Many Newbie Questions

[Yaab]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

8. Beat the crap out of him. That's always been my strategy and it works every time.

Japanese regts/divs have a tremendous advantage in artillery firepower over the Chinese. Use it. Once you destroy the initial pool of guns in the Chinese units, the KMT army will be left with just infantry squads. Roll them all the way back to Chungking for the final mega-siege.

[geofflambert]

Third addendum to Theages: You can use Jakes to train in Sweep. Keep that a secret.

[geofflambert]

Bonus advice: Rufes and Rexes are primarily for shooting down search planes. Locate them in areas the enemy wants to search but without the AV you will send with them you have insufficient support for land based fighters. One thing that's always befuddled me is while the US was building a gajillion of everything else they never came close to building enough PBYs. As a result as the Allied player I was mainly using B-17s to do naval search until they were relieved by B-24s.

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

6. Get there firstest with the mostest.

Rule #6: There is no rule 6.
Rule #6.5: Don't listen to anything the Gorn says, until he posts on his AAR.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

4. If you're sweeping and you fly more than 5k above the enemy, you won't see them unless they have radar and come up to play. I sometimes sweep at a lower altitude than I think his CAP is at to increase the odds of a fight, even though I cede a small advantage doing that. You keep your advantage of having more planes in the air than he has and attrition is a good thing when you are sweeping. One drawback is that he is more likely to retrieve downed pilots than you are. I dive bomb from 10k generally. As long as you are high enough you will dive rather than glide bomb. Don't play games with how high his CAP is, he can change that or otherwise defeat your well laid out stratagems. Bombing at lower altitude will get more hits on the target and more hits on your planes by his flak. What sort of flak he has at the target is the ruler of how high my bombers drop their loads. The value of the target is key. If you're trying to sink a CV greater risks may be worth taking. If you are bombing ground targets, guess what, the ground will still be there after you bomb it but your planes might be part of the landscape.

Glide bombing has been done away with but the manual does not reflect that. A couple of official patches ago the air bombing model was changed to lower the split between High Level bombing and Low Level bombing from 6000/5000 feet to 2000/1000 feet. IE, anything above 1999 feet is high level bombing, except for dive bombing between 10K and 15K feet (might be another DB band between 20K and 25K - I never use it). So Glide bombing is no longer in the model.

Because the DB model has the aircraft levelling out at ~ 2000 feet after dropping the bomb they are vulnerable to light AA. If bombing land targets I just set the DB to level bomb at 7K feet to 9K feet to be above balloons (which go up to 6K) and light AA. They suck at GrdB at first but after some training and combat experience they can hit ground targets fairly well - and DB usually have bigger bombs than level bombers.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

5. I have never used auto convoy or learned how to. Auto anything is against my religion.

Auto-convoy will screw you up by taking ships from port that you do not want it to take - like your best escort DDs which you have waiting for a carrier that is under repair.
There is another kind of convoy called Continuous Supply (CS) that you can set up and it will operate without much monitoring by you. Set it up by:

1. form the TF and put it in the base you want to haul from.
2. set it to load whatever you want to haul (supply, fuel, resources).
3. give it the destination you want to unload at. You can also set waypoints for routing and refuelling at this step.
4. check that the best ship commander is the TF commander. If not, send his ship out of the TF and then bring it back in. If his ship is big enough he should take over the TF.
5. Click on the "Player control" text in the TF screen twice to change it to CS convoy. It will now load what you ordered, go to destination and unload and return.
6. If desired, go back into the routing screen for the TF and change the routing mode. I always use Direct routing and creating a CS changes that, so I change it back with this step.
7. Every week or two check to see if your TF ships have any accumulated damage worthy of repair. A point or two of system damage is no problem but engineering damage can slow down your TF so you might want to swap that ship for another of the same type or just remove it for repair.

[Uncivil Engineer]

Here's my 2 cents -

ORIGINAL: Liebestod

Alright so I finally bought the game after years of lurking, watching WITPAE youtube videos and reading AAR. I've never played more than a few turns but I know the difference between Kavieng and Kota Baru.

Unfortunately there are several (many) topics I don't understand yet and these are preventing me from starting a game. I intend to play as Japan against the AI.

Feel free to answer any/all and/or direct me to good sources of information!


1: 1.7.11.24 is the version I have. Is this the latest version? I get an error if I try to update.

2: Industry / Aero Engine Research
I have no idea how to efficiently rearrange the number of engines I am producing and "researching" at the start of the game. I think the more advanced (future) engines I produce, the faster those engines become available, or something. Or maybe that's only for airframes? And if that's true, I also have no idea how many engines to produce to research efficiently. Is there a formula or curve for this? I don't want to allocate too many or too few HI. Also what is the main downside of simply expanding a lot of HI at the start of the game?

Since it costs HI to expand HI, you need to be careful; I generally expand HI in the Home Islands and China, being careful to only expand in Chinese ports (as you may need to be able to get fuel there, since China does not produce enough.) I limit myself to 10 locations at a time, expanding in increments of 10.
My target is to accumulate 1 million HI (in the bank) during 1942, which means you need to make 2740 more HI than you spend each day. I also don't expand HI on Hokkaido, as no fuel is produced there, and all those transports carrying resource back to Honshu use a lot of fuel, too.

3: Manpower / Pilots / Training
I am under the impression that manpower is used for two things: industry expansion and pilot training. Does that mean that if I expand HI, that I will have fewer trained pilots permanently?
Also, pilot training missions seem complex. Is there a general rule for what skills are most critical to train, and what training levels are good/optimal? I gather that you want to have an air HQ and lots of obsolete aircraft flying training at a certain altitude with a certain % of the pilots resting. Any suggestions for extra units to send to Manchuria for training purposes?

Everything in Manchukuo should be training. Some recon and bombers can fly out of Port Arthur early in the game, but the front will quickly be too distant. No need to send more aircraft to Manchukuo.
Train at 100%, 0 range, altitude appropriate for mission. Train all missions, including ASW. Monthly, check these units for good pilots, and move them to reserve or active units, and start new replacements training.

4: Optimal altitude for missions
I have a general idea of what altitude to fly for various missions, but I have no idea what altitudes are absolutely optimal. Is there any difference at all between dive-bombing from 10000 and 11000 feet? Will bombing from 1-3K result in more hits than bombing at 5-6K? I know that higher altitude is better for fighter sweeps (and many games ban flying over 20K until 1944 or whatever). Why not just always sweep at max altitude? I know that flying at very low altitude increases vulnerability to AAA. I'm unclear if flying lower really results in more bomb damage and/or if there is an 'optimal' altitude for certain missions, assuming 'average' AAA resistance.

There is no "optimal" altitude; it's a trade off between effectiveness and loss due to enemy action (like AA). If AA is minimal, blast away at lower altitudes. If AA is significant (Singapore/Manila) stay above 10k. In China I bomb at 6k, both airfields and troops.

5: Convoys
In PvP games do players typically use auto convoy, manually control every convoy, or a mix (e.g. only manually control the most important convoys)?

I NEVER use auto convoy, but you can set up routine convoys to continually run between 2 ports, especially between Hokkaido/Sakhalin and Honshu, and between Korea and Japan. Early in the game there is so much resource accumulated on Hokkaido that you'll want to get it to Honshu as soon as possible. Hakodate and Sapporo can load resource convoys fairly quickly; I've sized my CS convoys to enable them to completely load in 2 days using Aden class cargo ships (you start with ~200 of these.)

6: "Fortress Palembang"
Do Allied players still do this? This seemed like a killer strategy at least back in the day and I'm not sure how to beat an Allied player who simply stacks this hex.

As the Gorn and Bedford Forrest said, get there first. The 4th and 33rd Divisions start in Japan; one or both of them should get there (with support) as early as possible. Their amphib TF's will need to be escorted by surface ships with air cover (either CV or from Singkawang). If you wait until after you've captured Singapore, you may be too late (if your opponent has opted to use this tactic).

7: India
I don't see many AAR where the JP player seriously attacks India. Is there a good example of this? They seem to love going for the Aleutians and North/West Australia. I have no idea why the Japanese player would target these locations. Calcutta seems like a juicy target with 500 HI.

India is very well defended; NW Australia is not. There is easy resource pickings in NW Australia, but you don't really need resource. SW Australia (Perth area) is also tempting. Oh, and those 500 HI at Calcutta will be damaged if you're able to capture it.

8: China
What is the general strategy for conquering China?

9: Pearl Harbor Second Strike / Pearl Harbor Exodus
When testing, I placed the Lexington inside PH on turn 1. As the Allied player, I placed it in a task force and told it to leave the harbor. When the KB strike arrived at PH, the Lexington was at sea. This was with the "Dec 7 surprise" setting turned ON. Is this working as intended? It seems that the allied player can simply move his ships out of PH on turn 1 to avoid the strike (or even attack the KB).
Also, is it generally considered advantageous for Japan to strike again on 8 Dec or after? It seems to me like there is potential to finish off a lot of heavily damaged BB.
Finally, I notice a lot of my J aircraft are dying to flak on 7 Dec, especially the ones that attack airfields. What altitude do you suggest for airfield attack?

10: Good Sub locations
Where are the best areas for J subs to go in order to sink convoys? I really have no clue.

11: Leader skills
Apparently aggressiveness is extremely important. I get the impression that squadron commanders want high AIR skill, but I might be wrong about this for bombers. Do they need high NAV or LND for attacking sea/ground targets?

12: Ship sprites
Is there an easy way to edit the BMP ship picture files for a non-artist? I want to include the BBs Kii and Owari and for now I am forced to use the Nagato picture.

13: Facilities Expand at Start
What is the cost of expanding? Is there any? Do people use this option or do they manually expand only the things they need?

[Chernobyl]

Many thanks for all the answers so far!

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Liebestod

Many thanks for all the answers so far!

#11. Do not conflate the leader skill with the pilot skills.
Fighter pilots need high Air skill ratings (on the squadron pilot listing) and a leader with a high Air score (70+) and high aggression score (65+). High Experience is also very helpful.

Bomber pilots have to be competent but the numbers of bombs they drop make up for some of the lack of skill. So I train them to ~ 55 Exp., 65 Air and ~ 65+ Defensive skill. The latter helps with avoiding attacks and the Air skill is about nursing damaged bombers home as well as accuracy in bombing. Bombing Sqn. leaders should have high Inspiration skill (to keep the boys on target in spite of flak and fighters), Air score in the 60s and Moderate Aggressiveness 55-65.

The other skills you were looking at LowNav, LowG, GrdB, NavB reflect the level of training in those missions, which can be changed by combat and training to make the pilots better at them.

Leader scores are personality traits and almost never change.

[BBfanboy]

Re: your # 12 about ship graphics, the Mods forum is where the experts at this stuff are. You should post the question there.

[Kull]

You really should start at least one campaign as the Allied player. Even if only for a month or two. You would be AMAZED how much crap you will forget to do, and how many "well, damn THAT's how that works" moments you'll experience. The problem is that you can afford all of those when playing as the Allies, but you can't really afford any of them when playing as Japan. Plus there's umpteen zillion things to do as the Allies anyway, but with Japan there's even more. Spend your first Japan campaign learning how to run the production system and the economy, not learning how to do EVERYTHING.

It doesn't matter how many AARs you've followed or youtube videos you've watched. Playing is different.

[btd64]

I keep a notebook for each campaign/pbem I play. It will help to keep you from forgetting stuff. Also, I don't remember how many games I restarted. It is a lot. So restart if you have to....GP

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Liebestod
1: 1.7.11.24 is the version I have. Is this the latest version? I get an error if I try to update.
2: Industry / Aero Engine Research
I have no idea how to efficiently rearrange the number of engines I am producing and "researching" at the start of the game. I think the more advanced (future) engines I produce, the faster those engines become available, or something. Or maybe that's only for airframes? And if that's true, I also have no idea how many engines to produce to research efficiently. Is there a formula or curve for this? I don't want to allocate too many or too few HI. Also what is the main downside of simply expanding a lot of HI at the start of the game?
so much to be discussed here. Read the forum, there was a number of threads on plane management for Japan.
Downside for HI expansion is that it costs 1k supply to repair 1 point. And supply is the main bottleneck for Japan, might be not so obvious at start but games that go into 45 all arrive to more or less same conclusion - Japanese starvation (given ok fuel management ofc). Pretty historical
3: Manpower / Pilots / Training
I am under the impression that manpower is used for two things: industry expansion and pilot training. Does that mean that if I expand HI, that I will have fewer trained pilots permanently?
Also, pilot training missions seem complex. Is there a general rule for what skills are most critical to train, and what training levels are good/optimal? I gather that you want to have an air HQ and lots of obsolete aircraft flying training at a certain altitude with a certain % of the pilots resting. Any suggestions for extra units to send to Manchuria for training purposes?
do not fret about manpower, there is always enough. And pilots do not depend on it. Then, so much to be discussed with Japanese training. In a nutshell, train fighter pilots like crazy, 100% zero range, to 70 Air then to 70 Def (using other skill training), every other training is secondary to this.
4: Optimal altitude for missions
I have a general idea of what altitude to fly for various missions, but I have no idea what altitudes are absolutely optimal. Is there any difference at all between dive-bombing from 10000 and 11000 feet? Will bombing from 1-3K result in more hits than bombing at 5-6K? I know that higher altitude is better for fighter sweeps (and many games ban flying over 20K until 1944 or whatever). Why not just always sweep at max altitude? I know that flying at very low altitude increases vulnerability to AAA. I'm unclear if flying lower really results in more bomb damage and/or if there is an 'optimal' altitude for certain missions, assuming 'average' AAA resistance.

5: Convoys
In PvP games do players typically use auto convoy, manually control every convoy, or a mix (e.g. only manually control the most important convoys)?
With sub threat and supply conservation motto through the whole game it is not adviceable to use AC at all as Japan. CS or manual convoys instead
6: "Fortress Palembang"
Do Allied players still do this? This seemed like a killer strategy at least back in the day and I'm not sure how to beat an Allied player who simply stacks this hex.
Great strategy because of high def bonuses, supply generation through refineries and the potential of engineers whacking the place. Counter is to not allow transport of troops there early (CVs, SAGs)
7: India
I don't see many AAR where the JP player seriously attacks India. Is there a good example of this? They seem to love going for the Aleutians and North/West Australia. I have no idea why the Japanese player would target these locations. Calcutta seems like a juicy target with 500 HI.
Many AARs venture to Calcutta region. Little point in going deeper (not so much HI out there) unless you really cut down the allies numbers earlier. Bombay and beyond might be reachable under some circumstances but very hard and expensive with no lasting benefit. You will still retreat to Burma in 43
8: China
What is the general strategy for conquering China?
Starve the horde. Outmaneuver if allowed. China is seriously short on supply generation so ramp up pressure and bomb stuff but do not rush too much against tough terrain
9: Pearl Harbor Second Strike / Pearl Harbor Exodus
When testing, I placed the Lexington inside PH on turn 1. As the Allied player, I placed it in a task force and told it to leave the harbor. When the KB strike arrived at PH, the Lexington was at sea. This was with the "Dec 7 surprise" setting turned ON. Is this working as intended? It seems that the allied player can simply move his ships out of PH on turn 1 to avoid the strike (or even attack the KB).
Also, is it generally considered advantageous for Japan to strike again on 8 Dec or after? It seems to me like there is potential to finish off a lot of heavily damaged BB.
Finally, I notice a lot of my J aircraft are dying to flak on 7 Dec, especially the ones that attack airfields. What altitude do you suggest for airfield attack?
TFs might move, ships in port cannot. You can have second strike but there are risks of Pacific fleet sorteeing and catching your carriers at sea. AARs have seen this kind of early KB mangling. Flak and CAP are also much worse in subsequent days, and your elite pilots are precious
10: Good Sub locations
Where are the best areas for J subs to go in order to sink convoys? I really have no clue.
Subs with Glens are there to search. Most of other subs can try their luck near Oz coast and between SF and PH. Send a few to faraway ports too like Perth or Karachi. IMO non-glen Jap subs are put to better use as a tactical asset, threatening Allied fleets behind the main line of battle, because Allies have so much transport capacity there is no point in trying to seriously hurt it. Earmarking some sub force for the latter usage is still useful to keep Allies honest with escorts.
11: Leader skills
Apparently aggressiveness is extremely important. I get the impression that squadron commanders want high AIR skill, but I might be wrong about this for bombers. Do they need high NAV or LND for attacking sea/ground targets?
dont bother too much early, they are decent for japan air units. You have more important things to spend pps on, namely artillery and tanks from Manchukuo. Afterwards read some threads, much to be discussed and some gray areas still with all those commander stats.
12: Ship sprites
Is there an easy way to edit the BMP ship picture files for a non-artist? I want to include the BBs Kii and Owari and for now I am forced to use the Nagato picture.
You can shop around in modding forum or DL mods and take pictures from there.
As this is your personal use I do not think the authors will be against it.
13: Facilities Expand at Start
What is the cost of expanding? Is there any? Do people use this option or do they manually expand only the things they need?
Japan should not spend supply recklessly, and building eats up supply. So "facilities do not expand" is a standard choice

[geofflambert]

To reiterate, there is nothing in India worth the trouble to go after. Furthermore, India is not a viable enemy nor are the British. You have nothing to fear from that quarter. Your enemy is to the east. They are US and Oz/NZ. Once you have captured all the oil fields it is possible to capture, stop looking West. The guys that are going to totally kick your behind are coming, and they are coming from the East.

[Chernobyl]

I'll take your advice that there is no point in going for India.

A bit disappointing because it seemed like a good idea. There are so many resources there! In my mind I want to see Japan damage the Allied economy somehow, but fighting always seems to take place over the Aleutians or the Solomons. The best I've seen a Japan player do is capture Perth.

Reading recent AAR, another insurmountable problem seems to be allied bombing of resources. Even if you capture Palembang intact and somehow manage to defend it, they just bomb it and it's extremely expensive to repair.

[PaxMondo]

Going for India in '42 is plausible in an AI game, but in a PBEM you have to be VERY careful that you do not over-extend. As Geoff noted, your real threat is elsewhere, BUT one of your goals is to get the allied player to stick his head out too early when you can take advantage of it. How you attempt to accomplish that is up to you and how your opponent reacts. India (and/or OZ) are possible ways to get the reaction sought after. In both cases though, the penalty for over-extending can be severe, so be careful.

[Yaab]

ORIGINAL: Liebestod

I'll take your advice that there is no point in going for India.

A bit disappointing because it seemed like a good idea. There are so many resources there! In my mind I want to see Japan damage the Allied economy somehow, but fighting always seems to take place over the Aleutians or the Solomons. The best I've seen a Japan player do is capture Perth.

Reading recent AAR, another insurmountable problem seems to be allied bombing of resources. Even if you capture Palembang intact and somehow manage to defend it, they just bomb it and it's extremely expensive to repair.

Take Calcutta and the resources bases in its vicinity. Thus you reap the rewards of universal supply as the Japs. The Calcutta folks will manufacture your tanks, arty pieces and whatnot, provided you can keep the resources flow to Calcutta.

Take Darjeeling to protect your right flank, then wheel south and start squashing the Ledo pocket.Once you mop-up the Allies between Darjeeling and Ledo, they will not be able to resupply China by air, as the nearast arfields in India will now be too far away from China.

Calcutta should give you supply to fly your fighters.

No matter what you do, remember that Bombay is the biggest port in India and all supply/res/oil/fuel surplus from the Allied-owned bases in India will stockpile in Bombay. The Allies can just hole up in Bombay and weather all kinds of attacks.

[jgsIII]

Does auto convoy sail out of Karachi or Colombo? UI says Colombo but I think manual says Karachi.

Rusty old player returning

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: jgs

Does auto convoy sail out of Karachi or Colombo? UI says Colombo but I think manual says Karachi.

Rusty old player returning

Never use Auto-convoy - it will take your best escort ships so they are not there to escort capital ships.
Instead use Continuous Supply convoy. You get this option by clicking twice on the text that starts as "Human Control".
Before you set the CS convoy, get the ships to the base you want them to load at, order them to load whatever you are moving (supply, resources, oil, fuel) and set the destination. Then change the control to CS convoy and it will go back and forth doing that mission until interrupted. Monitor every couple of weeks for accumulating damage.

[btd64]

Auto convoys only use ships that are selected by you. But only use it where the supply run will not run near enemy bases. CS convoys can be customized to your needs. To answer your main question, auto convoys run out of San Francisco and Columbo. Karachi is used if you lose Columbo....GP