PBEM: Grotius (Axis) vs. Rome (Allied)

[Grotius]

Er, that picture was from one turn ago. Here's a more recent one:

[Barthheart]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

... Can I invade southern Persia without fear of Soviet activation? (The manual mentions Northern Persia only.)

...

Yes you can with out Russia coming in. I've found it's a good way to keep the russian's from getting northern Persia as a resource as it turns WA colours after the attack on the south. Unless, of course, you plan to attack the way... [:'(]

[Grotius]

Cool! Um, I have no current plans to attack northern Persia, much less the Soviet Union, whose neutrality I respect deeply. [:)]

[Grotius]

Fall 1941: The quietest turn of the war. I paused to consolidate my gains in the Middle East and to conserve supply while I build up my forces for the inevitable Soviet aggression. Still, one U-Boat did see fit to eliminate an enemy transport in the North Atlantic. Japan, for her part, retook Shanghai from the Chinese.

Rome has researched infantry evasion and one level of ASW -- but my subs have a nice high evasion skill of their own now. Interestingly, Rome has also researched one level in his flak's anti-air power. I guess I'll be steering clear of Western Allied flak units for a while.

[Grotius]

Winter 1942: Our sitzkrieg continues. Rome's carriers banged up my artillery at Gibraltar, but my grip on Axis Lake (formerly known as the Mediterranean Sea) remains strong. Rome did kill one of my subs last turn, but my wolfpack was out in force again this time, killing a couple transports and damaging a light fleet. Meanwhile my production has ramped up, and I'm cranking out the infantry, armor, artillery and flak like there's no tomorrow.

An ill wind blows from the Russian East.

[Grotius]

Spring 1942: This turn I pushed into Saudi Arabia and Southern Persia, and now I threaten India from the West (with Germany ) and East (with Japan). I continue to control the entire Med, including Gibraltar and Suez, but Rome has pesky carriers stationed west of Gibraltar and surface ships in the Red Sea. The carriers attack targets of opportunity in the Iberian peninsula, but the installation of new flak units has curbed that.

My subs continue to zap a couple transports a turn in the Atlantic. I find I really enjoy pushing my subs around. I love the way they can sneak by bad guys, zap a transport, and sneak back to base. It's been fun basing them in western France and Gibraltar.

Meanwhile preparations continue to counter the inevitable Soviet aggression.

[Grotius]

Summer 1942: The summer of '42, and still no war between Japan and the Western Allies, or between Germany and the Soviets. That state of affairs won't last much longer.

After Rome grabbed Southern Persia back from me last turn, I grabbed it back this turn, but this time I sent in more troops with which to threaten India. More worrisome, Rome got his fleet back into the Western Med. I still hold Gibraltar, but Rome's carrier-based air attacks had damaged my artillery there, and I forgot to put in some other op-firing unit in its place. Rome's fleet bombed a factory in nothern Italy -- quickly fixed this turn, but worrisome all the same.

Meanwhile, the Soviet menace grows.

[Espejo]

ORIGINAL: Grotius


My subs continue to zap a couple transports a turn in the Atlantic. I find I really enjoy pushing my subs around. I love the way they can sneak by bad guys, zap a transport, and sneak back to base. It's been fun basing them in western France and Gibraltar.

[&:] What do you mean: Leave port attack and return the same turn? If yes how do you do it?

[jgonzo]

ORIGINAL: Sombra

ORIGINAL: Grotius


My subs continue to zap a couple transports a turn in the Atlantic. I find I really enjoy pushing my subs around. I love the way they can sneak by bad guys, zap a transport, and sneak back to base. It's been fun basing them in western France and Gibraltar.

[&:] What do you mean: Leave port attack and return the same turn? If yes how do you do it?

Yes that is what you can do.

You leave port and attack. If you survive you then can click on the naval unit again and if you have supplies and movement left on that unit you can move it again.

[Grotius]

Yep. I base my subs in Gibraltar or Western France or, now, at Suez. I sneak out, zap something, and sneak back in all in the same turn. Remember, you can move after you attack in this game, if you have the movement points left over.

But you have to be careful with your movement points. Many sea zones have "double line" borders, which means they cross 2 movement points, not one, to cross. It's easy to overestimate how many moves you have left, and if you zap a transport and then strand yourself in the middle of the ocean, that can be trouble.

[Grotius]

Fall 1942: Barbarossa and Pearl Harbor, all in one turn! My tanks rolled over the Russian border and captured Odessa and the Baltic States, but I wasn't able to penetrate any further in the south. Meanwhile the Afrika Korps took Northern Persia and set its sights on the Caucuses and Kazakhstan. My goal is to link up the southern flank of my Russian offensive with my troops approaching the Caucuses: if I can do this and hold this line, I will have an overland supply line to my units in North Africa, which is kinda cool.

But not so fast, hot-shot: in his turn, Rome roared back, retaking Odessa and the Baltic States -- but at heavy losses to his infantry and armor corps. My tanks made it to land attack 10 AND evasion 10 during the turn of the invasion, and they proved almost immune to his counterattacks. So while I was forced to retreat, I did a lot of damage. By the end of the turn, I had damaged 9 infantry, 4 aircraft, and 5 armored units, and I destroyed 3 infantry, 11 militia and 1 tank outright.

Meanwhile, Japan liberated much of the Southern Resource Area. My conquest of Luzon and the Dutch East Indies was reasonably efficient, but I had stockpiled only 60 supply or so in Indochina, and I finally learned why the manual insists that you stockpile 100 there. I didn't have the supply onhand to repair all my gained resources! ARRRRRRRRRRGH! I will rectify that this turn.

[Uncle_Joe]

Are you guys allowing kibitzing? If so, I have a few comments on Japan.

Even without kibitzing, one thing to keep in mind on the Japanese supply/repair situation that even having 100 on hand doesnt mean you can use them all for repairs. Transport capacity to actually move the supplies to the individual islands is usually my bottleneck for the first turn or so after taking all the resource-rich islands.

[Grotius]

Kibitzing is encouraged! I'm hoping to learn from my mistakes in this game. And yes, you're right, transport capacity was part of the problem. I mostly rectified it this turn. I was able to repair all but a couple resource centers, and I mopped up in Celebes and the Philippines to boot.

Thus my total production is now up to 63 -- seven away from the magic number. In Russia, I took the Caucuses, which is a big win, but didn't have the supply on-hand to repair all those resource centers. If I had, I'd be teetering on the edge of auto-victory.

I love the way supply is modeled in this game. I mean, it's a pain in the butt, but that's how it should be.

More details (and screenshots) once Rome's had a chance to view my turn. I'm trying to get him to post here, but so far no luck.

[Grotius]

Winter 1943: As I mentioned above, my tanks rolled into the Caucusus from Northern Persia, depriving the enemy of six crucial resource centers! Too bad I lacked the local supply to repair them all. I've learned that getting supply through the Middle East is tough -- there are few railroads, so you've got to truck it one region at a time. If I get desperate, I may set up a supply line through the Black Sea. But the Russian Navy wouldn't allow that to exist for long. I've respected Turkish neutrality so I can't get any more transports into the Black Sea. Hmm.

This would all be moot if my Russian Campaign were going better, since I could move transport overland from Germany through Russia. But I've only gotten as far as Kiev in the south. I see the disadvantage of delaying Barbarossa: the Russians have more time to build tanks and stuff.

In the meantime, Japan seized the rest of the Southern Resource Area and finally repaired most of the captured resource centers. As I said above, I'm now at 63 production.

[Uncle_Joe]

OK, well my little bit of Japan strategy kibitzing then...

If you dont get ahold of the 'perimeter islands' around New Guinea, you wont have the resource-rich islands for too long. The US can send Battleship and Cruiser groups up through the chain, supplying them out of Australia so even blasting the transport line to the US wont stop it (although it will slow it down).

At first I wasnt convinced that those islands were worth the hassle, but they are. The Bismarks and the Solomons are both really nice to be tossing interdiction points onto WAllied fleets trying to raid your supplies. Add an airgroup to them and it pretty much shuts down that avenue to all by subs. If you base Betties on those islands, they can sever the line between the US and Australia quite nicely too.

So, your Carriers cover the middle Pacific while the island bases (and New Guinea once taken) cover the Southern route to your transports. If your Carriers have to cover the lower Pacific too, you burn out a LOT of supplies moving all over the place.

When trying to win the auto-victory, Japan's resources are, by far, the most vulnerable. Anything that can delay the Allied destruction of your transports by even a turn or two is worth the investment IMO.

All of this might seem pretty self-evident, but it took me a handful of games as Japan to really start to understand why I would want those islands ASAP. In fact, in my games now, I tend to take some of them before I get all the resource islands. As you've found too, I dont have enough supply or capacity to repair them all anyways, so I'd rather have a few of the strategically places islands than more of the resource ones that I cant make use of quite yet.

Good luck!

[Grotius]

Thanks for the advice! For what it's worth, I have taken some of it. This turn I did take Timor and most of New Guinea, and I moved aircraft into the Caroline Islands. I guess I should've taken the Bismarck and Solomon islands too; I was debating whether it was worth exposing my transports to do so.

Also, it didn't occur to me to move Betties (Heavy Bombers, right?) to the South Pacific. Instead, I put my one extra Carrier Air Group on one of the islands; I suppose I really should be keeping it close to the carriers? I just hate doing anything with the CVs because of the supply they eat up. I do wonder whether the game's supply rules inhibit CV use too much.

I probably should've tried Japan against the AI before jumping into a PBEM. I've made several mistakes -- most notably, in China, where I keep forgetting about the militia rule. Ah well, no better way to learn than to be whupped by a fellow human.

[Uncle_Joe]

Once you have all the resources fixed and pumping out supplies, you can use the CV groups OK. You just dont want to have to run from one side of the Pacific to the other hunting down raiders every turn. Moving them back and forth 1 space per turn to counter WAllied raids is ok...its only 1 supply/Carrier.

Japan takes a game or two to get down. IMO, the absolute most important things for Japan to research before attempting to tackle the WAllies are CAG Evasion and Light Fleet ASW. Without the former you are wasting your time and money using Carriers and without the latter, your transports are going to be dead, dead, dead. If your opponent researched Battleship AA (too cheap IMO), then give up on Carrier Air altogether as it wont be worth the expense. Use them only to defend your Battleship groups because when you attack with them, they will die en masse vs 5 dice BBs.

Anything else you can get is icing on the cake. I tend to go with CAG Torp and CAG AA next and generally stop producing other types of aircraft altogether. Use the CAGs for island bases. Again, if the enemy BBs have a 5 AA rating, dont bother...try for better BBs yourself instead.

Next stop needs to be something for the Infantry attack and then AA gun AA attack. By this time WAllied infantry will most likely be close to unkillable without some sort of increase in attack. This makes it tough to threaten India.

Anyways, it looks like you are well on your way to victory. All you really have to do is make sure everything doesnt come crashing in on your head and repair the needed resources to get to 70!

[Grotius]

Spring 1943: I may be "well on my way" to the auto-victory, but that and 25 cents will buy me a newspaper. [:)] I have come tantalizingly close, but I did not bring enough supply with me to the Caucusus to repair more than one resource there, and now Rome is on the verge of retaking the province from me. If I'd been able to repair everything I conquered by the Winter '43 turn, I'd have won by now.

My plan *had* been to link up my Mideast force with my main army thrusting east through Odessa and Kharkov. But I've only gotten as far as Kharkov -- three provinces away. I fear the tide may be turning on the Russian front.

The picture is brighter for Japan at this very moment; the Western Allies have been preoccupied with the threat to India, and I've had a free hand in the Pacific so far. But the research considerations Joe mentioned are ominous. I think Western Allied infantry outclasses mine now. I did some aircraft research, including CAG torpedo and maybe CAG evasion, but I neglected light fleet ASW. Rome hasn't put any research into his subs, but still, my weak ASW spells trouble. It was on my "to do" list, but I hadn't realized how few research points I'd have as Japan. I haven't been able to afford any research at all the past two turns.

Win or lose, I'm learning a ton here. [:'(]

[Uncle_Joe]

Ok, well as long as he is still using the kind of torpedoes that dont explode on impact, you might be alright on that account! [:D]

[CommC]

OK, a small unsolicited strategy suggestion. Forget about the Pacific and put pressure on Russia by attacking it with Japan ASAP.