WW2-Global

[allin1joe]

Japanese playtest

Well, my offensive has stalled. I forget the Chinese city name now(just north of Hong Kong), but it's got 1 Marine and 1 HMG that are proving to be a pain. I bomb with everything I have and I don't even damage all the troops in this city. I might need to bypass it for now.

Asia is growing nicely. A couple of cities will have Manufacturing Plants built in the next turn or two so I'll be able to start pumping out Marines in 5-7 turns. Hopefully, I'll be able to make more progress.

I am working on Universities and Banks now too. I get Sea 1940 in 8 turns, but I'm losing 210 GPT. I built up a bank of 4,000 only doing minimum research for about 10 turns, so I can afford it. I want to get my research affordable though.

As for my plan of attack, I'm going to concentrate on the mainland. I have hurt the American Navy to the point where they can only harass with Destroyers and Subs. I haven't seen any large ships in a while.

Week 50, 1939

Counter

Destroyed

Lost
2 Destroyers, 1 Aircraft Carrier (didnt realize it was sitting under a destroyer).

Week 51, 1939
I decide to stop building tanks in Tokyo. Instead, I am going to build a YamatoC (90.70.6). That will make for one heck of a flag ship.

Destroyed

American -- 3 Destroyers, 3 Subs, 2 Light Cruisers. Captured Davao.
Soviets -- 1 Sub

Lost
2 Destroyers, 1 Sub, 1 Tank

Counter

Destroyed

Lost
1 Transport (it was empty .. trying to make it back to the homeland. Destroyer caught up to it)

Soviets signed a peace treaty with axis powers.

Week 52, 1939
Destroyed

American -- 1 Destroyer, 1 Light Cruiser, 1 Sub
Communist China -- 2 Infantry
China -- 1 Marine.

Lost

Soviets sign a peace treaty with the Allies. Germany declares on the Soviets. Spain signs peace with Axis. We got dragged into the war. Hopefully, that doesn't ruin our rep.

Week 1, 1940
Destroyed
America -- 9 Destroyers
Chinese -- 2 Infantry
Communist China -- 1 Infantry

Lost
2 Destroyers, 1 Infantry

Week 2, 1940
Destroyed
British -- 1 Destroyer, 1 Fighter
American -- 4 Destroyers

Lost
1 Destroyer

Week 3, 1940
Destroyed
American -- 9 Subs, 2 Destroyers
Communist China -- 1 Infantry

Lost
1 Sub

 

[Adler17]

Rubberjello,
I know, the Italians had bad equippment mostly. In my game they are not very successful. They razed 2 cities but were losing several of them in Lybia and one in Ethiopia. Japan lost the Kurile islands and Sachalin to the Russians but took more cities in the Pacific and China. Although the big breakthrough didn´t happen. Nevertheless they have by far more better equipment. In the war with the Soviets, historically accurate, there were no big fightings with each other. As well as the Japanese concentrate on China and the Pacific, the Soviets concentrate on me. But due to the fact they were at war with the allies, they had no reserves to counter my offensive. I was hitting them at a time when they were very vulnerable indeed.
So Japan is a good task, but I doubt it is more difficult than Italy.

Adler

 

[Adler17]

Rocoteh,
What are your ideas about coastal subs?

Adler

 

[Rocoteh]

Rocoteh,
What are your ideas about coastal subs?

Adler

Adler,

Current stats are: Attack 16 Defense 4 Move 3, Shield Cost 25.

I am not sure it will be possible to include the revision in version 1.4
though, since all Order of Battles have to be reworked.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Week 49, 1940 - Germany v1.3 - Sid

After four weeks of heavy fighting in Russia, we call a halt to the hostilities for the time being since the Russians seem to be fast-popping marine units faster than we are building panzer divisions. We took up to the Leningrad - Novgorod - Minsk - Kiev - Odessa line so we gave the Soviets a good punch in the gut. That will allow us to turn back to the west and south to deal with the British Isles and Mediterreanan theatres. We've decided to clear out the Med before landing in North Africa. We're preparing a transport and marines to take Corsica and developing a few transports in the north to land some strong defensive units near London to form up our beachhead.

Thanks to our help, the Italians now control the Med and have actually pushed out to the Atlantic. Britain and America have been strangely quiet.

In the far east, Japan has crushed most of the Chinas but took no Russian cities as usual.

KristiB,

Thank you for the report.

I intend to correct the problem with Soviet Marines in 1.4.

The solution will be a price increase to 600 shields. This should make
even AI to abstain from mass-production.

Leningrad - Novgorod - Minsk - Kiev - Odessa line is a good position
for a resumed offensive.

"In the far east, Japan has crushed most of the Chinas" KristiB

That is really a surprise! How many Chinese have they managed to occupy?

Welcome back

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

allin1joe,

Thank you for the report.

Shifting production to Yamato seems to be a good idea.
Going for the mainland should be good with US navy neutralised.

So far I do not think there have been any Japan-playtest
where the US West-coast have been invaded.

Welcome back.

Rocoteh

More comments later.

 

[Rocoteh]

Sasebo,

"Week 24- I take the Dutch city SW of Borneo via Airborne assault w/naval support." Sasebo

A typical example of what AI not is capable to do.

"The UK sails THREE task forces with TR,2 with BB escorts right next to Borneo! Oh lord." Sasebo

That was a surprise!

"I am really stretched thin all over;Japan is really hard to play" Sasebo

I think that is realistic though.

"China and C.China as well are very active with Marines." Sasebo

As mentioned earlier I think that problem will disappear in version 1.4.

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[KristiB]

As of week 9, 1940 the Japanese have taken Sian, Yenan, Chunking, Wuhan, Foochow, Kunming, Chengtu, and Batang.

As the Germans, we invaded the British Isle almost unopposed which seems to be a common theme in many playtests. I was thinking of a possible solution you could implement. Maybe place unloadable armor units in a few of the cities at the start of the scenario. That way the AI won't load them up and ship them off somewhere stupid and the Isle will be better defended against attack...

Also, I think something should be done to pump up Turkey's starting defenses. I virtually walked right through the entire country. It might not be completely historical, but for the sake of balance it oughta be a tough nut to crack. As incredibly productive as that land is potentially, it oughta cost some blood to take IMO.

Somethings to think about...

 

[LBPB]

Japanese Playtest Week 3 1940

My 2 main goals a partially complete...

1) On securing resources:
- Total success in China. I've captured all the needed resource in China heartland (Alluminum, Oil & Rubber).
- Partial success in malaysia. I've captured Borneo, Sumatra to get their resources, but I've got no more land units to capture the defenceless cities of Java !!! In my way I've captured the Philipines and some small islands.

2) On preventing other fronts dangers
- Excellents relationship with Russia, then no probs here
- Against Americans, I've send an half of my fleet to hit them in Hawaii. Compltete success ! A major naval battle happened here, and 4 americans carriers have been sunk as well as numerousbattle ships, destroyer & submarines. I lost practicaly nothing (only minor ships and 1 battleship) but I'm seriously damaged. Once the seas near Hawaii had been cleared from enemy ships, I bombed the City to the groud ! No more defenders are alive and the city downsized to level 1, but I've no landing barge here

Some negatives points of my tactic :
- Canton & Hon Kong are simply untakable ! I bombed them with 14 bombers, numerous battleships for at least 8 turns, are there are still defenders in !!!
- An american fleet made of 6 battleships and 16 destroyers appeared north of the japanese island adn they begun landing troops !!! I'm wondering from where they are coming from...


Some pb with the scenario :
- Communist China continu to attack me with Tanks !!! That's inacurate and I'm having great diffulties to counter them...
- There's a pb with the land units stats. British are way too powerfull and the american even more !!! I agree that the Japanese army was not this good and well equiped, but I'm practicaly on the same level than Communist China
- Not tlaking of the Chinese front, the Japanese don't start with enought troops to capture all the pacific island they historicaly occupied How I'm I suppose to achieve these conquests ???
- I think the USA are starting with too much troops available they shouldn't start with any land units in the pacific ocean... Why not only give them some of your special 'forteress troops' in their cities ??? It's truly inacurate that they pump out units already in the begining the war...
- I saw a pack of 7 Italian submarines in the pacific ocean...
- I hope your japanese new units addition in the next update will be valuble (artillery, armored cars...)

 

[Rocoteh]

As of week 9, 1940 the Japanese have taken Sian, Yenan, Chunking, Wuhan, Foochow, Kunming, Chengtu, and Batang.

As the Germans, we invaded the British Isle almost unopposed which seems to be a common theme in many playtests. I was thinking of a possible solution you could implement. Maybe place unloadable armor units in a few of the cities at the start of the scenario. That way the AI won't load them up and ship them off somewhere stupid and the Isle will be better defended against attack...

Also, I think something should be done to pump up Turkey's starting defenses. I virtually walked right through the entire country. It might not be completely historical, but for the sake of balance it oughta be a tough nut to crack. As incredibly productive as that land is potentially, it oughta cost some blood to take IMO.

Somethings to think about...

Thank you for the report.

The rapid Japanese expansion is nearly a sensation. You are playing
on Sid-level. Maybe that is the reason.

On the British Isles:

Given Germany had invaded Britain their losses had probably been
very high due to the lack of air-superiority.

However, if German forces had managed to establish a beachhead
in Britain I think they had occupied the British Isles within 8-10 weeks.

The reason is that the British Army was small, far from the size of
armies of other major powers.

I intend to make British defence much stronger in 1.4.
Invading Britain seems to be to easy now.

On Turkey: I agree. it should be harder to occupy it.
I will probably add static units.

Welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

LBPB,

Thank you for the report.

"1) On securing resources:
- Total success in China. I've captured all the needed resource in China heartland (Alluminum, Oil & Rubber).
- Partial success in malaysia. I've captured Borneo, Sumatra to get their resources, but I've got no more land units to capture the defenceless cities of Java !!! In my way I've captured the Philipines and some small islands."
LBPB

If i played Japan I would also use this strategy. Securing resources
early is a must for Japan.

"2) On preventing other fronts dangers
- Excellents relationship with Russia, then no probs here
- Against Americans, I've send an half of my fleet to hit them in Hawaii. Compltete success ! A major naval battle happened here, and 4 americans carriers have been sunk as well as numerousbattle ships, destroyer & submarines. I lost practicaly nothing (only minor ships and 1 battleship)"
LBPB

To knock out US Carriers early should be an very important
goal for Japan.

"- An american fleet made of 6 battleships and 16 destroyers appeared north of the japanese island adn they begun landing troops !!! I'm wondering from where they are coming from... " LBPB

You will probably be able to repulse them without great problems.

"- Communist China continu to attack me with Tanks !!! That's inacurate and I'm having great diffulties to counter them..." LBPB

I will change this in version 1.4.

"- There's a pb with the land units stats. British are way too powerfull and the american even more !!! I agree that the Japanese army was not this good and well equiped, but I'm practicaly on the same level than Communist China" LBPB

OK, I will look it over.

"- Not tlaking of the Chinese front, the Japanese don't start with enought troops to capture all the pacific island they historicaly occupied How I'm I suppose to achieve these conquests ???" LBPB


Japan never had any large number of divisions in China. I will look over
their Order of Battle with regard to play-balance though.

"- I think the USA are starting with too much troops available they shouldn't start with any land units in the pacific ocean... Why not only give them some of your special 'forteress troops' in their cities ??? It's truly inacurate that they pump out units already in the begining the war..." LBPB

Before I release verion 1.4, I will take a new look at the US OOB.

"-I saw a pack of 7 Italian submarines in the pacific ocean..." LBPB

AI!

"- I hope your japanese new units addition in the next update will be valuble (artillery, armored cars...)" LBPB

The graphic expansion will include several Japanese units.

Welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[LBPB]

"- An american fleet made of 6 battleships and 16 destroyers appeared north of the japanese island adn they begun landing troops !!! I'm wondering from where they are coming from... " LBPB

You will probably be able to repulse them without great problems.

This will not be so easy...
they land with marines with attack 20 !!! And my units have only 12 in defense (I'm building now some 14 points defense units, but that's the best I can have with now all resources availables...)

They're crushing my troops !
And have already taked 2 of my mother cities...

A weird thing is that they land a Cavalry unit What's that unit doing here ??? It had 6 in attack, and had successfuly killed two of my veterans defenders (12 points in defenses and FULL life) and taked a city !!!
...

I'm right now bombing them with everything I have (so bombing my own motherland cities !), appox 20 bombers (16 in attack), And they have practicaly none unit even wounded .
Nevertheless my southern fleet is rushing north to attack the americans ships near Japanese coasts. I should kill them with hight casualties, but it should work...

 

[allin1joe]

This will not be so easy...
they land with marines with attack 20 !!! And my units have only 12 in defense (I'm building now some 14 points defense units, but that's the best I can have with now all resources availables...)

They're crushing my troops !
And have already taked 2 of my mother cities...

A weird thing is that they land a Cavalry unit What's that unit doing here ??? It had 6 in attack, and had successfuly killed two of my veterans defenders (12 points in defenses and FULL life) and taked a city !!!
...

I'm right now bombing them with everything I have (so bombing my own motherland cities !), appox 20 bombers (16 in attack), And they have practicaly none unit even wounded .
Nevertheless my southern fleet is rushing north to attack the americans ships near Japanese coasts. I should kill them with hight casualties, but it should work...

I've played as American and am playing now as Japan. It's interesting to see that they protected their transport(s) with Battleships. I haven't seen them do that in my game (they protected their transport with 4 destroyers so I sunk it easily before it reached my islands). I believe Rocoteh stated he will lower the starting American Marine stats and make the current Marines an upgrade in the technology tree later on. They only start with 2, and are VERY expensive to build, so the starting # is fine. There are no Marines in the Phillipines. Just a couple of infantry, but they are still tough nuts to crack. In my playtests, I wasn't able to start building Marines in earnest until mid-1940.

America starts with one cavalry unit (why I don't know). As for it beating your infantry, that was just bad RNG (random number generator) luck for you. There is nothing he can do about that.

Canton is a tough one. I am stuck there now. My bombing runs have destroyed the Barracks(and just about every other building there) and have lowered the pop to 7, so I'm making progress on their garrison. Since they won't be able to completely heal each turn anymore, I figure it'll be 2-3 weeks before I am able to take it. I am already shelling Hong Kong with 2 Battleships and 3 Heavy Cruisers in an attempt to soften them up for when I am done with Canton. Once I am able to produce some Marines, I should be able to move easier.

 

[KristiB]

Germany - v1.3 - Sid

Week 11, 1940 -

After the quick capture of the British Isle, we turn our attention back to the east and strike out east. We take Sevastpol, Kursk, and Kharkov and wait for the Soviet response... and it comes in spades. They invade our lands with 8 T34s, 25 Marines, 25 infantry and a handful of smaller tank divisions. We timed the invasion for a turn we recieved 5 panzerIIIe's so we'll see if we can handle them. Also I attacked that turn because there was a large contingent of Italian marines running around Grozny so they'll hopefully help take the heat off. We're getting the full attention of the Soviets this time as the Allies made peace with them awhile back.

Japan has taken Lhasa but after I took Damascus I noticed the English sending many Marine units towards the far east theatre so they'll have their hands full in a few turns. In Africa, the Italians have held onto their eastern territory area but have lost all other cities in the northern part.

 

[allin1joe]

Rocoteh .. I doubt I can invade America anytime soon. I would need 2-3 transports filled with Marines, along with 1-2 transports of artillery and probably a couple of Aircraft Carriers with carrier based bombers to pull it off. I just don't have those numbers to spare right now. Asia is taking 95% of my attention with the other 5% going to the Pacific Islands. I do plan on drafting up a couple of infantry to go after Midway and Hawaii(once the Yamato is built), but that is probably as far as I'll go. I would like to take Indonesia and Australia before I go after America. I was also toying around with the idea of landing in South America before worrying about America so I can have a base to build up from. I don't see that happening until 1942-1943 though. It might be stupid to wait and allow America time to build up, but I don't see any other choice.

 

[Rocoteh]

This will not be so easy...
they land with marines with attack 20 !!! And my units have only 12 in defense (I'm building now some 14 points defense units, but that's the best I can have with now all resources availables...)

They're crushing my troops !
And have already taked 2 of my mother cities...

A weird thing is that they land a Cavalry unit What's that unit doing here ??? It had 6 in attack, and had successfuly killed two of my veterans defenders (12 points in defenses and FULL life) and taked a city !!!
...

I'm right now bombing them with everything I have (so bombing my own motherland cities !), appox 20 bombers (16 in attack), And they have practicaly none unit even wounded .
Nevertheless my southern fleet is rushing north to attack the americans ships near Japanese coasts. I should kill them with hight casualties, but it should work...

LBPB,

I see.

This is really a severe situation.

I think you respons is correct: To hit the invading force with every
air unit you can bring into battle.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Germany - v1.3 - Sid

Week 11, 1940 -

After the quick capture of the British Isle, we turn our attention back to the east and strike out east. We take Sevastpol, Kursk, and Kharkov and wait for the Soviet response... and it comes in spades. They invade our lands with 8 T34s, 25 Marines, 25 infantry and a handful of smaller tank divisions. We timed the invasion for a turn we recieved 5 panzerIIIe's so we'll see if we can handle them. Also I attacked that turn because there was a large contingent of Italian marines running around Grozny so they'll hopefully help take the heat off. We're getting the full attention of the Soviets this time as the Allies made peace with them awhile back.

Japan has taken Lhasa but after I took Damascus I noticed the English sending many Marine units towards the far east theatre so they'll have their hands full in a few turns. In Africa, the Italians have held onto their eastern territory area but have lost all other cities in the northern part.

KristiB,

That is a powerful counterattack!

Again: The only reason I see for the rapid Japanese expansion is that
you play on Sid-level.

Also: Hungary and Romania will not be present as independent nations
in 1.4 but will be integrated with Germany.
Still you feel that these nations are present since they will have
two unique units each (one infantry and one mechanized brigade).
These units will of course be auto-produced.

I am sure this new system will work much better than the current one.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Rocoteh .. I doubt I can invade America anytime soon. I would need 2-3 transports filled with Marines, along with 1-2 transports of artillery and probably a couple of Aircraft Carriers with carrier based bombers to pull it off. I just don't have those numbers to spare right now. Asia is taking 95% of my attention with the other 5% going to the Pacific Islands. I do plan on drafting up a couple of infantry to go after Midway and Hawaii(once the Yamato is built), but that is probably as far as I'll go. I would like to take Indonesia and Australia before I go after America. I was also toying around with the idea of landing in South America before worrying about America so I can have a base to build up from. I don't see that happening until 1942-1943 though. It might be stupid to wait and allow America time to build up, but I don't see any other choice.

allin1joe,

I understand. Probably the strategy you mention is the best.

The introduction of the Shokaku fast carrier in 1.4 will make things
somewhat easier for Japan.

Also: If it would be possible to invade America early in the scenario
that would not be realistic.

1.4 will introduce many new units. Two of them are German air-units:
the fighter He-219 and the tank-killer Hs-129.
There will also be a Escort-carrier that US and Britain can produce
at a very low price.

Rocoteh

 

[KristiB]

Ah, that's great news for the Germans to have those two civs incorporated into the Reich. They really do tend to get in the way more than they help. I did give them RoP however when the war with the Soviets broke out the first time and they ARE actually helping keep the Soviets occupied with their crappy infantry. Luckily, their infantry is SO crappy that the AI will attack them with Soviet infantry so that's good for me at least.

It's now Week 15, 1940. Thanks to the Luftwaffe, we were able to survive the first surge of the Soviet counterattacks. We had to take a three turn breather while our armor corp healed back up but they all came back healthy at the same time and we took Krasnodar and Rostov in the south. In the north, the Soviets have 6 HMGs and about 20 infantry running around Leningrad so I'll have to deal with them before attacking there. Damn forests suck for my tanks so the south is much more attractive.

Once we take a few more cities, the Soviets oughta be about ready for a peace which we'll take so we can get on with the invasion of Africa. I think we'll probably end up splitting our forces. We'll attack the English in the middle east and landing some strong forces in the north at the same time so they can't concentrate their counterattacks. We'll see though. We probably have at least 5-10 more turns of combat with the Soviets.

 

[vlad1917_a]

vlad1917_a,

Will you attack the Western Allies when you have defeated
the Axis?

Rocoteh

I do not know. The game become very slow. (My computer sucks ). There is only one American continent that missing and because I can not fly in airports It to much work to conquer it. So probably I will stop after Eurasia.