The Australian question..

[datum]

i play as Japan i managed to conquer Indonesia, and two of those 'small chinas'.
now i wonder should i try to conquer Australia?
it's freeking huge and with poor infrastructure. i'm just afraid that later on australia might pose a problem.

 

[Cpack]

I don't think that Australia will be a problem. Too low IC and Manpower, so they field only a few divisions, some cruisers and DD and only a handfull of airdivisions.

Also the AI is not really capable of fielding allies (UK, US) in Australian territory and use it as base for attack.

I conquer Rabaul as a base or jump point for controllling the most of southern pacific. You can also conquer Darwin as a base. There's no danger, cause Darwin is isolated by infrastructure, so they won't reconquer it.

 

[datum]

Also the AI is not really capable of fielding allies (UK, US) in Australian territory and use it as base for attack.

great this was exactly what i was afraid of

 

[Serathion]

You can just puppet it, because it is not worth the garrisons, I guess.

 

[Kovax]

Aside from a couple of areas along the east and west coasts, there's not a lot to take or control. You can take the small settled coastal areas and simply ignore the huge interior, as it's nearly all impassable desert.

 

[21oliver]

Ive conquered them often as many nations. You "Leapfrog"... Say you have 6 inf divisions, you invade a VP, capture it, leave one INF on def, then take the next 5 and hit the next VP, and so on.... You can try lowering their national unity to save time, or bring enough units to cover (10-12) as there are a few "mainland" VPs they will recapture if you leave them unguarded. You can conquer them no problem its just a question of how long it takes you. And the why is you dont want to leave them as a potential ally or ally base/jumping off point. Leave a small fleet (say CLx2 TPx2) with 2 INF divisions (or MIL) and everytime a rebel pops up just go get them. This way you dont have to garrison the whole place. Leave a few GARx2 around on the major VPs if you want.

 

[datum]

Ive conquered them often as many nations. You "Leapfrog"... Say you have 6 inf divisions, you invade a VP, capture it, leave one INF on def, then take the next 5 and hit the next VP, and so on.... You can try lowering their national unity to save time, or bring enough units to cover (10-12) as there are a few "mainland" VPs they will recapture if you leave them unguarded. You can conquer them no problem its just a question of how long it takes you. And the why is you dont want to leave them as a potential ally or ally base/jumping off point. Leave a small fleet (say CLx2 TPx2) with 2 INF divisions (or MIL) and everytime a rebel pops up just go get them. This way you dont have to garrison the whole place. Leave a few GARx2 around on the major VPs if you want.

i had 9 marine divisions ready near makassar strait in case Australia posed threat to me but as it does not so i send them to siam...
it's autumn of 1939 so it's time to get ready for americans *evil laughter*

 

[21oliver]

There also is the desire to conquer as much as you can, especially when playing a nation like Japan who clearly would have taken Australia if possible.

 

[unmerged(276755)]

Yeah, except the whole AUS setup is totally nerfed.... I've just finished conquering it as Japan, but despite the rising sun flying obviously over Darwin, Perth, Adelaide and all of Queensland and NSW (about 80% of the landmass and population) brave Australia fights on because the vital, core parts of the country such as Pt Moresby, Lae and some other bit of jungle I've never heard of are still free! :glare:

Also the infrastructure wasn't that bad, even in 1940s - MacCarthur and the remains of his command travelled from Darwin to Adelaide via road and train after the fall of Manila, but I can't move a single brigade more than 100km or so from Darwin?

And I think it should be much more resource rich - there was a huge surge in coal, iron, copper, lead (and gold!) production during this time, but that's barely reflected....

AND, most vital of all, Paradox missed adding a strategic resource of "Australian cricket team", which causes despair and collapse in morale in England.....

 

[21oliver]

When Australia fell why didnt you get the isles? I always hit them before hitting the mainland myself. And actually for one who wants to (ive played Australia quite a bit), a bit of infra investment and you can connect the whole nation quite easily. Yeah no cricket is a bummer!

 

[ingwe]

And I think it should be much more resource rich - there was a huge surge in coal, iron, copper, lead (and gold!) production during this time, but that's barely reflected....

AND, most vital of all, Paradox missed adding a strategic resource of "Australian cricket team", which causes despair and collapse in morale in England.....

I agree that it should be more resource rich. I feel that as Japan you have to conquer so freaking much to solve resource problems. Taking the DEI and AUS should make you set, but it doesn't really.

 

[halbard]

When Australia fell why didnt you get the isles? I always hit them before hitting the mainland myself. And actually for one who wants to (ive played Australia quite a bit), a bit of infra investment and you can connect the whole nation quite easily. Yeah no cricket is a bummer!

Connecting the nation (meaning establishing decent infra between Darwin and the rest of the continent) is good, but does not have much practical effect. if you want to secure trade convoys, the best port for trading with Europe / South Africa / South America is Perth. For the USA/Canada you got Sydney. In terms of supply routes, there really isn't much of a difference. supplying from Sydney or Brisbane is almost the same as from Darwin, considering that Australia's range of operations is usually East Indies, Malaysia and sometimes Phillippines.

 

[21oliver]

I usually do it simply so my units can move around the nation more then anything else. I set up a Theater down there and leave it to itself.

 

[DaveyDave]

I don't think that Australia will be a problem. Too low IC and Manpower, so they field only a few divisions, some cruisers and DD and only a handfull of airdivisions.

Actually, the problem is not manpower or IC, it is production ai choices. AST IC and Manpower are fully capable of fielding 5 to 20 divisions, but the production ai doesn't produce any land units until late in 1942.

 

[21oliver]

If i recall correctly there are two kinds of builds for minors (ocean access and landlocked?) and they all build the same regardless of who they are and what they face. Generic...

 

[DaveyDave]

If i recall correctly there are two kinds of builds for minors (ocean access and landlocked?) and they all build the same regardless of who they are and what they face. Generic...

AST has it's own LUA file, and the production weights are specific to Australia. They just aren't very well optimized or conditioned. In my personal mod, I change this. There are no Japan ai invasions of Australia in 1943 in that mod, because Australia has 5 to 10 divisions by that time (as they did historically)

 

[21oliver]

Nice!