Local Yokel
Posts: 1494
Joined: 2/4/2007 From: Somerset, U.K. Status: offline
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I think the concensus that Japan has more merchant shipping than it needs at the start is right. This means that you can switch off some merchant shipyards so as to save HI - but you don't want to switch them all off unless you decide to stop construction of all merchant ships, including CVE's (unlikely). My production strategy is to shut down some merchant yards, and to halt construction of selected merchantmen: in particular the small AK's. Because bigger capacity ships shift more cargo for the same outlay in fuel, the small AK's are less efficient, so I don't want to waste valuable shipbuilding points producing 'em. Having stopped some construction and some yards, I then watch what's happening to my accumulated merchant shipbuilding points. If these are reducing, merchant construction is absorbing more shipbuilding points than I'm producing in the merchant yards. I then have a choice: either I continue to spend my reserve of accumulated shipbuilding points or I try to balance ship construction with production of shipbuilding points. I do that either by halting construction of more merchantmen, or by re-starting some halted merchant yards. This isn't an exact science because each merchant yard is either switched off or in full production. However, with a bit of careful tweaking I've ended up building only the merchantmen I want with no drain on the stockpile of merchant shipbuilding points. Later I may want to build a bigger reserve of such points by switching all yards back on, but for now (1942, Q1) my production priorities lie elsewhere. FWIW, my 2p.
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