some late war strategy questions

[dhuffjr2]

I'm curious about Formosa and mainland Japan.

I'm assuming a lot of forces are locked and unmovable from these locations. How to folks tend to approach Formosa as the allied and Japanese player? Reinforce/invade/ignore?

Do folks push forces into the Philippines to delay and make that price high?

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: dhuffjr2

I'm curious about Formosa and mainland Japan.

I'm assuming a lot of forces are locked and unmovable from these locations. How to folks tend to approach Formosa as the allied and Japanese player? Reinforce/invade/ignore?

Not necessarily. Forces in Formosa begin the game under Southern Area Army. That HQ is not restricted, so none of the forces in Formosa are restricted. You never know what you'll find there.

Japan - The forces there are from the Home Defense Force (HDF), a restricted command. Most of the reinforcements arrive in Japan so there can be quite a number of ground forces from other commands there. Also note that you can change the command of the HDF forces by spending PPs. Basically, you never know what you'll have in Japan either.

[niceguy2005]

I don't have much late war game experience, but I can say from considerable overall experience that by 45 the Allies will have such overwhelming superiority that virtually anything can be bypassed, though bypassing all defenses and going for the HI is probably not an option.

Thus, I think the best deployment of force will be the majority on the home islands and surrounding strategic bases like Iwo Jima.  You'd need to fight in the Philipines, but I would not deploy too many forces there, just enough to make it take time...enough that the allies won't be totally encouraged to bypass.

[aztez]

I have to 2 PBEM's that entered late years. The one againts FDR ended in mid 1945 and the one vs Erstad ended as the game ended. Both as allies.
 
Both as allies so the best advice is to bomb, bomb and bomb everything you can. Those longrange allied bombers are your best friend. Also make deep carrier raids in order to soften up / destroy remaining Japanese naval assets.
 
Also I would not advice going through Atolls. Those shock assaults can be very devastating and you do not gain enough advantage to be worth it. Just take those atolls that you need for your LBA's.
 
Púsh as hard as you can with British forces... push with Chinese... all these consume and wear Japanese troops down and most importantly tie up those troops elsewhere.
 
I would advice you to go with 3 frontier assault plan as described above. Don't be afraid to bypass those unimportant bases... they will starve to death and you can conquer them with minimal effort.
 
Some people said that Home Islands are impossible... well I would say that it is not the case. You just need to commit enough forces and land hard....with LBA support ofcourse. I think I could have even conquered quite a lot of it againts Erstad if I hadn't messed up few things earlier.
 
Remember that even high lossess can be more than worth it in the longrun.
 
Good luck.

[Canoerebel]

I've invaded both Formosa and the Home Islands, the former in my game with Miller and the latter in that game and my current game with John.  A few things I found important:
 
1)  Before moving into Formosa I already had most of Luzon in the Philippines.  Formosa was well-defended, but not to the point that the Allies couldn't handle.  Formosa has good air bases to hit Japan (and even some oil).
 
2)  Most of the Home Islands are tough because the Japs can move forces around quickly on good roads and rail networks to cover threatened areas.  So Nagasaki may look lightly defended at the moment, but when you pounce you suddenly find half the Japanese Army there to greet you.  In my game with Miller I had a real tough time on that southern-most Japanese island, but through a willingness to take pretty heavy losses I eventually took most of that island.
 
3)   Hokkaido begins the game with a single Jap army unit (7th Division at Sapporo) and it can be tempting for the Japanese player to think it's sort of safe and a backwater.  It has to be reinforced by sea and it has some good ports and airfields.  To the north, Sikhalin Island also has to big (or potentially big bases) that sure make a great platform to launch 4EB raids against the HI.  Sikhalin is so remote that most Japanese players understandably don't think it merits heavy defenses.  But it does.
 

[Q-Ball]

I'm in late 1944, and nothing is untakeable. Though Canoerebel is right, moving troops around Japan is easy, so figure on large numbers of Home Island Troops no matter where you go. You can land on the Home Islands, just bring alot.

The only area that the Japanese get stronger in as the game goes on is Infantry. You get alot of new units in 1944. There is no way the Allies can take them all head-on, you must bypass troop concentrations if you want to make progress.

[wwengr]

Formosa is a compact more than 1300 victory Point delta. Worth taking rather than bypassing.

[Hornblower]

I go in from the North...

[John 3rd]

I have more infantry then I know what to do with right now against Dan.  When he landed in Hokkaido he came within an eyelash of taking it but for the barely-in-the-nick-of-time arrival of 3 Inf Div from Australia.  My game with Dan has proven just how vulnerable the Northern Route is for the Japanese.

Q-Ball is right about Japanese Infantry arriving in 1944.  I had a real shortage until late-May and now they are poring in.  Last month (June 1944) I got 4 Inf Div and 5 Inf Brigades.  This month I see nearly TWICE that!  They are being moved to the front as fast as possible.

Remember that our game is Big B 1.4 Mod.

[Bogo Mil]

A good tactic imho is to come with a lot of CV protection, take a small, weak base close to the "real" objective first and place some 200 AV support, a lot of engineers and AAA there to get an operational size 2 AF as soon as possible. This should be done within less than a week. Then you can base a lot of fighters (USAAF, USMC, Australia, ...) there, which can do sweeps and LRCAP and absorb most of the attrition of the "real battle".

If you go for the real objective directly, you have to use the CVs only until you have won. This eats up a lot of your USN pilots and/or Hellcats really fast and thus slow you down in the future.

[crsutton]

MacArthur was right! In game terms the land route through the PI is the way to go. Once the PI is taken then Formosa just has to follow. Not before you have built up your airbases and massed air power in the PI though. In my game (mid 1944) I have taken the PI and am pounding Formosa in preparation to take it. Iwo Jima is a bastion and difficult to get to with LBA. I can take it but will lose heavily if I try.  If I hold Formosa, it will be a much better place for air attacks on the mainland. It is closer and has two good size airfields. I can ignore Iwo for a while.

[John 3rd]

Plus--this is the most important point--you cut Japan off from the DEI.  Game over...

[Nemo121]

In 44 and 45 the Allies can do pretty much about anything as they have naval superiority to leverage to allow the capture of almost anything outside the Home Islands.
 
In 42 and 43 though the Allies have to be more circumspect and in those situations I would recommend the Northern Route and the clearance of China as being the most efficient ways in which to leverage the Allied advantages in replacement capability whilst deleveraging the IJN's overwhelming carrier strength.