Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: thomasharvey
I would recommend the Japanese player send scout ships to Pearl Harbor and Singapore on the first turn to spot the ships for the strikes. Then do what the Japanese did in the war in the following turns.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Chattez

If the Japanese are going to be successful, they are going to have to move harshly and quickly
before the allies rebound. The clock is always ticking for the Japanese player.

Japan can pursue a "western" strategy--invading India-- but it will require a full commitment of resources, including capital ships and carriers. But this means 1) removing the carriers from any use elsewhere in the Pacific; and 2)
placing them in a vulnerable sea without much land-based air cover, for several turns.

Alternately, the Japanese might pursue a "southern strategy", and try and cut off Australia from the US. Seizing the island bases means that allied planes cannot make the transit by air; and presents the allies with major problems in reinforcing Australia. Australia itself may then be invaded.

But again, this will require a full commitment by Japan, and will place the balance of the Imperial navy where the allies
can find it; and it will be without much land-based air cover.

But a choice must be made, and made early in the game, since the Japanese carriers cannot be risked with impunity.

A less risky, but more difficult, option, is to leave the conquest of India to ground forces alone. If Australia is taken (or at least invaded) one can assume that Japanese units there may not be able to be evacuated later (as the strengthened allied navies will then prevent that). But the allies will have to spend time liberating the area; and since Japan is playing for time, that may serve a useful purpose in itself.

Finally, if any attempt at taking Hawaii is made, this must also be done early in the game. The allies must recoil from any early confrontation with the entire Imperial fleet; and there is just a chance that a successful invasion might be made on one or more of the islands. The Imperial fleet will have to rely on its only planes for air cover (no land-based planes), but early in the game
the allies are not strong enough to penetrate this. However, this again risks the carriers, which Japan cannot afford to lose, should they fall prey to an allied attack.

Remember, the control of the Pacific rests on "ten ships"--the Japanese carriers.

As long as Japan has those carriers, its forces can go anywhere it wants, and close off the Pacific to the allies.

Once those ten ships are lost, it is the allies who can go anywhere; the Imperial Army can only buy time.

It must be the allied goal to destroy those "ten ships", and then move in on the home islands (securing
island bases for air cover as they go).

quote:

ORIGINAL: thomasharvey
When shelling a land target from sea it is extremely important to have any BB at a range of two hexes from the target. (I fudged a little on their range as the scale of the map would not really allow for that but it is close. It is important they have the extra range reflected.) That way the BB does not suffer loss. Then for the other ships I recommend using only destroyers to fire when adjacent to the target. The destroyers will take losses but you get replacements for them. The cruisers can be in the hex if there are ground troops but do not have them do direct fire. Any ship doing that gets point blank fire from every gun in the target hex. In an invasion, the BBs safely fire two hexes away, the cruisers escort ground troops but do not use direct fire and the destroyers go in with direct fire. At the end of the combat some ground troops may still be at sea escorted by the cruisers with the destroyers having loses or wiped out. Any ground troops at sea without any escort are destroyed very easily by anything the enemy fires at them so avoid that.

quote:

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
The AD is the same for both sides, so I don't think that is the source of the issue.

quote:

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
My first thought would be that the US planes are assigned missions and they are therefore intercepting when in fact they should be in church or sleeping off a hangover. If they have missions assigned, try unassigning them and see what happens.

quote:

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
And as Tom said, attack the BB's only with your Torpedo and Divebombers.