Empire of the Sun - DesertWolf101 (J) vs Andy Mac (A)

[29000Kevin]

Still never forgot to conduct the R&D for the next generation planes as the Allies are only going to get fancier equipment as the war continues.

The lost of the Indian Heavy Industry is hurtful, so don't go insane unless your planing on getting Australia or at least Strategically bombing Australian Cities as all the AA guns are likely in India protecting those Airfields, Or Invade New Zealand for the sole purpose of being a distraction for Andy to waste his time and resources on while the real adjective is buying time to fortifying the Pacific islands to Level 6 Forts or lower and building Air airbases on some of them.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

Economy

Miraculously, I have yet to crash the economy. Fuel is at 6 million and supply is at 5.5 million and both are slowly climbing. I am a bit worried about my heavy industry points however, as their rate of accumulation has dropped dramatically with the loss of the heavy industry in India. I thought about turning off some of the merchant shipping but I remain desperate for more tankers (even though I only lost a single tiny one for the entire war) so that's the focus there. Now I am considering turning off some of the armament points when I get to 300K. Too risky?

HI, in and of itself, is only a holding pot for what you need. ARM/VEH can never be bombed, so they are a safe place to bank HI. Late war, with the reserves being called up, you can burn through a lot of ARM very quickly. 500K is not too much to bank. If anything, look at your units. With the pace of this war, I'm a bit surprised you have not used more. Make sure your units are getting device upgrades and replacements (both burn ARM)....

TKs: ok, surprising you are short if you haven't lost any. I would suggest you re-visit your convoy routes for efficiency. At this point with what you have, you should be in pretty good shape. I would caution you about over-building ... even 3 or 4 10K sized tankers can move a lot of liquid in a month. I would expect you to have at least 50% of your MSY idle by now ... so again, I would suggest you re-visit what you are building and be sure that you need it. I rarely ever need to build more xAK's, and only a few more xAP's. That alone idles a lot of MSY ...

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: castor troy

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

May 27, 1943

The cruiser task force was swarmed by PT boat squadrons as it sought to make its escape. Fortunately, the cruisers and escorting destroyers ducked all the torpedoes launched at them. One of my heavy cruisers did strike a mine at Diamond Harbor on the way out, but it should be all right until it makes it to Singapore for repairs.

In other news, the Frank is about to enter production at the start of June. I can't wait to try it out.

With the Frank it's game over for Andy. According to the airbattles in the last months he has more than a problem dealing with what you had, the George and the Frank are a game changer in 43.

The key is getting Frank into VOLUME production. With that, I agree with Castor, Frank+George is a nightmare for the allies in '43.

[mind_messing]

Some thoughts:

- I've never seen IJ collapse due to a shortage of HI points. It's always supply that is the key point.

- Armaments points use ramps up over 1944, and through the roof in 1945. Having a good stock to keep units on the line is absolutely critical for defending the late war perimeter.

- If you're having issues moving fuel via tankers, just load on xAKs. No efficient, sure, but better at Japan inefficiently than at Singapore.

- Agree with comments from others on the Frank. En masse, the Allies will have a hard time wearing down IJ defences, provided you've a good pool of effective pilots.

[DesertWolf101]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

1) In terms of next generation fighter aircraft R&D, I think I am in decent shape. I have 10 factories on the Sam, 5 on the Shinden, six on the Ki-83, and five on the Ki-94. I plan to add more research factories on some of these types as other aircraft finish researching. On average, the Shinden and Ki-83 factories in particular seem to be progressing quite well, but the Sam ones unfortunately seem slower.

2) In terms of volume for the Frank, I am currently at 100 aircraft being produced per month and that is climbing to 200 per month in about 50 days time with the option to further increase production after that depending on the situation. 10 factories are continuing research towards the R version which should bring that variant online towards the very end of 1943.

3) With regards to armaments, as far as I can tell everything is upgraded thus far aside from the 1943 infantry squad upgrades which I am avoiding since it lowers the firepower. I will follow your advice and keep accumulating the points to be ready for the final years.

4) Finally with regards to the tanker demand, I think the convoy routes are pretty efficient as far as I can see. I think part of the issue may be that I have captured more oil/fuel production than the average game. I also don't have the magic highway to Fusan (a deliberate choice for this game that I may yet regret) so that probably adds to the need quite a bit. I have begun using xAKs over the last few turns and although less efficient it does seem to help quite a bit in keeping up with the supply.

[mind_messing]

2) In terms of volume for the Frank, I am currently at 100 aircraft being produced per month and that is climbing to 200 per month in about 50 days time with the option to further increase production after that depending on the situation. 10 factories are continuing research towards the R version which should bring that variant online towards the very end of 1943.

3) With regards to armaments, as far as I can tell everything is upgraded thus far aside from the 1943 infantry squad upgrades which I am avoiding since it lowers the firepower. I will follow your advice and keep accumulating the points to be ready for the final years.

2) Ramping up once you get the R makes sense. I think you can't build too many of this model, as it's pretty potent both as a fighter and as a kamikaze. I don't think you can over-produce it, and if you ever think that you will, remember that there are all those late-war training units that convert to kamikaze that start with Nates and other assorted trash. The Frank is a huge step change for those squadrons.

3) That's a mistake IMO. You lose 2 points of anti-soft in exchange for 20 points of anti-armour. Given that even early Allied tanks (and forget about late-war tanks!) may as well be King Tiger's given the poor anti-tank capability of the IJA, it's a big increase in the anti-tank capability of the IJA divisions that upgrade to the '43 squad (and especially so seeing as IJ divisions have quite a light TOE in terms of arty tubes).

[Dili]

There is no increase in anti armor in stock scenario for squad 43.

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: Dili

There is no increase in anti armor in stock scenario for squad 43.

That's right, otherwise I would definitely do the upgrade to 43 squads.

[mind_messing]

Oh, you'll definitely want to update to the latest database then, if not for the anti-armour then for the Okhas!

[Dili]

m_m is it possible to update in a running game?

[mind_messing]

My understanding is that it is possible.

[DesertWolf101]

June 13, 1942

Aside from harassing night raids, Andy largely ceased offensive operations over the last two game weeks or so. I suspect this is partly due to elevated pilot losses over the last few months and the need to retrain more aircrew. In any case, the situation has largely been quiet across the map. I got a bit restless and decided to go stir up some trouble of my own by leaning on my favored tactic of leveraging radio intelligence to find juicy targets. I ended up chasing what seemed to me to be some lucrative radio traffic patterns all the way to the eastern Pacific Ocean. Near California, a substantial Japanese carrier force zoomed in on what turned out to be a large fuel convoy. Unfortunately, weather prevented a morning attack, but the afternoon strike still inflicted substantial damage.

[DesertWolf101]

June 14, 1942

The Japanese carrier force maintained the pressure on the fleeing convoy, which turned out to be a very large one indeed. Happily the weather cooperated and there were strikes in both the morning and afternoon phases. The first strike is detailed below.

[DesertWolf101]

The first strike was followed by some smaller attacks, still in the morning phase.

[DesertWolf101]

Finally, there was another big strike in the afternoon.

[jdsrae]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: Dili

There is no increase in anti armor in stock scenario for squad 43.

That's right, otherwise I would definitely do the upgrade to 43 squads.

I think you will need to upgrade once those Divs take casualties, otherwise the superseded squads have no replacements and those Divs will have decreasing numbers of infantry squads.
There are two different pre-43 infantry squads called the same thing, but I don’t think they’re the same.
Can anyone confirm or correct my understanding on this one?

Good numbers of merchants sunk!

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: jdsrae

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: Dili

There is no increase in anti armor in stock scenario for squad 43.

That's right, otherwise I would definitely do the upgrade to 43 squads.

I think you will need to upgrade once those Divs take casualties, otherwise the superseded squads have no replacements and those Divs will have decreasing numbers of infantry squads.
There are two different pre-43 infantry squads called the same thing, but I don’t think they’re the same.
Can anyone confirm or correct my understanding on this one?

Good numbers of merchants sunk!

Check the database in the game, it should have different numbers for the same type that upgrades to different things.

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: jdsrae

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: Dili

There is no increase in anti armor in stock scenario for squad 43.

That's right, otherwise I would definitely do the upgrade to 43 squads.

I think you will need to upgrade once those Divs take casualties, otherwise the superseded squads have no replacements and those Divs will have decreasing numbers of infantry squads.
There are two different pre-43 infantry squads called the same thing, but I don’t think they’re the same.
Can anyone confirm or correct my understanding on this one?

Good numbers of merchants sunk!

It didn't cross my mind that replacements are no longer available for the non-upgraded squads. I thought the Japanese system continued to churn out squads/devices based solely on demand. If that's not the case then I would definitely have to upgrade.

[DesertWolf101]

June 15, 1942

The convoy was starting to get too close to Los Angeles so I decided to pull back the precious carriers. Instead, I sent in some surface warships to continue the hunt, risking a heavy cruiser in the process. I think it's almost time to get entirely out of the area.

[DesertWolf101]

It's certainly a good thing for me to bag so many ships. I lost track but I think in total I have sunk eight large tankers and almost a hundred Liberty cargo ships in three game days. I can't help but wonder however whether this will do anything whatsoever to help my cause. Certainly in 1942 shipping for the Allies is significantly more scarce and I even made it a priority to target their sea lift. But in 1943 the floodgates really open and the Allies don't seem to lack for standard cargo ships.

Nevertheless, it seems the scale of the recent destruction may have had an outsized impact on Allied morale. I got this message from their HQ today:

"I am not sure this game is fixable to be honest we are going to have to play 2 years before I am competitive I will keep going no worries just not sure of the point as you have clearly won this one which is impressive for a scen 1 game truly impressive"