Sardaukar's Newbie Tutorial AAR for Newbies (vs. IJ AI)

[mgoldstein]

I've never had any luck with level bombers hitting naval targets unless I send them in at 100 ft. I set my Dutch bombers to train for low naval attack. You take a bit more flak, but for me it was worth the ships sunk and damaged. The 300kg bombs of the Dutch B-10s can do a real number on ships. Even the 50kg bombs of the CW-22s can wreak havoc on unarmored transports.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: mgoldstein

I've never had any luck with level bombers hitting naval targets unless I send them in at 100 ft. I set my Dutch bombers to train for low naval attack. You take a bit more flak, but for me it was worth the ships sunk and damaged. The 300kg bombs of the Dutch B-10s can do a real number on ships. Even the 50kg bombs of the CW-22s can wreak havoc on unarmored transports.

I've done 1000 ft., but I'm with you. Can't hit a thing from 5-6000 ft. With good training, by February these guys can tear up xAKLs from 1000ft.

Reading this, I see there are many quite different ways to organize the first week. Some of these moves have never occured to me, like risking robo-cruiser USS Boise in the DEI early.

[Sardaukar]

I am not going to risk that much, when using CA Houston and CL Boise in DEI. They will be used in hit and run attacks against Japanese landings, but I will try to withdraw them completely after IJN gets CVs in area or IJNAF gets Betties/Nells with torpedoes in range. After that, surface raiding is done mostly by small TFs consisting of DDs. They are quite good in evading torpedoes and even dive bombers.

By the way, if someone wonders why I set all of my Dive Bombers and Torpedo Bombers, both land and on CVs to 13 000ft, explanation is this:

Escort fighters fly 2k above strike planes, so putting strike to 13k puts escort fighters to 15k. This is inside the optimum altitude band of Allied early war fighters. 15k is actually the highest altitude for max maneuverability of about all early war Allied fighters. Putting strike at for example 15k would put fighters to 17k and already above "best altitude". And putting attack planes to 10k would put them at 12k..which is sub-optimal too, while in best altitude band, they'd be lacking that extra 3k of altitude..and altitude advantage can be crucial. 

[jomni]

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

I am not going to risk that much, when using CA Houston and CL Boise in DEI. They will be used in hit and run attacks against Japanese landings, but I will try to withdraw them completely after IJN gets CVs in area or IJNAF gets Betties/Nells with torpedoes in range. After that, surface raiding is done mostly by small TFs consisting of DDs. They are quite good in evading torpedoes and even dive bombers.

By the way, if someone wonders why I set all of my Dive Bombers and Torpedo Bombers, both land and on CVs to 13 000ft, explanation is this:

Escort fighters fly 2k above strike planes, so putting strike to 13k puts escort fighters to 15k. This is inside the optimum altitude band of Allied early war fighters. 15k is actually the highest altitude for max maneuverability of about all early war Allied fighters. Putting strike at for example 15k would put fighters to 17k and already above "best altitude". And putting attack planes to 10k would put them at 12k..which is sub-optimal too, while in best altitude band, they'd be lacking that extra 3k of altitude..and altitude advantage can be crucial. 

At 13k, what sort of attack will dive bombers do? Level, Glide or Dive bomb? Which one is better?

[aciddrinker]

ORIGINAL: jomni

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

I am not going to risk that much, when using CA Houston and CL Boise in DEI. They will be used in hit and run attacks against Japanese landings, but I will try to withdraw them completely after IJN gets CVs in area or IJNAF gets Betties/Nells with torpedoes in range. After that, surface raiding is done mostly by small TFs consisting of DDs. They are quite good in evading torpedoes and even dive bombers.

By the way, if someone wonders why I set all of my Dive Bombers and Torpedo Bombers, both land and on CVs to 13 000ft, explanation is this:

Escort fighters fly 2k above strike planes, so putting strike to 13k puts escort fighters to 15k. This is inside the optimum altitude band of Allied early war fighters. 15k is actually the highest altitude for max maneuverability of about all early war Allied fighters. Putting strike at for example 15k would put fighters to 17k and already above "best altitude". And putting attack planes to 10k would put them at 12k..which is sub-optimal too, while in best altitude band, they'd be lacking that extra 3k of altitude..and altitude advantage can be crucial. 

At 13k, what sort of attack will dive bombers do? Level, Glide or Dive bomb? Which one is better?

10-15k they perform dive bombing

[Sardaukar]

ORIGINAL: jomni

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

I am not going to risk that much, when using CA Houston and CL Boise in DEI. They will be used in hit and run attacks against Japanese landings, but I will try to withdraw them completely after IJN gets CVs in area or IJNAF gets Betties/Nells with torpedoes in range. After that, surface raiding is done mostly by small TFs consisting of DDs. They are quite good in evading torpedoes and even dive bombers.

By the way, if someone wonders why I set all of my Dive Bombers and Torpedo Bombers, both land and on CVs to 13 000ft, explanation is this:

Escort fighters fly 2k above strike planes, so putting strike to 13k puts escort fighters to 15k. This is inside the optimum altitude band of Allied early war fighters. 15k is actually the highest altitude for max maneuverability of about all early war Allied fighters. Putting strike at for example 15k would put fighters to 17k and already above "best altitude". And putting attack planes to 10k would put them at 12k..which is sub-optimal too, while in best altitude band, they'd be lacking that extra 3k of altitude..and altitude advantage can be crucial. 

At 13k, what sort of attack will dive bombers do? Level, Glide or Dive bomb? Which one is better?

Like aciddrinker said, 10-15k is Dive Bombing. It's the most accurate bombing method, followed by glide bombing and then level bombing, which is worst. There is also "low level attack" when you set them to 100ft, but I haven't tried that. 1-9k & 16-19k is glide bombing, 20k and above is level bombing, very useful if you absolutely have to attack bases with dive bombers. That way they should stay high up and not to get massacred by base AA. At least that's how theory goes.

[Sardaukar]

Related thought...I am thinking of setting my CV torpedo bombers to USE BOMBS quite often. Reason for this is that until 1/43, Mk 13 torpedo has dud rate of 50%.... 1/43 it drops to 30 and 9/43 to 10%. Torpedo bombers are not too bad doing glide bombing and hit from 500-pounder is lot better than miss or dud from Mk13... Of course, when you do that, either Kido Butai (which is vulnerable to bombs) or BB TF (which is not so much) appears...[:D]

[Sardaukar]

Back to the Battle, Philippine Islands:

Ground:

The Iron Triangle, defensive positions in PI:

Bataan, Clark Field, Manila. This is where we fight, this is where they die! ...err..wrong movie! [:D]

Those bases set to build forts. Note that several units will appear either in Bataan or Manila and often they can be combined to larger unit. Rule of thumb is to always combine land combat units unless you have very good reason not to. Regiment has lot more staying power than 3 separate battalions in same hex. Often larger unit gains some extra devices from recombine too. Currently there are 3 Bns from 45th RCT, I will move them and recombine in Clark Field.

Note that Bataan and Manila are behind heavy CD fortresses, so you can safely rule out enemy amphibious invasion there. This I'll move most of the combat power from Bataan to Clark Field. When I lose CF, they will retreat to Bataan anyway (since during that time Manila is usually invested by enemy troops too). Loss of CF is curtains anyway..aka "start of the end".

Other than Luzon, there is Cebu. Base force there is Asiatic Fleet and can be shipped out. Another is in Manila, but I need the Naval support & extra Radar there.Cebu BF is set to Strategic and I will try to get it to Port Moresby. It's 50 Naval Support is valuable when I start to reinforce PM.

Cagayan has some B-17s. I set them to Naval Search at 6k, 50%, standard patrol settings with range toned down. They can be evacuated later to Darwin or Soerabaja. Davao has PBY-5s and AVD. Former to Soerabaja, latter to PM.

[Joseph_Nevsky]

A tutorial for WitP:AE, at last! [&o]


Thank you very much, Sardaukar!! Great initiative, great work! [8D]

Stay tuned...

[Sardaukar]

PI Naval:

- sortie all SS in Manila around Luzon and PI generally. My favourite click-fest..not.

- DDs in Manila, set to travel to Soerabaja and disband there.

- I will retain AMs and PGs for possible surface action around Luzon. Better than nothing, but heavy enemy air presence will make surface action painful and I am not going to commit real combat ships here, not even DDs.

- evacuate shipping from Manila to DEI and Darwin. In Manila, they are just targets for enemy bombers. Some will make it, many will not. Leave at least one AS for now, since you need to rearm your subs until Manila gets too hot. Then subs will be re-based to Soerabaja and eventually to Perth/Darwin.

- there are some PT boats in Manila, they can be useful if you can get them to fight...other than just getting Mac out of PI...[:'(] (Don't worry about that, it's hard-coded that he'll appear automatically as CO of SW Pac HQ, no matter what).

[Sardaukar]

ORIGINAL: Joseph_Nevsky

A tutorial for WitP:AE, at last! [&o]


Thank you very much, Sardaukar!! Great initiative, great work! [8D]

Stay tuned...

Thank you for your kind words! [8D]

Maybe "tutorial" is not exactly right description, since I won't concentrate to game interface that much (apart to where I deem it necessary). Maybe "Introduction to Grand Campaign" might have been better description.

I know how intimidating the first GC scenario can be and I try to make it bit more "digestible". [8D] I know that everyone eventually wants to get into GC, so hopefully this AAR will be helpful.

[Sardaukar]

PI Air:

Pretty basic. Fighter power concentrated on Clark Field/Manila.

- Standard fighter 50% CAP at 15k. I leave one P-40E unit to Iba now, will be transferred to Manila later.

- Standard level bombers Naval Search at 6k, 50%, normal range.

Note that units with HQ "Asiatic Fleet" can be transferred out. Do this later, when they have at least one flyable plane and friendly bases in range. Nothing is so annoying than losing a squadron because they dropped to 0 planes and can only be transferred via road...

[Sardaukar]

PI Naval:

As you can see, Subic Bay is quite busy today. [8D] You can actually start setting home base of subs you place around southern part of Philippines to Soerabaja. This will lessen their exposure to enemy bombers. Being caught docked in port by enemy air is major killer of subs around DEI/PhI.

Surface ship evacuation in process, one TF with transport ships is sent to Cebu to try to get Cebu BF out.

[Sardaukar]

China:

Everybody's favourite "tar baby". I'd actually recommend to start one of those "Quiet China" GC variations. China is frustrating as hell and requires lot of care. Combat in China can be your major source of frustration in this game (apart of having your CV sunk by lone IJN SS or Betty that did sneak in).

Your units are eggshells and often lacking supply. They also lack firepower, experience and morale. So, lets face it, your troops are crap.

Important rules for China:

- do not change Chinese unit "Set to Target" unless you cannot avoid it. 100 Preparation points to any target means your unit will start training up to national max, which is 45 for Chinese (p.187 in your manual). Guess what is the difference of exp 25-30 unit and exp 45 unit? Former usually dies..and when it comes back as 1/3 strength in Chungking (as Chinese do), it is just additional sink-hole for your often non-existing supplies and replacements. Combat eats supplies, replacing casualties (destroyed squads and devices) eats supplies (and replacements), "repairing" disabled squad and devices eats supplies...

- stop building bases and base forts. As long as you hold route to Rangoon open, you can do forts with extra supply getting in, but remember that every point of supply you use now will not be there when hard times start.

- SET COMBAT UNITS NOT IN IMMEDIATE COMBAT TO REST/TRAINING! SET REAR AREA UNITS TO: NO REPLACEMENTS! First is for one important thing, MORALE. Guess what is difference between 30 morale unit and 90 morale unit? See the above note about experience. Rest/Training raises morale quickly. 30 exp/90 morale unit is at least twice as useful as 45 exp/30 morale unit. Also note that low morale will make your units to rout & surrender. Did I mention self-feeding sink-hole of replacements and supplies yet? [:'(]

- pick the terrain you want to fight in. Nothing is so frustrating than seeing your Chinese "Corps" being routed by IJA Tank regiment in clear terrain, because you forgot that your troops basically have only rifles and few mortars. Position your troops to rough, woods, jungle, urban. Use hotkey "1" in keyboard to see terrain description on screen.

You don't need to do much else here right now. If you want to capture something, you can attack Ichang and capture it.

Air:

Set your fighters to 100% Training Escort. AI will use quite a lot of unescorted bomber raids in China, so you can start racking up kills later. But first, your pilots suck too, so train them. Level bombers I have not found much value, I'd just put them to 100% Training, Ground attack. Usually vs AI I do not even bother.

I transferred Wildebeests from HK to Iba, just because I could do it (with drop tanks). [:D] They can be useful later and only viable Naval Attack force. Is this realistic or historical, hell no!

Naval

Evacuate naval assets from Hongkong. Even your MBTs can reach Lingayen in PhI. Some ships will make it, many will not. RN destroyers are worth saving, they are good ASW platforms and their experience (esp. night) is good.

[Sardaukar]

Soviet Union:

You do not need to do anything here. Just set bases to build Port & AF at your leisure.

[Sardaukar]

Australia & SW Pacific:

Bases to build from start: Perth, Port Moresby, Townsville, Charter Towers, Brisbane (build up port ASAP, will be SW Pac sub base), Sydney, Melbourne.

Ground:

- all detached companies in New Guinea set to move to Port Moresby

- 29th brigade in Bundaberg set to move to Brisbane. There it will combine with 2 other brigades to form 5th AUS Division. When I have enough Political Points, I will change division HQ and transport it to Port Moresby, which I intend to keep. Those Australian Militia troops just got news that Papua New Guinea is now considered Australian territory and they will be eligible to serve there.

- in future, Australia and SW Pacific will be augmented by 6th & 7th AUS Divisions (shipped from Aden) and by recombined 8th AUS Division (if I can get it's 2 brigades out from Singapore). Those 3 divisions are among best units you will ever have, so keep that in mind.

- Catalinas in Port Moresby set to Pick up Troops from Kavieng and Rabaul.

[Sardaukar]

Australia & SW Pacific:

Air:

Not much to do here yet. Set Wirraways to 100% training based on planes they will upgrade to (Vengeance I is for example dive bomber, so train them with 100% Naval Attack, 10-15k).

- Set Hudsons to Naval Search, 50%, 6k, range down to normal, not extended. Don't bother setting search arcs yet, do that after units have reached their nominal strength.

- Hudsons in Rabaul sent to Port Moresby

Naval:

I sent CL Adelaide from PM to Rabaul. Mission that it's crew would definitely appreciate...

[Sardaukar]

South Pacific:

- set TF 408 NE of Espiritu Santo to return to Sydney and disband there. Extra CA and troopships always needed.

- set TF 407 in Canton I. to destination Noumea (so they unload the artillery there) and home port Sydney, auto-disband there. Same reasons as above, plus having AGP (can resupply PT boats, one remedy against Bombardment TFs).

[Sardaukar]

And that's it for setup, folks!

Scen 1 Allied First turn set in 2000 easy steps. [:D] If someone wants the save with all above stuff done for you, please PM me your email address and I send it to you.

Forgot to mention I did send AM Penguin in Guam to ASW TF, return to Pearl Harbor. Could be tribute to Madagascar Penguins. [8D] It actually makes it quite often, Pacific is quite vast.

[Galahad78]

Yes!!! Subscribed!!!

I'll give it a thorough reading tonight and I'll compare my own position with the one suggested here. I'm afraid...[:D]