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If you play the historical first turn, the Japanese will conduct about a half dozen amphibious invasions on the very first turn.

But if you instead manually order the Japanese forces, it is possible to launch over *forty* turn one invasions. The key is to break some of the ground units way down, into pieces as small as 25 and 35 size units. Then those pieces can be loaded on small task forces that only consist of a single destroyer unit with 3 or 4 ships in it. That small ground unit is still strong enough to conquer any of the millions of "empty" islands on turn one. Since turn one is the only turn that the Japanese have perfect knowledge of Allied deployments, they should really strike hard on turn one.

The only down side, is that it can take several hours to complete the orders phase! The 50 task force limit is very tight too, and it seems to not really be 50 either but more like 47 or 48 IIRC. The other difficult part for the Japanese is remembering which Allied bases have already been scheduled for an invasion! It is easy to send two invasion squads to the same empty island by mistake.

I always have played against the computer opponent. Is there any good tactic in a two player game that the Allied player could use to hurt the Japanese in this sort of massive turn one move?

John Gilbert

Originally posted by John Gilbert:
If you play the historical first turn, the Japanese will conduct about a half dozen amphibious invasions on the very first turn.

But if you instead manually order the Japanese forces, it is possible to launch over *forty* turn one invasions. The key is to break some of the ground units way down, into pieces as small as 25 and 35 size units. Then those pieces can be loaded on small task forces that only consist of a single destroyer unit with 3 or 4 ships in it. That small ground unit is still strong enough to conquer any of the millions of "empty" islands on turn one. Since turn one is the only turn that the Japanese have perfect knowledge of Allied deployments, they should really strike hard on turn one.

The only down side, is that it can take several hours to complete the orders phase! The 50 task force limit is very tight too, and it seems to not really be 50 either but more like 47 or 48 IIRC. The other difficult part for the Japanese is remembering which Allied bases have already been scheduled for an invasion! It is easy to send two invasion squads to the same empty island by mistake.

I always have played against the computer opponent. Is there any good tactic in a two player game that the Allied player could use to hurt the Japanese in this sort of massive turn one move?

John Gilbert

I am delighted to meet a fellow player who plays the Japanese as ruthlessly as I do. As for a counter to this tactic... I've often wondered that too. From experience as the allied player vs a Japan player who did this I found that by concentrating on key bases (Noumea, Suva, India, Hawaii) I was able to stem the tide somewhat. After all all Indonesia is going to go, no point in holding it. Try and evacuate anything you can, especially if it's good quality.

Sometimes the IJN expands beyond their air control and get some nasty surprises, even from the weak RAF and NEIAF.

I have caught some of these speedy advances with air cover, and they tend to get slaughtered. Best bet for the Japanese, is to focus on the LARGE and IMPORTANT bases (Luzon, Malaya, Sumatra, Celebes, Borneo, New Britain) and leave the less important bases to follow up attacks (Timor, Ambon, New Guinea, South-Central Philippines).

This way, you control all of the good naval and air bases in the region first, leaving these weak bases as easy targets later on.

I'll vouch for the fact you can hit back. I just went in with a hit and run attack with the RN at Rangoon. The Japanese computer was busy running all over Indonesia and going at at Wake Is so I sent SAG with 3 BB and cruisers covered by TF with the 2 carriers in to bombard the base. Destroyed 35 odd aircraft on the deck mangled the depot and disrupted the units there for just a few air to air lossesd vs CAP. Hopefully it will slow down his next move into upper Burma.

BUT THEN THE ALLIES DROPPED THEIR DEMAND FOR UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER AND THE DAMN WAR ENDED...AAAAAAARGH!!!!

i wouold like a good strategy to stop the tide of Japanese advance but the allied assets just aren't there or at least can't consolidate to stand toe-to-toe withthe BB and carrier task forces that the japanese can bring to bear at any one target. Its may'42 and I've lost all of indonesia and just lost India and about ready to loose Australia. SEAC has moved to Auckland but my supply is down so low that none of my bases can repair damaged ships. I've still got a 4 carrier task force but I'm afraid to use it except in defense. the supply bug is in effect so Pearl is out of supply even though no Japanese AZOC's are in evidence. any advice(except surrender)?

Drew, I assume you are playing a PBEM game against a human opponent. I don't have personal experience with this, but other messages on this board talk about a bug that keeps the allies from getting routine supply in PBEM games. That's probably the source of most of your problem.

It's supposed to be fixed in the next update, but that doesn't help you much now except that it gives you a good excuse for getting beat.

Until the 2.2 patch comes out a PBEM game pretty pointless and an exercise in futility...entire game is skewed out of shape.

Hi Underdog. I know about the supply bug and so does my opponent. thought we could live with it until the patch came in. seems a shame to shut down the game but maybe the others are right.Still it is a challenge.

If you break down your ground units into small pieces on the first turn as John Gilbert suggests, does that cause you problems later in the game? I understand there is a limited number of ground forces slots available, although I have no idea what that number is. If you use up all those slots by dividing up your forces, will you not get your later arriving ground units?

As I understood it every unit has got its own slot from the very beginning. Some slots are free and you can fill these with parts of divided units.