Wait, I can't read Cuttlefish's new AAR? - Cribtop (J) vs CF (A)

[Cribtop]

Engine Production

[Cribtop]

Engines - Planning

This is production models only, not R&D.

[Cribtop]

One last question. The last two turns, HI & LI in Tokyo and Yokohama reported they had insufficient resources. Odd, as we've been pumping resources into Shimoniseki and Ominato all game. Any idea what's up with this?

[Mike Solli]

What's the resource level look like at Tokyo and Yokohama? Tokyo needs 88,200 a day and Yokohama needs 12,200 a day.

[Cribtop]

May 12, 1942

Subs

An ASW TF harasses O-19 near Groot Natoena.

4th Fleet, SE Fleet, 14th Army, 16th Army, 25th Army

Quiet as a tomb. No B-17 raids, even.

15th Army

Ramree Island occupied, a nice bonus.

We bomb Akyab with every IJAAF plane in Burma, CF responds in kind with UK 2E bombers.

Allied DA Kalemyo knocks forts back down to zero, but only nets 1:2 odds, casualties 79(1) vs 407(1). Remember I list enemy casualties first, Japanese second. Ouch. Clearly not sustainable, but maybe the 1:2 will give CF pause.

The big deal of course, is the Allied DA at Akyab. It takes the base rather easily with 6:1 odds, casualties 71(0) vs 1282(102). Our valiant paratroopers and elements of 21st Mixed Brigade are thrown out of the hex. Imperial Guards Division was 2 miles out and would have made it tomorrow despite bombing raids.

Needless to say, this is unfortunate. A matter of inches and instead of a situation thoroughly in hand we now have poor options. An emergency meeting at Cribtop HQ notes that we can't just have the Guards march into the Akyab hex to pin the enemy as it would shock attack over the river. Thus, we either take up positions where we are (see screenie), attempt to cut CF off from India by marching a unit NW onto the trail and then down into Akyab, or bring up reserves to counterattack head on.

We do consider the broader picture as well. Assuming Kalemyo also falls, we could attempt a forward defense in the jungle or fall back, drawing CF into the interior before landing in his rear (remember we have MKB, Indes Fleet, Tanaka Force and a bunch of troops on Java about to be unemployed). The downside to this is that we allow CF to fight us with his restricted Indian troops. Hmmm...

China

One bright spot today is China. We DA at hex 84, 41 (east of Sian on the map) and achieve 98:1 odds, destroying the 33rd Chinese Corps entirely. Always a double edged sword to destroy Chinese units, but in this case we need to clear our rear and free up troops for more offensive action. The 34th Corps will probably join 33rd in PoW camps within 72 hours.

[Cribtop]

Mike, Tokyo has 20,700; Yoko has 3,700. Everywhere I look in Japan, levels are low. I'm shipping hordes of resources from Hokkaiko, Sakhalin, and Port Arthur, but I have plenty of spare shipping in the Home Islands.

Should I start a 3rd convoy each at Port Arthur and Hakodate? I currently have 2 working each port that each snag 56K resources every few days at Hakodate, a little less often at Pt. Arthur.

PS - Saw your thread and shut down the Shikoku resource convoys, also re-directed Sakhalin to Sapporo.

[Mike Solli]

Just the island of Hokkaido produces 34,800 excess resources a day. Add Sakhalin's 9800 resources a day and you get 44,600 a day. You need more ships hauling from Hokkaido. It can't hurt to keep Pt. Arthur emptied either. Do you haul resources from the SRA? So many resources get used each day in Honshu that all you need is a little hiccup and you run out locally. Also, check the other Home Islands. See if their levels are artificially high. If so, maybe the AI isn't moving them to Honshu.

[Cribtop]

Not hauling from the DEI, but once offensive Ops really end in a month or so I planned on a one time jolt.

I'll get a 3rd convoy working Hokkaido. Easy to do and delivery every few days. May have trouble loading 3 up at Hokkaido so if it's trouble I'll run it from Sapporo.

[PaxMondo]

Crib,
 
check your Base RegionDef.txt definitions to be sure the your JAPAN is defined as only Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu.  Then use tracker to check exactly how much resources you have there.  My bet is that even though you've been bringing in "tons", you haven't been bringing in enough.  I generally have to really watch these levels carefully to get the resource imports matched to demand in the first 60 days of the game.  Then, I switch to doing the same thing with oil and fuel.
 
To have enough resources coming into the HI everyday, it means something like 80xAdens equivalents unloading every day.  A very big number.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

To have enough resources coming into the HI everyday, it means something like 80xAdens equivalents unloading every day.  A very big number.

Hey Pax, does this number include all the islands as well as C/M/K or just Sakhalin, Hokkaido and C/M/K? Seems a bit high to me, although you're right, lots of resources need to flow into Honshu daily. ~111k, per day by my count, just to break even and with no increase to industry.

Edit: I just read carefully and see the answer to my question.

[obvert]

Mike, Tokyo has 20,700; Yoko has 3,700. Everywhere I look in Japan, levels are low. I'm shipping hordes of resources from Hokkaiko, Sakhalin, and Port Arthur, but I have plenty of spare shipping in the Home Islands.

Should I start a 3rd convoy each at Port Arthur and Hakodate? I currently have 2 working each port that each snag 56K resources every few days at Hakodate, a little less often at Pt. Arthur.

PS - Saw your thread and shut down the Shikoku resource convoys, also re-directed Sakhalin to Sapporo.

I'm sure running more convoys to the north and west from Pt Arthur and Sapporo will make up this deficiency in time. In my recent test AI game I began seeing similar numbers at Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, and Osaka in May/June. I tried first just adding more convoys. It got so bad Tokyo shut down and then I started bringing ships direct to these ports.

To get the numbers up there in the short term you might consider running special convoys to Tokyo itself. I brought in the extras from places like Pescadores, Hong Kong, and the stuff from nauru and Ocean coming through Truk, just so I wouldn't mess with the docking and loading in Hokkaido ports and elsewhere. Pt Arthur is great as size 9 though, and I also put a few extra on there to top up.

After a few weeks numbers started to reach normal amounts and then climb back into surplus.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Mike, Tokyo has 20,700; Yoko has 3,700. Everywhere I look in Japan, levels are low. I'm shipping hordes of resources from Hokkaiko, Sakhalin, and Port Arthur, but I have plenty of spare shipping in the Home Islands.

Should I start a 3rd convoy each at Port Arthur and Hakodate? I currently have 2 working each port that each snag 56K resources every few days at Hakodate, a little less often at Pt. Arthur.

PS - Saw your thread and shut down the Shikoku resource convoys, also re-directed Sakhalin to Sapporo.

I'm sure running more convoys to the north and west from Pt Arthur and Sapporo will make up this deficiency in time. In my recent test AI game I began seeing similar numbers at Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, and Osaka in May/June. I tried first just adding more convoys. It got so bad Tokyo shut down and then I started bringing ships direct to these ports.

To get the numbers up there in the short term you might consider running special convoys to Tokyo itself. I brought in the extras from places like Pescadores, Hong Kong, and the stuff from nauru and Ocean coming through Truk, just so I wouldn't mess with the docking and loading in Hokkaido ports and elsewhere. Pt Arthur is great as size 9 though, and I also put a few extra on there to top up.

After a few weeks numbers started to reach normal amounts and then climb back into surplus.

This is great info, but it begs the question, why did it happen? Was it just a general shortage? That's what I think.

I'm still convinced that the Japanese player needs to ship as many resources as he can to Japan. We have the xAKs available. Why not use them? Yeah, it uses fuel, but it is becoming obvious that the Japanese economy is extremely fragile and sufficient time and thought must be given to it in order to keep it happy.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

To have enough resources coming into the HI everyday, it means something like 80xAdens equivalents unloading every day.  A very big number.

Hey Pax, does this number include all the islands as well as C/M/K or just Sakhalin, Hokkaido and C/M/K? Seems a bit high to me, although you're right, lots of resources need to flow into Honshu daily. ~111k, per day by my count, just to break even and with no increase to industry.

Edit: I just read carefully and see the answer to my question.

Cool.

And last point to Cribtop is that you have to be careful with the ports, the type of xAK you choose, and the naval support you have at your ports. An Aden will not unload in one turn unless you have the port "tuned" correctly. It will only unload about 2/3 of its load at a level 9 port without additional help. You need to account for this in your "daily" deliveries planning ... resources don't count until they are off-loaded. [;)]

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

This is great info, but it begs the question, why did it happen? Was it just a general shortage? That's what I think.

I agree. I think he was bringing in only about 50K/day. A lot, but not enough to balance his demand.

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I'm still convinced that the Japanese player needs to ship as many resources as he can to Japan. We have the xAKs available. Why not use them? Yeah, it uses fuel, but it is becoming obvious that the Japanese economy is extremely fragile and sufficient time and thought must be given to it in order to keep it happy.

Also Agreed. There is a lot you can do to help yourself.

1. You can minimize the fuel requirements by careful planning and conquest of critical "routes". Getting the land route clear from Singers to Shanghai (and beyond) is a huge thing. You can eliminate +30 hexes of transport, not only the cost in fuel, but also the ASW effort you have to put into keeping that area clear.

2. Build up the right ports. Get naval support where you need it to balance out the load/unload rates. Nav Support can let you balance out a level 5 port and a level 4 port on the other end.

3. Don't be afraid to "stage" shipments to use "free" land movement. Ex. I generally unload in Wakkanai, and the reload in Hakodate. Saves about 10 hexes of travel. Takes more time, but uses less fuel and lowers ASW requirements.

You have a great excess of xAK's. Use them wisely. I don't worry about a few extras days of load/unload. I look to minimize the number of hexes that a ship has to move anything, constrained against the requirements of the destination.

[Mike Solli]

That's a good point Pax. Do you know offhand how much naval support a level 9 port needs to load/unload an Aden. And what about a level 10 port? (Just being lazy here.)

[Mike Solli]

Hmm, have you considered the Akasi or Ehime instead of the Aden? Smaller so you'd need more but you may not need extra naval support. Just a thought....

[Mike Solli]

Also, with the beta, apparently you can have bases horde stuff. Is that only for supply/fuel or can you do that with resources/oil too?

(Sorry for the hijack, Crib.)

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

That's a good point Pax. Do you know offhand how much naval support a level 9 port needs to load/unload an Aden. And what about a level 10 port? (Just being lazy here.)

Quite a bit. I think it is 300 .. maybe more. I don't use Adens in this role (getting resources to the HI) for exactly this reason. Very hard to get them to unload in one day.
Coming into the HI, mostly I have only 1 day trips. So I like to have 1 day load/unloads. Hakodate/Ominato. Fusan/Fukuoka. 2 convoys each are then always chasing each other, one inbound, the other outbound. Set each one to about 50Kt and you get 100Kt resources flowing into the HI everyday like clockwork. Runs CS, so little to no maintenance once it is set up.

Earlier when I'm coming in from PA or Shanghai, then Aden's will work fine.

[Mike Solli]

With all the excess resources in the Home Islands flowing to Honshu, you still need 35k resources a day from other sources. C/M/K provides about 24k a day, but I've learned that after the initial surplus is taken, you may not get that much. At any rate, you'll need more. Ocean/Nauru gives you 2360/day. Still short about 9k a day. It's gotta come from the SRA. There's plenty there, but a concerted effort has to be made to regularly suck it back to Japan.

Fortunately, there's time. The Empire starts with about 7.3 million resources scattered around and is only short about 2500 a day. But that's scattered over the entire Japanese controlled area on 7 Dec. It still has to be shipped. Just in the Home Islands is 5.7 mil resources, enough for almost 6 months, but again it needs to be shipped. Cribtop is about 6 months into the game. If he hasn't shipped any resources from the SRA, then he's burned through the starting surplus. That's the problem. The Japanese player needs to ship resources to Japan starting as soon as possible. I'd say, end of January at the latest.

[ny59giants]

I use 2 (or 3) TF just under 12k in size to fit into those size 2 ports all over the non-Luzon ports in the Philippines. I like to build up Naga to size 4. Then, larger TF can pick the Resources at Manila for the trip to Japan.

Port Hedland is a big source of Resources to get headed in the right direction. Maybe not directly to Japan, but they need to get further into the SRA to be transported back.

I sent Dwain (CT) my current game so he can see what I have as convoys. It should be helpful.