Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Rysyonok

Warning: this is a game versus Japanese AI. Maybe one day I will be skilled enough for a human opponent, but everyone has to start somewhere.

As my first venture into WitP:AE I decided to try the Ironman scenario (stock #10). Very Hard difficulty, 4-day turns, unreliable torpedoes, you name it. The key objective is not going to be to win, although that would always be nice, but more so to survive.

12/11/1941:

Japanese planes are merciless, and 64 allied ships go down the very first turn. Hong Kong falls.

USN is mostly at anchor, as KB is still circling Pearl Harbor. West Coast is bracing for a wave of submarines.

quote:

ORIGINAL: paradigmblue
Holy crap that is a painful first turn.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Rysyonok

quote:

ORIGINAL: paradigmblue
Holy crap that is a painful first turn.

You really think so? I assumed anything less than losing 4 BBs at Pearl Harbor is manageable.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

I don’t think losing the BBs is nearly as important as all those Cruisers. All I can say is ouch that's a lot of Cruisers for turn 1. Old slow BBs aren’t nearly as important as the fast and versatile Cruisers in the first year of the war. Not to mention all the AAA the Cruisers can add to task forces late war after their upgrades.

Were the BBs to survive more than likely they’d sit in port waiting until the counter-attack period begins in 1943 before they get put to good use. You could put those Cruisers to work on day two were they still afloat.

Jim

quote:

ORIGINAL: paradigmblue

quote:

ORIGINAL: Rysyonok

quote:

ORIGINAL: paradigmblue
Holy crap that is a painful first turn.

You really think so? I assumed anything less than losing 4 BBs at Pearl Harbor is manageable.

Oh, don't get me wrong. You could lose every single battleship at Pearl and it would still be manageable - as the allied player no matter your first turn losses you will have more ships than you'll know what to do with by 1944.

I was more commenting on losing Force Z plus all those cruisers, which was unfortunate. Luckily, "painful" doesn't mean "debilitating", and I didn't mean to say that losing those ships on the first turn will give you any sort of long-term disadvantage.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

You won't need those Chinese units in Burma against the Ai.

The British are perfectly capable of preventing the AI from ever getting a foothold in Burma.

It all depends on if you are playing to aggressively defeat the AI or roleplaying a more Historically handicapped Allied side.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Move the AVG to Rangoon along with at least two British fighter squadrons and you can establish the air superiority you need to be able to ship supply into Rangoon.

Eventually it will be drawn into China.

Start this one Dec 8th.

You will lose a few xAKs and xAKLs to the occasional Betty/Nell that slips through, but overall you can ship a huge amount of supply in.

I set immediately set up a 30+K supply convoy and follow it with another as soon as possible.

Shipping 60k+ a week into Rangoon adds up fast.

My current game is in Feb '43. The AI never breached the river line and I recently added another 40k+ convoy of liberty ships.

Concentrate the and reconstitute the 1st Burma Division in the river hex SE of Pegu.

Ship in 2-3 more British Brigades that start in convoys to cover and start extending the flank and the AI will be stymied and never get across the river.

Like I said, in games against the AI it all depends on how aggressive or passive you want to play.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Malagant

Great AAR so far, thanks!

As a Devil's Advocate to Han's suggestions, playing the same scenario you're playing with same settings, doing something very similar to Hans' suggestions, I had held the river line against 15th Army...
...until Singapore fell and the Japanese landed an Amphib force behind the line and crushed me. The A/I can hand out a surprise or two!

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

The Brit squadrons that start in Gerogetown can be transferred to Port Blair and then to Rangoon.

This is a quick way to supplement the AVG so you can get ahead of the first few Oscar squadrons that come calling.

I typically also send the Blenhiem fighter squadron there for night CAP as well.

I realize you are probably past this point by now.

These are mostly pointer for moves to start on December 8th.

The AI is typically slow to get started in Burma, waiting until it has conquered Malaya.

It usually only starts air raids early and getting on top of the air superiority situation fast is paramount to this strategy in Burma.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter
Concentrate the and reconstitute the 1st Burma Division in the river hex SE of Pegu.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Rysyonok
Canton island falls. As long as I still keep Pago Pago and Christmas islands, I'm ok. Otherwise we may have to discuss the northern route for the counteroffensive.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

My pleasure.

I don't have the time or facilities to play PBEM so my gaming is strictly against the AI.

I have been playing this game since it was DOS based and called Pacific War so I have a bit of experience under my belt.

A word of warning, tread cautiously on how agressive you want to be early on with the AI.

It is very easy to "break" the AI and end up with a game so lopsided in your favor that it becomes hardly worth playing on into '43.

I can tell you how to completely reconquer China, recovering most of by the end of '42.

I can tell you how to evac the entire III Indian Corps and the entire Dutch army to Timor and set up a bastion that completely stymies the AI.

However, neither of those and perhaps even holding Burma is conducive to a long term game extending into and past '43.

Once you get a handle you may want to try AnyMacs IronMan and IronMan Nasty scenarios that beef up the AI.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

I disagree, only reconstitute the Indian Brigade (13th I think is its name), it is the only combat capable unit in the Burma Division right now. Send the rest of the Divisions units to sit in Rangoon on rest and allow repairs and morale to recover. You will repair far more disabled devices if you keep the division split up, if you reconstitute it’ll take months to repair it all if ever as more than likely early combats will kill a lot of those disabled devices. Only seek to reconstitute the division when you see strong Japanese forces approaching and combat appears inevitable.

Get your Cruisers out of any convoy task forces they start in ASAP. Only one or two ASW capable fast ships should ever be tied down in slow convoys. Cruisers should get to port somewhere and become part of a surface action group that can do hit and run raids against poorly defended Japanese invasions or bombard recently captured bases to smash the airfield before it gets put to use sending Betties against you.

Jim

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

You need the concentrated AV in the hex to dissuade the AI from crossing.
However, you don't need it there until the AI arrives in force to cross the river so your technique will work nicely so long as you concentrate the AV where you need it when you need it.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

I always view the loss of these locations as an opportunity in the early game. Until 1943 it’s difficult to mount any kind of a naval attack into the teeth of Japanese land based air as your carriers are only capable of closing down a single base and their CAP isn’t really large enough or good enough to defend against incoming raids from other Japanese bases in the area.

These two locations are isolated with no other local bases around to counter-attack your fleets from, so you should be looking to mount counter-invasions whenever you see KB lurking in the western areas of the map. Get in smash the base with a night bombardment or two (use fast CAs not old slow BBs) that goes in at full speed and follow that up in the day with carrier air that hits the airfield and the base should be shattered. You can then come in and land with little risk to your shipping and KB will be too far away to intervene.

The key is getting everything in position ahead of time so when the opportunity presents itself your guys are ready to go immediately and you won’t lose your chance.

Jim