Trying Out Japan

[ChadS]

Here's the other--Wuchang appears all red to me, with adjacent green on 2 sides. Does this mean that IF an enemy were in here, it couldn't leave? I'm assuming if one of those comes into Wuchang, then that side will turn Green, and the unit could leave?

Thanks for the info and help. I generally understand the ZoC and path of egress sort of stuff. This is a little more complicated than most games I've played, though.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: ChadS
So, in this one, Allies can't exit West, NW, or SW, correct?
Yes

Are the colors (red/green) MY view of what the ENEMY can do (so, if I switch sides, it works the same way, same colors), or are those specific to each side?
No switching, Allies always green sides, Japan always red

In these, what is indicated? I'm unsure in the first one what Red all the way around represents. as you can tell, none of the hexes adjacent has an enemy (or a friendly, for that matter).
Hexes with only your troops present automatically award you control of all hexsides

Here's the other--Wuchang appears all red to me, with adjacent green on 2 sides. Does this mean that IF an enemy were in here, it couldn't leave?
Yes

[/quote]

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: ChadS

This, coupled with the fact that, as Japan, I totally had no idea what I was up against with regards to resources--I think I'm pretty heavily screwed at this point. It is Mar 13. I hold all of Malaya except Johare Bharu and Singapore. I hold 4 points on Borneo, including Mili, and I have a good portion of the Philippines, including Davao, Legaspi, San Fernando, Lingayen, and Batangas.

But, Tokyo ran out of resources. I have resources..but I can't get them moving very quickly. Since mid Feb, I've been dropping tens of thousands of resources in Ominato, but they just seem to vanish. I think they distribute, but there isn't really anywhere that seems to have more than a few days (actually, I haven't figured out if HI, etc runs daily or every few days).

Conversely, Tokyo has a TON of supply, but I can't get it out very quickly. Other ports in Japan have less than 10k, with small exception. And, in a few places, when I drop off supply, it too vanishes. I get that supply moves. But, one mystery--I've dropped off about 40k in supply to Miri, trying to get its Oil and Refinery working, but I can't get the actual base supply to stay above 10k for more than a turn or two. And, the other bases I have on Borneo (specifically Brunei, Kuching, and Beaufort have a combined total of 4300 supplies with about 500 AV in troops, a couple of Engineers that don't count towards the AV, and No planes. Miri has a dozen Nates.

And, China is a mess.

I think I'm going to take what I've learned, couple that with a little better documenting focus, and start over.

It's absolutely worth your time to read Damien's "Japanese Economy" document. My Japan spreadsheet incorporates the vast majority of his recommendations, to include the IMMEDIATE movement of all ships necessary to implement the Resource convoys needed to keep the Japanese economy from imploding.

A few general thoughts:
- Repairing things like Manpower and Resource centers will drain your supply very quickly, so shut them off in newly conquered bases (until you have a supply surplus/repair plan in mind)
- To keep supply where you want it, set stockpiling to "Yes"
- To move it around, change the "Supplies Required" settings.

But before you do anything, read Damien's document!

[ChadS]

Thanks Kull. I thought I had that document, but now that I look at it, that's not the one I pulled down. I'll read that tonight. It's printing now.

I've used your spreadsheet in the past. That's a lot of work you put in to that! (I can say this because it was a lot of work just following it.) I'll take another look at that, too. As I said, I was outright surprised that I ran out of resources in less than 70 days. I wasn't ignoring it entirely, but I wasn't as diligent as I needed to be, I think.

[rustysi]

(and one HI point to go toward production of planes and ships)

Its two points of HI as well.

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: ChadS

Thanks Kull. I thought I had that document, but now that I look at it, that's not the one I pulled down. I'll read that tonight. It's printing now.

I've used your spreadsheet in the past. That's a lot of work you put in to that! (I can say this because it was a lot of work just following it.) I'll take another look at that, too. As I said, I was outright surprised that I ran out of resources in less than 70 days. I wasn't ignoring it entirely, but I wasn't as diligent as I needed to be, I think.

Resources (and fuel) in the HI (home islands) get sucked up pretty fast, so here's a little something that may help if you aren't already aware of it. If you open up a bases' info page and cursor over the resources you see a number pop up. This represents the amount of resources required to supply the bases' industries for two days. Now a base will attempt to store 10x that number at minimum. This represents 20 days supply of resources at a base.

An easy way to see if you're not getting enough resources to Honshu is to check Yokohama. This being alphabetically at or near the end of the list of bases in the HI its getting resources last (unless you deliver them there). So when it starts to drop you don't have enough resources on Honshu. It'll normally have resources to the tune of 247k. Now be aware that every so many days this number will be off, and you'll be able to see it at other bases as well. To me this just looks like a game mechanic used to reshuffle resources so you don't need to drop them off at every single base that needs them.

Another thing is not to panic as Yokohama will be slightly under for a while as you ramp up your deliveries. Important places to draw from early game are the islands to the north of Honshu, Taiwan, and Port Arthur. You'll need a lot of xAK's at these locations to keep things working.

Hope this helps.

[nashvillen]

Tracker is your ally, there are many gems in there that assist you greatly with running Japan and her economy.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: ChadS

In these, what is indicated? I'm unsure in the first one what Red all the way around represents. as you can tell, none of the hexes adjacent has an enemy (or a friendly, for that matter).

This one is odd because I see that unit icon as yellow (Chinese standard colour), so the hex should be Allied control with green hex sides. Did you change colours for the Japanese and that unit is really Japanese?

[ChadS]

That is Japanese. I changed their color to shades of white.

[ChadS]

I've got a question on R&D vs. Production air and engine factories. Is there a way to convert unused R&D to Prod?

[PaxMondo]

Sure, choose a production ac.

[ChadS]

Question on Altitude

What affect does altitude have? I'm aware of the mission grouping of similar altitudes. I'm also guessing that flak losses are higher in certain bands, and flying higher is better for avoiding flak.

I see that flying at 100 uses the strafe skill for various tasks. And, I recall a chart (mentioned in a previous post) that explained what the different altitudes were for, but I think someone said it's out of date at this point.

So, is there any current info on the pros and cons of various altitudes?

[BBfanboy]

With the removal of glide bombing from the code, they type of bombing chosen is down to:

Dive bombing - 10-15K feet bombers dive to a release point between 2-5K so they can be hit by some of the better light AA. This is the most accurate form of bombing.

Level bombing (Low) - 1000 feet only. Very good chance of hitting the target, even with poor bombing skills. Very good chance of the target hitting you with AA! Should only be used by assault bombers with carry lots of guns in the nose to suppress the AA by strafing.

Level bombing (not Low) - 2000 feet to max altitude. Altitude chosen depends on AA, enemy fighters, your fighters, skill of the bomber pilots, target to be hit, terrain and aircraft characteristics. 4E bombers are meant to fly at high level and fighters have difficulty climbing up to fight them unless the enemy has radar warning. Some aircraft like the B-26 are fairly fast and are meant to come in at less than 5K feet, so they are under the radar for most of their approach.

Torpedo Bombing - you can set whatever altitude you wish and they will descend to 200 feet to drop the torpedo. Setting a low altitude like 1000 feet often allows them to sneak in while other bombers keep the CAP busy up high.

Skip Bombing - assault bombers (with an A prefix instead of B) and a few marks of the B-25 can do this. They must train in low naval attack (to a fairly high level before the AI will assume skip bombing) and be set at 1000 or 100 feet for the attack. Very accurate, but heavy AA and ops losses should be expected.

So with so many things to decide, the bottom line is whatever works! Just be aware that bombing troops does not usually show much result at first - you only start to see disabled and then destroyed squads after you have hit them consistently and caused much disruption and fatigue.

[Skyros]

When was glide bombing removed? The only release notes I can find has to do with a tweak back in 09 setting the altitude range to 10-20K in order to glide bomb.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Skyros

When was glide bombing removed? The only release notes I can find has to do with a tweak back in 09 setting the altitude range to 10-20K in order to glide bomb.

I was going by Yaab's post number 34 of this AAR. I vaguely recalled seeing something about glide bombing being done away with too so I went with Yaab's statement, even with the AFAIK qualifier.

[ChadS]

Working on unassigning then reassigning pilots. Do you get to select your pilots, or are you stuck with luck of the draw? I thought you could pick them out, but only seeing that option for Vet pilots.

[BBfanboy]

Luck of the draw, but the AI tries to match best skill to plane type, so for a fighter squadron the best air skill trainees are selected first.
To help sort out the dogs, some players start the initial training in their squadrons as "General Training", which gives each pilot a little bit of everything. Set them to train at 2000 feet for this unless you are selecting for assault bombers or torpedo bombers.

Once they rookies have been training for a couple of weeks you can see what skills they have made progress on and which they have not. If your rookie is not showing any sign of progressing in the skill you want him to acquire, swap him out for another candidate. The General Training is not wasted time either - the pilot's overall experience increases much faster if they have training in a variety of skills. Once you are happy with your squadron pool, switch them to start training in the skill they need for combat.

[ChadS]

Thanks BB.

I did see that if I select Choose Veteran, then manipulate the pool to all, it looks like the pilots I've "cut loose" show up, and I can select them (though I haven't tried to re-pop a full squadron yet).

Can I do this (cut loose and re-assign) with active air squads prior to running turn 1, as well, or will that mess up the missions they're going to fly? I thought I read where someone suggests pooling all the pilots, and assigning them by ability/experience. Didn't know if I could do that with the carrier pilots, etc.

Also, Sweep training I set to 100 feet. Otherwise, I went with 5-10k for many, with Naval Search, Recon, and Transfer set to 10-20k.

[BBfanboy]

AFAIK when you pick veterans from the General Reserve there is a random factor that decides how far away they are and how long it will take them to arrive in squadron, so, NO, do not repopulate your carrier squadrons before turn 1!

KB pilots are generally excellent anyway. You should not need to do anything with them until their carrier goes into dock for a lengthy time.

[ChadS]

Yeah, OK. So, I see what you mean. It looks like that feature is more about adding a new pilot to fill a hole in your skillset for a group or something like that, not massive assignments.

That said, I think I'm finally read to go.