WW2-Global

[allin1joe]

Japan - Emperor - v1.3
Report 1941

Rocoteh - a note on marines. The answer as to why the marines are the AI unit of choice became immediately obvious to me as I played Japan. With two moves and blitz capability why build tanks? Particularly true for the Japanese as the only real option is Type 97 which has no blitz. So if you want to really change things just take the blitz away. If you raise the cost for marines for the Japanese their difficult situation will become virtually hopeless.

For the Japanese, please do not weaken the Marines (or make them more expensive). They are the only units I build for the same reasons Bob stated above. When I get an army, I'll fill it with type 97s as it's a waste for Marines (reduce 2 Marine units from 4 attacks to 3), but that is the only time I build something other then artillery or Marines. I have no idea how realistic it is for the Japanese to have a large Marine contingent, but it's the only way I've made the progress that I have so far. Without them, playing Japan goes from difficult to impossible.

As for my playtest, I have kicked Britian out of India, conquered most of Thailand (they have 1 city left), the French only have Saigon, and I've kicked the Dutch out of 3 cities in the Indo-China island range. I hope to have all of SE Asia wrapped up in the next 5-6 weeks. After that, I can get a 2nd fleet of transports down to take Australia while my first cleans up the rest of the islands.

With the Soviets being peaceful for at least a year and a half, I figure they will be close to impossible to deal with now. I have no spy there yet, so I don't know for sure. Once everything else is mopped up, I hope to be able to attack on 4 fronts to give the Soviets something to worry about. Once I know where their counter attack is coming from, I'll be able to re-divert to take care of it, while keeping at least 1 of my other fronts active. We'll see how that goes though

 

[Fasttrack v7]

I will be off-line for some hours.


An old-timer like me must have some sleep sometimes .

Rocoteh

I think I don't have to tell you how glad I am. Thank you for the effort, I'm dowloading already (I didn't check the complete scenarios page for a while) and I'm pretty sure is going to take long hours to enjoyed completely.

 

[Adler17]

Rocoteh, I agree. A price of 40 is okay. Also my PC makes more trouble than thought. I won´t get it back until 1.4 is out. IF so I won´t continue my game. This is a pity in one way, but I will start a new game with 1.4.

Adler

 

[allin1joe]

Rocoteh, I agree. A price of 40 is okay. Also my PC makes more trouble than thought. I won´t get it back until 1.4 is out. IF so I won´t continue my game. This is a pity in one way, but I will start a new game with 1.4.

Adler

Yeah, I'm struggling with that decision too. I doubt I'll get much time to play this week, so by the time I get back to it, 1.4 will probably be out. Do I lose my Japanese game or wait to upgrade? Decisions, decisions, decisions

 

[Jadetorc]

I have another quick suggestion to slow down the human players: lower the number of free-support for all governments. Fascism is set for 250(!!) free units plus 5-10-15. Wow. I'm in the middle of a Germany game in early '40 [Emperor/More Aggro AI] and it says I'm allowed 635 free units of which I'm using 265 [20 Metros 7 cities 7 towns]. At 2-4-8 and 50 free I would be allowed 252 and be paying 13 gold this turn. I have kept ~90% of my fleet intact but only built about a new 12-15 units so far while my cities ramp-up to wartime production. Obviously 2-4-8+50 would make a very accurate simulation of the huge cost of maitaining a naval presence (although probably worth it as I have an 82 ship stack carrying an invasion to Iceland to knock out Norway/Denmark).

Further, this change would impact the AI much less as the harder you set them the more free troops they support.

-b

 

[Rocoteh]

Bob1475,

Thank you for the report.

"We established the following goals for the year - Take all of India, eliminate remnants of China, seize the Phillipines and push back Americans off islands we had lost."Bob1475

Sounds like a good strategy.

"Week 32 of 1941 will longed be remembered with shame by the Japanese Navy. A US task force slipped through our defenses (further investigations led to the discharge of the Admiral of our home fleet for saving petrol and reducing patrol flights. The Americans slipped in by using one transport and an escort of only three destroyers which were harder to detect - actually a patrol plane did report the destroyers but they were mistaken as friendlies). This task force attacked and razed Osaka! The remaining barbarians were killed." Bob1475

Versin 1.5 will see heavy immobile garrisons in all Japanese home cities.
These raids from US-AI are not realistic.

"However, as the year ends we make no further progress as the British have introduced Crusader tanks while we still are working on Sea 1941. We need funds to support the large armed forces and we have research only at 50%"
Bob1475

Playing Japan is really hard.

"Our allies are not doing well. Germany started the year holding only Paris in France and having lost most of Poland to the Russians. As the year ends the only progress that was made was the seizure of Brest and Lyon. The rest of France remains intact" Bob1475

The Germany-AI is a huge problem for a human playing Japan!

"Rocoteh - a note on marines. The answer as to why the marines are the AI unit of choice became immediately obvious to me as I played Japan. With two moves and blitz capability why build tanks? Particularly true for the Japanese as the only real option is Type 97 which has no blitz. So if you want to really change things just take the blitz away" Bob1475

OK, I will consider that.

Welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

For the Japanese, please do not weaken the Marines (or make them more expensive). They are the only units I build for the same reasons Bob stated above. When I get an army, I'll fill it with type 97s as it's a waste for Marines (reduce 2 Marine units from 4 attacks to 3), but that is the only time I build something other then artillery or Marines. I have no idea how realistic it is for the Japanese to have a large Marine contingent, but it's the only way I've made the progress that I have so far. Without them, playing Japan goes from difficult to impossible.

As for my playtest, I have kicked Britian out of India, conquered most of Thailand (they have 1 city left), the French only have Saigon, and I've kicked the Dutch out of 3 cities in the Indo-China island range. I hope to have all of SE Asia wrapped up in the next 5-6 weeks. After that, I can get a 2nd fleet of transports down to take Australia while my first cleans up the rest of the islands.

With the Soviets being peaceful for at least a year and a half, I figure they will be close to impossible to deal with now. I have no spy there yet, so I don't know for sure. Once everything else is mopped up, I hope to be able to attack on 4 fronts to give the Soviets something to worry about. Once I know where their counter attack is coming from, I'll be able to re-divert to take care of it, while keeping at least 1 of my other fronts active. We'll see how that goes though

allin1joe,

If move was reduced to 1 and cost decreased for Japanese Marines
it would maybe give a good result. Probably I will instead decrease cost
for Japanese armour. That should make the armour an interesting build
despite the blitz for Marines.

BTW:Version 1.4 will introduce a autoproduced (in Canberra) ANZAC-unit,
with move 2.

On the playtest: It will be interesting to see if the Soviet attack
(once the war have started) will be massive as reported from
other playtests.

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Rocoteh, I agree. A price of 40 is okay. Also my PC makes more trouble than thought. I won´t get it back until 1.4 is out. IF so I won´t continue my game. This is a pity in one way, but I will start a new game with 1.4.

Adler

Adler,

OK, I see.

Looking forward to read more reports from you.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

I think I don't have to tell you how glad I am. Thank you for the effort, I'm dowloading already (I didn't check the complete scenarios page for a while) and I'm pretty sure is going to take long hours to enjoyed completely.

Fasttrack v7,

Thank you.

I hope you will like the scenario.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

I have another quick suggestion to slow down the human players: lower the number of free-support for all governments. Fascism is set for 250(!!) free units plus 5-10-15. Wow. I'm in the middle of a Germany game in early '40 [Emperor/More Aggro AI] and it says I'm allowed 635 free units of which I'm using 265 [20 Metros 7 cities 7 towns]. At 2-4-8 and 50 free I would be allowed 252 and be paying 13 gold this turn. I have kept ~90% of my fleet intact but only built about a new 12-15 units so far while my cities ramp-up to wartime production. Obviously 2-4-8+50 would make a very accurate simulation of the huge cost of maitaining a naval presence (although probably worth it as I have an 82 ship stack carrying an invasion to Iceland to knock out Norway/Denmark).

Further, this change would impact the AI much less as the harder you set them the more free troops they support.

-b

Jadetorc,

Notes have been taken.

This will be for 1.5 though, since I will not make many changes
before I release 1.4.

Rocoteh

 

[allin1joe]

allin1joe,

If move was reduced to 1 and cost decreased for Japanese Marines
it would maybe give a good result. Probably I will instead decrease cost
for Japanese armour. That should make the armour an interesting build
despite the blitz for Marines.

BTW:Version 1.4 will introduce a autoproduced (in Canberra) ANZAC-unit,
with move 2.

On the playtest: It will be interesting to see if the Soviet attack
(once the war have started) will be massive as reported from
other playtests.

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

Sounds like a plan. My main point was that Japan doesn't need to be weakened

As for the playtest, I plan on trying to get Germany and/or Italy to declare the same time I do. I am hoping that will deflect a large part of it that way. Both times that I was dragged into wars with the Soviets, I saw maybe 3-4 units come my way. The rest went West. I am hoping to be able to repeat that.

 

[Rocoteh]

Sounds like a plan. My main point was that Japan doesn't need to be weakened

As for the playtest, I plan on trying to get Germany and/or Italy to declare the same time I do. I am hoping that will deflect a large part of it that way. Both times that I was dragged into wars with the Soviets, I saw maybe 3-4 units come my way. The rest went West. I am hoping to be able to repeat that.

allin1joe,

I see.

I have made a last minute change in version 1.4 that means that
governments now are locked.

Thus Soviet-AI can not change to democracy anymore.

Rocoteh

 

[allin1joe]

allin1joe,

I see.

I have made a last minute change in version 1.4 that means that
governments now are locked.

Thus Soviet-AI can not change to democracy anymore.

Rocoteh

Very nice, thanks!

 

[Rocoteh]

Very nice, thanks!

allin1joe,

Yes, there is also more positive news:

By removing Prague, no German cities will be starving from
start. Since AI not can handle cities that starts starving its
a great improvement.

Rocoteh

 

[allin1joe]

allin1joe,

Yes, there is also more positive news:

By removing Prague, no German cities will be starving from
start. Since AI not can handle cities that starts starving its
a great improvement.

Rocoteh

*pats Rocoteh on back*

 

[Rocoteh]

*pats Rocoteh on back*

allin1joe,

One could think that AI should handle population problems
like this. I mean its not hard for a human to make reallocations
to prevent starvation.

However one should never overestimate AI!

Rocoteh

 

[Pfeffersack]

24 - 7/1940
Fighting around Trondheim continues, but no progress is made at the moment.I'm not to fond of loosing Tanks and MRD when attacking the city before softening the defense.Plant spy in China.

IBT
Germany takes and razes Lyon.

25 - 8/1940
Created a MGL during the fights around Trondheim and used him for creating a MRD-corps.

IBT
Japan demands horses and my refusal covers their Bluff!
France progresses against Italy in North Africa.

26+27 - 9+10/1940
zzz

IBT
GB progresses against Italy in North Africa.

28 - 11/1940
Conquered and destroyed a radar tower near Alesund.

IBT
Germany takes Bordeaux

29 - 12/1940
Finished a heavy artillery and bring it on the way towards Norway

30 - 13/1940
zzz

IBT
Italy is now down to Tripoli in North Africa.

31 - 14/1940
Destroyed radar tower near Oslo.Placed spies in the Netherlands and France.

32 - 15/1940
zzz

IBT
Germany takes and razes Marseille.

33 - 16/1940
Places Spy in GB.

IBT
America takes Osaka and sends a heavy fleet (about 10 battleships and cruisers, no transports) towards Toyohava.France takes Tripoli, Italys last city in North Africa.

34 - 17/1940
Finished the Carrier in Leningrad, it is now on the way in Botnic Sea with 4 bombers on it.They will surely help to take Trondheim.

IBT
Germany takes La Coruna (was under French control), the last French city on the european continent (they still have Corsica under their control).Japan takes Osaka back and the US fleet passes Vladivostok and wents south.

35 - 18/1940
My carrier is stopped in the baltic sea by a line of Swedish ships.However, Trondheim is in the range of my bombers.I began to airraid Trondheim and was able to take it with T34s and MRDs (no losses).



Note: I will continue this at least until 1.4 is out.However, I will take Axis (Germany or Japan) side in new game 1.4 - the AI is just better in defense than in attacking a superpower like the SU.I doubt Germany will attack me in future in this game, if at all I would have to fight the Allies in the end.



Spy reports (turn 35):


Great Britain (absolute superpower, the strange thing is they don't have a single tank...):

19 Worker

13 Artillery
7 Flak

35 Marines
111 British Infantery
15 British Co.
1 Piat-Anti-Tank
80 Garrisons
1 Special Forces

24 Transports
20 Submarines
59 Destroyer
9 Battleships
1 CarrierB2
16 Light Cruiser
7 King George
8 Heavy Cruisers
3 Battlecuisers
1 AA Cruiser

3 Bomber
4 swordfish
21 Spitfire
1 Hurricane
1 Armstrong
29 Blackburn
4 Blenheim



France (still strong, if you consider they lost entire continental France!):

6 Workers

1 Cavalry
26 French Infantery
34 Garrisons
59 HMG

24 Somua S3

1 Transport
13 Submarines
2 Destroyers
1 Light Cruisers

1 Bloch MB



Germany (generally too weak, especially tanks and airforce.Seem to concrentrate on elite infantery instead of regular infantery):

1 Worker
15 Minefields

2 Army
5 Artillery
24 German 88er

5 MG34he.
32 Infantery
27 SS Infanetry
19 Garrisons
9 Special Forces

1 Panzer IIIe
9 Panzer IIIg

2 Light Divisions

2 BismarckClass
1 Transport
6 U-Boat

11 Me109



Italy (generally ok, except marines):

2 Workers

18 Artillery
6 Flak

9 Marines
66 Italian Infantery
5 Special forces
18 HMG
28 Garrisons

3 Fighter
1 Bomber
10 FiatG50.



Japan (think this ok):

18 Worker

89 Japanese Infantery
24 Japanese Marines
47 Type99 HMG
1 Special Forces

11 Type 97

8 Transports
1 Carrier
1 Submarine
8 Destroyer
7 Battleships
1 CarrierB2
1 Light Cruiser
14 Heavy Cruiser

2 AichiD3A
4 KI-21
19 Ki27
7 B5N
1 N1k



USA (also no tanks and weak air force!):

42 Worker

4 Artillery

1 Cavalry
2 Infantery
40 US Marines
146 US Infantery
1 M1917A1
4 Garrisons

5 Transports
2 Carrier
76 Sumarines
47 Destroyer
13 Battleships
1 Carrier C3
1 Light Cruiser
15 Heavy Cruiser
2 AA Cruiser

9 Fighter
2 Bomber
3 F2A Buffalo
7 SBD Daun.

 

[allin1joe]

USA has no tanks worth building in the beginning, so I can understand that. That will probably change in 1.4 with the 1939 Marine though. Should be interesting to see.

 

[andis-1]

USA (also no tanks and weak air force!):

Strange that US has only 9 fighters, since in my game they had almost 40!

 

[warmwaffles]

I played as Germany for the fun of conquests.

I had built tanks like crazy and had 2 towns creating paratroopers to take England AGAIN and 3 creating Marines to take out N Africa.

Objectives for my game as Germany:
1: Try and kick every one off of Europe except Allies of course (DONE)
2: Take out Turkey (DONE)
3: Take out N. Africa (Current)
4: Take All of Africa (Current)
5: Destroy Russia
6: INVADE AMERICA (Overall Goal)