Climb Mt. Niitaka - Xargun vs Mr Kane

[Xargun]

What does the * next to LCUs mean ?

I was thinking of pushing hard in China and trying to knock the Chinese out, but then I realized that won't help me too much as all the units in China will have to pay PPs to be used in Burma. Now any idea of using China troops in Burma is gone... For that, should I still push to knock China out? If I don't go for a knock out, should I bomb the industry ?

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Very interesting Pax. I like the Sam focus, and I think that is a must.

10 factories on the Frank A. Sam and Frank...its a Japanese mantra.

Yeah, so hard to ignore them. They are competitive against the allies on everything except SR, but on defense that can be managed.

however, after those two ... oh there are choices, none bad but they do have to support the plan you choose is all. If you're going on defense say 6/43, then I would choose Jack over George for sure. Jack is a great CAP fighter, good armament and great climb. However, I might also choose Tojo instead. Again, it is a good CAP fighter, and I can get that one without RnD, so then I can RnD something else like ShinDen ... getting that in late 44 can really shake up the allied attack. They are devastating to B-29's day or night ... 4x30mm CL ... and the ShinDen can play with Tbolts and Stangs on Sweeps ....

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

What does the * next to LCUs mean ?

I was thinking of pushing hard in China and trying to knock the Chinese out, but then I realized that won't help me too much as all the units in China will have to pay PPs to be used in Burma. Now any idea of using China troops in Burma is gone... For that, should I still push to knock China out? If I don't go for a knock out, should I bomb the industry ?

Screen pic?

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

What does the * next to LCUs mean ?

I was thinking of pushing hard in China and trying to knock the Chinese out, but then I realized that won't help me too much as all the units in China will have to pay PPs to be used in Burma. Now any idea of using China troops in Burma is gone... For that, should I still push to knock China out? If I don't go for a knock out, should I bomb the industry ?

Most of the time the * means the unit can be recombined into a larger unit.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Very interesting Pax. I like the Sam focus, and I think that is a must.

10 factories on the Frank A. Sam and Frank...its a Japanese mantra.

Yeah, so hard to ignore them. They are competitive against the allies on everything except SR, but on defense that can be managed.

however, after those two ... oh there are choices, none bad but they do have to support the plan you choose is all. If you're going on defense say 6/43, then I would choose Jack over George for sure. Jack is a great CAP fighter, good armament and great climb. However, I might also choose Tojo instead. Again, it is a good CAP fighter, and I can get that one without RnD, so then I can RnD something else like ShinDen ... getting that in late 44 can really shake up the allied attack. They are devastating to B-29's day or night ... 4x30mm CL ... and the ShinDen can play with Tbolts and Stangs on Sweeps ....

Tojo has ts place to be sure...but so many newer IJ players way overproduce and over research this plane.

The George/Jack split, for me having both makes it easier to find and leave the squadrons from an orginizational standpoint. Georges are for sweeping and Jacks are for defense. Easy.

Can't find any fault in your logic.[&o]

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

What does the * next to LCUs mean ?

I was thinking of pushing hard in China and trying to knock the Chinese out, but then I realized that won't help me too much as all the units in China will have to pay PPs to be used in Burma. Now any idea of using China troops in Burma is gone... For that, should I still push to knock China out? If I don't go for a knock out, should I bomb the industry ?

Take China. Take China. Chungking is the single largest VP haul you will have. If you don't you will be faced with a very nasty war there draining supplies and manpower starting in 44...plus the potential of nasty large Allied Air bases. Everything within 20 hexes is vulnerable, and then even further when the B29 arrives.

If he holds China...then a thrust at the Phillipines and landing on Chinese Coast will cut off all troops to the west as you won't be able to mount Chinese coastal defense strong enough to deter an invasion and fight the surging Chinese.

A bigger nightmare scenario is hard for me to imagine....unless you conquer India.

Captain Cruft did an AAR where he didn't take China...it is a very educational AAR, but he was going to lose to AV n Jan of 1945 despite having suffered almost 0 ship losses and creating a very strong 20 hex perimeter defense around Japan.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Xargun

What does the * next to LCUs mean ?

I was thinking of pushing hard in China and trying to knock the Chinese out, but then I realized that won't help me too much as all the units in China will have to pay PPs to be used in Burma. Now any idea of using China troops in Burma is gone... For that, should I still push to knock China out? If I don't go for a knock out, should I bomb the industry ?

Take China. Take China. Chungking is the single largest VP haul you will have. If you don't you will be faced with a very nasty war there draining supplies and manpower starting in 44...plus the potential of nasty large Allied Air bases. Everything within 20 hexes is vulnerable, and then even further when the B29 arrives.

If he holds China...then a thrust at the Phillipines and landing on Chinese Coast will cut off all troops to the west as you won't be able to mount Chinese coastal defense strong enough to deter an invasion and fight the surging Chinese.

A bigger nightmare scenario is hard for me to imagine....unless you conquer India.

Captain Cruft did an AAR where he didn't take China...it is a very educational AAR, but he was going to lose to AV n Jan of 1945 despite having suffered almost 0 ship losses and creating a very strong 20 hex perimeter defense around Japan.

China probably will not be terribly difficult to conquer. He will set up a large air-supply to China, but if you press, the Chinese supply will still run out by the end of 42. You don't need to be a strategic mastermind to take China as the Japanese. Just drive forward and use lots of bombardment attacks and bombings. Units use supply for each "phase" of combat that they participate in. So if a unit is bombed twice and then bombarded, it will use extra supply 3 times. Keep harrying him in China until the supplies give out.

Most allied players really don't know how to defend China either. They basically just set up roadblocks on the roads in X3 terrain, behind rivers where possible. That's ok, but it is only 1 part of the China defense. Since this is really, there only plan, they over commit to the roadblocks. Don't trash your units trying to rush through these big AI-like stacks. Soften them up, make these big piles of units use a lot of supply with bombing and bombardments, and when possible, manuever around the roadblocks.

[Xargun]

Well time is up and the turn has been sent to Mr Kane. I hope to have a turn in my mail when I wake up tomorrow...

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Well time is up and the turn has been sent to Mr Kane. I hope to have a turn in my mail when I wake up tomorrow...

Best of luck. Biggest thing is striking a balance between time and assets against a more aggressive allied player. You don't want to overexpose your amphibious groups, but you also don't want to give him too much time to dig in and make life miserable for you in any strategic region: Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, or Burma. Basically your goal should be to get all control of everything in Malaysia, the DEI, Rabaul, and Moresby before the amphibious bonus runs out in 4 months. If you can get this accomplished, you will be in good shape. Then the big decision... what to do next?

[PaxMondo]

Yeah good luck. Mr Kane is a good player, and a really good IJ player. He is also a planner ... so you need to figure out what his plan is for '42. His track record says he is coming at you, hard. He'll conserve assets until he's ready and then unleash a horde. He'll have ~10 ID's plus plenty of support.

[Aurorus]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

Yeah good luck. Mr Kane is a good player, and a really good IJ player. He is also a planner ... so you need to figure out what his plan is for '42. His track record says he is coming at you, hard. He'll conserve assets until he's ready and then unleash a horde. He'll have ~10 ID's plus plenty of support.

In the words of Theoden, King of Rohan, "Let them come."

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

Yeah good luck. Mr Kane is a good player, and a really good IJ player. He is also a planner ... so you need to figure out what his plan is for '42. His track record says he is coming at you, hard. He'll conserve assets until he's ready and then unleash a horde. He'll have ~10 ID's plus plenty of support.

10 ID ? The allies get that many in 42 ? Ouch

[Lowpe]

Probably by aug 43...

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Probably by aug 43...

Ok that's much better. I will just need to figure out how to make Mr Kane commit his divisions for defense and not offense...

[Hotei]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Probably by aug 43...

Ok that's much better. I will just need to figure out how to make Mr Kane commit his divisions for defense and not offense...

[Xargun]

While I wait for Mr Kane to return turn one I can say I am now excited about the game again. Turn one was very tedious to do and I'm sure I missed a lot of stuff, but the game was running like garbage and I had a large delay between everything click or attempt to scroll. This morning while messing around on the forums I took some time to read through the Tech Support and found a solution. I added -deepColor and assigned a specific cpu to the game and now when I mess around in game it is lightning quick like it used to be. I'm so glad I took the time to look in the Tech forum and found some posts about Win 10 issues. They really need to sticky that thread on the main page for Win 10 users - I bet a lot of people who buy the game go into it and it runs like crap so they stop playing it... Put that thread on page 1 of the main forum and they could help a lot of people.

With the game working as I remember, I cannot wait for the turn. I am thinking of pushing hard in China until I take it all.. And will push hard in Malaya and the DEI, while Philippines probably lags behind a bit. Its not like he can escape from the Philippines - or at least the ground units cannot. The air units he can buy out and most players do -- since we start with a stockpile of PP he can buy them out whenever he wants - I spent about half my starting pool of 500 PPs replacing nearly every air unit leader - probably around 95% of all fight groups and to a lesser extant other groups. All CV-based groups got good leaders if they didn't already have one. I also took someone's advice and went through my Air HQs and replaced leaders there as needed. Some of them were pretty horrific - I think one guy had like a 26 Air Skill ??? How the heck did he lead and Air HQ ?

Over the next couple turns I need to get my garrisons in China sorted out and get my offensive there moving. As well as hitting air bases in the DEI.

My port attacks in Manila I ordered the mini KB NOT to use torpedoes, as I want to save them to go hunting for warships in the DEI.. I figured a 250kg bomb would wreck anything it hit in Manila harbor anyways so why waste torpedoes on unloaded merchants. I do expect most allied TFs to flee southward and regroup somewhere in the DEI or perhaps Darwin. Soerbaja is also another good place - lots of fuel for the ships and he can begin moving oil / fuel to Oz from there.

I made a few industry adjustments on turn one.. expanded some Armaments, Vehicle and Naval and Repair shipyards. I also expanded several engine factories and shut others off. I setup 5 R&D factories on the A6M2-N Rufe and they are size 10+ at the moment - I want the A6M5c as soon as I can. I also increased production of Vals, Kates, Zeros and Oscars... turned a lot of useless aircraft production off as well.

The industry changes I made were small 5-10 points each but I wanted to get the repairs started so I can allocate supplies to the correct bases - already increased supply demand at Maebishi as there is very little supply there, but lots of factories.

[Xargun]

Well as my title says my first turn against Mr Kane was probably my worst first turn in any game I have played. It started off great, for once a midget sub penetrated Pearl and put a torpedo into the California. I thought 'Great - a wonderful start' ... and then it went downhill. In all I sunk 3 small ships (2 PTs and a YO) at Manila and nothing at Pearl. I hit all 8 BBs and some cruisers but nothing sunk. It may tie up his repair yard for a year or so, but everything survived... not good.

At Manila I hit 11 subs and a load of miscellaneous ships, including 2 TKs and an AO.
At Georgetown I hit 6 merchies in the harbor. And at Hong Kong I hit 4 merchies in that harbor.

In the air I lost 60 planes to A2A and flak and another 14 to ops. The only good thing was I only had 6 pilots WIA and none lost (according to Tracker) so once I get more planes I'll be good.

I captured Batan Island and air dropped some troops into Laoag to capture it. Now I have a lvl 2 airfield on Luzon and already sent a group of Nates there to cover future landings.

Force Z is nowhere to be seen, nor did I see any other TFs except a lone merchie along the east Malayasian coast.

Morning Air attack on Pearl Harbor , at 180,107

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 26 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 32
B5N2 Kate x 90
D3A1 Val x 101

Allied aircraft
P-36A Mohawk x 6
P-40B Warhawk x 8
F4F-3 Wildcat x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 4 damaged
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed by flak
B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed, 19 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 3 destroyed by flak
D3A1 Val: 2 destroyed, 11 damaged
D3A1 Val: 6 destroyed by flak

Allied aircraft losses
P-36A Mohawk: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged
P-40B Warhawk: 8 damaged
P-40B Warhawk: 2 destroyed on ground
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 damaged
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 destroyed on ground
C-33: 1 destroyed on ground
B-17D Fortress: 1 destroyed on ground
PBY-5 Catalina: 7 destroyed on ground
B-18A Bolo: 3 destroyed on ground
SBD-1 Dauntless: 1 destroyed on ground
B-17E Fortress: 1 destroyed on ground
A-20A Havoc: 3 destroyed on ground
O-47A: 1 destroyed on ground
R3D-2: 1 destroyed on ground

Allied Ships
BB Pennsylvania, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
BB Maryland, Torpedo hits 1
CL St. Louis, Torpedo hits 1
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1
DD Cummings, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2
CM Oglala
BB California, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Detroit, Torpedo hits 1
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 3, on fire
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
BB Nevada, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2
CA New Orleans, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage

Airbase hits 37
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 52
Port hits 9
Port fuel hits 1

[Lowpe]

No long range CAP or sweepers account for losing all the planes?

Did you have the Zeroes strafe at Pearl?

Not bad at Pearl...6 battleships with torpedo hits.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

No long range CAP or sweepers account for losing all the planes?

Did you have the Zeroes strafe at Pearl?

Not bad at Pearl...6 battleships with torpedo hits.

Most I lost in any one shot was Pearl where I lost 21 total.. Somehow I launched a PM attack that lost 1 Zero and 5 Kates to CAP.. But scored multiple 800kg hits.

Afternoon Air attack on Pearl Harbor , at 180,107

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 106 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 45 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 14
B5N2 Kate x 27

Allied aircraft
P-40B Warhawk x 18
F4F-3 Wildcat x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
B5N2 Kate: 5 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Warhawk: 1 destroyed
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 1
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 2
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage

Port hits 3

Aircraft Attacking:
22 x B5N2 Kate bombing from 9000 feet
Port Attack: 1 x 800 kg AP Bomb

[Xargun]

Day two was better - only lost 3 aircraft in total, but the bad part is I ran into NO allied aircraft. He wasn't flying cap anywhere I hit and no attacks on my landings in Malaya. During the replay I heard some
mine hits (see below) and was surprised it wasn't one of my ships...

TF 146 encounters mine field at Bataan (78,77)

Allied Ships
PT Q-112, Mine hits 1, heavy damage
PT Q-111, Mine hits 1, heavy damage
PT-41, Mine hits 1, heavy damage
PT-35, Mine hits 1, heavy damage
PT-33, Mine hits 1, heavy damage

Not sure how powerful my sub-laid mines are as they never seem to do anything for me in the past, but those PTs can't be happy...

My subs got into the game on day two as well:

Submarine attack near Iba at 78,73

Japanese Ships
SS I-124

Allied Ships
xAKL Dai Lee, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage (reported sunk)

xAKL Dai Lee is sighted by SS I-124
SS I-124 attacking on the surface

Submarine attack near Djemadja at 52,83

Japanese Ships
SS I-155

Allied Ships
xAKL Dai Tung, Shell hits 10, heavy fires, heavy damage

xAKL Dai Tung is sighted by SS I-155
SS I-155 attacking on the surface
SS I-155 low on gun ammo, Minowa E. breaks off surface engagement and submerges

I hit a few more ships in Hong Kong harbor, but merchants only.

Mini KB moved south from Luzon and hit 3 different single xAKL fleets fleeing the DEI heading East !!!

I captured Kota Bharu, Tarawa and more paratroopers took Aparri.