Japenese supply

[ndworl]

Probably a question for Mogami here, as he seems most knowledgeable about the Japanese production and logistics issues. Should (and could) the Japanese player ship supplies as well as raw materials to Japan? In my first game, we're mid 1942 and the new provinces have been self sufficient in terms of supplies for some time. (As in I can support all operations and garrisons in conquered territory from those territories, witout needing supplies from Japan.) I can foresee a time when my garrisons are fully stocked. I have some shortages in Japan, in that some production bases can't do what I want because they are at less than 10,000 supplies.

Should I then start shipping supplies to Japan?

[tocaff]

Don't hold your breathe for Mogami to respond.

No, ship oil and resources to Japan and it's industry will make the supplies.

[ndworl]

Thanks for the response Todd.
Got lots of resources and oil and the factories are all working (except Takamatsu, the bridge to which seems to have broken, so I have move in raw materials on a discretionary basis). It was more a question of the distribution of supplies within Japan. The only way I know of influencing the flow of supplies is by moving a theatre commander to a high priority spot. I tried shipping supplies to a port where I wanted more and those supplies dissapated around Japan in a couple of days. So I was thinking that maybe increasing the overall level of supplies in Japan would that reduce some of the distributional issues. But then would that expose the new territories to supply shortages in some future time (as I say they are fine for now). I was just looking for any experience in this area as a guide.

[tocaff]

Ship as much oil and resources as you can to Japan while you can. You'll be amazed at how much you will burn through,especially when nothing more is arriving.

[ndworl]

Fair point. I didn't think of the actual carrying capacity as a constraint. My merchant fleet is not yet fully extended carrying raw materials, but it's getting there. Thanks for the tip.

[engineer]

This is an interesting topic.  Tocaff has the right top level advice.  Supplies in Japan will tend to concentrate at Osaka, Tokyo, and some northen cities with lots of resources (at least in stock).  Often you may have factory expansions, e.g. Sasebo or other secondary cities, or changes in production (e.g. from Topsy to Zero's) where nothing is happening because there are only a few thousand supply points at the city and this prevents the local factories from finishing their expansions.  In those cases you can load up supplies from Osaka and dump them in the target city. Getting the total above 20k is usually sufficient.  Repeat as required until your factories have finished their expansions. 
 
Don't go nuts with changing things in the factories willy nilly since you can forfeit the game to the Allies if you run yourself out of supply in 1942.
 
If you have spare sea-lift after shipping resources and don't need the supplies at the periphery, then send the supplies home. If you have a good convoy sustem I usually have plenty of AK capacity. 
 
The other thing that happens in the late game is that the Japanese air defenses get hollowed out so even if you have plenty of reserve air frames, the various bases won't have enough supply to replace combat losses.  The only places with sufficient supply will likely be Osaka and Tokyo so you end up needing to shuttle squadrons through there to come back to strength.  And once you'er into the that pattern then there is nothing like a few hundred B-29's on an airfield raid to ruin your day by destroying 300 plans on the ground. 
  

[ndworl]

Yep, got all that to look forward to!

[turkey]

I don't think there is a bridge to Takematsu in the game. It wasn't opened until 1980's. I think you need to ship the oil and resources.

[ndworl]

I thought it was covered by the "facing ports within one hex" or something rule? Certainly supplies and other things move from Takematsu to the other islands. Just oil doesn't move the other way.