Many Newbie Questions

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Chernobyl -> Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 4:39:42 AM)
Alright so I finally bought the game after years of lurking, watching WITPAE youtube videos and reading AAR. I've never played more than a few turns but I know the difference between Kavieng and Kota Baru. Unfortunately there are several (many) topics I don't understand yet and these are preventing me from starting a game. I intend to play as Japan against the AI. Feel free to answer any/all and/or direct me to good sources of information! 1: 1.7.11.24 is the version I have. Is this the latest version? I get an error if I try to update. 2: Industry / Aero Engine Research I have no idea how to efficiently rearrange the number of engines I am producing and "researching" at the start of the game. I think the more advanced (future) engines I produce, the faster those engines become available, or something. Or maybe that's only for airframes? And if that's true, I also have no idea how many engines to produce to research efficiently. Is there a formula or curve for this? I don't want to allocate too many or too few HI. Also what is the main downside of simply expanding a lot of HI at the start of the game? 3: Manpower / Pilots / Training I am under the impression that manpower is used for two things: industry expansion and pilot training. Does that mean that if I expand HI, that I will have fewer trained pilots permanently? Also, pilot training missions seem complex. Is there a general rule for what skills are most critical to train, and what training levels are good/optimal? I gather that you want to have an air HQ and lots of obsolete aircraft flying training at a certain altitude with a certain % of the pilots resting. Any suggestions for extra units to send to Manchuria for training purposes? 4: Optimal altitude for missions I have a general idea of what altitude to fly for various missions, but I have no idea what altitudes are absolutely optimal. Is there any difference at all between dive-bombing from 10000 and 11000 feet? Will bombing from 1-3K result in more hits than bombing at 5-6K? I know that higher altitude is better for fighter sweeps (and many games ban flying over 20K until 1944 or whatever). Why not just always sweep at max altitude? I know that flying at very low altitude increases vulnerability to AAA. I'm unclear if flying lower really results in more bomb damage and/or if there is an 'optimal' altitude for certain missions, assuming 'average' AAA resistance. 5: Convoys In PvP games do players typically use auto convoy, manually control every convoy, or a mix (e.g. only manually control the most important convoys)? 6: "Fortress Palembang" Do Allied players still do this? This seemed like a killer strategy at least back in the day and I'm not sure how to beat an Allied player who simply stacks this hex. 7: India I don't see many AAR where the JP player seriously attacks India. Is there a good example of this? They seem to love going for the Aleutians and North/West Australia. I have no idea why the Japanese player would target these locations. Calcutta seems like a juicy target with 500 HI. 8: China What is the general strategy for conquering China? 9: Pearl Harbor Second Strike / Pearl Harbor Exodus When testing, I placed the Lexington inside PH on turn 1. As the Allied player, I placed it in a task force and told it to leave the harbor. When the KB strike arrived at PH, the Lexington was at sea. This was with the "Dec 7 surprise" setting turned ON. Is this working as intended? It seems that the allied player can simply move his ships out of PH on turn 1 to avoid the strike (or even attack the KB). Also, is it generally considered advantageous for Japan to strike again on 8 Dec or after? It seems to me like there is potential to finish off a lot of heavily damaged BB. Finally, I notice a lot of my J aircraft are dying to flak on 7 Dec, especially the ones that attack airfields. What altitude do you suggest for airfield attack? 10: Good Sub locations Where are the best areas for J subs to go in order to sink convoys? I really have no clue. 11: Leader skills Apparently aggressiveness is extremely important. I get the impression that squadron commanders want high AIR skill, but I might be wrong about this for bombers. Do they need high NAV or LND for attacking sea/ground targets? 12: Ship sprites Is there an easy way to edit the BMP ship picture files for a non-artist? I want to include the BBs Kii and Owari and for now I am forced to use the Nagato picture. 13: Facilities Expand at Start What is the cost of expanding? Is there any? Do people use this option or do they manually expand only the things they need?

Yaab -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 6:39:10 AM)
ad 7. No, it is not. You have to conquer and control the surrounding bases (Asansol, Jamshedpur, Sambalpur)to maintain a steady supply of Resources for Calcutta's LI. Otherwise, you are just the king of Calcutta's slums, nothing more.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 7:55:17 AM)
10. Play the other side, sending convoys from where they would begin to their terminus and note the route. Of course there are ways for your opponent to avoid those obvious routes. And you are not going to sink any convoys unless it's with surface ships. You'll be lucky to get torpedo hits on one or two ships.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 7:57:44 AM)
2. Once you have 500 of a particular engine in inventory you get a big boost for any airframe you are researching that uses that engine.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:04:53 AM)
3. Don't expand HI, you have plenty and need no other reason not to. Also don't expand or repair refineries. You will have all you ever need. Expand LI (a little at a time) in resource rich areas like Hokkaido and Manchukuo to increase output of supply without shipping as much in resources to Kyushu and Honshu.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:17:09 AM)
4. If you're sweeping and you fly more than 5k above the enemy, you won't see them unless they have radar and come up to play. I sometimes sweep at a lower altitude than I think his CAP is at to increase the odds of a fight, even though I cede a small advantage doing that. You keep your advantage of having more planes in the air than he has and attrition is a good thing when you are sweeping. One drawback is that he is more likely to retrieve downed pilots than you are. I dive bomb from 10k generally. As long as you are high enough you will dive rather than glide bomb. Don't play games with how high his CAP is, he can change that or otherwise defeat your well laid out stratagems. Bombing at lower altitude will get more hits on the target and more hits on your planes by his flak. What sort of flak he has at the target is the ruler of how high my bombers drop their loads. The value of the target is key. If you're trying to sink a CV greater risks may be worth taking. If you are bombing ground targets, guess what, the ground will still be there after you bomb it but your planes might be part of the landscape.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:19:03 AM)
5. I have never used auto convoy or learned how to. Auto anything is against my religion.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:19:46 AM)
6. Get there firstest with the mostest.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:20:58 AM)
7. India has nothing you want. Look east and you'll see the enemy and there sure will be a lot of him.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:22:10 AM)
8. Beat the crap out of him. That's always been my strategy and it works every time.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:23:33 AM)
9. The Japanese lost the war on Dec. 7. Come up with a better plan.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:34:50 AM)
10. Here is a page (one of many) of sub logs I keep. I note the date, location, what ships were observed and what heading they were on and use that as my guide. If you are playing against the AI keep a log, it will serve you well in the future. Opponents will use tricks to not be predictable, you just have to do your best at catching them. You have subs with float planes, use them. When they make a port call make sure that they have at least two trained aircrews, not the one they start out with. Generally a lot of convoys will pass to the SE of the big island, start there. There will be in time a lot of activity around Christmas Island. Snoop around on the E to W track to Sydney and don't ignore the approaches to Auckland. [image]local://upfiles/37002/D008FF3D3F1C4C92A54AB75C0C62BCB4.jpg[/image]

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:35:30 AM)
Yes, and keep in your log radio contacts as well. Oh, and that 2/19/41 date is obviously wrong, it was 2/19/42.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:41:31 AM)
11. Aggressiveness is important but be careful. You don't need it for training squadrons or LCU garrisons. Match the character traits to the job you wished performed. Sub commanders should always be aggressive above all other things, but apart from that you have to consider the risks/benefits. No, your commander does not need to be proficient at doing his target's job. Do not put Vice Admirals with high Nav skills in charge of torpedo plane squadrons.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:46:07 AM)
12. I prefer fairies over sprites.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:50:15 AM)
13. Do what you need to, don't do what you don't need to. The Axis player has limited resources, so before you increase something, figure out what you are going to decrease. I wish our US congressmen could somehow understand that. Que sera sera.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 8:54:24 AM)
Back to 10. Don't forget you have AMCs with float planes. They have 5 and 6" guns on them. They can sink convoys. You also have AMCs that lack float planes. Send them along for the ride.

Theages -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 9:04:34 AM)
ad 3. Pilot training: Generally set Training to 100% and Range 0 Fighter pilots should mainly be training Escort or Sweep to increase AIR and DEFENSE at altitudes of 6k to 10k (just not too high or too low). When they reach 70 in AIR and DEFENSE is still under 70, then I use training in Ground Attack at altitude 100ft. Land Bombers should train in Airfield/Ground/Port to increase Ground attack. Bombers for naval missions (Dive Bombers, Torpedo Bombers, Nells, Bettys) should use Naval Attack as training mission. With TB you have to switch between Bomb and Torpedo load to train the relevant skills. Also you have to train them in Naval Search, else they won't find the enemy ships. If you want to do Port attacks / Airfield attacks, you also have to train them in these categories. At the beginning of the game you will problably have to prioritize naval + search due to pilot losses and the time needed to create a unit that can do everything. With Army Bombers - besides training in Ground attack - I also train them in Search and ASW to use them in this role. Training can be done at every base. Best are really large bases (eg Tokyo) with enough of Air support crews. One can also use the float planes for training. Float plane groups could also be increased in size (if they don't have a set date to "self-adjust" size) to make them more efficient (done by transferring them to an CS after the groups on the CS have been flown to a land base and then adjusting the size of the group to fit the size of the CS. Beware not to overextend this, because you still need to produce the planes, which is a drain on the economy)

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 9:20:45 AM)
Addendum to Theages: As the IJA I use about half of my transport fleet to do "General Training". When they get to Defense skill of 50 I graduate them and send them to train in a fighter squadron. That way I don't have to do step b.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 9:23:34 AM)
Second addendum to Theages: You don't need to have a full complement of aircraft for a squadron to train efficiently. My rule is 1/3 complement but less seems to work well. Do not for G sakes build any planes to go into training squadrons. You already from the get go have too many.

Yaab -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 9:29:09 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: geofflambert 8. Beat the crap out of him. That's always been my strategy and it works every time. Japanese regts/divs have a tremendous advantage in artillery firepower over the Chinese. Use it. Once you destroy the initial pool of guns in the Chinese units, the KMT army will be left with just infantry squads. Roll them all the way back to Chungking for the final mega-siege.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 9:32:44 AM)
Third addendum to Theages: You can use Jakes to train in Sweep. Keep that a secret.

geofflambert -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 9:41:58 AM)
Bonus advice: Rufes and Rexes are primarily for shooting down search planes. Locate them in areas the enemy wants to search but without the AV you will send with them you have insufficient support for land based fighters. One thing that's always befuddled me is while the US was building a gajillion of everything else they never came close to building enough PBYs. As a result as the Allied player I was mainly using B-17s to do naval search until they were relieved by B-24s.

Zorch -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 11:29:03 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: geofflambert 6. Get there firstest with the mostest. Rule #6: There is no rule 6. Rule #6.5: Don't listen to anything the Gorn says, until he posts on his AAR.

BBfanboy -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 3:54:46 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: geofflambert 4. If you're sweeping and you fly more than 5k above the enemy, you won't see them unless they have radar and come up to play. I sometimes sweep at a lower altitude than I think his CAP is at to increase the odds of a fight, even though I cede a small advantage doing that. You keep your advantage of having more planes in the air than he has and attrition is a good thing when you are sweeping. One drawback is that he is more likely to retrieve downed pilots than you are. I dive bomb from 10k generally. As long as you are high enough you will dive rather than glide bomb. Don't play games with how high his CAP is, he can change that or otherwise defeat your well laid out stratagems. Bombing at lower altitude will get more hits on the target and more hits on your planes by his flak. What sort of flak he has at the target is the ruler of how high my bombers drop their loads. The value of the target is key. If you're trying to sink a CV greater risks may be worth taking. If you are bombing ground targets, guess what, the ground will still be there after you bomb it but your planes might be part of the landscape. Glide bombing has been done away with but the manual does not reflect that. A couple of official patches ago the air bombing model was changed to lower the split between High Level bombing and Low Level bombing from 6000/5000 feet to 2000/1000 feet. IE, anything above 1999 feet is high level bombing, except for dive bombing between 10K and 15K feet (might be another DB band between 20K and 25K - I never use it). So Glide bombing is no longer in the model. Because the DB model has the aircraft levelling out at ~ 2000 feet after dropping the bomb they are vulnerable to light AA. If bombing land targets I just set the DB to level bomb at 7K feet to 9K feet to be above balloons (which go up to 6K) and light AA. They suck at GrdB at first but after some training and combat experience they can hit ground targets fairly well - and DB usually have bigger bombs than level bombers.

BBfanboy -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 4:06:50 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: geofflambert 5. I have never used auto convoy or learned how to. Auto anything is against my religion. Auto-convoy will screw you up by taking ships from port that you do not want it to take - like your best escort DDs which you have waiting for a carrier that is under repair. There is another kind of convoy called Continuous Supply (CS) that you can set up and it will operate without much monitoring by you. Set it up by: 1. form the TF and put it in the base you want to haul from. 2. set it to load whatever you want to haul (supply, fuel, resources). 3. give it the destination you want to unload at. You can also set waypoints for routing and refuelling at this step. 4. check that the best ship commander is the TF commander. If not, send his ship out of the TF and then bring it back in. If his ship is big enough he should take over the TF. 5. Click on the "Player control" text in the TF screen twice to change it to CS convoy. It will now load what you ordered, go to destination and unload and return. 6. If desired, go back into the routing screen for the TF and change the routing mode. I always use Direct routing and creating a CS changes that, so I change it back with this step. 7. Every week or two check to see if your TF ships have any accumulated damage worthy of repair. A point or two of system damage is no problem but engineering damage can slow down your TF so you might want to swap that ship for another of the same type or just remove it for repair.

Uncivil Engineer -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 5:18:58 PM)
Here's my 2 cents - quote: ORIGINAL: Liebestod Alright so I finally bought the game after years of lurking, watching WITPAE youtube videos and reading AAR. I've never played more than a few turns but I know the difference between Kavieng and Kota Baru. Unfortunately there are several (many) topics I don't understand yet and these are preventing me from starting a game. I intend to play as Japan against the AI. Feel free to answer any/all and/or direct me to good sources of information! 1: 1.7.11.24 is the version I have. Is this the latest version? I get an error if I try to update. 2: Industry / Aero Engine Research I have no idea how to efficiently rearrange the number of engines I am producing and "researching" at the start of the game. I think the more advanced (future) engines I produce, the faster those engines become available, or something. Or maybe that's only for airframes? And if that's true, I also have no idea how many engines to produce to research efficiently. Is there a formula or curve for this? I don't want to allocate too many or too few HI. Also what is the main downside of simply expanding a lot of HI at the start of the game? Since it costs HI to expand HI, you need to be careful; I generally expand HI in the Home Islands and China, being careful to only expand in Chinese ports (as you may need to be able to get fuel there, since China does not produce enough.) I limit myself to 10 locations at a time, expanding in increments of 10. My target is to accumulate 1 million HI (in the bank) during 1942, which means you need to make 2740 more HI than you spend each day. I also don't expand HI on Hokkaido, as no fuel is produced there, and all those transports carrying resource back to Honshu use a lot of fuel, too. 3: Manpower / Pilots / Training I am under the impression that manpower is used for two things: industry expansion and pilot training. Does that mean that if I expand HI, that I will have fewer trained pilots permanently? Also, pilot training missions seem complex. Is there a general rule for what skills are most critical to train, and what training levels are good/optimal? I gather that you want to have an air HQ and lots of obsolete aircraft flying training at a certain altitude with a certain % of the pilots resting. Any suggestions for extra units to send to Manchuria for training purposes? Everything in Manchukuo should be training. Some recon and bombers can fly out of Port Arthur early in the game, but the front will quickly be too distant. No need to send more aircraft to Manchukuo. Train at 100%, 0 range, altitude appropriate for mission. Train all missions, including ASW. Monthly, check these units for good pilots, and move them to reserve or active units, and start new replacements training. 4: Optimal altitude for missions I have a general idea of what altitude to fly for various missions, but I have no idea what altitudes are absolutely optimal. Is there any difference at all between dive-bombing from 10000 and 11000 feet? Will bombing from 1-3K result in more hits than bombing at 5-6K? I know that higher altitude is better for fighter sweeps (and many games ban flying over 20K until 1944 or whatever). Why not just always sweep at max altitude? I know that flying at very low altitude increases vulnerability to AAA. I'm unclear if flying lower really results in more bomb damage and/or if there is an 'optimal' altitude for certain missions, assuming 'average' AAA resistance. There is no "optimal" altitude; it's a trade off between effectiveness and loss due to enemy action (like AA). If AA is minimal, blast away at lower altitudes. If AA is significant (Singapore/Manila) stay above 10k. In China I bomb at 6k, both airfields and troops. 5: Convoys In PvP games do players typically use auto convoy, manually control every convoy, or a mix (e.g. only manually control the most important convoys)? I NEVER use auto convoy, but you can set up routine convoys to continually run between 2 ports, especially between Hokkaido/Sakhalin and Honshu, and between Korea and Japan. Early in the game there is so much resource accumulated on Hokkaido that you'll want to get it to Honshu as soon as possible. Hakodate and Sapporo can load resource convoys fairly quickly; I've sized my CS convoys to enable them to completely load in 2 days using Aden class cargo ships (you start with ~200 of these.) 6: "Fortress Palembang" Do Allied players still do this? This seemed like a killer strategy at least back in the day and I'm not sure how to beat an Allied player who simply stacks this hex. As the Gorn and Bedford Forrest said, get there first. The 4th and 33rd Divisions start in Japan; one or both of them should get there (with support) as early as possible. Their amphib TF's will need to be escorted by surface ships with air cover (either CV or from Singkawang). If you wait until after you've captured Singapore, you may be too late (if your opponent has opted to use this tactic). 7: India I don't see many AAR where the JP player seriously attacks India. Is there a good example of this? They seem to love going for the Aleutians and North/West Australia. I have no idea why the Japanese player would target these locations. Calcutta seems like a juicy target with 500 HI. India is very well defended; NW Australia is not. There is easy resource pickings in NW Australia, but you don't really need resource. SW Australia (Perth area) is also tempting. Oh, and those 500 HI at Calcutta will be damaged if you're able to capture it. 8: China What is the general strategy for conquering China? 9: Pearl Harbor Second Strike / Pearl Harbor Exodus When testing, I placed the Lexington inside PH on turn 1. As the Allied player, I placed it in a task force and told it to leave the harbor. When the KB strike arrived at PH, the Lexington was at sea. This was with the "Dec 7 surprise" setting turned ON. Is this working as intended? It seems that the allied player can simply move his ships out of PH on turn 1 to avoid the strike (or even attack the KB). Also, is it generally considered advantageous for Japan to strike again on 8 Dec or after? It seems to me like there is potential to finish off a lot of heavily damaged BB. Finally, I notice a lot of my J aircraft are dying to flak on 7 Dec, especially the ones that attack airfields. What altitude do you suggest for airfield attack? 10: Good Sub locations Where are the best areas for J subs to go in order to sink convoys? I really have no clue. 11: Leader skills Apparently aggressiveness is extremely important. I get the impression that squadron commanders want high AIR skill, but I might be wrong about this for bombers. Do they need high NAV or LND for attacking sea/ground targets? 12: Ship sprites Is there an easy way to edit the BMP ship picture files for a non-artist? I want to include the BBs Kii and Owari and for now I am forced to use the Nagato picture. 13: Facilities Expand at Start What is the cost of expanding? Is there any? Do people use this option or do they manually expand only the things they need?

Chernobyl -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 6:12:26 PM)
Many thanks for all the answers so far!

BBfanboy -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 9:20:37 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Liebestod Many thanks for all the answers so far! #11. Do not conflate the leader skill with the pilot skills. Fighter pilots need high Air skill ratings (on the squadron pilot listing) and a leader with a high Air score (70+) and high aggression score (65+). High Experience is also very helpful. Bomber pilots have to be competent but the numbers of bombs they drop make up for some of the lack of skill. So I train them to ~ 55 Exp., 65 Air and ~ 65+ Defensive skill. The latter helps with avoiding attacks and the Air skill is about nursing damaged bombers home as well as accuracy in bombing. Bombing Sqn. leaders should have high Inspiration skill (to keep the boys on target in spite of flak and fighters), Air score in the 60s and Moderate Aggressiveness 55-65. The other skills you were looking at LowNav, LowG, GrdB, NavB reflect the level of training in those missions, which can be changed by combat and training to make the pilots better at them. Leader scores are personality traits and almost never change.

BBfanboy -> RE: Many Newbie Questions (12/2/2017 9:22:19 PM)
Re: your # 12 about ship graphics, the Mods forum is where the experts at this stuff are. You should post the question there.

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