Workshop for the new guys - PAW

[larryfulkerson]

I just sent my last set of moves for a while and now I've got time on my hands so I thought maybe I should do another "Workshop for the Newguys - PAW" and I'm choosing PAW because that way I can explain the new naval rules.

This is the map at game start and I thought I'd try something approaching historical for a while and see what other opportunities present themselves. I'm going to attempt landings in Malaya, Guam, Wake, Kieveng, and Rabaul in that order. There may be more as I discover the opportunity for another invasion spot.

But before I start moving the ground units ( LCU's ) I'd best check the aircraft. I need to do that each turn before anything else gets moved. A lot of the Jap aircraft are on rest and I need to check their condition and move them to the best spot for their mission, trim their range for the spot where they are, and move to the home islands those that have only a single aircraft, there are some, and those that are not combat ready for whatever reason.

I want to move some aircraft to Formosa to cover the landings in the PI and I'd like to get some bombers started on Singapore, bombarding the airfield and some bombers for Rangoon, again for the airfield, and see if it's not possible to cover the Malaya landings from the west coast of Indonesia.

I doubt if the Allies have any planes on sea INT but rather than take a chance I'd rather escort the troops moving via sea to their destinations with some kind of ship, at the very least a subchaser.

[larryfulkerson]

All these aircraft units were on rest when I first arrived at the Air Unit Report so I went through this list setting the mission to the first approximation prior to my checking each of them individually to see how many planes they have and what the range is because I may need to trim it to make the plane fit the spot it's in. I like to have coverage without a lot of overlap with empty terrain. Some of these plane units have but a single airplane and those need to be moved to the home islands for refit.

[larryfulkerson]

The range of the unit is usually the range of the longest range aircraft in the unit so I checked out the range of the Mary and it's shorter than the Sally and so I changed the range to reflect the shorter ranged aircraft since there are so many more of them. Next I need to spot this plane unit for the most coverage and maybe trim the range again for the spot it's in. As it ls the unit is in northern China and I need a lot of INT up there to keep the Communist Chinese from moving very fast, else they might get away.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the aircraft unit of the previous image and here's what I intend to do with it. You can see the range arc(s) of the unit and how there's a lot of overlap with the black unplayable area which is searched area that is wasted so I'm thinking of moving it further south to Minchow and covering a lot more active area in it's search pattern. There's places on the map where you would expect Chinese troops to be and they probably ARE there they are just invisible so far.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's one of those aircraft units that has only a single airplane in it ( besides the replacement squadron ) so this one will fly from Peking to Hiroshima or Osaka or somewhere.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's an aircraft unit that has a very low proficiency and it's soooo low that I'm judging it not combat worthy yet. I'm setting it on minimize losses and INT for now so that it will slowly gain proficiency snipping at the infantry. As soon as it's got about 55% proficiency or so or the need in the field is especially great whichever occurs first, I'll thrust it into the frey.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

Very instructive. Thanks for taking the time to show us all this.

Have fun!

[larryfulkerson]

When you're adjusting the range on aircraft units sometimes you'll see a "-1" for the range and that's the signal to the computer to use the range of the longest ranged aircraft for the range of the unit and in T34 or so this aircraft unit will probably receive one or more Helen's and the range will jump up to 53 or so UNLESS you explicitly set it at "21" now. That way the range will stay at 21 even after the first Helen is received. You won't have to adjust it again for a long time, unless you move it. If you move it you may have to adjust the range to fit the spot it's in.

EDIT: I tried to set the range of the unit to 21 but the game engine kept chaqnging it to "-1" again so I left it at "20" instead.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
Larry,

Very instructive. Thanks for taking the time to show us all this.

Have fun!

I'm killing two birds with one stone actually....I'm trying to be helpful to you guys, to give something back, and to give me something to do with my hands at the same time. I thought maybe playing both sides of this scenario might be instructive and entertaining. Besides it's rapidly becoming my favorite scenario. I've got a game going with Rob where I'm the Allies and a game going with Rob where I'm the Japs and I'm going to use this thread for my sandbox to try things and see what works. I could use some guideance on what you guys would want to see that I haven't covered already. Questions are always good.
Thanks for posting Mike man.

[larryfulkerson]

I flew some bombers to Bangkok to perform INT missions over Rangoon and I needed some fighters for Bangkok just in case the Allies attack my bombers. They probably wouldn't but they COULD so I need to protect against that eventuality. I've adjusted the range of the unit to that of the Nate's in the unit because they are the most numerous. Actually the Nate isn't the finest fighter the Japs own and they should probably be used for training rather than combat but they will do in a pinch in northern China or some other quiet spot in the aerial war. But I'd hate to have to send them into air-to-air combat so I need to replace them with a better model aircraft before the air war gets started over Rangoon. I'm using them for point defense right now. Come to think of it, I ought to reduce the range to something like 2 or so just to give them enough range to protect all of Bangkok's hexes but not allow them to do some random adventure over Rangoon.

[larryfulkerson]

I found a unit that volunteered to fly INT missions over Manila and I moved it to Formosa to cover the landings in the PI and now I need a fighter squadron or two for CAP and escorts for the bombers over the PI. The most experienced pilots I have are the Naval pilots and they are busy with Pearl and so on but I may have a squadron of Zero's that I can spare for the operations in the PI. As soon as I can start capturing airfields on the PI I'll start flying planes there. I need to defeat the Allied fighters first of all before any bombing missions start seriously. I'll do airfield strikes until the Allied fighters are attenuated somewhat and then start the bombardments. I'm hoping to wrap up the operations in the PI by April '42 or so.

[larryfulkerson]

I came upon an aircraft unit at Hanoi that is heavy in Sally's and that model of aircraft has a pretty good anti-ship value so I'd really rather use this unit against Allied ships and there just happen to be some Allied ships near Singapore so I'm going to fly these bad boys down to Saigon and set them on sea INT for now. I may assign them a direct strike mission as the Malaya battlefield develops. I may need them near Rabaul or New Guinea or Borneo for that matter. As I recall there's some Allied ships near Java and I need to find them and get rid of them...make the Pacific my own private lake.

[larryfulkerson]

I found a unit that's flying the Dinah and that's a recon plane pure and simple. It's not good for much else but at least it has a decent raqnge and I've flown it out to the South Pacific as the first leg of it's trip to Rabaul eventually. I'd like to get it posted at New Caledonia to keep an eye on the east coast of Australia at some future point.

[larryfulkerson]

The very next unit was another Dinah group and this one I've flown to Da Nang to spread it's search arc all over the map to include the west coast of the PI and most if not all of Indochina. I've got them on INT for now because that's the closest thing I could find for "recon". It's set at one-dot.

EDIT: I might ought to mention that I'm saving my game often because my trailer park resides in a banana republic and the electric power sometimes goes off for about half a second and then back on....just long enough to shut down my computer and monitor but not leave me sitting in the dark. It's happened twice a month for about six months now. At least the cable never goes down. Knock on wood and cross your fingers.

[larryfulkerson]

I've come upon a unit that has 12 Emily's and 12 Mavis's and I've flown them from the home islands out to Kwajalene to keep an eye on the Allied shipping out into the east part of the South Pacific. Almost all the way to Pearl. Part of the attraction of Wake is that it's got enough range to reach Pearl I think. Midway is more than close enough to cover Pearl. That's a future target too.

[larryfulkerson]

I've come to an Army aircraft unit that's missing so many of it's planes it's not combat worthy currently but there's plenty of Claude's on hand and it's missing only 23 planes so it may receive a bolus of replacements soon and THEN it's combat worthy. Nice proficiency, tip top health-wise...a good squadron. I don't much like the fact that it's flying Claude's since that's obsolete and we're not making any more of them. As soon as it's a liability in combat I'll fly it to the home islands to await the later model planes. Call it "training".

[larryfulkerson]

On the home island Shikoku in a city near Hiroshima there's an aircraft unit that's missing 3/4 of it's bombers but there's plenty of Betty's on hand and it should be full of planes in a couple of turns from now. The Betty is the best anti-ship plane I have and I need to conserve them; there's only about 116 of them in the fleet and we're not making them very fast. I'm going to leave it parked in the home islands and let it refit and THEN next turn or the turn after I'll move them closer to the Saigon area or Rabaul if that's available.

[larryfulkerson]

I've come to another one of those long-range maritime patrol units and I've moved it to Phnom Penh and it can reach out to Ceylon and almost to the west coast of Australia from there. I'm itching to move it to Timor so I can keep an eye on the west part of Australia and out to the Maldives and a lot of the waters around India. I'm wondering about the pheasability of invading at Calcutta. I need more recon first before I decide. Rangoon would have to be first before Calcutta most likely. And Singapore might need to be taken before Rangoon can be tackled....depends on how many troops are available for such an adventure. Japan's most powerful weapon is it's Army so far. I've got plans for it in China and Burma and the South Pacific.

[larryfulkerson]

I've come upon one of the more powerful anti-ship groups that I own and I need it out in the South Pacific ( at Truk ) to scout out the vast stretches of the Pacific to give me early warning of any approaching Allied ships of any kind. Not so much during the early war period but around mid-'42 or so when the Allies get adventuresome. I'd like to move this group down to New Caledonia eventually.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd take a look at the state of the aircraft supply...what's in the inventory right now and how fast are we making things etc. And I found some disturbing news. For some reason toward the bottom of the list the ships and planes were mixed together and I left them that way because I'm lazy. I'm going to close out production of some of the older models and shift the energy to later models periodically throughout the war and it's confusing trying to keep up with the numbers. I try not to memorize anything I can look up unless I need it stored in my short term memory for further purposes to be assigned. The bottom line is that the rise in technology is too slow and doesn't keep up with Allied progress and most of the Jap equipment is eventually going to be obsolete by mid-war. Maybe a little later. WITP-AE has the Jap side in charge of their economy and able to control what get's produced and what's skipped in the great chain of being for the equipment models. The idea is not to produce something that's not useful or worth the effort to produce it. Nate's come to mind. But those kind of details are safely abstracted for us so we don't have to keep track of EVERYTHING so much.