How should I treat political points early on as the allies?

[JeffroK]

ORIGINAL: wwengr

Don't waste your PP's saving British Destroyers early in the war, unless you have run out of S' Class destroyers to withdraw. There are 5 at start (three are in Hong Kong and two in Singapore). The S' Class Destroyers are a little better than target drones. They have relatively short legs (low endurance) and poor ASW.

Move your S' Class DD's out of harms way immediately (for that matter, do that with all of the ships near Japanese land based aircraft) and move them to Karachi. They can best serve you by withdrawing. If you have PP's available, it is worth saving the Electra Class Destroyers. Long legs and great ASW, but only if you have enough PP's after taking care of higher priorities (read below)

Use your PP's first to selectively improve the leadership of select units in the PI and DEI so they will put up a better fight.

Use your PP's to withdraw Air Units from the PI and DEI (USAFFE and ABDA). You can do this efficiently by waiting until the units are relatively depleted from Combat. When there are only a few aircraft, it costs only a few PP to change their HQ.

[This may be gamey: say you have multiple air units of one type in a restricted HQ, you can change the command of one, then disband the other into it and you get two for the price of one. Example: Two Dutch Patrol Squadrons equipped with 3 Catalina I aircraft are located in Batavia and Amboina; GVT-16 and GVT-17. If you change HQ for both squadrons it costs 24 PP's. If you change GVT-16, then transfer GVT-17 to Batavia and disband it into GVT-16, it only costs 12 PP. GVT-17 will appear in Sydney assigned to SWPAC 90 days later as soon as 8 Catalina I's are available in the replacement pool.]

Also use your PP's to withdraw Base forces from the PI and DEI. You can wait until they are fairly beat up from combat before changing HQ. It will cost less PP's and the units can rebuild from the replacement pool. After the base forces, save engineers, armor and artillery. If you can afford it, save the US Army RCT's. Do not waste PP's saving the Phillipine units. Their replacement rate is low and the leaders are no good. Don't waste your time saving many Dutch Infantry Units. The Dutch squads are weak, never upgrade, and have a very low replacement rate.

One DEI Strategy that many consider worth pursuing is Fortress Java or Fortress Timor. You can spend PP to evacuate Dutch Units to Java and dig in for a big fight. It will cause the Japanes player to divert resources to take the fortress. From either place you can threaten the DEI resource areas, so he must take it.

Also, use PP's to move good units off of the West Coast.

While I'd not allow some of your ideas, I cant see historically that much movement of units out of the Malay/DEI/PI would be permitted.

Improving your leaders, especially in Malaya is important.

If you want to do a Fortress Timor consider mobilizing 13 Bde from Perth & 3 & 6 Cav from Adelaide. I have also moved 3 Aus Div to Darwin, just in case...

[wwengr]

ORIGINAL: JeffK

While I'd not allow some of your ideas, I cant see historically that much movement of units out of the Malay/DEI/PI would be permitted.

Improving your leaders, especially in Malaya is important.

If you want to do a Fortress Timor consider mobilizing 13 Bde from Perth & 3 & 6 Cav from Adelaide. I have also moved 3 Aus Div to Darwin, just in case...

The beauty of the game is that it allows us to deviate from History and indulge in what ifs???. The concept of PP's forces us to focus our priorities. For instance, we could make the decision to run an early mass evacuation from the Phillipines, but that would use so many PP's that other priorities would be severely delayed (such as improving leaders in other theaters, moving combat forces off of the West Coast, and reinforcing Port Moresby). PP's limit our deviations from History.

[JeffroK]

ORIGINAL: wwengr

ORIGINAL: JeffK

While I'd not allow some of your ideas, I cant see historically that much movement of units out of the Malay/DEI/PI would be permitted.

Improving your leaders, especially in Malaya is important.

If you want to do a Fortress Timor consider mobilizing 13 Bde from Perth & 3 & 6 Cav from Adelaide. I have also moved 3 Aus Div to Darwin, just in case...

The beauty of the game is that it allows us to deviate from History and indulge in what ifs???. The concept of PP's forces us to focus our priorities. For instance, we could make the decision to run an early mass evacuation from the Phillipines, but that would use so many PP's that other priorities would be severely delayed (such as improving leaders in other theaters, moving combat forces off of the West Coast, and reinforcing Port Moresby). PP's limit our deviations from History.

But we do not get negative PP for making decisions, such as evacuations from Malaya & PI which would have sent shudders through the 'folks back home". What would they local troops in the DEI done if all the Dutch Nationals evacuated, it didnt take them long to revolt after the capture of the DEI by japan.

PP in the game are a minor speed hump, I understand AE will have more garrison rules which should force players to keep more forces in place to "keep the locals happy", maybe this will see PP used less for these early evacuations.

[Yamato hugger]

PP costs have been revamped (and are probably still in a state of flux). Take it from a confirmed "Sir Robin" allied player, it isnt nearly as easy to get them guys out as it was.