Tactics

[rustysi]

10 Non standard opening Allied Moves:

1. Send the Boise to between Truk and HI. Leave her patrolling there till she is detected, savages a convoy, or runs low on fuel.

2. Send single ship xak with supply to Luzon, Mindanao and Wenchow.

3. Use British bombers to fly supply into China

4. Fighters, Seaplanes, and Flotaplanes on naval attack in the PI and DEI.

5. Hide destroyer flotillas in dot bases in the DEI to strike from ambush later.

6. Create hidden search bases in the DEI with AV ship and floatplanes/patrol

7. Don't build forts in China, except Kunming to Paoshan. Plan to defend off base and get divisions digging in there now.

8. Find your five Chinese divisions that can be bought out and get them headed to Burma/India now.

9. Use your Singers troop reinforcements somewhere unexpected.

10. Use your American subs in Manila to run supply. Use your British and Dutch to attack and lay mines. Miri/Saigon/Sumatra triangle can be a great place for them.

And a bonus: Get those Singers torpedo planes somewhere unexpected with torpedoes.

OK, this was posted in a 'beginning AAR' recently and I have a question. I think most of it is great and these are things I would most likely apply when I play.

My question lies with tactics 5 & 6. Are there 'special' advantages to 'hiding' in dot bases. IOW when I run naval searches that will fly over enemy bases I'll normally get some icons pop up at said bases. For instance I'll get some/all of the normal base icons if something is present. You know an airbase icon when planes are located there, or the naval icon if ships are present. They don't normally give particulars on what's there, just indicate that something is in fact present. If I wanted to know more I send a recon in to find out. So would not the same occur at dot bases? Or are they some sort of 'secret lair' with untold advantages?

So, to simplify things, what I'm asking is... Is there any special advantage to using dot bases over any 'regular' base when it comes to naval search and recon detecting what's located at said dot base?

[Itdepends]

Naval search wont pick up ships disbanded in port regardless of size. Disbanding in dot hexes reduces the risk your opponent will run a recon flight over the base.

[Oberst_Klink]

ORIGINAL: Itdepends

Naval search wont pick up ships disbanded in port regardless of size. Disbanding in dot hexes reduces the risk your opponent will run a recon flight over the base.

I am also an advocate of using seaplane tenders in dot-base hexes in order to screen, over-watch and reece potential targets for subs. Tenders in general I recommend to make heavy use of them... they're the most overlooked useful asset(s) in the game.

Klink, Oberst

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Oberst_Klink
I am also an advocate of using seaplane tenders in dot-base hexes in order to screen, over-watch and reece potential targets for subs. Tenders in general I recommend to make heavy use of them... they're the most overlooked useful asset(s) in the game.

Klink, Oberst

I use them in the opposite manner - to search for subs. As a Jap Fanboy you can never have too much ASW search and a couple AVs located in strategic locations can offer a lot of search to cover your convoy routes.

[Revthought]

I have some comments on these suggestions:

Using British Bombers to Fly Supply

Personally, I do not like this idea very much. While bombers can be used to fly supply, for me this is something that should only be done in case of emergency. My reasoning is this, first those bombers carry very little supply, and second without a high transport skill you are going to lose a lot of planes and pilots to operational losses.

Given this, you could still use the bombers and risk losing pilots and planes, or take the time to train them to run transportation missions, which I think is a big waste of time for bomber pilots. Furthermore, you should not even be worrying about supplying China by aircraft until Burma falls. This should take at least a month even if you evacuate Burma.

Forts in China

A lot of what you ultimately do in China depends on your opponent. In stock, and even more so in some mods, if the Japanese player wants China they're going to take it. That being said, my strategy in China is almost always built around the fact that I will have serious supply issues sooner or later. Given this, I concentrate not on defending bases but getting Chinese troops into defense lines anchored in x5 terrain. This means I do not have to waste supply building forts.

I also usually buy out some Chinese units to move to Burma, which you do not necessarily have to do if you are playing the AI, or you do not have the "pay for restricted units" to cross borders house rule with your opponent. The reason I do this is because those Chinese units, once in Burma/India will be free to upgrade quite nicely and help bolster commonwealth defenses.

Finally, again, always keep in mind the following when thinking about early game China as the Allies:

*You will eventually run out of supply
*Your troops likely have very low morale

As a result, you should be setting every Chinese LCU not in immediate danger of facing the IJA to "rest" status. Doing this will build morale and reduce supply use. You should also be turning upgrades and replacements off for your units. Again this conserves supply and then allows you to send replacements to critical units down the road.

Sings Reinforcements

There are a couple schools of thought on this. You can use the 18th British Division in Burma or India, or you can send them to Singapore. I usually send them to Burma; however, you can make a good case (depending) for sending them to Singapore. If used in Singapore the 18th British division can:

*Make Singapore hold out a lot longer
*In a weird way, you're saving your precious British equipment pools for later

Incidentally, and this is even more important if you are sending the 18th to Singapore, I always spend the PP to replace Percival. This action alone can buy the Singapore garrison weeks.

Although, lately I've been toying with the idea of sending them to Banda Aceh/Sabang.

My thought is that if I can turn that base and airfield into a fortress that is very hard for my Japanese opponent to take, I could, worst case scenario make my opponent invest a lot more time and energy in the DEI than he normally would. This would mean he couldn't use those troops elsewhere, and it would give me time to bolster my defenses in the South Pacific.

Best case scenario I could hold onto the base long enough/protect the airfield that I can seriously harass Palembang and slow down my opponents ability to pull fuel from the DEI.


American Subs

Using American subs to run supply isn't really an out there idea, particularly if you are playing stock since the Philippine supply levels are rather low. My only comment here is that the American S boats aren't using the mk14 torpedo, so they do not actually suffer from the American dud torpedoes. I wouldn't use them to run supply, I'd use them for sea denial.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Revthought
Given this, I concentrate not on defending bases but getting Chinese troops into defense lines anchored in x5 terrain. This means I do not have to waste supply building forts.

Oh, what would I've given for x5 as Allies Alas, only x3 is available.

ORIGINAL: Revthought
As a result, you should be setting every Chinese LCU not in immediate danger of facing the IJA to "rest" status.

Note that off-base fort building requires "combat" status

ORIGINAL: Revthought
There are a couple schools of thought on this. You can use the 18th British Division in Burma or India, or you can send them to Singapore.

Palembang is hands down better than Singers as a destination if you are playing stock or mods with refineries producing supply.

[Lokasenna]

Units in rest mode still eat the same supplies as units in other modes. The one exception to this (building forts/bases at a base hex) doesn't really apply, as the activity of building the forts costs supplies not the units themselves eating more supplies.

[Revthought]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Units in rest mode still eat the same supplies as units in other modes. The one exception to this (building forts/bases at a base hex) doesn't really apply, as the activity of building the forts costs supplies not the units themselves eating more supplies.

I thought they ate less supply than units in combat status. In any case, its a necessity because Chinese morale tends to be very low at the start of the campaign. It's worth it for that alone.

Also, yes! x3 is correct. Wishful thinking on my part.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Revthought

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Units in rest mode still eat the same supplies as units in other modes. The one exception to this (building forts/bases at a base hex) doesn't really apply, as the activity of building the forts costs supplies not the units themselves eating more supplies.

I thought they ate less supply than units in combat status. In any case, its a necessity because Chinese morale tends to be very low at the start of the campaign. It's worth it for that alone.

Also, yes! x3 is correct. Wishful thinking on my part.

Nope, they just recuperate better than units in combat status (allegedly; I haven't tested and my observation doesn't show much real difference for replacements or for morale although it does seem to greatly affect fatigue/disruption).

Units in rest mode won't build field forts, either.

[Skyros]

Chinese troops with 100% prep will also train in rest mode. THe forts between Paoshan and Kunming will allow more supply to flow over the secondary land lines into china. These bases pluse the bases in Burma have supply flow restrictions which can be raised by building forts, airbases or ports.

[Revthought]

Units in rest mode do prepare faster than those in combat mode and, once they hit 100% preparedness, the units XP will increase outside of actual combat. As far as I know units in Combat, Strategic, or Reserve mode will not see any XP gain unless they are actually in combat.

This is neither here nor there, but AA units in Reserve mode will fire at airplanes. This is important if you have AA units in a contested hex that you do not want to subject to actual ground combat, but do want to shoot at any aircraft that attempt to bomb the hex.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Revthought
Units in rest mode do prepare faster than those in combat mode and, once they hit 100% preparedness the units XP will increase outside of actual combat. As far as I know this won't happen to units in combat mode, unless they are actually in combat that is.

I tested all of this:
1. Prep level goes up by 1 guaranteed point a turn + sometimes instant 2 bonus points. Bonus probability seems around 10% a turn and does not depend on combat/rest/etc mode, and seem to not depend on commander stats.
2. XP can increase as long as prep = 100 with about 50% probability a turn for +1 point (when starting at xp 30, dunno if increases slow down nearer to the threshold). Probability does not depend on combat/rest/etc mode. XP through such training cannot increase higher than nation-specific threshold.
Edit: the threshold is pretty low so not relevant for all battle-hardened units, or many fresh who are sufficiently experienced. Chinese can benefit nicely from it though, staring around 30 xp

[BillBrown]

the 1124 patch notes had this entry:

33. Army experience being gained when not 100% prepared as per manual; changed to allow chance to gain experience if >75% prepare and < 50% national exp level

This will only help those units with really low experience level.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: BillBrown
the 1124 patch notes had this entry:

33. Army experience being gained when not 100% prepared as per manual; changed to allow chance to gain experience if >75% prepare and < 50% national exp level
This will only help those units with really low experience level.

Thanks, missed that. It helps guys with 25-30, at best 32 xp (depending on nation), not many of those I guess.
Table for national levels is at 8.2.1.4 section, I took a look to refresh my memory and I have to take back my words about prep=100 training being marginally useful. USMC/Aus can train to 65 and USA/Sov to 60 - this is ok

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Revthought

I have some comments on these suggestions:

Using British Bombers to Fly Supply

Personally, I do not like this idea very much. While bombers can be used to fly supply, for me this is something that should only be done in case of emergency. My reasoning is this, first those bombers carry very little supply, and second without a high transport skill you are going to lose a lot of planes and pilots to operational losses.

Given this, you could still use the bombers and risk losing pilots and planes, or take the time to train them to run transportation missions, which I think is a big waste of time for bomber pilots. Furthermore, you should not even be worrying about supplying China by aircraft until Burma falls. This should take at least a month even if you evacuate Burma.

Forts in China

A lot of what you ultimately do in China depends on your opponent. In stock, and even more so in some mods, if the Japanese player wants China they're going to take it. That being said, my strategy in China is almost always built around the fact that I will have serious supply issues sooner or later. Given this, I concentrate not on defending bases but getting Chinese troops into defense lines anchored in x5 terrain. This means I do not have to waste supply building forts.

I also usually buy out some Chinese units to move to Burma, which you do not necessarily have to do if you are playing the AI, or you do not have the "pay for restricted units" to cross borders house rule with your opponent. The reason I do this is because those Chinese units, once in Burma/India will be free to upgrade quite nicely and help bolster commonwealth defenses.

Finally, again, always keep in mind the following when thinking about early game China as the Allies:

*You will eventually run out of supply
*Your troops likely have very low morale

As a result, you should be setting every Chinese LCU not in immediate danger of facing the IJA to "rest" status. Doing this will build morale and reduce supply use. You should also be turning upgrades and replacements off for your units. Again this conserves supply and then allows you to send replacements to critical units down the road.

These two are directly related. Supply is a key factor in holding certain positions in China.

Several players have shown it's possible to hold China against the Japanese for long enough that it affects other aspects of the game. It's not just about keeping it forever in a historical manner, but wearing down especially any unrestricted Japanese units here, keeping the IJAAF occupied, and holding the good x3 territory so that it's a grind and the Japanese can't just roll over it to then turn on India or OZ.

In my game against GreyJoy he shocked into Sian and ruined a whole army, then got stalled in some central locations, and I was still holding from Cuhngking to Sian and West in mid-43. In that game I'd started flying a lot of supply into Chungking with both transports and bombers, and supply there was increasing steadily. In using bombers to fly supply,I used transport pilots, not trained bomber pilots. With good group leaders and experienced pilots ops losses are fewer.

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