Japan: Scrapping Naval Vessels

[Commander Stormwolf]

Greetings,

It should be within the power of the IJN player to scrap naval vessels for some type of refund for heavy industry points.

(i.e. yamato and musashi can be scrapped to allow more HI to be spent on carriers and aircraft)

It was suggested by the Air Faction of the IJN before the war than the entire battle-line should be scrapped and large air fleets be constructed. This doctrinal possibility should be represented (or if pleased, the scrapping of carriers to build Kii and the other Yamato class battleships)

[DuckofTindalos]

No, it shouldn't. It really, really shouldn't.

[Mistmatz]

Might be an interesting what if scenario. But I also wouldn't like to see such an option in the historical scenarios.

[xj900uk]

Put it in as an option in a future patch, perhaps?

[Smeulders]

Looks like a whole lot of coding for very little gain. Why not implement it yourself by making conversions for the ships you want to change. It'll only allow 1 on 1 exchanges between BB and CV though.

[Q-Ball]

Yamato and Musashi were way too far down the tracks to change. What are you going to do, melt an 18-in turret down and build Bettys with it? The only thing recoverable in terms of HI points is the steel, and it would take alot of fuel to redirect.

If AE started in 1936, that would be a feasible option. Those first few years would be a little slow for the Allied player though!

[wworld7]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

What are you going to do, melt an 18-in turret down and build Bettys with it?

I very smart forward-looking leader would make SONY's (TV's, skip the Betamax and invent the VCR's and other cool stuff).

[Rob Brennan UK]

Scuttled ships=scrap metal with a ton of impurities. not the best material to make sircraft skin from. Unfortunately japan didnt make any ships from papier-mache, as that could (if dried out properly) be used in most japanese aircraft manufacture. [;)]

[vlcz]

Scrap the yamato to aircrafts....  yeah, I would couple that with disbanding a pair of inf divisions yearly and train the manpower in pilots...for better from five years before the war...them make inf divisins with the freed sailors from the BBs[:'(]

There must be limits or we will ending playing "Age Of Empires WWII on the pacific"[X(][:-]

[xj900uk]

Alternatively do something with the conversions/upgrades option. For example, I believe two IJN BB's were semi-converted to carriers towards the end of the war - 'hermaphrodites' Ozawa derisively referred to them at the battle of Leyte Gulf.  Quite useless for both functions. 
There should be an option to break the ship whilst building back down (or complete the Shinano was was originally intended, as a BB, although the Japanese player needs to take the option B4 4.12.41 (I think conversion actually started in July '41 aslthough I could be wrong) and also a pre-start option with other ships on the slipway.
Anyone else out there agree with me?

[PaxMondo]

My opinion: alternative ships like this should be mod only, not in the base game.  Too much what if, both for the game and the AI.

I will probably build up a mod myself to look at just this: keeping total tonnage constant, no new designs, create a "better" ship build mix for the Japanese and see what impact that might have had on the war.  For example, different mix of sub models, different mix of DD models, .... etc.  I've been following the BB Yamato discussion with Historiker in the Mod Forum, and I like the outcome analysis on what JAP could have built instead of the 3 big BB's.  I might even play with the timing on radar availability. (As I understand it, JAP could have put radar on more ships sooner if they had wanted to invest more time to it and pull more ships out of the line.  I'd like to have that option and explore outcomes as a player..  This one, I'm not sure will make much difference as early radar wasn't that effective anyway (20- 40%).  And pulling ships out of the line in '42 will be a VERY difficult strategic decision.  Not sure that my decisions will be that much different that reality, but curious to see.  My sense though is that the IJN sat on their laurels a bit in '42 instead of aggressively upgrading ships.  Just my opinion though.

Anyway, as I stated above, this is all mod exploration and will significantly skew the game.