What is normal late war against a good opponent.

[joliverlay]

I am playing the bottlenecks mod and for the first time I've played up to late 1943. I have a question for the vets that have played late into the game. Is it normal that I can't get air superiority or fill my squadron's out historically for lack of planes?

With 50 something thunderbolds and 40 lightnings, I suspect I'm being greatly outproduced by my opponent and he has similar or better planes as well as more. Is that likely? Or does it just seem that way?

I was expecting a historical game, because of the "slower pace" of this mod, but I'm playing a top Japanese opponent and just now trying to retake Oz which I lost in 1942. I'd like to understand what I should expect against a good opponent.

He also seems to have more troops in Oz than I do, which I find suprising. I'm guessing that if you don't try to take much new territory in China, you can free up lots of forces to use elsewhere.

[btd64]

I would keep him in Oz. And concentrate on building up and attacking north towards Japan. As far as your production of fighters goes try to reduce the amount of engagements you have and train, train, train....GP

[btd64]

Put most of your subs near Japan in the shipping lanes....GP

[the1henson]

I'm nearing the end of 1944 in a Bottlenecks game, and I experienced exactly what you're talking about.

There's a valley throughout 43 until the second model of the Thunderbolt arrives in numbers, and in that valley you have to very carefully husband your air resources because you have an unrealistically low rate of replacement. It's a feature of the mod, and I haven't yet decided whether it is intentional or oversight. It does obliquely comport with the spirit of Bottlenecks, which is to restrict allied buildup in remote areas. But I also feel it's a bit out of balance because it unreasonably restricts allied offensive (AND defensive) options, especially in Burma/Indonesia/Solomons, in ways that feel off to me.

When the Hellcats and Thunderbolts come, though, it will be happy days. It is frustrating before that being unable to keep Japanese pilot production pruned back because you have thousands of available allied pilots with no available airframes. I fear I will face a death cloud of kamikazes once I pull the trigger on my next big invasion because he's been able to keep so many moderately skilled pilots alive.

Also, what he said. Ignore Australia and cut it off. Marianas are a tough nut, but they will probably have to be your linchpin, from which you can launch ops to cut off his oil and make whatever force he parked Australia useless.

[LargeSlowTarget]

Hi,

This is not a specific Bottlenecks issue.
I did not even modify the build rates for Allied planes - 40 P-38F and 56 P-47D2 is what the base scenario of DaBigBabes has set, and I left it at that.
The basic problem is the same in any mod and any stock scenario - the Japanese player can tinker with production and the Allied player can't.
Not surprisingly, Japanese players tend to optimise fighter production, but the Allied player cannot react to this.
Playing with PDU off somewhat mitigates the issue, because Japan is forced to make-do with a greater variety of plane types due to less-than-optimal upgrade paths, instead of concentrating on the best available type built in numbers.
In Bottlenecks, the Allies get a few "emergency reinforcement" air groups which can be bought-out with PPs and the airframes disbanded into the pools - this may help a bit in a pinch.

As a rule, no mod can force a strictly "historical game" that limits Japan to the historical expansion and the Allied to the historical counter-offensives.
Even in Bottlenecks, a Japanese player can venture into India, Australia or else in 1942 if he chooses to.
But it comes with a higher price than in stock scenarios.
For example, the shipping tied-down in these ventures is not available to ship resources to the Home Islands, which makes it more difficult to build-up a stockpile for the later part of the game.
If your opponent owns Australia, his economy gets a boost from local industries, esp. supply generation and resource production.
But these things must be shipped to places where they are needed.
And Australia has no oil production, which is the most important commodity for Japan.
So oil and/or fuel must be shipped to Australia in order to run the heavy industries there, otherwise owning Australia does not help boosting airframe and engine production (which requires HI points).
This puts further strain on shipping, and provides opportunities to interdict his shipping with subs, surface raids and carrier raids.
Leave Australia to him and counterattack through the Kuriles - he will have a hard time to shift his troops from the south to the far north.