RADM Yamaguchi's Diary (Pls no affins or cheesesteak)

[Jorge_Stanbury]

why nav HQs on oil centers?
they only help load/ unload troops and supply... not oil or fuel
EDIT: It is better to have naval HQs on important ports, that includes important fuel ports

ARs: I would put one on each forward base you have... but with 21 you can pretty much set one on each port you frequently use and still have a lot to spare

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

why nav HQs on oil centers?
they only help load/ unload troops and supply... not oil or fuel

CRAP - i guess i never read that. i must have just assumed they would help with loading fuel/oil.

is there any way to load it faster? i expanded the ports to max already. it just seems slow.

[Alamander]

ORIGINAL: RADM.Yamaguchi

oil is pooling up at singapore - i'm worried it's going to overflow or something - is that all coming from Magwe? Is there any chance to draw it back to Shanghai or Port Arthur or Fusan when the rail line in china is free?

Singapore is large enough (I believe combined airfield and port size 10) that it has no limit to the amount of fuel it holds and the limit for oil is very high. It is a logical depot to transport the fuel and oil from Palembang using TK TFs small enough to fit in the port at Palembang.

Once at Singapore, if you control all of Southern China, which you seem to do, you can move fuel up what has been called the "magic highway." You do so by assigning nonessential xAKs to homeports along the route from Singapore to wherever you intend to pick it up to move to the home islands. The game engine will automatically move fuel to these ports based upon how many ships are set to these as "home ports." Note that you do not have to physically move these ships to the ports. Merely create TFs of them, leave them to remain on station at the home islands but change their home port to Bangkok, then Saigon, then Camh Ran Bay, then Haiphong, then Hong Kong, then Port Arthur, and finally Fusan to get it 2 hexes from Japan. As you change their home ports, fuel will move up the "magic highway" by osmosis.

Many people think this is very gamey, and I never do this. Since it is your first time playing Japan, you don't have much experience against the AI, and have a major backlog, I think your opponents would be understanding if you used it, however, if nothing else to clear the backlog. You should probably ask your opponents if this is OK, if nothing else to clear the backlog, and explain that this is a common first-time mistake as Japan. If they want to have good game going into the late war, they should be understanding. Playing Japan is more complicated than playing the allies.

Supply will move along this same "magic highway." However be warned that moving supply like this will cause loss of supply as passes over numerous road hexes. It is better to move it by ship when possible.

Oil and resources do not move well, if at all, along the magic highway and tend to pool at Singapore, sometimes even when dropped off at places like Camh Ran Bay, especially if you have not been moving oil from western ports since early in the game. For oil, you will probably need to transport it to Hong Kong, at least, using your large tankers. The 15-Knot "super tankers" that carry both oil and resources are perfect for this, but you only have 6 of them, so you will need another large TF of large 18 or 19-knot TKs to move the oil as well. Once at Hong Kong, the oil will move to Port Arthur and then, possibly south, to Fusan.

The game engine tends to establish a pattern of oil movement to demand in the early turns, so if you did not set bases to "stockpile" or start moving oil out of places like Fusan in the beginning, everything from Hong Kong will pool at Port Arthur where there are refineries. You may have to pick it up at Port Arthur to move it to the Home Islands which have excess refining capacity.

Also, keep in mind that your Heavy Industry uses fuel, and you must supply the Home Islands with extra fuel every day to keep the Heavy Industry going.

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

ORIGINAL: Alamander

Singapore is large enough (I believe combined airfield and port size 10) that it has no limit to the amount of fuel it holds and the limit for oil is very high. It is a logical depot to transport the fuel and oil from Palembang using TK TFs small enough to fit in the port at Palembang.

i don't know if it was a good idea but i built up palembang and balikpapan so they don't have limits either.

[Alamander]

ORIGINAL: RADM.Yamaguchi

quick question if anybody can help

I will have 21 new ARs in a little while. I'm thinking about the best use for them. I have been keeping a number of Nav HQs at my larger forward ports to help with repairs. They also help with loading and unloading but that hasn't been as important lately and i don't know how important they will be in the future. I was considering sending 2 or more to these forward bases and moving the Nav HQs to my fuel/oil centers to add to the ones already there. It just keeps piling up. As i understand it a Nav HQ of 240 Nav support = about 110 repair points while each AR is worth 83.

Bases without repair shipyards will not repair major damage, no matter how much naval support is present. Place at least one AR at any base that does not have a repair shipyard where you frequently need to repair major damage (often engine damage) to subs or DDs or expect to receive badly damaged capital ships. For capital shipsq and large AKs, ARs work best as a stopgap to get badly damaged ships sea-worthy enough to return to a repair shipyard.

Put the rest of your ARs at your most used repair yards to add their capacity to that of the yard. You can put one ship in repair by AR per AR present. This is good to fix up DDs reserving your repair yard capacity for capital ships only. ARs also combine well with ARDs to make a mini repair yard where none otherwise exists, such as at Truk. Use the AR to bring down the damage to smaller ships and fix up flotation damage with the ARD.

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

ORIGINAL: Alamander

Once at Singapore, if you control all of Southern China, which you seem to do, you can move fuel up what has been called the "magic highway." You do so by assigning nonessential xAKs to homeports along the route from Singapore to wherever you intend to pick it up to move to the home islands. The game engine will automatically move fuel to these ports based upon how many ships are set to these as "home ports." Note that you do not have to physically move these ships to the ports. Merely create TFs of them, leave them to remain on station at the home islands but change their home port to Bangkok, then Saigon, then Camh Ran Bay, then Haiphong, then Hong Kong, then Port Arthur, and finally Fusan to get it 2 hexes from Japan. As you change their home ports, fuel will move up the "magic highway" by osmosis.

Many people think this is very gamey, and I never do this. Since it is your first time playing Japan, you don't have much experience against the AI, and have a major backlog, I think your opponents would be understanding if you used it, however, if nothing else to clear the backlog. You should probably ask your opponents if this is OK, if nothing else to clear the backlog, and explain that this is a common first-time mistake as Japan. If they want to have good game going into the late war, they should be understanding. Playing Japan is more complicated than playing the allies.

This is what southern china currently looks like. I think this qualifies. I really didn't understand the magic hiway concept until your post. thank you. you obviously pay attention to details. for you to repeat back that i don't have much experience against the AI. i did have a couple of previous PBEM games in WITP AE against Dmitry but we only made it up to april '42 before he stopped playing. He was extremely helpful even as an opponent. He would clean my clock and then tell me what i did wrong. A very good old school teacher.

thanks for your help alamander

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

ORIGINAL: Alamander

ORIGINAL: RADM.Yamaguchi

quick question if anybody can help

I will have 21 new ARs in a little while. I'm thinking about the best use for them. I have been keeping a number of Nav HQs at my larger forward ports to help with repairs. They also help with loading and unloading but that hasn't been as important lately and i don't know how important they will be in the future. I was considering sending 2 or more to these forward bases and moving the Nav HQs to my fuel/oil centers to add to the ones already there. It just keeps piling up. As i understand it a Nav HQ of 240 Nav support = about 110 repair points while each AR is worth 83.

Bases without repair shipyards will not repair major damage, no matter how much naval support is present. Place at least one AR at any base that does not have a repair shipyard where you frequently need to repair major damage (often engine damage) to subs or DDs or expect to receive badly damaged capital ships. For capital shipsq and large AKs, ARs work best as a stopgap to get badly damaged ships sea-worthy enough to return to a repair shipyard.

Put the rest of your ARs at your most used repair yards to add their capacity to that of the yard. You can put one ship in repair by AR per AR present. This is good to fix up DDs reserving your repair yard capacity for capital ships only. ARs also combine well with ARDs to make a mini repair yard where none otherwise exists, such as at Truk. Use the AR to bring down the damage to smaller ships and fix up flotation damage with the ARD.

I like that idea about combining the ARD with ARs. Has anybody moved that ARD more forward. Truk seems like it would be vulnerable in the future sitting all by itself while Rabaul is a 7/7/9 and has a number of supporting 2 AF bases around it.

[Alamander]

Yes. The "magic highway" is open. Be sure you are transporting enough resources to the home islands as well. Many players use tracker to check on such things, but I have never been able to get it to work: always some issue with Java and some obscure error message. I just monitor the number of resources on Hokkaido and try to keep it at about 150K, being sure that all excess is moved to Honshu.

I also monitor Port Arthur and have been trying to keep it at about 150K this game too, since that is where most of the resources from Manchuria and China pool. If you have not been moving resources from Fusan or Moppo from the beginning of the game, you may need to move them from Port Arthur or Keiji as they will automatically pool there because of the industry. Extra resources on the Home Islands will pool in Tokyo. I monitor Tokyo too and try to bring in more every time resources there fall below 500K.

Don't forget that there are resources on Okinawa and one of the Jimas that are easily accessible and Formosa produces extra.

Every time you send supplies west or south, be sure to pick up resources on the way back. I tend to use the big Limas for supply runs and return with resources. The resources from Manchuria/China, Formosa, Hokkaido, and points north are enough to run the home island industry, but it never hurts to have a stockpile of extra. Your supply runs to Singapore or the DEI or even SoPAC (where you can pick up resources at Nauru) should give you this little extra.

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

ORIGINAL: Alamander

Yes. The "magic highway" is open. Be sure you are transporting enough resources to the home islands as well. Many players use tracker to check on such things, but I have never been able to get it to work: always some issue with Java and some obscure error message. I just monitor the number of resources on Hokkaido and try to keep it at about 150K, being sure that all excess is moved to Honshu.

I also monitor Port Arthur and have been trying to keep it at about 150K this game too, since that is where most of the resources from Manchuria and China pool. If you have not been moving resources from Fusan or Moppo from the beginning of the game, you may need to move them from Port Arthur or Keiji as they will automatically pool there because of the industry. Extra resources on the Home Islands will pool in Tokyo. I monitor Tokyo too and try to bring in more every time resources there fall below 500K.

Don't forget that there are resources on Okinawa and one of the Jimas that are easily accessible and Formosa produces extra.

Every time you send supplies west or south, be sure to pick up resources on the way back. I tend to use the big Limas for supply runs and return with resources. The resources from Manchuria/China, Formosa, Hokkaido, and points north are enough to run the home island industry, but it never hurts to have a stockpile of extra. Your supply runs to Singapore or the DEI or even SoPAC (where you can pick up resources at Nauru) should give you this little extra.

That is all good info. I'm just trying my hardest to get Hokkaido under a million resources. i didn't think of getting resources from Nauru. i'll try to remember. wait. i did try it and it seemed to take forever to load. i'll try again. Here's a picture of most of the oil/fuel/resources

[Alamander]

You need to make a full-court press to get that fuel out of Palembang. The problem with Palembang is that it will only load a little more per day than it produces. You need to be sure that port is at capacity every day, loading fuel especially and oil. It will take 6 months probably to clear that backlog. Get that fuel out of Balikpapan as well. That is easier to do.

To give you an illustration, at the same point in my game, Palembang is basically at the minimum of oil much of the time (about 20K as more will not load) and at about 35K fuel. Balikpapan will build to about 80k fuel between TK TFs, but is typically at about 30K. Oil at Balikpapan is at 8K and has been at exactly this level since February, since this is the minimum that the game leaves there and won't allow you to load to ensure the refineries have oil. The largest stockpile of fuel that I have are at Nagasaki and Fukuoka: both around 1.5M barrels. I have about 3.7 million barrels on the home islands, about 350K in SoPac, another 550K scattered around various forward bases, about 200K in Singapore, for a total of about 5 million: 3.7 of which is in the home islands.

[Q-Ball]

Wow, you have a massive backlog at Balikpapan and Palembang, but most noticeably at Palembang. That's not going to be easy to clear!

At Palembang, you really need to have tankers loading at the docks 100% of the time....every day, all day. You should have a Naval HQ, Shipping Engineers, Port Unit for starters...lots of Nav Support

I use all the 1250-capacity and 2850-capacity small tankers on CS from Palembang to Singapore. Just have them running back and forth to Singapore. I would probably mix in some larger 8000-cap tankers, make sure all your TFs can dock. But you really, really need to be running alot of TFs. Also from Medan to Singapore. Get it all to pool in Singapore.

Once in Singapore, it will be easy to move, either magic Highway, or via large capacity tankers.

Balikpapan, you need to form TFs that are the max size that can dock there, using the 12000 capacity tankers, and start running convoys to the Home Islands

You are in great shape vs. the US Navy, but you need to start planning for end times....that means getting all the fuel you can to Japan

In my current game which is in 3/43, I have basically all excess fuel and oil moved from the SRA; there is only a few days production on-hand. I have tankers waiting for fuel to load up, not fuel waiting for tankers. You are a long way from that state!

[Q-Ball]

On Resources, I also think you need more CS Convoys running from Hokkaido and Fusan. You should be pulling resources from China. I would like to see what you have in Home Islands, but first glance it looks like you have little stockpile in the Home islands.

The burn rate on Resources is almost 80,000 a day! That means if you have 1 mil resources in Japan, and the Allies start sinking all your ships, you have about 12 days of Resource stockpile before it starts to inhibit production. You produce in Japan, but going hand to mouth will mean supply shortages.

The reality is imports won't sink to zero, but you really need a big stockpile for end times. Think 5 million +.

I use tons of AKLs to ship from Fusan to Home Islands

[Alamander]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Also from Medan to Singapore. Get it all to pool in Singapore.

Yes to this. I discovered in this game that fuel and oil will flow, somehow, between Medan and Palembang. Keeping Medan at capacity with TKs every day will also help reduce that buildup at Palembang. You can move a lot of fuel very quickly from Medan to Georgetown with only a couple TFs.

[GetAssista]

An obligatory "Du-ude, what are you doing with your tankers???" as a response to Palembang fuel screenshot.

To give you an illustration, at the same point in my game, Palembang is basically at the minimum of oil much of the time (about 20K as more will not load) and at about 35K fuel.

I do this with 2 tanker TFs of 4x7900k each from a max size port (4 in stock) CS shipping to Singers. PB has a naval baseforce and nothing else. Seems enough.

[Alamander]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

On Resources, I also think you need more CS Convoys running from Hokkaido and Fusan. You should be pulling resources from China. I would like to see what you have in Home Islands, but first glance it looks like you have little stockpile in the Home islands.

The burn rate on Resources is almost 80,000 a day! That means if you have 1 mil resources in Japan, and the Allies start sinking all your ships, you have about 12 days of Resource stockpile before it starts to inhibit production. You produce in Japan, but going hand to mouth will mean supply shortages.

The reality is imports won't sink to zero, but you really need a big stockpile for end times. Think 5 million +.

I use tons of AKLs to ship from Fusan to Home Islands

Yes to this as well. You should not have 1 million resources pooling in Port Arthur. Get those to Honshu via Fusan, Moppo, Keiji, or even directly from Port Arthur.

[RangerJoe]

You can also base ships at Osthaven to get some fuel moved there, then to Java then onto larger tankers.

Save the whales, kill those large tankers with resource capability. Those are not super tankers, those are whaling ships.

Those ARs can repair major damage if it is at or less than 5 points. That is good for a forward sub base.

[Jorge_Stanbury]

ORIGINAL: RADM.Yamaguchi

ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

why nav HQs on oil centers?
they only help load/ unload troops and supply... not oil or fuel

CRAP - i guess i never read that. i must have just assumed they would help with loading fuel/oil.

is there any way to load it faster? i expanded the ports to max already. it just seems slow.

oil centers and refineries contribute to loading/ unloading speed, but those are either at maximum (oil), or are not worth increasing (refinery)

what you need is convoy optimization; Japan has basically 3 tanker/ oiler sizes:
small 1K to 3K capacity
medium ~8K
large more ~10K and bigger

only medium tankers should go to Palembang, the smaller are good for smaller bases with smaller ports, the bigger ones to send oil/ fuel from Singapore to HI

the tracker can help with right sizing the number of tankers per convoy, but you need a daily fully loaded convoy of fuel to Singapore, this until you reduce that glut, then back to sending oil

[RangerJoe]

Oilers can also take on fuel when in port. But they will only load half of what they could otherwise. So load them up in port, then form a convoy and have them load by lighters but make sure that you set the "Do Not Unload" tag.

[RADM.Yamaguchi]

so having cargo TF from palembang to nagasaki was a little stupid eh? Sounds like a lot of work. Many thanks to each of you for the help. God knows i need it.

[Jorge_Stanbury]

you should ignore the resources at Palembang, unless all tankers left port