Matrix Games Forums

Hi,

I never played UV, so I've got some questions/observations about this game. I've been playing as the Allies in my first (long) campaign, and have focused on trying to delay and harass the Japanese as much as possible, while building several bases to stage from.

It seems to me that Rabaul is a HUGE position. It looks to me that if you neutralize Rabaul, the whole area is untenable for the Japanese, until Guadalcanal is built up. Is this true in practice?

It also seems to me that my carriers are not much more than extended range surface raiders. I suffer tremendously from land-based aircraft. Accordingly, it looks like the best practice is to leapfrog islands under cover of land-based aircraft. Am I missing something?

TIA

In regards to your 41 42 carriers being very vulnerable.. yes.. use tham wisely and weigh the inbtended outcome payoff vs potential lose.. but you get a ton of planes, and carriers to replace them with, just not immediately..
The initial planes are not to great, look at the upgrades for an idea of the next planes...
Harrassing the Japs sounds good, slowing them down .. keep it up ... and remember just a few short weeks ago we where all noobs

Your American carriers are hampered at the beginning of the game. The first problem is that their fighters are poor (Buffaloes) to average (Wildcats) and their Devastator torpedo bombers are just plain poor. Your remaining Buffaloes are replaced fairly quickly, but the Devastator TBDs take into August/September 1942 to fully replace. Once you get into late 1943, you get F6F Hellcats to replace the wildcats, and Helldiver dive bombers to replace the already good Dauntlesses. At this point, your carrier air groups clearly outclass the Japanese, even if they have kept their pilot quality up (which can be hard for the Japs).

The carriers themselves change too. They go through a couple upgrades, which increase their radar and anti-aircraft armament. That takes about the first year-and-a-half of the war to complete.

The Japanse carriers remain pretty static. I think some of them get one AA upgrade. And their aircraft don't progress at nearly the same rate as the American planes do. Towards the end of 1944, they get some nice torpedo bombers, and if there are any Japanese carriers afloat in 1945, they get some competitive fighters at last. But by then, it is too late to beat the Americans in a carrier battle, and any sane Japanese player is probably going to base his planes off of airfields, and maybe use his carriers as bait to cover a night attack by his (hopefully) still powerful surface fleet. Any Japanese carriers that go out to fight will probably get sunk, whether they have planes on them or not.

An alternative, if you still have a powerful Japanese carrier fleet late in the game, it to "hit em' where they aint" and if the Americans throw their carriers at a certain point, simply write off that point, and hit the Allies somewhere else where maybe you can sink some shipping while the Allied carriers are otherwise engaged.