Taking Midway

[kevini100]

Is Midway of any use to Japan if they can take it easily?

I know they thought it was important historically but is it important in WITP?

Kevin

[PeteG662]

There was another thread on this earlier......seems as though it is of little value unless you are using it to scout PH for potential invasion.

[sveint]

It's the one thing I never understood when reading about WW2 - why Midway? It seems like such a stupid move.

I'll write it down to overconfidence...

[Renegade]

I took against AI mostly Midway because of 2 reasons:
1.) Use it as a forward Base for Sub Operations against US Coast (you could stay longer in hostile Waters and rearm faster so you could take out more merchants)
2.) Putting some Mavis/Emily Squadrons there for Patrol Duty. I like to see what comes along..

[Renegade]

Japan always dreamed about the one and only deceisive Battle in the Pacific. They know the USA would never let them capture Midway without a fight, so the made the move to get the battle their Admirals always dreamed about. This was also the opinion of Admiral Yamamoto.

[Bradley7735]

Sveint,

Japan tried to take Midway (and the Aleutians) because of the Doolittle raid. They didn't want any more of them coming in without being spotted. There were other reasons too. They wanted to finish off the US fleet. I think these are the two biggest reasons.

It would be nice to see these kind of political offenses being modeled as well as the political defences. I imagine that this would be too hard to develop in the game. Like forcing the allies to contest Guadalcanal in Aug 42 instead of May 43. But, I guess if you force the player into too many political issues, then lets all just watch the movie. [:D] It's a game based on history, but not a movie repeating history.

What a great game! I can't wait for the next patch.

[ZOOMIE1980]

ORIGINAL: Bluecher

Japan always dreamed about the one and only deceisive Battle in the Pacific. They know the USA would never let them capture Midway without a fight, so the made the move to get the battle their Admirals always dreamed about. This was also the opinion of Admiral Yamamoto.

Yes, this is the why? Not because Midway had strategic value of any kind. They needed a place to force a DECISIVE fleet battle and one far away from the possibility of being aided by large land based air power. Bascially a battle where the American fleet could be drawn away from land support and engaged with only what they could bring to the battle. The ONLY place in the entire theater that could be done was at Midway.

[Drex]

Another political issue would be open cities,i.e. when MacArthur declared Manila an open city to save it from destruction. Does any allied player do this? I doubt it. Right now I'm hangung on to Manila jusT to slow the Japanese down. There might be other instances of open cities that were declared in the Pacific arena but its not practical to model them in this game.

[captskillet]

Is that close enough for Betty's or other bombers to reach PH????? Haven't played Japanese yet so dont know what their range is, but I know its long.

[tsimmonds]

I think you can reach PH at extended range. Course there won't be any escort....ugly.

[Caranorn]

I think Manila as an open city is already portrayed into the game with the low level fortifications at start of the game. I don't think I've ever managed to expand these beyond size 1 (possibly managed size 2) before the city would be attacked. Which makes it an almost worthless position.

Also remember game scale, WitP Manilla woudl also I expect include the airbases a distance north of the city.

Marc aka Caran...

[MadmanRick]

Is that close enough for Betty's or other bombers to reach PH????? Haven't played Japanese yet so dont know what their range is but is but I know its long.

Iirc, PH is just out of Betty range from Midway. However, I captured it and use it as was mentioned before as an advance warning base AND as a forward operating base for my subs. I have 3 AS's stationed there, as well as 2 BB's, 2 CL's and 7 or DD's (basically to make the Allies pay, if they come a bombardin'). I also have 2 Mavis, 1 Zero, 1 Betty and 1 Kate squadron there, to again make anyone foolish enough to come a callin', go home a bawlin' [:D]

Rick

[UncleBuck]

PH is not in range, but Johnston Island woudl be, and you coudl control an awful large portion of the SEA around Pearl for quite some time. If it is in range of Betties on LR, send them at night. the op losses go up but the CAP is very in-effective early war. Nice attacks on Port facilities every couple days woudl be a nice bonus to Midway. Force teh US to move those BB's out of Pearl since they get small bomb hits increasing SYS damage. Get them in Open ocean and those Betties may get a few more sunk.

UB

[Kereguelen]

Betties are surely nice, but I guess (don't have the game open on my computer now) that Midway is in B-17 range. The airfields there would not last long, even if protected by Zeros. And the USAAF might also employ night attacks [:D].

[sveint]

You're all dreaming - taking Midway against an human Allied player is a death-trap.