My first go at this game, very enjoyable!

[RhinoDad]

It is not surprising that many Japanese saw the coming war as national suicide. But death before dishonour.

A problem facing the Japanese was trying to get a population who less than 80 years before were samurai wearing armor and fighting with swords into a modern military with airplanes, artillery, tanks, etc. Thus they employed an aerial strategy of very few well trained over many sort of trained.

With a many somewhat trained the allies only had to implement better training.

The Japanese did not alter their training and pilot selection much during the war so they were stuck trying to fight with too small a group of pilots; a design that was meant for quick victory or a non-aerial opponent. They had been fighting a non-aerial opponent in China but things changed drastically once in a war with the western powers. Though their pilots were some of the best trained in the world war attrition quickly took its toll.

[RangerJoe]

The Japanese did change it but it was too late.

You are here to make the difference.

[streetsahead1985]

This has been an incredible thread to follow for a newcomer like myself. I stumbled my way through Coral as the Allies now I'm trying my hand at GCanal and threads like these make me realize how many mechanics I was unaware of/underutilized. This game is so much deeper than any game I've ever played and at times I feel like I'm drowning, but I love learning it.

A resource that has been fun to read through has been the archives at history.naval.mil. Lots of in-depth combat narratives that were made public in 2017. Currently reading the 60+ narrative of the invasion of Tulagi and it's helped me wrap my head around a lot of the techniques of the carriers.

[RangerJoe]

That is why it is advised that a new player does not go into the Grand Campaign right away.

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: RhinoDad

A problem facing the Japanese was trying to get a population who less than 80 years before were samurai wearing armor and fighting with swords into a modern military

A common misconception is that samurai were mainly using their swords for war*. While the daisho was the symbol of nobility, bows and spears were the primary weapons of war for the samurai caste, and one must not underestimate their willingness to adopt modernity.

During the Sengoku period, one could argue that there were as many, if not more, firearms in Japan than in European countries of the same proportion. Those included cannons, and many firearms (I’d say most) were produced by local gunsmiths, after the initial introduction by the Portuguese merchants around 1540-50, and if they weren’t used anymore until the Meiji period, it is only because large scale conflict ceased.



* a bit like many people believe the medieval knights were primarily using their sword, in fact...

[Randy Stead]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

That is why it is advised that a new player does not go into the Grand Campaign right away.

Best advice about this game, and glad I have followed it.

Yesterday I replayed the Coral Sea one last time [who am I kidding?] as the IJN. I finally figured out how to get LR-CAP working, by giving land based Zeros drop tanks and keeping my two carriers under their umbrella. I got an attack in against the US CVs without a counterstrike, which greatly aided me. When they did manage to hit back, I had enough CAP that only a handful of Dauntlesses got through. My heart dropped when I saw units of 3-4 make their bombing runs, but they seemed disjointed. My flak picked off quite a few of them and the ones that did drop bombs missed. Not one hit on any of my ships from aerial ordnance during the whole scenario. I hit the carriers again at which point they could no longer fly. I found Yorktown limping home and finished her off.

Just a few hexes out of Rabaul Chicago Maru got hit by a sub. In my previous play she was sunk, along with her cargo of troops. In that scenario I ran out of time due to less capable land combat. This time I got her back to port, when an idea struck me: use that TF that was now empty after dropping off at Tulagi. I sailed it to Rabaul and picked up the elements of Regiment 144 that were unloaded by Chicago Maru. I got them to PM just in time to help in the final assault, a 4-1 on May 13th and took the base. I think any troops lost at sea in such a narrow margin scenario are the difference between success and failure.

As well, I made more bombardments, getting everything I could rearmed and expending everything. Bombing raids from Rabaul and I also dedicated one group of bombers to recon. I saw my detection levels increasing, but I am not sure how much that helped land combat. I need to do more reading on the influence of detection levels. The bombardments seem to have helped, at least in terms of ships lost to the shore guns. I only lost three transports to the shore guns compared to 5 or 6 previously. I lost one maru to a sub, so four transports in total, and lost no naval units.

Final score, 2666 - 1025, decisive Japanese victory.

Allied ship losses, 10:

CV - Lexington, Yorktown
CA - Australia, Chicago
CL - Hobart
DD - Aylwin, Whipple, Worden
AO - Tippecanoe, Neosho

[Ambassador]

Détection level matters in combat performance, from ground combat to bombardment (both naval and aerial). It matters a lot.

Sinking both CV and taking the base is a very good result. Congrats !

LRCAP is useful, but beware fatigue (both of the pilots and of the planes). This is not something to conduct lightly, be careful on longer scenarios, or you might end up losing many planes to Ops losses.

Performance of bombers is affected by the CAP and flak they face. A single obsolete plane on CAP and a peashooter as sole AA weapon are far better than nothing.

[RangerJoe]

I am glad that you tried it again and won.

Now, try to LRCAP the enemy airbases even at 10% to increase their OPs losses! These will even fight against the CAP on a bomber raid.

[Randy Stead]

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

Détection level matters in combat performance, from ground combat to bombardment (both naval and aerial). It matters a lot.

Sinking both CV and taking the base is a very good result. Congrats !

LRCAP is useful, but beware fatigue (both of the pilots and of the planes). This is not something to conduct lightly, be careful on longer scenarios, or you might end up losing many planes to Ops losses.

Performance of bombers is affected by the CAP and flak they face. A single obsolete plane on CAP and a peashooter as sole AA weapon are far better than nothing.

Oh, yeah! I had a snoop around and found one Zero unit with a fatigue rating of 84! [X(] Then I looked at every air unit and realized this is something to which I must pay attention. I then stood down several units. I even pulled my carriers back one day to give the boys a rest.

I've never played a game where such details mattered. Most of the time you push around cardboard counters or pixelated entities, without considering that those things are made up of "real" people. This is a detail I shall be sure to attend in long games.

[Ambassador]

This is why you need a well-established routine, to check such things regularly enough, some of them every turn.

The difficulty of the grand campaign is that you’re not only in the shoes of Nimitz, but also of Halsey, MacArthur, Mountbatten, Chiang Kai-shek, Spruance, Mitscher, Vandergrift, Boyington, all the way down to Edson and Carlson. Well, you don’t have to take every decision in the field, some of that is determined by the game engine, but based on decisions you made (for example by assigning the leaders, missions, altitudes...).

[Kull]

One of the biggest mistakes I ever made came at the start of the Solomons campaign. I had everything ready for the Lunga invasion. All combat units prepped to 100% (including the accompanying HQ) and plenty of support units - AA, Eng, BFs, even an Air HQ so I could field plenty of Air units for CAP and local defense. What I didn't bring was plenty of supply - just whatever was loaded on the Amphib TFs along with the troops. Let me tell you, 15K of supply doesn't last long when you have land combat going and relentless air assaults from Munda and Shortlands. And even with land-based CAP, the whole area was so dangerous that the re-supply convoys needed Carrier and SCTF accompaniment in order to make it through and linger long enough to unload. Which gave Ms. Betty an opportunity to slip through and put torps into Enterprise and Lexington, sidelining them for many months.

A VERY expensive lesson.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

Détection level matters in combat performance, from ground combat to bombardment (both naval and aerial). It matters a lot.

Sinking both CV and taking the base is a very good result. Congrats !

LRCAP is useful, but beware fatigue (both of the pilots and of the planes). This is not something to conduct lightly, be careful on longer scenarios, or you might end up losing many planes to Ops losses.

Performance of bombers is affected by the CAP and flak they face. A single obsolete plane on CAP and a peashooter as sole AA weapon are far better than nothing.

Oh, yeah! I had a snoop around and found one Zero unit with a fatigue rating of 84! [X(] Then I looked at every air unit and realized this is something to which I must pay attention. I then stood down several units. I even pulled my carriers back one day to give the boys a rest.

I've never played a game where such details mattered. Most of the time you push around cardboard counters or pixelated entities, without considering that those things are made up of "real" people. This is a detail I shall be sure to attend in long games.

The pilot fatigue is what most players look at, but there is also a PLANE fatigue that plays into ops losses a lot. Look at it by clicking on the PLANES hypertext at the bottom of the Air Unit screen. To manage it I set a maximum fatigue for ops (the setting depends how close to home base they will be fighting) E.G. for my current aerial bombardment of Truk with most HBs at range 13 to 16 from target, I set 15 fatigue as my cut-off and any aircraft at or over that level are set to rest (by working out what % of the squadron they amount to). This has kept by Ops losses very low, but it is a PITA to do it every turn!

EDIT: PS - managing plane fatigue also helps rest pilots and get their fatigue down.

[RangerJoe]

To manage fatigued pilots, you can also send them to "Group Reserve" where they are still in the unit but not flying. But they can come back immediately when you "recall" them to "Active" status.

A somewhat bad mistake a player made was when he redirected an convoy to a land hex in the USSR but did not set them to not unload. The convoy must have unloaded some really bad sushi [:-] because Stalin was not pleased [:@] and the USSR declared war on Japan in 1942! This was between two players in a PBEM game.

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Bettys and Nells are torpedo planes and thus are not restricted to carrying to the size 4 airbase.

Absolutely False. Dude, please do your checks before you respond.[:-]

[rustysi]

but there is also a PLANE fatigue that plays into ops losses a lot.

Oh yeah. Layers upon layers in this game.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Bettys and Nells are torpedo planes and thus are not restricted to carrying to the size 4 airbase.

Absolutely False. Dude, please do your checks before you respond.[:-]

I am NOT a Dude.

Joe

[fcooke]

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

I know that; I should've used emoticons to convey that it wasn't a serious post.

I wonder about policies with respect to splitting up close relations in combat units. In WWI the British deployed "pals" battalions, units of men drafted or volunteered from local areas. On one hand it facilitated very close bonds that boosted morale but at the same time made the effects of large casualties more demoralizing both at the front and at home as the casualty lists were published.

The USN did have a policy of splitting up brothers. The 5 Sullivans petitioned, obviously with success, to serve on the same ship. That one of them survived was lucky but probably in ratio with the overall survival rate of the men on the ship. It was estimated that about 100 men made it into the water. Due to some bungling the rescue operations were delayed and I think only 10 men eventually were rescued.

[fcooke]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

Sorry, I'm still left wondering about those shore guns in the Coral Sea scenario. Has anybody figured out a way to pull their teeth with what is available in the scenario? I lose at least four ships from the landing force to those shore guns every time I play this scenario. In this game I lost a transport, with its cargo of supplies and/or troops, plus the number of men who drown during the unloading process. I guess the Japanese are not as good at swimming when laden with gear as the USMC?

And I have still not had any luck getting the Zeros from Lae to do a strafe attack on Port Moresby. I set the mission to ground attack, target PM and set the altitude to 100' and still nothing happens. I am wondering what I am doing wrong. I've only been attempting this for the purpose of getting to see what it does in a scenario before I try it in a campaign.

With drop tanks, Zeros can sweep or LRCAP up to 14 hexes. Strafing is ineffective against troops with forts and you will lose a lot of aircraft to light AA. Your Zero pilots are probably not well trained in strafing anyway. IRL the Japanese landed their troops down the coast between Milne Bay and PM. Aircraft from PM took out most of their supply ships so they could never make much progress up the coast. You can drop troops at a coastal hex (at least you could when the game came out) but the losses are something like 50%. It seems your only real choice is to put those CAs in the Amphib TF to suppress the CD unit.

BB - I think you are referring the Milne Bay invasion here, not the Coral Sea battle? I don't recall any Japanese troops getting 'feet dry' during the Coral Sea battle. And landing troops anywhere other directly at PM in this scenario would not work.

That said, what those Australian P-40s did to the Milne Bay invasion force was mighty impressive.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: fcooke

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

I know that; I should've used emoticons to convey that it wasn't a serious post.

I wonder about policies with respect to splitting up close relations in combat units. In WWI the British deployed "pals" battalions, units of men drafted or volunteered from local areas. On one hand it facilitated very close bonds that boosted morale but at the same time made the effects of large casualties more demoralizing both at the front and at home as the casualty lists were published.

The USN did have a policy of splitting up brothers. The 5 Sullivans petitioned, obviously with success, to serve on the same ship. That one of them survived was lucky but probably in ratio with the overall survival rate of the men on the ship. It was estimated that about 100 men made it into the water. Due to some bungling the rescue operations were delayed and I think only 10 men eventually were rescued.

Even though the Japanese knew where the task force was, the task force did not report the sinking by radio. Three days later when Halsey found out about the sinking, he did everything that he could to rescue the men. The task force commander was chastised . . .

[ggeilman]

After spending the bulk of two weeks setting up the campaign game decided to give Coral Sea a try. It started out well enough. I was able to sink his cargo TF, but then his carrier TF found mine, end result four carriers in the drink. With no carriers to stop him the AI brought up the rest of his fleet and invaded PM. I brought all the planes I could to the northern airfields in Australia and cap to PM. He fought hard, but I was able to hold. End result was a slim marginal victory by a couple of 100 points. Will have to keep trying to get better!