Matrix Games Forums

Tips

Point #1
Air Power: This is a game of Air Power. Land based air power can make only the largest CV fleet scarred. You will win or lose, at least in the Pacific, it will be based on air power.
CVs, due to the air power, are the queen of the seas. Don’t even think about going after that fleet with surface ships.

Point #2
The 1941 Scenario should play out in 3 phases.
Phase 1 will see the Japanese run rampant as they will outnumber and have better quality than the Allies.
Phase 2 will occur months after the war has started and when the Allied production starts taking hold. At this point the two sides will be roughly equal.
Phase 3 will occur later in the game when allied production has kicked in and the Japanese cannot replace their losses. The allies will vastly outnumber the Japanese and have better quality units.

Air Combat
-- Airstrikes against a land unit after the first airstrike will not reduce its effectiveness or damage it. It might interdict its movement.
-- An unescorted air transport is always shot down if the defender has air superiority groups in range in support mode.
-- Make sure you leave operations points available for interception and interdiction. Some air units will not intercept/interdict if they do not have operation points left.
-- Make sure your units are in support mode and on naval missions to perform naval interdiction/interception

Land Combat
-- Combat Odds: 3:1 or more is good. Anything less than 3:1 and you are not going to win the combat.
-- Garrison units that will not see combat. This will save you production, logistics, and supply. However, if you do not have enough production in your production stockpile you might not be able to get the unit out of garrison status

Naval combat
-- Before you move a fleet make sure you are in the correct mode Fleet or Raider. Fleet if you want combat, Raider if you want to avoid combat.
-- Do not put transports in a fleet with CVs. CVs cannot do anything while transports are in their fleet.
-- If you are moving and an enemy unit initiates an interdiction-interception the move cannot be undone.
-- When moving your fleets do not use all operation points to attack. If you use all your operation points and do not kill the enemy your fleet is stuck, and the enemy gets to attack it then move off.
-- Do not bunch up your CVs. Fleets only get to interdict twice per your enemies turn. If you have all your CVs in one fleet you get 2 possible interdictions, if you break them into separate fleets, one might not interdict until later giving you more than 2 naval interdictions in the area of your fleets.
-- You pretty much only want to use ports size 5+ for fleets.


Naval Combat is a RNG nightmare and it is correct.

The most famous Pacific battle is probably that of Midway. Japan had 4 CVs the USA had 3 CVs. By the end of he day Japan had lost 4 and the USA had lost 1. But it was very nearly not that way. If a single commander had not guessed correctly and taken his planes south, instead of north as he did, the results would have been that the vast majority of US planes would have been in the water (with a handfull perhaps on Midway island) while the 4 Japanese CVs launched a 200+ airplan attack on the 3 US CVs. The USA could easily have lost all 3 CVs and not done any damage to the Japanese. Even though the commander did make the right decision, and headed north, if his subordinate had not acted the American attack that took out 3 CVs would have only taken out 2 CVs. In reality one Japanese CV knocked out the Yorktown. How much more damage could two CVs have done? It is a very real chance that after the first US attack it could have been two versus two.


So yes, naval combat can be an RNG nightmare. It is correct that it is so.



If you have any other tips post them so we can update this list and share.

How to tell a unit is “Good.”
Units have several attributes. Two that should not be used to determine “how good a unit is,” are Effectiveness and Strength.
-- Effectiveness just tells you how well a unit is performing in regard to its maximum ability.
-- Strength tells you how much damage a unit can take.

A unit’s attack or defense value is what you use to determine if a unit is “Good “or not. See image below.

Saved for later

ORIGINAL: incbob


-- Airstrikes against a land unit after the first airstrike will not reduce its effectiveness or damage it. It might interdict its movement.

You may want to verify this "not reduce its effectiveness"; I seem to remember A. saying it did. The "damage it" is correct.

This line puzzles me, incob:

Do not bunch up your CVs. Fleets only get to interdict twice per your enemies turn. If you have all your CVs in one fleet you get 2 possible interdictions, if you break them into separate fleets, one might not interdict until later giving you more than 2 naval interdictions in the area of your fleets.

I don't dispute it in any way, just want my curiosity stilled. Wouldn't splitting forces give you a numerical disadvantage to be taken into consideration? If, for example, I have a fleet of 6 carriers and split it in two, wouldn't I be in an awkward position if getting in combat with an enemy that has all his 6 carriers in the same fleet?

Playing as the Japanese gave me this idea/understanding. When they move their CVs they move them together, but into groups. As far as I can tell, and the reason I put this down, is it gives them an advantage in interception. One fleet with 6 Cvs can do two interceptions. 2 groups with 3 CVs each get 2 interceptions each for a total of 4 interceptions.

I could be wrong, but something I noticed. I am by NO means an expert.

I'm no expert either, far from it when it comes to WarPlan naval matters. I was mostly thinking that having more planes in a given combat would inwoke higher losses on the enemy. But, of course, if having four attacks means two attacks without the larger enemy having opportunity to fight back beyond his first reactions, it would be different.

Splitting up the CV's isn't a bad idea if you're certain there won't be any significant number of enemy CV's around to engage that turn. If a 6 stack of enemy CV's runs into the middle of your 6 CV's split up into fleets of 1-2 you're getting massacred as your fleets all try to intercept and get punished one by one.

Now, that's what I was afraid of.

"Do not put transports in a fleet with CVs. CVs cannot do anything while transports are in their fleet."

How do you protect your transports before an invasion if they aren't in a fleet with air cover?

ORIGINAL: amhendrick
"Do not put transports in a fleet with CVs. CVs cannot do anything while transports are in their fleet."
How do you protect your transports before an invasion if they aren't in a fleet with air cover?

If you do not have a land based air fighter group nearby you can:

BBs and CAs to provide Anti-air
move the CVs with the transports then move your transports out so the CVs can act.
Use the CVs prior to the invasion to attack land based airfields knocking down their effectiveness.

One important thing in my opinion for land combat :
Division do not have zone of control, so shall be limited to garrison duty as much as possible.
The smallest unit to have zone of control is the small corp.

Zone of control is important because it increase by 2 operational points the cost of ennemy movement.

It is possible to merge 2 divisions to create a small corp. It is very interesting to do it in India early for example.

Also, Small corps + division = Big Corps.

As long as your CV is near your transport fleet they'll try to interdict any enemy fleets that approach. You really don't want CV's in the same stack as the transports though.

Strength points do matter, by the way. Total combat value is approximately attack/def type * strength * experience * effectiveness (times other terrain/weather bonuses obviously). Easiest way to see this is by armies having 3x combat value of divisions with the same “stats.”

I just discovered why the garnison in Noumea have the engineer trait.
it is to allow building more airfield in the noumea jungle island, turning the island into quite a fortress.
I discovered it too late....

Airfield – Allows a hex to be an airfield even if the terrain does not
permit it. If the location is in port supply a unit with an engineer
specialty is required to place the airfield. Impassable hexes, mountains,
and alpines may not have an airfield. A country may not place airfields
when neutral.

ORIGINAL: Stelteck

I just discovered why the garnison in Noumea have the engineer trait.
it is to allow building more airfield in the noumea jungle island, turning the island into quite a fortress.
I discovered it too late....

Airfield – Allows a hex to be an airfield even if the terrain does not
permit it. If the location is in port supply a unit with an engineer
specialty is required to place the airfield. Impassable hexes, mountains,
and alpines may not have an airfield. A country may not place airfields
when neutral.

Ah that explains it! Although the US gets quite enough specialty points to get multiple engineers by that point anyway. I think usually it’s a moot point, as any ports are also airbases, as long as IJN doesn’t manage to islandhop everything by April.