ITAKLinus -> RE: WITP: Logistician's Edition - Linus (J) vs Xenxen (A) (2/26/2021 3:34:39 PM)
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CHAPTER 3 We have approached in the last post a general view over the industry in Java and the "RESOURCES problem". The +100HI+100LI for Java is not a big deal, as we all know. Now we attack another very salient topic: China. Our friends of the China Expeditionary Army will hopefully be able to control a fair amount of the country in few months. My logic is extremely easy and simple. I do keep track of what I conquer and, once I reach a +100RES conquered, I start balancing LIs and RES, either through LI expansion or repair. Why so? Because +100RES points are what is needed in order to balance the initial deficit Japan has and, in case the northern route is not touched, I can run the economy "normally", meaning without shipments of RES from DEI, saving a lot of fuel. In this case, it's easier to ship from China than to balance through shipments from DEI. HIs will not really be touched, a part from the usual locations of Canton, HK, Shangai, etcetc. I do plan to have a meagre +500HIs in the area. It's quite a big burden in terms of fuel, but... Here is the trick. I will own Magwe for quite a long time. Magwe provides me with +2.700FUEL per-day. Considering the consumption of 2 fuel per-HI, I have that in line of principle I have space for 1.350 additional HIs around the map. The OIL present in China, for example at Langchow, is not considered. It compensates the deficit present in Manchuria. The OIL of Magwe is instead used to feed the additional HIs. Clearly, it's not that specific OIL production which will be fed into the HIs, but the availability of it, differently from a normal game, is very relevant because it gives additional room for HI expansion. So, to recap, China will reach +100RES points conquered and, at that point, it will start seeing LI repair/expansion so to match the local RES production. HIs will be expanded, gradually, all around the place in various areas. The more the LIs are spread, the better. The more the HIs are concentrated and far away from the coast, the better. Why LIs have to be spread as much as possible? That's one of the main advantages of LI expansion: if they are spread and in areas where they do not give VPs, the incentive given to the allied player in bombing them is very low. The fact they are scattered, further helps in discouraging a bombing campaign. Why HIs concentrated? Because: A) there are fewer locations with HIs per-se, so we don't have many other options; B) the FUEL transit overland makes us waste a lot of it. A very rough estimate gives me that there are 550RES points in the area SOUTH of Kiuchuan and EAST of Ankang. 236 LIs are present. In line of principle, if I do conquer everything intact, I get an enormous net of +7.460RES per-day. Clearly, I won't take these places without damage, but with even a 50% damage, I still have over 1.000RES net per-day once the LIs are repaired. So, everything lies in the level of damage the RES producing centres will have in N-E China. If we look at the area SOUTH of Changsha and its river (Changsha excluded), we have a nice amount of 519RES points and 215LIs. They give us a net of 7.155RES per-day. Capturing RES points with 50% damage, would still give us 1.975RES per-day, allowing over 130LIs to be built. There are HIs points in the area, but, being only 21, they do not matter much in the end. The big deal is Changsha area, which is both very complex to defend for the Chinese player and rich of RES. There, in only 5 bases we have a grand total of 122LIs and 243RES, with a net of 3.030RES per-day. As we have seen from this general overview, the great show is in China. It's there that the greatest concentration of RES is present and is there that we can gain terrain which will be invested only very very late in the game. Also, given the nature of the map and the VP-system, it's relatively unlikely that the allies will launch a massive strat bombing campaign in the area. Therefore, China is going to see the majority of LI/HI expansions. With an overall expenditure of little over 1.000.000SUPPLIES equally divided between HIs and LIs, I have that I will have repaid the investment in mid-44 and I will gain over 275.000ton SUPPLIES between Jul-44 and Jan-45. If we consider Jun-45, it's over half a million additional supplies. Am I able to sustain the massive expansion? Yes, definitely. Will the allies let me do it and not bomb every base in the map? Well, hard to know. Just the HI expansion would net me over 27.500 1E planes between April-42 and Jan-45. Not that I've never had problems in producing otrageous amounts of planes...
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