Japan Troop Comp - naval vs China and Special Forces Question

[TheMoe]

I'm thinking about trying Japan, and I'm currently watching a playthrough, where the Tuber was trying to get ready to activate the "Test the Soviets" option. He lost that battle, and then he started fighting the poorly armed Chinese. Watching the two vastly different battles got me thinking about how fighting China and island hopping is different than being Germany and fighting the allies.

Japan needs to fight on islands, and across India, where I would guess supply is an issue. How might I build my infantry divisions and what doctrine would best support that kind of warfare? Should tanks remain at 20 width to help with supply? What does a good Japanese tank template look like, if there is such a thing?

It looks to me like when you invade China, you're not at war with anyone else. Is there any reason to bring your navy to patrol or convoy raid around China's coast? It looks to me like Japan needs to upgrade its navy in order to take on both the British and US navies, and I'd rather use the fuel to train for XP if there's no need to raid at this point in the war.

I have yet to use marines when playing as Germany, but I can see that they would be very helpful when island hopping. There appears to be some hard limit as to either how many divisions of marines a player can have or how many marines can be in one division. I haven't figured out how you know, other than not being able to save a template because of "exceeding the special forces limit." I do know there is research that will either strengthen your special forces or allow you to build more of them, though it looks like that research comes later in the game. How does a player know how many special forces they can train at one time? How do those limits work? Thanks!

 

[el nora]

Japan needs to fight on islands, and across India, where I would guess supply is an issue. How might I build my infantry divisions and what doctrine would best support that kind of warfare? Should tanks remain at 20 width to help with supply? What does a good Japanese tank template look like, if there is such a thing?

40s are easier on supply than 20s. Don't look at it as supply per division. You have to consider supply per width. China will be saturating every combat with full width, so you have to compensate by bringing as much attack per supply as you can. To this end, there is only one real solution. Light tank recon. +40% multiplier on your average damage dealt and -50% damage received when unpierced, which you will be against China, means you can drop org down to tank division levels. You can bring more artillery than you would otherwise be comfortable with. 11-6, or 8-8. The difference between them is supply use. You can't fit as many 8-8 in the Manchurian supply as you can 11-6. LSPG2, even upgraded with +5 guns, has less attack per supply, so you're not going to be able to fit as many of them in, they're less supply efficient than regular arty.

Since you're going to be taking SF doctrine anyway, as it's the best infantry doctrine, you should be using support arty. Additionally, engineers go on everything, and logistics is obvious. So that's 4 support slots filled. The fifth can be either signals or maintenance.

Although, to tell you the truth, it's much more in your interest to not capitulate China as soon as possible. Rather, you should be using this time to grind traits on your generals. That will be invaluable in the coming war against the Allies. What I like to use as Japan is pure infantry bricks with lt recon, engineers, arty, logistics, and signal support. You can grind out two good field marshals (Yamashita and Nishio both have brilliant strategist), several good generals (you want to get adaptable, trickster, engineer, and infantry expert), get amphibious and infantry expert on Imamura, and at least get ambusher on Itagaki.

Japan can use tanks to reasonable effect against the Allies. I'd suggest a normal 12-8. Use cav instead of mot for the reduced terrain penalties, if your game rules allow it. I would not recommend using lights, they will get pierced for sure, and then you might as well not have brought tanks at all. They're not great in the jungles and mountains of SEA, and will clog supply so you can't load down on them - you will always have to supplement with infantry and opening new frontlines with your marines. But they can punch through enemy infantry on other terrain types. If you use them in a considered and planned manner, and micro their every move, you will get some nice encirclements out of them.

It looks to me like when you invade China, you're not at war with anyone else. Is there any reason to bring your navy to patrol or convoy raid around China's coast? It looks to me like Japan needs to upgrade its navy in order to take on both the British and US navies, and I'd rather use the fuel to train for XP if there's no need to raid at this point in the war.

Use your carrier cas to bomb the Chinese in Beijing with no range-based mission efficiency modifier. CV planes on cas, naval strike, port strike, or kamikaze missions don't suffer from range-based mission efficiency modifiers. But they will still not participate in battles outside their range circle, even if the battle is occurring within their operating region, the same as land based cas.

Split off some capitals to provide shore bombardment as you move down the coast. IIRC, BC provides the most shore bombardment per fuel spent. Don't bother with either the general or admiral trait that increases shore bombardment, they don't increase the cap beyond -25% defense. All that they do is increase the speed at which you reach that cap.

Use your subs to convoy raid. If this is for mp, you know that a player China will try to meme-invade you to catch you with your pants down.

Aside from that, you don't need to use your navy against China. You can't really no-fuel grind against them to try and gain some traits on your admirals because of how few ships they have. If you're feeling masochistic, put Koga on your shore bombardment stack and hope that China tries bombing them so you can get fly swatter on him. But it's a long grind because he gets -36% trait xp for already having two traits. I got close a few times, but I've never actually gotten the trait.

I have yet to use marines when playing as Germany, but I can see that they would be very helpful when island hopping. There appears to be some hard limit as to either how many divisions of marines a player can have or how many marines can be in one division. I haven't figured out how you know, other than not being able to save a template because of "exceeding the special forces limit." I do know there is research that will either strengthen your special forces or allow you to build more of them, though it looks like that research comes later in the game. How does a player know how many special forces they can train at one time? How do those limits work? Thanks!

Special forces may be a maximum of 24 battalion or 5% of your total army battalions. There's tricks to get around that limit, and if you want I can go over a couple of them, but suffice it for now that you may have one marine division per 19 non-marine divisions.

 

[TheMoe]

40s are easier on supply than 20s. Don't look at it as supply per division. You have to consider supply per width. China will be saturating every combat with full width, so you have to compensate by bringing as much attack per supply as you can. To this end, there is only one real solution. Light tank recon. +40% multiplier on your average damage dealt and -50% damage received when unpierced, which you will be against China, means you can drop org down to tank division levels. You can bring more artillery than you would otherwise be comfortable with. 11-6, or 8-8. The difference between them is supply use. You can't fit as many 8-8 in the Manchurian supply as you can 11-6. LSPG2, even upgraded with +5 guns, has less attack per supply, so you're not going to be able to fit as many of them in, they're less supply efficient than regular arty.

Since you're going to be taking SF doctrine anyway, as it's the best infantry doctrine, you should be using support arty. Additionally, engineers go on everything, and logistics is obvious. So that's 4 support slots filled. The fifth can be either signals or maintenance.

Although, to tell you the truth, it's much more in your interest to not capitulate China as soon as possible. Rather, you should be using this time to grind traits on your generals. That will be invaluable in the coming war against the Allies. What I like to use as Japan is pure infantry bricks with lt recon, engineers, arty, logistics, and signal support. You can grind out two good field marshals (Yamashita and Nishio both have brilliant strategist), several good generals (you want to get adaptable, trickster, engineer, and infantry expert), get amphibious and infantry expert on Imamura, and at least get ambusher on Itagaki.

Japan can use tanks to reasonable effect against the Allies. I'd suggest a normal 12-8. Use cav instead of mot for the reduced terrain penalties, if your game rules allow it. I would not recommend using lights, they will get pierced for sure, and then you might as well not have brought tanks at all. They're not great in the jungles and mountains of SEA, and will clog supply so you can't load down on them - you will always have to supplement with infantry and opening new frontlines with your marines. But they can punch through enemy infantry on other terrain types. If you use them in a considered and planned manner, and micro their every move, you will get some nice encirclements out of them.


Use your carrier cas to bomb the Chinese in Beijing with no range-based mission efficiency modifier. CV planes on cas, naval strike, port strike, or kamikaze missions don't suffer from range-based mission efficiency modifiers. But they will still not participate in battles outside their range circle, even if the battle is occurring within their operating region, the same as land based cas.

Split off some capitals to provide shore bombardment as you move down the coast. IIRC, BC provides the most shore bombardment per fuel spent. Don't bother with either the general or admiral trait that increases shore bombardment, they don't increase the cap beyond -25% defense. All that they do is increase the speed at which you reach that cap.

Use your subs to convoy raid. If this is for mp, you know that a player China will try to meme-invade you to catch you with your pants down.

Aside from that, you don't need to use your navy against China. You can't really no-fuel grind against them to try and gain some traits on your admirals because of how few ships they have. If you're feeling masochistic, put Koga on your shore bombardment stack and hope that China tries bombing them so you can get fly swatter on him. But it's a long grind because he gets -36% trait xp for already having two traits. I got close a few times, but I've never actually gotten the trait.


Special forces may be a maximum of 24 battalion or 5% of your total army battalions. There's tricks to get around that limit, and if you want I can go over a couple of them, but suffice it for now that you may have one marine division per 19 non-marine divisions.

Amazing! I'll have to play, and then come back and read, and re-read. J I can't believe I forgot about escorting my troops when naval invading. Oh, BTW, no MP for me at this stage. I'm still learning and don't have much time to play. I've just come back to the game, and I'll be happy if I can make the AI roll over.

One thing I don't quite get, because I've not had a CV when naval invading as Germany, is how the CV planes work in a naval invasion. If they work like ships do, then creating a fleet that contains carriers and setting that fleet to escort a naval invasion should cause the air wings to cover the invasion and perform intercept and CAS missions, assuming there are planes on the carriers to do so. Is that correct, or do I have to highlight the fleet in the area and click on the little plane icon to bring up the flight wings and then manually direct the planes to their missions? Seems quite tedious if I have to go that route. I'd prefer it be automatic, like shore bombardment.

 

[el nora]

One thing I don't quite get, because I've not had a CV when naval invading as Germany, is how the CV planes work in a naval invasion. If they work like ships do, then creating a fleet that contains carriers and setting that fleet to escort a naval invasion should cause the air wings to cover the invasion and perform intercept and CAS missions, assuming there are planes on the carriers to do so. Is that correct, or do I have to highlight the fleet in the area and click on the little plane icon to bring up the flight wings and then manually direct the planes to their missions? Seems quite tedious if I have to go that route. I'd prefer it be automatic, like shore bombardment.

It is not automatic like shore bombardment. You must put your CV on hold while at sea and select the planes and give them manual orders. CV planes will not fly while in port. And you shouldn't be using your CV fighters for superiority. First, China doesn't have enough planes to worry about. And second, they will suffer range-based mission efficiency modifiers. You might as well put them in the airport that you build in your province between Manchu and China. That way, they'll be closer to the center of the airzone and can participate in more combats. Fill your carrier to the brim with CAS and put your fighters on land..

 

[Zauberelefant]

On special forces, Japan has a focus and a army-navy-conference decision that both increase the number of special forces.
Both can be taken by 1938.

Winning the fight vs the soviets is easy, you pick your strongest 6 divisions (armour, mot, inf), park them on the north korean/Soviet border, let rip.

 

[TheMoe]

It is not automatic like shore bombardment. You must put your CV on hold while at sea and select the planes and give them manual orders. CV planes will not fly while in port. And you shouldn't be using your CV fighters for superiority. First, China doesn't have enough planes to worry about. And second, they will suffer range-based mission efficiency modifiers. You might as well put them in the airport that you build in your province between Manchu and China. That way, they'll be closer to the center of the airzone and can participate in more combats. Fill your carrier to the brim with CAS and put your fighters on land..

Thanks for answering my question and providing excellent air-power tips. I would imagine that once a player is done with China that they might want to balance out their fleet's air wing, or maybe keep the composition and use one task force with heavy CAS loadout to support invasions? Is a full CAS CV an option as a Swiss army knife loadout, able to support invasion and still provide naval damage during fleet engagements?

 

[TheMoe]

On special forces, Japan has a focus and a army-navy-conference decision that both increase the number of special forces.
Both can be taken by 1938.

Winning the fight vs the soviets is easy, you pick your strongest 6 divisions (armour, mot, inf), park them on the north korean/Soviet border, let rip.

Thank you for the advice! I'll look for the focuses and I'll get some strong divisions ready when I try the Japanese playthrough.

 

[1 Star General]

Should tanks remain at 20 width to help with supply? What does a good Japanese tank template look like, if there is such a thing?

I had a couple of really enjoyable rides with Japan.
You don't need tanks at all in East Asia (terrain makes using them counterproductive actually...). They have use only ONCE you control the Pacific and India, if you're going in to the Soviet Union through Central Steppe, and if you're invading the Middle East or the US. But that's relatively late into the game, so they're definitely not on the priority list, and the first time I played I managed to avoid them altogether (in further games used them just for the fun of it rather than a pressing need). Besides Japan has fuel concerns - large navy (that is really gonna put your fuel gauge in red once you begin fighting the allies) and next to nothing in terms of oil. So before securing oil in South East Asia, and even ME, tanks are just gonna drain your limited fuel supply - you really need that fuel stored for the Pacific war. Few small motorized for quick exploits and penetrations in flat terrain is good enough.
In terms of general Japan strategy, I advise quick Colab Government missions in China followed by quick war, instead prolonging it for XP grind, as someone above suggested. You really lack space in Japan to build up industry - especially dockyards. If you're planning a long campaign world scale, having the Chinese coast full of dockyards pumping out those ships for you is really helpful.
Also, again, disagreeing on one more point with advice posted above, you really can make good use of small width divisions as Japan. Potential fronts are massive in size - China, USSR, India, Middle East - mostly terrible infrastructure - that last point applies also to jungles in the Islands of SE Asia. So I tend to have quite a lot of 10 width's for undefended terrain grabbing, port garrisoning, filling the front line, fighting crappy enemy divs, etc.. In my last game I used 2 kinds of 10 width Inf - basic 10+ engineers for low priority tasks and and strong 10's with full compliment of support companies for combat duty in Siberia, Islands, Himalaya and other lovely places that put strain on your logistics. Strong 20 widths are good enough to tackle priority engagements at main directions. And your marines should really shine, although again, I did not encounter anything meriting using more than awesome 20 width. All of that applies to SP only, as I haven't tried MP yet. Hope this helps.

 

[el nora]

Thanks for answering my question and providing excellent air-power tips. I would imagine that once a player is done with China that they might want to balance out their fleet's air wing, or maybe keep the composition and use one task force with heavy CAS loadout to support invasions? Is a full CAS CV an option as a Swiss army knife loadout, able to support invasion and still provide naval damage during fleet engagements?

You start out with something like 160 or so CV CAS. So you only need a single factory on it to fill out your five CV before China. And you might as well wait on producing CV NAV. 1936 NAV are weak. you should start producing them when you get the 1940 model in 1938 and try to get access to the 1944 model before Striking South. I never use CV CAS after China has been dealt with. They are considerably weaker at naval strikes than navs are. And 1944 navs get better naval targeting.

Since CV based naval strikes get 5x damage, your CV should be filled with pure NAVs. Supplement with land-based fighter coverage to deter enemy NAVs. If you stick with Base Strike doctrine instead of switching to Trade Interdiction, you can overcrowd your carriers by 24% with no penalty. That requires taking the sortie efficiency high command, getting the First Air Fleet from your national focus, and using Yamamoto as your admiral. With the initial three 60s and 40, I bring 3x 75 + 50 = 275 NAVs. If you rush down CV3 with pacific designer and make four of them before Striking South, you can bring 500 NAVs.

Once the Allied fleets are dealt with, you don't need CV CAS to aid in landings, and anyway by that point the game is probably over. It's just a formality. Since you didn't have any use for them before, you probably won't have researched or made 1940 or 1944 carrier CAS. It's a drain on your already strained research slots for something that matters only if you've already beaten the enemy navy. So I just ignore CV coverage for my naval landings. Land-based TACs should be able to reach wherever you need them to reach.

 

[TheMoe]

I had a couple of really enjoyable rides with Japan.
You don't need tanks at all in East Asia (terrain makes using them counterproductive actually...). They have use only ONCE you control the Pacific and India, if you're going in to the Soviet Union through Central Steppe, and if you're invading the Middle East or the US. But that's relatively late into the game, so they're definitely not on the priority list, and the first time I played I managed to avoid them altogether (in further games used them just for the fun of it rather than a pressing need). Besides Japan has fuel concerns - large navy (that is really gonna put your fuel gauge in red once you begin fighting the allies) and next to nothing in terms of oil. So before securing oil in South East Asia, and even ME, tanks are just gonna drain your limited fuel supply - you really need that fuel stored for the Pacific war. Few small motorized for quick exploits and penetrations in flat terrain is good enough.
In terms of general Japan strategy, I advise quick Colab Government missions in China followed by quick war, instead prolonging it for XP grind, as someone above suggested. You really lack space in Japan to build up industry - especially dockyards. If you're planning a long campaign world scale, having the Chinese coast full of dockyards pumping out those ships for you is really helpful.
Also, again, disagreeing on one more point with advice posted above, you really can make good use of small width divisions as Japan. Potential fronts are massive in size - China, USSR, India, Middle East - mostly terrible infrastructure - that last point applies also to jungles in the Islands of SE Asia. So I tend to have quite a lot of 10 width's for undefended terrain grabbing, port garrisoning, filling the front line, fighting crappy enemy divs, etc.. In my last game I used 2 kinds of 10 width Inf - basic 10+ engineers for low priority tasks and and strong 10's with full compliment of support companies for combat duty in Siberia, Islands, Himalaya and other lovely places that put strain on your logistics. Strong 20 widths are good enough to tackle priority engagements at main directions. And your marines should really shine, although again, I did not encounter anything meriting using more than awesome 20 width. All of that applies to SP only, as I haven't tried MP yet. Hope this helps.

Thanks! I'm certainly in SP, and wouldn't even consider MP at this point. Still learning. Very interesting strategy with Japan, going light on infantry and being very careful about what units are sent where. That's a lot of micro and time. Thanks for reminding me about the Collaborative government missions in China. Great idea, and hard to do with the limited civilian factories that I've seen available to Japan in YouTube playthroughs.

 

[TheMoe]

You start out with something like 160 or so CV CAS. So you only need a single factory on it to fill out your five CV before China. And you might as well wait on producing CV NAV. 1936 NAV are weak. you should start producing them when you get the 1940 model in 1938 and try to get access to the 1944 model before Striking South. I never use CV CAS after China has been dealt with. They are considerably weaker at naval strikes than navs are. And 1944 navs get better naval targeting.

Since CV based naval strikes get 5x damage, your CV should be filled with pure NAVs. Supplement with land-based fighter coverage to deter enemy NAVs. If you stick with Base Strike doctrine instead of switching to Trade Interdiction, you can overcrowd your carriers by 24% with no penalty. That requires taking the sortie efficiency high command, getting the First Air Fleet from your national focus, and using Yamamoto as your admiral. With the initial three 60s and 40, I bring 3x 75 + 50 = 275 NAVs. If you rush down CV3 with pacific designer and make four of them before Striking South, you can bring 500 NAVs.

Once the Allied fleets are dealt with, you don't need CV CAS to aid in landings, and anyway by that point the game is probably over. It's just a formality. Since you didn't have any use for them before, you probably won't have researched or made 1940 or 1944 carrier CAS. It's a drain on your already strained research slots for something that matters only if you've already beaten the enemy navy. So I just ignore CV coverage for my naval landings. Land-based TACs should be able to reach wherever you need them to reach.

Wow! That's quite a few navy bombers on your carriers. Thanks for the info. What difficulties did you run into when going against the US navy, while we're on the subject of carriers.

 

[1 Star General]

Thanks! I'm certainly in SP, and wouldn't even consider MP at this point. Still learning. Very interesting strategy with Japan, going light on infantry and being very careful about what units are sent where. That's a lot of micro and time. Thanks for reminding me about the Collaborative government missions in China. Great idea, and hard to do with the limited civilian factories that I've seen available to Japan in YouTube playthroughs.

The thing is you actually need to pay attention what do you send to different theaters as Japan. Try yourself, send 40 width's to Siberia or naval invade New Guinea and see what can you achieve Bigger number of 10 width's in the same supply cap will just do the job faster.
As to colab gov mission, 2 successive missions in China followed by immiediate and quick war is the best strategy. It never took me more than a 100 days to finish that war, so you'll have more than enough time to build up industry afterwards.

 

[el nora]

Players have an advantage against the ai in that the ai doesn't competently design new ships. So the longer you go on making your own shiny new ships, the more advantaged you will be. Japan should take the coastal defense designer before completing DD2 regardless on if they continue with TI doctrine cost-reduction designer CA3; or BS doctrine deckspace designer CV3. Whichever you do make, ignore the other. You're relying on your choice to be dealing the brunt of the damage. If you remember to always engage under green air from your own land-based fighters, you can safely ignore enemy CV. If you doomstack your navy, you will have no trouble dealing with the USN. Keep all your ships in one strike force except for a few cheap DD sent on patrols. The patrols should be set to never engage, while your doomstack should be set to never repair and never retreat. Repairs are something you decide to do manually, do not let the game put your fleet out of commision when it is needed just because some sacrificial DD have a booboo.

Delete all the cruisers in your initial build queue. That's the light cruiser, heavy cruiser, battlecruiser, and converted cruiser hull carrier. You can also delete the SS1 in the queue, though they'll complete relatively quickly so it's not a big deal. Reduce all production lines to 1 ship. If you plan on making CV3, delete the CV2 as well. If you plan on making CA3, put all your newly freed dockyards on finishing the CV2 asap. Refit all your existing CL and CA to CA with 1 medium battery and 3-4 light battery 2. Replacing a battery with a different one is not really efficient, it costs as much or more than the same battery would on a new ship. So your CA that start with a pair of medium battery 2 should have those slots untouched. And your CL with light battery 1 should keep it. But all the torp / floatplane / minelaying slots should be swapped out for more guns. Never refit armor or engines. That costs as much as simply making an entirely new ship.

Don't refit your DD, their purpose is to be numerous, not to be good, it's more efficient to just make more than refit the ones you have. And you do want to have some torps for the finishing blow, once the American screens are sunk. Since you don't start out with good AA nor secondaries, there's really not much worth refitting onto your BB and BC.

Spoiler: Ship templates

Roach DD. Only 533 NIC. You should be spitting them out at a rate of 2-3 per month per production line. They exist to provide targets for your enemy to fire at so that they don't fire at your more valuable ships. Under an admiral with concealment expert and bold, they have 41 kn. speed and 8 visibility. That is a hit profile of 800/41 = 19.5, so enemy light attack have a (19.5/45)^2 * 10% = 1.9% chance to hit per shot. Heavy attacks have a mere (19.5/80)^2 * 10% = 0.6% chance to hit per shot.

Trade Interdiction CA. Getting to 50 light attack is pretty important, as that will one-shot an American DD3. Piercing is kind of irrelevant. Their job is to sink DD or CL, not anything bigger than that. If you build these, use Koga as your admiral as he has Bold (+5% attack, +10% speed), Battleship Adherent (+20% capital ship attack), Superior Tactician, and Spotter (both lead to Concealment Expert -20% visibility). Combined with the -10% visibility from Trade Interdiction, they have 37.4 kn. speed and 13.32 visibility. That is a hit profile of 1332/37.4 = 35.6, so enemy heavy attack have a (35.6/80)^2 * 10% = 2% chance to hit per shot. Enemy light attacks will not target it as it is a capital ship. Getting RADAR and FC are not necessary. Neither is AA nor higher-tier secondaries. But each one of those that you do get will make them that much better. Armor is not just useless but counterproductive. Any source of heavy attack has more piercing than CA have armor, so the armor will do literally nothing but slow you down and make you more vulnerable.

Base Strike CV. With Yamamoto as your admiral, and stacking every source of sortie efficiency on them, you can overcrowd them to 124 planes, though I like to bring a nice round 125 to compensate for a couple being shot down. Bring pure naval bombers, as CV naval bombers deal 5x damage. Each one of these that you build has the effective firepower of 625 land based naval bombers. Multiply by 4 to get the effective output of 2500 naval bombers per battle. That's a lot of damage. The American fleet will melt underneath your bombs. Don't bother with radar or secondaries, CV don't fire their guns in battle. Only their air attack is of any use.

 

[TheMoe]

Players have an advantage against the ai in that the ai doesn't competently design new ships. So the longer you go on making your own shiny new ships, the more advantaged you will be. Japan should take the coastal defense designer before completing DD2 regardless on if they continue with TI doctrine cost-reduction designer CA3; or BS doctrine deckspace designer CV3. Whichever you do make, ignore the other. You're relying on your choice to be dealing the brunt of the damage. If you remember to always engage under green air from your own land-based fighters, you can safely ignore enemy CV. If you doomstack your navy, you will have no trouble dealing with the USN. Keep all your ships in one strike force except for a few cheap DD sent on patrols. The patrols should be set to never engage, while your doomstack should be set to never repair and never retreat. Repairs are something you decide to do manually, do not let the game put your fleet out of commision when it is needed just because some sacrificial DD have a booboo.

Delete all the cruisers in your initial build queue. That's the light cruiser, heavy cruiser, battlecruiser, and converted cruiser hull carrier. You can also delete the SS1 in the queue, though they'll complete relatively quickly so it's not a big deal. Reduce all production lines to 1 ship. If you plan on making CV3, delete the CV2 as well. If you plan on making CA3, put all your newly freed dockyards on finishing the CV2 asap. Refit all your existing CL and CA to CA with 1 medium battery and 3-4 light battery 2. Replacing a battery with a different one is not really efficient, it costs as much or more than the same battery would on a new ship. So your CA that start with a pair of medium battery 2 should have those slots untouched. And your CL with light battery 1 should keep it. But all the torp / floatplane / minelaying slots should be swapped out for more guns. Never refit armor or engines. That costs as much as simply making an entirely new ship.

Don't refit your DD, their purpose is to be numerous, not to be good, it's more efficient to just make more than refit the ones you have. And you do want to have some torps for the finishing blow, once the American screens are sunk. Since you don't start out with good AA nor secondaries, there's really not much worth refitting onto your BB and BC.

Spoiler: Ship templates

View attachment 619753
Roach DD. Only 533 NIC. You should be spitting them out at a rate of 2-3 per month per production line. They exist to provide targets for your enemy to fire at so that they don't fire at your more valuable ships. Under an admiral with concealment expert and bold, they have 41 kn. speed and 8 visibility. That is a hit profile of 800/41 = 19.5, so enemy light attack have a (19.5/45)^2 * 10% = 1.9% chance to hit per shot. Heavy attacks have a mere (19.5/80)^2 * 10% = 0.6% chance to hit per shot.

View attachment 619754
Trade Interdiction CA. Getting to 50 light attack is pretty important, as that will one-shot an American DD3. Piercing is kind of irrelevant. Their job is to sink DD or CL, not anything bigger than that. If you build these, use Koga as your admiral as he has Bold (+5% attack, +10% speed), Battleship Adherent (+20% capital ship attack), Superior Tactician, and Spotter (both lead to Concealment Expert -20% visibility). Combined with the -10% visibility from Trade Interdiction, they have 37.4 kn. speed and 13.32 visibility. That is a hit profile of 1332/37.4 = 35.6, so enemy heavy attack have a (35.6/80)^2 * 10% = 2% chance to hit per shot. Enemy light attacks will not target it as it is a capital ship. Getting RADAR and FC are not necessary. Neither is AA nor higher-tier secondaries. But each one of those that you do get will make them that much better. Armor is not just useless but counterproductive. Any source of heavy attack has more piercing than CA have armor, so the armor will do literally nothing but slow you down and make you more vulnerable.

View attachment 619755
Base Strike CV. With Yamamoto as your admiral, and stacking every source of sortie efficiency on them, you can overcrowd them to 124 planes, though I like to bring a nice round 125 to compensate for a couple being shot down. Bring pure naval bombers, as CV naval bombers deal 5x damage. Each one of these that you build has the effective firepower of 625 land based naval bombers. Multiply by 4 to get the effective output of 2500 naval bombers per battle. That's a lot of damage. The American fleet will melt underneath your bombs. Don't bother with radar or secondaries, CV don't fire their guns in battle. Only their air attack is of any use.

My goodness! I really enjoyed reading your post. So many good suggestions, and some were quite funny. You clearly understand the game mechanics! Thanks!