Matrix Games Forums

.... i'm rubbish

ok, its the latter i know - anyway, just played a dozen or so turns as the Allies on normal difficulty and got my ass handed to me on a plate!

Japs took all the usual places plus Darwin and Pearl Harbour. They had Inf Tech 4 to my 1 so it was pretty easy for them in land combat. In at sea i was vastly outnumbered.

Now i'm thinking that maybe i put too much into Tech early on and should have beefed up my infantry with replacements and bought a few 'Corps' units.

Any tips from others who have suvived as the yanks?

thanks

Early on the Allies have to carefully pick and choose where and if to make a stand. As historically, the allied situation is very bleak. The setup at the start of the campaign game does a good job I think of modelling how ill prepared the Allies were.

I try to fall back in some kind of order in the first months. Australia is a haven, but definitely an insecure one. Burma has to be held, or at least defended. India has to be garrisoned. And Hawaii's air defenses have to be looked at. Even Alaska has to be looked at, because Anchorage is a valuable source for convoys, to avoid too many sea zones. If Singapore holds out into the Spring of '41, it might be possible to reinforce it.

And then there is Guadalcanal. Do you attempt to keep the Japanese out of the Solomons? Can you successfully keep them out of Port Moresby? Can you possibly hold on to Midway? Johnson Island? Wake?

China: The Communist Chinese are on the ropes from the beginning. The RoC has valuable PPs under immediate threat. Hong Kong is a goner.

The Dutch can sometimes put up a defense, or a delay in western Sumatra.

Thanks for the advice will work on that in my next game.

Regarding this comment:

ORIGINAL: gwgardner
And Hawaii's air defenses have to be looked at.

What do you mean by this - they already have about 3 air units and there is not much spare land to put them on. Hmmm, did you mean for attacking ships? - i think i missed that (can they also attack enemy CAGs?). However going back to my other post about stacking i assume they make very weak beach defenders and thats potentially a lot of PP wasted.

Its a shame you can't just set your air units to auto intercept and auto attack enemy fleets.

Ha ha... I thought the same thing.. tech up with the Allies at the start.

You only have to play it two or 3 x for 3 or 4 turns to realize that is a big mistake.

Do as gwgarder says..... go to book store, buy Japanese dictionary and learn how to speak Japanese.

Yes, it is very real. It was very bleak. The whole Pacific was taken on the first 3 turns in real life so...

Can you say Fort Alamo? Daniel Boone? Custers Last Stand?

Defense. The USA knew it was comming but wasn't ready.

It's the same way the British felt after Dunkirk. The war is lost.

Defense.

You can't expect to hold any single place in the opening months of the war. Trying to maximize Japanese casualties should be Allied goal in the early game.

ORIGINAL: sanderz


Regarding this comment:

ORIGINAL: gwgardner
And Hawaii's air defenses have to be looked at.

What do you mean by this - they already have about 3 air units and there is not much spare land to put them on. Hmmm, did you mean for attacking ships? - i think i missed that (can they also attack enemy CAGs?). However going back to my other post about stacking i assume they make very weak beach defenders and thats potentially a lot of PP wasted.

I was referring to simply reinforcing those air forces on Hawaii. They start off very understrength. They're needed for recon in the surrounding sea zones and in case the wily Japanese decide to return. Which I wouldn't put out of the realm of possibilities.

Ha ha I have seen Japan attack Hawaii.

In fact Erik was complaining about that.

It's well known if they did.... They would have captured it.