Another noob AAR vs JAP AI

[Axe1999]

Do you mean stuff like aircraft losses, ships sunk..?

[Axe1999]

Situation on March 07 1942:
Aircraft Losses:
Japan: 1301
Allies: 1151

Ships Lost:
Japan: 102 (2 CAs, 2 CLs)
Allies: 163 (lost 3 short range TKs and 3-4 8800 endurance ones, 3 BBs at PH, and Repulse is limping to Colombo and its been hovering at 90+ flt for a week now)

VPs:
Japan: 11841
Allies: 11138

[PaxMondo]

There you go, the game date is a big help to readers ....

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

There you go, the game date is a big help to readers ....

Except for the format. Is that March 11, or November 3? Depends which country you ask. Best to abbreviate the month rather than use the numeric month.

[Axe1999]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

There you go, the game date is a big help to readers ....

Except for the format. Is that March 11, or November 3? Depends which country you ask. Best to abbreviate the month rather than use the numeric month.

Ah yes, havent considered that. Its March currently, will fix it

[Axe1999]

Okay so I have a question, just to check if I understood manual correctly. I have some Marine fighter squadrons in Pearl that are CV capable but not CV trained. What happens if I put them on carrier, they dont fly missions at all till 90 days passes and they become CV trained?

[Sardaukar]

ORIGINAL: Axe1999

Okay so I have a question, just to check if I understood manual correctly. I have some Marine fighter squadrons in Pearl that are CV capable but not CV trained. What happens if I put them on carrier, they dont fly missions at all till 90 days passes and they become CV trained?

They will fly just fine, just have bit higher chance for Ops losses.

[Axe1999]

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

ORIGINAL: Axe1999

Okay so I have a question, just to check if I understood manual correctly. I have some Marine fighter squadrons in Pearl that are CV capable but not CV trained. What happens if I put them on carrier, they dont fly missions at all till 90 days passes and they become CV trained?

They will fly just fine, just have bit higher chance for Ops losses.

Ah okay so they can both fly off and land, gotcha. Thank you, those will probably be needed then with fighter attrition so far.

[PaxMondo]

Your losses will include pilots .... plan for that as well ...

[RangerJoe]

It is better to lose fighter planes and possibly their pilots than the aircraft carriers themselves.

BUT:

The allied fighter production is quite low initially.
Many of the incoming units need aircraft.
Many if not most of the pilots need additional training in order to survive in combat.
Many of the American air units are restricted and some can not be bought out. Good units for training pilots though.
The Japanese aircraft production can be increased if needed - even if not needed.
Japanese starting pilot quality is quite good.
The Japanese also need to train their pilots quite a bit as well.
The Japanese can pull most of the good pilots out of air units if they are not needed, using those air units into training more pilots.

I am sure that more things can be added to those things that I just pointed out.

So be careful about using your air craft carriers. While they have a nice weapon in their air units, they need to be husbanded and not wasted.

[Axe1999]

Yeah looks like contesting those Midway raids with carriers wasnt a good tradeoff, since they werent that damaging on the base itself. Lesson for the future. Actions in Coral sea were justified I think, with raid on Milne Bay amph TF.

On a note of training, every squadron that isnt on CAP in crucial places like PM, Rangoon, Midway or doing ASW/search is training, with restricted squadrons serving as permanent training groups. I train my fighter pilots to 70 air + 70 def + 50 exp, dive bombers and two-engine bombers in naval attack+naval search, four-engine bombers in ground attack.

[Axe1999]

So Im looking for some feedback, I restarted last campaign from this AAR and went with DBB scenario 29, but I figured I may as well dump it here.

So date is April 2nd, and strategic situation is in attachments. Since Im still very much a noob at the game, can I have some feedback on how am I doing? As you can see I still hold PHI triangle of Manila, Clark Field and Bataan, all of the important bases in Java and Sumatra, Rangoon, Port Moresby and Milne Bay. I think the most important ships that Ive lost were 5 12k endurance tankers and 2 APs convertable to APAs.

[Axe1999]

.

[BBfanboy]

The AI needs to get to historic expansion to be able to give you a continuing good game in 1943 onwards. You are holding lots of bases within the historic Japanese expansion so you are doing very well.

You have preserved your major warships but have you kept them at sea to gain experience? The IJN probably is still mostly intact too, so you will need to start hurting it soon. It should be easier than at game start because after the initial deployment the strong IJN TFs get broken up for upgrades, repairs and various other missions to cover.

The tankers and xAPs you lost may have been worth the most points but DDs are exceedingly precious in 1942. I hope you have not lost many of them.

[Axe1999]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

The AI needs to get to historic expansion to be able to give you a continuing good game in 1943 onwards. You are holding lots of bases within the historic Japanese expansion so you are doing very well.

You have preserved your major warships but have you kept them at sea to gain experience? The IJN probably is still mostly intact too, so you will need to start hurting it soon. It should be easier than at game start because after the initial deployment the strong IJN TFs get broken up for upgrades, repairs and various other missions to cover.

The tankers and xAPs you lost may have been worth the most points but DDs are exceedingly precious in 1942. I hope you have not lost many of them.

Thanks for the feedback! Im aware that holding some areas for too long could break the AI, so I plan on abandoning Rangoon in a week or two if they cant take it. Port Moresby I planned on keeping. I have no idea how PHI are still holding considering they havent been resupplied since the war started, and none of the bases that are supposed to fall recieved any reinforcement aside from 2 Indian Bgds in Rangoon. Im playing on hard btw.

Carriers have been raiding shipping and fighting some IJN raiders on my supply lines. Lexington and Yorktown are in Sydney refiting/repairing and Hornet is currently holding guard in SWPAC. Im probably been using SCTFs more than average Allied player, my raiders accounted for about 60-70 ships in last few weeks, so I would be very surprised if Solomons are not at least yellow on supply. With DBB scenario and actually working AAA on ships Im not that afraid of venturing closer to Rabaul with my raiders, I went as far north as Milne Bay.

As far as destroyers, I havent lost much, 6, but 3 of them were 2500 endurance ones, I think Dutch? I killed a couple of surface raiding groups, 3 CAs, 2CLs and 10 DDs.

[BBfanboy]

I don't know if DBB 29 modified the scripts for the Japanese expansion or not. If they did, the Philippines could have been taken off the priority list so the AI did not send a lot there.

Sinking IJN CAs this early is golden - especially the big ones. Again, the AI has some scripted raiding behaviour but it cannot take into account what you have available so it will often send a weak SCTF into waters where you have already shown your carriers operating. A human would not do that.

But the game is about enjoyment so if you want to start out reaping some victories early on that is fine. You can restrain your own raiding next time if you want more challenge. Right now it is about learning how to manipulate all the factors you control to get success, so have fun!

P.S. - on Hard setting, the IJ troops stranded on islands get a small amount of supply each turn, so they will not completely starve.

[Axe1999]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
P.S. - on Hard setting, the IJ troops stranded on islands get a small amount of supply each turn, so they will not completely starve.

Thats what Im banking on, I would do very hard but I read that it makes isolating bases you dont want to commit to, like Truk or Rabaul impossible since they get supply even if isolated...

Any advice/opinion on amphibious assaults in '42? Im planning on some limited offensive in Solomons and Im mostly wondering will APs and AKs do decently good job unloading or is waiting for APAs a must?

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Axe1999

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
P.S. - on Hard setting, the IJ troops stranded on islands get a small amount of supply each turn, so they will not completely starve.

Thats what Im banking on, I would do very hard but I read that it makes isolating bases you dont want to commit to, like Truk or Rabaul impossible since they get supply even if isolated...

Any advice/opinion on amphibious assaults in '42? Im planning on some limited offensive in Solomons and Im mostly wondering will APs and AKs do decently good job unloading or is waiting for APAs a must?

You can unload for a week if you control the seas and the skies in the area of your invasion. Usually invasion means poking into the enemy perimeter where there are air bases and naval bases that can send opposition to your invasion. You need to do some scouting/raiding to find out what kind of reaction you can expect and gauge your unloading accordingly.

The best policy is to use enough ships that all the essential stuff can unload on the first day and only the supply and maybe some motorized support are left to unload on day two. Of course some ships should be amphib loaded with cargo only to ensure some gets ashore on day 1. This also makes use of the numerous xAPs the Allied side has available and the loss of which is less painful.

In fact most players quarantine the APs that can upgrade to APAs by sending them off-map to haul stuff between EC USA and Cape Town. Same for AKs that can become AKAs (the 16 knot ones).

Pick an isolated point on the enemy perimeter for your first invasions - Tarawa comes to mind. Pay attention to stacking limits, always include at least a battalion of tanks - firepower counts for more than raw AV and tanks do not use up much of the stacking limit. Recon, sweep, bomb and bombard for a week or two prior to invasion. Your carriers should cover the invasion against air and naval interference but not waste sorties on bombing the island itself unless they are about to depart next turn.

[Axe1999]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
You can unload for a week if you control the seas and the skies in the area of your invasion. Usually invasion means poking into the enemy perimeter where there are air bases and naval bases that can send opposition to your invasion. You need to do some scouting/raiding to find out what kind of reaction you can expect and gauge your unloading accordingly.

The best policy is to use enough ships that all the essential stuff can unload on the first day and only the supply and maybe some motorized support are left to unload on day two. Of course some ships should be amphib loaded with cargo only to ensure some gets ashore on day 1. This also makes use of the numerous xAPs the Allied side has available and the loss of which is less painful.

In fact most players quarantine the APs that can upgrade to APAs by sending them off-map to haul stuff between EC USA and Cape Town. Same for AKs that can become AKAs (the 16 knot ones).

Pick an isolated point on the enemy perimeter for your first invasions - Tarawa comes to mind. Pay attention to stacking limits, always include at least a battalion of tanks - firepower counts for more than raw AV and tanks do not use up much of the stacking limit. Recon, sweep, bomb and bombard for a week or two prior to invasion. Your carriers should cover the invasion against air and naval interference but not waste sorties on bombing the island itself unless they are about to depart next turn.

Initial plans are summer invasion of southern part of Solomons, Lunga, Tulagi and Auki, I planned on dedicating full USMC division with some tanks, arty and combat engineers to Lunga, 600AV in total, but that may be an overkill, even though I have sealift capacity for everything. All based on present recon of course, situation will almost for sure change in few months. Should supply TF landing on first day be AKs or xAPs? I have a bit of trouble figuring out exactly the speeds of unloading of various ships with over the beach unloading...

[BBfanboy]

xAPs are primarily for people. Any supply on them will unload last. The dedicated supply ships can be any xAK, xAKL or even AK if they are not needed for tanks and artillery. Just remember to have the supply ships in an amphib TF before they start loading. They will unload much faster over the beach that way.

The general sequence of unloading is: Combat troops, then light equipment, support troops, heavy equipment, motorized support, supply.

Tulagi has a partly built port but Lunga is the big prize - it has potential for a large airfield.