Newbi Allies vs AI

[rook749]

This will be a game report of a new WITP:AE Allied Player vs the AI Hopefully other new players can learn from what I do wrong as I move forward

As a background information -

I am an experienced World in Flames player and I have played two complete games as the Allies in WiTP when it first came out. I have also played the Aleutian Islands campaign and Guadalcanal as the Allies in WiTP:AE.

I started one game of scenario one but have to restart it as I am traveling for work for the next couple of months and forgot to move the save file over to my laptop (only made it until December 23d so its not a huge loss other then the 1st two turns of base setup and ship movement are very time consuming.

Playing with the following options -

Historic US Torpedoes
PDU's On
Historic First Turn Off (but no allied ships not in task forces will be used, also no changes to any non-CHI land or Air Units)

Rook

[rook749]

December 7th

Turn on is in progress but the following will be done. I've have turned off HI in China to save supplies as I found I ran out of supplies by the end of December in my last game (not sure if this will help but I will find out).

My overall strategy is the historic lines in India/Burma, around Guadalcanal, Baker Island and the Aleutians. I plan on building up for both a norther and southern thrust. The northern thrust via the Aluetians - Wake - Bonin Islands and a southern towards the NEI.

Wake Island
Carrier Forces at sea are set to follow each other and set to locate north of Wake Island. This will allow us to either fly the air unit off the island or defend the island based upon where the KB goes.

PHI
US Surface ships at see will fall back a little and we were reevaluate our options.
Allied surface ships are sen

Singapore
Fort Building begins, Force Z falls back to Batavia.

NEI
Submarines are set to hunt JA Forces off of the NEI and Singapore. The Surface ships are sent as well.

CHI
AVG is moved towards the front, air units are shuffled and pilots maxed out and most air units are in the rear training. Ground units moved forward to defend what looks like key forts and forts built in most base locations.

USSR
Pilots maxed out, airfields, port, forts building and all air units training. Land units set to rest/training.

USA EAST Coast
Pilots maxed out & air units set to training.

India
The two inf brigades on ships re-routed to Colombo and Port Blair (to make a stand to hold this airfield)

Rook

[Schlemiel]

Do not turn off HI in China.  It consumes resources and fuel to produce supplies (and is a huge chunk of your supply production).   On the other hand, I would definitely turn off repairs on everything in China until such time as you have secure supply lines later in the war.  That thousand supply takes about 2.5 years to replace and you don't really have that luxury in China.  Much better to keep that supply for the lean times.  Just expect to not have as much supply as you need in China and try to limit combat where possible (basically avoid losing situations, as it hurts the Chinese a lot).  I tend to pull back basically all the Chinese forces toward the forests and other rough terrain and try to get them rested up to 99 morale.  They become far more effective at that point.

I would consider turning off HI in Australia, especially early, to build up your fuel stocks (guessing you'll be bringing in both supplies and fuel, so converting some of that fuel to more supplies might not be ideal), though your mileage might vary.  (Indian HI can easily be supplied by a single tanker convoy out of Abadan and will help build up your supply stocks there, so I always keep Indian HI on).

Good luck, have fun.

[rook749]

Thanks Schlemiel I will turn on the HI for China then before I run the December 7th turn.

Rook

[rook749]

December 8th

The Allies are set to flee from the areas under control or soon to fall to the Japan. Landings by the AI in the Philippines and Above Singapore. The Strike on Peal lead to massive damaged (with the exception of the Arizona which will soon be ready for combat.

Massive merchant shipping relocation now in progress I expect this will take months to work out. The goal is to stage supplies in several large dumps and relocate them as needed (Pearl, Colombo, Suva and south of Guadalcanal).

The fast Queens is going to drop off supplies on the way to the West Coast and the starting moving marine units south of Guadalcanal for the move north from this area sometime in 42/43. As units become available other units will be staged in the north. The units will go south first as they can form a reserve to protect Oz as needed.



Australia, China, India and Burma all begin construction of ports, airfields and forts as needed.

Wake Island
Carrier Forces at sea are set to follow each other and set to locate north of Wake Island. This will allow us to either fly the air unit off the island or defend the island based upon where the KB goes.

PHI
US Air units are shuffled and all units are getting ready to conduct a fighting withdrawal to Bataan.

Singapore
US Air units are shuffled and all units are getting ready to conduct a fighting withdrawal to Singapore.

NEI
Air units moved around looking to make a stand at Batavia.

CHI
AVG is moved towards the front waiting to see how the movement of units to hold the cities, forests and mountains will work out.

USA West Coast
Pilots maxed out & air units set to training.

India
Units from Burma that are from the UK and India are bugging out to save the manpower. The British Inf Bde loaded on transports off of Cape Town is now in Route to Port Morse-by.

Australia
Land Units are moved towards the front. Air units set for training.

[Andy Mac]

good luck

[rook749]

December 8th - 10th

The Allied ships continue to flee NEI and PHI areas. The AI continues to advance and lands troops in Singapore and Philippines. Air battles go mostly the JA way. Two US CR's, Two CL's and 4 DD's are lost driving the KB fleet away from a second day of port strikes on Pearl.

Lands units are shuffled in OZ and India.

Wake Island
Carrier Forces arrive to save the Marine air unit and we end up hitting the landing force hard, the initial shock attack comes off at a 1:99 so the landing force is almost dead. Will bring the carriers north and then swing back towards Alaska to retreat to stay out of the path of the returning KB.

PHI
US Air units are shuffled and all units are getting ready to conduct a fighting withdrawal to Bataan.

Singapore
US Air units are shuffled and all units are getting ready to conduct a fighting withdrawal to Singapore.

NEI
Continue to look to make a stand at Batavia.

CHI
Holding actions no real combat.

USA West Coast
Land units that are not restricted moved to San Diego for movement. All other land units set to rest/training. Looking to recombine the marine units into a division once I get all of the parts but not sure how the mechanics work.

India
Units from Burma that are from the UK and India are bugging out to save the manpower. The British Inf Bde loaded on transports off of Cape Town is now in Route to Port Morse-by. Reading a stand around and in front of Calcutta.

Australia
Land Units continue move moved towards the front. Air units set for training.

Rook749

[Blackhorse]

ORIGINAL: rook749

USA West Coast
Looking to recombine the marine units into a division once I get all of the parts but not sure how the mechanics work.

For units that can combine, there is a "show unit OOB" button in the lower-left hand corner of the LCU screen.

For example, both the 2nd USMC Regiment and the 8th USMC Regiment start the war in San Diego. They are both part of the US 2nd Marine Division. If you look at the unit OOB, you can see that the division can be formed by combining those two regiments along with the division's engineer battalion -- which is at Pearl Harbor -- and the 6th USMC Regiment, which does not arrive until May, 1942.

So you cannot form the 2nd Marine Division until May at the earliest.

Once you have all the subordinate units in the same hex you should see an option to combine them. If not, it is usually because 1) one of the units is attached to a different HQs than the others, or 2) one of the units has upgraded its TOE and the others have not.

You can fix the first problem by reassigning the unit to the appropriate HQ. You can avoid the second problem by leaving all subordinate units to "upgrade off" until after they combine.

[rook749]

Blackhorse - Thanks for the information it will come in handy in the future.

Rook

[rook749]

December 10th - 16th

The Allied ships continue to flee NEI and PHI areas with most of the units that are going to make it clear of the danger zones. The AI continues to advance and lands troops in Singapore and Philippines.

Lands units are shuffled in OZ and India. The Saratoga arrived at PH, it has its Air complement flushed out to a capacity of 90/99 and its Pilots maxed out and set to training. As the other two CV's arrive this will also be done. If the carriers leave before the green pilots are up to the standards I'll move them to the reserve before the CV's leave port.

Wake Island
Carrier Forces stays on station for two more days to sink clean up most of the ships in the attack force and the reties north towards Alaska before the KB swings by to smash the CVs. The CV leave with lots of time to spare but Wake takes three days of bombing as the KB sails by. The Allied submarine ambush (nine subs) puts four torps into a CV but three miss and the last is a dude[8|]. That was the Allied high command plan to hit the KB by leaving the CV's on station for two days but nothing came of it.

PHI
US Air units are shuffled and all units are getting ready to conduct a fighting withdrawal to Bataan. The JA army is getting closer to Clark Field.

Singapore
Allied Air units are shuffled and all units are conducting a fighting withdrawal to Singapore.

NEI
Continue to look to make a stand at Batavia.

CHI
Holding actions no real combat, other than near the coast. Two of the AVG units are now on the front line but have not yet seen combat.

USA West Coast
Land units that are not restricted moved to San Diego for movement. All other land units set to rest/training. Looking to recombine the marine units, the 24th and 25th divisions as the units are sent to the same fronts but it will be a while.

India
Units from Burma that are from the UK and India are bugging out to save the manpower. The British Inf Bde loaded on transports off of Cape Town is now in Route to Port Morse-by. Readying a stand around and in front of Calcutta.

Australia
Land Units continue move moved towards the front. Air units set for training.

Rook749

[rook749]

December 16th - January 16th

Continue to learn about loading supplies and units along with how to train and move pilots around. Allied units have started to rally and dig in along the front but the JA continue a steady advance. Allied High Command has decided to defend Port Moreby at all costs with the 18th UK Division sent there.

Aden and Kuwait send supplies to India while several large supply convoys are headed to Perth via Capetown.

Suva and Nouma have 30K+ stock piles of supplies and 15K+ of Fuel. All units assigned to the SWPAC along with the elenemtns of the 2nd Marine and I Amphip Corps are forming up to arrive and being building for a drive north is mid to late '42. The 4 CV's will be leaving in 15 days (the Lexington needs some time to repair form minor battle damage) but the other three can leave anytime.

Midway
A small carrier battle develops while sending supplies to this Island. Single JA CVL is damaged by a reaction force out of PH but not before the convoy is smashed. Three JA DD are lost for four AK and some air units on all sides. New Convoys arrive without issues.

PHI
Allied forces are holding out with 60 AC left in Battan (P-40B/E and P-36's). Battan and Clark Feild are holding with Battan's forts at 3 and supplies at 50K.

Singapore
Allied units hold the two bases north of Singapore as the advance continues to the gates.

NEI
Continue to look to make a stand at Batavia. The KB arrives off of Batavia on the 14th of January and after several PT boat attacks and massive Allied air losses about the landing in Batavia. It was more they ran out of ammo to shot down planes then they work stopped. The JA are doing a fine job of cleaning out the Islands.

CHI
Holding actions no real combat, other than near the coast. Two of the AVG units are now on the front lines and seem to have driven the JA air units away from Chanhsha area.

USA West Coast
Land units that are not restricted moved to San Diego for movement. All other land units set to rest/training. Looking to recombine the marine units, the 24th and 25th divisions as the units are sent to the same fronts but it will be a while.

India
One Birgade was added to Burma to reverse somewhat the withdrawal. Readying a stand around and in front of Calcutta. Transports flying supply to China.

Australia
Land Units continue move moved towards the front. Air units set for training. The one P-40E Air unit is no moved to Port Moresby with the 18th UK Div. The Port Moresby Inf Bde is now in Buna. The JA tried to land at Finschhafen but the landing was caught unloading by the CA Pensacola and the CL Perth along with 3 DD and was wiped out. 580 troops are ashore with no base defenses so the base should fall I think at some point. Rabaul is now under a second landing as the CA Houston and two DD's disrupted the 1st landing to a large degree but there are no remaining SCS forces close with ammo.

Rook749

[/quote]

[rook749]

Question when I have to withdraw air units is there anyway to save the air frames? I have the air unit at San Fransisco with over 20K supplies. It seems if I disband the air unit I get nothing and if I withdraw it I get PP's but I would much prefer the frames - especially those B-17E's I have to remove later.

Rook