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At arrival, IJ Base Forces are below their TOE establishment by 50 support and 40 IJA infantry squads. These units are certainly fully-functional as they appear, but obviously a filled-out BF is superior to the bare-bones one in several ways.

• they can provide support for other LCUs in the hex
• they can defend themselves against limited attacks
• they can serve as garrisons in Chinese cities and in Manchuko

The downside is that these additional 50 support and 40 IJA infantry squads cost a total of 1680 armaments points, 1680 manpower points and 1680 supply points (consumed locally!) for each BF. In addition they take considerable time to fill out.

I had been setting these to accept replacements. But then I realized that I had gone too far, too much supply and armaments were going into this, and that in particular a crucial IJA division reinforcement would have arrived at 25% strength if I continued as I was.

What do you as IJ do here? Let a few expand from the start, let none of them, let all of them and take your lumps? Expand some of them and use the others as they arrive? How many armaments factories do you expand to?

They start with 4" and 3.something CD guns. I turn on reinforcements for 1 day. This is enough to upgrade those guns to 5" and 4". Then I shut them off. I defend with army units. More organic artillery and support units. I let the base force do what it does best. Service my airplanes. I'd rather have the inf and support the base force doesnt have at start in my nav gd units.

I will leave base forces in Tokyo until they fill out. I never have much of a supply problem in Tokyo and I have expanded my factories a bit. I will even give a combat unit that needs refit a holiday in Tokyo.

I play the allies, but my thought process works for Japan as well. I turn off replacements to all non-essential base forces (Far east, West coast, north pacific, etc). And I turn on replacements to any base force that I want to grow ASAP. If I don't have a very pressing need for a new base force when I get one as a reinforcement, I leave it in SF until it fills out. I turn on replacements to the backwater units as my pool gets larger.

So, if I were playing as Japan, I'd do the same thing. Except I'd leave the unit in Tokyo instead of SF. And, I think Japan doesn't have as many "backwater" areas. Manchuko is probably backwater in 41/42.

ORIGINAL: irrelevant

At arrival, IJ Base Forces are below their TOE establishment by 50 support and 40 IJA infantry squads. These units are certainly fully-functional as they appear, but obviously a filled-out BF is superior to the bare-bones one in several ways.

• they can provide support for other LCUs in the hex
• they can defend themselves against limited attacks
• they can serve as garrisons in Chinese cities and in Manchuko

The downside is that these additional 50 support and 40 IJA infantry squads cost a total of 1680 armaments points, 1680 manpower points and 1680 supply points (consumed locally!) for each BF. In addition they take considerable time to fill out.

I had been setting these to accept replacements. But then I realized that I had gone too far, too much supply and armaments were going into this, and that in particular a crucial IJA division reinforcement would have arrived at 25% strength if I continued as I was.

What do you as IJ do here? Let a few expand from the start, let none of them, let all of them and take your lumps? Expand some of them and use the others as they arrive? How many armaments factories do you expand to?

Short answer - in 1942 I usually start by turning replacements off for everything - then I can "surgically" turn replacements on to focus their arrival in the critical units and allow an armament point reserve to build. And in 1942 as I turn replacements on gradually for some units, I lose this "focus" so occasionally ( roughly monthly ) I turn replacements back off globally and then turn back on for a few focused units. As I get into 1943 I need larger and larger numbers of units to remain on as I start to have larger and larger garrisions farther away that need to maintain their strength in case they get attacked. But by this point I've built up a good armaments reserve and can mange the hits the reserve is taking ( by turning on or off armaments plants - which I've usually turned some off in 1942 as the reserve builds up very fast under my "default off" system ). I can't say that this is the most optimal, but it evolved from a general idea of saving build points early on to avoid supply crunch and focus build point utilization - in the first 6 months especially - and the system accomplishes that purpose admirably.

If they arrive without full aviation support, I will let them fill out until they have the maximum AV support possible, then I turn replacements off for them and send them on there way.

Occasionally, I will take a unit that I plan on using at or near a base in the SRA that generates a lot of supply (Toabali comes to mind) and ship it there without filling out first. I'll temporarily assign an HQ to the same base so it will fill out. I do this for one reason.... minimize the amount of supply drain in the home islands. Units that are going to CentPac I always fill out first.

I also don't worry about filling out a BF if it is headed for a base that already has substantial support such as Singapore, Manila or Soerabaja.

Chez

I like to have all my base forces filled out.

What about armaments factories? IJ starts with 525. In a recent PBEM I initially expanded the smallest factories to reach 595, then to 670, and finally to 760. How about anyone else?

I normally expand them to about 700 over the course of the first year. After that, I don't worry too much about them. Pretty much depends on the situation in China because that is normally where they are needed most until the Allies start their offensive.

Chez

I turn replacements on for everything except Kwantung Army for the 1st couple of months .... then I turn on everything once arms pool gets bigger. I leave new BFs in Japan until they fill out to 100%. Don't leave them all in Tokyo though ...send them to bases that need improvements ... they will grow there while building forts and stuff.

Dang! Wish I had thought of moving those BF around the home islands to get some work out of them while filling up. I am almost to 4/42 and my guys are just sitting in Tokyo getting drunk. (they do have high morale though) Next turn that situation will change!

If I understand the manual correctly, those IJ base forces, as any base force, can grow over 100/100 and get more aviation support if you put them alone in a big airfield. I just remarked some of my IJ BF have now more than 30 aviation support, may be it's because of that reason.If it works this way it's an interesting air support complement, can anyone confirm?
I fill these units with at least 20 snlf squads for rear bases,but I wait for more when they are supposed to go in a front line base.

ORIGINAL: NemRod

If I understand the manual correctly, those IJ base forces, as any base force, can grow over 100/100 and get more aviation support if you put them alone in a big airfield. I just remarked some of my IJ BF have now more than 30 aviation support, may be it's because of that reason.If it works this way it's an interesting air support complement, can anyone confirm?
I fill these units with at least 20 snlf squads for rear bases,but I wait for more when they are supposed to go in a front line base.

I think that growth only applies to the AI

You are right Pompack,I checked the manual, it's only for the AI.

ORIGINAL: irrelevant

What about armaments factories? IJ starts with 525. In a recent PBEM I initially expanded the smallest factories to reach 595, then to 670, and finally to 760. How about anyone else?

My most advanced game ( May 43 ) I have 503 !? So looks like I certainly didn't build up aramaments ... I have about 17K+ in the pool ... enough at least to react and start building up if I hit a crunch ...

In a recent PBEM I had something like 120,000 armaments points in the pool at one time; a large batch of reinforcements arrived and burned them all in a couple of days. A typical infantry division needs maybe 20-25,000 points to fill out fully....

For those of you shutting down other units in the hopes of making the units you want filled out a higher priority...I don't think the game works in that general direction.

If there are enough units of supply in the pool they will fill out at the regular rate regardless of priorities you set. I haven't found the allied player to be lacking in these pools at any time, so I've generally not turned off replacements to troops except where I know I'm going to loose. Otherwise, the units fill out at a constant rate (too slow for me!) regardless of who many units want those engineers, aviation unites, etc.

I could be wrong, however. But that is my general understanding of how the game works.

Worr, out

For those of you shutting down other units in the hopes of making the units you want filled out a higher priority...I don't think the game works in that general direction.

For IJ, it does work that way. To draw squads and devices into LCUs, one must spend particular quantities of armaments and manpower points from the pools. If you are lacking one or the other, you get nada.

An exception to this would be for a type of device or squad where one did happen to have a quantity extant in the pool. This mostly is not the case however. IJ does not produce squads and devices to go into pools; IJ produces squads and devices as they are called for by LCUs.

I generally fill out all my base forces for every HQ except Home Defense Force.

In China, 19 base forces can be expanded to 40 infantry squads. Filling them out releases approximately 760AP to front line service.

In Manchukuo, 7 base forces can be expanded to 40 infantry squads. Filling them out allows me to send an additional 280 AP to other theatres without activating the Soviets.

Finally, Japan doesn't have enough troops to occupy it's conquests and base forces give you enough defense that the Allied player will need more than a token effort to take the base. IJN BF units are especially fun, because they get coastal defense guns.

ORIGINAL: irrelevant

In a recent PBEM I had something like 120,000 armaments points in the pool at one time; a large batch of reinforcements arrived and burned them all in a couple of days. A typical infantry division needs maybe 20-25,000 points to fill out fully....

Well I just burned 2k in one day ( never happened before - but of course it does now that we're talking about it !!! still May 43 in the game in question ) ... so I'm down to 15k in the pool ... so guess it is time to beef up production .. but if you're saying I.D. burned 60K per day over 2 day period ( 120k total ) - then I'll be in trouble if I wanna fill out my infantry divisions. Fortunately, I would prefer to spend the PP for them first, move them and THEN start beefing them up ( less PP and less transport ) ... so I should be able to control the 60K per day hits even if they do come ....