Slitherine

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maybe for the first campaign game is better to start with the Allied side.

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ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

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ORIGINAL: BillBrown

Here is a good one by an excellent player, it is from the Japanese side.
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3101451

The latest Allied AAR for this one, also from an excellent player
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4332189

The next to last Allied AAR for this one, again an excellent player
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4067531

and the first Allied AAR, I also think this is an excellent player
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3104086

You should probably mention who they are/the titles - I'm not clicking on any just in case.

quote:

ORIGINAL: AleRonin

In the meantine that I'm playing small scenarios I'd like to read some good AARs about scenario 1 (any side) because it will be my next step.

I already checked the "Useful Info for Beginner" topic but the AAR list is quite old.

Do you have any suggestions?

As always, thanks for the support!

quote:

ORIGINAL: jdsrae

I’ve been playing vs the AI for years and found that entertaining enough, but about a year ago started to think about a PBeM scenario 1 game.
It’s such a huge investment of time that before I do that I want to make sure I’d at least pose a moderate challenge to keep the other person interested.
I feel that I have to at least be “ok” at managing every aspect of the game as even against the AI if I neglect any aspect it can teach you a lesson.
In the last year I’ve read most of those AARs and am still tracking a few. They all give information that has helped me figure out what might work and what to try and avoid.

That includes cycling through all of the following on a regular basis:
1. select and maintain a clear strategic intent, between allied nations or Inter-service if playing as Japan
2. have a clear mission in each theatre
3. keep your order of battle organised, so you get the most out of each of the units you have. Before you get into the tactical detail of giving orders to units you need to have assigned what you think are the right forces to each area on the map
4. develop and track what the enemy has where, the intelligence picture, so you can factor that into your planning cycle
5. Understand industry and production rates of fuel, supply and war machines and how they constrain your operations planning
6. Understand the map, terrain has a big impact on land combat and supply movement
7. Setup and maintain your on map pilot training force
8. The whole point of playing is to try and win, so understand the victory points ratios and consider that in your operations planning

Once you’ve got all of the above and more sorted out, your tactical play will be more effective and more of a challenge to another person.

Assign balanced joint forces to missions at the operational level including land, air and naval assets.

Land combat
1. develop an understanding of firepower strength of your units compared to the enemy, it’s more important than raw Assault Value. Eg: a Chinese infantry unit with 100 AV will be crushed in open terrain vs a Japan 100 AV mixed infantry brigade.
2. If you don’t like the land campaign in China, learn to like it. At the strategic level, Japan can use as many of China’s Resources as that means they don’t have to send ships further to get them and the Supply generated there is handy to capture too
3. Everything else written about land combat from Sun Tzu, Guderian, et al
4. Understand what HQ unit bonuses do for you, including Air HQ which provide torpedoes and also Naval HQ naval support squads (or tenders) can do for your ship rearming - this is a big one to keep your ships fighting after day 1

Air combat
1. Develop an understanding of each air mission and when it is useful
2. Review all aircraft types and develop your understanding of comparative strengths and weaknesses
3. Don’t forget about night naval search or other night flying operations
4. Try to avoid flying unescorted bombers against enemy fighters
5. Try to avoid flying naval search into heavy enemy combat air patrols

Naval combat
1. Review the capabilities of every ship type and class, they all have a role to play
2. Always assign ASW capable escorts within task forces
3. Try to keep fighter cover over your task forces in contested or enemy waters

It really is an awesome game with its level of historical detail and preparing myself to play a grand campaign pbem is my ultimate goal too.

Have fun!

quote:

ORIGINAL: jdsrae

I’ve been playing vs the AI for years and found that entertaining enough, but about a year ago started to think about a PBeM scenario 1 game.
It’s such a huge investment of time that before I do that I want to make sure I’d at least pose a moderate challenge to keep the other person interested.
I feel that I have to at least be “ok” at managing every aspect of the game as even against the AI if I neglect any aspect it can teach you a lesson.
In the last year I’ve read most of those AARs and am still tracking a few. They all give information that has helped me figure out what might work and what to try and avoid.

That includes cycling through all of the following on a regular basis:
1. select and maintain a clear strategic intent, between allied nations or Inter-service if playing as Japan
2. have a clear mission in each theatre
3. keep your order of battle organised, so you get the most out of each of the units you have. Before you get into the tactical detail of giving orders to units you need to have assigned what you think are the right forces to each area on the map
4. develop and track what the enemy has where, the intelligence picture, so you can factor that into your planning cycle
5. Understand industry and production rates of fuel, supply and war machines and how they constrain your operations planning
6. Understand the map, terrain has a big impact on land combat and supply movement
7. Setup and maintain your on map pilot training force
8. The whole point of playing is to try and win, so understand the victory points ratios and consider that in your operations planning

Once you’ve got all of the above and more sorted out, your tactical play will be more effective and more of a challenge to another person.

Assign balanced joint forces to missions at the operational level including land, air and naval assets.

Land combat
1. develop an understanding of firepower strength of your units compared to the enemy, it’s more important than raw Assault Value. Eg: a Chinese infantry unit with 100 AV will be crushed in open terrain vs a Japan 100 AV mixed infantry brigade.
2. If you don’t like the land campaign in China, learn to like it. At the strategic level, Japan can use as many of China’s Resources as that means they don’t have to send ships further to get them and the Supply generated there is handy to capture too
3. Everything else written about land combat from Sun Tzu, Guderian, et al
4. Understand what HQ unit bonuses do for you, including Air HQ which provide torpedoes and also Naval HQ naval support squads (or tenders) can do for your ship rearming - this is a big one to keep your ships fighting after day 1

Air combat
1. Develop an understanding of each air mission and when it is useful
2. Review all aircraft types and develop your understanding of comparative strengths and weaknesses
3. Don’t forget about night naval search or other night flying operations
4. Try to avoid flying unescorted bombers against enemy fighters
5. Try to avoid flying naval search into heavy enemy combat air patrols

Naval combat
1. Review the capabilities of every ship type and class, they all have a role to play
2. Always assign ASW capable escorts within task forces
3. Try to keep fighter cover over your task forces in contested or enemy waters

It really is an awesome game with its level of historical detail and preparing myself to play a grand campaign pbem is my ultimate goal too.

Have fun!

quote:

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Don't forget to learn the repair system and thus the best way to use your repair ships (including tenders) as well as naval support squads. You can move the naval support squads quickly to a small base to help with quick repairs to a damaged ship and the enemy might not notice the movement so then the port is not attacked.

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ORIGINAL: obvert

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ORIGINAL: AleRonin

In the meantine that I'm playing small scenarios I'd like to read some good AARs about scenario 1 (any side) because it will be my next step.

I already checked the "Useful Info for Beginner" topic but the AAR list is quite old.

Do you have any suggestions?

As always, thanks for the support!

I'll add my first full campaign AAR to the list since it is also Scen 1.

I would look at Mike Solli's extensively before ever dipping into this. Then check Miller's for a good quick look at how the war progresses to the finish since those guys have raced through the campaign (and Miller has shown what a top player can do to balance strong tactical and strategic play with a solid understanding of the economy required to still be fighting in the endgame).

This one though does have a lot of great input from all of the commentators listed by Alfred above (and some from himself I believe) plus others who were invaluable as I learned how to play this monster to the end. I also tried to give frequent data updates to ask for advice on R & D, resources/fuel and the economy as well as the more strategic concerns in the game. At the end there is also a lot of data to look into.

Wild Sheep Chase

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ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: jdsrae

I’ve been playing vs the AI for years and found that entertaining enough, but about a year ago started to think about a PBeM scenario 1 game.
It’s such a huge investment of time that before I do that I want to make sure I’d at least pose a moderate challenge to keep the other person interested.
I feel that I have to at least be “ok” at managing every aspect of the game as even against the AI if I neglect any aspect it can teach you a lesson.
In the last year I’ve read most of those AARs and am still tracking a few. They all give information that has helped me figure out what might work and what to try and avoid.

That includes cycling through all of the following on a regular basis:
1. select and maintain a clear strategic intent, between allied nations or Inter-service if playing as Japan
2. have a clear mission in each theatre
3. keep your order of battle organised, so you get the most out of each of the units you have. Before you get into the tactical detail of giving orders to units you need to have assigned what you think are the right forces to each area on the map
4. develop and track what the enemy has where, the intelligence picture, so you can factor that into your planning cycle
5. Understand industry and production rates of fuel, supply and war machines and how they constrain your operations planning
6. Understand the map, terrain has a big impact on land combat and supply movement
7. Setup and maintain your on map pilot training force
8. The whole point of playing is to try and win, so understand the victory points ratios and consider that in your operations planning

Once you’ve got all of the above and more sorted out, your tactical play will be more effective and more of a challenge to another person.

Assign balanced joint forces to missions at the operational level including land, air and naval assets.

Land combat
1. develop an understanding of firepower strength of your units compared to the enemy, it’s more important than raw Assault Value. Eg: a Chinese infantry unit with 100 AV will be crushed in open terrain vs a Japan 100 AV mixed infantry brigade.
2. If you don’t like the land campaign in China, learn to like it. At the strategic level, Japan can use as many of China’s Resources as that means they don’t have to send ships further to get them and the Supply generated there is handy to capture too
3. Everything else written about land combat from Sun Tzu, Guderian, et al
4. Understand what HQ unit bonuses do for you, including Air HQ which provide torpedoes and also Naval HQ naval support squads (or tenders) can do for your ship rearming - this is a big one to keep your ships fighting after day 1

Air combat
1. Develop an understanding of each air mission and when it is useful
2. Review all aircraft types and develop your understanding of comparative strengths and weaknesses
3. Don’t forget about night naval search or other night flying operations
4. Try to avoid flying unescorted bombers against enemy fighters
5. Try to avoid flying naval search into heavy enemy combat air patrols

Naval combat
1. Review the capabilities of every ship type and class, they all have a role to play
2. Always assign ASW capable escorts within task forces
3. Try to keep fighter cover over your task forces in contested or enemy waters

It really is an awesome game with its level of historical detail and preparing myself to play a grand campaign pbem is my ultimate goal too.

Have fun!

A great list, jksrae!

From a picayune tactical perspective, I would add one tidbit. As the Japanese player you have many units that are fragments of larger organic units that will be reassembled 'later'. Identify those subunits with an asterix near their name and work to co-mingle them with their other subunits in order to reassemble / transform them into larger units. Your armored divisions will be more effective as a larger conglomerate, suffer comparatively limited disruption and so forth versus the constellation of armored regiments, scout forces, engineer units, etc. that make up their subunits. They're also easier to track and assign consistent tactical goals (and prep) when they're combined units verus the fragmented smaller ones.

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ORIGINAL: AleRonin

Thanks you for your guide especially for the strategic points.

You wrote "develop/understanding" in few points, where do you have learned these informations? (AARs, topics, hard way, etc.)

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but I have a question now:
if I launch an assault, a three regiments attack outcome would be different respect a full division assault?

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As Japan you can either have lots of xAK merchants or convert most of them into something with military value like AG, AGP, AKE (but you need to watch details like which ones can rearm CA or different BB classes).