Moderators: wdolson, MOD_War-in-the-Pacific-Admirals-Edition
ORIGINAL: Rysyonok
Warning: this is a game versus Japanese AI. Maybe one day I will be skilled enough for a human opponent, but everyone has to start somewhere.
As my first venture into WitP:AE I decided to try the Ironman scenario (stock #10). Very Hard difficulty, 4-day turns, unreliable torpedoes, you name it. The key objective is not going to be to win, although that would always be nice, but more so to survive.
12/11/1941:
Japanese planes are merciless, and 64 allied ships go down the very first turn. Hong Kong falls.
USN is mostly at anchor, as KB is still circling Pearl Harbor. West Coast is bracing for a wave of submarines.
ORIGINAL: paradigmblue
Holy crap that is a painful first turn.
Oh, don't get me wrong. You could lose every single battleship at Pearl and it would still be manageable - as the allied player no matter your first turn losses you will have more ships than you'll know what to do with by 1944.ORIGINAL: Rysyonok
ORIGINAL: paradigmblue
Holy crap that is a painful first turn.
You really think so? I assumed anything less than losing 4 BBs at Pearl Harbor is manageable.
ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns
I don’t think losing the BBs is nearly as important as all those Cruisers. All I can say is ouch that's a lot of Cruisers for turn 1. Old slow BBs aren’t nearly as important as the fast and versatile Cruisers in the first year of the war. Not to mention all the AAA the Cruisers can add to task forces late war after their upgrades.
Were the BBs to survive more than likely they’d sit in port waiting until the counter-attack period begins in 1943 before they get put to good use. You could put those Cruisers to work on day two were they still afloat.
Jim
ORIGINAL: paradigmblue
Oh, don't get me wrong. You could lose every single battleship at Pearl and it would still be manageable - as the allied player no matter your first turn losses you will have more ships than you'll know what to do with by 1944.ORIGINAL: Rysyonok
ORIGINAL: paradigmblue
Holy crap that is a painful first turn.
You really think so? I assumed anything less than losing 4 BBs at Pearl Harbor is manageable.
I was more commenting on losing Force Z plus all those cruisers, which was unfortunate. Luckily, "painful" doesn't mean "debilitating", and I didn't mean to say that losing those ships on the first turn will give you any sort of long-term disadvantage.
ORIGINAL: HansBolter
You won't need those Chinese units in Burma against the Ai.
The British are perfectly capable of preventing the AI from ever getting a foothold in Burma.
It all depends on if you are playing to aggressively defeat the AI or roleplaying a more Historically handicapped Allied side.
So far the British are getting crushed in Malaysia. Any/all efforts to retreat to Singapore have been ceased, as units are being destroyed faster than they can run.
ORIGINAL: HansBolter
Move the AVG to Rangoon along with at least two British fighter squadrons and you can establish the air superiority you need to be able to ship supply into Rangoon.
Eventually it will be drawn into China.
Start this one Dec 8th.
You will lose a few xAKs and xAKLs to the occasional Betty/Nell that slips through, but overall you can ship a huge amount of supply in.
I set immediately set up a 30+K supply convoy and follow it with another as soon as possible.
Shipping 60k+ a week into Rangoon adds up fast.
My current game is in Feb '43. The AI never breached the river line and I recently added another 40k+ convoy of liberty ships.
Concentrate the and reconstitute the 1st Burma Division in the river hex SE of Pegu.
Ship in 2-3 more British Brigades that start in convoys to cover and start extending the flank and the AI will be stymied and never get across the river.
Like I said, in games against the AI it all depends on how aggressive or passive you want to play.
ORIGINAL: Malagant
Great AAR so far, thanks!
As a Devil's Advocate to Han's suggestions, playing the same scenario you're playing with same settings, doing something very similar to Hans' suggestions, I had held the river line against 15th Army...
...until Singapore fell and the Japanese landed an Amphib force behind the line and crushed me. The A/I can hand out a surprise or two!
ORIGINAL: HansBolter
The Brit squadrons that start in Gerogetown can be transferred to Port Blair and then to Rangoon.
This is a quick way to supplement the AVG so you can get ahead of the first few Oscar squadrons that come calling.
I typically also send the Blenhiem fighter squadron there for night CAP as well.
I realize you are probably past this point by now.
These are mostly pointer for moves to start on December 8th.
The AI is typically slow to get started in Burma, waiting until it has conquered Malaya.
It usually only starts air raids early and getting on top of the air superiority situation fast is paramount to this strategy in Burma.
