensible Allied base (Darwin). Java is tough to supply and to really make it into a 'Fortress' you'd need to add more outside troops (Australian, etc.), not just the ones from Malaysia. Your supply line will be difficult to maintain without major cover (i.e. with aircraft carriers). It's a waste of carrier based air groups and their experienced pilots. I ended up evacuating as much of the troops there as possible.

[CV2]

Frankly, from the point of view of a person that mainly plays Japanese, there is little point in trying to "slow down" the expansion. A good Japanese player will have his final defensive line in mind before the game even opens, and no effort on the allied players part will prevent the Jap from getting that line.

It matters not to the Jap if it takes 2 months or 6.

[Fallschirmjager]

Singapore is the best place to fortress up. It can last until spring 1942

[Pascal_slith]

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager

Singapore is the best place to fortress up. It can last until spring 1942

I was happier in the end to have the operational flexibility of more troops available for other places, better defensive areas given how long it takes to receive reinforcements.

[Fallschirmjager]

ORIGINAL: Pascal

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager

Singapore is the best place to fortress up. It can last until spring 1942

I was happier in the end to have the operational flexibility of more troops available for other places, better defensive areas given how long it takes to receive reinforcements.

I choose it because it offers good defensive terrain and you can unload some supplies and units there for relatively low cost and low risk. The Japanese player must either march down the peninsula which is a very long march or they must land closer to the city which gives your subs and air units a change to do damage. Singapore is the only Allied base in 1941 to have anything resembling a potent LBA. It is not great but if the Japanese player chooses to make landing close to the city it can get in some hits.
If you begin marching everything to the city on turn 2 then you can build up a nice force and a potent flak trap and lots of artillery.

I have managed to get the fort levels up to six by the time the Japanese arrive and if you can do that and have 100,000 supplies then the city can really put up a fight and cause a lot of casualties.

[afspret]

I'm with Pascal and building up to hold Timor. I'm playing the Ironman scenario and given the fact that since late Dec 41 two baby KBs are do nothing but circling Java and pound places like Batavia & Soerebaja to pieces, attempting to resupply or move troops into or out of Java is freakin' impossible! I ended up moving all those Oz units earmarked for ABDA (except for the ones @ PM), along with those US Arty & one of the USAAF BF units on the P-cola convoy, to Koepang & Laurenten. I've also diverted most of the early Oz units destined for Malaya & Burma as well and I've got all but one of those provisional FS and units of the 27th BG either on Timor @ Darwin or Broome. I have the Sara escorting a couple of convoys from the West Coast with SWPAC air & ground combat reinforcements and plan on keeping her based in the region, probably @ Perth, too many pesky subs along the other coast for my likinng right now.

I've done this before in WitP and managed to hold onto Koepang, but not Laurenten. So far I'm coming up on late Jan 42 and while the AI has taken Madan, Tarakan & Kendari it has shown not interest at all in any of my bases on Timor.

[Tullius]

Historically the ABDA had a plan to fight for Java but they thought they needed at least 7 divisions. In the game such a plan could be difficult because the KB has a tendency to stay in the DEI and patrol around the islands which gives you the possibility to slaughter japanese forces around Mandang and Rabaul. The next point is that the AI uses much more forces than Japan used historically (even in the first scenario). Interesting is a paper by the australian General Sturdee form 1942 which analyzes the situation very carefully and is useful in the game.

Australian War Memorial - Appendix 5

Holding Timor and Ambon was part of the australian plans. In the game youalready have some bataillons which are located in Darwin and can be shipped.

[Ambassador]

Great link Tullius !  Many interesting (and free) things there.[&o]

[John Lansford]

The only effect I had by trying to defend Java was seeing one of those 2E Dutch planes hit Haruna with an 800kg bomb.  She didn't sink but she was badly hurt.
 
On land, even though I had an extra British brigade and nearly every Dutch fighting unit at Tjilitjap and the other western Java ports, the Japanese still managed to take the former port after some hard fighting.  I did throw them into the sea a couple of times, but when the BB's started bombarding my units I knew the end was near.  Once that happened I did drive them back to Tjilitjap when they advanced SE, but another landing further east ended that as well.
 
At Timor I moved the Dutch CD unit to Lautern and some other Dutch units, plus an Oz brigade, and held out for a month after Java fell, but I couldn't keep the supplies coming fast enough after the KB showed up.

[FatR]

Timor is bad place to defend in the realities of early game. It has only one major airfield at Koepang, which is threatened by two major airfields at Makassar and Kendari. Which also pose a major threat to resupply attempts by sea. There is alot of island bases around which Japanese can occupy and relatively quickly build up for a closer air blockade.
So against a competent opponent it is going to fall fairly soon, however the Allied player concentrates on holding it.

And it has little intristic strategic value. No oil/resource centers, too far away from major oil/resource centers to pose an immediate threat, can be bypassed on the way to Northern Australia, if the Japanese player wants to, connected to the mainland only through the Darwin region, which is geographically semi-isolated itself.

As Allies, I prefer to reinforce places like Balikpapan, Singapore, Palembang or (depending on how fast Japanese advance) Java. Singapore because it's a good place to delay Japanese and tie down their troops, others are the whole reason Japanese need DEI in the first place, and even if they ultimately fall, this ensures massive damage to their facilities.

[crsutton]

Against a good Japanese player, any defence other than an attemp to delay is futile. I would not send troops into the theater. Aside from a few key (base forces) units I do not evacuate much as well. All you are doing in the first half of 42 is trying to confuse the enemy with the hopes that he will make a blunder or two that allows you to kills some ships or an ground unit or two. Any grand offensive or defensive plans will most likely get squashed. His naval and air power is just too strong.

[oldman45]

If your talking about fighting the AI, I keep Java, but I have found there are places the AI needs to take, Ambon being one of them. If you keep it the AI keeps sending in ships that try to drop off support troops and forces that are staging for future invasions. This leads to some great early kills but it ends up killing the game pretty early. I send over two carriers to help keep the bad guys at bay so I can run in supply ships and get fuel out of Java. In my current game, I also allow the AI to take Rabaul for the same reasons. Then move two carriers into Suva. Getting enough fuel and supplys into there is harder for me than keeping Java alive. I need to get a better handle on properly setting up a supply line for moving large amounts of fuel.

[zace]

ORIGINAL: oldman45

If your talking about fighting the AI, I keep Java, but I have found there are places the AI needs to take, Ambon being one of them. If you keep it the AI keeps sending in ships that try to drop off support troops and forces that are staging for future invasions. This leads to some great early kills but it ends up killing the game pretty early. I send over two carriers to help keep the bad guys at bay so I can run in supply ships and get fuel out of Java. In my current game, I also allow the AI to take Rabaul for the same reasons. Then move two carriers into Suva. Getting enough fuel and supplys into there is harder for me than keeping Java alive. I need to get a better handle on properly setting up a supply line for moving large amounts of fuel.

I have a feeling that having US carriers in known locations against a human IJ player isn't a good thing.

[oldman45]

I would never try to hold the DEI against a human player.

[Alpha77]

Imo, those efforts are futile.... be it Java or Malaya.... you need the troops elsewhere in the first year of the game anyway....

[kaleun]

I've not had much success trying to hold on to Timor. Warspite burst through it in the last two games we played. I had to kick him out of Australia in both of them.
OTOH my successful delaying actions in Bataan and Singapore, and some important little vistories in my game with Scott1962, have made it possible to hold it up to June 42 (and counting)

[Lanconic]

Why bother? Its easy to beat the AI

You want a real challenge? Disband all air groups at the first turn
and allow the IJN to easy capture the resources.

Then let them land in Oz and India

You are in no real danger, you have the RailRoads and he doesnt.
But it is way more of a fight than sinking transports