Cut off Japanese Units and Lack of Supply

[Hano]

How long does it take lack of supply to impact Japanese forces, I'm playing v AI and holding Rangoon/Pegu and the hex between Pegu and Moulmein, I've got a Corps+ sized unit of Japanese that I managed to isolate from resupply by taking and holding Moulmein, who are fighting at Pegu and the in between hex.
My gut instinct is to sit it out and let them run out of steam/supply before rolling them up how long before their lack of resupply starts to bite and what are the indicators to look for?

[Capt Hornblower]

I, too, am currently playing solo against Japanese AI. For an indicator of how long an isolated ground unit can hold out, you may be interested to know that I have a group of units at Temuloh (Malaya) that have been cut off for the better part of a month, and they're still in good shape. (I haven't been able to supply by air.) If you want to hasten the demise of the Japanese unit(s) in Burma, you'll need to use air bombardment and CAP to ensure the AI can't resupply by air.

[btd64]

If the difficulty level is hard or very hard, it will be tough to defeat isolated AI ground units....GP

[JanSako]

I think the most important point is that you must be sure they are cut off. Basically you must have a unit at least passing through every hexside, or the isolated hex must be deep enough behind the front line so there is no valid path for supplies to get in. Remember that supplies CAN flow through jungle!

Any base will normally try to accumulate a month's worth of supply, so there is your basepoint.

Combat will increase supply consumption so keep attacking them, even just with arty to eat up their supplies.

Also the AI is kinda 'not very smart' so they tend to attack you uselessly even if you have a clear advantage as long as they are in good shape so that is a good tactic to wear them down. send just enough units into the hex so they think they have a chance & they will attack you.

Oh, & AI on 'hard' get cheats so they can get supply 'spawned' in the base & they will never completely run out. Someone was complained that they were unable to take Bataan or Clark cause the Allied blob was never running out of supplies.

[GetAssista]

To deal with cut-off units effectively
0. Think if you really want them destroyed soon. Sometimes POW camps provoke human opponents into your trap ) They also prevent respawning of those units
1. Check they are indeed cut off. Use "W" to see if all the hex sides in the isolated hex belong to you.
2. Park some tough smaller units with arty in the hex to provoke breakout attempts and supply wastage on those, and prevent rest for the enemy.
3. Do some aerial bombing, it is effective way to further cut down supplies.
4. Wait for the rest of supply to go away. Or if you are in a hurry attack with some fresh unit to make them waste supply on defence, then rotate the damaged unit out for R&R.

If the difficulty level is hard or very hard, it will be tough to defeat isolated AI ground units....GP

"Hard" only helps some bases get additional supply, and only when not sieged. I'm playing AI on hard and routinely run starved sieges. "VHard" is a different matter, no starvation possible there.