Options for Japan

[EUBanana]

Again, I'm playing solitaire so my ability to learn from others is limited.

I'm playing a game right now and its late 1942. The Japanese managed to clear out central China (Wuhan and all those) but couldn't get over the mountains towards Chungking or Sian. This was mostly achieved by summer 1940, it looked like pushign a bit more was possible but not really.

Meanwhile Italy took the Suez Canal and the Commonwealth was wholly absorbed in taking it back until summer 1941. Japan declared war on the CW early 1941, took Malaya near instantly. A bad roll meant Java was not quickly taken however, and a white MOT from Australia really caused problems, though it did eventually succumb.

In this time the CW, with their ships now being repaired by the US, switched to making ground forces and India quickly became fairly busy - about 4 Indian INF, 1 Indian MECH, and a couple of South Africa INF diverted from the Suez area which is very busy with CW units.

So after taking Java it seemed like an attack on India or even Burma (which has a 2-2 INF) was a bit dicey. The South Pacific was quite easily bagged as the only units the CW had in the area was the usual Australian cruisers who just ran away.
And the US successfully declared war on them right after Java fell anyway so Japan had to deal with the Philippines.

A bad roll at Manila means this is still ongoing in summer 1942. And the US has completely roared through Japan's outer zone, they just took Iwo Jima in fact. One thing that struck me throughout this was how Japan's navy was absolutely not up to the task to even begin to stop them. There was a huge carrier battle in the Marianass fairly early (the US didn't go through the south pacific, but just went west) and the Japanese did damage but were bloodied quite badly, while the USN had plenty of reserves. I'm not really seeing that Japan can do much to stop them at this rate.

I feel like I did something horribly wrong with Japan even though things looked pretty good for them around 1940/41, and I'm not really sure what. I built a lot of transports so transport capacity is no problem but I think maybe a few too many transports! I got about 4 NAVs (a Nell, a Val, a Mavis, and a Kate) which is going to be like throwing an icecube at the Sun against the USN. What do you normally expect from Japan's navy? Do you build warships from the get go? I was trying to build aircraft for their CVs and that took enough effort, and they got swept away in the first battle. Do you have to go all in on NAVs and long range fighters to have a chance right from the start, when you're grappling with China? And how do you defend all these islands? It seems like theres too many to garrison. I probably erred in leaving Kwajalein empty so on the US declare war phase they promptly took it, but I'm pretty sure they couild've taken it easily anyway.

[EUBanana]

It's very much Japan First for the US. For starters they didn't declare war on Germany/Italy yet because they've failed.

Germany's Barbarossa was pretty dismal, they got stuck around Pskov and the Dnieper, mainly because the weather was unbelievably bad in 1941, the 'campaign season' was not even half a turn it felt like.

[Courtenay]

The weather, particularly the summer of '41, is the most important thing in the game, and the Russian front is the most important area of the game, so it looks like the Axis just got wrecked right there.

It does look like the Japanese built too many transports. They don't need many. What they do need are NAVs and FTRs. Land base air helps a lot. The Japanese Navy is about as good as the US navy until the Essex's arrive. They should be able to hold out pretty well.

If one side commits most of their fleet in a sea area, the other side should take advantage of this and destroy them everyplace else. The one exception is the two China Seas, which the Japanese need to keep their economy going, but that is what the NAVs and FTRs are for; the Japanese should be able to hold those areas (except for SUBs, of course) for quite a while.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: Courtenay
It does look like the Japanese built too many transports. They don't need many. What they do need are NAVs and FTRs. Land base air helps a lot. The Japanese Navy is about as good as the US navy until the Essex's arrive. They should be able to hold out pretty well.

Probably, I think they had about 6 and a couple of AMPHs. I certainly never lacked for transport. There was certainly a feeling that I had more transport than I had things to transport...

If one side commits most of their fleet in a sea area, the other side should take advantage of this and destroy them everyplace else. The one exception is the two China Seas, which the Japanese need to keep their economy going, but that is what the NAVs and FTRs are for; the Japanese should be able to hold those areas (except for SUBs, of course) for quite a while.

Okay... but when you say 'destroy them everywhere else', what do you mean exactly. Counterinvasions or something? Find a weaker fleet of escorts and try and wipe it out?

Like the US fleet moves in force to threaten Kwajalein and you've got an equal fleet at Truk, what do you do? I had the Japanese fleet sally forth, didn't seem to work very well (the US in a higher numbered sea slot). Leave Kwajalein alone and go invade Fiji or something? You can't really put garrisons on those lil islands as there's always a different island to hit (though some are more valuable than others I notice you don't have zero alternatives at all).

In the Med I noticed you basically got 3 zones, and if the CW loses either one then you can cause trouble as Italy, so hitting the weakest with everything you got seemed to work well so long as you have a fleet in being. But the Pacific is so much more open and the US has so many convoy points you can sort of smear them around with a lot of redundancy, so surface raids like in the Med don't seem quite so effective.

I guess SUBs are good for Japan to keep the USN spread out?

[Courtenay]

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

If one side commits most of their fleet in a sea area, the other side should take advantage of this and destroy them everyplace else. The one exception is the two China Seas, which the Japanese need to keep their economy going, but that is what the NAVs and FTRs are for; the Japanese should be able to hold those areas (except for SUBs, of course) for quite a while.

Okay... but when you say 'destroy them everywhere else', what do you mean exactly. Counterinvasions or something? Find a weaker fleet of escorts and try and wipe it out?

Like the US fleet moves in force to threaten Kwajalein and you've got an equal fleet at Truk, what do you do? I had the Japanese fleet sally forth, didn't seem to work very well (the US in a higher numbered sea slot). Leave Kwajalein alone and go invade Fiji or something? You can't really put garrisons on those lil islands as there's always a different island to hit (though some are more valuable than others I notice you don't have zero alternatives at all).

In the Med I noticed you basically got 3 zones, and if the CW loses either one then you can cause trouble as Italy, so hitting the weakest with everything you got seemed to work well so long as you have a fleet in being. But the Pacific is so much more open and the US has so many convoy points you can sort of smear them around with a lot of redundancy, so surface raids like in the Med don't seem quite so effective.

I guess SUBs are good for Japan to keep the USN spread out?

If you are playing with limited overseas supply, then the US will have to have a lot of CPs connecting the US and Australia, to supply all the bases in between. If the US doesn't escort them, then the Japanese will just eat them, so there should be escorts. If the two side's fleets are more or less at parity, if one side puts most of its fleets in one area, then the other side can split up its fleets, and go after the other side's escorts in a LOT of areas.

If one side tries to do something with a moderate size fleet, then the other side can jump it with most of its fleet. When both sides are about equal, it is very hard to do anything, because committing your fleet leaves the other side free to go everyplace else, and committing a large portion of your fleet lets the other side engage that portion with its whole fleet.

[Centuur]

And hit them where they are not, is also the case in the surprise impulse for the Japanese. When playing with the optional rule which allows SCS to carry divisions they can invade lot of empty enemy ports in that impulse for free. Make sure as many divisions as possible are available (build them). The more you have, the better it is.

Take Rabaul (which is usually empty) and the oil fields without defenders using those divisions and attack Java in force. Manilla can wait for next turn. Singapore can be dealt with overland out of Siam. Rangoon is a good attack if it's empty during the surprise impulse and you can take it with a division.

Pearl Harbor? That's not going to happen. Those old BB's are not worth to port attack. A good US player will make sure the CV's leave port the moment a Japanese carrier fleet enters an adjacent sea zone.

If you have the perimeter, simply stay put with the Japanese, except when the chance of a surprise attack occurs. Harass Allied convoy lines using fast cruisers if you can. Hit and run is what the Japanese should do.
Make sure land based air is available to protect the convoys and that's it. Usually in 1943, a stalemate occurs when both sides are equal at sea. After that, defend as good as you can.

[EUBanana]

Alright this sounds like good stuff.

I think part of my problem was that I had gimped the Japanese by not buying appropriate naval assets. I mostly bought transports and AMPHs but I guess due to the empiness of the theatre in 1941 they don't need any.

I'm going to have to start over to give Japan another go I think but I'll keep the requirement for raiding in mind when buying things. I didn't really seem to have much ability to raid sufficiently. More long range cruisers and SUBs than all thsoe transports.

[alexvand]

As Japan build Land based air, especially get the zeroes with range 13. Those can react to the three box which is a big deal. If you want a good invasion you need to put your transports of amph in the 4 box. Having land based air makes a huge difference.

You mentioned being in a lower box when you sent out your fleet. I'm always aiming for the 3 box with some LBA for my carriers if I'm going to fight.

The LBA is critical both navs and fighters. The navs require more Anti-Air to shoot down so they are always worth having in the fight just to absorb more AA and let your more deadly CVP through. Backup LBA add more to the total in air combat and that helps too.

As Japan I would only finish the existing ships. Perhaps a few more carriers (The Taiho is nice and once in a while the Shinano is fun.) Lots of CPs as you can run into real trouble if you don't. I might build one more transport. It is really nice to have a 5 move transport. Stack it with a MAR and base it in a central location and you can threaten a lot of area. I often use this more as a threat than actually invading anything!

What you really want to build is LBA.