Before anyone asks, yes, I do plan on invading Australia. The intent is to use 14 Army (48 & 16 Div, 65 Bde), 16 Army (2 & 38 Div) and SAA (4 & 21 Div). Eventually, 14 Army will defend Australia, 16 Army will defend Java and the SAA divisions will be the SRA reserve. The 25 Army (5 & 18 Div) will defend Palembang and Malaya.
The goal is to have all operations complete (with the exception of Australia most likely) by the end of Mar 42 (when the invasion bonus ends).
Hi Mike,
I may have missed this somewhere, but is this a full blown invasion of Australia with the aim to conquer it completely or a typical holding and delay type invasion?
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
Man, I gotta watch this one unfold. In my first game as Japan I am already bogged down in Java and Burma. I will be taking some serious notes! Go get'em Mike!
Hi Mike, what's your resource transports in and around the home islands look like? Are you using Damian's chart , your own or a variation of the two?
Thanks and good luck![:)]
"There’s no such thing as a bitter person who keeps the bitterness to himself.” ~ Erwin Lutzer
Also wondering about Oz, and would like some input on it. I like the idea of taking Northern Australia, if for no other reason than to keep the airfields knocked down. I dont normally build them up, why provide ready made fields for the counter. What are your goals here.
Next question..what are your thoughts on Nells vs. Betties? I like the G3M3..it comes quick, has great range, and gets radar and has the added benefit of freeing up HA-32 engines for the army. I have been rethinking my position lately, do you feel it is better for late war upgrades to stick to all Betties, you dont lose production with upgrades then. What are you thoughts as well as the esteemed readers.
One of the serious problems in planning the fight against American doctrine.... is that the Americans do not read their manuals, nor do they feel any obligation to follow their doctrine
Before anyone asks, yes, I do plan on invading Australia. The intent is to use 14 Army (48 & 16 Div, 65 Bde), 16 Army (2 & 38 Div) and SAA (4 & 21 Div). Eventually, 14 Army will defend Australia, 16 Army will defend Java and the SAA divisions will be the SRA reserve. The 25 Army (5 & 18 Div) will defend Palembang and Malaya.
The goal is to have all operations complete (with the exception of Australia most likely) by the end of Mar 42 (when the invasion bonus ends).
Hi Mike,
I may have missed this somewhere, but is this a full blown invasion of Australia with the aim to conquer it completely or a typical holding and delay type invasion?
Just the north to delay the inevitable. If I can keep it till fall of 42, I'll have considered it a success. My second goal is to not lose any major ground units there.
Man, I gotta watch this one unfold. In my first game as Japan I am already bogged down in Java and Burma. I will be taking some serious notes! Go get'em Mike!
Burma, ah Burma. Just today Ted, my opponent, and I were exchanging emails and he described Burma as a slow motion slugfest. Boy ain't that the truth!
Someone (ny59giants, Chickenboy or Q-Ball I suspect), in my previous game suggested that I land a force on Java early, just to get a bridgehead. I did, at Kalidjati. I believe it was a division and some armor, but don't quote me on it. I ended up cutting the island in 2 and separating his forces. Interior lines and all that for me. [;)] When I landed the main force (a couple more divisions) I was able to defeat him in detail. North first then south. I plan on doing something similar this game, but I'll probably land somewhere else. Kaldjati is perfect, but I don't want to do the same thing twice. He may be waiting for it. I suspect he'll mine that base.
Hi Mike, what's your resource transports in and around the home islands look like? Are you using Damian's chart , your own or a variation of the two?
Thanks and good luck![:)]
Sulu, I'll post that tomorrow when I have some time. To be honest, I haven't looked at Damians chart. I've been meaning to but I try to work on the turn when I have time. I can't seem to scrounge extra time to read his wonderful document.
Also wondering about Oz, and would like some input on it. I like the idea of taking Northern Australia, if for no other reason than to keep the airfields knocked down. I dont normally build them up, why provide ready made fields for the counter. What are your goals here.
Next question..what are your thoughts on Nells vs. Betties? I like the G3M3..it comes quick, has great range, and gets radar and has the added benefit of freeing up HA-32 engines for the army. I have been rethinking my position lately, do you feel it is better for late war upgrades to stick to all Betties, you dont lose production with upgrades then. What are you thoughts as well as the esteemed readers.
You hit it on the head with Australia. It's a prevent defense. He'll get it back some day. Just delaying the inevitable. Every day he can't bomb the SRA is a victory for the Japanese.
To be honest, I haven't really spent a lot of time comparing the Nell and Betty. Right now I plan on producing both. Since they each have their own upgrade paths, converting factories cost time and supply. I'm all in favor of saving both when possible. I also look at engines differently than most. It is a commodity that is necessary to produce aircraft. I decide what aircraft and in what numbers I want to build and then adjust my engine factories to meet that requirement.
Hi guys. Here's some of the things I ponder at lunch. Sorry for the length of my ramblings, but I have time to think about the game during the day and put my thoughts down at lunch. [;)]
Hi all. Since my illustrious opponent didn’t drop everything in his life to do his turn (I guess I should mention that I didn’t get it to him till about 9:30 pm), I had some time to review some aspects of my industry.
Obsolete (No Production):
Type – Pool
A5M4 – 73 (Trainers)
B4Y1 – 34 (Trainers)
B5M1 – 13 (Trainers)
E7K2 – 43 (Frontline use until expended)
E8N2 – 60 (Frontline use until expended)
F1M2 – 22 (Frontline use – transitioning to trainers)
Ki-15-II – 6 (Frontline use/Trainers)
Ki-21-Ic – 46 (Trainers)
MC-21 – 3 (Frontline use until expended)
Ki-27b – 3 (Frontline use/Trainers – transitioning to trainers)
Ki-30 – 36 (Frontline use until expended)
Ki-32 – 1 (Frontline use until expended)
Ki-36 – 40 (Trainers)
Ki-43-Ia – 8 (Frontline use until expended)
Ki-43-Ib – 13 (Frontline use until expended)
Ki-51 – 73 (Frontline use until expended)
Ki-56 – 8 (Frontline use until expended)
Ki-59 – 9 (Trainers)
The “Factory on – Factory off” numbers are basically the spread where I’d like to keep the pool. At the top end, I’ll shut off the factory and turn it back on when the pool drops to the low end. Note that this will change over time. As I near an upgrade, I’ll reduce the pool size. The goal is to get the upgrade in production and use it to “replace” aircraft much as I’m replacing frontline Nates with the Oscar Ic now. Ideally, the old pool will be gone when the upgrade reaches production. As I get enough of the upgrade to upgrade a unit, the aircraft from the upgraded unit enter the pool to replace losses in those still using the now obsolescent aircraft.
Current Engine Production
Type – Building(repairing) – Pool
Hitachi Amakaze – 0(0) – 118 (These are Glen engines.)
Ha-31 – 45(0) – 251 (Ki-46-II – later for the Nick FB and the Ki-57-II. Modest increase probably needed later.)
Ha-32 – 77(23) – 35 (Betty & Sally – Need to increase by 40 to break even. Will need more for Jill, Emily, Jack & Francis.)
Ha-33 – 73(22) – 82 (Val, Jake, Nell & Mavis – Need to increase by 80. Will drop by 40 when Mavis transitions to Emily in 7/42. Needed for multiple airframes. Will increase later in war.)
Ha-34 – 10(0) – 7 (Nothing until Helen in 4/42. Will increase production to 160 in Jan 42. Needed for Tojo in 9/42 so production will increase further.)
Ha-35 – 206(124) – 159 (Zero, Kate, Babs, Oscar & Lily – This is the big one, as you all know. Production slightly exceeds demand. It’ll increase periodically throughout the war but is looking good right now.)
By increasing my engine factories, my HI use will increase, but it’s not as bad as I thought:
Ha-32: 40
Ha-33: 80
Ha-34: 160
When completed this will use (40+80+160)*18/30/2 = 84 HI factories of production. By capturing Malaya and Java, my factories will increase by 140. That’s before damage and also before I increase HI factories in those areas, which I am planning to do. It’ll work.
Vehicles are currently at 102. There are 6 factories and I am going to increase each of them by 8 to get a nice round 150 production.
Naval ship building increases will be complete at 1500 tomorrow. That’s where it will remain. This is new for me. I never increased it before. It should prove useful and fun.
Armaments are unchanged at 620. I don’t see a need to increase them at this point.
Well, if you are not going to go for Kalidjati again may I suggest Semarang? Starts the war with a Level 5 port, in a clear (cultivated) hex, with no garrison (i.e. no Coastal Defence guns). Plus there is a good rail link between Semarang and Djokjakarta (right next to each other), so you can rapidly cut off north Java (i.e. Batavia) and south Java (i.e. Soerabaja).
The closest forces to Semarang start the war in Tjilatjap (3 hexes of rail away), about 70 AV.
That being said, from a supply perspective, as long as you can take and hold at the very least the Darwin-Fenton-Katherine-Daly Waters railway, and in addition the Broome-Derby-Nookanbah road, you should be able to deny your enemy the ability to perform any strategic bombing in the SRA.
Port Hedland could be developed into a B29 base, but despite the 100 resources at Corunna Downs is notoriously difficult to keep supplied.
Mike, are you dumping any R&D into the A6M2-N? It comes online in 4/42 and by that date the 30 R&D will be repaired and since the next airframe in it's upgrade path is the A6M5 you can change it to the next available upgrade and have undamaged factories researching an airframe that comes online in 8/43 in spring of 42. Pretty good deal IMO. [:)]
"There’s no such thing as a bitter person who keeps the bitterness to himself.” ~ Erwin Lutzer
Yes, this is the best invasion spot in Java to isolate the forces near Batavia from Soerabaja, IMO. Add in you get that size 4 AF to use right away. Hopefully, he doesn't more massive amounts of troops into the mtn base nearby. I did that as an Allied player and tied up a large number of Japanese troops for some time. [:D]
Speaking of which, it would have been fantastic if the Japanese player had the ability to apply a "scorched earth" policy, for example occupy northern Australia, and blast all of the facilities into dust, and withdraw... [:D]
Both are about right, although we can now aford to turn off some of our vehicles as we fnally have a decent surplus, it took a long time though.
We converted armaments factories to vehicles, and have 8 armaments factories (about 500 points worth)turned off.
In March 1943 we have 9000 vehicle points spare and about 144,000 armament points spare.
Cheers
Rob
+1
And depending upon you battle outcomes, you might even need more. But, I target VEH=250 as a minimum. It is one of the things that eats up my economic expansion in the early game. I figure I can only expand 15 factories at a time and still have some supply gain. With 6 VEH expanding for almost the first month, that leaves only 9 engine/ac factories to expand. Decisions. Decisions. as to which ones expand.
Mike, are you dumping any R&D into the A6M2-N? It comes online in 4/42 and by that date the 30 R&D will be repaired and since the next airframe in it's upgrade path is the A6M5 you can change it to the next available upgrade and have undamaged factories researching an airframe that comes online in 8/43 in spring of 42. Pretty good deal IMO. [:)]
This is the only fast track R&D that I don't do. In fact, in my personal mod I mitigated this so that it doesn't gain you anything. It just feels 'gamey' to me. I do go for the A6M3 though. Only 2 months later ...
This is just me though ... if I was in a PBEM, maybe I would pursue it. Not sure. As I play against the AI, I don't.