where i can down a manual?

[bradk]

Ah, well playing against a human has almost nothing in common with playing against IJ AI. IJ AI forgets that the war is about oil, at least in Campaign 41, and doesn't bother to capture DEI at a reasonable time. IJ prep points come from oil, and its offensive would stall in a few months except that Matrix does a moogie foogie to give IJ AI oil and thus prep points.

A human player doesn't have this help so will likely be very aggressive about capturing the oil fields. You're probably seeing a much more agressive advance with a human opponent than when playing against IJ AI.

Don't be concerned. From what I can tell, with all the production and control points Matrix added, and the delay of the kill multiplier, IJ can't win unless it takes just about every base on the map, including the US west coast bases.

Just remember, its a different game with a human. Playing against AI has a realism level only slightly better than playing Risk. Mostly useful for learning the game mechanics.

[poop17]

sorry,where ,or what is "DEI"?[&:]

I'm concerned about I will be the one which lose US west coast bases.[:D][:D][:D]

[Capt. Harlock]

sorry,where ,or what is "DEI"?

DEI stands for the Dutch East Indies, especially the bases on Java, Sumatra, and southern Borneo. It's sometimes referred to as NEI, for Netherland East Indies. (Think of modern-day Indonesia.)

One other useful abbreviation is SRA, for Southern Resource Area. This was Japan's term for just about anywhere between Australia and China that had useful resources.

[bradk]

ORIGINAL: Van Van

I'm concerned about I will be the one which lose US west coast bases.[:D][:D][:D]

Losing Malaysia and DEI, which is inevitable if the IJ player make a reasonable effort to take them, is a lot different from losing the US west coast. You haven't mentioned game date or other losses. Like maybe the Hawaiian Islands?

[poop17]

Thanks [&o]
I think it looks bad,I still not send US LCU to Australia.
It's 1942 -3

[Capt. Harlock]

I think it looks bad,I still not send US LCU to Australia.

I'm afraid the India theater does indeed look bad. My advice is to concentrate on holding Calcutta if possible, but evacuate all the ships you can just in case. Run bombardment missions from Viz-whatever that western base is named.

[poop17]

Thanks .I will try it[:D]

[bradk]

Yea, I agree with Capt Harlock, trouble in India. OTOH, everyone has supply problems between Calcutta and Bangkok. Designed into the game. However, your opponent is probably supplying Burma by sea, about the only way to run an offensive that deep. So, can you cut off supply further east? Probably not possible if he's built a level 4 airfield at Andaman, but you might want to consider the possibility.

I think at this point I'd proceed on the assumption you're going to lose Calcutta and act to maximize the commitment by your opponent necessary to capture it BUT without you losing important ships or multiple airgroups. A tough thing to do, but possible.

Also remember that at this point, IJ can go just about anywhere, but can't go everywhere. So if you can get a situation where he has to commit more air and especially the IJN to the India project, without involving the USN and Aus and US airgroups and LCUs, then you have the rest of the map to yourself, where you can do a lot.

[bradk]

Thinking ahead a bit, also remember that like in real life, in this game, defense of an island depends on control of the sea around it. What are you going to do with Columbo/Trincomolee? You need probably 150 fighters and a couple bomber groups with good antiship aircraft, at least two 50+ experience Divisions, and a carrier TF, to defend it. Something to coordinate with what you're doing in Calcutta.

[poop17]

I only have a TF around there.[X(]

[bradk]

But you should have enough air in India. Don't lose the airgroups in defense of India.

[bradk]

During the IJ expansion phase, you must look at each threatened location and decide whether you have a good chance of defending with reasonable losses. Reasonable losses does not include having most of your CVs damaged or sunk unless you inflict greater losses on IJN.

If you find its not likely you can stop the IJ advance at that place, then you must decide if you should evacuate with no or minimal combat, or fight to delay IJ while hopefully inflicting losses on IJ greater than your own.

IJ will take what it wants early, absent errors. If there are no IJ errors, then you must decide when and where you have enough strength and probably an advantage unrecognized by the IJ player, so you can stop the advance. Think in terms of an opportunity for a Midway type event.

While I've mentioned reasonable losses, losses matter only because of what you can do if you have ships, LCUs, or airgroups, or what you can't do if you don't have them. In the end, kill points are irrelevant because of the Matrix increases in control and produciton points.

[poop17]

I think i make a mistake about allies defensive strategy.I only left 2 airgroups in base.


Van Van

[poop17]

I can't unload Oil and Res from my ships.
yap,I have try to do it when  in  San francisco and Sydney.



Van Van

[Capt. Harlock]

I can't unload Oil and Res from my ships.

Do you mean Fuel and Supplies? There is no need for the Allies to bother with Oil and Resources.

(Which is half right. The oilfields of Texas and elsewhere gave the U.S. an adequate supply during WWII, but there were shortages of other resources such as tin and rubber.)

[poop17]

No,It's not Fuel and Supplies.
I just do a test ,then  load Res and Oil.But i can't unload them now.
 
Do you mean IJ need trans Oil and Res to Tokyo,Or to Japanese factory?
 
Thanks
 
 
Van Van

[bradk]

If you're talking about the game in which you're playing Allies, first, its probably not a good idea to test things in a real game.  Second, oil and resource are not part of Allied calcuations.  You will note when checking pools on Allies there is not resource or oil listing, but when checking pools for IJ there is oil and resource listing.

IJ player can load oil , if he can find a base where it doesn't have an asterisk (asterisk means the routine convoy system has already reserved it) which is normally only Rangoon.  My analysis is that manually transporting oil is a loser, even if you're picking up oil the convoy system won't.

If you look at shipping time from Rangoon to Tokyo, its six weeks round trip.  If you look at TK usage of TKs left in Nagoya, its generally 50% or better on a weekly basis.  What this means is that within the convoy system each TK is making a round trip every two weeks.  So any TK you take out of the routine convoy system only gets you a third of the oil you'd get if it operated in the convoy system at 50% weekly usage.

Additional important point... it appears that under normal circumstances where IJ holds DEI, the limiting factor on how much oil is transported is the number of TKs available, not the oil points at the bases IJ holds. Now, at some point, if IJ holds very few bases with oil points... like early or late in the game, then the bases will be the limiting factor.

Early on, the solution to an oil shortage is to capture oil bases. Late, well, if IJ has lost the oil bases, its lost the game.

To maximize IJ's oil, put all the TKs in Nagoya.  Put all of the pool TKs into the first three or four TK units in Nagoya.  Make ever TK unit after the first three or four a one ship unit.

To maximize convoy transport of supplies (and I assume resources also, although I haven't tested it) put as many MCS units in Nagoya as you can spare from other requirements and top up the unit from the pool.  Do the same thing with DDs, DEs, and CDs.

Not doing this is why IJ AI runs low on oil in early 42.  AI sends the TKs to wherever Combined Fleet is operating and uses them for Replenishment TFs.  Even when it doesn't need them.  Combined Fleet TFs won't move even 10 hexes without multiple Replenishment TFs full of TKs.  Even though it has AOs it could use instead.

The Matrix documentation comments on the "plodding" IJ AI in early 42 and the fixes that were applied.  Well, its "plodding" because Combined Fleet grabs the TKs, there's no oil, and thus no prep points, and of course IJ AI can't do anything.  The game runs on prep points!

The solution - making TKs ineligible for Replenishmennt TFs - appears to have been missed.

[Capt. Harlock]

My analysis is that manually transporting oil is a loser, even if you're picking up oil the convoy system won't.

If you look at shipping time from Rangoon to Tokyo, its six weeks round trip. If you look at TK usage of TKs left in Nagoya, its generally 50% or better on a weekly basis. What this means is that within the convoy system each TK is making a round trip every two weeks. So any TK you take out of the routine convoy system only gets you a third of the oil you'd get if it operated in the convoy system at 50% weekly usage.

True enough. There is one thing that a human Japanese player can do to help his Oil Reserve: transport refined fuel back to Japan with AO's.

Many of the DEI bases typically fall into Japanese hands with large stockpiles of fuel. If a city on the Japanese home islands runs low on fuel, it will be replenished, but at a cost to the Oil Reserve. The Japanese player can therefore transport fuel to cities running low, thus helping the Oil Reserve to keep growing.

This assumes, of course, that he has AO's to spare.

[bradk]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

My analysis is that manually transporting oil is a loser, even if you're picking up oil the convoy system won't.

If you look at shipping time from Rangoon to Tokyo, its six weeks round trip. If you look at TK usage of TKs left in Nagoya, its generally 50% or better on a weekly basis. What this means is that within the convoy system each TK is making a round trip every two weeks. So any TK you take out of the routine convoy system only gets you a third of the oil you'd get if it operated in the convoy system at 50% weekly usage.

True enough. There is one thing that a human Japanese player can do to help his Oil Reserve: transport refined fuel back to Japan with AO's.

Many of the DEI bases typically fall into Japanese hands with large stockpiles of fuel. If a city on the Japanese home islands runs low on fuel, it will be replenished, but at a cost to the Oil Reserve. The Japanese player can therefore transport fuel to cities running low, thus helping the Oil Reserve to keep growing.

This assumes, of course, that he has AO's to spare.

Great idea. I don't recall the threshold... and IJ home islands base get fuel (converted from oil) when it drops to what, under 10,000? 5,000? So keeping those bases above the threshold by shipping in fuel would help the oil reserve.

[poop17]

When MCS load AirForce,how to calculate how much MCS needed to prepare for?
there are so many type MCS.1000t,3000t,6000t...
there are so many type airforce,fighter,bomber,patrol...
[&:]

Thanks

Van Van