First Impressions. Working on Turn 1 as Japan

[RangerJoe]

If you are playing with stacking limits, on Luzon you might want to force the American and Filipino forces into one big stack and let them use up their supplies faster that way. If they are 3X overstack, the supplies just seem to disappear and then the disabled devices never heal. Just keep bombing the airbase/port so the fortifications will never go higher.

Against the Chinese, you are winning the long game if you can destroy 350+ infantry squads per month. Combine that with the 40 Cavalry squads, that makes 390 per month. When the units respawn, those squads are free but they are low experience and morale. Cut the Chinese units off from supplies and then use them as a "live fire target zone" for your bombers to train. The Chinese Armies don't have organic AA so they are easy targets. Concentrate on taking bases that make supplies with LI/HI to reduce the total Chinese supply. Bomb the bases away from enemy fighters to also destroy supplies.

[mogami]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: mogami

Do you need to load the CVE with the Claude's to upgrade them back in Japan?

You can. Depending upon what you do with Saigon/Truk/HK etc you may have other options.

There have been a LOT of opening moves developed through the years …

Upgrade options depend greatly upon your choice with PDU ON/OFF.

Hi, In current test they are back in Japan training new pilots via the CVE (required 2 trips)

[mogami]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

If you are playing with stacking limits, on Luzon you might want to force the American and Filipino forces into one big stack and let them use up their supplies faster that way. If they are 3X overstack, the supplies just seem to disappear and then the disabled devices never heal. Just keep bombing the airbase/port so the fortifications will never go higher.

Against the Chinese, you are winning the long game if you can destroy 350+ infantry squads per month. Combine that with the 40 Cavalry squads, that makes 390 per month. When the units respawn, those squads are free but they are low experience and morale. Cut the Chinese units off from supplies and then use them as a "live fire target zone" for your bombers to train. The Chinese Armies don't have organic AA so they are easy targets. Concentrate on taking bases that make supplies with LI/HI to reduce the total Chinese supply. Bomb the bases away from enemy fighters to also destroy supplies.

Hi, I pretty much ignored China this test. They captured 2 bases and I captured them back. Huge battle up near KOWPIE (Chinese just keep piling in) On Luzon I split Allies into 5 bases and killed them 1 at a time. They will never run out supply (I captured 300k so far) Iba will fall soon (2 to 1 last attack with engineers on the way) 50k enemy on Bataan. I am clearing the mines to allow bombardment TF. Bataan CD make it tricky. If you set minesweepers to remain they will clear mines for a turn and then be sunk by CD so they need to get in clear a few and run.

[RangerJoe]

At Bataan, there are over 900 mines, if I recall correctly. Just leave them until Bataan is taken. If you are capturing supplies on Luzon, then that is great for you. So you are using Finnish Salami tactics, dividing them into smaller pieces so they are easily eaten.

If the Chinese are attacking, they are using their supplies faster than they get them. Just let them attack and maneuver to surround them. Let them invest you and then move in behind them. Just make sure that you can survive their initial shock attack.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe
If the Chinese are attacking, they are using their supplies faster than they get them. Just let them attack and maneuver to surround them. Let them invest you and then move in behind them. Just make sure that you can survive their initial shock attack.

As long as you are not losing supply sources to the Chinese you are more or less OK. Let them have some bases at the start, where they can concentrate their Corps. And push towards Sian in the meantime.
Chinese will pick up disablements faster than you if you defend in the good terrain on your terms, and with your airpower behind. Then in a month or two, they would run into a supply shortage.

[mogami]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

At Bataan, there are over 900 mines, if I recall correctly. Just leave them until Bataan is taken. If you are capturing supplies on Luzon, then that is great for you. So you are using Finnish Salami tactics, dividing them into smaller pieces so they are easily eaten.

If the Chinese are attacking, they are using their supplies faster than they get them. Just let them attack and maneuver to surround them. Let them invest you and then move in behind them. Just make sure that you can survive their initial shock attack.

Hi, Friendly mines degrade 1% per turn. But that does not mean they are not adding/replacing them. This is only a test so I am just experimenting. Clearly you do not want to enter the hex in daylight clear weather. My next attempt is underway now hopefully no moon and it is raining will cover a quick in and out. The last Minesweeper went in and cleared one mine by running into it. The very first attempt 5 Minesweepers cleared 500+ mines before the sun rose and the CD demolished them. I drove 6 BB onto Bataan in a previous test and 4 of them were knocked out into repair for months. In another test the same 6 BB drove through Bataan and clobbered Clark without a scratch (but much later in time and after Manila had been emptied of ships so the minefield had not been tended for some time. The main concern here is while you can dump troops onto Luzon you need manila to get them off so they can charlie mike. You can't send in the transports till the mines at bataan and Manila are cleared. I am hoping to get Luzon done by Jan 15th. In any event I am stopping this test by Jan 30th. Div at Tavoy preparing for Rangoon. Air superiority over Singapore achieved. A few P-400's still flying over bataan but not a problem. (I have an Oscar group replacing the Zero's) The Malaya units seem to be low crawling to Singapore. (18th Div ordered to follow RR instead went off down coast. )
Concerning China it has not been part of this test. My second or third start I ignored everything but China and all the free range enemy units were destroyed by 1 Jan. The issue there is simply meeting the garrison requirements and gathering the excess together.
All single engine bomber groups move to China. The limit is support and I loaned China some of SAA units. The Nates make good ground attack while they wait upgrades.

[mogami]

Hi, Well unless you really don't like the captains of your minesweepers keep them away from enemy CD ("no kidding Mogami"?) I've tried many different approaches and none of them clears mines and save the mine sweepers. Now the question is how bad do you want to bombard a hex with enemy mines. Since 5 MSW swept over 500 mines before being sank it would reduce the % chance of your bombardment group hitting mines. So for instance to bombard Clark
Step 1 eliminate mine layers at Manila
Step 2 wait long enough for attrition to reduce mines.
Step 3 gather the suicide minesweepers 1 hex out of Bataan
Step 4 Send in BB TF after MSW do their thing. You can decide based on # of mines cleared whether or not it is worth it.

Personally I don't think the rewards justify the risk. (must be why people put mines and CD as defence) Anyway I don't see AE providing a short cut other then waiting for the port to fall. So next on agenda is seeing how long the 50K+ defenders last. (Iba has already surrendered)

[mogami]

Hi, 18 Jan 42. Have move in to Bataan with out triggering enemy shock attack (In previous test a single IJA div moved onto bataan was nearly destroyed by first allied attack. They have been shelling but not attacking today I shoot back while rest of units arrive. In Malaya have reached and taken Kuantan and Taiping. Georgetown surrendered on the 16th. Div leaves Tavoy for Mouliman today. Singapore must have a horde of engineers because they repair the airfields in 1 or 2 days although there has been little in way of them launching strikes and the CAP is just 4 or 5 Buffalos. I did find Repulse. On 15 Dec enemy TF left Singapore to interdict landings. The late I-157 put a torp into Repulse. During the surface action that followed CA Mogami hit POW with a torpedo. (It was 4 IJN CA and 4 DD versus POW, 2 CL and 2 DD) CA Kumano was sunk along with 2 DD and the rest were damaged but have since repaired. Nell from Saigon hit POW with a torpedo the next day.
on the 18th the late I-157 hit POW with 2 torpedos sinking her. On the ships lost screen HMS Warspite is listed but not POW (I have never seen Warspite)
Recent port attacks on Singapore hit Repulse several times with 800kg bombs but she has not been reported lost and further port attacks have not reported hit on her although they are hitting many ships. POW and Repulse survived 7 Dec because I stood down bombers. If I am going to allow orders on Dec 7th I have to expect POW and Repulse will be around to cause trouble.

[mogami]

Hi, I don't think I can trade arty duels with Bataan. There almost 600 guns there versus my under 200. (I damage 56 and they damage 700) It might be best to forget using Manila and send engineers and supply to Naga right from the start. And rather then moving into Bataan just garrison Clark because the forces on Bataan are a monster but those guns can't move. I wonder how much supply the eat per turn. But based on the amounts in other hexes captured there might be 100k+. Not sure if they can buy replacements but certainly they can repair damage. I might back up and do plan B. Or I might just start doing my turn 1 PBEM


Japan has 108 Zeros and 60 Oscar in SRA + IJN CV that have remained in port since PH strike
Air loss to date
Allies 610
Japan 250

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: mogami
The main concern here is while you can dump troops onto Luzon you need manila to get them off so they can charlie mike. You can't send in the transports till the mines at bataan and Manila are cleared.

Bataan can be a long-term affair if done in a conservative fashion. Just like in reality. Storming the place gets you unnecessary casualties with no particular gain. Especially when allied player knows what he's doing and started fort building there with all the Luzon engineers on day 1.
Japan does not need accessible Manila fast, contrary to e.g. Singapore - there are enough repair shipyards in the vicinity, and resource production can wait for future shipping out. You don't need specifically Manila for troops too. There are other ports in Luzon, like level 3 Batangas just south-west from Manila. With couple hundred NavSupport squads it is fine for all your troop-shuffling needs.

[mogami]

Hi, The simple plan now is kill as many as you can. Herd the rest onto Bataan. Park 14th Army on Clark. Seal off Bataan with CAP and mines. Move some single engine bombers to Clark and bomb Bataan every day till attrition takes care of the problem. Mean while build up Naga because you can use the RR to move troops out and charlie mike for Mindanao and all points on the hit parade. Clark will come in handy. I never even considered manila's repair yard it was always just "this way to the giant egress" Now I'll use the smaller exit. I think Luzon other then Bataan can be cleared by early Jan.

[mogami]

Hi, Well I have another months worth of experience learning the nuances in the changes to the vanilla game. questions Where is the mine pool located? How do you produce mines or see what the rate is? How do you prevent all these unwanted pilots going into groups? Groups with max size of 12 end up with 30 pilots. (I know how to send them back to reserve but the problem is untrained pilots then end up in your reserve. I then have to find a group training and request a veteran (calling these untrained pilots veteran) If they had just stayed in school there would be no issue. I have carrier groups with pilots in transit I never asked for.
China is a nightmare for both sides. China cannot assigned units to HQ (they are fixed) I would pay the PP to fix the mess (disorder causes me stomach pain) The Japanese at least can spend a fortune fixing this. In general the whole HQ problem all over exists. I have a hard time understanding who is charge of what where. It would have been far simpler rather then have HQ appear with units assigned and then try to reassign all the local units to have player purchase HQ where and when required.
Admiral Arthur Palliser is a beast. Playing as the Allies TF he commands have killed more Japanese then earthquakes. (His TF suffer more damage from collisions then enemy fire)
I left Mac in Bataan only to have the rat show up in command of SW Pacific in Brisbane. It will cost a brigades worth of PP to fire him.
Seems much faster to train pilots on map. What is the difference training bombers between ground/port/airfield? I have yet to see port or airfield show up as a skill despite training groups (have lots of bomber groups trained with skills Land bombing Naval bombing Naval Search ASW defense all same group) Takes about 3.5 months to go from exp 30 no skill to having these skills in the 60's and 70's It is a waste of time to train pilots via combat. Because production rates are so slow you can train a horde of pilots for AC that have not been built yet. I have at least 5 times more trained pilots then slots in combat groups.
As Japan train the crap out of pilots flying Nate. It does not matter if you wearout the airframe they are not going into combat and then the well trained pilots upgrade to Oscar Ic (fresh airframe) The junk Nate then fill up the groups in Manchukuo and continue to pump out pilots. Sonia's can train expert bomber pilots as well who then fly Sally/Helen
USA does the same with all the old frames (there are not enough P40E for combat and training so Lancer and peashooter and Texans train the pilots) I have yet to put an Iron Dog into combat but they have trained several hundred fighter pilots skilled in Air/Defense/Ground attack/Naval attack Very tedious but if you pay attention you can pump out pilots. (they train till fatigue 20 rest back to 0 and repeat) Most time consuming is patrol to be skilled in search and ASW
My China pilots are all in the 60 skill and do fine versus Nates or unescorted bombers.
Of course all this is versus the AI where it flies groups and pilots right into ground. (Those Zeros are much easier to kill when the airframes have 40+ fatigue and the pilots are asleep from fatigue. ) In 4 months Japan has lost 3k aircraft 1/3 to OPs I have so many pilots in TRICOM I plan on forming a squadron of 25 80+ pilots. When enough USN USMC pilots are available I will form an entire carrier air wing from experts.
I always thought Japans turn 1 was a nightmare. The Allies have 6 months worth of turns that take hours for each. (As japan after turn 1 you just tweak a little here and there but the operations pretty much run themselves.) The poor allied player has so much on his plate and it requires looking months into future. Just overseeing ship upgrades takes a lot of effort. (By May I have all the early ones done but then a new new batch goes into effect.) I can do a comprehensive PBEM turn as Japan in under 30 minutes. Versus the AI every Allied turn takes more then an hour.
Still very impressed by this 14 year old engine. Salute to the guys that put it together

[BBfanboy]

Firstly, I found that last post very difficult to read because it is all jammed together. Between the small size of the font and my old eyes it is very easy to lose track of where I am when I reach over to get my coffee cup, so it becomes annoying to try and find where I left off. Please leave spaces between paragraphs to help with landmarking.

Re: the mines and other devices - they are everywhere that has the supply and size to handle them, just like naval shells. You need to look at the load cost of the item (mines have various sizes/weights) and look at the table in the manual that shows the max load cost items that each size of port can handle.

The production is automatic - no factory is dedicated to making them. A set amount goes into the pools each month per the production schedule.

To check the pools of mines go to the Intelligence Report (button near the top left). On the main Intel screen at the bottom right is a heading something like "Industry/Troops/Devices Pool" - click on that and a list of all the devices for your side will appear. Each item shows dates for start and end of production and monthly production rate. Another column will show how much has been produced so far in the current month.

You can filter for mines by clicking "All Devices" at the top to toggle everything off, then select mines to see just that type of device.

[Mundy]

And here I was, waiting for a "Beer made me do it" incident.

Welcome back Mog.

[mogami]

Hi, BBfanboy Sorry the font appears much larger in the window when you type it. Thanks once you told me where it was easy to find. The producduction of the Mk 6 USN mine is given in game at 35 per month (why you run out after loading a few ships) Actual production was 1000 per day (of course some went to ETO) The stock pile on hand Dec 7 1941 was 59000 1200 Mk10 40per month)
Is this because players get mine happy or did someone not know actual stores on hand and production numbers
I only began wondering when I could not load a sub completely after one mission
As a mostly Japanese player I won't have a cow over this. Since most mines were air dropped and that is not possible till late in war the only impact is Allied subs cannot substitute their funky torpedos for mines that work.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: mogami

Hi, BBfanboy Sorry the font appears much larger in the window when you type it. Thanks once you told me where it was easy to find. The producduction of the Mk 6 USN mine is given in game at 35 per month (why you run out after loading a few ships) Actual production was 1000 per day (of course some went to ETO) The stock pile on hand Dec 7 1941 was 59000 1200 Mk10 40per month)
Is this because players get mine happy or did someone not know actual stores on hand and production numbers
I only began wondering when I could not load a sub completely after one mission
As a mostly Japanese player I won't have a cow over this. Since most mines were air dropped and that is not possible till late in war the only impact is Allied subs cannot substitute their funky torpedos for mines that work.

As I recall, according to the devs, mines were deliberately limited because the game engine could only do so well with modeling them and they wished to avoid the game being "Mines in the Pacific".

[mogami]

Hi, I recall the old days when mines were every where. In the actual war USN subs placed about 100 mines. 20k mines were placed around ports where no enemy ship ever came near. It was the air barrage that did most of the damage. does the Allied player have the means do execute this late in war?

[RangerJoe]

. . . they train till fatigue 20 rest back to 0 and repeat . . .

If you set the range to "0" on your training squadrons, the pilots won't get tired. They just fly over the base area.

. . . How do you prevent all these unwanted pilots going into groups? . . .

Set your replacements to manual so any additional pilots will be the ones that you select. You ca also select the experience level of the replacement pilots as well. Squadrons will come with some pilots that you might want to train further. Set them to train right away or replace them with better ones and send the rejects for retraining.

. . . there are not enough P40E for combat and training . . .

There will be, especially when the early squadrons in OZ disappear since those aircraft go back into the pool. Also, the squadrons that start in the Phillipines will have their aircraft go back into the pool. Just don't lose the aircraft and pilots needlessly. I find that a CAP at 30% at 20K works nicely against the computer - they have even gutted the KB bomber force after handling the KB Zeros. I have found the the P-40B is even better than the E model since it is slightly faster but it carries no bombs nor drop tanks.

. . . What is the difference training bombers between ground/port/airfield? . . .

Not much since the target does not move, unlike naval bombing and ASW where the target not only moves but voluntarily sinks with the intention of coming back up.

As far as Mac goes, I leave him in command. I relieve Percival but I do the politically incorrect thing and evacuate Malaya and get the two Indian divisions into Palambang with the fighters one hex away. I also bring out the Malaya Army by air and have that in the area. I don't lose Palambang to the computer but against a human, you would also need to fortify the escape route as well as Merak and Batavia.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: mogami

Hi, I recall the old days when mines were every where. In the actual war USN subs placed about 100 mines. 20k mines were placed around ports where no enemy ship ever came near. It was the air barrage that did most of the damage. does the Allied player have the means do execute this late in war?

Yes, the effect might not be historical for at least three reasons: different course of any given contest from history; player hindsight; and game mechanic-wise the opposing players always gets messages (report files, wherever) about aerial mining missions (historically I suppose sometimes they observed aerial mining missions and sometimes they didn't) and so can act accordingly.

[RangerJoe]

I remember reading abut the aerial mining, the Japanese did see where the mines were dropped and sometimes the mines landed on mud flats. But it did slow down the use of the ports. I also read that during the last few months of the war, many smaller mines would have been more effective than the larger but fewer mines that were dropped since a damaged ship was essentially out of the war since the Japanese repair yards were overworked, for some strange reason.