How do you make a good plan?

[MAARTENR]

He, how do you make a good plan especially the landforces and the other on second?
That would be great, i'm not good at it and i'm not too aggressive

[Disco Duck]

Ok so what is that a picture of?

I have only managed short term plans for the beginning of the game so I can't help. Even when I do have one I have trouble keeping track of what resources I have assigned to what plan.

[MAARTENR]

A Dutch light cruiser. So you make short plans and i should also have a look at supplies? Supplies are very important with a game i played i didnt had a look at it.
Must mine troops also have to put on frontline, and should i also play landunits near to it?

[Barb]

Basically, I am using this as quick reference:

Is the proposed operation likely to succeed?
What might be the consequences of failure?
Is it in the realm of practicability in terms of matériel and supplies?

It seems that Adm. Nimitz had these three questions on his desk.

However I think that best course is to:
1. choose attainable objective
2. that objective must be capturable with minimum strength and have maximum effect on the enemy
3. the objective should be holdable (there is no reason to capture something to have it lost to counterattack)
4. Have enough reserves to change the outcome if something goes wrong
5. See what could your opponent do to thwart your plans
6. Minimize risks
7. If there is a possibility that something goes wrong - it really will!
8. No plan survives the first contact with the enemy!
9. Stick to your objective - dont give chase to some enemy forces while other forces could sink half your invasion forces (comparable to Halsey at Leyte)

[MAARTENR]

Great, thanx.[&o]

[Disco Duck]

ORIGINAL: MAARTENR

A Dutch light cruiser. So you make short plans and i should also have a look at supplies? Supplies are very important with a game i played i didnt had a look at it.
Must mine troops also have to put on frontline, and should i also play landunits near to it?

Must be the way I am looking at it. Sure looks like a tank for the number one turret.[:D]

One of the issues of supplies that I am experimenting with is increasing the supply and fuel capacity of the base. Early on your bases like Pago Pago , Christmas Island and Midway can hold very few supplies. By some mechanism I am not sure of, by increasing port size, fortifications and air base size they increase.

One of the other posters mentioned making distribution hubs as you expand. That way you can run computer supply convoys to your hubs and then distribute it as needed. So it follows the first step is to increase the capacity of the forward bases.

[MAARTENR]

Your right, they are looking like Shermans'
Thanx about the supplies.

[Strike502]

I assign different ports to be the supply bases for different areas like, SF for CentPac, LA SWPac, SD for SouthPac. Then I assign a port in the area to be the main hub for supplies. For right now I'll say PH for CentPac. You can do this early in the game by writing notes, then reffering to them when need be.

[Graymane]

I would start with what your overall strategic plan is. In other words, why are you doing the operation to begin with? How does it further your strategy? So your operational plan should be able to answer some basic questions:

- What is the objective of the operation?
- How do I know I accomplished it or failed to accomplish it?
- How long do I have to accomplish it?
- What resources do I have?
- What am I going to be facing? What resources does the enemy have?
- Where am I fighting?
- How am I going to get there? And possibly how am I going to leave or am I staying?
- What can I expect the enemy to do? How will I counter?
- What are my follow on forces?

[topeverest]

maartener,

Setting aside strategy for a moment, it may be easyier to seperate offensive and defensive operations and then sub segment them into their primary component - naval (counter amphibious) or air or land. Next move on to when and where it is going to occur.

When you have those decisions made, you next focus on what you expect the enemy will have and what you will acess to. here is where strategic and tactical intelligence comes to the fore.

A very simple example...Dec 41. Allied expects an invasion on Canton Island in a high risk, low cover invasion. in preperation, 1 CA, 1CL and 6 DD's and one oiler were dispatced from Pearl through Palmyra to a point 8 hexes SE Canton. One Catalina squadron was also dispatched. Here the forces lingered for two weeks until the expected enemy TF was picked up. In this situtation, the only possible avenue for allied victory is to stop the enemy prior to landing, so the game of classic counterinvasion pulsing is on. As the allies the trick will be to pulse in the fleet and catch the enemy flatfooted, even if a CV escort is present.

----

Of course, these things can get very complex with ruses and multiple operations occuring at once, but at their most simple remember to have a specific objective and not to move away from that objective without good cause. Lastly, dont push a low probability win situation. Such actions only servce to add insult to your likely injury.

[MAARTENR]

Thanx Andy, i will study this tomorrow.

[derhexer]

I would start with what your overall strategic plan is. In other words, why are you doing the operation to begin with? How does it further your strategy? So your operational plan should be able to answer some basic questions:

- What is the objective of the operation?
- How do I know I accomplished it or failed to accomplish it?
- How long do I have to accomplish it?
- What resources do I have?
- What am I going to be facing? What resources does the enemy have?
- Where am I fighting?
- How am I going to get there? And possibly how am I going to leave or am I staying?
- What can I expect the enemy to do? How will I counter?
- What are my follow on forces?

On keeping track, I have a spreadsheet of my objectives (invade and hold Guadalcanal, take and hold Tarawa, raid Truk or Rabual, defend Canton and Baker islands, just as examples), and beside them I list the general time frames, the task forces assigned and the land units assigned.

Then, as the war progresses, as I reassign TFs, bring in new ones, etc., I keep the spreadsheet updated and printed out. That helps make sure I have the right forces without committing too much that I can't keep supplied, and I haven't assigned the same carrier to missions at the opposite ends of the ocean.

This is basically what a G3 (or S3) Operations staff would do.

Chris
(no electrons were killed in sending this message, tho gazillions were inconvenienced.)

[MAARTENR]

Derhexer what exactly do you print out, the landforces and how do you print it?
I really dont have an idea how and what you print?

[topeverest]

easyiest thing to do is to export your units to excel in a csv from WITPAE Tracker. Very straightforward. from there, you can use that for theater assignment and operation inclusion. You also can do it objectives based...that is what do I think I need. rule of thumb on offense 2x the expected enemy force minimum.

[MAARTENR]

Andy could you maybe please let show it to me with pictures.
I really should appriciate it becausse i'm not good in theese things.

[topeverest]

Marteneer, please PM your email address, and I will send a file my next chance. Do you have excel 2003 or greater, as that is what i have on my laptop.

[MAARTENR]

I get open office but how do i get the land units and wich of the database must i choose? The left tool of witptracker. Where you also choose the database and import and export.

[MAARTENR]

This is it mates or not? Cool tool.

[MAARTENR]

When i go printing how do i remove the letters from g to the rest right of it?
Becausse i dont need this info and it cost much.
ps see mine post before with attatchment.

[Nemo121]

I think you are asking the wrong question.....

Rather than focusing on making a good plan in AE you will become a better player by initially focusing on what plans are worth making.

Do you have a grasp of what you want to do and why strategically over the next 24 months? If not then the best short-term plan in the world isn't going to help you against a player who is mediocre in the short-term stuff but actually has a coherent, cohesive strategic plan.