Balade of the Newbie: The grand Campaign (Allies vs IJ AI)

[Haarlem]

HI BlitzX

Downloaded your savefile and started playing with it:


You conserved your forces very well

If I may offer some advice , dont use Full speed for your shipmovements , a lot of your convoys have high system damage and your fuel consumption is very high, use Mission speed instead

Use the "tin can navy" some more, it's good fun raiding in the initial stages of the Japanse quest in the Dutch indies and around new Guinea
A destroyer is less victory points than an xAK ad is a lot harder to hit for a Betty [:D]

For advice how to create "artificial reefs" and the use of the Royal Navy: google for "War in the Pacific - The Let's Play Archive"
1 turn each day for almost 4 years and good fun to read about grey hunters victories and failures

[BlitzimX]

Thanks a lot for the advice

I have alost a lot of ships due to stupid actions though, if you look at the list it's pretty long ^^' But i've been lucky enough to not loose a single BB during PH attack.

I am using Full speed in the DI area because it's started to get very hot here with the planes and the KB around, so i try to get my transports going as fast as possible. I have managed to pull out a full set of Indian troops out of Singapor, and i need to do a second one with the rest. Otherwise i'm using Mission speed.

As far as raiding, i've atempted twice to do it. But you may have not seen my Dutch feelt limping back home after an encounter with the KB. Maybe it was too big for the area.

I'll have a look at this website!

[Haarlem]

I played the 1st and the 2nd of january turns. Did a nice raid with 2 old US destroyers (US Whipple and Parrot) towards Soc Trang and destroyed a regiment of the 25th division heading for Malaysia on an AMC and some AK's, with some Dutch subs around to kill the damaged ships

Your Burma position is strong , if you build up Moulmein it is quite hard for the Japansese to get to burma
My intention is to do a 'Rangoon express" , using a lot small xAK to get as much (indian) supply to Rangoon(and thus China) as possible
Protected by the AVG and all british fighters you get, In a few weeks one will have very experienced pilots and a lot of nells/betty's/oscars downed

And ofcourse being dutch I will defend the Dutch Indies with everything I got.Karel Doorman goes total war. The MLD with their Dorniers on 1000 feet on naval attack will be the whip of the jap merchant fleet

what turn date are you on now

[BlitzimX]

I'm actualy on the 2nd of January, on the verge of getting to the 3rd. I didn't really have time to play much these days.

I was intending to start the "Rangoon express" from India when i'd have my second load if Indian troops from Singapore brought back home. BUt its true i can start now since i have some spare transports; problem is that the Rangoon area is quite on the threat of JPN bombers, even if my pilots in Rangoon are getting tought (my fighters on Buffalos are real beasts! )


My raiding hability in the Dutch INd. is a bit limited since i scatered my fleet in convoys, or sent it to Colombo. the real threat can come from my Australian CA in Port Moresby.


But in general i managed to save troops because i'm against the AI, and it progresses much slower than a human.

[Haarlem]

HI Blitzx,

On the 16th of jan now, did Some Nice raiding in the DEI , the japanese have Some rebuilding to do for their 4th and 38th division.
Also the Onderzeebootdienst (Dutchbat submarine service) is tormenting the japanese, putting a fish in akagi.
In China Canton is conquered back, now assembling forces to recapiture hongkong.

Once a while I put the ai on hard, so Its gets Its Spike back.
At the moment it has parked 1 carier force with the damaged akagi near makassar and the other carierforce near merak !

Anyway , with no carrière near rabaul, that's another graveyard for he japanese merchandiser navy which is losing 8-10 ships per turn

Planes (P40E s with droptanks) are being sent to the DEI from pearl harbour, using the palmyra-Canton island-pago pago - Suva - noumea - townsville - Darwin - koepang -Soerabaja route

[BlitzimX]

Hello!

How do you manage to retake Canton? I don't have many units in the area. Did you bring them from somewhere? Did you change the leaders?

I didn't think about bringing the P40 from PA by land. Those arriving in Brisbane may be a better idea?

I already have those saved from PI brought to PM by ship.

[Haarlem]

The japanese moved out of Canton to the nortthwest, so I railed a strong corps from Changsa to kukong and moved them Canton.
Bij the time they "liberated" wuchow. I liberated Canton

The P40's from brisbane al already defending the airspace over Batavia against the merak CV s . (Pilots remplaced by good pilots)Their island hopping pilot brothers Will soon join them

My latest move is the reliberation of manila, the AI has moved almost al troops to bataan, so the pushes out defenders Will try to return

[BlitzimX]

The KB is pounding Sojerbaya by surprise, i really didn't epect them to come so early. I don't think it's the invasion yet, by they are wrecking havock in my fighters there.

I am also almsot done extracting all IND units out from Malaysia.

I was wondering, how do i do to destroy the Dutch oil reserves before the Japs arrive? Can i just do it?

I also have dozens of planes sleeping in PA and the West coast i do'nt really know where to put...

[Haarlem]

How much allied fighters do you have at Soerabaja ?

You cannot destroy them before the japanes arrives otherwise the game could be rather short, what you can do is have lots of engineer WHEN they arrive, fighting will cause (more) damage to the instalations.

What do you mean with sleeping? Can't you buy them out are are they disabled ?

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: BlitzX

The KB is pounding Sojerbaya by surprise, i really didn't epect them to come so early. I don't think it's the invasion yet, by they are wrecking havock in my fighters there.

I am also almsot done extracting all IND units out from Malaysia.

I was wondering, how do i do to destroy the Dutch oil reserves before the Japs arrive? Can i just do it?

I also have dozens of planes sleeping in PA and the West coast i do'nt really know where to put...

Any squadrons you dont have use for can best be used to train new pilots.

[BlitzimX]

Well I have only 8 Active 75A-7 , and 12 B-339D .
The P-40 from the Philipines are on their way to Port Moresby by boat. The Buffaloes from Singapor have been evacuated to the burman border.


By sleeping i mean they are active, but i dont know where to send them. It's so overwelming XD

[Haarlem]

That's not much, where are you using the P-40's which show up in Australia ?

I flew in a number P40's from PH (first upgrade to P40E so they can reach Palmyra)

"Planes (P40E s with droptanks) are being sent to the DEI from pearl harbour, using the palmyra-Canton island-pago pago - Suva - noumea - townsville - Darwin - koepang -Soerabaja route"


The ones on the west coast you can downgrade them and use for training or sent the unrestricted ones to Capetown (first to eastern USA)

I am on the 13th of feb 42 , at what date are you ?

[BlitzimX]

I'm on the 10th of January, i just recently retook the game.

I transfered the P40-E from EC to CT, tehy will arrive in 38 days. I will upgrade the P39D to P40D and send them too.


I just received the squadron of P40E in Brisbanse, i will wait for it to be fully ready before starting its transfer to DEI.

On PH, i wanted to do some island hopping, but i have no P40-E in pool atm to upgrade them.

[Haarlem]

aha interesting

let's exchange files;

via filedropper

wpae053

[Haarlem]

someday I hope to do a PBEM, but now I am a bit busy with work

It is on my bucketlist

[BlitzimX]

Sure

HEre you are : http://www.filedropper.com/wpae035

[Haarlem]

Thanks a lot

What timezone are you in ?

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Haarlem

The japanese moved out of Canton to the nortthwest, so I railed a strong corps from Changsa to kukong and moved them Canton.
Bij the time they "liberated" wuchow. I liberated Canton

The P40's from brisbane al already defending the airspace over Batavia against the merak CV s . (Pilots remplaced by good pilots)Their island hopping pilot brothers Will soon join them

My latest move is the reliberation of manila, the AI has moved almost al troops to bataan, so the pushes out defenders Will try to return

It's quite common for the AI to abandon bases it needs to garrison in China.

Move a decent sized force adjacent to a strongly held objective and the AI will empty the base to attack the force.

You simply have another strong force two hexes away that moves in to the vacated base now that the AI force is otherwise occupied.

Like taking candy from a baby. The AI is simply too easy to defeat ion China.

[BlitzimX]

Howdy all,

After a few years i've decided to come back into the game, with the same scenario as i started in this thread. I've been wanting to train up a bit before taking on once again a human oponent, and i think i'm getting a good grasp at the basic concepts.
However, I'm also pretty sure i've done some bold mistakes and stupid stuffs which would be fatal in a PBEM. You'll find below my savegame, for those interested
Note that i'm using the extended map.

So far, a few elements i'm pretty sure i've messed up:
- I've not yet evacuated Singapor or Java, which at this part of the war would be deadly against a semi competent player
- I'm quite lost at how to handle China or India at this point, I think they are not optimized.
- Likewise, developping the Aleutians islands and Guadalcanal that early is a mistake, i'd have been steamroled.
- I've been pretty bold with my carriers, a bit too much.
- I'm still lost with pilot training schedules and how to rotate them or how to train them. I've seen many contradictory things on this subjects.
- I've tried following the Allied set up guide for the first turns, but if it gives a pretty good overview, some moves are less optimal.

I will continue playing and report my progress here, feedback is as always welcomed

The save

[Bif1961]

Welcome back and I am sure there are a lot of old salts here who can direct you to good threads that address your above listed issues.