Allied AI vs Fulkerson

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
What do you guys think about importing those assets from Port Arthur? It's not that far away, I've got the AK's and TK's to do the job and I'm thinking I can import about another year's worth of both oil and resources from there to the HI.

You can't take oil from China/MAN, if you do, you will starve the HI and refineries there.
Ah so. Thanks for that little tidbit.
Resources, yes. BUt your biggest resource flow is from Hokkaido. You need to get that up and running ASAP.

And as to the resources flow from Hokkaido......to get it "up and running" do you mean I need to expand factories there or get some convoys running stuff out of there or ??? Please expand on your thought process for me.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Here's the production figures for Jap Army planes. It looks like I may need to ramp up the output a lot because I plan on losing a bunch of them.

What's a good figure to shoot for as output, do you guys think?

Aircraft output depends a lot on what you plan to conquer in terms of oil and HI. With standard conquest, you can support about 700 a/c per month build rates, depending upon mix. If you go for India, you can boost that up to 900 or higher. Short term you can build far higher, these are rough steady state type numbers.

Big thing as IJ: you need to have several million HI in the bank before you lose the DEI. 4M is a nice target. 6M is better. That means you have to start saving in '42. This cuts into what you can build in aircraft.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
What do you guys think about importing those assets from Port Arthur? It's not that far away, I've got the AK's and TK's to do the job and I'm thinking I can import about another year's worth of both oil and resources from there to the HI.

You can't take oil from China/MAN, if you do, you will starve the HI and refineries there.
Ah so. Thanks for that little tidbit.
Resources, yes. BUt your biggest resource flow is from Hokkaido. You need to get that up and running ASAP.

And as to the resources flow from Hokkaido......to get it "up and running" do you mean I need to expand factories there or get some convoys running stuff out of there or ??? Please expand on your thought process for me.

Get your convoys there up and running. You will have to expand ports and get ASW operational, etc. You should have this all in place by 15Dec or sooner. As you can see from your Tracker chart, you have 40,000/day to move and another 10,000/day from Sakhalin. That's 20 Aden's every day that need to fill and move just to keep the resources from building up. That's over half of you what you need right there in your backyard.

[larryfulkerson]

Thanks PM. I'll get busy and do it. Rob just sent me his moves so I'll have to do all this convoy stuff sometime later tonight or Monday am.

I spent some time looking over the economy chart and I noticed that everything good starts with the input centers.....the oil centers, the resources centers, and the manpower centers and I wondered why the Jap player wouldn't want to expand those centers as big as they would go and I discovered that the industry screen has them in white text instead of yellow and so they can't be expanded. So what you see in the game is all you have. The little light bulb inside my head just got a little brighter.

[larryfulkerson]

A test of the file storage site called filetolink.com



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[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

I don't plan on changing the output of Jap Navy planes a whole lot, because I don't anticipate having a lot of Naval Air action taking place anytime soon.

If the situation changes I'll ramp up the production accordingly.

Or should I build up the pool now before it's needed?

I'm playing my first game as Japan too. Much to learn.

One thing which was a head-slapper for me. The Zero is produced in the Naval tab in Tracker, but you're going to want bunches and bunches as land-based fighters. The Oscar is a workhorse in 1942, but it's not much of a dog-fighter against the P-40E.

BTW. don't do what I did and let your mouse finger slip and convert your Zero factory to some other dogmeat model. I refuse to re-load turns when I screw up, so I am now re-building my Zero factory and doing without. I'm at 9/month right now. Stupid Moose! Stupid! [:)]

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
I'm playing my first game as Japan too. Much to learn.

Thanks for your post........I was wondering if anybody was reading this thing.

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
One thing which was a head-slapper for me. The Zero is produced in the Naval tab in Tracker, but you're going to want bunches and bunches as land-based fighters. The Oscar is a workhorse in 1942, but it's not much of a dog-fighter against the P-40E.

Thanks for this......I hadn't thought to produce them as a land-based fighter. I always assumed that there was a non-carrier-capable version of the Zero.

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
BTW. don't do what I did and let your mouse finger slip and convert your Zero factory to some other dogmeat model. I refuse to re-load turns when I screw up, so I am now re-building my Zero factory and doing without. I'm at 9/month right now. Stupid Moose! Stupid! [:)]

Yeah, I heard Mike Solli say that clicking on something was like writing to the database and any mistake was fatal. So he always saves his changes, each individual change and that it was slow that way but recoverable. I can't imagine me doing that....saving after each individual change. But........

[larryfulkerson]

In my game w/ Rob Tracker said that Miri had some spoilage and so I decided to turn off the refinery for a while until I can get a convoy there to extract the extra supplies to somewhere else. I guess the oil will start to pile up at Miri so I can't put that off so very long.

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

In my game w/ Rob Tracker said that Miri had some spoilage and so I decided to turn off the refinery for a while until I can get a convoy there to extract the extra supplies to somewhere else. I guess the oil will start to pile up at Miri so I can't put that off so very long.

Don't sweat oil stockpiling, it doesn't spoil like fuel does. I'd be more concerned about reaching your base oil stockpile limit. Any production over and above this number is essentially wasted as there's no where to put it, it's like it was never produced. I hope this makes sense.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm in the process of organizing a collection of ships for Miri even as we speak. But you're right, there's a cap on what oil can be produced and whatever isn't produced is just lost. I'm thinking that there's so little oil at Miri so far that I have at least a week before there's a problem however. I'm just being funny saying a week.....I really have no idea how long it'll take to get to the oil cap, probably a long time.

[larryfulkerson]

So I'm going through the list of TF's and assigning destinations and so on and I run into an AS based at Saigon. I'm thinking Saigon would make a pretty good sub base because it's close to the AO where I have a bunch of subs operating and it's got a ship repair yard. I'm pretty sure that I need to disband the AS at Saigon to make it available to repair / relenish subs though and I'm not sure if I need to load it with supplies to have it do it's job. Loading it with supplies won't hurt anything at any rate.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Yeah, I heard Mike Solli say that clicking on something was like writing to the database and any mistake was fatal. So he always saves his changes, each individual change and that it was slow that way but recoverable. I can't imagine me doing that....saving after each individual change. But........

Mistakes build character. [;)]

[larryfulkerson]

Also based at Saigon is a small surface TF built around 2 CL's. I'm thinking I need to move it into a position to be able to avoid most of the Allied subs in the AO and to try to protect the landings on the east coast of the peninsula. There's an Allied TF that looks to be headed for the landings and I'm not sure my air assets will deter them sufficiently.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
Mistakes build character. [;)]

Yeah, but they give my patience a workout too. It would be really cool if there was a button "set changes" before the database was written to but then that would be just another button in the litany of buttons we're already clicking on I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

Also based at Saigon is one MTB ( motor torpedo boat I think ). If that 2CL TF leaves Saigon there wouldn't be much left hanging around to protect the port besides this MTB guy so I'm thinking I'll leave him docked there and by the way......the Saigon Base screen shows the ability to build some midget subs. For a small expenditure of supply I can build 4 or 5 midget subs. I'm debating whether or not to do that. The problem is that they need a "C" class sub to carry them and I don't have any of those handy nearby but on the other hand any invading Allied TF could maybe be hampered by those midget subs. I'm not sure it's worth building them right now. What do you guys think?

And while we're talking about stuff that the Saigon base can build........what about building some barges? There's lots of uses for ultra-short-range ships like that in the waters around the SRA and inbetween the east coast of the peninsula and Vietnam. And they would lend an historical flavor to the game. I'm thinking of building some barges just for that flavor.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson



So I'm going through the list of TF's and assigning destinations and so on and I run into an AS based at Saigon. I'm thinking Saigon would make a pretty good sub base because it's close to the AO where I have a bunch of subs operating and it's got a ship repair yard. I'm pretty sure that I need to disband the AS at Saigon to make it available to repair / relenish subs though and I'm not sure if I need to load it with supplies to have it do it's job. Loading it with supplies won't hurt anything at any rate.

Tenders need supply to rearm, not to repair.

Saigon can have its port built to 7 pretty easily; then you don't need an AS. See Table on pp284. Sec. 20.1.2.2.

Depending on what phase of the war you're in, you might want to re-look if Saigion is an optimal place for many/any subs to base. Personal preference to some extent, but Singers usually has a lot more fuel and supply, a big yard, and adds days on station anywhaere in the IO. Batavia is good if you're patrolling the west coast of Australia out to the Cape Town exit. Rabaul works well for ops around PM and the east coast of Oz. Kawjalein works for PH all the way to the WC. Truk is a good compromise once Kwaj is pressured, and it has an ARD which can take a sub. Probably other IJN bases which are also better than Saigon, unless you're really needing subs that close to the Asian mainland.

[Encircled]

I'm a fellow newbie escapee from WiTE, but I wouldn't have thought they would be much danger to Saigon from the Allied Navies.

Fair play for playing as the Japanese. I'm not even going to attempt that till I've got the hang of the basics!

[cohimbra]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
In the event that the midget subs don't get killed is it possilbe to reload them on the midget sub carrier and take them back to a friendly port so as to refuel them? I'm asking because in my game with Rob I've conveyed a midget sub to Port Moresby and sailed into the harbour to find the base empty . I have just enough fuel left to sail 1 hex back out to sea where the carrier awaits still. I'm hoping I can reload that bad boy back on the carrier and take it to, say Truk, where I plan to drop it off, dock it, and refuel / rearm it.

When you launch the mini-sub, the Midget carrier order automatically switch to 'sub patrol'. You must re-set the mission to 'Midget carrier'and then you can reload your little-boy and take it anywhere. It's like when you create one in a port.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: cohimbra
When you launch the mini-sub, the Midget carrier order automatically switch to 'sub patrol'. You must re-set the mission to 'Midget carrier'and then you can reload your little-boy and take it anywhere. It's like when you create one in a port.

Cool !!! Thanks for the info. I'm thinking of investigating enemy ports, looking for mines, etc. with the midget subs. I've gotten one into the harbour at Port Moresby in my game w/ Rob and now it's down to 1 hex range and practically immobile unless I can retrieve it with a carrier sub. Too bad each "C" class sub can carry only one midget at a time.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Encircled
I'm a fellow newbie escapee from WiTE, but I wouldn't have thought they would be much danger to Saigon from the Allied Navies.

I read in an AAR just day before yesterday about a player complaining that his opponent sneaked ( snuk? ) into Saigon and sunk two of his AK's parked there with some old DD's or something. And as I remember it the raiders got off scott-free. Since reading that I've decided to play it safe because I'm not sure that the AI wouldn't try the same thing.