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Influence Wars - Japan 1936 HPP Interactive AAR - COMMENT THREAD

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Yes, I expected some poor judgement from the AI's part once and a while - that's why even the USA needs some bonuses. However, I haven't seen the worst of the Naval AI yet (124501165 unescorted TPs, no amphibious invasions for years etc.), so it's not that bad :).

Good positioning definitely helps, but it's not the only factor in naval battles. Sometimes the firepower of big fleets is so massive that even great positioning won't help you. I doubt that we want to see 3-CL fleets obliterating big fleets because of massive stacking penalty, although the effects could be increased a bit.

Generally I'm quite happy with the way naval warfare is working so far and I like the fact that CVs and CVLs are not invulnerable in HPP. There are still some deficiencies, like the representation of DDs (which were very dangerous IRL if they could get within torpedo range, but not otherwise - I think that a higher sea attack and lower range could work well). However, most of the problems come from the game mechanics, not HPP's stats.

I think that HPP's fuel consumption for naval units is a bit low. It was probably made like that for AI's sake, but I still don't like it (of course, my option would be to increase the fuel consumption and give the AI bonus oil ;)).

I don't like the way the map is shaped in the Pacific Ocean and that there is only one TP type with constant stats. This includes both HPP and HOI3 Vanilla. The distances are too small (just check the RL distance from Honolulu to Tokyo and compare it with HOI3's) and TP ranges seem a bit arbitrary. I would welcome the addition of landing craft or sth which would have high range, high cost and good survivability, while standard TPs would have very low range and low cost, so they would mostly serve as ferry service.

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The Chinese are becoming a pain in the ass, as they should be. They are a drain on Japanese limited resources. We will see how the additional troops from the Philippines will affect the situation in China.

Our resource situation is slowly becoming problematic again. We suffer from metal shortages, especially. In the long term sth will need to be done about this - otherwise, the IC spent on IC construction will be wasted. We already control resource-rich provinces in China, so conquest of China won't help us much in that regard.
 
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I think the better way to do it would be TPs transport troops, however in order to amphib assualt, you must offload them onto landing craft ships (if there was a way to code such an exchange of troops on water). It would indeed be nice though to see better TPs that increase in AA protection, storage space, and range, to represent the move from small civilian-esque transport ships to major, purpose built, war time ships like the Liberty ships, plus improvements on landing craft from small boats to barges to purpose built landing craft to amphibious landing craft and tanks.
 
I think the better way to do it would be TPs transport troops, however in order to amphib assualt, you must offload them onto landing craft ships (if there was a way to code such an exchange of troops on water).
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No, there is no way to do sth like that. I already took the engine's limitations into account :). Of course, the PI could do it ;).

I agree on the other points.
 
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Yes, but I still think that additional TP types can be implemented successfully in HOI3 by modders. In fact, it's rather easy to do from a technical standpoint, it's the balancing that's difficult.
 
Interesting that Thailand was brought up. Siam lost Laos, Cambodia, north-eastern Burma, and parts of Malaysia less than 50 years prior to the events in the AAR, which according to the core definition makes those areas candidates for Thai cores (don't know if they meet the "primary" or "accepted" culture requirements though). Historically, Thailand fought France over Laos in a short war that was ended when Japan intervened diplomatically and brokered a ceasefire that gave Thailand limited territorial gains, despite the fact Thailand occupied most of Laos. Later, Thailand was responsible for occupation duty in its former territories in Burma and Japan had promised a full return of former Thai territory in 1941 as part of a secret agreement tacked on to the alliance treaty. The cores issue has been fixed in the FtM version of the mod as well as the CMP.

While the event is currently locked out, Cybvep could mod the event that makes Thailand become a puppet if he wants to get around the Axis membership restriction, then could edit the save later to add the Thai cores.
 
Yeah that part of the world is very odd. At University I lived next door to a Vietnamese girl, and she was proper commie not like it's a bad thing, interesting discussions were had, but apparently the world view there of history is rather different to our own...Anyhow I digress.

I'd rather not 'edit Thailand in' because that would be gamey to so respects because Thailand wouldn't want to get involved in a war, and we'd know that them 'accepting the allience' by game mechanics would put them at war. If they are to be part of the allience it needs to be on its own terms really with both wars winding down, bit warsaw pact nations if you know what I mean...

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They [TP] could be, and I've been thinking about it, but it was more giving the option for AA guns and Depth Charges at the cost of capacity as well as a design tech for increased capacity and better sea defence. However my personal list for additional techs in now getting a bit big. In my mod files I've got everything from Hobarts 'funnies' to gas warfare going...

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On another note:
Say we took all the US pacific assets, and then sunk another load of their ships. Could we write up a peace treaty for an early peace? say in 1944-45? Or would we assume that the US looses heart at the end of the game, with such a situation resolved? It's just that I'd like to get into the character of saying the USN is only allowed to have 60% of the IJN fleet and all that jazz...

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While the US is haemorrhaging ships, with the game changing modifications the US will have a second wind about 2 years into this war, when their increased IC will kick in with mass modern ship production. We need Hawaii before then, so we can make it a proper naval base with radar and everything. I'd also like to have jets as we are getting into that period so that we can shoot down the US CAGs in the region with little against us.

The downer on this is the UK with our low neutrality. Annexing the Philippines cost us from 23 to 18, so we can't really afford to play the great game against any other nation without bringing the UK in against us which happens at neut = ~15 I think so we are right on the border. We could do with seeing if their is a decent minister who will increase our neutrality now*...ironic really...I don't think the Soviets will attack, unless by event because we have a non-agro pact with them. Hence we are 'safe' in many respects here.

However I think their is a HPP event that kicks in later, which will have us sometime '44 or '45 at war with the Soviets again, the HPP people know, but I'd rather not check if there is or not just for the fun of it. Most of the time I've just pre-empted the soviet war.

* Its not that gamey to seek to do this along my character lines, since we are building an Empire, and an Empire needs to be recognised to have legitimacy, hence if we do get a minister in, then we can pass it off and opening lines of communication with the Allies guaranteeing that we're not warmongering everywhere. It's interesting seeing the game is right on this point of sparking the Allies into war with us, for any other 'aggressions' so we'll have to play a gamble with Guangxi and see if we can't get Zongren to fight that war without tipping our alliance over into a full blown encounter...It'll make a great alternate history.

I mean, consider what the people of this history would ask 'What if' questions about? What if Britain declared war on Japan in 1943? What if the Battle of Saipan had gone differently? What if Japan hadn't pissed off the Americans and gone for the Soviets?
 
Now we are seeing the other bad thing about naval AI, all the enemy fleets retreat to nearest port if damaged, and they will continuously try to send small fleets out to be killed piecemeal. New smaller enemy fleets will also arrive from other bases be damaged and retreat to Saipan in this case, gradually throwing away all the fleet even before they start sending unescorted mega stacks of TP.
To be somewhat realistic we should either not blockade Saipan, invade it immediately or edit the enemy fleet to a safe harbour. If we can keep the blockade up its game over for the US Navy.

The port strike on Saipan was doomed because of the AAA of the huge fleet stationed there, I haven't found a way to deal with that case other than let them out of the harbour.

If we occupies all US islands in the Pacific my experience is that we wont see any more fleets there. If the British were at war with us the US would send troops to India if no invasion is under way in Europe.
 
No, Saipan Blockade will be kept, I will not edit the game in that case. However, retaking Saipan should be our first priority, as it would IRL.

If you do REALLY well against the USA, then I might add a chance for peace in 1945. Otherwise, Japan's fate will be described in the epilogue.

As for the ENG-JAP and SOV-JAP relations - remember, you are never safe with me, as you never know what AI modifications or custom decisions I made ;).

BTW the US losses are not really much greater than the losses they suffered IRL during the first months of war (Pearl Harbour + Battle of the Coral Sea), except transports, ofc. Remember that there was no Pearl Harbour in our case... and check the RL US economic capabilities - here (I recommend this site BTW). The USA built more destroyers and battleships and as many cruisers during 1942 than/as Japan did during the whole war.
 
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The USA lost lots of ships already, but we've been facing the oldest ones they have. New ships will arrive, though not tomorrow. We need to finish off what they have on Saipan, then get our ships back for repair and upgrades. The CAGs are also in a miserable state. Once that's done, the SNLF will be used to attack the US ports in the Pacific, ending with Hawaii where we will entrench ourselves. We'll need coastal forts, AA and airfield upgrades IIRC.

Can we do raids (landings) on the US coast as well? I do not plan to stay, but to harass the enemy while possibly catching a few of their ships while being at it.
 
If you mean hit-and-run amphibious attacks on the US coast, then DEFINITELY no. This is one of the gamiest things that can be done in HOI3 and it is a direct result of AI shortcomings and poor amphibious invasion system. You can attack with aircraft, patrol the US coastline or even invade if you dare, but no hit&run raids.
 
Can't see us mustering the neccessary number for an invasion of the US, at least not while we need to cover China against the UK and USSR as well.

BUT.... occupying the Panama Channel is a valid objective...
 
Historically submarrine carriers were developed for a stike on the Panama cannal to destroy the lock gates and drain the Panama cannal. So yes, considering in some respects we are doing better than the historical Japanese an attack to take Panama would be a good 'end aim'. Technically it would show in chracter that we [Japan] would be capable of landing and conducting offensive operations on the North American mainland (even if it isn't San Fransico or actually the United states itself).

Doing that, and a minor invasion of Alaska, while also having reduced the US Pacific fleet to scrap would be in my opinion the kind of situation where the Americans would consider sueing for peace, lest the Japanese actually do invade (however implausible that would be*)


That second wind, could be very disasterious to us because up until about 6 months ago in the game the US had a bit of an IC hanicap from not being at war, but now it could be pushing a very high figure in the 600s, so what they'll be chucking out at us is going to be heavy. I'd rather we not have to worry when the US could slap down 20 CL and then start another production run for 30 in the next few months...

Overall this is why I believe that taking the pacific ports so we can keep the US locked up on the US west coast is the best bet, since it means that they can't bring the weight of numbers to bear on us very well since the targets they can reach are the Christmas islands and Hawaii, so we know where we need to stop them.

The Christmas Islands will be a bit of a bummer to take and defend, because they represent several convoy lines within range of the US, however if we do get to that position I'm going to be suggesting a much higher escort ratio for those lines and to have them manually supplied.

As part of the defense of these areas they need to be captured far enough in advance that we can get a few levels of radar on our chosen two major ports. Coastal forts will also be good, but they are much more worth it with an engineer brigade pressent, and Hawaii really needs about three lots of Marrines to defend the chain, a Garrison for Honalulu won't just cut it in my experience, since I've been hit by a doom stack of US marrines there about 3 times over various games...But then it is the major location for taking the war back to America...

In fact, it might be prudent for use to start constructing prefab port and airbase units for shipping to the Christmas Islands...but come the near future not right now...
 
Invasion of the US mainland is of course a total fantasy, but I seriously doubt that it would be successful even in the game, since we are using HOI3, HPP, my modifications and AI Control.

However, all this is pure speculation, because we have not even conquered the Midway Island yet...
 
Again, I'd rather wait a bit to see our ships return for duty, then steamroll through the Pacific. Splitting up our forces is not advisable. If we really don't suffer much damage in the next battle, I might be tempted to rush for the other US islands immediately, but right now, I'd prefer to repair and upgrade. On top of that, we can send the few intact CAGs over to China for ground support if the army thinks they can be useful.
 
It is a cautious and maybe not very ambitious strategy, but it has its merits, the greatest one being the fact that we minimize the chance of losing our ships. However, it also has some drawbacks, e.g. we are giving the Americans more time to regroup and build more ships.
 
Frankly, I don't believe we can do much in order to stop them from building ships. For that we'd have to start invading them, which is not quite possible here.
 
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