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The pacific war as the USA

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adam_grif said:
The optimal strategy vs AI si to build up Guam and another close island to level 10 ports, then prepare for war in Q4 1941. As soon as war breaks out you move about 20-30 divisions to Tokyo, escorted by 3-4BBs and 3-4 CVs (+ screens) and do a rapid landing to sieze it. Then you ignore the pacific islands. You'll probably lose some ships, maybe even big ones, but it's game over once you sieze Tokyo's supplies and fan out to take the Islands.

Super cheesy, but it works erry time - at least no normal :D
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I try to avoid the super cheesy. Part of that approach includes bottling up the Japanese fleet in some port and just hammering it to death. It feels too easy to me.
 
One thing I'm experimenting with lately is becoming the Arsenal of Democracy. If you can get huge amounts of IC to the British and other allies via Lend Lease, some great things can happen.
 
KyrionMyrthar said:
Para defend well and, if I recall, get a bonus defending when unsupplied? Something like that.
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I am unaware of any "commando" bonus they get. They do *use* less supply than an INF (about 86% as much base), but don't defend any better than one, have less soft attack, FAR less hard attack, cost more manpower, cost FAR more officers, and almost twice the build cost. And if your island is unsupplied, then the AC and AA are probably why.

And that's just INF. If you use GAR, then you can put twice as many brigades on the island as you can PAR, and manpower is the ONLY category that it will be "worse" at (build cost, officers, supply use, SA, defensiveness... 2xGAR are all dramatically more efficient than 1xPAR, given that the GAR's movespeed troubles don't matter on 1-province areas)


I mean, I know the USA doesn't have much trouble with IC at all, and I obviously cannot dictate (nor do I want to) how you play... just that the numbers don't really bare out PAR as an island defender from an efficiency standpoint.
 
I don't know. I really enjoy mixed fleets. In my games they get more kills and they don't depend on just the CAGS to do damage. I've also found that 10 ships makes a decent surface Task Force. 2 CV, 2 BB, 2 CL, and 4 DD a handful of those stationed within reach of your bases. Allows you to deploy as many as you need for a sortie one at a time or en mass.
 
If you want troops to defend while under-supplied or out of supply, you don't need PARA. You need a leader with the Commando trait.

Now, in fairness, some players put Commandos in charge of PARA because PARA are more likely to be out of supply when something goes wrong, but that trait has nothing to do with the brigade itself.
 
I once use the PARA + Bomber strategy to deal with pacific islands. I stack a lot of paratroop in guam as soon as I could (managed to do it 3 monte after the Japan DOW) and then simultaneously paradrop to any islands I can reach. When a battle is won, I return the troop to guam (risking transport ships). If an enemy tries to invade an island (note that the island is empty after the troops were recalled to guam), I dispatch my fleet to intercept. In my experience, the Jap AI separates invasion fleet with their so called 'deathstack', so the battle is safer. Should the fleet did meet a deathstack, leave the island to the enemy hand then do logistical bomb with your bomber and after a couple of days, your PARA can sweep the enemy DIV. Japs will lose 1-2 MAR division that way and they will commit IC to build more, less IC to their navy I think.

The same strategy can't be done from the Japanese side, though. Researching a decent navy and transport + PARA + TAC is too much for them. I tried and I failed.
 
adam_grif said:
The optimal strategy vs AI si to build up Guam and another close island to level 10 ports, then prepare for war in Q4 1941. As soon as war breaks out you move about 20-30 divisions to Tokyo, escorted by 3-4BBs and 3-4 CVs (+ screens) and do a rapid landing to sieze it. Then you ignore the pacific islands. You'll probably lose some ships, maybe even big ones, but it's game over once you sieze Tokyo's supplies and fan out to take the Islands.

Super cheesy, but it works erry time - at least no normal :D
Click to expand...
A strategy like that would take the fun out of my games…way too gamey

KyrionMyrthar said:
Para defend well and, if I recall, get a bonus defending when unsupplied? Something like that.
Click to expand...
And they are also expensive, take a long time to build, use a lot of MP…3xGAR will do fine in defending the Pacific. If you’re worried about losing certain islands deploy some extra GAR, which you can use later to deploy to conquered islands.

KyrionMyrthar said:
One thing I'm experimenting with lately is becoming the Arsenal of Democracy. If you can get huge amounts of IC to the British and other allies via Lend Lease, some great things can happen.
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Like the USSR beating Germany by the end of 1942? ;) Love to hear how your experiment goes, but as said the USSR is the real liability. Give em too much land lease and they pulverize the Germans in a couple of months.
 
Oof said:
A strategy like that would take the fun out of my games…way too gamey


And they are also expensive, take a long time to build, use a lot of MP…3xGAR will do fine in defending the Pacific. If you’re worried about losing certain islands deploy some extra GAR, which you can use later to deploy to conquered islands.


Like the USSR beating Germany by the end of 1942? ;) Love to hear how your experiment goes, but as said the USSR is the real liability. Give em too much land lease and they pulverize the Germans in a couple of months.
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I played one run-through to the end of '41 this weekend for kicks. One thing I've been doing lately is building fleet units earlier - I started a carrier and battleship in late '38 with up-to-date tech. With about nine month gaps, I had a nice set of capital ships going into late '41 and queued up for '42. I had to embargo Japan to get them to attack me (that's what I usually gun for now - plan on an embargo for late November '41, within a week or two, you should be at war).

I have two wings of 3xTAC ready to send to the UK as an expeditionary force, along with one unit of 3xMR. I've kept enough for myself to keep the Japanese at bay - I'm planning on holding the line at Midway/Johnston, but will let Wake and Guam fall (but not without a fight - each has a defending unit of 2xGAR/1xART/1xAA). I'm running a 3xMR on each as well as a 2xNAV. I expect to lose, as I've not invested in any upgrades/building other than keeping provincial AA tech current.

It'll be interesting to see what the British will take from me, unit-wise. I have two armies building up on the east coast and one on the west (divisions for this army are 3xINF/1xART/1xENG, and are usually commanded by fortress busters). I need to hit Africa and stop Italy before they get to Persia (they already knocked the Brits out).

Lend lease is the tricky part. I tend to give the UK about 80% of the total, with a small enough trickle to the Soviets to make up for lost IC from the German juggernaut.

The USA is fun, as long as you don't go the cheese route (which, to be fair, everyone should do at least once).
 
The Arsenal of Democracy Dilemma:

One problem facing the US is that she has limitations on her manpower, so her IC can be hard to put to good use (you can only feasibly supply so many HARM/MECH/TD/TD divisions even in Europe). But if you LL to your friends, you can end up on the short end of the stick when the war ends.

The trick, as Kyrion points out, is to give the Soviets just enough LL to stay in the fight, but not enough to "win" the war. Ideally, the Soviets need to be on the border of Poland when you occupy Berlin, so you can be in a position to dictate the post-war world order to everyone.

The British are also a source of untapped manpower due to her IC limitations. But, the AI will sometimes do silly things you don't want them to do, throwing away your resources. I mean, seriously, I don't want to liberate Greece while Rome and Berlin are still in Axis hands. I love the Greeks, but Greece can be liberated via URs and just beating Germany in the first place.

Do keep in mind that LL isn't the only way to help your allies as the US. URs cost no manpower. So, you can seed occupied Poland, France, Benelux, and the Balkans with URs and time their uprisings with whatever else you have planned. No point in letting your Rebel Alliance swag from the original Star Wars go to waste when you have excess IC. ;)
 
My problem with LL is that I either give too much IC or too little IC to the USSR. In both cases you’re in trouble, cause Germany either conquers the USSR or the USSR conquers Europe :(

I think the main problem with LL is not LL itself, but continued warfare on fronts that historically were in action all through the war (like China and the Eastern front). The AI usually will deploy most of it’s units along the front. Once the front is broken, like after the initial assault, the defending party only has troops available with low org and some damaged strength. They wont be able to stop the onslaught, so once a front is in retreat, it’s unlikely it’s gonna recover. And the latter is exactly what happens with the USSR. They get LL to stop the Germans, and the moment they van, they go on the offensive and beat the Germans in a year or less. Cause onnce they are retreating, they have nothing that can stop the Russians to slow down the advance. :(

From experience I know that you can stop LL the moment the Russians stop the Germans, but by that time it usually too late….
 
Secret Master said:
Do keep in mind that LL isn't the only way to help your allies as the US. URs cost no manpower. So, you can seed occupied Poland, France, Benelux, and the Balkans with URs and time their uprisings with whatever else you have planned. No point in letting your Rebel Alliance swag from the original Star Wars go to waste when you have excess IC. ;)
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You know, I always forget about URs. :) Been playing for years and it always slips my mind.
 
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