Climb Mt. Niitaka - Xargun vs Mr Kane

[Xargun]

Here is my engine production. All are functional except the Ha-43 factories which are simply performing R&D. I am enlarging my Ha-45 production as well as Ha-33.

[Xargun]

Current Army Aircraft Production.

[Xargun]

Current Army Aircraft R&D

[Xargun]

My Navy Aircraft Production

[Xargun]

Navy Aircraft R&D

[Xargun]

Current Industry Screen

[Xargun]

The Chinese front has been stable for a while and I finally broke the Chinese surrounding 2 cutoff Divisions near Chihkiang. I have also just pushed out the final Chinese units from Changteh - will be pursuing them down the road towards Chihkiang with a couple Divisions, while the artillery horde will head towards Kweilin to help finish clearing my rail.

[Xargun]

This theater is not going great. When Mr Kane first arrived I figured he was here in little strength (like me), but I was very wrong. He has constantly pushed up the Solomons and across New Guinea from Port Moresby with a combination of US and Australian forces. He has a lot of 2E and 4E bombers and a bunch of fighters in theater as well.

As you can see from the map, he is steadily pushing north up the Solomon chain and East from Port Moresby. I am evacuating troops from Buna and Buin as fast as I can with air (Buin) and barges (Buna). I am considering bringing a fresh division from Manila to Madang to secure the way, but am worried he will just leap frog it and cut it off.

What would you guys recommend?

[Xargun]

Northern Burma is in shambles as Mr Kane is expertly hiding his movement and catching me offguard as I have posted about before. I am finally in the later stages of extracting the 2 Division plus force from Katha but they are beat up and will need a couple weeks to recover when they are free.

I have a division west of Katha holding the door open and a Tank Division in the plains to the SW holding the way. The map is busy, but allies W of Katha (green units) are moving SE towards the clear terrain where my 1 Tank Division is waiting. 150+ bombers are Toungou are waiting for them to come into the clear terrain so I can hammer them - I expect heavy fighter cover so a turn or two of sweeps will be conducted as well.

In all I have spotted multiple Indian and Australian Divisions as well as British troops in Northern Burma. Not sure how many Indian Divisions he has 'bought' out to allow them to cross into Burma (house rule) so that may be why I have not seen many across the border.

My operation to take Cox's Bazar went fine with 2 Regiments landing and taking the base easily. They moved south to Akyab where an infantry Division crossed over the river to help in the attack. Apparently 2 Regiments were not enough and the infantry division shock attacked at Akyab and destroyed itself (must have rolled snake-eyes). One attack and it went from fully capable (370 ish AV) to 70 AV and the entire operation failed. The troops are fleeing from Akyab slowly to return to Rangoon for rest and rebuilding -- at least the 2 Regiments are in good shape.

[Lowpe]

Ok, that is a lot to take in.

I bet you should be able to survive thru 44.

[BBfanboy]

Recommend? I can float some ideas for your consideration but I am not a JFB so I cannot call them recommendations/

Firstly: re: Solomons and NG - what is your strongest part of your forces? Army, Navy, AF? If Army, make your next defence lines somewhere on NG, ship in lots of supplies and leave the troops to fight a long action to delay him. If Navy and/or AF, set up in the islands to the north of NG and make him pay to take them.

Secondly: Mr. Kane always brings the big hammer far forward, which leaves little in his rear. Find out where the gaps in his coverage are and raid deep. Disrupting his LOC is the only way to slow the hammer blows.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Current Army Aircraft Production.

OK, so 12/42.

I'm going to offer suggestions about going forward. No hindsight, that can wait until after the game. [;)]

So, looking at AC types:
Fighters: You are committed to the Tojo now. The Oscar c is on par with the Nate at this point. You need more Tojo production to support converting most of your groups to Tojo. You can keep some for escort as Oscar, but the 1c at 305 mph just can't cut it much, not to mention 2x12.7mm guns. This means you need Ha-34 to match. I would keep the Tojo a until Frank arrives. The 'b' model is a poor choice and not worth switching to.

LB's
Good mix, decent pools. Basically you are set.

T
MC-21 is ok. look at loss rate, match production to it and you want 2x monthly loss rate in your pool.

RC
Ditto T above. I generally need more as I really use recon, and that means high losses because of it. Key though is to match production to your play style. The technique above should work for you.

FB
You only get so many groups, so your production level should be ok. Until Frank, they are your best 4E killer, after that they are your PT killer. So, strafe skill pilots are needed ....

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Current Army Aircraft R&D

Frank: don't be afraid to load up factories on this model. You will end up producing +500/mo of them, so ...

Ki-67 Peggy - don't over build this because it is easy to do. Its utility is as a TB, not LB. TB have only one mission, whereas LB have many. Meaning, Helen is still your main bomber for the war. Peggy helps your TB and 14 range is nice, but far less than Nettie. Just remember that. What I mean here is don't commit too many RnD factories ... unlike Frank, you will not build nearly as many.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

My Navy Aircraft Production

F
A6M - good. Again pool should be minimum 2 month loss rate. For CV planes, because they aren't used much, the pools need to be 50% of TOTAL DEPLOYMENT. So, add up all of your A6M on CV's and divide by two ... that should be the pool. Generally that would be about 200 planes. [8D] For the A6M only, then add 2 months loss on top of that as it is also your LBA fighter model. so closer to 300 ... Now, I will count A6M3a and later A6M mode;s as part of this pool... but that is me.

B5N/D4Y - Ditto A6M above

G3M3/G4M - I prefer the G3M3 for the war, but that is me. Total pool looks about right. 2x month loos rate.

Jake/Glen: good.

Tina - good, maybe a tad low on the pool? Depends on how much you use them. I tend to use the tina heavily and hardly use my IJA transports due to range ... meaning, I need more pool due to higher loss ...

Mavis? Where is Emily???

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Navy Aircraft R&D

George, coming soon. Plan to build LOTS for 2 years until Sam.

SAM - LOTS/LOTS/LOTS. So, like Frank don't be afraid to commit RnD factories to it. Difference is that it comes much later, so ROI on the RnD is a lot smaller. Still, you hvae to try and in the meantime it is George.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Current Industry Screen

My only concern is your MSY ... what are you building? CVE's and hardly anything else other than to replace losses would be thoughts ...

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

The Chinese front has been stable for a while and I finally broke the Chinese surrounding 2 cutoff Divisions near Chihkiang. I have also just pushed out the final Chinese units from Changteh - will be pursuing them down the road towards Chihkiang with a couple Divisions, while the artillery horde will head towards Kweilin to help finish clearing my rail.

So, 12/42. I think taking CK is off the table. Maybe someone else can talk to it. So this means contain as long as you can. The CHI troops are always short of armor and arty compared to IJ forces. They are also short of air.
So, you must maintain control of the skies, bomb them mercilessly before and during contact with your forces, Decide on your MLR's now and start getting them in place. You need to hold the northern line against the CHI while your troops from E Asia retreat east contracting your lines and making them stronger.
Conceptually easy, not so easy in practice. An oops is easy to do and costly.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

This theater is not going great. When Mr Kane first arrived I figured he was here in little strength (like me), but I was very wrong. He has constantly pushed up the Solomons and across New Guinea from Port Moresby with a combination of US and Australian forces. He has a lot of 2E and 4E bombers and a bunch of fighters in theater as well.

As you can see from the map, he is steadily pushing north up the Solomon chain and East from Port Moresby. I am evacuating troops from Buna and Buin as fast as I can with air (Buin) and barges (Buna). I am considering bringing a fresh division from Manila to Madang to secure the way, but am worried he will just leap frog it and cut it off.

What would you guys recommend?

This is a place where I am not the best person to ask, primarily because I don't like fighting here at all.
It is way off my SLOC, right on the allies. All advantages to them, none to me. I try to lose a little as I can while I prep for the Marianas fight to come in 6 months or less.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Northern Burma is in shambles as Mr Kane is expertly hiding his movement and catching me offguard as I have posted about before. I am finally in the later stages of extracting the 2 Division plus force from Katha but they are beat up and will need a couple weeks to recover when they are free.

I have a division west of Katha holding the door open and a Tank Division in the plains to the SW holding the way. The map is busy, but allies W of Katha (green units) are moving SE towards the clear terrain where my 1 Tank Division is waiting. 150+ bombers are Toungou are waiting for them to come into the clear terrain so I can hammer them - I expect heavy fighter cover so a turn or two of sweeps will be conducted as well.

In all I have spotted multiple Indian and Australian Divisions as well as British troops in Northern Burma. Not sure how many Indian Divisions he has 'bought' out to allow them to cross into Burma (house rule) so that may be why I have not seen many across the border.

My operation to take Cox's Bazar went fine with 2 Regiments landing and taking the base easily. They moved south to Akyab where an infantry Division crossed over the river to help in the attack. Apparently 2 Regiments were not enough and the infantry division shock attacked at Akyab and destroyed itself (must have rolled snake-eyes). One attack and it went from fully capable (370 ish AV) to 70 AV and the entire operation failed. The troops are fleeing from Akyab slowly to return to Rangoon for rest and rebuilding -- at least the 2 Regiments are in good shape.

Burma is all about keeping the allies to your west. Don't let them behind you as you fall back. Decide what you want to sacrifice in Singers and the rest goes toward Vinh.
Like China, simple concept, hard to execute. Lots of AAR's to read on this, almost every one of them. Its been done right several times, been a total catastrophe a bunch of times. Read them all. I hate Burma.
The IJ cannot win the war in Burma, but you sure can lose it. Can't remember the AAR, but someone lost over 20 units in Burma, got surrounded and ... you cannot recover from that.


PS: watch your armor. Off roads it is slower than INF ...

[Lowpe]

Can't tell how many factories you have on each plane...so here goes. A R&D factory should be sized to 30....true for fighters, night fighters, and judy and jill. And those planes should be your focus. I don't see Judy...did I miss it?

Any plane that arrives after the Sam....forget. Switch those R*D facilities to Sam and Frank A. Each factory should be size 30. You need to have at least 10 of each, perhaps 15 of the Sam. I seriously doubt you would go wrong if you had 20 factories each of the Frank and Sam. No other plane is as important, will be made in huge quantities as those two. You need thousands.

You will want to get the Tojo IIC, but plan on making 150 month for the rest of the game -- you might need more. I would expand current Tojo production to help see me there.

You need to expand HA45 engines to at least 1000 month. You will make 500+ Frank A a month plus work on researching the Frank R. I bet you could use 700 a month Frank production and need them. Make sure you train fighter pilots...robust pilot training is very important: air to air, defense at a minimum.

Without getting hundreds of Frank, Georges and Sams he will crush you in the air and probably never need to night bomb....but the Irving S should be expanded to size 30, a factory making Nick D at size 30. You will probably want to make 60 a month of both. Forget the other night fighters. Develop lots of size 8 runways on Honshu...doubles your aviation support and you need that for your SR3 fighters.

Plan on making 300 Georges a month maybe as much as 450.

Increase the size of the Randy A factory to 30...you might get it, but probably not.

FB...I like Nicks and recommend you use them as deep aerial defense for ports and runways. CAP bases where he can't sweep with them, saving your other planes for closer in defense. You could increase the size of the Randy 102b to size 30 too.

Because you are going to be behind in the air war....buy out the AA from Manchuko garrison and use it. If it gets destroyed it is cheap to buy back again.

I am very serious about the Frank and Sam expenditure.

Where is Judy? Much better than Vals...and should most likely be your go to naval kamikaze...which means you will need to make a lot of them.

My new player Japanese r&d build would look something like this:

At least 10 size 30 on Frank A, Sam
At least 3 size 30 on Tojo line, Judy, Jill and Oscar line and George
At least 2 size 30 on Irving S line and Grace and Jack
At least 1 size 30 on Nick D and Tabby KAI Helen and Dinah NF
At least 5 size 30 on Zero line

If you like fighter bombers 1 on Nick line and one on Randy line

Don't research anything that comes past June of 1945; any extra r&d factories go into Frank, Sam or George lines.