Feeling overwhelmed, pt.1 Production!

[Tootenhamon]

Sory to interrput, but, you say that there is no way for allies to control their production system. Now my question. In scenario War in The Pacific (15?) in Australia i am building Wirraways and something else (no matter what the nickname of that aircraft is). Doese that mean, that until 1946 all planes i will be building there will be wirraways? It will never change to Boomerangs or Kittyhawks III?

One more question. Why if i order in 1941 a unit with air support in Birma (British unit) to accept replacements (i have plenty of thoese in resource pool and i want to get air support in that unit up to full numbers) there are no replacements at all! The same goes for China and for ABDA. What the hell is going on????

[Mike Solli]

Here are a couple of ideas I've come up with concerning Japanese merchant ship usage. I used to keep a portion of my APs in the Home Islands just to move new land units to their destinations (final resting places?). The APs would then come back to the Home Islands empty. (Note that APs can not carry resources.) I now push just about all of my APs outside the Home Islands for assaults and to move ground units around the liberated areas. I use AKs to move my new units out from the Home Islands. This way, they can haul resources back to the Home Islands. No more empty empty ships moving around. Yes, it's not as efficient, but it does save fuel in the long run.

TKs haul fuel out and bring oil in to the Home Islands. I suspect everyone does that. It's not really anything new.

My overall goal is to minimize moving empty merchant ships around. Damaged APs go back to various ports to be repaired. On the way back to the front, they'll haul supply to a location on the way to their final destination. Again, it's not the most efficient way to transport supply, but it's better than moving empty ships.

[John 3rd]

Mike,
That sounds like a pretty good idea. Has it proven very practical?

[Mike Solli]

Well, I'm only into late March 42 for my longest PBEM. The Japanese get a lot of base forces and I like for them to have some defensive capability, so I accept replacements for them until they hit 40 infantry squads (their max). I like for my other reinforcements to be at max strength before they leave Japan. So, I haven't sent a lot of forces out of Japan yet. (You ought to see how many reinforcements are still sitting in Japan!) I just came up with idea about a month ago (game month). I'm still in the process of moving ships to where they belong. Basically, I moved most of my APs out of Japan (except for a certain amount kept there for invasions originating from Japan, a strategic reserve, if you will). I have been moving ground units out using AKs for a couple of weeks now. It's looking very promising except for the Central Pacific. There are no resources (or oil) to move except for the small quantity at Nauru Island. One 3.5k AK a year will take care of that island. I'm considering using APs to move ground units to the Central Pacific and SE Pacific areas. The AKs will go to the DEI. Another possibility is to move the AKs from Central Pacific to DEI and then pick up resources. I'm concerned with that possibility because it would suck fuel from Truk. Then I would have to allocate more TKs to send fuel to Truk instead of moving to DEI.

I'm this early in the war and have lost no TKs (frantically looking for wood to knock on) and already have a shortage of TKs to move oil. Part of this is due to capturing 350k oil in Palembang! I'm having a hard time moving oil out of the major oil producing ports fast enough. I'm upgrading the major oil producing ports port levels to be able to increase the turn around times for the TKs.

I guess it's a long way of saying it's a work in process. I think I'm going to stick with it though. I'd like to start a game with this philosophy just to see how efficient it is from the start.

[Mynok]

I do the same with my BFs as Japan. I find that they build up fastest in Hiroshima due to the number of high-supply bases around there.

Your AK sounds workable, I just haven't found it to be necessary. I have more than enough AP's to execute my invasions and still transport reinforcements where needed. Fuel also hasn't been an issue. I'm swimming in it.

A suggestion on the DEI oil: transport it to Singapore. If you have the rail line cleared to China, alot of it will migrate fast and freely to the northern Chinese ports.....where it is just a short hop to Sasebo. This maximizes TK usage, as they don't have long runs while empty to get back to where the oil is stored. One of my #1 goals is always to clear that railroad in southern China.

[Mike Solli]

Ahh, very interesting. How do you clear the rail line? Do you move from Canton or from FIC, or do you invade the coast?

[bigT74]

Very interesting,Mynok. Well, I decided to play as both the allies and japan (different games, against computer) until I got the hang of the game. These last points will be very useful...

[John 3rd]

Are you serious that with the railline open, some of that supply will move to northern China? Don't lose a portion of supplies for each hex you move? (or is that an old Uncommon Valor rule?) That would be great to not have to worry about!

I REALLY like the structured idea of using the AP--AK for re-supply and transport. Going to look at my map tonight. Probably would take at least a month just to get things started. Hmmmm....

[Mike Solli]

I used to think that the 4.5k APs were great because they're fast and carry a lot. I thought they'd be great for invasions. No more. I use 1.5k APs for invasions. You use a lot more, of course, but they unload and get out of there much quicker.

Just another comment. I never ever ship a unit in one ship. I always use at least two. I'd hate to have that ship sunk. Goodbye LBU.

[dtravel]

ORIGINAL: Tootenhamon

Sory to interrput, but, you say that there is no way for allies to control their production system. Now my question. In scenario War in The Pacific (15?) in Australia i am building Wirraways and something else (no matter what the nickname of that aircraft is). Doese that mean, that until 1946 all planes i will be building there will be wirraways? It will never change to Boomerangs or Kittyhawks III?

You have no control over whether they will change to Boomerangs or Kittyhawks. IIRC the on-map Allied factories will automatically switch over to new models, but the player has no control over it.

One more question. Why if i order in 1941 a unit with air support in Birma (British unit) to accept replacements (i have plenty of thoese in resource pool and i want to get air support in that unit up to full numbers) there are no replacements at all! The same goes for China and for ABDA. What the hell is going on????

Apparently by design, a unit will never get more than one or two replacement elements per day and will not get replacements every day. From what I have observed in the game, this is a hard-coded limit. (And yes, it does directly contradict what the manual says.)

[Mynok]

Are you serious that with the railline open, some of that supply will move to northern China?

Yeppers. The key thing is the oil and resources, of course, not the supply though it moves too. Oil tends to congregate in Tientsin. I have no clue of the mechanics of it, just that it does.

Clearing the rail isn't overly easy, as China can make a hard push and knock you out of Nanning and Pakhoi. Japan really has to concentrate at either Changsha or Wuchow and then knock out the line of cities Wuchow-Kweilin-Hengchow-Changsha one by one. Doesn't matter which direction you go, but I prefer to start at Changsha. Once those major bases are secured, it is pretty straightforward to march down the rail line from Canton and clear it. It is easy to keep open because China has no quick means of making a move on it due to the lack of rails/roads from his bases in the area.

It's very much worth it to be able to make TK runs to Shanghai and Tientsin to pick up your Palembang oil though. [:D]

[John 3rd]

Mynok,
Well done with this observation! I will remember it and finish off those Chinese rail cities. Should have Changsha soon and work my way south.

[Mynok]

Total accident, actually. I was using Singapore as a staging point for my oil anyway, and went there to set up a monthly monstrous TK TF and ....whoa!...Where did all that oil go?

Went to the base screen, displayed resources, sort by Oil.....wah-lah! There's a big pile in Tientsin and Shanghai.

[bradfordkay]

Have you watched the difference between how much is lost a Singapore and how much ends up at Tientsin? (I know, difficult to do, as Singapore has HI which also uses oil and resources) I believe with a run of that long, the game system will take a big percentage of your oil and resources as watage.

[Mynok]

Oil and resources never waste.

It may very well eat supply, but that's nearly impossible to track and not worth it. There's plenty of supply once Changsha and Yenen go down.

[bradfordkay]

Oil and resources never waste.



Never realized that...

[Mynok]

Devil's in the details, and this game is full of devils...erm...details. [:D]

[bradfordkay]

I just plan on worst case for everything...[;)]

[Mike Solli]

Yup, and as the Japanese, the worst usually happens.[:(]

[ADavidB]

One more question. Why if i order in 1941 a unit with air support in Birma (British unit) to accept replacements (i have plenty of thoese in resource pool and i want to get air support in that unit up to full numbers) there are no replacements at all! The same goes for China and for ABDA. What the hell is going on????

A number of things affect how quickly units accept replacements:

1) Location - a unit in a malarial zone such as Burma will lose troops as fast or faster than it will receive them. If you want to be certain that a unit will receive replacements you have to put it into a non-malarial area.

2) Supply - a unit needs lots of supplies to receive replacements. Make certain that your unit is in a base where the supply level is in the black, and preferably with more than 20K supplies.

3) HQ - a unit gets replacements much, much faster if it is within the control radius of its own HQ. So move it to where its HQ is located or change its HQ to one near by. (BTW - if the HQ is too far away the unit won't get replacements regardless of the other three things in this list.)

4) Leader - The better the characteristics of the leader of the unit, the better chance that the unit will get replacements. Check the leadership level and put a better leader if possible, particularly a leader with better inspiration.

Good luck -

Dave Baranyi