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First off, thanks to everyone who responded to my last question and helped a out a rookie player!

I do have another question for the vetrans...has anyone (playing as the Allies) been able to mount and effective defense against the Japanese in Southeast Asia early in the war? And I mean real early...

If you could do it, any tips or strategies?

The other zones are going, well, not good but not terrible. I can't seem to do anything about Southeast Asia.

retreat to ledo-kohima-imphal lina ASAP

There's little chance for you if facing an experienced Japan player, meaning in other words your only real chance for early success in SE Asia is if the Japan player makes his own mistakes. (such as rushing too far too fast.....lack of logistics...mutual support etc etc.)

I'd be wary of retreatin en-masse however because to me...the purpose of defending the SRA (Southern Resource Area) is to delay the Japanese and make them work for it. That way they arn't advancing elsewhere. Most players generally don't reinforce the SRA with ground troops as they are too scarce and precious. Most often it's a concernted air defense with maybe some warships thrown in. Be careful of overcommitting in Burma as that leaves India wide open for an incursion. Fight a delaying action, force him to protect his recently ill gotten gains (such as bombing recently captured resource bases...that will tie up air units)

Come On my AVG Boys shoot down 25 jap bombers with no losses over Kuantan[:)] Just use hit and run i you see jap bombing some place without escort bunch some fighter's on LRCAP and presto...

the only thing you can do is to allow japan make mistakes
if enemy is experienced one you have no chances to stop him
make any pay for conquested land - destroy resources - force constant CAP ,harass smaller landing sites with small (1cl+2dd) TFs
and retreat to fight another day
you will be tempted to counterattack or to commit bigger forces but most of this attempts will fail and you will pay for it
even experianced allied players often try to hit hard too early and usually thet are spanked

#1 little known defence fact: Do not bombard.

When a Japanese force enters your hex the temptation is to bombard and kill a few dozen Japanese squads. The problem is that this lowers your defense strength by a lot. So you bombard and kill 30 Japanese but then Japan assaults and drives you from the hex with massive losses.

Bombard only when you are clearly superior. Stay calm and defend in place.

ORIGINAL: moses

#1 little known defence fact: Do not bombard.

When a Japanese force enters your hex the temptation is to bombard and kill a few dozen Japanese squads. The problem is that this lowers your defense strength by a lot. So you bombard and kill 30 Japanese but then Japan assaults and drives you from the hex with massive losses.

Bombard only when you are clearly superior. Stay calm and defend in place.

I never knew that fro a fact but i dont bombard as a rule as it does hurt supply and disruption quite badly imo. the defence loss i assume is because of the added disruption.

anyway original question :-

i always try and hold mandalay and ledo as long as possible. if japan sends in a small force moulmein can delay him a bit. Rangoon on the other hand is a POW camp waiting to happen. Get out of there asap. My trick is to move the CD unit to andaman is. along with a dutch BF and inf unit from one of the west sumatran bases. drop off a bunch of supply and fuel early on and u can operate a few pt boats here too.

mainland Mandalay is critical imo. once that goes the burma road is all but closed. use the chinese SEAC troops too. but if possible get some to calcutta/dacca so they can repair thier damaged squads. Dakotas are great for flying them in and out as they have no heavy equipment to speak of. Same goes for any brit/burmese troops that are say (45)30 in inf squads i.e below 1/2 str. they wont recover in mandalay. also the RAF can hurt japan too from chandpur / dacca and inphal.

Well thats my 2p worth of advice .. enjoy your game

ORIGINAL: moses

#1 little known defence fact: Do not bombard.

When a Japanese force enters your hex the temptation is to bombard and kill a few dozen Japanese squads. The problem is that this lowers your defense strength by a lot. So you bombard and kill 30 Japanese but then Japan assaults and drives you from the hex with massive losses.

Bombard only when you are clearly superior. Stay calm and defend in place.

moses, care to elaborate on that?

i would agree with the DO NOT BOMBARD in situations where supply is critical. Where you have good supply and good supply lines, i bombard away, esp. against IJA troops where bombarding them is not going to improve the quality of the enemy troops (they are already in the 90s...)

BigT, I would agree with others in that your first best defense is to let the Japanese player make mistakes. Sounds like you are aware that your going to get your butt kicked in SEA, evertbody does.

IMO there really is no single strategy that will work. The Japanese may bring a lot of force against you there or really very little. I think holding up in Singapore with tons of supply is the best defense for Malaya as it ties up Japanese troops for weeks or months.

In Burma I have seen no great strategy that works there. It is a death trap in my opinion. Going forward my strategy may be to evacuate half the force and leave the other half to make stands at Rangoon, Mandalay or Lashio. Delay is the best you can hope for. The best tactic I have seen is defend in someplace unpredictable, like Lashio. This will often delay your opponent by a week or two in terms of spotting you and organizing an attack.

Try to defend Akyab if at all possible, but not with too much, three Bdes at most. Again, forces can easily be cut off.

I try to send a lot of my evacuated units from PI and DEI to SEA, in particular the air units. YOu will need all the level bombers you can get your hands on to slow the Jap andvance and to move supplies around. India has an extremely long coast line to defend so you will need additional support.

ORIGINAL: niceguy2005

moses, care to elaborate on that?

Bombard missions, in addition to expending supply, cause disruption which impacts your defensive capability. Sometimes the best thing to do in a situation is nothing.

ORIGINAL: Nikademus

ORIGINAL: niceguy2005

moses, care to elaborate on that?

Bombard missions, in addition to expending supply, cause disruption which impacts your defensive capability. Sometimes the best thing to do in a situation is nothing.

So, you disrupt YOURSELF? [X(]Hmmm, and i had always thought it was from counterbombardment...

ORIGINAL: Nikademus

ORIGINAL: niceguy2005

moses, care to elaborate on that?

Bombard missions, in addition to expending supply, cause disruption which impacts your defensive capability. Sometimes the best thing to do in a situation is nothing.

I will experiment with this a bit and report back. I have a couple of defensive stands right now where it will be ideal to test this.

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

So, you disrupt YOURSELF? [X(]Hmmm, and i had always thought it was from counterbombardment...

Its a bit of both actually. Thats why sometimes, you can bombard and actually suffer casualties yourself. One of the biggest impacts of bomardments is that they will impede the shedding of disruption. This is most apparant if your the attacker and are repulsed. (0:1) This usually will leave your LCU's with high disruption (making an immediate followup attack not a good idea most of the time) If you bombard the next turn, you'll only shed half the disruption you would if you just sat on the defensive and did nothing.

Experienced this in game play recently against Speedy. I sat at palembang and did nothing but sit defensively. Took him forever to take the base and the damage to the resources was extensive.

As an update...

I took the "make them pay for every inch of ground" attitude vs. the computer opponent. using what little airpower I had to attack ground units is working very well.

However, I will have to see how it plays out in my human game. the Japanese player is more experienced then I and an aggressive player.

Well, like Niceguy said, I do know I am going to get mu butt kicked...one can still hope.

ORIGINAL: Nikademus

Experienced this in game play recently against Speedy. I sat at palembang and did nothing but sit defensively. Took him forever to take the base and the damage to the resources was extensive.

Forever? You mean 10 days right? [;)]

Against AI you have hope even of hanging on to Burma for quite a while.

When you play PBEM the biggest difference you will notice is how well timed and coordinated your opponents attacks will be. One of my opponenents has played nearly a mistake free game and is now threatening Calcutta at the end of Feb 42.

given how badly i was outnumbered and with light fortifications...yep, that was forever. [:D]

how you like those blown up oilwells?

ORIGINAL: Nikademus

given how badly i was outnumbered and with light fortifications...yep, that was forever. [:D]

how you like those blown up oilwells?

Let me see. That's 5 actual game turns. So with 3 fort levels i'd say I did pretty well = At least 4 days to reduce as is with deliberate attacks.

Oil - repairing nicely thanks. Full productiuon within a week..........