You're either an ace or a target - dennishe (Japan) vs Cyber Me (Allies)

[dennishe]

Another tread in a similar style to: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2785645 , but now I'm in control of the Japanese side and Cyber Me is commanding the Allies. Enjoy...

[dennishe]

Here some houserules and stuff. We are doing scenario 2.

[dennishe]

As "Historical Attack" was ON, the war starts with an attack on Pearl Harbor

[dennishe]

There were no planes in the air and with very little losses the Japanese Imperial Navy hit the US Navy very hard.

[dennishe]

Sometimes I do a second attack on day 2, but this usually costs quite some pilots. As a lot of damage has already been done, KB left (for now)...

[dennishe]

In some previous games I bypassed the Philippines, but I have come to realize that this is really dangerous if Allied supply transports manage to get to Manila.

[Mac Linehan]

dennishe -

Absolutely first class graphics and narrative - a very different approach!

Keep it up - I look forward to what's next!

Mac

[Cribtop]

I love it. Good luck! JFBs unite!

[dennishe]

ORIGINAL: Mac Linehan

dennishe -

Absolutely first class graphics and narrative - a very different approach!

Keep it up - I look forward to what's next!

Mac

I love it. Good luck! JFBs unite!

Thanks. I'm glad you guys like it

[dennishe]

Historical First Turn = Shot at Force Z

[sdevault]

I do like it as well. I wish I had the time to commit to such an endeavor.
It will be interesting to see just how many photos related to your exact topic you will be able to find.

[dennishe]

ORIGINAL: sdevault



I do like it as well. I wish I had the time to commit to such an endeavor.
It will be interesting to see just how many photos related to your exact topic you will be able to find.

Thanks! There are many pictures one can use. For most ships for example there are lots of pictures. And I'm not going to care too much whether a picture is taken at Tarawa (for example) or another tropical island where a battle in my game takes place. Here is another update

[dennishe]

So here is the economical picture. I simply wanted to copy paste the figures from WITPAE tracker, but it became unreadable. Comments on my economic plans are very welcome as I do not have any experience with the economical system in scenario 2. Note that this is only turn 7 and things are still ramping up.

[Grfin Zeppelin]

Very nice AAR style I must say.
About industry. Ramp up vehicle production to 250 asap. In scen2 you will get another whole army as reinforcments soon and it comes with a Tank division.
Also dont overproduce the Oscar 1c, the Tojo comes a few months earlier.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: dennishe
Comments on my economic plans are very welcome as I do not have any experience with the economical system in scenario 2. Note that this is only turn 7 and things are still ramping up.

I know you to be an experienced player, but Scen 2 is just a trap waiting to spring on the IJ economy if you are new to it. Those extra goodies, particularly those pilots, require much better HI use planning as compared to Scen 1. Use the following notes as you see fit, most a likely only reminders for you ... no insult intended.

Mike always stresses to "make haste slowly*" as it applies to building factories.

First and foremost, the IJ economy requires a plan. A very detailed plan that begins on 7 Dec and runs through June 46. Seriously. Open up the Industry manager in the game and look at the top categories. You need a plan for each category. It is very easy to crash the IJ economy, particularly early in the game. It is much easier in Scen 2 than in Scen 1 to crash the economy as there are more goodies, but the economy is the same size.

Ex: increasing VEH is important. You have 6 factories, increasing each is 6x1000 supply/day. The HI only makes ~20,000 supply/day. You also need supply to fuel your expansion. Yes, you have some inventory in the HI, but not that much. To get to 250 VEH/day, you have to expand these the entire month of Dec. You also want to convert ac models to more useful ones. How many? If you change/increase more than 14 ac factories, which is very easy to do, you are now running at a supply daily deficit. Oops, did you also want to change/increase some ac engine factories too? .... You can see the trap that many player fall into quickly ... change too many factories too early and you easily run out of supply, then you have to interupt your expansion, cannot repair all the oil facilities that you just captured, ... a mess.

Plan. A highly detailed plan is required. One that you are able to adapt to the vagaries of the war. This is where the IJ failed miserably IRL. They did have a plan at the start of the war, but as the war progressed they struggled to adapt due to internal politics.

BTW, Tracker is your saviour as IJ. It is a big help in management.


* ancient Italian proverb

[dennishe]

Thanks for the helpful suggestions. Yes, I have played several games before, but all games where I played Japan did not make it (yet) past 1943. Overexpansion is what I'm watching out for. I have upgraded some engines and planes and did increase vehicles a bit. The plan is to economize everything I don't really need and to increase production of money-in-the-bank equipment like certain engines, HI, armament and vehicles. B5N1 kates are almost for free and I will produce these until the pool of the obsolete engines it uses is dried up. Also I will continue producing some Ki-21b's until those engines are gone. The Ki-21b will be the main trainer of the IJA. Note that I'm playing with PDU off, thus I still need some of these obsolete planes later on in the war. I will probably decrease the naval shipyard production in the near future. And I plan to continuously increase HI production at Singapore and Java, very close to the resources and oil. I'm following my economy daily with WITP tracker and depending on how the numbers change I will do further manipulations on the fragile economic system. Here is another update on the Philipinnes. I was lucky at Legaspi

[dennishe]

Typically Wake is a mess and usually I wait for the attack for reinforcement by the 144th regiment at Guam. This time I brought in KB and softened up the islands defenses by two bombardments of all D3A1 Vals and B5N2 Kates on board of the carriers. It worked. Wake is mine. [:D]

[dennishe]

No turns today so I studied the Japanese economy system in somewhat more detail. In short my strategy will be:

1. First HI will be mass produced and stockpiled. The HI stockpile should be sufficiently large that the economy does not stop (completely) if the Allies take the DEI or cut off Japan from the DEI.

2. Armament and Vehicles do not get obsolete and will be mass produced. There should be no need to build these once the Allies start bombarding Japan

3. Engines that are not obsolete in 1945 will be mass produced.

4. There is no 1941-model aircraft that is useful in 1945. Hence, planes will only be produced economically initially (produced as needed + sufficient spares for setbacks) to save HI, and will only be stockpiled somewhere after august 1943, dependent how the war is going and the type of aircraft. Factories with aircraft that follow long upgrade paths will be expanded earlier (e.g. A6M3 Zero).

5. Once the Allies start bombarding Japan, there should be no need to produce armament, HI, vehicles and the older engines. Aircraft factories and modern engine factories will be the only ones that will be defended and repaired.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: dennishe

4. There is no 1941-model aircraft that is useful in 1945. Hence, planes will only be produced economically initially (produced as needed + sufficient spares for setbacks) to save HI, and will only be stockpiled somewhere after august 1943, dependent how the war is going and the type of aircraft. Factories with aircraft that follow long upgrade paths will be expanded earlier (e.g. A6M3 Zero).

Don't overlook kami's. You can burn 1000 ac in one kami attack. The implication is that you need to be producing them all along to get the inventories required as you cannot possibly build them fast enough in '45.

Anything carrying at least 1x250kg bomb makes for an accetable kami. Faster planes with that load are better. Thus Oscar's are pretty good as some of them get 2x250kg and are relatively fast. Kates are good, 1x800kg is a heck of a boom. Vals are acceptable. Sally/Nettie/Helen are all good. etc. Also look at your factory upgrades. Keeping the A6M2 factory(s) idle, instead of converting to something else, until the Sen Baku comes on line can be a good strategy as the Sen Baku is a good kami.

Just some thoughts ...

BTW, great AAR.

BANZAI!!!

[Olorin]

Great presentation! I like the quotes of the Generals and Admirals [&o]