Japan airplane R&D easy peasy noob guide

[Timotheus]

I figure the optimal (for my playstyle) R&D for Japan is something like this:


Setup at 1st or if making TF that get supply from ports on first turn,
DO ON 2ND TURN OF GAME

Make R&D factories size 30


Rufe > A6M path, do all at one time - in 1 turn !!!!!!! to incredibly increase the A6M zero line !!!!
Recommend you produce a lot of A6M5 1942-44.

When Rufe R&D is at 30/30 and blue, you can: A6M5 > A6M5b > A6M5c > A6M8 all in same day. <<<<<<<<<<<<



Same with Tony > Ki-100 try that Ki 61a > Ki 61b > Ki 61 I d > Ki 61 II KAI > Ki 100 i <<<<<<<<<<<<<<



R&D

Carrier
A6M5 then A6M8
D4Y1 dive bomber
B6N1 torpedo bomber

Land
Ki 84a FRANK research hell out of it to get it 1943


That should do it for 1943.

Questions follow (of course):


Night Fighter (must climb well, shred B17 & B29 or at least compete):
Need Night Fighter a type for 1943, then another type for 1944-45. Speed up a crate or no?

Late game CAP fighter base defense versus fighter sweeps:
1944 type must compete with P47 sweeps
1945 type must compete with P51 sweeps


Late game CAP anti bomber base defense (obviously daylight):
1943 type, tactical and operational combat in far flung bases
1944 type, start of Allied strategic bomber offensive
1945 type, the era of "**** this ****, I quit" Japan rage


Situational:
Land based replacement for Nell/Betty: Peggy I guess? Worth it to accelerate? It's a definite maybe, Japan torps = [&o]

Situation nope:
IJA gets a diver bomber (forget the type), but by the time they get it good luck bombing an amphib TF with it muchacho, so nope on that (prove me wrong? and what a/c crate is it?)





Of course looking for
1) answer my specific questions on what later war types would fulfill my needs (

Note - compete does not equal win, but rather means "does not get obliterated" and fulfills it's mission, for example, "night fighter disrupts enemy B29 raid, shoots down a few, and maybe even survives" = great success !

2) Tell me if I am making a big mistake somewhere and missing a totally awesome a/c crate / role


This is all subjective, of course, and has been hashed a lot on the forums, but what the hey, I am new and game meta has changed (and keeps changing).

[Lokasenna]

When Rufe R&D is simply 30/30 you can move it to A6M5. It doesn't have to be blue.

Try it. It applies to all R&D lines. Once a factory is fully repaired for a given model, it can be advanced along the upgrade chain as far as you want. This is really only terribly advantageous for the Zero, Oscar, Tojo, and Tony lines, however. The rest of them all either arrive late enough that the boost is not that significant, or are models that you can't afford devote massive R&D to, or are models that you need to produce the first version of ASAP so skipping along the line is therefore less useful because some (if not all) of those R&D factories will remain on the first model you want to use.

[Timotheus]

Oooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EulBBRsqSqw

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

When Rufe R&D is simply 30/30 you can move it to A6M5. It doesn't have to be blue.

Try it. It applies to all R&D lines. Once a factory is fully repaired for a given model, it can be advanced along the upgrade chain as far as you want. This is really only terribly advantageous for the Zero, Oscar, Tojo, and Tony lines, however. The rest of them all either arrive late enough that the boost is not that significant, or are models that you can't afford devote massive R&D to, or are models that you need to produce the first version of ASAP so skipping along the line is therefore less useful because some (if not all) of those R&D factories will remain on the first model you want to use.

Right on all counts. But it's a common effort to incorporate these later initial models into the upgrade chain. For example, spend 6 research factories on D4Y1. You won't get it until sometime in late 1942. But as the research factories incrementally 'heal', say by August-September 1942 (e.g., 30(0)), you can then switch over some of the upchain airframe research airframes (e.g., D4Y2/D4Y3, etc.) without penalty. It's still worthwhile, but a little slower than some of the earlier arriving airframe research efforts (e.g., Ki-61a-b-d- to Ki-100-I).

Spending 8 research factories on the Ki-84a may be worthwhile. As soon as you get some 30(0) research factories, switch it over to the late-war -r models, while you use some of the 8 to produce the airframe in question. It beats waiting until early 1945 to get the '-r' otherwise.

[Timotheus]

What about all my noobish questions, guise?
I don't know what to research past 1943......

"Questions follow (of course):


Night Fighter (must climb well, shred B17 & B29 or at least compete):
Need Night Fighter a type for 1943, then another type for 1944-45. Speed up a crate or no?

Late game CAP fighter base defense versus fighter sweeps:
1944 type must compete with P47 sweeps
1945 type must compete with P51 sweeps


Late game CAP anti bomber base defense (obviously daylight):
1943 type, tactical and operational combat in far flung bases
1944 type, start of Allied strategic bomber offensive
1945 type, the era of "**** this ****, I quit" Japan rage


Situational:
Land based replacement for Nell/Betty: Peggy I guess? Worth it to accelerate? It's a definite maybe, Japan torps = guuuud

Situation nope:
IJA gets a diver bomber (forget the type), but by the time they get it good luck bombing an amphib TF with it muchacho, so nope on that (prove me wrong? and what a/c crate is it?) "

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Timotheus

What about all my noobish questions, guise?
I don't know what to research past 1943......

"Questions follow (of course):


Night Fighter (must climb well, shred B17 & B29 or at least compete): no such animal
Need Night Fighter a type for 1943, then another type for 1944-45. Speed up a crate or no? Yes

Late game CAP fighter base defense versus fighter sweeps:
1944 type must compete with P47 sweeps Frank, George, Jack and Sam
1945 type must compete with P51 sweeps If you can handle P47 sweeps don't worry about these guys


Late game CAP anti bomber base defense (obviously daylight):
1943 type, tactical and operational combat in far flung bases any plane with a cannon preferably
1944 type, start of Allied strategic bomber offensive
1945 type, the era of "**** this ****, I quit" Japan rage

Code: Select all

 best part of the game for Japan

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Situational:
Land based replacement for Nell/Betty: Peggy I guess? Worth it to accelerate? It's a definite maybe, Japan torps = guuuud you are mixing army and navy

Situation nope:
IJA gets a diver bomber (forget the type), but by the time they get it good luck bombing an amphib TF with it muchacho, so nope on that (prove me wrong? and what a/c crate is it?) "

Code: Select all

Code: Select all

[Lokasenna]

Night fighters are underwhelming, but necessary. Honestly, pick whichever one you want. I would say to avoid the Zero model unless you want to resize the few navy units that can resize, and avoid the lower durability models. So, basically you will be using Irving for IJNAF (unless you want to get the Denko) and Nick/Randy for IJAAF (maybe Peggy).

You can't replace Nell/Betty with Peggy. You can replace Sally and Helen with Peggy (especially Peggy-t with torpedoes), and you can replace Betty with Frances. You can't replicate the G3M3's extreme range which remains useful in plugging long distance naval search holes or striking far behind the lines if you're audacious enough. And lucky enough.

You can get the Lily-IIb (the dive bomber) early enough to use it if you want to. I'm not sure of its overall efficacy; there just aren't enough units to spend some on it if you are conducting a heavy land campaign in Asia - which I'm not sure why you wouldn't be. It's one of the best VP mills around.

[rustysi]

What about all my noobish questions, guise?
I don't know what to research past 1943......

The problem with what you're asking is I could write a book on the subject and you may not like my decisions. Its not a cut and dried path that you or I would take with our R&D choices. I would suggest that you search the many threads that you can find within the Forum. From there you can design and set your own path.

When Rufe R&D is at 30/30 and blue, you can: A6M5 > A6M5b > A6M5c > A6M8 all in same day. <<<<<<<<<<<<

Skipping through the R&D chain is frowned upon by many players, myself included. I would recommend you check with your opponent before you follow this path.

As for the Zero line I wouldn't research past the 5c as the 8 will get you no further. Others here wouldn't even go that far with the Zero line.

I will say this, research: Sam, George, Frank, as these will be your main mid to end game fighters. There are some other late war fighters you may want, but it'll be difficult to get these in sufficient numbers to make too much of an impact. Keep in mind that those aircraft are high SR planes and you'll need some SR1 planes to help out.

And like I said I could go on forever, but I've got to get outta here soon so I'll end this for now.

[Timotheus]

Thanks so much for the answers, gentlemen.

I am trying to make this into a science, an exact thing, and this is a subjective subject.

But, thanks to your answers Lowpe, Lokasenna and rustysi, I am no longer so clueless about late war situation for Japan air.

edit: "best part of the game for Japan"
Errr, [:'(]