Matrix Games Forums

Bump. Might get people who know what they are talking about to add stuff.

Subs: fleet boats useless until mid-42…I use for minelaying and transport. The S boats and Dutchmen are the only ones you will hit anything with. I use the fleet boats in packs for minelaying…packs never advisable for regular sub patrol. I slip supplies into Manila on the fleet boats. Don't believe those that say PI easily quarantined. Against a very good opponent this may be case but I have not lost Manila in 2 serious games.

Singapore: get your troops outa peninsula and back to johore and Sing intact. Sneak in lots supplies…get the useless planes and extra ENG out and you can keep it. If you have 80k supplies and #3 forts you will wack a lot of Japanese taking it. I kept Sing against a good player who made 2 ill-timed shock attacks and decimated 2 of his divisions. When things stabilize slowly sneak some fighters back in and bag a pile of unescorted Nells.

Initial Allied withdrawal plans -
- US Naval BFs are useless in the PI, ship them to Oz right away - Perth & Darwin.
- several Dutch BFs are initially dispersed, but can be recombined. By spending some PPs, these BFs can be bought to ABDA & shipped to North Oz. Several North Oz base-hexes can be bought to ABDA, then KNIL floatplane & bomber airgroups can transfer to them.

Hmmm ...

Subs: fleet boats useless until mid-42…

That´s too generally spoken, to my taste. In my current PBEM game (end of Sept. 1942) my fleet boats were quite successful in attacks, sinking roughly 40-50 japanese ships so far. One should always keep in mind the torp dud desaster (I had duds already on 5 japanese CVs and 3 BBs, not to mention numerous attacks on cruisers and destroyers), but with keeping that in mind one should still send them out to patrols. And with the radar upgrades in 4/42 they get even more effective in deteckting enemy TFs, which makes them a good recon tool in times were patrol aircraft are still a precious thing.

Small thing but I like the AP William Ward Burrows up in NorPac. It's only a 12 kt AP but seems like you can get more out of it early when you need it.

Get the 5th and 6th Chinese Corps into Burma and eventually into Assam so you don't waste precious Chinese supply on replacements.

Change HQ of the Tarakan Coastal Gun Battalion to ABDA (ASAP) and use elsewhere in Java or Sumatra. Hopefully to surprise your opponent. Those guns at Palembang are costly to an invader if given time to fortify.
Change 2nd KNIL AA Battalion to ABDA and move unit to Darwin.

Get all the small units that will be combined in Malaysia preparing for Singapore and get them headed in that direction, You're better off with one big unit than separated weaker units. You'll also save PPs by changing one leader instead of a bunch of them.

Some might debate this but in the past I spend the PPs removing Percival from Malaya Army and getting one of the better leaders. Yes the PPs are wasted but you need to slow down the train and make the triumphs as costly as possible.

ORIGINAL: SuluSea
You're better off with one big unit than separated weaker units.

Agreed, but wait till most of the disabled items repair first. You can repair more items per day if you've got 6-8 units repairing than just 1 big one. But combine as soon as the enemy gets close.

Jim