Climb Mt. Niitaka - Xargun vs Mr Kane

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: 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.

Get some recon over those Chinese bases, and think about strategically bombing the industry to destroy supply generation. Destroy Chinese industry...unless you have a HR about it. If you don't have the fighter strength to gain control of the skies during the day, bomb him at night (unless there is HR on it).

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: 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.

+1

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
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.

In 7 months I will have the Tojo IIc - R&D on that model is stopped, I am waiting for the b model and then I will have c as well - waiting will enable me to convert my factories for free without wasting 90k supply to convert them manually a month earlier.

I am slowly upgrading my oscar units to Tojos, but keeping several for escort and sweeps with my zeros in Burma.

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
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.

They are not my end game choices - I'm just not spending any R&D on Transport or Recon aircraft so I will upgrade as the newer models come down the line naturally.

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
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 ....

Many of the factories are still set to starting planes as I haven't found a use for them. Most of them have never been turned on. Could probably make more efficient use of them but not sure how.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

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.

I have 2 R&D factories on the Peggy and thats it. Should be enough to get it a few months early and 60/month should be more than enough. Am toying with the idea of using them as kamikaze as well, but not sold on the idea yet. Have never had / used Kamikazes before so not sure what to expect.

I just noticed the Tony is not listed on my R&D. I have 5 factories working on the Ki-100-I model right now. 10% a day R&D. Should have it late 43 (roughly a year from now).

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
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.

Am in process of converting all CV zeros to the A6M5c model so my pools are very low. I messed up and stopped all A6M2 production and my A6M5c production has not caught up yet. Am scrambling for A6M2s for my ground units [:@] I should have kept 1 factory making them - the better range is useful on land.

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
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 ...

Just converted another group to Tina due to losses at Rabaul - so pool is low atm. Rebuilding it currently.

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
Mavis? Where is Emily???

Good question. My plan was to wait for the K2 model before building the Emily. Not sure what my logic was - maybe trying to save HI on the K1 model?? Not sure. Looking at the stats there is no reason not to build the K1 - they are much better than the Mavis in all regards. Going to address this during the next turn.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

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.

Should I build the first model of George just to get some in the air, or wait the 3 months til the K2 version would be available via R&D?

Believe I have 6 R&D factories on the Sam currently.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

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

I am building the 2 CVEs - those and Tankers are the only things I can really think of. Its a pain to turn off all the merchant shipping. Is there a way to turn it all off and then turn on only the things I want? Should I be building tankers - my losses have been very light so far -- Mr Kane seems to ignore the Japanese weakness in Oil/Fuel and concentrate his subs looking for warships.

Usually I build most of the ships in the queue. But basically I am entering new territory now that I'm in 12/42 - only made it this far once and it was a completely different game.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
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.

Yeah - Mr Kane is fighting very well in china - using terrain very well. And the stacking limits are not helping me right now -- but will in later war when he is attacking.

I hope to clear the rails and Nanning. Then mostly make sure my units are in good shape and wait out the war holding the line. making take another base or two if the opportunity presents itself.

I have build Changsha into a good airfield and am working on another. Am also building up forts too. Once Helens replace my frontline Sally Sentais, the Sallies will come to China in force to replace all the Ida, Mary, Sonya, etc...

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
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.

Should I pull out and only leave behind air force and token defenses? My biggest worry here is him leap frogging right past my defenses and turning any base I have into a big POW camp. I'm thinking about Rabaul or Manus or any base on New Guinea as that. Makes me hesitant to reinforce.

I know Truk will be bypassed and thats fine - I haven't made final decisions yet, but a few units will be sacrificed there - along with some air support to pop in air units now and then to say hi. Can't let Truk go for free. Rabaul? Maybe - it is very far south.

What about Babeldoab? Should I reinforce that instead of sending troops to Rabaul? or is that also usually skipped?

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: 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?

Not sure if it was on the report - I noticed a couple planes missing, but I am researching the Judy.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
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.

I have the Tojo IIc already R&D to 4/43. The IIb comes in 7/43 which will allow me to auto upgrade my 90 factories without spending the 90k supply. Should I upgrade anyways ?

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
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.

I repair my R&D slowly as they need it so the Irving-S is only size 10 atm.

I have several groups of engineers running around the Home Islands expanding Airfields and Forts - been concentrating to the 'North' at first incase Mr Kane comes knocking again. I forget who's advice it was, but I want size 6 forts in all bases in Japan and size 6+ airfields everywhere that is not an easy invasion site (terrain wise).

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
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

Current factories:

A6M8 Zero - 5 factories fully repaired
A7M2 Sam - 7 factories
Jill line - 4 factories - 1 fully repaired
Judy line - 5 factories fully repaired
Ki-100-I Tony - 5 factories fully repaired
George line - 7 factories
Frank line - 7 factories
Francis line - 2 factories
Irving-S - 1 factory
Peggy (T) - 2 factories

Shinden - 6 factories
Ki-83 - 4 factories
Tsurugi - 4 factories
Randy line - 1 each model

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

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

So I should change the Shinden, Ki-83, Tsurugi to Frank and Sam? As well as any other 'unallocated' R&D factories?

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Get some recon over those Chinese bases, and think about strategically bombing the industry to destroy supply generation. Destroy Chinese industry...unless you have a HR about it. If you don't have the fighter strength to gain control of the skies during the day, bomb him at night (unless there is HR on it).

I've thought about bombing his industry in China, but he hasn't done that to me and I'm worried if I open that Pandora's box he may punish me by going 100% after my oil which he hasn't really done much of except initially at Palembang and a little at Magwe.

We have no house rules concerning bombing industry.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
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.

Should I pull out and only leave behind air force and token defenses? My biggest worry here is him leap frogging right past my defenses and turning any base I have into a big POW camp. I'm thinking about Rabaul or Manus or any base on New Guinea as that. Makes me hesitant to reinforce.

I know Truk will be bypassed and thats fine - I haven't made final decisions yet, but a few units will be sacrificed there - along with some air support to pop in air units now and then to say hi. Can't let Truk go for free. Rabaul? Maybe - it is very far south.

What about Babeldoab? Should I reinforce that instead of sending troops to Rabaul? or is that also usually skipped?

Allies can always take the the path of least resistance...build up one area and they bypass choosing the weakest area. Very frustrating. Paired with an early advance, before your reinforcements start flowing in and it is equally as tough.

This is where the KB comes into play, by being massed, with good naval search it acts as a deterrent to very fast invasions and leap frogging.

Usually the Lae, Umboi Rabaul line can be held for quite a while...behind that is Aitape to Manus to Kavieng, behind that is Sorong to Bebeldoab to Yap...etc., etc.


Try to plan your defense to be like an onion with many layers. If he bypasses an area you can either fly troops out and also use it to stage raids on his line of supply. What you want to be careful about is where you place your 3 big CD gun units...as they are a pain to move.

But every day you need to be doing something offensive against the Allies. A sweep, a bombing raid, a cap trap, bomber attacks, a surface raid, a shore bombardment, wolf pack attacks, dropping mines, even a midget strike on a small port. And you need to be thinking of doing this in every area of advance...Burma, Rabaul, China while building defenses and planning each line of defense.

[Xargun]

Not much happened on this turn except another bombardment run on Rabaul with US Light Cruisers. They ran into a group of 4 IJN DDs sent there on a fast transport mission to pickup a fragment to pull back. The ships fought and to be honest I think the DDs gave as good (if not better) than they got.

It was a night time action with very low moonlight and started at close range - 2000 yards. 3 DDs took some hits, but nothing major and CL Nashville reportedly took 2 torpedoes. She is currently listed as sunk, but not sure. Even one torpedo hit may make him think twice about doing that again. Maybe I should move some heavy ships down from Truk.

I forgot to look for allied aircraft lost on 'ground' for confirmation.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
Allies can always take the the path of least resistance...build up one area and they bypass choosing the weakest area. Very frustrating. Paired with an early advance, before your reinforcements start flowing in and it is equally as tough.

This is where the KB comes into play, by being massed, with good naval search it acts as a deterrent to very fast invasions and leap frogging.

Usually the Lae, Umboi Rabaul line can be held for quite a while...behind that is Aitape to Manus to Kavieng, behind that is Sorong to Bebeldoab to Yap...etc., etc.


Try to plan your defense to be like an onion with many layers. If he bypasses an area you can either fly troops out and also use it to stage raids on his line of supply. What you want to be careful about is where you place your 3 big CD gun units...as they are a pain to move.

I just landed one on Guam alongside a division of troops and some engineers to begin digging in.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
But every day you need to be doing something offensive against the Allies. A sweep, a bombing raid, a cap trap, bomber attacks, a surface raid, a shore bombardment, wolf pack attacks, dropping mines, even a midget strike on a small port. And you need to be thinking of doing this in every area of advance...Burma, Rabaul, China while building defenses and planning each line of defense.

Should I abandon the Marshalls? I'm thinking as long as he is south of Rabaul the Marshalls can be held for now. That maybe his next target since they are kind of isolated. I don't have a lot there, but several Naval Guard units and a lot of search capability.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Get some recon over those Chinese bases, and think about strategically bombing the industry to destroy supply generation. Destroy Chinese industry...unless you have a HR about it. If you don't have the fighter strength to gain control of the skies during the day, bomb him at night (unless there is HR on it).

I've thought about bombing his industry in China, but he hasn't done that to me and I'm worried if I open that Pandora's box he may punish me by going 100% after my oil which he hasn't really done much of except initially at Palembang and a little at Magwe.

We have no house rules concerning bombing industry.

Everything, and I mean everything, you can do to the Allies, they can do to you worse.[:D]

You need to slow down the Allied land advance, and you also need to learn how to protect your industry. It is better to start learning now (when the scales is smaller) than in say six months from now. If he bombs your industry outside of fighter sweep range, it is a great place for your planes to exact so retribution. Also, it will slow down his land advance since his heavies are going for industry rather than ground troops.

Your goal should be to not give any free meals to the Allies. But do watch out for Allies flying good fighters into China or wherever from Burma. If he does, then bomb the runways at night. You are at war! Plus you want to learn...learn by doing.[:)]

Why give him immunity, and all those supplies, and allow him to set the pace and direction of the game?

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Xargun


A6M8 Zero - 5 factories fully repaired
A7M2 Sam - 7 factories
Jill line - 4 factories - 1 fully repaired
Judy line - 5 factories fully repaired
Ki-100-I Tony - 5 factories fully repaired
George line - 7 factories
Frank line - 7 factories
Francis line - 2 factories
Irving-S - 1 factory
Peggy (T) - 2 factories

Shinden - 6 factories
Ki-83 - 4 factories
Tsurugi - 4 factories
Randy line - 1 each model

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

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

So I should change the Shinden, Ki-83, Tsurugi to Frank and Sam? As well as any other 'unallocated' R&D factories?

You would probably need 10 Shinden factories to get them by Jan 1 1945 (give or take a month) if you started them on Dec 7. Put those 6 factories into Frank A and then R and you can have the Frank R by November of 1943 if left unbombed.

Frank and Sam are by far and away your biggest needs...and you need in general twice as many Army fighter production as Navy as the Army goes thru a huge expansion in April of 44, and the Navy thru a huge withdraw in June of 44 I believe. Not so true if you supersize your naval fighter squadrons.

Since the game will be accelerated, you really want to crank out the good fighters asap. 500+ Frank A to say 750 Frank Rs a month even a 1000 a month I wouldn't call excessive. 300 Georges (and by all means crank out the first generation George). I have seen 450 Georges being produced a month and it wasn't enough against Mr. Kane. Plus the Tonies, the Zeroes, the Tojos, the Nicks and Randy.

There is an opportunity cost to making fighters...if you don't spend the supply, you risk losing the air war and far more supply to the Allies bombing efforts.

You have lost me on your reasoning for a size 10 r&d factory for Irving S at all. [&:]

Plan on building 5000 Franks by Jan 1 1945 and losing 4000 of them.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
You have lost me on your reasoning for a size 10 r&d factory for Irving S at all. [&:]

I try to be super stingy with Supply - so I only enlarge a R&D factory as it repairs. So the size 10 Irving factory wouldn't normally be enlarged (to size 20) until 5 or so are repaired. No other logic other than being stingy.

Although I am wondering if the size of the factory affects has fast it repairs.

[Xargun]

Ok I am experiencing something very strange. For the entire game my Vehicle Production has been 200 per turn since I have 200 factories. But starting on 12/1/1942 this has begun to climb.

244 (12/1)
350 (12/2)
244 (12/3)
260 (12/4)
268 (12/5)
410 (12/6)

What is going on? tracker still only shows me with my 200 factories. Is there something odd going on that I don't know about that starts 12/1/42 ?

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Ok I am experiencing something very strange. For the entire game my Vehicle Production has been 200 per turn since I have 200 factories. But starting on 12/1/1942 this has begun to climb.

244 (12/1)
350 (12/2)
244 (12/3)
260 (12/4)
268 (12/5)
410 (12/6)

What is going on? tracker still only shows me with my 200 factories. Is there something odd going on that I don't know about that starts 12/1/42 ?

Screen picture from the game, not tracker please. Industry screen.

[Lowpe]

oops