What to do with Allied ships in the first few days
Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 2:51 am
52nd Lowland
What to do as Allied Player on first turn with all that shipping on the full war campaign...My head was spinning after five minutes going round the map
Not complaining though.
Send your transport ships that are located in the PI to the DEI, Australia and the South Pacific, but try and send them in SINGLE ship TFs. Really try hard to vary where you are sending them so as to have different headings as this will really give the IJN a headache trying to track all of the targets rather than one fat convoy heading to a known destination. I know that this will take you a long time to do, but it will mean the difference between loosing 60 ships or maybe only 8.
Keep at least 5 or 6 AKs at Manlia and use these ships to suck supplies from the far flung PI Islands where it will do you no good. You really really need to try and stock Manila/Bataan with supplies so as to give them a chance of holding out. (once again try and keep the TFs to single ship TFs as they are much harder to spot.
Also consider this.....you don't have to send all of your transports ships off at the first turn, vary when they leave from the first turn onwards. In my games against Luskan I have had AKs leave Manila in late Jan'42 and get away intact simply because his fleet operations have moved on.
Another point to consider is this.......when sending your AK's and AP's out of harms way to say Australia or where ever why not send them there with supplies loaded from their home port or bases? Those supplies, if NOT need for the defence of that local base, would be better used at a place such as Darwin.....if you leave the supplies you are only leaving them for the Jap. Better in your hands than his.
With the warships things are somewhat different. The IJN will eat you alive in most games so you have to think about force preservation with an eye on the future. Always be on the look out for targets of opportunity as sometimes the Human player will, as the IJN, get so excited by his string of victories that he will make a silly move. Hit and run raids against bases that have already fallen can sometimes work well but use your long range search aircraft to make sure that there are no surprises waiting for you....the Dutch have a lot of these. But the upper most thought in your mind must be force preservation.
Subs are a different matter, use them. But try and find deep water choke points as the IJN ASW is good if he finds you in shallow water. The Yank boats have the problem of faulty torps, but the Dutch and Pommie boats can do a good job. Of course if you have becomed overwhelmed by this point then simply let the computer control the subs.
Hope this helps.
What to do as Allied Player on first turn with all that shipping on the full war campaign...My head was spinning after five minutes going round the map
Not complaining though.
Send your transport ships that are located in the PI to the DEI, Australia and the South Pacific, but try and send them in SINGLE ship TFs. Really try hard to vary where you are sending them so as to have different headings as this will really give the IJN a headache trying to track all of the targets rather than one fat convoy heading to a known destination. I know that this will take you a long time to do, but it will mean the difference between loosing 60 ships or maybe only 8.
Keep at least 5 or 6 AKs at Manlia and use these ships to suck supplies from the far flung PI Islands where it will do you no good. You really really need to try and stock Manila/Bataan with supplies so as to give them a chance of holding out. (once again try and keep the TFs to single ship TFs as they are much harder to spot.
Also consider this.....you don't have to send all of your transports ships off at the first turn, vary when they leave from the first turn onwards. In my games against Luskan I have had AKs leave Manila in late Jan'42 and get away intact simply because his fleet operations have moved on.
Another point to consider is this.......when sending your AK's and AP's out of harms way to say Australia or where ever why not send them there with supplies loaded from their home port or bases? Those supplies, if NOT need for the defence of that local base, would be better used at a place such as Darwin.....if you leave the supplies you are only leaving them for the Jap. Better in your hands than his.
With the warships things are somewhat different. The IJN will eat you alive in most games so you have to think about force preservation with an eye on the future. Always be on the look out for targets of opportunity as sometimes the Human player will, as the IJN, get so excited by his string of victories that he will make a silly move. Hit and run raids against bases that have already fallen can sometimes work well but use your long range search aircraft to make sure that there are no surprises waiting for you....the Dutch have a lot of these. But the upper most thought in your mind must be force preservation.
Subs are a different matter, use them. But try and find deep water choke points as the IJN ASW is good if he finds you in shallow water. The Yank boats have the problem of faulty torps, but the Dutch and Pommie boats can do a good job. Of course if you have becomed overwhelmed by this point then simply let the computer control the subs.
Hope this helps.
lly operate all of my ships, subs as well as transports, but then I am a control freak.......
