Japanese Shipbuilding Priorities

[Q-Ball]

Howdy! I asked a question previously about airplane production, and got alot of great responses, thank you gents! As a returning and rusty vet, thought I would also re-confirm my ship production priorities. As a reminder, playing DDB-C #28, so stock economy without the extra supplies in refineries.....so, IIRC, you have to be careful you don't overexpand and crash your supply stocks.

Here are some principles I am using; am I correct?

1. I am ACCELERATING all the Hiryu-clone CVs first. They are useless in 1945, need to get them to '43. They are really good value for the money....no?
2. TAIHO is next priority
3. The JUNYOS after that, though I only intermittently have enough NAV SY points, so HIYO going back and forth
4. If I can free-up NAV SY points later, the CVLs
5. I am leaving YAMATO and MUSASHI on Normal. I thought of turning off Musashi; what do you think? It's very expensive and maybe not worth it, but a) I like to fight w Yamato as a pair, and b) the Yamatos are really cool and bad-ass, so I can't resist.
6. I am keeping all DD, CLs on NORMAL build
7. I am building SSTs and Floatplane-equipped SUBS, the rest are OFF.
8. Turned off SHINANO, that's a no-brainer

Is all this about right?

On MERCHANTS, just a few questions:

1. Do I really need to build any AKs?
2. I am building AO, TKs and all the auxilleries
3. Accelerating CVEs and CS because I can
4. Building xAPs as well on normal

Seems like I could turn MERCH SY off later if I want to save some HI....

[SuluSea]

Great to see you back playing this game Brad!

I recall Damian and a discussion which he laid out the math on accelerating some TKs & AOs, if you get them early enough they'll pay for themselves in fuel runs.

[JoV]

I think the hard-nosed approach is to ditch the Musashi, and perhaps even the Yamato as well. Someone did the numbers on here once (obvert maybe?) about the number of extra fighters you could build in lieu of those ships, and it is a lot!

But on the other hand, as you say, they can be fun to have around [:D]

[Q-Ball]

It costs 36 HI to build a fighter plane; 18 for the frame, and 18 for the engine.

A year of building Musashi is approx. 250,000 HI, or about 7,000 fighters worth

The math is pretty clear; I just hate not having that bad boy!

Another way to look at it is that, for the same price, you can move an UNRYU-class up 9 months

Building YAMATO probably makes sense because she is further along

[geofflambert]

I pause Musashi until after Yamato is done, then I start thinking about her, but I may wait awhile, or never finish her. Building more AKs is questionable, unless his subs are super successful, you're unlikely to run out, so take it easy with them anyway. APs absolutely not. After '42 you'll be making precious few amphib landings on unfriendly shores, build some landing craft, they're always useful, but that's it. Build lots and lots of xAKLs, but pause most of them til you need them, they build fast. You'll be seeing a time when getting supplies to forward bases is hazardous to say the least, using low cost expendables carrying an expendable amount of supply makes sense. Build all the TKs and AOs you can. Build or convert to PBs early on, you'll need a bunch, but once you're getting your Es start converting them to AMcs and ACMs or other things. The 6k range PBs can't be converted but they'll be useful to the end.

[geofflambert]

One thing, like with LCUs turn off upgrades on absolutely everything. Turn them back on selectively when it is convenient to you. Go ahead and miss some upgrades if you need to. Check on how much AA you get from an upgrade to help prioritize them, some ships get very little while others get a lot more than a lot.

[jdsrae]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

On MERCHANTS, just a few questions:

1. Do I really need to build any AKs?

For xAK it depends a lot on how many you convert to Auxiliaries and how many you keep for resource hauling.
Gaze into your crystal ball, then answer these questions:
a. How many xAK will you lose to allied interference?
b. At what date do you think the allies will start closing your resource convoy routes?

I halt any further “junk” xAK/xAKL construction.
The later the decent xAK arrive the least useful they will be, so perhaps halt all 1944+ production as a start.

Note that the Std-A/B/C xAK can convert to TK and they start arriving well before the TK reinforcements of the same class.

2. I am building AO, TKs and all the auxilleries

Same questions to ask the crystal ball as for xAK.
The later the AO/TK arrives it might be too late to do anything but get sunk and give cheap victory points to the allies.

3. Accelerating CVEs and CS because I can

Extra cost for what benefit? I feel that anything that arrives in 1942 at normal build rate isn’t worth accelerating.
What will the late war Army CVEs be good for, other than getting sunk?

4. Building xAPs as well on normal

Same questions as above, do you think you will need more of these in 1944+?

Seems like I could turn MERCH SY off later if I want to save some HI....

Definitely, some time in 1944 depending on your choices above, merchant shipyards can start going into mothballs otherwise you will just waste HI points producing MSY points that you’ll never use.

[geofflambert]

I don't pay any attention to VPs, I know when things are going well or not without some arbitrary bs points being given by a brainless system. For instance, if you abandon those remote bases in Thailand after the Thai Army evaporates, you get charged VPs. Whatever for? There's absolutely nothing out there. The Allies will only go there if they get lost somehow.

[jdsrae]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

A year of building Musashi is approx. 250,000 HI, or about 7,000 fighters worth.

Its just that training the extra 5000+ fighter pilots per year to have decent pilots to fly them isn’t so easy.

[ITAKLinus]

I recall I gave the numbers quite precisely some time ago for most of the ships tradeoffs.


What I do:

- Stop Yamato and Musashi. I never build them.
- Accelerate the first 2 CVs (Hiyo and the other one)
- Accelerate the CVEs.
- Stop CLs.
- Accelerate AOs and some tankers. I tend to accelerate ALL the AOs and TKs which come online before Sept-43. You can easily skip (not produce) the smaller TKs, to be honest.
- Stop all xAK and xAKL.
- Leave SS, E and DDs in "normal" and then put every single point in accelerating the CVs.
- Stop Shinano.


Here there are basically three variables:
A) Increase or not the NavShipyards. With the starting ones, you are tight but they're definitely more than enough to have everything you need produced.
B) Strategy focused on forcing an early decisve carrier battle: in this case it is worth to accelerate the CVs coming online first (such as the Tahio) instead of the late ones.
C) Strategy focused on sheer numbers for a decisve carrier battle in '44: in this case it's much better to accelerate the late CVs so that you have all your carriers available when you have the decisive fight.


In line of principle, CVs are the pivotal element of your decision about shipbuilding. Once you have decided how much you want / can afford in terms of CVs, you can decide the rest.
Also, I tend to lose many DDs in the opening months, so I am usually in need of having more of them.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball
1. Do I really need to build any AKs?
2. I am building AO, TKs and all the auxilleries

1. Certainly stop the majority of xAKs. I would build only the few that can convert to AK, and also the Std-A (and maybe B) to convert them to TK. Built ships will almost certainly turn out as allied VPs later and you might not want that
2. Accelerating some AO/TKs is ok. You need all that you can get to make use of them during the the relatively safe 42/43.
I don't remember if Super-Es are in the merchant class WRT building. If they are, it makes sense to accelerate those to boost your ASW earlier

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Howdy! I asked a question previously about airplane production, and got alot of great responses, thank you gents! As a returning and rusty vet, thought I would also re-confirm my ship production priorities. As a reminder, playing DDB-C #28, so stock economy without the extra supplies in refineries.....so, IIRC, you have to be careful you don't overexpand and crash your supply stocks.

Here are some principles I am using; am I correct?

1. I am ACCELERATING all the Hiryu-clone CVs first. They are useless in 1945, need to get them to '43. They are really good value for the money....no?
2. TAIHO is next priority
3. The JUNYOS after that, though I only intermittently have enough NAV SY points, so HIYO going back and forth
4. If I can free-up NAV SY points later, the CVLs
5. I am leaving YAMATO and MUSASHI on Normal. I thought of turning off Musashi; what do you think? It's very expensive and maybe not worth it, but a) I like to fight w Yamato as a pair, and b) the Yamatos are really cool and bad-ass, so I can't resist.
6. I am keeping all DD, CLs on NORMAL build
7. I am building SSTs and Floatplane-equipped SUBS, the rest are OFF.
8. Turned off SHINANO, that's a no-brainer

My comments are relegated to 'stock' Scenario 2, wherein the Shinano is a Taiho-class CV.

Accelerate those Unryu class CVs that can be brought forward into 1943. This will preclude the advancing of the last two in the queue I believe. Stop production of CVEs similarly due in 1945. Those are inherently worthless by that stage of the game and certainly not worth the MER SY points used on them.

In conjunction with judicious conversion / upgrade of your CSs (Chitose, Chiyoda, etc.), the pulling forward of the two Taihos, acceleration of the applicable Unryus, normal building of your Hiyos and, of course, starting fleet CV/CVLs, you should be able to field >16 CV/CVLs by the end of 1943. You should have radar, upgraded AAA and advanced airframes on these ships by that time, so they can be a very powerful force if shepherded for this purpose.

I build both Yamato and Mushashi per normal to get them out of the queue if nothing else.

I tend to turn off late-war SST and RO-class SS boats. I also turn off subs due in late 1944-1945, regardless of type. Those NAV SY points are better spent elsewhere in the earlier war years. If I lose a sub due to enemy action, I will sometimes re-start submarines that are due 1944 to make up for the loss.

On MERCHANTS, just a few questions:

1. Do I really need to build any AKs?
2. I am building AO, TKs and all the auxilleries
3. Accelerating CVEs and CS because I can
4. Building xAPs as well on normal

Seems like I could turn MERCH SY off later if I want to save some HI....

Build auxiliaries, TKs and AOs. Build those xAKs that can convert to TK-there are a fair number of these. Otherwise, we're in the same ballpark.

[ITAKLinus]

This is the CV/CVL/CVE setup I have calculated.

The "Expected arrival" refers to the date in which the ship should be available net of acceleration.
The "incremental a/c" column refers to the total amount of embarked a/c available.

Please note that I did this spreadsheet for a very twisted game in which I am running 1,700NavShipyards. In a normal game, you will have to go much much lighter. This is Scen1, with all the consequences of that.


Also, I forgot to mention before that, yes, I'd produce some Std- merchant ships. Not many, though, since tankers are useful but with a careful use and a strong ASW setup you shouldn't lose too many of them.

[ITAKLinus]

This is the list of USN CVs arriving within the same timeframe as the Jap CVs listed above.

Don't remember why I included the CVL Hermes and not the British CVs, though.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: ITAKLinus

Don't remember why I included the CVL Hermes and not the British CVs, though.

You're counting the contributions of CVE/POS Hosho, but not the myriad CVEs that the Allies get through the end of 1943 too. That's an unequal/incomplete comparison.

[ITAKLinus]

You're right, I should have stated that it doesn't include all the CVEs arriving before '44 to the allied side.

It's a grand total of 22 CVEs for 575 embarked a/c until the end of 1943.


I did the above tables taking into consideration the balance for a defensive maneuvre battle, in which I am likely to bring into action my full firepower, while the allies are unlikely to bring CVEs as well.

It has been done more to represent the not so huge delta between allies and Japan even into '44 when we take into consideration sheer numbers only.

To be fair, I don't find it changes much. Especially if you consider that in 1942 you get "only" 8 CVEs with 221 embarked a/c.
The big change happens after mid-43 and, even more, after mid-44


And... Hosho is amazing! It has 25knts of top speed: enough to stay with KB2!


PS. Please, take also into consideration that in my last PBEMs I have played with the HR of "max 500 embarked a/c per-hex" and therefore the carrier clashes have been way more complex and on a much larger geographical scale than usual.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: ITAKLinus

You're right, I should have stated that it doesn't include all the CVEs arriving before '44 to the allied side.

It's a grand total of 22 CVEs for 575 embarked a/c until the end of 1943.


I did the above tables taking into consideration the balance for a defensive maneuvre battle, in which I am likely to bring into action my full firepower, while the allies are unlikely to bring CVEs as well.

Well, if your goal was to calculate CVEs available for a Japanese defensive battle, why didn't you include the other (other than Hosho) Japanese CVEs available prior to then end of 1943?

[ITAKLinus]

For the reason stated above: the Hosho can go at 25knts and thus being able to stick together with the 2KB. While other CVEs are slower and I use them mainly for convoy escort duties and/or minor raids in non-contested waters.

It's highly unlikely I have them available in a carrier clash due to the fact they are slow and scattered around the map.


Also, not a secondary factor, they have quite specialised groups in my games. You don't want weak CVEs with ASW-focused groups entangled in a decisive carrier clash.

Basically, I exclude them from the embarked a/c count because it's highly improbable they will be able to join whatever carrier clash: counting on them would be relying on a force that it's likely to be dozens of hexes away from the show.

Hope I have clarified my thought about the above schemes I did for my games.

[mind_messing]

Japan rarely runs out of HI.

What kills the economy is a lack of fuel and supply. Seeing as you're likely to have the spare HI, may as well invest it - you can always park the ships somewhere safe till they are needed.

1. I am ACCELERATING all the Hiryu-clone CVs first. They are useless in 1945, need to get them to '43. They are really good value for the money....no?
2. TAIHO is next priority
3. The JUNYOS after that, though I only intermittently have enough NAV SY points, so HIYO going back and forth
4. If I can free-up NAV SY points later, the CVLs
5. I am leaving YAMATO and MUSASHI on Normal. I thought of turning off Musashi; what do you think? It's very expensive and maybe not worth it, but a) I like to fight w Yamato as a pair, and b) the Yamatos are really cool and bad-ass, so I can't resist.
6. I am keeping all DD, CLs on NORMAL build
7. I am building SSTs and Floatplane-equipped SUBS, the rest are OFF.
8. Turned off SHINANO, that's a no-brainer

1-4. I'm not very sold on much accelerating at all. Far better to simply plan operations around the expected arrival dates. You know what the Allies are getting, and when (+/- 60 days). Easy enough to map when you can be aggressive and when you should be cautious.

5. Both Yamato's are great damage sponges in CV fights. They can and do lap up 1000lber hits that may otherwise hit carriers.

6. Makes sense. There may be merit in accelerating the early Akizuki's for KB escort to free the Kagero's up for surface combat (superior AA characteristics of the 10cm versus 12.7cm), but I'm not all that convinced.

7. SST are a waste. Floatplane subs are marginally useful by the time they arrive. I'd rather the points on something else.

8. A CV is a CV, expensive or not.

For merchants, my view would be yes. You'll never use them for cargo, but you will need them as naval "chaff" to throw at Allied landings in the late war.

[offenseman]

I like to accelerate the Escort classes but only after they are build eligible and before they actually start construction. Lots of accel for little HI cost. Using them to heavily escort TKs help vs the subs at the sooner the better.