What to do in Rangoon

[traskott]

Concerning xAKs:

- Put all Empires and Dominios xAKs in CapeTown and send them 50% to OZ, 50% to India. Use short range xAKLs to refill CapeTown with supplies and fuel, via cs convoys from USA/UK. Add the APs ( the ones which become APA in 1943 ) to increase the supply movement. India should be flooded with supply by 06/42.


About troops:

- Forget Rangoon, your troops are weak and with morale of 30-40 they will surrender even to a japanese in a bike. Make an organised retreat to India, train them, and wait for your oportunity.


British Airframes:

- Use british sqns as defenders via CAP. Bombers are few and weak so send them to Aden/Abadan with all the chinese to train, train and more train. Maybe keep some in India for Naval Search but remember that skill is still very low. FAA airframes/sqns are a bit more trained but no replacements and inferior quality relegate them to convoy escort.

Boots in the ground:

- British/Indian/Chineses: Keep them in india training and resting. I would even let Colombo empty, because if invaded you don't have goods troops to defend it. Some US Army divisions there ( if it's allowed by HR ) should be the defensive army if invaded

[SuluSea]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: jagsdomain

Can Rangoon be held?
What do you mean buy out China?

Against the AI? Of course Rangoon can be held. So can Singapore, Manila, Clark, Batavia, Soerbaja and Palembang. If you really want to gut the AI and tilt the game absurdly in your favor you can hold all these areas.

If you want to be realistic in China, you can 'buy out' those units that can have their HQ switched. Move them over the mountains into Burma and then India for rebuilding and training. Of course, against the AI, there is no rule saying that you can't march out all of the Chinese units that you want to. It depends (like the observations about other key Japanese goals) on how much you want to mimic history versus 'beat the AI'.

Andre offers sage advice here. You can break the AI game buy reinforcing certain places.

For Burma no matter how much strength I build up I always retreat into India with the exception of trying to hold Akyab.

If you want to enjoy a good game against the AI take some lumps early, you'll get plenty of toys and learn more about the game IMO.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: jagsdomain

Will do!

In general about cargo ships.
I have a feeling I am adding alot of work for myself.
I am sending cargo ships to South Africa empty and basong them there. Then will send them back with fuel supplies etc. Same thing with Oz ships. I am setting home port at Jave cities then send them back to Oz.
Is there a way of senting a ship to a port loading then comeing back home?

The Continuous Supply setting is what you are looking for. When toggling the Human Control/Computer Control yellow text in the TF interface one of the choices as you keep clicking is Continuous Supply.

Once set a CS TF will ply back and forth between home port, where it loads whatever you initially set it to load, travels to the destination port, delivers the goods and returns home to reload for another trip. Waypoints in both directions and refueling can be set as desired.

This is how most experienced players set up their logistics.

I'll rename then such as Pearl Fuel, Pearl Supply so if I happen to spot one of them plying the ocean and and examine it I am not left wondering what that TF is up to.

My current game is in early February 1946. I have had CS TFs delivering supply and fuel to Pearl since I set them up in early '42. Most of the ships in those TFs never implemented any of their potential upgrades as they have been slaved to convoy duty for the entire game. Pearl has 10 million supply and 5 million fuel.

Of course this can only be used over sea lanes that are relatively safe. Delivering supply and fuel to front line ports still needs to be done manually, but most of the back areas, once secured can be set up for automated delivery.

There is also an Auto Convoy mechanism in the game I am not sure I am referring to be the correct name. In this mechanic you assign transport ships and escorts to a pool that the game AI uses to set up TFs to deliver supplies only when needed to any base that is set to participate in the Auto Convoy system. I don't know of a single player who uses this mechanic. Most players are loathe to surrender assets to AI control as it typically doesn't use them efficiently.

[pcasey]

ORIGINAL: jwolf

ORIGINAL: jagsdomain

Can Rangoon be held?
What do you mean buy out China?

Very unlikely to be able to hold Rangoon, IMHO, even against the AI. Try to manage a fighting retreat into India and save the bulk of your army.

<snip>

Speaking as a frequent AI player, you can hold Rangoon against the AI . If you hold Singers, the AI can't move those troops up to Burma theatre so it ends up trying to engage in Burma with too small a force that you can stop in the good defensive positions of Rangoon.

I'm sure a good human opponent is a whole other kettle of fish, but vs the AI pretty doable, but, paradoxically, it means the key to defensing Rangoon is defending Singapore.

[Ian R]

Auto Convoy mechanism - it routs things very poorly, and then they waste time trying to go around threats.

When you first set up a (CS) convoy from say SFO to Noumea, its route is assigned to go through the Marshall/Gilbert islands, despite the fact that the IJN is in residence there. Which you correct with way points. If you just let it go the way it wants, it might detour around the air threat, but the problem is that if the IJ moves, say, a Betty group to a nearby base on day X, on day X+1 the convoy is toast. On the odd occasion where you forget to set the 'return same way' button and a TF wanders off towards Makin Island, carnage results, regardless of telling it to move the safe route.

Eventually in about 1945 you can use the auto-convoy system for backwaters, but if a convoy from origin port to destination would, left to its own devices, go within Betty/Emily/Peggy/Rita range of any functional IJ air field, it is best to use a waypointed CS convoy for that destination.

[Dili]

Probably an auto convoy can be setup for San Francisco or Los Angeles to Pearl Harbor but that is it, so it is a waste of your time dwelling with something different when you will always need to setup several CS convoys.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Dili

Probably an auto convoy can be setup for San Francisco or Los Angeles to Pearl Harbor but that is it, so it is a waste of your time dwelling with something different when you will always need to setup several CS convoys.

The game's developers (MichaelM ? ) have said that the AutoConvoy routine never worked quite right and developed the CS routine to make up for the glitches in the AC one. Just don't use AutoConvoy at all.

[jagsdomain]

What do you mean by buy put?

[Gridley380]

ORIGINAL: jagsdomain

What do you mean by buy put?

Assuming you mean "buy out" its a slang term on this board to indicate paying the political points needed to change a unit from a restricted HQ to an unrestricted HQ. This is required by the game in order to load a unit on a ship, and is a common house rule before letting a unit cross a land border.

[jagsdomain]

If the ship sais it cannot make it from South Africa to East Coast it still can because its off map. Right?

[jagsdomain]

Ok thanks. I have not even started down that road yet. Not even sure how to find the screen for it.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: jagsdomain

If the ship sais it cannot make it from South Africa to East Coast it still can because its off map. Right?

Yes. If both origin and destination ports are off-map and directly connected, no fuel is used and no damage is incurred. You should not refuel your ships in CT where fuel is scarce. Set them to "Do Not Refuel" until your TF arrives in EC USA, Canada or GB.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: jagsdomain

Ok thanks. I have not even started down that road yet. Not even sure how to find the screen for it.

Managing your scarce political points is one of the most important parts of the game. The key is to develop a plan of at least six months hence (where you want to be with your forces, what to develop, what to defend) and then decide what units you want to have to accomplish that. Then prioritize which units you will spend points on first (to make them movable) and whether you need to spend points getting a better leader for the unit. It's very hard - there are some terrible leaders out there that you just cannot afford to change unless the unit is about to go into a critical battle.

One of the benefits of making the plan above is that you can buy land units early, before they fill out their TOE with actual devices. You save a lot of PP that way.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: jagsdomain


One of the benefits of making the plan above is that you can buy land units early, before they fill out their TOE with actual devices. You save a lot of PP that way.

Absolutely NEVER set a restricted unit you plan to buy out to accept replacements.

Buy out cost is based on strength. The cost goes up as the depleted unit fleshes out its TOE.

[Gridley380]

ORIGINAL: jagsdomain

Ok thanks. I have not even started down that road yet. Not even sure how to find the screen for it.

To the latter point, in the unit screen in the upper left corner you'll see its current HQ assignment. ("Australia Command" or "US Pacific Fleet") Note that not every unit can be changed - if the text is the same color as the unit name, etc., then it can't be changed. If it is a different color you can click on it. You'll get a loooonnnggg list of every HQ in the game on the left, and to the right it will tell you how many PP it will cost to change the HQ. The only reason to change a land unit is to go to an unrestricted HQ (one without an "R" by the HQ name). It does not matter which unrestricted HQ you go to, but I find it helpful to pick something in the right general area to help me keep track of what's going on. Scroll to the HQ you want, click it, confirm your choice.

[RangerJoe]

Yes, you don't have to worry about refueling.

[Andy Mac]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: jagsdomain

Will do!

In general about cargo ships.
I have a feeling I am adding alot of work for myself.
I am sending cargo ships to South Africa empty and basong them there. Then will send them back with fuel supplies etc. Same thing with Oz ships. I am setting home port at Jave cities then send them back to Oz.
Is there a way of senting a ship to a port loading then comeing back home?

The Continuous Supply setting is what you are looking for. When toggling the Human Control/Computer Control yellow text in the TF interface one of the choices as you keep clicking is Continuous Supply.

Once set a CS TF will ply back and forth between home port, where it loads whatever you initially set it to load, travels to the destination port, delivers the goods and returns home to reload for another trip. Waypoints in both directions and refueling can be set as desired.

This is how most experienced players set up their logistics.

I'll rename then such as Pearl Fuel, Pearl Supply so if I happen to spot one of them plying the ocean and and examine it I am not left wondering what that TF is up to.

My current game is in early February 1946. I have had CS TFs delivering supply and fuel to Pearl since I set them up in early '42. Most of the ships in those TFs never implemented any of their potential upgrades as they have been slaved to convoy duty for the entire game. Pearl has 10 million supply and 5 million fuel.

Of course this can only be used over sea lanes that are relatively safe. Delivering supply and fuel to front line ports still needs to be done manually, but most of the back areas, once secured can be set up for automated delivery.

There is also an Auto Convoy mechanism in the game I am not sure I am referring to be the correct name. In this mechanic you assign transport ships and escorts to a pool that the game AI uses to set up TFs to deliver supplies only when needed to any base that is set to participate in the Auto Convoy system. I don't know of a single player who uses this mechanic. Most players are loathe to surrender assets to AI control as it typically doesn't use them efficiently.

I use Autoconvoy extensively in rear areas using xAKL's for small local runs

[geofflambert]

What I would do in Rangoon is get a job catching crabs. They need a lot of crab there, as you know, to use in their main export product.

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

What I would do in Rangoon is get a job catching crabs. They need a lot of crab there, as you know, to use in their main export product.

'One Night in Rangoon' just isn't catchy enough. I wonder what other cities the guys from ABBA considered...

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Zorch

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

What I would do in Rangoon is get a job catching crabs. They need a lot of crab there, as you know, to use in their main export product.

'One Night in Rangoon' just isn't catchy enough. I wonder what other cities the guys from ABBA considered...

Phuket? Saigon? Manila? Singers? San Fran? Cape Town?