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Grinding away on the ground in Honshu while pursuing a strategic bombing campaign from Hokkaido seems like a recipe for victory to me - Rader's already lost, we're in 1944 and allied boots are on the big island - now it just remains to see how long the game will last.

ORIGINAL: crsutton
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The problem with any invasion is that if the enemy is there in strength then you are required to support it until it is decided. It would be incredibly risky for GJ to move his carriers away out of supporting range of his invasions, as we all have seen how Rader can take advantage of it. Odd as it sounds, until GJ clears out one or two invasions hexes, (or withdraws) Rader will hold the initiative, because KB still exists and does not have to be committed to fighting the invasion.

ORIGINAL: Cribtop
One more point about owning bases is that obviously you control the port and airfield. Assuming you can keep them open in the face of enemy air and naval attack, you can unload troops and supplies more safely and can use the airfield to project air power.

ORIGINAL: cwDeici

With most of his surface navy dead, maybe you can start raiding his tankers more freely with your subs and maybe some of your longer-range surface elements?

Anyway I fully support your decision to not LRCAP the beaches, they'll be fine going by the results so far when under attack and the forts they've put up and the expendable merchant marine.

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So anyway I did a little calculation of how many times the AC frames Japan is producing compared to America in this scenario 2 campaign vis a vis the comparative OTL strength. According to an article I read the Japanese had numerical superiority over the Americans (and the allies at large?) until 1943 when it reversed.
More importantly so far in this campaign the allies have lost only 18,600 AC compared to the 205% of Japanese losses at 38,200.

This means that Japan can not only cherrypick frames but if Greyjoy is outnumbered say 2:1 then that means if I assume that in real life the allies had maybe 2:1 in numbers of aircraft by 1944, then Japan has eight times (was twice in real life by 1944 (guessing), is twice as much in the game (game), after twice as many casualties (checked)) the aircraft in real life. Of course that's not counting whatever production Japan gets from conquering China and holding India for some time as well as some other territories, if that's enough to matter significantly, but then again I'd be less surprised if the allies outnumbered them more than 2:1 OTL in '44 than that Chinese and Indian AC production mattered.

Scenario 2 is supposed to be more fun for the Japanese player, so what's necessary to balance out the other allied advantages is cherrypicking eight times the frames and nerfing radar? Are there important areas where Japan is significantly weaker than OTL and what is Rader giving up to crank out that many frames?
I'm just kind of in awe when Greyjoy pulls stuff like killing 2,750 in a day at Tokyo then says 'well, this should maybe give me air superiority for two weeks' and then it mostly doesn't, which I can understand now.

Sorry for asking so many questions and I don't have anything against scenario 2.
It makes for a more awesome game as clearly evidenced here!

ORIGINAL: cwDeici

Thanks for the info.
So Rader has a metric -ton of aircraft because GJ hasn't taken the DEI or sunk the tankers & oilers?

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

God knows that i've tried to interdict his sealanes...since 1942...with my subs...i've tried to place them everywhere from DEI, SRA to the HI...even on the less important routes...japanese air ASW has been deadly...my subs were slaughtered with no mercy...and now his latest "E" class is prooving to be defenetly better than any ASW asset the allies have...every time the pass over a sub they score a kill...just every time!
Jzanez in his other game with Rader experimented the same thing...Rader has developed a system that keeps 99% safe all his routes from subs attacks...there's no way to penetrate there and to kill his tankers. Believe me.
Every single damned base has a dedicated Helen Sentai with 70 ASW skilled crews...and at 1000 feet they are really deadly....and he never moves his tankers in open waters....only shallow ones...under the cover of his ASW assets...

Rader has managed to develop an Air army which is much better than the allied ones. Now that he has the SAM for his CVs, he can easily outperform the Hellcats-5 (nearly 20 mph faster) and with the Ki-83 he has a plane that goes faster and higher than a P-47s...in few months he'll be producing 350 Shidens/months (yes, i've calculated the number based on my Recon) and nearly 400 KI-201 (the japanese version of the Me262)...you can draw your conclusions about my overall situation in the air...strat bombing will be nearly impossible against these numbers...we all know that

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I have referred to the massive quantities of Japanese aircraft and pilots in AE (presumably restricted to Scenario Two, but it may be more widespread than that) as "Star Wars."

Until GJ's game, there were various opinions tossed out that the Star Wars effect was limited by the particular circumstances of each game.  But this game proves that Star Wars is the norm.  If GJ hasn't reduced Japan's capcity to turn out zillions of aiircraft and pilots, then it's not ever going to happen.  GJ has just flat whiped Japan for two years of game time, inflicting staggering losses, but Japan still comes back with vast quantities every turn.

So, Star Wars it is.  All who play Scenario Two need to start with this information in mind.  I will always prefer Scenario Two, but I won't play with the idea that I can limit Japan's quantities.  The best I can hope for is to maximize Allied pilot quality so that my air forces can hold their own in the sky.