Trying Out Japan

[BBfanboy]

The enemy will get Victory Points when partisans damage your ungarrisoned or under-garrisoned bases. The enemy must breed and equip his own troops. He will be able to take the bases without a fight and if there is industry there he will get it intact, whereas there is usually damage to industry and base facilities if you fight for it.

The Chinese have numbers but lack supply and firepower. Note the lack of organic artillery and anti-tank weapons in their TOE. They can fight reasonably well once they get experience, supply, good leaders, and favourable terrain. The terrain should be clear and forts very low level (0-2) if the Chinese are attacking, or heavy urban/mountain/wooded rough if the Chinese are defending. My own rule of thumb is that the Chinese on attack need a 10-1 advantage in raw AV (before adjustments for forts, terrain, morale, leaders, etc.) if they are to have a chance to be successful.

Most Allied players start the game with most of the Chinese units in clear hexes heading for good terrain, abandoning non essential bases except the Changsha area. Against a human opponent you cannot hope to defeat the Japanese in China. The best you can do is block them from trying to get at Chungking, the source of Chinese replacements. Against the AI, if you can stymie their initial plans the AI will begin to do ad hoc attacks without any coherent plan and you may be able to mass a large enough force to trap a few units. You CAN reduce Japanese effectiveness by cutting off supply, but beware of them surrounding you - they can move faster.

[ChadS]

Thanks BBfanboy.

As I'm playing as Japan against the AI, I trust the same rules tend to hold true? I generally have a small numbers advantage from what I can tell, but I'm seeing them pop up behind me with massive numbers, or, they do a Shock attack and overrun me. Until a couple of turns ago, I seemed to be holding a decent supply line, but a few key links to that have started to break.

[GetAssista]

AI in China (and in land battles in general) is overly aggressive when in strategic defense. It goes all out to hit your weak units or grab unnecessary bases and does not care if it abandons great defensive positions in so doing. You goal in China is to pound him in open terrain, surround his offences with your mobile armor, give him whetever bases he desires as long as they are not generating supply (no HI/LI), and concentrate on one strategical offensive operation at a time. E.g. if you push for Sian, leave Changsha in a stalemate for the timebeing. All this while buying out (if you have this kind of self imposed rule) armor and artillery from Manchukuo. Oh, and bomb his supply generation too
China is a game of patience even against AI, no lightning fast strikes here but slow and inevitable grind on favourable terms.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

AI in China (and in land battles in general) is overly aggressive when in strategic defense. It goes all out to hit your weak units or grab unnecessary bases and does not care if it abandons great defensive positions in so doing. You goal in China is to pound him in open terrain, surround his offences with your mobile armor, give him whetever bases he desires as long as they are not generating supply (no HI/LI), and concentrate on one strategical offensive operation at a time. E.g. if you push for Sian, leave Changsha in a stalemate for the timebeing. All this while buying out (if you have this kind of self imposed rule) armor and artillery from Manchukuo. Oh, and bomb his supply generation too
China is a game of patience even against AI, no lightning fast strikes here but slow and inevitable grind on favourable terms.

What GetAssista said! You can pull in lots of armour and artillery from Manchukuo, as long as you leave 8000 AV to prevent activation of the Russians on a die roll. I recommend you use PP to buy any restricted Manchukuo units rather than just moving them across as paying for them will give you an idea of the value of PP in this game. Once you have armour and heavy artillery, the Chinese have no answer for that.

They also have no answer for your bombing them in open terrain unless the AVG makes an appearance. Lack of supply will limit the appearance of Allied fighters for more than a few turns. Put your crap bombers (Lillys, Sonias, etc) in China.

[rustysi]

as long as you leave 8000 AV to prevent activation of the Russians

I'd recommend you leave a bit over 8k as someone in a recent post had Russia activate while at that level. Apparently something occurred in his game (unit upgrade or something) that brought his AV under 8k for a turn or so. The result was Russian activation. If you walk the line you may get unwanted results.

[ChadS]

Appreciate the pointers. February has struck, and I don't hold Singapore yet, though I'm close. Knocking on the door in Manila, and have 4 bases on Borneo and 4 on New Guinea, as well as Manado, Ternate, Kavieng, and Shortlands.

[ChadS]

So, BBfan touched on something I'd been avoiding--spending PPs. In looking for available armor, I stumbled across a couple of units in China, with a Future Objective of Lingayen. Obviously, as part of the 4th Army[R] they're never getting to the Philippines. I'd essentially taken the approach that moving units around was frowned upon. I really don't know why I thought that. I'm sitting on over 3300 PP right now. Looks like I should spend some of that.

Lower end bombers--Sonias, Lillys, Idas, I assume? Are there others?


Heavy Artillery--so, I'm assuming that's typically Field Artillery as opposed to Mortar Batallions?

Also, how long do you typically bombard for before Deliberate attacks? I might be a touch too impatient. I try to break them before reinforcements arrive.

[Yaab]

As for land units and PPs, check this thread

tm.asp?m=3418333

[BBfanboy]

Low end bombers - all the single engine level bombers plus the Lilys. You can use some of the obsolete torpedo bombers like the Jean as well.
The long range bombers like Nells and Betties are precious - don't send them to max range unless they have a really juicy target (op losses get high when you send aircraft over about 75% of their max range).

Heavy artillery = 152 mm and up to 350 mm. This stuff is designed for counterbattery work and getting troops hiding in forts or good defensive terrain. You can bombard all week with 75mm field guns and achieve little, but roll in some heavy arty and you are bound to cause hurt. Field guns are OK for troops in the open - clear terrain or they have left their cover to attack your troops.

Your indicators for your DA are the raw AV at the start of your bombardments and the number of casualties/devices damaged you inflict. When the numbers start to go up sharply the enemy's high disruption and fatigue are starting to cause disablements and destroyed devices.
Be careful that the enemy is not getting reinforcements just as you are ordering your DA. If possible, recon the hexes around your battle site to see what is approaching. Recon squadrons can be broken into multiple detachments to recon multi hexes each turn.

[ChadS]

Does Ground Attack (bombing) have a similar affect to bombarding?

[ChadS]

Also, how do I add an image to a post? I'd like to show a screenshot of China, for example. Do I have to post that image elsewhere and link to it?

[edit--disregard. Found it.]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: ChadS

Does Ground Attack (bombing) have a similar affect to bombarding?

Yep! Dive bombing is most effective - big bomb, high accuracy. Level bombing below 10K feet is fairly effective, but so is AA if there is any. Level bombing above 10K feet is not so effective if the terrain is not clear or grassland. It will add to fatigue, disruption and lower morale, just not as fast as you might want.

[ChadS]

Thanks so much. Every time I start to play (I took today off, so getting lots of turns in), I just come up with more and more questions.

Been curious about this. Noticed that there are often cargo ships in places that I would consider to be cargo destinations, more than somewhere I'd intend to keep ships. From a game mechanics perspective, I have to send these to a supply source, have them remain on station, remember to check on them, load them up and return them. The game makes it much easier to do that in reverse--start at the source, send them to the place supply is needed, and auto-return.

Are the ships typically left where they are to help with the supply flow (I read a little about "the magic highway")? Or, do players generally move them to the supply ports to dispatch as necessary?


Also, Dive Bombing--I have a chart I wrote by hand a couple years ago that says that Dive Bombing is from 10-15K feet, and Level is 1-9K, and Glide Bombing from 16-19.

Will fighters (like the Nate) attempt Dive Bombing if you set the Altitude to 12k and give them a Ground Attack mission?

[Yaab]

As far as I know, glide bombing was disabled some time ago, so it is only dive or level bombing for all aircraft now.

[GetAssista]

Only dive bombers would dive, other planes don't have brakes and will level bomb at all altitudes.

[rms1pa]

attack bombers will skip bomb at 100 ft.

only there are not a lot of them, must be attack bombers. and the flak is hell.

rms/pa

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: rms1pa

attack bombers will skip bomb at 100 ft.

only there are not a lot of them, must be attack bombers. and the flak is hell.

rms/pa

I am not familiar with Japanese attack aircraft, if there are any. I have only heard of the Allies using skip bombing.
I think there is a certain mark of B-25 Mitchell that will also skip bomb - should be the one with the cannon, I think. The pilots must be trained in LowNav as skip bombing is done from 1000 feet (they drop lower to release, but the approach should be at 1000 - if you set 100 feet I think they just strafe.

Fighters that can carry a bomb or two should be trained first in Air skill to the 70+ level before training for ground attack. Train for the bomb drop at 1000 feet and for strafing at 100 feet. The attacks should be made at 1000 feet where they will bomb first, then strafe.

About the cargo ships - you are probably still sorting out the scattered shipping from game start. Their location at start is not an indicator of anything, that is just where they were when the balloon went up. Get them where you want them and set them hauling something useful. Many players haul fuel (cargo ships take it at half capacity to simulate drummed fuel) in xAKs because it is urgently needed in Oz/NZ/SoPac, and tankers are in short supply. Japan can do the same thing as required.

As for setting up a magic supply stream, read up on the Auto-Convoy system. I don't use it so I will not attempt to describe how it works.

[Alfred]

There are no Japanese attack bombers in any official scenario. That is an intentional design decision.

Alfred

[ChadS]

So....about my AAR.

Well, I discovered a couple of things. First, I'm not terribly good at documenting this sort of thing. First few turns, sure, and that is stuff I can reuse. But as things got to the "hurry up and wait" states, I sort of got worser and worser at it. Also, I discovered, I've snapped exactly 1 useful screenshot.

This, coupled with the fact that, as Japan, I totally had no idea what I was up against with regards to resources--I think I'm pretty heavily screwed at this point. It is Mar 13. I hold all of Malaya except Johare Bharu and Singapore. I hold 4 points on Borneo, including Mili, and I have a good portion of the Philippines, including Davao, Legaspi, San Fernando, Lingayen, and Batangas.

But, Tokyo ran out of resources. I have resources..but I can't get them moving very quickly. Since mid Feb, I've been dropping tens of thousands of resources in Ominato, but they just seem to vanish. I think they distribute, but there isn't really anywhere that seems to have more than a few days (actually, I haven't figured out if HI, etc runs daily or every few days).

Conversely, Tokyo has a TON of supply, but I can't get it out very quickly. Other ports in Japan have less than 10k, with small exception. And, in a few places, when I drop off supply, it too vanishes. I get that supply moves. But, one mystery--I've dropped off about 40k in supply to Miri, trying to get its Oil and Refinery working, but I can't get the actual base supply to stay above 10k for more than a turn or two. And, the other bases I have on Borneo (specifically Brunei, Kuching, and Beaufort have a combined total of 4300 supplies with about 500 AV in troops, a couple of Engineers that don't count towards the AV, and No planes. Miri has a dozen Nates.

And, China is a mess.

I think I'm going to take what I've learned, couple that with a little better documenting focus, and start over.

[ChadS]

North China Shot: