xj900uk
Posts: 1340
Joined: 3/22/2007
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Hi there,
Whenever I play as the UN against the IJN, at the start of every campaign game (17 or 19) whether the setting is on historical or very hard, the Japanese always send most of their best troops and also starting merchant shipping to invade Gili Gili. No idea why it does this, true GG is a good port, but it's a dead end if you want to do an overland invasion of Port Moresby.
More to the point, my short & medium range bombers from PM, plus my B17's & B25's from Cairns and Cooktown then have a field day knocking out the Japanese frieghters and transporters (yes, even had a B17 hit something from 1,000 feet!). This doesn't really matter much if you are playing s/19, but on s.17 the IJN will struggle to replace their lost transporters. More to the point they've also lost access to some of their best troops on the western half of the map, w hich you can then gradually pound to dust as well as upping the experience of your B17, B25 + the odd Marauder crews. Any spare surface units can also do regular bombards to relieve the boredom foraying forth from Cairns or Townsville...
I have no idea why the AI does this as it seems a pretty dumb move. Occassionally they have sent odd feints and minor army units down the Solomons slot to Lunga and Tulagi (but not very often).
Anybody else out there experienced this consistent poor opening move by the IJN when on AI?
When I have played as the IJN, for dealing with Papua New Guinea I usually send the SOuth Seas detachment to Buna fairly early on (they are pretty good soldiers, if not really numerous enough) with the Shoho in the transport group to provide air cover (have had the Shoho sunk this way by a PM bombing raid, but the troops got landed ok), and the main body of the 8th Army Troops get transported straight to Lae, along with the Kazawa and also 21st Brigade when they become available. I base a unit of Zero's at Lae to provide air cover for these incoming convoys, normally they are a fairly juicy target to the PM bomber force (+ the odd foray from the mainland) but I can usually land most of the troops without loosing more than a transporter or 2. I certainly don't fritter my resources away with a massive and pointless invasion of Gili Gili.
Not to say that GG isn't useful. But I can get away with using a couple of CL's to fast-track in a garrison unit and no more, mainly to deny the UN access. If all goes well later I can air-lift in a small engineer unit to start working on the airfield there, once that's constructed I can easily airlift in more supplies or troops. But as it's too vulnerable, the only surface ships I send there are CL or DD fast transports, plus possibly one ML to set a nasty surprise should the UN decide to send in troops.
When this is all done and I have succesfully moved my South Seas Detachment and the remainder of my 8th army, then I usually heavily reinforce the Solomons and build up the bases and fortifications - Lunga, Tulagi, Shortlands, Bouganville and finally Russell Islands, usually in that order.
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