Newbie needs help

[LightningWar]

If you experts can answer me this. Should i start withdrawing troops from Singapore and Manilla immediately in the 15/16 campaign? If not, i usually lose in the long run, and lose 8000 army points when these troops are encircled and destroyed. Also, i try and "get macarthur out", but everytime i try to load him and all the troops in manilla they do not show up on the loading screen. However, all the troops in singapore do.

[rogueusmc]

I make the Jap fight for most everything...I make a fighting withdrawal to Clark/Manilla in the PI and Singapore in Malaya.

The units in the PI are restricted...hafta pay the PPs to get them to load.

[Bodhi]

It all depends on how you want to play the game. I don't think evacuation of Singapore and Manilla were options at the time, so I didn't - well not quite true, I rescued the B-17s when the situation got dire, but I lost all the troops in Malaya/Singapore.

However, the USFEE (and ABDA) are restricted commands, and to be able to evacuate the LCUs by ship or plane, you'll have to pay political points to change their command to an unrestricted command. The Southeast Asia command covering Singapore isn't restricted; that's why those units appear in the load screen, but not those in Manilla that belong to the restricted USFEE command.

Oh, BTW, there's no need to resuce MacArthur, he's cloned and turns up in Australia automatically.

[Arkan]

That's really personal preference and depending on your long term strategy. I tend to evacuate some specialized non combat troops but usually let all infantry units fight to the death. As the Allied player you are basically trading VPs for time, if your troops can hold off the Japs for a time it may well be worth the VPs.

[LightningWar]

Thank you for the response. How do you guys face the 8000 VP gain to the Japanese? Right now It is 12,435 to 4,934 , do you usually regain them by 1943? From what I have read, if by 1943, the Japanese have a VP of 3 times the Allies then they win automatically, if this is true, how can I afford to lose 8000+ VP of troops in Manilla and Sing?

[Gem35]

Ya, Bodhi is correct, MacArthur returns as commander of a headquarters unit in Oz as a re-inforcement later in the campaign. [;)]

[Bodhi]

ORIGINAL: Arkan

That's really personal preference and depending on your long term strategy. I tend to evacuate some specialized non combat troops but usually let all infantry units fight to the death. As the Allied player you are basically trading VPs for time, if your troops can hold off the Japs for a time it may well be worth the VPs.

I'd agree there, time is what the Allied player needs most at the start. At the cost of a few AKs used to send in supplies, Bataan/Manilla/Clark Field and all of Java are still holding out in August '42. Unfortunately, the political pressure to get in there and help them out is growing daily, but Nimitz's attention is elsewhere at the moment. [:D]

[LightningWar]

Thank you for the response. How do you guys face the 8000 VP gain to the Japanese? Right now It is 12,435 to 4,934 , do you usually regain them by 1943? From what I have read, if by 1943, the Japanese have a VP of 3 times the Allies then they win automatically, if this is true, how can I afford to lose 8000+ VP of troops in Manilla and Sing?

[Bodhi]

ORIGINAL: LightningWar

Thank you for the response. How do you guys face the 8000 VP gain to the Japanese? Right now It is 12,435 to 4,934 , do you usually regain them by 1943? From what I have read, if by 1943, the Japanese have a VP of 3 times the Allies then they win automatically, if this is true, how can I afford to lose 8000+ VP of troops in Manilla and Sing?

Early on I try as much as possible to wear down his airforces, and not to loose any of my major naval assets. Also make the Japanese fight for the major centres. In the air war, I seem to have been relatively successful so far, greatly aided by the higher operational loses the Japanese suffer. Even if you get to auto-victory conditions (or lose in your case [;)] ) you should still be able to continue the game.

[Tom Hunter]

I try to get as many base forces out of the Phillipines as I can, usually that is not very many.

Singapore is a different problem because you really can get just about everything out but if you do it will fall in early January.

The big advantage of evacuating everything is that you can immediately build a strong defense of India, and if you plan right the British can come back stronger and faster than is otherwise possible. Since India is one of the two places the Allies can lose the game a strong India has much to be said for it.

But the price you pay is considerable. If Singapore falls quickly then the Japanese can use those troops in Java and make it fall faster or they can cause all sorts of problems in other places.

To see an example of what happens when Singapore is evacuated quickly go to my AAR "The Imperialism" I did a fast evac of Singapore, its now late May and I recently posted my plans for the India Burma theater. My game is going unusually well for the Allies, so don't pay too much attention to the rest, but the moves in India are taking advantage of units pulled from Singapore.

To see what happens when the Japanese take a lot of troops and rampage you can look at either "The Italian Job" where general Hoepner is rampaging very effectively, or to see the British nightmare look up the early pages of the "Clash of Steel" AAR PzB actually took India, there was no evacuation of Singapore.

EU Banana's AAR is also useful, I don't think he got a lot out of Singapore and India did get attacked but he has the situation well under control. His successful defense sits nicely between the extreme ends of PzB taking India and me using it as a massive springboard for counter attack in 1942.

[Gem35]

In my game against the Jap AI ( scenario 15) I evacuated only the fleet HQ from Manila. As for Singapore, I pulled out most of the troops and used them to set up shop in Timor area. (Koepang and Lanteen). Tom pointed out that by doing so , SIngapore falls early, and it sure did for me [:)]. However, those troops have helped strengthen Timor. The fun part is planning the strategy. How it all works out is another story. good luck.

[Dereck]

I evacuated cadres of the Asiatic Fleet HQ, the Marine Regiment and a few aviation support units from the Philippines.

As for the Malaya peninsula, I used subs and destroyers to evacuate cadres of just about every unit I could and shipped them back to Colombo and Karachi.

I let all the cadres slowly rebuild in India and Australia and, in India at least, I have more troops now than I know what to do with. I lost a lot of troops when the Philippines and Malaya eventually fell but I didn't lose any of the actual units.

[Hornblower]

Fighting withdrawal.. I pulled the 2 oz brigades out of sing. the rest stayed and faught. In the PI's i pulled a PS unit out and a PA divison to use up the replacements i get. The rest- other then the air assets- stayed put, as i feel they are best served in buying me time. The Dutch i pulled south as there possition became un-hold-able. Also you have to remember that whatever you put on transport runs the risk of sinking for no gain.. If you want you can think of it along the same lines a Buford’s troopers at Gettysburg in ’63. Delay them, force them to deploy and come on line before you fall back to the next holding point

[Freedom205]

Dangerous to pull out of Singapore. Leaves the Jap Divs open to hit other places that much sooner. A good defense of Singapore will allow the Brits to keep the Japanese somewhat at bay with LBA from time to time. Keeps them honest and carefule