Invading Australia and Fighting in Mainland Asia

[clonedino]

Howdy everyone, I just finished playing a game as the Japanese until about late 1943. Things were going pretty well, I had taken Perth and most of the eastern seaboard of Australia except the alternate capitol at the bottom, forgot the name. America landed about 20 units into Australia making it near impossible to finish them off (first point of frustration). I had already destroyed the American Navy but the process of preventing units from getting into Australia is nearly impossible, I also don't understand what exactly the Japanese bomber hexes are accomplishing, the ones lower allied supply in Australia. Seemed totally ineffective despite being on 6 of the hexes. I don't quite understand the appeal of this engine for WWII most of the time, the simulation is quite atrocious and every ground campaign just becomes a massive slog. This is reflective of history to a certain degree, but it lacks any of the movement that you saw in many WWII campaigns. I find this incredibly odd because somehow the WWI game (incredible) lands it perfectly and I end up with more kinetic campaigns than I ever get in the WWII titles. It feels as though I am missing something about ground campaigns, can't beat the AI as the axis in either this game or WaW, WWII in Europe and WWI I was able to beat quite handily (although WWII in Europe seems quite railroaded and not very replayable). To my mind the only feasible objectives in this game are in Australia, Hawaii, or Calcutta. Any objective balls deep in mainland Asia seems entirely impossible. Also I noticed my ships became significantly less powerful in late 1943. It took a hit from a super battleship, two destroyers, and another battleship to kill one destroyer that was at 8 health. All my ships were at full health and all ships involved had Naval Weaponry 2. Ludicrous outcome. Any tips and information to make more sense of this game would be appreciated. I want to like it, but every game seems to become a total attrition slog, except the WWI game oddly enough.

Edit: Also watching the AI land transport 4 units into the harbor I 0 strength'd in a single turn is some pure, unadulterated, doggycock. What are the rules on preventing AI units from transporting into ports?

[Hubert Cater]

Thanks for the feedback, and for the last issue, this is a known problem on my end, e.g. we had an issue where AI planning gets completely thrown off if transports cannot unload, think planning for the build up of D-Day and so on, and despite my best efforts to have the AI work around this, there was never a good solution and it just always threw games off too much.

I'll be adding the following note to the AI FAQ thread:

AI controlled transports will also be able to unload at a port with strength less than 5 as otherwise AI plans can be completely thrown off. Unfortunately, and despite our best efforts, there has been no competent workaround developed to handle this type of situation in game.