Hell Hath Frozen Over (Scout1 (J) vs Lowpe (A)

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Encircled


Surviving 1942 and not losing (especially in Scen 2) has to be the allied aim

Yeah, there are AARs where the allies have sunk the KB in '42, but that only happens if the Japanese player is going big and the allied player is ready for it.

In this game, the ground war will be pretty different because of the 2 day turns.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Encircled

Surviving 1942 and not losing (especially in Scen 2) has to be the allied aim

Yeah, there are AARs where the allies have sunk the KB in '42, but that only happens if the Japanese player is going big and the allied player is ready for it.

In this game, the ground war will be pretty different because of the 2 day turns.

I have never played anything other than one day turns. But I can see that land combat can get pretty deadly if the first turn is bad and if reinforcements arrive on the second turn but there is still combat. Air would be something else as well.

Hopefully, you will have a battleship like the Arizona survives intact while the KB hangs around Pearl Harbor so you can charge out and wreck havoc upon the KB. Let slip the Dogs of War . . .

[Lowpe]

I have given Japan pretty much the ok to do anything on pre-turn except hunt American Carriers.

It seems very difficult to head south with Force Z and survive. Perhaps switching the initial routing to coastal to insure Force Z gets a whack at any Mersing landing might be the better option.

I would really like to save Force Z, but not real sure how to go about that and be successful.

I could have chosen a Singapore first defense...but if the Japanese prevent a consolidation of forces in Malaya then the defense would be short lived indeed. The early capture of Singapore is I am sure a goal of the Empire.

There is a free unit of Marmon Herrington armored cars at Singapore, if I can I am going to ship them to Palembang to strengthen the defense there.

[jdsrae]

This is a fun and interesting time pre-start.
The guessing and second guessing about what the enemy will do.
They will probably do something different!

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: jdsrae

This is a fun and interesting time pre-start.
The guessing and second guessing about what the enemy will do.
They will probably do something different!

Yep, you are right, JFBs are fairly creative and unpredictable at their openings.


When I played scenario 2, I managed a 20+ IJA invasion in Jan of 1943 and that is late and of course China going away in 1942 makes almost anything possible.

A big focus will be improving Allied recon early on to minimize surprises and preplanned counterpunches against a hyper aggressive Japan. Now if Japan establishes their perimeter and turtles, a much different game is going to be played out. Either is fine by me....but figuring it out a high priority.

A fair number of medium bombers will be tasked with recon duties, submarines not involved with running supplies, laying mines, or interdicting will be used for intel purposes. I want to get a handle on how Japan operates.

[RangerJoe]

If the Allies drop supplies on a Soviet beach, will they declare war? [&:]

[phebron]

Against the computer I have good luck sending Force Z at full speed to Batavia. It will only go about 8 hexes since there is only one naval movement phase on turn 1.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

If the Allies drop supplies on a Soviet beach, will they declare war? [&:]

We are allies...all the while the war rages, the Japanese let merchant ships go into Russia.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: phebron

Against the computer I have good luck sending Force Z at full speed to Batavia. It will only go about 8 hexes since there is only one naval movement phase on turn 1.

Pbem is a different animal. [;)] There is a narrow area where portions of the KB can strike. A potential counter is to do night naval search and patrol where I think the Carriers might show up hunting POW and hoping to the rng gods for a night encounter.

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

ORIGINAL: Alfred
No supply spoilage wastage for first week of a scenario nor for supply transit between bases.

Alfred

Woah, this one is new to me. Is it hardcoded for every scenario out there? Might explain some of the strange results in my spoilage tests

Yes.

Introduced in Patch 6, Tweak #39.

Alfred

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

If the Allies drop supplies on a Soviet beach, will they declare war? [&:]

We are allies...all the while the war rages, the Japanese let merchant ships go into Russia.

Only Japan can force an early Soviet activation.

Alfred

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I have given Japan pretty much the ok to do anything on pre-turn except hunt American Carriers.

It seems very difficult to head south with Force Z and survive. Perhaps switching the initial routing to coastal to insure Force Z gets a whack at any Mersing landing might be the better option.

I would really like to save Force Z, but not real sure how to go about that and be successful.

I could have chosen a Singapore first defense...but if the Japanese prevent a consolidation of forces in Malaya then the defense would be short lived indeed. The early capture of Singapore is I am sure a goal of the Empire.

There is a free unit of Marmon Herrington armored cars at Singapore, if I can I am going to ship them to Palembang to strengthen the defense there.

Changing the threat tolerance level to "Low" is more hopeful. Of no real value if Historical" start is in play, so in this case if you are allowed to do so, changing the level has a small chance of saving Force Z.

Alfred

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Changing the threat tolerance level to "Low" is more hopeful. Of no real value if Historical" start is in play, so in this case if you are allowed to do so, changing the level has a small chance of saving Force Z.

Alfred

+1![&o]


Big believer in low threat tolerance setting. I plan on making liberal use of "low" threat tolerance, especially in the early days when most night experience is in the 30s and 40s.

I have played around with creating training task forces, with a high leadership task force commander to increase experience gain, patrol orders, but without combat it seems not much more effective than just creating a task force and letting it sit in a hex.

I am looking to prioritize gaining night experience, so my primary SAG usage will be with that in mind, looking to ambush convoys, night bombardments (which isn't nearly as effective as surface combat in raising experience), and if I find IJN SAG I hope the low threat tolerance will cause them to runaway very quickly, and not get into drawn out slugfests where the IJN enjoys a 30 point experience advantage.

Extreme care will be taken with the Iboat horde around Pearl. The best ASW ship at Pearl is the long legged Taney. But her experience at night is in the 20's!. We have got some serious training to do to get these rookies up to speed.

[Encircled]

My novel way of gaining night experience in my current game was getting every cruiser torpedoed so they learnt experience the old fashioned way.

Looking forward to seeing how two day turns work.

I'm so OCD that I couldn't even begin to contemplate the possibility of even considering it!

[Lowpe]

Got an email from my honorable Japanese opponent, he is now searching for specific bases that he has forgotten where they are.

I think that is something every WITP AE player has spent time on![:D] Not to mention all the funny dual locations, Batan/Bataan, Christmas Island x2, etc. etc.

The optimist in me would like to see a turn this night. However, I don't want Japan to rush, and have of course told him to run many sample first turns to make sure he doesn't make any day 1 blunders due to the game engine. I don't want to start the game off on a disappointing note.

[Lowpe]

Perhaps one of the more frustrating challenges an AFB player faces, is understanding devices and which pool they pull from.

US supplied Chinese Infantry units pull from different pools...American 40mm Bofors (not the Chinese pool with pitiful production), but they pull from Chinese pools for the 105mm artillery gun.

Interesting to note that the American 40mm Bofors is more accurate than the Chinese Bofors.

It took me using tracker to discover this, otherwise it would be hard to pull that data from the game itself sans using the editor.

Or is there an method in the game to figure it out? Anyone know?

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Changing the threat tolerance level to "Low" is more hopeful. Of no real value if Historical" start is in play, so in this case if you are allowed to do so, changing the level has a small chance of saving Force Z.

Alfred

+1![&o]


Big believer in low threat tolerance setting. I plan on making liberal use of "low" threat tolerance, especially in the early days when most night experience is in the 30s and 40s.

I have played around with creating training task forces, with a high leadership task force commander to increase experience gain, patrol orders, but without combat it seems not much more effective than just creating a task force and letting it sit in a hex.

I am looking to prioritize gaining night experience, so my primary SAG usage will be with that in mind, looking to ambush convoys, night bombardments (which isn't nearly as effective as surface combat in raising experience), and if I find IJN SAG I hope the low threat tolerance will cause them to runaway very quickly, and not get into drawn out slugfests where the IJN enjoys a 30 point experience advantage.

Extreme care will be taken with the Iboat horde around Pearl. The best ASW ship at Pearl is the long legged Taney. But her experience at night is in the 20's!. We have got some serious training to do to get these rookies up to speed.

Two things to point out.

1. The threat tolerance level primarily refers to the threat posed by enemy aircraft. Set to "Low" instructs the TF to avoid venturing into any territory where there is an enemy air presence. The enemy air need not be dominant. Of course, the traits of the TF leader can, to a certain extent, negate the setting in part or in full. A meek and mild mannered TF leader, one with a low Aggression rating, is much more likely to follow orders and not enter enemy air space. Never, ever, appoint Halsey to a TF with a Low" level threat setting.

Even with a Low setting, a TF led by a meek and mild mannered leader may move into enemy air space because it doesn't know enemy air is in the area. Or the only way home is through transiting the least enemy air controlled air space. Hence just as important as the leader is having a high MDL in the area of likely operations.

The threat tolerance level doesn't really apply to deciding to attempt to decline battle when TFs bump into each other. Then the TF leader traits are the main factor in play in assessing the known relevant data to decide whether to decline or accept combat.

2. Shakedown cruises have different experience caps for ships based on type. TF leadership is irrelevant. It is a question of time spent at sea. Once the cap is reached, only engagement in actual combat will raise the ship's experience level. A ship which is in a TF which is involved in combat but it itself does not fire or is fired upon in that combat, does not increase it's experience level. This is why a Bombardment TF is not as efficacious as a Surface Combat TF in raising ship experience levels as generally speaking fewer ships in a Bombardment TF receive actual return fire than do ships in a Surface Combat TF.

Alfred

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Changing the threat tolerance level to "Low" is more hopeful. Of no real value if Historical" start is in play, so in this case if you are allowed to do so, changing the level has a small chance of saving Force Z.

Alfred

+1![&o]


Big believer in low threat tolerance setting. I plan on making liberal use of "low" threat tolerance, especially in the early days when most night experience is in the 30s and 40s.

I have played around with creating training task forces, with a high leadership task force commander to increase experience gain, patrol orders, but without combat it seems not much more effective than just creating a task force and letting it sit in a hex.

I am looking to prioritize gaining night experience, so my primary SAG usage will be with that in mind, looking to ambush convoys, night bombardments (which isn't nearly as effective as surface combat in raising experience), and if I find IJN SAG I hope the low threat tolerance will cause them to runaway very quickly, and not get into drawn out slugfests where the IJN enjoys a 30 point experience advantage.

Extreme care will be taken with the Iboat horde around Pearl. The best ASW ship at Pearl is the long legged Taney. But her experience at night is in the 20's!. We have got some serious training to do to get these rookies up to speed.

Couple of questions -

Would the low threat tolerance really help Force Z avoid the KB when the KB threat would be through its air strikes? Maybe I am mistaken, but I thought routing control was the setting that dealt with avoidance of air threats.

If you create an SAG and dock it (so it doesn't waste fuel), does it still gain experience or does it need to be undocked?

Thanks!

Edit: On the first question, just saw Alfred's latest post. Looks like I was mistaken on threat tolerance. The question that I am now left with is how routing control figures into this?

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Perhaps one of the more frustrating challenges an AFB player faces, is understanding devices and which pool they pull from.

US supplied Chinese Infantry units pull from different pools...American 40mm Bofors (not the Chinese pool with pitiful production), but they pull from Chinese pools for the 105mm artillery gun.

Interesting to note that the American 40mm Bofors is more accurate than the Chinese Bofors.

It took me using tracker to discover this, otherwise it would be hard to pull that data from the game itself sans using the editor.

Or is there an method in the game to figure it out? Anyone know?

Yes.

Use the nationality filters on the devices pools screen.

Alfred

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Changing the threat tolerance level to "Low" is more hopeful. Of no real value if Historical" start is in play, so in this case if you are allowed to do so, changing the level has a small chance of saving Force Z.

Alfred

+1![&o]


Big believer in low threat tolerance setting. I plan on making liberal use of "low" threat tolerance, especially in the early days when most night experience is in the 30s and 40s.

I have played around with creating training task forces, with a high leadership task force commander to increase experience gain, patrol orders, but without combat it seems not much more effective than just creating a task force and letting it sit in a hex.

I am looking to prioritize gaining night experience, so my primary SAG usage will be with that in mind, looking to ambush convoys, night bombardments (which isn't nearly as effective as surface combat in raising experience), and if I find IJN SAG I hope the low threat tolerance will cause them to runaway very quickly, and not get into drawn out slugfests where the IJN enjoys a 30 point experience advantage.

Extreme care will be taken with the Iboat horde around Pearl. The best ASW ship at Pearl is the long legged Taney. But her experience at night is in the 20's!. We have got some serious training to do to get these rookies up to speed.

Couple of questions -

Would the low threat tolerance really help Force Z avoid the KB when the KB threat would be through its air strikes? Maybe I am mistaken, but I thought routing control was the setting that dealt with avoidance of air threats.

If you create an SAG and dock it (so it doesn't waste fuel), does it still gain experience or does it need to be undocked?

Thanks!

The routing setting deals with the movement path.

Alfred